TV History

The Sue Bennett Show, WBZ Boston Susan Bennett starred on the NBC quiz and variety show, Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge in 1949-50, on the DuMont show Teen Time Tunes in 1949, and was featured on the popular Your Hit Parade in 1951-52. She also appeared as a regular guest on other network…

30 Rock: FINAL EPISODES AIR TONIGHT! Great send off article in the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/bracing-for-30-rocks-sharp-witted-farewell/2013/01/30/a5d7aa1a-6b1e-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html Source

WBBM, Chicago: 1981 Behind The Scenes This is a very good and thorough look at what goes into a major market news cast in this era…lots of gear is covered here and it all starts in the studio with Bill Curtis being shot with Thomson cameras. Enjoy! Source

Double Play Photo! Thanks to Normand Latour, we not only have a photo of his father, Raymond, operating this Marconi Mark II, we now have the best shot I have ever seen of the rare Vinten Pathfinder dolly. An electric version of the Pathfinder came later, but you don’t see many of these manually…

Sin Of Sins! The Whole Story! For NBC to own any camera other than an RCA…well… that was just unthinkable! How could the child of it’s own parent company do such a thing? Simply put, it was out of necessity. Early in their history, RCA had become quite successful with their victrolas, radios, tvs…

Fancy Remote Setup Isn’t It? In the late 50s, ‘Queen For A Day’ would occasionally take the show on the road. When they did, the local NBC stations supplied the equipment and crews. This photo is from KPRC in Houston where a week of shows came from City Auditorium. Source

The Kraft Music Hall: 1933-1971 Surprised at the long run? Me too! I never realized the show started on NBC radio. The Kraft Program debuted June 26, 1933 as a musical-variety program featuring orchestra leader Paul Whiteman. During its first year the show went through a series of name changes, including Kraft Musical Revue,…

End Of An Era! The NBC sign comes down in Burbank. Photo courtesy of Dave Segar Source

“Thank God For Canada”! RCA Sales From 1965 – 69, RCA sold a total of 376 TK42s. From 1967-70 they sold 93 TK43s. Except for a few dozen sold to the CBC and Radio Canada, all other sales were to local stations. It was the only RCA camera the US networks never bought. The…

July 10, 1962: Telstar, The First Communications Satellite What now seems common, was anything but, when Telstar went into orbit. Launched by NASA aboard a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962, Telstar 1 was the first privately-sponsored space launch. A medium-altitude satellite, Telstar was placed in an elliptical orbit completed once…

Hate ‘Happy Talk’ News? Me Too! Blame William Fyffe! William C. Fyffe, was the television news executive who pioneered the medium’s controversial “happy news” trend more than three decades ago. From the Los Angeles Times: “The longtime president and general manager of WABC-TV in New York City, Fyffe developed his happy-talk format in the…

February 11, 1954: 6th Annual Emmy Awards Show Live from the Hollywood Palladium, Ed Sullivan hosted the ceremonies broadcast by KHJ TV, but only to the local audience. Starting in March 7, 1955, NBC took over, and the awards show has been seen nation wide ever since. In ’55, Steve Allen and Dave Garroway…

1951: Coast To Coast Television Now Possible On September 4, 1951,President Harry S. Truman’s opening speech before a conference in San Francisco is broadcast across the nation, marking the first time a television program was broadcast from coast to coast. The broadcast, via then-state-of-the-art microwave technology, was picked up by 87 stations in 47…

NBC Burbank, 1959: Video Tape Bay 3 This is an early look at the video tape department in Burbank. There were three bays of RCA TRT 1 Cs with 4 machines in each bay. Machines 11 and 12 are seen on the back wall. Twelve machines were needed not only to record shows produced…

CBUT Marconi Mark IIs Cover Empire Games, Vancouver The Mark II cameras that were just found were a key element in covering this, and all events of the 1954 Empire Games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_NzZP_LK0 On 6th May 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4-minute mile at Iffley Road, Oxford. He held his world record for just…

Inside The Marconi Mark II Source

When The CBUT Mark IIs Were Brand New This is a photo from August of 1954 showing camera one of four CBUT Marconi Mark IIs covering swimming competition at Vancouver’s newly constructed Empire Pool. Vancouver was the host city of the Empire (aka Commonwealth) Games of 1954. This camera is equipped with a Watson…

‘The Good Ship Hope’: NBC September 7, 1962 Here is the Operations map of this show’s feed. Hosted by Ralph Bellamy, this was a one hour special about the hospital ship ‘Hope’ helping civilians in Vietnam. Thanks to Gady Reinhold for saving and sharing this. Source

The Little Theater: 240 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan Now known as The Helen Hayes Theater, this was formerly the Little Theater, New York Times Hall and Winthrop Ames Theater. It was built with 597 seats, but reconfigured for TV, seating was reduced to 300. CBS used the theater as a radio studio…