Wow! What a trip down memory lane. We were the first family in our neighborhood to get a television. We didn't have much money but Dad bought one on time. It was a BIG box with a ten inch screen. I was four years old in 1948 but I remember most of what is in this video. We also had one telephone with a three party line. Gosh, do you kids even know what a party line is? LOL Just an old lady reminiscing.
my parents were like the 1st people on the street with a large TV in 1952-53, Mom said some of the programing was awful but you watched it as you might not get reception the next day. MY father replaced it with a consol Admiral Color TV in 1967 and paid the same price for the color TV as the console tv from the early 50's. My older brothers told me that people would come over with pie to share and watch TV
Interestingly Betty White made her TV debut in 1939, at 17 years old Betty was on an experimental TV station in Los Angeles where her and her friend sang songs from the Merry Widow making Betty White's TV career span 80 years.
We didn’t get our first TV set until 1955 so I don’t remember any of these shows. Whenever my parents went to Sears or Montgomery Wards they dropped us off in the TV section to watch all of the TV’s much to our delight. My sisters and I never missed TV because we enjoyed playing cards, Monopoly, Chinese Checkers, dominos, coloring, reading and needlework. There were lots of fun children’s programs on the radio.I loved playing games with my older sisters and our parents.
I am very sorry that some of these wonderful shows were not preserved for posterity. But the organizations NBC, ABC, CBS and Dumont could not see ahead that they would have great commercial value in rerun and no one could see that technology would produce the internet and they could be shown over and over again on demand to an adoring audience. I am particularly mad about "I Remember MAMA" I just loved the familial chemistry of that show and virtually none of the episodes survived. Just like the silent era in the movies.
As someone who first saw Perry Como as an elderly, grandfather like figure in the early 70’s, it’s a revelation to see him here as a much younger man but with the same voice and personality! Thanks for posting.
My parents bought their first television in 1947. It cost $400! That was at a time when their rent in a very nice apartment building in Brooklyn was $72 a month.
I was born in 1947 so some of these I don't remember being too young and our family not having a TV until a few years later. Still have the original. I do remember Lone Ranger, Life of Riley, Life of Riley and Charlie Ruggles, Milton Berle and Ed Wynn from the 50s.
It is awesome to go back in time and remember television back in those early years. We were appreciative of what little entertainment that we had in those times. Thank you!
The magic eye of television..... Wow! 8yrs before I was born. When you think about how television was the first medium that was able to bring the world into our living room and then the internet and how I'm able to now communicate in real time with the world with a small hand-held device.
This was way before my time, and people who don't have TV sets can still listen to the radio and hear "Jack Benny", "Burns & Allen", "Life of Riley", "Amos 'N Andy", and many more.
