TV History

The Over – Under: This is the latest from Chapman for football coverage. Here ESPN cameras are mounted on an Olympian sideline crane on a modified T formation with one above the other. Both platform turrets have 360 movement that the operator ‘walks’ to the angle they want with their feet, similar to the…

Dumont: WABD TV New York This is a companion to the Electrocam photo posted yesterday. This control room shot is not from Dumont’s 67th Street Telecenter, but the photo owner, Ward Bennett thinks this is either at the Adelphi Theater, where the ‘Honemooners’ was shot, or at the Wannamaker’s studio. Shown here, Frank Carr…

Real Camera Operator History! A TRUE RARITY! (Revised Text) Here is a picture of Ken Gieman, the first Dumont Electorcam operator. I think Ken is on the left of the camera with his hand on the steering ring. This picture was taken at Dumont Broadcasting, Channel 5, Studio 5, 205 East 67th Street, NYC…

Marconi Mark VII Color This is from a 1975 tennis match near Boston. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen a Mark VII with a lens other than it’s regular Angenieux lens compliment. These were great cameras and I’m glad to have one on display. Mine spent most of it’s days on Sesame Street.…

Soupy Sales Famous ‘Stripper Surprise’ Backstory Let me let you in on a little secret. Lunch with Soupy Sales, Detroit’s most popular TV kid’s show, wasn’t really a kid’s show at all. Oh sure, Soupy always reminded the kiddies to take their vitaminnies and eat Silvercup Bread, “the best bread in Dee-troit,” but the…

Chicago TV Class Picture With Chicago’s WBKB still on my mind from this morning’s post, I thought now was a good time to add this photo of the windy city’s bright start of the small screen from the early days. The names are at the bottom and should be viewable in ‘full screen’ mode.…

The EMMY Awards: Part 1 In the video below from the 1953 Emmy Awards show, we see the independent station, KHJ’s cameras bringing us great scenes of Vivian Vance (Ethel) and Lucille Ball (Lucy) accepting their awards on this local broadcast. Interestingly, all 3, including Desi Arnaz push for a ‘writer’ category that soon…

The EMMY Awards: Part 2 Here is a photo from the 1955 Emmy Awards. NBC originated this first ever coast to coast simulcast. Starting in 1955 to 1971, the Emmys were simulcast from both New York and Los Angeles to quell jealousies between rival cities, frequently resulting in screens going blank for up to…

Let’s Twist! 1960, Dick Clark’s Beechnut Show on ABC from The Little Theater in New York City In the first 10 seconds or so, Dick Clark intros Chubby Checker while standing in front of a TK10 on a Houston Fearless 30B stage crane. I was 10 when this song came out and played this…

Did you know CBS made tubes? I didn’t either till I saw this old ad with Gary Moore. The tube business was probably a part of the TV set maker, Hytron that CBS bought in 1951 to make ‘Air King’ home receiver sets compatible with it’s Field Sequential color system. Interestingly most of those…

Finally! I’ve wondered for years what this pedestal is and now I know…it’s a Canon MC 300 and it was made in Japan. I never knew Canon made television equipment other than lenses. I think it is like the Vinten Fulmar in that it has 2 telescoping columns under the brake ring. A lot…

A First! Here is a photo of Bing Crosby’s first appearance on television. With a shortfall of funds facing the U.S. Olympic team, Hollywood luminaries gathered on the stage of the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles and pleaded, cajoled and implored the television audience watching on both NBC and CBS to phone in…

TV History: October 5, 1947 Below, a single RCA TK30 pool camera is shown bringing President Harry Truman to the nation in the first ever television broadcast live from the White House. The first President to appear on TV was Franklin Roosevelt who spoke at the opening session of the New York World’s Fair…

Ever seen my camera collection? In case you have never have, I’m re posting this story from Atlanta’s NBC affiliate, WXIA. It’s from a couple of years back, and there are more cameras now but this is still fun. Enjoy! Vintage TV Camera collector, Bobby Ellerbee is featured on an Atlanta news station. The…

Jerry Lewis: Innovator Extraordinaire Jerry is responsible for bringing video assist to film making. In 1965, Sony built for him “Jerry’s Noisy Toy”…a 6 or 7 foot rolling rack with video tape, audio tape, turntable and more all built into this one mobile console. They could know on the spot if they had what…

MLB Productions Tour Here’s an inside look at Major League Baseball Network’s new production center. In this episode of MediabistroTV’s “Cubes,” we tour the headquarters of MLB Network. The impressive space, which is also home to MLB Productions, features mu… Source

The female in these Match Game clips is our friend Christina Skaggs. She lives in Hawaii now and is a fantastic artist, working in several mediums. Here are 4 videos that show the Norelco PC 70s at Television City at work on The Match Game. Gene liked to mess with them as you’ll see…

How Very Interesting! Here is something very rare! At just over 2:20 in, the BBC’s version of the RCA TK40/41, the Marconi BD 848 color cameras appear on the screen. One has a viewfinder, one doesn’t but you rarely see these in action. The whole piece is great and shows lots of ‘new’ developments…