Steve,
I was referring to the first reports of the shooting on Friday 11/22. The network(s) didn't have time to setup. They needed to go on air ASAP.
The other events were planned and the networks had time on their sides. CBS, for some reason, felt it necessary to cut away from Oswalds movements to show some tape on JFK. Turned out to be a very 'historic' mistake.

Ron

They also had to change lens. On the Oswald shooting, you can see the lens change a fraction of a second before he's shot. The picture is distorted while the lens changes. If you look at the TV station cameras of that time, the lens would rotate for closeup or long shots.

Ron

The JFK Inauguration was Telecast in Color
 

Portions of the JFK Inauguration were Telecast in Color. I recall playing hookey from Westside high school in Omaha to stay home to watch it on the 21-inch Hallicrafters color television in our home. I do not know if a color video tape survives of this event.

Ed Reitan

I was home from 1st grade that day. I was playing on the sofa with a toy truck, the kind that delivers cars to the show rooms. In September, 1963, my mother had drawn a Bozo The Clown that she cut out for me before starting school. When the report came over the TV that there was a shooting, my mother got up slowly and made the TV louder. I said something and she told me, "Shut Up!" I didn't understand what was happpening, I was 5 at the time.
Here's something of that weekend I'll never forget. My parents, brother and I were watching the events on the day Oswald was shot. At the moment of the Oswald shooting, my mother said to my father, "Don't let them watch that." My father said, "Let them watch it. It's history." Two different views of reality.
BTW. JFK was here in NYC the Friday before he was killed. He insisted that he drive through rush hour traffic. That drove the Secret Service nuts.

I've always felt sorry for the people of Dallas for what happened on their turf. I'm sure many people commented that they traveled the assassination route many times. Since 9/11, I can say I know how they feel.

Ron

Steve H.

Just to drift a bit off topic here, We did indeed haul our KTLA RCA TK-41 color cameras to many a remote broadcast site . This included baseball, football, basketball, boxing and wrestling. Also did other parades and beauty pagents ect. The cameras were tarnsported in a large crown coach bus unit. However, we never covered what they now call, breaking news with these cameras. Out "hot" news Telemobile used a b&w TK-10 or 11 until 1966 when it was converted to color with a Norelco Plumbicon camera.

-Steve D.

Ron,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. You are absolutely right. CBS interrupted a soap opera and Cronkite did a voice over a "BULLETIN" slide for the first cut in. Over at NBC they went on the air live but neglected to start rolling tape of this historic broadcast for over 10 min. I have a tape copy of NBC's coverage that day, less those 10 mins., with Chet Huntley & Frank McGee as primary anchors.

-Steve D.

JFK inaugural color film info
 

Some information on color filming of the JFK inaugural speech. Text courtesy this site:
Our Stewardship of JFK's Greatest Speeches, Mark Sobel
Address:http://www.jfklancer.com/sobel/speeches.html

"The Inaugural Address
There appears to have been two sources of color film of the Inaugural Address; a 35mm color negative taken by the Department of Defense, and a 16mm color film presumably taken by the White House Press Corps that now exists in the JFK Library, readily available to the public on video for a nominal fee. Short clips from B&W duplicates of the Department of Defense 35mm color negative can be found in theatrical newsreels of the day. I studied the newsreels dealing with the Warren Commission for set design in "The Commission".
Within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), only the first minutes of the Inaugural Address, as well as the final minutes, survive in 35mm color. Although the camera position was inferior to that of the 16mm cameras, the 35mm negative would have allowed for enlarging the image to generate close shots of JFK, something that none of the color films possess. The B&W video of JFK's Inaugural Address does have many good close-ups, and I can think of no better use for the process of colorization than to sample the actual colors from existing color photos, and colorize this video material for the historical record."

-Steve D.

When I'm wrong, I'm wrong....
 

Ed,

My faux-paux for incorrectly assuming, in my AK post, that the JFK inaugural contained no live color tv elements. At least portions, if not all of the inaugural parade were telecast in color by NBC. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. You list this NBC color first on your site and I also found reference at the following sites:

"I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations
The text:
First time that the parade was televised in color (NBC). (New York
Times, 1/15/1961).

Also this from the C-SPAN.org site:
Fun Fact: John F. Kennedy's inauguration the first time the inaugural parade was televised in color (on NBC).

I will be at the library next week and will locate the NY Times article and send it along to you.


-Steve D.

Well, I don't know if it counts as being outside, but every year from at least 1956 on, if the World Series was on NBC, it was telecast in color. The footage that I've seen that survives are B&W kinescopes shot off a color display (for maximum crapitude in the image, as Bart Simpson would say...)

As for the JFK inaugural, if I ever find a good color version of the film, I'll try some LiveFeed magic on it, and then we can rectify that B&W pool set-up... :)

-Kevin

Hey Kevin,

The World Series certainly qualifies as an outside-remote telecast. The first telecast in color:
1955 1st World Series color TV broadcast on NBC-TV (Yanks beat Dodgers).

Also here is the text from an article in the NY Times from Jan. 15, 1961 on NBC's plans for their color telecast of JFK's inaugural parade. This is just a portion of a larger article on live broadcast coverage for the entire day:

"The parade will be televised in color for the first time by NBC . Because of the limitation of color cameras, NBC's coverage of the eariler ceremonies will be in black and white only. The color cameras will be positioned in Lafayette Park across from the White House reviewing stand."

-Steve D.