The Granddaddy Of Color Studios…The Colonial Theater

I had given up finding a photo of the theater’s face when NBC and RCA owned it, but thanks to Lytle Hoover, we finally have it. This is where the fist production models of the RCA TK40 went into service in March of 1953. The first several months, there was only testing via closed circuit, but on August 30, 1953, the first publicly announced experimental broadcast in compatible color TV of a network program was presented by NBC of “St. George and the Dragon” on the ‘Kukla, Fran, and Ollie Show’. NBC/RCA had owned the building for several years and had done black and white shows from here and in October 1951, RCA had exhibited a color TV receiver-projector here which provided color pictures on a 9 x 12 foot theater screen. In late ’52, RCA/NBC began the process of making the theater into the first all color television studio. The second NBC colorcasts came from this studio on October 31, 1953 and was a one hour presentation the opera “Carmen”. The third colorcast was the November 22, 1953 ‘Colgate Comedy Hour’, with Donald O’Connor (the first commercial colorcast). By the way…these colorcasts were only viewed in color by closed circuit. The color burst was removed before being broadcast, and the programs were seen by the general public only in black in white. Only 28 TK40s were made as by late 1954, the TK41 had taken it’s place with with significantly reduced rack space, tube count, and power requirements. Thanks to Lytle Hoover and Ed Reitan for their research and help.

Source