Life Magazine photos--CTC-5 as studio monitor?
 

Run, don't walk, to the new Google site that's posted millions (!) of Life Magazine photos.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Check this out:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...b377906d3f4a74

Is that a CTC-5 complete with legs hanging from the rafters? This came up on a search for "Dinah Shore. See also this great photo:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...dbab3f5e6ea4ef

Must be more treasures in there. Not sure if they're downloadable, though.

Jeff Martin
Chicago

That looks so cool! That is a CTC5, they just added the bracket to hang a regular console up in the ceiling. I wonder whatever happened to them?

Great photos!

super - thanks much!

One more CTC-5:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...9cb3b7d454201d

Keep poking around the site, and click the link on the right for "more images." These aren't very well indexed yet.

Wow ! Neat !

Wow, I'm digging these pictures. :thmbsp:

There is a cool series from 70 / 71 of rock musicians w/ parents at their parent's home. found by searching the 70's pictures using band names. Frank Zappa with parents! David Crosby with his dad:

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images...43b782_landing

This looks so cool! thanks for the link!

Most of you may not know that David Crosby's father, Floyd Crosby, was a famous and very important cinematographer in Hollywood (High Noon, Bus Stop, etc.). Before that he worked with Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North, Tabu, etc.) So when you crank up your CTC-5's you'll probably run into his work in both black and white and color.

Amazing! Type in "color tv" and see what shows up including this view of the rare CBS color wheel camera.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...b8b87029a2b498

and the color medical demos on CBS color scanning monitors

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...b8b87029a2b498

and this engineer doing a back-focus adjustment on a TK-40.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...27f279595e2e7f

This could be a whole new thread with finds.

Dave A

Thanks for posting the great photos. And for the link to the site. I worked, off and on at NBC Burbank in the early 60's. I don't recall the CTC-5 console audience monitors, but they had updated to later roundies that were off the shelf consumer table models, the low cost black metal RCA's, modified for a direct video feed.

-Steve D.

That shot of the doctors with the Westcott is really awesome!

Ditto, I have a Wescott too, one in the operating room looks brand new! Very very cool.

You boys is makin' me lust MIGHTILY for a CTC-5...Cut it out ! (grin)

Not a color set but check this one out!

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...3Doff%26sa%3DN

And this one, scary!! if it falls in the tub it's going to ruin that set!
http://images.google.com/hosted/life...3Doff%26sa%3DN

found a few more ctc5 'doctor' pics in there:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...5800baa68bbb13
http://images.google.com/hosted/life...5d6163d6cc9464
http://images.google.com/hosted/life...6a6f0b66cbc707

It'll also ruin that man's health, to say the least:D....

Argh, now yall got me wanting one of these beauties!

Neat photo find Dave. Based on the stuff in the background, it looks as though the TK-40 is one of the four that were at the Colonial theater in NYC when the b&w photo was taken December 1953. That arch on the upper right of the picture smells a lot like the arch in the Carmen set that was colorcast October 31, 1953, from the Colonial.

In that period, RCA/NBC had five color cameras it was using to develop color broadcasting. One in a small studio in Camden and four at the Colonial theater.

I could not find a reference number on the TK-40, but if it is camera #4, here is a plot of the spectral response of that camera, taken by the RCA labs on 21 March 1953.

Pete

Thanks for those links, Eric. I own one of those Sentinel TV-400s, and I grew up right next to Evanston, Illinois where they were built.

So many ways things could go wrong with that portable!

It sure seems odd the way they used those consoles. I would think the might of the Radio Corporation of America/National Broadcasting Company at its peak could have come up with something more appropriate. (But I also recall scratching my head watching SNL in the early 80s, displaying Sony monitors)

That Life site is going to be a huge time waster for me! I'm a real fan of the old magazine, and have boxes and boxes and boxes of the upstairs.

What she said.
 

Playing the game of Caption The Picture. :D

:lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:

Nice Beaver!

Anybody know how you can get around Google's 200-picture-per-search limit?

More from the LIFE archives. Picture shows techs wrangling a TK-40 or 41 color camera on Chapman crane at CBS TV City, Hollywood. Looking at the 1957 Dodge & Imperial autos in the background, this could have been a commercial shoot for the Chrysler sponsored "Shower of Stars" series broadcast in color.

LIFE: Backstage filming at CBS TV City. - Hosted by Google
Address:http://images.google.com/hosted/life...8f0ba8c16f123c

-Steve D.

All of this talk of common CTC5 sets! Hogwash! Has anyone noticed the great looking and seldom seen closeups of the TK41 cameras! And Dave A, great shot of the cameraman on the TK41! BTW, it's a TK41 or an "A" model. (No louvers on the side of the viewfinder) If the picture was taken in 1954 or earlier, possibly a TK-40 that had been painted silver.

Unless I just can't make out these pictures well enough with my eyes, how come these 'monitors' don't have holes where the channel and volume controls would have been? Are they perhaps CT-55's? They made those for only a month but they had the knobs on the front like the ones in these pics. (??)

NBC Matinee Theater in Production 1955
 

I have somewhere a photo taken in 1955 of NBC Matinee Theater in production from above the lighting grid as I remember and it shows what is probably a TK-40. That particular program was presented live in color every weekday afternoon on NBC in 1955-56 at I think 2 p.m. Checking my old TV Guides from that era of 1955 it was about the only regular color program on for a while in daytime and one of the few colorcasts at all except for specials. If i can find that photo I'll post it. When you see these old photos of these early color shows being done you wonder what happened to all the cameramen lucky enough to be there during that era. They would be in their mid 70's these days and would probably be interesting to talk to.

Hey bozey,

Just to help your search along, that picture, taken from the grid above the "Matinee Theater" set, was from a 2 page NBC-TV ad. Life magazine issue: Oct. 6, 1956. The series ran from Oct.31, 1955 - June 27, 1958. Over 650 episodes produced. Those camera operators could tell some horror stories doing a one hour daily live color telecast. This at a time when most daily live soaps, in B&W, were only 15 mins.long.

-Steve .

If I'm not mistaken those are 21CT55's hanging from the rafters. You can tell by the type of brass trim bezel around the safety glass. I can't see knobs, but inthe photo with Dinah and Ethel Merman, you can definitely see the control panel below the screen, and it is a 21CT55 in that photo for sure.

Have to agree w/ohohyodafarted. Those are 21-CT-55's hanging over the audience. I found another photo from the Dinah Shore archives that is a little brighter, shows a bit more detail
including the on/off/vol. and channel selector knobs.

LIFE: Dinah Shore - Chevy Show For The Midway - Hosted by Google
Address:http://images.google.com/hosted/life...7784c06c1a36dd

-Steve D.