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May 27, 2005
Election Night Gem
I was screening tapes of election nights past at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York this week, as part of the research for a new book. Among several gems I found was a priceless moment from the CBS election night coverage in 1956, the first election night broadcast hosted by a not yet world famous Walter Cronkite.
As Cronkite updates the returns in the Eisenhower-Stevenson presidential race, he holds an earphone to his ear just like Garry Owens used to do in Saturday Night Live. Behind him, many young men in suits stand on a catwalk, apparently working on some kind of giant tote board that we really can�t see. Then Cronkite transitions to the next segment. �Now let's go over to our Univac Corner and DOuglas Edwards� says Cronkite. Cut to a shot of Douglas Edward sitting in front of several giant magnetic tape drives, with a huge Univac computer console to his left. But Edwards isn�t quite ready to speak to us. In fact, he�s on the phone. Nor does he hang up when the camera comes to him. There is a slight pause as he listens, and replies �Yeah. � Then he hangs up the phone with a very gentle�almost intimate�� bye.� Only then does he turn to camera and say in his TV voice: �Just checking on time, Walter, I get two minutes to tell you about the latest Univac projections on the Presidential race�.�
In this early use of computer projections, the networks don�t quite have the language down. Edwards refers to the computer projections as �guesses,� which, while accurate enough, would probably drive modern TV managers crazy.
Later on in the broadcast, I kid you not, it looks as if a janitor walks in behind Walter as he is talking and empties the trash!
TV aint what it used to be!
Posted by rickbeyer at May 27, 2005 01:35 PM
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