TeleTales #91…Television’s First “Live Animated” Commercial?

On February 25, 2015 - TV History

TeleTales #91…Television’s First “Live Animated” Commercial?

Take a close look at these three amazing photos from early 1947. Live from NBC Studio 3H, we see a Bulova Watch commercial board with a Rube Goldberg type scene with gears and gizmos that move when cranked from behind.

Notice at the top, the scroll window for copy that also crawls up to announce the birth of the new 21 jewel movement.

Here is a surprise for you. In doing the research for the big NBC Studio project, which I’ll roll out this weekend, I found out that when Howdy Doody debuted from 3H on December 27, 1947, these big silver Iconoscope cameras were still in use!

Our friend Frank Merklein started with NBC March 8, 1948 and just a few weeks into his new job, he was sent to 3H to to fill in for a sick cameraman and got a crash course in using these. By April, three new RCA TK30s were installed and the Iconoscope cameras were finally retired. By the way, Frank stayed on the Doody crew till the last show in 1960. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee



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4 Comments

  1. Steve Dichter February 26, 2015

    Save some search time. Paul Lindemeyer’s Bulova Watch article from Broadcast Magazine Jan. 1940.

  2. Steve Dichter February 26, 2015

    RCA NBC camera logo from the early 40’s.

  3. Dennis Degan February 25, 2015

    And was done live . . . .

  4. Chris Skrundz February 25, 2015

    What an awesome way to pull off the spot!