Retro; New York City, Friday, December 5, 1941

[Bob1370]

Source; New York Times

Channels/Stations

1-WNBT (NBC, now WNBC ch. 4)
2-WCBW (CBS, now WCBS-TV)
4-W2XWV (Dumont, now WNYW/Fox, ch. 5)

No morning programming

AFTERNOON

2:30
2-News
2:45
2-Film (no title listed)
3:15
2-Children's Story; Chippendale Dam
3:30
1-Film; Land of the Cree
3:40
1-Film; Blazing Barriers (drama, 1937); Frank Coghlan, Jr., Florine McKinney, Milburn Stone

EVENING

6:00
4-Tests and selected films (to 8:00)
8:00
2-News Reports
8:15
2-National Defense Program
8:30
1-Jerry Sears; music
9:00
1-Common Knowledge (quiz)
2-Sports with Bob Edge; Badminton (to 10)
9:30
1-Face of the War (news/documentary); Sam Cuff, host

Channel 4 programming was intermittently scheduled prior to the FCC grant of a full commercial license as WABD in 1944.
Channels 1 and 2 signed off at 10 PM during this period.

 

[gregg75]

So much for 1941. I think I'd rather read a book or listen to some big band 78s.

 

[Stanislav]

So much for 1941. I think I'd rather read a book or listen to some big band 78s.

What -- and miss out on prime-time badminton?

 

[Bob1370]

"I think I'd rather read a book or listen to some big band 78s."

That's what most people were doing if they weren't listening to radio that night. To give you an idea of what radio listeners in New York were hearing that same night, shows on the NBC "Red" network (on WEAF/660 in New York) included the talk show "Information Please"; the NBC "Blue" network, predecessor of ABC (on WJZ/760) was airing Amos n' Andy and the Glenn Miller Orchestra in concert; CBS (on WABC/860, predecessor of WCBS/880) offered Kate Smith, "First Nighter" (orignal plays) and the Shirley Temple hour from Hollywood, and Mutual (WOR/710) had Milton Berle. They all eventually ended up on postwar TV--except for Miller, who at the time he was killed in a plane crash over the English Channel late in 1944 was also in talks with the networks about a role in their postwar television plans with the idea of a televised variety program a lot like what Berle and Ed Sullivan eventually launched in 1948. He, too, would probably have been a major presence in the first 15 years of postwar TV if he'd lived to get involved. (This from Miller historian Ed Ferland, retired Rochester and Toronto broadcaster who's produced documentaries on him for public radio.) Radio's major talents were eyeing TV even in 1941 for its future potential, but the December 1941 schedule, from just two days before the nation was pulled into war, shows they hadn't jumped in yet.

 

[Ultimajock]

To give you an idea of what radio listeners in New York were hearing that same night, shows on the NBC "Red" network (on WEAF/660 in New York) included the talk show "Information Please"; the NBC "Blue" network, predecessor of ABC (on WJZ/760) was airing Amos n' Andy and the Glenn Miller Orchestra in concert

...Information Please was actually a game show in which listeners sent in a batch of questions, hoping to stump a panel of four "experts," usually including musician Oscar Levant and newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran. Clifton Fadiman was the emcee; on network TV, Fadiman would emcee The Name's The Same for a spell and filled in on What's My Line? when John Charles Daly was absent. Amos 'n' Andy could not have been on WJZ; that series was moved by NBC from their Orange and Blue Networks to the Red Network in 1935, and sponsor Campbell's Soup moved the program to CBS (therefore WABC) in 1939. IIRC, Glenn Miller's appearance on Blue that night was on The Coca-Cola Parade of Spotlight Bands; Miller's Blue Network series, Glenn Miller's Sunset Serenade, had ended its run earlier in 1941, and his 3-nights-a-week Chesterfield Moonlight Serenade was on CBS...

 

[gregg75]

Speaking of Amos 'N Andy. Me and my brother watched some TV episodes the other day
that he got from Netflix. In the last version on CBS 1951-53 (78 episodes) all the
actors were African American. WHAT WAS THE BIG UPROAR ABOUT? I didn't see much
of a difference between Amos 'N Andy than Sandford & Son (other than the time period).
I'm sure many African Americans of the 50's and 60's also found Amos 'N Andy entertaining.

I think the characters in many shows are exaggerrated. Shouldn't producers have the right
to make their characters as normal or exaggerrated as they desire?

Wikipedia says they used the multicamera technique even before "I Love Lucy". I think people
need to loosen up and enjoy life. It's ok if you don't want to drink beer on Sunday (or watch
A 'N A), but why should that give you the right to FORCE me not to drink it (or watch A 'N A)?
Amos 'N Andy rock and deserve much more respect and credit than they are given.

 

[bpatrick]

If you watch either of Glenn Miller's movies, "Sun
Valley Serenade" or "Orchestra Wives," it appears
he was developing a "family" of performers: Tex
Beneke, Ray Eberle, the Modernaires (with Betty Hutton's sister
Marion out front), the Nicholas Brothers (dancers);
during the war he would add Johnny Desmond. Sounds
like the makings of something like Lawrence Welk's show,
and IMO the music on a Miller TV show would have been
far superior to Welk's. All he would have needed to do is find
a TV-savvy producer, the way Welk did with Don Fedderson,
and a hit show might have emerged.

Do you have the schedules for the day before Pearl Harbor?

 

[KeithE4]

"I think I'd rather read a book or listen to some big band 78s."

That's what most people were doing if they weren't listening to radio that night. To give you an idea of what radio listeners in New York were hearing that same night, shows on the NBC "Red" network (on WEAF/660 in New York) included the talk show "Information Please"; the NBC "Blue" network, predecessor of ABC (on WJZ/760) was airing Amos n' Andy and the Glenn Miller Orchestra in concert; CBS (on WABC/860, predecessor of WCBS/880) offered Kate Smith, "First Nighter" (orignal plays) and the Shirley Temple hour from Hollywood, and Mutual (WOR/710) had Milton Berle.

December 5, 1941 was post-NARBA, so WJZ (WABC) and WABC (WCBS) were at their current dial positions, 770 and 880 respectively, on that date. WEAF (WFAN) 660 and WOR 710 did not have to move when NARBA took effect the previous March.

 

[mleach]

Speaking of Amos 'N Andy. Me and my brother watched some TV episodes the other day
that he got from Netflix. In the last version on CBS 1951-53 (78 episodes) all the
actors were African American. WHAT WAS THE BIG UPROAR ABOUT? I didn't see much
of a difference between Amos 'N Andy than Sandford & Son (other than the time period).
I'm sure many African Americans of the 50's and 60's also found Amos 'N Andy entertaining.

I think the characters in many shows are exaggerrated. Shouldn't producers have the right
to make their characters as normal or exaggerrated as they desire?

Wikipedia says they used the multicamera technique even before "I Love Lucy". I think people
need to loosen up and enjoy life. It's ok if you don't want to drink beer on Sunday (or watch
A 'N A), but why should that give you the right to FORCE me not to drink it (or watch A 'N A)?
Amos 'N Andy rock and deserve much more respect and credit than they are given.

Reading in the past about the Amos & Andy situation, I have to wonder if had the people behind the show had taken a stand then and protested and make a big stink about CBS yanking the show from syndication would the outcome been different?

Forgotten now but in the late 70's when Good Times entered sydication I can remember an unemployed Baltimore woman was picketing WMAR ( they were airing the show ) saying how Good Times was unfair to Blacks and such and how Good Times shouldn't be allowed to be on TV..at all. The woman I believed also picketed outside Washington's WDCA and Norfolk's WTVZ as well and for a time her movement was gaining steam, enough to had been featured on the CBS Evening News. Then the actors of Good Times such as Esther Roole, Jimmy Walker, John Amos, Ja'net Dubois and I think even Janet Jackson..well they went public ( at least in Baltimore ) BASHING this woman's comments about Good Times. I think it was Dubois who called this woman "..a damn fool..PLEASE woman..SHUT UP ! !".

Anyway it wasn't very long that the woman who tried to ban Good Times disappeared to the neighborhoods of Baltimore, never to be heard from again.