Television Recording 50 Years Ago: A Recollection: The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) Television network sent three members of its engineering department to England to record the BBC broadcast of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II for re-broadcast in the U.S. This event took place 50 years ago, on June 2, 1953. We were joined by an edit team from CBS News as well as several key executives. This was before the invention of videotape and satellite relays—in fact, before there were even satellites or jet airliners flying the Atlantic! At this time, the picture medium was television film recording. Sound was recorded on sprocket-driven magnetic film, and transportation was by propeller-driven aircraft. We did it! CBS had two shows on the air, across the U.S., on the same day as the actual coronation ceremony. It was a great adventure, and it is fun to recollect how we did it and to recall some of the problems we encountered.

Print ISSN

1545-0279

Electronic ISSN

2160-2492

Published

2004-01

Content type

Information

DOI

10.5594/J12328