Monday, December 24, 2018

CRISTIANI #8


10 comments:

Chic Silber said...


RCA TK 11B the finest black & white

television camera of the early years

It took 2 of us to dolly mount it or

on a tripod for field use as shown

Chic Silber said...


WFLA is the Tampa NBC affiliate

so this is likely to be Sarasota

Charles Hanson said...

Chic: So, this would be the filming for the documentary on The Cristiani Family....Roll Out The Sky. If so, sadly no tape has ever been located to my knowledge.

Roger Smith said...

CHARLES: Sadly is right. Wikipedia mentions it with Charles Van Doren, who soldiers on at 92, as producer, but nothing locates the film. Even IMDb responds with "no results", and they usually have it all. Amazon doesn't list it, either. A notice on the message board for Ancestry.com asks for a source. This may require an inquiry to NBC. We certainly need a better researcher than me, and this may be a close friend whose skills keep her busy on major films. She's working on a picture now, so it will be awhile before she can give it a try.

Chic Silber said...


Since there are no lenses

mounted on the lens board

they wouldn't see anything

I'd guess Daviso & Oscar

Chic Silber said...


I found mention of it with a photo

of NBC-TV host Charles Van Doren

at the Cristiani Brothers Circus

rehearsals in Sarasota Florida

Rehearsals for "Roll out the Sky"

to be aired on "NBC Kaleidoscope"

on Sunday May 3 1959

Chic Silber said...


The original caption said

it's Ortans Daviso & Papa

Chic Silber said...


The photo of Vicki as shown

above in #5 is from that show

Chic Silber said...


The standard studio dollies

for these cameras were either

internally counterweighted or

pneumatically controlled to

allow for very smooth height

adjustments by the operator

The camera viewer actually

was a tiny CRT monitor with

that light shielding shroud

Chic Silber said...


During some months in the

early 60s I drove a very

elaborate TV Bus that was

1 of only 2 self contained

location TV facility units

Aside from being the pilot

I was also crew chief that

maintained all the equipment

that included 2 generators

fully isolated to power

delicate electronics along

with all the other gear

The Custom Crown oversize

coach carried 7 of these

camera chains & much else

Art Linkletter designed

& owned the original &

Hank Alexander had his

2nd near copy built with

Linkletter's blessings

"VideoTape Unlimited"

Videotape was 2" wide

@ $1 per foot & all of

the electronics gear

was of vacuum tube type

primitive technology

Very big & very bulky

The bus had 12 forward

gears & 6 in reverse

I drove in reverse for

a lengthy celebration

parade in Brazil because

when we arrivied at the

starting point there was

no possiblity to turn

the bus around & looking

at 2 monitors set above

the dashboard to navigate

I continue to count my

blessings for the many

opportunities I've had