There’s nothing quite like sitting down with an inquisitive pre-adolescent grandchild to remind us of just how much the world has changed since we were their age.
I never had these kinds of conversations with my grandparents, so I’m thrilled that this young human being cared enough to pry into the springtime of my life. And his curiosity launched me on a journey back through the years to uncover some long-dormant memories that otherwise would have been lost to the passage of time.
Inevitably, the inquisition turned to what we did for entertainment back in the day. Once I’d exhausted my supply of stories about the street sports and board games that filled our endless summers, this child of the digital age steered me in a completely different direction. In the absence of Nintendo, Xbox and several hundred TV channels, it must have seemed to him that I grew up in another universe. No television? Families sitting around listening to a radio? I must be kidding.
Dark ages maybe, but television was on the horizon, and the thought of having what amounted to a small movie theatre in your living room was powerfully seductive even if that luxury came with a price tag unaffordable for many.
My childhood home was on a hill that overlooked the neighbourhood, giving us a bird’s-eye view of everybody’s business. We would keep a running account of the rooftop antennas as they appeared – a new one every week or so. Not nosy. Someone has to keep track of these things.
Then it finally happened. A big console model TV arrived in our rec room. It was a lot of furniture with a tiny sixteen-inch screen, and we could get only two black-and-white channels – both from Buffalo. The reception was often so bad that it was like watching a blizzard.
Our first favourite show was Dragnet, a cops and robbers drama well known for its theme music: DUM-DA-DUM-DUM and Sergeant Joe Friday’s iconic “This is the city.”
Variety shows were big too. Syndicated columnist Ed Sullivan hosted a show that bore his name. Sullivan’s wooden onstage presence notwithstanding, The Ed Sullivan Show had a huge following. Much of the credit for its popularity and longevity must go to Sullivan’s ability to book some of the leading acts of the era including Elvis Presley, Teresa Brewer, Buddy Holly, and Rosemary Clooney.
Early TV also gave us professional sports. The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports featuring boxing from Madison Square Garden was a must-watch in our house due largely to my father’s days as a professional boxer. Thanks to Gillette, we got to see some of the biggest names in the sport – Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, and Willie Pep – guys we would otherwise have only been able to read about.
Major League Baseball was hosted by Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. The former was a retired pitcher, primarily with the St. Louis Cardinals, and Reese was the old Brooklyn Dodgers’ shortstop. If you ever get to hear tapes of their commentary, I think you’ll find Dean’s malapropisms hilarious. He “swang” the bat. He “slud” into third base.
When Hockey Night in Canada arrived on television in the early 50s, broadcasts didn’t begin until the second period. The thinking was that, if people could watch an entire game on TV for nothing, they wouldn’t pay to go to the games.
My goodness, how television has evolved in the roughly 70 years since we got our first set. From a couple of snowy black-and-white channels on tiny screens to crystal clear 4K pictures in brilliant colour on screens that seem to stretch from here to Rochester, we have come a long way. And those two lonely Buffalo channels, the Adam and Eve of TV stations in our area, have gone forth and multiplied, providing us with hundreds of choices on satellite, cable and streaming. The options are mind boggling, but is the content any better than it was seven decades ago? My answer is a qualified yes, but it can still take some effort to sift through all of today’s offerings to find something worth watching. There’s a lot of excellent programming out there. A great deal of junk too.
Oh yes, and that grandson? I think I lost him halfway through this discourse. I can only hope you have a longer attention span.
Story by:
George Smith
Illustration by:
Charles Bongers
