A Big Move For CBS…

The Norelco PC60 and 70 cameras were bought in bulk by CBS starting in 1965. With an aging fleet of cameras, CBS began to wonder what was next. It’s quite common for camera makers to loan a network several camera for evaluation and that process started in the late 70s at CBS. Eventually the Hitachi SK 110 was chosen and built to specs for CBS studios and trucks. Below is a shot from ‘The Young And Restless’ set at Television City in 1985 with the SK 110s in use.

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Ampex VRX 1000: First Videotape Recorder

The Ampex VRX-1000 (later renamed the Mark IV) was introduced on March 14, 1956, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago. This is the world’s first practical videotape recorder and is hailed as a major technological breakthrough. In this photo, CBS goes on air with the first videotape delayed broadcast, Douglas Edwards and The News, on November 30, 1956, from Television City.

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The TRT 1: RCA’s First Videotape Recorder

Although Ampex beat RCA to the punch, with the introduction of the VRX 1000 in March of 1956, RCA knew how to record in color and Ampex didn’t. For each one to get what they needed, they made a deal to share technology. At RCA this resulted in the 1957 debut of the TRT 1 and the TRT 1B in late 1958 or early 59. While the Ampex was a flat deck machine with a bridge, the RCA VTRs were rack mounted in 3 racks.

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Good News, Bad News…RCA TK 76

The good news was, that now, any news could be covered more easily with the new TK 76 Electronic News Gathering (ENG) camera introduced in 1976. This was the fully self contained portable color camera RCA made for news crews. It weighed 19 pounds.

The bad news was that portable video tape machines were still not up to the job. Granted, there was the Ampex VR 3000 that came out in ’67, which was a suitcase sized 2″ quad unit, and in 76 Ampex rolled out the VPR-1, helical scan, Type C, 1-inch, videotape recorder, but all they could do is record and play back. You could not edit on them in the field.

Basically, you had to either feed pictures live via microwave as is being done in this shot from KETV, or tape the story and rush back to the station to edit it for air. You could also feed the taped story back to the station to be recorded on a machine there for editing, but then you are into a second generation and back then, that was not a good thing. How did you do it? Anyone have stories about how it was done where you were?

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The RCA TK42, Au Natural…

This photo is in regard to two post just below and show the TK42 in it’s factory configuration. Notice there is nothing sticking out of the front…that’s because the lens is internal, much like the RCA Iconoscope cameras. The TK42 had an internal zoom lens, but the Iconoscope internal lens was fixed at 75mm. As you’ll read below, the ‘lens’ on the front of a lot of TK42s is actually a wide angle adapter. This is at WEWS in 1971. Notice our friend ‘Ready Kilowatt’ on the podium.

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TK42 – Iconoscope Cameras, What Do They Have In Common?

They both have internal lenses. What you see on the front of this TK42 is NOT the lens…it is a wide angle adapter. In the next post down, about the first mobile unit, you’ll see that they had a lot in common. It seems that most stations preferred to use the aftermarket add on in their studios but the TK42, just like the Iconoscope cameras worked just fine without it.

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A Learning Moment; The First Mobile Units and Field Cameras

In 1939, RCA designed and built the first mobile television production units ever. They were a pair but between them, supported only two cameras as one unit was a control room truck and one was a generator/transmitter truck.

This is one of those two RCA Iconoscope field cameras assigned to those units. Notice the lens on the camera and the four thumb screws at each corner of the lens plate. By unscrewing these and removing the lens, the camera reverted to it’s internal lens with a default focal length that is thought to be 75mm.

These ‘add on’ lenses were basically wide angle adapters and telephoto lenses and were used on the studio versions too, but those had dual lens pairs, one above the other, to give the cameraman an idea of what the tube was seeing through his optical viewfinder. Focus on these camera was achieved with the right pan handle, just like on the TK41s. RCA did not have electronic viewfinders till around 1943 or 44 when the Orthicon cameras came along, however early on, Dumont had electronic viewfinders that were mounted on the left side of their Iconoscope cameras.

These two trucks were called ‘Telemobile’ trucks and were designed solely to do ‘outside pick-ups.’ One contained standard rack-mounted equipment for two cameras…the other housed a 159 megacycle, 300W transmitter with a hinged antenna mast. Each unit was about the size and shape of a 25-passenger bus and weighed 10 tons. The total power required to operate both units was approximately 20KW.

The TV ‘pick-up’ signals were sent via microwave to the transmitter in the Empire State Building. The new medium of ‘pictures from the sky’ incorporated equipment and technology from its predecessors. Camera support equipment included Mitchell heads from the film industry, and thirty-inch-plus parabolic mics from NBC Radio were used to get bat cracks and other natural sound. It must have been a challenge for the sports camera operator to frame a shot. RCA had three camera models—one for studio with optical viewfinders and two models for use in the field. One field model, like this one, had two sighting posts at the rear and a square back for mounting them. The other field model had a rounded back and a foldout wire frame viewfinder on the left side of the camera, similar to still photography cameras of the time.

Intercom equipment was new as well. The headset mic piece was a contraption that had a small curved horn for a mouthpiece and was worn on the chest and the ear pieces were radio headsets.

One final thought. The removable lens system on this is remarkably similar to the TK42. Most think the large black thing on the front of TK42s is the lens, but it is actually the optional wide angle adapter…the TK42 lens is internal, just like this.

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Dinah Shore Show: NBC, 1952

Yesterday in the KTLA Anniversary video, Dinah mentioned her NBC show and here’s a shot from it at NBC. Originally, ‘The Dinah Shore Show’ was broadcast on Tuesday and Thursday nights from Los Angeles from November 1951 to January 1956. For most of the program’s run, it aired from 7:30 to 7:45 ET both nights.

During the program’s final season in (1956-57), it was cut back to Thursday nights only, with the Tuesday night slot going to The Jonathan Winters Show. However, during this season, Shore was given an opportunity to host a full hour-long, color variety show on Friday nights the next season. That was called ‘The Dinah Shore Chevy Show’ and over the years, it ran on varying nights and different timeslots, for a total of seven seasons. Her last 15-minute show was discontinued following the 1956-57 season as was the 15 minute show format at NBC. From then on, most shows went to 30 minutes, but oddly, it would take till 1963 for network news to go to 30 minutes. The show started at NBC Radio City studios at Sunset and Vine but later moved to Burbank. This photo is probably from the Radio City studios.

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Dumont Electronicam TV-Film System

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. For instance, all the late night shows, be it Leno, Letterman, Conan or Fallon all have something in common with the way ‘The Honeymooners’ was done…individual recordings from each camera that allows for post editing to get the best shots for the final cut.

When ‘The Honeymooners’ was shot live in front of an audience, three Dumont Electrocams were shooting live video and filming in 35mm. A kinescope was made of the live show as a guide for film editing and in the final cut of the film, better shots could be chosen. It’s the same process with the late night shows, only now it’s all digital and a lot quicker in post.

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Dumont Electronicam/Captain Video

Although the show, ‘Captain Video And His Video Rangers’ was done live five and sometimes six days a week from 1949 till 1955, at least one Electronicam was used on the show daily after 1952. It seems that in ’52, real sci-fi writers like Arthur C. Clark began writing scripts and, a new special effects team of Russell and Haberstroh was hired in September 1952. For the rest of the program’s episodes, they provided surprisingly effective model and effects work, prefilmed in 16 mm format by the Electrocam and cut into the live broadcast as needed. Remember, the Electronicam married a live video camera and a Mitchell 16 or 35mm camera at the lens and the video camera could be used as a regular studio camera when needed. This is at Dumont’s NY flagship station, WABD.

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Ampex 300 ENG Camera

This was a small monochrome camera which was used in “ENG” mode with a very large 2 inch quadruplex video recorder VR3000. This debuted around 1967 and was just in time for use at the US political conventions for floor coverage.

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The Angenieux Electronic Zoom For Turret Cameras: 1962

As you can see, this is quite a beast. Usually, lenses this heavy would be mounted on a sled that also went under the camera to support the weight and help balance it. There is what looks like a shot box on the right pan handle, but that may actually be manual control with a white button to zoom in and a black button to zoom out. Look at the size of the motor box under the lens. This is mounted on an EMI 203 Image Orthicon camera, and was built for use on the RCA TK60s and the Marconi Mark III and IV cameras as well. Anyone ever use one of these?

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GE Theater

This shot is from the set of a 1956 GE Theater presentation at CBS Television City. Ronald Reagan was the host of the long running series and working for GE as their national spokesman got him interested in politics as he not only represented them on television, but in person around the country at many of their trade shows.

The television version of the program was broadcast every Sunday evening at 9:00 pm, EST, beginning February 1, 1953 and ending May 27, 1962. Each of the estimated 209 television episodes was an adaptation of a novel, short story, play, film, or magazine fiction. An exception was the 1954 episode Music for Christmas, which featured choral director Fred Waring and his group The Pennsylvanians performing Christmas music.

On September 26, 1954, Ronald Reagan debuted as the only host of the program. GE added a host to provide continuity in the anthology format. After four months, the show reached the Top Ten in the Nielsen ratings.

The show made the already well-known Reagan, who had appeared in many films as a ‘second lead’ throughout his career, wealthy, due to his part ownership of the show. After eight years as host, Reagan estimated he had visited 135 GE research and manufacturing facilities, and met over a quarter-million people. During those visits, he would also speak at other forums such as Rotary clubs and Moose lodges, presenting views on economic progress that in form and content were often similar to what he said in introductions, segues and closing comments on the show. Reagan, who would later be known as “The Great Communicator” because of his oratorical prowess, often credited these engagements as helping him develop his public speaking abilities.

The camera is an RCA TK11 on a Houston Fearless 30B stage crane. No, that’s not a ghost…just a set dresser that moved on a long exposure.

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The GE PC 15 Color Camera #1

Here’s a close up of GE’s first color camera, the PC 15. When this camera was redone in 1965, it became the PC 25 and the top handles moved to the bottom of the camera as side handles. More on this camera below.

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The GE PC 15 Color Camera #2

This is the very rare GE PC 15 color camera on a demonstration set at WRGB in Schenectady, New York. The PC 15 came out in 1958 and was updated around 1965 and renamed the PC 25. This 3 Image Orthicon creation resembles the RCA TK41 in looks and mass, but weighs in at ‘only’ 215 pounds compared to the TK42’s 280 pounds and the TK41’s 350 pounds.

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Made In Germany

From around 1956, this is the Fernseh KKO 110, a five lens Image Orthicon monochrome camera. Sleek, handsome and practical in design. That I know of, only Fernseh had the quick change camera numbering system which was quite handy.

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It’s True: You Can’t Tell The Players Without A Program

Thanks to David Daughtry for this shot of his Grass Valley LDK camera ready to shoot a San Diego Chargers – Baltimore Ravens game. Shooting from the Chargers side of the field, David’s face card shows the Baltimore coaches that he’ll be looking for on the opposite sidelines from time to time. Above that, the all important jersey number roster.

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