More questions about television lighting

[Rinehart]

I have a paper by William Eddy that he delivered to the spring meeting of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers in 1939 on the development of television lighting from 1935 to 1939. In it he makes a few statements I don't understand, and I would like to hear if someone could explain them to me.
First, he says they started by using the same lights and arrangement of lights as were used in the movies, and notes some of the limitations: "In the Radio City studio we installed routine spots and broads. Due to the limitation of a ninteen foot ceiling, a practical light bridge was out of the question." What does he mean by "light bridge"?
Second, he says, "...it was immediately apparent that the excessive glare and operational requirements of such a battery of lights precluded their general use in television." What does he mean exactly by "operational requirements"?
Third, he notes that during the initial phase of experimentation they concentrated on producing adequate floodlighting, "lacking the characteristic modeling that might prove embarrassing in certain sequences." Huh?
I've extracted the relevant pages, and if anyone would like to post more of them just ask me.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Rinehart

... a practical light bridge was out of the question." What does he mean by "light bridge"?
...What does he mean exactly by "operational requirements"?
..."lacking the characteristic modeling that might prove embarrassing in certain sequences." Huh?

I think "light bridge" means a catwalk for the lighting hands.

Operational requirements seems to refer to the number of personnel needed, but it could be other things too - I just take this to mean the general level of effort and staffing.

Describing modeling light as "embarrassing in some situations" seems peculiar to me, but a well known problem of live TV lighting is getting the lights OK for all the positions that the actors may take, without moving the lights; as opposed to motion picture practice, where the lights are readjusted for each shot.

[old_tv_nut]

Look about 1/3 down this page for a picture of a lighting bridge at BBC:
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old...%20studios.htm

[Rinehart]

I assume you mean this picture. So I see what you mean by its being a catwalk or a raised platform of some kind, which would explain why the height of the ceiling would preclude its use.

[Sandy G]

I remember stories of folks suffering under the intense HEAT these lights produced, remember this was mostly long before everything was 100% air conditioned, and people 50-60 years ago tended to "Dress Up" in their Sunday best a lot more than we do now.

[Rinehart]

Oh yes, the heat was something else. There is the story of Hugh Downs' first appearance on television, in 1945. He was supposed to do a 10-minute news broadcast, and when he got to the studio, he found that it wasn't so much air conditioned as refrigerated--he could see his own breath misting in the air, and all the crew were wearing jackets and gloves. They gave him the script, and almost as an afterthought, the production assistant said, "You know, if you want to take your suit jacket off and just do the thing in shirt sleeves and tie, we don't mind."
He opted not to, but almost immediately realized that he had made a mistake; just before they went to air, all the crew took off their jackets, gloves, etc, and the young woman who was the production assistant was wearing shorts and a halter top. The lights came on and the temperature soared, and in the last couple of minutes of the broadcast he had difficulty reading the script. Sweat was pouring off him like a monsoon, and was getting in his eyes faster than he could wipe it away. When it was finally over, his suit was completely soaked through, which was a good thing, he said, because it probably saved him from bursting into flame.
There's one little codicil to this story. After he was done, it occurred to him that he had never watched a television show before, which made him one of the few people to have done a show before having seen one.