The Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves split a doubleheader 65 years ago today at Ebbets Field. It was a Saturday. At the conclusion of the day, the Dodgers were in first place by 13 games. (Over the next six weeks, the New York Giants played their way up the standings, into a three-game playoff against the Dodgers, and beat the Dodgers to play the New York Yankees in the World Series. “The Giants win the pennant!”)
WCBS-TV in New York broadcast the games on August 11 in color that year. These were the first-ever color broadcasts of a live baseball game. There were not yet many color television sets in private homes ready to receive the broadcast, but that day was coming. The ad above, for a CBS television set declares: “Color television is what you’ve been waiting for.”
* * * *
For the first time in his baseball career, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees was benched by manager Casey Stengel on this date in 1950. He had been batting just .279 for the season and was stuck in a 4-for-38 slump. He finished the season with a .301 average and played one more year.
* * * *
Edith Wharton died on this date in 1937. Jackson Pollock died 60 years ago today. Talk show host and singer Mike Douglas died 10 years ago today; it was his 81st birthday. Robin Williams died two years ago today.
* * * *
Governor Gifford Pinchot was born on this date in 1865. Dik Browne was born on this date in 1917. Mike Douglas was born on this date in 1920. Alex Haley was born in 1921 on this date. Jerry Falwell was born on this date in 1933.
* * * *
Arlene Dahl is 91. Claus von Bülow is 90. Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman is 75. Ian McDiarmid is 72. Marilyn vos Savant is 70. Steve Wozniak is 66. Bob Mothersbaugh is 64. Viola Davis is 51. Chris Hemsworth is 33.
____________________________________________
Follow The Gad About Town on Facebook! Subscribe today for daily facts (well, trivia) about literature and history, plus links to other writers on Facebook.
Follow The Gad About Town on Instagram!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The Gad About Town 
Colour tv! Here in NZ we didn’t get TV at all until 1961 and even then it was black and white. Colour broadcasts arrived, by stages, from 1973-76 but it took a while for colour receivers to saturate suburbia. So there was a lot of envy of the fact that the US had been enjoying colour since the 1950s. The fact that it meant NZ could use a later-gen system (625 line PAL) was largely forgotten.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for this! I’m just old enough (47 going on 91) that I remember when my family graduated from one to two TVs from B&W to color. The color set sat atop the huge console B&W, which no longer worker.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arlene Dahl…..goodness!
LikeLiked by 1 person