The Kraft Music Hall 1968 Brooklyn

This is a short segment from a Kraft Music Hall program, taped August 9, 1968 on two-inch high-band quad videotape, airing on September 18, 1968. The host for this episode is Don Rickles. The recording was made at the NBC Brooklyn Studios, located at 1268 E. 14th Street in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, New York.

This clip is courtesy of Research Video. http://www.researchvideo.com/

The opening shot of this program starts with the camera aimed at the Avenue M station of the BMT subway line where Don Rickles begins his presentation (on a very long microphone cable!). The RCA TK-41 color camera is mounted on the roof of the studio two blocks away at Avenue M and East 14th Street. The next scene (the first at street level) has Don exiting the Ave. M subway station, crossing onto and talking from Avenue M. After that, Don makes his way to a street where a stick ball game is underway and appears to be adjacent to Ave. M, about one block down on East 15th St. This location was probably chosen as the TK-41 camera and it's TV-81 cable could reach this venue and was just around the corner from the next scene. The final street level location has Don walking down Ave. M eating a hot dog and talking with a policeman. The movement of the TK-41 suggests that something other than a tripod was used as the camera motions are relatively smooth (a small crane?).

After looking at all adjacent street-level scenes, it appears that this sidewalk camera and it's location on the north side of Avenue M (1400 block) provided a suitable position to get all of the needed Ave. M shots in addition to being around the corner from the stick ball game on East 15th. Considering the weight of the camera, the camera cable, the lighting gear, the audio cables and associated crew, the results are pretty outstanding.

The post-production process apparently added some echo to Don's audio for some reason.

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