Longines Chronoscope

Longines Chronoscope, also titled Chronoscope, is an American TV series, sponsored by Longines watches, that ran on CBS Television from 1951–1955. The series aired Monday nights at 11 p.m. ET to 11:15 p.m., and expanded to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11 p.m. ET after the first season. More than 600 episodes were aired, but only 482 survive, and these surviving kinescopes were donated by Longines to the National Archives.[2][3]

Longines Chronoscope
Also known asChronoscope[1]
GenrePublic affairs
Created byAlan Cartoun
Directed byAlan Cartoun
StarringFrank Knight
William Bradford Huie
Larry LeSueur
Henry Hazlitt
Country of origin United States
Original language(s)English
Production
Running time15 minutes
Release
Original networkCBS Television
Picture formatBlack-and-white
Audio formatMonaural
Original release11 June 1951 –
April 1955

The series featured 15-minute episodes with interviews with notable people of the time, including Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Hubert H. Humphrey, Henry Wallace, Robert Moses, Richard E. Byrd, Joseph McCarthy, Earl Warren, Arthur Bliss Lane, John V. Beamer, Tadeusz "Bór" Komorowski and Clare Boothe Luce.[4] The show was hosted by William Bradford Huie, Larry LeSueur, and Henry Hazlitt.[3][4]

Journalist Frank W. Taylor and business affairs consultant Henry Hazlitt were regular members of the three-person panel. The third panelist for each episode was a guest selected for having particular knowledge related to the guest for that show. Frank Knight was the moderator.[5][1]

In February 1954, Clark Getts, former producer of Longines Chronoscope, sued CBS for $150,000, alleging that the network had caused Longines to break its contract with him.[6]

The program's demise resulted from a disagreement between CBS and the sponsor regarding control. Network officials felt that CBS should have control, because the program involved discussions of controversial public affairs; Longines executives felt that the company should retain control.[7]

In 1956, Chronoscope was included in a Congressional subcommittee's investigation of network operations. Getts, CBS executives, and a Longines-Wittnauer official were among the witnesses who appeared before the subcommittee headed by Representative Emanuel Cellar.[8]

See also

References
  1. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1988). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present (4th ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 152. ISBN 0-345-35610-1.
  2. "Longines Chronoscope: 1952 Summer Olympics". C-SPAN. July 29, 2012. Archived from the original on October 12, 2012.
  3. Longines Chronoscope IMDB entry
  4. Shamley, Sarah L. (1990). "Television Interviews, 1951-1955". National Archives Trust Fund Board. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
  5. "The Longines-Wittnauer Chronoscope" (PDF). Billboard. June 23, 1951. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  6. "Getts in 150G Suit Vs. CBS" (PDF). Billboard. March 6, 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  7. "'Chronoscope' To Quit CBS" (PDF). Billboard. May 2, 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  8. "Networks, on Celler stand, tell of inside operations" (PDF). Broadcasting. October 1, 1956. p. 50. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
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