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By Trapper Tom, Editor, KSWA Digest
On January 11, 1949, television first hit the airwaves in
Pittsburgh. The DuMont’s Television Network’s WDTV, Channel 3, aired its first
program from the Syria Mosque. “Window on the Air” broadcast, simultaneously
along a 13-station network stemming from the east coast to the Midwest. Powered
by telephone lines, the WDTV had aired test programs for about a week.
It was a big deal for Pittsburgh, having previously been the
official birthplace of the movie theater and KDKA radio. WDTV did not have any
local studios. On January 11, a 30-foot-long bus carrying 10 crew members and three
cameras which could convert the Syria Mosque, Duquesne Gardens or any of the Carnegie
Institute buildings around town.
Dr. Allen DuMont, 47, was the man behind the Pittsburgh
station, and 49 others around the country. Another 310 were in the works. The
first TV broadcast was in 1928, when General Electric owned WGY in Schenectady,
NY went on the air. Donald A. Stewart, a 10-year industry veteran, came to
Pittsburgh to manage WDTV. It was reported earlier in the month that plans were
being made by a local brewery to sponsor and create a local “Studio Wrestling”
type show that could be recorded and aired with Bob Prince as its voice in
Pittsburgh. (A short-lived program would debut in 1950 and quickly fold. The Pittsburgh-famous
“Studio Wrestling” show would debut in November 1958).
WDTV was a “video” station, which meant the early broadcasts
were all taped. At the time, televisions were too expensive for home ownership.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette baseball writer Vince Johnson wrote that “swank” taverns
in New York had “Magic Screens.” While Johnson wrote that sports like baseball would
be difficult to follow on television, he suspected that more “compact” sports basketball
and hockey, boxing and “women’s wrestling” would fare better in TV’s early days,
77 years ago.
On January 13, published reports indicated that the DuMont
network had a collection of boxing and wrestling videos that could be aired at
any time. Television had been good for wrestling, which had been described as “dying
on the vine.” Even then, sportswriters publicly debated whether wrestling was a
sporting event or “exhibition.”
On Saturday, January 22, Channel 3 offered a “Family Night”
of programming from 8:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. and “wrestling films” was scheduled
before New Years Bowl highlights. Action from Chicago’s Rainbo Arena and then National
Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promoter Fred Kohler’s Monday Midway Arena program had
been airing since 1946. Orville Brown was the NWA Champion for most of 1949. He
was injured in a car accident in November.
Jack Brickhouse, a couple of weeks away from turning 32, was
the ringside announcer, and most likely the first wrestling voice heard in Pittsburgh.
He had started his legendary career in Chicago television in 1948.
There’s really no way to tell what card was presented that
evening; however, Bobby Nelson defeated Zack Malkov in Chicago on January 20
and that could have been recorded. No other results are reported. It is
interesting to note that wrestling was not shown at Frank’s Tavern, 1700 Ohio
Street in Chicago, because burglars stole the set “and 15 cartons of
cigarettes.”
By March 30, 1949, wrestling was shown on WDTV from 9:30
p.m. to midnight on Saturday nights. WDTV would later become KDKA Channel 2.
Later in the year, “Wrestling
from the Marigold,” produced by Fred Kohler out Chicago would air at 9:00 p.m.
on Saturday nights. Gorgeous George Wagner was among the top grappling stars of
the day and he headlined a Mike Gallagher-promoted card in his Pittsburgh debut
against Bill Hansen at the Duquesne Gardens on February 23. Some 2,800 attended
the event and saw George best Hansen.
