Televised election coverage

The 1948 US presidential election was the first to use television for politics in the post-war era.

Plus, the 1948 US presidential election marked the first divisions in American's main political parties during the Cold War.

Regional pockets that split television networks in the 1948 US presidential election included the East Coast network and a separate Midwestern network.

Besides, the 1948 Philadelphia political conventions were also the first post-war ones on television.

During the 1948 Philadelphia political conventions, coaxial cable linked television stations in the East Coast, the first to offer gavel-to-gavel coverage on live television.

Harry S. Truman won the 1948 US presidential election in an upset against Thomas E. Dewey, the last complete one before television's preeminence.

Setbacks plagued this televised coverage of the 1948 US presidential election, however.

Having no air conditioning, the 1948 Philadelphia political conventions suffered heat exhaustion.

In addition, the studio set designs for the televised coverage of the 1948 US presidential election used theatrical/radio trends like the experimental Philadelphia political conventions during WWII.

Likewise, this 1948 US presidential election also ended with a famous blunder in journalism.

This famous blunder in the 1948 US presidential election is 'Dewey Beats Truman.' 

Plus, the televised coverage of this 1948 US presidential election was restricted to viewers on the East Coast (and separately, in parts of the Midwest).

Meanwhile, the West Coast never televised the 1948 US presidential election.

All in all, the 1948 US presidential election, the first to be held during the Cold War era, had endured some ups and some downs, notably in television.

The early-1950's US presidential election, the second one being held during the Cold War period, was likewise the first to offer television coverage on a massive and multi-faceted level.

For the early-1950's US presidential election, the newly-completed microwave/coaxial system via the American Telephone & Telegraph Company solved the issues of the past televised ones.

Rosser Reeves developed the first political commercials seen on television during the second American presidential election in the Cold War era; this was for Dwight D. Eisenhower in the early-1950's.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's first presidential election campaign in the early-1950's era featured catchy and punchy television commercials, all lasting 20, 30 or 60 seconds, via appearances in them.

Adlai Stevenson II, conversely, had televised appearances, in which he delivered half-hour speeches.

Walt Disney Productions produced the 1-minute animated 'I Like Ike' television commercial.

Jacqueline Cochran and Roy O. Disney conceived Disney's animated 'I Like Ike' television commercial specifically being made for Dwight D. Eisenhower's first presidential election campaign.

Conversely, the live-action television advertisements being developed for Dwight D. Eisenhower's first presidential election campaign by Rosser Reeves focused on inflation, corruption and Korea.

The Eisenhower Answers America spots under Rosser Reeves were innovative.

Plus, Richard Nixon, who was Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate, delivered the iconic, famous and emotional Checkers speech, held at the El Capitan Theatre (now Avalon Hollywood).

Having been awash with emotion, the Checkers speech saved Richard Nixon's place on the Republican ticket of Dwight D. Eisenhower, but also his political career.

Just before his VP nomination, Richard Nixon represented California in the US Congress.

In the first American congressional election representing California in the post-war era, Richard Nixon scored a victory over Jerry Voorhis.

Richard Nixon also scored another victory, this time, in the 1950 US Senate election in California over actress/congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, whose husband Melvyn was an actor.

Looking back, Jerry Voorhis had represented California in the US Congress since January 1937, Helen Gahagan Douglas did the same since January 1945.

Chicago, in which Dave Garroway pioneered a casual television style being brought to New York, also hosted the political conventions in the early-1950's at the International Amphitheatre.

For the Republican National Convention in this early-1950's era, it was the first to be presented live on television on a national level.

Whereas past conventions, including the 1948 gatherings, were simply being televised all over the East Coast, Chicago's political conventions in the early-1950's were televised nationwide.

Using the air conditioning process being installed at the International Amphitheatre, Chicago's political conventions, held in the early-1950's, were the first to do so.

Just before Chicago's major political conventions in the early-1950's era, summer political conventions notoriously suffered heat in venues without A/C, making citizens sweaty.

However, the addition of the A/C process and the American Telephone & Telegraph Company's coaxial television uplink for Chicago's early-1950's political conventions helped modernize these rituals.

For these early-1950's political rituals, held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, the major US television networks erected makeshift broadcast booths inside the convention halls.

The television service with the most notice to cover Chicago's political conventions in this early-1950's period was CBS, which brought Walter Cronkite to national prominence.

Rooted in print journalism, Walter Cronkite worked for United Press since 1937.

Initially, Edward R. Murrow offered Walter Cronkite a chance to join the CBS News reporting team in London during World War II; the latter journalist declined because he stayed with UP.

After World War II, in 1950, Edward R. Murrow tried again, and this time, he succeeded in persuading Walter Cronkite to join CBS News.

Upon being recruited in 1950, Walter Cronkite was a national CBS News reporter in Washington D.C., doubling as the first newsreader for its Washington station in WUSA.

The "anchor" word is used in the sports world to describe the final and most crucial segment in a relay contest, getting the baton from the starting point to the finish line.

Sig Mickelson popularized the "anchor" term for television news in the same start-to-finish road.

For Chicago's major political conventions in the early-1950's period, Walter Cronkite started using the word "anchor" that Sig Mickelson popularized for television news.

Echoing Dave Garroway taking Chicago's techniques with him to New York for Today (NBC) upon its launch in the early-1950's, the Chicago political conventions led to the New York election nights.

Similar to the newsroom/bullpen being adapted from the print field by Today (NBC) for television, the major US television networks used this print-style trend for their early-1950's elections.

The television service using the most notice to cover the early-1950's US presidential election, just like Chicago's political conventions in the early-1950's, was CBS.

Due to Walter Cronkite at the desk, CBS' nationally-televised coverage of these early-1950's American political events had a print-style newsroom/bullpen, which he adapted from the UP wire service.

For Walter Cronkite, he worked with producer Don Hewitt to put the newsroom/bullpen on television's political map, but also on the traditional windowless television studio map, via CBS.

Plus, this nationally-televised coverage of the early-1950's US presidential election was the first to be driven by computers.

One of the computers being utilized for this nationally-televised early-1950's US presidential election coverage was the UNIVAC I.

Standing for the Universal Automatic Computer I, the UNIVAC I was innovative in that it was the first American-made general-purpose commercial electronic digital computer.

Magnetic tape was for mass storage and mercury delay lines for memory, both for the UNIVAC I.

The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), founded by its namesakes J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and based in Philadelphia, built the UNIVAC I.

Remington Rand purchased EMCC in 1950, under which the UNIVAC I was completed.

Having used the UNIVAC I for its televised early-1950's US presidential election coverage was CBS.

With the real UNIVAC 1 iteration being deemed too heavy to carry from Philadelphia to New York, its mock-up prop was installed at CBS' unified Studios 41/42 in New York's Grand Central Terminal.

For this mock-up UNIVAC I prop, it featured blinking Christmas tree lights to create a futuristic visual effect for CBS' nationally-televised early-1950's US presidential election coverage.

At half past 8 p.m., this UNIVAC I computer from the Remington Rand hub in Philadelphia accurately predicted that Dwight D. Eisenhower could win the US presidency; this was via CBS Television.

NBC adapted the newsroom/bullpen from the print scene for television under Dave Garroway.

CBS adapted this newsroom/bullpen element from NBC as a studio set feature being placed in a usual windowless room for television journalism under Walter Cronkite and Don Hewitt.

In the early-1950's, CBS Television innovated the newsroom/bullpen trend for televised election night coverage, in the mid-1960's with an evening news twist, and in March 1973 with a local twist.

Also in Chicago, the International Amphitheatre hosted the late-1960's DNC ritual.

Due to changes in the Democratic nomination for America's presidency, coupled with violent anti-war protests, the late-1960's DNC shattered the old boss system and led to the voter-driven one.

The Miami Beach Convention Centre hosted the 1972 political conventions, with the Democratic one providing a new guard after the violence-laden Chicago.

George McGovern, who, with Donald Fraser, led the eponymous commission, became selected as the Democratic nominee for US President in 1972.

Between 1969 and 1972, the McGovern-Fraser Commission established 18 guidelines that changed the primary voting system.

Conversely, the 1972 DNC ritual was marked by dysfunction.

The traditional boss system used white male elites, whereas the 18 guidelines of the McGovern-Fraser Commission included females, minorities and youngsters.

Just before both Dave Garroway and Edward R. Murrow, television news studio sets were divided into three separate formulas:

• News anchors sitting at one desk in a studio with a cardboard box feel behind blank walls

• Journalists working in a newsroom/bullpen being filled with teletype machines and noises

• Technical staff operating in a dark and windowless control room, featuring monitor banks

However, both Dave Garroway and Edward R. Murrow broke down the two-dimensional/2D box-like studio walls, turning television news studio sets into three-dimensional/3D canvases.

By the mid-1950's period, the Chicago School of Television had started to fade, as television network production had become a centralized duopoly between New York and Los Angeles.