A TV tray table, TV dinner tray, or personal table is a type of collapsible

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

that functions as a small and easily portable, folding

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

. These small tables were originally designed to be a surface from which one could eat a meal while watching television. The phrase tray-table can also refer to a fold-away tray, such as those found in front of

airline seat An airline seat is a seat on an airliner in which passengers are accommodated for the duration of the journey. Such seats are usually arranged in rows running across the airplane's fuselage. A diagram of such seats in an aircraft is called an ...

s. TV tray tables became popular in the 1950s as a way to hold food and beverage items while watching TV, the iconic item being a TV dinner. National advertising for TV tray tables first appeared in 1952, a full year before Swanson introduced the TV dinner in October 1953. A set of four TV tables were sometimes sold mounted on a small rack where they could be hung when not in use. This rack was popularly placed in a corner of the living room. The inventor of TV tray tables is unknown, but it may well be based on the Butler’s tray table. The original, popular models consisted of two pieces: a metal tray with grips mounted on its underside, and a set of tubular metal legs with rubberized tips at the bottom. The grips clipped on to the legs, which could be opened up to support the tray, or collapsed for stackable storage. The tray remained clipped to one leg support during storage. As times changed, so did construction techniques, and today TV tray tables are often manufactured using blow-molded plastic. It is now common for TV dinner trays to be marketed as " retro" or

kitsch Kitsch ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste. The avant-garde opposed kitsch as melodramatic and superficial affiliation with ...

items.

References

External links

*Cook, Kim (March 23, 2009).
For seasonal stay-at-homes: the TV tray returns, with smarter looks
. Naples Daily News. Retrieved 1 November 2010. *Cook, Kim (March 23, 2009).
the TV tray returns, with smarter looks
. Naples Daily News. Retrieved 1 November 2010. Tables (furniture) {{furniture-stub

See also

References

External links