http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qid1hBVpqyc
This is a fascinating clip up on YouTube -- Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News announcing Lyndon Johnson's death on January 22, 1973. What makes it interesting is Cronkite gets the word unexpectedly by phone while on-air. Here are two comments made about the clip:
"I don't think I've ever seen another instance of an anchor personally taking a phone call from a well-placed source (who's not a reporter) like that live on the air. I'm surprised a producer didn't handle the call and pass notes onto Cronkite. For that matter, I wonder why the press secretary singled out CBS to deliver the official word -- you'd think he'd have passed the news onto everyone at once."
And another member posts the answer:
"Tom Johnson, LBJ's press aide after leaving office, had a friendship with Walter Cronkite and chose to call Cronkite at CBS News with news about LBJ's death. Cronkite took the call while off air for a commercial break, but chose to stay with the call as they came back on the air despite signals from the floor director (you can see Cronkite looking off to the side and holding up his hand for the director in the control room to stay with him and not cut to another break)."
Also interesting is that it is black-and-white, but definitely looks like tape and not a kinescope. (CBS would have been airing the news in color by then.) That, plus the crudely superimposed date and network graphics, leads me to believe that this clip came from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive which may well have still been using B&W open-reel machines at that point. (Although U-Matic was introduced in around 71-72, they probably hadn't switched over yet...) So, someone probably borrowed the tape for "scholarly" purposes, but decided to upload it to YouTube as well. (The same guy has a few other clips on there that may have come from the same source.)
I imagine it was pretty weird to be watching as they came back from commercial to see Uncle Walter silently on the phone and holding up a finger to the camera to indicate "stand by" to the viewers! Certainly something you rarely saw on a live network newscast.
This is a fascinating clip up on YouTube -- Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News announcing Lyndon Johnson's death on January 22, 1973. What makes it interesting is Cronkite gets the word unexpectedly by phone while on-air. Here are two comments made about the clip:
"I don't think I've ever seen another instance of an anchor personally taking a phone call from a well-placed source (who's not a reporter) like that live on the air. I'm surprised a producer didn't handle the call and pass notes onto Cronkite. For that matter, I wonder why the press secretary singled out CBS to deliver the official word -- you'd think he'd have passed the news onto everyone at once."
And another member posts the answer:
"Tom Johnson, LBJ's press aide after leaving office, had a friendship with Walter Cronkite and chose to call Cronkite at CBS News with news about LBJ's death. Cronkite took the call while off air for a commercial break, but chose to stay with the call as they came back on the air despite signals from the floor director (you can see Cronkite looking off to the side and holding up his hand for the director in the control room to stay with him and not cut to another break)."
Also interesting is that it is black-and-white, but definitely looks like tape and not a kinescope. (CBS would have been airing the news in color by then.) That, plus the crudely superimposed date and network graphics, leads me to believe that this clip came from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive which may well have still been using B&W open-reel machines at that point. (Although U-Matic was introduced in around 71-72, they probably hadn't switched over yet...) So, someone probably borrowed the tape for "scholarly" purposes, but decided to upload it to YouTube as well. (The same guy has a few other clips on there that may have come from the same source.)
I imagine it was pretty weird to be watching as they came back from commercial to see Uncle Walter silently on the phone and holding up a finger to the camera to indicate "stand by" to the viewers! Certainly something you rarely saw on a live network newscast.
