History of the TV Tray

It's the chicken and egg question of the American 1950s: Which came first, the TV dinner or the TV tray? The TV dinner occupies such a prominent place in U.S. domestic and cultural history that it's commonly assumed the TV tray was invented afterwards as a convenient way to eat a Swanson's frozen dinner. But surprisingly, it was the other way around.

Who Invented the TV Tray? In her book As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s, Karal Ann Marling writes that national advertising for TV tray tables first appeared in 1952, a full year before Swanson introduced the TV dinner in October 1953. But though the invention of the TV dinner has been mythologized all the way to the Smithsonian, the inventor of the TV tray has been forgotten.

However, it's not a difficult guess to imagine how TV trays originated. The drive-in restaurants of the 1950s served food on trays that attached to and extended out from a rolled-down car window. A food order would be given over a two-way walkie-talkie, and then a car hop, often a young woman wearing roller skates, would deliver the order.

The collapsible design of the first TV trays bears a definite resemblance to these drive-through food trays. Clips mounted on the backside of an aluminum surface connected to tubular aluminum legs. The legs had rubber tips on the bottom, and were collapsible for easy storage.

The convenience of eating in the car made an easy transition to the convenience of eating in front of the television, where families could watch hit shows like I Love Lucy and The Ed Sullivan Show together. When TV dinners became a smashing success a year later, the place of the TV tray in the American home was secured.