Early Electronic Television
TELEVISION RECORDING – THE ORIGINS
AND EARLIEST SURVIVING LIVE TV BROADCAST RECORDINGS
By Robert Shagawat
E Mail:
rshagawat@shipperscommonwealth.com
Abstract Of Information as of October 4, 2004 updated October 2010
What is the earliest surviving live television broadcast recording? It is surprising how little definitive research and solid information exists on this topic. This article seeks to answer this question, based on what we know today.
While there has been a significant amount of research done on the oldest surviving live radio broadcast airchecks (from 1925 or earlier), there is a scarcity of comprehensive research on the earliest live TV transmission recordings that are still in existence. This dearth of information on what remains of the formative years of television would not be anticipated, given the vital importance of the TV legacy to the “baby boomers” raised on the media. It is also amazing, given the relatively recent appearance of television during the 20th century (where more documentation of its earliest records would be thought to exist).
First of all, we must understand how early TV broadcasts could be captured in the days before videotape and later analog and digital recording methods (as will be further elaborated below). The kinescope was the first viable commercial method for recording live television transmissions with both moving image and sound, and preserving the broadcast on film for subsequent viewing and re-purposing. As such, the emergence of the kinescope establishes a “before vs. after” threshold in time as to what early live TV programs still have extant and viewable recordings.
This article will focus on electronic television broadcasting as first available to the public on a commercial basis, going back to the 1930’s and 1940’s, although some reference will be made to the earlier crude mechanical broadcasts and their remnants going back to the 1920’s. It will discuss what programs were being shown in these virgin days of television, how any of it was captured for posterity, and what survives of the earliest recordings of live telecasts.
Before The Kinescope
There are restored brief segments of John Logie Baird’s Phonovision disks as done in Great Britain from 1927 – 1933, which can be seen on the Internet. The disk process recorded the 30 line scanning transmissions of Baird’s early mechanical TV process, but they are barely discernible as images, only seconds long in most cases, and have no sound captured, among other defects. Baird was the first to commercialize television, however, and was a true pioneer. Nonetheless, the Baird Phonovision images are even more primitive than the still photographs of the 60 line image of “Felix the Cat” used in the first electronic TV tests as conducted at the RCA laboratories of New York in 1928.
There is evidence that General Electric conducted early experiments in capturing static and moving image records of television in their Schenectady NY laboratories (site of the GE test station where some of the earliest TV transmissions were successfully done, dating back to the late 1920’s) as early as 1931 (although no surviving results of this research are yet documented to exist).
The Intermediate Film System, as also developed by John Logie Baird in 1932, had motion picture stock developed as soon as it was filmed, which could then run through a TV scanner for rapid transmission, if so desired. A side product of this process (to transmit new film over TV) was that the TV broadcast content would be captured before it was transmitted, and this method was used at times by both the BBC (UK) and in Nazi Germany during the 1934 – 1937 period. Some of these intermediate films have survived, which provide some detail on pre-recorded TV content of the time. In any event, the intermediates were filmed before the TV live transmission, not during the broadcast, so they are still staged or pre-recorded film as then later shown on TV. They could be edited, elaborately staged, or suppressed before broadcast, and do not represent the immediacy and challenges of live TV.
Before the 1940’s, there are also indications that the BBC was actively working on recording live TV broadcast onto film before their TV service was suspended in UK with the coming of World War II in 1939 (and not resumed until 1946, as further noted below). There are anecdotal references to pre-war recording attempts from live telecasts (e.g. – recollections by BBC management team of allegedly filming a broadcast of “Scarlet Pimpernel” which was objected to by director Alexander Korda since he owned the film rights to the novel). However, there is no documented evidence of such a broadcast of this play having been run by the BBC in the 1930’s.
Television camera experiments to film motion and sound from broadcasts were being conducted by NBC prior to their 1947 joint kinescope release with DuMont and Kodak. However, it is unclear whether these experiments were successful, and no remnants of any such recordings have surfaced to date It is also known that during World War II, TV cameras were used on both U.S. and German guided missiles to aid in remote navigation and to document missile targeting and results. During this same WWII period, DuMont developed a system to remotely view battles for potential military applications.
Advent of Kinescoped Recordings of Live Television
The kinescope was commercialized for its first use by television in 1947. There are few existing kinescopes from 1949-50, and even more scarce are the earliest 1947 – 1948 kinescopes, filmed off the air as the live TV show was broadcast. It is important to differentiate these kinescopes of live TV from early films made for television which also began with the DuMont show “Public Prosecutor” in 1947, where these do not represent a record of a live broadcast.
The kinescope was jointly developed by DuMont, NBC, and Kodak. A patent by Harry Carter Millholland (on behalf of and assigned to DuMont) for a “Device For Recording Television” was filed on May 19, 1945 and issued to the Allen B. DuMont Laboratories in January 14, 1947 (U.S. Patent # 2,414,319), as pre-dating its commercial release with Kodak as manufacturer by the fall of 1947.
Starting in late 1947 and early 1948, the kinescope device was initially used to record live television broadcasts on film for re-broadcast as well as for relay to other television stations, particularly before the emergence of the coaxial cable network connections and the later advent of commercially usable videotape in the 1950’s. Most shows were not kinescoped even after commercial availability of the Kodak kinescope machine beginning in 1947, due to cost or lack of perceived value. Furthermore, of those that were kinescope recorded, most of these recordings were discarded, wiped, or lost.
On September 13 1947, Kodak and NBC, in conjunction with DuMont, formally announced the general commercial availability of "kinescopes" via the Kodak unit and process (officially called the “Eastman Kodak Television Recording Camera”). For differentiation, NBC called their kinescope recordings “Kine-Photo” while DuMont introduced theirs as “Tele-a-scriptions”. The kinescope recording was enabled by use of a special camera set up to shoot reusable film directly off a TV screen. As noted, this permitted the recording and later distribution of live shows for sale, or archiving.
Thus, the earliest kinescopes such as from WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV) in New York and at WTVW (which later became WMAL and WJLA-TV) in Washington DC all principally date from the October 1947 period, just after kinescope release for TV applications. These are probably among the very earliest surviving kinescopes.
As will be further discussed below, there are earlier documented kinescopes from June (summer) 1947 of “Party Line” (early TV quiz show with Bert Parks) and of very early Kraft Television Theater broadcasts which may have been captured with precursors or experimental trials of the kinescope method prior to its commercial deployment. Kinescope recording became more frequent and common from January 1948 forward, after its origination in 1947. Even then, there are a very limited number of surviving 1947 - 1948 vintage kinescopes.
As to the quality in viewability of the new invention, comments are often made about the flicker and graininess of kinescopes. There is no doubt that “kine” images were imperfect while still adequate for the time and purpose. However, it must also be noted that we are viewing them now as transferred from the original source media, and after years of aging often without preservation techniques being applied. Kinescope recordings also tended to crop out the boundary or outer sections of the image, to avoid showing the TV screen from which the transmission was being filmed. Kinescope quality is better when viewed in its original film media format and source, as some quality and authenticity is lost when converted from the original kine films and transferred to today’s video or DVD formats.
The relatively small size of the infant television industry must also be considered when calibrating the range, volume, and perceived value of kinescoping programs of the time. At the time of the launch of the kinescope, there was still a limited but growing number of TV broadcast outlets transmitting in the U.S. In 1947, there were only approximately 44,000 television sets operating in the US (of which an estimated 30,000 were likely in the metropolitan New York area) vs. 40 million radios. This compares to 54,000 licensed television receivers in the U.K by the end of 1947, where Britain ran ahead of the U.S. in TV commercialization as aided by the government-funding sources for the BBC.
As of mid-1947, there were operating U.S. TV stations (not including ones that were in licensing process but not yet broadcasting) in New York NY; Schenectady NY; Newark NJ; Philadelphia PA; Baltimore, MD; Washington DC; Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; and Los Angeles, CA, with approximately 20 stations (including multiple channels in some markets like New York) which were providing regularly scheduled broadcasts. Broadcast spectrum allocation was still in its infancy (to avoid interference between TV stations and other FM band type transmissions), which led to the suspension of the original TV Channel 1 frequencies in the U.S. during 1947, where this spectrum was assigned to other land and mobile radio transmissions.
By June 1948 (and before the FCC new station licensing freeze starting in 1948 due to channel spectrum allocation that lasted until early 1950’s), the number of U.S. TV stations in operation had grown to 27, with additional stations added in UT; CT; MA; VA; MI; MN; MO; OH. and WI. Also, in select major markets, there were more multiple VHF stations in operation (in New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore).
Before kinescopes, TV shows at all these stations were just broadcast live, with virtually no record of any kind preserved. There are some films taken of early TV broadcasts, but mostly incomplete or partial images (often flawed or without audio) before kinescopes first appeared in 1947 for rebroadcast. Some programs were also re-enacted or staged for inclusion in early 35mm or 16mm newsreels (or filmed by conventional cinema cameras recording the television stage concurrent with the TV camera signal capture), where these few archival films that survive do not represent records of true live television transmissions as would have been seen by viewers on the screen. Kinescope recordings solved the scanning synchronization issues of capturing televised audio and video on film. While television program capture really begins with the kinescope, a very limited number of pre-kinescope films made (primarily as home movies in 16mm film format) of live TV broadcasts have survived from before 1947.
Notwithstanding the Phonovision mechanical TV disks as noted earlier, there are a few pre-kinescope film recordings of real and viable commercial electronic TV broadcasts that do exist. These primarily “out of synch” home movie film excerpts of live TV broadcasts with video rolling on 8mm or 16mm film, again primarily without the sound recorded (with a few exceptions). Some were staged simulations, like the 1931 newsreel of a vaudeville show broadcast on experimental Chicago TV station W9XAP (mechanical 2 inch image with only 45 line scan, using simulcast audio from radio station WMAQ). Simulation after the fact was required as the dim, tiny TV image and speed differences between TV signal and camera shutter speed (along with TV scanning lines and poor tuning and reception) made it near impossible to capture decent moving TV images from this earliest broadcast era.
A 1939 RCA promotional film called “Television” appears to show some film shots of people watching TV broadcasts and shows scenes on a small TV screen for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, a horse race, and an orchestral program. It is unclear whether this was a film of a live broadcast (without sound) or whether it was staged for this newsreel. As a side note, it is interesting to note from this film that multiple TV cameras for cutting to different angle shots during telecasts were already being used in television show production. Still photos of the New York World’s Fair 1939 broadcasts, taken directly from the screen with some image distortion, also exist.
There is a 1939 home movie film of “The Streets of New York” (alternate title: “Poverty Is Not A Crime”) directed by Anthony Mann with Norman Lloyd and large cast, as filmed from live TV broadcasts of August 31, 1939 as featured at the New York World’s Fair. The surviving five-minute, silent film of this live broadcast, now in New York's Museum of Television and Radio or Paley Center, is the earliest filmed record of a live American television drama.
It is claimed in the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB, that films made direct from live experimental TV broadcasts of November 21, 1941 also still exist, of live teleplay called “Blind Alley”. This is a melodrama as directed by Thomas Riley (who also directed “Pirates of Penzance” and “HMS Pinafore”, as tele-plays of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals for live TV in 1939) which allegedly exists and has been supposedly viewed in its entirety. It is said to be a very poor quality, with one static view from a single fixed position TV camera (no pans or cuts). It may have been filmed with a regular cine camera direct from the TV screen, or of film live action on the TV stage being filmed coincident with the TV camera scanning. This is subject to further confirmation.
The David Sarnoff and Vladimir Zworykin Collections also have records of 1930’s and early 1940’s broadcasts, but these are primarily still 35mm photographs taken from the TV screen, such as Santa Claus visiting New York in 1940.
The Hubert V. Chain Collection in the Library of Congress (“LOC”)
contains what may truly be the earliest surviving kinescopes of live TV broadcasts anywhere, as dating from 1947 – 1948. The collection, donated by a former NBC employee, consists of a
series of clips of very early television kinescopes starting from 1947, and includes Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg on the Swift Home Service Club Show (10/31/47), Campus Hoopla (a 1947 broadcast excerpt), Maria Tallchief dancing Swan Lake, one of Truman's first appearances on television, along with Cyril Ritchard, Judith Anderson and many others, running through January 25, 1948 telecasts of “Angel Street” (tele-play with Walter Abel and Betty Field) and the Borden Theater drama broadcast of February 1948. This important series of kinescope moving image excerpts, many with audio included, runs 41 minutes as transcribed to videotape and given to the LOC by Hubert Chain starting in 1986.
Kinescopes first start appearing in LOC archive records dating primarily from October 1947, with some claimed earlier 1947 recordings made by this Dumont/Kodak/NBC joint KinePhoto process cited in archives with dates alleged as early as February 1947. These are listed as variety shows in Library of Congress archives catalogued as from February 1947 forward; and kinescope of Kraft Television Theater from June 1947 (which would have been made one month after the broadcast debut of this landmark series). Again, as noted, Kodak normally states that kinescope process was commercially available and in first general use by fall 1947, although it is possible that some earlier 1946 – early 1947 kinescopes do exist from experimental phase.
The Library of Congress also houses the NBC collection, with programs commencing in 1948. A large part of this archive is reported as still un-catalogued and much of the material is not always available in viewable formats, without conversion. Preservation funds and the management of this valuable archive are both deficient, from recent interviews with assigned Library of Congress staff conducted in 2004. There is little funding allocated or available for restoration of these shows, where many are still stored in original kinescope and film media which can be subject to deterioration. This is being better addressed by Mike Mashon of the LOC and other TV archivists for improved preservation as of 2010.
Extensive research, still ongoing, has thus identified the following programs as being among the earliest (if not the earliest) surviving recordings of live television. The originals are principally at the Library of Congress, UCLA Archives, Museum of Television and Radio and Paley Center for Media, as well as in other museum or university archives, or in private collections.
Searches of these sources to date, including Library Of Congress (LOC) and UCLA catalog search, among others, includes the following moving image material records from kinescope recordings of live TV broadcasts:
1946 and earlier
There are claimed to be 1934 – 38 images said to be taken by an early slow frame experimental kinescope, both of which appear along with purported screen images of the 1939 NYC World’s Fair Opening as reprised on a 1949 NBC promotional film about the kinescope process. As previously noted, the “Streets of New York” tele-play from 1939 (filmed from TV screen without sound) is known to exist and has been shown publicly as held by the Paley Media Archives. Other such pre-1946 remnants, including BBC recordings , and audio of WNBT broadcasts without video as preserved at LOC from 1941 – 1946, are as also referenced below.
As cited above, the age of TV broadcasting through 1946 precedes the commercial availability of kinescopes, although some film of live TV broadcasts (most without sound) exist. For example, there is a 1946 moving image clip with audio of the Louis-Conn fight as broadcast live on June 19, 1946, which may be a 16mm sound film excerpt or experimental kinescope.
“Hour Glass”, the first true television variety show, debuted via NBC on May 9, 1946 but no moving image recordings are known to survive (although audio recordings of the telecasts are in the LOC archives, including the first episode, as further noted herein). Also, “Faraway Hill”, the first TV soap opera, also made its inaugural telecast on October 2, 1946 on DuMont, but again no recordings are known to exist of this landmark program. Other than test broadcasts, only NBC and DuMont were providing a regular schedule of evening telecasts in 1946 (CBS had also begun pre-war telecasts, but became more active in 1947, as Bill Paley originally took a conservative approach on expanding into TV).
1947
Tex & Jinks - Swift Home Service Club (10/31/47) – 3 minute clip of Tex McCrary, Jinx Falkenberg and Sandra Gahle on Swift Home Service Club live TV broadcast (Hubert Chain Collection at Library of Congress). This series had previously debuted on WNBT-TV in NY (NBC flagship station) on Friday May 16, 1947 at 1pm.
Party Line – Bert Parks sponsored by Bristol-Myers (show only broadcast between June 8 – August 31 1947 on NBC, featuring host calling home viewer to answer question with $5 prize – therefore, this clip is from 6/47 – 8/47 as among earliest live TV kines). It must have been either challenging or otherwise pre-arranged to reach the very few viewers of TV broadcasts during the summer of 1947 (many of these early sets were housed in bars for group viewing).
To get an idea of the range, limited schedule, and novelty to viewers of any TV broadcast for the early set owners of this time, it is worthwhile to read an article which appeared in the
New Yorker
magazine of July 1947. It chronicles a week in the life of a New York City family (who had a functioning 1941 set costing $350 at time of purchase) where the reporter viewed TV each day along with them, and vividly describes these broadcasts (such as “Cash & Carry” with Dennis James, and the early cooking show “In The Kelvinator Kitchen”, along with boxing and wrestling matches, all primarily lost today) and viewer reactions to them at the time.
Clips in the Chain Collection from 1947 also include – teen discussing soap box derby, wrestling, artist sketching drawing as sponsored by Gulf Oil (with commercial), women rodeo shots, and the afore-mentioned Kraft Television Theater from June 1947, among other broadcast excerpts.
Admiral Playhouse (referenced in LOC records with ambiguous information)
WTVW - Washington DC: (10/5/47: 3 min. live TV commercial incl. Jello, baked goods; in Chain collection) – Station went on air two days earlier, on October 3, 1947
WTVW – Washington DC on same date as above: President Harry Truman in early or 1st live telecast (food savings program & world food crisis)- Oct. 5, 1947 (known to have been broadcast, artifacts of this broadcast on film or early kinescope are alleged to exist at LOC or other moving image archives, including in Chain Collection). This is believed to be clip from the very first presidential address telecast from the White House, where President Truman speaks about food conservation and the world food crisis, proposing meatless Tuesdays and eggless and poultry-less Thursdays, and his proposal to require public eateries to only serve bread and butter upon request.. In this broadcast from the White House, Charles Luckman of the Citizen’s Food Committee also appeared.
Truman was the second TV president (following FDR’s debut at the 1939 New York World’s Fair broadcasts). This does not count Herbert Hoover on test mechanical transmissions of the late 1920’s, and also as an ex-President addressing the Republican convention on TV in June 1940, as captured in audio noted below. With TV coming to age under the Truman’s administration (1945- 53), the President kept a television receiver in the Oval Office in the late 1940’s for his personal viewing (a presidential perquisite of the time). It should be noted that audio recordings of an earlier TV appearance of President Truman in his 1st year commissioning new ship the USS FDR (after his predecessor) for Navy Day is also in the LOC (as shown below) from October 27, 1945 (sound only, with 1st kinescope of him on TV being one noted above from two years later).
Kraft Television Theater (06/25/47) – show debuted 5/7/47 – the June 25 1947 show captured in the NBC Hubert Chain collection is “I Like It Here” with Alice Yourman (subsequently featured actress in “Guiding Light” soap opera from 1953-62) along with Arthur Franz and Sterling Oliver as live tele-play with Ed Herlihy as announcer. Again, this recording (along with the previously mentioned “Party Line” quiz show telecast with Bert Parks) is certainly one of earliest live TV broadcast kinescopes.
Variety shows from 2/12/47; 5/47; 6/47 (see above); 10/47 also are shown with scanty descriptions in LOC archives (cited as part of the Chain Collection, where 3 of these would precede the commercial availability of the kinescope, if LOC dates are accurate).
Operas: Gian-Carlo Mennoti’s “The Telephone” and “The Medium” – opera TV live broadcasts cited in LOC records as from 1947, which were concurrently recorded and possibly simulcast over radio (however, these may actually be from 1948)
It should be noted once again that since the kinescope was commercially introduced for broadcast TV station general use by approximately September 1947, the pre-October 1947 telerecordings cited above may also be via different recording methods, or may be films made directly from TV set, as also open to further confirmation.
The Library of Congress has audio recordings made from live WNBT TV broadcasts in New York of many episodes of the afore-mentioned “Hour Glass” program, widely recognized as the first true variety show on TV. These sound recordings from the live telecasts include the first program of May 9, 1946 and run through the early 1947 final episodes. This show completed its historic run in February 1947 and featured key stars such as Imogene Coca, DeMarco Sisters, and Eddie Mayhoff, among many others (as further noted below). Although only the sound is preserved, this is key record of one of the earliest variety shows with live entertainment along with a 10 minute drama segment
There is also audio recording of Eva Marie Saint from WNBT-TV broadcast of January 3 1947 of “Campus Hoopla”, a live broadcast based in a college sweet shop with Bob Stanton as host, which debuted on TV in 1946. The show featured teenagers discussing sports and music in soda fountain setting with jukebox. Kinescope clips of this series from later in 1947 also exist (as noted earlier) in the NBC Chain Collection at LOC.
BBC live electronic TV broadcasts of Adelaide Hall (singer) and “Cenotaph Service” (famous London monument) are believed to be earliest British surviving kinescopes, both also from the fall of 1947, as further referenced below.
1948
In National Archives
Telepix Newsreels (kinescopes of TV news from WPIX NY Channel 11 from June 1948)
In Library of Congress and Other Archives
A 02/25/48 broadcast of Kraft Television Theater featuring teleplay of “Alison’s House” is found in the Library of Congress (including Chain) collections. Several other 1948 kinescopes of this series also found in separate LOC records.
Angel Street (01/25/48) – Theater Guild Play on WNBT (NBC) in LOC
NBC Symphony Performance (2/48) (LOC)
Bigelow Sanford Show (10/21/48 & at least 4 other 1948 fall shows – Paul Winchell ventriloquist with Jerry Mahoney & Knucklehead Smith, Dunniger the mentalist) (LOC)
Borden Theater (8/29/48) “Dangerous Men” live teleplay
Chevrolet on Broadway – live teleplays (LOC) - Chevrolet Tele-Theater
Admiral Playhouse (or Admiral Television Theater)
Okay Mother (since this series first aired in 1948, it was originally dated in archival records as a 1948 kinescope, but has later been confirmed as recorded in 1950; it features audience participation and a very early Polaroid Land Camera Ad – with Dennis Day as host)
Candid Camera & Candid Microphone (including kinescopes and unsold TV pilot)
Big Story
Black Robe (TV court drama) (NBC)
Broadway Spotlight (may be 1949, but listed in LOC as 1948)
Philco TV Playhouse (first aired 10/48; show kinescoped is from 12/19/48 – “A Christmas Carol”)
Admiral 5 Star Revue – Welcome Aboard (10/24/48) –Russ Morgan, Tommy Dorsey (NBC); also 10/31/48, 12/20/48 shows exist in LOC archives.
Howdy Doody (Puppet Playhouse) – premiered in fall 1947, first kinescopes of the show known to exist are from 1948. A July 2, 1948 complete broadcast is accessible on the Web at
www.solie.org
as part of Uncle Earl’s Classic TV Web Site. In this show, Phineas T. Bluster blackmails Howdy Doody for 500 marbles a day or he threatens to take over the town of Doodyville. Buffalo Bob Smith, Clarabelle, and the entire Peanut Gallery join the fun including singing a special Howdy Doody singalong tune. Howdy even says at the end of the episode that “portions of the Howdy Doody Show are electronically transcribed” indicating the kinescope recording of the live telecast which would be used to repeat the broadcast in other TV regional markets.
ABC’s Breakfast Club – Don McNeil May 12 1948 premiere (WABD – DuMont, simulcast on the ABC network). This 1 hour broadcast is staged as more of a radio broadcast being simulcast on TV, and features the cast including Aunt Fanny (Fran Allison, also of Kukla Fran & Ollie) nominating Don McNeil as their own candidate for the upcoming 1948 presidential elections.
1948 Presidential Convention & Election Coverage kinescopes (as further cited below)
In UCLA Archives or Walter J. Brown Media Archives at UGA, etc:
Toast of the Town (Ed Sullivan) – 12/12/48 (Ed Sullivan dances with Nanette Fabray, Nellie Lutcher – black R&B artist performing two songs, skit with Hope Emerson); Also 12/26/48 show exists. Show debuted with Martin & Lewis in June 1948, but no kinescope is known to survive from first broadcast, although still pictures of this tele-cast do exist, with photo of the entire cast including Sullivan and Martin & Lewis as taken on stage at time of this debut telecast. It is also alleged that the 11/25/48 broadcast may also exist on kinescope, as perhaps earliest surviving kine in the Sullivan program archives.
Swift Show (5/13-27/48) with Lanny Ross
Toscanini TV Concerts – 1948 (as also simulcast on radio at the time of TV transmission)
WGN-TV News Broadcast Footage (1948)
Uncle George (1948)
Champagne & Orchids (1948 & 1949)- Yul Brynner and Adrienne (DuMont)
Armchair Detective (1948-1949)
Martin & Lewis (October 10 1948 – NBC – with Russ Morgan)
Deep River (Bob “Bazooka” Burns) (October 31 1948)
Wrestling Live (1948) (Dumont)
Woman Speaks
Morey Amsterdam Show (first version): November 1948
Peter Hunter Private Investigator (1948)
NBC Election Coverage (last 3 of 16 hours) - November 3 1948
Also, other 1948 kinescope excerpts of the Democratic and Republican conventions survive in partial form, and are now available for viewing on several Web sites.
John Hopkins Science Review (1948)
Photographic Horizons (November 10 1948) (DuMont) – viewers would photograph models displayed on the TV screen. Some still photos taken from the TV screen thus must also exist of this program, by definition given the theme of the show, in addition to the kinescopes of record.
Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour – December 12, 1948
Washington News/Views (1948 -pilot)
Jukebox Jury (1948 – KTLA)
Louis Armstrong & All-Stars on ABC TV November – December 1948 (possibly on Eddie Condon Floor Show broadcast)
Ford Theater
WPIX Channel 11 (independent NYC Channel) Kinescopes from 1948 inaugural year including 1890’s review with Joe Howard; and clips of live Zero Mostel show; are known to exist and which have been broadcast on WPIX anniversary retrospectives.
There are 8 pre-1951 kinescopes of the Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour telecasts, dating back to November 1948.
Kinescopes were made of the June 1948 political conventions by NBC for next day rebroadcast by affiliates.
Cartoon Tele-Tales (1948) and The Alan Dale Show (DuMont: 1948) was among the first TV shows regularly kinescoped for distribution throughout the country, where there are reports that some of these kinescopes may still exist. Alan Dale later appeared as the star of “Don’t Knock the Rock” with Alan Freed in 1956, but had an early TV following in the late 1940’s.
1949
Captain Video (DuMont)
Quiz Kids (From Chicago with Fran Allison)
Kukla Fran & Ollie (2/11/49) – earliest date for surviving kinescope of this show, with this show debuting on October 13 1947
Admiral Broadway Revue (1948-1949) – Sid Caesar appearances of 1949
You Bet Your Life TV Pilot Show – December 1949
“Slums- Baltimore’s Conscience” – 1949 WMAR-TV Baltimore (local TV kinescope)
Tele-Ad for WBAL-TV featured shows of 1949
CBS Television News
Life of Riley (first version with Jackie Gleason) (1949)
Make Mine Music (1949) with Tony Mottola Trio & Carole Coleman
She Loves Me Not – Judy Holliday (1949)
Jack Benny Program (11/49)
Toast of the Town (Ed Sullivan)- e.g. Zero Mostel telecast of May 1949 full show , with Babe Dedrickson and Kitty Kallen, sponsored by Lincoln-Mercury (in author’s collection)
The Goldbergs (1949)
Jackson & Jill (1949)
Lum and Abner (1949)
Voice Of Firestone (1949)
Vanity Fair (6/49)
Actor’s Studio
Lamp Unto My Feet
Inside USA (Peter Lind Hayes, Lucille Ball – 11/24/49)
Ed Wynn (1949)
Others – at UCLA and other archives below
Garroway at Large (1949)
Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle (January 1949, March 1949) – show premiered in 1947 and became the runaway hit of the new media, but earlier shows are not known to survive on kinescope. 1948 audio recording of program is in LOC archives , as noted below.
Doorway To Fame (1949)
Lucky Pup (12/49)
Front Row Center (1949)
Club Seven (1949)
Cavalcade of Stars (1949)
School House (1949) – with Wally Cox and others, in author’s collection (only episode surviving, includes DuMont live TV commercial partially bungled by the young Wally Cox)
Bonny Maid Versa-Tile Varieties (1949) – in author’s collection
Adventures of Uncle Mistletoe (9/49 – WENR-TV Chicago)
Chesterfield Dinner Theater (with Perry Como – 1949, show debuted 12/48)
Paul Whiteman
I Remember Mama (1949)
Mr. I Magination (7/49) with Paul Tripp
Make Mine Music – Tony Mottola Trio, Carole Coleman (1949)
Pantomime Quiz
Jukebox Jury
Westinghouse Studio One (in author’s collection)
Meet The Press (1949)
Fireball Fun-For-All (1949 – Olsen & Johnson sponsored by Buick) – in author’s collection
Rehearsal Time (1948-49 – KTLA, sponsored by Sealy Mattress) – August 1949 (estimated date); in author’s collection
Armchair Detective (1949)
10th Anniversary of TV: Live Broadcast – Ben Grauer (WNBT/NBC): April 30 1949
The Peabody Collection in the University of Georgia Libraries contains several 1949 kinescopes of such shows as Lucky Pup, I Remember Mama, The Goldbergs, Meet The Press, Actor’s Studio, Voice Of Firestone, Vanity Fair, Lum and Abner, Mr. I.Magination with Paul Tripp (first episode also captured on kinescope); and other local and national telecasts preserved on kinescope.
Audio Recordings of Live TV Broadcasts (starting in 1939)
Audios in Library of Congress recorded from live TV broadcasts also exist for many programs of shows from WNBT-TV (NBC outlet in New York) such as the sound clips which follow:
The earliest such WNBT-TV audio recordings from live television broadcasts date from 1939 and 1940. The next such sound clips are from the July 1, 1941 official “commercial television” debut of WNBT-TV which included the first confirmed television advertisement (from Bulova).
A few audio recordings of the rare broadcasts during the suspension of normal TV operations during World War II also exist in the LOC archives as noted below, as the already limited TV pre-war schedule was sharply curtailed but not totally eliminated during WWII (NBC scaled back large part of its broadcasts to mostly civil defense related shows at minimum levels to retain its license; DuMont had a greater but still sharply reduced schedule of wartime broadcasts, starting with its formal launch in 1944).
These earliest of WNBT-TV audio recordings in Library of Congress (all audio made from live TV broadcasts) are as follows, with other later selected early broadcasts from 1940’s also included (among others listed in archives)
12/15/39 Television Ball – televised ball from Waldorf Astoria (WNBT:TV 11:15 pm – 11:45 pm – excerpt, 30 minutes of original 1 hour broadcast). Singers Jane Froman and Vaughn DeLeath were among the participants, with TV monitors arranged around hotel ballroom so attendees could also see themselves appearing live on television. It is estimated that there were approximately 200 TV sets in NYC at time who could view this telecast. A planning committee for this ball had also been previously telecast on 11/15/39 (not in LOC archives)
01/24/40, 03/24/40. 05/14/40 Pages & Minstrels Show – NBC pages & guides produce their own minstrel show as telecast on experimental station W2XBS
03/24/40 11:30 am Televised Easter Service with Dr. Henry McCrea Cavert; 12:30 pm sermon by Fulton J. Sheen
05/01/40 Television Birthday Party – 8:30 – 11:30 pm. TV program celebrating the 1st full year of television programming in the United States on NBC (starting from April 30, 1939 launch by NBC at New York World’s Fair opening). Includes scenes from Walt Disney's film "The Ugly Duckling." Gertrude Berg says a few words about television and presents a feature on the House of Glass which takes place in the Catskills. Casper Khun leads the NBC pages in a song and dance number written for the occasion. Telecast over NBC experimental station W2XBS, and not aired over the radio networks. Hosted by Alfred H. Morton (NBC VP in charge of television), performers and guests include: Hildegarde, Gertrude Berg, Ray Bergen, Alicia Markova, The Barry Brothers (dancers), The Peters Sisters (vocal group). Edward Johnson, director of the Metropolitan Opera introduces soprano Annamary Dickie and baritone Leonard Warren. Milton Cross introduces singer Earl Wrightson.
6/24/40 – 6/28/40 Republican National Convention: Philadelphia, PA (NBC: W2XBS) – Launch of Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen’s originally promising national career potential delivering keynote at this convention; Thomas Dewey as contender as Presidential candidate that year; Wendell Wilkie (who would become the surprise Republican Presidential nominee of the 1940 convention); former President Herbert Hoover addressing convention with person in studio recording results manually on easel or chalkboard. Produced with aid of RCA and Philco. First real convention coverage at time when conventions were dramatic and candidates were not ordained in advance, and from a time when the Republicans were being overwhelmed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
2/10/41 New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia speaks on NBC TV on price of milk.
7/1/41 Lowell Thomas News (From WNBT special debut broadcasts)
7/1/41 Uncle Jim’s Question Bee (From WNBT special debut broadcasts – 9:30 pm - debut of TV version of radio quiz show) – first commercial TV game show from date of first commercial TV broadcast debut – preceded Truth or Consequences broadcast that same day by one hour (according to LOC dates of record).
7/1/41 Truth or Consequences TV debut at 10:30 pm on this same evening is also in LOC archives (often wrongly listed as very 1st TV quiz show shown – see above).
7/1/41 Bottlenecks of 1941 – US Army entertainers on local TV from Fort Monmouth NJ
7/31/41 Radio City Matinee 2:30 pm (20 minutes): WNBT (debut commercial month)
10/10/41 20th Anniversary of WJZ Radio (TV Salute): 1921 – 1941 with NYC Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (this station later became WABC-AM in 1953)
12/41: Hines & Clemens Program (debut of series); date approximated by LOC (WNBT)
01/5/42; 06/1/42 Air Raid Warden’s Training Courses (Lesson #1, Lesson #3)
11/11/43; 12/1/43 TV Empire State broadcast test and call sign signoff
6/28 – 6/29/44 Republican National Convention
7/20/44 Democratic National Convention
8/28/44 TV Travelogue on Italy & Egypt (10 minutes)
09/30/44 “Carmen” – excerpts from opera performance
10/12/44 Meet The Artist - Ernest Drunig sculptor 15 minute TV broadcast audio
02/11/45 Children’s Story Hour – Engelbert Humperdinck Sr. singing his opera rendition of “Hansel & Gretel” in English
02/18/45 Adventures of the Black Angel – crime mystery (drama)
April – May 1945 Gimbels Tour, Am Museum Natural History Tour
1945 – 46 Many newscasts and special military events
6/26/45 Heartbreak (TV Drama – soap opera excerpt, partial)
7/17/45 Magic Ribbon (early children’s show TV broadcast)
10/27/45 Harry Truman speaking for Navy Day on commissioning of USS FDR ship
Television newsreel audio from January 1946 from WNBT-TV with military interviews.
First coaxial telecast from NY to Washington on WNBT-TV on February 12 1946 in audio recording from live broadcast with Senators Kellar, Wheeler, Congressman Sam Rayburn, and US Marine Corps Band (co-sponsored by NBC; DuMont; AT&T; CBS. It should be noted that previous coaxial TV relays between other cities had been done with the 1940 Republican convention broadcasts and the 1944 TV relay between NYC and Philadelphia with Eddie Cantor as featured performer.
5/9/46 8:00 pm: Inaugural episode of “Hour Glass”, as first live TV drama, with Joe Besser, Doodles Weaver, Miriam Levalle (followed by a film entitled “Things To Come”) . Also many other episodes from 1946 and early 1947 (including with Eddie Mayhoff, Imogene Coca, Ed Sullivan, Peggy Lee, Jerry Colonna, Edward Everett Horton, Edgar Bergen, DeMarco Sisters, others) are in audio archives
5/31/46, 6/5/46 Radio City Matinee – instructional WNBT-TV show on cooking, with George Rector, James Beard, announcer Warren Hull; also featured segments on preparing Welsh rarebit and striped bass, fashion (cufflink collection); grooming (eye makeup and hair design), culture, painting & art, including drawing demonstrations by Jon Gnagy in his May 1946 first TV appearances on this program. Radio City Matinee debuted on May 16, 1946.
6/12/46 For You and Yours - instructional TV, also includes early cooking demos from chef James Beard. Successor (re-titling) of Radio City Matinee program cited above.
6/16/46 Audience participation drawing game show “Face to Face” from June 16, 1946, also episode from January 17 1947 (WNBT-TV) – with artist drawing face per descriptions; Bob Dunn (host – 1946); guest cartoonist C.D. Russell (1947)
6/19/46 Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (Joe Louis fight) – largest TV audience to date
06/30/46; 7/5/46; 7/11/46 TV Special: 1st films of Bikini Island atomic bomb drops shown to NYC
10/5/46 I Love To Eat (James Beard – pioneer cooking show - dessert prep on this NBC TV broadcast audio, Borden commercials with Elsie the Cow). 8:30 – 8:50 pm (20 minute program). Audio confirmed to exist and also still photographs of broadcast of this 1946 live TV series, which ran from August 1946 through 1947.
10/13/46 Magic In The Air – magician performing tricks - 8:30 pm (30 minutes):
11/28/46 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – TV Coverage of parade with Ray Forrest: broadcasts resumed in 1945 – 46, after first telecast in 1939
Campus Hoopla (January 3, 1947): WNBT-TV Claire Bee, Eva Marie Saint, others
Jon Gnagy’s “You Are An Artist” audio of 15 minute telecasts starting with audio recording of show from January 9, 1947 (WNBT-TV). As a tele-history footnote, on May 16, 1946, Jon Gnagy was the first "act" on the first program broadcast from the antenna atop the Empire State Building, and he went on from there to become the well-known “follow from home” original TV artist with his art kits sold to consumers and his continuing syndicated TV shows throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s.
“Dancing On Air” (February 2, 1947 with Ed Sims, as dance instruction show from Fred Astaire Studios).
“World Security Workshop” (February 20 & 27, 1947) – two television dramas
“Opening of TV Station WNBW: (June 27, 1947) Wash. DC” – with NBC President
“Luncheon At The Waldorf “(December 16, 1947): Female pilot demoing trainer aircraft
Later audio recordings of TV live broadcasts from 1940’s as also found in LOC archives include (among many others):
Truth or Consequences audio from TV broadcast (WNBT June 28 1947), which actually made its TV debut as special on July 1 1941.
3/4/1948 Ben Grauer Tour of WNBW (NBC) Washington DC Studios, with FCC Commissioner also featured in talking about future of television
3/18/48 Harry Truman address on Bond Drive
09/14/48 Television Screen Magazine (news recap; interviews with Irish beauty queen, horseback rider, etc)
11/10/48; 01/15/49 Picture This with Wendy Barrie and cartoonist guests
2/17/49 3 Flames Shows (black R&B trio)
Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle (1948 – 49 recordings and 1949 kinescopes)
01/28/49 Stop Me If You Heard This One
Earliest British & Euro Broadcast Recordings of Live Electronic TV
The earliest TV moving image film from the dawn of commercial television in Britain that remains in the BBC archives is a newsreel showing early broadcast (not a live television recording, although an image of a girl broadcast on the monitor is shown) from 1936. It is accessible on the BBC History Web Site.
The earliest surviving British live TV recordings (excluding 1937-39 TV shows filmed from screen without sound, and earlier mechanical TV disks from 1933) are as follows:
A 1937 film made from TV screen of the Coronation of King George VI in UK was reported to exist in BBC Archives until recent times, as subject to further confirmation. Newrseels certainly exist of the coronation, but it is unclear if film of live television broadcasts of this event have survived.
There is November 1938 TV live recording of BBC programs as filmed from TV by a cinema camera due to fluke broadcast from UK, as picked up in the United States (due to a rare atmospheric “skip” attributed to unusual sun spot activity, which allowed the live UK TV transmission to be received in New York). Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell are shown in moving headshots reading news and announcing upcoming programs. These women were two of the three regular BBC-TV presenters in the 1930’s, the third being Leslie Mitchell. . There are also clips of an unidentified costume drama from this same telecast, followed by a Disney cartoon excerpt and closing with a BBC test pattern or station identification.
The recording is preserved at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, U.K. A technician (Dewitt Goddard) at the RCA Research Center in Riverhead, New York (on Eastern Long Island) had successfully filmed the British live telecast as accidentally streaming (due to the rare atmospheric skip) over 3,000 miles to U.S. monitor (whereas normal broadcast range for the 45 Mhz 405 line UK transmission was 30 miles). Goddard used particularly sensitive receivers to bring in the transatlantic image, with the results being widely reported in the press in 1938 – 39.
The RCA personnel captured the images using a 16mm camera to create a compilation of 4 minutes of broadcast excerpts that survive today. It has ghost-like video quality with flickering and distorted images and is without accompanying audio, but the live broadcast pictures can clearly be seen. The original RCA receptions of the BBC signals were of both audio voice and image, but only the pictures were preserved on film. Several Internet sites including
www.archive.org
have the recording available for viewing online. It is believed to be the earliest recording made and remaining of live UK pre-war TV (and among the first of TV telecasts captured anywhere), and certainly the first record of a transatlantic broadcast, albeit unplanned.
There are similar “image only” films without audio as taken directly by cine camera from TV monitor dating to circa mid 1930’s from Nazi era German live broadcasts, as also available for viewing on several Internet sites including YouTube. Excerpts of program content include newcasts, singer accompanying himself on the piano, acrobats, and costume drama that also includes dancing girls. There is considerable horizontal flicker but the images are quite clear.
Some 285 rolls of 35mm film from the mid 1930’s taken from the Paul Nipkow television station operating in Berlin were also re-discovered and restored. Again, these primarily are staged films done concurrent with, or filmed by conventional cinema cameras in advance as intended for later broadcasts (and not taken from the live broadcasts themselves, for the most part). Besides featuring light entertainment, these clips are laden with overt Nazi propaganda. A 1935 film for TV broadcast states that the primary mission of German TV is to “imprint the image of the Fuhrer on every German heart, never to be erased”, for example. Another preserved Nipkow TV clip of the pre-recorded film for television - “Roof Garden”- features German vaudeville as the first entertainment program, with the made-for-TV film first telecast in 1935.
There is more Nazi film produced for TV (including intermediate film transmitted directly after film was shot) which has been preserved of the 1936 Olympic games (which was more widely seen in television parlors created for the German public). The intermediate films, as broadcast rapidly after filming and thus approximating live television, show blurs of lost camera spans and narrative gaffes for the unprepared TV reporters and cameramen trying to cover the Olympic events with no rehearsal or retakes.
The Nipkow German films are well documented in the documentary “Television Under The Swastika” produced by Michael Kloft, which again show that the majority of these recordings are films produced in advance for television (and thus lacking the spontaneity and hiding the real limitations of live television).
The earliest surviving Telerecording as kinescope with video and audio in UK is from BBC (British TV) telecast from the fall of 1947. The kinescope film features part of a sequence (held at the NFTVA) taken from a RadiOlympia variety show which features Adelaide Hall singing two songs. This sequence was captured on 35mm Suppressed Field system (with no spot wobble). It is known to still exist, and been repeated on BBC at least twice in recent times. It is also now available for viewing on the BBC Alexandra Palace Web Site at
www.apts.org.uk
and on YouTube.
The telerecording is from live BBC broadcast of October 7, 1947, just two days after one of the earliest surviving US kinescopes from Washington DC television from October 5, 1947 as noted above (both recordings being among first following the kinescope commercial availability announcement of September – October 1947). The BBC used two different telerecording techniques as variants from the US kinescope process which appeared to the public at virtually the same time. This earliest surviving BBC kinescope recording with black singer Adelaide Hall features her singing and dancing with a full orchestra ensemble. Ms Hall performs at least 3 songs as part of medley as recorded from a variety programme entitled "Variety In Sepia" as staged at the National Exhibition Hall at Olympia (RadiOlympia). “Chi Baba Chi Baba”, “One Of These Days” (singing and accompanying herself on guitar), and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” are the three featured tunes (along with other songs in medley) in the 6.5 minute kinescope excerpt.
The video and audio quality of the Adelaide Hall 1947 BBC kinescope is very good, and the set and orchestral arrangements are elaborate for their time,. This production reflects the greater investment in TV shows available from government-funded enterprises (as with BBC in UK) versus commercially-funded private firms (the early TV networks like NBC and the cash-starved DuMont enterprise) in the U.S.
The BBC also featured black female lead singers along with the return of the BBC’s Jasmine Bligh when it re-launched commercial television in the UK on June 7, 1946 (following a war-time moratorium on public broadcasts starting on September 1, 1939, where Jasmine Bligh was featured announcer on the earlier telecasts of 1939 and earlier). The 1946 resumption of BBC-TV including blues numbers and Ms. Bligh’s speech are available for viewing on newsreels filmed during TV rehearsals and broadcasts but not preserved in live broadcast kinescope form (as pre-dating telerecording by kinescope by one year). When BBC TV left the air in 1939 as World War II started, the last program telecast was announced by Ms Bligh of the BBC and concluded with part of a Mickey Mouse Cartoon. This same cartoon was resumed (from where it left off) when BBC announced its return to the airwaves in its inaugural post-war broadcast of 1946, as hosted again by the same Jasmine Bligh.
The wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip as filmed from live TV on November 20, 1947 in UK is also believed to survive.
The first complete outside electronic TV broadcast (a telecast originating from outside the BBC studios at remote field or outdoor site) that survives today is of 'The Cenotaph Service' featuring Remembrance Service at this famous London monument, as recorded from live BBC television in November 9, 1947. This show was supposedly re-broadcast the same day as experiment in U.S. on NBC. Most U.K TV programs including those few saved on kinescope were not “outside broadcasts”, and originated from the Alexandra Palace studio facilities of the BBC.
Tele-snaps, or 35mm still photographs taken from BBC television and sold to actors and to the public, were marketed by John Cura (using a special high resolution camera he designed for this purpose) in the UK beginning in September 1947. Again, although only in still photo form, some of these represent the only images of otherwise lost live television program broadcasts.
The Kinescope Saga
In summary, kinescopes were used by television stations from 1947 forward, and continued in use even after the advent of videotape for television in 1956. In fact, kinescope recordings were commonly used to record television broadcasts throughout the 1960’s and even into early 1970’s.
The definitive quest for the earliest surviving kinescope or live TV broadcast recording continues. Hopefully, the best answer that we know of today (based on available evidence) has been furnished above to answer the key question on the earliest surviving and valid preserved record of the TV images broadcast in the past.
It is also hoped that the above information helps document and illuminate those records of “prehistoric” TV that are known to exist, as living and moving history which are still enjoyable to view today, are always full of the unexpected being “live”, and which are rare windows into the real, every day world of a treasured time.
--Robert J. Shagawat
October 4, 2004 updated October 18, 2010
FYI
Note: Early recordings of live television broadcasts taken from kinescopes, and in the author’s private collection, include the following:
- Westinghouse Studio One
(May 1 1949 CBS “The Glass Key”)
- Bonny Maid Versa-Tiles
(1949 NBC)
- Okay Mother
(11/48 – 7/51) (1950 Dumont)
- School House
(1/49 – 4/49) (1949 Dumont)
- Quiz Kids
(1949 NBC)
- Toast Of The Town (Ed Sullivan Show)
– w/ Zero Mostel, Kitty Kallen (CBS - May 29, 1949)
- Faye Emerson
(1950 CBS) (2 Shows)
- Pantomime Quiz
(1948-49) (1949 KTLA-TV, LA)
- Popsicle Parade of Stars
(1950 CBS)
- Let’s Join Joanie
(1950 CBS Pilot with Joan Davis)
- WBAL Newsreel
(1948-49 Local TV Show Promotions – WBAL, Baltimore)
- Fireball Fun-For-All
With Olsen & Johnson (6/49 – 10/ 49 NBC) (Summer 1949)
- Ben Blue Show
(1950 CBS)
- Morey Amsterdam Show
(4/48 – 3/49; 4/49 – 10/50) (Last Broadcast – 10/12/50 Dumont)
- Rehearsal Time
(1948-1949) (August 1949 KNBH-TV, Los Angeles CA)
- Chesterfield Dinner Theatre: Perry Como
(November 1949)
- Broadway Open House
(December 1950 NBC)
- You Bet Your Life Pilot TV Show
(Groucho Marx – December 1949)
- Martin & Lewis – Colgate Comedy Hour
(5 Episodes – 1951 – 1954)
- Don McNeil’s TV Club
(ABC – 1948, 1951 broadcasts)
- Stork Club
(Sherman Billingsley – 2 Episodes: 1950)
- Dagmar’s Canteen
(March – June 1952 NBC)
- Kate Smith Program
– two complete 1 hour episodes featuring stars of Grand Ole Opry including Roy Acuff & the Smoky Mountain Boys, the Carter Family, and the only known footage of Hank Williams performing (1952)