Question about ABC News' coverage of RFK's assassination in 1968

[spencerkarter85]

I like to ask a question for the experts. I've watched clips of the big three network coverage of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1920-1968) giving his final victory speech at the now-demolished Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California on June 5, 1968 after winning the California Presidential Primary in the Democratic Party. I know that NBC and CBS broadcasted his final speech using color television cameras before he was fatally wounded. But ABC broadcasted his speech using B&W television cameras (unlike CBS and NBC) why? Budget values or Color cameras at ABC were unavailable to used at the time?

I've watched clips of ABC News California Primary coverage from 1968 (anchored by the late greats Howard K. Smith and Bill Lawrence in NYC) and the studios in NYC were in Color. But how odd? Another clip where Howard K. Smith interviews RFK in LA via the ABC studios in NYC, they showed Howard K. Smith in the studios in color and chroma-key background of RFK (in B&W) along with then ABC News correspondent Bob Clark. Here's the video. http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/rfk-final-interviews-california-primary-1968-10117334

Here's RFK's final victory speech broadcasted on ABC on 6/5/1968. Unfortuantely, not in color. http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/rfk-california-victory-speech-assassination-10118429

 

[wbhist]

It would seem that some of ABC's remote units still had live B&W (RCA TK-60, most likely, given that the pic quality was still better than the older I/O's) cameras as of '68, or otherwise their remote unit wasn't hooked up to transmit color, or whatever. (However, the B&W camera used as RFK was giving his acceptance speech seemed more TK-10/30 or 11/31 in pic quality.) Certainly, their feed was unique from NBC's or CBS's.

I noticed that as far as NBC's color cameras at the Ambassador were concerned, they were Norelco PC-70 cameras with the layout of their logo as on their RCA TK-41's. (The PC-70 in use by NBC at the Ambassador also had the "Norelco" logo nameplate removed - which seemed to be a quid-pro-quo for CBS removing RCA's "meatball" logo plates off the TK-10/30 and TK-11/31 cameras in the late 1940's and early '50's.) ABC was still scattershot in terms of their equipment in those days. The in-studio shots with Smith and Lawrence seemed to suggest PC-70 picture quality.

 

[wbhist]

P.S. Another factor was indeed budgetary - ABC had a mountainous challenge converting to color, compounded in those days by the fact that financially, they were the weakest of the three networks, unlike CBS or NBC.

 

[spencerkarter85]

Here's a similar situation of B&W and Color intergration. From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during a February 12, 1970 TV News Special on CanCon laws. (Canadian Content for short by the CRTC) The studios where Gordon Donaldson and the late Norman DePoe were moderators in this panel discussion were shot in B&W. But the press confrence with Pierre Juneau (who was the head of the CRTC at the time I think) were shot on color (colour) videotape (or film). Also, then-CBC VP for Corperate Affairs Ron Fraser in the CBC's Ottawa studios in color on the 12:39 mark.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Is there a chance some of those were b/w kinescopes that were originally aired in color?

 

[hubcity]

I guess, editorially speaking, "get the shot" trumped "get the shot in color." An earlier example of running with what was available can be seen on the Tonight Show celebration of New Year's Eve 1964-65; Johnny Carson and friends are in color, but shots from Times Square are in B&W. So are some commercials, for that matter.

Here's the fifteen-minute pre-Johnny segment with Ed McMahon and Skitch Henderson, plus a number of the commercial breaks from that broadcast and the ball-drop itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn5NvC2-zQY

 

[LKellerIII]

I bow to the more knowledgeable experts, but I would think that the RFK assassination coverage on ABC was broadcast in color - all 3 networks were broadcasting 100% color by '68. Perhaps the tapes werre archived in black and white. I don't know why this happened, but I do recall that when Johnny Carson would do anniversary shows in the 80s and 90s - and run 60s era Tonight Show clips - they were usually in B&W, despite the fact that Carson had always been broadcast in color. So NBC either saved the show only in B&W for some reason...or the clips came from non-NBC sources.

I do recall that some bean-counter idiot at NBC in the 70s decided to get rid of most of the old Tonight Show tapes - and Carson was really angry about it - so it's possible that the anniversary retro footage was originally saved in color, just was no longer available, and Carson got the tapes from some other source.

A bit of history - the site of the Ambassador Hotel is now the Robert F. Kennedy Community School.

 

[cwf1701]

Another Question, Since the first bulletins came into all the networks after many eastern and Central time affiliates and O&O signed off for the night, Did any O&O (or affiliates) sign back on as early as 3:15-3:30 eastern or did they sign on at their usual sign on time and go straight to the network?

 

[ixnay]

A bit of history - the site of the Ambassador Hotel is now the Robert F. Kennedy Community School.

Did (too much) association with the assasination drive the Ambassador Hotel out of business, or did it simply relocate?

ixnay

 

[spencerkarter85]

The Ambassador Hotel closed in the late 1980s.

 

[firepoint525]

I like to ask a question for the experts. I've watched clips of the big three network coverage of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1920-1968)

Not to nitpick, but RFK's life dates were 1925-1968. He was 42 at the time of his death. Had not reached his 43rd birthday yet. 42 seems young to run for president now.

Did (too much) association with the assasination drive the Ambassador Hotel out of business, or did it simply relocate?

Interesting question. The Lorraine Motel in Memphis (site of Martin Luther King assassination just a couple of months earlier) has since become a civil rights museum. Without that notorious history, the Lorraine would probably have fallen victim to the wrecking ball years ago. Its history is likely what saved it, although not as an actively functioning hotel.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I like to ask a question for the experts. I've watched clips of the big three network coverage of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1920-1968)

Not to nitpick, but RFK's life dates were 1925-1968. He was 42 at the time of his death. Had not reached his 43rd birthday yet. 42 seems young to run for president now.

Did (too much) association with the assasination drive the Ambassador Hotel out of business, or did it simply relocate?

Interesting question. The Lorraine Motel in Memphis (site of Martin Luther King assassination just a couple of months earlier) has since become a civil rights museum. Without that notorious history, the Lorraine would probably have fallen victim to the wrecking ball years ago. Its history is likely what saved it, although not as an actively functioning hotel.

long time "residents" of that hotel were evicted

 

[davalvideo]

During its coverage of the RFK speech at the Ambassador Hotel, ABC was relying on its affiliate KABC to provide the pictures, and all of KABC's remote cameras, including its "portable camera" which showed RFK walking to the ballroom, were black and white cameras. that's why ABC's Los Angeles coverage was all in black and white. During its coverage of the RFK funeral and burial, whenever you saw color coverage that was not studio originated, it was most likely a network pool feed.

 

[pqgeorge]

Here's the actual footage, aired the following day on ABC. You'll recognize ABC's Stephen Bell next to KRKD/Mutual reporter Andrew West. West was the one who recorded that historical tape ("Get the gun, get the gun........."). The ABC feed at the Ambassador Hotel was originally broadcast in black and white as local O+O KABC-TV (Channel 7) still used black and white cameras for remote shots. Otherwise, ABC News was already equipped for color broadcasting.

http://youtu.be/bsYLelmN6BA


"The Joey Bishop Show" had Andrew West as a guest the following evening, just a few hours before Sen. Kennedy died of his wounds.. They aired the recording in its' entirety with film accompanying it. Probably one of the best non-comedic shows Joey ever did. I have a audio recording of that show in my files. I was 8 years old at the time and watched it all. I never forgot that night.

 

[epaddon]

Another Question, Since the first bulletins came into all the networks after many eastern and Central time affiliates and O&O signed off for the night, Did any O&O (or affiliates) sign back on as early as 3:15-3:30 eastern or did they sign on at their usual sign on time and go straight to the network?

That would have only applied to CBS since as far as I have been able to determine, CBS was the only one of the three networks that signed off its primary coverage before RFK even made his speech (this was because CBS had made a clear projection of RFK as the winner whereas NBC and ABC had not due to the fact that there was a breakdown in vote tabulation from LA County) and had to get back on the air after the shooting.

ABC was in the process of signing off in that they wrapped coverage just as RFK left the platform. And literally as the credits were rolling, the news came in about the shooting (as Sousa's "Thunderer" played over the credits) and they did a vamp for about three minutes as the music continued to play with two staff announcer voiceovers "Please stand by" before Smith came back to mention, "We've kept the air open because we've heard an alarming report that Robert Kennedy was shot."

NBC however did the worst job of all that night. Charles Quinn, their reporter on the scene threw it back to Frank McGee in the studio about 60 seconds before the commotion broke out in the ballroom indicating the shooting had happened. NBC meanwhile was going into a "windup" mode with final comments from Huntley, Brinkley etc. and then when it came back to McGee, he started to vamp nonchalantly for about five-six minutes because he had been told in his ear of a shooting but not to say anything until they got confirmation. Thus, viewers in that critical timeframe could have been watching ABC and seen reports of the shooting but if they'd switched to NBC they would have seen McGee going on as if nothing had happened! It was about four or five minutes after Smith broke word to viewers that NBC finally went back to the hotel and McGee acknowledged they had been stalling for time. Worse, NBC was acting under the assumption that RFK had only been shot "in the hip" and when Quinn reported he had been shot in the head it was a big jolt for McGee that he hadn't expected.

That shoddy performance is the reason why you never see a "breaking" moment in RFK retrospectives of NBC (or CBS for that matter) like you do with JFK retrospectives and the first bulletin featuring Cronkite.

 

[ixnay]

During its coverage of the RFK speech at the Ambassador Hotel, ABC was relying on its affiliate KABC to provide the pictures, and all of KABC's remote cameras, including its "portable camera" which showed RFK walking to the ballroom, were black and white cameras. that's why ABC's Los Angeles coverage was all in black and white. During its coverage of the RFK funeral and burial, whenever you saw color coverage that was not studio originated, it was most likely a network pool feed.

Of course, if all your household had was b/w TV* and the announcer or an on-screen graphic didn't advise you that the broadcast was in color, you could hardly tell the difference (I assume a higher percentage of American households still lacked a color set in 1968).

*Like my paternal grandparents. My parents had given them our old VHF-only, monochromatic Motorola when I was in diapers, after getting a b/w GE and later replacing it with a color Zenith (the first time my household had color TV). The first time I heard of Robert F. Kennedy (I was almost 7 and had vaguely heard of JFK but wouldn't hear of MLK until maybe '71) was watching his funeral from St. Patrick's (the first time I ever heard of that cathedral) with my mother while visiting said grandparents (we lived across Chester, PA from them, and my *maternal* grandparents [also from Chester] both died before I was born). I keep thinking it was on CBS. Later, we watched (probably WCAU's local coverage of) the funeral train crawling through North Philadelphia station. There was the flag draped casket in the last car, and Ted Kennedy (first time I'd seen *his* image or heard of him) waving to mourners from the rear balcony.

ixnay

 

[ixnay]

[W]hen Johnny Carson would do anniversary shows in the 80s and 90s - and run 60s era Tonight Show clips - they were usually in B&W, despite the fact that Carson had always been broadcast in color. So NBC either saved the show only in B&W for some reason...or the clips came from non-NBC sources.

I do recall that some bean-counter idiot at NBC in the 70s decided to get rid of most of the old Tonight Show tapes - and Carson was really angry about it - so it's possible that the anniversary retro footage was originally saved in color, just was no longer available, and Carson got the tapes from some other source.

I can imagine the all-points bulletins NBC or Johnny put out for historic Carson clips.

ixnay

 

[epaddon]

The B/W kinescope clips of 60s Carson material generally comes from prints made for Armed Forces TV. The earliest complete color tape show known to exist is New Year's Eve 1965, although there is partial color tape material from April 22, 1964 extant.

 

[onairb2014]

I recall Johnny explaining the concept of 'kinescopes' to a 1980s audience on one of his anniversary specials(when a rare clip from a 1960s episode appeared)

 

[paulsonj72]

That would have only applied to CBS since as far as I have been able to determine, CBS was the only one of the three networks that signed off its primary coverage before RFK even made his speech (this was because CBS had made a clear projection of RFK as the winner whereas NBC and ABC had not due to the fact that there was a breakdown in vote tabulation from LA County) and had to get back on the air after the shooting.

ABC was in the process of signing off in that they wrapped coverage just as RFK left the platform. And literally as the credits were rolling, the news came in about the shooting (as Sousa's "Thunderer" played over the credits) and they did a vamp for about three minutes as the music continued to play with two staff announcer voiceovers "Please stand by" before Smith came back to mention, "We've kept the air open because we've heard an alarming report that Robert Kennedy was shot."

NBC however did the worst job of all that night. Charles Quinn, their reporter on the scene threw it back to Frank McGee in the studio about 60 seconds before the commotion broke out in the ballroom indicating the shooting had happened. NBC meanwhile was going into a "windup" mode with final comments from Huntley, Brinkley etc. and then when it came back to McGee, he started to vamp nonchalantly for about five-six minutes because he had been told in his ear of a shooting but not to say anything until they got confirmation. Thus, viewers in that critical timeframe could have been watching ABC and seen reports of the shooting but if they'd switched to NBC they would have seen McGee going on as if nothing had happened! It was about four or five minutes after Smith broke word to viewers that NBC finally went back to the hotel and McGee acknowledged they had been stalling for time. Worse, NBC was acting under the assumption that RFK had only been shot "in the hip" and when Quinn reported he had been shot in the head it was a big jolt for McGee that he hadn't expected.

That shoddy performance is the reason why you never see a "breaking" moment in RFK retrospectives of NBC (or CBS for that matter) like you do with JFK retrospectives and the first bulletin featuring Cronkite.

Early CBS Radio news reports also had Senator Kennedy being shot in the hip and not in the head. This comes from WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and the old Hobbs House overnight music program

http://www.radiotapes.com/RFK/WCCO-AM_RFK_6-5-1968.mp3