Bonanza on TV land

[julianburke]

Speaking of Technicolor and Dragnet, In my collection I have a Mitchell BNCR movie camera. Any one familiar with Mitchells?? It is 35mm and they only made 364 of them in their 40+ year of production. At one time, almost 95% of all Hollywood movies were shot with a Mitchell. Martin Hill of NC has the largest movie camera collection perhaps in the world. He also has the Mitchell build orders and my camera, serial #244 was sold to Mark VII productions. Remember at the end of every Dragnet episode the arm and the hammer stamping "MARK VII"?? Mine still has the Universal Studios property stickers along with CBS and Republic stencils on the film magazines. Universal would lease out studio space when Mark 7 was through for the day.

All of the Lucy shows and most all TV sitcoms to include Bonanza and most westerns were shot with a Mitchell. Mine shot Dragnet, Adam12, Emergency, The Munsters and other CBS sticoms. Panavision took over when Mitchell went out of business and with the theory that if you don't sell and only rent, you will stay in business!