Toronto is home to the world’s largest museum dedicated to television, and you can explore it for free this month as part of Doors Open Toronto.
The MZTV Museum of Television features the world’s most comprehensive collection of television receivers for the formative sixty-year period from the 1920s to the 1980s.
The museum, located at the ZoomerPlex in Liberty Village, also offers specialized displays devoted to receiver design, to TV signals in space, and to its signature Philco Predicta line of sets.
Together with original papers, toys, discs, books, magazines, and other pop culture artifacts, the collection offers over 10,000 objects to explore, along with a plethora of rare items.
A permanent home for the personal collection of ZoomerMedia founder Moses Znaimer, the museum boasts celebrity sets from Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, the 1939 World’s Fair RCA Phantom Teleceiver ( the rarest television on the planet), Felix The Cat (the first star of television), and special tributes to John Logie Baird and Philo T. Farnsworth.
John Logie Baird was the first person to receive a recognizable moving TV image, and the museum’s exhibit pays tribute to this historic milestone, as well as his other significant contributions to television.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth was a 14-year-old farm boy in 1922 when he came up with the concept for an all-electronic television while plowing a field, and the museum’s exhibit honours “his often overlooked genius.”
Along with exhibits, the museum also showcases the world’s largest collection of vintage TV sets.
The museum is typically open to visitors on Tuesdays to Fridays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., although it will be part of the ZoomerPlex experience offered during this year’s Doors Open Toronto on May 24 and 25.
On Saturday, May 24, you can visit the museum for free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last admittance at 4:40 p.m.), and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last admittance at 4:40 p.m.) on Sunday, May 25. There will also be a live concert in the Zoomer Hall on May 25 at 1 p.m.
The MZTV Museum of Television is located at 64 Jefferson Ave.
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