TV Life stuff

[Peter Paltridge]

Part 12 of TV Life is now up.

I think by "Toll TV" they mean pay-TV. It's awfully early in history for anyone to be thinking about that.

 

[Chris]

I got some more of these TV Life magazines. So expect more parts next week.

 

[TheMisterFree]

I think by "Toll TV" they mean pay-TV. It's awfully early in history for anyone to be thinking about that.

there were attempts even earlier. Zenith had a service called "Phonevision" that was active in the early to mid 50s. There was also a Paramount-backed service called "Telemeter" where you dropped coins into the receiver to access programming.

 

[RandomMe]

there were attempts even earlier. Zenith had a service called "Phonevision" that was active in the early to mid 50s. There was also a Paramount-backed service called "Telemeter" where you dropped coins into the receiver to access programming.

It could have been the first, if not, one of the first pay-TV services in the western states, not long after Phonevision in Chicago (though I could infer that Toll TV was from somewhere else and I'm sure it wasn't the Zenith one). The same clipping also mentions that I Love Lucy was being picked up by the novel ITV network in the UK set to start on September 22, 1955.

The Flintstones also mentioned a closed-circuit boxing match, so I think that in the early-mid 60s, these systems were growing in the United States, which meant that the writing team was aware of the rise in popularity of this proto-PPV.

 

[Chris]

Part 13 is up.

TV Life in the '50s.

www.atari2600land.com

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Part 13 is up.

TV Life in the '50s.

www.atari2600land.com

I wonder how long Swan Island held the record for Largest Heated Building.

Darn you, now I'll never know how wacky that cake is.
Can't be wackier than Kitty Litter Cake.

 

[Chris]

I can scan the cake recipe if you'd like it.

 

[RandomMe]

OK, judging by the dates in part 1, the magazine was first published in February 1953

KPTV had been around for only five months at the time TV Life was first published, and KOIN wouldn't sign on until October

The new issue uploaded is just before the first one ever published to the site

By the time of its merger into TV Guide, KLOR was operational (until 1957)

It seems that TV Life could not afford full-color photographs, which the second-to-last issue said that TV Guide being national already afforded it for its covers

 

[Chris]

Part 14 is now up for your perusal.

TV Life - part 14

 

[Peter Paltridge]

If "Super Circus" is correct KPTV was showing programming from both NBC and ABC. It would eventually show neither; KGW and KATU would get them eventually, but neither exists yet. Well, KGW existed as a radio station; that's how they can have only three call letters.

I'm mystified by all those phone numbers with just four digits.