TV History

August 26, 1939…Major League Baseball Comes To Television 75 years ago today, the first professional baseball game was televised over NBC’s W2XBS in New York City. The game was between the Cincinnati Red and the Brooklyn Dodgers…the announcer was Red Barber. Here’s an interesting side note. Realizing the significance of the broadcast, Barber asked…

Although not a product of the RCA Broadcast Electronics Division, this portable color mini camera, as it turns out, was developed by RCA’s Astro Electronics Division. The Astro Electronics Division of RCA was formed in 1958 and was responsible for building SCORE…the world’s first communications satellite, five years before Telstar. Project SCORE (Signal Communications…

August 26 – August 29, 1968…Chicago Convention Riots To go a bit deeper into a story I posted here earlier today on the NBC color mini cameras…here are some of the unforgettable images from that gathering 46 years ago this week. I watched this all live as a 17 year old. Where were you?…

Ultra Rare! NBC’s Very First Mini Camera…1950 Although RCA and NBC engineers worked together on needed projects, NBC’s engineers were years ahead of RCA’s, in determining what new equipment was needed. RCA did have a mini camera in development at the time, NBC had one too. The NBC version was the round one you…

It’s Alive! This RCA TK30 Is Making Pictures Again! I’d heard that Ralph Sargent in Los Angeles had been working on restoring a TK30 and finally we have pictures and the story from Ralph as he told it on the Videokarma site. Thanks to our friend John Bolin for sending this along. Here’s what…

The NBC Mini Cameras… Earlier in the week, I posted a video that showed rare footage of ABC’s and CBS’s first self designed, black and white portable cameras. Here are a couple of NBC’s self designed cameras. The photo in front of the Democratic Convention sign is from 1964 and shows a small camera…

An Important FIrst And Last Event… Below is a photo of the first television drama to be done in color…it is also the last experimental colorcast. “To Live In Peace” was the episode title of the December 16, 1953 production of ‘The Kraft Television Theater’ and starred Anne Bancroft. It was done in color…

Television’s First Zoom Lens… This is the Walker Electra Zoom lens and is believed to be one of the first Joseph Walker made by hand in the late 1940s. Walker worked as a cinematographer with Frank Capra on over twenty films and held almost as many patents on optical and film related inventions. Over…

On Closer Examination…Something We All Missed Is Here! Last month, some collector friends and I were trying to put a date on the introduction of the Houston Fearless TD 3 pedestal. We all thought 1954 was probably the year the new lead counterweight pedestal debuted, but low and behold…look at this! Just this morning,…

Eyes Of A Generation Camera Collection…Part 1 Of 3 A few have recently asked to see my camera collection again, so here are 13 of the 16 cameras I have up and on display here at my home. This is the Camera Room with 3 more spilling into the Florida Room which are not…

The Story Of ‘The Hallmark Hall Of Fame’… If you want a story told right, let ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ tell it. From a few years back, here is their look back at one of television’s most watched and awarded programs ever. Did you know that over 25% of all of the Academy Award winners…

Marilyn Monroe….’Person To Person’ April 8, 1955 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 Vagabond…

Audrey Meadows…Her Television Debut With ‘Bob & Ray’ After appearing on the Broadway stage with Phil Silvers in ‘Top Banana’, Audrey and her friend Cloris Leachman each got a casting on NBC’s ‘Bob And Ray’ television show in 1951. At the link above, you’ll see her as Linda Lovely…a recurring role she played on…

‘I’ve Got A Secret’…The 1976 Primetime Fiasco In 1976, CBS decided to revive this perennial favorite as a summer replacement in their primetime lineup, and if it did well, they would consider it for a longer run. Unfortunately, it was up against ABC’s wildly popular ‘Happy Days’, and only four episodes aired from June…

On Set Communications 101… Long before the were intercoms and walkie talkies, there were DBMs…Damn Big Megaphones. The year is 1922 and the man in the center is Douglas Fairbanks. He is the star of the film being shot here, which is ‘Robin Hood’. The man about to speak into the DBM is Allan…

On The Road To The Final Four…CBS Sports, 1985 Here’s a short but sweet look at how CBS covered NCAA basketball back in 1985. This was the era of the Thomson cameras on the sports trucks and we’ll get a good look at everything. About half way in, one of the cameramen talks about…

MUST SEE! A True Genesis Moment In Visual Comedy! What you are about to see is the seed that grew into a forest. This single clip has been cited by Ernie Kovacs, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Rowan & Martin and Monty Python as the root of the comedic arts taking on the very medium…