The beautiful weathergirls of 1955 | Francis K. Davis Jr, TV Guide Buffalo, 23-29 July 1955

The old saw, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it," has grown rusty. People do do things about the weather, like seeding clouds with silver iodide crystals to produce rain.

This kind of doing things about the weather is usually fine. But what's being done about the weather on television is something else again.

The popularity with sponsors of five-minute TV spots and the snug way in which weather forecasts occupy such periods has produced a rash of so-called "weathermen" and "weathergirls," who breeze through alleged weather information, "embellished" with philosophy, wisecracks, costume changes and gimmicks. And for this, they earn up to $40,000 a year.

Meteorologist Davis is a nice fellow and all that, but it may be that he carries the scientific approach a bit too far. On the other side of the argument, we present a few of the ways TV stations have managed to brighten the weather picture-whatever the outlook. The lady forecasters' curves aren't exactly isobars, but how can even Mr. Davis ignore them? TV GUIDE remains neutral in the stormy controversy between Beauty and the Barometer.