Well, isn’t this impressive – on so many levels. It’s a 1952 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine cram-packed with every 1950’s-era gadget needed to broadcast live TV from a remote location. Isn’t it also impressive and fascinating that pretty much everything needed in this beast is contained in your cell phone today…
In the ’50’s, most networks and stations used large trucks or buses for their mobile remote units, as TV cameras and electrical equipment were extremely large and bulky during this era. NBC desired something smaller that could get through traffic faster and get closer to the incident/event being covered.
(click on picture for larger image)
So they commissioned GM to build this model in the Fall of 1952…adding almost one ton of equipment, two turret style holes in the roof, and a large generator in the trunk to power everything. Evidently, the stock 331 cu in V8 was unmodified, and deemed sufficient to the task. Total cost then was $62K – about $647,000 today.
It typically carried a driver who was also a back-up camera-man, the main camera operator, an antenna operator, an audio-visual technician, and the reporter.
NBC first used it to cover President Eisenhower’s inauguration in Jan 1953, where it no doubt fit in with all the other black limousines.
It may have started a trend, here we can see a 1956 Lincoln also converted to a mobile unit.
I’m old enough to have caught the tail-end of the vacuum tube era – and have to wonder how many tubes were inside? As electrical components decreased in size and weight, most TV networks starting using panel trucks and vans. But this is certainly a unique vehicle – it’s unknown if it still survives – hopefully so.
My parents were generally pretty careful with money, but my dad was so interested in technology that they were the first in their circle to get a TV. I was too young to remember but my mother told me about having everyone over to watch Queen Elizabeth’s inauguration which was on June 2, 1953. We must have still been the only ones with a TV.
It had a 14 inch screen. After that my parent’s economical ways kicked in and we still did not have a colour TV when I finished high school in 1968.
A British military jet flew BBC footage of the coronation across the Atlantic as soon as it was available (this was a decade before even the intermittent transatlantic coverage of the first Telstar satellites) and it was broadcast across Canada, probably very late, on the same day.
Apparently the CBC successfully lobbied the BBC to provide full French-language commentary as well (abbreviated commentaries were produced in a number of languages). Not that it would have been hugely popular in Quebec. 🙂
If I remember my Erik Barnouw, the film was developed on the ride over the Atlantic. And the CBC scooped any American network with it.
Ugh. I can’t edit the above.
NBC had developed their film on the ground with a proprietary mixture and special equipment, then on the trip over (in converted DC-6) they edited it.
ABC(quite #3, perhaps closer to DuMont than NBC or CBS) took the CBC telecast and these two scooped the Big Two.
In 1939, Denver radio station KFEL took advantage of GM’s one-year-only optional sunroof to accomplish the same purpose without custom bodywork. This appears to be a Buick or Olds.
Not exactly “to accomplish the same purpose”. It was a whole lot easier to transmit voice than pictures. It just needed a typical two way radio, which was a common off-the shelf device and used in taxis, police cars and early car phones. The tv unit required a dedicated microwave transmitter that had to be aimed manually, especially tricky while on-the-go. Very different….
The vehicle being a Cadillac is a large part of what makes this interesting. Much like Cadillac being a popular choice for ambulances once upon a time, with that Cadillac ride less prone to aggravate injuries, the same also applies for mobile video capture.
In Europe, Citreons were commonlu used in this niche. I remember all through the 80s when my dad was watching the horse racing on TV, it was always a big ol’ Citroen camera car.
The BBC used various generations of large Citroëns as tracking cars. The hydro suspension made it perfect for the job.
I’ve always had a soft spot for TV trucks, but never knew of the Cadillac–very cool.
This is filming (rather than remote broadcasting), with a Toledo station putting a wagon to use:
I had to reread the call letters for that station. The NBC affiliate nearest where I grew up was WPSD, so the call letters for this Toledo station are mighty close.
The nature photographer Angel Adams used cars, including famously a 1946 Cadillac, as a platform for his big view cameras. In addition to the Cadillac, there are pictures of him online with a Pontiac woody wagon, a 1960’s Travelall, and what might have been his last car, an early seventies Ford LTD with his initials on the hood.
Wonderful piece – don’t recall reading about this car before.
“NBC first used it to cover President Eisenhower’s inauguration in Jan 1953, where it no doubt fit in with all the other black limousines.”
The picture above this comment appears to be from the 1956 inaugural parade given the 1955 (or 56) Dodge station wagon next to the NBC Cadillac. President and Mrs. Eisenhower actually rode in a new open Eldorado convertible in the 1953 inaugural parade.
I’m not sure what was gained by having the camera car in the parade. If they couldn’t record, the crowd couldn’t see themselves on TV later. I suppose their friends could. If it was sunny, I’ll bet the snow reflections made a mess of some of it.
No fender skirts in the Getty image. Until a few years ago, there was regular early 50s sedan near me that sagged so badly, you could barely see the rear wheel.
Curbside Classic (Paul and his team), do a great job of rediscovering great engineering, and design efforts of the past. And bringing them to a new, wider audience.
I always loved the detail and quality of Popular Mechanics/Popular Science illustrations and cutaways. These were hand-rendered, while the conceptualizing and clarity, was often incredibly well executed.
Love it! This finished with the same question that hit me as I started to read – How many tubes are in this picture? Don’t forget the four in the tires. 🙂
My Father worked for the first television station in New Orleans, WDSU TV6, for 40 years, starting in 1956.
The station had a “Remote Bus” similar to the Dumont Network picture; chock full of all the state-of-the-art “High Tech” equipment of the late 1950’s. Channel 6 broadcast live coverage of Mardi Gras parades and Sugar Bowl games (among other news items) from that monsta bus.
Dad commented that the heavy camera swayed back and forth precariously in the breeze, with him hanging onto the camera and the guard rail as tightly as he could.
That’s really interesting. I do like outside broadcast and mobile camera vehicles which are very much ‘function over form’.
For those that are interested in how this was done on my side of the pond, I’ve come across this really interesting page covering the history of BBC ‘roving eye’ vehicles, from Daimler to Discovery.
https://becg.org.uk/2020/06/06/the-roving-eye/
By 1958 KTLA-5 in Los Angeles managed to cram the necessary equipment on to a Bell 47-G helicopter (payload under 1000lb) creating the world’s first “Telecopter”. Photo – National Helicopter Service
Nowadays you do all this just by attaching a few GoPro mounts to your vehicle (and yourself).
Our local D.C. DuMont owned-and-operated station, WTTG-5, is still with us (but is now a Fox station).
When I was a little kid many, many years ago, I had a Japanese tin plate toy friction Cadillac sedan of about the same vintage year as this. When you pushed it, two cameras mounted on opposite ends of the roof moved back and forth, and a radar like antenna spun around on the trunk. It was a brownish-red color and it said ‘TV News’ on the front doors. Can`t remember the manufacturer of it, probably Cragstan or Marusan. Great toy, probably highly collectible today.
Thank you Jim! Excellent post combining broadcast history with auto-interest.
Your pictures remind me of how broadcasting relied upon microwave links before the advent of satellites. It’s fascinating to think about the challenges related to aiming a line-of-sight system, while on the move.
I sure hope that the AC was upgraded to handle the heat generated by all them tubes…