TV History

Marconi & Sarnoff Below is Guglielmo Marconi, the father of wireless communication (right) with David Sarnoff. Sarnoff began as a wireless operator for the Marconi Wireless Company and gained national attention when, for seventy-two hours, he reportedly relayed the names of survivors of the Titanic. This may or may not be true. David Sarnoff…

The Marconi Mark II…Naked Since I’ve posted a ‘cloaked’ Mark II below, I felt it only proper to show the fine looking camera in all it’s glory here. If you notice a marked resemblance to the RCA TK30, there is a reason for that. Although a bit taller than the TK30, it is in…

In Memory Of The World’s Favorite “Dingbat”…Jean Stapleton http://www.dailycamera.com/television/ci_23371351/actress-jean-stapleton-played-beloved-tv-wife-mother?source=rss Source

ABC, 1980 Election Coverage Seems a lot of the Ikegami HK 312s have ladies operating them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHM4Inl62I&list=PL4023E734DA416012 Channel 7 Eyewitness News (WABC-TV) Political Correspondent Roger Sharp takes viewers behind the scenes of ABC’s 1980 Election Night coverage. Source

VERY COOL! Patti Page Promo…1958 Patti is behind the camera and on the boom, and more! Enjoy! Source

Patti Page…The Singin Rage! Here’s a publicity photo for ‘The Patti Page Oldsmobile Show’ that aired on ABC in 1958. I think this originated at the ABC Prospect Studios in Los Angeles. The camera is an RCA TK10. Source

RCA Wireless Mini Camera: 1956 In a publicity photo for 1956 convention coverage, NBC’s Chet Huntley poses with the “Walkie-Lookie” camera, a miniature wireless vidicon camera designed for coverage of the 1952 political conventions. Source

Famous Cartoon Voice Actors In Live Action Films: Part 5 of 5 As a cartoon voice actor myself, I find it fascinating to see what the people behind the characters look like, and hope you will too. Bob Bruce Frequent narrator in WB Cartoons in the 40s Howard McNear character actor Flintstones and Floyd…

You Mean It Wasn’t A Real Building? Here’s the Hill Valley courthouse from ‘Back To The Future’ as it really was…just a facade on Universal’s “courthouse square” back lot. Source

Famous Cartoon Voice Actors In Live Action Films: Part 4 of 5 As a cartoon voice actor myself, I find it fascinating to see what the people behind the characters look like, and hope you will too. Wally Maher, as Screwball Squirrel June Foray, as Rocky and many other voices on Rocky and Bullwinkle…

Famous Cartoon Voice Actors In Live Action Films: Part 3 of 5 As a cartoon voice actor myself, I find it fascinating to see what the people behind the characters look like, and hope you will too. Bea Benaderet, as Betty Rubble on The Flintstones! Listen for the “Betty” laugh in her spot on…

The Original ‘Tin Man’…Buddy Ebsen In the classic 1939 movie ‘The Wizard of Oz’, the Tin Man was played by actor Jack Haley after Buddy Ebsen got sick from the makeup. The Tin Man’s makeup originally contained aluminum powder which got into Ebsen’s lungs, bringing him to the edge of death. A safer paste…

Episode 1, Season 1, ‘The Roy Rogers Show’ This is the first ever episode of the TV classic and it aired on NBC as 6:30 (ET) Sunday night, December 30, 1951. The series ran one hundred new episodes on NBC for six seasons and ended on June 9, 1957. Beginning in 1961, CBS broadcast…

Famous Cartoon Voice Actors In Live Action Films: Part 2 of 5 As a cartoon voice actor myself, I find it fascinating to see what the people behind the characters look like, and hope you will too. Bryan, Nelson and Thompson’s famous stage voices make them perfect cartoon voice actors for occasional and regular…

Sullivan…Most Frequent Guests List Below is ventriloquist Rickie Layne and his friend Velvel in one of his 39 appearances on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. In the background is “Ed’s cameraman”, George Moses with a TK11. For twenty three years The Ed Sullivan Show featured over 10,000 performers from music, comedy, sports, novelty, film and…

Pierino Ronald “Perry” Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) Perry Como had a career spanning more than half a century. He recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. “Mr. C.”, as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for RCA and pioneered a weekly musical variety…

NBC 75th Anniversary Opening This short clip is a lot of fun, but the number of famous faces in the crowd is just amazing! Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnE1sXCVgxc Kelsey Grammer’s segment of the NBC 75th Anniversary Special. Source

EXTREMELY RARE ‘FRANKENSTEIN’ COLOR FOOTAGE Sara Karloff shared this, the only known color footage of her father in costume as the Frankenstein monster. It is shot by a crew member with a home movie camera during a makeup test. The man Karloff clowns around with is Makeup Director, Jack Pierce. “The makeup had this…

A Very Interesting History: The Chaplin Studios In 1919, construction was completed on the land bought in 1917 by silent screen icon Charlie Chaplin, including his personal residence on the site. Many of Chaplin’s classic films were shot at the studios, including The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times…

Flying Blind…Can You Imagine? This is the first ever televised Rose Parade on KTLA in Los Angeles. The date is January 1, 1947 and shows two, brand new RCA TK30s in use without their viewfinders and the RCA meatball logo… more on that below. By the way, notice the logo still says W6XYZ…22 days…