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The Cradle Head Patent
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Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention…The Cradle Head Patent The Fearless Camera Company and RCA had a good thing going… Fearless (later, Houston Fearless) built the support equipment and RCA’s built the cameras and distributed for Fearless. As you can see in the photo on the right, the first experimental TK40 color cameras used…
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A Final Goodnight…
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A Final Goodnight… Soon Jay Leno will join this list, but for now, here are Walter Cronkite, Douglas Edwards, Johnny Carson, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rater, Peter Jennings, Bob Barker, Larry King, Mary Hart, Oprah and Regis signing off for the last time. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MhrWM0__M From Walter Cronkite to (just recently) Regis Philbin, here is…
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One Of My Favorites
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One Of My Favorites Here’s a bank of RCA TK11s at Television City going through the registration process. They are probably am out of range grey scale chart. No, there are not 10 lenses per camera…only four, but there are six small “face lights” on the front of each unit. Even with the best…
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In The Beginning…CBS STUDIO CITY
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In The Beginning…CBS STUDIO CITY Below left is the original property as it looked in 1926 as the Mack Sennett Studios. On the left, a rendering of how it looks now and at the link, a guided tour via an animated map. Here’s the history. http://www.cbssc.com/map.htm The year was 1926 and plans for a…
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The Fearless Camera Pedestal Patent
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The Fearless Camera Pedestal May 23, 1949 Ray Wilcox and Bruce Dalton submitted their patent application for television’s second ever camera pedestal, but the first to use the now standard center steering ring. The patent was assigned to their employer, the Fearless Camera Company in Culver City, CA. The up and down action for…
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Who Knew? The Story Of Kay Thompson & Andy Williams
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Who Knew? The Story Of Kay Thompson & Andy Williams Meet the lady behind Andy Williams…Kay Thompson. Today, some may call her a “cougar”, but back in the 40s, she was a tiger! Andy and his three older brothers—Bob, Don, and Dick, (pictured below with Kay) formed The Williams Brothers quartet in late 1938,…
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Andy Williams…The One And Only
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Andy Williams…The One And Only If you didn’t see this show in it’s original run from 1962 through 1971, it’s hard to understand how good he was as a host and singer and how good the show was, in every way. In the next post, I’ll cover some background most us never knew but…
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The Technical Story Of The Hindenberg Crash Audio Recording
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The Technical Story Of The Hindenberg Crash Audio Report On May 6, 1937, history was made at Lakehearst, NJ and had it not been for two men from Chicago’s WLS Radio, all we would have is silent newsreel footage of the event. This was more of a human interest story than news, because the…
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Television’s First Camera Pedestal…November 1936
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Designed by Alda V Bedford and Knut J Magnusson, the patent assignment went to RCA which I think was their employer. It was a surprise to me that the lifting column is powered by an electric motor located in the base, and the up and down action is controlled in the left panhandle of…
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A Pioneer In Every Way…Ernie Kovacs
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A Pioneer In Every Way…Ernie Kovacs Below is a screen shot from one of his last appearances before his death in a car crash in January of 1962. Beginning in April ’61, Kovacs hosted regular specials on ABC which were considered his best works ever and won an Emmy for his innovative special effects…
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You Mean Mayberry Isn’t In North Carolina?
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You Mean Mayberry Isn’t In North Carolina? Sorry to burst your bubble, but here’s an aerial shot from 1963. Source
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WHDH Boston, The Big Move To Color
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WHDH Boston, The Big Move Below left is Keith Jordine of WHDH and on the right is RCA tech John Cimba making ready for the debut of their new color facilities in 1960. The videotape recorder is the RCA TRT 1B, which occupied five rack panels plus one more for color. Thanks to Maureen…
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The 1937 RCA Iconoscope Camera, Patent Diagrams
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The interior view in the previous post is the most revealing of the four images, but these are also interesting. On the left, we have the view from the top, with 12 showing the focus control portion of the right rear pan handle and 21 denoting the red and green tally lights on the…
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The 1942 GE Iconoscope Camera…Rear View
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On the back side, things are a little crude on the outside, but inside…state of the art. That pitiful looking viewfinder allows the operator to see an optical image on a ground glass screen. Like the image on the Iconoscope tube (right), it is also inverted and backward meaning panning left with the camera…
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The 1943 GE Iconoscope Camera…Front View
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From the front, this camera and the RCA Iconoscope are quite different, yet have one thing in common. On the left is a close up of the dual lenses with the top lens feeding the optical viewfinder and the bottom lens feeding the Iconoscope tube…that is what they have in common. The big difference…
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‘The Dick Cavett Show’
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‘The Dick Cavett Show’ That had been the title of several shows hosted by Cavett on several networks, but his longest run and best known version was the late night show that ran against Johnny Carson from December of ’69 till January ’75. That show was done in New York from ABC TV 15…
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RCA TK10 “Taking Lens”
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Take Your Best Shot In this photo, the RCA TK10 has a wide angle opening shot of the man’s desk top and will probably tilt up to show his face. The “taking lens” is the lens in front of the IO tube which on the TK10 and TK30 was the top center position. In…
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‘The Big Party’, CBS Studio 33, October 8, 1959
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‘The Big Party’, CBS Studio 33, October 8, 1959 https://archive.org/details/TheBigParty1959 At the link is the entire 90 minute show which was the debut of this monthly program sponsored by Revlon. This still shows the half ramp installed for the Houston Fearless crane. When Television City opened, 31 and 33 had permanent camera ramps all…
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The Business End Of An RCA Camera
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The Business End Of An RCA Camera From 1946 till around 1966, most cameras around the world were four lens turrets. The most common array of lenses was the 8 1/2 inch, 135mm, 90mm and 50mm. The turret was first used on the RCA TK30s and TK10s. The last RCA with a turret was…
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A True Rarity! RCA’s First Image Orthicon Prototype Camera
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This amazing photo is from October 1945…12 months before the introduction of the RCA TK30. The camera at the bottom has an experimental Image Orthicon tube in it and is being compared to RCA’s Orthicon camera. WWII ended September 1945 and as a treat, a rodeo was staged Madison Square Gardens by RCA for…
