Television in the 1940’s and 1950’s

The 1940’s-1950’s were quite eventful for the still relatively new invention called television.

Technical Advances

In 1943, RCA demonstrated a new TV Camera that gave the public its first glimpse of an image that was far above the images that had been possible in early television. The format of early TV news had been borrowed from radio and was usually read from a visible script, by an announcer in a small announce booth. A single camera was aimed through the window of the booth. In 1949, the format had not changed much. Newsreel companies usually supplied the shots of news events. But viewers were still mesmerized and by 1955 half of all homes in the United States had purchased a television set. Color broadcasting finally arrived in the United States in 1953 when the FCC approved a modified version of one that RCA had created. The first color commercial was televised, and in 1954, television became the leading source for national advertising.

There were many technical advances during these two decades of television. During the years previous to 1940, the technology was very primitive. A single camera that forced actors to work in almost impossible conditions captured all of the action that was televised. The cameras did not work well with the color white. The lights had to be extremely hot and the actors were required to wear black lipstick and green make-up. During the years from 1939-1945 because of World War II, progress on the development of television technology stopped. All efforts in technology were focused on winning the war. In 1947, a company named Corning invented the process to mass-produce glass TV picture tubes. In 1948, one million television sets are sold in the United States. In 1949, Corning produced the first lead-free glass for TV tubes and also invented a new method for centrifugal casting of television funnels.

This innovative company began mass production of the color picture tube in 1953. In 1950, community antenna television had been invented in a small town in nearby Philadelphia. That town was Lansford and the man who owned the appliance store was the inventor. He put up a small antenna in the community to improve TV reception from the stations in Philadelphia. He was the first to use coaxial cable lines to distribute TV signals from his antenna to the other homes in the community. In 1952, AT&T; installed the first intercity coaxial cable, which kept viewers in large cities from seeing multiple images on their TV. The multiple images were caused when strong signals (because of the closeness of the TV station) bounced off of the tall structures in the city. Most television, up to that time, had been produced using a process called kinescope. Kinescope was a method that used a cathode ray tube in the monitor.

In 1947, Kodak and Dumont Laboratories, Inc. had produced a new camera called the Eastman Television Recording Camera. NBC was the first to use this camera to record images from the television screen. IT operated under the trademark “Kinephoto”. The quality was poor, but it was the only way to broadcast live performances from New York (or other originating cities) to stations not connected to the network. In 1951, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball made history when they produced their show by filming directly onto 35 mm film. A three-camera system was used. After that, a man named James Caddigan, who was the program director of Dumont Television Network, came up with an impractical alternative called the Electronicam, which required that all of the studio TV cameras have a built-in 35 mm film camera. They all shared the same optical path. A technician had to use electronic switches to mark the different “takes” which the director called. Then the film segments from all the cameras then were combined in order to duplicate a live program. In 1956, a company called Ampex Corporation began using a Quadruplex videotape recorder and in 1958, they produced a color version. An excellent picture of an old RCA kinephoto machine can be seen at www.tvhistory.tv/kinescopeMachine.JPG.

Changes in Television Broadcasts and the Broadcast Audience

The technical advances made during the 1940s and the 1950s had a major impact on television broadcasts. Before 1940, most of the newscasts were of very poor quality. But in 1945, RCA demonstrated a new TV camera. It produced a much sharper image than any previous camera. In 1945 there were less than 7,000 TV sets in the United States. There were still only nine stations on the air. When the war ended, 70 new stations immediately went on the air. By 1951, there were approximately 12 million television sets in use. Commercial television was only operating on a limited basis in the United States until 1947. But by 1948, advertisers were embracing television as their new avenue for increasing sales and the number of sponsors buying airtime increased 515% from 1947. In 1949, there were 98 television stations. If you were one of the Americans who lived within the range of one of these stations, you now had a choice between several adult variety shows and comedies, the popular children’s show “Howdy Doody”, and either one of two 15-minute newscasts. Both newscasts were on NBC. One was called NCBS TV News with Douglas Edwards. The other one was NBC’s News Caravan with John Cameron Swayze.

The first broadcast linking the East to the Midwest was in early 1949. It was one hour in length and had snippets of Arthur Godfrey (from CBS), Milton Berle (from NBC) and an ABC mystery show called “Stand By For Crime”. The Chicago Tribune reported, “The end of dull sustaining filler on television screens appears to be in sight.” However, he progress of television was impeded by a struggle being waged with the new FM radio. The struggle was over Wavelength allocations. Television also had to contend with the increasing power of the FCC and the growing number of government regulations. In 1941, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that NBC had to sell one of its two radio networks. In 1943, the Supreme Court upheld that ruling. In 1946, The Blue Network (the one NBC decided to sell) became ABC. The American Broadcasting Company would enter the television market during the early 1950’s. That year, the Federal Communications Commission adopted the Fairness Doctrine. A previous ruling in 1934 had given election candidates equal airtime

In 1952, the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters established their own guidelines for content, in response to growing concerns of social critics. At least half of the code was governing advertising. A House subcommittee was also commissioned to investigate the “offensive” and “immoral” content of TV programs. The topics ranged from beer spots to dramas depicting suicide. In 1957, Variety reported that during a typical week, most viewers would see a total of 420 commercials and that they would occupy about 5 hours of a viewer’s time. In December of that year, Edward R. Murrow wrote, [1]”television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us.” But by 1955, Americans were becoming more prosperous and the price of a new television had decreased, largely because of the invention of the mass production of the glass picture tube mentioned above. A television was now only about the cost of a set of automobile tires. That put the cost within reach of about 67% of the United States public and television overtook radio as the focus of family evening entertainment.

The Social Context In Which Television Operated

Television in the 1940s and 1950s played a huge part in the social issues of the United States. In 1948, the NBC newscast mentioned above as NBC’s News Caravan started out as NBC’s Camel News Caravan. The Camel cigarette company was the sponsor and the host, John Cameron Swayze, was required by the tobacco company to always have a burning cigarette visible when he was on camera. Cigarettes were commonly seen and television. There were no restrictions. One of television’s most popular shows was the 1951 “comedy” Amos n’ Andy. [2]”Amos ‘n Andy, was first broadcast on CBS television in June 1951, and lasted some two years before the program was canceled in the midst of growing protest by the black community in 1953. The program’s portrayal of black life and culture was deemed by the black community of the period as an insulting return to the days of blackface and minstrelsy.”

In 1947, the House established the Committee on Un-American Activities, which began an investigation of the film industry. Many in the television broadcasting industry were also investigated. Senator Joseph McCarthy led this attack. CBS began requiring employees to take a loyalty oath. Advertisers were pressured and there were many producers, actors, writers who were accused of being sympathetic to the Communist cause. They were blacklisted and unable to work in the industry. A previous radio reporter named Edward R. Murrow decided to take a stand against what was being called McCarthyism. In 1950, he began a television documentary called See It Now. On March 9, 1954, Murrow aired a show in which he exposed the senator’s shoddy tactics. One of Murrow’s statements that resonated with the public was, “His mistake has been to confuse dissent with disloyalty.”

[3]Murrow’s own broadcast featured excerpts from the senator’s own speeches interspersed with Murrow’s comments, which pointed out contradictions and deftly turned McCarthy’s words against him. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, described Murrow’s demeanor as “a magnificent controlled fury, handsome and composed – an attitude all the more effective because the public knew that he could be genial and easygoing on-camera.” Murrow’s words reflected that controlled fury:

The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. (We) are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent.
When the broadcast ended, CBS was flooded with telegrams, telephone calls, and letters. They ran 15 to 1 in Murrow’s favor. By contrast, McCarthy’s equal-time broadcast proved disastrous. He was obviously uncomfortable in the television studio, and, as Murrow suggested, prone to flinging wild charges, calling Murrow “the leader of the jackal pack.” Millions of Americans watching at home had seen enough. McCarthy’s political influence rapidly ebbed. On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate formally adopted a resolution censuring – formally reprimanding – McCarthy for conduct unbecoming to a senator.”