(1/3) RARE 1949 NBC TV 10th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL - WNBT Channel 4 New York (WNBC)

Part 1 of 3. Now this is a piece of television history. A rarely seen complete half hour as broadcast live on Channel 4 New York, then known as WNBT (now WNBC) on April 30, 1949 (aired 8-8:30 p.m. ET): the WNBT 10th Anniversary Show hosted by Ben Grauer. Ben Grauer is seen outside sutdio 3H where he says the first WNBT-TV show was broadcast 10 years ago from experimental station W2XBS. Scenes from the 1939 World's Fair include: The GM Building, the Trylon & Perisphere, Avenue of Nations, and RCA Building. Exteriors of the Empire State Building and RCA Building at Rockefeller Center are shown. Earl Wrightson sings "There's a Great Day Coming". Kyle MacDonnell & Wrightson sing "The Alphabet Song" accompanied by The Norman Paris Trio. See signs on floor of 1944 Democratic Convention in Chicago and results come in to the NBC Studios on Election Night. Ben Grauer gives on-air election results. Later see early video footage off a WWII aircraft carrier. More music and song with The Three Flames.

This is a kinescope recording from a very early CRT monitor. You can see how good the original video probably was even so early in TV history.

Enjoy some TV over 60 years old!

Category:

Entertainment

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• 1949
• NBC
• TV
• 10th
• ANNIVERSARY
• SPECIAL
• LIVE
• VINTAGE
• CLASSIC
• TELEVISION
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• WNBT
• CHANNEL
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• AMERICA
• RCA
• KINESCOPE
• EARLY

[RFC1211]

@TheDoddio His voice spoke "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC"?

[dccoulthard]

That opening music sounds like Pac Man!

[hfelton]

I'm sure many have no idea who, these people were. Ben Grauer was a staff announcer for the NBC network and for WNBT(later WNBC) NYC. Earl Wrightson was a prominent Broadway baritone then, specializing in operettas.

[rjmdrum]

Fascinating thanks for posting

[hebneh]

As others have pointed out, there was no way of copying or preserving TV broadcasts in 1939, so the footage shown here is just regular 16mm movie film of the New York World's Fair, and the Empire State Building, and isn't actual TV transmissions from that year.

Not to downplay the historic importance of this 1949 show, of course. That this survives is pretty amazing.

[EricandDish]

Amazing how NBC can do an anniversary show...in 1949! At a time when the history of television had not yet been written (with maybe "The Texaco Star Theater" with Milton Berle and "The Ed Sullivan Show"-then "Toast of the Town"-as the first few pages).

[satwolf78]

Fantastic!



[thesailormercury1]

i wonder there going this for 80 anniversary

[Soulthinker2007]

Loved it.

[orchardcottage]

The BBC began the world 's first regularly scheduled electronically scanned television began from Alexandra Palace in London on 2 November 1936, to just a few hundred viewers in the immediate area. It was reaching an estimated 25,000-40,000 homes before the outbreak of World War II caused the service to be suspended in September 1939. The VHF broadcasts would have provided an ideal radio beacon for German bombers homing in on London,