It's amazing to see how far the News has come since 1952. They really look like they're building the airplane as they fly it. This is truly history and I love it.
Everything has to start somewhere, and this is a priceless glimpse into the dawn of morning television. What's amazing is how the format hasn't really changed that much. Technology has of course allowed a quantum leap in "how" the program is presented, but the structure was almost fully formed right from the start.
Jeff G Yes!! So well said and articulated as a youngling like myself it is pretty fascinating to see how the format has transitioned from the 50’s to now. Great comment I had to respond hehe!! Even if it is three years later!!😃😀😃
What gets me is the technology to get the news to the viewers. A room full of various reporters and technicians lording over hot machines. Makes you appreciate how it is today.
I was 9 months old on this broadcast. I was watching TV when I was 8, in the first grade, and I remember Dave Garroway's 2 hour show. This is the show where the MUPPETS got their start, who would often appear on the show.
As a British person I am astonished that breakfast television started in 1952. It took another 31 years before we in the United Kingdom got breakfast television. It seems America was way ahead with breakfast and daytime programming compared to us here in the UK. Back in 1952 even to think of television coming on the air at 7.00am each weekday would be laughed at, as most would listen to BBC radio for their morning news, weather e.t.c. In 1952 BBC Television would only come on the air from around 3.00pm.
I am amazed at the difference in television hours in the US in 1952 compared to the UK. Breakfast television just did not exist in 1952 in the UK. You are lucky in the US you had choice.
CBS and ABC both tried for many years but failed until the late 70’s where ABC’s Good Morning America took off and it was mid-80’s where the CBS Morning Show with Harry Smith and Paula Zahn took off.
Wow. What a way to look back at how morning television worked its' way up to the top. And here is Dave Garroway. And here is Dave Garroway. And here is Dave Garroway.- Keeping that sort of tradition they have, alive (I'm curious about it). Good Morning to you and many Good Mornings for 60+ years and so forth.
Wow, Garroway was smooth. No cue cards, just working. That was the first show, with everyone working live, and he just took you right through it. Nice camera work as well. They were making stuff up as they went along (not the news, the process of the show) and I must say, this is professionalism. What an interesting--and surely exhausting--place to work. The Today Show today sucks.
Remember that when this aired the crews were used to doing hour after hour of live TV, day after day......That was the only way it was done. There were no retakes. There were no edits to "clean it up"
back then you could say as you please to a certain extent, nowadays it’s not that they need or want cue cards, it’s that if they don’t use them they’ll most likely not be on the air. It’s wack
Audio recording equipment was poor and affected the way actors spoke - ie, speaking with reduced pauses between words meant you didn't hear the noise and hiss in the silence. Also there was probably too much of an association with Hollywood gangster movies, maybe? "My name is James Cagney, seeee. Wise guy."
the Today Show was the brainchild of NBC's Sylvester "Pat" Weaver. he was the father of actress Sigourney Weaver. I actually remember watching this first broadcast on 1-14-52.
It would have been much sharper and clearer. There's a RU-vid user who has done some beautiful restorations of "Studio One" and "Playhouse 90" episodes, and watching those will give an approximation of what something like this would have looked like as it aired. A few months ago, on a whim, I ran the audio of the first "Today" program through Audacity to reduce the surface noise and the difference was night and day. The audio sounds really good when it's cleaned up, but the picture will always be what it is here, I'm afraid. Of the first "Today," apparently only the first half-hour and the last 15 minutes of the East Coast version were captured on kinescope. I've seen the inter-office memorandum from the debut week in which a member of the show's production team said Pat Weaver was beside himself that neither he nor anyone else thought to order a kinescope of the entire first program. Considering its importance, that is a loss, and I'm glad somebody did think to 'scope what little does remain. NBC did have what does exist of the debut up as a "Time Capsule" video at one point, but I'm not sure if it's still around; the preserved segments were as-aired, although they'd overlaid some generic big-band music over the first record played during the show, which was "Slow Poke" by Ralph Flanagan and His Orchestra.
Heh, I drive up to Oak Ridge almost weekly. the museum there, is a repurposed school. And in the same area is the apartments, That people still rent despite how old and tiny they are.
I wonder why he didn't just carry a microphone instead of having that big thing strapped to his jacket? It looks ridiculous. I guess back then it was a marvel to be hands free at all...
It was a marvel in 1952 to have a self-contained microphone that small (even at 12" long, that microphone was small for its day), and the neck hoop was the best way at the time to keep both hands free and allow the hosts to wander around inside a crowded, busy and noisy studio. This is a glimpse of television still being carved out of the wilderness, and things look very much primitive compared to what we have now.
He's wearing an RCA "Starmaker" model mike. Probably the very first one made. It was designed to be a handheld ribbon unit but in the spirit of some sort of "new and exciting" gadgetry, a bulky neck holder was attached. 1940's era pics of radio remotes also show the same type of neck holder on earlier microphones. The Starmaker was one of RCA's most expensive models, rare in their time and extremely rare today, trading in the four digit range. While Garroway was an adept ad- libber, accounting for his appeal on early TV, some of the shots show a first generation teleprompter equipped camera using a mechanical powered paper roll.
Wow I was curious what the first broadcast was like. What the Today show is actually about. Newspaper on the wall. The current crew on Today is interesting sometimes drama. This guy and crew deserves and award. Now the show has video clips like most news channels. He uses a phone to call and see what other news is going on so cool
What I thought was more like "OK, not even one minute in, and these professionals have made a grammatical error." But I guess you just have to enjoy the history and entertainment values nonetheless.
I own one of those mics (an RCA BK-4A "Starmaker"). It's about 12" long and weighs a little over one pound, which for its day was a real achievement in a self-contained microphone. The hoop looks designed to reduce strain on the wearer, but it still had to be nice to take it off after wearing it on your neck for three-plus hours. Not to mention having to mind that long mic cable that you could either trip over or, if you didn't pull it along with you, would tug at the microphone....
It's been 65 years since the beginning, one of the longest-running and the first morning program of the world. As Dave Garroway says: "That's sound like a big job, believe me it is. We've been working on this for quite a while, we're glad our feelings was made great into your home for the first day, we hope give you enough to stay with you for a long time". That is the Today's Preamble, that actually works every single day. At the beginning of the day, from the studio to your home, no matter where you go, Today will stay with you.
When I was a little girl in 1955, I would run downstairs to watch this news program, (especially when snow days would be called,and I didn't have to wait outside, down the street,, for my school bus). I was one very happy kid. Great memory!
To give US viewers perspective and historical insight - BBC Television Service was the only television channel in the United Kingdom in 1952. On this date Monday January 14th 1952, shown below is what was on offer from the BBC Television Service, as a comparison. Britain in 1952, where the words "breakfast television" were unheard and completely dismissed until January 1983. Even daytime programs were hard to come by in 1952, with television signing on air from 3.00pm. Note: When there were gaps, no programs filled them, the television service just signed off air until the next scheduled program began. 3.00pm - Secret Evidence, an American crime story film. Finished at 3.30pm. 5.30pm - Children's Television, Fighting with Kit Carson (1933 movie serial). Finished at 6.00pm. 8.00pm - Newsreel, a news programme with images and reports from the UK and abroad. 8.15pm - Hit Parade, a show about the latest top tunes. 8.45pm - A Roof Over Your Head - a program about how modern buildings and new towns will affect our lives. 9.15pm - What's My Line - panel game show. (British version) 9.55pm - Speaking Personally: Viscountess Astor, talks about her life and career. 10.10pm - News (In Sound Only), a news bulletin, typically the latest radio news bulletin which aired at 9.00pm on the BBC Home Service radio station. 10.25pm - Sign Off, or as UK called it "Closedown. So all in all, 3 hours and 25 minutes of television, on the same day in the US, where NBC launched breakfast television. US channels since the late 1940s have nearly always had daytime television and more broadcasting hours than the UK, but it just amazes me the difference as seen in 1952, where I guess CBS and NBC would be on the air from 7.00am until at least 11.30pm, I am not sure on ABC.
Wonderful post, thank-you John! Despite the BBC initially starting their broadcasts in 1936 it's worth noting just how few people in the UK even had their own television sets at home, even by 1952...austerity measures being still very much in effect after the war. In fact because the BBC were shut down between 1939-46 they had a lot of catching up to do and I think that's reflected in the style and tone of the programmes of the time. Almost like they just picked up where they left off in the 30's haha! Pathe news reels etc. at the cinema would've been the closest thing you'd get to watching a more wide-spread broadcast back then. But of course, it goes without saying, that radio was still king over 'ere until the TV sets became more affordable & available for the masses a couple of years later! And then ITV came along.......yes, TWO channels to choose from! Sometimes I wonder whether anyone would really notice if we went back to that.......seeing as a lot of us use the internet to watch our favourite TV shows etc. on nowadays ;)
Hi, it is amazing how two countries television varied. In Ireland, they did not get a national service until 31st December 1961, Telefis Eireann, now named RTE. RTE had terrible finances along with a conservative approach to broadcasting meant that in 1969 for example RTE Television would be on the air each day just from 5.35pm until 11.30pm, and during June-Sept it was 6.00pm-11.30pm.
@@marvy3022 Yes, but no breakfast programs until January 1983. Tonight was not the same as your Tonight Show on NBC though, it was more of a current affairs, news program
Dave Garroway is superb at running this busy and chaotic set. So poised and glib on the spot in what must have been a real challenge. Garroway has been obscure to me, as I became a Today viewer circa 1964, the Frank Blair, Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters era, as I would wait to head off to school. I remember him only for a commercial he did for, I recall, a drain unclogger. Wow, did that ad ever underplay his skills!
Many who worked with him said Garroway was shy and awkward with other people, but the moment the camera turned on, it was like he flipped a switch and became the Dave Garroway that people loved watching. He overcame some of his personal issues in his years after leaving "Today," but depression, which he'd fought since at least 1946, took him.
superelectra I heard the same thing about Johnny Carson, he would be shy and awkward around socials, but was TV most beloved late night host. I sympathize with them, because I'm the same way.
American television were light years ahead of us here in Britain. Looking at this presentation, the look, feel and style would be something Britain would have to wait until Jan 1983 before they saw breakfast television.
@@universalcerberus5863 British government controlled how many hours per day British stations could air until 1972, so breakfast television was impossible in 1950s and 1960s in Britain
