Radio Age - 1955, April - 36 Pages, 2.8 MB, .PDF - VacuumTubeEra

'Peter Pan 99 — An Unforgettable Evening
Peter Pan, Wendy and her brothers fly to Neverland. Wires were invisible to television viewers.
Xhe LARGEST audience ever assembled to watch a
television program on a single network — 67,300,000
viewers — tuned their sets to NBC channels across
the country on March 7 to watch Peter Pan come to
life through the enchanting art of Mary Martin.
From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., EST, the adventures of
Peter and Wendy in Neverland, brought straight from
a highly successful run on Broadway to the color
studios of NBC in Brooklyn, held an almost exclusive
place on color and black-and-white TV screens.
Thousands
of parties were organized, under the auspices of
parent-teacher associations, TV stations, Ford and RCA-
Victor dealers and neighborhood groups, just to watch
the program. Color sets were placed in hospital wards
in many large cities so that bedridden children and
adults might also be sprinkled with Peter Pan's magic
fairy dust.
Press reception of the program was perhaps the most
uniformly enthusiastic ever aroused by a television show.
An editorial in the New York Herald Tribune, commenting
on the program, said:
"Having put on 'Peter
Pan' so brilliantly, the television industry is entitled to
take its bows." Some examples from the nation's leading
TV critics:
''100 Per Cent Enchantment"
"Last night's presentation of Mary Martin as 'Peter
Pan' was a joy ... an unforgettable evening of video
theatre."— Jack Gould, New York Times.
"Just about 100 per cent enchantment ... as close
to perfection as we've got yet; conceivably the most
polished, finished and delightful show that has ever been
on television."— John Crosby, New York Herald Tribune.
"One of the greatest triumphs in show business history
... an enchanted evening."— -Tony La Camera,
Boston Record.
20 RADIO AGE