Broadcasting is one of the possible themes for this week’s Sepia Saturday which set me thinking about the early days of television in Melbourne. Television came to Melbourne in time for the 1956 Olympic Games.
This is a photo I took of our television set in 1962 when Victor Borge was very popular, developed and printed by yours truly. It was taken on a Yashica twin lens reflex. Do you remember Victor Borge, with his wonderful blend of piano playing and comedy.
And this photo was taken the previous month of the same stand-alone black and white television, when colour television and remote controls were only dreamed of.
For a nostalgic trip for Australian readers (well, some of them ) earlier in the same year saw the presentation of the 4th Annual TV Logie Awards. I had to dig deep to remember some of these names.
And finally here is a short clip of the two delightful Gold-winning singers
See what other interesting ideas people find in this image of broadcasting from the top of a bus at Sepia Saturday.
Bound for Australia 
Most of the early tvs were produced to look like furniture, some even had what appeared to be cupboard doors on them which you opened to view the telly and then closed when finished.
Ah, Victor Borge with his punctuation sketch!
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It’s nice when people remember the same things that you do. I’ve refreshed my memory with examples of Victor Borge’s sketches on You Tube
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We had one of those tvs with legs in the 1950s too. Not quite as modern as yours was.
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Oh, how forward thinking of you to take a picture of a TV screen. I think I have one of my daughter in her baby chair, mesmerised by the ice skating on TV, but not a ‘screen shot’. We were alway great fans of Victor Borge too.
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Yep, I remember Victor Borge. I think I have a picture of our tv set but not a screen shot. Clever of you to think to do that.
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I do remember Victor Borge and probably watched him on a TV much like yours. We had our first one in time for the Queen’s Coronation, I was 5 at the time but I still remember it. Ours was the first TV in the village, so we suddenly became very popular! I really enjoyed the two singers and recognise one or two of the TV programmes.
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How enjoyable, and Victor Borge was also…but I don’t remember any of the other shows you’ve listed…except American Bandstand. Did yours have another MC besides Dick Clark? Yes our TVs were also originally furniture! But we had what was called a portable one (ha!) that had to sit on a stand.
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Australia’s Bandstand had a similar format to the American one but the compere was Brian Henderson
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I have fond memories of Victor Borge! A wonderfully witty entertainer.
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How well I remember those two – Patsy and Col. Thank you for the wonderful memories.
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I remember how exciting it was to get our first TV, and it lasted about 20 years or more.
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I remember watching the Queen’s coronation on our neighbor’s TV. It was another few years before we got one ourselves which came in a beautiful maple cabinet which was later made into a lovely bookcase. Victor Borge! What an entertainer. His ‘Punctuation’ and ‘Minute Waltz’ are two of my favorite sketches, but we have many preserved on two DVDs, & I’ve read two of his books – “My Favorite Intermissions” & “More Favorite Intermissions”. He writes just like he talks – half the page is taken up with footnotes! Great fun & oh my, did he have some surprising & entertaning stories to tell about some of our greatest composers!
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A sweet photo of your son? In front of the old TV set. We only got rid of our first set from 1980. It wasn’t one of those early, free standing models but it did have a remote control on a plug-in lead
Until the takeover by digital broadcasting it worked fine as a second set in the sitting room.
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The 1962 Logie list is interesting. I don’t remember ‘Consider Your Verdict’ at all.
When my parents bought our first TV the neighbouring teenage girls used to come over to watch the matinee movies. I don’t remember their parents ever coming.
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I can remember when Dad came home with out first colour TV……in 1976 so we could watch the Olympics in Colour.
We thought it was wonderful but in all reality it was very poor with too much green, pink and orange!
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