1948 Eye Witness episode (featuring Vladmir Zworykin) on YouTube!

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day all.

Just found an excellent 1948 kinescope recording of Eye Witness "The Story Behind Television" on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-JDU6cdA_8 !!! This episode towards the end features Vladmir Zworykin and his development of his television camera tubes from the iconoscope to the image orthicon and some of his tubes were displayed on the show and a couple of 16mm film telerecordings of his early experimental iconoscopes were featured!!! On display were his prototype iconoscopes and the official 1850 iconoscope, a prototype orthicon tube and the official orthicon tube, the 3" image orthicon and a mini image orthicon tube!!! Another thing I realize with this program is it was shot with iconoscope cameras instead of image orthicon cameras as there was the distinct iconoscope shading effects in the picture and there was no haloing on the highlights, it is extremely rare to find a kinescoped program shot with iconoscope cameras!

Anyhow enjoy the show!!!

[Penthode]

This must be one of the earliest kinescope recordings I have ever seen. The Image Orthicon should have been well established at this point. But the pictures look very iconoscopish: eg there is distinct shading and no image orthicon halos.

What is also very interesting is that it appears to be an "off-the-line" recording from WNBT New York. Note the weather spot and the announcement which was cut off at the end of the program.

I understand RCA introduced Kinescope recording in 1948. The program host, NBC stalwart Ben Grauer, also hosted the Toscanini March 25, 1948 live concert broadcast which was also kinescoped and later released on VHS and DVD by BMG. Remember too that the 1948 Olympics in London was kinescoped by the BBC.

This was probably earlier than this and may have dated from late '47 or very early '48. I wish there was more information on this.

[old_tv_nut]

Thanks for posting! By this generation of copying, it's hard to tell what was live and what film, other than the stop frame of the fencers had to be film. But both live and film must have been televised using iconoscopes.

I always get a chuckle hearing the typical mid-twentieth-century overly-dramatic theme music on some of these industrial films/programs.

[Telecruiser]

Thanks for posting the link. It was fascinating.

[Rinehart]

RCA put Kinescope recorders on the market in the fall of 1947. There are a handful of Kinescope films from that date; in addition there are a few that seem to date from the spring or summer of '47.
Brooks and Marsh's Directory to Prime Time TV Shows, mentions this particular episode and dates it February of 1948.

[NewVista]

What model studio Camera is that ?

[Rinehart]

It seems to be a prewar General Electric Iconoscope. I got these from "The Eyes of a Generation" web site. The colour photograph was taken in the Schenectady Museum. The model number isn't mentioned.

[NewVista]

Amazing, That is one RARE camera .
Couldn't understand why NBC didn't have an RCA
Could see circle badge but didn't seem to be RCA
But a GE would make sense for NBC

[Rinehart]

Yes, I wondered about that myself. I'm guessing here that the fencing scene was shot for some other purpose and is used here as stock footage. In 1948 I.O. cameras were rapidly supplanting Iconoscopes, and because there is no mention of them, it suggests that the film might have been shot long before the broadcast. The GE shield on the side of the camera suggests that it might have been done at W2XB/WRGB, which had a coaxial link to WNBT very early on.
Like I say, it's only guesswork on my part.

[Dude111]

A good video,thank you!

[Rinehart]

The fencing sequence with the antiquated GE cameras was taken from "Television Tomorrow", a public information film made while the Second World War was still going on. At the time, WRGB was one of the few stations on the air that still did live productions.