Friday, October 21, 2022

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.)