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June 18, 1949…Dave Garroway & “The Chicago Style” Debut On NBC

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Eyes Of A Generation.com


June 18, 1949…Dave Garroway & “The Chicago Style” Debut On NBC

On this day in 1949, “Garroway At Large” debuted on the NBC television network, live from their WMAQ studios in Chicago. Originally airing at 10 PM EST on Saturday nights (and later Sunday nights), this one hour experimental musical variety show brought two new things to television…Dave Garroway, and a new on screen presentation style, also called “The Chicago School”.

When television began in New York, the shows adopted the familiar theatrical proscenium concept, separating the stage from the audience area. When Garroway was assigned to host on television, he abandoned the usual conventions for a more casual approach in which the reality of the studio was acknowledged. Followed by a single camera, he walked around the entire large studio space and simple abstract sets as he talked to guests and the TV viewer directly. This live staging technique, known as the “Chicago Style”, was developed further on Garroway’s next show…”Today”.

In the clip below, you can get a feel for the staging and visual tone of this style. There is more on the Chicago School here. http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/tcs.html

Garroway began his broadcasting career modestly. Starting at NBC as a page in 1938, he later graduated 23rd in a class of 24 from NBC’s school for announcers. Following graduation, he landed a job at Pittsburgh radio station KDKA in 1939. After two years with KDKA, Garroway left for WMAQ radio in Chicago, and was introduced to the national television audience when he was chosen to host “Garroway At Large”, from June 18, 1949, to June 24, 1951.

At the same time he did the “Today” show, Garroway also hosted a Friday night variety series on NBC, “The Dave Garroway Show”, from October 2, 1953, to June 25, 1954. On October 16, 1955, he began hosting NBC’s live Sunday afternoon documentary “Wide Wide World”, continuing with that series until June 8, 1958. Another Friday evening variety show, “Dave’s Place”, was on the air in 1960.

He also hosted a WNBC radio show, “Dial Dave Garroway”, that went on the air as soon as Today wrapped up each morning. “Dial Dave Garroway” began in 1946 when Garroway was still working for WMAQ in Chicago.

When “Today” started on January 14, 1952, it was seen live only in the Eastern and Central time zones, broadcasting three hours per morning but seen for only two hours in each time zone. Since 1958, “Today” is tape-delayed for the different time zones. Peace! -Bobby Ellerbee

Dave Garroway on Sunday evenings way back when, on NBC. Way cool. So laid-back. You can’t tell me Garrison Keillor isn’t channeling this guy.

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10 responses to “June 18, 1949…Dave Garroway & “The Chicago Style” Debut On NBC”

  1. Michael Carraher

    Just saw another news feed item about Today. I imagine Dave and Pat Weaver would be saddened to know how far their show has fallen. All of today’s “miracle” technology but no class. Even bringing the chimp back would be an improvement. Less remembered today is Dave’s Sunday night segment of Monitor, outstanding broadcasting which exceeded NPR or anyone else today.

  2. Jeffery Haas

    Pretty racy too, considering Sunday night.

  3. Jeff Kreines

    Tape delayed? How quaint. I suspect servers do the job now.

  4. Jay Phelps

    Garroway’s style is so extremely low key that I have a hard time appreciating that he was a bigtime TV personality. I’ve never seen/heard anyone as soft spoken as he. I know it was a different time, but he stands out even for that era; he’s almost like a Bob and Ray impression of himself, if that makes sense.

  5. Dennis Degan

    There’s a bit more to the story concerning ‘Today’ tape delays for later time zones. Starting in 1958, the tape delay for the West Coast was done in Burbank, airing the show’s two hours using a 3-hour delay (Mountain Zone stations either took the 3-hour delayed West Coast feed or took the live East Coast feed and delayed it themselves 2 hours). When the Network started distribution by Ku-Band satellite in 1982, the quality of all the feeds improved noticeably. But it wasn’t until GEnesis was built in 1996 that the Network began distribution entirely from New York. GEnesis was the automation system that NBC used to control the Network. It was operational in time for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. This system allowed the network to use a tapeless pipeline, based on Grass Valley ProFile digital disk recorders. NBC was the first network to operate using tapeless technology.
    GEnesis, satellite distribution, and the tapeless pipeline allowed NBC to feed all time zones from one central point, improving efficiency and signal quality (there are backup control points in other cities). Finally, after years of delayed feeds operating from multiple control points, NBC could now distribute Today to each time zone independently directly from New York, allowing 4 feeds; 1 for each time zone. The Today Show is the only show on NBC that currently uses a separate delay for each time zone.

  6. Tom Williamson

    I remember Dave doing the Today show on Channel 4 in Washington in 1953. That was when we came there from Texas and got our first TV set.

  7. Dave Dillman

    There are still echos of Chicago style, even if those doing it don’t recognize the connection. Jimmie Kimmel comes to mind, in contrast to Colbert. Ferguson compared to Corden. etc. The essence of Chicago style was one-on-one not a theatrical production.

  8. Dave Dillman

    Rich Samuels has done a great job on the history of Chicago broadcasting, particularly NBC during the Merchandise Mart days.

  9. John Schipp

    In the ’70’s, the 7AM show was recorded for playback at 9 for the Central time zone. Thus, all the clocks on the set only had a minute hand.

  10. Gary Walters

    After videotape recordings started, Today was recording their programs, but with Frank Blair doing live news cut-ins in the morning. It worked well, until Garroway’s wife passed away the night before. Here was Dave Garroway, smiling on tape, but Frank Blair had to admit Dave was on tape and to say his wife died.

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