Readers Remember

I remember growing up in the 1930s; electricity was first provided to our little town in Michigan by the REA, the Rural Electrification Administration.

My father, a die-hard Republican, refused to subscribe. We waited two or three years until a private company, Consumers Power Co. of Grand Rapids, ran power lines into our area.

When we finally had electricity, my sister and I proudly claimed to our friends at school that our lights were brighter than “Roosevelt lights.”

BARBARA CURTICE VACCARIELLO

Glendale

In January 1949, L.A. television station KTTV was housed in only 40 square feet at the top of the Bekins Moving and Storage Co. in Hollywood. There, television history was being created daily.

Fresh out of UCLA’s new film school, I was making the rounds of all the movie studios, as well as the brand-new television stations coming alive in this huge, untapped market. KTTV hired me to work with the graduates from the Pasadena Playhouse (with no picture training) at the “entry level” wage of nothing a week. I got by using the weekly unemployed Navy veteran allowance of $20.

It really is true that imagination is more important than knowledge. Shakespeare, the “Mike Stokey Pantomime Quiz,” a live roaring circus, news programs and detective shows, modest musicals, and even commercials--all done “live.” When an elephant defecated on camera, we showed the stagehand cleaning up!

There weren’t any precedents yet for all the production problems occurring daily.

“Pioneering” had never been so much fun. And $20 each week went so much further then.

JOE SEINFELD

Malibu