Nails

I read the first televised bout was in '39 from a London arena. Wonder how blokes got to see this?
Also read the famous *first match between Louis and Conn was televised in '41!? Did anyone bother to advertise anything?
There were earlier tv bouts between Nova and Max Baer, in '39 and '41. Nova won both.
Anybody know who fought on New York tv in the early '40s?
Billy Graham, maybe?

hhascup

The first TV broadcast of a fight was in 1931. It was an exhibition between Mickey Walker and Benny Leonard and was broadcast by the CBS Studios in New York and appeared as a reddish-orange picture about half the size of a standard business card to the handful of people who had sets in New York.

Eric Boon and Arthur Danahar fought the FIRST British title fight that was televised in 1939.

The first televised Heavyweight championship fight was Joe Louis-Billy Conn II that was held on June 19, 1946 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. WNBT-TV in New York City televised the bout to just a handful of television sets as Louis knocked out Conn in the 8th round.

The first televised championship fight was Willie Pep-Chalky Wright featherweight bout at Madison Square Garden on September 29, 1944.

In 1941 television became a factor, though telephoto lenses were not advanced enough to make boxing an attractive television sport until after World War II. Even so, there were some closed-circuit matches broadcast to limited receivers set up in public venues. The first such telecast was of the Ken Overlin-Billy Soose middleweight championship fight on May 9, 1941 at Madison Square Garden (in which Soose beat the champion in fifteen rounds). The fight was telecast to 1,400 paying fans at the New Yorker Theater, heralding a prominent role tor television broadcasts in fight promotion. By 1948 the technical problems had been solved and there was a potential television audience of 1.75 million viewers. The stakes, which were already high, increased, as people who did not own their own sets were invited to bars and hotels to watch important events, such as championship boxing matches, on television.

The First fight televised from MSG, New York was the 2nd Lou Nova-Max Baer bout on April 4, 1941. The 1st fight between those 2 was in Yankee Stadium on June 6, 1939.