NBC Studio 3H – 3K…Living History
You’ll Never Guess Where It Is NOW!
Researching all of this NBC Studio History has brought with it a revelation that hits home…literally. As I originally wrote this in 2012, this RCA TK30 is ten feet way, just outside my office door. Now it has a new, but OLD home!
This is the first black and white television camera ever replaced by a color television camera, but only in an honorary sense. This pristine RCA TK30, only a few years old was retired from NBC Studio 3H during its conversion to color, and 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 the opening of NBC’s first color studio inside their 30 Rockefeller Plaza home in 1955.
The first full-time color facility was The Colonial Theater was put into color service 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 NBC Studio 3K which was created by combining experimental Studio 3H and former radio Studio 3F. On September 12, 1955, Studio 3K 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. A further note; when I bought this camera is was mounted on a tripod with wheels, but I thought it would look better on a Panoram dolly, so I bought one and mounted it as you see here in this photo.
This camera is again, the property of NBC and proudly resides at the NBC TONIGHT SHOW MUSEUM at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida!Â
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.