Glass eye invasion : television sets invade the midcentury home / Steve Kosareff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kosareff, Steve, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Television--History.

Television.

Television--Receivers and reception--History.

Nineteen fifties--Social life and customs.

Nineteen fifties.

Physical Description:

238 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Californis : Glass Eye Publications, [2025]

Summary:

"Strap on your beanie, spin the propeller, and travel back in time when the first television sets invaded American homes. It's 1952 and you've heard of television. You've even seen a demonstration at a county fair-but you don't own a television set. You'd have one--except for one little problem: there isn't a television station in your town. Fortunately, the FCC has just lifted its freeze on new television stations and your city is planning to be the first out the gate with television. Unfortunately, so does every other city in the United States. The television set gold rush is on! Unlike anything before it, including the radio, telephone and telegraph, the television set transformed the American home forever in ways both good and bad. It altered family relationships, both within and without the family. Lives were now scheduled around favorite television programs which, unlike today, could only be seen during their original broadcasts. Visiting with friends and relatives took a backseat to viewing television either, in avoiding other people, or inviting them in to commune in front of the television set. Early owners hosted planned, and sometimes spontaneous, television parties. Many people believed television would be the end of polite conversation and, worse yet, civilization. Television sets were a national conduit for conversations on child rearing and education; provided respite for people who were physically challenged; and even tested one's vision before sending them to the optometrist for glasses. Television sets acted as channels for conspiracists who thought their sets were watching them or receiving signals from outer space. Broken television sets tested men's electronic repair abilities and provided more than one lonely housewife a repairman to pay her attention. The one thing all these early television set owners had in common was that, no matter how hard they may have tried, they couldn't live without their television set.The Glass Eye Invasion had conquered America." from 1st page

Contents:

Foreward

Introduction

Sarnoff's fantasia

In vitro: TV during WWII

Comin' your way

Tonight's the night

It's TV time

So you're gonna buy a TV

Where do we put the TV

The glass eye invasion

Impressionable minds

Look out for TV tinkers

You are looking at 1965

Acknowledgements

Notes:

""THE GLASS EYE INVASION--TELEVISION SETS INVADE THE MIDCENTURY HOME" can be traced back to a paper I wrote in college for an American history class about the early days of commercial television. As a child who grew up with television in the US the medium was part of my DNA. I have always been interested in its cultural history investigating it at every opportunity and book store and library I came across. Once the Internet came along I discovered others who shared my passion. I began to plan an American television museum, a facility that would celebrate, not the medium's programming nor its technology, but its culture. The museum developed into a book manuscript, one that I sold to Chronicle Books and was published in 2005 as WINDOW TO THE FUTURE--THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION [SET] MARKETING AND ADVERTISING.Shortly thereafter I began to plan a second book about the cultural impact of the first television sets in American homes. With side trips to other projects, including a documentary and a true crime book, I finally began to develop THE GLASS EYE INVASION in earnest three years ago. I began designing immersive layouts for the interior pages, a first for me, putting my graphic design capabilities to great use. I also decided to use only original research to write the manuscript, drawing on first-hand accounts from archival newspapers and magazines.THE GLASS EYE INVASION tells the story of the cultural impact of seeing television for the first time at fairs and exhibitions and all its attendant hoopla. The book looks at the explosion of sales when, at its peak, there was more desire that sets to be had and the shady sales practices incorporated to put a set in a family's home. I look at the planning and execution by a family formoving a television set into a home for first time. Where would the family place its set? What effect would it have on family members, particularly children? What would happen when a family was the first in the neighborhood to own a set? How would a set owner control those living nearby who just happened to drop in every night to watch television? How would television viewing impact children? How would one plan a television party when they wanted the neighbors to come over?I did a deep dive to tell the untold stories of television at the 1939 New York and San Francisco World's Fairs and other exhibitions across the country. I tell the untold story of the 1947 RCA Television Caravan which crisscrossed the country with twelve men and women in six Jeep station wagons over bumpy two-lane roads. I fully reveal the 1950 Television Manufacturers Association's infamous "There Are Some Things A Son Or Daughter Won't Tell You!" ad campaign which raised such a hue and cry across the country that Eleanor Roosevelt weighed in. Since television sets of the era relied on tubes that frequently burned out, I discuss infamous repair practices and scams that television set owners faced. Would poor old Dad (who knew little about electronics) take a crack at repairing the set or would the family let a repairman take a crack at them? Finally, what did the future hold for television? None other than RCA Chairman David Sarnoff who started the commercial medium, weighed in with his predictions bringing the story of THE GLASS EYE INVASION full circle." from Amazon

ISBN:

9798349348662

9798349244155

OCLC:

1520197805

Publisher Number:

90104328683