Thanks for that. I believe this unit is completely un-molested. I think I even know the story of it without actually knowing it.
I think it was bought back in 57 - 58 and the person played it for a few years then it just died. Person calls the local TV repair guy and says "my radio died". Repair guy looks at it and says "your rectifier tube is dead". Person buys a replacement tube somewhere around 1962 judging by the single non Magnavox branded RCA tube with MV date code. Some years later the radio dies again, and person calls the repair guy and says "my radio died". Repair man comes over and person says "this is the second time it has died, could you please give it a once over and let me know what it needs" repair guy says "yes sir, you need another 5Y3 and you also have a bad 6E5 and that is why you green light is getting so dim for the tuner and here is the price" Person says something that would maybe be "that's a lot of money, (or) well now they have these transistor radios and I could probably just buy one of those and not have to mess with this again", and the old 142 went into the basement. By now its mid to late 60's possibly 70's even.
Some years later child talks to person (mom or dad) and says "I remember this, I had good memories of this as a kid". Child says to elderly parent "can I have this", and parent says "sure, BUT do not turn it on because it doesn't work anymore"? Child says "oh I won't it just looks cool and I'm going to use it as furniture". Parent says "Ok, well take it, and oh here is the back cover for it. The screws went missing years ago from when we were considering getting it repaired, but never did". Child takes unit home gets some packing tape to hold the back cover on, puts it in the corner and has a nice conversational piece for years. Through the years child keep hearing this "thunk". They discover that the packing tape holding the back cover in place is getting weak and every so often the back falls to the ground. Child says "enough of this crap, the radio is up against the wall so nobody can see inside", and the back cover gets chucked.
Flash forward to yesterday my wife and I pull up to the sellers house and notice a realtor for sale sign. We grab the radio from the nice lady who is approximately mid to late 50's and pay her. My wife and I pull the 142 out of the car and start to go through and clean it. In the cleaning process I find shirt buttons and even those old stamps the grocery stores would give you that you saved to put in booklets that you could collect until you had enough to trade for a free item. All sorts of history inside.
During the cleaning process I pull off two strips of old packing tape from the cabinet at the rear bottom. I clean the major layers of dust off the amp, take a picture of the missing tube's socket to find that the single missing tube is a 5Y3. While I'm cleaning the tuner area I see this octal socket hanging from some wires and think to myself "what the heck is that for"? Later during some internet searching I come to find out that some people have this green "light bulb" glowing on the front of their tuner station indicator. I go outside and look at the front of mine and sure enough there is a hole where a "bulb" should be. "I wonder what the part number is"? Back to the internet where I find a lucky picture where someone shot a picture of their tuner chassis that unintentionally captures the part number of the bulb....6E5...."hmmm that kinda sounds like a tube number" back to the internet. "Holy *$%^$*% it is a tube". Wow a "magic eye" tube. "How freaking cool is that"?
Well that's my story. No, that's not for real but its plausible and reads nice in my head. Also when I took the amp chassis out I had to use a screwdriver to pry a couple connectors off of their sockets, so no this thing is mostly untouched and very close to factory correct.
