January 14, 1952…The First Moments Of ‘Today’ With Dave Garroway
January 14, 1952…The First Moments Of ‘Today’ With Dave Garroway
This is the opening segment of the debut show, 63 years ago today. Dave takes us on a very complete tour of the set and explains what the show is all about. Thanks to the vision and courage of Pat Weaver, American television took a new leap into a day part that, until this point had been seen as unimportant. I think rehearsals started just after Christmas of 1951 in this space called The RCA Showcase, just across 49th Street from 30 Rock. The space is now occupied by the famous Christie’s auction house. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4_iv3UbGg
Journey back in time to watch Dave Garroway host the first 13 minutes of The TODAY Show live from “NBC’s “world communication center in the heart of Radio Ci…
January 14, 1952…’Today’ Debuts On NBC…First In More Than One Way
January 14, 1952…’Today’ Debuts On NBC…First In More Than One Way
Today, was network television’s first ever morning show, and is where some of the state of the art technology was first used.
First, I am sure this is the first time the new Houston Fearless TD 3 counter-weighted pedestals were ever used. There are no photos of them before this day in 1952, and I think there are two prototypes on the set. All the other peds are the old TD 1 crank up peds.
Second, I think this is also the first use of the new RCA camera mounted teleprompter. There appear to be two in use on the debut…one on a camera with the new TD 3 ped and one on a camera on a TD 1 ped. Notice they are strapped to the cameras and not permanently attached. I think these two prototypes had come in a week or two before and were tested on The Martha Ray Show.
Happy Birthday ‘Today’! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
I think this is Harry Katzman, who after a couple of years on camera, worked as senior video man for 16 years on ‘Today’.
Here’s the new RCA Electa Zoom and the new teleprompter. I’m not sure if that is an RCA logo on the prompter or not. Could that be the TelePrompter logo? Notice the great magnifying lens. It seems that cameramen were taking turns operating the cameras with the prompter.
With is his back to us on the right is our friend Frank Merklein who was a part of the debut broadcast.
The ramp lead down to the control room.
Here’s the second teleprompter on a TK30 mounted on the old TD 1 pedestal. That sure looks like the RCA logo on the prompter in this photo.
Here’s a shot of the studio from across the street at 30 Rock. Notice the hi position camera against the window.
Here’s that lonely perch, but with a great shot of the whole studio using the Zoomar Field lens.
Dave Garroway at the two minute capsule news board. In the foreground, new new RCA teleprompter and Houston Fearless TD 3 prototype pedestal.
Picture Parade #6… “Klaatu Barada Nikto”
Picture Parade #6… “Klaatu Barada Nikto”
Here’s a rare behind the scenes shot from the 1951 classic ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Coming down the gangway is 7’ 7″ Lock Martin in one of two Gort costumes. Martin was the doorman as Gruaman’s Chines Theater in LA.
To give the appearance of seamlessness to the space ship, the crack around the door was filled with putty, then painted over. When the door opened the putty was torn apart, making the door seem to simply appear. To depict the seamless closing of the ship and its ramp, they just reversed the film of the shot of the ship’s ramp and door appearing. The spaceship was made of wood, wire and plaster of Paris.
This film is ranked #5 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre “Sci-Fi” in June 2008. As an homage to this film George Lucas named two of the alien bounty hunters in his Star Wars trilogy “Klaatu” and “Barada Nikto”. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Picture Parade #5…A Tribute To Ernie Kovacs: Hole In The Head Sketch
Picture Parade #5…A Tribute To Ernie Kovacs: Hole In The Head Sketch
As mentioned in the previous post, we lost this television and comedy pioneer 53 years ago today. Here is another legacy he left us.
Before there was chromakey, there was black and white matting which is the process used here for Ernie to peer through a “hole in her head”. Here’s how this was done…first, Ernie places the black patch on the forehead of his assistant, Barbara Loden. Her top is red, white and blue which is important because the matting process used in this instance uses black at the matt.
In the control room, the production switcher uses the special effects module to insert a circle over the black patch in the image from camera 1. Camera 2 on the left is shooting Kovac. Notice her hair is now covered by a white scarf as the switcher is taking in only the white portion of the image from camera 1 and has made it blind to black.
Via the matting process in the production switcher, the images are married in a composite shot and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, you could probably do all this on a smart phone, but back in the early 50s, this was a big deal and Kovacs was a genius at visual gags using the then, state of the art television technology. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Picture Parade #4…A Tribute To Ernie Kovacs: The Dovetonsil Lens
Picture Parade #4…A Tribute To Ernie Kovacs: The Dovetonsil Lens
Today in 1962, comedian Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles, 10 days before his 43rd birthday. In remembrance of his pioneering comedy which often involved technical innovation, here is the rare lens he helped create for his most famous character, poet Percy Dovetonsils.
Percy always wore extremely thick glasses and unbeknownst to most…the eyes were painted on the back of the lenses. Occasionally the television audience was treated to Percy’s POV via this specially made lens, now owned by Chuck Pharis. It was designed to be easily thrown form fairly clear to double vision distortion. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Rare Color Home Movie…WRVA ‘Sailor Bob Show’, Early 1960s
Rare Color Home Move…WRVA ‘Sailor Bob Show’, Early 1960s
This was just sent in by Tom Griggs, son of ‘Sailor Bob’ Griggs who hosted this kids show in Richmond Va. for many years. Yesterday, January 12, was the 56th Anniversary of him taking to the air as Sailor Bob on the WRVA TV Schooner.
Here, we’ll see Dumont 5098C cameras and AMPEX VR 1000 quadruplex machines in action. There is studio action for the first couple of minutes followed by five minutes of goofing, but around 7:30, we get back to the good stuff.
Tom has given us the names of the people in the silent video. They are Hank Didot (looking in camera) Dick McCray (mugging) Dave Davis (on stool) Judie Miller (red dress) Dave Davis (Cactus Pete w/beard) Bill Bedwell (wearing headset) and Anna Inge (Hazel Witch)…Anna Inge would be the future Mrs. Gordon Jump. 7:40 Irv Wonders (white shirt and tie) Bob Almond (seated at Master Control) 7:48 Jerry Chamberlain (glasses and jacket) Cecil Spicer (blue shirt 2″ quad tape) . 9:14 Dave Smalley (skinny tie and smoking) 9:23 Don Johnson (wire glasses) 9:27 Roy Lamont (Teenage Party host) 9:35 Dick McCray, Walter Edel (engineer in middle) and Bob Griggs. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Picture Parade #4…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
Picture Parade #4…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
I couldn’t wrap up today’s posts without including this rare shot of the man that started it all…the great Burr Tillstrom. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Picture Parade #3…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
Picture Parade #3…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
I finally found the photo that shows the band I had mentioned in the network debut anniversary story earlier today. Part of the show’s success was due to the adults that watched, and the laughter from the crew and band was always there. Like ‘Beany And Cecil’ and ‘Rocky And Bullwinkle’, there was always a thread of adult humor woven into the fabric of KFO. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Picture Parade #2…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
Picture Parade #2…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
This is an amazingly rare 1947 photo of ‘Junior Jamboree’ at WBKB in Chicago, starring “The Kuklapolitans with Fran Allison”. This was the first embodyment of the show on television and this aired locally Monday thru Friday, from 6 to 7 pm Central Time. In case you missed it, see today’s story on the network debut of the show on this day in 1949. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Picture Parade #1…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
Picture Parade #1…Followup Photo, Kukla, Fran And Ollie
This is the KFO studio at WNBQ in 1951, three years after their network debut on this day in 1949. From left to right: Beulah Zachary, producer (seated); Harry Glyer, boom operator; Jack Fascinato, composer (at piano); John Kinsey, stage manager; Bruce Berquist, cameraman; Kukla and Burr Tillstrom; Jim Edwards, cameraman; John Casagrande and Jimmy Lynch (stagehands). Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Here’s A BIG SURPRISE! The First Time I Have Every Heard Of This!
Here’s A BIG SURPRISE! The First Time I Have Every Heard Of This!
When Bud Yorkin presented ‘An Evening With Fred Astaire’ October 17, 1958, he used the entire NBC Burbank facility….all four color studios and control rooms and all 16 TK41 cameras were used to fed the show live to the east coast and, to the video tape room there where a master and backup were recorded in color for playback to the west coast. The clip starts at the point Mr. Yorkin gives us this amazing detail.
A week or so ago, I posted a story on ‘An Evening With Fred Astaire’ which is the oldest surviving color videotape of an entertainment show. I had said it was done live to tape…broadcast live to the east and was the first big special ever recorded on color tape for playback on the west coast. Some argued that it was edited, but it wasn’t and here is the proof.
Granted, this was a big deal, but I have never heard of a production taking up a whole network facility for a show before. After the live portion, the cast went to The Beverly Hills Hotel to watch the color playback for the west coast. As Astaire arrived, he received a phone call from President Eisenhower, and one from Ed Sullivan. Astaire could not believe Sullivan had called with congratulations. The President, yes, but Sullivan’s call amazed him. Thanks to John Butler for the Yorkin clip. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
https://vimeo.com/261611927
By the way, at the link above is the full restored color video tape of the show with thanks to Kris Trexler.
January 12, 1949…’Kukla Fran And Ollie’ Debuts On NBC Network
January 12, 1949…’Kukla Fran And Ollie’ Debuts On NBC Network
Before we get to the history, a comment on this rare kinescope.
In the clip, we see Dave Garroway visiting with KFO just before their trip to RCA’s Wardman Park Hotel experimental color studio, where on October 10, 1949 they did a special closed circuit colorcast for the FCC. Later that same day, they did the regularly schedulded black and white network show from NBC’s WRC studios.
KFO actually started on Chicago’s WBKB around 1948, but moved to NBC owned WNBQ later in 48 and was a huge Chicagoland hit. The NBC network heard about it and decided to air it afternoons nation wide and the first network broadcast, live from Chicago, was on this day in 1949.
By the way, the laughter in the clip is form the crew and the seven member band which was just to the left of the set and hidden by the RCA TK30. FYI, when the show was at WBKB, they were the ones that began shooting it with the Zoomar Field Lens…it looked so good, NBC continued with it. Oh…one more thing…at the time, Garroway was hosing ‘Garroway At Large’ which was a popular Chicago show. January 14, 1952, he began hosting ‘Today’ when it debuted on NBC from New York. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Ultra Rare Footage, Shooting First ‘Batman’ Episode, 1966
January 12, 1966…’Batman’ Debuts On ABC
There are a several rare video pieces here for you to see including this embedded clip (no audio) of a location shoot of a scene from the first episode with Frank Gorshin and Bert Ward.
In this clip, we see the competing casting of the two teams of Batman and Robin…Lyle Wagoner and Peter Deyell vs Adam West & Burt Ward. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-BHYo4U0M4
In these two clips, Producer William Dozier talks about the cast in the top link and reveals the mystery behind the voice of the series narrator in the bottom link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAnOWQqLi8I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-RQkk7ajV8&spfreload=1
By the way, this was one of the only primetime shows ever to air twice a week. The first show to do that was ‘Shindig’ and it’s interesting to note that ABC filled the two empty half hours with ‘Batman’. It aired in the same day and time slots as ‘Shindig’ who’s last episode ran a week before the caped crusaders took over. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYEvhPCyocs
Rare footage of the 1966 TV series Batman showing the set up and filming of one of the scenes of the first episode. Frank Gorshin as the Riddler and Burt War…
January 12, 1967…’Dragnet 1967′ Debuts On NBC
January 12, 1967…’Dragnet 1967′ Debuts On NBC
After an eight year break, ‘Dragnet’ returned to television with this episode. In updating the story lines, Webb was particularly aware of the wave of teenage drug use, and a fair number of episodes have a “narko” theme. To differentiate it from the earlier Dragnet series, the year in which each season aired was made part of the on-screen title, so the series started as ‘Dragnet 1967’ and ended as ‘Dragnet 1970′. The entire series aired Thursdays at 9:30-10:00 pm and was directed by Jack Webb.
Here’s some interesting trivia about the show…
The pair of hands seen hammering the Mark VII logo at the end of every episode belong to Jack Webb.
For the sake of continuity, Friday and Gannon always wore the same outfits in every episode. According to Harry Morgan, he and Jack Webb decided to switch coats for one scene to see if anyone noticed. Because only Morgan was in the scene, no one on the set realized it until the scene had been shot. In the next scene, Morgan has on the correct coat. This is the only incident of faulty continuity in the series’ run.
When the revival was in the planning stages, Jack Webb had originally planned on bringing in his former co-star Ben Alexander to reprise his role as Officer Frank Smith. However, Alexander was appearing on the ABC series ‘Felony Squad’ and that network would not let him out of his contract to appear on the revival. Webb then chose Harry Morgan to play the new character of Officer Bill Gannon.
Enjoy and share! Over and out…Bobby Ellerbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eBPWwxOKwQ
Dragnet 1967 The LSD Story Blueboy
In Case You Missed This…The Restoration Of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’
In Case You Missed This…The Restoration Of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’
This is a follow up on the Oz picture posted yesterday and a reminder that here at EOAG…the comments are the MOST AMAZING you will find anywhere! If you are not paying attention to them, you are missing A LOT! Many comments are from industry pros that were or are involved with these shows and events, and others come from people with a deep knowledge and interest on our subject matter. THANKS to ALL that share these rare insights, anecdotes and experiences with us, and to Glenn Mack for this great clip. Enjoy, share and read the comments! -Bobby Ellerbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-6MYP0RxTI&feature=youtu.be
This featurette discusses the video and audio digital restoration of Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz”. Source: “The Wizard of Oz” disc one of…
On Several Levels…One Of The MOST INTERESTING Videos I’ve Seen
On Several Levels…One Of The MOST INTERESTING Videos I’ve Seen
You are in for some big surprises! More than I can account for here in the text, so I urge you to just see for yourself. This is a whole episode of ‘Steve Allen’s Music Room’ that ran in syndication from ’84 till ’86.
I’ve started it at the place were Steve asks Doc about his early days in music. You will never guess who interrupts them and why, but you’ll be surprised to see who Steve’s sidekick/announcer (Bill Maher) was AND, by the awesome clip he introduces from ‘Tonight’. PLUS, just after that, Doc plays something most of us have never heard before…the original ‘Tonight’ show sign off song. Doc was in the band then and was featured on it every night during Allen’s stint as host. By the way, Steve wrote the song.
Later, Patty Page and Ann Jillian are guests. It good from start to finish, but the featured part I’ve written about here is just amazing on many levels. ENJOY AND SHARE! -Bobby Ellerbee
December 15, 1965…WSB Atlanta Goes Color With First RCA TK42
December 15, 1965…WSB Atlanta Goes Color With First RCA TK42
http://insidebobforemansbrainpart2.blogspot.com/2013/10/ruth-kent-colorvised.html
At the link above is a story I just got from our friend Bob Foreman. The article he sent is from the Saturday paper, just after the Thursday surprise Atlanta viewers got when ‘Today In Georgia’ debuted in color, making WSB the first station in Georgia with live local color. They were also the first station here able to broadcast color and I think that ability goes back to around 1956. WSB was one of the original NBC affiliates on both the radio and television networks.
I’ve had this photo for a long time of that first “colorvised” show, but never had a firm date or back up to the fact that WSB got the very first TK42. The story was, that RCA wanted to field test the new camera on ‘The Popeye Club’. It was the country’s top local kids show and RCA thought the colorful clothing of the 30 or so “clubhouse gang” members for each show would be a good color test.
An RCA engineer came to Atlanta with the camera to set it up and tweak it, and was still doing that when the second one arrived in mid January. I think he stayed in Atlanta for about three months doing tests.
Georgia legend Ruth Kent who hosted ‘Today In Georgia’ is seen here on that first day with some of the WSB management and engineering people. Notice the cameraman is not using pan handles, but the built in D handles (zoom and focus) on the back of the camera. That’s what they were designed for, but the ergonomic idea by our friend Harry Wright, at RCA, turned at to be a not so good idea after all. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Congratulations To NBC’s Rick Fox…Retired Friday After 31 Years
Congratulations To NBC’s Rick Fox…Retired Friday After 31 Years
Several people have asked about the unusually long hold on the opening shot of Friday’s ‘Nightly News’ broadcast and the single technical credit to a cameraman at the end of the show (below in Comments).
The cameraman in this screen capture is Rick Fox who’s been with NBC since 1984. Although he has worked a lot of other shows, I think he had been on the ‘Nightly News’ crew since the Brokaw days. Well done Mr. Fox! Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee
January 11, 1958…’Sea Hunt’ Debuts On 100 Stations In Syndication
January 11, 1958…’Sea Hunt’ Debuts On 100 Stations In Syndication
Filming began September 23, 1958 and ended exactly four years later on September 23, 1961. The series was created and produced by Ivan Tors and ZIV Television. Initially, the under water scenes were shot in Southen California, but soon moved to South Florida and The Bahamas where Tors later created ‘Flipper’.
Pioneering underwater cinematographer Lamar Boren shot nearly all the underwater footage and would later shoot ‘Flipper, and the underwater sequences of three James Bond films…’Thunderball’, ‘You Only Live Twice’, and ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Below is the first episode of ‘Sea Hunt’. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCIEr8AFgs
Sea Hunt: Season 1, Episode 1 Sixty Feet Below (4 Jan. 1958) Racing against time, Mike Nelson attempts a risky rescue of a test pilot trapped in his plane’s …
Picture Parade #5…’Gone With The Wind’ Technicolor Closeup
Picture Parade #5…’Gone With The Wind’ Technicolor Closeup
Having seen one of these huge Technicolor camera blimps in the Oz photo earlier, I wanted to give you a feel for how big they really were.
On the set of ‘Gone With The Wind’, here is director Victor Fleming looking into the viewfinder. Behind him is camera operator Arthur Arling and cinematographer Ernest Haller.
The actual camera inside the soundproof blimp was about the size of a regular 35mm Mitchell, but it used three reels of film simultaneously and a larger than average motor, so it was fairly noisy. Remember to visit the EOAG page to see all of today’s stories by clicking on the blue title text above. -Bobby Ellerbee