Friday, September 04, 2020

MARY HARTLINE #3


7 comments:

Chic Silber said...


“Super Circus” a Sunday afternoon series on ABC

began in early 1949 when the TV industry was in

the earliest stages of live broadcasts

Hartline was a striking presence with her long

wavy hair her majorette style costumes which

included her signature uniform with musical

notes on the thigh high hemline & white boots

Chic Silber said...


Our late Empress Barbara never

thought much of majorette boots

Chic Silber said...


In the early days of broadcast television

there were only 2 types of Image Orthicon

cameras that utilized these very sensitive

I-O tubes that needed constant adjustments

This early version of an RCA TK camera was

the most common along with more primative

DuMont wooden enclosed "box" cameras that

were hand made by Allen B DuMont for his

WABD TV station (later renamed WNEW)

Chic Silber said...


Over the years the show ran

it provided work for a vast

number of circus performers

That included the Woodcocks

Chic Silber said...


Above Mary's head is a boom mounted

Electro Voice 666 cardioid microphone

supported in a shock mount cage

The camera is indeed an RCA TK10

What silly stuff to remember

Roger Smith said...

Rest In Peace for Miss Hartline. She was among our first nationally-famed circus women, majorette boots and all. What a beauty she was.

In re our Woodcocks and the Dumont era: We know our leading elephant star was named by Colonel Woodcock for Anna May Wong. She was the first truly recognizable Oriental film star, beginning in the silents. The Colonel was enraptured over her "hair as black as a raven's wing." It is barely remembered today that Ms. Wong was the first Oriental woman to star in her own TV series, THE GALLERY OF MADAME LIU-TSONG. The show ran for one season, 1951, on the Dumont Network which itself lasted from 1946 to 1956. Researchers have sadly concluded that Ms. Wong's kinescope episodes were all destroyed sometime in the 1970s, but thankfully she can be seen in a number of films on YouTube. Her history is well-stated in both IMDb and Wikipedia. Further study finds photos of her marker, with Oriental inscriptions, in her family's final resting place.

Rick Whelan said...

Curious how my father suddenly became a Super Circus fan whenever Mary was featured. Super Circus was broadcast live from Chicago's Civic Theatre ... which now sadly has been dismantled to make more storage room for the adjacent Civic Opera House. The Civic Theatre was also where Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie had its world premiere ... and also in the late 1960s where the Peanuts musical, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown played for over a year ... I know this because that is where I met my wife of 50 years.