This is the entire 1949 picture book “Close Up” that was written and published by CBS. It is the real time story of how this primetime drama came from an idea to a sixty minute live television play. This will also show us some rare photos of the old CBS facility at Grand Central Terminal, including Studio 42 and the telecine room. I have a hard cover copy given to me by Jodie Peeler, but have seen pictures from the book for years and some will be quite familiar.

On of many things we’ll learn here is that CBS was the first to use florescent lights in the studio to cool them off. Temperatures of over 100 degrees were not uncommon in those early days.

The ‘Studio One’ production depicted here is a sixty minute live drama called ‘The Glass Key’ and we start with the story and the sets, but the studio pix come along in the last third of these 30 or so pages. Thanks to David Gleason at American Radio History for his massive archive efforts and to Jerry Clegg for sharing this with us. Enjoy and SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee