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Rome 1960: Viva Olympic TV

Broadcast Date: Aug. 25, 1960

The age of televised sport has come to Canada. In this CBC Television clip, Lloyd Robertson recaps the recently televised 1960 Rome Games. The 97 Canadian Olympians didn't do well in the medal stakes, with only a silver-winning rowing crew making it to the podium. Still, Robertson notes, seven Canadian records were broken — "a small step but in the right direction." He also introduces "an excellent piece of film" showing the Olympic torch on its way to Rome.

Rome 1960: Viva Olympic TV

• For the summer Games in Rome, the CBC produced a total of 17 hours of radio and TV coverage. This time, CBC Television broadcast same-day highlights each night. The half-hour package featured CBC audio commentary on top of pictures provided by CBS, which had American broadcast rights. CBC sportscasters Bud Palmer and Gil Stratton provided commentary, as did the Rev. Bob Richards, a retired U.S. pole vaulter and decathlete.

• There was a buzz about Olympic TV coverage. But without same-day satellite transmission, radio was still the place to go for timely results and sporting drama. The CBC's Ward Cornell and Thom Benson gave radio listeners 15-minute reports every evening except Sunday on the CBC's Trans-Canada Network. On the CBC's Dominion Network, Doug Smith gave half-hour evening wrap-ups.

• CBC Television got its first crack at covering an Olympics in February 1960, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. Viewers saw black-and-white highlights of the previous day's events. For a hockey game between Canada and the Soviet Union, however, the CBC leased a standby circuit from CBS so it could televise the action live. Critics compared CBC's overall Olympic coverage unfavourably to that of ABC, which broadcast same-day colour pictures throughout the Games.

• For the 1952 Games, CBC Television lent a camera to a Canadian businessman who was going to Helsinki on business while the city hosted the Games. He returned to Canada with 15 hours of film that were cut down to a highlight reel.

• For Rome, CBS sent videotapes of each day's events by jet to Idlewild Airport in New York. A mobile transmission unit there beamed the pictures to the CBC and CBS networks.

• The stars of Rome were two runners — Ethiopian Abebe Bikila and American Wilma Rudolph. A barefoot Bikila won gold in the marathon, the first African to ever win a medal. Rudolph, a sprinter, became the first woman to win three gold medals in one Olympiad. The 20th of 22 children, she had survived childhood polio, scarlet fever and double pneumonia. Another black athlete, Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, won boxing gold as a light heavyweight.

• Ali proudly wore his gold medal in Rome. However, shortly after returning to Louisville, Ky., he was disgusted to find that being an Olympic champion didn't spare him from prejudice, including being refused service in a whites-only restaurant. He chucked his medal into the Ohio River.

• Televised sport was born earlier, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Residents and visitors in 21 pubs across Berlin watched flickering black-and-white images of the events on 48-centimetre screens. Bulky cameras perched atop large vans were used to produce the closed-circuit program.

Rome 1960: Viva Olympic TV

Medium: Television

Program: 1960 Olympics

Broadcast Date: Aug. 25, 1960

Guest(s):

Host: Lloyd Robertson

Duration: 8:03

Last updated:
May 31, 2004