Retro; New York City, Tuesday, April 6, 1948

[Bob1370]

Source, New York Times

WCBS-TV-Channel 2 (CBS O&O)
7:00-Tonight on Broadway: Scenes From Mr. Roberts (special note; this was the very first program fed out beyond WCBS-TV to other cities and other affiliate stations of the CBS TV Network. The network's ranks were sparse then; WCBS-TV plus WMAR-TV Baltimore, WEWS Cleveland, and secondary status on WRGB Albany and WNHC-TV New Haven)
7:30-Film Shorts
8:00-Feature Film

WNBT-Channel 4 (NBC O&O)
3:50 P. M.-Bowie Horse Races
5:00-Howdy Doody Show. With Buffalo Bob Smith
7:50-Newsreel 8:00-Television Screen Magazine; Comic Books--Good or Bad?-Dr. Frederic Wertham: Edwin J. Lukas
8:40-Wrestling. at St. Nicholas Arena
10:30-News

WABD-Channel 5 (DuMont O&O)

1:55-3:00-U S. Army Day Parade, Washington. D. C.
6:15 P. M.-Small Fry Club with Bob Emery
6:45-News From Washington with Walter Compton
7:00-Films
7:15-Mary Kay and Johnny (situation comedy)
7:30-Camera Headlines (local news)
7:40-Telenews
8:00-Court of Public Opinion
9:00-Boxing at Park Arena

 

[FredLeonard]

Fascinating.

The Johnny in Mary Kay and Johnny was Johnny Olson, later announcer for The Price Is Right and other Goodson-Todman game shows, as well as The Jackie Gleason Show.

Frederic Wertham was a self-aggrandizing quack on a career against comic books. He almost succeeded in killing the industry and did get rid of many of the golden age titles. He went and interviewed prison inmates. They said they had read comic books as kids; so, he concluded comics cause crime. He also decided the Batman and Robin were "the dream-wish of two homosexuals living together" (which probably says more about him than about the characters). Just shows - then and now - any nut can get air time.

The full title of "Newsreel" was "The Esso Newsreel," an early local news broadcast sponsored by the oil company in markets in the Northeast. Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey) is now Exxon. Oil companies don't advertise much any more. They don't clean your windshield and check your oil as they fill up your tank either. And they don't give free glasses or dishes with a fill-up.

Henry Fonda played "Mister Roberts" in the original Broadway cast, as he did in the film. None of the other cast members were in the movie. Marlon Brando's sister, Jocelyn, was the nurse (played by "I've Got A Secret's" Betsy Palmer on film). Steven Hill, DA Adam Schiff on Law & Order and the first head of the Impossible Mission Force, played Stefanowski (played by Harry Carey, Jr. in the movie).

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

WNHC-6 (now WTNH on Channel 8) New Haven didn't go on the air until June 15th, so the only way New Havenites could have seen "Tonight On Broadway" was:

(1) If they had a huge antenna aimed towards New York City (I think there may have been a few elevated areas in and west of New Haven where TV sets could pick up the New York stations), and,

(2) Perhaps at the WNHC studios, since the station was ten weeks away from going on the air and may have had much of it's studio and control-room equipment in-place, allowing those at the station to be able to watch the program.

I'm not 100% sure, but I have heard an urban legend that at first, WNHC got network programs merely by picking-up the WNBT, WCBS, WABD, and (when it went on the air that Summer) WJZ-7 (now WABC) signals off-air.

 

[joeybabe25]

Frederic Wertham was a self-aggrandizing quack on a career against comic books. He almost succeeded in killing the industry and did get rid of many of the golden age titles. He went and interviewed prison inmates. They said they had read comic books as kids; so, he concluded comics cause crime. He also decided the Batman and Robin were "the dream-wish of two homosexuals living together" (which probably says more about him than about the characters). Just shows - then and now - any nut can get air time.

For many years, in response to Wertham's scare tactics, comics became very conservative and went away from the wilder action of the golden age of the 30's and 40's. Many comic books had the "Comics Code Authority" seal of aproval stamped on the cover. Anyone know when that went away?

Joe

 

[FredLeonard]

Use of the code seal withered away starting in 1971 when Spiderman published a three-issue story line dealing with drug abuse which the code authority would not approve. Stan Lee went ahead any way. After that, newer publishers often didn't bother with it. Established publishers treated the seal as optional and would publish selected titles or specific issues without it.

It lasted longer than the NAB Code and the MPAA ("Hays Office) movie code.

 

[bpatrick]

The "Esso Newsreel" was seen on Mondays and Thursdays on NBC
from mid-1946 to February 1948, when it expanded to five nights
a week, gained a new sponsor (Camel) and was renamed the "Camel
Newsreel Theatre." Esso did sponsor "Your Esso Reporter" on CBS
in the summer of 1951; it aired only in the East and Far West, where
Esso was marketed. And probably every one of those markets had a
local "Your Esso Reporter" in the 1950s (WFMY and WTVD did where I
lived).

BTW, you can't get a free road map at a gas station anymore.

 

[joeybabe25]

You can't get anything at a gas station anymore, other than gas, unless you go in THE STORE!

I miss the old greasy dudes with those dirty handkerchiefs in their back pockets asking "filler up sir" (Dads always drove). "Check under the hood for ya? Now, if you asked the girl behind the counter in THE STORE if she would check under your hood, she would probably call a cop.

Remember taking long road trips with your folks and gas stations were the place to go (and I mean that!). All you could get was a Coke-cola and some Nabs, and my Dad made us finish the sodas before we left the station.

I mean that deposit on the bottle was 3 cent, I think!

Joe

 

[MCarney]

"Your Esso Reporter" was on WBZ in Boston. There are some clips of "Esso Reporter" broadcasts from Brazil on YouTube, where it seems they sponsored broadcasts through the 60s.

 

[Bob1370]

"The Johnny in Mary Kay and Johnny was Johnny Olson, later announcer for The Price Is Right and other Goodson-Todman game shows, as well as The Jackie Gleason Show."

You'd logically assume that, since Johnny Olson was host of a daytime variety show on DuMont, "Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room", which he carried over from New York radio.

But the TV show Mary Kay and Johnny featured a different Johnny. he was Johnny Stearns, real-life husband of his TV co-star Mary Kay Stearns. They had a baby son, Christopher, born at the end of 1948, whose impending birth was worked into the show rather like Lucille Ball would work her son Desi Jr.'s birth into I Love Lucy five years later. Unlike Lucy and Desi Jr., however, Christopher Stearns actually was worked into the cast as an infant and began appearing regularly on camera six weeks after his birth. He was the youngest regular on any network series in American TV history for six decades. (He's now 64 years old, but has not appeared on TV since his parents' sitcom ended in the spring of 1950.) Christopher Stearns' TV career was short but his record as the youngest regular in any American series TV cast was unbroken from January 1949 until Kourtney Kardashian's son Mason Disick appeared starting literally at the moment of his birth in December 2009 as a regular in his mother's reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
After Mary Kay and Johnny folded, Johnny Stearns became a behind-the-scenes producer for NBC (including serving as Steve Allen's first producer for the Tonight show, starting even before it became a network show), and a busy voiceover artist. He was busy in that role until his passing in 2001 at the age of 85. Mary Kay Stearns is alive. 87 years old and living in retirement in California.

 

[Bob1370]

"The Johnny in Mary Kay and Johnny was Johnny Olson, later announcer for The Price Is Right and other Goodson-Todman game shows, as well as The Jackie Gleason Show."

You'd logically assume that, since Johnny Olson was host of a daytime variety show on DuMont, "Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room", which he carried over from New York radio. DuMont was the first originating network for the show, although it was later seen on CBS and NBC.

But the TV show Mary Kay and Johnny featured a different Johnny. he was Johnny Stearns, real-life husband of his TV co-star Mary Kay Stearns. They had a baby son, Christopher, born at the end of 1948, whose impending birth was worked into the show rather like Lucille Ball would work her son Desi Jr.'s birth into I Love Lucy five years later. Unlike Lucy and Desi Jr., however, Christopher Stearns actually was worked into the cast as an infant and began appearing regularly on camera six weeks after his birth. He was the youngest regular on any network series in American TV history for six decades. (He's now 64 years old, but has not appeared on TV since his parents' sitcom ended in the spring of 1950.) Christopher Stearns' TV career was short but his record as the youngest regular in any American series TV cast was unbroken from January 1949 until Kourtney Kardashian's son Mason Disick appeared starting literally at the moment of his birth in December 2009 as a regular in his mother's reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
After Mary Kay and Johnny folded, Johnny Stearns became a behind-the-scenes producer for NBC (including serving as Steve Allen's first producer for the Tonight show, starting even before it became a network show), and a busy voiceover artist. He was busy in that role until his passing in 2001 at the age of 85. Mary Kay Stearns is alive. 87 years old and living in retirement in California.

 

[FredLeonard]

"Your Esso Reporter" was on WBZ in Boston. There are some clips of "Esso Reporter" broadcasts from Brazil on YouTube, where it seems they sponsored broadcasts through the 60s.

The "Esso Reporter" also aired on NBC3 (WPTZ-WRCV-KYW) in Philly during the same period - probably other markets in Esso's (S-O, Standard Oil of NJ, later Exxon) operating territory, as well. In the midwest, Standard Oil of Indiana (later AMOCO and still later BP) sponsored the Standard Oil News Round-up ("brought to you by more than 10,000 Standard Oil dealers and agents throughout Mid-America who give meaning to the pledge: You expect more from Standard and you get it").

Also in Philly, an oil company sponsor did the first traffic reporting in the region as "the Atlantic (later Arco) Go Patrol," first exclusively on WCAU.

It's been years since oil companies advertised but back then they were blue-chip advertisers and sponsored blue-chip programming.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

"Your Esso Reporter" also appeared on radio stations within the Esso marketing area (along the East Coast from Maine to South Carolina, and across to Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana).

"Esso Reporter" sponsorship was exclusive to one station in each market.

According to "Esso Reporter" listings on some old Esso road maps I have (I actually collect road maps!), the radio version was mostly heard on NBC stations, although in a few cities, the radio version was broadcast on a CBS affiliate.

 

[Tim L]

"Your Esso Reporter" was on WBZ in Boston. There are some clips of "Esso Reporter" broadcasts from Brazil on YouTube, where it seems they sponsored broadcasts through the 60s.

The "Esso Reporter" also aired on NBC3 (WPTZ-WRCV-KYW) in Philly during the same period - probably other markets in Esso's (S-O, Standard Oil of NJ, later Exxon) operating territory, as well. In the midwest, Standard Oil of Indiana (later AMOCO and still later BP) sponsored the Standard Oil News Round-up ("brought to you by more than 10,000 Standard Oil dealers and agents throughout Mid-America who give meaning to the pledge: You expect more from Standard and you get it").

Also in Philly, an oil company sponsor did the first traffic reporting in the region as "the Atlantic (later Arco) Go Patrol," first exclusively on WCAU.

It's been years since oil companies advertised but back then they were blue-chip advertisers and sponsored blue-chip programming.

In Ohio, The Sohio Reporter aired for many years on Radio and on TV in Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus, Zanesville and Dayton. WXEL/WJW-TV had Sohio Reporter with Warren Guthrie from 1951-1963..in 1953, the TV audience was estimated at 500,000 for the nightly 11PM Newscast,..over all seven stations..

 

[Ultimajock]

"Your Esso Reporter" was on WBZ in Boston. There are some clips of "Esso Reporter" broadcasts from Brazil on YouTube, where it seems they sponsored broadcasts through the 60s.

...in addition to the NBC run, Your Esso Reporter also had a CBS prime time slot from 12 July to 13 September 1951, according to Brooks & Marsh. However, that run -- 9:00 to 9:30 ET/PT on Thursdays -- was only seen in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, where Esso was marketed; in the Midwest, where the same company used the trade name Enco, a live production of Meet Corliss Archer was fed from Hollywood instead. The same script was performed live the following night at 10:00 PM ET/PT for those stations that had carried Your Esso Reporter; what the Midwest got at that time, Brooks & Marsh don't say...