Review of The Story of Television (1956)
Seen in 2016.
Almost an RCA infomercial for then-new colour television. A solid example of the era’s purported strong belief in progress through commercially incentivized engineering. There is no hint here of malaise, just wooden acting by Vladimir K. Zworykin and others. Even the pan over a parking lot full of TV repairmen’s vans is presented as triumphant: all those great jobs we’ve created! The romantic view of the television “spectacular” is also charmingly naïve, preceding or ignoring all concern with mediation and the allure of empty spectacle.