Jack Makes a Joke About Television... in 1937

[Greg]

This morning on my way to work, Jack made a joke at Don's expense... something about Don dancing in a funny way and forgetting that no one can see him on radio. Jack then suggested that Don thinks he's on television.

So, this episode was from 1937. I know that TVs were introduced to the public in the mid-1930s, but they didn't become somewhat commonplace until the 1950s. Of all the TV pioneers, from Arthur Godrey to Jack Paar to Lucille Ball to Jackie Gleason, they all started in the early 1950s.

So, my question is this: what was TV like in 1937? And in the 1940s? What was broadcast? There certainly weren't any sitcoms or comedy programs that I'm aware of.

Thanks,
Greg

[Jack Benny]

Pretty much like today, but Jay Leno was on at 9:00 back then!

[scottp]

Others can tell it much better than I, but England got fairly well along with TV plays even before WWII. I was reading about Petula Clark's early career-- she was on right after the war then had a show called Pet's Place in 1949.
Milton Berle got started in the US around 1947-48.

I'm reading Garrick Utley's book, "You Should Have Been Here Yesterday," and it mentions an experimental broadcast featuring then- Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover... I believe that was in 1927. I don't have the book with me now, but I'll take another look.

People were familiar with the basic idea from reading magazine and newspaper articles about it-- it would be like a movie, but it would be immediate and in your home, like radio. But in 1937 VERY few people in the US had witnessed a demonstration of it.

[epeterd]

I was thinking that TV was introduced at the 1939 World's Fair. Am I wrong about that?

[Mister Kitzel]

Television was shown at the 1929 World's Fair.

Mel Blanc covered the history of television briefly in his autobiography. Television existed the the 1920's with only four or five stations broadcasting a few hours a week. The collapse of the economy and the Great Depression killed off any chance of television expanding. In the late 1930's there was an attempt to revive television again. Production of picture tubes was halted in order to make radar equipment for WWII. Televison failed to take hold again. That is why there were skeptics making jokes about television on some radio shows.

Noel Neill hosted a television show in Hollywood in 1940. None of the shows were preserved on film. Ms. Neill still does personal appearances and is absolutely wonderful about talking with fans. If you ever get to meet her you can ask her about early TV.

[Jack Benny]

Dennis' Mother played by Verna Felton has a great Jack Benny TV joke in the 1939-1940 season Premiere.

[Yhtapmys]

I was thinking that TV was introduced at the 1939 World's Fair. Am I wrong about that?

No. In fact, the local city directory for 1927 has a radio dealer that also sold "Television apparatus." There were no regular experimental broadcasts here at the time, so I suspect it was for the hobbyist.

Yhtapmys

[Maxwell]

I was thinking that TV was introduced at the 1939 World's Fair. Am I wrong about that?

No. In fact, the local city directory for 1927 has a radio dealer that also sold "Television apparatus." There were no regular experimental broadcasts here at the time, so I suspect it was for the hobbyist.

Yhtapmys

This is correct. Television in the late 1920s was purely experimental with no over-the-air broadcasts. By the mid-to-late 1930s experimental broadcasts were being made over the airwaves. President Roosevelt's dedication speech at the New York World's Fair was broadcast live on NBC's New York channel.

According to an edition of the Complete Directory to Prime Time Television, the first network broadcasts were some newscasts on NBC in 1944. The first network entertainment broadcasts were over a three-station network put together by NBC in 1946. They had networking all to themselves briefly. DuMont was the next network to broadcast over two stations.

CBS and ABC held off until 1948. ABC was the red-headed stepchild of NBC and actually broadcasts their programming over DuMont for a brief time because they had no studios in New York. CBS was late in the game because they wanted to have their color system (a mechanical system involving a rotating wheel) approved over RCA's electronic black-and-white system. CBS lost and went into network broadcasting in 1948.

I've heard it said that one reason for Paley's great talent raid on NBC was to set up CBS to be the leader in television. I don't know how true that is, but it kind of makes sense.

[altfactor]

Television had been considered the "coming thing" for almost a decade by 1937.

Of course, the UK had full-scale TV broadcasting in London from November, 1936 until the BBC transmitter was ordered shut down on September 1st, 1939 (the day World War II broke out). The BBC-TV service stayed off-the-air until 1946.

I don't know if Jack's radio show was still based in New York (I haven't ever heard this episode) or had moved to California by the time of this gag.

I believe that in 1937, NBC, CBS and DuMont all had active experimental TV transmitters in New York while Don Lee was active in TV experimentation in Los Angeles.