NBC Spectaculars 2-page ad
 

From the Saturday Evening Post, October 30, 1954

Neat ad! I wonder when they started using the "Living Color" tagline?

"Dozens of Americans will thrill to NBC 'Spectaculars' in living color!" :D

:lmao:


One of the funniest jokes I heard about the slow sales of color TV's was on a clip of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show in the early 60's. He said, "I have a special message for everybody watching the show tonight on a color tv...goodnight Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff!"

I was 10 years old - was gaga over the black and white TV exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, and had a galena crystal radio that magically pulled radio out of the air with no batteries or power plug when you fiddled the cat's whisker just right. Can't recall hearing "Max Liebman presents," and not sure if our family watched any of these shows on my Grandma's black and white Emerson.

Larry Wolters wrote in the Chicago Tribune Sep 26, 1954, that the first Spectacular, which cost $250K, starred Betty Hutton and ran opposite Ed Sullivan (which cost $50k to produce), failed to hold the interest of audiences.
I'd bet we were watching Sullivan at our house. Trib says: Hutton drew 25.9% of operating TVs during its last half hour; Sullivan 71.5%. 57.5% of total receivers were in use during the programs.

Funny, but true, David. And of those dozens, color set owners in the Pacific time zone viewed these live color programs at 4 or 5pm in the afternoon or delayed broadcast in prime time via terrible quality b&w kinescopes. Attached photos, from my archive, are from the L.A. TV Guide for the Betty Hutton color spectacular, NBC's first, from Sept. 12, 1954. Notice the early,non prime time, broadcast time for the live to west coast telecast. Advertisers were not happy with this.

-Steve D.

Thank you for posting that ad, old_tv_nut. I always enjoy seeing such items.