Emmy / image orthicon

21 September 2026

The Emmys are a series of awards given by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) for excellence in the field of television entertainment and technology. They have been given annually since 1949. The Emmy statuette depicts a winged woman holding up an atom.

The name Emmy is an alteration of Immy, an industry nickname for the image orthicon, a type of camera tube developed by RCA and first used by the U.S. military during the Second World War and made available for civilian use in 1946. Image orthicons were replaced by later technologies and phased out by 1968. According to the ATAS website, the name Immy for the award was suggested by Harry Lubke, who would become the ATAS’s third president, and changed to Emmy because that name was more appropriate for the female statuette.

The earliest reference to the Emmy awards in print that I am aware of is in Billboard magazine of 4 December 1948:

TV Emmy Award Gets ATAS Backin’

HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 27.—First video film competition to be sponsored locally will be backed by the Coast’s Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS). Winner of “the best film made for television” will be awarded an Emmy statuette, patterned after the famed Oscar, Motion Picture Academy award.

And another early appearance is this photo caption that appeared in the San Antonio Express of 26 January 1949:

It’s “EMMY” NOW—Actress Adelie Mara holds the “Emmy,” television’s version of the motion picture industry’s “Oscar,” to go to the most outstanding program.

The first public references to image orthicons are in newspaper reports dated 25 October 1945. Here is the one published the next day in the Chicago Daily Tribune:

A new television pickup “eye,” a camera tube so sensitive that at times it can see better than the human eye, emerged from war time secrecy today and was demonstrated in a studio of the National Broadcasting company.

The device, described as “image orthicon” and resembling a flashlight 15 inches long, picked up studio scenes with the aid of a small flashlight, then a couple of candles, a match, the glowing end of a cigaret [sic], and finally a scene in the dark, relying only on infra-red rays, which do not react on the eye.

The tube promises clearer television pictures under all conditions day and night, particularly outdoor night events.

Sources:

Acme Wirephoto. Photo caption. San Antonio Express (Texas), 26 January 1949, 5/4. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.

Merriam-Webster.com, accessed 29 August 2026, s.v. Emmy, n.

Oxford English Dictionary Online, 1972, s.v. Emmy, n.; September 2009, s.v. image orthicon, n.

Parker, Sandra. “History of the Emmy Statuette,” 12 August 2013. Televisionacademy.com.

Shapiro, Fred. “Antedating of ‘Emmy.’” ADS-L, 2 June 2020.

“Television ‘Eye’ Sees in Dark by Infra-Red Rays” (25 October 1945), Chicago Daily Tribune, 26 October 1945, 1/4. ProQuest Newspapers.

“TV Emmy Award Gets ATAS Backin’.” Billboard, 4 December 1948, 12/3. ProQuest Magazine.

Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls, 2009. Wikimedia Commons. Flickr. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.