Toronto. My good friend and fellow PHSC member sent along a note with an image of stars Mary Pickford and husband Douglas Fairbanks at Montreal’s French radio station CKAC in 1922, the year it first went on the air.
“Pickford’ was born here in the big smoke on University Avenue about where Sick Kids now stands. In the silent era, she and her then husband were famous movie stars in Hollywood. ‘Pickford’ continued briefly as a star in the talkies era but unfortunately Fairbanks did not make the transition.
The image is from the ‘Library and Archives Canada (LAC)’ website. After visiting the site, George wrote, “Many photography archives hold visual evidence of early technological advancements.”.
In the case of radio, the first commercial station using audio went on the air about 1919/20 (the year is a bit muddy since various even earlier audio efforts had some success too). Coded radio signals using morse code (eg. the Titanic sent out distress calls “CQD” and “SOS” on striking an iceberg in the spring of 1912) were the first regular radio transmissions.
And once again we see how history is served by photography and the libraries and archives that hold old and historic photos.