Piney Woods Philosopher: First TV memory features prize fight on 3-inch screen

By BILL COBBS/Columnist

Piney and She Who Must Be Obeyed were amused by the television advances, with all of the emphasis put on mechanics, and none on perfections in what one watched.
Piney was reminded of the first time he saw a television.
It was like this and probably in the period 1941-48 with ‘43, ’44 and ‘45 left out for World War II. Piney was at Roanoke College and a friend, Frank Lloyd Clarke, had ordered a “kit” from a western electronics firm to construct a TV set. The physics professor helped put it together.
Piney knew that TV had been invented, but at that point, there were eight sets in the Roanoke area and only WDBJ was resending a New York signal with little programming.
Frank Clarke, called “The Snark” by friends, invited Piney and many others into his college dorm to see the marvelous TV set. It was the night of the Lewis-Schmelling prize fight for the world championship.
The set? It was three-feet long, two-feet wide, coming to a point in the front for a THREE-INCH black-and-white cathode tube screen!
About 50 people, including Piney and his friends, crowded around the set, heard the fight and saw some of it. Lewis won!
But they all thought the television was extraordinary!
No plasma! No color! Little sound! Three-inch screen!
But fun!
A writer, Bill Cobbs divides his time between Southwest Virginia and Florida.