The other day I was listening to a group of young men, young in relation to me, reminisce about their favorite early television shows. The shows they were talking about were shown in the late 60’s, and early 70’s. I interrupted them, and told them, if you want to know about early television shows, you have to go back to the 50’s, when movie serials became programing for early television.
It was in the late 40’s when television became a reality in my neighborhood. One of our neighbors bought one of the first television sets. There was this big box, sitting on a table, with a tiny screen. My iPad is bigger than that screen. But it seemed like a miracle. It was back and white, a little fuzzy, and the reception kept on going in and out. I can’t remember what was broadcast, but it didn’t matter.
We didn’t get a television set until 1950. My father wisely waited until the technology progressed. Our first set was an Admiral Console, 12-inch screen. This was a tremendous advancement in technology. We even had an antenna, which he mounted on the roof, just above our living room.
Now about the programming. RCA which dominated radio, had two NBC networks in 1939. In 1941 CBS was established. In 1948 there was the Texaco Star Theater, starring Milton Berle. Howdy Doody was already shown in 1947. There were also two 15-minute newscasts in 1948. NBC NEWS with Douglas Edwards and NBC’s Camel News Caravan with John Cameron Swayze. He was required by the tobacco company sponsor to have a burning cigarette always visible when he was on camera.
That still left a lot of empty air time. The solution was the film serials, and B-western films produced, and shown in movie theaters, by the film studios in Hollywood. I can’t recall any particular western actor, or any outstanding plot. They all seemed to be very alike in their stories.
But it was the movie serials, that caught my attention, and memory.
The program consisted of five serials. Each serial had its own day when it was shown, and of course each show ended with a cliff-hanger. What intrigued me the most, were four of the shows that had the most bizarre story-lines.
The first was, “Gene Autry Radio Ranch.” It was originally shown in theaters in 1940, but there were some story elements from “The Phantom Empire,” which was shown in 1935. Cowboy singer Gene Autry stumbles upon a civilization, now buried beneath his own Radio Ranch. The Muranians have developed technology and weaponry such as television and ray guns. Their rich supply of radium draws unscrupulous speculators from the surface. The peaceful civilization of the Muranians is corrupted by the greed from above, and it becomes Autry’s task to prevent all-out war, ideally without disrupting his regular radio show.
I remember that the Muranians would put these helmets on captives, which would render them as zombie slaves. Of course, Gene Autry always sang at least one song.
The second was “Flash Gordon,” starring Buster Crabbe. There were three film series, “Flash Gordon,” “Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars,” and “Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe,” which were shown in the late 30’s, and 1940, and were based on the comic strip. This was primitive science fiction space travel, and adventures. The other actors in the cast were, Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless, Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, and Frank Shannon as Dr Hans Zarkov.
One memorable feature for me was the music they played, to introduce Ming the Merciless. In fact, classical music was used in many of these serials, and B-movies. Since I was brought-up on classical music, it was always easy for me to recognize the pieces used. Although it took me fifty-years to finally find out Ming’s intro music. It turned out to be from, Franz Liszt’s, Les Preludes Symphonic Poem. Talk about a quest!
The third serial was “Tim Tyler’s Luck.” This one is really off-the-wall. You have this young kid, Tim Tyler, traveling about Africa searching for his father in gorilla country. Not weird? But he’s traveling in a tank. Picture this tank zipping through the jungle. Then he meets Laura, the heroine, who is after the bad guy Spider Webb, who has framed her brother. Also, Spider Webb causes the death of Tim’s father. To make matters worse, all the gorillas, all in very bad gorilla suits, are always after Tim. This was a 12-episode serial originally shown in 1937.
The fourth serial, which on the surface seemed normal was “Don Winslow of the Coast Guard.” The 13-chapter serial was originally shown in 1937. Don Winslow, who has been promoted to Commander, is fighting the mystery villain The Scorpion. Who is once more working in cahoots with the Japanese. Winslow’s mission is to prevent the Scorpion from severing vital supply lines to America’s armed forces. Now that’s an interesting story line since we weren’t openly fighting the Japanese until 1941. What puts this in a defiantly science fiction category is the underwater aircraft carrier!
The last serial during the week was “Boston Blackie.” This seemed to be the most rational of the other serials. Columbia Pictures launched its “Boston Blackie” series in 1941. Chester Morris stars as the title character, Horatio “Boston Blackie.” Blackie, as a former professional thief who is now working as a sort-of freelance adventurer/detective. Blackie’s character is just barely on the right side of the law, preferring not to get too involved with the police.
This is what I watched every day in 1950. I guess it was the story-lines that intrigued me, and kept my memory of each of these serials, to this day.
