ABC, CBS, NBC Anniversary Shows…Saturday Through Tuesday!

Over the next four days, we’ll have the commercial free anniversary shows from the Big 3! Tomorrow, we start with the oldest network, NBC. On Sunday, it’s CBS and on Monday, ABC. Then on Tuesday, we’ve got Television City’s 50th anniversary show for you. Be ready for some great history and many major memories! -Bobby Ellerbee

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NBC 60th Anniversay Show…Mega Memory Tour #1

From now through Tuesday, we’ll have the NBC, CBS and ABC network anniversary shows for you here, plus a couple of surprises, but now, it’s time for tour #1.

This is 2 1/2 hours of NBC’s glorious history without commercials…well, almost. Ed Herlihy is here to tell you about the Kraft commercials he did, and we’ll see him in this NBC Tour themed production that has kind of a clunky intro, but all through this, there are a lot of looks at 30 Rock and Burbank, where it was all shot.

NBC has presented more recent anniversary specials, but none of those are available in their entirety like this one. As part of the tour, Milton Berle stands outside Studio 6B and confirms that the first TV show from that studio was his “Texaco Star Theater”.

Hope, Paar, Carson, Jolsen, Vallie, Chancelor, Allen, Huntley, Brinkley, Pauley, Cantor, Martin, Lewis, Abbott, Costello, Landon…westerns, dramas, soaps, sitcoms, news, radio, milestones, sports…it’s all here! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQT81Pe0uY

On May 12, 1986, more than 100 stars celebrated the National Broadcasting Company’s 60 years on the air in this special that features the debut of the new (a…

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ABC 50th Anniversay Show…Mega Memory Tour #3

Today and tomorrow, we’ll continue NBC, CBS and ABC network anniversary shows for you here, plus a couple of surprises, but now, it’s time for tour #3.

This is 3 hours of ABC’s glorious history as it was presented in 2003, and like NBC and CBS, ABC has presented more recent anniversary specials, but none of those are available in their entirety like this one.

Dick Clark, Barbra Walters, Hugh Downs, John Trivolta, The Beaver, The Fonz, Cosel, Luke and Laura, and all the great shows from westerns, dramas, soaps, sitcoms, news, milestones, sports are all here! Even a nice TK41 as a backdrop. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5OSbgbmo6Y

Includes commercials and a WFTV news open (seen on sister channel OTownNews). All copyrights are acknowledged. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED! SOLELY FOR…

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January 25, 1961…Television’s First Live Presidential News Conference

There are three videos with this article; the embedded footage is of President Kennedy hosting the first live news conference, and notice at 10:05, a reporter asks if taking questions live is a good thing given that live there is the occasion to mis-speak and rile international tensions (hint, hint), and the second video shows Kennedy’s amazing grace and humor. The third is part of Eisenhower’s first televised news conference that was shot on film.

On this day in 1961, President Kennedy held the first ever live presidential news conference. It originated from the auditorium of the State Department and was carried live on both radio and television.

In the period preceding the Kennedy presidency, the rules governing press conferences favored the president. The sessions were off-the- record events, from Woodrow Wilson through Harry Truman. If the president said something he believed unwise, he could alter the quote.

President Truman, for example, was able to back away from a comment about Senator McCarthy that he made in a March 30, 1950, press conference. Truman said: “I think the greatest asset that the Kremlin has is Senator McCarthy.” When one of the reporters commented that the president’s observation would “hit page one tomorrow,” Truman realized he had better soften the statement. He “worked” with reporters and allowed the following as a direct quotation: “The greatest asset that the Kremlin has is the partisan attempt in the Senate to sabotage the bipartisan foreign policy of the United States.”

When the rules governing press conferences were off the record, chief executives held them once or twice a week. In fact, Calvin Coolidge, who held the most press conferences for the number of years he was in office, had 521 sessions or an average of 93 a year. But once they went on the record in the Eisenhower administration, the numbers dropped drastically. Now they had to take time preparing for the sessions and then be careful what they said when answering questions. Eisenhower and Kennedy respectively had 24 and 23 press conferences a year.

The first televised (film footage) press conference was held January 19, 1955. President Eisenhower came into the Indian Treaty Room, a room with poor acoustics and limited seating and announced the “experiment” they were about to be part of. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4480322/president-eisenhowers-first-televised-press-conference

In fact, television made an enormous difference in the significance of press conferences in presidential publicity. It has been a “disturbing influence”—presidents have made mistakes though only rarely—but the sessions also have been an enormous resource for presidents as they seek to explain policy and themselves to the public.

President Kennedy was able to assimilate the new technology into an invigorated presidency, much as he had during the campaign and in the presidential debates. Kennedy’s press conferences were in many ways a symbol of his successful use of television to promote his active agenda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXDLLUOxmsY At this link is a video that reminds us of JFK’s easy style in these press conferences. He was the first American president to really understand television and how to use it to his advantage, which started during the campaign.

The image of a fast-paced presidency was not an illusion in the Kennedy years. It was real. Take the pace of their public speeches. President Eisenhower and President Kennedy had a few more than 700 speeches and remarks, big and small, during their presidencies. For President Eisenhower those public remarks covered eight years and for Kennedy, it was less than three years. Many of those speeches got to the public either through their being televised or through news broadcasts.

Because of the high demand by reporters for seats, the conferences had to be moved from the White House compound where they were held first in the president’s office – Wilson through to Truman – and then moved to the larger Indian Treaty Room in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Even that room turned out to be a cramped space. Kennedy moved them here in the State Department auditorium where there was more space for the 200+ reporters covering him and his press conferences.

Reporters were more willing to challenge the new president than was true in the Eisenhower years when the goodwill from World War II was still in the air. At the end of the Eisenhower administration, reporters lost their willingness to take at face value the government’s accounting of events.

The U2 spy plane incident changed the relationship for many reporters with their government. It was an incident where the US government was caught in a lie – it was a spy plane the Soviets shot down, not the weather plane the White House said it was. When reporters found out they were lied to, they became wary of the accounts they received from White House officials.

The incoming team of reporters, many of whom followed Senator Kennedy as he campaigned for the presidency, caught the public eye as did the new president. They all prospered from press conferences where each side sought to establish control in its relationship with the other. And so it goes. -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFde6u-OPj8

President Kennedy begins the press conference with a statement concerning the scheduling of the Geneva negotiations for a nuclear test ban. He then announces…

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70 Years Of Billboard Magazine…Massive Memory Lane Archive

At this link, are full copies of every weekly Billboard Magazine from 1940 through 2010. Although from the mid ’60s on, Billboard’s main focus was records, radio and music, the late ’40s through the late ’50s issues have a good bit of television news at the start of each issue.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Billboard.html?id=KwsEAAAAMBAJ

On the page, use the sliding bar under the covers to pick a date, like your birthday to see what was happening then and click on the image. Just under the cover image that pops up, there is a “Preview this magazine” option in blue..click that to see the whole issue. Enjoy and Share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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January 23, 1975, 1977 & 2015…Debuts And Milestones

“The Bold And The Beautiful”, “Roots” And “Barney Miller”

On January 23, 2015 CBS celebrated the 7000th episode of
“The Bold And The Beautiful” with a special milestone episode that broke format and featured a retrospective that showcased the most iconic moments and the history of the show’s creation.

In addition, CBS Television City dedicated Studio 31 to the show’s executive producer and head writer Bradley P. Bell. Here is a time lapse video of Studio 31 being dressed for the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kIJYrkmgF0

40 years ago today, “Roots” began airing on ABC for eight consecutive nights from January 23 to January 30, 1977. Over half of the country tuned in to watch and soon after, a wave of awards washed in. In this video from “The Wendy Williams Show” the stars talk about some interesting things that happened on the set.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EqO1680evM

Today in 1975, “Barney Miller” Debuted On ABC. The series was born out of an unsold television pilot, “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller”, that aired on August 22, 1974 as part of an ABC summer anthology series, “Just for Laughs”.

In the pilot, Linden and Vigoda were cast in their series roles, but no other other eventual cast members were present. That pilot was shot on film at CBS Studio Center, where the sets of the 12th Precinct and the Miller apartment were originally built.

When the regular series went into production in late 1974, the series went to videotape, and the sets were moved to the ABC Television Center in Hollywood, and later to ABC at Sunset Gower, where they remained until production ended on the series in 1982.

At this link, https://youtu.be/lnn1jQmAGzk?t=46s Hal Linden talks about how the show was shot. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

The Bold and the Beautiful time-lapse video of The Bradley P. Bell Stage 31 at CBS Television City, in honor of 7,000 episodes, is a behind-the-scenes look a…

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January 18, 1929…CBS Becomes A Broadcaster

Until this day in 1929, the Columbia Broadcasting System was merely a program service providing radio entertainment features to a string of 16 stations connected by an AT&T line. With the purchase of the A.H. Grebe, Atlantic Broadcasting Company’s Manhattan based station, WABC…CBS itself was on the air. (November 2, 1946, WABC call letters changed to WCBS).

There is an interesting story on why this happened, which involves WOR, but first, here is my brief history of The Columbia Broadcasting System.

In early 1927 Arthur Judson, the impresario of the Philadelphia and New York Philharmonic orchestras, approached the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which at the time was America’s only radio network, with an idea to promote classical music by airing orchestra performances. NBC declined.

Undaunted, Judson founded his own broadcasting company, which he named United Independent Broadcasters, Inc. (UIB).

Lacking a strong capital base, UIB struggled to stay afloat. However, in the summer of 1927, Judson found a rich partner in the owner of Columbia Phonograph Company, Louis B. Sterling. Columbia Phonograph bought UIB’s operating rights for $163,000. The new company was named the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System.

Columbia Phonographic took over on September 18, 1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra with network affiliate WOR in Newark, New Jersey, feeding fifteen other UIB network stations. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, and by the end of 1927, Columbia Phonograph wanted out.

In early 1928, Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the network’s Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. Soon after, the Levy brothers had involved their soon to be relative, 26 year old William S. Paley, who’s sister was engaged to Leon Levy. Paley was the son of a well-to-do Philadelphia cigar maker.

With the record company out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. Paley had come to believe in the power of radio advertising since his family’s La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio the year before.

Although the network was growing, it did not own a radio station of its own…yet. In December of 1928, CBS bought A.H. Grebe’s Atlantic Broadcasting Company in New York City with the call letters WABC (no relation to the current WABC), which would become the network’s flagship station.

Now, here’s the story behind why CBS bought WABC.

It was Grebe’s hope to expand the Atlantic Broadcasting Company into a network operation, now that NBC has shown the way. But in September 1928, an opportunity arose that would make this station one of the major players in radio history.

The Columbia chain did not own an outlet in New York. Its local affiliate was WOR, which became convinced they could produce local programs of equal quality to the CBS shows.

When WOR refused to clear additional time for the CBS network, WABC stepped in to become the second NYC affiliate, a move it hoped would justify a power increase. For a few weeks in late 1928, WABC was the CBS station on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, with WOR carrying the network on the other four days, but soon WOR dropped CBS completely.

In November 1928, Columbia offered to buy either of its New York area affiliates, and President William S. Paley negotiated with both Grebe and Bamberger. WOR’s facilities were superior, but Paley chose the less-expensive WABC, and in December the sale was completed.

The sale price was $390,000, though the appraised value of the studios and transmitter was just $130,000. Grebe had apparently let the WABC studios go to seed, for Paley reported a mess on the seventeenth floor of Steinway Hall. Among the assets were goods accepted as payment from sponsors; jewelry, kitchenware, and reportedly even some live chickens.

WABC came with a bonus though…it was located in the brand new Steinway Hall at 109 West 57th Street in Manhattan, across the street from the Carnegie Hall.

Concerts were broadcast from the Steinway concert halls downstairs, but upstairs, there were only 4 rooms. In need of studios and offices, the network moved in July 1929 into the bottom six floors of a new building at 485 Madison Avenue at 52nd Street, in the heart of the advertising community.

Initially, six studios were built on the 4th, 5th and 6th floors of the CBS space, and the bottom three floors were the CBS sales and programming offices. Eventually, CBS would take over the building and occupy if for the next 35 years.

Within a few years, CBS had nearly 50 stations in its network. Since the number of affiliates a network possesses determines the number of people it can reach, which in turn determines what a sponsor is charged, CBS was soon on firm financial ground. By 1930 CBS had 300 employees and total sales of $7.2 million. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Television & The Presidential Inaugurations…Part 1

President Harry Truman’s January 20,1949 inauguration was the first to be televised to the 2,000,000 sets in use in the US, but television did not reach the west coast until Truman’s 1952 speech from San Francisco was telecast.

In the photo, the raised platform is for the radio reporters, newsreel cameras, and two pool TV cameras, with at least one more live camera in use on the ground, and perhaps more. I think this was the only televised part of the day, with no live TV coverage attempted on the parade portion.

At the link is a rare kinescope recording of Truman’s Inaugural Address. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gytbJo_bmxA

Here are some mass media firsts associated with covering the inaugurations over the centuries.

First ceremony to be reported by telegraph: James Polk, 1845.
First ceremony to be photographed: James Buchanan, 1857.
First motion picture of ceremony: William McKinley, 1897.
First electronically-amplified speech: Warren Harding, 1921.
First radio broadcast: Calvin Coolidge, 1925.
First recorded on talking newsreel: Herbert Hoover, 1929.
First television coverage: Harry Truman, 1949.
First live Internet broadcast: Bill Clinton, 1997.

Here is the first inauguration to ever be captured on motion picture film. It is that of Willam McKinley on March 4, 1897.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_aOe_FM2Q

In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of the Presidency for the second time, but for the first time on January 20th. The 20th Amendment changed the date from March 4 to January 20 when it was ratified in 1933.

More on soon! -Bobby Ellerbee

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NBC Color Kinescopes Continued…Surprises & Rare Footage

Yesterday, we discussed the RCA/Eastman Lenticular Color Kinescope process here, and from that we have gained more insight as well as two interesting new color kinescopes.

First, a few surprises. Surprise 1. It seems that one reason there are so few early kinescopes left is because the unions objected to more than one showing of the programs and demanded they be destroyed. The primary opposing force was the Musician’s Union, but others joined in too, claiming that, in an era when there was no such thing as residual payments, it was an unfair financial situation.

Surprise 2. NBC, the major innovator in kinescope use did not object to this…much. Yes, it was an expensive process for them to create and distribute the kines to affiliates not able to get live feeds yet, BUT…by it kept new live programming in demand. Dependency on them for content was important to the bottom line. It also kept the stations without live linkage from turning to outside film sources or local programming.

Surprise 3. It is not a surprise to say that color television was a lot more expensive than black and white, but the lengths to which RCA/NBC went to entice advertisers into becoming color sponsors was. Which helps explain the color kinescopes we are seeing here today.

These two color kinescopes we will see today, were more than likely created as pitch tools for the NBC ad sales department. The same is probably true of the Kovacs color kine we saw yesterday.

To be clear, Kovacs, the Perry Como and Arthur Murray color kinescopes were shot with regular 16mm Eastman color film and not on the lenticular Eastman film. The lenticular color process was used solely for the purpose of time shifting…so that Burbank could record live color feeds from NY, and develop the film in a 3 hour window to air in the west.

Since there was no urgency on the kinescopes made to show (via projector) at client meetings, they were done a different way, but they are indeed color kinescope recordings. Because of the difference in TV’s fields per second and film’s frames per second, only a kinescope camera could shoot this, as opposed to a regular motion picture camera.

Although the Kovacs, Como and Murray shows were live color broadcasts from NY, all three of these were most likely recorded at NBC Burbank on a modified kine machine there. All of these 3 videos fall within the time window that we believe the lenticular color kine system was in use at Burbank.

It is known that Burbank began experimenting with the RCA TRT-1 color video tape machine April 27, 1958 and that the new color capable Ampex VR1000 debuted at the April ’58 NAB convention, which Burbank had shortly after.

What we do not know, and never can know is this…are these recordings shot from the live feed from NY, or are these recordings of the lenticular playbacks on the west coast?

If they are the playbacks, they are not too shabby. If they are images of the live feed, still not too shabby and remind us how great the RCA TK41 was. What do you think?

Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBZgR8DHwM0 Perry Como
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGoEXINk76Y Murray/Cooke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEBg6ansaJA Ernie Kovacs

Thanks to Troy Walters in Australia for the Como, Murray clips!

This is an ultra rare colour kinescope recording of the Perry Como Show which aired in living colour on NBC on 12th April 1958. Colour kinescope film recordi…

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