|
The
Best of "Garroway at Large"
(Video Downloads)
| Curator's
note: The video segments linked below (some of the few that have survived)
are essential primary sources for any student of television. They illustrate the
concern of the practitioners of the "Chicago School of Television" with
establishing a unique medium based on the technical capabilities (and limitations)
of broadcast video aimed at a small audience in a living room. What you will see
is clearly neither cinema nor theater. It's live television---at its earliest
and at its best. Thanks not only to Dave Garroway but to Director Bill Hobin,
producer Ted Mills, writer Charlie Andrews, choreographer Edith Barstow and scenic
designer Jan Scott, all of whom helped invent our medium. |
- Part
I: "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". A breathtaking
performance for three cameras, two dancers and orchestra. Richard
Rodgers, a "Garroway at Large" fan, gave his imprimatur,
making this the first television performance this work.
- Part
II: The "Boom Ballet". Garroway et. al make the
boom microphone (and its operator) part of the performance.
- Part
III: The Art Van Damme Quintet. Art Van Damme, the world's
premier jazz accordionist for more than half a century (he still
plays) was an NBC-Chicago staffer and a part of many Garroway
broadcasts.
- Part
IV: Johnny Hodges. Garroway was a jazz lover. No surprise,
therefore, that he booked Hodges for a Sunday night performance
not long after one of the greatest alto saxophonists of the
age left the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
(For
more Garroway material, watch streaming video of "Christmas
Time in Chicago", a 1989 WMAQ-TV production)
|
