Gene Autry & Television in 1936

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by JB5pro

I think most original viewers of that film would have not believed they would have such a device any time soon. It makes me think the producers expected TV to be available much sooner than '47.

The concept of television was being kicked around since WW1 and maybe before that. I remember seeing a magazine cover dating from the 20's showing someone watching a football game on an oval shaped color TV set, a little like a Philco Predicta. And the football players not having real helmets or other protective equipment used today.

We almost ended up with television in 441i and an amplitude modulated sound subcarrier, but WW2 happened. Imagine all the interference into that AM sound from the video sidebands leaking in when the set isn't well tuned. Some radio sets were touted as "television ready", with an audio jack, or were they expecting to get the AM subcarrier and the radio would tune it in as if it were an actual radio station? Maybe, if the set had shortwave bands, you could tune in the 4.5MHz sound subcarrier directly off a tap on the TV set IF strip (or whatever the sound carrier's frequency was back then).