“i saw it on television”
“I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.”
- Orson Welles
In the musical Violet, set in 1964, the title character
embarks on a quest to be healed by a well-known television
minister, or televangelist. While in 1945 there were fewer than
10,000 television sets, by the year 1960 this number soared to
almost 60 million. Television, unlike the theatre stage or movie
screen, is watched inside your home, making the viewing
experience much more intimate. It is easy to consider the people
we watch on television to be our friends, or guests in our homes.
Before television, radios were the primary source of
information, entertainment and, at times, religious connection.
Ministers, such as the wildly popular Billy Graham, would travel
across the world, rent out enormous venues and preach the
gospel to thousands of people eager to be healed. These
“Crusades” were recorded and played on the radio. With the
advent of television, popular ministers were able to reach even
larger audiences. Billy Graham’s 1957 Madison Square Garden
Crusade ran for 16 weeks and was broadcast on national
television. By the end of the summer, a Gallup poll found that
85% of Americans could identify Billy Graham.
Image of Billy Graham by Warren K. Lef?er,
1966. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
The increasing number of televisions between 1945 and
1960 contributed to an over-saturation of idealized images of
womanhood and femininity. Violet’s journey has as much to do with
this as it does with evangelicalism. An accident in her childhood left
Violet’s face permanently scarred, and she believes that the
televangelist in Oklahoma can make her beautiful again. She sings
“All to Pieces,” a song about all the beautiful women of the big and
small screens whom she hopes to look like. Millions of families
switched on their televisions every week to tune in to shows like
Leave it to Beaver, whose matriarchs embodied the 1950s ideals of
the perfect woman: a stay-at-home mother who happily performs all
the household chores, including making dinner for the entire family,
all while maintaining her perfect hairstyle and makeup.
Advertisements at the time perpetuated the same fairy tale. Violet
does not fit into this mold of perfect womanhood, though she wants
to fit desperately. While watching Violet, keep in mind the often
competing religious and feminist “Crusades,” as Violet’s story
teaches us that the journey is often more important than the
destination.
Image of Gibson Ultra 600, by Gibson,
1950-1959. Courtesy, Advertising Archives.
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