KINESCOPE THEATRE: TV in the 1940s

Some choice tidbits from Dumont Television Network. Dumont was the first major TV network in  the 1940s, when people thought of TV as either a passing fad, or just "radio with pictures". When Dumont went out of business a few years later and their quarters taken over by NBC, almost ALL the kinescopes of ALL the programs from their six- or seven-year reign of popularity were dumped into New York's East River. No kidding, they literally dumped all the records of Dumont's existence into the water to free up storage space. Someone actually dove after them and salvaged a few kinescopes, which is what you are seeing here. If they look a little dodgy, that's why.

KINESCOPE THEATRE: Whistling Clowns from 1940s TV

The Dumont Television Network was a very big deal in the 1940s - the ONLY deal, for that matter, with programming so crude it's hard to believe people were so excited about it. But it was the only game in town, so they had nothing to compare it to. Early TVs were always in a cabinet with folding doors that kept it hidden. People were not used to that big staring glass eye in their house, and thought it was ugly and had to be covered up. Many people actually believed the people in "TV Land" could see THEM, which made them uncomfortable. 

But Dumont programming is time travel at its finest. It was difficult for them to find enough programming to fill the six or eight hours or so of their broadcast day. Dramas were 15 minute long, but variety shows like the Admiral Broadway Revue (most shows were named after their sponsors, like the Autolite Suspense Theatre) went on forever and were performed on a stage like vaudeville. This astonishingly weird clown routine went on for more than FOUR minutes! For reasons I can't quite explain, I find these videos fascinating, and the grainier, blurrier and more primitive they are, the more I love them.