TV History

Picture Parade #1…ULTRA RARE! ‘Toast Of The Town’, CBS 1949 This is one of only four or five pictures of Ed Sullivan’s ‘Toast Of The Town’ show from CBS Studio 51, also known as The Maxine Elliott Theater at 109 West 39th Street. Studio 51 is believed to the be the first theater CBS…

CBS NY Master Studio List, New And Updated…1937- Present First compiled by David Schwartz in April 1999, here is the updated list from David with some revisions by Tom Coughlin. In the next few days, I will add the NBC and ABC studios list. Many thanks to David and Tom for this great outline…

Picture Parade #4…The World’s First Practical Tape Recorder Here are two prototype models of the AEG Magnetophone which was developed in Germany in the early 1930s. This is the K1 model which soon came down to a more manageable size. Captured Nazi machines were sent back to the US and was what Ampex based…

Picture Parade #3…Another ‘Tonight’ Rarity, Two Birds…One Stone It’s not often that we see the TK41s in NBC Studio 6B, but even more rare is this shot with band leader and Musical Director, Milton Delugg. The band was formed in 1954 for the debut of ‘Tonight’ with Steve Allen by its first long-term director,…

Picture Parade #2…Who Knew? Two Stunners From ‘Perry Mason’ Yes, it’s true. Hamilton Burger actually beat Perry Mason. Over the course of the nine year run of the show, it happened twice. While checking my facts, I came across this second stunner from the Associated Press. “Williiam Talman was one of several arrested at…

Picture Parade #1…ULTRA RARE! ‘Peter Pan’, 1955 Backstage Shot This is the only photo of it’s kind I have ever seen. Here is Mary Martin with Cyril Ritchard posing with Nana at NBC Brooklyn in 1955 during rehearsals for the original television presentation. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee Source

Now, For Something Completely Different! Audio Buffs Will Love This! This is not just a tour of Atlanta’s Fabulous Fox…this is how these grand theaters worked in an electro-mechanical sense in the 1920s. Our friend Robert Foreman has covered everything from the live microphones to the marquee with some very interesting and rare history…

A Rare Look At The WNEW Control Room…Sonny Fox ‘Wonderama’ Tour This clip is from the early 1960s and was sent to us from Barry Mitchell with this interesting note. “I’ve had this rare clip for years: it was on a reel of 2” tape that had been donated to my college, most likely…

You Mean That’s Not A Real Mountain There In Virginia City? Nope. Hollywood and the ‘Bonanza’ producers have fooled us again. The “mountain” at the rear of the Western Street was actually constructed of a chicken-wire framework covered over by plaster and was immobile. I have highlighted in purple where I think it was.…

Laugh Tracks: RARE Black Box Found! A couple of years ago, this piece of television history popped up on ‘Antiques Roadshow’. Here is the video of the Charlie Douglas ‘Laff Box’ which was discovered among the items sold in a storage locker sale. Thankfully the new owner was curious, other wise, it would have…

Classic Ed Sullivan…Zippy And The Cameramen In this short but sweet piece from April of 1961, Zippy the chimp gives the Sullivan camera crew a workout as they try to follow him. Notice Camera 2 is Zoomar equipped. All are RCA TK11/31s. Typically, there were three cameras on stage, one at floor level at…

How NFL Games Are Covered…A Close Up Look At The Technology This excellent video gives us a detailed look at what goes into bringing football to the nation, including a very good look at the aerial camera systems. Some of the processes mentioned in today’s first post, on ESPN’s college bowl game coverage, is…

How ESPN Covered The Rose And Sugar Bowl…A Massive Effort Amazingly, they used two separate aerial camera systems, 400 people, 5 Game Creek trucks and 32 cameras just at the Rose Bowl. In today’s next post, there is some great video of how all this gets done, although it is for NFL coverage. Enjoy…

January 1, 1965…50 Years Ago Tonight! Television History Was Made! At 6:55 PM, New Years Day night, Soupy Sales did a one minute adlib that is still talked about. It was the famous “Green Pieces Of Paper” incident. Here, thanks to Barry Mitchell, is Soupy telling the story of the gag that almost cost…

Picture Parade #5…Ultra Rare Photo Of The First RCA TK60 This was taken at the NAB convention in early 1961 and shows the camera that was then known as the RCA TK12. It’s a little hard to see, but the side doors are made of the same ventilating metal mesh used on the top…

Picture Parade #4…Commercial Television’s First News Program, 1941 This picture of Lowell Thomas looks a lot like the one in #3, but there is a big difference. WNBT began commercial television operations on July 1, 1941 as the first fully-licensed commercial television station in the United States. That day, the call letters were changed…

Picture Parade #3…Television’s First News Cast, 1939 W2XBS would not become WNBT until 1941, but in 1939, Lowell Thomas began to simulcast his NBC Radio news report there. Since sponsors were not allowed on experimental television, he continued with news stories on TV while radio inserted an ad in the middle. This is in…

Picture Parade #2…Carol Burnett Accepting Her First Emmys This is either 1962 or 1963, but either way, she won! In ’62 she won for her work on ‘The Gary Moore Show’ and in ’63, she won for ‘Julie And Carol At Carnegie Hall’, her special with Julie Andrews. Enjoy, share and Happy New Year!…

Picture Parade #1…Classic! Behind The ‘Laugh In’ Joke Wall If you ever wondered what was behind the wall, wonder no more. Enjoy, share and Happy New Year! -Bobby Ellerbee Source

Everything Is Coming Up Roses! At 4 AM Pacific Time, rehearsals for the opening numbers begin in Pasadena. At 8 the, 126th Rose Parade starts (11 Eastern) and will be broadcast live on ABC, NBC, HGTV, KTLA5, Univision, Red TV, Family Net, Sky Link, and the Hallmark Channel. Below are a few shots from…