Author: BH

The King Is Dead

Teletypes inside the RCA Exhibition Hall clattered to life at 5:45 a.m. EST, Wednesday, February 6, 1952, carrying news that Britain’s King George VI died. Today was still in its first month on the air, experimenting to find the right balance of its various tasks – news, weather, sports, music, interviews, reviews and myriad ephemera. But the significance of the king’s death made its own case. The plan for that day’s program was thrown out, and a new one created from scratch.

Dave Garroway points to a headline on the “Today in Two Minutes” board, 9:30 a.m. EST, February 6, 1952. (NBC photo)

In the slim hour available before airtime, the Today crew arranged for remote phone reports from London and Paris, found stock film, and secured live television pickups from Washington. Broadcasting magazine reported the show went on at 7:00 a.m. with Dave Garroway’s announcement of the king’s death. A few moments later, he spoke with NBC correspondent Romney Wheeler, phoning from London. The “Today in Two Minutes” board was updated through the morning with newspaper front pages and wire service photos.

NBC foreign affairs commentator H.V. Kaltenborn was summoned to the Exhibition Hall. He worked with Today news anchor Jim Fleming to provide background information on George VI’s tenure. Coverage continued through the program’s three hours that day. CBS and ABC, having no comparable early-hour network program, aired their first television reports beginning at 10:00 a.m., after Today signed off. It was a coup for the show.

The busy Exhibition Hall during the 9:00 a.m. hour, February 6, 1952. News anchor Jim Fleming is at right, wearing a dark suit. (NBC photo)

As should be no surprise to students of early television, no kinescope of this Today exists, so we’ll never be able to see how it all played out. But accounts that have been written since indicate the cast and crew pulled off their first real test of breaking news and helped solidify the show’s bonafides.

My Own Sentimental Journey

Hey, there. I’m a research partner on the Dave Garroway biography project. I’m pleased to begin as a contributor here (my colleague has been killing it since “Garroway at Large” launched), and I hope I can give you some interesting items and stories from my own research into Dave’s life.

I was born three years after Dave took his own life, so I have no living memory of the man. At no point did I switch on the black-and-white Philco in the kitchen to watch J. Fred Muggs drag Jack Lescoulie’s flimsy desk across the newsroom. I grew up with Today in the ’90s. I have memories of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric, and Fred Facey’s authoritative “LIVE from Studio 1A!” voiceover. Like many viewers, I counted on Today to be on television each morning, but I gave nary a thought to what came before.

That changed, dramatically, in January 2002. TV Guide told me Today was turning fifty. Fifty! Impossible! (And Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters were once young and non-ABC anchors?)

I was sufficiently interested that on Monday, January 14, I handed a VHS tape to my grandmother and asked her to record the whole show. I wanted to see what this was all about. When I got home from school, I rewound the tape and started watching.

I was mesmerized. The clocks, maps, teletypes and microphones were a true delight. But I was particularly struck by this monochrome fellow in the bow tie and glasses. He was bookish and erudite, unafraid of polysyllabic words or arcane musings. He seemed to exude class and unflappability.

For whatever reason, this deeply impressed me. I started wearing argyle socks and picking up a few jazz records. There’s no doubt that in Dave Garroway, I saw a kind of masterclass in How to Be Interesting and Cool. I confess; to some degree, I still do.

In the ensuing sixteen years, I learned much more about Dave’s darker sides, his struggles and his untimely end. But instead of pushing me away, the complexity and nuance held my fascination. Here was his reality, beyond the fond, gray-tinted viewer memories.

Now for the last year or so, your main author and I have been trading notes, mulling, speculating, harnessing information and otherwise trying to make sense of Dave’s narrative in a way that can be published and enjoyed. It’s beyond time for the Communicator’s story to be told. I look forward to helping tell it.