TV History

Deep CBS Studio History…Part 1, The Dumont Camera Mysteries Occasionally, we see Dumont cameras in use on some early CBS soap operas. Some of us had thought CBS may have had a half dozen at Leiderkrantz Hall, but in fact, they were at the Dumont studios where CBS leased space for for daytime programs.…

One Of The Best, True Holiday Stories Ever…By Mark Evanier Our friend Mark, has been blogging on entertainment since 2000 and may be best known for this great oldtvtickets.com site, but here’s a great story he tells of a classic encounter with Mel Tormé. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee ***************************************************************************************** I want to tell…

December 25, 1937…Toscanini Debuts The NBC Symphony Orchestra Tom Lewis, in the Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, described NBC’s plan for cultural programming and the origin of the NBC Symphony: David Sarnoff, the president of RCA who had first proposed the “radio music box” in 1916 so that listeners might enjoy “concerts,…

Remember This? ‘The Chipmunk Song’… #1 December 1958 Did you know that David Seville was the stage name for Ross Bagdasarian? Bagdasarian was creator and voice of The Chipmunks. The year before he had a hit with ‘The Witch Doctor’…Oh e oo aha aha, ting tang walla walla bing bang, etc. The tape machine…

Colbert Awning Comes Down At The Home Of Truthyness…NEP Studio 54 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=49oALVGxIgU&feature=youtu.be The Colbert Report awning comes down from it’s New York studios, signaling the end of the show – December 22, 3015 Source

The Story Behind The Classic…”Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” This, one of my favorites, was introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 movie musical ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’. The song was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for a scene were Garland’s character, Esther, sings the bittersweet song to her little…

The Story Behind The Classic…”The Christmas Song” The Christmas Song was written in 1944 by musician, composer, and vocalist Mel Tormé and Bob Wells. The song was written during an incredibly hot summer in an effort to stay cool by thinking cold thoughts. “I saw a spiral pad on his Bob’s piano with four…

The Story Behind The Classic…”Santa Clause Is Coming To Town” Below is the first known recording of the song which came only days after it debuted. “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” was first performed by Eddie Cantor on his radio show in November 1934. The next day, there were orders for 100,000 copies…

Ultra Rare! The 1st Christmas Song Ever Recorded…Jingle Bells, 1898 We’ll get to how J. S. Peirpont came to write the song in Savannah, Georgia in a moment, but first a note on the recording. As noted in the video, a banjo player named Will Lyle made an instrumental version in 1889, but this…

Remember This Classic CBS Holiday ID From 1966? Back then, R. O. Blechman was best known for his magazine cover designs, especially his many ‘The New Yorker’ covers. CBS commissioned him to design a classy holiday ID with Willis Pyle doing the animation. Thanks to Alec Cumming for sharing this with us. Enjoy and…

Picture Parade #4…The Secret Word Is “Happy Holidays”! Source

NBC’s First Cameramen…Albert Protzman And Don Pike The man without glasses is NBC’s first ever cameraman, Albert Protzman. The second camera hire was Don Pike who is seen in this beautiful color closeup of an RCA A500 Iconoscope camera in NBC Studio 3H. Pike went on to become either the first or second ever…

Just For Fun…Bob Hope Special Shot With RCA TK60s, Excellent Crisp Video Above is a Hope special from September 25, 1964. Although it was shot in black and white, it looks spectacular! This was also done in Studio 1 at NBC Burbank, like the first color special he did there as seen in the…

Bob Hope’s First Every Color Special…Christmas 1965 Even though NBC had wanted him to do color shows earlier, Hope resisted because he was not only the star…he was the producer too, and color had higher production costs. This special with Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Janet Leigh and Nancy Wilson was shot in Studio 1…

Keeping “Warm” This First Day Of Winter…NBC Studio 1A Control Room Source

An Ironic (And Moe-ronic) Merry Christmas Wish From The Three Stooges… Moses Harry Horwitz, Louis Feinberg and Jerome Lester Horwitz. No matter the holiday you celebrate, may it be filled with joy! -Bobby Ellerbee Source

New ‘Saturday Night Live’ Time Lapse…From The Page Desk This is from the Halloween show this year with Jim Carry hosting. You will be quite surprised around the 1:40 mark! That’s when a pedestal camera leaves Studio 8H. So, either the studio is getting crowded or there will be a later live shot in…

December 21, 1937…’Snow White’ Debuts + TCM Disney Special News First…tonight on Turner Classic Movies, nine hours of Disney treasures are rolled out starting at 8 PM Eastern. More at this link…set your DVRs. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/tv-guy/os-disney-treasures-get-tcm-showcase-20141219-post.html This great 8 minute clip tells a lot of the story of the making of the film and at…