Discover Top Posts Tagged with #gilbert seldes

well i'll be...

Charlie Chaplin visited and inspected the CBS Television labs. A revolutionary advance in the TV industry the color television was invented by the Department of Engineering, in charge of television, of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Dr. Peter Goldmark, Chief of Engineers of CBS, as seen at the extreme left on the picture. Then from left to right you can see Paul W. Kesten, Vice President of CBS, Mr. Chaplin, Adrian Murphy, Executive Director of the Television Department of CBS and Gilbert Seldes, Program Director of CBS. Image dated October 24, 1940.

(Photo by CBS via Getty Images)

"In photos, we see the first incarnation of the CBS Field Sequential color system, with none other than Charlie Chaplin taking a look. Creator, Peter Goldmark (with glasses) and CBS Program Director, Gilbert Seldes (elbow on the deck) are explaining the system to their famous visitor. Goldmark was the technical head of the CBS Television effort that started in 1939. On a belated honeymoon to Canada in March 1940, Goldmark and his bride decided to see the Technicolor movie, "Gone with the Wind". At the time, color movies were few and far in between and Goldmark was awed by the beauty and richness of Technicolor. Immediately, approaches to achieving television in color started spinning in his brain. Returning to New York he approached his supervisors to support experiments in developing a system. By June 1940 he was able to show still pictures from a color slide on a 5-inch color monitor. In this photo, we see the slide projector lower left, and the 5-inch monitor with the external spinning color wheel in front of it. The slide projector is sending an image into a Farnsworth Image Dissector tube, which you can see attached to the monitor's left side. The picture transmitted that day was a 343 line image broadcast over W2XAB on a 25 Watt transmitter. The broadcast came from the experimental color studio at CBS HQ, at 485 Madison Avenue. The first demonstration to the press came on September 4, 1940. It has been quoted many times that the mechanical Field Sequential color system developed by Goldmark rivaled the quality of the Technicolor Process for films. Pictures published in Life Magazine in 1941 and 1950 comparing Kodachrome photographs of the original subject and photographs of a CBS color receiver show excellent color fidelity of even this earliest color television system." - Bobby Ellerbee.

In the photo: Peter Goldmark on the left, Charlie Chaplin in the middle, Gilbert Seldes on the right.

#charlie chaplin #charles chaplin #peter goldmark #gilbert seldes #the beginnings of color television

#ThrowbackThursday Gilbert Seldes has this to say about our fellow, Keaton in his 1937 book, ‘The Movies Come From America’:

A half-dozen imitators, their original talent wasted because they developed nothing and imitated everything, only added to Chaplin's fame. Two men definitely rose to separate distinction—Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Of the two, Keaton had the greater imagination, for while he had only one manner—the dead pan, the inexpressive countenance with which he faced adventures with men, animals and machines—almost always the victim of his surroundings, but never overcome by them—there was always something endearing in Keaton's comedy, a kind of simplicity and softness.

#throwback thursday #buster keaton #tbt #gilbert seldes #charlie chaplin #harold lloyd #silent era #silent movies #vintage hollywood #critic #critique #tibks #the international buster keaton society #buster keaton society #the damfinos #damfino #damfamily

"The suggestion that persecution in any way proves greatness is simply absurd. The world has persecuted enough of its great men to justify a little hesitation and a deal of humility before it persecutes anyone else; but it has also persecuted so many criminals, and derided so many fools, that proof by persecution ceases to be admirable. Two thieves were crucified, and only one Christ."

Gilbert Seldes, The Stammering Century

#Gilbert Seldes #persecution #cults #The Stammering Century #charlatans and manias

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo at the Menorah Journal Dinner in New York on May 10, 1933.

(Original Caption) Ousted Artist Speaks at Menorah Dinner. Diego Rivera, noted Mexican artist who was ousted from Rockefeller Center and his partly finished fresco hidden from public view, was the principle speaker at the Menorah Journal Dinner at the Hotel Park Crescent, New York, May 10th. Prior to the dinner, the guests viewed the exhibition of pictures of Jewish types, the work of Lionel Reiss, New York artist. The exhibit was held with the intention of disapproving the Nazi Aryan theory, in that the characteristics of the Jews are as varied as the nations in which they make their homes. Left to right: Mme. Diego Rivera, Diego Rivera, Henry Hurwitz, editor of the Menorah Journal; Gilbert Seldes, journalist, and Lee Simonson of the Theatre Guild.