The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Telstar's New World IN 1492 it took Columbus more than two months to cross the Atlantic. But the other night, on the occasion of the first demonstration...
...By and'large, the entire international exhibition was brought off with taste and discretion...
...To our televising of the Statue of Liberty, for example, the British countered with Big Ben and the French with the Eiffel Tower...
...And what impresses me most is that despite our outmoded thinking in certain areas, science marches on, industry pushes forward, life keeps on the move...
...Watching the program one could not help but be conscious of the fact that Telstar seemed to take on a symbolic significance...
...The older among us can recall a time when European immigrants furnished a great source for laughter in American vaudeville theaters...
...And Telstar seems to cap it all...
...With the exception of the Soviet satellite countries, all of Europe is now closely knit in a union of industrial and trade agreements...
...Yet I don't think that this vastly improved exchange of business information is likely to be the most important advance made possible by Telstar...
...Telstar may, in time, bring a unity that runs a good deal deeper than politics...
...As America got its picture of Europeans from Ellis Island, Europe took its idea of Americans from rude and pushing tourists...
...In recent years, Americans have learned something about their countries of origin, and Europeans have realized that the new world is, after all, civilized...
...Now that Europe's television programs will be commonly shown here and ours will be shown throughout the Continent, perhaps we shall all penetrate closer to the substance of each other's true national characters...
...As I see it, we stand on the threshold of a new kind of existence...
...Up to a point, this is true...
...But regardless of their basically different approaches to the medium, the European and American television executives handled their respective ends of the Telstar program in much the same way...
...It turned out to be one of those happy occasions in which everyone comes out a winner...
...Similarly, French and German comic opera constantly scored points off English and American foibles...
...The drive toward understanding and cooperation is deep and strong...
...It is very much a part of the broad sweep of activities that in recent years have tended to bring the nations of the world closer together...
...As far as stocks and bonds are concerned, London, Paris and New York will now practically be living in each other's pockets...
...For their parts, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the other European countries offered roughly the same fare: their most typical—and also most sacred —attractions...
...Britain and the United States, having no intentions of being left behind, are making every effort to adapt themselves to these new developments...
...In the past, it will be remembered, it never took too long for news of our various depressions to jump the Atlantic and make their impact felt on Europe...
...In the course of broadcasting the program, nbc's Chet Huntley hinted that Telstar would bring more rapid and effective access to business information in foreign lands...
...But the other night, on the occasion of the first demonstration of Telstar, two continents gossiped back and forth like neighbors across a back-yard fence...
...Strangely enough, though, I have seen very little discussion of the advantages that we can expect to reap from this new innovation in communications...
...Most of European television is govemment-run...
...Perhaps the greatest gain we shall derive from Telstar will be a gradual increase in understanding between nations...
...At this juncture, the experts say that it is only a matter of five or 10 years before Telstar is operating in full swing...
...Though thousands of miles apart, Europeans and Americans sat down to watch the same television programs and, I suspect, reacted in pretty much the same way...
...For years now, radio and cables have provided a reasonably satisfactory exchange of market news...
...Despite all the books and magazines, the movies and costly tours, most people will agree that there is still a good deal of misunderstanding and suspicion about people from other countries...
...Here, of course, it is in the hands of private industry...
...True, things are not as bad as they once were...
Vol. 45 • August 1962 • No. 17
