NBC Studio 3H – 3K…Living History
NBC Studio 3H – 3K…Living History
Researching all of this NBC Studio History has brought with it a revelation that hits home…literally. As I write, this RCA TK30 is ten feet way, just outside my office door.
I now realize that this is the first black and white television camera ever replaced by a color television camera, but only in an honorary sense. I’m not sure this RCA TK30 was retired from NBC Studio 3H during its conversion to color, but it was presented to mark the occasion.
This is the camera given to NBC President Pat Weaver by NBC. I knew that the honorary “retirement” of this camera was for his many programming accomplishments like ‘Today’, ‘Tonight’ ‘Home’ and “spectaculars”, but had until just last week forgotten how hard Pat worked, not only inside NBC on their color conversion but in Washington lobbying the FCC and other manufacturers for the acceptance of RCA’s compatible color standard.
The part of the story I had forgotten was the circumstances of the presentation. Skip Jennings, the veteran ABC Los Angeles film cameraman that bought the camera from the Weavers had told ABC’s Jan Lowery that the camera was presented to Weaver on the occasion of NBC’s first color studio around 1954 or 55.
Until a few weeks ago, I thought that may have been The Colonial Theater, but now I know that the Colonial was put into color service much earlier than we thought…in late 1952. It had been converted directly from a theater, having never been a black and white facility. The next studio to go color was 3K which was created by combining 3H and 3F. On September 12, 1955 it went into service with the first color broadcast of Howdy Doody.
This camera was proudly displayed in Weaver’s office, until the then Chairman of NBC left in the late 50s. It accompanied him to his new west coast home where his children Trajan and Sigourney played “TV” with it. As a side note, this was the only camera “retired” by color at the time as black and white telecast were staples at NBC till 1965’s big color push, but even then, there were a few more years of b/w camera use left.
On the left, Dave Garroway, on the right Pat Weaver. Pat not only created the ‘Today’ show, he brought Garroway from NBC Chicago to host it.
Great stories and photos and more. Many thanks.
By the way…it was presented to Weaver on a tripod with wheels. I still have that, but liked it better on this Houston Fearless Panoram dolly.
One of the things your research had driven home is how relatively few black and white cameras there were in the early days. From what you’ve documented is that NBC takes more color cameras to the Superbowl than they had in all of their New York studios in the early 50’s.
Way cool. Is that the correct pan head?
What a great history behind a legendary piece of hardware!
That so cool.