The Room-Size World

(See Cover)

Lyndon Johnson immediately grasped the significance and potential of Early Bird, the new communications satellite hovering 22,300 miles above the equator. Aware that the Russians were flooding European TV stations with films and pictures for the 20th anniversary of V-E day, the President acted swiftly last week to upstage them.;

In Washington, U.S.-network bigwigs were expecting to meet at the White House to complain about the President's increasing pre-emption of prime TV time on short notice. Instead of a meeting, Johnson produced a new short-notice request. As soon as possible, he said, he wanted to use Early Bird to broadcast a V-E anniversary speech direct to Europe. Three and one-half hours later, in a slow and measured drawl, he was chiding Charles de Gaulle live on British and Italian TV screens, and being taped for later rebroadcast in almost every other European nation. r

Global Blanket. As a means of muting Russia's planned propaganda barrage, European broadcasters called it "a master stroke." But the unprecedented transatlantic transmission of the master's voice and face also gave rise to international problems undreamed of a week ago. CBS's Walter Cronkite noted that the President had violated diplomatic protocol by addressing foreign peoples directly without first notifying their governments. A British Broadcasting Corp. official complained that he was forced to disrupt the normal evening schedule on short notice. Foreign chiefs of state, suddenly alert to the prestige potential of broadcasting directly to foreign nations by satellite, began stirring. German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard immediately requested time to address the American people.

Such new problems only served to underscore the new epoch in communications that rose with the drum-shaped, 85-lb. satellite. In an age fast growing familiar with man's race beyond the confines of his own world, Early Bird reached back toward the earth and seemed to shrink it almost to room size. All by itself, the satellite blanketed more than one-third of the globe. If two more soar into orbit, for the first time in history it will be literally true that for every nation instant contact will be possible with every inhabited spot on earth.

World Town Meeting. In Europe and the U.S., television's showmen labored to exploit Early Bird's versatility. At their best, the programs were as moving and immediate as a closeup of Houston's great Surgeon Michael DeBakey repairing a human heart while fascinated doctors in Geneva looked over his shoulder. Europe watched troop movements in the streets of Santo Domingo while bullets still ricocheted across the Caribbean town. The Town Meeting of the World turned international as Barry Goldwater in New York, Dean Rusk and Sir Alec Douglas-Home in London, and Maurice Schumann in Paris joined in a transatlantic gabfest. A mug shot of Canada's most wanted man, relayed by Early Bird and recognized by a televiewer in Florida, gave accused Bank Robber Georges Lemay the dubious fame of becoming the first fugitive nabbed by satellite. NBC teamed up with the BBC and, for a refreshing few minutes, Huntley-Brinkley became Huntley-Dimbleby.