You want "Early Color"??? This is about as Early as it gets...
 

...from June 25, 1951-- courtesy of the Google/Life magazine archive (now available on the web)... and restored by yours truly.

Enjoy...! :D

-Kevin

Very cool screenshots. :yes:

Got any pictures of the set as a whole?

Is that a CT-100 ?

Maybe it's a CBS color wheel set? I'd guess it's live photos taken way back when, Ed Sullivan was on CBS and there's that CBS test pattern.

infinite thanks for having published these very interesting photos! Thanks, thanks, thanks!

The CBS test wheel is distorted.
 

Was that normal standard then?

What can I say WOW!!!!! I have seen some 1954 CT-100 shots before but these are new and amazing to see!!!:D And that colour shot of Ed Sullivan Show (Toast Of The Town) would have to be the only known surviving piece of footage of that colour special, photograph but I still call it footage. Those puppets look like they could of been out of the Howdy Doody Show too. Thank you for sharing these with us!

Just Google 'premiere ed reitan' to get the info:

“Premiere” – The first Commercial CBS Color System Telecast - 16 Sponsors

June 25, 1951 4:35 P.M. – 5:30 P.M. This program followed five minutes of a color test pattern that started at 4:30 P.M. Entertainment portions originated from the CBS Color Studio 57, at 109th Street and Fifth Avenue, New York. Commercials were originated at another “theater” (location unidentified) with Frances Buss as director – possibly, the Faye Emerson segment was a remote from MOMA or CBS at 485 Madison Ave.

With: Arthur Godfrey, Faye Emerson, Sam Levenson, Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore, Robert Alda and Isabel Bigley (stars of Broadway’s new hit “Guys and Dolls”,), Bil Baird Marionettes, Sol Hurok’s New York City Ballet (arranged by George Balanchine), Patty Painter (“Miss Color Television”), Wayne Coy (Chairman of the FCC), William S. Paley (CBS Chairman), Frank Stanton (President of CBS), with Archie Bleyer’s Orchestra.

Sponsors for this first telecast were General Mills, Lincoln-Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company, Longines-Wittnauer Watch Company Inc., Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, William Wrigley Jr. Company, Revlon, Thomas J. Lipton Inc., National Biscuit Company, Standard Brands Inc., Quaker Oats Company, Best Foods Inc., Pepsi-Cola Company and Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company.

The only picture that doesn't seem to fit the 1951 scenario is the 'bloodshot' eye; didn't all those versions come later? The first time I saw one broadcast was in the early sixties, and it was a different version.

Pete

Thanks for the info, Pete--I've corrected the date in my original post.

And to answer an earlier question, sadly, I haven't found a shot of the monitors themselves... but from a performance standpoint, they look fine!!

-Kevin

Great stuff! I had no idea that there were color tests being done in New York in '51.

Anyone know when this might have been taken?

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...7af9730378a7b7

Actually if you search the Life archive at Google for color tv it returns a huge number of images of early RCA and CBS system images.

This is an early RCA test
http://images.google.com/hosted/life...c1161762e05620

and this image shows a CBS color camera in some detail:

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...4a2ddd9b8a25d1

Check this one out, large colour TV shot of a 1951 Pepsi ad!!!

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

Here's plenty more early colour screen shots from 1951!!!
http://images.google.com/images?&hl=...tart=0&ndsp=18