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April Showers

From George K – Mr. Pop – You know an awful lot about television and your pay-TV history is amazing. But, didn’t history tell us the first pay-TV or scrambled air broadcasts come from Chicago during the early 1950’s? Please confirm.

Mr. Pop History – You’re right and I guess I have to correct this. The WHCT Zenith/RKO project in Hartford, CT was a biggie in 1962. I originally said the first over-the-air premium movie was “Sunrise at Caballero” in 1962. To an extent, that was true. But facts are facts.

The first over-the-air pay-TV movie was transmitted (scrambled) by Zenith/Phonevision in a test operation back in 1951. 300 test homes could see “April Showers” starring Jack Carson and the same night, see “Homecoming” with Clark Gable and Lana Turner. This was scrambled broadcast on Channel 2 in Chicago.