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A Dying Breath Brought New Life To Video Assist

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

A Dying Breath Brought New Life To Video Assist

In the very last days in operation as a network, Dumont introduced the Electronicam in 1955. By late ’54 the handwriting was on the wall…in February of 1955, Dumont executives realized the company could not continue as a television network. It was decided to shut down network operations and operate WABD and WTTG as independents. On April 1, 1955, most of DuMont’s entertainment programs were dropped.

April 15, 1955, nine years to the day after opening their fist studio at Wanamaker’s Department Store, the company introduced the 35 and 16mm versions of the Dumont Electronicam. The hope was that this new video and film production tool would help save the company, and after all, the end result was much better than the kinescope.

Jerry Lewis saw an Electrocam in New York in 1956 and never forgot that. ’56 was the year he and Dean Martin split, and Lewis did a few solo movies for director Hal Wallis but became involved in the production as well. By ’60, Lewis was on his own and began writing, directing and starring in his own movies with Paramount as a partner. All the while the Electronicam process was on his mind and by the early 60s, he had begun the process of developing a true video assist technology. By ’66, he had “Jerry’s Noisy Toy” which included video and audio tape capacity and RCA vidicon cameras interlinked with Mitchell BNC cameras.

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5 responses to “A Dying Breath Brought New Life To Video Assist”

  1. Paul Duca

    Because of the Electrocam, we have the “Classic 39” HONEYMOONERS–compare how good they look to the kinescoped “Lost Episodes”.

  2. Liz Parr-Nunn Brown

    did not know this, very interesting.

  3. Chuck McKibben

    I have seen, twice, an excellent, recent documentary on Jerry Lewis in which giants of show business such as Carol Burnett, Spielberg and Seinfeld pay homage to him as a brilliant, one-of-a-kind innovator. And yes, they call him a genius many times over. He won’t have to wait to be gone before the accolades begin. And let’s not forget the huge sums he was responsible for raising on behalf of MDA. He may seem abrasive to some, but he has earned the respect and admiration of countless others.

  4. Glenn Krasner

    I read a couple of times that Jerry Lewis worked with Sony also to develop the video assist technology, and I believe he even has a patent on it. Please correct me if I am wrong. I am a huge fan of Mr. Lewis, and unfortunately, for some strange reason, he never gets the accolades he should. He is one of those entertainers, when he dies they will say he was a genius, but while he is alive, they refuse to give him credit for anything. Glenn in the Bronx, NY

  5. William David French Jr

    Thank you for posting this. Some people refuse to accept that Lewis developed this technology (some even refuse to accept that Jess Oppenheimer invented the in-the-lens prompter even though he patented it). Lewis himself is quoted as saying that it took more than a year to figure out they could record the video output and watch it. Before then they would watch the video while the film was being shot. But they had no way of watching it again.

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