T.H.A.T.
(Television History and Trivia)from
www.hologlobepress.com
by
Victor Edward Swanson,
Publisher
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- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 253 - - -
On March 28, 2025, March 29, 2025, and March 30, 2025, an ice storm hit--roughly--the northern quarter of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and the worst-hit places seemed to be in the eastern half of that region, which is where a person can find Cheboygan County and Presque Isle County. Many telephone poles were damaged, and I heard about two weeks later, while I was in Presque Isle County that, for example, at some 2,000 telephone poles had been replaced already in relation to two electricity companies, one of which was Presque Isle Electric and Gas (a.k.a. "PIE & G"). Of course, many people in the region lost electricity and land-line telephone service and cable service, and, for instance, at the start of the downed-wire time, some 34,500 customers of PIE & G were without electricity--basically, the grid for the company was down. From March 28, 2025, to April 6, 2025, the power was out at the place where I spend about the half of each year, and that place is in Presque Isle County. On April 8, 2025, I went to Presque Isle Country, using basically a route (from the Detroit area) that involved I-75 and M-33. It was at about five miles south of Mio when I began to see a noticeable amounts of trees down or a noticeable amount of half-cut-down trees (the tops of which had been gotten out of the way). In Presque Isle County, on the trip north, I saw many groups of electricity-service trucks, and probably some where tied to "tramps." "Tramps" is a term used for electricity guys and gals--mostly guys--who regularly are out on the roads of the country going from disaster area to disaster area to repair electricity lines and related equipment. I got to the residence up north in the middle of the evening, and I would stay in the area till April 12, 2025. While I was in the area up north, I worked around the property, where there were ten trees down on the yard proper, one of which was on the southeast corner eaves of the house. I heard stories from a gal at the Millersburg Post Office, who noted that her husband--a staffer for PIE & G--was controlling fifteen teams in relation to the Mullet Lake-associated substation. It seems PIE & G set up teams that were based under a supervisor a particular substation, and, in relation to each substation, each team worked out from the substation to outer parts. I heard people say that they were out of power, and I know at least one big tree hit a house in Rogers City proper. While driving on US-23 in Presque Isle County, I could determine that, at least for a short time, the route had been completely blocked here and there, and it seemed to me local residents or county-government-related guys and gals had done the opening up of the roadway, and, certainly, I saw dozens and dozens and dozens of spots where the roadway had been at least partially blocked for a while. Other roads had signs of where trees had blocked or partially blocked travelers for at least a while. While I traveled in, for example, Presque Isle County, I remembered my days working for AAA Michigan (the broadcast department) for nearly three decades, and I remember how I reported bad road conditions, such as blocked main roads, such as US-31 and US-131 at times, and I thought about how, over the past week, the Detroit-area media did a terrible job of reporting what was going on in such counties as Cheboygan and Presque Isle County, and I include the big radio stations or television stations or newspapers, such as WJR-AM and the Detroit Free Press. For instance, the Detroit Free Press only had one fluff story about the ice storm over the two weeks or so after the ice storm had hit (publishing it on March 31, 2025). I thought about how I would have covered the story; I would have called police departments and utility companies and some businesses in the region two main times each day to put together news reports that could have been offered to people in the morning and evening of each day between at least Saturday, March 29, 2025, and Saturday, April 12, 2025, and the reports would note information about what roads were closed or blocked, what was happening with gasoline stations, where the outages were, et cetera. A person has to keep in mind that tourism is a big industry in Michigan, and a person has to remember that people in southern Michigan or in at least Ohio and Indiana have secondary places in upper areas of Michigan. Such persons needed information that could let them know what was going on and if they could get to their places. It seems to me, for instance, that people heading to Presque Isle County in the first week of clean-up could have really needed news that noted that they might want to fill up with fuel at such places as Mio or Harrisville before venturing in to Presque Isle County so that they would have enough gas get back down to Mio or Harrisville (to get more fuel to head back to southern Michigan). While traveling, I thought about how, for example, television stations will report on fatal traffic accidents that happen in other states (filler bits) in television newscasts, and, yet, this time, they did not report really important stuff--report daily information about the problem areas of Michigan. If I were at one of the so-called great radio or television stations of the Detroit area, I would have gotten an intern or a writer or a "producer" (a defective term) to call around to places in the north and get information for stories at least two main times a day. Keep in mind that big television stations use a lot of broadcast time (blocks of time) to offer up so-called newscasts, and I have reported that much of what is reported by television stations in newscasts today is useless news and repeated often. Oh, I heard that the ice was from a half-inch thick to one-inch thick on things because of the ice storm, surveying people while I was in Presque Isle County. One person said that ice was about two-inches thick, but I push that information aside here, being maybe overblown. Yes, the surveying persons for the news reports of the media entities in the Detroit area should have gotten information, such as from local police personnel, such as at Rogers City, Atlanta, Onaway, Indian River, and Cheboygan, about how thick the ice was on some main roads, such as US-23 and M-68, over a period of a couple days around the time of the storm. The audience needed to know where and where not they could travel. The main media people of Detroit did crap reporting work, and that even includes those at WJR-AM, on which from June 1980 to December 1995, I had been heard regularly doing road reports for long-distance traveling in Michigan as an employee of AAA Michigan! And that is the introduction to this edition of Television History and Trivia.
[Note: I now have a side story. On April 15, 2025, I discovered a team of guys tied to LECOM (or Le Com)--a utility-related company--was set to install a telephone pole next to an old one in downtown Ferndale (the old pole was not damaged). The work was part of a plan to change out a lot of old poles in downtown Ferndale over the next few days or weeks. On that day, three guys dug a hole for a new pole. In this case, they used a hand-held post hole digger. The plot was--in relation to the pole to be put in--to dig a hole that was about seven-feet deep. The rule of thumb for such a pole to be put in is to go down ten-percent of the length of the pole plus two feet. In essence, the guys worked for two hours (if that). They only hit sand, so it was no problem to dig the hole with the hand-operated post hole digger. Once the hole was dug, they covered up the hole with a wood blocker (sort of like a small wood pallet). They did not know when the new pole would be set in place--it was nowhere to be seen. Well, the next day, a team of guys showed up (from LECOM) to install a new pole next to the old one. The team had three bucket trucks--two big ones and one small one--and the team of guys had about eight guys regularly (it seems). One truck brought the new pole, and the pole was sort of set on the ground (it was never completely down); this truck had an arm or boom that had a two-pincher claw at the end, which could be used to grab and hold up a pole, and it also had a winch-like system with a thick rope that would be used to lift up poles. The first job was to attach an "arm" (a cross-member) at the top of the pole (making a "t" top pole). The old pole had at the top an arm that was used to have high tension lines attached to it, and the lines were for 4,800 volts. The new cross member was made of aluminum it seems, which was unlike that on the old pole, which was made of wood. Two holes were drilled at near the top of the new pole (one above the other at a short distance), and the holes went all the way through the pole so that long galvanized steel bolts could be run through them. Once the arm was in place, the guys attached insulator-type units (attached to eye hooks) on the arm. The truck that had brought the pole was used to lift up the pole and guide it down into the hole. When the pole was in place, guys shoveled gravel and sand down into the air spaces of the hole, and one guy used a compacting tool (air operated) to pack down the stone and sand, and the tool had a long pole on it, at the bottom of which was a banana-shaped head that could get up easily to the sides of the pole and get the stuff packed in well. The old pole was still carrying hot wires, and, by the way, about half-way up the old pole were the lines for cable service and telephone service. Two trucks were then used to lift men in two buckets up to the top of the old pole and new pole. One guy in one bucket drilled two holes into the new pole--about three or four feet below the existing new arm--that could be used for bolts to hold up yet another arm. By the way, "arms" come in various lengths, such as eight-feet long. The second arm was going to be a temporary arm. Once the second arm was in place, the guys in the buckets worked to transfer the yet hot lines of the old pole--the 4,800 lines--to the second arm of the new pole. For protection, the guys used what were like four-foot-long rubber sleeves--each of which had a slit down the long ways--to cover up parts of the hot lines so that the lines could be handled. One at a time, guys detached a line from the old pole, lowered it down, and then attached it to second arm of the new pole. Remember--Electicity is still running on the lines. It did not take long to make the transfer. When the lines were off, each end of the arm of the old pole was cut back end or cut off, and then about four feet of the old pole was cut off. Now, the old pole was only holding the lines for the cable service and the television service, and the new pole had the electricity lines. A simple interview of the crew by me gave me some notes about the status of the job. New electricity lines were going to be run on the top of the new poles and some nearby new poles soon, and the lines were going to be for about 13,200 volts. Also, it would be the job of the cable guys and the telephone guys to move their wires or lines to the new pole in the future. Once the old pole was free of lines, the old pole would be removed. Several days later, guys ran or installed ropes at the tops of the new pole and some other nearby new poles, and then when I was away, the guys used the ropes to pull new electricity lines into positions, and then later, the new electricity lines were permanently attached to the tops of all the new poles involved.]On Monday, April 14, 2025, at about 9:30 a.m. (Detroit time), a stupid-girl television show--a special--showed up on at least a few television stations in the country, and, for Detroit-area viewers, it was broadcast on WJBK-TV, Channel 2.1, and on WWJ-TV, Channel 62.1, and, really, the presentation was from the "Blue Origin" entity. For those who were tuned into Channel 2.1., the presentation was offered up as a pickup piece during the nine o'clock in the morning offering of The Nine (a weekday morning series), and for those who were tuned into Channel 62.1, the program was broadcast as a part of the CBS Mornings (normally hosted by Gayle King, Nate Burleson, and Tony Dokoupil on weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Detroit time). For the broadcast of the "Blue Origin" event, the main announcers were Charissa Thompson (who is known for sports broadcasting on Fox TV) and Kristin Fisher. The event was the launch of a "rocket ship" (I use the name that people of the 1950s would use regularly), something shaped sort of like the rocket ships seen in television shows and movies of the 1950s. For viewers, the mission-control announcer was a female. The so-called astronauts were females--Amanda Nguyen (a so-called scientist), Aisha Bowe (a so-called scientist), Lauren Sanchez (who was soon to marry Jeff Bezos, a rich guy), Kerianne Flynn (a film producer), Katy Perry (a musical performer), and Gayle King. I report that at least Gayle King and Katy Perry are big supporters of socialistic and communistic related things, such as politicians, and the two women are bad people. Yes, six women--all of whom were presented to look like models--got to fly for about eleven minutes in the rocket ship in space, housed in a space capsule called New Shepard, which landed at about 9:40 a.m. (Detroit time). The entire twenty minutes during which I sort of took notice was filled with fluff statements, and the statements made the broadcast come off as a little-girl event. I shut off the television set right after the space capsule touched down, and, later in the day, I heard a recorded statement from Katy Perry that covered the general tone of the talk of the gals involved in the event, and Katy Perry said--"...I feel super connected to love....". That is stupid-girl stuff! To me, the broadcast gave me the impression that a bunch of stupid girls got to play "astronaut" ("feminist astronaut") or they got to be "space cadets" (which, here, means they got to be "spacey" or stupid people of space).
[Note: I have to make a sideline editorial comment. Katy Perry seems to be a big supporter of lesbianism, but I could be wrong. For now, pretend she is not into lesbianism. So, I have determined that Katy Perry will never be tied in marriage or tight friendship to a good guy, because a good guy would never put up with her stupidity. Katy Perry may be sexy, but her stupidity would turn off a good guy big time. I say that Katy Perry will never find a good guy to be with, such as in a marriage for decades. Katy Perry has a life of real loneliness ahead. It is just the way it is.]Announcement for the novice again (reworked in March 2019): To get useful television-delivered news or Internet-delivered news, try Breitbart News Network (the history of which goes back to 2007), WorldNetDaily.com, Newsmax TV (which was started up in 2014), CNS News (which is on the Internet and which was launched on June 16, 1998), and One America News Network (a.k.a. OAN), since the entities do not blindly support Barack Obama-type people (communists, socialists, progressives, liberals, and Shariaists), as do CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV (Note: To learn about bad journalism, you might tune in to CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV from time to time to see how they differ from the better places mentioned). I note that the Fox News Channel is evolving into a rotten channel, becoming like those that I have put down in this paragraph. If you are unclear of my intentions, I say in different words that you should boycott CNN, MSNBC, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, and ABC-TV and even now much of what is on the Fox News Channel and hope they lose more ratings and advertising revenues, since they are expendable, and it is time for you to find the guts to be mean and heartless and cancel them--since they are hurting you. In 2019, "The Drudge Report" was sold, and it should be treated as suspect for now. [Note: Everyone in the Democratic Party in the country is rotten, and the Republican Party establishment has shown itself to be socialistic and communistic within the last few years, and only a few of the rotten people tied to the Republican Party are U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie.]
[Note: Here is an example of Chris Christie's rottenness. On Sunday, February 6, 2022, Chris Christie was a guest on This Week with George Stephanopoulos (of ABC-TV), which had Martha Raddatz as the host, and Chris Christie pushed out crap. For example, Chris Christie said--"...And let's face it. Let's call it what it is. January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump...an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week--overturn the election. And he's trying to do a cleanup on aisle one here...." and "...He actually told the truth by accident. He wanted the election to be overturned....". That is bullshit!]In the past--a number of times--I have shown problems with documents that talk about television history on the Internet, and I have found many related to "Wikipedia," which--it seems--gets a lot of non-historians related to television putting stuff on pages about television history on Wikipedia, and often, their sources are defective. A good example is the topic of the end date for the DuMont Television Network. Countless pages on Wikipedia report that the DuMont Television Network ended in 1956, and numerous pages--countless it seems--have the "1956" date. I have shown in Television History and Trivia documents that the DuMont Television Network was shut down on September 15, 1955, and I even have a video on YouTube that shows proof, and that video is called "'Dilemma' and the End of the DuMont Television Network", which is at the channel for The Hologlobe Press. I do not trust what Wikipedia has about television history. On Wikipedia, there is a page called "List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network", and it has errors. On the page, there is, for example, a graphic--with colored markings--that show, generally speaking, when certain programs were on the air. Given I report that the DuMont Television Network ended on September 15, 1955, a person can see that the chart by showing that shows stretched into 1956 shows that the chart is defective. When the DuMont Television Network was shut down, programs that had started out as "DuMont Television Network" programs had to be reclassified--the shows, if they were still on the air--became local shows, but there was one exception. First I note that the chart gives a reader the idea that Josephine Schiclkraut Presents, Better Living T.V. Theater, One Minute Please, Gamble On Love, Ilona Massey Show, Key to the Ages, Have a Heart, and Alec Templeton were still "DuMont Television Network" shows after September 15, 1955, and that is a bomb. For fun, I note, for example Alec Templeton's show ended on August 26, 1955, and Key to the Ages ended May 22, 1955, and The Ilona Massey Show ended on January 10, 1955. That is enough of that, given it shows more problems with the Wikipedia page. The chart lists a show called Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena as a show that was on the air beyond September 15, 1955, as a DuMont Television Network show, but the boxing show is a special case. The last episode for the boxing show as a DuMont Network Show was on Monday, September 12, 1955. The series continued on the air, but now it was officially distributed as a syndication network or even a adhoc-network show (a modern term), and it was distributed by the "DuMont" company, which got broken down and turned in to a new company in late 1955, and the show could even be considered a local show (related to WABD-TV) that got syndicated. The network distributing the boxing show starting on Monday, September 19, 1955, was now considered a "special" network by, for example, the FCC, and the network was a syndication network, like so many that would follow over the years, which would involve telephone lines or satellites. Since I know the back end of the Wikipedia document about the programs of the DuMont Television Network is detective, and I do not trust the front-end information. By the way, I have had no trust in the front-end information for some time, but I have only worked to see if some of the front-end information is good or bad so far.
I have an aside here, and you must keep these facts in mind:
1. WABD-TV (owned by DuMont Laboratories) gained commercial status from the Federal Communications Commission (or the FCC) May 2, 1944, and it had been known as W2XWV (an experimental station) since 1941, and it was located in New York City, New York.
2. WTTG-TV (owned by DuMont Laboratories) gained commercial status from the FCC on November 29, 1946, and it had been W3XWT (an experimental station), and it was located in Washington, D.C..
3. I have not yet been able to see television program listings in mass for a television station called W3XWT and later WTTG-TV in 1946 and 1947, and I only have seen a few dates for WTTG-TV, so I have not been able to compare the broadcast schedules for WABD-TV and WTTG-TV from about May 1946 to December 1947, and, for example, The Evening Star (of Washington, D.C.) did not start publishing regular television-program listings for WTTG-TV till March 1948.
4. The first network hookup in the country took place on April 15, 1946, and it involved the "DuMont" company and television stations in New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, but it was not officially a "commercial" network event, since, for one, the station in Washington, D.C., was not a "commercial" station.
5. "Sustainer"--this term was in commonplace use in the 1940s and 1950s (at least) to report that a show was not sponsored or had no sponsor.
6. In 1946, WABD-TV and W3XWT shared some live programs, but the sharing was not done when both stations were "commercial" television stations.
So, what was the first date for a true "commercial" DuMont Television Network?
The Wikipedia document called "List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network" hints that the start was in something like the middle of 1946, based of the color chart, and the first shows are shown to be Serving Thru Science [Serving Through Science], Western Movie, Cash & Carry, Play the Game, and Faraway Hill. Well, that is messed-up information. Cash and Carry started out as a local show (a "sustainer") on WABD-TV on Thursday, June 20, 1946 (at 9:00 p.m.). Faraway Hill began as a local show (a "sustainer") on WABD-TV on October 2, 1946 (at 9:00 p.m.). The first edition of Serving Through Science that I can find in relation to WABD-TV was shown on Tuesday, June 18, 1946, and it was a weekly show. Play the Game showed up for the first time in September 1946 [Keep in mind that I have more to say about this series later in this document, and I note it here, though it should not be considered a DuMont network series.]. I have to make it clear by saying that all the start dates show that the shows showed up before a "commercial" DuMont Television Network would exist officially, and that network began on November 29, 1946, when WTTG-TV was officially a "commercial" television station. Once the network was official--when both WABD-TV and WTTG-TV were commercial entities--the first program that both carried was a wrestling show from Jamaica Area (in Queens of New York), and it was an episode of a weekly series that both had been sharing for many weeks; it had been in September 1946 when WABD-TV and WTTG-TV began to carry fights and wrestling from Jamaica Arena at the same time--Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays. After WABD-TV and WTTG-TV--as noted on paper--were both commercial television stations tied together for at least some programs, the first Play the Game that could be on both stations showed up on December 3, 1946, and the first Serving Through Science that could be on both stations showed up on December 3, 1946, and the first Faraway Hill showed up on December 4, 1946, and the first Cash and Carry [or more formally Cash and Carry Quiz maybe) showed up on December 5, 1946. But were the shows on both stations? I have yet to determine that. The Western Movie thing is another matter. On November 29, 1946, a western or cowboy movie showed up on WABD-TV at 9:15 p.m., and it was called Frontier Justice, and a western called Feud of the West showed up at 8:00 p.m. on December 6, 1946, and Lucky Terror showed up on December 13, 1946, and Silver Devil showed up on December 20, 1946, and Roundup showed up on December 27, 1946. I stop listing movies. The dates reported were Fridays (and there would be more presentations on Fridays in early 1947 at least). I do not see why the "DuMont" people would spend money on television phone lines (coaxial and whatever, covering hundreds of miles) to AT&T or the Bell System--which was costly--to send television signals from, for instance, WABD-TV to WTTG-TV that had western B-pictures. I do not believe the western-movie thing on the Wikipedia page is a valid network show. Only a look at WTTG-TV television-program listings or logs would determine the truth, and, yet, both station could have aired a western movie--but a different western movie--at the same time, given movies from distributors were passed along on films, which got "bicycled" around the country from station to station. By the way, the western movies mentioned would show up on television in the early days of television in Detroit.
I have to present unexpected--to you--information. In 1946 and 1947, there was an ABC-TV network; however, it did not own a television station in New York, so the network had programs produced at stations tied to DuMont and NBC. For instance, Play the Game was officially an ABC-TV network show, even though it was on WABD-TV in New York. Incidentally, ABC-TV did not have an official owned-and-operated station till August 10, 1948, when WJZ-TV (later to be called WABC-TV, as it is today) was fired up (the first day of which had a special program). Play the Game cannot be called a DuMont Television Show, since ABC-TV was actually the owner and producer of the show, and WABD-TV was carrying the show as if it was an affiliate of ABC-TV, and thus I report that the series was really an ABC-TV show, even if it was aired on WABD-TV and WTTG-TV after November 29, 1946. In essence, ABC-TV distributed the show to at least WABD-TV, or WABD-TV had a "secondary affiliation" tied to ABC-TV for a very short while and a secondary affiliation with NBC-TV. I report, officially, ABC-TV dropped WABD-TV as an affiliate for ABC-TV programming in mid-January 1947, right before the station was about to go off the air for a while. Incidentally, a series called Melody Bar Ranch had two showings in January 1947 on WABD-TV, but that series was also an ABC-TV series.
Next, I move on to the next group of series on the chart from Wikipedia, but I am only going to cover the first two. The chart has Small Fry Club starting in early 1947 or so. Well, it was on March 11, 1947, when Movies for Small Fry showed up as a weekly one-hour series, and after a few weeks, it evolved into a half-hour show that was shown twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) [and other times changes would come over the next few years]; by the way, at least two New York City-based newspapers started out calling the show Movies for Small Fry, one of which was The New York Times, and, after a while, the listings would change to be Small Fry Club only. The other series was Birthday Party, and it showed up on May 15, 1947.
Hold it! I have a problem to report, which seems to have been given little talk by every one else over the years. I have, for example, typed out for my files the complete television-program listings for WWJ-TV in Detroit in at least 1947 and 1948, and WWJ-TV was the first television in Detroit, and I have television listings for the early days of other stations in the Detroit area in my files, and I have the material to well understand the local stuff of Detroit, and I have, of course, not covered other markets in detail--till now. I have listings for WABD-TV in related to 1946 and 1947 in the files now, and when I collected the material, such as from The New York Times, I found that for a while in early 1947, WABD-TV was off the air. For example, The New York Times had no listings for the station from Tuesday, January 28, 1947, through Monday, March 10, 1947, and I found (in a newspaper article) that for at least part of that time the station was off the air since at least a new antenna was being set up for the station [and new equipment was added to the transmitter--the final stage.]. If the station was indeed off the air in the entire period, the "commercial" DuMont Television Network was not officially on the air in the period, since only WTTG-TV was broadcasting. In essence, the "commercial" DuMont Television Network was on the air from November 29, 1946, to January 27, 1946, and was on the air from March 11, 1947, to September 15, 1955 [Note: That is the best that I know till I am certain, for example, about when WABD-TV was off the air.]
I report that I do not use modern books to learn the history of television; I use mostly old articles from such publications of years gone by, a few of which are Broadcasting, Sponsor, The Billboard, and Variety, the last of which is the subject of this paragraph. Variety can provide a bit of information about what were actually DuMont Television Network shows of very late 1946 and in 1947, especially the "Television Reviews," and this section provides information about actual DuMont Television Networks series. Variety reported that The Magic Carpet made a debut as a series on DuMont on Friday, May 16, 1947; the series had existed as local show on WABD-TV previously--in parts of 1946. Write You Are was a series that began on Monday, June 16, 1947, and the emcee was Marty Schrader. Bill Cullen was the emcee for Act It Out, which showed up for the first time on May 26, 1947. Parents, Please!, which was moderated by Mrs. Bess B. Lane, began to run on the network on July 14, 1956. On November 5, 1947, The Sylvie St. Clair Show with a hostess singing showed up for a short run on a weekly basis. Champagne and Orchids showed up for the first time on Thursday, December 18, 1947. There were other series from late 1946 to late 1947 that did not get reviewed, but if you see the chart tied to the Wikipedia piece, you will for the most part not find more series listed [Note: The exceptions are Mary Kay and Johnny and Charade Quiz, which showed up very late in 1947.]. Of course, the problem is that these shows may not have been on WTTG-TV, too, and the only proof will come through seeing program listings of WTTG-TV. I have to report that, years ago, Variety indicated "WABD-DuMont" or "WABD, DuMont" in the headings of reviews usually to indicate that things were network showings, but things are not always what they should be.
I found while looking at the television listings for WABD-TV and at articles in publications that there was a series called Look Upon a Star on the DuMont Television Network years ago, and the series is not listed on the graph in the Wikipedia piece, and it should be presented, since it really was a series. It had five showings, starting on Tuesday, October 7, 1947, based on information in editions of The New York Times. In one of the shows of October 1947, there was a dance sequence presented in which a white gal danced with a black guy, and that resulted in a very few number of people in the viewing audience presenting protest letters and telephone calls to those involved in making the episode.
Variety had reviews of some specials that were aired between late 1946 and late 1947, and I will only mention some, being more concerned with "series." On July 9, 1947, Fifth Avenue Ballet was presented, and it featured such performers as Valerie Bettis, Lucus Hoving, and Betty Lind. On September 15, 1947, Disc Bar--with Don Roper and Bette Flower--had a Monday night slot. The special for October 3, 1947, was The Gay Coed, featuring Sandra Barkin. The Bells, which featured such performers as Maurice Franklin, Abby Lewis, and William Kune, was presented as a live event on November 26, 1947. A Christmas Carol was the special put on the air on Thursday, December 25, 1947, and this program had John Carradine as the main performer, and this program was sent to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington from New York City (WABD-TV).
I now report on some one-shot shows that were not reviewed in Variety, and these shows were broadcast from Washington, D.C., for WTTG-TV and WABD-TV. On January 6, 1947, U.S. President Harry Truman gave a speech before the U.S. Congress, which was broadcast. On September 19, 1947, Elder Michaux and a Negro Choir performed on the network from Washington, D.C.. Ceremonies from Arlington Cemetery, which involved, for instance, U.S. Secretary of State George Catlett Marshall, were seen by people in Washington, D.C., and by people in New York City on September 19, 1947. An ice show from Washington, D.C., was broadcast on December 10, 1947.
It is possible that I have missed reporting on some series that were both on WABD-TV and WTTG-TV at the same time (and in 1946 and 1947, there was yet no good way in which to record a live program and then take that recording (film or Kinescope) to another place to air it), and only television listings for WTTG-TV will give the answers that will clear up the problem.
I do report that, for instance, other special programs and even a news program (such as that which featured Walter Compton reading news at WTTG-TV for the two stations) could have been reported here, but that reporting is for another time, and I did not talk much about sports shows, such as when all the wrestling and boxing shows that were broadcast on the network from Jamaica Arena (of Queens, New York) since I was focusing on non-sports shows in this document.
I announce for the final record here--The "commercial" DuMont Television Network came together for the first time on November 29, 1946, and the end of the network was on September 15, 1955, and there is vagueness about all the series that were truly DuMont Television Network series because television listings in old newspapers are weak.
Hey, I have to report that I cannot for this document report whether or not the graphic by Wikipedia has other problems, given it lists a lot of shows, so, for now, you only know about problems tied to the beginning and the ending of the graphic, and you will have to be careful using the graphic as a source of television history.
[Note: Many people of today say that the DuMont Television Network was the "fourth network," but that is not quite right at least in relation to being a "commercial network," and I have more on the subject in Television History and Trivia for June 10, 2025.]Announcement: Recently, I have added some new documents to the collection of my documents at the website for The Hologlobe Press. One of the documents is entitled A Document that Dispels Myths and Nonsense of Science-Fiction Books, Movies, and Television Shows (A Logic Puzzle), which can be reached through this Myths link. Another document is And So You Think You're Going to the Moon, Mars, or the Stars..., which can be reached by using this Moon link. And yet another of the documents is entitled And the Stupid Women Shall Lead--and Lead Every Good Individual into Shit, Driven on by Communism, Feminism, and Defective Female Beliefs and Little-Girl Thinking, which can be reached through this Stupid Women link. And here are other documents--A Review of What Television Controlled by Socialists and Communists Worked to Sell as Truth in Relation to the U.S. President Donald J. Trump Impeachment (at Impeachment) and T.H.A.T. Special Edition--The First Helicopter-based Traffic Reporters on Radio for the Detroit area of Michigan (at Helicopter Traffic).
Let me see. Can I find any new ugliness on broadcast network television? The answer is yes. Recently, The CW network began running Sherlock & Daughter on Wednesdays. ABC-TV has Paradise on the air Monday evenings.
Oh, I have to say that Fox TV is still running The Cleaning Lady, and it is the ugliest series on broadcast network television probably. Alert: Missing Persons unit is also something ugly on Fox TV.
And ugliness is coming more and more to the subchannel universe--at least of the Detroit area. "Nosey" (Channel 50.5) is an ugly channel, or the channel is aimed at gutter-type people, especially those in the inner cities, with the types of shows it carries. Recently, Channel 18.7 got filled with a channel that is like Nosey (and I have yet to get the name of it). Both channels have stuff that fits in the product category having Maury and Jerry Springer-hosted shows. Elsewhere, Channel 31.5 has "Busted", and it is a big-time waste, such as by having what seems like endless car-pursuit stuff, which reminds me of the car-pursuit event involving O.J. Simpson several decades ago. Oh, Channel 3.1 has "Binge," and it is not necessarily an ugly channel, but the programming technique is ugly or cheap--it is the endless showing of only a few (or a couple) series of all the series that have been made over the last seven decades or so, one of which is The Real McCoys [Note: I have to report that the Channel 3 group is a mess, since it has 13 channels running, but I can only get one with audio and video, which is Channel 3.1, and that means the runners of the group (the television station) are screwed up, having not addressed a big problem--most channels only have audio--tht has existed since at least September 2024.]. On April 28, 2025. "TBD" became known as "Roar" (such as on Channel 50.4 in Detroit), and it is ugly for having a lot of showings (such as in the evenings) of somewhat old Saturday Night Live episodes, and Saturday Night Live is a series that is loaded with bad musical performances and a lot of political crap instead of good music and real comedy.
To me, a bunch of other channels offered as subchannel programming from the local Detroit-area television stations are a waste. For instance, there are a bunch of "crime"-type channels, airing crap like that seen on Dateline (of NBC-TV) and 20/20 (of ABC-TV). The shopping channels (some of which exist on more than on channel) are a waste. There are several religious channels, which I never watch. Channel 15.2 (tied to WHPS-TV) is a crummy television service, and when the local programming is on, it is loaded with stupid people, passing along idiocy or teaching idiocy.
To me, television-station owners have no skill at attracting viewers for the long run. For instance, if your station has a bunch of channels (a channel group), the first of which is tied to a television station signal proper, and if you air ugly channels on related feeds, people will not get in the habit of tuning in to see what is on all the channels regularly, and people will give up on the television station signal proper. Here is an example. If you have a channel 5 or Channel 5 group, and the first offering is WVES-TV (on Channel 5.1), and if you also air Busted (Channel 5.2), Roar (Channel 5.3), and Nosey (Channel 5.4), you will attract jackass viewers and lose most people, and WVES-TV will be on a path to disappearance and the ratings gutter.
Well, that is enough of that.
It is time for Looking at the Movies. On August 28, 1966, WKBD-TV, Channel 50, was a young television station--the youngest television station--in the Detroit area, and it was just getting into the habit of airing movies [Note: The station had started out as an entity offering up a lot of sports programming, which was the theme for about a year.]. At 7:00 p.m., on August 28, 1965, the station began to run a movie called Japanese War Bride (of 1952). Today, you can see that movie through YouTube, and it features such performers as Shirley Yamaguchi, Don Taylor, Marie Windsor, and Phillip Ahn. By the way, Japanese War Bride is a movie that was released during the time of the Korean War. So, in the near future, think about seeing Japanese War Bride to get a feel of what WKBD-TV was doing in 1966 [Note: Today, I do not watch WKBD-TV for anything regularly--it is very rare when I stop in at the channel.]
Remember: The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan was a television show that was produced across the pond and shown on CBS-TV in the late 1960s, and I urge you to find The Prisoner on DVD, maybe from a library, and watch it, and you should show it--all the episodes--to teenagers, or buy it as a present for teenagers.
Stay well!Vic
P.S.: You are urged to see my document entitled One of "The Rules of Man"--A Rule About Health Care that No Politician May Supersede with Law, which can be reached through this Rule1 link. I have deduced that all the Democrats and most Republicans support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and have no intention of killing it, though it should be killed for violating, for one, "The Rules of Man." For example, Republicans Jeb Bush and Chris Christie support the rotten law, and that is one reason that I define them as stupid men and not men who are good enough--in this day and age--to be the U.S. President. I note that the "mandate"--which forces everyone to buy government-approved health-care insurance--violates one of "The Rules of Man," and it is a rule that is attacked in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Anyone who supports the "mandate" is not a good enough person or a smart enough person to be the U.S. president--the mandate is "enslavism," and the "mandate" allows government people--who are often usually bad people, as history shows--decide what health care a person can get, and that is bad.
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Date published: May 10, 2025The Hologlobe Press
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