"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...

In the 30s and 40s Packard-Bell was a consumer electronics company,
making radios and TVs. Over time, the company ceased to exist and
"Packard Bell" became just a name, like most of the rest of the
electronics companies of the Golden Age of Radio. About 15 years ago a
former Israeli Army officer (chew on THAT, Artaud!) bought the Packard
Bell name and started making computers, mostly in Sacramento, CA in an
old US Army supply depot. Quality was bad from the start. Eventually
Packard Bell 2 went bankrupt and was purchased by NEC. The REST of the
story...

Packard Bell, the radio company, lasted at least to the early 60s. The
famous Gilligan's Island radio was a Japanese made Packard Bell:

http://www.transistor.org/collection...kardbell1.html

Frank Dresser