Most of the leading entertainment awards are named for real people. The Tony Awards celebrate Antoinette Perry, while legend has it that the Oscars are named after the uncle of Academy librarian Margaret Herrick. Television’s annual Emmy awards—this year’s takes place on Sunday—would seem to follow.
Except that there was no “Emmy.”
Before the first awards were presented in 1949, the Television Academy debated what to call the woman-with-atom statuette that represents the relationship between art and science. The winning name was chosen to honor the image orthicon tube, an important bit of TV technology. The initial proposal of “Immy” was changed to “Emmy” because it sounded more like a name that might belong to the the woman in the statuette, according to the Academy’s official history of the awards.
Why honor a tube? Immy, er, Emmy, was no mere component. The image orthicon tube revolutionized what it was possible to show on TV.
As TIME explained in a 1945 feature on the new R.C.A. innovation, television cameras before that time weren’t sensitive enough to pick up images in dim lighting, whereas the image orthicon tube could detect even a single candle—and amplify it so that the image on screen would be brighter than the reality it was capturing. For the first time, it was possible to properly televise night-time sporting events, parades on gray days or theatrical performances lit by ordinary footlights.
No wonder the Television Academy wanted to give Emmy some credit.
Even so, the 1945 article lamented, the tube couldn’t single-handedly fix what ailed TV. “The new tube,” TIME noted, “does not solve television’s basic problem: how to scare up enough programs which people will want to look at.”
Read the full story from 1945, here in the TIME archives: Unblinking Eye
See Original Models of the Apple I and Other Iconic American Inventions
Tuzo nyingi za burudani zinaitwa kwa majina ya watu halisi. Tuzo za Tony zinamsherehekea Antoinette Perry, wakati hadithi inasema kwamba tuzo za Oscar zimepewa jina la mjomba wa maktaba ya Academy Margaret Herrick. Tuzo za kila mwaka za televisheni za Emmy - mwaka huu hufanyika Jumapili - zinaonekana kufuata. "Kabla ya tuzo za kwanza kutolewa mwaka 1949, Chuo cha Televisheni kilijadili ""mwanamke mwenye atomu"" (woman with atom) ambaye anawakilisha uhusiano kati ya sanaa na sayansi." Jina la kushinda lilichaguliwa kuheshimu tube ya picha ya orthicon, sehemu muhimu ya teknolojia ya TV. "Upendeleo wa awali wa ""Immy"" ulibadilishwa kuwa ""Emmy"" kwa sababu ilisikika kama jina ambalo linaweza kuwa la mwanamke katika sanamu, kulingana na historia rasmi ya tuzo za Academy." Kwa nini tuheshimu chombo? Immy, er, Emmy, hakuwa sehemu tu. Mfumo wa picha wa orthicon ulibadili jinsi ya kuonyesha picha kwenye televisheni. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika makala ya ""TIME"" ya mwaka 1945 kuhusu R.C.A. mpya." Kamera za televisheni kabla ya wakati huo hazikuwa nyeti vya kutosha kuchukua picha katika taa dhaifu, wakati bomba la picha la orthicon lingeweza kugundua hata mshumaa mmoja na kuiongeza ili picha kwenye skrini iwe mkali zaidi kuliko ukweli uliokuwa ukichukua. Kwa mara ya kwanza, ilikuwa inawezekana televisheni vizuri usiku michezo matukio, parades juu ya siku kijivu au maonyesho ya ukumbi wa michezo mwanga na footlights kawaida. Haishangazi kwamba Chuo cha Televisheni kilitaka kumpa Emmy sifa fulani. Hata hivyo, makala ya mwaka wa 1945 ilisema kwa huzuni kwamba televisheni haingeweza kurekebisha kwa mikono yake yenyewe kile kilichokuwa kimeathiri televisheni. "Tubes mpya, ""TIME ilibainisha, ""haisuluhishi tatizo la msingi la televisheni: jinsi ya kuogopesha programu za kutosha ambazo watu watataka kutazama."""