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And those technicians, and our producer, who is acting
production chief of what is probably the biggest Television studios
in the world, say that what has now been produced is something
absolutely new and revolutionary in television---a program that
carries terrific impact, arouses instant interest, creates suspense
and holds the audience waiting to see how it comes out---convincing
and MOVING. They believe it will win a tremendous audience.
The program will start out with a panorama view of our
beautiful Ambassador College campus, as the announcer announces the
program. You SEE the campus in the picture, while you HEAR the
announcer's voice. Finally the cameras sweep around onto a tame
lion, a little calf or a lamb, and a little child leading them---AS
IT WILL BE IN THE WORLD TOMORROW---according to Isaiah 11:6. Read
it! Then the scene shifts, as the announcer announces me, to the
auditorium rostrum, and I begin the sermon. You'll SEE my daughter
Beverly, and son Ted, singing the same duet they recently sang on
the radio network. The first program is about a prophecy already
startlingly fulfilled, and just before the close of the program I
take you into the study, pull down a movie-screen, and SHOW you the
actual motion pictures of the amazing, dumbfounding FULFILLMENT of
the prophecy, before your very eyes, while you still hear my voice
explaining it. Then I sit down at my desk, show the "U.S. in P"
booklet, then introduce Mrs. Armstrong sitting beside me as she
usually does in the radio studio (she said she TRIED to smile at
you, but doesn't remember whether she succeeded---she was under
those blinding lights, too) and then I introduce our Ambassador
Chorale of 31 voices under direction of Prof. Leon Ettinger, and
you hear the announcer's voice, and see the words of screen credits
over the singing and humming of the chorale, as the program comes
to a close. The program is a CHALLENGE to all skeptics and
atheists who doubt that God exists, or that the BIBLE is His Word,
or that it carries absolute AUTHORITY.
So, instead of just HEARING the message, you will SEE our
campus, our singers, the astounding moving pictures that PROVE the
amazing fulfillment of the prophecy, you'll see Mrs. Armstrong (not
on most programs, but I felt our radio listeners and co-workers
would want me to introduce her on this first program), and you'll
see our Ambassador Chorale, beside hearing the Message. TV will
allow me to ILLUSTRATE and PROVE many things to doubters in a way
not possible on radio. I hope you'll like the TV programs, and
that they will lead many times more people to CHRIST, and to
changed lives IN Christ, and to salvation, than is possible on
radio.
We were scheduled to have produced nine programs in those
three days. Actually we did get TWO programs completed. I feel I
must take you fully into my confidence in this. In round figures,
it costs $3,000 per day---including studio rentals, all the
equipment (one of the three cameras used cost $17,000) and the high
union wage scales for the crew of 14, etc. About $500 of this
expense is the cost of setting up, and taking down (or striking)
the sets; so we cannot afford to work on the sets just one day at
a time, but must work three days successively. The sets are put up
on Monday. We shoot the programs on Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday, and they "strike," or take down the sets on Friday---thus