Not only is Moses Znaimer redefining the very process, image and meaning behind a medium that gets much slack as the "idiot box", or the "boob tube", he is also a fervent collector of vintage TV paraphernalia. His fixation for the small screen extends to his own private collection of TV sets, numbering about 300 and estimated to be worth up to $6 million.
Znaimer describes another side of his love affair with television when he first laid eyes on an exquisite Philco Predicta television over two decades ago, taking his breath away like a magnum opus would to an art connoisseur: "I did take that most beautiful television ever made as a symbol of my conviction that TV could be art, and would be my art."
Once he got his own Predictas - made in the United States from 1958 to 1960 and among the most distinctive sets ever designed in North America - he was spellbound to the art of collecting. He says his conviction to preserve the past, to understand and to teach using the wonders of television led to the birth of the MZTV Museum ("MZ" stands for his name as the museum's founder and chairman), finding its permanent home in the ChumCity complex in early April.
The museum is a temple to Znaimer's own collection of historic TV sets and memorabilia. It showcases a selection of 60 TV sets - from television's black-and-white beginnings in the 1920s to the advent of transistors in the 1960s - including the personal TV set once owned by Marilyn Monroe, which Znaimer bought for $28,000 US at a Christie's auction in 1999.
MZTV Museum is yet another imaginative phase in Znaimer's mission to awaken the legions of couch potatoes to the miracle, and in his words, the "epic significance" of the small screen.
MZTV Museum: Znaimer's Love Affair with Television
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