How TV News changed our view of the world
Get a FREE ebook, plus Global Entry news, FREE Florida stuff and a pricey bottle of water.
This special edition of the travel newsletter is traveling back in time to April 1949.
On Friday, April 8, a toddler named Kathy Fiscus fell into an abandoned well pipe in a field behind her home in San Marino, California. The race to rescue the trapped child was the first unscheduled news event to be broadcast live by TV cameras at the scene.
My book, “Inventing TV News” will be a FREE download for the entire month of April to mark the 75th anniversary of the first live TV news coverage from the scene of breaking news.
Get your FREE ebook on Amazon, or your favorite e-book website.
Really. It’s a free ebook. No strings attached.
Or order the paperback to be shipped to you for a discount price.
This was disruptive technology at a time when people listened to radio for the latest news, then waited for pictures in the next day’s newspaper or newsreel film in the movie theaters. For the first time, they could watch the news as it was happening on two Los Angeles TV stations, KTLA and KTTV. People crowded around department store windows or gathered in neighbors’ homes to watch the few TV sets in use at the time. Literally, there were strangers in the living room.
Read the whole story in the book:
The Family: Kathy’s parents did not own a television but found themselves in the spotlight as they waited two agonizing days to learn their child’s fate.
The Sandhogs: World War II veterans who risked their lives in the daring attempts to free little Kathy, becoming instant heroes on TV.
The Engineers: Klaus Landsberg, a German Jewish engineering genius who worked on the telecast of Hitler’s 1936 Olympics before fleeing to the US. Working for Paramount Pictures, he launched KTLA, the first TV station west of the Mississippi. The mighty Los Angeles Times owned rival station KTTV.
The Reporters: Stan Chambers, fresh out of college, narrated the rescue along with wrestling announcer Bill Welsh. Stan would become Southern California’s most beloved TV journalism over a long career that began with the 27-hour live TV marathon from the Kathy Fiscus rescue site.
Only 20,000 TV receivers were in use in Los Angeles at the time. People suddenly saw TV as an essential source of news and entertainment, with 100,000 television sets sold in a single weekend following the Fiscus telecast.
Many thanks to KTLA for interviewing me for a story about the historic event, 75 years ago this month. Watch it here:
Fun Fact: Strangers in the Living Room was the original title of my TV news book, repurposed as the title of this newsletter.
Because you’re always a stranger in somebody’s living room when you travel, right?
The shocking end of the 1949 broadcast also touched off a debate about what kind of news should be covered. These days, TV divides us into red teams (watching Fox, Newsmax or OANN) and blue teams (CNN, MSNBC and legacy networks CBS, NBC and ABC). No longer is it possible to have one TV news anchor who is the “most trusted” in America like Walter Cronkite. The news audience has been further splintered by social media. My book will transport you to a simpler time when the idea of the celebrity anchorman was invented.
Thanks for downloading the free ebook or ordering a paperback. It’s also available as an audiobook on Amazon and iTunes. And kindly leaving a review. We now return you to our regularly scheduled travel programming.
Travel News: Price Increase for Global Entry and FREE TSA Recheck
Global Entry is a must-have for Americans who travel internationally. On my last return from Europe I used the app that allowed me to skip the line and the kiosk. A friendly border agent welcomed back to the USA by name. Apply now before the $100 application fee goes up to $120 on October 1, as The Points Guy explains. Global Entry also gets you TSA Pre Check for FREE ($85 if you apply for it separately). Say goodbye to taking off your shoes in the security line!
Hello Snowbirds!
This is the time of year when fed-up northerners escape the last blast of winter by fleeing to Florida. And there’s a lot of free stuff to do in my town of Jupiter. Go wild with alligators, save the sea turtles or frolic with your dog on the beach. Just expect to wait a couple hours for an 8 pm dinner at popular restaurants. They don’t take reservations. We locals have learned to dine early, during happy hour.
And if you enjoyed the AppleTV show Palm Royale, here’s where visitors can find all the retro luxury of old Palm Beach. However, the streaming TV show was mostly filmed in Southern California. Some scenes take place at the Saga Motor Inn, where my family stayed in the 1960s. It’s actually in Pasadena, California.
The Opposite of FREE
I’ve become quite fascinated with water on my recent travels. Did you know there are actually water sommeliers? And why generate more throwaway plastic if the local free stuff from the tap is perfectly safe? Of course, a bout of diarrhea can ruin the whole trip, so travelers often pay for bottled water if they’re not sure. Like my family did on our recent holiday on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
Or there’s the greed factor. Here’s me, holding up an $8 bottle of water at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Plus 69 cents tax. I get it that the $16 canned beers are a luxury item, but water is a basic human need. They could at least keep it to $4.50 a bottle like the San Francisco airport. Aside from that, the three-hour concert by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was worth every penny.
Coming soon in the newsletter
I’m heading to Brussels later this month for a press briefing on EU initiatives in my “neighborhood” of Slovenia and Central Eastern Europe. I hope to learn a few things that will help you travel better. See you then!