October 25, 1956…NBC’s “Camel New Caravan” Ends

From February 16, 1949 until October 25, 1956, John Cameron Swayze hosted the 15 minute, week night NBC network news broadcast. The show was done from Studio C in the NBC Uptown Studios building on 106th Street, near Park Avenue.

In this photo from 1949, notice a few things. First, the exaggerated angles the cameras used to shoot him, early on. Second, notice the work-around pan heads on the pedestal cameras.

These are first generation pedestals, made for the RCA Iconoscope cameras that fed the camera cable inside the center column. The pan head for those Iconoscope cameras was not suitable for the much heavier RCA TK30s we see here, and the new friction heads and Mitchel style high hat mounts were not the same size as the column. That meant they had to weld a flat piece to the top to the column and attach these three leg mounts, until the new Houston Fearless TD 1 pedestals were put into Studio C.

This was the first NBC news program to use NBC filmed news stories rather than movie newsreels, which is why the NBC Television News Department was also located at the Uptown Studios. In December of 1948, NBC bought the 11 story studio building from Pathe, who had two huge film processing labs just next door. This was done with an eye toward using Pathe as a distribution partner in getting the NBC Kinescopes processed and shipped.

This live anchor news show, that aired at 7:45 weeknights, grew out of a show that started the year before. Launched on February 16, 1948, by NBC, “Camel Newsreel Theater” was a 10-minute program that featured Fox Movietone News newsreels, with John Cameron Swayze providing off camera voice-over for the series.

The following Monday evening, October 29, 1956, “The Camel News Caravan” was replaced by “The Huntley-Brinkley Report”. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had word passed to NBC’s White House correspondent that the president was displeased by the switch. Ike later grew to like Chet and David. -Bobby Ellerbee

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