This Week in Television History: July 2013 PART I

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As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

July 12, 1908

Milton Berle the Emmy-winning American comedian and actor is born. 

As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major star of television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television to millions during TV's golden age.

July 13, 1938

Massachusetts Television Institute opens a "television theater" in Boston.

The first theater of its kind. The Institute charged 25 cents for admission. Some 200 people attended the first show, which broadcast singers, musicians, and dancers who were performing in a studio above the auditorium.

The audience viewed a black-and-white image on a 9-by-12-inch screen. Such experimental uses of television persisted throughout the 1930s, and televisions did not become common household appliances until after World War II.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa