July 14, 1933…Popeye Comes To The Silver Screen

This is the first of 109 cartoons Popeye starred in from 1933 until 1942. Newspaper cartoonist E. C. Segar is the man who created Popeye, but before he came along, Olive Oyl had been the star of his “Thimble Theater” comic strip, and had been since the strip debuted December 19, 1919…10 years before Popeye was created on January 17, 1929. The sailor man was an instant hit and Segar’s creation character became one of the top funny paper characters in the country.

When Popeye came to the silver screen, he needed a voice and for the first two years, that was done by Billy Costello, but he was replaced in 1935 by Jack Mercer. Olive Oyl was originally voiced by none other than the voice of Betty Boop, May Questel, but when producer Max Fleischer moved operations to Miami from New York in 1938, Questel didn’t want to move, so Margie Hines took over. In 1943, Paramount moved the operation back to New York and May Questel once again became the voice of Olive.

William Pennell was the original voice of Bluto, but he too declined to move to Florida, but when Paramount moved the operation back to NYC, he took over again. While they were in Miami, Gus Wickie was the voice of Bluto.

Thanks to the animated shorts, Popeye became even more of a sensation than he had been in comic strips. As Betty Boop gradually declined in quality as a result of Hays Code (movie sex police) enforcement in 1934, Popeye became the studio’s star character. By 1936, Popeye began to sell more tickets and became the most popular cartoon character in the country in the 1930s…beating Mickey Mouse. Well blow me down! -Bobby Ellerbee

July 1970…The RCA TCR 100 Video Cart System Debuted

Some loved it, some hated it, but this was a real innovation, and came a full 2 years before the Ampex ACR 25. Thanks to Barry Mitchell for the reminder. -Bobby Ellerbee

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July 10, 1950…The Original, TV Music Countdown Show Debuts

“Your Hit Parade” was television’s first ever Top Ten type music show, and radio’s too. It started on the NBC Red Network on April 20, 1935 and ran there till 1955. The television version started on NBC on this day in 1950 and ran there till ’58 when it went to CBS for a year.

In the great photo below, we see one of the show’s biggest stars, Dorothy Collins singing before the cameras at NBC’s Ziegfeld Theater, in color. The show started July 10, 1950 in NBC’s brand new Studio 6A which was converted from radio to TV on May 29, 1950.

The show needed more floor space for the 10 song scene sets, and the next year it moved to NBC’s brand new 8H which was converted to television on January 30, 1950. The show was done in color occasionally from The Colonial Theater, but went all color in 1956 when it moved to Perry Como’s new home at the Ziegfeld Theater. As a side note, the 4 RCA TK41s at the Zeigfeld were sent to Studio 8H when that beacame the “Peacock Studio” in 1963.

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July 5, 1982…”NBC News Overnight” Debuts

EDITOR NOTE: The video at the bottom of the page is cued up to start at Linda’s final sign off and a full roll of credits for the show, with video of all 60 staff members and some familiar faces. BUT…the whole show is there should you wish to see the entire final episode. In this top video, in her unique “Linda way”, she shares her wonderful insights on the uniqueness of this experiment in news shows.

Many have called this “the best written, best executed news program ever produced”. I agree…I watched it every night.

‘NBC News Overnight’, a live one-hour news program, aired from 1:30 till 2:30 AM for about seventeen months starting on July 5, 1982. Its debut coincided with a lunar eclipse, and despite science reporter Robert Bizel’s disappearance during the live broadcast (he went for some coffee), it was a success from the first night.

It never talked down to its viewers because, from day one, it never assumed that the lowest common denominator was the way to go. Entirely the opposite, in fact. The writing was crisp, witty, and smart. Overnight closed its doors in the first week of December 1983, after NBC management dropped it because of low ratings.

The first co-anchors, co-writers, and co-editors for Overnight were Linda Ellerbee and Lloyd Dobyns, who had, a few years previously, co-written and co-hosted Weekend, an offbeat weekly magazine for NBC.

After about six months of helping to shape Overnight, Dobyns left to do other work for NBC. Bill Schechner ably took his place as co-anchor and co-writer until ‘Overnight’ went off the air.

Overnight featured literary quotations, subtitled reports from overseas news programs for a new perspective, the best features (or sometimes just the silliest) from local affiliates, and a whole grab bag of things never before seen on national news programs. As Bill Schechner said on the final program, it proved that there is more than one way to deliver and to receive the news. Overnight must have been puzzling to some, though, because it had an unexpected mix of both seriousness about important issues and irreverence for nonsense.

As with any live broadcast, goofs occurred from time to time on the program. However, the anchors always made the best of it. They would chuckle instead of becoming mortified and simply corrected their mistakes, often injecting a bit of humor. Ellerbee once said this on the program after one such mistake:

“Live TV is a great time saver. It allows you to make a fool of yourself in front of large groups of people instead of one at a time.”
Shortly after Dobyns left, an NBC News executive suggested to Ellerbee that she take Lloyd’s seat now that she was the senior anchor. Ellerbee said she felt no need for that, but agreed to give it a try. Some nights later, she returned to her old spot. During that broadcast, she explained, after showing a tape of her position changes:

“Lately, you may have noticed a bit of musical chairs being played on this program. But in three nights, I have spilled three cups of coffee because the coffee was where it should be, but I was not. So I have moved back. And if the executives don’t like it, they may jolly well come and do the show and spill their own coffee.”

A year and a half after its birth, NBC decided to cancel Overnight in November 1983, due to low late night ratings and corresponding lack of ad revenue. In the following days and weeks, thousands of viewers (ten thousand, to be exact) called and wrote letters or telegrams of protest to NBC management. Some even sent checks and cash to defray the costs of producing the program (all the money was returned).

NBC’s news release on the program’s cancellation said the program remained “the model of a one-hour news program,” but it was being canceled because “being the best is not enough”. And so it goes!

By the way, Linda is a distant cousin of mine through marriage. Even if she wasn’t related, I would still think she’s still one of the best and most unique in the business! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

See the full interview at http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/linda-ellerbee

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On page 10, is as good a description of what happened on this day in 1941, as you will find.

As told in “Broadcasting” magazine’s July 7th issue, NBC’s W2XBS became WNBT at 1:30 PM, and by chance, became the nation’s first commercial TV station.

To keep either from being “the first”, the FCC had authorized CBS’s W2XAB to sign on at 1:30 too, to become WCBW, but due to a camera fail and a light problem (which you’ll read about), CBS did not come to air until 2:30, which was just about the time WNBT aired the first ever paid spot. It was for Bulova Watches.

Up top is the only photographic record of television’s first paid spot. From inside Studio 3H, an NBC Iconoscope camera shoots the clever Bulova test pattern clock (with Bulova logo in the right bottom corner), for :60 seconds…just before going live to a Dodgers-Phillies game. The Bulova time spot ran again at 11 that night, but as you’ll see, there were several spots from other sponsors in between, but only on WNBT.

Although Dumont had opted out of going commercial (till 4 years later), their experimental station was also granted permission to sign on at 1:30, and managed to, but just barely. Neither Dumont or CBS carried any commercial messages on debut day…only NBC, because they had the most experience in television and had a rate card ready on Day 1.

There were other commercial licenses granted, but only the New York stations were permitted conversion on July 1, 1941. As you’ll see in the article, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles stations would come along later.

By the way, congratulations to “Truth Or Consequences”, which also made it’s television debut on this day 75 years ago in a one time simulcast. That’s in the article too. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Tomorrow, television marks the 80th anniversary of its move from the “experimental” phase to the “commercial” phase. Today, we’ll look at the creation of a new piece of production equipment that was necessary to make it all flow on screen…the Shadow Box.

Pictured here is the CBS shadow box prototype being tested in one of the backrooms at their Grand Central studios. This basic design would later become the Gray Telop machine, which CBS allowed Gray to manufacture. NBC had a version too, which I will include in the Comments section.

This three function machine allowed a live camera to shoot into the box and see, with the aid of moving mirrors, photo images, title cards and “rolling credits” on a drum. With no fader controls on the switching console in the control room, live dissolves could be done here manually with mirror movements, and fading light sources in each of the three sections.

With commercials now in the program mix, the shadow box was a great way to add elements to spots, but was also used at the opens and closes, and transitions. There is more detail in the text description under the photo from Richard Hubbell’s classic book. “Television Programing And Production” from 1945.

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The First Robotic Overhead Camera…NBC’s “Home” Show

Now, this is BIG! So, big you can hardly see the RCA TK11 mounted in this massive contraption. By comparison, this dwarfs a studio crane boom arm, that may have served the same purpose.

The video here is shot from overhead camera and WOW…wait till you see the 3 camera ballet with RCA TK11s on the studio floor! 

“Home” (1954-1957) was broadcast from NBC’s 67th Street Studios at 101 W. 67th, which was being leased from WOR. This facility was built in 1949 as WOR’s 9 Television Square building, but mergers called for their studios to move to the Empire State Bldg in early ’54.

NBC was looking for a home for “Home” and this place had the space for an innovative state in the round, with the kind of informal staging that “Today” enjoyed. -Bobby Ellerbee

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RCA Camera Mystery Finally Solved!!! You Won’t Believe This…

Just what is that gear/wheel mechanism on the side of these first generation RCA Iconoscope remote cameras? I’ve wondered this for years, but till today…I never knew for sure.

This morning, I was reading a page from Richard Hubbell’s 1945 book “Television Programming And Production”, and low and behold, there were these two lines that surprised me to no end.

“On the side of the camera are two wheels connected by a small chain. This connects the lens system with small electric motors for the remote-control focusing handled by a technician in the mobile unit”.

I had always suspected it had some function in the focus department, but who would have thought it was a remote focus command operated by the video man in the mobile unit?

Given that the placement of the cameraman’s right hand is always at the lower rear, where the manual focus command would eventually appear, I had never noticed in dozens of photos that show this, that he was actually holding a D handle, and not a focus knob.

I think the cameras with this outside remote-focus mechanism were the first two remote style cameras RCA built, and may be the only two to have this remote-focus ability before a manual focus on the camera was added. Even with the manual focus though, the operator would have to be “talked” into focus, but they were mostly shooting wide shots and not close ups.

Notice in the photo of Dorothy Lamour behind the camera, there is not a viewfinder, but there is a small peep hole in which the operator is looking into a small hollow tube that runs through the camera from the front to back, to help frame shots.

I also think that after the manual focus was added to the camera (where the D handle was), the internal hollow tube peephole went away, and was replaced by the side mounted wire “gunsight” framing tool.

The two photos of the camera at the 30 Rock ice skating rink are dated 1938, but the RCA and Lamour shots are from 1939.

The remote-focus ability is really a surprise to me, but so was the fact that the first studio camera pedestals were raised and lowered with small electric motors. Thanks to Tom Buckley for guiding me to Richard Hubbell…a name we will hear more often this week. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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“Today”…60 Years Ago Martin & Lewis, With Jerry Running Camera

The video at the link above is cued to start just before Dean and Jerry Come out to close the live “Today” show from Atlantic City, July 26, 1956. Soon after, Jerry takes over the RCA TK30 equipped with a new RCA Electrazoom lens.

Garroway is on vacation, with Faye Emerson, Jack Lescoulie and Frank Blair holding the fort in a version that is more like a radio broadcast, and from a nightclub, which gives this a very different feel than the usual “in studio” versions of the daily morning romps. It’s in interesting time capsule, to be sure to take a look at some of the early parts, and hear the news of the day too. Enjoy! -Bobby EllerbeeToday Show from the 500 Club in Atlantic City

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June 25, 1951…America’s First Color Broadcasts Begin On CBS

Let me start with some things you probably never knew about this historic event.

To me, the first day and circumstances seem to foreshadow the overall outcome of this four month experiment. In April of ’51, CBS had just taken over the Peace Theater, at 109th Street and 5th Avenue, and in a few quick meetings, it was determined that this would become their Field Sequential color studio. It was big, and empty, but had no air conditioning. CBS called it Studio 57, and moved in five tons of equipment, but there was no time for anything else. As you will see in this 20 photo spread of the June 24 rehearsals, everyone was sweating badly, but the theater heat was the smaller of their problems.
https://eyesofageneration.com/cbs-field-sequential-color-cameras-at-studio-57/

That debut show broadcast on this day 65 years ago was simply titled “Premiere”, and it was the first commercial CBS Color program. It, was broadcast over a five station network from New York’s Studio 57, and although there were 10.5 million monochrome sets in U.S., none of them could see it because no Field Sequential sets were made until September of 1951, and less than a month later, production was ordered halted with the Korean War broke out.

Appearing on the debut show were Arthur Godfrey, Faye Emerson, Sam Levenson, Ed Sullivan, Gary Moore, Robert Alda, Isabel Bigley, Bil Baird Marionettes, Sol Hurok’s New York City Ballet arranged by George Balanchine, Patty Painter (the first “Miss Color Television”), FCC chairman Wayne Coy, CBS chairman William S. Paley, and CBS president Frank Stanton.

In a nutshell, even RCA could not get the CBS system to work without problems on the VHF frequencies…it needed UFH bandwidth to defeat the flicker of the spinning wheel. Part of the battle with RCA and the FCC over color was CBS’s Peter Goldmark’s insistence that the VHF band be abandoned for all color work, and that all black and white broadcasting should be abandoned too…in favor of the CBS Field Sequential system.

RCA was leading the way in black and white set manufacturing, and Philco and others were making a market there too, so the CBS push was not gaining any sympathy from the industry, or the FCC. As a matter of fact, the FCC said to CBS, if you are so sure your Field Sequential color system is the ultimate answer, why do you have so many applications for CBS owned VHF stations?

Having been asked, now CBS had to answer. It was an answer that cost them dearly too. In a show of support for Goldmark, CBS abandoned five VHF license requests in the top markets…markets they later entered, but at a high price, because they had to buy out the original licensee.

A lot of people lay blame at RCA’s feet for playing rough, but truth be told, CBS was just as guilty of a different sin, and that sin was mostly about slowing down television’s development in any way they could. CBS was not a manufacturer like RCA and others, and their participation in television depended on their ability to make money with their radio network.

The success of the 1948 political conventions on TV, which was mostly pooled, had demonstrated the power of the new visual media, and they didn’t want to get left behind in TV, but it was expensive and had to be developed in every way. In recent readings, I have learned that even the great CBS producer/director Worthington Minor (“Playhouse 90”, etc.), had come to understand that CBS was doing all it could to slow down TV.

In the color TV hearings at the FCC in early 1951, he basically said that, which earned him a broom closet office across from the 485 Madison Ave. HQ, until the end of the CBS color project was halted at the start of the Korean War in October, 1951.

Leading up to the July 1, 1941 anniversary of the start of commercial television in the U.S., I’ll be adding some new information on the CBS Grand Central studios history. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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