Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena

Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena was an American sports program originally broadcast on NBC from 1946 to 1948, and later on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network from 1954 to 1956.

Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena
GenreSports
Presented byChris Schenkel
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time60–90 mins.
Release
Original networkNBC (1946–1948)
DuMont (1954–1956)
Original release1946 (1946) –
August 6, 1956 (1956-08-06)

Broadcast history

Before having their own program, boxing matches from St. Nicholas Arena were broadcast as part of the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.[1]

NBC

NBC broadcast Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena twice a week—at 9:30 p.m. on Mondays and at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays.[2] The series ended on May 9, 1949, as a result of budgetary problems at the sponsoring Gillette Company.[3]

DuMont

The DuMont version was hosted by Chris Schenkel; Schenkel took over for Dennis James, who had hosted most of DuMont's boxing telecasts prior to 1954.[4]

This regularly scheduled program, which aired boxing matches from St. Nicholas Arena in New York City on Monday nights, is notable for being the final program to air on DuMont.[5] The last network-aired program was broadcast on August 6, 1956, though a few remaining programs were seen locally on New York's WABD afterward.[4]

With limited finances, DuMont aired many sports programs throughout its history. Boxing, wrestling, basketball, and football were always network mainstays, even during prime time, as they were cheaper than most scripted programs (this in an era before sports rights fees accelerated to their modern levels) and filled large programming blocks that would otherwise have gone unfilled.[6] Most of DuMont's regular series were cancelled on April 1, 1955, and the last non-sports program, the panel show What's the Story, left the airwaves on September 23, 1955, leaving only a few cheaply produced sports programs on the schedule.

However, by August 1956, even DuMont's sports programs, including Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena, were axed.

Episode status

About 60 episodes of the DuMont version, including the final program on August 6, 1956, survive at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. However, some of these episodes are from the non-network version which continued to run on WABD after the network closed (these are also notable due to the rarity of kinescopes of local programming aired on United States television stations during the 1950s).

See also

References
  1. Gamache, Ray (2010). A History of Sports Highlights: Replayed Plays from Edison to ESPN. McFarland. p. 88. ISBN 9780786456642. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  2. Fearn-Banks, Kathleen (2009). The A to Z of African-American Television. Scarecrow Press. p. 53. ISBN 9780810863484. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  3. Winn, J. Emmett; Brinson, Susan Lorene (2005). Transmitting the Past: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Broadcasting. University of Alabama Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780817351755. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  4. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1985). The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network TV Shows (Third ed.). New York: Ballantine. pp. 113–114. ISBN 0-345-31864-1.
  5. Reed, R. M.; Reed, M. K. (2012). The Encyclopedia of Television, Cable, and Video. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 176. ISBN 9781468465211. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  6. The DuMont Television Network Historical Web Site Archived 2010-10-27 at the Wayback Machine

Bibliography
  • David Weinstein, The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) ISBN 1-59213-245-6
  • Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) ISBN 0-14-024916-8
  • Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) ISBN 0-345-31864-1
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