In the early 1940s film editor and writer Syd Cassyd was compelled by his passion for the entertainment industry and the learning potential of television and the innovations it could bring to the public to found and promote an organization that would recognize and reward achievements in the entertainment and television innovation industry.
The advent of WWI didn't put a damper on Cassyd's dream. While serving his country he worked as a film editor under Col. Frank Capra in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He later worked for Paramount Studios and then became an entertainment journalist. In 1946 despite the modest number of people who owned television sets in the United States Cassyd held the first Television Academy meeting with only a handful of members, a number that was destined to grow rapidly with each subsequent meeting.
Later the organization became structured around a group of peer members from all areas of the television industry with the aim of meeting on a regular basis to discuss and exchange views and concerns and also vote on Television Academy representatives. Cassyd relentlessly sought to make the organization prosper and although he wasn't interested in adding glitz and glamour to the organization the other Academy members believed celebrities would add a positive note to the organization's popularity and image. In 1946 popular radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen became the first president of the Academy. Shortly after the Emmy was born- this was an unprecedented move guaranteed to boost the image and popularity of the Academy.
Emmys: the Statuette is Born
Designed by television engineer Louis McManus in 1948 the Emmy statuette was conceived to symbolize the scientific (the atom held by the female figure) and artistic (the wings represent the muse of the arts) aspects of the Academy Television Awards. The Emmy stands 15.5 inches (39 cm) tall and weighs almost 5 lbs (2.5 kg). It is impeccably handcrafted with copper, nickel, silver and gold - special care is taken to avoid leaving fingerprints or marks on the statuettes. "They are hand cast, deburred, and hand polished" said an account executive for R. S. Owens and Company who also make the Oscars statuettes. Cassyd's suggestion to name the statuette "Ike" after the television nickname for iconoscope tube was rejected to avoid dubbing Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower's name. The name "Immy" which was a technical term used to refer to the early image orthicon camera won unanimous consent but it was not suitable for a female name, so it was changed to the more feminine sounding Emmy.
Emmy Awards: the Los Angeles Emmys go National
The first Emmy Awards for local Los Angeles programming were held in 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic club. The Emmy for Outstanding Personality went to UCLA ventriloquist Shirley Dinsdale; among the other Emmys awarded was the Most Popular Program that went to game show Pantomime Quiz.
During the 1950s the Academy's desire to go national led to the organization's split into two chapters on opposite coasts: the Los Angeles and New York chapters. Ed Sullivan became the first president of the newly formed New York chapter which was called the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). One of the main joint achievements of the New York and Los Angeles chapters was the establishment of the International Television Emmys in the early 1970s. In 1977, however, after filing lawsuits the two chapters split as the result of diverging viewpoints about the integrity of the Academy. In the 1960s as the announcing of the nominees was growing in popularity and prestige it was becoming quite the event. The staging of the morning nominations began in 1965 from the West Coast in the American Room at the Brown Derby restaurant at 10 a.m. to facilitate live East Coast coverage. Today this is done at the Academy's North Hollywood headquarters.
