THE COLLECTION OF BOBBY ELLERBEE

I will update this page soon as Bobby now has more cameras.

Bobby Ellerbee has only been collecting vintage television broadcast cameras for about 5 years. He has put together a beautiful collection, and is fast becoming one of the leading experts on vintage tv cameras and their history, in the country.

Bobby has done extensive research on the history of all of his cameras. All the logos on the cameras are authentic.
Bobby has dressed up some of is cameras to show a certain "era" of camera history.

Here are some of the cameras in his collection.

RCA TK-30A

 Bobby names some of his cameras. Bobby bought this from a friend of mine, Skip. So it is named "Skipper"
This beautiful TK-30A has a great history. In 1954 when NBC went color, this camera was used at WNBC, (then WRCA). It was donated to the "then" president of NBC, Pat Weaver. It was on display in his office for many years, until it eventually made it's way to California, then to Bobby's collection in Ga. Yes, the "Weaver" name is well known. Doodles Weaver was his Brother, and of course we all know Sigourney Weaver! Great find Bobby, with a little help from his friend Chuck Pharis!

RCA TK-11/31A
This camera is named "ED". to mark the Ed Sullivan and Edward R. Murrow period at CBS in the mid to late 50s. This camera was originally owned by WAVE TV in Louisville, KY.
Notice the rare Studio Zoomar lens on the camera. When mounted on a turret, it made the other smaller lenses useless, as it stuck out so far, it blocked the view of the other mounted lenses!

Editors note: The stripes on the viewfinder were normally used only on a RCA TK-10.

RCA TK-60A
This camera originally came from WCVE TV in Richmond, VA.
This camera is dressed to mark part of the Hollywood Palace B&W heyday when Jerry Lewis and Lawrence Welk did shows there.
This B&W camera was made in the 60s, well after the TK-40 color camera came out in 1953.
Many stations still bought it as it made the best B&W images! A lot of stations did not upgrade to color until well into the late 60s and even into the 70s. ABC Network in NY and Hollywood used the TK-60 until they upgraded to Norelco PC-60 color cameras in the mid 60s, and then to PC-70s in the late 70s.

RCA TK-44A
This camera was used by WXIA TV, Atlanta, GA.
It is dressed to pay tribute to NBC Burbank late 1960s television shows, Laugh In, Bob Hope, and Dean Martin Show era.

RCA TK-47A
Used by WISH TV, Indianapolis
This was the last studio camera made and sold by RCA. They did make a TK-48, but it never went into production. Only two were know to exist. I (Chuck) have been looking for a TK-48 for many years!
I did not like doing video on these cameras. Everything went through the master computer. If you lost the computer, you lost all the cameras in your studio! A dumb design by RCA! It did make beautiful "warm" pictures!

Norelco PC-60 and Ikegami HK-312C
The PC-60 came from CBS TV NY and the HK-312C came from ABC TV NY
The PC-60 shows how the cameras were dressed for shows done at CBS Television City. Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett, and others done in the late 60s into the 70s. Most stations later replaced their PC-60s with PC-70s.
The Ikegami camera is dressed to mark the Roone Arlidge area at ABC in the late 70s to 80s.
ABC Network in Hollywood used HK-312s well into the 90s! I know, because I (Chuck) had to make pictures on them! I worked on Welcome Back Kotter in the late 70s at ABC Hollywood. We used some of the first 312s made, on that show and many others in Studio 57 and 59, and later in studios 54, 55 and ABC Network News, Los Angeles.

RCA TK-41C
This camera had an interesting history. Used at KTLA around the same time they used TK-41`s from Red Skelton. Somehow one of the Skelton lens turrets ended up on this camera. A nice piece of history. Then the camera made it to a rental company, where the insides were stripped for rental. It sat in the rental stores lobby for many years on display. Bobby got this camera from the rental company. It is named Rosie, because it was used to shoot early Rose Parades. Looking at the photo, I now know why he names some of his cameras!
Bobby has dressed this camera to mark early color at NBC Network. The lens is made by Varatol.

Thanks Bobby for sharing your beautiful collection with us.
All the above historical information on the cameras came directly from Bobby Ellerbee, with a few comments by me. He has done extensive research on vintage tv cameras. He lives in Athens Ga. Feel free to email him if you have any questions on early Tv camera history.
tobeorellerbee@charter.net

I will add more current photos soon.

Last modified on Feb. 2011