The Age of TELEVISION: A chronicle of the first 25 years (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

Album name: The Age of TELEVISION: A chronicle of the first 25 years

Narrators: Milton Berle and Hugh Downs

Year: 1972

Number of discs: one

Label: Warner Brothers Records

Distinguishing characteristics: PROMOTION / NOT FOR SALE printed on both sides of LP

Collection: Selman

Buy it on Amazon: $4.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this before, but I’ve heard some of the things that are included in it.

What I expected

This appears to be a collection of 28 audio clips, “from Howdy Doody to Apollo 15,” ie. from the late 1940s to the early 1970s.

What it was actually like

I would not say that this record was good, and much of what I actually would say is what I already said when I wrote about I Can Hear It Now / The Sixties in August and about Voices of the Presidents a couple of weeks ago.

I was also reminded of the Seth Godin schtick that every new entertainment or communication medium is invented for advertisers, so they can use it to sell advertising. That was made most poignant while I was listening to an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes, which apparently were proven by science to be both “smoother” and “milder” than any other principal brand of cigarette, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through