June 1940….Television’s 1st Convention & 1st Network Broadcast
In a spirit of cooperation, competitors RCA, GE and Philco teamed with AT&T to televise the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. It was a television first in more ways that one. Not only was this the first time TV had covered a political convention – this was also the first ever network to cover 3 cities at once.
RCA’s W2XBS in New York City had sent broadcasts of “Meet The Wife” to General Electric’s W2XB in Schenectady, in January of 1940, which was in essence, the first network. RCA had also sent separate broadcasts to Philco’s W2XE Philadelphia, but this event, now included all 3 stations. Many historians call this the first real television network, as it endured though the WW II television black-out, and began again in April 1944 with the broadcast of “The Voice Of Firestone Televues”.
The NYC-Schenectady leg was handled by existing AT&T equipment, but to get the intact images to NYC from Philadelphia required AT&T adding amplifiers every 5 miles of the 108 mile route, so a lot of time was spent in manholes in early June.
In Philly, there were only about 100 receivers in use, and most of those belonged to Philco and their executives, but it is reported that up to 2,000 a day watched the coverage on 60 sets RCA had installed at a museum next to the convention hall.
Were it not for a dark horse candidate winning the nomination, the convention may not have made many memories, but Wendell Wilkie came out of nowhere to defeat former President Herbert Hoover, Senator Robert Taft, Thomas Dewey and two others to win the nomination at 2 AM, on the 6th ballot.
The legendary Worthington Minor, who was just starting his TV career, watched and said unlike the radio coverage, TV captured the tension on the delegates faces as they voted.
That year, FDR was nominated for his 3rd term in office, but television could not take us there, as the convention was in Chicago, and at the time, there was no coaxial connection between the midwest and NYC. On election night, both NBC’s and Dumont’s stations broadcast election results locally. -Bobby Ellerbee
[…] American political events can be traced back to 1940, when NBC’s nascent television network covered both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, an October 28, 1940 rally held by […]
Good old days of tv
In the early 1970’s, there was a minor league hockey team called the “Philadelphia Firebirds” that played in that same arena. The temporary platforms were still there, nailed to the ceiling. We did the radio broadcast of the Long Island (NY) Cougars from that platform.
Thanks for this fabulous history-correcting post! I almost always get surprised reactions from people who think the 1948 trio of political conventions in Philadelphia were the first televised. Or even 1952! My understanding is that films of the 1944 Chicago convention were flown to NYC and put on TV there, but I am thin on details, and I fear that few records may survive to clarify just what did air in 1944.