QUICKY QUIZ! #5 INVENTION OF PHOTO-ELECTRIC CELLS SOLAR POWER BATTERY XD81545

Year Published: 1955

Format: 16mm

Description: This short film is one of a series entitled "Quicky Quiz!", which were developed and produced by Los Angeles TV personality Jim Hawthorne. Billed as the "world's shortest TV show", each Quicky Quiz! posed a question for viewers to answer. In this case, the question is "what is a solar battery / solar panel made of?" If you got the right answer, you must be very smart so take a bow! The segment features footage of inventors G.L. Pearson, D.M. Chatham and C.L. Fuller are shown. These are Daryl M Chapin, Calvin S Fuller and Gerald L Pearson, who received a patent in 1955 based on an application filed by Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc. Their invention was the first practical device for converting sunlight into useful electrical power. Today, the solar cell powers devices from hand held calculators to the Mars Rover. Short format shows of this type don't really exist today, but back in the early era of television -- especially during the live era when show lengths were irregular -- programs such as Quicky Quiz! were important to fill dead air. Jim Hawthorne (1918 –2007) was a beloved radio personality, disc jockey and TV comic actor who produced (in addition to Quicky Quiz!) the short format show "Jim Hawthorne's Funny World". He worked for a variety of TV stations including KLAC / Los Angeles Channel 13, where he created the first late evening talk show on television, "This Is Hawthorne."