The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1929-1961 - Hardcover

Kisseloff, Jeff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670864706 ISBN 13: 9780670864706

Publisher: Viking, 1995

Synopsis

Based on interviews with the technicians, producers, and actors behind TV's early programs, the author creates an entertaining history of the medium, from the inventor of the laugh machine to the quiz show scandals. 20,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

About this title

From Booklist:

Television's early years may not interest MTV and X-Files fans, but nostalgic fortysomethings--and teens who have discovered The Honeymooners and Lucille Ball on cable--will find fascinating behind-the-scenes details and a solid outline of television's technological, economic, and public-policy context in this enlightening oral history. Kisseloff, who gathered Manhattanites' memories from the 1890s to World War II in You Must Remember This (1989), met with hundreds of famous and not-so-famous people from television's first generation--as well as relatives of pioneering inventors and entrepreneurs like Philo Farnsworth, "General" Sarnoff, and Ernst Alexanderson, who can no longer speak for themselves. Readers will recognize some names and "voices" : on-screen favorites like Hugh Downs, Betty Furness, Rod Steiger, Barbara Billingsley, and Studs Terkel and well-known offscreen figures like Red Quinlan, Pat Weaver, Arthur Penn, Don Hewitt, and Fred Friendly. But The Box is most valuable in blending the memories of recognized pioneers with those of dozens of invisible foot soldiers in TV's early struggles. A welcome, insightful supplement to Erik Barnouw's classic histories of the medium. Mary Carroll

From Library Journal:

Kisseloff's (You Must Remember This, LJ 5/15/89) history of television's formative years will be of interest to historians, TV buffs, and the general public. The more than 500 interviews the author conducted are presented as an entertaining oral history. Those who contributed were there when the first televisions were invented, when TV shows were first developed and the performers became household names, and when others were blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. They include actors, writers, inventors, directors, and producers. Especially interesting are the sections on the blacklists of the 1950s and those on the early, live television shows, where anything could and did go wrong. A good complement to Michael Ritchie's Please Stand By: A Prehistory of Television (LJ 11/1/94), this is recommended for both public libraries and special collections.?Judy Hauser, Oakland Schs. Lib. Svcs., Waterford, Mich.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0670864706
• ISBN 13: 9780670864706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 624