T.H.A.T.
(Television History and Trivia)from
www.hologlobepress.com
by
Victor Edward Swanson,
Publisher
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Special Important Announcement
I have videos on YouTube, and they are history pieces, and they can be found at the channel for "The Hologlobe Press" (the search term). One of the videos is about my making of a model of 40 Mile Point Lighthouse, and other videos are about Ms. Anna May Wong, Ms. Sandy Benson (The Naked Lady of The Soupy Sales Show of KABC-TV), and WAYN-AM (of Wayne State University). By the way, you can use this Videos link to read about my videos. And I still have a document at the website for The Hologlobe Press entitled A COVID-19 Document that Shows the Rottenness of the CDC, Many in the Medical Community, Many in the Media, and All the Democrats, such as Gretchen Whitmer, Andrew Cuomo, and Joseph Biden, and the document can be reached by using this COVID-19 link.
Special Note about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
I have this special section now, and it shows off ugliness. On January 1, 2026, the now mayor of New York City made a number of public comments, working to sell rottenness to all who would listen. The man was and is Zohran Mamdani, a hard-line communist. One of the comments or proclamations from Zohran Mamdani on that day was--"...The cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family, because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the healthiest few....". The previous sentence shows the rottenness of Zohran Mamdani. It once was people only had a many children as they could take care of or could afford, and it was not up to the government--such as through welfare systems--to pass on money to select people from others so that people could have endless numbers of children. Such a system--of giving money to start families and run families--creates an endless cycle of no restraint on the number of people born, and that is bad. Zohran Mamdani said, in general, about his policies--"...These polices are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom....". Do you see the corrupt idea of "freedom" that Zohran Mamdani is working to sell--Your "freedom" will come through money from the government, and your "freedom" will come free. In addition, Zohran Mamdani made clear--"...To those who insist the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this--no longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers lives....". Who decides what improvement is? What coercion and pressure will City Hall--Zohran Mamdani--bring to bear on specific people? Yet, the biggest rottenness from Zohran Mamdani on the day came through this statement--"...We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism....". I can talk about "warmth." In January 2026, water systems and natural resources were defective in Iran, such as in the Tehran area, because of defective management and corruption related to the Iranian government, and the money system was in crash mode and people protested in the streets, and the government killed at least 40,000 by late January 2026, and one killing spree result in nearly as many deaths in one period has had been done by Nazis of Germany in 1941. Meanwhile, Russia--Putin--was pushing the "warmth" of death on his people yet; there was a faltering economy in Russia because of money going to the war effort--which was Putin's wish to make Ukraine communistic and "free" people of Ukraine from the ways of non-communism--and some 1.2-million Russian military had been killed or damaged in Putin's effort to get stuff for him and his name.
[Note: On January 2, 2026, the Detroit Free Press published an article called "Mamdani sworn in as NYC mayor" [Tsvetkova, Maria. "Mamdani sworn in as NYC mayor," Detroit Free Press, 2 January 2026, p. 9A.]. The story was actually a story from Reuters. In any case in relation to who made the story, the story did not mention any of the quotes, especially the one focusing on "frigidity of rugged individualism," that I have in the paragraph above. In addition, an article called "Mamdani takes office and promises new era for NYC" [Cuevas, Eduardo, and Rebecca Morin, Dan Morrison, Trevor Hughes, and Mike Sinder [of USA Today]. "Mamdani takes office and promises new era for NYC," Detroit Free Press, 3 January 2025, p. 3A.] did not present any of the quoted material.]Extra Note about the Somali People in Minnesota
On February 3, 2026, I happened to take a friend to a cardiologist in the Detroit area (a replacement cardiologist for one who had recently left the area and the state). We happened to get talking with a guy who a little while ago had lived in the Minneapolis area of Minnesota with his wife. We ended up talking a bit about politics--he was anti-socialistic and anti-communistic. The man mentioned how recently he and his wife took a son to an appointment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, traveling from a suburb, and, on that trip, the man and his wife decided to kill time by going to a coffee shop for coffee, and, later, they would take the son home. The two suburbanites walked into a place, and it was filled with Somali-type men--there were no women. It must be remembered that people from Somalia are heavily into Sharia (rotten Islam), which has women as second-class units. Immediately, the two potential customers were understanding that they were not welcome in any way. Some men sort of moved away. Some men sort of began to move toward them. The guy and his wife soon felt well-unsafe. Fortunately for them, one man--who was not necessarily working to be a friend--sort of became like a blocker and urged the them to leave, probably more concerned about not having an event go on that might attract police or result in police having to show up than about the guy and his wife. The guy and his wife did not try another coffee shop or whatever in the area--they sat in their vehicle until the son was ready to head back for home. By the way, the guy is now living in the Detroit area, and he had recently taken up seeing the cardiologist that my friend was seeing for the first time, and he noted that, after retirement, which was to come soon, the guy and his wife might end up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which was one of the few places that the guy and his wife were thinking about then being at in the near future. And I add, early in the conversation tied to politics, an older gentleman who was sitting near us got up from his seat and move to another seat across the room (and while playing with his wireless device). To me, it looks as if the Minneapolis area has bigger problems than the media is willing to mention in any way; for instance, do not expect 60 Minutes to cover the like themes.
- - - T.H.A.T., Edition No. 262 - - -
When I do research about television, I do not do research in books as a rule, especially somewhat newly published books, since I do not trust writers of television history of the last few decades, knowing the media has done a lot of crap in reporting on history. What I do is look at actual programs or at old newspaper articles and magazine articles put down at the time of special television shows, since they were made at the times things that I want to know about were happening. In recent weeks, I have been doing research on television-program suppliers of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and a goal has been to see, for instance, what actual movies or cartoons were being pushed out by distributors--who years ago were mostly in providing product to movie theaters--to television stations, such as the "experimental" television stations of the 1930s and very early 1940s. One day I came across something goofy. On June 24, 1939, the Buffalo Evening News had a story under a column called "Short Wave Listener" (by Earnest H. Roy), and it was on page 5, and a part of the story was this text about television images--"...In a description of the original unit the inventors stated that the 'high definition' images consisted of 20 lines per inch. Today the NBC station W2XBS radiates a total of 441 lines per inch for 'high definition' television broadcasts. The 441-lines has been set up as a standard for clear picture transmission." Do you see any problem with that? If you do not, I am not surprise since no one--in essence--talks about lines of television screens in this day of "high-definition" television--digital television broadcasting. Actually, in the last half or so of the 1900s, commercial television was analog in nature mostly, and the standard for the broadcast screen was 525 lines. Today, true high-definition of 1,080 lines. Yes, back in 1939, W2XBS (which is a part of a big discussion later in this edition) was doing 441 lines on the total screen. That is, the station was putting out a video image/screen that was made up of 441 lines and not 441 lines per inch. If it would have been 441 lines per inch and if you would have had a ten-inch screen (from top to bottom), you would have had a screen of 4,410 lines. The "lines per inch" should not have been written in the article. Oh, well! This edition of Television History and Trivia is made up of a bunch of lines, and the number can be different depending on what the document is seen on, such as a hand-held phone or a computer, and this edition is a special edition, since one long segment looks at television in New York City in the 1930s and is not focused much on Detroit television, which I am well verse in, or national television from 1941 to today.
Because a television image of today can have a lot more lines per inch that it did in, for instance, the 1950s, it does not mean that what is presented on television today is anything better than what could be shown on television in the 1950s. I still have a fond memory of seeing episodes of The Amos 'n' Andy Show of the early 1950s, especially the episode in which Andy gets to be a character witness for the Kingfish in a court case involving the Kingfish. When Andy is on the witness stand, he delivers such a wonderful and funny line, and it is a real yock-getter, which is hard to find in comedy shows or sitcoms today. In addition, by the way, Alvin Childress (playing Amos) was a true likable and wonderful and pleasant main character for the series, often acting as the introducer to the story to come. In the 1960s, some people who saw the series--though not necessary real television reviewers--helped to get that series taken out of syndication, but, fortunately for all who were involved in making The Andy 'n' Andy Show and others, such as me, episodes of the series can be found on, for example, YouTube. The series shows off the fun that television was years ago on a regular basis and the niceness of television of years ago. Today, "woke "-type reviewers, such as socialists who get to be television reviewers, put down the series. I say that The Amos 'n' Andy Show (in relation today) is a better series to see than the new series called The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, which showed up on NBC-TV for the first time on Sunday, January 18, 2026, and you might have missed it since TV Guide did not have the show listed in the prime-time television grid for the day, and I say that you missed nothing good if you did not see it, and if you saw it, you saw a bad show. Before The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins came on the air--at least the first episode for the public, given it has yet to run regularly on NBC-TV), it was being touted as a comedy. It was scheduled to air after a professional football playoff game. I got a videotape and videotape recorder ready so that I could get a sample of the credits (the opening ones and the closing ones) for my files. I state that The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins was a promoted to be a sitcom, but it was not funny in the least. Most of the time, the main performer--Tracy Morgan (as Reggie Dinks)--looked angry and talked in an angry manner. There was no pleasantness in the character. Erika Alexander played Reggie' former wife and his current agent, and the character often was angry, too, though the audience got a bit of a smile from the character while she was sitting with Reggie and a character played by Daniel Radcliffe at the end of the episode, but that is no reason to return to see her again in another episode. Precious Way (a sort of cute gal) played Reggie Dinkins' current squeeze, and the character as played by Precious Way came off as a super-shallow one-note character that really has no long-term value to bringing comedy to the series. [Note: "Precious Way" comes off as a stupid name for an actress.] Daniel Radcliffe played a documentary film maker, and his character came off as a little boy. Bobby Moynihan was a sidekick for Reggie, and the sidekick bit was "flat." There was no great "running gag" in the episode. No comedy segment or scene was developed from a simple premise or line. After seeing the show (a day or so later), I went on line to see what reviewers said of the series--in so-called reviews. I used "the fall and rise of reggie dinkins review" as a search term, and I was given a bunch of reviews. The top one on the list (on the first page) was from Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter [Fienberg, Daniel. "'The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins' Pilot Review: Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe Make an Appealing Odd Couple in NBC'S Sports Mockumentary." The Hollywood Reporter, 18 January 2026, 6:45 p.m..]. For the most part, the review from Daniel Fienberg was no review; it was mostly talking about the story line of the show, and it did not put down the show. Another review called "The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins Pilot Review" Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe Are the Duo You Didn't See Coming." [JeRee. "The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins Pilot Review" Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe Are the Duo You Didn't See Coming." TheTVCave, 18 January 2026.] promoted the show as good, pushing out such nonsense--as I see it--as "....sports comedy with heart, chaos and just enough self-awareness....". It was a stupid review, and the author (JeRee) came off as just another shill for Hollywood, not wanting to make waves. Another review was a pseudo-intellectual piece or a social-commentary piece from a man named John Edward Betancourt of something called "Nerds That Geek." The article--called A Review of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins--and the review seemed to be more a piece that was done to impress others about how the author can put words and sentences together--it was not really written to show what the television episode was really like. The reviewer pushed out such things as "...lot of heart....", and the so-called review noted how Reggie was a "...loveable football" guy, though--I report--that loveableness was not evident on the television screen. That is enough from what I found as reviews. Generally speaking, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins has the same tone and feel as that of, for instance, Stumble (of NBC-TV today) and The Office (of NBC-TV of years ago), and it is a flat and often unlikable in tone with quirky characters who people laugh at (in a mean sense) and not laugh with (in a fun sense, like laughing at likable Jed Clampett), and, for instance, Precious Way's character in The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is so much an over-the-top cliché that it is not even funny. The reviews gave the impression that viewers will tune in for more (such as starting on February 23, 2026, when the series starts the regular weekly run), and it will probably be a hit, but I say that it does not take much for a series to be regarded as a hit today, given networks do not look for the same numbers related to ratings and share as they did years ago, given how many shows can be seen at the same time of day each day (syndication, streaming, broadcast, cable....). Also, to me, it seems the viewing audience of the broadcast networks is mostly made up of not-so-good people or easy-to-please people or dumb people, and they can put up with crappy television, such as the weekly Saturday Night Live and the late-night talk shows, all of which are not funny and likable as a rule. Yes, people may watch The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins and make it a hit, but, in truth, the first episode was not comedy and not likable, and the first episode was more ugly television. I would rather see Amos and Andy and Sapphire and the rest of their gang than see Reggie and his group of crap, which is tied to Little Stranger, Inc., 3 Arts Entertainment, Bevel Gears, Means End Productions, Streetlife Productions, Inc., and Universal Television and had Tina Fey as one of the seven "executive producers" listed on the opening credits.
So, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will soon be off the air and off CBS-TV (in the late-night period), so, it seems to me, Stephen Colbert has to get on all the socialists and communists and U.S. haters as he can on the show from now till the show disappears so that political rottenness can be taught the viewing audience. On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, Stephen Colbert once again hosted--happily--the hard-line communist and socialist known was U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (a rich guy, by the way). During the program, Bernie Sanders passed along his usual bullshit about the country and such, and Stephen Colbert sided with the rottenness. I saw the first segment only, and that was enough to turn me way from the remainder show. I have examples of some of the crap from Bernie Sanders in the first segment. Bernie Sanders said, for instance--"...We are living in an unprecedented extremely dangerous moment in American history...." and "...While Trump is at war with Europe, because he doesn't like democratic societies, who does he love?....". Bernie Sanders noted that Donald Trump loves the dictator of Saudi Arabia, who killed an American journalist. Bernie Sanders worked to sell the idea that Donald J. Trump is a dictator, but Bernie Sanders gave no proof, and Bernie Sanders said--"...The people in the United States of America do not want to live under an authoritarian society. They do not want to live under an oligarchy society....". The quote in the previous sentence should make you laugh and sneer, given Bernie Sanders stands for communism and socialism and such, which are enslavism forms of government, like that which exists in Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, and other places, and those places are "authoritarian societies." Of course, by the way, recently, Bernie Sanders has shown he well supports Zohran Mamdani, the communistic mayor of New York City. Bernie Sanders also said on the late-night show--"...An oligarchy is a nation where a small number of incredibly wealthy people control the economy, control media--we have some experience with that right here at CBS--ah, and they control the political system....". It must be noted that a small group of rich people does not control the economy of the United States of America, so Bernie Sanders pushed out bullshit, but that control happens in such places as China and Russia, such as with government-run companies or hard-line government-controlled companies. In the U.S., customers in making decisions about what to buy and not to buy--given all the choices and competitors that exist--help control the economy. In the U.S., there are numerous big businesses and middle-sized businesses and little businesses, all of which are competing for customers. In the U.S., governments have control of businesses to some various degrees, based on taxes and rules of conduct and such. In addition, businesses from other countries can do business in the United States of America, pushing their products and services or whatever. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is a part of the political system, and yet he said that we have a "corrupt political system" today, hinting at Donald J. Trump's work. At the time, Bernie Sanders was talking, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had about four months of on-the-air time left, and it was the 19th appearance for Bernie Sanders on the late-night series, as Stephen Colbert noted. How many non-communists and non-socialists and like people had The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had? Stephen Colbert even was well proud of his having Bernie Sanders on for the nineteenth time. By the way, in a few days, another well-known supporter of communists and like people would be on the show--that person would be Jane Fonda (the rich actress). It seems very likely that Stephen Colbert will use his last days on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to put on as many communism-supporting and socialism-supporting persons as possible, giving the persons a good chance to put down Donald J. Trump and the ways of non-communism and non-socialism (the United States of America).
On Saturday, January 24, 2026, around midday, it was on the broadcast schedule for ABC-TV that ABC-TV would air a basketball game at 5:30 p.m. involving the Golden State Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the game got canceled by the NBA a little before 5:30 p.m. because of a shooting and riot-like event in Minneapolis, where the game had been scheduled to take place. To fill time, ABC-TV aired a special called Breaking News, and it probably started at 5:30 p.m., but I only know that it was on the air from a little after 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.. The special was really like the same newscast---anchored by Whit Johnson--run in half hours, and it focused on the same subjects, such as the incident in Minneapolis and the big ice storm/snow storm/rain storm that was crossing the country from Texas to Maine, and some of the people, such as reporters, seen in each half hour were Pierre Thomas (a hard-line black communist, whom I have talked about in the past), Selina Wang, Eric Rasmussen, Aaron Katersky, and Robert Boyce (a former chief of detectives). The program came off as some propaganda, given little was then known about the incident in Minneapolis, and the segment on the incident gave the impression that ICE (a federal-government entity) was clearly in the wrong, saying over and over again through at least the start of four half hours, but the programs should have been a lot more neutral, and, anyway, there was no need to run at least four half-hours about the same thing for the viewing audience--the story about the incident in Minneapolis was not a national emergency that had to be covered right then over the over, such as with the same shallow information. Oh, the broadcast did report that the shooting victim had a gun and extra ammunition with him. The program did not make clear that the shooting victim (Alex Pretti) was a jackass for having taken a gun to a place where people were protesting and, in essence, in the way of federal law-enforcement people who were doing work set down in federal law. People would learn though better reporting later, such as over the next few days, that the shooting victim had harassed ICE personnel a few days previously and had attacked an ICE-related vehicle. To me, even having a report--the same thing essentially--about the weather in each half hour was unnecessary, given local stations with newscasts had more than enough reports about it, and there were television-based weather services, such as Fox Weather and the Weather Channel, for people in the country. Breaking News came off as a big deal over nothing or at least little, and too much air time about the shooting was used when too little was really known--there was not enough data to make the story viable yet and not give a wrong impression (a wrong impression that was, in essence, beaten into the heads of viewers).
Okay, I have a connection to the radio business and, in turn, the music business, and a bit of proof can be found by seeing my two videos about WAYN-AM of Wayne State University that exist that the channel for "The Hologobe Press" on YouTube, and one of the videos shows how I did Top 40 radio at the university about 50 years ago, and since the recording in the video was made, I have kept in touch with what is going on the the music industry, which has been going down in quality since the rise of rap music (the beginnings of which can be traced to the 1970s). Today, while traveling long distance, I regularly listen to radio stations, and at least one radio station plays what can be called the modern pop-music hit stuff, such as that by Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys and Justin Bieber, and a lot of the music is barely so-so, lacking variation, such as in beat and drum sounds or tone and instrumentation, and often the singers are barely "c" grade and are often yellers, which create notes that irritate me. On Sunday, February 1, 2026, CBS-TV aired another edition of the Grammy Awards, and I did not watch the show, having no real reason to, given I expected a lot of bad music to get awards, such as rap crap. The program was hosted by Trevor Noah, and it had performances by a lot of so-called good performers (but not as I note), and, for instance, the show had Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Lauren Hill, Justin Bieber, Slash, and Sabrina Carpenter. By the way, another reason I did not watch the show is I knew many of the performers were and are stupid people, as noted by what they never have done in life, such as in relation to building something (which is beyond them). Mostly, the knowledge in the minds of musical performers is related to music and making music videos and music presentations--it is all about them, too. After the television special was done, I heard about crap that took place on the show, and I hunted down clips to prove the case. I discovered a bunch of so-called great performers had "ICE Out" pins on their clothing, because they were protesting the idea that people associated with ICE (a federal government entity) were following the federal laws and working to get rotten people out of the country, particularly those called "illegal aliens." Incidentally, I did not see the Grammy show since I knew many of the performers scheduled to be on the show were and are big supporters of communistic and socialistic politicians in the country. For instance, Billie Eilish (a gal, by the way) has been a big supporter of Kamala Harris, who is a truly rotten woman. The program also had the jackass known as Bad Bunny, even the name chosen by the performer to identify the self shows the performer is a goof-up and crap, and, yet, Bad Bunny was chosen to be the main performer for the half-time show of the Super Bowl game of February 8, 2026. Well, based on clips of the special that I saw, I can say that the Grammy show was yet another ugly piece of television. For one, Justin Bieber looked like a "creep." Cher screwed up in relation to announcing a winner. There were those rap-type performers who look like thugs, of course. When the winner of the "Album of the Year" award was announced, a camera focused on the winner--Bad Bunny (who was sitting in the audience)--and Bad Bunny looked like an arrogant and egotistical jerk. Lauryn Hill looked like a blob. The biggest piece of crap and ugliness came from the freak called Billie Eilish. Hold it! I looked at the Wikipedia document about Billie Eilish, and although I do not trust Wikipedia when it comes to television history information (such as the date on which the DuMont Television Network ended), I did get the impress from the document that Billie Eilish is truly a freak and stupid woman. When Billie Eilish won an award, she got up on stage, and one thing that she said was designed to put down "ICE," and, for example, she said--"...fuck ICE....". Back in the early 1970s, an American Indian gal made a political statement during a Grammy show, but she had enough sense to not say--"fuck.". Once again, a broadcast commercial network--particularly CBS-TV--showed off the ugliness of television and the entertainment industry of today!
I must be remembered that music does not require high thought; it is a collection of notes and some words (often not many and often only a handful). For example, many pieces are less than six-minutes long in the pop-music world. In addition, two or three chords can make up a song, and a person may even hit on magic, but it is no sign of a genius mind related to matters of life and the world. It is commonplace for musicians to have an exaggerated image of how smart they are, based on an ability to make songs, usually short songs but it can be long songs (like a symphony). And musicians can have an inflated sense of importance and thinking ability, spurred on by adulation of fans and great amounts of money received.
On February 8, 2025, NBC-TV aired a "Super Bowl" event, which began at noon, starting with another annual Road to the Super Bowl presentation, which came off as a little lame, lacking a bit of showmanship, which past programs featuring the "Sabol" family in the production had more of, and the roughly eleven hours of programming had a number of musical performances. The first music came in the form of a filler spot--during the Super Bowl LX Pre-Game Show--featuring Teddy Swims (who looked like a fat slug), and it was only a promo spot, noting he was on a Peacock presentation at the time. Next, Teddy Swims (a big supporter of the Democratic Party) was given a full musical segment a little later in the pre-game part of the day, and it was a flat presentation, and it was even a somewhat depressing presentation. The Super Bowl LX Kickoff Show began at 6:00 p.m., and, during the opening introduction, I heard "...dreamer's disease...." as part of a song. That line was made famous (of sorts) by the musical group called the New Radicals a number of years ago, and the band featured, for one, Gregg Alexander (a big supporter of communism and socialism), and the band had Danielle Brisebois who had been a regular on All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place, which featured Carol O'Connor, a big supporter of the Democratic Party, but I note that the musical lyrics "dreamer's disease" was not from a recording by the New Radicals. Green Day (a musical group that is a big supporter of socialistic and communistic causes) performed, and the performance was hard rock, and the leader singer yelled and did not really sing, so the presentation came off as nothing great--in was mostly noise. Soon, Brandi Carlile (a hard-core lesbian and supporter of communists and socialists in politics) did the the song called America the Beautiful, so a person who supports anti-American themes sang America the Beautiful. Charlie Puth did The National Anthem, and it was a lame presentation, being non-standard. A little after 8:00 p.m. (Detroit time), the half-time show began, and the featured performer was Bad Bunny (a big supporter of the Democratic Party, which is a communistic and socialistic party today), and Bad Bunny, who would grab his crotch during the performance, is a slug, and the performance was done in Spanish, and if it were done in English, it would have been bleeped at various spots, though it should have been bleeped at times in the Spanish form. Some of the lines of the performace--when shifted to English--were "...Let the ones I already fucked smile...." and "...She fucks in the Audi...." and "... Puerto Rico's so fucking great...." ["Bad Bunny -- Super Bowl LX Halftime Show ft. Lady Gaga & Ricky Martin (English Translation)." genius.com, 8 February 2026.]. Of course, the presentation had a lot of so-called dancers, and, at times, the young gals looked like a bunch of raunchy sluts shaking their butts. Two of the secondary main performers were Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga, the latter of whom is a big supporter of communists and socialists of politics, making her another anti-United States Constitution person. Hold it! Yes, Ricky Martin is another supporter of people like Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, both of whom are communists and such. The song done by Lady Gaga had this for the title--Die with a Smile. Does not that title sound nice and happy and romantic (I say in jest)? In the end, Bad Bunny came off as a bunch of flash and even an arrogant jackass, and he did not come off as a "showman" giving something that should be remembered musically for years, and, really, all the performances of the day were mostly forgettable. Incidentally, the English translation material that I saw seemed to hint it was all about him really, showing the big ego of a gutter kid or gutter boy [and I will not say "man," since he came off as a gutter type slug].
While the half-time show of the "Super Bowl" was going on on NBC-TV, I was in the Detroit area, and, in that area, people could see an alternative musical presentation presented by an entity called "Turning Point U.S.A." (which had been founded by Charlie Kirk, who had been assassinated in September 2025), and it was available through, for instance, "streaming" entities, and I saw it presented by the Charge! subchannel (existing on Channel 50.3 in Detroit). The presentation was a part of a one-hour special edition of a program called The National News Desk, which ran from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; in essence, The National News Desk is in relation to television is a syndicated block of newscasts. Actually, the special program could be called--The National News Desk Presents The All-American Halftime Show. It was a one-hour show, in which a news block surrounding each end of the concert, which ran (based on my not perfectly set clock) from 8:13 p.m. to 8:33 p.m. (Detroit time). The newscast blocks had Dee Dee Gatton (a well-shaped gal) as the main anchor, and the other news persons were Ryan Smith, Kristin Frazao, Geoff Harris, Emma Withrow, and Taylor Murray (a gal). The concert had Brantley Gilbert, Kid Rock, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett, and, for a few moments, a cellist and a violinist (Antoni Martin and Allison Martin) performed. The string-playing duo showed the main feeling of the show, and it was overall a slightly depressing show. The show lacked "showmanship," which might make it overall a fun and happy presentation, but that is the state of modern pop music and modern country music today. The show did not have happy songs that a person, such as a person not so in tune with country music, could remember as a good alternative to the NBC-TV offered musical show. The end of the program, for example, did not have all the artists show up for happy sing-together time. I say that the alternative halt-time show was a failure, in that it did not make new fans out of those who were not into the stuff regularly put out by the performers, and the show did not blast away the NBC-TV show by being a truly better show, and the show was not give a person a real reason to switch out of the NBC-TV presentation.
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!]Where to start this important section is vague to me. I can report that in Television History and Trivia #242, I talk about the first movies to be shown on television in the country, and the first in the East region of television land was The Police Patrol, which was shown on W2XCD (the Passaic area of New Jersey) in parts from April 6, 1931, to April 11, 1931, and the first to be shown in the West region was The Crooked Circle, which was shown in the Los Angeles area of California on March 23, 1933, and I have the two regions listed, since the country in 1931 had two main regions of television. It was in the late 1930s when broadcasting movies on television became a regular thing, but that it was when "commercial" television service had yet to arrive and "experimental" television service was the only thing. This section of this edition of T.H.A.T. is about my looking for the names of film distibutors--who were offering films for broadcast on television--in the early days on television--but the discussion, which focuses on the late 1930s and 1940s for the most part, is incomplete because my ability to reach sources that have old newspaper articles and old magazine articles was incomplete, given, for one, newspaper databases on the Internet do not have all--as a rule--the editions of particular newpapers that could help me, and, also, I do not live in the New York City area where I could maybe find helpful information in publications not on the Internet, such a on microfilm or paper in libraries.
So, recently, I have been working to discover the names of companies that supplied movies and especially cartoons to television stations in the early days of "commercial" television, which began in 1941, and between 1933 and 1941. I note that the cartoons were those made for movie theaters in at least the 1930s and 1940s, and most were not part of the big studios. In 1949, Walter Lantz did have editions of Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda on the DuMont Television Network station in New York City (WABD-TV) through the program called the Small Fry Club. I have yet to find old publications that clearly list all the cartoons that were being shown on television stations--the few that existed--in the 1940s, but I know about some, such as the episodes of "Tom and Jerry" (the two guys (a little guy and a tall thin guy)) and not the cat and the mouse, who became super famous for M-G-M. In the case of movies, I have been able to tie a few movies to particular distributors, all of whom were mostly involved in supplying movies to movie theaters or were trying to get their products (made by other entities) on movie theater screens.
My searching so far has resulted in the story that I have for you now.
Driving the search for information was a look at Unity Television Corporation (of the early 1950s), DuWorld Pictures (of the 1930s), which was called only World Pictures in the late 1930s, and a few other entities. A man named Arche Mayers was involved with Unity Television Corporation (as the founder) and with World Pictures and DuWorld Pictures (as mostly as sales manager). For this discussion, I drop talk about the history of Unity Television Corporation (which, in essence, ended up being absorbed by Screen Gems in the middle of the 1950s, during the start of the big days of syndicating movie packages to television stations in the country, which would end in about the 1990s). DuWorld (a name that might have come about through the idea of movie "of the world" was around for a few years in the early 1930s, and it was mostly involved with distributing to movie theaters such things as foreign movies, especially from France, and film shorts, and it looks as if the company sprang up in 1934, being run by people who had already had experience in the movie-distribution business, and one guy was Irving Shapiro.
Now, I come to this. Recently, I came across an article called "Fast-Moving Unity Scores Solid Third Position in Polling" ["Fast-Moving Unity Scores Solid Third Position in Polling." The Billboard, 21 March 1953, p 12.], and it made me aware of some history--maybe [Note: Actually, the page of the publication and a few others in the publication had a bunch of information about several big-name distributors and the products that they had.]. The article passed along the idea that Arche Mayers was involved in selling the first movies to television in 1936, and the contract involved World Pictures and the National Broadcasting Company (or, informally, NBC), which had an experimental television called W2XBS in New York City, New York (a tower on the Empire State Building), and it was set up so that five movies were in the contract, and each cost NBC $50.00 [each of which was probably going to be aired once and which seemed to be the case based on my searching for broadcast times of movies]. One of the five movies was Grand Illusion (which was a French movie called La Grande Illusion in France and which had been made in 1937).
The information in the 1953 article had me wondering if the information was useful or correct, given, for one, some 15 years seemed to have passed since the event took place, and so I went searching. For one, in 1936, World Pictures did not exist, but DuWorld Pictures existed (the name would be changed from the latter to the former in a while). In 1936, Grand Illusion (the French film) did not exist yet, and I discovered it was not offered to theaters by World Pictures till December 1938 (December 25, 1938). Also, in 1936, NBC did not really have an experimental television station running programming, such as a bunch of movies, for people to see, but it did have W2XBS on the air from time to time for experiments in television broadcasting.
It was on April 30, 1939, when W2XBS began broadcasting on what could be called at least a somewhere regular basis, and on that day, it had an afternoon broadcast featuring U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and an evening program featuring Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians (a big-band group). I discovered by looking in newspapers databases on the Internet that W2XBS from April 30, 1939, to December 31, 1939, offered all types of programming, though not every day. The station presented such things as "film shorts," live play productions, remotes, sports games (such as football and baseball games), special live events (such as the premiere of the now-famous film called Gone with the Wind), and movies (some of which had been made in this country and some of which had been made elsewhere).
The 1953 article made me wonder what the other four movies supplied to W2XBS could have been and who supplied them, so I worked to see program listings in old New York City-area newspapers, and I went looking for the movies that DuWorld Pictures and World Pictures were involved with in the 1930s (since Arche Mayers was tied to both companies).
Look at what I have found so far in relation to what can be called "feature films" for DuWorld Pictures and World Pictures. In early 1934, DuWorld Pictures was dealing Black Dawn, Shadow Laughs, and Big Town to theater runners, and, later in 1934, the company also had these films--Beast of Borneo, The Blue Light, Girl in the Case, Tell Tale Heart, Shame of a Nation, Temporary Widow, Hollywood--City of Dreams (an all-Spanish talkie), Romance in Budapest, Agony of the Eagle (a French product), and a few others. In late 1934, the company created a three-pact with Jean Cacon de Cavaignac (of Franch) to handle French films that Jean had in the United States of America. In the 1935-1936 period, the distributing company had Iceland Fishermen (a French film), The Fighting Betac, The Story of Rose, The Last Wilderness, and La Dame aux Camelias (a French film), and Sans Damilie (a French film). In 1937, I found the distributing company had The Crimson Circle, La Tendre Enemie, The Monks, The Life and Loves of Beethoven, The Ski Chase, Annie Laurie, Revolt in Morocco, The Secret of Stamboul, Ninety Degrees South, My Song of Love, Street without a Name, Legong, Frasquita, Opera of Paris, Don Quixote, Nanook of the North, Man Who Change His Name, World In Revolt, Crainquebille, Pecheurs D'Islande, Marie, Kocha-Lubi-Szanuje, Dawn to Dawn, Lot of Sodom, Bride of Samoa, and a few others. In 1938, the distributing company had Grand Illusion, Hatred, Witch Night, Unsolved Crime, Valse Drillante, La Maseillaise, and Monastery. In 1939, Forbidden Music (called Land without Music in the country where it was made--England), Betrayal, The Mill on the Floss (with Geraldine Fitzgerald), Lost on the Western Front, Spy of Napoleon, Prisoner of Corbal, The Headleys at Home, The Patriot, and a few others were in the hands of the company.
I report that, in the previous paragraph, I used "a few others," and I used it to say that I may be missing some things.
With the list of movies in mind, I was able to then see what movies tied to World Pictures and Arche Mayers showed up on W2XBS in 1939 or not "1936" (which was the supposed date when World Pictures sold movies to NBC for use on television), and I was looking for four other movies in particular that were supplied to W2XBS in 1939.
Here is what I found through a struggle to get editions of old newspapers with television listings for W2XBS to show up on my computer screen. I found that Grand Illusion was broadcast on August 18, 1939, starting at 8:30 p.m.. and it was the only movie that I knew was truly tied to World Pictures-held movies broadcast by W2XBS in 1939. I did find, by the way, Secret of Stamboul on the station on February 2, 1940, and I did find The Mill on the Floss on the station on February 3, 1940, starting at 8:30 p.m.. So at least over a one year period, three movies that I knew about were shown on W2XBS.
I found that too--On July 19, 1939, W2XBS was scheduled to air The Wave (a Mexican film about fishing), and my research showed that the movie was provided by a company called Garrison Film Distributing.
A problem exists. I found that a bunch of other movies were used by W2XBS before Grand Illusion would be used on W2XBS.
Hold it! I have was unable to call up any information about W2XBS for May 1, 1939, through July 4, 1939 (so far). But I note that it seems each movie broadcast in the first year for W2XBS in broadcasting regularly was only run once, so, for instance, Grand Illusion was not aired during the blank period too.
I now present some known dates for movies. The first movie that I know about is Heart of New York (with Al Jolson), which had been originally released to theaters as Hallelulah, I'm a Bum!), and it was shown on July 5, 1939. Adventures of Chico was on the air on July 7, 1939. There Goes the Bride was shown to viewers--the few that existed at the time--on July 12, 1939. Over the forthcoming days, the station aired French movies and Mexican movies and U.S. movies.
Given what I have found so far, I have so conclusions. World Pictures did not sell movies to W2XBS (NBC) in 1935; it did sell stuff in 1939. I know what three of the films were. I know not if World Pictures was the first company to sell stuff to NBC, especially since, in 1939, W2XBS aired movies from other distributors, such as Garrison Film Distributing. You cannot tell me, if W2XBS was getting some movies for free to air in 1939, it would only pay World Pictures for movies. It seems very likely that Garrison Film Distributing was paid for, for example, The Wave. Would you pay for a movie in 1939--during the days of non-commercial television--when you could get others for free, and would you expect anyone to give you movies for free? It is possible World Pictures was not the first company to sell movies to NBC (W2XBS), given other movies were aired from other people before Grand Illusion would be shown. But, of course, I know not what happened in June 1939 and May 1939 with movies on W2XBS. I cannot say that the first foreign movie on television in the U.S. was shown by W2XBS. I do know the types of movies that were shown on W2XBS, and some of those are--Ballerina (a French movie with Mia Slavenska), Peg of Old Drury, The Dude Ranger, Carnival of Flanders, Mademoiselle Mozart, Hell's Angels (with Jean Harlow), Death Goes North, Three of a Kind, My Heart is Calling, and The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes.
What movies that I found made me think I would rather turn on a television set to see those movies than to see almost anything that is broadcast on prime-time television for the broadcast networks today.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).
I thought it would be appropriate to have Looking at the Movies be a special edition this month, and I thought it should focus on a movie that was broadcast on W2XBS in 1939, and, by the way, I guess that--based on a little information--in 1939, movies really did not show up regularly till July. Between July 5, 1939, and December 1939, W2XBS aired a bunch of movies--at least 23 movies, one of which--Hell's Angels (with Jean Harlow was the main performer)--was shown in two parts (using two days). On August 8, 1939, beginning at 8:30 p.m. and running for an hour, Mademoiselle Mozart was on the air, and it featured an actress named Daniella Darzieux, a very pretty and elegant woman, but that movie is not available for free on YouTube for you to see, so I have to pass on that movie. I get to choose from movies that were from England, France, Mexico, and the U.S.A.. I have chosen to do a U.S.A. movie called Swing It, Professor. That movie was shown on Wednesday, September 20, 1939, starting at 8:30 p.m., and that is--what?--about 87 years ago. In the movie, only one performer is really familiar to me, and that performer is Milburn Stone, who ended up being a regular performer on the famous television series called Gunsmoke. The two main performers are Pinky Tomlin (a comedian) and Paula Stone (a cutie).
On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, WXYZ-TV, Channel 7.1, presented another yearly Spotlight on Technology special related to the Detroit Auto Show (beginning at 7:30 p.m.), and I saw the program. It was another so-what? show, given so much just seemed to be related to more ways to increase the cost of vehicles, and, really, it is more and more junk that a person really does not need in a vehicle, such as game stuff. Why did not the show talk about the over-bright headlight problems with new cars today? Oh, in editions of Michigan Travel Tips, I have talked about the over-bright-headlight problem with cars. I have also talked about how those tire-pressure sensors just add more expense to cars. For decades, we did not need tire-pressure sensors. I talked about tire-pressure sensors in a recent edition of Michigan Travel Tips. I found, recently, for a 2016 GM Acadia, a programmed tire-pressure sensor--bought at O'Reilly's--can cost from $50.00 (for not a true OEM unit) to $95.00 (for an AC Delco unit), and if you need four sensors (which a person will likely need when one goes to crap), you can guess a price needed to change four (which must include installation). By the way, I did buy recently (on eBay) a scanning/programing unit for tire-pressure sensors, so I have one. I say again, in the special, a bunch of guys and gals associated with the auto industry got to be interviewed, but much of what was presented was of little value to the average person. What is the average price of a car? Is it not around $50,000 now? A few years ago, you could get a house for that! Oh, I can say that the special called Spotlight on Technology was technically sound, unlike the Red Carpet Charity Preview program that the station had put on the air the previous Friday, which had had a sound problem for one segment (featuring Keenan Smith and Alicia Smith).
Hey, let me put in some stupid stuff, which is not stupid stuff from me, and all the stuff is tied to television stations in Michigan, and some was touched on in the previous edition of Television History and Trivia. In the previous edition, I reported that, for one, WDIV-TV, Channel 4.1 (broadcast) is using this slogan to promote the new department or newscasts or news people (not "nude" people)--"Because your stories are my stories.". Well, I did not report that WXYZ-TV, Channel 7.1, has been using a similar theme recently--"Your stories are our stories.". I guess Channel 4.1 is outdoing channel 7.1, because Channel 4.1 also has this stupid thing--"Expect more.". Oh, recently, I saw something stupid related to promoting The Pulse on WJBK-TV, Channel 2.1, and, in the promo, Roop Rap (the host of the weeknight series--at 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. (the latter a repeat)) is explaining that the series is supposed to be a political talk show in which all sides will be represented and the show will not be a place for yelling and such, and Roop Rap says that the show is designed to be a "safe place." One side--the Democratic Party side, often represented on the series by the highly rotten Debbie Dingell--is a communistic and socialistic and Sharia-tied and Islamic-tied political party, which means it supports "enslavism" type of politics for "we the people." So, everybody has to be nice on The Pulse. Such stupid and jackass stuff that promotes! [Roop Raj should have left the theme out.] Then I have a theme not tied to Detroit-area television. Up north in Michigan, people can see a station referred to as "9 and 10 News," and, for a while, I have been exposed to a crappy promo--at least in my eyes--that the station runs to promote the station, and the promo is about "respect and dignity for all" and about "This is not a platform for cruelty" and "Better starts with us." For a television station to have such a promo hints that the management is into that "woke" crap and is pandering to socialists and communists and liberals and like crappy people, and the station is making social commentary that is icky, and the female announcer comes off as a bit unpleasant and preachy.
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.
copyright c. 2026
Date published: February 10, 2026The Hologlobe Press
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