You Didn’t Think I Would Come Home Without These Did You?

Since my first glimpse of an RCA TK44 mounted on the Chapman Electra crane on SNL back in 1975, I have wanted to sit in “the bucket”. I finally have and I’m a happy man!

For the full story on the Electra and 8H, here is an in depth article I did a few years back.
https://eyesofageneration.com/teletales/studio-8h-and-the-chapman-crane/

To update the story, Chapman wanted to retire 308 a couple of years ago. They took her out and put in a new Electra, but, it could not make the tight turns that the old 308 could. The only thing to do was give 308 a complete makeover and a new paint job and put her back to work in 8H where John, Louis, Robert and Phil take loving care of her. Bless her heart! If she could only talk!

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You Bet Your Ass There Is A Connection To ‘I Dream Of Jeannie’!

This photo is from the 1964 movie ‘The Brass Bottle’. It starred Tony Randall and Barbara Eden…but not a a genie! Eden played Randall’s wife…Burl Ives played the genie that caused more problems than he solved.

‘I Dream Of Jeannie’ was created and produced by Sidney Sheldon for NBC in response to the great success of ABC’s ‘Bewitched’, which had debuted in 1964 as the second most watched program in the United States. Sheldon was inspired by the ‘The Brass Bottle’ and came up with the idea for a beautiful female genie.

When casting was opened for the role of Jeannie, Sheldon could not find an actress who could play the role the way he saw the character…as a brunette. He did not want a blonde genie because he thought there would be too much similarity with the blonde Samantha on ‘Bewitched’. However, after many unsuccessful auditions, he called Barbara Eden’s agent.

When NBC began its prime time season in color in the fall 1965, ‘Jeannie’ was one of two regular programs on NBC that remained in black and white. This was due in part to the special photographic effects employed to achieve Jeannie’s magic. By the second season, however, further work had been done on techniques to create the visual effects in color, necessary because by 1966 all US prime time series were being made in color.

Now this is odd! Sheldon originally wanted to film season one in color, but NBC did not want to pay for the extra expenses, as the network (and Screen Gems) believed the series would not make it to a second season. According to Sheldon’s autobiography “The Other Side Of Me”, he offered to pay the extra $400 an episode needed for color filming at the beginning of the series, but Screen Gems executive Jerry Hyams advised him: “Sidney, don’t throw your money away”.

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WBKB, Chicago Camera Mystery #2…Anyone Have A Clue?

UPDATED 2021: At this Patent link we get our answer and see the inventor is Bill Eddy, WBKB chief engineer. https://patents.google.com/patent/US2315406

While we’re at WBKB in the ’40s, I thought we would try and identify these unique cameras. I had seen these photos a few years ago, but in all my research, have never seen anything even close to this design.

They remind me of something French made, but with WW II raging, I don’t see how they could be from Europe unless they were made before the war started there in 1939. The housing looks too sophisticated to have been home made. Anyone know anything about these cameras?

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AMEN, Dan Rather! AMEN! The Sad State Of News & Media

I’ve been wanting to talk about how media deregulation that started under President Reagan has hurt us as a country, and with the recent comments from Dan Rather on the subject, now seems to be the appropriate time.

Below are a few quotes from Monday’s ‘Toronto Star’ interview with Rather. The whole story is at this link.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/06/01/dan_rather_explains_why_journalists_have_lost_their_guts.html

“In terms of things I think people ought to worry about, there has been so much consolidation of media ownership that there’s less competition. I don’t think that’s a healthy situation. It’s a big change, and it’s what I’ve called the corporatization of news, which has led in some way to the trivialization of news”. – Dan Rather

“I think journalists and journalism — certainly in the U.S. — we lost our guts. An attitude got around: Be careful, because if you report something people in power don’t like, you may have to pay a very heavy price for that. That’s not in the best tradition of U.S. journalism, nor do I think it’s in the best tradition of the free press anyplace”. – Dan Rather

To me, these comments mesh. With fewer independent voices and outlets available to express editorial thoughts, fewer voices are heard and those that are, have self edited themselves into a pablum. I think ‘The CBS Evening News’ has a tad more hard news than the NBC and ABC, but for those of us that remember the quality of news in the 60s, 70s and 80s…today’s news seems a lot more like ‘Entertainment Tonight’.

The chart below shows that in 1983, there were 50 companies that were major players in US media. By 2004, ten years ago, there were only 6! There are still 6 and they are: Viacom (CBS), Disney (ABC), Comcast (NBC), News Corp (FOX), Time Warner and Clear Channel. More soon.

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‘Saturday Night Live’…Me Behind The Guest Host Entrance Door

In the photo, and in one of the video clips, you see the other side of the door that SNL guest hosts use to enter the stage. Yes, that’s me and I’ll tell you more about what’s there, but first here’s a clip of Ashton Kutcher in this space waiting for his Q to enter in February of 2010.

The reason his “heart was in his throat” is because he ends his monologue by stripping to his underwear.

This platform is about five feet off the studio floor with steps on three sides. Directly behind these doors is a kind of tunnel about six feet deep that leads back to the studios west wall. The tunnel is I think mostly for crew access. The hosts usually come up the side steps behind me. As you see in the photo below, there are three doors…the center door is marked with a red tape X as a reminder to use “this door”.

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‘Sunset Boulevard’…Behind The Scenes

Now this is funny. According to her daughter, Gloria Swanson stayed in character for the entire duration of the film…except for one hilarious break.

On the day she filmed the Charlie Chaplin imitation scene, Swanson arrived on the set to find everyone there wearing a Chaplin bowler hat, and was amused but stayed in character.

The next day, they had to film the monkey funeral scene. Just before the cameras rolled, William Holden opened the box with the monkey’s body to show Swanson. The stuffed monkey had on a Chaplin bowler too. She laughed so hard and so long, it took about an hour to get her makeup repaired and back into character.

The photo up top is the Norma Desmond house being demolished in 1957. The interior scenes were shot on Paramount’s Stage 18, but the exterior shots were done a this house at 3810 Wilshire Boulevard. It was torn down for a 22 story tower that was home to Getty Oil. At the link is the film’s most famous scene…”Alright Mr. Demille, I’m ready for my close up”.

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Speaking Of Tex Avery…A Special Find

This starts at the segment that I remember laughing at as a five year old boy in 1955 at a movie theater. The “naked” turkey had me in stitches. Anyone else remember this?

If found this wile doing some research on Tex Avery. This is a great MGM Cartoon he directed after leaving Warner Brothers. This is actually a compilation of 4 Avery directed “future features” that included the Home, Car, TV and Farm of Tomorrow done between 1949 and 1954. Enjoy and let me know if you remember this! Bobby Ellerbee

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The BEST EVER Story Of Disney!

My most favorite voice belongs to the great Mason Adams and his narration sets the perfect tone for this magnificent presentation. This Disney Channel special covers everything from the history to the how in exceptional detail with ultra rare footage at every turn.

From Steamboat Willie to Epcot…this covers it all, including Disney’s multi plane camera that gave us the 3D effect, to the first color in cartoons and far beyond. This is a must see. Enjoy and share!

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Disneyland Opening Day, As Seen Live On ABC…July 18, 1955

In today’s first post, we saw the preparation for this event and this video starts where that one ended…with Art Linkletter’s welcome. At the 2:00 mark, Art describes the previous day’s rehearsal as something like “trying to cover three erupting volcanos without expecting any of them”. No truer words have ever been spoken!

He splits the 90 minute program’s hosting duties with Bob Cumming and in the last 15 minutes or so, you can tell that they are running out of time and one area had to be passed over. This is the full presentation via kinescope and without the commercials. Enjoy and share!

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