Studio F, on account
of its decor, was the most unusual of the six original Merchandise Mart studios.
It was specifically designed to not look like a radio studio. The rationale
was that "important personages" broadcasting for the first time would
be less intimidated in a "homelike" setting.
The principal tenants of studio F in its early years were Freeman Gosden and Charles
Correll---who, as "Amos 'n' Andy",
became radio's first megastars---and Art Van Harvey and Bernardine Flynn, radio's
beloved "Vic and Sade".
| Curator's
note: Former
NBC staffer Glenn Webster engineered both of these shows and has sent me photographs
of studio F in action. I've posted them in an area called the Glenn
Webster Page. They are among the most interesting (and certainly the rarest)
items on this site. |
Following the construction of three new studios in 1935, one of which usurped
the studio F title, studio F was renamed "studio J".
By the time I arrived at the Mart in 1973, studio J had long since been converted
to office space. In its last days, it was the home of the Promotion Department.
The Promotion director inhabited what was once the control room.
NBC apparently considered the "non-studio" design of this space a success.
Four such studios were incorporated in the design of the Radio City studio complex
at 30 Rockefeller Center (two were located on the eighth floor; two on the ninth). |
