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Pre-Computer Graphics

R

retrothoughts

In the days before character generators and computer graphics, TV stations and networks used slides, title cards and various other visual aids.

One of my favorite types of graphics from those pre-computer days was the "numeral flaps", known variously as "Solari boards", after an Italian company that purportedly manufactured them, or, as onetime ABC News executive Av Westin referred to generically as "digital display units".

During the late 1960's into the 1970's, you might have seen these white-on-black numeral flaps either on game shows [as scoring or timing displays], election night [for vote tallies], or sporting events [NBA basketball or some football post-game shows]. Even after they went out of style in the early 1980's, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Telethon continued to use a variation of those numeral flaps [black-on-white] for a running count of viewer pledges.

The fun part of these is that gap between 0 and 1 counting forward, or between 0 and 9 counting backward.

I know that Solari [ www.solari.it ] still makes numeral flaps today, and you might see some variation of those on ESPN Classic's "Classic Now" show, but I kind of miss the old flaps and those clicking sounds that came with them.
 
> During the late 1960's into the 1970's, you might have seen
> these white-on-black numeral flaps either on game shows [as
> scoring or timing displays], election night [for vote
> tallies], or sporting events [NBA basketball or some
> football post-game shows]. Even after they went out of
> style in the early 1980's, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day
> Muscular Dystrophy Telethon continued to use a variation of
> those numeral flaps [black-on-white] for a running count of
> viewer pledges.
----------
I believe a recent Comcast ad used these flaps, in its parody of a 70s game show.<P ID="signature">______________
From WNBC-TV New York this is Liiiiive at Fiiiiive!</P>
 
> but I kind of miss the
> old flaps and those clicking sounds that came with them.

I'll give you an instance where that clicking became annoying.

For many years, KWHY/22 Los Angeles did locally-originated financial news in the daytime hours, and they used those Solari boards for updates of the major market indicators. Since that changes constantly during the trading day, that clicking was in the background virtually all the time, and was quite distracting on occasion.

I think everyone -- mostly the anchors -- were glad to see those go.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
> I believe a recent Comcast ad used these flaps, in its
> parody of a 70s game show.
>
It wasn't a parody, it was old footage from an actual show, with new dialogue (and game categories) put in.
 
> > I believe a recent Comcast ad used these flaps, in its
> > parody of a 70s game show.
> >
> It wasn't a parody, it was old footage from an actual show,
> with new dialogue (and game categories) put in.
>

It is "The $10,000 (or perhaps $20,000) Pyramid" with Loretta Switt (Hot Lips Holihan from M*A*S*H) in the celebrity chair.

Anyway, I believe most European airports and bus station still use the number (and letter) flaps to update gate, arrival and departure information. Probably why this company is still in business.
 
> Anyway, I believe most European airports and bus station
> still use the number (and letter) flaps to update gate,
> arrival and departure information. Probably why this
> company is still in business.
>
I remember when the graphics used on TV were the black boards with the plastic press-on letters/numerals (like those used to "welcome" guests in hotel lobbies)
 
> In the days before character generators and computer
> graphics, TV stations and networks used slides, title cards
> and various other visual aids.
>
> One of my favorite types of graphics from those pre-computer
> days was the "numeral flaps", known variously as "Solari
> boards", after an Italian company that purportedly
> manufactured them, or, as onetime ABC News executive Av
> Westin referred to generically as "digital display units".
>
> During the late 1960's into the 1970's, you might have seen
> these white-on-black numeral flaps either on game shows [as
> scoring or timing displays], election night [for vote
> tallies], or sporting events [NBA basketball or some
> football post-game shows]. Even after they went out of
> style in the early 1980's, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day
> Muscular Dystrophy Telethon continued to use a variation of
> those numeral flaps [black-on-white] for a running count of
> viewer pledges.
>
> The fun part of these is that gap between 0 and 1 counting
> forward, or between 0 and 9 counting backward.
>
> I know that Solari [ www.solari.it ] still makes numeral
> flaps today, and you might see some variation of those on
> ESPN Classic's "Classic Now" show, but I kind of miss the
> old flaps and those clicking sounds that came with them.
>
I remember as recently as 1996 or so that The Price is Right was one of the last shows to continue using the mechanical screen credit rolls before finally switching to modern computerized on-screen production.
 
> Anyway, I believe most European airports and bus station
> still use the number (and letter) flaps to update gate,
> arrival and departure information. Probably why this
> company is still in business.

Both Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal had these into the 1990s. They were replaced by some sort of LCD or LED thing. I used to love the sound they made, it was sort of an overlapping THWICKA sound.
<P ID="signature">______________
<a href=http://blog.spotteddogs.org/blog/>Random Observations on Life, the Universe and Television</a></P>
 
In the 1960's and early 1970's, Solari numbers were often spotlighted once a year on television for election-night coverage.

Example: "Hold that thought, David! We have some new numbers on the Solari board from Illinois showing Vice-President Nixon increasing his lead over Vice-President Humphrey with Governor Wallace badly trailing with nearly all the votes counted. It may be only a matter of moments before the NBC News 'Election '68' Decision Desk gives Illinois to Mr. Nixon, and thus, the Presidency".

I suspect Solari boards were also used during this period on network space coverage to show on-screen the time remaining until launch, time elapsed since launch, time left until splashdown, or during the Apollo lunar landings, time left before landing on the moon and taking off from the lunar surface.
 
> Perhaps the most sophisicated graphics seen on television
> prior to the invention of computerized graphics were created
> in 1969 for ABC's "Movie Of The Week".
>
> Today, such an opening can easily be done with computers.
> Back in 1969, it literally required "smoke and mirrors" to
> accomplish.
>
> You can read about the creation of the "Movie Of The week"
> opening graphics (and see the opening) on the TV Party.com
> website (registration may be required).
>
They were impressive and still are.

Does anyone remember the first electronic graphics
used on local news, starting around 1973? I remember
a particular font that it seemed like every station
used. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
 
> Does anyone remember the first electronic graphics
> used on local news, starting around 1973? I remember
> a particular font that it seemed like every station
> used. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I believe it was called a "character generator" -- you had basically one font, typically non-serif, and could choose two display points: small and large. Most CG machines allowed for some simple animation, i.e. crawls and rolls, and blinking text.

On some TVs you'd hear a buzzing sound when that type of graphic appeared.

Most local stations seemed to have these by the mid-ish '70s, but one of the first Super Bowl broadcasts on NBC had what appears to be an early CG.

The Chyron boxes more or less rendered the CGs obsolete, although many smaller stations were using them well into the '80s. As late as 1987, WHBQ-13/Memphis still used a CG for their on-screen IDs during sports events, etc.

KFVS-12/Cape Girardeau, Mo. had a very distinctive graphic style in the '70s, generating characters like a score display, resembling text from a dot-matrix printer close up. Not sure if this was a CG, or what, but it looked really neat.
 
> One of my favorite types of graphics from those pre-computer
> days was the "numeral flaps", known variously as "Solari
> boards", after an Italian company that purportedly
> manufactured them

I'm glad this discussion was brought up ... I was thinking about those 'flaps' just last night after watching an old ep of "Three on a Match", and noticed how LOUD those things were - on the show they used the Solari displays to keep score, and they were mounted to the front of each podium. The mics easily picked up the flipflipflip noise they made, especially when the contestant was picking squares on the bonus board.

Last night I wondered if they had a name ... and now I know.

> The fun part of these is that gap between 0 and 1 counting
> forward, or between 0 and 9 counting backward.

Or, when they're used for time countdowns, how the display had to quickly flip past 9-8-7-6 to get from 1:00 to :59. My 13-year-old (who truly cannot conceive life before computers) saw this in action on an old Apollo countdown, and thought it looked (in his words) 'retarded.'

> I kind of miss the
> old flaps and those clicking sounds that came with them.

I do, too. There was something about those Solaris which set 'em apart from the typical 'scoreboard' style display. And don't get me started on the 'new' score displays WoF and Jeopardy uses....
 
> I believe it was called a "character generator" -- you had
> basically one font, typically non-serif, and could choose
> two display points: small and large. ...

There were a number of primitive CGs developed in the late 60s. And then came the device you're referring to - the Vidifont.

NBC used that unit extensively through the 70s, beginning with the 1972 Winter Olympics. At one point they were able find a way to display their "N" logo on it. This was before they switched to Chyrons.
 
I recall an early CG-type machine that typed-out typewriter-like capital letters that I think NBC used as far back as 1968. My first memory of this machine was during the riots in the streets of Chicago during the third night of the Democratic Convention. I remember seeing white letters that looked like they were a from a typewriter on-screen during taped footage of rioting saying "RECORDED". Due to technical limitations of the time, very little of the disturbances could be shown live---they'd be taped with first-generation "portable" color cameras (which had large backpacks) and suitcase-sized (large suitcase at that) 2-inch VTR's---and couriers on high-speed motorcycles would risk their lives (they could have been targets of both protesters and police) to get the tapes back to either the convention venue or NBC's Chicago studio, then located in the Merchandise Mart, whichever was closer.

I have seen this kind of graphics in clips rebroadcast from NBC's coverage of Super Bowl III. I also have (from when A&E rebroadcast it in 1989) a tape of NBC's coverage of the launching of Apollo 11 in July of 1969. A few minutes after the massive Saturn rocket went into earth orbit (to later that day head out towards the Moon), the network showed a replay of the blastoff, and they used this primitive CG to put on the bottom of the screen during the replay "VIDEOTAPE REPLAY OF APOLLO 11 LAUNCH".
 
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