May 8, 1945…Victory In Europe Day, Times Square
May 8, 1945…Victory In Europe Day, Times Square
Except for Germany and Japan, every country around the world celebrated the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s war machine, on this day in 1945. In Italy, they celebrated by hanging Mussolini.
In New York, half a million celebrated in Times Square, and NBC Radio and Television was at The Astor Hotel to cover the event. From atop the Astor marquee, NBC Radio announcers described the victory party to listeners across the country, while WNBT cameras panned the crowd, and took reports from those same radio reporters. Also atop the Astor marquee were announcers, and reporters from NBC’s former Blue Network, which was now owned by ABC, but still headquarted and working from 30 Rock.
Pacific Fleet Commander, Admiral Nimitz had been in Washington, and with the VE news, came to New York for a war bond rally, and while there, went to NBC Studio 3H to broadcast a message to all the soldiers, and sailors in the veterans hospitals in the area. RCA had donated 100 receivers to the VA hospitals in the WNBT coverage area, just the month before.
To give you an idea what that day was like, here is some CBS Radio coverage of the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh8M6CEh5Jk
More on the photos. Enjoy and share, as a tribute to “the greatest generation”. -Bobby Ellerbee
“Who had a TV in 1945?”
A few did.
There were roughly 3,000-5,000 sets in metropolitan New York City at the time, a few hundred in Philadelphia and Schenectady, and a handful in Chicago and Los Angeles. The VE Day telecast was carried over WNBT Channel 1 (now WNBC) and mostlikely WPTZ (now KYW) Philadelphia and WRGB Schenectady. Chicago and Los Angeles were not yet connected to the east coast.
Brought a tear to my eye.
I believe this is the WNBT ID from 1944. I can’t get enough of it, actually.
https://youtu.be/8iwqbkE2dCc
We now take for granted today’s satellite technology providing studio quality video and clear voice transmission from anywhere on the planet. However, in an odd sort of way, the garbled and wavy voice transmission gave to me an even greater sense of realism from those distant WW2 shores. Listening as a child of 6, I remember being scared and excited at the same time.
Screen capture WNBT-TV:
Who had a TV in 1945?
I don’t know which surrender stopped our train on the tracks in Rochester, NY — Japanese? German? — I was too young to have known to memorize every detail when the train started slowing down.
I knew about The War, we all did. We participated in it, we school kids. We collected grease and rubber bands, we wrote Christmas cards; we knew as much as we needed to know. For some reason, I was in Upstate NY, at my grand parents’ place – something important, because the train trip up there with my father was several hours long. Now, my mother was fetching me back. And there were people swarming all over the tracks in Rochester (the big station sign said so).
I asked my mother what was going on, and she whispered, “The war is over, I think.” That shut me up for a minute or two.
…to think where technology has gone to today !
They may not have been in a position to hold public celebrations, but a lot of Germans were happy to be rid of Adolph. And there were many countries sympathetic to Hitler but not formally allied – like Franco’s Spain and much of South America where celebrations were not held. Italy was under allied occupation, so not much celebrating there either. In this country, there had been widespread support for Hitler and Mussolini during the 30s; those people probably had at least mixed feelings.