Great Moments In Television History #20: Eisenhower In Color


The very first color television transmission occurred 94 years ago today, in the UK.  Scottish engineer John Logie Baird, the man who built the first television, was also responsible for showing that images could be broadcast in color.  

Unfortunately, no footage or record of that 1928 transmission remains.  Instead, the earliest surviving color videotape recording is one of then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower, delivering remarks during the inaugural color broadcast of WRC-TV on May 22nd, 1958.  The broadcast began in black-and-white before switching to color after 15 minutes.  Of course, only the people who could afford a color television could experience the switch but, at a time when most people still had a black-and-white television and even color films where the exception instead of the rule, this was still many people’s introduction to the idea that television could regularly be viewed in color.  

Even Dwight D. Eisenhower was impressed.

Previous Moments In Television History:

  1. Planet of the Apes The TV Series
  2. Lonely Water
  3. Ghostwatch Traumatizes The UK
  4. Frasier Meets The Candidate
  5. The Autons Terrify The UK
  6. Freedom’s Last Stand
  7. Bing Crosby and David Bowie Share A Duet
  8. Apaches Traumatizes the UK
  9. Doctor Who Begins Its 100th Serial
  10. First Night 2013 With Jamie Kennedy
  11. Elvis Sings With Sinatra
  12. NBC Airs Their First Football Game
  13. The A-Team Premieres
  14. The Birth of Dr. Johnny Fever
  15. The Second NFL Pro Bowl Is Broadcast
  16. Maude Flanders Gets Hit By A T-Shirt Cannon
  17. Charles Rocket Nearly Ends SNL
  18. Frank Sinatra Wins An Oscar
  19. CHiPs Skates With The Stars

12 responses to “Great Moments In Television History #20: Eisenhower In Color

  1. Pingback: Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 6/27/22 — 7/3/22 | Through the Shattered Lens

  2. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #21: The Origin of Spider-Man | Through the Shattered Lens

  3. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #22: Steve Martin’s Saturday Night Live Holiday Wish | Through the Shattered Lens

  4. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #23: Barnabas Collins Is Freed From His Coffin | Through the Shattered Lens

  5. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #24: Siskel and Ebert Recommend Horror Films | Through the Shattered Lens

  6. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #25: Vincent Price Meets The Muppets | Through the Shattered Lens

  7. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #26: Siskel & Ebert Discuss Horror | Through the Shattered Lens

  8. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #27: The Final Scene of Dark Shadows | Through the Shattered Lens

  9. Pingback: Great Moments in Television History #28: The WKRP Turkey Drop | Through the Shattered Lens

  10. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #29: Barney Pops On National TV | Through the Shattered Lens

  11. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #30: The Greatest American Hero Premieres | Through the Shattered Lens

  12. Pingback: Great Moments In Television History #31: Rodney Dangerfield On The Tonight Show | Through the Shattered Lens

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.