TV History

The 1936 RCA Iconoscope Camera (2 of 2) These cameras opened from the rear and tilted forward for access to the tubes. On the left is the “studio version” which used a larger Iconoscope tube than the “field version” on the right, which usually had daylight to help light the scenes. Notice on the…

The 1936 RCA Iconoscope Camera (1 of 2) This is the original version of the first commercially available television cameras in the US. You often see this same camera chassis style painted silver, but actually, they are the same cameras.  The only difference is that the silver version, called the RCA A500 has a different Iconoscope…

EMI, The Start Of Something Big… Below is an EMI 203 Image Orthicon camera from 1960, but broadcast was just one area EMI was involved in. Here’s a short course on their history. Electric and Musical Industries Ltd was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone…

Dinah Shore…Her Early TV Career Soon after she arrived in New York in 1937, Shore made her first television appearances on experimental broadcasts for NBC. Twelve years later, in 1949, she made her official television show debut on the Ed Wynn Show and in 1950 made a guest appearance on Bob Hope’s first television…

From KECA To KABC… Before we get to the history, notice the dual floodlights on the front of this RCA TK10. Channel 7 first signed on the air under the callsign KECA-TV on September 16, 1949. It was the last television station licensed to Los Angeles operating on the VHF band to sign on,…

On Location… Taking a breather between scenes, Batman and Robin plan their moves in the Batmobile before the director calls “Action”. It aired on ABC for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968. The show was aired twice weekly for its first two seasons, resulting in the production of a total…

Takes A Lickin’ And Keeps On Tickin’ This is the Vinten ‘Heron’ studio crane and a Marconi Mark VIII plumbicon camera at the CBC studios in Montreal in the early to mid 70s. After a long stay in storage, it was returned to service last year. Source

Before Lucy, Gertrude Berg was “The First Lady Of Television” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li5DFp9fKAw&ab_channel=ARoomInThePast ‘The Goldbergs’ was a comedy-drama broadcast from 1929 to 1946 on radio, and from 1949 to 1956 on television. The program was devised by writer-actress Gertrude Berg in 1928 and sold to the NBC radio network the following year. It was a domestic…

The Great Carsoni, Up In Smoke Johnny gets tangled in a joke, but the boom operator’s attempt to help only digs the hole deeper. At the end, Johnny goes up on the boom for a “chat”. Johnny tries to get through a joke with a little help from his staff. Visit http://www.facebook.com/OfficialJohnnyCarson to like…

‘Kiss Me Kate’, NBC November 20, 1958 This production of the Cole Porter musical was done for The Hallmark Hall Of Fame. The cardboard viewfinder shades on the TK41s tell us this was done at NBC Brooklyn Studios. Source

Hail To The Chief…And The ‘Sheriff’ Here is yours truly with Rob Lowe in the Oval Office. In a break between scenes, I got a chance to meet Rob and after a couple of minutes conversation, I told him I play the Sheriff on ‘Squidbillies’. He instantly lit up, laughed and said “I thought…

Be Here Tomorrow! I Just Got Back… I’m very tired, but wanted you to know I’ll have some great pictures in the morning of ‘The Killing Of Kennedy’ docudrama that I, and these 3 cameras were a part of this morning at New Millennium Studios in Richmond VA. Source

Ever See This? This is an early model of the European made Phillips PC 60. The yellow flag on top is the zoom flag…the wider the shot, the higher the yellow flag. This is to let boom operators and other cameras know each other’s field of vision so they can stay out of the…

The Heart Of CBS News Left to right, Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow. CBS began broadcasting news shows on Saturday nights, expanding to two nights a week in 1947. On May 3, 1948, Douglas Edwards began anchoring CBS Television News, a regular 15-minute nightly newscast. It aired every weeknight at 7:30…

First Ever Image Orthicon Broadcast: June 19, 1946 In this photo, you see one of four RCA TK30s at the Joe Lewis – Billy Conn rematch. The fight, at Yankee Stadium, was the first televised World Heavyweight Championship bout ever, and 146,000 people watched it on TV, also setting a record for the most…

The Ikegami HK312 E Here’s Ted Koppel with the triax version of the HK312 at ABC’s Washington news studio around 1986. I think the HK312 D model was a triax camera as well and may have still had the dark brown viewfinder like the A model. The big bulge on the side is the…

RCA TK760 This camera is basically an RCA TK76 ENG camera and was introduced in 1977 as a field and studio camera. Before there were large lens adaptor and large viewfinder adapters, this is how it was done. This photo was taken at Denver’s Mile High Stadium in 1978 as NBC prepares for a…

Early UN Security Council Meeting, 1946 Around the middle of 1946, the newly founded United Nations set up facilities at the Sperry Corporation building in Lake Success, NY. That was their HQ till the UN building was completed in NYC in 1952. This RCA Orthicon camera was used to televise the first Security Council…

Vladimir Zworykin’s Last Interview: By Steve North Thanks to CBS Morning News writer Steve North for sending this article he recently wrote for The Huffington Post. Steve’s visit with the legendary Dr. Zworykin actually occurred in 1981 but is revisited here in intimate detail and reveals an interesting personal side. As it turned out,…