TV History

Follow Up…Inside The RCA A500 Iconoscope Camera A few days back, I posted a rare color photo of the RCA A500 in use in NBC’s Studio 3H in the early 1940s. Here is the patent application diagram that shows the inside of the camera. On the left is the lens housing and on the…

Live From NBC’s Colonial Theater…’Saturday Color Carnival’, 1957 After months of searching, I finally know the story behind this fabulous photo array! This is NBC’s ‘Saturday Color Carnival: A Salute To Baseball’! This was done live from the Colonial Theater in the early spring of 1957. I think the cameras are the original four…

Rare Layouts Of NBC’s First Studios…711 5th Avenue In 1925, RCA spent $1 million to buy New York’s WEAF Radio from AT&T and shortly after bought WJZ . In late 1926 RCA announced the creation of a new division known as The National Broadcasting Company. The new division was divided in ownership among RCA…

“Gort! Klaatu Barada Nikto!” Just for fun, here is a rare production shot from the 1951 classic ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’. Peeking out of the forty pound Gort costume is 7′ 7″ Joseph “Lock” Martin. Before the film rolls, wardrobe will add his visor and gloves. Martin could only handle a half…

‘All In The Family’…A Rare Shot On The Set Oddly, there are very few pictures of this show in production and this is one I just recently found. I think this is from the first or second season which came from CBS Television City Studio 31. Starting with season three, the show began to…

Tonight’s The Night At ESPN…DC 2 Goes Live At 11 Tonight at 11, the brand new 194,000-square-foot, five-studio media center called Digital Center 2 goes live. ESPN’s current studio was built in 2004…it’s just a decade old and already is being treated as outdated. There’s more at the link to this Boston Globe story…

Goodby Center Theater…Hello US Rubber Building In 1950, The Center Theater became an NBC television theater and was heavily used till it closed and was demolished in 1954 to allow US Rubber to expand their Rockefeller Center offices. Thanks to Jodie Peeler, here are couple of interesting photos from 1959 that show the new…

A Little Local Color…WSB TV, Atlanta On Thursday, December 16, 1965, WSB broadcast it’s first local color show with one RCA TK42. The show was ‘Today In Georgia’ hosted by television and radio veteran Ruth Kent. TIG aired at 9AM weekdays and was on for many years…I remember it well. By the way, I…

Ultra Rare Closeup…The RCA A500 Iconoscope Camera This magnificent color photo was taken in NBC Studio 3H in the early 1940s. (Be sure and see the Comment Section of this post for more pix and video.) More on the cameras in this studio in a moment, but first…let’s take a good look at this.…

The Famous Casey Kasem Rant…XXX Rated Audio I first heard this in 1982 when I was on the air at Atlanta’s 96 Rock. Our morning man was the person the ‘WKRP’ character Dr. Johnny Fever was based on…Skinny Bobby Harper. Bobby played it for me in the production studio and we laughed till we…

“Easy Lover”…The Making Of A Music Video, 1984 Style Here’s Phil Collins and Earth, Wind And Fire lead singer Phillip Bailey recording their 1984 duet in London. I think these are Ikegami 323 model cameras. The song was released in the US in November of ’84 and in the UK in February of ’85.…

‘This Is Your Life’…Richard Wagstaff Clark, June 24, 1959 Fifty seven years ago this week, America got it’s first good look at Dick Clark…their favorite television disc jockey, with the help of Andy Williams, Fabian, Connie Francis and Frankie Avalon. You’ll also meet Dick’s family and the many of the WFIL people that helped…

June 20, 1948…Ed Sullivan’s CBS TV Debut, ‘Toast Of The Town’ Before there was ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’, there was ‘Toast Of The Town’ which debuted on this date 66 years ago today. This is a very rare photo from that first show which aired from 9 till 10, Sunday nights live from CBS…

Television History…In Stunning Living Color! Ultra Rare Details! I’ve seen this image before, but never with such literal and figurative clarity. Let me tell you the secrets this pristine color photo reveals. First, this is the first color photo taken at RCA and NBC’s first non experimental color studio…The Colonial Theater. It is also…

CBS Television City: Studio 31, 1960 I’ve been meaning to post this since the great ‘Price Is Right’ videos a week or so ago. Although TPIR is done in Studio 33, 31 was a mirror image until the audience area was filled in 1961. The audience capacity of each…31 and 33 was 347. The…

‘I’ve Got A Secret’…Tour Of CBS Studio 59, June 17, 1959 Fifty five years ago this week, ‘I’ve Got A Secret’ was celebrating it’s seventh anniversary on the air at CBS. To mark the occasion, Garry Moore takes us on a tour of The Mansfield Theater, better known to us as CBS Studio 59…

Move Over Bob Barker…There’s A New Champion In Town! This past Friday, Alex Trebek set the record for hosting the most game show episodes. Until then, that distinction had been Bob Barker’s. At the embedded clip is ABC’s story on the event and at the clip link below, Trebek talks about breaking the record…

Television’s First Rate Card… July 1, 1941 is the day NBC’s experimental station, W2XBS began commercial broadcasting as WNBT, New York. The call letters W2XBS meant W2XB-south, with W2XB being the call letters of the first experimental station, started a few months earlier at General Electric’s main factory in Schenectady, which is north of…