The EMMY Awards: Part 1

In the video below from the 1953 Emmy Awards show, we see the independent station, KHJ’s cameras bringing us great scenes of Vivian Vance (Ethel) and Lucille Ball (Lucy) accepting their awards on this local broadcast. Interestingly, all 3, including Desi Arnaz push for a ‘writer’ category that soon was added to the mix of awards.

The first six Emmys were awarded January 25, 1949, and the very first went to 20yearold Shirley Dinsdale, a Los Angeles ventriloquist, for being the Most Outstanding Television Personality.

The original Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was founded in 1946 by Syd Cassyd, a reporter for a TV trade magazine in Los Angeles and a grip on Paramounts back lot.

The Emmys originally were to be called Ikes, a short form for the television iconoscrope tube, but there was concern they would be linked to Dwight D. Eisenhower. So instead, Harry Lubcke of the Society of Television Engineers came up with a feminization of Immy, a term used for the early image orthicon camera tube but the name was feminized to Emmy to match the look of the trophy statue. Dorothy McManus was the model for her husband, Louis McManus, as he designed the winged golden girl holding up the universal symbol of the electron, which would become the Emmy Award statue. He received a plaque from the Academy at the first awards ceremony.

In 1951, Red Skelton accepted the Best Comedian award by saying, I think this should have gone to Lucille Ball. In 1950, when Groucho Marx accepted the honor of TVs Most Outstanding Personality, he picked up Miss Emmy, the former Miss America Rosemary LaPlanche, and carried her off the stage, leaving his statue behind.

6th Annual Emmys. Vivian Vance wins as well as best situation comedy for I Love Lucy.

Source