Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie

This is an amazingly rare 1947 photo of ‘Junior Jamboree’ at WBKB in Chicago, starring “The Kuklapolitans with Fran Allison”. This was the first embodiment of the show on television, and this aired locally Monday thru Friday, from 6 to 7 pm Central Time. In case you missed it, see today’s story on the network debut of the show on this day in 1949. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie

This is the KFO studio at WNBQ in 1951, three years after their network debut on this day in 1949. From left to right: Beulah Zachary, producer (seated); Harry Glyer, boom operator; Jack Fascinato, composer (at piano); John Kinsey, stage manager; Bruce Berquist, cameraman; Kukla and Burr Tillstrom; Jim Edwards, cameraman; John Casagrande and Jimmy Lynch (stagehands). Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Here’s A BIG SURPRISE! The First Time I Have Ever Heard of This!

When Bud Yorkin presented ‘An Evening with Fred Astaire’ October 17, 1958, he used the entire NBC Burbank facility…. all four-color studios and control rooms and all 16 TK41 cameras were used to feed the show live to the east coast and, to the video tape room there where a master and backup were recorded in color for playback to the west coast. The clip starts at the point Mr. Yorkin gives us this amazing detail.

A week or so ago, I posted a story on ‘An Evening with Fred Astaire’ which is the oldest surviving color videotape of an entertainment show. I had said it was done live to tape…broadcast live to the east and was the first big special ever recorded on color tape for playback on the west coast. Some argued that it was edited, but it wasn’t and here is the proof.

Granted, this was a big deal, but I have never heard of a production taking up a whole network facility for a show before. After the live portion, the cast went to The Beverly Hills Hotel to watch the color playback for the west coast. As Astaire arrived, he received a phone call from President Eisenhower, and one from Ed Sullivan. Astaire could not believe Sullivan had called with congratulations. The President, yes, but Sullivan’s call amazed him. Thanks to John Butler for the Yorkin clip. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://vimeo.com/261611927
By the way, at the link above is the full restored color video tape of the show with thanks to Kris Trexler.

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January 12, 1949…’Kukla Fran And Ollie’ Debuts On NBC Network

Before we get to the history, a comment on this rare kinescope.

KFO actually started on Chicago’s WBKB around 1948 but moved to NBC owned WNBQ later in 48 and was a huge Chicagoland hit. The NBC network heard about it and decided to air it afternoons nationwide and the first network broadcast, live from Chicago, was on this day in 1949.

What we see here is a month before they made their network debut, so this is just for Chicago.

FYI, when the show was at WBKB, they were the ones that began shooting it with the Zoomar Field Lens…it looked so good, NBC continued with it.  -Bobby Ellerbee

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January 12, 1967…’Dragnet 1967′ Debuts On NBC

After an eight year break, ‘Dragnet’ returned to television with this episode. In updating the story lines, Webb was particularly aware of the wave of teenage drug use, and a fair number of episodes have a “narko” theme. To differentiate it from the earlier Dragnet series, the year in which each season aired was made part of the on-screen title, so the series started as ‘Dragnet 1967’ and ended as ‘Dragnet 1970′. The entire series aired Thursdays at 9:30-10:00 pm and was directed by Jack Webb.

Here’s some interesting trivia about the show…

The pair of hands seen hammering the Mark VII logo at the end of every episode belong to Jack Webb.

For the sake of continuity, Friday and Gannon always wore the same outfits in every episode. According to Harry Morgan, he and Jack Webb decided to switch coats for one scene to see if anyone noticed. Because only Morgan was in the scene, no one on the set realized it until the scene had been shot. In the next scene, Morgan has on the correct coat. This is the only incident of faulty continuity in the series’ run.

When the revival was in the planning stages, Jack Webb had originally planned on bringing in his former co-star Ben Alexander to reprise his role as Officer Frank Smith. However, Alexander was appearing on the ABC series ‘Felony Squad’ and that network would not let him out of his contract to appear on the revival. Webb then chose Harry Morgan to play the new character of Officer Bill Gannon.

Enjoy and share! Over and out…Bobby Ellerbee

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On Several Levels…One Of The MOST INTERESTING Videos I’ve Seen

You are in for some big surprises! More than I can account for here in the text, so I urge you to just see for yourself. This is a whole episode of ‘Steve Allen’s Music Room’ that ran in syndication from ’84 till ’86.

I’ve started it at the place were Steve asks Doc about his early days in music. You will never guess who interrupts them and why, but you’ll be surprised to see who Steve’s sidekick/announcer (Bill Maher) was AND, by the awesome clip he introduces from ‘Tonight’. PLUS, just after that, Doc plays something most of us have never heard before…the original ‘Tonight’ show sign off song. Doc was in the band then and was featured on it every night during Allen’s stint as host. By the way, Steve wrote the song.

Later, Patty Page and Ann Jillian are guests. It good from start to finish, but the featured part I’ve written about here is just amazing on many levels. ENJOY AND SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee

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‘Gone With The Wind’ Technicolor Closeup

Having seen one of these huge Technicolor camera blimps in the Oz photo earlier, I wanted to give you a feel for how big they really were.

On the set of ‘Gone With The Wind’, here is director Victor Fleming looking into the viewfinder. Behind him is camera operator Arthur Arling and cinematographer Ernest Haller.

The actual camera inside the soundproof blimp was about the size of a regular 35mm Mitchell, but it used three reels of film simultaneously and a larger than average motor, so it was fairly noisy.  -Bobby Ellerbee

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Heaving and Hoeing, Heavy Metal and Manpower

This is a location shot from the 1938 hit musical ‘Girls Of The Golden West’ staring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and a ton of newcomers, like Buddy Ebson who you’ll see in the trailer. You’ll also see a lot of crane shots made with this two-and-a-half-ton behemoth.

By the way, the rope is not for pulling the crane, but it is for pulling distance. Knots in the rope let them know when they got to the marks they had rehearsed. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Oz

A few weeks back, I watched ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ for the umpteenth time on TCM. It’s still a fascinating spectacle…especially for those of us who grew up watching it on black and white sets and never knew till much later that most of it was in color. Here’s one of the huge Technicolor cameras shooting Margret Hamilton atop a house, just before she disappears in a beautiful orange smoke cloud. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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The Universal Court House Square

Most recognize this set from ‘Back To The Future’, but it’s been used in more productions than you can shake a stick at. The first time we saw it was with Ma and Pa Kettle in 1949. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Early Color Testing Days At The Colonial Theater

It was late November 1952 when the four RCA TK40 prototype cameras arrived at The Colonial. There was a year of almost around the clock testing of cameras, monitors, switching and transmitting equipment. The first production models of the TK40, twenty five in all, were shipped from Camden on March 4, 1954.

Notice in this photo from January ’54, there is no big cradle head…only a friction head under the camera. One thing the production crew learned in 1953 was that there was a need for a bigger, better pan head for the 375 pound camera. Houston Fearless sent a prototype cradle head in the summer of 53 and when the TK40s shipped in ’54, they all came with the new custom cradle head. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

By the way, the crane is the Houston Fearless 30B model.

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Picture Parade #4…The Red Barber Baseball Box

Red Barber was the first announcer to broadcast baseball on television. He knew a lot about how to help get the best out of a game and developed this box to “talk” to the director in the truck.

When he thought play action was going to be in a certain area, or there was some player or position he wanted to talk about, he would flip one of the switches to alert them to have a camera ready. Red’s position requests were solid red lights. When the truck wanted him to talk about a position or player, they flipped a switch on their board and Red’s board light there blinked. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Picture Parade #4…CBS Studio 42 At Grand Central Terminal, 1950

This is Faye Emerson on her fifteen minute daily show the CBS Network. In 1947, CBS bought the RCA TK10s and 30s for their studios. These are TK30s with the exclusive CBS striped band on the viewfinder. Do you know why they were there?

Here’s the answer…these are actually handy gray scale charts that cameramen can use to keep their adjustments in line as the tubes tended to drift some. Without having to go to a test pattern chart, they could quickly swing to the camera next to them and adjust their gain, shading and alignment. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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