The Days of Live

The Days of Live is a fascinating account of the era of live television. This brief period in the long history of entertainment glistened for approximately ten years, from shortly after World War II until the end of the 1950s, when the advent of video tape and the ascendancy of film programming caused it to fade into oblivion. Compiled from the first-hand accounts of twenty-one members of the Directors Guild of America who were instrumental in shaping the medium during this formative phase, the book covers the development of network programming, technical advances, sponsor relations, and the blacklist. The Days of Live describes the transition from black-and-white to color, and documents early landmark series such as Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Climax, Producers Showcase, and Playhouse 90. It includes personal, detailed, and often hilariously funny stories of television during its awkward infancy and the men and women who struggled to popularize and standardize its procedures. This book is filled with the words of America's earliest television workers, those who began television's meteoric rise to an unavoidable feature of the cultural landscape.