MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

[Music] PC's radio radio hungry millions and now pion miracle of entertainment television. Today television is really something but that's today. [Music] This is studio 3. Just 2 and 1/2 years ago NBC's one and only TV studio. It hit the jackpot with Howdy Duty. Well, 3H is still host to this and other popular shows, but now this tiny space is not the one. It's just one of NBC's TV studios. HG, our second TV studio, which is now the host to Filco, Craft, and other NBC successful TV shows. But to accommodate them, special gerder steel work had to be installed to hang the many necessary lights and a catwalk quadrangle built. [Music] To clear more space on the floor, a control board of the latest type was installed on the upper level. Yes, 8G's efficiency has been improved constantly, but it takes a lot of planning, time, and money. But television's swift advance demanded more facilities. To keep pace, NBC had to find them quickly and efficiently. Well, somehow we did. 6B. Milton Burl's favorite. [Music] For theatrical type shows, a new procenium had to be built. The ceiling over the auditorium was lifted as well as that above the stage to make room for more equipment and traveling lights installed. Tree A, modernized this summer, now adds its share to NBC's expansion of TV facilities. Here is an elaborate set for a live commercial to be integrated with a program being put on in a theater. That means a double crew, more expense for a single program. But the client must be serviced at all costs. So that's the way it's done. Across the hall, 3A's sister, Studio 3B, knew too, where our camera picked up a rehearsal of a famous dramatic show. While at the studio's other end, a different set is being prepared for another portion of the program. Finally, 8H, the largest concert studio in the world, remembered by thousands as the home of many famous programs in the past, and now in the process of rebuilding as the world's largest studio with 10,000 square ft of usable space. Here in this ambitious addition to NBC's expansion program will originate the PNG musicals, Bob Montgomery Show, and other extravaganzas. [Music] Its 34 ft ceiling is ideal for television. The new overhead construction will require 30 tons of steel. For full utilization of every inch of space, the balcony is being completely rebuilt to accommodate a control room with the latest equipment for clients and TV supervisory personnel. At the far end, remodeling of dressing rooms is also underway. Today, a confusion of materials, equipment, and workers. Tomorrow, 8H will be a TV dream come true, a $700,000 dream. [Music] But the six Radio City studios aren't enough for our present schedule of big shows. So NBC has had to turn to the legitimate theaters for more room. Its first TV theater was the International on Columbus Circle. Here complex and expensive problems for conversion to TV had to be met. First after the removal of orchestra seats, the building of a control room at the rear with its full complement of costly equipment. Next, the stage had to be extended into the orchestra to allow for the dolly camera. The schedule is especially heavy at the international with elaborate shows such as the show of shows, comedy theater, and others telecast nearly every night. Stage crews, expensive, skilled labor, have to work day and night in preparation. In all NBC's theaters, space, even for temporary storage of sets and props, is at a premium. Nearly everything has to come from somewhere else. Then it has to go out again. Well, under New York City conditions, this is an expensive but unavoidable manner of operating. For the type of shows given in theaters, audiences are a must to provide timing and a sense of intimacy to the actors. But live spectators add to the cost, requiring, as they do, the printing of tickets, additional supervisory, and other personnel. In the heart of the theatrical district, the Hudson, another addition to the mounting list of NBC's TV facilities. The purchase of this property, together with the alterations necessary for its conversion to TV. Well, NBC's bill came to just about a million dollars for this one theater alone. At the Hudson, we happened in honor rehearsal for the Kate Smith Hour. Preparations to meet the deadline for any TV show consume a staggering number of manh hours. [Music] For example, to get set for one program, an electrician's crew had to work a 105hour week at a cost of about $2,000 a day. In all NBC's TV theaters, full advantage is taken of regular backstage equipment such as the seven traveler curtains, which come in very handy for variety shows. But like everything else, it takes a crew of experts to operate them properly. Illumination has to be much more intense than in a regular theatrical lighting setup. And it has to be all white light. In the Hudson 2, there's the same old plaguing question. Where to put it? Or her or him or them for even just so long as is necessary to get the show on. Well, back at Radio City. Let's now visit the world famous Center Theater, happily for NBC, conveniently located next door. For this, the world's largest legitimate theater has now been swept up in NBC's expansion drive to fill a new role as the world's greatest theatrical TV studio. From the seats where 3,200 persons once gazed at the ice volleys and other famed extravaganzas, audiences will soon be watching TV productions either too impossible in any other theatrical type of presentation. Of course, NBC's engineers found conversion problems in proportion to the theat's gigantic size. onto the already huge stage. There had to be built a flare extension into the orchestra for the cameras. On the companion stage extension, a temporary control room will serve until the permanent one is built at the rear of the house. To meet New York City's stringent building code, the ice stage was removed. The elevating orchestra stage has also been rebuilt and cemented in. The rear elevator stage will add novelty to our TV productions. Right now, it's coming in very handy for moving materials from the basement to stage level. [Music] A central ramp has been pushed into the orchestra for the usual TV dolly camera. Now, the revolving stage may be adaptable to certain types of television presentations. This is the center shortly before its premiere of the Firestone Hour on September 25th. Today, the center is indeed a magnificent television reality no competition can match. This is the Woodstock Hotel. Yes, even with its added studios and theaters, NBC has had to go further a field for another vital adjunct to its TV facilities, rehearsal halls. There just weren't enough to meet the great increase in TV productions. So, scenes like this of getting it down fine are going on here at the Woodstock and 10 other locations all over town. [Music] Augmenting these facilities are NBC's Uptown Studios at 106th Street and Park Avenue, where space is leased in the RKO PA building. Let's take a quick look around at a few of these further facilities NBC has harnessed to the needs of its TV clients, starting at the top and working down. First, in addition to NBC's already impressive total of newscasting rooms, news is a red-hot TV commodity, especially nowadays. Motion picture facilities are also available for film plays an important part in many ways to supplement television. Let's drop in on 5B, a small studio used for a crammed schedule of intimate TV presentations. Its sister studio 5C has an equally full list of shows on its docket. 2A, a former moving picture sound stage with plenty of room, has lent itself nicely to its converted use for TV. [Music] Our uptown studios fortunately have some storage room for set pieces, flats, props, and other TV parabernelia. Still, a lot more has to come and go back by truck. By the way, isn't it time we looked into where all these trucks come from? They come from the plant of Sheffield Farms, distributors of milk on West 56th Street. At least it was so-called until a few months ago when NBC leased 80,000 square feet on three floors and changed its name to the NBC Central Shop. Well, let's see what goes on at the shop. It's plenty, in fact, far too much to describe in detail. For here are the most complete and largest scenic design facilities in the TV industry. On the first floor, this willow run of television begins earning its title by stocking over 1,800 pieces of basic scene elements of every type, as well as hundreds of non-standard varieties. Each set is labeled according to an especially formulated identification system, as is each piece within the set. The basement houses the property department which includes over 10,000 items. Everything from a medieval mace and reproductions of the old masters to such common places as eating and drinking utensils. Here too is the section for small furniture. Enough of it to stock a store. Nearby is storage space for less frequently called for props looking pretty much like a Charles Adams attic, but actually their system even here. If any of these odd items is called for, it'll be out in a hurry. Next, the drapery department with the latest equipment installed for designing and cutting the thousands of yards of drapes required for TV productions. Here also are made ready theatrical type cyclloramas and novelty travelers. On the second floor, skilled artists sketch out designs for the many special backdrops needed for production and then paint them in carefully blended colors. Incidentally, each year the shop consumes enough paint to cover the RCA building more than four times. The carpentry shop keeps over 40 men busy, turning out the enormous variety of jobs needed in TV production. [Music] The staple in their work is a standard piece of white pine laid end to end. The number used annually would extend over 9 miles. The as yet modest wardrobe department is being added too steadily and plans are underway to accumulate a full supply of period costumes. To fill out present needs, many costumes are also rented each week from the normal suppliers. After NBC's leasing of the building, the scenic design room had to be built from scratch and fully equipped. Here, blueprinting of sets is done with meticulous care. This includes both a horizontal plan and a vertical one called an elevation. Notice that colors are also indicated. [Music] Prints of these plans in more durable form are then turned out in a special printer. [Music] These plans go to the studio manager as his blueprint for assembling the set. [Music] to Radio City, 106th Street, the theater studios. Day and night, the trucks leased by the central shop with others ready on call rumble out and back for another load. Set pieces which have been assembled once for testing, then disassembled for the journey. [Music] Crops often by the hundreds cataloged neatly wrapped and packed in hampers. [Music] Furniture large, small, and medium. So NBC's Central Shop fills another television production order. But that's not the end of our story. [Music] So, let's go back to Radio City. Here on the seventh floor is the Kinoscope Recording Department, one of the most vital and rapidly expanding units among NBC's increased television facilities. This process has come a long way since its development several years ago. Today, NBC uses 840,000 ft a month to provide its affiliates with programs in this form. Our library also receives a kinoscope recording of every program for its records. [Music] During the first few post-war years, NBC's old TV control room was adequate for directing the modest number of programs beingworked through facilities provided by the Bell Telephone Company. Today, Master Control 2 needs expansion and conversion. This will be a year-long job unremitting and probably unnoticed outside NBC for service will go on without interruption as over 125 programs are piped out each week to NBC's own and affiliated TV stations. [Music] Expansion of remote pickup facilities has gone hand in hand with plant expansion. Yes, the number of sports and spot news events keeps our remote equipment on the go. [Music] Our expansion program is reaching out to other cities such as Hollywood and Chicago. Who knows, each of these units may be the start of a story in miniature such as the one we've just seen. It's not only the fine programming and celebrated stars that make NBC great. It's the behindthescenes facilities and people, too. In television, there's more than meets the eye.