The Era -- Day By Day

[LizzieMaine]

Speaking of Tex and Jinx, if we skip ahead in our time line by a year or so we will find them hosting the first sponsored daytime television program. There are no complete recordings of this venture, but we do have a short clip. Take that, Kilgallen...

 

[Fading Fast]

Speaking of Tex and Jinx, if we skip ahead in our time line by a year or so we will find them hosting the first sponsored daytime television program. There are no complete recordings of this venture, but we do have a short clip. Take that, Kilgallen...

Darn, I wanted to see how the spot came out.

It's not fair, but neither Jinx nor Tex seemed comfortable on air the way hosts are today, but we've learned a lot of how to do that over the past 80 years. Plus, you can tell they just ran the tape as verbal stumbles were left in (or was this live?).

Fun clip, thank you for posting it, Lizzie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

100 percent live, except for the filmed opening with the swirling meat. Videotape is ten years in the future.

This is some of the earliest existing footage of 1940s television, and you can really see how seat of the pants it is. I think they must be reading off cue cards, but they clearly didn't rehearse. Jinx settles back in her chair there after doing her spiel like she doesn't realize she's still on camera. And the dress model is floundering around there waiting for her cue.

Dorothy Kilgallen's voice on "Breakfast With Dorothy and D ick" sounds exactly like Jinx's. They were bitter rivals on the air, but who wouldn't be?

 

[Fading Fast]

100 percent live, except for the filmed opening with the swirling meat. Videotape is ten years in the future.
...

So did they film the swirling meat like a movie and run that obnoxious overkill of a promo first like from a movie projector?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pretty much. Eventually they developed a machine called a "telecine," which projected the film onto the plate of what's called a "flying spot scanner," but at NBC in 1946-47 they have a room with floor-mounted theatre-type projectors beaming the image thru a porthole directly into the lens of an iconoscope camera. Cu mbersome, but it works. Here's a photo from when they first set it up for experiments in 1936...

A lot of early television came from film -- title sequences, scene-transition inserts, special effects that couldn't be done live. And a lot of time on the schedule was filled by ten-year-old feature films, either Grade Z stuff from defunct studios or British features that could be picked up cheap.

There's a reason most early TV sets were sold to bars. Other than ball games there wasn't much worth watching.

 

[LizzieMaine]

("Awright!'" barks Sergeant Solly Pincus at the assembled group of volunteers, standing before a weathered shanty in a weed-flecked lot off Rockaway Boulevard. "Schreibstein! Capiello! Get t'at scaffold set up onna wes' side'a t' buildin! Stawrt scrapin' onna tawp an' woik ya way down! When ya get done scrapin' stawrt in paintin' from t' tawp down! Ya fin' a loose bawrd, ya yell out an' one'a t'ese people down'eeh will bring ya a patch! Move out! Leary! Get up awnat laddeh an' get t'at block an' tackle nailed up an' stawrt haulin'em panels up awna roof! Krause! Petrauskas! Police t'em weeds! Petrauskas! Inna kitchen'eh an' break down'at rusty grill! Any questions? MOVE OUT!" Joe blinks at Solly as his colleagues scatter. "Oh," ohs Solly. "Sawry. Foece'a habit...")

("I neveh woiked so hawrd a day in my life," exhausts Sally, as the BMT Fulton train rattles toward Brooklyn. "I have," sighs Alice. "What?" murmurs Sally. "Nut'n," exhales Alice. "Soon's I get home I gotta take a showeh," continues Sally, her head bouncing against the window. "Wawsh awff awlis crud an' get ready t' tawk t' Docteh Minkoff. He's comin' oveh at seven, tawk about Leonora goin' t' school nex' yeeh. Not even gonna have time t'get no dinneh." "I was gonna run up to Moskowitz's," offers Alice. "I could bring back some san'wiches." "Moskowitz got any pastrami?" mumbles Sally, her eyes closed. "Prob'ly not," admits Alice. "Less it's ends." "I'll take a chance," nods Sally. She trails off as the train clatters into Fulton Street. "Y'tink," ponders Alice, "t'ey'll get t' truck stawrted?" "'Ventually..." sighs Sally....)

(Poor Leonard Weinberg, how the glory fades...)

(When do we play the Phillies again?)

(At least Rickey hasn't tried this.)

(The Boy Who Cried "Eyes!")

(Well, that gives Winchell a lead for tomorrow.)

(Aim low, Janie.)

(All right, so it's an anti-bullying story. Good intentions.)

(But whose property are the pigs?)

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Daily News...

Where's Ellery Queen when you need him?

Shoes. Your face can hide a lot, your clothes can too. But the shoes always tell the true story.

"Wonder if it had anything to do with that atomic explosion we read about in the papers all those months ago." "Papers? They are not the way of Molech."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I intend to have a double Manhattan."

Next week on Page Four...

Mild steel.

Cutting Out The Middleman.

He's gor'jus, is he?

Which contains the tiniest automatic you've ever seen.

It's a pity these new cars don't come with a rumble seat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And in the Worker...

There's a New World Coming...

 

[Fading Fast]

"Oh," ohs Solly. "Sawry. Foece'a habit..."

Sometimes, it's the exact skill you need.

********************************************************

"Y'tink," ponders Alice, "t'ey'll get t' truck stawrted?" "'Ventually..." sighs Sally....

Perfect end to the day.

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All right, so it's an anti-bullying story. Good intentions.

But I thought today's younger generation invented anti-bullying stories.

*********************************************************

But whose property are the pigs?

You'll have the pigs answer when they start walking on their hind legs.

*********************************************************

Cutting Out The Middleman.

Firing him is nothing. It's a crime; bring in the police. You might get some of your money back and he might land in jail.

*********************************************************

Which contains the tiniest automatic you've ever seen.

When this is over, the right thing for her to do is give Hotshot a freebie.