Eyes Of A Generation…Masthead Companion Photo And Names
Eyes Of A Generation…Masthead Companion Photo And Names
This is the companion to the photo I use as profile picture for this site. It was taken at the same time and thanks to some veterans in The NBC East Group, we now know the names of these cameramen.
This is at NBC Brooklyn on the set of ‘Sing Along With Mitch’ and at the bottom is one of NBC’s legends, Frank Gaeta. In the middle is Gene Martin who we can’t really see in this photo, but you can in the photo at the top of the page. Speaking of the top, that’s Jack Bennett on the Chapman crane. To see the profile picture in full, just click on it.
I think the man in the sleeveless shirt is a dancer. Notice the cable from the sound boom goes up to the ceiling. At the time, all the TK41s three cable…they were huge heave bundles and needed extra utility men to handle them. The only way to try and keep the floor as clear as possible was to run the boom cables into rotating spring arms on the light grid. Is that Schrafft’s or Chock Full O Nuts coffee?
The man in the sleeveless shirt (lower left) is one of the Brown bothers…….. they were stagehands.
Interesting adaptor on that crane cam’s pedestal tilt head, to maintain that downward angle with little effort. I remember that cam’s wide shot of the singing group from that elevation.
Looking at the photos I must ask, why do all of us look so young back then? Decades seems like weeks when looking back!
Always had a hard time finding a place to park there as there was a Yeshiva school close by. The boom mike operator was Irv Ehrlich.
As for coffee, probably a local deli. The Brooklyn studio is surrounded by them (being a block away from a subway stop never hurt, as that Don Rickles “Kraft Music Hall” 1968 clip can show you) The area around the studio (now closed, FYI) has become heavily orthodox Jewish in the last decade – quiet Friday nights and all day Saturday – then bustles Sunday-Thursday.
Any idea what the 4th camera was shooting?