Anyone who watched election returns, space shots, or a few game shows during the 1960s and 70s will remember those flipping numbers that have been called Solari boards [after the Italian manufacturer of same] or, as one late, former news executive named Av Westin generically called them in his book Newswatch, DDU's [digital display units].
I wonder, for instance, if when they used a Solari display as a countdown clock, like on the New York-based episodes of the Pyramid during the '70s, the operator would have to flip the thumbwheel up, then push the button to change the number. Once in awhile, that wasn't easy, because in 1978, while Billy Crystal, then of Soap, was setting the record for fastest run in the Pyramid's "winner's circle" bonus round, the clock rapidly skipped a digit from :43 to :42 before synchronizing again.
Also, during the '60s, while CBS was televising space shots, when their timer went from :00 to :59, it rapidly went :99-:89-:79-:69-:59 within a half-second before catching up at :58.
I miss those fun days of the flipping numbers. I know Solari still makes "flap displays", but has anyone ever kept any of the old ones laying around, or did they go the way of erasable videotapes that have kept many old shows from being saved?
I wonder, for instance, if when they used a Solari display as a countdown clock, like on the New York-based episodes of the Pyramid during the '70s, the operator would have to flip the thumbwheel up, then push the button to change the number. Once in awhile, that wasn't easy, because in 1978, while Billy Crystal, then of Soap, was setting the record for fastest run in the Pyramid's "winner's circle" bonus round, the clock rapidly skipped a digit from :43 to :42 before synchronizing again.
Also, during the '60s, while CBS was televising space shots, when their timer went from :00 to :59, it rapidly went :99-:89-:79-:69-:59 within a half-second before catching up at :58.
I miss those fun days of the flipping numbers. I know Solari still makes "flap displays", but has anyone ever kept any of the old ones laying around, or did they go the way of erasable videotapes that have kept many old shows from being saved?