Mel's TV and Audio - Duluth
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Mel's TV and Audio was located in Duluth at 1314 East Superior Street. Mel's was opened by Melvin Mel Cohen in 1946 at 120 West First Street. He sold the store in 1981 and it closed in 1999. More about the store was published in News Tribune Attic in 1999. A portion of that text and a link to the source are shown below. |
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Mels was founded by Mel Cohen, who began a repair service called Service Radio and Sound Co. at 120 W. First St. in 1946. When television came into its own in the early 1950s, he said he erected 40-foot antennas on the roofs of customers' houses to pick up television signals from the Twin Cities. As the business grew he began to sell TVs, record players and other equipment. By 1955 Cohen had moved and expanded his business three times, and in 1967 moved the store to its present site at 1314 E. Superior St. "We were the first ones to sell hi-fi and stereo and color televisions," Cohen said in a telephone interview from his daughter's home in California. "When I first started, I was nothing but a guy who repaired people's radios and phonographs." Cohen, now 73, lives in Duluth and Colorado. He sold the business to the Moes in 1981 when he retired. Richard Moe had been with the store since 1957 and his brother, William, had worked there since 1959. Mels was something of an institution in Duluth for consumers who wanted top-quality televisions and stereos
long before big box retailers such as Best Buy came to town.
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date unknown
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Melvin "Mel" Martin Cohen (1925-2005), the original owner of Mel's TV, was a son of Tillie Millman Cohen (1905-1941) and Harry Bialobzetski Cohen (1888-1963). Mel was married to Carol Ruth Daneiko in 1948 and they had three children. Family tree data for the Cohen family is shown below in the three generation descendents list for Tillie and Harry. |
source: Jack's Family Tree Database
Duluth News Tribune - November 20, 2005
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