Calling Any "Old Timers" (and I mean that in a nice way...)

[Stanislav]

I've noted that a few posters on the board have TV memories that go back way before mine. After all, by the time I was old enough to begin to understand and appreciate TV, Kennedy was in the White House and the Space Age had already begun. (I know that still makes me seem pretty darn old to a lot of you, though...) Anyway, it got me wondering about just how far back some of you experienced early TV firsthand -- the stuff that most of us only know through grainy kinescopes, history books, and vintage TV websites.

For example, anyone who witnessed the start of NTSC colorcasting in the mid-50's? Or was around during the 1948-1952 allocations freeze? The late 40's and early 50's coaxial links that opened up network programming to the Midwest and West? The first early limited efforts at networking in 1946-47? Anyone who witnessed the very limited wartime broadcasts, or the start of commercial broadcasting in 1941? Is it even possible that someone is around here who goes back to the 1939 broadcasts from the World's Fair? (Don't laugh -- someone in their 70's today would have been old enough to witness the World's Fair telecasts!)

This is a very broad and open topic, so if your Boob Tube history goes back well before mine, what was it like? No limits -- you can talk about the equipment, antennas and reception issues; the programming and stars; even what TV meant to you and your family socially and psychologically back then. Make history come alive for those young whippersnappers!

 

[KeithE4]

My recollection goes back about as far as yours (the earliest I remember anything is 1958 but my earliest firm TV memory is the 1959 World Series - I was 4 at the time). But I do remember family members talking about their first TV experience.

My dad and grandparents used to tell me that the first time they saw TV was in the early '40s when they lived in Hammond, IN. W9XBK (later WBKB, now WLS-TV) was the only station in Chicago then, and the only TV in their neighborhood was in the local bar where my grandfather played piano. All they carried (at least when my family was in the bar) was boxing, wrestling, and test patterns.

Since this was during WW2, I'l guess that the station was only on the air for one or two days a week and they also carried some programming that helped the war effort.

 

[Ultimajock]

My dad and grandparents used to tell me that the first time they saw TV was in the early '40s when they lived in Hammond, IN. W9XBK (later WBKB, now WLS-TV) was the only station in Chicago then, and the only TV in their neighborhood was in the local bar where my grandfather played piano. All they carried (at least when my family was in the bar) was boxing, wrestling, and test patterns.

...actually, just to split hairs here, the station now known as WLS-TV -- originally WENR-TV -- used the old studios and call letters (jumping at the chance to move out of the Merchandise Mart studios they shared with WMAQ/WNBQ, an arrangement grandfathered from the split of NBC and the Blue Network), but the license that was the original WBKB became WBBM-TV when it was bought by CBS and moved from Channel 4 to Channel 2. And WCFL had an experimental station operating in the 1930s...

 

[KeithE4]

...actually, just to split hairs here, the station now known as WLS-TV -- originally WENR-TV -- used the old studios and call letters (jumping at the chance to move out of the Merchandise Mart studios they shared with WMAQ/WNBQ, an arrangement grandfathered from the split of NBC and the Blue Network), but the license that was the original WBKB became WBBM-TV when it was bought by CBS and moved from Channel 4 to Channel 2.

I was trying to keep it simple without yet another rehash of the whole WENR/WBKB/WBBM story. ;D Either way, I was talking about the original Balaban & Katz station.

And WCFL had an experimental station operating in the 1930s...

I believe they were long gone (a mechanical-scan station that was off the air by 1934, IIRC) by the time W9XBK started. There was a second mechanical-TV station in Chicago in the early '30s (WMAQ owned it, I believe), but it was history by this time as well.

 

[KeithE4]

Chicago's Mechanical-TV Stations

According to ChicagoTelevision.com, these were the mechanical-TV stations in Chicago:

W9XAA, owned by WCFL radio, operated during the late '20s. According to Jeff Miller's website, it was still listed as operating on 2.0-2.1 MHz in 1930.

Miller's site also lists a W9XAG in Chicago on 2.0-2.1 MHz in 1930, and a W9XR licensed to Downers Grove on 2.85-2.95 MHz in 1931, but ChicagoTelevision.com doesn't mention these stations.

W9XAO, owned by WIBO radio, operated from 1930-33 on 2.0-2.1 MHz. It died when the FRC shut down WIBO and allowed WJKS (now WIND) to move to its 560 kHz frequency.

W9XAP, owned by WMAQ radio (started during the Chicago Daily News ownership - both stations were bought by NBC in 1931), operated from 1930-33 on 2.75-2.85 MHz (listed as 2.1-2.2 MHz in 1931).

The original TV channels (video only - audio was via an associated or co-owned AM radio station) as assigned by the FRC were 2.0-2.1, 2.1-2.2, 2.75-2.85, and 2.85-2.95 MHz. I don't believe channel numbers were used in this era, though.

Other Experimental Stations in Chicago
Zenith operated W9XZV (post-war calls were KS2XBS and the assigned-but-never-used WTZR) from 1939-42 and 1946-53. It was kicked off the air to make way for WBBM-TV's move from Channel 4 to 2.

Balaban & Katz's W9XBK began in 1940 and became WBKB in 1943.

 

[landtuna]

I grew up in Tucson in the 50's. I don't recall when the first TV station went on the air but believe it was KOPO-13 (a Gene Autry property) in the very early 50's. My family, a very mid-middleclass family, got our first 25" B&W TV in 1954. Prior to that all the neighborhood kids would gather at another family's house on our block to watch selected evening programs but I can't recall now what they were.

What I do remember from 1954 onward:

American Bandstand every afternoon along with The Mousekateers and various cartoon shows.

A plethora of Westerns in the late 50's: Maverick, Range Rider, Autry & Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Sugarfoot, Bounty Hunter etc. Older 1930's and 40's westerns would play on Saturday mornings.

Interesting shows migrating from radio of the 30's and 40's such as Boston Blackie, I Love Lucy, I Married Joan, and a bunch of cop shows like Racket Squad and Highway Patrol.

Religious shows like Bishop J. Sheen.

Baseball.....lots of baseball. I can still remember my mom doing her ironing in the living room and watching baseball sponsored by Falstaff.

Later in the 50's it was Walter Cronkite narrating my favorite show "The 20th Century" and the Saturday Night Movie (which was usually a pot-boiler or some sort of horror movie).

Interestingly, I also remember a number of commercials for products no long around such as Gaffers & Sattler appliances, several makes of auto's (Studebakers, Imperials, Hudsons), Snowdrift shortening, all sorts of toothpastes (Ipana) and breakfast cereals (Maypo) etc. Most commercials though seemed to be local.

And the one thing I hated most about TV then......every evening at 8PM the announcer would say "It's 8PM. Do you know where your children are?". You could hear parents all over the neighborhood calling their kids home.

 

[oldschooler1]

How exciting it would've been, to see television in the 1940s or 30s!

The closest I will come are family friends, who grew up in Philadelphia. One remembers seeing television in 1940, in a friend's attic. He said you had to close the blinds to see the picture (from what I've heard the luminescence of those original tubes was nowhere near what it is today).
His wife saw TV at the World's Fair in 1939 as a little girl. In fact, she saw herself on TV -- that's how the display was set up at the RCA pavilion!

One of my brothers, the earliest boomers, tells me he remembers the first show he watched on TV -- Howdy Doody, when our father brought our first set home. he says remembering where we lived at the time, the year must have been 1950. I remember that set, 14 years later -- we still had it! -- It was an RCA 2T51... http://www.tvhistory.tv/1950-RCA-2T51-12in.jpg We have family photos of our uncle and our grandfather posing with the set, like they used to with automobiles!

We did get a color set early, compared to many...1965. Motorola. Though I'd love to hear from people who got color, or watched color, in 1955! Or earlier!

What would be really cool, too -- I know there's already a thread about this -- but, those who had cable in the earliest days -- I mean, EARLY cable, such as late 40s or early 50s. Rumor has it, the earliest systems were started in Ithaca, NY (1949), somewhere in PA (same year) and Oregon.

trivia -- the first cablecast in the country allegedly originated from the Ithaca College TV studios in downtown Ithaca in 1956.

 

[LKellerIII]

I guess I'm an official "old timer" now - my parents got their first TV in 1957 when I was 5, but they believed that TV was a "vast wasteland" and would rot a young child's brain, so my viewing was restricted until the 60s. My mom was more lax than my dad and let me watch TV some on weekdays during vacation, when my father was at work.

Being a kid of not particularly intellectual tastes, I remember loving the CBS weekday morning block of sit-com re-runs, anchored by I Love Lucy and Andy Griffith, which they re-titled "Andy of Mayberry" so people wouldn't confuse it with the first-run Monday night version. I liked the original Jeopardy with the overly cheerful Art Fleming (Don Pardo was the announcer). In the afternoon, it was the dance party shows - American Bandstand, but also the local versions like Lloyd Thaxton, and Shebang! with Casey Kasem.

Since there wasn't that much TV inventory to draw on in the 50s, theatrical movies from the 30s, 40s, and 50s were a staple at all hours of the day and night. The Early Show, Late Show, and Late Late Show were movie re-runs on the CBS stations in those days, not talk shows. I grew up in LA which had 7 TV stations (the Big 3 networks and 4 independents), unlike most media markets which only had only 3 or 4. All the indys had local kid show hosts in the afternoons, usually named after their fictional job - Sheriff John, Engineer Bill, Skipper Frank, etc. They had kids live on the set (train station, fake boat, corral, etc.), played games, and ran cartoons.

My friends always got to watch the Warner Bros detective shows at night (77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, Hawaiian Eye). My father wouldn't let me watch, and I was resentful. I got to see them a few years ago on one of the retro cable networks. My father was right - they were awful. Horribly written, corny, and low budget. I did get to watch The Jackie Gleason Show on Saturday night (a favorite of my father's, so it was OK). On Sunday night, it was Lassie, Ed Sullivan and the anthology show GE Theatre - hosted by Ronald Reagan. It was supposedly his travels around the country in those days as the official General Electric spokesman that honed his political skills and speech making abilities.

Somebody else mentioned the 20th Century hosted by Walter Cronkite. I learned a lot about the World Wars from that show...the nearest thing we had in those days to the History Channel

 

[landtuna]

Hey lkeller......I remember Lloyd Thaxton on TV in San Diego in '63 when I was at NTC. I still have a two-sided record he made - "Image of a Surfer" on one side and "My Name is Lloyd Thaxton" on the other. If you want I can email the mp3's.

 

[Tim L]

Not as much of an "Old Timer" as some, but my earliest tv watching memories go back to the 1964-65 era, when I was around 7-8 years old.. We only had 3, 5 and 8 out of Cleveland..I would watch the Saturday morning cartoons on the networks, as well as weekday and weekend shows from the likes of KYW-TV's Barnaby (Linn Sheldon) and Woodrow (Clay Comroy) and WEWS' Captain Penny (Ron Penfound) as well as Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and Dobie Gillis reruns weeknights at between 6-7 PM on channel 5. Also enjoyed the Flintstones on Friday nights (7:30) on channel 5. My earliest prime-time favorites would have been Bill Cullen's Price Is Right (ABC era), Shows like Get Smart and I Dream Of Jeannie (NBC) and Bewitched (ABC)..After school game shows were also a favorite, specifically You Don't Say! and The original Match Game (NBC).

I had mentioned this briefly before, but even as a 7 1/2 year old after June, 1965, I could sense a diifference in "programming philosophy"..for lack of a better word between KYW-TV 3 Westinghouse and WKYC-TV 3 NBC Owned and Operated..Westinghouse seemed more willing to spend money and were much more locally oriented than NBC..NBC seemed more "corporate" than Westinghouse..I know that would seem odd for a 7-year old but I could tell the difference..

 

[CaptainFirstReturns]

If anyone's interested, Lloyd Thaxton is alive and well, though it hasn't been updated in a few weeks, he does have a blog which is at: http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com/

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I first saw TV at a next-door-neighbor's house about 1951. It was a show featuring various acts of some kind; like a guy stacking tables on top of each other. The first shows that I became aware of were "You Asked For It" on Monday nights (before it switched to Sunday evenings) with Art Baker and "Stop The Music" on Thursday nights with Bert Parks. There was also "Boston Blackie" starring Kent Taylor. It was a syndicated show that was actually produced by a local man named Fred Ziv - Head of ZIV Productions. We got our first set - an Admiral - about 1952. I remember watching a show called "Battle of the Ages" and also "Down You Go". On Sundays was "Super Circus" featuring a lovely blonde who used the name "Mary Hartline"

In the mid-1960's, there were local shows in many markets which were copies of the network shows: Shindig and Hullabaloo. Here in Cincinnati in was "Five A-Go-Go" on Channel 5 (of course). Cleveland had a smiliar show called "Upbeat" which was shown here on Channel 9 which was a Scripps Howard station like the one in Cleveland where the show originated from. These shows featured girls in mini-skirts and white boots (either ankle-high or knee-high) dancing to music and sometimes with a recording artist as a guest.

 

[RicoGregg]

I have a tape of KTLA's 50th Anniversary show, done in 1997. It jarred a lot of childhood memories.

Among my childhood memories: The Continental, Strictly Informal with Larry Finlay, The Paramount Pictures logo (animated) with a transmitting tower on top of the mountain, with lightning-bolt like streaks coming out of it, and the letters KTLA appearing one at a time.

Also, clips of Hopalong Cassidy, Skipper Frank, Tom Hatten hosting Popeye cartoons, a very old B&W spot with Mike Wallace as the spokesman for Instant Fluffo, a yellow cooking lard, and a clip of Time For Beany, a live puppet show with Beany & Cecil. It was pointed out that Albert Einstein, a visiting lecturer in residence at Cal Tech, was a fan.

Among the many music shows on KTLA were Leighton Noble, Spade Cooley, Mississipi Showboat, with host Dick Lane dressed like a riverboat captain, Ina Ray Hutton and her all-girl orchestra, Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiians, Frosty Frolics, an ice skating music show hosted by Stan Chambers, who is STILL working for KTLA, and Hometown Jamboree.

There is also footage of an atomic bomb blast, shown from 50 miles away in the Nevada desert by KTLA.

KTLA was built virtually from scratch by engineering genius Klaus Landsberg, who had escaped from Nazi Germany. Its' first calls were W6XYZ. There is kinescope footage of Landsberg operating an early TV camera during the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They had a primitive form of television in Germany back then.

FYI: A film about Spade Cooley is in pre-production. I think one of the Quaids is starring in the lead role.

 

[LKellerIII]

"Among the many music shows on KTLA were Leighton Noble, Spade Cooley, Mississipi Showboat, with host Dick Lane dressed like a riverboat captain, Ina Ray Hutton and her all-girl orchestra, Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiians, Frosty Frolics, an ice skating music show hosted by Stan Chambers, who is STILL working for KTLA, and Hometown Jamboree."

I believe KTLA was one of the first broadcast TV stations, wasn't it? I remember when they celebrated their 25th anniversary, and I was still young. Since they had their 60th last year - I guess their 25th was in 1972, when I was 20.

KTLA was a leader in live, local news. If there was a breaking news event (fire, riot, etc.) you turned to Channel 5 because they would reliably be on the scene with the first "Telecopter" and the "Telemobile." I remember watching the Baldwin Hills Dam break disaster on KTLA as a kid. It was hours before any of the other stations were on scene, including the local network affiliates.

As for Dick Lane...on the tacky side, in the 50s and 60s, KTLA was the go-to station for low-rent local sports: Wrestling from the Olympic (a forerunner to all the WWF and WWE stuff), the LA Thunderbirds Roller Derby, and the Saturday afternoon Demolition Derby. As I remember, Dick Lane hosted them all with his gravelly voice, big visible hearing aids on each ear, and thick coke-bottle lens glasses. He was famous for his exclamation "Whoa, Nelly!". Keith Jackson was a sports anchor on KTLA a few years later before he hit the big time at ABC; and has admitted he borrowed the phrase from Lane.

The Demolition Derby was sponsored by Les Bacon and Sons Ford (their logo was a pig, naturally). On commercial breaks (live in those days), they had a bizarre act in which one Bacon brother would pretend to fight with the other over some low price old clunker, which one brother would proceed to bash with a sledgehammer, reducing the price after each smash, until the car was a wrecked piece of junk that you could actually come and buy for 5 or 10 bucks. It was very weird local TV.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I remember Dick Lane in the early 1970's doing announcing on the syndicated TV show "Roller Games". He is listed as being in a number of motion pictures. He even was in a 1959 episode of "Leave It To Beaver" playing......what else?......a host of a TV show.

 

[Ultimajock]

FYI: A film about Spade Cooley is in pre-production. I think one of the Quaids is starring in the lead role.

...Dennis Quaid is writing and directing as well as playing Cooley. (I suspect Randy Quaid would actually fit Cooley's real-life physical type better, but Dennis has the success with playing wild-mannered musicians. ;D) And the project title is taken from one of Cooley's biggest hits: SHAME ON YOU. I guess it would have been too sick, considering the circumstances under which Cooley found himself in prison, to name the flick after another of his hits: "Oklahoma Stomp"...

 

[nmoore6676]

I remember a lot of the WLW TV shows on WLW-D from Dayton. Anybody from Cincinnati remember?

My mom was a devoted Ruth Lyons fan and I remember The Midwestern Hayride. I think Ruth was also was hostess for an earlier morning show called "Morning Matinee" We got our first set, a 17" big screen Crosley in 1951 or 1952 as I recall. We had a big antenna on the roof aimed south to Dayton and Cincinnati as we lived just west of Springfield.

I also remember Uncle Al and Dotty Mack, though they were a bit snowy. WLW-D duplicated most of the WLW-T programming so that we got very clear. I recall Kenny Roberts who was on WHIO with an afternoon kid's show and later on the Hayride. We didn't get Columbus very well until we got one of those rotator motors for the antenna, but I have memories of Flippo and Sally Flowers.

I have a vague recollection of when WLW's TV stations got connected to the NBC network and the shows came through live rather than on kinescope film. I was small but I think there was some kind of a special ceremony with Steve Allen at Crosley Square plugging two cables together, kind of corny I suppose. There were also a lot of local music shows, with people like Marion Spellman, before the syndicated game shows took over early non-prime time. I know that Los Angels had a lot of local shows especially on KTLA but Southwestern Ohio did OK for itself. KTLA is best noted for first telecasting the Rose Parade from Pasadena I believe but I know they innovated a lot like Crosley Broadcasting did.

KTLA probably had a big advantage being sited near the movies studios where the idea and techniques of visual production were firmly established. Also I think they used some sound stages on the Paramount lot at first. The eastern TV studios, except for theaters in New York were mostly converted radio studios and the production people came from radio so they had to learn on the job. When I look at old shows on film you can see the difference. On the old original Honeymooners the set looks very theatrical (painted canvas flats) while I love Lucy looks more real as do movie sets.

 

[LKellerIII]

"I remember Dick Lane in the early 1970's doing announcing on the syndicated TV show "Roller Games". He is listed as being in a number of motion pictures. He even was in a 1959 episode of "Leave It To Beaver" playing......what else?......a host of a TV show."

Lane was born in 1899, started out in Vaudeville, and was an actor in movies in the 1940s before he became a local TV institution - that's how he was hired at KTLA. He was a contract player for Paramount Studios, which owned KTLA in the 50s before Gene Autry (Golden West Broadcasters) bought it. He made the switch to TV at KTLA - first as a news reader in the early days - then he became one of those jack-of-all-trades on-air employees that became every local TV station had in the 50s and 60s.

According to Wikipedia, his most famous role was Inspector Farrraday in the Boston Blackie series of movies. After he retired from KTLA, he appeared in a few movies again, but mostly playing himself or a TV announcer facsimile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Lane_(TV_announcer)

 

[bpatrick]

I was born in 1955 so I'm sort of an "old-timer." My
earliest memories are of shows on WFMY/2 Greensboro;
in particular, the local "Old Rebel And Pecos Pete" kids'
show, the "Mickey Mouse Club," the Little Rascals, and
"My Little Margie" (I always did like Gale Storm; I used
to watch her other show, "Oh Susanna!" and her hit
record "Dark Moon" was and is one of my favorites).

My dad could tell you more about Greensboro television
pre-1955, since he was in high school when WFMY signed
on in 1949. In particular, he remembers watching Douglas
Edwards' CBS newscast (at 7:30 PM, yet!) and the pioneering
late-night "Broadway Open House" with Jerry Lester and
Dagmar. Between 1949 and his first marriage in 1954 (my
mom died in 1999 and he has since remarried), he was usually
out at night, so he didn't watch a lot of prime time; indeed,
for some reason he takes pride in the fact that he rarely--
if ever--watched "Your Show Of Shows" with Sid Caesar and
Imogene Coca. Yet he can tell you a lot of the sponsors of
'50s shows; he knows that Oldsmobile sponsored Douglas Edwards,
and that Chesterfield sponsored Arthur Godfrey on Wednesday
nights. I think his least favorite show from that era was "Beat
The Clock"; he couldn't stand it or host Bud Collyer. On the other
hand, he likes to talk about watching the Atlanta Crackers baseball
games on WAGA when he visited relatives there during the summer.

His dad was crazy about the television version of "The Lone
Ranger"; indeed, moments before he died of a heart attack
in 1951, he was telling his dad in Lakeland, FL, about the
show, which wasn't seen there until Orlando and Tampa got
television in 1953.

 

[mbayus]

I posted some of this information a long time ago on the old classic tv board.
I was born in a small mining town in 1952. We lived near Pittsburgh Pensilvania and could watch WDTV.
My dad was learning to be a tv repair man and therefore we had 2 tvs, both of them being in our living room.
As you may know, WDTV was one of the first stations to go all night.
My mom and Grandma would take turns rocking me while we watched.

I also remember a preast at some point in the broadcast day at like 12:30 in the morning saying "in the name of the Father, and of the Sun, and of the Holy Ghost amen" and then the national Anthem, but I don't know if that was on WDTV or not.