June 4: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on June 4. (A rather sparse day compared to the last few…) Discuss or comment as you please……

1917: Charles Collingwood, pioneering CBS newscaster (and one of "Murrow's Boys"), is born in Three Rivers, Michigan. Among his many TV endeavors, he hosted Jacqueline Kennedy’s televised tour of the White House in 1962.

1924: Dennis Weaver (Gunsmoke, McCloud) is born in Joplin, Missouri.

1936: Don Lee’s W6XAO, Los Angeles, begins a month-long public demonstration of its new 300 line/24 frame mechanical TV system. The huge Nipkow disc used to scan the image spins at a whopping 3600 rpm.

1944: Michelle Phillips (Knots Landing, Beverly Hills 90210) is born in Long Beach, California.

1961: The soundtrack album from the animated TV series The Alvin Show is released by Liberty Records.

1967: KTVN (channel 2) signs on as Reno, Nevada’s ABC affiliate. The station would switch to CBS in 1972.

1971: Noah Wyle (ER) is born in Hollywood.

2004: Anchorman John Roland retires after 35 years at WNYW (channel 5), New York.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..)

 

[Tim L]

1917: Charles Collingwood, pioneering CBS newscaster (and one of "Murrow's Boys"), is born in Three Rivers, Michigan. Among his many TV endeavors, he hosted Jacqueline Kennedy’s televised tour of the White House in 1962.

[

XM Satellite Radio's Laugh USA channel 151, which is considered their "clean" comedy channel, plays a lot of the Vaughn Meader "First Family" comedy records..One of their routines revolves around the White House Tour given by Mrs. Kennedy..Very funny..

 

[Corky Marlowe]

XM Satellite Radio's Laugh USA channel 151, which is considered their "clean" comedy channel, plays a lot of the Vaughn Meader "First Family" comedy records..One of their routines revolves around the White House Tour given by Mrs. Kennedy..Very funny..
Jackie after a TV camera crashes into the William McKinley French Doors..."And until just a few seconds ago, they stood over 15 feet high!"

 

[RicoGregg]

Vaughn Meader had a great comedy career going until JFK's assassination. After that, his bookings went all the way down to zero. He never could develop a new niche. He tried. It was great while it lasted, though.

Stanislav, these threads are great. Keep 'em up!

 

[Stanislav]

Yes, Meader's life post-assassination was very sad, indeed. I believe he used to say that Oswald's (or whomever's, depending on your personal CT) bullet killed him as well.

JFK himself was a fan of Meader, and used to play the "First Family" record for friends. He showed up at one speech, saying "Vaughn Meader was busy today, so I came instead." A reporter asked him about the record at a press conference, and JFK said he liked it, but thought Meader sounded more like Teddy than him.

 

[Ultimajock]

Yes, Meader's life post-assassination was very sad, indeed. I believe he used to say that Oswald's (or whomever's, depending on your personal CT) bullet killed him as well.

...as it turned out, Lenny Bruce had been booked into a Greenwich Village nightclub the day Oswald was shot. Paul Krassner, at whose New York apartment Bruce was staying that weekend, recalled Bruce's opening line that night as being, "Whew! Vaughn Meader is screwed!"...

...BTW, if you can, it would be worth the effort to track down the aircheck of Jean Shepherd over WOR New York on his first night on the air after the JFK assassination, November 25, 1963. Fascinating commentary from Shep on the role of Kennedy as President that is worth taking into consideration as this election year continues...

 

[Ultimajock]

...WHOA! All this talk about JFK and Vaughn Meader, and we've completely overlooked the fact that it was on June 4, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles as he won the California Democratic Primary! On ABC, Howard K. Smith had just signed off the network's coverage of that night's election news only to have to go back on the network two minutes later with the first reports of the shooting...

 

[Corky Marlowe]

How could I mention the William McKinley French Doors and not the Richard Nixon Dumbwaiter?

 

[Stanislav]

...WHOA! All this talk about JFK and Vaughn Meader, and we've completely overlooked the fact that it was on June 4, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles as he won the California Democratic Primary! On ABC, Howard K. Smith had just signed off the network's coverage of that night's election news only to have to go back on the network two minutes later with the first reports of the shooting...

Not to be nitpicky, but wasn't it actually after Midnight, hence technically June 5? (Which is maybe why I didn't pick up on it when researching June 4.) I had forgotten how late it was -- that means it was after 3 am in the East. Were the networks covering the primary that late in the Eastern and Central zones, or were they only live on the West Coast until the shooting? (I guess most Americans probably didn't even learn of the shooting until they got up the next morning and got their newspapers or turned on their radios and TVs.)

 

[Tim L]

How could I mention the William McKinley French Doors and not the Richard Nixon Dumbwaiter?

Jackie: "Which was also given as a gift by the country of France"

 

[RicoGregg]

...WHOA! All this talk about JFK and Vaughn Meader, and we've completely overlooked the fact that it was on June 4, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles as he won the California Democratic Primary! On ABC, Howard K. Smith had just signed off the network's coverage of that night's election news only to have to go back on the network two minutes later with the first reports of the shooting...

Not I. On June 3rd, the night before, I was a high school senior in the San Diego area mere days from graduation, and I was lucky enough to shake hands with RFK as he & Ethel walked by. One of my life's great moments. A story to tell at my upcoming 40-year reunion.

It was just featured on KTLA in L.A., they showed video of KTLA's coverage. Field reporter Larry Scheer was just seconds from signing off when suddenly he says to hold on, something has just happened. I don't have to fill in the rest. Needless to say, they stayed on all night.

The reaction of people as the funeral train went by always got to me.

 

[pqgeorge]

...WHOA! All this talk about JFK and Vaughn Meader, and we've completely overlooked the fact that it was on June 4, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles as he won the California Democratic Primary! On ABC, Howard K. Smith had just signed off the network's coverage of that night's election news only to have to go back on the network two minutes later with the first reports of the shooting...

Not I. On June 3rd, the night before, I was a high school senior in the San Diego area mere days from graduation, and I was lucky enough to shake hands with RFK as he & Ethel walked by. One of my life's great moments. A story to tell at my upcoming 40-year reunion.

It was just featured on KTLA in L.A., they showed video of KTLA's coverage. Field reporter Larry Scheer was just seconds from signing off when suddenly he says to hold on, something has just happened. I don't have to fill in the rest. Needless to say, they stayed on all night.

The reaction of people as the funeral train went by always got to me.

I remember Bobby Kennedy's assassination like it was yesterday. I was 8 years old and recovering from major surgery. I watched it all unfold on my TV set, throughout the days that followed. One thing that really stood out was "The Joey Bishop Show" on the night after the assassination attempt, about 5 hours before RFK passed away. Joey had the-late, KRKD/Mutual reporter Andy West on his show that evening. Andy West was famous for recording the scuffle that ensued right after the shots were fired in the kitchen area, moments after Sen. Kennedy had just won the California Primary. I'll never forget those words I heard when Joey played the actual recording on his show with West explaining what had occured some 22 hours earlier ....."Senator Kennedy has been shot! Is that possible?!..... Oh my God..... ladies and gentlemen.... Senator Kennedy has been shot in the head........ Get the gun, get the gun...... Break his thumbs if you have to, but get the gun....". I stayed up until 4:45 (eastern) on the 6th when Frank Mankiewicz, Sen. Kennedy's press secretary came out from the hospital to say that the Senator "had just expired" and that he was 42 years old. I finally went to bed a little before 5. The sun was just about to rise. I'll never forget that long night. My folks, realizing that this was history allowed me to stay up. Today, I'm a big history buff, thanks to my late parents (they were the greatest..... thanks Mom and Dad).


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts

 

[bpatrick]

One thing I remember about the coverage of
RFK's funeral train is that my local ABC affiliate
in Norfolk, WVEC, didn't carry any of it. For
some unknown reason, at the time they pre-empted
all of ABC's special-events coverage and substituted
movies instead (however, they did carry ABC's newscast).
At least we had CBS and NBC's coverage.

I also seem to recall reading in TV Guide that KAMR
and KVII, NBC and ABC respectively in Amarillo, traded
off coverage of the funeral train. One would carry for
about three hours or so, then switch to non-network
programming, then the other would do the same thing.
Only the CBS affiliate, KFDA, carried it in its entirety.

 

[Ultimajock]

I remember Bobby Kennedy's assassination like it was yesterday. I was 8 years old and recovering from major surgery. I watched it all unfold on my TV set, throughout the days that followed. One thing that really stood out was "The Joey Bishop Show" on the night after the assassination attempt, about 5 hours before RFK passed away. Joey had the-late, KRKD/Mutual reporter Andy West on his show that evening. Andy West was famous for recording the scuffle that ensued right after the shots were fired in the kitchen area, moments after Sen. Kennedy had just won the California Primary. I'll never forget those words I heard when Joey played the actual recording on his show with West explaining what had occured some 22 hours earlier ....."Senator Kennedy has been shot! Is that possible?!..... Oh my God..... ladies and gentlemen.... Senator Kennedy has been shot in the head........ Get the gun, get the gun...... Break his thumbs if you have to, but get the gun....".

...unfortunately, legendary radio programmer Ron Jacobs claimed for years (falsely) that West was nowhere near the Ambassador Hotel and simply faked the tape to get the fee from Mutual. As it turns out, there is video (of which I found I have a copy on an old VHS a few months back) of West asking Kennedy a question as Kennedy backs away from the podium after the victory speech ("Mayor Yorty has sent me a message that we've been here too long already..."). On a page devoted to him at reelradio.com (which has since been altered to remove the claim), Jacobs stated he had to fire West three different times, once in Honolulu and the last time from KHJ. Apparently Jacobs uncharacteristically allowed his animosity towards West get out of hand...

 

[Ultimajock]

...WHOA! All this talk about JFK and Vaughn Meader, and we've completely overlooked the fact that it was on June 4, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles as he won the California Democratic Primary! On ABC, Howard K. Smith had just signed off the network's coverage of that night's election news only to have to go back on the network two minutes later with the first reports of the shooting...

Not to be nitpicky, but wasn't it actually after Midnight, hence technically June 5? (Which is maybe why I didn't pick up on it when researching June 4.) I had forgotten how late it was -- that means it was after 3 am in the East. Were the networks covering the primary that late in the Eastern and Central zones, or were they only live on the West Coast until the shooting? (I guess most Americans probably didn't even learn of the shooting until they got up the next morning and got their newspapers or turned on their radios and TVs.)

...indeed, you're right. I have the front sections of the 5 June 1968 issues of The Paper for Central Wisconsin and the Daily Northwestern, the two dailies in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at the time (yes, in those days even a small city like Oshkosh had two competing daily newspapers), and both the UPI and AP stories on the front pages identify the shooting as happening "early this morning." As the California primary was what pretty much put Kennedy's delegate tally firmly ahead of Eugene McCarthy in the primary/caucus process, I would imagine that at least the major city stations in the Eastern and Central zones were indeed carrying the whole coverage live, and smaller stations like WLUK/11, Green Bay's ABC affiliate at the time, signed off for the night as Howard K. Smith gave the outcue and didn't catch the bulletin about the shooting...

 

[pqgeorge]

I remember Bobby Kennedy's assassination like it was yesterday. I was 8 years old and recovering from major surgery. I watched it all unfold on my TV set, throughout the days that followed. One thing that really stood out was "The Joey Bishop Show" on the night after the assassination attempt, about 5 hours before RFK passed away. Joey had the-late, KRKD/Mutual reporter Andy West on his show that evening. Andy West was famous for recording the scuffle that ensued right after the shots were fired in the kitchen area, moments after Sen. Kennedy had just won the California Primary. I'll never forget those words I heard when Joey played the actual recording on his show with West explaining what had occured some 22 hours earlier ....."Senator Kennedy has been shot! Is that possible?!..... Oh my God..... ladies and gentlemen.... Senator Kennedy has been shot in the head........ Get the gun, get the gun...... Break his thumbs if you have to, but get the gun....".

...unfortunately, legendary radio programmer Ron Jacobs claimed for years (falsely) that West was nowhere near the Ambassador Hotel and simply faked the tape to get the fee from Mutual. As it turns out, there is video (of which I found I have a copy on an old VHS a few months back) of West asking Kennedy a question as Kennedy backs away from the podium after the victory speech ("Mayor Yorty has sent me a message that we've been here too long already..."). On a page devoted to him at reelradio.com (which has since been altered to remove the claim), Jacobs stated he had to fire West three different times, once in Honolulu and the last time from KHJ. Apparently Jacobs uncharacteristically allowed his animosity towards West get out of hand...

I have been told from a friend at CNN (who was looking into the RFK story) that Ron Jacobs, several years after the fact, came to the realization that was wrong in saying that Andy West was not at the Ambassador Hotel at the time of the shooting. On the video of the speech, you can actually see West speak to the Senator before he left the podium with West turning off his microphone and tape recorder. Of course one minute later, after someone came out of the kitchen screaming hysterically that Senator had been shot, West immediately turned his tape recorder back on.... and the rest was history. Apparently, Jacobs admitted that he was wrong. Sadly, Andy West died in 1975 in Las Vegas after a bout with cancer.

 

[wbhist]

1956: WRCA-TV (Channel 4, later WNBC-TV) in New York premieres a new daily movie series called Evening Theatre. The program runs weekdays from 5:30 to 6:45 and Saturdays at 11:45 at the outset, and is the station's official entry into the movie show sweepstakes (following in the footsteps of WCBS-TV's Late Show / Early Show / Picture for a Sunday Afternoon trifecta; WOR-TV's Million Dollar Movie; and to a lesser extent, WPIX's First Show). Evening Theatre would change its title to Movie 4 on February 9, 1957, and run until April 26, 1974.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

A couple more June 4 birthdays:

1936: Bruce Dern--The actor also has made guest starring roles in series including "77 Sunset Strip," "Route 66," "Naked City," and the "Outer Limits."

1937: Robert James "Gino" Marella (aka "Gorilla Monsoon") (died 1999)--This former WWF superstar served as the voice of the federation's TV broadcasts from 1983-1994, teaming with likes of Jesse Ventura, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Vince McMahon, and Jim Ross.

 

[David67]

A couple more June 4 birthdays:

1936: Bruce Dern--The actor also has made guest starring roles in series including "77 Sunset Strip," "Route 66," "Naked City," and the "Outer Limits."

1937: Robert James "Gino" Marella (aka "Gorilla Monsoon") (died 1999)--This former WWF superstar served as the voice of the federation's TV broadcasts from 1983-1994, teaming with likes of Jesse Ventura, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Vince McMahon, and Jim Ross.

Gorilla Monsoon also was WWWF(Now WWE) world tag team champions with Cowboy Bill Watts.

 

[easttxtv]

1952: Parker Stevenson (Hardy Boys Mysteries, North and South, Baywatch) is born in Philadelphia.

1956: John Hockenberry (ABC News, Dateline NBC) is born in Dayton, Ohio.

1969: Horatio Sanz (Saturday Night Live) is born in Santiago, Chile.

1975: Angelina Jolie (True Women, George Wallace, Gia) is born in Los Angeles.

1985: Evan Lysacek (Dancing with the Stars) is born in Chicago.