Auction hall part of TV history
St David's Hall in Surry Hills, is where Australia's first television show was broadcast in 1956 -and now it's going up for auction.
- Published by David Knox
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It may not look very auspicious but St David’s Hall in Arthur Street, Surry Hills, is where Australia’s first television show was broadcast in 1956 -and now it’s going up for auction.
Brendan Horgan, a former media historian with the National Film and Sound Archive, says: “Sir Frank Packer left instructions that Channel 9 had to be the first station in Australia to air but the Willoughby premises were still under construction so they created a makeshift studio at St David’s.
“On opening night there was a production glitch and at the last minute Bruce Gyngell, who was in a dinner suit on his way to a party at Sir Frank’s, was told to get to Willoughby and in a small edit room in the basement he said those now famous words, “Welcome to television”.
“They then cut back to St David’s where the opening night extravaganza took place and it was broadcast from microwave links on top to of the hall back to Willoughby.”
The Victorian Gothic-style church hall was bought for $2.53 million in December and will go to auction on Saturday, September 22 with an early to mid $2 million price guide.
Source: Wentworth Courier
2 Responses
@Eddie Blake..it does. In your search browser run a phrase like “video of bruce gyngell saying ‘welcome to television'” and you’ll get videos from 9 that show it. There’s one on YouTube that’s all black and white also and is still a ‘look back’ and shows Bruce uttering those famous words after the test pattern etc.
It’s sad that the original bit of footage from 1956 no longer exists.