Reaching a Critical Mass

4

Becoming Teleliterate

 

It did not take long for this country to become a nation of televiewers. In 1946, 90 million Americans went to the movies every week, and only 6,500 TV sets had been sold. Four years later, 1.7 million sets had been sold, and movie attendance dropped by one third, on its way down to a low point of fewer than 18 million moviegoers.¹ Hugely popular general circulation magazines—Collins, The American, The Saturday Evening Post, Look, and Life—went out of business. Comic book sales declined. It was reported that 60% ...