ts had gone from about 29 percent to 51 percent. Times had changed and there were more homes with !
             televisions than without televisions. The New York hearings in 1951 were to be covered by television. Twenty cities in the east and the midwest got this event live on television, making it the first political event to be covered nationally. This political event contained explosive drama with Estes and the heroes on one side and the villains on the other side. When Frank Costello, a.k.a. Francisco Castaglia, testified a day into the hearings, people all around the nation were glued to their televisions watching the first big television broadcast of an affair of their government. One of the most famous scenes of this event occurred on the day Costello was testifying. Since it was not permitted to show his face, a television technician suggested showing Costello's hands instead. That proved truly devastating. Those hands relentlessly reflected Costello's tension and guilt: hands drumming on the table; hands gripping a water glass, fingers tightly clenched; hands tearing p!
             aper into little shreds; hands sweating (Halberstam: The 1950s). Costello did not come off to the people as a respectable businessman making an honest living. People around the world were witnessing this drama unfold live right in their own living room. The hearings became the subject of national talk.
             The television began to seep deep into the lives of Americans and it was soon learned that sponsoring these aired programs was an easy way to introduce and persuade people in buying a product/commodity. Advertisers for power-tools and heavy-duty machinery would mainly target men, and advertisers for household products and appliances would target the women. This was all done strategically to keep the social conformity of the men being the breadwinners and handy-men, and the women confined to the house to take care of the children and daily meal...