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Eyes Of A Generation.com

The Password Is “Video Tape Center”…The Answer, Part 2

From time to time, all of the networks leased studio space in New York outside of their usual production facilities. In the early ’50s, CBS even leased a couple of studios at Dumont and that’s why occasionally, we see pictures of Dumont cameras on CBS sets. The ‘Password’ episode below was taped at Video Tape Center at the
67th Street Studios at 101 West 67th Street. NBC had leased that property in the early ’50s and that’s were ‘The Home Show’ with Arlene Francis (1954-1957) originated, as well as the ‘Concentration’ primetime version in 1958 in Studio A.

NBC sold the property in 1961 and it was bought by Ampex which owned The Video Tape Center. Ampex was also the US distributor for Marconi, thus the Mark IV cameras in the photos. They kept the property from 1961-1970 and more than likely the ‘Password’ video in the prior post was shot with Marconi Mark VII color cameras, although early on VTC had access to RCA TK41s as well via a mobile production truck parked outside. These photos are from the very early VTC days and show some RCA color equipment left by NBC and new Marconi CCUs as well. This building originally had four studios which were later converted to two.

Video Tape Center was always more than just a first class production house though. Ampex used the facility to develop new tape technologies as well, and what better place? A lot of innovate commercials came out of VTP including the Hertz spots that “put you in the drivers seat”. The linked spot was shot on film in Miami, but the fly in effect was achieved in the VTC studio and editing suites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4cseXC3ols

After VTC sold the property, this became ABC Studio TV-18/19 (1970 to 1990), and was the production facility for ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Live to Live’ before they moved to ABC TV-17. Demolished in 1995, the site is now the fifty story Millennium Tower apartment building.



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7 responses to “Video Tape Center”

  1. Brett R. Henry

    Packed away in a box somewhere (along with other ABC swag I collected through the years) is the three-ring binder ABC Phone Directory that was issued to me. It contained the phone extensions for ABC personnel at all of our O&Os, plus the overseas news bureaus (London, Paris, etc). It also included a map showing the street locations of TV18/19 and our other Manhattan broadcast facilities.

  2. Dave Miller

    You know the Video Tape Center may have made a dub off the CBS master and that’s what we see here. Wasn’t CBS New York color-challenged a bit in the early to mid ’60s?

  3. Chris Clementson

    The Password shows with Irene Ryan, Bob Crane and Donna Douglas were recorded at CBS Television City in Hollywood. Thanks to my good friend Nicholas Mooneyhan for the photo.

  4. Dave Miller

    See page 46 of this: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RCA-Broadcast-News/RCA-61.pdf The 101 West 67th Street space was originally built out for tv use by WOR-TV NY. The keyword is – like many buildings near NYC’s Central Park – is horses.

  5. Dave Miller

    And, to circle everything around, living in the Millennium Tower right now is the man who was once identified with W-NNNNNNNNN-B-C radio, Howard Stern. Regis Philbin, also.

  6. Brett R. Henry

    Here is a personal photo which I took in 1984 of the exterior of ABC TV-18/19. I was in NYC visiting HQ, approximately 3 weeks following the Summer Olympic Games in L.A.

  7. Dave Miller

    This was the same building where Steve Allen, directed by Dwight Hemion and produced by Bill Harbach began a little late night adventure for WNBC-TV, right? Sponsor was Knickerbocker Beer. The lineal ancestor to the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

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