This collection was donated by George Taniwaki, son of Michio Taniwaki (1926-2017).
Michio was a long-time Denver resident with a passion for analog electronics. Mitch, to his friends, was born in Alameda, California on May 30, 1926. In the depth of the depression, his family moved from Haywood, California back to Susaki, Japan where the family owned a farm. While still in high school, Mitch started his own radio repair business. As World War 2 was winding down, even though he was an American citizen, Mitch was drafted into the Japanese army. He was placed into a radio communications group stationed in Hiroshima. He was there on the day the atom bomb was dropped and has written and spoken about his experiences. After the war (1953), Mitch returned to the U.S., got married, and moved to Denver. Over his career, he worked for some well-known local electronics firms, including Ward Terry & Co., Valas TV, NBI, and Outbound Systems. He and his wife of 59 years, Hisae, raised two sons (George and James).
See accession file for more information about Michio Taniwaki and Taniwaki family history.,
RCA:
The RCA brand is one of the oldest and well known brands in the consumer electronics industry. The brand was derived from an acronym for the company Radio Corporation of America, which was a major electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. Today (2019), VOXX Intl owns the RCA brand for its accessory and several audio video product lines. The company's roots are in the broadcast industry with early product focus on the marketing of GE and Westinghouse's radio equipment.
Business and financial conditions led to RCA's takeover by GE in 1986 and its subsequent break-up. GE then sold the rights to make RCA and GE brand consumer electronics products, notably television sets, to the French Thomson Consumer Electronics. Thomson sold the rights to the brand to Audiovox Corporation, first for consumer accessory products and then two years later for consumer audio and video products excluding televisions. Today's RCA products are marketed by Audiovox Accessories.