From the paper today:

Flashback! Today in History! June 25, 1951

The first commercial color telecast took place as CBS transmitted a 55-minute special from New York to four other cities.


Are there records indicating what was broadcast?


polaraman

I thought it was "Amahl & the Night Visitors"...IIRC, that was from '51, too, seems like IT was in color...

Check Ed Reitan's site. He has a screen shot and info about the show.

Steve

According to the next day's New York Times, the show featured Arthur Godfrey, Faye Emerson, Sam Levenson, Ed Sulivan, Isabel Bigley, Robert Alda, Garry Moore, Durwood Kirby, the Bil Baird marionettes and the New York City Ballet. Per the Times: "Yesterday's show indicated for the first time that the facial appearances of actors in color TV are highly sensitive to lighting, particularly when the actors move around. The flesh tones varied considerably when the personalities moved their heads."

The link to Ed Reitan's page on the first broadcast is:

http://novia.net/~ereitan/CBS_Color_Programming_rev_h.htm

Here are some New York Times articles:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/cbs_articles.html

...

I thought it was "Amahl & the Night Visitors"...IIRC, that was from '51, too, seems like IT was in color...

This version of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" was broadcast in B&W on NBC, Christmas eve 1951.

Steve D.

I thought Ed reitan had a picture of a CBS color broadcast from back in the 40's? I think by 1951 CBS had tested several color broadcasts of it's failed system.

Can you imagine seeing color televison in the forties or even the early 50's I'm sure most people would think that aliens came to visit and left behind one of their tv sets

There were many test broadcasts of early color, going back as far as the 40s. I think what we are discussing here is the first commercial color broadcast.

I thought Ed reitan had a picture of a CBS color broadcast from back in the 40's? I think by 1951 CBS had tested several color broadcasts of it's failed system.

As Steve McVoy posted, there were many test color broadcasts in the 1940's. Here, courtesy of Steve's ETF site is a Sept. 1941 Life Magazine article on the progress of television.
It includes color pictures of the CBS field sequential experimental color tv tests.

ETF - Life Magazine - Sept. 22, 1941
Address:http://www.earlytelevision.org/life_9-22-41.html

-Steve D.

I have quite a number of Life magazines, but not that one. Have to keep my eyes open at the flea market. Great to see Gaxton & Moore, a great unsung comedy team. That demonstration had to be an amazing thing to see way, way back in '41.