The company had been the only American-owned television manufacturer remaining in this country. The other TV plants in the U.S. are Japanese-owned.

Television manufacturing in Greeneville was started by The Magnavox Company in 1950, three years after the company established a small radio cabinet-making operation here.

TV-making boomed here. Magnavox soon became the county’s largest employer by far and its most influential business enterprise: a status it continued to hold for some five decades beginning in the early 1950s, under a succession of ownership.

In 1974, the Magnavox Company was bought by the North American affiliate of N.V. Philips, of the Netherlands, the Dutch-owned multinational electronics giant.

From 1974 to 1997, Philips Consumer Electronics owned and operated the company, including the community’s largest manufacturing facility, known as Plant 3, which was located between Snapps Ferry Road and Industrial Road.

At its peak, in 1989, the company, which manufactured color television sets here under brand names including both Magnavox and Philips, had a record 4,600 employees

 

The auction was conducted by Myron Bowling Auctioneers of Ross, Ohio, and by GoIndustry/Michael Fox International of Baltimore.

Some 6,500 lots were involved in the sale. In Partnership with Campbell Technological Resources in Crestline Ohio I attended the Sale and purchased a great deal of material. Myself and a crew of five former plant employees worked full time for a Month to Sort, condense, and load over 10 Semi trailers and Shipping containers.