Rule Britannia!

The race to bring the coronation films U.S. TV was lost by the fiercely competitive hares (CBS and NBC) and won by the easygoing tortoise (ABC). In fact, stay-at-home ABC did not even realize it was in a race. While CBS and NBC were spending hundreds of thousands on planes, men and technical gadgets, ABC spent only a few thousand on a microwave relay to link up the A.T. & T. at Buffalo to the Montreal outlet of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. ABC did not even plan to go on the air with its show until the evening of coronation day.

While ABC waited, CBS and NBC worked feverishly against time. In England, hoping to steal a march on its rival, NBC borrowed a Canberra jet bomber, loaded it with their own and CBC's first films of the coronation, sent it off two hours ahead of the three Canberras that were standing by to carry the films of all the networks to Goose Bay, Labrador. Two hours out over the Atlantic, NBC's special jet ran into mechanical trouble and had to turn back.

Topped or Tapped. When the first of the pooled Canberras arrived on schedule at Goose Bay on the afternoon of coronation day, both CBS and NBC were waiting with souped-up Mustang fighters to make the final dash to Boston. The CBS plane, off four minutes ahead of its NBC rival, landed at Boston's Logan Airport 24 minutes in the lead. But, while both Mustangs were still airborne, a Royal Canadian Air Force jet plane had hustled its films to Montreal and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. was ready to telecast.

NBC, now desperate, asked CBC for its afternoon program and offered to share it with ABC in return for permission to cut in on ABC's relay from Montreal to Buffalo. ABC agreed. Next day. ABC had reason to feel aggrieved when NBC boasted in full-page newspaper ads: "NBC'S CORONATION COVERAGE TOPPED ALL NETWORKS." Muttered one ABC official: "They should have spelled it 'tapped.' " CBS, though the winner of the race from Goose Bay, was the last network to get on the air. Making up for defeat by cutting and splicing its own films in London, CBS was able to telecast the actual crowning ceremony before the more leisurely Canadian Broadcasting films had finished with the procession to the Abbey.

Home Ground. Why had NBC and CBS wasted so much time and money instead of following ABC's sensible course? For two reasons, both of which turned out to be foolish: 1) their competitive frenzy, which blinded them to everything except beating the other network, and 2) the groundless fear that the quality of the films and commentary made by the British would not be up to U.S. standards.

Actually, the British TV coverage was a triumph of taste as well as technique. Many Britons had feared that televising the coronation would vulgarize it, but even the London Times observed that "posterity may well judge the telecast one of the wisest acts." To the millions who viewed the coronation on TV sets in Britain were added other millions of viewers in Germany, Holland, France and Belgium. Among the viewers: Chancellor Adenauer in Germany, Queen Juliana in The Netherlands, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Paris. Said the duchess: "A very moving ceremony."

Dutch experts excitedly predicted that BBC's fine performance would lead to an international European TV network by fall. The BBC's Peter Dimmock, who was in charge of the Abbey telecast, found that just watching the Queen from his control hut outside Henry VII's chapel was "so overwhelming that I nearly forgot to call in the cameras. But nothing went wrong ... It was miraculous."

Probably no other great public event has ever been telecast with more efficiency. Most U.S. critics and televiewers could agree with ABC's News Director John Madigan, whose theory was: "The best films to show the country were those made by the British themselves. They were on home ground. It was their event We thought it best to stay with them in order ' be fully in keeping with the spirit of the coronation and to show it the way the Britishers were seeing it."

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