What was the significance of Lucille Ball and Milton Berle in the 1950s?
1 Answer
They were the two biggest stars of American television in its early days.
Explanation:
Although the television had been invented in the late 1920s, few Americans owned one until the 1950s. Early programming was nothing special, and nobody wanted to sink money into producing television shows that would only be seen by a handful of eccentric hobbyists. TV sets were expensive and cumbersome, the screens were small and the images were blurry.
In 1948, Texaco Star Theatre hired vaudevillian comic Milton Berle as its host. The show was a hit, and sales of television sets rose. Berle was the medium's first major star.
Lucille Ball, a minor film star who played a lot of "chorus girl" roles, developed a situation comedy with her husband, popular bandleader Desi Arnaz. While her film career never quite took off, her comedy and business instincts worked perfectly for television. I Love Lucy became the first massively popular situation comedy on television and it set the tone for a type of television show that still dominates the schedules of evening television. Ball became TV's first important female producer; her company, Desilu, introduced Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, among other shows.
