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Wednesday, April 29th, 2026

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Steve Sekely early Televison pioneer

I've just started reading Steve Sekely's autobiography, published in Hungarian.In the filmography, he lists: "The Assassination of Lincoln (Hollywood) 1940"Following this up, I found two sources to reference:

Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr 1940

But it's today's story we want to hear, so let's go down to Mutual studios, here in town and follow a production from rehearsal into the final performance which I saw in Lee's private home. It was "The Ides of March," written by Wilfred Pettit, who, while holding a job in Warner's story department, has done the scripts for nearly all the material used in Pacific Coast television to date.

No Film Used

Entering the television stage I was enveloped by an intense heat wave caused by the lighting, which is much more concentrated than in the present motion pictures. Focused on the set were three cameras operated by union cameramen. They were recording action without any film-it's all done by electrical impulses. Don't ask me how. It would be like asking me to explain God.

I'm sure God exists, but if my life depended on it I couldn't tell you how or where, except every. where-and so do electrical impulses.

Directing the proceedings was tall, distinguished, Hungarian Steve Sekely, the first movie director to enter the television field and certainly one of the keenest minds in the business to date.

First Play Given

We were gathered around the immense magic box in Tommy's house. A mirror on the underside of the lid reflected the images from the top of a vertical tube. In this mirror we saw the production, which was a psychological study of John Wilkes Booth during the period just previous to the fatal night he put a bullet in the back of Abraham Lincoln. For a director who is working completely in the dark, without any precedent to go by, Steve is to be congratulated on giving us an intelligent and, at times, a moving performance. Shirley Thomas and John Barkley played the leading roles of Booth and his wife. These two, having more television acting hours to their credit than any others in the business, have developed great dexterity in a new form which is terribly difficult to master. And while the whole effect was one of groping and in-completeness, still the entire performance held our attention.

Defects Apparent

The television screen is not yet big enough to give us the same proportionate effect that a theater screen does. We should have more close-ups, and in the long shots we should be able to see more clearly the actors' expressions. Battle scenes, which were rented stock shots from studios, were dragged in by the heels and looked mechanical, but I'm not condemning the medium for that.

 

The Hollywood Reporter, Mar 28, 1940

For the first time on the coast, a full-length play, "The Ides of March” will be telecast tonight (8:00 o'clock) from Mutual Don Lee's W6XAO. It's directed by Steve Sukely, European pic megger, and will have six changes of scenery over a period of 70 minutes.

How do I go about adding this production to the database from scratch?

 

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