Shooting for NBC

by Tony Karp

Shooting for NBC

Hoagy Carmichael as a ragtime piano player

I started taking pictures some time in 1957. In 1958, I got an assignment shooting the Perry Como Show and parleyed that into a few assignments from NBC. They liked the photojournalistic look that I gave my pictures. In July of 1959, Grey Advertising sent me to California to do all of the still photography for NBC's 1959 fall season.

Television was very different in 1959. In many ways, it was in its infancy but, in some ways, it was also a golden age, full of drama, culture, and comedy, with a generous helping of westerns added for good measure.

The pictures here are from the black and white prints that still remain in my collection.

Jason Robards in "The iceman cometh"

A scene from "The woman in white"

Sid Caesar and Art Carney ham it up in this old vaudeville routine.

Arc lights, brighter than the sun, are used when filming outdoors.

A wide angle lens helps capture the shooting of Art Carney in "Our town" in an NBC TV studio.

- Shooting for NBC - Photojournalism - Life Magazine - NBC TV - - art - photography - by Tony Karp - Discovery Technology - Cinematography - The Godfather - Designing the Future -

In this scene from "The woman in white," the actress runs across the set, stops, looks back, then runs on. I had only one chance to shoot this.

Harry Belafonte on an NBC variety show.

Hoagy Carmichael in a character role on Laramie.

Julie Harris and Christopher Plummer in Ibsen's "A doll's house"

Gene Barry as Bat Masterson takes aim at yours truly.

I told Gene Barry that I was taking a close-in shot.
"What are you shooting?"
"Just head and shoulders."
"Down this far?"
"Click"

Gene Barry as Bat Masterson strolls a western street.

Gene Barry in lighter moment.

Jason Robards in "The Iceman Cometh"

- This guy is a fixture on the set of every movie or TV western.<br> Think about him the next time you feel bad about your job. - Photojournalism - Life Magazine - NBC TV - - art - photography - by Tony Karp - Discovery Technology - Cinematography - The Godfather - Designing the Future -

This guy is a fixture on the set of every movie or TV western.
Think about him the next time you feel bad about your job.

On the set of Laramie, before the invention of the cellphone.

The 1960 World Series was carried by NBC. So, to shoot the picture for the newspaper ad, here I was, in Yankee Stadium, sitting in the press box, trying to think of something different to shoot. I settled on this close-in look, with grain and blur to give it a more immediate feel. Here's the pitcher.

Ever wonder what a pitch looks like close up?

Runner on base. NBC didn't use any of the shots shown here, but they did settle on my shot of the umpire dusting off home plate. It ran full page in the New York Times.

Some technical notes: The original pictures were shot with miscellaneous Canon rangefinder and SLR cameras. Lenses ranged from 28mm to a homemade 400mm lens to shoot the baseball pictures. The film was most likely Tri-X or Plus-X, developed in UFG. The prints were photographed with a Sony DSC-R1 camera and post processing was done with LightZone 3.

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