Tele-Views - Houston - June 1951

 

The publication known today as TV Guide was being published in a few markets in the northeast by this time, but it would be another two years before it went national.  There were other similar publications around the country.  This one was localized for Houston and published locally with both local and national articles and local names on the masthead.

Back cover.  The street address for Central Television Service is the same address given on the masthead (page 4) for the publisher of this guide.  Dick Gottlieb in his column (on page 5) mentions TET.

Note all the names on the Masthead, top left.  Vol.2 Number 7 indicates the guide has been published since Channel 2 went on the air as KLEE-TV.  A very young Dick Gottlieb, pictured upper right column, notes he is starting his second year as columnist, indicating he took over (or started) the column when the Hobby family purchased the station and flipped it to KPRC-TV.  

Sunday night programming - note Wild Bill Hickok and Hopalong Cassidy as the Western was already asserting itself as popular TV fare.  Toast of the Town with no mention of Ed Sullivan?? and Dave Garroway as a Sunday evening (perhaps not being presented live (entertainment show host.

Monday programming:  12:15 pm - Music Hall with Paul - I wonder if that's Paul Schmidt and the Tuneschmidts? (Hope I've spelled the name right - I'll try to look it up). 1 pm - TV Kitchen with Jane Christopher and Bob Dundas, Jr. - 45 minutes live television from the KPRC studios, 5 days a week!  Christopher became hugely popular; Dundas was the son of the head of Foley's Department Store and also a booth announcer on Channel 2.  I started watching as soon as we got a set and still am a fan of cooking shows.

4 pm - Matinee with Dick Gottlieb - another live, 45 minute show every weekday.  I was a regular viewer.

6:55 pm Weathercast with John Wissinger, Houston's first TV weatherman.  7 pm - the Cisco Kid - another Western.  Probably considered politically incorrect now but Cisco was one of my favorites as a kid.  El Real, the Mexican restaurant that operated out of the Tower Theater on Westheimer in Montrose for some years, occasionally showed re-runs (sans audio) on the big wall where the screen used to be.

There are many programs with 'big name stars' of the day; if you weren't around then you probably don't remember them (and I don't recognize many). There are other local shows listed that I do not recall.

Tuesday programming:  more of the same.  8 pm - Fashions in Motion with Joy Mladenka.  I have seen this programming listed on KXYZ-AM in the 1940s; it was a women's fashion show - on the radio!  On channel 2 the show was narrated by Dick Gottlieb, broadcast live from the Battelstein's store on Shepherd Drive on the edge of River Oaks.  The models wearing fashions (all available for sale at Battelstein's, of course) glided down a circular staircase in the lobby of the store while Gottlieb read a prepared script describing the garments.  From this nine-year old (at the time), a review:  Absolutely dreadful television! 

This is all the files I have received at this time.  My thanks to Patrick Grant for making these available (and apologies for taking so long to get them posted). 

Comments are welcome on any of the shows, personalities, etc.