The Original Sketches Of The RCA TK42

In case you have never seen it, here is the first sketch of the successor to RCA’s TK41 line. This is a scan of the master drawing that I have. It was given to me by RCA’s Harry Wright who designed this, the TK44 and most of RCA’s Telecine equipment.

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The First Thomson Camera? Quite Possibly!

Sent to us from our French friend Jorge Delendatti, this is believed to be Thomson’s first camera…an 819 monochrome from the early 1950s. It was made for RTF Television Service (now TF 1) and we don’t know what kind of tube was used. If you look closely, this is very interesting! I can’t imagine what the test pattern looking attachment on the front is, but if it is for registration how could light and focus be achieved? Maybe it has a telescoping arm? Notice also the headphones are receivers only with the talk back mic located under the viewfinder hood. The T handle on the back is for turret rotation and the long lever on the front is for focus. Interesting cabling too.

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A Total Rarity…The GE PC 15 Color Camera

This is a companion to the just posted GE PC 25 photo from Martin Perry. I thought you may be interested in seeing the difference between the two. Notice the lifting handles on this model are above the door. On the PC 25, the handles are at the bottom of the camera. The PC 15 debuted in 1958 and the PC 25 around 1965. These cameras were both modeled after the RCA TK41 and had three Image Orthicon tubes. That I know of, none of these two GE camera models survive.

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A Total Rarity…The GE PC 25 Color Camera

Unfortunately, there are none of these cameras left. The few that were ever made are long gone. This is the second model of GE’s color cameras from around 1965. This, like the it’s predecessor, the PC 15 was a three tube Image Orthicon camera based on the RCA TK41. These weighed in at “only” 220 pounds…the TK41 was close to 300. This rare photo from our friend Martin Perry shows Dallas DJ Ron Chapman with a local teen in 1967 at WFAA.

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Big Weather, July 1974…WAGA Atlanta

In the days before virtual sets and computer graphics, this is how it was done…with big maps. Although the middle board and frame on the US map look like unpainted plywood, they are actually covered in tan felt. Notice the satellite photo on the easel. This is one of 5 Norelco cameras the station had in their studios. Thanks to Craig Cuttner for the picture.

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Lot Of Camera History In This :30 Promo

Thanks to Martin Perry for sharing this link. Seems that KTVT in Fort Worth has a long history with GE cameras.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx65a9ZAIFI

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75 Years Ago, Last Night…Theater Of The Mind At It’s Best!

Although the ‘Mercury Theater Of The Air’ radio presentation lasted only an hour, it’s impact has lasted 75 years. Here is the Orson Wells radio adaptation of H.G. Wells ‘War Of The Worlds’ program in full.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzC3Fg_rRJM

On Halloween eve in 1938, the power of radio was on full display when a dramatization of the science-fiction novel “The War of the Worlds” scared the dayligh…

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First Network Television Broadcast From Boston

On January 23, 1948 from 2 to 3 PM, a 3 camera NBC remote, sponsored by the Massachusetts Fisheries Association, was done from Boston’s Fish Market. Although a 40 inch Zoomar lens was on one of the cameras, it did little good as a heavy snow began the moment the broadcast started. The cameras and crew were from WNBT in New York and although WBZ TV was still six months away from sign on, WBZ Radio helped with the telco transmission. Back then, NBC’s television network only consisted of New York, Schenectady, Philadelphia and Washington DC. Thanks to Maureen Carney for the photo and story.

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Ladies And Gentlemen…Meet The Voice Of Sleeping Beauty

Mary Costa (R) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and went on to become a famous opera singer. Although Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ debuted in 1958, all the voices were recorded in 1952. ‘Sleeping Beauty’ spent nearly the entire decade of the 1950s in production: the story work began in 1951, animation production took from 1953 until 1958, and the stereophonic musical score, mostly based on Tchaikovsky’s ballet of the same name, was recorded in 1957. The film holds a notable position in Disney animation as the last Disney animated film to use hand-inked cels. Beginning with the next feature, 101 Dalmatians, Disney would move to the use of xerography to transfer animators’ drawings from paper to celluloid. By the way, if you ever put together Aurora model kits and wondered about the name Aurora, it’s Latin for “dawn”. I only now know this because Coast’s character is Princess Aurora and the translation was mentioned in my research. In this photo, the lady on the left is Mary Starr, a well known Knoxville television hostess of the 50s and 60s, and this photo was taken on a visit home by Costa.

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Huntley, Brinkley, Garroway & Blair Cover Kennedy-Nixon Election

Something that got my attention right away was the two Nifty Notebooks (remember those) on the desk. Also, it’s still odd to me to see the NBC snake logo on black and white cameras like these two RCA TK10s. Left to right, Chet Huntley, Dave Garroway, Frank Blair and David Brinkley in 1960. Don’t know who’s behind the camera on the left but it could be Edwin Newman. Thanks to Ken Johannessen for the photo.

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AS RARE AS RARE CAN BE! Ikegami’s First Studio Color Camera

This is the Ikegami TK 301. Earlier this year I posted a photo of the Ikegami 301A which followed a year later with some updates inside and a smaller tally. I’ll have a new photo of that tomorrow, but here is the granddaddy of the color studio line from Ikegami that was built and delivered to Japan’s NHK Network in Tokyo in 1971.

A friend of Chuck Pharis’, Jerome Halphen in Paris, France made a trip to the NHK Museum earlier this month and took over 120 photos. I’ll be posting them in albums as we go along, so be ready for a first class photo tour of the magnificent NHK museum. If only the US networks had done what NHK has done, we would have a fantastic, historic collection of broadcast technology unrivaled in the world, but…most of it is gone now except what a few of us have managed to save for posterity. Enjoy and thanks to Chuck for sharing his friend’s photos.

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Another Mini Masterpiece From Richard Wirth

Here’s another very well done article from Richard on mechanical television. Just think, had this system endured, I wonder if we could have had mechanics making house calls to tune up the car and TV on the same trip? :>)

http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/mechanical-television

Mechanical Television

Mechanical television.  Does that mean motors, pulleys, gears and other moving parts?  Why, yes.  It does. 

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Remember The Overmyer/United Network?

This photo from Maureen Carney is a rare one! Here’s Bill Dana, best known as Jose Jimenez hosting the flagship show called ‘The Las Vegas Show’. Beginning May 1, 1967, the two hour late night show from the Hotel Hacienda hit the air on 106 stations. The network was created to be a forth network with eight hours of programming a day and had UPI as a partner supplying news, but after only a month, the cost of the leased transmission lines from Ma Bell became too much and it folded like an accordion. The network was founded by self-made millionaire Daniel H. Overmyer and was originally named after him, but before the network even went on the air, Overmyer was forced to sell a majority share to investors, although he remained the largest shareholder the new orginization was renamed The United Network.

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The Muppets First Big Break…The Jimmy Dean Show

This one surprised me too! From 1955 til 1961 Jim Henson and company had a local kids show on Washington D.C.’s WRC TV. Across town at WTOP, Jimmy Dean was doing a daytime show called ‘Country Style’ which was later picked up as (the first) ‘The Jimmy Dean Show’ by CBS for a couple of years. While in DC, they met but that was all until Dean went to ABC. (More on that in the post above). In this clip Frank Oz talks about meeting Dean and being Henson’s right hand man, literally, on Rowlf sketches. Jimmy Dean is as easy going and graceful as any host I’ve ever seen. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pbKHDpOmYU

This is a clip off a documentary I bought years ago entitled “The World of Jim Henson.” The doco was a biography on Jim Henson’s career with the muppets and …

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Just For Fun…Superman’s First Appearance On Radio

‘The Adventures Of Superman’ actually debuted on radio a week before this broadcast of February 14, 1940, but that first show was about his trip to earth and Clark Kent was just a child with no speaking part. The show was done at WOR and it may come as a surprise to those of us that know Bud Collier as a game show host…he was the voice of Superman! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcOW56uvYhw

Clayton “Bud” Collyer first portrayed the Man of Steel in this second episode of the Adventures of Superman radio series, broadcast on February 14, 1940. The…

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‘Person To Person’ Comes For A Visit

In 1956, Edward R. Murrow’s “eyes and ears” drop in for a visit with Hal March. At the time, March was host of the wildly popular $64,000 question, which incidentally aired on CBS. March was well known before the game show as a supporting regular on ‘The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’ and ‘My Friend Irma’. Although it was ‘Twenty One’ and ‘Dotto’ that were found to be rigged, by 1958 most of the game shows had left the air.

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State Of The Art Mobile Television, 1963

Here are two custom trucks built by Southern Coach for KPRC in Houston. When RCA’s TJ48/50 mobile units were not big enough for some major metro markets, Southern Coach was the next step up. This shot was taken during the the taping of a special at the ranch of then Vice President Lyndon Johnson in the summer of ’63.

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The RCA TJ 48, Television’s Local Market Workhouse

Remember these? In 1948, these sold for $9000. In today’s money that is over $87,000. RCA introduced its first postwar mobile production van in 1948, the TJ-48. The interior electronics were modified in 1950 and that became the TJ 50. Prior to this, most local stations that had a mobile unit had modified buses or panel trucks on their own. RCA had made some big remote trucks for NBC in the 1930s but they ever sold any to competing networks.

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Ultra Rare Photo…EMI’s C.P.S. Emitron Camera: 1951

The Emitron tube was roughly the European equivalent of the Image Orthicon tube RCA had developed in the US. This is a very nice design with a 6 lens turret. Most likely the taking lens is the top center position. Interesting how they slung the large turret face to hang down under the camera’s front.

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