Скачать или смотреть "Miss U.S. Television Grand Finals" 1950 featuring winner Edie Adams (Edited Version)

[From "Kovacs Corner" on YouTube.com] - In one of the few surviving kinescopes from the DuMont Television Network, here is it's production of its first (and last) "Miss US Television Grand Final". DuMont, like RCA, initially was in the television broadcast business in addition to manufacturing television receivers. Company founder Dr. Allen B. DuMont and his staff were responsible for many early technical innovations, including the first consumer all-electronic television set in 1938. The company's television sets soon became the "gold standard" of the industry. A few months after selling his first set, DuMont opened an experimental television station in New York City, W2XWV. Unlike CBS and NBC, he continued experimental broadcasts throughout World War II. In 1944, W2XWV became WABD (after DuMont's initials), the third commercial television station in New York. Soon after his experimental Washington station signed on, DuMont began experimental coaxial cable hookups between his laboratories in Passaic, New Jersey, and his two stations. One of those hookups carried the announcement that the U.S. had dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. This was later considered to be the official beginning of the DuMont Network. Fast-forwarding a bit, this program was held at the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1950 and it was claimed to represent the results of auditioning local talent and spending "weeks and weeks of searching, and weeding out, in the major television centers of the United States today". The contest actually searched for talent only the markets that were represented by the fledgling DuMont Television Network. As you can see, the production values are quaint when compared to today. Most notably you will see that the winner of the event is Edie Adams, the future actress and wife of Ernie Kovacs, who sings a rendition of "Love is Where You Find It". It was written by Nacio Herb Brown and Earl K. Brent for the 1948 film "The Kissing Bandit" starring Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson. Edie's training at the Julliard School of Music in New York is very evident. I thankfully edited the other contestant's performances as some are pretty good, while others are dreadful. The Master of Ceremonies, a "Ben Gottschalk" has a creepy feel about him and a very patronizing tone towards the ladies. Not very "PC" by today's standards but that was unfortunately considered normal at the start of the 1950's. In another interesting twist of fate, one of the judges for the event is cartoonist Al Capp, who created the comic strip "Li'l Abner". The 1956 production derived from that strip catapulted Edie to Broadway fame and a Tony Award for her performance. Another coincidental turn of events is the co-judging from New York by Broadway and future film producer Mike Todd. We are probably all aware of his marriage to actress Elizabeth Taylor. Todd, like Ernie, will also have his life unexpectedly cut short due to his fatal plane crash in 1958. I have no doubt that Ernie "borrowed" the idea of the ladies announcing themselves in front of a false television set frame for his sketch with character Percy Dovetonsils. See my video entitled " Ernie Kovacs - Percy Dovetonsils - Interactive Television ". I left the DuMont network identification tags and graphic cards at the end of the program for posterity.

[Updated Octore 12, 2010] For all the young folk out there, here is a video of singer Vaughn Monroe singing his hit single "Racing with the Moon". http://www.youtube.com/user/VAUGHNMON...