The Ford Foundation’s TV Radio Workshop show Excursion featured the Techbuilt House in its broadcast on February 14, 1954. The show documented (and dramatized) the design and construction process of one of the first Techbuilts. Below is the re-airing of the show in the Workshop’s Omnibus program.
The timing of this broadcast coincided with the upcoming Building Your Home expo in New York City, which featured a Techbuilt constructed inside the 71st Regiment Armory on Park Avenue. This is also the time when the houses started showing up in magazine articles and newspaper features. Early adopters of the Techbuilt franchise in St. Louis and Detroit were able to capture the moment and took out ads that connected the TV show with the developments and model homes they were in the process of building.
Huge thanks to our Associate Editor, Scott, for tracking this video down and getting it released in a digital format. (The story of how he did that will be featured later either as an addition to this post or a post of its own.)
I think it is worth noting the host of this TV Radio production is the well-esteemed Alistair Cooke. His voice and visage is unmistakable.
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