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Ultra Rare! Network Telop Cards…Circa 1955

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Ultra Rare! Network Telop Cards…Cica 1955

From the Gady Reinhold Collection, here are nine opaque cards used in the Gray Telop machines of the day. How many times in the 50s did you see this iconic CBS cloud logo between shows? Until I heard of the telop machines, I always thought is was a slide. It later was, but for many years it was an opaque card…this card. Quite a piece of history.

‘The Secret Storm’, ‘Guiding Light’ and ‘Love Of Life’ cards were used as rejoinders, and all the others including the NBC card are all promo cards used in stop set billboards.

These were about the height of a postcard, but not as wide and are now quite rare. Thanks to our friend Gady for saving these for future generations to see. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee









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20 responses to “Ultra Rare! Network Telop Cards…Circa 1955”

  1. Allan McConnell Jr

    Wasn’t there also a Belop machine? Or, at least my memory thinks the old timers told me about using a Belop. Anyone else want to enlighten me?

  2. Dave Dillman

    On a similar tack, NBC used to do a lot with overhead projectors Semi-automation with flip on layers and occasionally moving elements. Done RP behind newscasters ( I remember specifically Floyd Kalber’s national mid-afternoon show from Chicago.

  3. Scott Auerbach

    My dad directed the first and last shows of Love of Life, as well as most of the rest of the 28 year run. Amazing to see one still surviving.

  4. Henry Zimmer

    I forgot the telop cards. ABC used them to send show timings to the affiliates, 1979

  5. Todd Weiss

    Worked with Gady for many years till I went full time to The CBS Evening News ……he is still with us at the Network !!!!

  6. Randy West

    Why weren’t the telop cards for color shows (Como) in color?

  7. Brandon Lori

    Wow, these are great. You can still get these — at least of the slide variety — on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/150992406783?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

  8. Charlie King

    Telop cards were 4×5 a perfect size for Polaroid pictures. slap hot press lettering on the picture and you had the equivalent of a picture with a super. The beauty of Telop was that you could send someone out with a Polaroid Camera in the morning. take a few pictures and bring back to the studio mount them on cards hot press lettering on them and with a script you had a commercial ready to air that same day.

  9. John Kleiner

    EYE of a Generation in this case. 🙂

  10. Patricia Cox

    Oh, the warm and fuzzy nostalgia… ♡

  11. Jeff Williams

    I believe those cards were still being used in the early mid 1960s, when I was a kid. I remember the CBS logo in the clouds from seeing it on TV as a kid.

  12. William Bermudez

    Interesting! I also wondered if the ones advertising color shows were in color themselves.

  13. Don Hougland

    I began my 58 year carrier in “the wonderful world of television broadcasting” in 1956 using a Grey Telop machine. The artist hand painted in shades of Gray and added paste-up’s to a 11×14 art card, then the photographed it down to 3×4 card which clipped Into a rack which were protected by lights into a iconscope film chain. I kept six ID Telops from KRGV-TV, Weslaco, TX & a Ch5 test pattern Telop. 2×2 transparent slides replaced the Telops.

  14. Mike Clark

    worked at TelePrompTer Corp.’s local cable outlet in St. Petersburg, Florida. This 1970’s ‘telop’ was called “The Message Wheel.” It also used postcard-sized pictures for commercials and credits.

  15. Pat Alder

    I thought they were slides too…wow. Thank you!

  16. Art Hackett

    KTRK in Houston had a Telop machine as late as 1966. I’m pretty sure it was at least mentioned in some of my classes at North Texas State in the early 70s. If you started out at a really small Texas market you might well have run into one.

  17. Mark Tipton

    Never mind. Found previous post!

  18. Alan Gardner

    Can’t even remember when I last heard the phrase “telop card”.

  19. Neil Bobrick

    Bobby, just saw the new X men movie. At one point there is a broadcast in front of the White House. It features literally every kind of TV camera used during the Nixon administration. Any of them yours?
    PS they have a color logo on a TK60. Great seeing all the cameras lined up.

  20. Michael Scott Ferguson

    The CBS ones especially have a distinctive ‘look,’ which to my eye has a lot in common with the print advertising of the time.

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