Let's look back on color television for New Year's Day

William Atkins
Friday, 01 January 2010 19:49

Science - Biology

Just over sixty years ago, the first color newsreel was introduced in the United States, which was followed up by pay television, mobile color television units, and coast-to-coast color telecasts—all on January 1st, New Year’s Day.


Color television has had a very colorful history in the United States and across the world.

In basic form, color television consists of broadcasting in three monochrome images, one in each of the three colors of read, green, and blue (RGB).

When combined quickly together these colors blend together to produce a single color seen by television viewers.

And, these broadcasts in color were often first used to show off the beauty of roses and other flowers in Pasadena, California, on New Year's Day.

On January 1, 1948, the first motion picture newsreel in color was taken of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California.

The technology was then used on a regular basis beginning on January 5, 1948, when Warner Brothers-Pathe used the Cinecolor process to show this color newsreel for the first time to theatre audiences.

Four years later, on New Year's Day of January 1, 1951, the first pay television was made available by the Zenith Radio Corporation for the first time.

Page two continues with more New Year's Day broadcasts in color.