With their limited funds and space, TV productions have hitherto been unable to turn out the kind of extravaganza which moviegoers associate with Cecil B. DeMille. Now a young architect named James McNaughton has found a way to do it. Weekly, in New York's ABC studio, McNaughton uses tricks of painted perspective to create elaborate scenery for The Paul Whiteman Revue (ABC-TV, Sunday 7:00-7:30 p.m. EDT). He builds his sets in three days at the low cost of $2.500. Two weeks ago (may 1950 - my annotation) McNauughton outdid himself by designing a scene in imperial Rome, the most spectacular setting TV has ever produced. In an inspired example of type casting, the show had roly-poly Whiteman, erstwhile king of jazz, acting the part of Nero amid a troupe of 40 roman roisterers. but large as Paul bulked, the settings bulked even larger.
The toga polka was danced by a chorus that cavorted around wildly but esthetically in Nero's court. Backgrounds for this lavish set were painted on a canvas cyclorama 50 feet wide, while massive pillars, constructed out of 30-foot tubes of painted cloth, were suspended from ceiling gridiron above.
A riding academy, which still retains faint aroma of its former occupants, was converted into this ABC television studio, the biggest on the East Coast. TV designer McNaughton extends his settings into every cranny, achieving amazing effects of distance and permitting great camera mobility.
To build Rome in TV studio, wormen erect smaller pillars made of cardboard. For this weekly revue McNaughton converts the studio into spanish towns, Arizona ranches, pirate ships, turkish harems, New York penthouse.
0 Comments