[Tech1] Open House

Fri Mar 1 17:30:43 CST 2019

I've tried to find more info on the Mole Bongo Trolley / Bosun'sChair,
 etc. attachment - no joy so far. A photo would be good.
Geoff F

On Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 11:26 PM Geoff Fletcher <geoffletch at gmail.com> wrote:

> From my diaries:-
> Saturday 9 August 1964 / Crew 4
> R2     Open House     0930 - 1745     Crewed out
> Grotty skinny models all over the place!
>
> Saturday 7 November 1964 / Crew 4
> R2     Open House     0930 - 1730     Heron tracking
> Heron tracking - Roy up front.
>
> These seem to be the only ones I was involved with.  Frank and Crew 2 must
> have been on something else those weeks.
>
> Geoff F
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 11:04 PM Geoffrey Hawkes via Tech1 <
> tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I was on Crew 2 at the time and worked on Open House quite regularly.
>> Stewart Morris directed it and Pat Hubbard often vision mixed. As DO3, I
>> tracked the mole, with Clive Halls as the swinger and Frank Wilkins of
>> course on the front. The contraption being talked about, I thought was
>> called the “Flying Angel” as it enabled the person in it to apparently fly.
>> The provision for counter-balancing was that the bucket on the back could
>> be pulled out allowing extra weights to be added to it. I’ve no doubt that
>> it needed a second swinger to cope with the extra inertia but I can’t
>> remember that bit. It made it a rather cumbersome, unwieldy beast and don’t
>> think it was used very often as it took a while to rig and de-rig and it
>> couldn’t be left on when not in use.
>> I was occasionally allowed to do a camera, which were the new Pye Mk?
>> (Dudley Darby is better at remembering which were which than me), it was
>> the one with the electric turret change that TVT also had. Any mistakes on
>> air had to be accounted for to Stewart himself after the show and he would
>> come down on the floor to seek out the offender, more often than not, me.
>> Good old Pat Hubbard would also come down and offer a few conciliatory
>> words which went a long way to soothe the wounds.  I always liked him for
>> that.
>> Gaye Burn: I don’t know how he came to be chosen as front man but when it
>> was dropped, he disappeared back from whence he came. Open House isn’t even
>> mentioned on Wikipedia among the list of shows he presented during his long
>> career. Perhaps one of us should do an edit?
>> I’m trying to remember who the band leader was, I want to say Tony
>> Osborne but am not sure if that’s right. I seem to remember whoever it was
>> playing the trombone one time and me tracking the mole too far down the
>> alley towards him so that the front threatened to ram the instrument down
>> his throat which could’ve been nasty. It was hard to tell from the back,
>> but it would’ve made a good out-take wouldn’t it?
>> Among the artists was the magician, Al Koran and the heart throb, deaf
>> singer Johnny Ray made a guest appearance one time. I was impressed to see
>> him as my mum was a fan but chose not to destroy her illusion by telling
>> her how he quite blatantly tried to chat me up by feigning an interest in
>> how tele-promoter worked, as if he’d never seen it before. Frank would’ve
>> been amused as he was always quick to spot and capitalise on such things in
>> an attempt to embarrass, but I didn’t say anything to him either. I owe a
>> lot to Frank though, for teaching me to be resilient and he always took it
>> in good part when I replied with a quip of my own against him.
>> I’m sure we all have similar stories to tell of how we learnt to adjust
>> to being part of the strange world of life in Television - and count
>> ourselves lucky to have be part of it,
>> Regards,
>> Geoff
>>
>>
>> > On 28 Feb 2019, at 15:50, Alec Bray via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > And, of course, there was the all-to-brief "Open House" on BBC-2
>> (compèred by Gay Byrne) soon after BBC-2 started, targetted especially to
>> those viewers who did not want to watch "Grandstand".
>> >
>> > It was a Riverside production in all ways, since R1 and R2 were put
>> together for the afternoon: which one segment was showing in one studio, we
>> would be rehearsing the next in the other.
>> >
>> > A couple of highlights I remember (apart from Blaster Bates!).  A
>> bright young singer, Millie, singing "My Boy Lollipop" in R1.  So that puts
>> it firmly in 1964.
>> >
>> > Also in R1 we had a singer fixed to the front of the Mole.  I can't
>> remember all the details, but it was something like this. A beam about - oh
>> I suppose 15 inches wide (of course, pre-metrification) had hooks and
>> clamps which could be fastened to the front of the Mole platform.  I had
>> never seen the likes of this, but apparently it was a sort of stock item
>> which could be booked out (but \I never saw it again).  This was clamped to
>> the front of the Mole.  At the far end of the beam was a seat - somewhat
>> akin to a London Bus Drivers seat, with the seat bit on the beam.  Whoever
>> had to sit in this seat had basically to straddle the seam with his or her
>> legs.
>> >
>> > Obviously there had to be additional weights in the Mole bucket, but
>> how, or where from, these appeared, I did not know.  For the song, the
>> singer sat in the seat, and the camera on the Mole  had a (query) loose MCU
>> shot, so that there was a fair bit of background.  The the Mole went for an
>> amble around the Studio (R1): the singer was always in shot and in focus,
>> but the background sort of swirled around him.  Yes, it was a "him" - I
>> think that he was wearing top hat and tails ('twas a long time ago) but
>> certainly his dress was more formal than casual.
>> >
>> > There was no room in R1 and R2 for an orchestra (and I don't think that
>> there would have been time for a sound check! - as I recall it was all
>> go!).  MIllie certainly miming to her record - but the male singer could
>> have been miming to a Beeb prerecord.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > Best Regards
>> >
>> > Alec
>> >
>> > Alec Bray
>> >
>> > alec.bray.2 at gmail.com
>> > mob:    07789 561 346
>> > home:   0118 981 7502
>> >
>> >
>> > --
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>>
>>
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