January 1949…The “Zeigfeld Of Television” Legend Begins

Before I get to the meat of this important story, let me first draw your attention to this video. It is cued to one of the most amazing bits I have ever seen! I think these are the Arnaut Brothers…they never say a word, but bring down the house with this unbelievable bird talk sketch.

‘The Admiral Broadway Revue’ was the first time Max Leibman brought his producing and directing skills to television. He also brought along his aspiring young comedians Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.

In 1920, Liebman entered vaudeville as a comedy sketch-writer, and in 1924 started a long association with the Tamiment Theater, a Pocono Mountains resort, where he would remain for 15 years and discover such talent as Jerome Robins, Danny Kaye, Sid and Imogene. At the same time, he was writing for Broadway musical comedy revues.

In late 1948, Max was offered the job of producing a television show for Admiral…’The Admiral Broadway Revue’. He took the job and brought along his Pocono friends, including writer Mel Tolkin.

The one hour, Saturday night show was produced (as a remote broadcast) for NBC at The International Theater at 5 Columbus Circle. The show did so well that it had to be canceled? Yes! Admiral sales went through the roof and put them in the position of either building a second plant, or canceling the show.

It left the air in June of 1949, but the best was yet to come! Pat Weaver at NBC hired Max to produce a new show and by February of 1950, ‘Your Show Of Shows’ was ready for air with Sid and Imogene at the helm. It was the top show on Saturday night, but again…it was canceled because it did so well? Yes!

In 1954, NBC decided they wanted Max to produce big color specials for the network. They also wanted the two stars to have their own shows, so Sid continued with ‘Caesar’s Hour’ and Imogene with ‘The Imogene Coca Show’. I’ll have some rare production photos in the next post. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

NBC’s Gemini 5 Co-ordination Plan, August 1965

Here is a rare mapping of how all the dozens of elements of the multi-day broadcast would lay out. Notice ground zero is Studio 8H and just to the right, we see Studio 5H…the breaking news studio we talked about in the post just before this, which was later renamed 5HN for headline news. Thanks to Gady Reinhold for this treasure! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Ultra Rare Photo of NBC Studio 5HN, Breaking News Desk

On the day President Kennedy was killed, this was where Chet Huntley, Frank McGee and others broke the news. Then named 5H, this was a permanent news setup studio that could be used if news broke before the evening newscast set could be readied.

On that day, the cameras were not hot, or always on, but after that day there was always a live camera in 5HN ready to go. This is the only photo I have ever seen of the studio and I think this is from the mid 1970s. By 1969, most of the 30 Rock studios had RCA TK44s, but with plenty of TK41s in storage, they put one to good use here.

Sometime in the late 60s, WNBC began using this studio for it’s five minute overnight local news briefs and continued there until this studio was done away with. Behind one of these walls are windows that look out over 49th Street. In the comment section, you can see the space as it looks today as an editing area. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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The floor director here is Harry Katzman who worked this show for a long time. For much more, take a look at this link!

https://eyesofageneration.com/1953-televising-todays-news/

Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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In Case You’ve Never Seen a Naked TK41

Here’s a spread eagle shot of the color beast open for inspection. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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If It’s Cardboard, It’s Got To Be New York

I have often commented on the cardboard viewfinder hoods on the NBC TK41s in New York and the custom-made VF hoods at NBC Burbank. CBS did the same thing though…in New York, they too used a lot of cardboard while at CBS Television City, they had custom VF hoods. Maybe it’s something in the water. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Ever See One Of These Before?

I think it was January of 1954 when RCA introduced this tri-view set. Notice the remote jack box for the earpieces that gave you isolated audio on the screen you were most interested in. The speakers are in the bottom two panels and behind the top panel is a radio and turntable. They didn’t sell many of these and no, this is not the one LBJ had in his office…that was a custom job. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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The location of the three studios was inside New York City’s Wanamaker’s Department Store. Here is the announcement in a few magnified parts and a couple of photos of the huge main studio it’s control room.

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January 16, 1949…KNBH Television Signs On; Exclusive Photos

These two black and white photos are the only ones I know of that were taken on that first day of broadcasting.

The young lady in both is Peggy Lee, who I think was the mistress of ceremonies that night for the stations first live show, and first local variety program in Los Angeles called ‘On With The Show’.

At the time, she, along with Perry Como and Jo Stafford were rotating host of NBC Radio’s popular ‘Chesterfield Supper Club’.

The maiden broadcast was three hours and forty minutes of programming, which followed a 15-minute test-pattern-and-music session. Inauguration night launched with an eighteen-minute newsreel, ‘Review of 1948’. That was followed by the first live program, hosted by Lee. After that came ‘The Pickard Family’ featuring Dad and Mom Pickard and their four children singing familiar American songs.

The station now known as KNBC or NBC4, was one of seven VHF stations licensed for operation in the market. KNBH, which stood for National Broadcasting Hollywood, was one of three stations in the market representing a national broadcasting chain.

By October 1949, KNBH had extended its operating schedule from five to seven days a week, with approximately 26 hours of television programming each week. The station continued to make major technical advances and was the leading promoter of television as the premiere advertising medium. In October 1950, KNBH transmitted the first commercial telecast of a sports event, a Los Angeles Rams Football Game, via the Los Angeles/San Francisco inter-city MicroWave Relay.

KNBH again made history in April 1951 when the first telecast, originating in the East, was presented to West Coast viewers on the same day. The station broadcast General Douglas MacArthur’s speech before Congress less than five hours after it had been originated in Washington, D.C. I think this was achieved by recording a kinescope in St. Louis and flying it to LA.

In November 1962, the station relocated to the NBC Burbank facilities, and changed its call letters to KNBC.

When the station launched in 1949, Los Angeles was the fifth largest city in the United States, with only 80,000 television sets within 100 miles of the station’s Mount Wilson transmitter. Today, the LA market is the second largest in the country and Channel 4 is viewed in more than five million households, reaching 15 million viewers regularly.

Happy Birthday KNBC! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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January 14, 1990…’America’s Funniest Home Videos’ Debuts On ABC

Here is an early episode with what I think was the best host ever, Bob Sagget. Bob hosted the original show which aired as a special in November of 1989. It was such a hit, ABC had it on the air on Sunday nights in just seven weeks.

Sagget hosted the first eight seasons and was followed by John Fugelsang and Daisy Fuentes for its ninth and tenth seasons. After two years of being shown as occasional specials, hosted by various actors and comedians such as D.L. Hughley and Richard Kind, ABC brought the series back on Friday nights in the summer of 2001 with new host Tom Bergeron, who has since become the series’ longest-serving host. Season 24 began on October 13, 2013. Before the show was renewed for a 25th season in May 2014, Bergeron announced in March 2014 that he will not be hosting the show after that season. Now, Alfonso Ribeiro is the MC! 

Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

January 14, 1952…The First Moments Of ‘Today’ With Dave Garroway

This is the opening segment of the debut show, 63 years ago today. Dave takes us on a very complete tour of the set and explains what the show is all about. Thanks to the vision and courage of Pat Weaver, American television took a new leap into a day part that, until this point had been seen as unimportant. I think rehearsals started just after Christmas of 1951 in this space called The RCA Showcase, just across 49th Street from 30 Rock. The space is now occupied by the famous Christie’s auction house. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

BTW! Did you notice that at 2:15, the world’s first ever news show ticker is finding its new home in the lower third!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4_iv3UbGg

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January 14, 1952…’Today’ Debuts On NBC…First In More Than One Way

Today, was network television’s first ever morning show, and is where some of the state of the art technology was first used.

First, I am sure this is the first time the new Houston Fearless TD 3 counter-weighted pedestals were ever used. There are no photos of them before this day in 1952, and I think there are two prototypes on the set. All the other peds are the old TD 1 crank up peds.

Second, I think this is also the first use of the new RCA camera mounted teleprompter. There appear to be two in use on the debut…one on a camera with the new TD 3 ped and one on a camera on a TD 1 ped. Notice they are strapped to the cameras and not permanently attached. I think these two prototypes had come in a week or two before and were tested on The Martha Ray Show.

Happy Birthday ‘Today’! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Here’s the new RCA Electa Zoom and the new teleprompter. I’m not sure if that is an RCA logo on the prompter or not. Could that be the TelePrompter logo? Notice the great magnifying lens. It seems that cameramen were taking turns operating the cameras with the prompter.

With is his back to us on the right is our friend Frank Merklein who was a part of the debut broadcast.

The ramp lead down to the control room.

Here’s the second teleprompter on a TK30 mounted on the old TD 1 pedestal. That sure looks like the RCA logo on the prompter in this photo.

Here’s a shot of the studio from across the street at 30 Rock. Notice the hi position camera against the window.

Here’s that lonely perch, but with a great shot of the whole studio using the Zoomar Field lens.

Dave Garroway at the two minute capsule news board. In the foreground, new new RCA teleprompter and Houston Fearless TD 3 prototype pedestal.

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“Klaatu Barada Nikto”

Here’s a rare behind the scenes shot from the 1951 classic ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Coming down the gangway is 7’ 7″ Lock Martin in one of two Gort costumes. Martin was the doorman as Gruaman’s Chines Theater in LA.

To give the appearance of seamlessness to the spaceship, the crack around the door was filled with putty, then painted over. When the door opened the putty was torn apart, making the door seem to simply appear. To depict the seamless closing of the ship and its ramp, they just reversed the film of the shot of the ship’s ramp and door appearing. The spaceship was made of wood, wire and plaster of Paris.

This film is ranked #5 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre “Sci-Fi” in June 2008. As an homage to this film George Lucas named two of the alien bounty hunters in his Star Wars trilogy “Klaatu” and “Barada Nikto”. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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A Tribute To Ernie Kovacs: Hole In The Head Sketch

As mentioned in the previous post, we lost this television and comedy pioneer 53 years ago today. Here is another legacy he left us.

Before there was chromakey, there was black and white matting which is the process used here for Ernie to peer through a “hole in her head”. Here’s how this was done…first, Ernie places the black patch on the forehead of his assistant, Barbara Loden. Her top is red, white and blue which is important because the matting process used in this instance uses black at the matt.

In the control room, the production switcher uses the special effects module to insert a circle over the black patch in the image from camera 1. Camera 2 on the left is shooting Kovac. Notice her hair is now covered by a white scarf as the switcher is taking in only the white portion of the image from camera 1 and has made it blind to black.

Via the matting process in the production switcher, the images are married in a composite shot and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, you could probably do all this on a smart phone, but back in the early 50s, this was a big deal, and Kovacs was a genius at visual gags using the then, state of the art television technology. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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A Tribute To Ernie Kovacs: The Dovetonsil Lens

Today in 1962, comedian Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles, 10 days before his 43rd birthday. In remembrance of his pioneering comedy which often involved technical innovation, here is the rare lens he helped create for his most famous character, poet Percy Dovetonsils.

Percy always wore extremely thick glasses and unbeknownst to most…the eyes were painted on the back of the lenses. Occasionally the television audience was treated to Percy’s POV via this specially made lens, now owned by Chuck Pharis. It was designed to be easily thrown form fairly clear to double vision distortion. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Follow-up Photo, Kukla, Fran and Ollie

I couldn’t wrap up today’s posts without including this rare shot of the man that started it all…the great Burr Tillstrom. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran and Ollie

I finally found the photo that shows the band I had mentioned in the network debut anniversary story earlier today. Part of the show’s success was due to the adults that watched, and the laughter from the crew and band was always there. Like ‘Beany and Cecil’ and ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’, there was always a thread of adult humor woven into the fabric of KFO. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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