Guess Who’s Network Broadcasting’s Longest Running Host…

Bob Barker is a close second with 34⅔ years years on “The Price Is Right”, but the winner and still champion is Don McNeil with a 35½ tenure as host of a network entertainment program.

Counting only television, Barker wins, but when you add radio to the mix, “The Don McNeil Breakfast Club” from Chicago comes in first. The show started on the NBC Blue Network, but then became an ABC Radio show with the divestiture.

It originated in Chicago and ran from 1933 to 1968. In 1950, the show was simulcast on ABC for a year, and then again in 1954. Below is a clip from 1954. Thanks to Barry Mitchell for reminding us of Don. Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

Another New Rarity! “Life Begins At 80”

This is a beautiful shot of Dumont’s main studio at the Wanamakers Department Store location. It wasn’t always this dressy, but this special set was built to entice the show’s producers Jack Barry and Dan Enright away from NBC where “Life Begins At 80″ had aired from 1950 till ’52.

The show had actually started on radio in 1948. In ’55, the show left Dumont and moved to ABC for a year and was finally retired to give Barry and Enright time to work on a new show you may have heard of….”Twenty One”! Yes, ground zero for the quiz show scandals. Once again, thanks to Mike Clark for finding this for us. Enjoy and SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

NEW, ULTRA RARE! The Kraft Cameraman

Before “The Kraft Television Theater” debuted on a regular basis from NBC Studio 8G in May of 1947, it had been done occasionally from Studio 3H in 1945 with their big silver Iconoscope cameras.

I think this super rare picture of the opening shot display was taken in May of ’47 in 8G. We see two men working on the rotation table here, but over the years, the mode of travel changed. This turntable setup was the first arrangement. In the early ’50s, the cameraman was rotated back and forth by a visible stick from underneath. By the mid to late 50s, the cameraman was dollying into the picture and then turning with the invisible help of magnets.

In 1954, Kraft began offering this as a toy for fifty cents with a Velveeta box top. I’ll post the introductory announcement below in the Comment section. Again, thanks to Mike Clark for sharing this. Enjoy and SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

NEW, ULTRA RARE! “Texaco Star Theater”

This is just amazing! I have studied this very closely and believe this to be, if not the debut show, at least a photo taken in the first month of “The Texaco Star Theater” starring Milton Berle. This is the ONLY behind the scenes photo I have every seen of this show in production.

This was taken in NBC Studio 6B that was converted from radio to television on June 8, 1948, just in time for the debut of Berle’s show. I have several pictures of this studio in late ’48 in which the camera platforms have back rails, but notice there are none here yet which makes them brand new and this is possibly their first use.

Also notice the title card on the right side of the stage. As you can see at the start of this earliest video of the show, it is the same.

At the time this was taken, only NBC Studios 3H and 8G had their own cameras. Television was being done in what were then radio studios 3A, 3B, 6A and 6B with several in house mobile units with three cameras each. The Camera Control Units were on wheels and were placed in the sound locks of the studio.

When I mention the dates the studios were converted from radio to television, that means the date that these studios finally got their own control rooms. Even before the June 8, 1948 debut of 6B, some television was done here with the mobile units, which was also the case for 3A, 3B and 6A. In September of 1949, these mobile units would also finally enter Studio 8H for the television debut of “The Voice Of Firestone”. Many thanks to Mike Clark for sharing this, AND some great pictures yet to be posted! Enjoy and SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

Double Header History In The Making

This is the story of the first MLB night game broadcast and…a little more. The article from June of 1941 also gives us what I think is the first ever look at the RCA Model 1846 Orthicon camera.

It has been hard to get a date on when these cameras were actually put into service, but in the photo, we see the 1846 on the right of the RCA field Iconoscope camera. More than likely, it was here to use as a side-by-side comparison test for RCA and NBC engineers. This is a couple of years earlier than the 1943 date we had thought. Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

You’ve Come A Long Way Baby!

Given all of the Super Bowl coverage, I thought a look back at 1960 state of the art mobile production was in order. This is the new RCA twin truck unit recently purchased by Los Angeles based Glenn-Armistead Productions.

The production truck (bottom) carried 4 RCA TK11/31 black and white and 4 RCA TK41 color cameras. The tape truck had two huge RCA TRT 1B color tape machines and an entire 16 and 35mm film chain. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

One Of The First Television Commercials

Somehow looking forward to new commercials has become a part of the Super Bowl madness we experience each year, but I seriously doubt that the people that made the very first TV spots would believe us if we could tell them.

Here is a shot from inside NBC Studio 3H that shows an RCA A500 Iconoscope camera shooting a mockup of an Adam Hats store window. Along with Botany suits and Bulova watches, Adam Hat’s and Sunoco were among the first ever advertisers. Enjoy and share!

Source

KTLA and Klaus Landsberg were not the only ones innovating in Los Angeles in the 1930s. There was also Don Lee who’s station W6XAO (now KCBS) is credited with airing the first movie and the first news film on television. This short video covers the whole story very well.

Here is an interesting pictorial history and article I thought you would enjoy from my friend Steve McVoy at the Early Television Museum. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.earlytelevision.org/w6xao.html

Source

February 2, 1950…”What’s My Line” Debuts on CBS

On this day in 1950, WML began a 17 year run which reportedly makes it the longest running prime time network game show ever.

Produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, the show was initially called “Occupation Unknown” but the day before air, the name was changed. The show debuted on Thursday, February 2, 1950 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. It originally aired alternate Thursdays, the alternate Wednesdays till October 1, 1950 when it settled into its weekly Sunday 10:30 p.m. ET slot where it would remain until the end of its network run on September 3, 1967.

Here is the debut episode and it’s a good thing they made a lot of changes to the show, and quickly. Dorothy Kilgallen was the only original panel member to survive the line up shifts until her death in 1965. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

But Where Are Our Pants?

Thanks to Bettina Levesque for this picture of her behind the camera at the Metro Media Square Studios where the last two seasons of “Three’s A Crowd” were shot in ’84 and ’85. Was This George Sunga’s idea? The camera is an RCA TK45. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source