ULTRA RARE! JFK, Huntley-Brinkley Interview In The Oval Office

Above are videotape outtakes, from what would be President Kennedy’s last interview on NBC.

The date is September 9, 1963, and these rare behind the scenes photos were taken by long time NBC/WRC-TV production manager, Bill Wells, and are made available to us by his friend, Tom Buckley, and the Wells estate.

As seen in these remarkable photos, NBC reporters Chet Huntley and David Brinkley sat down with the President in the White House for an exclusive interview for their program, “The Huntley-Brinkley Report”.

Kennedy stuck to outlining the policy priorities of his first term throughout the expansive interview, particularly focusing on the conflict in Southeast Asia. But he grew reflective when Huntley asked if, three years into his presidency, he found the office of the presidency unmanageable.

Kennedy gave a strikingly thoughtful, long response assessing America’s place in the world and economic issues and political roadblocks at home – essentially summing up all the challenges facing his presidency. But Kennedy ended on a hopeful and humble note, saying that the country was really managed – not by the White House, but by its citizens.

He concluded that America was making progress and said, “I think we can really look forward to the ’60s with a great deal of hope.” Tragically, of course, Kennedy would not outlive the decade for which he had so much hope, nor the the year of 1963.

In that these images are so rare, I’m sure you have friends that you would like to share them with, so please do. If you can help identify the people shown here, that would be appreciated too. -Bobby Ellerbee

Thanks to NBC veteran audio engineer Joel Spector for identifying the black man here as the great Fred Lights, who was the Huntley-Brinkley (NY), and then Nightly News Stage Manager for everyone including Tom Brokaw, until Fred’s death in 1995. He had already been the SM on TODAY with Dave Garroway. Fred Lights was the step brother of actress and major off-Broadway producer Ellen Stewart of LaMama, ETC Theatre.

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40 Years Later….I Graduate From The University Of Georgia

Next Friday, May 13, yours truly will finally receive a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism…40 years after I left UGA. My graduate studies application is already in, and hopefully in the fall, I will begin my Masters degree work at UGA’s Grady College of Journalism.

When I left, I had already finished all my Journalism core, and needed only six more classes in my minor, Theater, to graduate.

Having started on the radio at age 16, in 1966, 2016 marks my 50th year as a professional broadcaster. I don’t know of a better way to celebrate that, than with five A’s and one B, a degree, and a great part in a top rated cartoon series.

Here is the story in the UGA’s “Red & Black”, with one correction…my belief is that if you put 51 perecent of all your passion and effort into a desire, the universe will handle the other 49 percent. -Bobby Ellerbee

Closing a Chapter

Bobby Ellerbee believes that if a person puts 51 percent passion and effort into a goal, the universe will find a way to take care of the other 49 percent.

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May 3, 1948…CBS Debuts TV’s First, Live, Nightly Network News

On this day in 1948, “CBS TV News” became network television’s first daily newscast, with a live newsman…Douglas Edwards.

NBC actually had the first daily network news broadcast, which began February 16, 1948. That was the “The NBC Television Newsreel” (later named “Esso Newsreel” and “Camel Newsreel”), which was a 10 minute weekday newsreel, and was narrated off camera by John Cameron Swayze. On February 16, 1949, Swayze moved in front of the camera, and that began “The News Caravan” as a live news show. By the summer of ’49, Camel had become the sponsor and the name changed to “Camel News Caravan”.

To go a bit further in just what the first network new broadcast was, we go again to NBC. Their Sunday afternoon, “The War As It Happens” began as a local weekly program, but NBC records indicate that in April of 1944, it was fed to Schenectady and Philadelphia on the fledgling NBC Television Network, and became the first news cast regularly seen in multiple cities. In August 1945, the war was over and the Sunday “The War As It Happens” newscast was renamed “The NBC Television Newsreel”.

Edwards joined CBS Radio in 1942, eventually becoming anchor for the network’s regular evening newscast “The World Today” as well as “World News Today” on Sunday afternoons. He came to CBS after stints as a radio newscaster and announcer at WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

Although Lowell Thomas, on NBC, and Richard Hubble on CBS had done live TV news shows locally in New York in the late ’30s and early ’40s, Edwards was the first network anchor.

After the war, CBS began telecasting news shows locally on Saturday nights, expanding to two nights a week in 1947. These reports were delivered by CBS radio news men, who were not really interested in this “television stuff” and loathed having to do it. Edwards had a couple of turns at it, and kind of enjoyed it and let his interest be known.

On May 3, 1948, Douglas Edwards began anchoring the “CBS Television News”, a regular 15-minute nightly newscast, airing every weeknight at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and this was the first regularly scheduled, network television news program to use an anchor.

On CBS, the week’s news stories were recapped on a Sunday night TV program titled “Newsweek in Review”. The name was later changed to “The Week in Review”, and the show was moved to Saturdays. In 1950, the name of the nightly newscast was changed to “Douglas Edwards With the News”, and the following year, it became the first news program to be broadcast on both coasts, thanks to a new coaxial cable connection, prompting Edwards to use the greeting “Good evening everyone, coast to coast.”

Once the coast-to-coast connection was available, it is not clear whether both Douglas, and Swayze did a live second broadcast for the west coast, or whether it was kinescoped. There are stories that report the show was done live again, with added west coast content, and reports that say it was kine delayed, but one thing is clear…November 30, 1956, Edwards’ program became the first to use the new technology of videotape to time delay the broadcast.

Early on, NBC’s news took the lead, but by the mid 50s, CBS and Edwards were in the lead. In September 1955, “Douglas Edwards With The News” was moved from 7:30 to 6:45 p.m. ET.

On October 29, 1956, Swayze was replaced by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley and NBC’s “Huntley-Brinkley Report”. The switch helped CBS ratings as it took a while for Chet and David to gain traction. By the early ’60s, NBC’s news ratings were a good bit higher, and a decision was made to make a switch at CBS.

Walter Cronkite became anchor on April 16, 1962. On September 2, 1963, “The CBS Evening News” became network television’s first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, lengthened from its original 15 minutes, and telecast at 6:30 p.m. ET. NBC quickly followed suit and “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” expanded to 30 minutes exactly a week later on September 9, 1963. ABC followed 4 years later.

“The CBS Evening News” was broadcast in color for one evening on August 19, 1965, and made the switch permanently on January 31, 1966.

Just this week, a big change to the weekend edition of “CBS Evening News”, was announced, and that story is in today’s second post, so look for it, or better yet, visit this page by clicking on the blue EOAG address at the top of this post. Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee

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