The ED SULLIVAN SHOW, The RCA TK41 SPECIAL USE…Part 7 (of 7)
Posted on
NEW YORK - AUGUST 22: Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town and its debut color television broadcast of the variety show. Pictured is a model and Ed Sullivan with a Lincoln-Mercury automobile, the show's sponsor. Broadcast from CBS Color Television Studio 72. Broadway at 81st Street, New York, NY. Image dated August 22, 1954. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
SPECIAL COLOR BONUS PAGE: Before October 31, 1965…the day CBS Studio 50 was color capable via their new Norelco PC71 cameras, Sullivan’s show had been broacast in color only a handful of times and all but one of those color shows had originated at CBS Television City in Hollywood.
This is the one time that the show was done in color from NYC before October of ’65. It was 1954 and the show was still called TOAST OF THE TOWN when, for a week in the late summer, CBS Color Studio 72 became the stage for that week’s live show. Studio 72 was CBS’s only color studio on the east coast and was equipped with RCA TK41 cameras. Here are some still shots of that week’s rehearsals, BUT ALSO, an amazing 14 minutes of color film that captures the event. Click HERE to see it.
These historical images are from the CBS Photo Archives available through Getty Images and are presented here to assist researchers and television historians in identifying the television equipment in use over the decades and is offered here in a purely educational/instructional forum.
NEW YORK – AUGUST 22: Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town and its debut color television broadcast of the variety show. Pictured is a model and Ed Sullivan with a Lincoln-Mercury automobile, the show’s sponsor. Broadcast from CBS Color Television Studio 72. Broadway at 81st Street, New York, NY. Image dated August 22, 1954. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
Keenan Wynn and Steve Lawrence on the Ed Sullivan show. (Photo by Dwayne and Gina DeJoy/Corbis via Getty Images)
Cameras and full set of Ed Sullivan show on CBS, NYC 1960 (Photo by Dwayne and Gina DeJoy/Corbis via Getty Images)
Set and Crew of the Ed Sullivan Show, CBS, NYC, 1960 (Photo by Dwayne and Gina DeJoy/Corbis via Getty Images)
NEW YORK – AUGUST 22: Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town and its debut color television broadcast of the variety show. Pictured is Ed Sullivan. Broadcast from CBS Color Television Studio 72. Broadway at 81st Street, New York, NY. Image dated August 22, 1954. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
NEW YORK – AUGUST 22: Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town and its debut color television broadcast of the variety show. Pictured is Ed Sullivan talking to a dancer. Broadcast from CBS Color Television Studio 72. Broadway at 81st Street, New York, NY. Image dated August 22, 1954. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
NEW YORK – AUGUST 22: Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town and its debut color television broadcast of the variety show. Pictured is Ed Sullivan. Broadcast from CBS Color Television Studio 72. Broadway at 81st Street, New York, NY. Image dated August 22, 1954. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
NEW YORK – AUGUST 22: Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town and its debut color television broadcast of the variety show. Pictured is Ed Sullivan, center, looking at cue cards. Broadcast from CBS Color Television Studio 72. Broadway at 81st Street, New York, NY. Image dated August 22, 1954. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
Keenan Wynn and Steve Lawrence on the Ed Sullivan show. (Photo by Dwayne and Gina DeJoy/Corbis via Getty Images)
A trip down memory lane when 4 heads were better than one, and quad editing was just getting started. Here is the 83 page catalog with prices on the last few pages.
The Marconi Mark IV Era: This is the largest section as it features the era of the Marconi Mark IV black and white cameras and The Beatles and begins in 1960. The BIG difference was the picture clarity as this new camera used a 4 1/2 inch Image Orthicon tube, where as all cameras before […]
The RCA TK31 Era: This third part features the RCA TK31 Studio Cameras that came out in May of 1952. These look like TK30s with chrome handles. Most of these images are dated 1958, but CBS was using the TK31s as early as 1953 at studio 50. NOTICE…the last 3 photos here show an update […]
“The Howdy Doody Show” wasn’t just early television — it defined it. As network TV’s first daily program and later the first daily show broadcast in color, it set the pace for everything that followed. With the help of Howdy historian Burt Dubrow, I’ve pulled together a 41‑page deep dive filled with rare photos, firsthand […]
