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September 7, 1957…NBC Debuts The Animated Living Color Peacock

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

September 7, 1957…NBC Debuts The Animated Living Color Peacock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug9ndBnWi9A
At the link is the original version. This animated film clip rolled at NBC for the first time at the start of “Your Hit Parade” which originated from The Ziegfeld Theater, and the voice belongs to legendary NBC announcer Ben Grauer. The animation was done by Electra Film Labs in New York City. The man who designed the peacock is John J. Graham. Below is a rare set of photos and the story of John Graham’s development of most of NBC’s dramatic logos, including “The Snake”. Enjoy and share!


http://big13.com/NBC%20Peacock/NBCPeacock1.htm

First, a huge thanks to our friend Mike Clark and his great “Big 13” website for this amazing, rare and unique story on the peacock and it’s creator, John Graham. At the link, you will see one of a kind images of the original artwork that Mike got from Graham’s son, Bruce.

With the help of our mutual friend David Schwartz, one of television’s top historians, Mike lays out the complete behind the scenes story like you will never see anywhere else. This is a “must see” effort and even includes the development of the NBC Snake logo, the first 1954 color chimes logo, the ‘Laramie Peacock’ animation and much more.

I’ve pulled out a few of the historic peacock photos because today is the 57th anniversary of that animations use at the top of ‘Your Hit Parade’, but you’ll want to see rest! Thanks to Mike Clark for this great effort and for letting us see it. More on the photos. Enjoy and please share this! – Bobby Ellerbee

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5 responses to “September 7, 1957…NBC Debuts The Animated Living Color Peacock”

  1. Josiah Gluck

    This might have already been asked and answered, but there’s that special, animated peacock color logo when the peacock sneezes and loses his feathers.
    What was the show that was made for?

  2. Darren Thornton

    A peacock showed up in our neighborhood 11 years ago. I see him nearly every day. Opening up appears to be a defensive mechanism. Every year he sheds his tail feathers, but gets new ones. He has a very eclectic diet, doesn’t like loud noises, and once ran off a fox.

  3. Robert Barker

    I have a fantastic version of it on a Howdy Doody Show DVD from 2000 with the complete broadcast, including studio chatter, from the final show in October 1960. Now it’s made my realize how much I miss the early days of DVD in the late 90s, early 2000s. I thought that Howdy Doody DVD would be the precursor to many more color videotape releases from the late 50s. Of course it was not meant to be. The only other early peacock version I found was on a small series of The Ford Show released by the Tennessee Ernie Ford estate. These are entertaining but there was no restoration done and don’t look all that great on a larger HD screen. Now that DVD is practically a spent medium, you realize how little early color we ever did get commercially. Some Andy Williams shows, and that’s about it. Still no Fred Astaire Specials for the public. I know there’s other material out there but unfortunately we’re on this strange technological precipice, where DVD is fading in our rear view mirror, but the ‘next big thing’ to replace it, didn’t. Other than movies and straight documentaries, there doesn’t appear to be a market yet for downloading a collection like Monty Python with bonus features, etc. It’s a strange, frustrating time. Very tasty things are probably just sitting in a vault, or in some collector’s hand, waiting for commercial viability.

  4. James Patrick

    This is great info. Thank you for posting.

  5. Barry Mitchell

    NBC Peacock: The Untold Story
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9zHSjt_2IM

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