Posts Tagged ‘Frank Vento’
Paul Noble on John F. Kennedy, Mrs. Roosevelt, Music, Art, and More
Paul Noble was hired through the Boston University Scholars program. Starting in 1959, he and his crew created a strong relationship between WGBH executives and staff, a culture based on humor and fun.
Read MoreFred Barzyk’s Snapshots: Scene 5 – Opera, Film, and a Dream
I always dreamed of doing an original TV musical. Raposo and Lehrer were willing to work on the musical for no money. What we needed was a play.
Read MoreA stranger in a strange land
From Fred Barzyk: Bill insisted I try to get into the scholarship program. You studied for your graduate degree at Boston University and worked three days a week at the Educational Television station. Free tuition and you got $600 to live a year in Boston!
Read MoreA tribute to Dave Davis
From Don Hallock As I remember, a 30 year old Dave Davis came to us at WGBH-TV from the University of North Carolina campus TV in 1957. That was the same year I, at 19, began in the scene shop as assistant to Peter Prodan. Dave was a musician and veteran television Producer-Director. He succeeded…
Read MoreChristmas Shows (1957-58)
From Vic Washkevich Each year, the entire station crew taped a Christmas Show sending up anything and everything, anyone and everyone. The tapes were shown at the WGBH Christmas parties. This shot of Frank Vento was taken when our class had to put on a Christmas show in 1957. With Frank is someone named Jerry…
Read MoreRuth Anne’s Christmas Show (1950s)
From Brooks Leffler Ruth Anne’s Christmas Show. Not the parody Christmas show, the real thing. Staff was invited to be the campers for the day, and Ruth Anne led them in a kids’ song, the name of which escapes me. Note: this pic is a Photoshop marriage of two pics that didn’t quite match. Visible:…
Read MorePhotos From the ‘GBH Archives (1950s)
Photos from Mary Ide, WGBH Archives Photo by Brooks Leffler, 1958 Studio A under construction. From Larry Creshkoff I think I can provide some specifics for the pic of Studio A under construction. Time: The date may have been December ’54 or January ’55 (or even later). People (from Left to Right): Hartford Gunn (partly…
Read MoreRat Alley Reminiscence (1959)
From Paul Noble Now, here’s a really choice photo, from Brooks Leffler. It’s the entrance to Fred Barzyk’s and Tom McGrath’s dreadful little hovel in "Rat Alley," 1959. It was literally in a back alley which ran from Massachusetts Avenue out behind the Zebra Lounge. The hundreds of resident rats were the size of house…
Read MoreLiving Places of the Not-so-rich and Occasionally Infamous (1957-63)
From Don Hallock Just around the corner from the former Zebra Lounge, (the present-day Crossroads Tavern, shown in this photo to the right of center) was a pair of apartments at 27 1/2 Massachussetts Avenue, over a greasy spoon eating place which shared a kitchen with the Zebra. The second floor was occupied by Bill…
Read MoreDiscovery with Mary Lela Grimes (1955-56)
From Mary Lela Grimes (now Mary Sherburne) Here are some [stories] from the very first days of WGBH-TV that may interest the oldies and provide images of the primitive days of TV for the young. Snakes During the first year WGBH was on the air, an early Discovery program with Mary Lela Grimes was on…
Read MoreDiscovering Discovery (1956)
From Don Hallock This 1956 film about the making of Mary Lela Grimes (Sherburne’s) kinescoped NET series on science for children was resurrected for the reunion. It is a show within a film, showcasing the 84 Massachusetts Avenue facility and many of our best remembered WGBH friends. A teleprompter mounted on the front of Frank…
Read MoreQuo vadis WGBH (1946-2000)
From Don Hallock: It may surprise you to know how many places the station has called home. WGBH’s origins were in a converted skating rink on the second floor of 84 Mass. Ave. and the office spaces on the third, were the first home of WGBH from 1955 to 1961.
Read MoreThen and Now (1955-2000)
From Don Hallock The Buildings Then: The station in 1958, occupying a rather dusty second and third floor roller-skating rink in an old brick building located opposite MIT at 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. (Photo by Brooks Leffler.) In 2000, WGBH sprawled over extensive real estate near Harvard. This is the main studio building at 125…
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