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The Ethel Waters Show was a 1939 NBC variety special starring actress and singer Ethel Waters, in what reportedly may have been the very first appearance of a Black person on TV.

I’d love to see the special, or at least some part of it, as it’s such a history-making endeavor (although possibly dampened somewhat by the fact that it was so early presumably very few people saw it). However, I’m having no luck finding it online. Notably, nothing I could find specifically says that either the video or audio is lost, but neither can I find any of either.

So my question is as follows: is The Ethel Waters Show lost media? And if not, is there a way to find it to watch it?

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    Asking for ways to access the show is off-topic here, but your (emphasized) question Is The Ethel Waters Show lost media? is completely fine: can you edit your post to focus on that?
    – Joachim
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 17:51

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I approached this from the opposite direction.
Rather than trying to find if one specific broadcast survived, I instead looked for the earliest method of recording a live broadcast.

Other than some very early mechanical systems that were not in widespread use, and one or two surviving attempts to film a TV screen, the first system capable of recording live TV was the Kinescope.
This was introduced in 1947.

See : Television Recording The Origins And Earliest Surviving Live Tv Broadcast Recordings

This really means there's almost no chance that any live show from 1939 would have been preserved.

To put the show into historical perspective, NBC started broadcasts on 30 April 1939. Her show was broadcast a mere 6 weeks later.

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    They could record live broadcasts from the very beginning, by filming the screen. It wasn't done much, and presumably would result in significantly degradation, but didn't require any special technology.
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 6:29
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    @Acccumulation it would require synchronisation to prevent flicker. Presumably that’s why they had to wait for the Kinescope.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 11:57
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    I believe you're probably right, but the Intermediate Film System existed earlier. Rather than recording the TV signal, it transmitted from movie film in near-real-time. In theory it could have been used, and the film stored, but in practice that would be highly unlikely given the extra cost and complexity once direct TV cameras existed
    – Chris H
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 13:39
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    @Giacomo1968 hence my "in practice highly unlikely"
    – Chris H
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 21:53
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    Unlike Super Bowl I which was recorded by CBS and NBC but was recorded over because the tapes were so expensive.
    – Hannover Fist
    Commented Dec 3, 2021 at 19:23

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