The ED SULLIVAN SHOW, The RCA TK41 SPECIAL USE…Part 7 (of 7)
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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)
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