ULTRA, ULTRA RARE: A CBS Pye Camera

Above is a photo of James Dean and Betsy Palmer in ‘Sentence of Death’ which aired on CBS, August 17, 1953, on Westinghouse Studio One (Season 5, Episode 46).

The camera is a Pye Mark II, Type 2014. This is the only photo I know of showing Pye cameras at CBS in New York. I think the Pye cameras replaced the Dumont cameras at Studios 53 to 56 in Liederkrantz Hall at 111 East 58th Street. I have a feeling that they were only used for a short time, possibly arriving in mid 1952, and then sold almost immediately after use on this broadcast. In late 1953 and early 1954, WJBF in Augusta, Georgia, WHA in Madison, Wisconsin and WVEC in Hampton, Virginia went on the air with these same camera models, and all were started on a shoestring budget. I think they all came from CBS. These are the only 3 stations I know of that used the Pye camera and by coincidence, they all went on the air around the same time. I suspect CBS sold them to buy some RCA TK11s which came out in May of 52.

Below is the full video of the Studio One episode.

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Super Rare! First Plumbicon Tests

The smaller camera is one of two experimental models of the first color plumbicon camera from Philips. It is the predecessor of the Philips LDK1/Norelco PC60 and it has been built inside the body of a Philips monochrome camera. It is being compared in performance by the BBC to the Marconi BD 848 (in the background), which is a 3 Image Orthicon color camera, very much like the RCA TK41. The date is probably late 1963 or early 64.

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CLASSIC! Final Days Of ‘Tonight’ With Johnny Carson

This is a great behind the scenes look at the show, shot in the final days of production with Johnny and Ed as hosts. The year is 1992 and the cameras are RCA TK47s. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSDcQkpb9sE

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Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts: CBS 1958-1972

These special musical presentations for young people by The New York Philharmonic were actually started in 1924, but when conductor Leonard Bernstein arrived in 1958, he and CBS took it to a new level. These originated from Carnegie Hall, but in 1962 the orchestra moved to the new Lincoln Center. Originally broadcast on Saturday (episodes 1-7) and Sunday (episodes 8-15), the concerts moved to prime time for episodes 16-40. This was likely a CBS counter to Newton N. Minow’s speech referring to television as a vast wasteland. The concerts were also syndicated to forty countries.

Through this video’s home on YouTube, you can access ALL of the concerts.

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Classic Intro

Here’s a cameraman at CBS Television City getting ready for the opening shot of ‘Art Linkletter’s House Party’. At show time, the red chase lights come on. The camera is the RCA TK11.

Here is a quick look at this “Art” card with its flashing lights at the shows intro!

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RCA Exhibition Studio…1964 World’s Fair

To give the RCA TK41s on display something to do, RCA offered to do live and recorded public service shows from their facility. This is a taping of The Bronx Zoo Show. Many of us that visited usually saw only an empty studio, but at least we got to see the TK41s.

By The Way…these 4 cameras and the RCA color truck parked behind the pavilion were sold to ABC after the fair ended and went to The Hollywood Palace to make shows from there, the FIRST LIVE COLOR ON ABC. The Flintstones was the first color show on ABC but distribution to the ABC network had to come first from NBC Burbank’s color telecine equipment, then to ABC New York via telephone lines as, at the time ABC had no color ability. Soon after The Flintstones started, ABC New York got color telecine equipment.

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After months of searching, I finally know the story behind this fabulous photo array! This is NBC’s ‘Saturday Color Carnival: A Salute To Baseball’! This was done live from the Colonial Theater in the early spring of 1957. Notice a couple of the cameras are RCA TK40s and a couple are TK41s. The lineup of star players is astounding!

Emceed by Gene Kelly, the 90-minute extravaganza brings together dozens of special guests from Baseball and Showbiz to commemorate in song, sketch and story, the opening of the 1957 baseball season. Among the special’s many highlights: The introduction of 1956’s MVPs, Mickey Mantle and Don Newcombe; comedy playlets starring the likes of Robert Alda (father of Alan Alda) and Ed Gardner of Duffy’s Tavern radio fame; songs performed by Janis Paige, Tony Bennett, and ventriloquist Paul Winchell, with the help of dummy Jerry Mahoney; a “dream outfield” segment built around Stan Musial, Leo Durocher and Ted Williams; a “baseball rock-n-roll” specialty sung by Bill Hayes; old-time baseball newsreel clips, narrated by radio caster Mel Allen; and a special closing message, delivered by then-Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick (long before his vilification as the architect behind the “asterisking” of Roger Maris’ 61st homer.

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In The Days Of Not So Instant Replays…

Our friend Richard Wirth has a new article on the history of kinescopes and video tape development. Linking the east and west costs by coaxial cable was a blessing and a curse for networks because of the need to delay broadcasts going west. Here’s a look at how that got done in the 50s. Enjoy!

The Mother of Invention of Videotape

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Ultra Rare 1: ‘The Voice Of Firestone’, NBC Studio 8H, 1949

Believe it or not, what you’re looking at is technically a remote broadcast. At this moment in 1949, 30 Rockefeller Plaza had only two functioning television studios: 3H and 8G.

Studio 3H, converted from radio in 1935, was NBC’s original television home — the birthplace of nearly all early black‑and‑white programming and the network’s first color experiments. It remained NBC’s lone TV studio until 8G came online in 1948. Studio 8H, famous today as the home of Saturday Night Live, wouldn’t be converted for television until 1950.

So how does a show produced inside 30 Rock qualify as a remote? The answer is a surprise even to seasoned broadcast historians: NBC used its own in‑house mobile units. Yes — the same trucks normally dispatched to ballparks, parades, and special events were rolled inside the building for this production. The full story is in our companion article, “The NBC Inhouse Mobile Units? YEP!” – Eyes Of A Generation…Television’s Living History

A Pioneer in Both Radio and Television

The radio version of the program began in 1928 as “The Firestone Hour,” airing Monday nights at 8:30. Its television lineage is equally historic. This series may well have been the first regularly scheduled U.S. television program broadcast beyond New York. It debuted on WNBT‑TV on November 29, 1943 — a time when television sets were scarce — and joined the NBC television network in April 1944, continuing through January 1947.

When The Voice of Firestone returned to television in the fall of 1949, NBC simulcast the program on both radio and TV, making it one of the earliest shows to use that dual‑platform approach.

Inside Studio 8H

In the lower left of the photo, you can spot an RCA TK‑30 mounted on a Panoram dolly. Also note the remarkable ceiling height: Studio 8H is three stories tall, not two, with a roof garden directly above it — a feature that made it uniquely suited for large orchestras and ambitious productions.

Special thanks to Val Ginter for providing these two extraordinary images.

Ultra Rare 2: ‘The Voice Of Firestone’, NBC Studio 8H, 1949

If you look closely, you can see 3 RCA TK30 cameras in this photo. There’s a good chance there was at least one more in the balcony. Interestingly, in this photo, Studio 8H looks a lot like the studio as we know it now, probably because the Firestone stage is much larger than the original NBC Symphony stage we’ve seen in earlier photos. This rehearsal photo shows a vocal group being accompanied by the orchestra. The balcony seating shown here is now office space. The SNL bleachers are in front of the old balcony and have catwalks under them. Just above the Firestone sign, you can see the radio control room window.

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The Bell Telephone Hour…1959-1968

Above is a clip from ‘The Bell Telephone Hour’, an NBC classic that focused on music, both classical and Broadway. This was one of the first TV series to be telecast exclusively in color and recorded on videotape. In this photo, RCA TK41s at NBC Brooklyn circle up for a scene “from the inside out” as they prepare to shoot four performers against a 180 degree cyclorama.

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