May 20, 1939…First Television Picture Sent Over Telephone Lines
May 20, 1939…First Television Picture Sent Over Telephone Lines
77 years ago today, NBC sent television images from Madison Square Gardens, to 30 Rockefeller Plaza over AT&T telephone lines. Over the course of the six day bicycle race event, three broadcasts were done, with each being a little better than the last, due to some tweaking along the way by both AT&T and NBC.
This was just three days after television’s first ever live sporting event, the telecast of a college baseball game, which you read about here on May 17th. On June 1, NBC would go on to bring boxing to television for the first time with the Lou Nova-Max Baer fight at Yankee Stadium.
On August 26, Red Barber would call the first ever pro baseball game on television, and on September 30, NBC broadcast the first college football game, followed on October 22, by the first pro football game. Hockey made it television debut on NBC February 25, 1940, and basketball came to TV February 28th, with track and field events debuting on March 2, from MSG.
Remember, all this activity started in April of 1939 with the opening of The World’s Fair, when David Sarnoff told the nation that RCA had “added radio sight to sound”, and officially kicked off the age of television. -Bobby Ellerbee
A good opportunity to remember Philo Farnsworth!
NYC W2XBS’ program schedule for the week of May 14, 1939, which includes NBC TV coverage of the bicycle races:
Sunday, May 14, Off the air?
Monday, May 15th, 1939
11:00AM-4:00PM – Films.
Tuesday, May 16th, 1939
11:00AM-4:00PM – Films.
Wednesday, May 17th, 1939
4:00-8:15PM – Baseball, Princeton vs. Columbia at Baker Field.
8:30-9:00PM – Six-Day Bicycle Race, at Madison Square Garden.
Thursday, May 18th, 1939
11:00AM – 4:00PM – Films.
Friday, May 19th, 1939
4:00-8:00PM – Films.
8:00-9:00PM – Studio Variety Show.
Saturday, May 20th, 1939
4:00-8:00PM – Films.
8:30-9:00PM – Six-Day Bicycle Race, at Madison Square Garden.