''Light's Diamond Jubilee'' (1954) is a two-hour

TV special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

that aired on October 24, 1954, on all four U.S. television networks of the time, DuMont, CBS,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, and ABC. The special won a

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

for Victor Young for Best Music for a Variety or Dramatic series. The special was produced by

David O. Selznick David O. Selznick (born David Selznick; May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca (1940 film), Rebecca'' (1 ...

, had seven directors, and featured major stars of the day. The special was sponsored by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

in honor of the 75th anniversary of the invention of the

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

. In 1929, a previous celebration of "light's golden jubilee" was produced by General Electric and created by PR pioneer

Edward Bernays Edward Louis Bernays ( ; ; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing the profession ...

. Robert Benchley's appearance was a segment from his MGM short film ''How to Raise a Baby'' (1938).

Episode status

A copy of the

CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

version of the broadcast, showing a copyright notice of Selznick Releasing Organization Inc., is in the collection of the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a nonpro ...

. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

has copies available for viewing by appointment.Library of Congress catalog entry
/ref>

Bibliography

* David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 2004) * Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 1980) * Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'', Third edition (New York:

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

, 1964)

References

External links

*
''Light's Diamond Jubilee'' at BFI Database''Light's Diamond Jubilee'' at National Library of Australia
{{Christian Nyby DuMont Television Network original programming CBS television specials NBC television specials American Broadcasting Company television specials Black-and-white American television shows Films directed by King Vidor Films directed by William A. Wellman Films directed by Norman Taurog Films directed by Roy Rowland Films directed by Bud Yorkin Films directed by Christian Nyby General Electric sponsorships Jubilees 1954 television specials

Episode status

See also

Bibliography

References

External links