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Early Lavaliere...


Jan McL

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I loved watching that video of The Today Show. I actually remember watching the show on that day in 1952 (yes, I'm that old).

I guess the microphone could technically be called a lavaliere (from Wikipedia: A lavalier is named for the type of pendant popularized by the Duchesse de la Vallière) but fortunately someone had a better idea soon after and lavaliere microphones got a lot smaller, didn't have to use a frame slung around the neck to support it. I believe the microphone is actually a standard reporters handheld mic with a neck worn bracket attached.

-  Jeff Wexler

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I'm a little too young to remember Dave Garroway very clearly, but I do remember clips of him, how he always intro'd his shows by saying, "how do! Dave Garroway here."

Those gigantic lavs back then were monstrous. When I started working in TV in the early 1970s, I was part of the crew that got rid of the original half-pound RCA dynamic lavs and went to the Sony ECM-50's. Aside from the problem of battery life, they had the benefit of what sounded like another 5kHz more high-end response -- I was floored by how much better they sounded. God help you when the battery failed on air, though.

I can recall when that happened to Walter Cronkite live on CBS, and from the next night onwards, he always wore two lavs. I think this would've been like 1975 or 1976, and it's been S.O.P. ever since for all big-time newscasts.

By gum, Dave Garroway's lav was ginormous, but I bet it never failed on-air.  :-)

--Marc W.

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  • 3 weeks later...

just think 23 years FOR THE VIETNAMESE TO GET THEIR COUNTRY BACK ( with russian high tech help)  will we even be alive when the iraquis and afgahns get their place back??  and of course Pepsi Cola is well dug in in Vietnam today - and it's a capitalist economy selling oil to China - their other arch enemy. History does move slowly despite of idiotic silver tongued generals playing round robin. HA !

w.

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