February 12, 1952: “Life Is Worth Living” Premieres

"WABD" were the original call letters of Channel 5 in New York.

They stood for the network's founder, Allen B. DuMont.

February 12, 1952: Life Is Worth Living premieres on the DuMont Television Network, hosted by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. The DuMont Network went out of business in 1955, but ABC picked the show up, and ran it for another 2 years, until April 8, 1957.

A native of Central Illinois, Sheen had previously hosted an NBC radio program titled The Catholic Hour. Afterward, he hosted the nationally-syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program from 1961 to 1968. He is often considered the first "televangelist."

The series consisted of Sheen speaking to the camera, and discussing moral issues of the day, often using blackboard drawings and lists to help explain the topic. When the blackboard was filled, Sheen would move to another part of the set, and request one of his "angels," one of the TV crew, to clean the blackboard.

Airing opposite NBC's highly popular Texaco Star Theatre, later renamed The Milton Berle Show for its host, on Tuesday nights, Sheen was the only person to be competitive with Berle. Sheen drew as many as 10 million viewers each week.

The Catholic Sheen and the Jewish Berle enjoyed a friendly rivalry. Berle is reported to have joked, "We both work for the same boss, 'Sky Chief Supreme,'" making reference to a grade of gasoline produced by show sponsor Texaco. Later, when Sheen won an Emmy Award, Berle quipped, "He's got better writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!" As a take-off on Berle's popular nickname, "Uncle Miltie," Sheen once opened his program by saying, "Good evening, this is Uncle Fultie."

On February 26, 1953, Sheen read a passage from William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, with the names of high-ranking Soviet officials replacing the key characters. At the end of the reading, Sheen intoned that "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." Stalin died 7 days later. It was probably just a coincidence.

Life Is Worth Living was canceled because the Archdiocese of New York withdrew its support. It did so on the order of the Archbishop, Francis Cardinal Spellman. There was a personal dispute between them, involving money and a charity for which Sheen had raised more money than anybody. Spellman wanted a cut. Sheen refused. They went to Rome, and personally pleaded their respective cases before Pope Pius XII. The Pope sided with Sheen. Spellman swore he would get even with Sheen, and did. Nevertheless, in an autobiography published after his death, Sheen praised Spellman, who died in 1967, for his charity efforts.

Sheen remained popular well after his heyday. In 1970, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon wanted a counter-protest for the 4th of July. Sheen and the nation's leading Protestant clergyman, Billy Graham, were among the speakers at the Lincoln Memorial, but it was not well-attended. Those who did attend gave Sheen a standing ovation.

Sheen died in 1979, 2 months after meeting Pope John Paul II upon his visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Both Sheen and Spellman are buried in the vault underneath St. Patrick's.

On a 1992 episode of the CBS sitcom Brooklyn Bridge, centered on a Jewish family in Brooklyn in the 1950s, the kids end up watching Life Is Worth Living, something their parents would not have liked. At that point, I had never heard of Sheen. I was confused and horrified, thinking it was Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic "radio priest" of the 1930s. My parents, who knew about Sheen, set me straight.

Starting in 2009, Sheen's shows were being re-broadcast on the cable networks EWTN (Eternal World Television Network, a Catholic network) and Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel.

Actor Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez named himself Martin Sheen after the Archbishop.

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February 12, 1952 was a Tuesday. British actor Simon MacCorkindale was born on this day.

Baseball and football were out of season. And no games were scheduled for the NHL. But there were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 78-69 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Rochester Royals beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 86-75 at the Philadelphia Arena. Fulton Sheen later served as the Archbishop of Rochester, New York, making it retroactively appropriate that the city's NBA team won on this night. Of course, the Royals had moved to Cincinnati in 1957, shortly after Life Is Worth Living was canceled. They became the Kansas City Kings in 1972 and the Sacramento Kings in 1985.

* And the Indianapolis Olympians beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 80-78 at the Butler Fieldhouse (now the Hinkle Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.