Be sure to read the text uner the photos for some interesting details on the production process, and the location of the show over time.

Above, Walter at his Graybar Building desk with staff in the fishbowl office watching the broadcast. The fishbowl office was in the same place when the show moved to the Broadcast Center.

On the left, legendary CBS News producer Don Hewitt

When the show moved to the Broadcast Center, this newsroom wall was replicated, but instead of the chalk board and clock, it was lined with teletype machines, and adorned with the famous world map, that is now a part of the “CBS Morning News” set.

Only two cameras could fit into the Graybar newsroom and the same was true for the Studio 33 newsroom.

I am not sure, but I think this small control room was built on the 29th floor, near the newsroom and fed the 2 cameras to Production Control room 43 or 44 downstairs in the main studio complex

Below, a shot of the main control room. From here, all the news film and cut-ins could be added.

Below, though that open hall behind the man at the desk, there was another area of the TV newsroom as big, or bigger than this one where a few dozen other reporters worked. 

Preparing the teleprompter script

April 16, 1962…Walter Cronkite took over the anchor chair from Douglas Edwards. At the time, the show was still only 15 minutes, but that changed on September 22, 1963 when CBS became the first to go to a half hour evening news show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZV2UDEG2A

At the link above is Scott Pelley’s tribute video that shows a new set for Walter’s debut with bank of monitors. At 1:58, those photos are of his first rehearsal on that set in Studio 42 at Grand Central. When the show went to half an hour, Walter began reporting from the CBS News Room on the 29th floor of The Graybar Building, which adjoined Grand Central.

These photos are from the first week of the new half hour show in the Graybar offices. Occasionally, a mad dash to the studio via catwalks over the Grand Central lobby are mentioned…that time period, when news was rushed to the set, was between April ’62 and September ’63 when Walter reported from Studio 42. His work desk was in the newsroom in the Graybar.

In late 1964, the show moved to the new CBS Broadcast Center to a first floor studio called Studio 33. It looked exactly like the Graybar newsroom set, except the wall you see here with a chalk board was replaced by a wall lined with teletype machines. There was even a glassed in producer’s office in the same place it had been at Graybar,,,it was called the fishbowl, and during the broadcast, staff would go there to watch it live. You can see that in the first photo.

There is more on each photo, so click through them. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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