I’m looking forward to the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday, May 6th and I encourage everyone, whether you have British heritage or not, to watch it. It is a thrilling event that, depending on your age, you may never see again.
Of course, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953 when she was 25 and she lived to be 96 years old. King Charles is 74, so his reign, no matter how long he lives, won’t be as long and young folks may have the chance to witness more than one such event.
Here in the United States, we celebrate a presidental inauguration every four years, and the establishment of a new presidency every eight years at the least. Not so with British royalty who reign until they die (or resign), making the celebration something to be watched and remembered.
It is an event full of pomp and circumstance, history and tradition, best wishes and hopes for a fruitful future.
Kings and Queens aren’t elected, they inherit the position. So, there are no politics, just a celebration of royalty, pomp and circumstance, excitement, national pride and festivity.
Unfortunately for us, the actual event will begin at 2 a.m. Eastern Time so, unless we are nightowls, we will watch it delayed on the morning show.
There was no live watching of the Queen’s coronation at whatever hour since there was no satellite transmission in those days. We in the Western Hemisphere had to wait until the airplanes carrying film (yes film) of the event flew across the ocean and delivered the programs to the various U.S. TV networks. That film was developed on the planes during the transit and rushed from the airport in New York City to the network’s headquarters to be aired as soon as the engineers could get it on the machines to broadcast.
Multiple flights were required. First, each network (NBC, CBS, ABC—there was no PBS or CNN or Fox News at that time) flew their own film thus each outlet began their coverage when it arrived depending on the speed of their planes. At some points the second or third reel of film did not arrive before the end of the first reel, so viewers had to wait a bit until the next part of the event could be broadcast.
Of course, radio stations fed by the networks (NBC, CBS, ABC and Mutual and the CBC in Canada—which we heard in Detroit) carried the coronation live, receiving their feed via shortwave radio, complete with fading, static and other interference. At least listeners were able to follow the events on radio as they occurred and not wait until the evening television broadcasts to know what happened.
I remember getting up very early on that historic day to tune in the broadcast on a Canadian radio station. I listened until my mother pushed us out of the door to begin our treck to school.
That evening we joined a friend of the family to watch the films as they were processed and aired by the various television networks.
I still have a copy of the official program that was published at the time. Maybe I will be able to get a copy of the new one when it is issued.
Here is a guide to what you can expect to see: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65342840.
kensintrospect 