TV Comes to the World's Fair

Television was not born in 1939, no matter how much NBC insisted back then it was.

Doubtless, 1939 was a landmark year for the industry. NBC’s W2XBS went on the air at the start of the World’s Fair in New York. CBS’ W2XAB joined them by year’s end and stations in Schenectady (owned by General Electric) and Philadelphia (owned by Philco) tested their transmitters.

But NBC’s propaganda machine spun a tale wherein the years of programmes broadcast by mechanical television, when CBS had a regular television schedule until early 1933, didn’t count. And it simply ignored the fact W6XAO in Los Angeles had been telecasting regularly using an electronic system since the end of 1931.

The Fair opened Sunday, April 30, 1939, but there was a TV broadcast ten days earlier when David Sarnoff dedicated the RCA Building at the Fair. Scores of people back at Radio City watched the RCA chairman’s address (Broadcasting, May 1). On the 22nd, NBC announced when people could watch its TV programming. Here is the New York Herald Tribune story of that day.

TELEVISION BEGINS REGULAR SCHEDULE
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W2XBS to Broadcast 25 Hours Each Week.
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The first definite schedule of modern television programs to be transmitted from a local station was announced this week by the National Broadcasting Company which has been sending out only test programs up to the present time.
The telecast premiere is to take place a week from tomorrow at 12:30 P. M. when the Empire State Tower station W2XBS will begin a program which is to continue for three and a half hours.
Included in the events to be viewed on television screens will be the opening parade at the World's Fair grounds with addresses by President Roosevelt and others from the Federal Government Building, The remainder of the time will be devoted to films transmitted from Radio City.
On Wednesday May 3, the W2XBS station is to begin regular periods of experimental evening telecasts, twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 to 9 P. M. Outdoor pickups of scheduled news events will be made on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday afternoon. It may be possible to telecast more than one of these programs a week, according to Thomas H. Hutchinson, manager of NBC's television program activities.
These programs will be transmitted on frequencies of 45.29 m. c. for the picture and 49.75 m. c. for the associated sound.
In addition to the above features there are to be telecasts on five days of each week for the benefit of exhibitors at the World's Fair and to help radio dealers in demonstrating television receivers in stores and in homes. This material will consist mainly of repetitious matter sent out for ten minutes of each quarter hour.
On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of each week, film transmissions will take place from 11 A. M. to 4 P. M. and on Wednesdays and Fridays from 4 until 8 P. M., the starting hour for the regular evening studio presentations.

What was the opening broadcast like? Variety of May 3, 1939 had TV coverage aplenty. Interestingly, the reviewer of the initial telecast didn’t watch the proceedings on an RCA television, but one made by DuMont. That company had a TV license for a station in Passaic, but it didn’t beam any shows toward New York during the fair, and I can find nothing to show it was on the air with any frequency.

Sun Plays Hide and Seek But RCA Televises Fair’s Opening Successfully
By BOB LANDRY
Miles ahead of the old nickelodeon flickers, harbinger of the cinema, and substantially better on all counts than crystal-set radio, the RCA-NBC television broadcast Sunday (30) of the ceremonies opening the New York World's Fair was an impressive demonstration of advances made in the last year or two. During a three-and-a-half hour siege from 12 noon to 3:30 p.m., there were only three or four momentary 'rainstorms' in the light-picture.
Viewed on a Dumont receiver on the penthouse of a Madison avenue building, the television program was relayed from the Fair grounds to the RCA-NBC transmitting station atop the Empire State Bldg. and thence out on the air. In proving the advances made by the RCA senders, the event also established Dumont as one of the aggressive contenders for leadership in the new industry. The Dumont set is a direct-view 'screen,' unlike the RCA sets, which use a mirrored panel at an angle above the set. An image 14 inches square in black and white tint is controlled by a series of knobs.
(To aid the tuning of television sets a drawn pattern is sent through the air. In relation to the circles and lines on the tuning pattern the image is focused to the proper width and depth.)
Mobile units (laboratories on wheels) were used by RCA-NBC to facilitate coverage of the N.Y. Expo ceremonies. Most of the action took place in the Court of Peace. The program opened lazily by focusing upon the flags of various nations waving in the breezes. Little by little the cameras wandered around the buildings, the crowds and the grand-stands, which slowly began filling with people. The sun, which had been bright for a time, went down and a large portion of the program was heavy on the grays. Later Old Sol obliged and the spectator got a clearer contrast of blacks and whites, a great aid to comfortable watching.
Most Difficult Test
Actually the outdoor test was one of the most difficult television could tackle. The arrangement of distinguished guests and the pomp of the opening kept the iconoscope too far from the objectives. It was predominately reported in long shot with a sprinkling of medium shots. In the latter the occasion reached its peaks. There was a hair-curler moment or two, for example, when the Scottish Highlanders, bagpipes blaring and kilts swaying, moved into the immediate range of the camera. It was amusing when the carpenters' union, resplendent in the new white overalls, came marching down the lane and moved into the best seats down front. Another grin was the band of the plumbers and steamfitters, their insignia easily legible, which broke out with "The Wearin o' the Green."
There was considerable delay before the presidential automobile turned the corner and slowly crept up the ramp to the speakers' stand. While the President dismounted, the iconoscope turned back to long shots of the crowd and the buildings and breeze-tossed flags. While the detail was vague at times, due to the distance and the faltering sunlight, the presence of colorful native costumes among the international delegations stood out.
The characteristic figure of Mayor LaGuardia could be easily picked out individually as he came along. Another cinch was the mustache, big toothy smile and impeccable tailoring of Grover Whalen. The speeches of LaGuardia. Governor Lehman, Sir Louis Beale of Great Britain, and finally President Roosevelt reminded the small crowd around the Dumont receiver that television carries a quality of sound reproduction substantially better, from the start, than radio. The greater sound cycle range of visio accounts for this. In the band music of the various military units this was also noted. Essentially the ceremonies were on the dull side, but the miracles of television made it a memorable and engrossing show as it was indubitably a historic occasion.

The New York Herald Tribune of May 1, 1939 went for the human interest angle, hunting down people to get their opinion of television, and then explaining how a set worked.

Thousands See Pageantry by Television
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Even Doubters Find Invention Debut a Success
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Ceremonies Show Up Clear and Sharp on Receivers; Regular Service Begins
While crowds at the opening ceremonies of the New York World’s Fair pushed and jostled to catch a glimpse of President Roosevelt and strained their ears to hear what he and others were saying, thousands of persons within a fifty-mile radius of the Empire State Building were observing the same scene through television, which made its official American debut yesterday.
Amazement and then unbounded enthusiasm marked the start of what will be a semi-weekly feature from now on. Many to whom television had been only a name, admitted afterward that the demonstration exceeded anything they had thought possible. At receivers all over the city and in New Jersey, representations of the Fair grounds the images of the President and of other dignitaries at the exercises were witnessed almost as clearly as they could have been seen on the spot. The added comfort of a soft armchair provided an advantage of its own.
The lead in the long campaign to bring television to the public with the opening of the Fair was taken by the Radio Corporation of America, which, in conjunction with the National Broadcasting Company, was principally responsible for the successful introduction of the new service. R. C. A. and N. B. C. originally intended to open the doors of the R. C. A. Building at the Fair to all who wished to see the television ceremonies. But by 1:30 p. m. more than half an hour before the opening parade, the crowds outside were so great that it was decided at the minute to postpone the public demonstration until 3:30 and to offer a press preview of the exercises.
Many Look On at Stores
At the same time, at several department stores and radio shops in the metropolitan area, where television receivers had been installed, thousands stood by to watch the ceremonies and to see and hear the President deliver his address. Not many receivers have been bought by individuals, but it is estimated that 30,000 sets will be sold by the end of the year. Prices range from $200 to $600.
The televiewers caught their first glimpse of the President soon after 2 p. m., when his official car, with several members of his bodyguard standing on the running board swept into view. The television camera, installed in a truck in the Court of Peace and operated by N. B. C. engineers, followed its path. At 2:11, the President stood at attention in his box during the playing of the national anthem and television spectators got their first good look at him. In the minutes that followed, the images of Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Mayor F. H. LaGuardia, Grover A. Whalen and others passed over the screen. The camera also took in the crowds.
Lenox R. Lohr, president of N. B. C., in a statement following the broadcast, said: “This is indeed a historic date, being the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of the first President of the United States and the opening of this magnificent World’s Fair, But a new significance is given it, which will make it even more firmly, fixed in the history of human progress, by virtue of its bring the date on which television, as a regular established service to the public, has its birth.”
The remarks of some of those who were admitted to the preview in the R. C. A. building along with the press were undoubtedly typical of the average man’s reaction. Two patrolmen stood by one of the thirteen large-size receivers in the hall and discussed it. “It’s quite the thing,” one said, and the other remarked: “It’ll be wonderful for ball games and fights.”
Two sailors from the cruiser Salina, John Pavlic, of Youngstown, Ohio, and James Vogt, of Omaha, watched the screen of another receiver. “I can’t believe it,” Pavlic said. “I must be dreaming.” Vogt just stared.
Mrs. Beatrice Minn, of Minneapolis, exclaimed: “I read about it, but I never thought it would be like this. Why, it’s beyond conception, and here it is.” Ida Schreiber, of Hartford, Conn., said “It’s uncanny.” One or two candid camera fans rushed from receiver to receiver trying to obtain the clearest impression of an image.
Relayed to W2XBS
The images were picked up by the N. B. C. mobile television unit cruising the Fair grounds and were relayed from a directional antenna to Station W2XBS, the television station, in the Empire State Building. This relay was necessary so as to bring the telecast into the frequency level of the average television receiver. An extremely high frequency of 177 megacycles is used for the relay.
A history of the development of television, made public last night by N. B. C. reveals that the invention is the product of a ten-year period of intensive research. During this time, it states, “television has changed from a thing of whirling discs and belts and flickering neon tubes to the modern all-electronic method, without a single moving mechanical part.”
The basis of N. B. C.’s television system is the iconoscope and kinescope, both originally developed by Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin, of R. C. A. The former, a large dipper—shaped vacuum tube, contains a light-sensitive plate, made up of thousands of microscopic cells, on which the image to be televised, is focused. The plate converts the image into “a picture of voltages.”
In the neck of the iconoscope is an electron “gun” which produces a fine beam of electrons focused to a tiny spot at the point where it impinges the plate. By means of magnetic fields this beam is caused to sweep over the plate thirty times a second in a pattern of 441 perfectly spaced horizontal lines. In so doing the beam releases a series of impulses, the electrical counterpart of the visible image.
Kinescope Repeats Pattern
The kinescope, a large funnel-shaped tube, also contains an electron “gun.” The beam, however, here traces an identical pattern on a fluorescent screen on the underside of the large end of the tube, thus forming the images which are seen on the television receiver. Action of the two beams, on the iconoscope and the kinescope, is synchronized to within one four-millionth part of a second. Scanning is carried out at such terrific speed as to give the illusion of a composite, moving picture.
Field tests since 1936 alone have cost $2,000,000, N.B.C. engineers estimated yesterday. Gradually, since the first television construction permit was given in 1938, advances have been made. The mobile unit developed last year paved the way for the present stage of outdoor televising. Beginning Wednesday night, studio programs will be telecast on Wednesdays and Fridays, in addition to special outdoor features, such as baseball games, at varying intervals. All programs will come through Station W2XBS.
Other television demonstrations at the Fair yesterday were given by the Allen B. Du Mont laboratories, General Electric Company and the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Where receivers were installed in department and radio stores, special arrangements were made to keep these establishments open for the occasion. At some places, the audiences were private, but at most of them the public was invited. [...]
Mr. Roosevelt was the first President to face a television camera. His address, as well as the others at the opening ceremonies was broadcast over one of the largest radio hook-ups ever arranged. N. B. C., the Columbia Broadcasting System, Mutual Broadcasting System and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation carried the program over coast-to-coast networks, while short wave stations sent it to Europe, South America, Africa and the Orient. Fifty-three foreign countries were invited to rebroadcast. [...]

Considering television in New York pretty much shut down 6 ½ years earlier in 1933, it’s not surprising Variety reported:

A television set is almost unknown in Greater New York, although there are said to be 14,000 in Greater London. A handful of radio executives, engineers and interested parties have sets in their homes. But with all the publicity, hardly anybody outside the immediate professions and trades effected has yet seen television. [...]
Not many sets are actually being bought, but the curiosity is terrific. [...]
It costs around $50 for a television, machine to be installed. Must be carefully tuned up in relation to the transmitter, which invariably is on the highest building or hill available. However, at this particular time, the small number of sets (hardly 400) thus far sold, or installed experimentally, means that they are getting careful nursing and plenty of free visits from engineers.

Those of us of a certain age will fondly remember the NBC peacock at the beginning of TV shows and the NBC snake at the end (the changing tubular lines which formed the network’s initials). This was far in the future. Variety revealed the logo that W2XBS used in 1939:

Telecasts by Radio Corporation of America carry the trade-mark of two overlapping circles. In one RCA, in the other NBC, are emblazoned. These are frequently flashed. Main title shows the RCA building in silhouette and the opening slogan is ‘Pictures Through the Air.’

There was plenty involving going on in the background. There was talk of theatres airing television programmes (the talk continued through and immediately after the war years). The FCC was looking at whether to impose uniform standards (different sets scanned signals at different rates). Then there was the question of which union would represent people in television (the battle got a little nasty a few years later). And what about rights to use music on TV shows? ASCAP thought it was a pertinent question.

In the meantime, W2XBS put live programmes on the air Wednesdays and Fridays. That, too, would soon change. We’ll look at 1939, including what was happening with television in other cities, in future posts.