We work from Maine to Mexico
There's nothing like this Texaco of ours!
And now ladies and gentlemen...America's number one television star...Milton Berle.
Although RCA introduced television at the 1939 World's Fair WWII prevented it from being manufactured on a large scale until after the war. It wasn't until 1948 that true regular commercial TV was broadcast.
NBC had hired Toscanini to conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the Texaco Star Theatre, originally a radio program moved to television. In the early days comedian Ed Wynn (pictured) was the host, followed by Fred Allen. Berle stepped in after that as part of a rotation of comedians.
In his first full season as the host he was extremely popular. Berle was probably responsible for selling more television sets than anyone. During his run the sale of televisions grew from 500,000 his first year to over 30 million when the show ended in 1956.
He won two Emmy Awards that first year; one for Best Kinescope Show and one for Most Outstanding Kinescope Personality.
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