TV History

The One And Only…Paul Lynde! 50 Zingers here! Enjoy! Peter Marshall: Will a goose help warn you if there’s an intruder on your property? Paul Lynde: There’s no better way! Peter Marshall: In “Alice in Wonderland”, who kept crying “I’m late, I’m late?” Paul Lynde: Alice, and her mother is sick about it. Peter…

If Only This Set Could Talk! Can you imagine the stories? The Celebrity Game inspired Merrill Heatter to work overtime trying to develop another multi-celebrity game. One Sunday afternoon he suddenly hit on an idea…put the celebrities in a giant tic-tac-toe board. He brought in partner Bob Quigley and the two pitched the idea…

The Piccolo Crane Ever see one of these? This actually folds up on top of the wheel dolly and can hold 2 seated people and a camera. The link takes you to short video on how to set it up and if you don’t know anything at all about cranes, this is a good,…

ESPN 3D Sideline Cart, View A This is a modified Chapman Olympian base with 2 camera platforms. The lower one for the ‘human’ operator is a swivel turret that can go up about 20 feet. On the rear is an extendable boom arm that can go up another 20 feet above the operator when…

ESPN 3D Sideline Cart, View B This is a modified Chapman Olympian base with 2 camera platforms. The lower one for the ‘human’ operator is a swivel turret that can go up about 20 feet. On the rear is an extendable boom arm that can go up another 20 feet above the operator when…

Heavy Metal! Here is the illustrious Houston Fearless 30B Stage Crane. This one at Radio Canada is carrying an RCA TK42 and is a Deluxe model. Most did not have the boom arm operator platform like this one. I could be wrong, but I think the 30B could crab, as well as be steered…

In Remembrance of Jim Henson Source

August 13, 1950: Hayloft Hoedown Brand new in March of 1950, here’s real ingenuity at work at WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky. These Dumont 124s are shooting a Saturday night country music show and to get the great high shots without a crane, rolling scaffolding is pretty good alternative. Thanks to Craig Harper for the…

Where the Sid Caesar/Imogene Coca Magic Started The Admiral Broadway Revue is the only show known to be canceled because it was too successful…really! Admiral could not keep up with the demand for their TV sets so faced with the prospect of building a new plant or canceling the show, they canceled. This was…

Today is Philo T. Farnsworth Day! Below, you’ll see a lot of historical photos in this salute to the father of electronic television. I hope you’ll enjoy them, but most of all, I hope you’ll remember his determination to do what no one had done before. Although this true pioneer did get a lot…

Philo Farnsworth, Box Camera, Model 1 This is the great granddaddy of all electronic television cameras! This is thought to be the first one Philo built and the date would be around 1926. I think the Smithsonian has this but I’m not sure. Anyone know? Source

Philo Farnsworth, Box Camera, Model 2 Farnsworth associate, Cliff Gardner is shown here with the second ever electronic television camera. The lens is on the left side of the box and you can see the opening of the recessed lens. This was probably taken in 1930. Source

Philo Farnsworth, Mountable Camera 1 This is Philo’s first camera capable of being mounted on a tripod. With an old, still camera as a model, we’ve graduated from wooden boxes to a more manageable style. This is probably from 1931. Source

Philo Farnsworth, Mountable Camera 2 This is perhaps from around 1934, and is Philo’s second camera that could be mounted on a tripod. Notice now the camera has a gun site style viewfinder and a hard body, having left behind the adjustable, accordion focus lens. This is Philo with the camera. Source

Farnsworth Camera, Image 1 Philo Farnsworth had built two or three cameras before this mid 1930s model, but all of the earlier cameras were either modeled after accordion lensed still cameras or box size table units. This is his first go at a commercial model. Operating the new camera is his associate, Don Pike…

Farnsworth Camera, Image 2 This is the mid 1930’s camera with it’s cover off. Source

The Man Who Filmed ‘I Love Lucy’, Tells Us How It Was Done. By: KARL FREUND, Director of Photography The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz show was a challenge from the start. It was decided that, for the first time, TV cameras would be replaced with three motion picture cameras to allow more flexibility in editing…

Guess What This Door Used To Be… Here’s a clue: in the 50s, people lined up here to see the most famous of all television shows. Source

THIS Is A REAL News Team! With election night just weeks away, take a look at the CBS team covering the 1964 election. The race was between Johnson and Goldwater and at the Broadcast Center, CBS was ready. L-R, Harry Reasoner, Roger Mudd, Eric Severeid, Mike Wallace, Robert Trout and Walter Cronkite. Unfortunately, they…