The accidents of live television

On August 30th, in this space, I wrote about Buddy Holly and the Crickets--and about the death, in August, of the group's drummer, Jerry Allison. 

In the post, I included two videos from a December 1, 1957 appearance Mr. Holly and the Crickets made on Ed Sullivan's Sunday night program.  One of the videos featured the group performing "That'll Be the Day"; the other was a performance of "Peggy Sue." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week,  I happened upon a brief additional video from the same appearance; it is of Buddy Holly being interviewed by Ed Sullivan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwIf6l4kMAg

Early in the video, one sees Mr. Sullivan in an awkwardly-framed medium close-up shot; the positioning of the camera appears to have been an attempt to obscure a stagehand, who is seen for a moment in the background.  

Then, as another camera shows Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Holly together, one sees the stagehand, at the right of the screen.  He is clearly trying to get himself (and something on the floor of the stage) out of camera range, quickly--and is successful at doing both. The entire incident lasts a handful of seconds. 

(I'm guessing that the stagehand is pushing, out of view, the low platform--see first image, above--on which Jerry Allison and his drums were situated, during the group's performances that evening.)

I obviously don't know the reason for the on-camera error.  One wonders, though: was there a miscommunication between Mr. Sullivan and his technical staff?  Perhaps, for example, the interview with Mr. Holly was unplanned, a spur-of-the-moment decision by Mr. Sullivan--catching his staff off guard.

The brief video is, in any event, a reminder of the accidents (some minor, some amusing, some of them consequential, program-altering) that were a part of the period of live television.

(Images from The Ed Sullivan Show, December 1957 © SOFA Entertainment Inc.)

Dorothy Collins, of "Your Hit Parade"

This is a follow-up to the prior post, which concerned a 1954 TV Guide photo of Your Hit Parade singer Snooky Lanson. 

The picture was from a single-page feature--a "TV Guide Singer Album"--which appeared, for a time, in the magazine.

Shown here--as part of the same feature--is a photo of  Hit Parade singer Dorothy Collins.

The photo is from a December 1953 issue of the magazine.

Ms. Collins starred on the Hit Parade--as did Mr. Lanson--from 1950 to 1957, on NBC.  

In the fall of 1957, a new group of singers was brought in to star on the program. They appeared for one season.

In October of 1958, a revamped version of the show began airing on CBS. The CBS program, which was telecast until April of 1959, starred Ms. Collins and singer Johnny Desmond.

Snooky Lanson, of "Your Hit Parade"

Here is a photograph of singer Snooky Lanson--from a January of 1954 issue of TV Guide. 

As suggested at the bottom left corner of the page ("TV Guide Singer Album"), the picture was part of a series the magazine ran at the time, featuring photos of television vocalists.

From 1950 to 1957, Mr. Lanson was one of the stars of the NBC program Your Hit Parade.

Ken Burns; a follow-up

Since its airing last month, over three nights on PBS, I have continued to think about the very fine Ken Burns documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust.

The film (co-directed by Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein) was wrenching, deeply moving, illuminating.

The documentary is, most certainly, a significant addition to the body of works about the Holocaust.

October 7th, NBC-TV

On this date, in 1950, the musical program Your Hit Parade began its regular weekly broadcasts on NBC Television.  The show aired on Saturday nights, from 10:30 to 11:00, following Your Show of Shows. The program's original starring singers were Eileen Wilson, Snooky Lanson, and Dorothy Collins; the show's Lucky Strike Orchestra was led by Raymond Scott.

The Hit Parade had aired on radio since 1935. During the summer of 1950, there were four experimental television broadcasts of the show, originating from New York's International Theatre, at Columbus Circle. The experimental TV shows were successful, and the program became a permanent part of the NBC schedule in October. It was telecast, for its first few years, from New York's Center Theatre, at Rockefeller Center--aside from a brief period, in 1951, when the program moved to NBC's famed Studio 8-H, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. 

A recent column

From a Sept. 24th piece by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd:

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, long entwined, continue on vile parallel paths: They would rather destroy their countries than admit they have lost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/opinion/putin-trump-ukraine.html

Bill Plante, of CBS News

I always admired, and enjoyed, the reporting of Bill Plante, of CBS News.  Mr. Plante died on Wednesday at age 84.

He joined CBS in 1964, and retired from the network in 2016.

In the 1960s he covered the civil rights movement in the American South, reported from Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, and served for three decades, beginning in the 1980s, as Senior White House correspondent.  He was also, from 1988 to 1995, the anchor of CBS's Sunday Night News.  

During his career, The Washington Post noted in its obituary about him, he became "one of the most visible newsmen on television."  

From the Post's obituary:

“Bill was a friendly rival, always willing to share insights,” Tom Brokaw, the longtime former anchor of “NBC Nightly News” wrote in an email, describing Mr. Plante as “a smart, serious journalist with a droll, self deprecating style.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/28/cbs-correspondent-bill-plante-dead/

(CBS photo of Bill Plante, 1989)