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RCA established a laboratory in Astoria, Long Island, three miles from the
transmitter at the Empire State Building, where companies could bring
receivers for testing. One night in April, 1953 the RCA Princeton labs were
conducting critical tests with test patterns, while receiver engineers asked
repeatedly for live pictures. When the transmitter became available about
12:30 a.m., the engineers requested that live talent and some fruit be
televised. George Brown of RCA noticed a can of blue paint nearby, and
hastily painted the bananas blue. The receiver engineers spent a half hour
unsuccessfully trying to get all the colors correct.[1] An apocryphal story
tells of one manufacturer's crew (Zenith) at Astoria who were so certain of their
receiver design that they turned off the set, said "They have the phase
wrong!", and went to a late dinner while waiting for the studio to correct
their error.
[1] George H. Brown, "And Part of Which I Was", Angus Cupar Publishers,
Princeton NJ, Revised Ed. 1982, pp.225-226
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