TV History

The History Of Live Pool Splashdown Coverage…Part 2B 30 year NBC Burbank veteran John Olson took the two color photos on the Apollo 10 recovery ship, the USS Princeton in May of 1969. On the left is one of NBC’s 35 Norelco PC 70s that were custom engineered by “Mr Tube”, Fred Himelfarb…NBC’s in…

The History Of Live Pool Splashdown Coverage…Part 2A Our friend Jodie Peeler has written a great three part story on this subject with lots of detail, linked video and photos that I am proud to present here. Unlike today, bringing live television pictures from a ship at sea was a whole new ballgame and…

Absolutely, Positively…The “Florida Showcase” Location It’s taken a month and a few false starts, but we finally have the exact location of the Florida Showcase space which was home of the ‘Today’ show from 1962-1965. Thanks to our own “NBC, on the scene, reporter” Dennis Degan, who took this photo on the left on…

‘The Actors Studio’, ABC’s First “Prestige” Drama Showcase At 8:30 Sunday night, September 28, 1948, this half hour anthology series kicked off with ‘Portrait Of Madonna’, starring Jessica Tandy and Dick York. In the center photo, we see director David Pressman on the left, holding a mic as he talks to the studio during…

The History Of Live Pool Splashdown Coverage…Part 1B Tampa’s CBS affiliate WTVT had a mobile unit that was so good, even NBC used it on their ‘Today’ show trips to Florida, but the unit’s usefulness did not stop at the water’s edge. Prior to being aboard for November 1965’s, first live splash down coverage…

The History Of Live Pool Splashdown Coverage…Part 1A Our friend Jodie Peeler has written a great three part story on this subject with lots of detail, linked video and photos that I am proud to present here. Unlike today, bringing live television pictures from a ship at sea was a whole new ballgame and…

The Eyes Of A Generation Camera Collection Video Tour It’s been a while since I posted this walking tour of my camera collection, and a few of you have asked me to post it again, so here it is. There are 16 cameras on display in my camera room and this was shot a…

Last of the Mohicans? Neither I, Chuck Pharis or Jim Elyea at History For Hire know of any surviving Houston Fearless 30B stage cranes left in the US. This crane was recently rescued by Cinephonics Props Hire in the UK as it was almost scrapped, along with a lot of other equipment from the…

Inside CBS Studio 42…1940 These rare photos from 1940 are some of the first ever of CBS television operations from their new studios, and were most likely taken in Studio 42, as it was 1,000 square feet bigger than Studio 41. In 1939, W2XAB (now WCBS) began broadcasting with an all electronic system it…

Ultra Rare! CBS Studio 42 (Grand Central) Spec Sheets Our thanks again to Gady Reinhold for these 1960 CBS information sheets. This, and Studio 41 were the only two live production studios on the third floor at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue. As noted yesterday, Studios 42 ad 43 were actually “Program Control” rooms where all…

Location, Location, Location #1 Finally, we know the location of the first ‘Steve Allen Show’ that debuted on NBC New York’s local station, WNBT. Before Allen became host of the first incarnation of ‘Tonight’, which began on September 24, 1954 at The Hudson Theater, his Knickerbocker Beer show had hit the air locally the…

New York-Boston Microwave Relay Inaugurated…February 1948 On Monday, I posted a map of NBC’s television network from July 1, 1948 which for the first time included Boston. Thanks to Bill Neese, here an article on that link up from a February 1948 Bell Telephone publication. The map showed that aside from Boston, Baltimore, Washington…

Ultra Rare! CBS Studio 43 And 44 (Grand Central) Spec Sheets Yesterday, I showed you Studio 41 and tomorrow, we’ll see Studio 42. Today we are going to look at “Studio” 43 and 44 which are actually control rooms. This has caused some confusion over the years as the Grand Central location has always…

First Ever Televised Academy Awards…March 19, 1953 The 25th Academy Awards ceremony was not only live on television for the first time, it was live from Los Angeles and New York for the first time too! In the west, Bob Hope hosted from the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood, and Frerdric March hosted in…

Just For Fun…Network News Bloopers NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, correspondents, cameramen and congressmen…Donaldson, Schieffer, Brinkley, Mitchel, Jennings, Brokaw, Koppel, Rather, Wallace, Hume and more of network news’ best in funny rare moments. First is the 1980s original “Tapes Of Wrath” followed by 1991’s “Tapes Of Wrath” parts 1,2 and 3. These were produced for…

The CBS Grand Central “Long Tongue” Boom Arm In the late 40s, CBS customized a few of their Houston Fearless Panoram dollies by extending the boom arm by two feet. On the left, you can see the added counter weight at the base of the boom and on the right, you can see the…

Ultra Rare! CBS Studio 41 (Grand Central) Spec Sheets…1960 At 44′ X 60′, this is the smaller of the two studios at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue. The CBS Grand Central studios were on the third floor and the scenery door was on Depew Place at the building’s southeast entrance. CBS had been in this location…

Director Jerry Foley…’The Late Show With David Letterman’ http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0902-Summer-2009/Television-Directing-David-Letterman.aspx If you can imagine paving a road while staying ten feet in front of a car going eighty miles and hour, you get an idea of what Jerry Foley’s job is like. Jerry took over ‘Late Night’ directing duties from Hal Gurnee in 1995, but…

The Great Carsoni… While were showing clips of great late night hijinx with cameras in the frame, here’s a look at a TK44, as Johnny chases down producer Fred De Cordova. Fred was a pro and knew when to run. He’d started in television in 1950 as the director of shows like ‘The Jack…

Director Glenn Weiss…One Hell Of A Show! Must See TV! Although it’s Oscar week, we are also featuring television directors this week too. This fantastic video clip is from the Emmy winning Tony Awards show of 2012 and not only shows the awesome on camera performance by Neil Patrick Harris, but also the scene…