Let’s Set The Record Straight: NBC and Norelco
Let’s Set The Record Straight: NBC and Norelco
I thought it was sacrilegious to mention NBC and Norelco in the same breath, but that was before I met Fred Himelfarb. Fred was NBC’s senior camera engineer and was in charge of the NBC Labs at 30 Rock.
Fred came from RCA to NBC with the first TK40s and was the direct link between NBC and RCA. He was the genius that made dozens of modifications and changes that made the TK41 cameras so great.
One of the best stories I know about these cameras was told to me by Fred himself in one of only three phone conversations I was able to have with him before he passed suddenly in August of 2009. Due to NBC’s lack of interest in the TK42s and 43s, and with the long lag in the TK44’s development, NBC was actually considering buying 35 Norelcos for their remote trucks. By 1966, Fred had already begun to modify the specifications of Norelco’s camera to suit his high standards in the image it made. Fred even wanted a smaller plumbicon tube size, and got it. Phillips built 6 PC60s to his specs for testing.
When these 6 Norelcos arrived, it so happened that NBC was about to televise the World Series, so…Fred deployed them all to the stadium and invited the NBC and Phillips brass to watch from a special hospitality (mobile home) trailer that showed only the broadcast feed. After the game, they all commented on how great it looked on TV, and every single Phillips executive said that they were especially impressed by the shot from the outfield. That’s when Fred told them that actually there were 7 cameras there and that the outfield shot came from an RCA TK41C.
More improvements were made and in 1968, NBC took delivery of all 35 of them and they were all assigned to mobile units with none of them ever used in any of the NBC studios. I think they all came with the Varotal lenses. One is seen below at the 30 Rock Christmas Tree Lighting. Note that the new ‘Nebraska’ logo is in place and the small snake logo at the lower corner has been obscured.
There’s some stuff from CBS’ coverage of the death of Robert Kennedy in 1968 that was on YouTube some time ago. The CBS camera was panning the Ambassador Hotel ballroom during either a Terry Drinkwater or Roger Mudd segment and one could clearly see a Norelco camera with a black NBC “snake” logo on it. Must have been brand spanking new. One year later, Norelcos are seen in tapes of the 1969 World Series – especially Game 5, when the field level cameramen ran for the lives after the New York Mets won it and the fans swarmed the field.
TV technology has advanced so much, but the tripod remains the same!
I especially love the garland attachments he created! Santa lives!!!
Now listening to this Lou Bazin interview. Fascinating stuff. The General Motors high-voltage transistors…
He sounds like a real genius. I like those guys, and you’re not far from it, Ed. I arrived at the Mart in April ’68, and I think new cameras showed up in time for the Democratic convention. Were those Norelcos? I recall Hollis Richardson saying that the video on the old cameras was “so noisy you could hear them”.
Ed, I’ll go to his website, but I don’t understand how we got from improvements in the TK41C to the Norelco PC70.