Globe & Mail – June 5, 1952
Television, the dread enemy of professional sports, fired its first fatal shot at Toronto entertainment yesterday.
Promoter Frank Tunney, cognizant that Toronto’s 20 or 30 thousand TV sets will be tuned in on the Walcott-Charles heavyweight title fight this evening, has canceled his wrestling program scheduled for Maple Leaf Gardens tonight.
Cancellation was, by popular request of Tunney’s dearest friends and gentlest hearts – the wrestling customers. On bended knees, they besieged his Church St. headquarters, and in broken voices beseeched him via telephone to make it possible for them to see the fight on TV tonight, and the Whipper Watson-Hans Hermann wrestling epic with Jack Dempsey refereeing as well. Whew!
The only way Tunney figured he could lend his friends a helping hand was to postpone the Watson-Hermann-Dempsey program until next Thursday. Which he did. Customers who have already purchased tickets for the wrestles tonight will have them honored for next week’s date.
Toronto TV sets will pick up tonight’s title fight over Buffalo station WBEN at 10 o’clock, while radio listeners can tune in for a blow-by-blow account over CJBC at the same time.