TV History

A Story Of TV History Treasure…LOST For a year and a half, on what was then WRCA, Bill Cullen hosted a local (New York) fifteen minute television show called “Inside NBC”. Here is a description of just a few of the shows. It would be fantastic to see all of this backstage stuff, BUT…sadly,…

Be sure to read the text uner the photos for some interesting details on the production process, and the location of the show over time. Above, Walter at his Graybar Building desk with staff in the fishbowl office watching the broadcast. The fishbowl office was in the same place when the show moved to…

April 15, 1946 & 1955…Big Days For Dumont, Gleason And Lewis This is a two part story, of two April 15th news making days for Dumont; one in 1946, the other in 1955. Part 1, The Glory Days: This big photo was taken April 15, 1946 and shows the inaugural broadcast from the new…

This prototype Ampex VTR called “Mark IV” started a whole new era in television. Taken at the National Association of Radio & Television Broadcasters show in Chicago, the crowd photo shows the first demonstration. When this group of CBS television affiliates saw remarks by CBS’s Bill Lodge miraculously replayed moments later, everything changed! This…

TeleTales #266…TV Golf In The 1950s With The Master’s fresh on our minds, here is a look at how CBS covered a match in Palm Springs in 1956…with very long lenses. This is an extended Zoomar Field Lens on an RCA TK11/31. The studio version was the TK11, and the field version was the…

April 1948, Chicago’s WGN-TV Sings On…Vintage Photo Album WGN, Channel 9, is one of the nations first and only enduring independent stations, but it wasn’t always that way. In the beginning, they dual network affiliations with both CBS and Dumont, which early on wasn’t that uncommon in new TV markets, or markets with only…

April 11, 1966…The Last Episode of “Hullabaloo” Airs On NBC This is a rare color clip from that final show, with Leslie Gore. Paul Anka was the host for this last show, which featured songs from the 1965 Oscar nominees. “Hullabaloo” was directed by the first director known for his music specials, like The…

Stunning Animation Technique Brings Antique Photographs To Life…. Like so much of the new software advances in animation, I don’t know how this is done, but this is pure magic. Take a look and keep the sound up. Thanks to “Tonight” show cameraman Rich Carter for sharing this. -Bobby EllerbeeAmazing Animation Based on Old…

A New DANGER To Credibility And News? Yes…This Is Scary! Without as much real news, from real journalists these days, it is already hard enough to know what the truth is, but now…the anti has been UPPED! Although the original software was developed several years ago for CGI facial animation in motion pictures, now,…

“That Thing You Do”… The Secret Gene Pitney Connection For a number of reasons, this is one of my favorite movies, but did you know that “Mr. Downtown”, and the fictional character that sings it, Freddie Fredrickson, is based on Gene Pitney and his “Town Without Pity”? Hear; Gene Pitney “Town Without Pity”… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7BRraVMZzc…

More Rare NBC Color Caravan Photos! St. Louis, July 9-10 1954 Source

Four Generations Of The Experimental RCA Color Cameras… The 1st generation of RCA’s simultaneous color television system cameras (shown above), is generally referred to as the Wardman Park cameras. They were in NBC’s Wardman Park Hotel studio in Washington DC, but just recently, we have learned that RCA’s called these “The Princeton Cameras” as…

New, Ultra Rare! Color Shots Of Early NBC Mobile Color Tests… On January 1, 1954, two NBC Color Mobile Units telecast The Rose Parade from Pasadena, to the nation, in color. Very few saw it in color, but that was the first use of these trucks. As you will see in the attached “NBC…

ULTRA RARE! New, Unseen Early RCA Color Trials Photos These first 2 images are from the personal collection of long time NBC Washington TD Bill Wells, who was there from 1947, until his retirement in the mid ’70s. I have added 3 others to help support what we are seeing in the Wells photos,…

Marilyn Monroe….’Person To Person’ April 8, 1955 http://youtu.be/L05TYBXwU3A?t=4m12s At the clip above, we start with photographer Milton Green walking through the living room we see in the photos. While he’s walking toward the kitchen where Marilyn is waiting, he is talking live with Edward R. Murrow via the new Shur “Vagabond” wireless microphone. The…

SNL Classic! Behind The Scenes Of “The Continental” Sketches Whenever Christopher Walken hosts SNL, he does a recurring character…”The Continental” which is always shot from the woman’s Point Of View by a hand held camera. Here is “The Continental” sketch from February 22, 2003. This special video shows us what the studio audience is…

The Masters Of Stage Craft Magic…IATSE Local 1, New York City Before videotape came along in 1956, live television was very dependent on skilled stage hands to move scenery in and out during the broadcasts of everything from comedies like “Your Show Of Shows” to dramatic anthologies like “The Kraft Playhouse”, and all the…

April 7, 1927…Two Firsts In Long Distance TV Transmission On this day in 1927, then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover’s image was transmitted via AT&T from Washington to New York using a mechanical system developed by Herbert E. Ives. This is the first time television was sent on long distance wires. In the photo…

A Fuller History Of NBC Television News… After posting today’s first story on CBS’s Douglas Edwards, as television’s first live, daily network anchor, I mentioned – but barely scratched the surface, on NBC’s part in this deeper history, so, here is a more detailed account. The most widely celebrated dates in NBC news history…