July 2012 Auction Ends Tuesday, July 31st, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/31/2012
Historic Emmy award from the first ever Emmy Awards ceremony, held on 25 January 1949 when primetime television was such a new medium that only three TV shows and performers took home the famous statue and just six awards in total were presented. In this era there were just one million TV sets in the United States, and television broadcasting was in its infancy with the debut of the first nightly news cast, CBS beginning network programming, and ABC opening its first television station.
This is the statue won for ''Best Film Made in Hollywood For Television''. The production, called ''The Necklace,'' was actually the first 30-minute episode of a drama series called ''Your Show Time,'' in which famous literary works were produced as half-hour dramas; Guy de Maupassant's short story ''The Necklace'' was the first adaptation. This was the first televised drama series shot on film rather than broadcast live, and aired on NBC just four days before the ceremony. For this very first Emmy statuette, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences selected television engineer Louis McManus's design of a winged woman on tiptoe, holding an atom over her head, intended to symbolize television's convergence of science and art. Statue is made of gold-plated metal on a metal base. The front of the base is engraved: ''Awarded to / Grant and Realm / Best Film Made in Hollywood For Television / First Annual Awards Dinner / Academy of Television Arts And Sciences / January 25, 1949''. Measures 15.75'' in height, with a 7.5'' diameter base. Weighs 5 lbs., 6.75 oz. Light tarnishing and a ripple to the finish on the top of the base, else near fine. A gorgeous and historic sculptural object celebrating television in its first flickering moments.
Emmy Award From the Very First Emmy Awards Ceremony, Held in 1949 -- Won by the series "Your Show Time" -- TV's First Dramatic Series To Win An Emmy Or To Be Shot On Film!
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