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Times Square On New year's Eve

C

Cincinnati Kid

Just wondering when you first saw TV coverage of Times Square on New Year's Eve?

My first memory where I can put a date with it would have been on New Year's Eve 1956 (welcoming in 1957). Pretty sure it was Ben Grauer on the NBC-TV Network and it was sponsored by G.E. Telechron Clocks. A clock (apparently the sponsor's product) with a second hand was superimposed on the screen as the cheering crowd was seen.
 
Re: Times Square On New Year's Eve

According to TV listings from vintage issues of The New York Times, the first live telecast of the New Year's Eve festivities in Times Square was on December 31st, 1945 over WNBT in New York.

By this time, some WNBT programming was also being fed to WPTZ Philadelphia and WRGB Schenectady, so it is possible that the coverage may have also been telecast in those two areas as well. As I have not seen vintage Philadelphia or Albany/Schenectady TV listings for that date, I can't tell you if it was seen in either city.

On the first New Year's Eve after commercial TV came here to Boston (December 31st, 1948), NBC-TV broadcast New Year's programming from 8 to 9 P.M. and again from 9:40 P.M. until 2 A.M.; CBS carried a New Year's show from 11 P.M. to 12:30 A.M. (network broadcast times based on the TV listings page of that day's New York Times). WBZ-4 appears to have carried the full NBC programming; while WNAC-7 picked-up the CBS show in progress at 11:45 P.M.

Interestingly enough, according to the Times, three of the guests on the CBS show were Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Shemp Howard, better known as The Three Stooges. In more recent times, WSBK-38 in Boston has broadcast a marathon of Stooges' shorts (mainly the early ones, where Curly Howard was the "third stooge") on New Year's Eve; WSBK will do so again this coming New Year's (Monday, December 31st).
 
Cincinnati Kid said:
My first memory where I can put a date with it would have been on New Year's Eve 1956 (welcoming in 1957). Pretty sure it was Ben Grauer on the NBC-TV Network and it was sponsored by G.E. Telechron Clocks. A clock (apparently the sponsor's product) with a second hand was superimposed on the screen as the cheering crowd was seen.
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...Ben Grauer covered the New Year's Eve festivities in Times Square for NBC-TV eleven times between 1951 and 1969, and then covered them for CBS-TV's 1970s Guy Lombardo specials until both Grauer and Lombardo died in 1977. Grauer had earlier (superbly) covered the festivities in Times Square upon the announcement of the pending Japanese surrender in World War II on 14 August 1945 for NBC Radio...
 
Re: Times Square On New Year's Eve

Ultimajock commented: said:
Ben Grauer covered the New Year's Eve festivities in Times Square for NBC-TV eleven times between 1951 and 1969, and then covered them for CBS-TV's 1970s Guy Lombardo specials until both Grauer and Lombardo died in 1977. Grauer had earlier (superbly) covered the festivities in Times Square upon the announcement of the pending Japanese surrender in World War II on 14 August 1945 for NBC Radio...
Click to expand...

Talk about typecasting! ;D

BTW, I think Ben Grauer also did New Year's Eve coverage from Times Square on NBC Radio for a lot of years; some of it may have been simulcast with NBC-TV.
 
There were times when Ben Grauer would open the NBC Radio coverage of Times Square shortly before midnight. He then brought in Bob Wilson to describe things for the radio audience and advised he was going over to NBC-TV. Wilson then covered for radio up past midnight and Grauer may have returned to wrap things up from there.

When New Year's Eve fell on some weeknights in the 1960's, Grauer was seen covering the Times Square celebration during Johnny Carson's show. Prior to midnight, Carson would switch to him on the scene for up-dates and there was some comedy involved on Carson's part.
 
When New Year's Eve fell on some weeknights in the 1960's, Grauer was seen covering the Times Square celebration during Johnny Carson's show. Prior to midnight, Carson would switch to him on the scene for up-dates and there was some comedy involved on Carson's part.
Click to expand...

YouTube has the complete New Year's Eve 1965 Tonight show, complete with all the commercials, and even the 11:15-11:30 block with Ed and the band. "Tonight" had been aired in color for about 5 years by then, but the Times Square remotes with Ben Grauer are in black and white.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Isn't the December 31st, 1965 "Tonight Show" the oldest complete episode preserved in color??
Click to expand...

The only thing I've seen of that Tonight Show is the 15-minute "pre-show" with Ed McMahon and Skitch Henderson, as well as the commercials and the events leading to the Ball Drop on Times Square..
 
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