"Man with a Camera" Starring Charles Bronson and (1960) on FreeVee is a hoot!

[Alan Townsend]

:)

Was scanning FreeVee for shows the other night and found this "Man with a Camera" show starring Charles Bronson in 1960-61 where he carried a 4x5 Graphic press camera around and takes pictures. I only watched part of one show, but noticed he puts this big camera down before he beats people up. Might be fun to watch this winter as the snow flies. Looks like good quality 35mm MP print. He is a large format photographer on this show, mostly commercial, I guess. This likely has some large format photography historical value.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Alan Townsend

[Vaughan]

:)

I only watched part of one show, but noticed he puts this big camera down before he beats people up.

Yeah that was a 60s hippie thing. Real photographers beat people up WITH THE CAMERA.

[r.e.]

From Wikipedia on the show. Who had a phone in their car in 1958 :)


Besides an array of cameras for normal use, for surreptitious work Kovac employs cameras hidden in a radio, cigarette lighter and even his necktie. He also has a phone in his car, and a portable darkroom in the trunk where he could develop his negatives on the spot.

[r.e.]

Looks like the whole series may be on YouTube. Episode 1, presumably the pilot:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UAJQzxiOQE

[r.e.]

The producer of episode 1 above was A.E. (Buck) Houghton, Jr, who went on to produce the first 39 episodes of The Twilight Zone and Hawaii 5-0. The director, Gerald Mayer, was the nephew of Louis B. Mayer and son of MGM Studio manager Jerry G. Mayer. The writer, William Fay, apparently wrote the Elvis Presley film Kid Galahad and 14 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The female lead is played by Canadian-American actress Ruta Lee, now 88, who has had roles in some quite famous films. Her Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruta_Lee

Wikipedia entry for Buck Houghton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Houghton

Los Angeles Times obituary for Gerald Mayer: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-26-me-50019-story.html

[Tin Can]

Yes fun to watch

I love old BW TV

Try The Avengers'

[drj52]

From Wikipedia on the show. Who had a phone in their car in 1958 :)

Car phones were introduced in 1946.

[r.e.]

Yes fun to watch

I love old BW TV

Try The Avengers'

The Avengers was a favourite at our house because my father worked on the show. My image of Diana Rigg got quite a jolt when I went to see her and Anthony Hopkins in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a long way from Emma Peel :)

[Willie]

Have the whole series on DVD. Liked it when I was a kid and still like it now.
My favorite tho - Lee Marvin in M Squad. Lt. Frank Ballinger was a good one. Nothing to do with Photography. Still my favorite TV Show.

[Alan Townsend]

Another 1950's TV show centered on photography was "The Bob Cummings Show" He played a glamour photographer in Hollywood, you can see the studio view cameras and model shoots often on that show. It's a very not very funny TV comedy, with many noteworthy Hollywood personalities involved. I watched a few episodes a few days ago, and did not laugh at all, only smiled a little. My father loved that show because he knew Bob Cummings personally from his childhood in Joplin, MO. Same age, went to same schools, both were also avid aircraft enthusiasts. Not friends, but knew each other. Cummings was a rich kid with an airplane in high school. :o

I remember an episode where Cummings had one of those cars that convert to an airplane. A crumby little car towing trailer with wings that turned into a poor aircraft.

[MrFujicaman]

In several episodes, you'll see him with a Leica M3 in a belt holster.

[Ben Calwell]

Bronson’s character probably never discussed Scheimpflug with anyone.

[Jim Andrada]

And there's always Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window".

[Willie]

And there's always Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window".

In HARVEY no one ever got a photo of his sidekick.