Television & The Presidential Inaugurations…Part 3 of 3
Television & The Presidential Inaugurations…Part 3 of 3
In photos 1,2 and 3, we see images from the inauguration of President Johnson and VP Hubert Humphrey in January 1965. For NBC the anchors were Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, with help from Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. Peter Jennings was there for ABC with Marlene Sanders.
As they did in for the Kennedy inauguration, NBC color cast the parade, but not the capitol ceremonies. As we find out in this very good article on the LBJ television coverage, CBS was testing a new long lens with gyroscopic stability features which worked very well. NBC won the ratings battle by starting at 7 AM with “Today” hosts Downs and Walters, and ending coverage at 5:20, which was longer than ABC or CBS. This was the first time Telstar was used for the event and CBS videotape was broadcast to Europe on the new bird.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-IBEW/IBEW-1965-02.pdf
Pictures 4 and 5 are from Nixon’s first inauguration in January 1969, which was the first time all three networks broadcast the whole thing in color. Seen here are Nixon and wife Pat at the White House preparing to leave for the capitol with a Norelco camera behind them. In the color photo, Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters are handling the early day coverage for NBC’s “Toady”.
In image 6, Gerald Ford is sworn in August 9, 1974 in the East Room of The White House. Nixon’s resignation was tendered at 11:35 AM, and Ford sworn in at 12:05 PM. Although there were not grand capitol steps ceremonies, parades or balls, I felt President Ford deserved a place here.
Pictures 7 and 8 are from the Jimmy Carter inauguration in 1977 and show one of NBC’s mobile unit Norelcos in action with John Chancellor and David Brinkley in the booth.
On the eve of the inauguration, the Carter family attended a Kennedy Center concert where Shirley Maclaine, Leonard Bernstein, James Dickey, John Wayne, Aretha Franklin and John Lennon contributed to the festivities.
On the gleaming inaugural platform the temperature was below freezing as the formal events commenced, but an audience of 150,000 braved the chill and gathered on the lawn of the Capitol, including my mother and dad, who were there as guests of the Carters.
Perhaps the highlight of the day came when the presidential limousine stopped at Constitution Avenue, where the new President and his wife stepped out and began to walk at the head of the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, following the example of Thomas Jefferson.
The final three shots are from Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981. With Walter Cronkite is Bill Moyers and a CBS Thomson camera in image 9. In image 10, that is NBC’s John Chancellor and Roger Mudd at the capitol. At the Washington “Today” set, host Tom Brokaw stays in the studio to watch the coverage, including the announcement that the US Embassy hostages in Iran were on a plane bound for Germany. President Carter, who had been working 24 hours a day for his last two days in office, left the next day to meet them in Weisbaden Germany.
I wish there were more and better behind the scenes shots to show you, but it seems that the more inaugurations were covered – the mystic of how it was all done wore off. From here on, most of the available photos are quite boring, so with this, we bring this three part series to an end with the hopes you enjoyed this look back in time. -Bobby Ellerbee
Jan. 1961 NBC ad mentioning color coverage of JFK Inaugural parade.
Great article. I remember watching all that including the Churchill Funeral while,in college taking TV production courses in Florida.
In your commentary, Bobby, you made mention that NBC News coverage lasted longer than CBS or ABC. I was thinking perhaps it was like the ‘CBS+1’ philosophy of live coverage, that NBC did regularly on space shots.
Hugh Downs looks strapped-in to something. Maybe it’s audio gear of some sort, but by 1965 I’d think that if it is gear it would’ve been somewhat miniaturized by then. It made me think of a photo I saw, years ago, in a book about the early days of radio, which showed a young Dave Garroway was wearing a big backpack rig for a radio remote for a golf match or football game.