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A Follow Up….The First Teleprompters

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

A Follow Up….The First Teleprompters

Today’s earlier post on the Jess Oppenheimer through-the-lens prompter took me here. These photos show the first ever teleprompters in television. The large CBS photo is from December of 1950 and the show is ‘The First Hundred Years’. It was the first ongoing TV soap opera in the US that began as a daytime serial, airing from December 4, 1950 until June 27, 1952. At the time, there were no camera mounted teleprompters…just these big rolling stand prompters.

The first time we see camera mounted prompters is on the debut of ‘Today’ on January 14, 1952. I have RCA made these and think I can see and RCA meatball logo on it in one of these pix. The ‘Today’ set was used for experiments of all kinds as we not only see the first camera prompers here, but also the first use of the Houston Fearless TD 3 counter weighted pedestal too. FYI, the magnified prompter was a custom job and was for Dave Garroway. I’m adding some notes on the pix so click through them. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Today Show debut…I think I see and RCA logo on the side of the prompter. The lens is the RCA Electozoom and the cameraman is our friend Frank Merklein. Jan ’52
Nice shot of this huge contraption…Today debut show
Colgate Comedy Hour, Martha Raye host and Arthur Treacher guest. They are doing a Kellog’s spot and notice the prompter is strapped to the camera for temporary use. Like Lucy, the prompter here was only used for live spot copy and not in the body of the show.
Dave Garroway’s custom magnified prompter had this old home receiver magnifier on it to help with the copy. I don’t think this was standard, but it is a good idea and should have been, but loading the paper on this one would have been a challenge. Notice the TD 3 pedestal.
Notice here what looks like and RCA logo on the prompter and the TD 1 pedestal. I think there were 2 TD 1 peds on the set and 2 prototype TD 3 peds in use for the first time.
The First Hundred Years, December 1950

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8 responses to “A Follow Up….The First Teleprompters”

  1. John Maresca

    Somehow I never knew that CBS used DuMont cameras. At least these look like they’re made by DuMont. The cooling vents at the top are unmistakable. Wasn’t there a teleprompter that had reverse text mounted face-down above the camera lens with a reflecting transparent glass panel mounted at a 45-degree angle reflecting the text toward the performer? I believe that this method kept the performer’s eyes more toward the lens so that it wouldn’t be as obvious that the performer was reading the dialogue.

  2. James Murphy Tinsley

    http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663105/errol-morriss-secret-weapon-for-unsettling-interviews-the-interrotron Errol Morris found a new use for the prompter.

  3. Dennis Degan

    Bobby, a soap opera would not need a ‘through-the-lens’ prompter since the actors were not supposed to look into the lens during production. OTOH, hosts on the Today Show would WANT to look into the camera since they are connecting directly with the audience and not ‘acting’ (presumably). Even now, SNL uses cue cards along side the cameras while the Today Show uses camera-mounted TTL LCD panels for prompting.

  4. Steven Bristow

    One of my favorite episodes/goofs of Dark Shadows featured an on camera telprompter. At times, you can see the actors reading off it.

  5. Janice Lichter

    Very cool!

  6. Dave Dillman

    Actually for drama, off camera prompters placed in the actor’s eyeline work better. On camera, of course, is best for presenters that are talking to camera. One of the greatest innovation when we got to video prompters was switching from the prompter feed to other video (like a field reporter or the weather composite).

  7. Gary Walters

    A version of the non camera mounted prompter was used on Today. Remember the weather information that was used as a bumper going into and out of commercial breaks? It gave the city name, the call letters of the NBC affiliate, the high temperature, and a one or two word weather forecast description, and above it, a cut out of the United States.

  8. Brian Powers

    What was the TP technology, scrolling paper?

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