TV History

Now THIS is INTERESTING! This is a 1954 production by the US Army on their use of Television in the military. There are a lot of different kinds of equipment shown here from RCA, Dumont, Dage more. Some of it is ‘pure army’, but that’s why there’s fast forward, right? Enjoy and let us…

Just for fun, here are some interesting production notes on ‘The Birds’ from Alfred Hitchcok who’s shown here with the stars…the birds. Also shown, Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jesica Tandy and Veronica Cartwright. To keep the birds from flying around and on the ground, they were fed a heavy grain and whiskey mix. The…

Eva Marie Saint: Campus Hoopla In her fist television job, Eva was a page at NBC. Later she appeared in the 1946-47 show, ‘Campus Hoopla’ on NBC and this is a shot from that set shot for Life Magazine. She went on the movies and won an Oscar for On The Waterfront and appeared…

BRAVO! A RESURRECTION! Congratulations to the CBC! A vintage, Vinten Heron Crane, which was introduced in 1955 is alive and well Montreal. This picture was taken last Sunday, October 16 on the set of a new variety show call “Un Air De Famille” in CBC studio 42. I am sure the gang at Vinten…

50 Years Ago: The Edge Of Nuclear War! October 15 through October 27, 1962 the world passed 13 tension filled days not knowing if we would live or die in a fireball. This astounding photo, and others are from a great pictorial in The Atlantic Magazine on The Cuban Missile Crisis. This was the…

The Rank-Taylor-Hobson Zoom Lens By far, this was the most popular zoom for RCA TK41s and TK60s. The Zoomar was also very popular, but that was seen mostly on black and white cameras in use prior to the mid 60’s introduction of this lens. This is often refereed to as the Varotal III and…

Angenieux Evershed Lens This is the ‘box zoom’ lens made by Angenieux but it was very rare to see one of these in the US. The Rank-Taylor-Hobson zoom lenses were more common here on RCA cameras, but occasionally you saw one, as on the WDAF camera in the photo just before this. Source

Among The First! These ladies are among the first to ever see themselves on Television. As part of the 1939 World’s Fair exhibition, RCA fed video and audio from this podium for most of the summer. The lines were long, and those ‘televised’ were given a certificate with the date and the place. Source

Classic CBS This is the late Dennis ‘Paddy’ McBride in command of a TK30. For many years, Dennis was one of the top cameramen for CBS. His specialty was sports and he won several Emmys for his work which included zoom lens techniques. Great photo. Source

CLASSIC NASA! This CBS PC60 is ready for lift off. This is probably around 1967 or ’68 and we are either near the end of Gemini missions or at the start of the Apollo missions. If the top looks odd, it’s because the door on the far side of the camera is open. Notice…

Side By Side On the left, the regular RCA TK30 monochrome camera, on the right, the CBS Field Sequential Color camera. As you can see, the color camera is a modified TK30. I’m sure that are some electronic mods, but notice the new box above the lens turret. That is the access to the…

CBS Television City: ‘Kids Say The Darnedest Things’ This segment of the Art Linkletter House Party is the most famous of all. Linkletter interviewed schoolchildren between the ages of five and ten. During the segment’s 27-year run, Linkletter interviewed an estimated 23,000 children. The popularity of the segment led to a TV series with…

CBS Television City: Art Linkletter’s House Party Here in Studio 41, Art is doing a last minute run through on a Maytag live spot in the background. In the foreground, the children from the interview segment are made comfortable with the studio’s activity. Behind this TK11 is the ‘school days’ set for the ‘Kids…

CBS Television City: Studio 41 Each day on the ‘Art Linkletter House Party’, there was a segment where kids were interviewed. It was called ‘Kids Say The Darndendest Things’. That was always funny, but before the show they were always given a complete tour of the set to make them more comfortable. Here, they…

CBS Television City: Studio 33 Show prep for the lighting crew. Off in the distance is a TK11. Source

The Vinten Heron Crane: 1955 The Vinten Heron crane was developed for the BBC, which bought models for its London and regional studios. The biggest innovation in the crane was it’s ability to crab, thus allowing it to move freely in any directions, giving it the flexibility of a pedestal with increased height range…

A Rare Color Photo of CBS Television City Studio 33 Perhaps the most famous of the TVC studios is 33. This is the only one left that has the side wings and the built in theater seating. Here is a shot from behind the lighting directors console from around 1953. As mentioned in the…