I recently was given the responsibility for caretaking a collection of old track and field files which will eventually be scanned and digitized so researchers, historians, and others can have access to these gems of the past. Most track nuts would give their last functioning testicle to have these in their home. Is this why we call them 'track nuts'? Some I will share on this blog. Today's piece is an editorial from the NYTimes concerning the broadcasting of the Miracle Mile at the Commonwealth and Empire Games of Vancouver, British Columbia in 1954. It was, as some of you may recall, possibly the first sporting event covered coast to coast live on the boob tube. I personally cannot remember if I watched it, but I did see the John Landy , Jim Bailey dual from the Los Angeles Coliseum two years later on May 5, 1956.
Anyway, the editorialist is less than happy about the way the race was broadcast. It was shot in Canada, but Canada did not have cross country transmission, so it had to be channeled to Seattle and then to Buffalo and back to Toronto and NYC for the director as you will see. I've transcribed the piece as it may be too difficult to read the photocopy.
Television in Review
N.B.C. Coverage of Empire Games Almost
Like Running 4-Minute Mile Backward
SOMETIMES television gets lost in its own electronic jungle. Last Saturday, N.B.C. went to great effort and expense to cover the British Empire Games direct from Vancouver, B.C. Then, in a bewildering state of confusion, it spent most of a one-hour program having TV emissaries tell the story second-hand from the R.C.A. Exhibition Hall in New York.
The main event in Vancouver was the eight-man "miracle mile" that pitted Roger Bannister (not yet knighted to Sir Roger, ed.) of England against John Landy of Australia, the only two men to break the four-minute mile. The running of the race was beautifully captured by the TV cameras, but the remainder of the program was disjointed beyond reason. It was marred by erratic switching between the R.C.A. Exhibition Hall and Vancouver and the frequent intrusion of ill-timed public service films.
Ben Grauer, head man of the hall, had a hectic afternoon trying to coordinate the segments and maintain telephone contact with Vancouver. The start of the race all but got lost in his frequent instructions for the camera crew there to be on the alert for the arrival of the Duke of Edinburgh. At one point Mr. Grauer, whose work evidently had not been too well laid out by N.B.C, grabbed the phone and asked: "Any word yet from Edinburgh? I mean Vancouver."
Mr. Grauer's studio guests included Wes Santee, the track star currently in the Marine Corps, Kenneth (Tug) Wilson and Asa Bushnell, president and secretary, respectively, of the United States Olympic committee, and Jesse Abramson, sports writer for the New York Herald Tribune. There would have been nothing wrong in having them on the show briefly to build up the race, but Empire Stadium, Vancouver, should have been the dominant part of the show, not a New York studio.
Probably the lengthiest single pickup from Vancouver was the race, a mere time of 3:58.8. The moment Bannister won the race and collapsed into the arms of some persons at the finish line. N.B.C. put on a filmed announcement (Commercial ad). Viewers who had just witnessed one of the truly great moments in sports history, were denied the added thrill of seeing stadium guards fighting to hold back the crowds attempting to run on the field. And they didn't see the dozens who hoisted Bannister to their shoulders and danced with him around the infield.
The race itself was ably described by an unidentified announcer, who it later turned out was a Canadian. But he never was allowed to summarize what he had seen or even to report the official time of the race. This commentary was reserved for Mr. Grauer and the experts 3,000 miles away in the R.C.A. Exhibition Hall.
The show also failed to dramatize interesting technical matters. Actually, it came about because the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation wanted to televise the race on its stations in Eastern Canada but had no relay facilities from the west. N.B.C. stepped in and had the signal fed from Vancouver to Seattle, which necessitated the construction of relay towers, and from there across the United States to Buffalo and then north to Toronto.
It certainly was a nice gesture by N.B.C., and it is hoped that Canadians saw more of their Empire Stadium than we did. V.A.
Today when I complain about modern track and field coverage, it seems as if some of these same issues come up. Maybe it is just endemic to the sport.
Now let me give you the link to the Canadian version of this story with two clips of the famous race in its entirety and some post race carrying on along with a clip of the tragic end of the marathon with Jim Peters collapsing before getting to the finish. Peters actually crossed what he thought was the finish, but the British team doctor misinformed him of the true location of the line. George Brose
British Empire Games 1954 Vancouver Link for fun count the number of times Landy looks back.
from Geoff Pietsch
" I watched it live. I remember that the papers said it was the first coast to coast such broadcast. And I remember rooting for Landy, the frontrunner. I also realized afterwards, when newspapers reported Jim Peters' collapse, that TV didn't show it even though it was a very short time after the mile. "
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