A Great Idea With Little Follow Through

On December 10, 2014 - TV History

Picture Parade 1…A Great Idea With Little Follow Through

I have often wondered why so few ever used the Mole-Richardson boom platform for a camera platform. It’s perfect for studio and location work. Big tires, easy to steer, adjustable height and relatively light weight.

The only other incident of this I’ve seen, is in a 1948 photo of a station in Philadelphia using one on the sidelines of a football game, which is a perfect use too.

This is a 1963 shot of a production company from the Detroit area shooting a special for ABC at the Henry Ford Museum grounds. The camera is Marconi Mark IV. Enjoy! -Bobby Ellerbee

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5 Comments

  1. Mike Clark December 11, 2014

    remembers this being tried on a WCNY local football remote. We couldn’t do a moving shot because the platform jostled the image orth

  2. Dave Dillman December 10, 2014

    I know several local stations that built their own boom bases to replace the perambulator… they had full round bases so the boom could be placed in the center of the studio and reach multiple sets without moving/

  3. Steve Dichter December 10, 2014

    At KTLA in the 60’s & even earlier, we had a wooden dolly with large balloon tires, we called it “the western dolly,” on which we mounted a B&W camera on a tripod. Don’t recall we ever put a TK-41 camera on it.

  4. John Roger Bolin December 10, 2014

    Necessity is the mother of invention.

  5. Russell Ross December 10, 2014

    That is a good idea !!!