1955 - NBC - WIDE WIDE WORLD with DAVE GARROWAY (1/7)

This partially complete show (60 minutes) of the 90-minute documentary series, Wide Wide World (in 7 parts for YouTube) was telecast live on NBC Television at 4 p.m. ET Sunday, October 16, 1955 (the series lasting until 1958). The program was sponsored by General Motors / United Motors System and its subsidiaries like Delco Remy, AC Spark Plugs Electronic Division, and Guide T3 Safety Headlamps Lamp Division. Dave Garroway was the host of the series which featured live remote segments from locations throughout North America. This ground-breaking series carried live events into four million households. This October 16, 1955 premiere, "A Sunday in Autumn," featured 73 cameras in 11 cities, including a college campus, the fishing fleet at Gloucester, Massachusetts, rainswept streets in Manhattan and the famed radio series, "Monitor" broadcasting live in NBC's Radio Central studio. Also seen live: The Grand Canyon, Radio City Music Hall, The Texas State Fair held in Dallas, Weeki-Wachee Springs in Tampa, and a curious coverage by a nervous Ted Husing of an attempt by Donald Campbell to break a speed record at Lake Mead in Nevada, showing nothing more than his boat, on the other side of the lake, failing to take off. A GM commercial with Nelson Case is shown. Interiors and Exteriors of a San Francisco Cable Car in operation is observed. A point of view shot of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from an airborne plane is shown, The 85th Fighter Squadron is seen in flight. Ground shots of the MIssissippi River is viewed and a paddleboat is seen on the river. An appearance by Dick Button ice skating at Rockefeller Center was canceled because the rain had washed away the ice.

The show was parodied in the 1960 Warner Bros. Cartoons short, "Wild Wild World" (hosted by Cave Darroway) [also found here on YouTube:http://youtu.be/2koBB1VtsyU ], which pre-conceived Hanna-Barbera's "The Flintstones" by a year!

Time reviewed this show:

"NBC's Wide Wide World whisked its audience all over the map. The camera lazed its way down the Mississippi, poked into a New Jersey lane where lovers walked and old men raked autumn leaves, wandered around Gloucester harbor as fishermen mended nets. There were vivid contrasts between the chasm of the Grand Canyon and the topless towers of Rockefeller Center, the swaying wheat fields of Nebraska and the money-conscious hubbub of the Texas State Fair, an underwater ballet from Florida and the overwater speed trials of Donald Campbell's jet racer at Arizona's man-made Lake Mead. Always there was the immediacy of things happening this very minute, but the real brilliancy of Wide World may lie in its avoidance of the TV interview. The only one attempted, at the Texas Fair, proved again that—given a microphone and someone to interview—an announcer can turn any subject into a crashing bore. The words needed in Wide World were supplied by Dave Garroway and kept to a literate minimum."

• Category

  Entertainment

[cubantoro]

Amazing that you see nothing but american made cars on the road... and this is live as it's happening. Hard to believe in a decade you see more Vw's and then in the 70's the japanese cars. America was at it's zenith in the 50's. Most of your appliances were made here... and your TV set was likely and RCA or other major US brand. All gone now.... Thanks for posting this. BTW.. this show was parodied in a 1960 Warner Bros cartoon titled "Wild, Wild, World" featuring a host named Cave Darroway.

[musicom67]

LOL I'm way ahead of you. If you read the Video details, you'll notice I also linked to the cartoon.

[rickey5353]

Brilliant, and innovative.

[GaryW48]

This is outstanding to see for the first time! It is my uderstanding that all of the kinescopes were given to the National Archives after the program was cancelled. How were you able to obtain this? I ask, as I know of a tv cameraman in Buffalo, who had run the camera for a live shot of the Grand Opening of the Buffalo Skyway Bridge. I would sure love to get him a DVD of that show for all of the years of his professional work in Broadcasting. Thanks for sharing!!!

[MichaelHansenFUN]

THIS IS GOOD!!!

[wmbrown6]

- Interesting you mention Kovacs here since his NBC sidekick, Bill Wendell, was the opening announcer for this show. In addition, after Kovacs' death, there was an actual Tom Moore who became president of ABC (where Ernie did his last bunch of specials) for a few years in the '60's.

[musicom67]

14 years in TV and I should have known that... Old-school AT&T Long Lines Microwave Horns on the towers should have made me figure this out...Also, later in this episode during the Jet-Speedboat Lake Mead shots, you can see 'NBC' dishes at the 'NBC' tent! Thanks, Dennis!

[Dennis Degan]

Microwaves operate like light: Line of sight. As long as the transmitter and receiver can 'see' each other, the signal will be strong. Over this short distance (a few hundred feet at most), there is no problem.

[Barry I. Grauman]

Ernie Kovacs fictionalized this series in his 1957 novel, "Zoomar". His hero, "UBC" network executive "Tom Moore", creates "THE DUNBAR TRILOGY" (a series as "all-encompassing" as the real "WIDE WIDE WORLD") for "Dunbar Aluminum", only to have the sponsor cancel their commitment before the series can go on the air. At the end, Moore successfully argues with- and convinces- the network's chairman to keep the series on the air when he becomes their head of West Coast operations....

[musicom67]

Clever! You would think there'd be signal loss with the moving car, but I guess microwaves work differently?

[Dennis Degan]

I just noticed that there's a microwave dish INSIDE the window, visible at the right side of the cable car. That's how it was done!

[Dennis Degan]

Byrd56, I see a camera cable running behind the cable car along the center of the track, just to the right of the center trough (where the steel cable is located that pulls the cable car). It runs up over the hill in the background. It's quite possible for a camera cable to be that long or even longer. I'll bet they operated this cable car specifically for this shoot, stopping the car at the bottom of the hill.