You can’t talk about the Liberty Bell without talking about the American Revolution, and vice versa. They are woven into the same fabric. This site about TV cameras is really about the history of television and the society it portrayed. The site doesn’t just show you cameras; it shows you what they captured and how they did it. They are emblems of another age, and we can see that age through them here, as clearly as the audiences saw their stars through them.
David Hazinski
Associate Professor
Head, Digital & Broadcast Journalism
Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor
I remember talking to the late John Frankenheimer, one of television’s greatest directors of the live era. He emphasized how important his cameramen and the technology were to his success.
Here at the Paley Center in New York and Los Angeles, we have preserved the programming. I am so pleased that Bobby Ellerbee has created the website, The Eyes of a Generation, to preserve and celebrate a missing chapter from television history: the immense contribution of the TV camera to the industry and our culture.
With resonant photographs and evocative testimony, Bobby has brought that crucial technology back to glorious life. We understand in image and word why the camera was indeed the eye for many of our country’s most creative individuals. The Eyes of a Generation is a must for anyone interested in history of media and storytelling.
Ron Simon
Curator, Television and Radio
The Paley Center For Media
In January 1954, I was hired at CBS Television City in Hollywood and worked there for the next 50 years, retiring in July 2004 as Executive Vice President in charge of West Coast Operations and Engineering.
I lived through the times most of the photos on this site so well depict and was fortunate to be in a position to help develop the equipment and the production techniques of that era, many of which are still in use today.
Although many of my colleagues from those days are gone, fortunately the accomplishments and innovations from that time live on in these pages. I am most sincere in my appreciation for the effort Mr. Ellerbee has put into creating this historic site, for now, rather than lose this valuable television history, Eyes Of A Generation is a living archive of Television’s proud past, and with so much information now available here on line, it can be viewed by students of all ages worldwide and hopefully contribute to an even prouder future.
This site is excellent, outstanding and greatly appreciated by our industry and the people, past and present that make Television such a valued and important part of American culture.
Charles Cappleman
A rich visual montage, reminding us how wonderfully cumbersome the first generations of TV cameras were. For visitors of a certain age, this fascinating site will bring back many fond memories. But you don’t have to remember Bishop Sheen or The Honeymooners to learn from Eyes of a Generation. It charmingly captures not just the earliest television cameras, but the dedicated crews, cramped sets and expansive performers and events of our past…this is true television history.
Dr. James L. Baughman
Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Author, “Same Time, Same Station: Creating American Television, 1948-1961”
Author, “Television’s Guardians: The FCC and the Politics of Programming, 1958-67”
Author, “Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the Modern American News Media”
Author, “Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Broadcasting, and Filmmaking in America since 1941”
As a retired NBC network television cameraman I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your website and to compliment you on all that you’re doing to preserve television history. In fact it was one of my friends, John Pinto, who is still doing Saturday Night Live, my old show, who steered me to your website as we’re both TV history buffs. I started in 1967 and grew up with the RCA TK-41s in my early days at NBC. I retired in 2001 after 36 years behind the NBC cameras, with 26 of them at SNL. After I retired I continued to do Saturday Night Live for another year and a half and returned to do other NBC shows when NBC was busy until 2008. I’ve seen a lot of TV history, and it’s great to see so much of it here and so well done. Bravo!
Jan Kasoff
NBC-New York
Great job, Bobby. You’ve captured the history, excitement, and the people of our glorious business. Thank you for including me in all your great work. You are our “Keeper of the Flame.”
John Pinto, Saturday Night Live – NBC New York
As an author, and lifelong student of Television history, I consider The Eyes Of A Generation a unique and remarkable resource. All those with an interest in TV’s history, whether casual or serious can learn here, and be entertained by this image rich tapestry that tells the story of Television’s past through it’s cameras. Although, personal reminiscences are of course valuable, I personally consider photographic evidence extremely important, as although the camera can sometimes lie, it doesn’t usually suffer from memory loss or confusion. The Eyes Of A Generation has a wealth of photographic ‘gold’ and future books and programs on the subject of television will certainly benefit from the memories preserved here.
Dicky Howett
Essex, England
“Television Innovations – 50 Technological Developments”
When it comes to the history of something that captured your imagination as a child, nothing means more to you than to be able to reach out and touch those things that were present and a part of that history when it took place. Bobby has lovingly dedicated himself to not only preserving this part of television history but allowing us to reach out and touch it as well. It’s a remarkable collection of images, stories and reporting. Thank you, Bobby, for your dedication to keeping our history intact.
Jim Hergenrather
Broadcast Associate Director
CBS Television Network
CBS Television City
Los Angeles, CA
Wow! What a lane of memories you’ve displayed on your website. I was with NBC in Burbank for 33 years. I began on camera in 1968 and when I retired in 2001, I had spent 23 years as the West Coast Technical Director for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. You have succeeded in doing a wonderful job in documenting a most important part of Television History….the cameras, operators and the all-important talent that went with those memories. What a unique part of television history to capture. Keep going with your wonderful and historic project, Bobby. Now future generations will get an intensive “behind-the-scenes” look at what television was like in our era.
Jon Olson
NBC Burbank
I first met Bobby online back in 2006 and he had a thousand questions about my collection of vintage TV cameras and support equipment and my website.
He was quite new at this, but Bobby told me he had always been interested in having a collection of television cameras, and this desire and interest in cameras started when was very young.
I told him I have been collecting vintage TV and radio equipment most of my life. He was very interested in finally getting some vintage TV cameras of his own and asked me about how to find them and how to restore them. I told him to start calling local TV stations in his area and he did.
After the very FIRST phone call, he ended up with 5 RCA TK-44s and 3 RCA TKP-45s! He called me back and was hyperventilating! He told me what he found and after I heard he had 3 TKP-45s, I asked if I could have one for my collection. I ended up with one TKP-45 and a TKP-46 (a very nice surprise). I did not have those cameras, so, from the beginning, Bobby and I have helped each other out. We have since become very good friends.
For the next few years, my phone rang off the hook as Bobby had a million questions. He was hooked, hook-line-and-sinker! The camera collecting bug bit him BIG TIME!
Bobby continued to call what seemed like every TV station in the USA looking for cameras and when he found vintage video tape recorders, he would alert two friends I had introduced him to, Tom Sprague and Paul Beck at the Museum of Broadcast Technology. He found them about half a dozen 2″ machines for their collection and helped them acquire a historic TK-40. After the RCA TK-44 he acquired a RCA TK-41 and then a RCA TK-11/31 that I found for him. He kept telling me “okay, I am done; I do not want any more cameras.” I knew he could not stop, and later he found a Norelco PC-60, then a RCA TK-47, a TK-60.
In February of 2007, I was able to help Bobby acquire a TK-30 from the estate of my good friend Skip Jennings, a well known and respected ABC News cameraman. This turned out to be the now famous “Pat Weaver” camera that NBC had given him as a memento of appreciation for all his innovations as the first president of NBC Television. You can read more on Bobby’s TK30 page.
The difference between my collection and the Ellerbee collection is that Bobby likes to restore his cameras to “new condition” so they are cosmetically perfect. He repaints them when necessary, and puts network television logos on them. They look exactly like they just came out of a brand-new TV studio. He also gives each camera a name. The names relate to the camera’s history.
In my collection, I like my cameras “un-restored.” I take them just as they come, in used condition, with the dents, peeling paint and masking tape all over them. Each of us loves our collection in “our own special way.”
Many of my cameras are restored to working condition, but I’m an engineer. Bobby’s from the talent side of broadcasting, so early on he made the decision that his cameras would be for display only, and what a display he has. His is the largest “museum quality” collection of cameras I know of, and I am quite impressed with what he has done, but both of us love the historical value of our cameras.
Speaking of “historical value”, Bobby has spent the past 5 years researching the history of all of the broadcast quality cameras that were made from the ’40s to the ’70s. For a guy who had no cameras in 2006, he has come a long way!
I visited his collection last year, and his display is beautiful! Each camera is a piece of broadcasting history.
In only five years, Bobby Ellerbee is becoming one of the best qualified, broadcast television camera historians in the country.
Although I have been collecting vintage television equipment for 45 years, soon I will be going to Bobby Ellerbee for historical information that I do not know.
His website “Eyes of a Generation” is filled with historical photos and rare information about television cameras. I even go there myself to “learn a few things”, and love to browse the many rare and unique photos he has collected for the site.
Congratulations, Bobby! You have come a long way in five years! I asked him last year what is the next camera he wants? He said a “Marconi MK IV”. I just got an email from him and he found one! I knew he would! So what does he say now? “I think it is a fitting place to stop!” Yeah, RIGHT!
I would like to say I taught Bobby Ellerbee everything he knows about TV cameras, but that would be incorrect. Soon he will be teaching ME!
Chuck Pharis
www.pharis-video.com
Bobby Ellerbee has been collecting vintage television broadcast cameras for only five years now, but has put together a beautiful 15-camera collection, and he is fast becoming one of the leading experts on vintage TV cameras and their history in North America.
As of 2011, Bobby has the only collection of cameras known to contain both all the major RCA studio size broadcast cameras and the two major Marconi broadcast cameras, the Mark IV monochrome and the Mark VII color cameras. His collection of RCA cameras is one of only three in the world that contains all the major studio cameras from the TK30 to the TK47. Only the Chuck Pharis Collection, and our collection here at the MBT, hold the same distinction.
Bobby has done extensive research on the history surrounding each of his cameras and it is in that activity and those whom he has contacted that has led him to create the “Ellerbee Classic Camera Census.”
It is a first-ever, comprehensive tally and listing which he has created that makes a valiant effort to count up how many of these valuable and often-times historic vintage cameras have actually survived, and where they are. The latest update even endeavors to attain a worldwide count.
His efforts have spanned to searching collections from The Smithsonian Institution, university archives, most of the major broadcast museums and numerous private individuals. His scholarship provides a one-of-a-kind list of many the rare vintage cameras.
His diligent efforts are sincerely appreciated by all of us who have a passion for television and its contributions to our Society.
Displaying his a truly generous spirit, Bobby has played a major role in locating many important artifacts of video history for The Museum of Broadcast Technology near Boston Massachusetts. Bobby has used his talents as both a detective who could rival Sherlock Holmes, as well as his powers of articulate persuasion to build collegial relationships between potential donors or providers of historic items and the folks at The Museum of Broadcast Technology.
Bobby has been a key player in successful acquisitions of rare RCA TRT-1A/B 2″ Quad machines, as well as RCA TR-22 and TR-600 quad video tape equipment. The MBT’s talented Tom Sprague has brought one of those TR-22s back to life! The TR-600s are next!
Most recently, thanks to Bobby’s recent leadership direction and assistance in the MBT’s acquisition of an historic RCA TK-40A Image Orthicon color camera. This camera is one of a pair delivered in 1954 to what was then WKY-TV in Oklahoma City, OK. These were the first two color TV cameras ever delivered to a local independent commercial TV station in the world. Fortunately the other TK-40A is at the Oklahoma Historical Center.
The Museum of Broadcast Technology is eternally grateful to Bobby for his passion, dedication and to the preservation of vintage cameras and related broadcasting artifacts. Way to go, Bobby !
Most sincerely,
Paul R. Beck, President,
Thomas R. Sprague, CFO,
Dr. Henry Berman,
Museum of Broadcast Technology, Inc.