[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 120 (Friday, September 11, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10247-S10248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           TRIBUTE TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMMY AWARDS

   Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 
golden anniversary of the Emmy Awards telecast from Los Angeles. For 
fifty years, hundreds of the nation's brightest and most popular 
personalities have attended this prestigious event to honor television 
excellence.
  Beyond the captivating glow of the Hollywood spotlight, the yearly 
awards presentation is a celebration of California's thriving 
entertainment industry. Television arts and production contribute 
billions of dollars to the California economy, generating rapid job 
growth,

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higher income, and greater tax revenues. Entertainment's significant 
financial impact can be attributed to the rising television and 
commercial production within the state. Recent studies confirm that 
payrolls and payments for goods and services within the entertainment 
industry currently contribute over $27 billion to California's economy. 
The Emmy Awards confer annual awards of merit to creative arts people 
in the television industry, as incentive to continue supporting the 
economic growth in California.
  Now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, the Emmy Awards was not 
always so celebrated and grand. The first awards banquet in 1949 was 
held at the old Hollywood Athletic Club, with tickets costing a mere 
five dollars. With few stars in attendance, the program was not even 
televised nationally. The ceremony was broadcast on local station KTSL 
beginning at 9:30 p.m. Despite the American public's unfamiliarity with 
the obscure, new medium, Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Brown declared the 
day of the first telecast TV Day on January 25, 1949.
  Sponsor of the annual awards program, the National Academy of 
Television Arts and Sciences has a long and venerated history. Since 
its early days, membership to the National Academy of Television Arts 
and Sciences has flourished to more than 9,000, making it the single 
largest television professional association in the world. The Academy 
not only presents the Emmy Awards, but also hosts a program for college 
educators and has underwritten the Archive of American Television in an 
effort to preserve television's rich and detailed past.
  As the Emmy's golden anniversary approaches, let us pay tribute to 
the award show's support of the entertainment industry and recognition 
of quality television programming. With 50 years of telecasts to its 
credit, the Emmy's have become a genuine part of American 
history.

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