The Huge Mystery Of The NBC ND-8G Cameras…Part 2

In yesterday’s “The Huge Mystery Of The NBC ND-8G Cameras…A Discussion” post, I danced around a nagging question till I got more sources and last night, I got them*. Here’s the problem: if 8G went live on April 22, 1948, how is it that ‘Hour Glass’ and ‘Television Scene Magazine’ are shot with the NBC ND-8G cameras over a year earlier? FYI, both shows were two of NBC television’s first network shows. ‘Hour Glass’ stared May 9, 1946 and ended March 6, 1947 and the other one stared November 17, 1946. The photo on the right is Ursula Holleran of ‘Television Scene Magazine’ and all of the others are on the ‘Hour Glass’ set and the blonde “femcee” is Helen Parish. The date of the NBC/Pathe film in another of today’s posts is also 1947. The studio is too big to not be 8G as the only other studio at the time was the smaller 3H. In yesterday’s post, I also discussed the mystery of why NBC would build their own Image Orthicon cameras in 1947 and put them in service in 1948 when RCA delivered the first TK30s to them in June of 1946. Yesterday, I suggested that these cameras may have first been put to use in 3H before they went to 8G when it was completed. Another train of thought leads me to wonder why NBC would keep these ND 8G cameras in use when they had the superior RCA TK30?

I want your input and research info into this, but as of now…here’s what I think. Given the mad rush at the end of WWII for broadcasters to get television back in gear, I think the ND 8G cameras were actually in operation by early 1946. I think the 1969 “RCA Engineer” article (which was the basis for much of this information and linked in yesterday’s post and below), written twenty plus years after the fact, is ambiguous on several key issues and wrong on some dates. I’m feel sure RCA would have given NBC Image Orthicon tubes “early” (in spite of the military’s wishes) at least to “test” (wink, wink). Keep in mind that by July 16, 1947 RCA had demonstrated the first all electronic color camera with three IO tubes. Although NBC was leasing theaters to convert to studios, production space was at a premium as nothing new had been built for four years, so immediately adding a new studio inside 30 Rock, would have made sense. This leads me to think that 8G may have been converted earlier than 1948. The only source for the April 22, 1948 debut date of 8G is a 1948 “Radio Age” article which was reproduced in yesterday’s post and linked below.

Are both wrong? Are both right? Is one wrong and one right? I don’t know. I do know that this new photo dating evidence makes me wonder though! As we’ve seen before, even NBC’s marquees outside their famous studios have errors and omissions which, in the case of television’s history, seems to be the human condition.

What do you think? To read all the background info, go here
https://eyesofageneration.com/the-nbc-nd-8g-cameras/
* The dates of the shows is verified in “The Complete Directory To Prime Time And Cable TV Shows” by Brooks and Marsh.

Source