(left to right) Jesse Schooley, Edie Huggins, Peter Klein and John Facenda
WCAU-TV Studios, Philadelphia
(previously unreleased photo)
circa 1968

The above photo was a color snapshot taken by someone in the WCAU family. It was not taken by a professional photographer. However, it is, indeed, remarkable because it shows the set, some crew and Edie Huggins with John Facenda. All in all, a rather fantastic photograph. Broadcast Pioneers member Sterling MacKinnon has identified both Jesse and Peter. Both were ADs, Assistant Directors. Jesse was the AD Crew Chief (Supervisor). Broadcast Pioneers member Tony Williams tells us that the Floor Managers at Channel 10 were called ADs. He also says that Klein appears to be running the teleprompter.

On Wednesday, July 14, 1965, John Facenda told the Delaware Valley about the death of Adlai Stevenson. We do not know whether this was the early evening news or the 11 pm report. Our guess is that it is more likely to be the latter. Why? There is a one minute and 40 seconds sound bite of Philadelphia mayor James Tate speaking about Stevenson. Since the station was using film at that time, they would have had to get a film camera to the mayor who sounded like he was reading a prepared statement and not answering a reporter's question. Then, they would have had to get the film back to the station, develop it and prepare it for broadcast. This is a time consuming process and this is why we believe it to be the 11 pm news.

Note the length of the sound bite. It was 100 seconds long. That's about 5 times the length of modern television's usage. While this was a television broadcast, we have only audio. In fact, the first few seconds of the audio is really noisy. However, after a few seconds it quiets down. The three minute clip that we have for you is all of that particular newscast we have in our archive. We are often asked, "why don't you use more of the clip?" The answer is usually, "because that's all we have."

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From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Edie Huggins
Audio originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers historian Gerry Wilkinson
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The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com