Television
Television broadcasts had started on an experimental basis in the '30s and rudimentary commercial broadcasts had begun just before the war. Many New Yorkers had marveled at the technology at the Worlds' Fair. But everything was suspended during the conflict and had just begun to spring back to life in 1946. NBC and Dumont had a regular schedule of programs but only a few hundred homes in New York had TV sets. People were more likely to experience it on a store selling-floor or window or at a bar or other public place than at home. Shows were short and technically primitive without budgets for much production value.
CBS took a full page ad in the April 20 Billboard to present survey results that sought to show that the public would not embrace television until color was available. Dumont Networks, which was up and running, took a full page ad to differ.
The Dumont ad was in the form of a letter from Dr. Allen B. Du Mont, president of Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Inc, aimed largely at potential advertisers. "Clever propaganda has spread the notion that there are two television camps: one for and one against color," he wrote, noting that everyone in the industry was involved in the research to make color TV a reality. The technology existed in demonstration form but, he stated, "after fifteen years of concentrated efforts in this field to which I have dedicated my life, I must state reluctantly, but unequivocally, that practical commercial color television for the home is, in my opinion, still in the far distant future."
That did not mean the medium had to wait in his opinion. As he noted, only six percent of motion pictures were in color, although the technology had been around for 30 years."Black-and-white television is ready to serve the nation now!" he declared in closing. With the advent of the new WBD studios at Wanamaker's commercial television had become a full-fledged reality."