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New, Ultra Rare! Color Shots Of Early NBC Mobile Color Tests…

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

New, Ultra Rare! Color Shots Of Early NBC Mobile Color Tests…

On January 1, 1954, two NBC Color Mobile Units telecast The Rose Parade from Pasadena, to the nation, in color. Very few saw it in color, but that was the first use of these trucks.

As you will see in the attached “NBC Chimes” magazine article, the NBC Color Caravan set out on a 10 week journey, with dozens of color remote stops along the way. The caravan started June 10 in St. Louis and ended in Maryland August 11.

On July 15 and 16, the 18 man crew was in Washington DC for a look at the nation’s shrines, but before the left, that is where they “rehearsed” a few things.

These photos are from April of 1954, and show the trucks and crew testing some new remote innovations, like this this cool dolly track, before they hit the road. You can tell by the trees, this was around cherry blossom time.

These rare images are from NBC Washington TD Bill Wells, who was there from 1947 till the mid 70s. Thanks to Tom Buckley for sharing these with us. -Bobby Ellerbee

In April of 1954, color is so new, the camera is mounted on a friction type pan head…the new double wide cradle heads were not available until the first shipments of TK40s went out in later that month, but this TK40 does have the vented viewfinder hood that the factory began to make for the TK41 which debuted later in ’54.
You have to admit, this track idea is pretty cool. I’ve never seen one of these before or since. Anyone ever seen these in use for television remotes? The movie guys used them all the time, but this is quite unique.
OK, now we see the single wide cradle heads, but not the double wide for the TK40. Houston Fearless made the first single wide prototypes in 1953 for the TK40 at The Colonial Theater. They were better than the friction heads for these 350 pound cameras, but the double wide was needed. HF had designed the cradle for the , b/w cameras, and thought they may work with the color version, but the weight and width demanded more.
Wouldn’t you love to see the inside of this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen pix of the inside, have you?
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6 responses to “New, Ultra Rare! Color Shots Of Early NBC Mobile Color Tests…”

  1. Zsuzsi Szucs

    Unreal look at the camera fantastic.

  2. Michael Bruchas

    Look at that big honkin’ dolly track!

  3. Robert Barker

    Sixty-two freakin’ years ago. Wow.

  4. John Coleman

    The Busch estate at St Louis is known locally simply as Grant’s Farm. This website has several photos of the Color Caravan at Grant’s Farm: http://www.grantsfarm.com/history/events.html You can see the dolly track in action again, as well as a huge microwave tower that probably relayed the signal back to downtown St. Louis and into the AT&T cable.

  5. Paul Benjamin Mills

    And I thought aligining two tracks was tough.

  6. Terry Brown

    Can we get a side-by-side with a GoPro?

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