Welcome

Dear Mr. Ellerbee "Looking at your collection I was remembering the early broadcast years living in Chicago. There is nothing I would enjoy more in my later years than to visit and see Chuck Pharis' collection or your collection and to touch and feel television history one more time. Thank you for having the passion to find and collect the eyes of our generation". - John Leone. Fort Wayne, Indiana..

When I got this email from Mr. Leone, the first thing that struck me was the phrase 'eyes of our generation'. I decided if I ever put up together website about the classic television cameras, that would be a great name.

The second thing that struck me about the note was the word "passion" . Yes, there is a passion among collectors to preserve and restore these cameras, but my bet is, that for every one collector, there are probably a thousand people that would love a place to see as many of the old cameras as possible. A place for the collectors to talk about their cameras, pioneers of television technology and programming to share their history and for people with a passion for television to share it and their pictures in discussions, memories and comments.

"Eyes of a Generation" is being created to be kind of a next step in the evolution of classic television camera sites because our intention is to be a place for camera enthusiasts to congregate, to meet, discuss, share and with the links provided, come to know our fellow collectors and visit their related sites.

My tenure as a collector is just over two years now, but my desire to own these cameras has been with me since I was 7 or 8 years old. In this short time, I have had the very good fortune to, meet and become friends with many of the major collectors, preservationists and historians. Hopefully, you will get to know them too as part of our goal is to give a real forum to some of the brilliant historical and technical conversations that have until now, only been done via many emails.

Welcome!

Bobby Ellerbee
Winder, GA

I was an odd child. The first toy I remember playing with was a microphone from an old Grundig tape recorder that my father bought in Germany while serving in the US Army. As a child, I became fascinated with radio and television. I remember sitting with a pad and pencil, drawing television cameras and TV studios. My only references were those brief instances when the "third wall" of television was lifted allowing a few second glimpse of the cameras and equipment. I saw real television cameras for the first time in high school when I took a trip to New York City and watched a dress rehearsal of Saturday Night Live on NBC during it's very first season. I sat amazed in Studio 8H watching those big RCA TK44 cameras move around the studio floor like a symphony.

After graduation, I went to communications school in Hollywood and worked for a brief time on the Page staff at NBC Burbank. NBC was still using those TK44s and I told myself that someday, for some crazy reason, I would have one in my home. Through many years of searching and finally with the help of my good friend Bobby Ellerbee, I finally found one. My father, who is a patient restorer of antique automobiles, pitched in on the restoration project lovingly taking the old RCA camera apart, restoring each piece, and carefully putting it back together. The full story on my 44 is elsewhere on this site and my collection has just begun.

It is my hope, through this "virtual museum", that collectors and enthusiasts of broadcasting's past will come together to share photos and stories, opening their scrapbooks and letting us peek inside. This site is and will be a work in progress. As we build it, we hope you will pour yourself a cup of coffee and take a trip down memory lane with us...through the Eyes of a Generation.

J.R. Smith
Scottsdale, AZ

Please help us save the old gear. We want you to think of us as a Safehouse for old equipment, and if you have any, or know of any old cameras, VTRs, pedestals, tripods, pan heads and all the rest, in danger of being scrapped, please let us know by using the email links below. We have a great network of collectors that would be glad to assist in finding a home for these items.