By Request…A Wonderful Minute From NBC NY and Burbank & Good Comments
Short But Sweet…NBC NY & Burbank Quick Shots, Early 70s
Thanks to our friend John Schipp, we are able to see a little over a minute’s worth of rare footage inside 30 Rock and Burbank.
This is from a behind the scenes episode of NBC’s ‘The Go Show’ which aired briefly around 1973. It was a unique show, shot mostly in the field with RCA TK 76 ENG cameras and recorded on Ampex VR-3000 VTRs, a portable 2-inch quad machine.
With a little help from NBC’s Dennis Degan, here’s what we are seeing. “The first two shots look like Studio 5H Control Room, originally built in 1954. The TCR-100 (tape cartridge machine) shown in the clip was Machine #31, the one furthest to the left in a line of six TCR-100’s at NBC-NY. My maintenance shop was on the other side of the wall seen in the shot. The clip jumps to Burbank and Studio 4’s elephant doors, then home to ‘The Flip WIlson Show’ and ‘Midnight Special’. You can also get a glimpse of the set for ‘Sanford & Son’ which I think was in Studio 3. Then we flip back to NY for a shot of Frank Blair at his news desk, most likely Studio 3K and I think the closing moments are in Studio 4 again. I believe the clip was probably made in 1973. The TCR’s were first brought to market no earlier than 1972.” Comment, enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
This Just In! Ultra Rare Photos Of The Colonial Theater Marquee
Thanks to Tom Gauer, here are two rare photos of The Colonial with “The Price Is Right” on the marquee. These are the first, and only two images I have ever seen of the outside during the NBC/RCA color years which began in early 1952.
Before this, the only outside shot we had of The Colonial was this 1936 photo when it was an RKO movie theater. Here’s the history of the building that housed NBC’s first ever commercial color television facility.
The Charleston (dance) was born here…at 1887 Broadway.
The theater was built in 1905 as the Colonial Music Hall by Fred Thompson and Elmer Dundy, the same duo behind the Hippodrome Theater and Luna Park at Coney Island, as a venue for musicals and vaudeville acts.
Designed by architect George Keister, the Colonial Theater was designed in the style of a Victorian London music hall. The interior had a wide yet not very deep auditorium, which brought the balcony much closer to the stage than many other theaters and could seat nearly 1,300.
In 1912, B.F. Keith took over the Colonial Theater, altering its name to Keith’s Colonial Theater, and when E.F. Albee took over from Keith five years later, it became the New Colonial Theater.
In the early-1920’s, black-themed musical comedies came to the New Colonial Theater, with such now-racist sounding names as “Little Sambo” and “Chocolate Dandies”. It was during this time that a 1923 show, “Runnin’ Wild” introduced the dance craze called the Charleston to America from the stage or The New Colonial.
In 1932, RKO took over, and, as the RKO Colonial Theater, began showing movies. After years of second-run and double features, RKO sold the theater to NBC in early 1952.
RCA and NBC remodeled the theater, added 4 live TK40 color prototypes and a color film chain. By November of ’52, the theater was ready to go live and did so with an experimental broadcast of “Your Show Of Shows” with the color burst removed for the network audience. Color testing continued until the FCC approved the RCA Dot Sequential System and commercial colorcasts began from here.
A decade later, ABC took over, and used the Colonial Theater mainly for taping game shows until 1971. Today, it’s all gone, but not forgotten. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Thanks to Chuck Snitchler, here is a shot of the KNBC news room at the old Burbank location as it appears today. This is where the reporters, editors and producers desks were. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
By Request…Historic Kinescope Footage & The Machine Itself
Several people asked to see more on the kinescope process, so here from NBC’s KNBH in Hollywood, is a look at some early kine images starting with some of the first Iconoscope images from 1938. I think this report was probably done in early 1949.
Also seen here, the kine recordings of the first broadcast using the RCA TK30 Image Orthicon cameras in June of 1946 at the Joe Lewis – Billy Conn rematch at Yankee Stadium. Near the end, we’ll get a look at RCA’s latest Kine in action. Videotape couldn’t come soon enough. Enjoy and share! – Bobby Ellerbee
TeleTales 26…The Gray Research Sound Effects Console
This is kind of a followup to posts earlier in the week that showed portable turntables from the 1930s, This was the big boy unit and CBS had a lot of these in their radio studios across the country. RCA had a similar model.
These were originally used for sound effects playbacks, but some of the first disc jockey shows were done on these machines as well. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
As you look at these numbers, consider this. What cost $100,000 in 1975 dollars now costs $440,030. If you remember from a few days back, “Miami Vice” cost almost $1.3 million per episode when it debuted in 1984. Anyone have a chart like this for today’s shows? Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee
Here’s great shot of Mitch Miller dropping his pants as part of a practical joke during rehearsal at NBC Brooklyn Studio 2. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
January 22, 1947…KTLA Becomes The 1st Commercial Station In The West
THIS IS A MUST SEE HISTORY OF EARLY LOS ANGELES TELEVISION!
I’ve put up only two stories today so you can have the time to see them. This amazing video is packed with ultra rare historical footage of not only KTLA, but from the early days of all the Los Angeles television stations!
You’ll hear from Bob Hope, Betty White, Steve Allen, Dinah Shore, Dick Enberg and MANY more! This 40th Anniversary broadcast posting even has a very good timeline of what comes where on the video, but if you can, make the time to see it ALL! It is one of the very best historical presentations you will ever see! ENJOY AND SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee
The Adelphi Theater…By Request, A Replay Of The Famous Theater’s History
Adelphi Theater Stage Is Now…New York Hilton’s Grand Ballroom
If you ever want to conjure up the ghosts of ‘The Honeymooners’, make your way to the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton as that is where the stage of the Adelphi Theater was located.
After I posted the rare new photo from Peter Katz yesterday of the ‘Honeymooners’, our friend Howie Zeidman from ABC called me with this interesting information. In the color photo, you see on the left what I think is the Hilton’s ballroom entrance which is directly across from the (new) Ziegfeld Theater at 144 W. 54 Street. The Adelphi was at 152 W. 54.
In the second photo, we see a long shot up 54th from 6th Ave. By the time this photo was taken, Dumont had moved out (1957) and the theater was renamed The 54th Street Theater. It was torn down in 1970 to make way for the Hilton.
Speaking of The Ziegfeld Theater, the one shown here is not the original theater where NBC did ‘The Perry Como Show’, but it is very close. That theater was on the corner of 6th Avenue and 54th street and this new Ziegfeld movie theater was built right behind where the original was.
By the way, CBS Studio 50 (Ed Sullivan Theater) is only a couple of blocks from here. Gleason started there with CBS in 1952 and had offices in the Park Sheraton Hotel which was only a block from Studio 50. When he decided to do the half hour ‘Honeymooners’ on film, he wanted something close and choose Dumont’s Adelphi which Dumont had just equipped with their new Electronicams. Enjoy and share!
-Bobby Ellerbee
TeleTales #20…A True Rarity. Television’s Only Six Shooter
This is the six lens EMI Emitron camera from 1951. That I know of, no other camera had a six lens turret. There were a couple of five lens turrets over the years, but I think this is the only six shooter. This is a monochrome studio camera used by the BBC. Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee
Otis Redding’s Final Appearance…The Day Before The Plane Crash
While searching for something else, I found this and thought you may enjoy seeing it. This video is from the syndicated music show “Upbeat” that was done at WEWS in Cleveland on December 9, 1967.
Redding’s next stop was Madison, Wisconsin; the next day they were to play at The Factory nightclub near the University of Wisconsin.
Although the weather was poor, with heavy rain and fog and despite warnings, the plane took off. Four miles from their destination at Truax Field in Madison, the pilot radioed for permission to land. Shortly thereafter, the plane crashed into Lake Monona. Bar-Kays member Ben Cauley, the accident’s sole survivor.
I never met Otis, but I knew his brother Rogers and his wife Zelma. One day in 1973, they were both in my car in Macon, Georgia when a brand new song came on the radio and we were all electrified. None of us had ever heard it before, but they both said, “That’s going to be a huge record”, and it was…the song was “Let’s Get It On” from Marvin Gaye. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
TeleTales #19…”Captain Kangaroo” Debuts On CBS From Dumont
When the show debuted on October 3, 1955, CBS was in a crunch for studio space and for several years rented studio space at The Dumont Telecenter at 205 East 67th Street. Notice the Dumont cameras in this photo from the first month of the show.
As mentioned here recently, other CBS shows that were done there include “Love Of Life”, ‘The Verdict Is Yours”, “The Edge Of Night” and “As The World Turns”, which all eventually moved to Leiderkrantz Hall. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
TeleTales #18…CBS Studio 59, Gary Moore’s Second Home
256 W 47th Street is the location of what was The Mansfield Theater and later, CBS Studio 59. Now, this is the Brooks Atkinson Theater.
CBS used the theater from 1950 till 1960 and this was the home of both “I’ve Got A Secret” and “The Garry Moore Show”, daytime edition.
When Steve Allen came to television in New York, he was first on CBS and was one of the first shows done here after the conversion. Allen was here from 1950 – 52. Other shows that came from Studio 59 were “The Sam Levinson Show”, “The Robert Q. Lewis Show” and Jimmy Dean’s daytime show. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
There are some TV secrets hiding in plane sight in this pristine color photo of NBC’s “Miss Color TV”, Marie McNamara.
This is The Colonial Theater, NBC’s first real color studio. Notice that all four prototype cameras are mounted on prototype pan heads. This cradle head model was on the Houston Fearless drawing board, but not yet in production. When testing the “coffin cameras” (see the photo in Comments) in Studio 3H from 1950 till late ’52, the regular friction pan heads were found lacking. HF made one for the coffin cameras and sent it. It worked well and three more were made and shipped, but notice they are quite narrow and were originally designed for black and white cameras. When the TK40s went into production in March of ’54, the head included with those cameras was twice the size of these prototypes.
Notice also, the dark lens turrets on two of these cameras. Amazingly, they are the turrets from the old coffin cameras that were tested at Studio 3H. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
By the way, only 25 TK40s were made. A few months into the run, RCA changed some things, including adding a vented viewfinder and made it the TK41. Vented viewfinders were swapped out on most of the old TK40s, but one in this photo still has the non vented version. I think this is around March ’54.
January 20, 1989…The 100th Episode Of “Miami Vice” Airs On NBC
At $1.3 million per episode, it was the most expensive show on television. Here’s a short story about the money, the music, the fashion and the stars. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
January 20, 1961…President Kennedy Inaugurated; “Camelot” Begins
Today, I am going to tell you a story you have never heard. It would be best if you watch this short clip fist to set the mood. The second half is especially rich for those of us who remember these years.
On November 8, 1960, Massachusetts Senator John Kennedy was elected President of The United States. A month before, on October 6, 1960, “Camelot” made it’s world debut in Toronto for a month of preview performances. In the first week of November, the show moved to Boston for another month of previews, where more revisions were made to the performance as it headed to Broadway.
This is where President Elect Kennedy and his wife Jackie first saw the show, and given copies of the original cast recording by his friends Alan Lerner and Fredrick Loewe. Kennedy and Lerner had gone to prep school together.
On December 3, 1960, “Camelot”, the most anticipated new musical in years, opened on Broadway at The Majestic Theater starring Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. On it’s way there, it had gone though a lot of revision and the stress of reworking the play had put both Lerner and Loewe in the hospital with a heart attack and ulcer. The difficulty got them the cover of Time Magazine the second week of November with the lead story, “A Rough Road To Broadway”. On the cover of Time the week before, and the week after…JFK.
Who can forget the night Marilyn Monroe sang to the President at his 45th birthday at Madison Square Gardens? The next year, Learner and Loewe gave JFK his last birthday party at The Waldorf Astoria.
According to Ted Kennedy, only family and few close friends knew that JFK was actually a very good singer. At The White House, he would occasionally sing along with songs he and Jackie played before going to bed. The singing was occasional, but listening to music at the end of the day was a ritual that helped ease the pressures of the job, and some of his physical pains.
A week after his death, Jackie Kennedy gave an interview to Life Magazine. In it, she said that her husbands all time favorite song was “Camelot”, and went on to quote their favorite line…
“Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot”.
She ended the interview with these words…”There will be great presidents again, but there will never be another Camelot.”
The sense of loss felt by the public and the association between the song and the show was evident to all as “Camelot” toured the U.S. in the months after JFK’s death. When the houselights came up following the “Camelot” finale, the audience was often crying en masse.
As I understand it, the NBC coverage that day was mostly black and white, even with thier own TK30s at the swearing in and along the Kennedy Inaugral Parade route, and consisted mostly of pool fed shots in black and white of the parade from the Capitol to the White House reviewing stands. As you see, their RCA TK41 color cameras took over the broadcast at the reviewing stands and I’ve been told that part was in color for those who had color sets.
Huntley and Brinkley at the swearing in ceremony. This was when the inaugurations were held on the east side of the Capitol Building (the side facing the Supreme Court and Library of Congress).
The acutal NBC name for this famous, custom made camera car was “The Cadillac”
Chet and David at the Reviewing Stands at another of Hjalmar Hermanson’s famous X-shaped desks.
The double pan head here allows the camera to tilt all the way up to see the center of the Capitol Rotunda.
NBC Cameraman Red Trudell giving us live pictures from one of the Inaugural Balls that night.
I think this is a CBS or ABC TK 30 next to NBC’s TK41 at the reviewing stands
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Tony Verna, a television director and producer who invented instant replay for live sports 51 years ago, has died. He was 81.
Verna died Sunday at his Palm Desert home after battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, daughter Tracy Soiseth said.
CBS used instant replay for the first time in the Dec. 7, 1963, Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, after Verna developed a method to cue the tape to pinpoint the play he wanted to immediately air again. He said he was looking for a way to fill boring gaps between plays during a football telecast.
The concept was so new that when Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh scored a touchdown, announcer Lindsey Nelson had to warn viewers: “This is not live! Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!”
Instant replay quickly became a staple of sports broadcasting, and Verna’s innovation gave fans a new way to look at the games.
“Not many things you can do in life where you can change the way things were happening before,” Verna told The Associated Press in 2008.
Verna would go on to produce or direct five Super Bowls, the Olympics, the Kentucky Derby and even the “Live Aid” concert in 1985.
His lasting legacy, though, is pulling back the curtain on sports and revealing what really goes on.
Verna is survived by his wife of 45 years, Carol, daughters Tracy Soiseth and Jenny Axelrod, son Eric Verna and three grandchildren.
TeleTales #16…The Rube Goldberg Magic Of Busby Berkely
At the 48 second mark in this video you’ll see this contraption on the big screen in the “By A Waterfall” scene of “Foot Light Parade” from 1933 staring Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. If you start about 3 minutes earlier, you will see some of what Berkely was famous for…those beautifully choreographed, elaborate, geometric overhead shots.
In the big picture, we see the mechanism itself before it was dressed for the stage. As you see in the video, it also squirts water which means hoses had to be built into it too. The many gizmos behind his magic are mechanical wonders in themselves. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
