1952…First Nation Wide Political Convention TV Coverage
Here’s an artists animation of the NBC set up. CBS and NBC went all out to televise the Democratic and Republican National Conventions which both came from The International Amphitheater in Chicago. The new transcontinental coaxial and microwave system was completed in 1951 and this would be the first coast to coast coverage of the conventions for TV. The term “anchor man” would be invented here and Walter Cronkite was the first.
‘Today’…Then And Now The photo above was taken January 14, 1952. This was the debut of ‘Today’ and on camera is our friend Frank Merklein, who’s now 96. Also on camera that day (not shown) was Harry Katzman who’s now 95. Harry later moved to video and stayed on the show for 15 years. Many […]
FIRST, Don’t miss this! The Television Legends Interview Series taped six half hour segments with Mr. Ripp and the first of the series is linked below. https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/heino-ripp?clip=102062#interview-clips In the photo above, we see Heino starting his career in Studio 3H behind an RCA A500 Iconoscope camera. Below, he is literally the “right hand man” to […]
The Lone Ranger…Something You My Not Have Known Here’s Clayton Moore visiting ABC affiliate WATE in Knoxville during a charity telethon. The show’s original run was from September 1949 till September 1957 on ABC. It starred Jay Silverheals as Tonoto and Moore as The Lone Ranger, BUT…from 52 till 53, Moore was replaced by John […]
December 31, 1965…Johnny Carson & Ben Graurer Welcome 1966 As mentioned in the Guy Lombardo article just before this, NBC usually welcomed the new year with a live ‘Tonight’ show which started with Steve Allen and continued through the Paar years and into Johnny Carson’s tenure. I think Ben Grauer was the Times Square reporter […]
Does this facility still survive?
Is that Dick Tracy and Mary Worth down in the left corner?
It was torn down in 1999 when the city could no longer maintain it.
Notably, it held a number of big events and other conventions as well as concerts. It was the site of one of Elvis Presley’s most notable concerts, in 1957, with the singer wearing his now legendary gold lame suit for the first time.
On September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966, The Beatles performed at the Amphitheatre. The 1966 show was the first show on their last tour.
wow, they allowed the radio people in the arena back then
and wasn’t in in 1956 that the famous team of Huntley and Brinkley were first put together
AT&T and the Bell System had some interesting equipment installed not too far from the Amphitheater on Congress Street in downtown Chicago. Only in the last few years has everyone retired and the highly secured installation retired too. That huge building was a clear shot to the Amphitheater. Microwave would have worked great. NBCs studios were north of the AT&T building in the Merchandise Mart. In the 60s,70s,80s and 90s much taller buildings were built all around the building and things were moved to the top of the Sears Tower. Control points for network football and sports along with NBCs NPS (news program service) were switched from the Mart and AT&T. NPS was fed to the 5 O&OS and affiliates after the soaps and before Nightly News. I would feed news stories into the Round Robin as we would call it.