{"id":1804,"date":"2021-04-06T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/in-1949-kathy-fiscus-fell-down-a-well-what-happened-next-is-breaking-news\/"},"modified":"2024-08-26T19:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T02:24:48","slug":"kathy-fiscus-changes-broadcast-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/kathy-fiscus-changes-broadcast-history\/","title":{"rendered":"In 1949, Kathy Fiscus fell down a well. What happened next is breaking news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3445-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3445-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"In 1949, Kathy Fiscus fell down a well. What happened next is breaking news\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  For two days, rescuers attempted to remove 3-year-old Kathy Fiscus from a well as a crowd of neighbors watched and television stations broadcast the scene to viewers across Los Angeles County. (Photo: Courtesy of William Deverell\/Rick Castberg Collection.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>In 1949, Kathy Fiscus fell down a well. What happened next is breaking news<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  USC Dornsife historian William Deverell\u2019s new book examines the tragic event that sparked the first live television news coverage in America. <strong>[6 min read]<\/strong>\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">April 6, 2021<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      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class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>On the afternoon of April 8, 1949, three-year-old Kathy Fiscus ran across an expansive field of spring grass with her sister, Barbara, and cousin, Gus. She and her family lived in the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino, at the base of the San Gabriel foothills.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 315px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/KathyFiscus_Story_InStoryA-3445.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"490\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Fiscus lived with her parents and sister in San Marino, California. (Photo: William Deverell\/Barbara Fiscus Collection.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>High above them winked the newly installed KTLA transmission tower on the tip of Mt. Wilson. It was now broadcasting sports and shows into televisions across the Los Angeles basin, although TV was still so new many people didn\u2019t quite know what to think of it.<\/p>\n<p>Kathy\u2019s mother, Alice, worked in the kitchen, glancing out of the window occasionally as the children played. Suddenly, she noticed Kathy was no longer among the group.<\/p>\n<p>Alice went outside to look and eventually stumbled across a 14-inch-wide hole in the weeds. Kathy\u2019s cries radiated up from the dark mouth. Somehow, the toddler had tumbled nine stories into an uncovered well.<\/p>\n<p>Within hours, the little plot of land would erupt into a frenzy of activity as rescue workers and neighbors worked to retrieve Kathy. Cranes, bulldozers, drills and trucks arrived. Groups of gawkers gathered to observe and pray.<\/p>\n<p>Drawn to the excitement, TV and radio reporters showed up. For the final 24 hours of the two-day rescue operation, the scene was broadcast to TVs across Los Angeles and on radio waves around the nation, thanks to the towers on the mountain above. The phenomenon of live, breaking TV news coverage was born.<\/p>\n<h2>A historian&#8217;s obsession<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1003206\">Bill Deverell<\/a>, professor of history, spatial sciences and environmental studies\u00a0at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and author of the new book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.angelcitypress.com\/products\/kafi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy That Transfixed the Nation<\/em><\/a>, professes to a near obsession with this event. Deverell lives in nearby Pasadena and has visited the site of Kathy\u2019s well dozens of times.<\/p>\n<p>The well has been bulldozed and is unmarked, but GIS tracking by researchers at USC Dornsife\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spatial.usc.edu\/\">Spatial Sciences Institute<\/a>\u00a0helped Deverell pinpoint the exact location. Buried under San Marino High School\u2019s football field lies the infamous site.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from proximity, Deverell\u2019s interest grew partly because of his own daughter, who was a toddler like Kathy when he first began his research. Honoring the trauma and poignancy of Kathy\u2019s own story, while also tackling the larger impact of the event on the nation was a challenge that took him over a decade to complete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew there was a lot of misinformation out there about it, so I wanted to get the story right. It\u2019s a very dramatic, very unusual event,\u201d says Deverell. \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest book I\u2019ve ever written and it\u2019s also the shortest book I\u2019ve ever written.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Rescuers \u2014 and spectacle \u2014 arrive<\/h2>\n<p>For 48 hours, the area around Kathy\u2019s well felt like the center of the world. Firemen and police arrived first, who then called in heavy equipment and workmen to attempt to dig their way to Kathy. No one was quite sure how to rescue her. At one point they lowered a rope, carefully instructing her to slip the knot around her waist, but the effort failed, and she likely fell even lower down the shaft.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the tragic circumstances, the scene near Kathy\u2019s well soon resembled something akin to a movie set. Jockeys from the nearby race track, a sideshow thin man and skinny children volunteered to go in after her. Johnny Roventini, the spokesman for Phillip Morris cigarettes and who stood less than 4 feet tall, arrived at the scene decked out in his signature bellhop uniform to offer his services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone thought that maybe they should go get the munchkin actors from\u00a0<em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em>,\u201d says Deverell. \u201cIt just gets weird, and I think that\u2019s part of the newsworthiness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of onlookers streamed in, pressing against the fence for a glimpse of the action and calling out suggestions. Snack vendors roamed the grounds peddling food. Illuminating the scene were bright klieg lights that the 20th Century Fox studio had sent over.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 534px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/KathyFiscus_InStoryB-3445.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"344\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two local television stations, KTLA and KTTV, showed up to broadcast the rescue attempt of Kathy for thousands of anxious viewers. Some gathered in front of department store TV displays to watch the spectacle. (Photo: Courtesy of William Deverell\/Rick Castberg Collection.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Lights, camera, action<\/h2>\n<p>Furthering the impression of a film set, two KTLA TV reporters and their crew pushed through the crowds, broadcasting everything to viewers at home. Earlier that day, Klaus Landsberg, KTLA\u2019s station manager, had made the innovative decision to bring a news crew to the scene itself \u2014 something it had never tried before. Another news station, KTTV followed suit.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 30 hours of the ordeal were thus broadcast live on television. They interviewed bystanders and workmen and filmed the digging. \u201cA lot of it is just focused on the hole, in hopes that she\u2019s going to pop out in the arms of a rescuer,\u201d says Deverell.<\/p>\n<p>Televisions were still relatively rare in the area. Only 20,000 or so residents had them at home and viewers had been a little unsure what this new medium could offer that radio didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>The Fiscus tragedy revealed TV\u2019s draw. For two days, Los Angeles residents were glued to their sets. Hundreds gathered in front of department store windows filled with TV displays, while others raced over to their neighbors\u2019 houses to tune in.<\/p>\n<p>The cameras were still on when Paul Hanson, the physician that had delivered Kathy at birth, announced over a crackling P.A. that Kathy had not survived the fall. Rescuers and bystanders began to cry. Viewers at home wept alongside them, miles away but still present thanks to KTLA\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n<h2>The Nation&#8217;s Child<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 315px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/KathyFiscus_Story_InStoryC-3445.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"490\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy\u2019s parents received an outpouring of public support. Hundreds of pregnant women wrote, saying they would name their child after Kathy if it was a girl. (Photo: Courtesy of William Deverell\/Rick Castberg Collection.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Kathy Fiscus tragedy cemented television as a vital source of information and entertainment, says Deverell.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter this event, the number of TV sets sold in greater L.A. goes through the roof,\u201d says Deverell. \u201cI think there\u2019s probably about 20,000 TVs in 1949 in greater Los Angeles County and within a handful years I think it\u2019s 300,000.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Live news coverage became the new norm in America, with millions tuning in just 20 years later to watch a man take the first steps on the moon in 1969.<\/p>\n<p>The event also changed laws. In a horrible twist of irony, Kathy\u2019s father was a water company superintendent who had been in Sacramento, testifying for the need to cap abandoned wells due to pollution concerns, the very day she fell in. Laws ordering the sealing of wells quickly passed in numerous states, many named the \u201cKathy Fiscus Law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event became lodged in the nation\u2019s collective memory. Timmy never actually falls in a well during the classic television show\u00a0<em>Lassie<\/em>; the iconic line \u201cTimmy fell down a well!\u201d arose from the country\u2019s recollection of Kathy\u2019s fall instead.<\/p>\n<p>It had a very personal effect on women, says Deverell. \u201cI knew about the creation of live television news out of this story. What I didn\u2019t know was that it would change naming patterns for little girls during that baby boom. The number of babies named Kathy skyrocketed in the 1950s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThousands of women, either pregnant or those who were going to be pregnant soon, wrote to Kathy\u2019s mom and said: \u2018If I have a little girl, I\u2019m going to name her Kathy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>KTLA\u2019s cameras and the radio reporters dashing between the crowds had briefly made Kathy the nation\u2019s child, her story shimmering out on transmission waves from those newly minted towers miles above the little grassy field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-history-of-the-hollywood-sign-from-public-nuisance-to-symbol-of-stardom\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >The history of the Hollywood sign, from public nuisance to symbol of stardom<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/why-many-los-angeles-landmarks-turning-100\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Why are so many Los Angeles landmarks turning 100 this year?<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/los-angeles-where-the-future-happens-first\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Los Angeles: where the future happens first<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USC Dornsife historian William Deverell\u2019s new book examines the tragic event that sparked the first live television news coverage in America. <strong>[6 min read]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[339,55,71,475],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","tag-bill-deverell","tag-books","tag-history","tag-television"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In 1949, Kathy Fiscus fell down a well. What happened next is breaking news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"USC Dornsife historian William Deverell\u2019s book examines the tragic event that sparked the first live television news coverage in America. [6 min read]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/kathy-fiscus-changes-broadcast-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What happened when Kathy Fiscus fell down a well?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"USC Dornsife historian William Deverell\u2019s book examines the tragic event that sparked the first live television news coverage in America. 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