The DuMont Network in color

[VCarter]

I was wondering with NBC and CBS beginning to start-up limited color
TV transmissions in the early-to-mid 1950's, did the DuMont network
ever broadcast in color? I viewed a page of early test patterns once
and saw a DuMont test pattern in color with the experimental call
letters KE2XDR. I think the station operated experimentally on UHF
about 1950 or 51.

 

[MCarney]

> I was wondering with NBC and CBS beginning to start-up
> limited color
> TV transmissions in the early-to-mid 1950's, did the DuMont
> network
> ever broadcast in color? I viewed a page of early test
> patterns once
> and saw a DuMont test pattern in color with the experimental
> call
> letters KE2XDR. I think the station operated experimentally
> on UHF
> about 1950 or 51.
>
AFAIK the network didn't produce a show in color. They put their money into the Electronicam recording process and a facility for live productions. Check out http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumont.htm for more info on DuMont.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by MCarney on 12/31/05 06:05 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[KeithE]

> > I was wondering with NBC and CBS beginning to start-up limited color
> > TV transmissions in the early-to-mid 1950's, did the DuMont
> > network ever broadcast in color? I viewed a page of early test
> > patterns once and saw a DuMont test pattern in color with the experimental
> > call letters KE2XDR. I think the station operated experimentally
> > on UHF about 1950 or 51.
> >
> AFAIK the network didn't produce a show in color. They put
> their money into the Electronicam recording process and a
> facility for live productions. Check out
> http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumont.htm for
> more info on DuMont.

By the time NTSC color TV was approved by the FCC (December 1953) and introduced to the public a couple of months later, the DuMont network was already on its last legs. They wouldn't have had the money to produce color programming anyway even if they wanted to.

Even NBC, CBS, and ABC carried very few color shows until the mid '60s. Too expensive to do so for the limited number of color sets sold in the '50s.

 

[bpatrick]

> > >
> > >
> > AFAIK the network didn't produce a show in color. They put
>
> > their money into the Electronicam recording process and a
> > facility for live productions. Check out
> > http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumont.htm for
> > more info on DuMont.
>
> By the time NTSC color TV was approved by the FCC (December
> 1953) and introduced to the public a couple of months later,
> the DuMont network was already on its last legs. They
> wouldn't have had the money to produce color programming
> anyway even if they wanted to.
>
> And by the time DuMont opened its facility for live
productions in New York on June 14, 1954, production was
shifting to California. Jackie Gleason turned out to
be the only performer to use the Electronicam system;
he filmed the "Classic 39" Honeymooners episodes with it.
(Castleman and Podrazik, "Watching TV.")
>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Re: The DuMont Electronicam

DuMont's Electronicam was a bulky unit which contained both a film camera and a black-and-white TV camera.

From what I have read, each camera recorded the show on film, while a director in a control room switched between the cameras, live TV style. At the same time, a kinescope recording was being made of the program being produced.

The film editor would use the kinescope as a reference (or "work print") while editing the film, so he would know where to make the splices and edit together the three or four reels of film (shot from as many Electronicams) into the completed program.

The film (which was of much higher visual quality) would be broadcast, and not the kinescope work print.

Ironically, the Electronicam could have found widespread use in color television during the 1950's at the other networks. The film camera in each Electronicam unit could have been loaded with color film. While the kinescope work print would have been in black-and-white, the completed film program would have been in color.

Click here for more information on DuMont's Electronicam from Chuck Pharis' website.

I suspect three DuMont Electronicams would have cost less, maybe substantially less, than a single RCA TK-41 color TV camera.