A PAST LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
This article appeared in The Chicago Tribune during the summer of 1956 and written by Larry Wolters, Tribune TV critic at the time. It is reprinted here for historical purposes only.
LET'S LOOK INTO VIDEO PICTURE FOR YEAR 2000
You May Be Carrying A Personal TV Set
IN THE CRYSTAL BALL:
We 've already been told that transoceanic TV is coming up in a year or two, that on- the- wall TV screens soon will be available, and that Milton Berle is under contract until 1975 to NBC, but what about TV in the year 2000? David Sarnoff has already given orders to his R.C.A. research experts to invent a number of electronic wonders- and they may.
Meanwhile let's gaze into the crystal ball and try to see what else may be ahead. Ever since Dick Tracy invented the two-way wrist radio, it has been apparent that it's only a matter of time before a similar TV contrivance is created. Probably long before 2000 A.D., thousands of people may be walking lopsided because a 14" TV receiver will be attached to one arm. They'll catch Howdy Doody while strap hanging.
And just as people now carry portable radios into stadiums, the man of the future will trudge up to section EE at Dyche stadium with his personal TV. Then during dull stretches of Northwestern games he can watch the programs of Notre Dame and S.M.U. In case we have pay-TV he may have to drop a dollar in the meter first.
PHONE TV:
Long before then I would guess that TV attachments on telephones will be common. And everyone stepping up to take a receiver off the hook may have to give some thought as to how he will appear to the person on the other end.
Closed circuit convention telecasts probably will be so common that traveling to such meetings will be unnecessary.
Now about personalities, programs, and stations: George Jessell, who will be 95 or so, will be the emcee of "Life Begins At 80" with the Quiz Kids as panelists; channel 11 will be in the midst of a fund drive; all telethons will run a minimum of one month; critics still will be clamoring for more music programs.
Used car sponsors will be bragging about bigger and better "first run" movies and someone will come up with a triple feature of "Gone With The Wind," "Birth Of A Nation," and "Citizen Kane."
THRU THE YEARS:
Dagmar will be known as "the Grand Old Lady" of television; Betty Hutton will announce that she's thru with television and all show business; Caesar will be a second year course again; Charles Coburn will announce that he has to stay in TV in order to be able to bet on the horses.
Howard Miller, by then a multimillionaire, will be crusading against senescent delinquents. Tom Duggan won't have been sued for fifteen years. Davy Crockett reruns will be in their forty-fifth season. Pat Weaver, by then a retired president of NBC, will be heard at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th street in New York still insisting "We must have enlightenment thru exposure." And TV's pitchmen no longer will be reeling off telephone numbers for you to call two dozen times.
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