European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 08, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse By bringing stage and screen performances into the Home television has become a threat to movie and theater industries it s Here by Lawrence Newton whether Progress conscious America has recognized it it or not television has graduated from the experimental stage. It has brought baseball into the downtown bars and grills mer1cans, who aspire to be Thebes informed Public in the world have managed to let somewhat of avs major revolution in their society take place without their being quite aware of it for while their backs were turned television4he genuine at least the past Twenty years Tele vision has been the coming wonder of the Laboratory the Miracle that was to a confront us someday full blown. It was just around the Corner even longer than or. Hoover s Prosperity. Not that television stole in silently on the Rosy fingers of the cathode Ray either. Tele vision thumped its tub loudly. Publicity releases were showered on newspaper editors studio vice presidents spoke rapturously and scientists spoke profoundly but the Public kept its self control and refused to. Pant in Antici pation. When Junior asked father Why Don t we get a television set father parried with apparently irrefutable logic let s wait till it s Well for better or for worse it i Here. At the moment television is in an in Between stage novel enough to be the subject of gags and established solidly enough to have a regular column de voted to it in the sunday papers. It has Long since passed the Pioneer Days when it was questionable whether the pro Gram was going to come through or not like those evenings of Hilj adventure nearly radio when the master of the House would twirl the knobs old Crystal set Hunch Over the earphones and whisper triumphantly ssh i begot plots Burgh now los Angeles businessmen sen put for the repairman for their Teles vision receivers. As casually As they do for their cars and Philadelphia matrons refer to their sets in much the same Way As any other piece of fur. Nature around the House. Babies Don try for it yet but there is the one about the dog that screen too Long. In some circles it has become a social necessity,.along with the cocktail Shaker and the Bridge table and no self respecting Newyork bar and Grill would dare open its doors without offering television to . Having thus established itself Tele. Vision s chief difficulty is that it has t yet established itself enough. What Sall this talk about says a gentle Man from Manchester new Hampshire we be seen nary a sign of it around these television is still confine to Only the very largest metropolitan areas. The 19 stations operating at this writing a whole flock of them Are due to go on the air any Day now serve 12areas with a population of roughly 35 million leaving another 11 million in manner of speaking blacked out Tele vision Wise. V. To narrow the possible audience still further there Are Only 1,500,000 receivers available to the 35 million who Are within television s present Range. Bythe end of this year it is expected that enough transmitters will be built touring in another ten million and in two years if production keeps Pace wit demand it should be in Range of everyone s front problem of Range has been a Tough nut for video to crack. Radio Waves follow the curvature of the Earth and thus a broadcast from Chicago can be picked up in banking. Radio s Blessing however has been television s curse for. Its sent out in almost a straight line and shoot out Over the horizon within fifty Miles. Experts have found three ways to beat the problem by transmitting Over Telephone wires Bya series of reflectors and by sending Over coaxial cables. The first method was used a few months ago by Abc Coset in operation television s first network linking Washington Baltimore Newyork and Philadelphia. If it proves successful then the bade of the problem will have been broken. Although television is both an engineering and commercial reality the Quality of the wares it offers to the Public leaves a Good Deal to be de sired. Speaking at the opening of new York s world fair in 1939, the year of the first commercial television sales David Sarnoff president of Ria wit perhaps More enthusiasm than accuracy said i. Announce the birth in this country of a new Art so important in its implications that it is bound to affect Al society. It is an Art that shines like a Torch in a to Judi Efrom the programs we Torch is pretty dim beyond the sports broadcasts pro Grams have been As entertaining As last year s b picture and As fare consists mainly of soap operas quiz shows vaudeville acts and disc jockeys and it s a tasteless diet by and. Large. Clearly television is a product of radio inbreeding and As of ten happen sin such cases the youngster shows signs of feeble mindedness. Television s commercials place their in double jeopardy. The com Mercial can be seen As Well As heard Jfhn every set becomes an insidious Fuller Brush Nan jamming his foot in the door. A hat company has its announcer try on the products while extolling them. A woolens manufacture prances a Little Lamb across the screen. Sex has been put to use too. Many of the announcers Are pretty girls and scantily Clad Young ladies Are to ar6und the billboards that advertise the sponsor s wares. A clock company superimposed a clock on its entire broadcast a soap maker too housewives on a camera tour of a House 1 pointing out where soap preferably its own might be conveniently kept. The did not forget the bathroom. When Lowell Thomas the commen Tator was working for an Oil company the sponsor piled cans of Oil on his . Thomas however no longer Sells that Brand of Oil. When a razor Blad company televised last year s world series it was embarrassed to find the camera focused most of the time on its competitor s sign in Center Field. Thesis the kind of thing that makes Adver Tising men s ulcers work , video cannot yet project smell or there s no telling what the to people might do. The Public lists sports news feature Sand motion pictures in that order As their preference in. Programs. Baseball basketball football and boxing have been televised with considerable Success and As programs have the directness of. Impact that studio produced shows Toet so badly. \. Continued on nex to me -. 5
