Like me, Jim Davis loves TV. But Davis is ahead (I'm not really keeping track) because he loves what's on now, where I like old stuff. It gets interesting (weird, maybe?) when you consider Jim Davis's "now" is the old stuff I like, because he was a TV nut 60 years ago. So we're sorta contemporaries, Davis and me.
Sorta.
Davis was spotlighted in the April 1949 issue of Wells Fargo Messenger. The Messenger was the newsletter that went to team members across the footprint, which was limited to San Francisco in those days. The older version of the Messenger, which we've written about before, was distributed to Wells Fargo Express team members.
Wells Fargo & Co.'s Express was nationalized by the US government in 1918 as a wartime measure, and Wells Fargo was left with its one banking office in San Francisco. These mid-century Messengers had a lot of items about new hires and Company picnics. Reading through these timeless communiqués, it seems like Wells Fargo had a continuous photo contest — and the "seagull on the shore at sunset" won every time.
Anyhow, Davis was an interesting story because he was quite the expert on that newfangled gizmo, television. In 1949, radio was still going strong and the movies had yet to suffer television's astounding popularity in the '50s. But TV was taking off 
— there were about a million sets in operation and the lineup of shows was expanding. The first Emmy Awards were presented that year. And since Davis knew so much about something so cutting-edge, the Messenger took it upon itself to share his expertise with team members.
The Q&A is quite helpful. A 10-inch screen — top of the line, folks — with a magnifier attached is "hi def." And that magnifier lets you buy the TV already assembled! Why sweat?
And how 'bout those 4 hours of programming each night? (Pass the ketchup.)
But here's how new the application was. To show Davis as a TV geek, they thought it appropriate to show him holding a length of film. You know, like the movies, only in your living room. And not film.
Awesome.
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