The Bell Telephone Hour…1959-1968
Above is a clip from ‘The Bell Telephone Hour’, an NBC classic that focused on music, both classical and Broadway. This was one of the first TV series to be telecast exclusively in color and recorded on videotape. In this photo, RCA TK41s at NBC Brooklyn circle up for a scene “from the inside out” as they prepare to shoot four performers against a 180 degree cyclorama.
September 9, 1926…NBC Was Incorporated By RCA The incorporation process was the first step on a very long and profitable road for the nation’s first broadcasting network which came to life on November 15, 1926, with a gala four-hour radio program originating from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Here is […]
‘CBS Evening News’…29th Floor, Graybar Building Location As I wrote earlier today, in the post just before this, the famous newsroom we see here was located in The Graybar Building which is adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The first time we see this is during the debut of television’s first daily half hour news broadcast […]
Ultra Rare! Meet Television’s Top Late Night Directors! Thanks to Vinnie Favale, here is a one of a kind photo. From left to right is “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” director Dave Diomedi, “The Colbert Report” director Jim Hoskinson, “Late Night With David Letterman” director Jerry Foley and “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” director […]
Varotal Mark III Field Lens…The Grandaddy Of Remote Zooms At 30 pounds, this is quite a big boy and took a bit of lead weighing on the pan handle to help balance this. I think the lever on the side of the lens is the back focus. Having never seen one of these in action, […]
The Classic Arts Channel airs a lot of color excerpts from the Bell Telephone Hour; they don’t have a schedule so you sort of have to keep watching for a couple of hours to catch these; they do have text at the beginning and end with the record dates; moist are 1960 so far, think there was a 1959 also.
I’d loved to be on headset during this intricate camera dance.
Wow, a whole herd of 41’s. Looks like someone told them to circle the cameras!
Great things came out of that Brooklyn studio. I went there for a taping of “Hullabaloo” back in ’65. I never knew quite how many shows were produced there until this site came along.
What a historical picture!
A whole book could be produced just about NBC Brooklyn. Hope somebody puts all the elements together someday.