Comments on: Television Broadcasts on December 7th, 1941 http://www.tvobscurities.com/2009/12/television-broadcasts-on-december-7th-1941/ Keeping Obscure TV From Fading Away Forever Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:53:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Barry I. Grauman http://www.tvobscurities.com/2009/12/television-broadcasts-on-december-7th-1941/comment-page-1/#comment-19031 Barry I. Grauman Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:16:57 +0000 http://www.tvobscurities.com/?p=5048#comment-19031 The attack occured at 7:55am, Hawaiian time/ 1:55pm, Eastern time. The first bulletins were broadcast over radio shortly before 3:00, with Mutual interrupting a football game, and CBS' John Daly notifying listeners during the Sunday afternoon New York Philharmonic concert a few minutes later. This meant that the New York TV stations that were on the air were a bit slow in reporting the news about Pearl Harbor, by 3:30. Incidentally, "Millionaire Playboy" (1940), another of those obscure "B" features WNBT usually aired to fill time [this one courtesy of RKO-Radio, which had close financial ties to NBC's corporate parent, RCA, at the time] starred Joe Penner, famed radio comedian who sounded a little like "Pee-Wee Herman", and had a famous catchphrase {"Wanna buy a duck?"}, but was just about washed up in the radio and movie industries when he appeared in it- in fact, it was his last feature film. He died in January 1941..."Okay, let's run it. Who remembers Penner, anyway?". The attack occured at 7:55am, Hawaiian time/ 1:55pm, Eastern time. The first bulletins were broadcast over radio shortly before 3:00, with Mutual interrupting a football game, and CBS’ John Daly notifying listeners during the Sunday afternoon New York Philharmonic concert a few minutes later. This meant that the New York TV stations that were on the air were a bit slow in reporting the news about Pearl Harbor, by 3:30.

Incidentally, “Millionaire Playboy” (1940), another of those obscure “B” features WNBT usually aired to fill time [this one courtesy of RKO-Radio, which had close financial ties to NBC's corporate parent, RCA, at the time] starred Joe Penner, famed radio comedian who sounded a little like “Pee-Wee Herman”, and had a famous catchphrase {“Wanna buy a duck?”}, but was just about washed up in the radio and movie industries when he appeared in it- in fact, it was his last feature film. He died in January 1941…”Okay, let’s run it. Who remembers Penner, anyway?”.

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