Town Meeting of the World

In July of 1962, the first Telstar satellite was placed in orbit. In October of the same year, CBS President, Frank Stanton, proposed the first electronic Town Meeting of the World. This broadcast took place on July 10, 1963. Participating in this history-making event were leaders of four nations—former USA President Dwight D. Eisenhower, speaking from Denver; former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, from London; former West German Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano, from Bonn; and Jean Monnet, “father of the common market,” from Brussels. Town Meeting of the World was certainly an outstanding contribution to international understanding, not only in itself but in its promise for the future—a telecast which reflected Dr. Stanton’s constructive imagination, farsighted vision, and understanding of the possibilities of electronic communications in a troubled world. The program and the one who conceived it richly merit the Peabody Television Award for international understanding, 1963.