Birth of TV – From the Journals of William Burl Kincaid, Jr.

By Weimer Pursell, silkscreen print by Neely Printing Co., Chicago – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress

From Daddy’s notes on the 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair:

What is Television? Who are you trying to kid? Projecting a picture and sound through the atmosphere? No, we believe this to be some kind of joke! Well, let’s go in and see about this thing called television.

Five young Owingsville men, after hearing all the glowing remarks about the Chicago World’s Fair(also known as “A Century of Progress”), decided to journey to this big city. The young men were, Richart Brother, Bronson Snedegar, Burl Kincaid Jr., John H. Elliott, and Theodore Crouch. Theodore was older than the others and owned an automobile, so the other four supplied the gas and oil. Off and away they went to a week of fun and education.

This was in 1934 which was in the heart of the so called “Great Depression.” For those of you who do not remember that era, there was little money in the United States. Many families found themselves with every member unemployed. If you did not live during those years, there is no way that you can imagine what some fellas lived through.

Upon entering the building which was built for the display of this new media called “television,” we were surprised at the shape of the auditorium or theatre (we did not know what to call it). The building was narrowly rectangular with a telecasting booth in one end and a large TV screen in the other. The large center section had seating much like movie theatres. Since it has been some 60 years since being privileged to witness a great electronic device being publicly born, the writer does not have much idea as to the number of seats.

The young men were seated together and were anxious for the program to start. The announcer made some glowing remarks about the fair in general and TV in particular. A program was presented (do not remember much about it) but the presenters were concerned that the audience might think the whole thing could be a fake. To dispel any thought of the presentation on the screen being a fake, a person surveyed the audience and asked certain persons to go to the telecast booth. It seemed that he chose one person from each group. The writer was chosen from our group and got to be on television!

Daddy spoke of this trip often. He and others were only eighteen years old. He brought back the official book from the fair and we still have it.

His favorite area was the Little Town. It was an exhibit of everything small, with an entire home and its furnishings built on a small scale, but still big enough to enter and walk around. ~ Don Kincaid