Televising the 1948 World Series

A David Halberstam Spot Check

Televising the 1948 World Series

When I came across this passage the other day, I just had to check up on it:

From Summer of ‘49 page 23

Well, unlike some of my previous Halberstam reports, this one seems to be true.

Game 1 of the 1948 World Series — the famous game with the blown call on a pickoff play at second that lost the game for Bob Feller — started on October 6. And it turns out that it was televised as far away as Pennsylvania:

From The Standard-Sentinal (Hazleton, PA), October 6, 1948, page 22

This actually led to a fascinating story out of Atlantic City, New Jersey:

From Atlantic City Press, October 8, 1948, pages 1 and 25

Don’t worry about not having a video copy of that first 1948 World Series game. If you find a recording of static, it’s pretty much the same thing.

It’s amazing that restaurants were advertising showing the game live as far back as 1948:

From The Buffalo News, October 8, 1948, page 48

And The Boston Globe seems to be the source of Halberstam’s story:

From The Boston Globe, October 10, 1948, page 34-A

So there you have it.

The more I read, the more I suspect that Halberstam’s chief sources came from the Boston press of the late 1940s. This might also account for some stories that seem almost certain exaggerations.