Wide Wide World
Encyclopedia
Pat Weaver
Sylvester Barnabee "Pat" Weaver was an American radio advertising executive, who became president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping commercial broadcasting's format and philosophy as radio gave way to television as America's dominant home entertainment...
and hosted by Dave Garroway
Dave Garroway
David Cunningham "Dave" Garroway was the founding host of NBC's Today from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing, relaxed, and relaxing style belied a battle with depression that may have contributed to the end of his days as a leading television personality—and, eventually, his life...
, Wide Wide World was introduced on the Producers' Showcase
Producers' Showcase
Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October...
series on June 27, 1955. The premiere episode, featuring entertainment from the US, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, was the first international North American telecast in the history of the medium.
It returned in the fall as a regular Sunday series, telecast from October 16, 1955 to June 8, 1958. The program was sponsored by General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
and Barry Wood
Barry Wood (singer)
Barry Wood was an American singer and television producer. He is best known for being Frank Sinatra's immediate predecessor as the lead male vocalist on the long running NBC radio program Your Hit Parade....
was the executive producer. In March 1956, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine reported that it was the highest-rated daytime show on television.
Garroway was the host of the series which featured live remote segments from locations throughout North America and occasional reports on film from elsewhere in the world. The series carried live events into four million households. The October 16 premiere, "A Sunday in Autumn," featured 50 cameras in 11 cities, including a college campus, the fishing fleet at Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
, rainswept streets in Manhattan and Monitor
Monitor (NBC Radio)
NBC Monitor was an American weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. Airing live and nationwide on the NBC Radio Network, it originally aired beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until 12 midnight on Sunday...
broadcasting in NBC's Radio Central studio. An appearance by Dick Button
Dick Button
Richard Totten "Dick" Button is an American former figure skater and a well-known long-time skating television analyst. He is a two-time Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion...
ice skating at Rockefeller Center was canceled because the rain had washed away the ice, and a curious coverage by a nervous Ted Husing
Ted Husing
Edward Britt Husing was an American sportscaster and was among the first to lay the groundwork for the structure and pace of modern sports reporting on television and radio.-Early life and career:...
of an attempt by Donald Campbell to break a speed record showed nothing more than his boat, on the other side of the lake, failing to take off. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
reviewed:
- NBC's Wide Wide World whisked its audience all over the map. The camera lazed its way down the Mississippi, poked into a New Jersey lane where lovers walked and old men raked autumn leaves, wandered around Gloucester harbor as fishermen mended nets. There were vivid contrasts between the chasm of the Grand Canyon and the topless towers of Rockefeller Center, the swaying wheat fields of Nebraska and the money-conscious hubbub of the Texas State Fair, an underwater ballet from Florida and the overwater speed trials of Donald Campbell's jet racer at Arizona's man-made Lake Mead. Always there was the immediacy of things happening this very minute, but the real brilliancy of Wide World may lie in its avoidance of the TV interview. The only one attempted, at the Texas Fair, proved again that—given a microphone and someone to interview—an announcer can turn any subject into a crashing bore. The words needed in Wide World were supplied by Dave Garroway and kept to a literate minimum.
Other episodes: "New Orleans" (February 2, 1958), "American Theater '58" (March 16, 1958), "Flagstop at Malta Bend" (March 30, 1958) and "The Museum of Modern Art" (April 27, 1958).
300,000 ducks
ESPNESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's Steve Bowman described the logistics involved in setting up a live remote at Arkansas' Claypool Reservoir where George Purvis, head of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, put 300,000 ducks on NBC:
- There were many hurdles. Initially Purvis dealt with how to hide TV cameras, crews, control trucks and the necessary workmen and equipment and how to get electricity and telephone lines two miles (3 km) to the woods.
- "To start with, the only way to get to the spot selected was over two miles (3 km) of muddy woods roads where only tractors had gone before," Purvis recalls. "The cameras would be two miles (3 km) from the nearest power line or telephone. This meant using power generators placed far enough back in the woods so as not to disturb the wary ducks. Six telephone circuits were needed to send the audio part of the program to New York.
- "Even after stringing two miles (3 km) of wire there was just one circuit from Claypool's Reservoir to Jonesboro, 20 miles (32.2 km) away. So a radio loop was installed at the barn to cover the 20 miles (32.2 km) gap." Camouflaged blinds were built for television cameras and operators, one of which was 40 feet (12.2 m) up a hickory tree. An additional blind was built for the remote control truck.
- The video would go from the camera to the control truck via the cable, then to an 80 feet (24.4 m) relay tower 1000 feet (304.8 m) back in the woods, then 35 miles (56.3 km) to another relay tower, then 40 miles (64.4 km) to a third tower before being sent to Memphis. There it was transmitted 1200 miles (1,931.2 km) to New York where the audio and video were combined to be broadcast live. With the electronics in place, the only thing left was to make sure that at an exact prearranged time there would be ducks in front of the cameras — over a quarter-of-a-million ducks.
Garroway, an inveterate music lover, lent his name to a series of recordings of jazz, classical music and pop released in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Wide Wide World of Jazz.
Selected episodes
November 27, 1955 – "America’s Heritage." Includes shots from San Francisco, New Orleans and lower Manhattan. Carlsbad Caverns is seen, as is VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia. Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses
Anna Mary Robertson Moses , better known as "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist. She is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Although her family and friends called her either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses,"...
is seen painting in New York.
January 1, 1956 – "New Year’s Day." Scenes of New Year’s observances around the world are shown. Diplomats from various nations offer greetings for peace in the coming year.
January 22, 1956 – "Portrait of an American Winter." Children skating in Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....
. Cameras captured live shots of Milwaukee, Palm Beach, Omaha, Niagara Falls and Valley Forge.
January 29, 1956 – "Two Ways to Winter." Seasonal festivities in two very different places – Minnesota and the Bahamas – are shown. The program includes the two governors shaking hands, courtesy a split-screen effect.
February 12, 1956 – "Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
." Tied to Lincoln’s birthday, Wide Wide World looks at the sixteenth president’s life and legacy.
April 15, 1956 – "In Pursuit of Happiness." Americans’ Sunday leisure activities are the topic of this broadcast. In Phoenix, people visit a dude ranch; beachcombers spend time on the shore at Hermosa Beach, California
Hermosa Beach, California
Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,506 at the 2010 census, up from 18,566 at the 2000 census....
; and a concert in Seattle is shown.
September 30, 1956 – "The Hollywood Story." The history of Hollywood and its film industry. Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
, Debra Paget
Debra Paget
Debra Paget is an American actress and entertainer who rose to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s in a variety of feature films including Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments and Love Me Tender, the film début of Elvis Presley.-Early life and career:Paget was born in Denver, Colorado...
, Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
and Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
are among those who make appearances to talk about the business of showbusiness.
October 14, 1956 – "The American Dream." An examination of industrial, scientific and cultural development in America. Includes shots of steel mills in Pittsburgh, preparations for an Antarctic expedition and the Rochester (NY) Symphony Orchestra. Music from Copland is played.
March 3, 1957 – "American Theater." Rehearsals for Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' Orpheus are shown. Williams sits down for an interview with himself, via special effects.
May 12, 1957 – "Armed Forces Week." Garroway narrates a taped piece on the function of the four branches of American military. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force training exercises are shown.
November 10, 1957 – "The Fabulous Infant." An historic joint broadcast among NBC, ABC and CBS, looking at the achievements of the then-young television industry. Clips from important news events are shown, as are representative samples of comedy, drama and children’s programs.
April 27, 1958 – "A Star’s Story." What does it mean to be a celebrity? Wide Wide Worlds cameras profile some of the era's stars, including Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
and Joanne Woodward
Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...
. Stars of the art world are also shown, and Garroway muses about what, exactly, makes a celebrity.
May 25, 1958 - "The Sound of Laughter" Features clips and commentary by Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Steve Allen, Smith and Dale, Robert Benchley, Mort Sahl
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses...
, Claude Rains, Al Capp and Peter Ustinov.