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THE
POST, FRIDAY,
JULY 4, 1952
PAGE SEVEN
'MAGIC CARPET’ TO CARRY MILLIONS TO
Viewers to Get Ringside Seats
Tour Chicago Area by Camera
Some seventy million Americans will travel to Chicago this month
aboard the magic carpet of television.
By a mere flick of a switch they will be on their way: to tour the
Loop, visit the top hotels and meet the next President of the United
States face to face.
To most laymen, the plans for television coverage of the political
conventions are right out of the Arabian Nights.
Four networks will transport the
residents of hundreds of American
cities into the International Amphi-
theater where the Republicans and
Democrats will assemble.
Historic Audience
The camera will give them a
bird’s-eye view of the entire gather-
ing, then whisk them close enough
to a single delegate in the con-
vention hall to spot the soup stains,
if any, on his necktie.
The vast spectacle of ‘American
democracy at work will be viewed
by more people than any other
event in the history of the world.
As Sig Mickelson, CBS Television
executive in command at (Chicago,
says: §
“The effects of televison on this
convention may shape the destiny of
the nation.”
A battery of seven cameras will
record history as it unfolds within
the walls of the huge Amphitheater,
located in the heart of the famous
Stockyards district.
Doors Covered
Two will cover the main entrances
to the building, catching mnotables
as they come and go.
Five will be set up on special
platforms in the arena, at locations
from which they can peer into every
inch of the convention hall.
TV viewers also will visit con-
vention side-shows, such as press
conferences and parades, and travel
to Chicago’s municipal airport and
railroad stations to see the arrival
of prominent politicos.
CBS, for instance, has assigned
two mobile units, complete with
cameras and equipment, to cover
the entire Chicago area.
On Constant Call
Like. prowl car police, the unit
crews Will be on constant call to
rush to the sceme of action when
a news event breaks.
It has been pointed cut that the
television audience will see more of
the conventions than even the dele-
gates or the individual television
reporters in the hall.
Monitor System
CBS viewers on most stations will |
see the scene selected for them out
of fifteen being recorded by cameras
and filtered through a staff of five
directors.
Here is the operation, as it will
unfold:
Don Hewitt, veteran CBS news-
man, presides at the network master
control roof in the Amphitheater.
He is in constant communictation
with four other directors stationed
at key news points: one covering
the actual convention program, one
directing the mobile units, one as-
signed to the CBS studios in the
convention ’hall, and the fourth
located in the special CBS studios at
the Conrad Hilton Hotel.
Each field director monitors the
cameras at his news spot and selects
the picture to be fed to the CBS
master control room.
Final Choice
Hewitt sits before a panel of four
HISTORY'S STAGE—The eyes of the nation will be focused
on the International Amphitheater, pictured above, as the
political parties meet here to select their candidates for
the White House. Television cameras will cover every
os ea
of the delegates.
=
inch of the convention floor. Special radio and television
studios have been installed in the building. A new air-
conditioning system has just been installed for the comfort
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TRANSCONTINENTAL—The convention television net-
works will span the nation, as the above map indicates.
The CBS network will criss-cross the country, with outlets
on the west coast at Seattle and San Diego and on the east
screens and selects the one to be
transmitted to the vast audience
across the nation.
The arrangement is unprece
dented in television, history, and
contrasts with the usual studio situ-
ation where one director in the
control room monitors three or four
cameras from which he makes his
selection.
CBS studios in the Amphitheater
will be located on the upper level
of the North Wing, less than fifty
feet from the convention stage.
Persons to be interviewed can
leave the convention floor, walk up
a few steps and be before the
camera in a matter of seconds.
Hotel Studios
The special studios at the Hilton
Hotel will be in the very thick of
the ‘‘smoke-filled room” atmos-
phere, since both political parties
are establishing their convention
headquarters there.
Most of the leading candidates
also have set up campaign offices at.
the Hilton, so that press conferences
and interviews all will be within
range of the (CBS cameras.
In charge of this vast network op-
eration is Sig Mickelson, Director of
News and Public Affairs for CBS
Television.
Only 39, Mickelson is a former
teacher and newspaperman.
At Chicago he will direct the
activities of a staff of 300 men ‘and
women that will include everyone
from page boys to such famous
broadcasters as Edward R. Marrow,
CBS ACE—Edward R. Murrow, ace
CBS newsman, is shown here board-
ing an airplane for one of the many
jaunts that have taken him round the
world to the scene of headline events
he has covered. Murrow will be a
key man in CBS coverage of the
conventions.
BE AT THE CONVENTIONS
Wit A CROSLEY
coast at Boston and Miami. The 1948 conventions at
Philadelphia, the first ever telecast to the public, were
viewed by only six cities in the east. Estimates of the
'52 convention TV audience go as high as 70 million.
Lowell Thomas, Robert Trout, Eric
Sevareid and David Schoenbrun,
Railroad Caravan
Mickelson’s “caravan” will com-
prise eleven special cars on the
Twentieth Century Limited that will
transport broadcasters, cameramen,
engineers, maintenance men, secre-
taries and office employes from
New York to Chicago.
Although the Philadelphia con
ventions of 1948 were telecast to the
public, for the first time, the job
done there amounted only to a test
Gets League Trophy
Huntsville Church
Lewis W. LeGrand, chairman of
Back Mountain Towa and Country
Branch YMCA, presented ‘the ‘Church
Basketball trophy to the Huntsville
Christian Church at last Sunday's
morning Church service.
Mr. LeGrand was [presented to the
congregation by Rev. Charles H.
Frick.
He commented on the splendid
record and sportsmanship of the
Christian Church Basketball team,
which, after losing its first game
went through the balance of the
season to win 10 straight games,
and win the Championship.
The trophy was accepted by Fred
Williams, on behalf of the Hunts-
ville Christian Church, and will re-
main in the Church on display until
next season.
CONVENTIONS
run for the coming operations in
Chicago.
Cameras Improved
Cameras have been geatly
proved since then, with the notable
addition of the Zoomar lens, which
im-
can “zoom in” from long range on
a subject for an intimate closeup.
The Chicago conventions will be
the first ever covered by radio and
television under commercial spon-
sorship.
In Political Sterm
©
REPORTS from London say that in-
creasing pressure is being brought
to bear on Prime Minister Win-
ston Churchill (above), 78, to
have him relax his tight grip on
the reins of state. Conservative
members of Parliament have
openly expressed views that he
should turn over more of his pow-
ers to Anthony Eden, who is his
heir apparent. @ (International)
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