Retro; New York City, Thursday, October 21, 1948

[Bob1370]

Source, New York Times, 10/21/48

Stations;

2-WCBS-TV (CBS)
4-WNBT (NBC; now WNBC)
5-WABD (DuMont; now WNYW-Fox)
7-WJZ-TV (ABC; now WABC-TV)
11-WPIX (Ind.; now CW)
13-WATV (Ind.; now WNET-PBS)

MORNINGS

10:00
13-Test pattern, music
11:00
4-Ultrafax demonstration, from Washington


AFTERNOONS

12:30
2-Weather, program preview
12:45
2-Film shorts
1:00
2-Vanity Fair with Dorothy Doan (talk)
2:45
13-Music and Feature Film
4:00
13-Feature Film (title not listed)
5:00
11-News and recorded music
13-Junior Frolics (children)
5:30
4-Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob Smith (children)
7-Cartoon Teletales (children)
13-Film Serial; "Shadow of the Eagle" (crime drama, 1932), starring John Wayne
5:45
5-Teletunes
11-Comics On Parade with Danny Webb (children)
5:50
13-Camera Highlights (news)
6:00
5-Small Fry Club with Bob Emery (children)
11-Recorded music
6:15
2-Program highlights
6:30
2-Lucky Pup (children)
5-Sports with Russ Hodges
6:45
2-Bob Howard (music, variety)
7:00
2-Film shorts
4-To be announced
7-News and Views with Gordon Fraser. plus sports with Joe Hazel
13-Film; Spook Town (western, 1944); David O'Brien, James Newell
7:15
4-Cavalcade of Fashion
7-Film; Circus People
7:30
2-CBS News with Douglas Edwards
4-Films
5-Camera Headlines (news)
7-Film; Double Cross (crime drama, 1941); Kane Richmond, Pauline Moore
11-Newsreel
7:40
11-Jimmy Jemal, Inquiring Photographer
7:45
2-Face the Music with Johnny Desmond, Sandra Deel, Tony Mottola Trio
4-Sportswoman of the Week; Newsreel
5-Jack Eigen Show (talk)
8:00
2-To The Queen's Taste (cooking), Dione Lucas
4-Princess Sagaphi (travelogue); Annette Sagaphi, host
5-Film Shorts
11-Gloria Swanson Show (talk); Mary Wickes, Elliot Nugent, Jacques Chabrier, Donald McMillan, guests
13-Film; "Father Steps Out" (comedy, 1941), Frank Albertson
8:15
4-The Nature of Things (science), Dr. Roy Marshall
8:30
2-Film; "Long Shot" (drama, 1939); Marsha Hunt, Gordon Jones
4-Lanny Ross (variety)
5-Charade Quiz; Bill Slater, host
7-Club Seven (variety); Johnny Thompson and Joe Marsala Quartet
9:00
4-Buffalo Bob Smith; variety
5-Sports; Wrestling at Park Arena
11-News; Wrestling at Ridgewood Grove
9:30
4-Paul Winchell and Dunninger (variety); Alfred Andriola, Gene Autry Rodeo Girls, guests
5-Alfred E. Smith Foundation Memorial Dinner live coverage from Waldorf-Astoria
9:45
2-Boxing; Charles Fusar vs. Tippy Larkin
10:45
2-News
11-News

Each station signed off at the end of its last listed program of the evening; all stations signed off by 11 PM

 

[davalvideo]

Wow! Them be some slim pickins in those days. At least on tuesday nights, Uncle Miltie would have been on.

 

[Gregg]

Interesting that even in 1948, you could see CBS News with Douglas Edwards, Buffalo Bob Smith (both doing his children's show and apparently a nighttime variety show) and Paul Wintchell and his puppets.

I notice Mary Wickes was a guest on a variety show. She was in a million TV shows and movies playing a supporting role as a not-so-nice neighbor or secretary. She also played the nun in charge of the choir in Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg. And she was sometimes on the panel on Match Game.

I wonder what TV penetration was in 1948? 15%, maybe? My dad says before he had TV, it was popular in bars and taverns so guys could watch sports while ordering beer or drinks. But only the wealthy and maybe a few technophiles actually had TV in their homes before the 50s.


Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Bob1370]

As a sidebar, one of the co-stars of one of the films shown by WCBS-TV that night, Marsha Hunt (who was co-star of the 1939 film Long Shot), is still alive and well at the age of 93.

Mary Wickes, who was mentioned above, was active in TV and film right up to the time she passed in 1995 at the age of 85.

Talk show host Jack Eigen, who hosted a 15 minute program weeknights on Channel 5, also had a two hour late night radio show on WINS in New York, moving to WMAQ in Chicago in 1951 and later to Miami, where he died in 1983 while still carrying a nightly radio show. Mike Nichols made Eigen one of his favorite early satirical targets, doing an impression of him as "Jack Ego."

 

[Ultimajock]

9:30
4-Paul Winchell and Dunninger (variety); Alfred Andriola, Gene Autry Rodeo Girls, guests

...now this is an odd combination, a ventriloquist and a mentalist. Dunninger's act was mercilessly satirised by Johnny Carson on The Johnny Carson Show as "Dillinger," and IIRC Dunninger threatened legal action, leading Carson to change the character's name to El Moldo by the time he took over The Tonight Show (a Time magazine article claimed the character was Ed McMahon's personal favourite)...

 

[Ultimajock]

Talk show host Jack Eigen, who hosted a 15 minute program weeknights on Channel 5, also had a two hour late night radio show on WINS in New York, moving to WMAQ in Chicago in 1951 and later to Miami, where he died in 1983 while still carrying a nightly radio show. Mike Nichols made Eigen one of his favorite early satirical targets, doing an impression of him as "Jack Ego."

...at the time of this schedule, he was also frequently mentioned nationally on NBC Radio as a result of Fred Allen's fascination with unusual-sounding names, and in fact Eigen had been the guest on http://www.archive.org/download/FredAllen--theFredAllenShow1945-1949/Fredallen-480606TheFredAllenShow-quizProgramAndSoapOperaguestJackEigen.mp3 the June 6, 1948 broadcast of The Fred Allen Show...