LISTEN: Happy Anniversary, Television! Revisiting the Medium’s Launch at the 1939 New York World’s Fair

'Daily Variety' podcast dives into news, trends and personalities making headlines in showbiz

By Cynthia Littleton

Cynthia Littleton

Business Editor

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On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, we look ahead at plans for Variety’s TV Week celebration in a conversation with Variety’s Emily Longeretta. And we take a Vintage Variety look back at the momentous launch of television in the U.S. on the opening day of the New York World’s Fair in 1939, some 87 years ago today.

Happy anniversary, television. April 30, 1939, the opening day of the landmark New York World’s Fair, is generally considered the launch date for commercial television in the U.S. RCA and NBC boss David Sarnoff flipped the switch and NBC broadcast three and a half hours of live material from the sprawling World’s Fair site in the Flushing Meadows area of Queens. (It’s now home to the Queens Art Museum.)

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