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When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
4.5
informative inspiring sad medium-paced
When Women Invented Television focuses on the pioneering women who are responsible for the early TV programming that led directly to many of our modern staples. The book focused on four key women as they blazed trails on the nascent platform.

  • Gertrude Berg wrote the radio hit The Goldbergs and then fought for it to become the OG television sitcom. She starred in the TV adaptation, directly innovating the way viewers experienced broadcast shows with things like full sets and product placement. Particularly influential was that The Goldbergs centered a Jewish family in the Bronx just shortly after WWII.
  • Hazel Scott was a celebrated jazz singer who was the first Black person to host a television show. None of the tapes from her show survive, meaning often her accomplishment is overlooked and misattributed.
  • Irma Phillips literally invented soap operas, and, like Gertrude Berg, eventually transitioned from radio to television. Her genre was never given proper acclaim due to its target audience, but Irma wrote some of the longest running programs in history and originated the trademark organ music and dramatic pauses.
  • Betty White pioneered the talk show genre, talking ad lib on air for 5+ hours every day for her first major gig. She also rejected social pressure to marry when she was young and instead pursued her passion for performing.

As is a theme with stories of these sorts, women and minorities proved the concept of the new technology before powerful white men were willing to take a chance on it. Once they did, the women were pushed out and in some cases intentionally erased. Something that was particularly noteworthy about this history of television was the extreme impact of McCarthyism on the industry and actors. Both Hazel Scott and Gertrude Berg suffered personal, devastating losses due to baseless fear-mongering during the Cold War.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved learning about this absolutely exceptional women.