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Re: ChromaKey (Was WBZ Archives)



On Fri, 13 Mar 1998, TVHD wrote:

>    Locally, perhaps. But Ernie Kovacs was doing chromakey 
> effects back in the mid-fifties. One of the first matting 
> amplifiers, which produced a luminence key effect (which is 
> like a chromakey, only adds signals via b&w blanking [or 
> matting] signals) that inspired Kovacs was actually built back 
> in the late 'forties at WPTZ in Philadelphia, the station where 
> Kovacs stared out.

Howdy Doody was using chromakey around 1955-56.  They were one of the
first shows to be colorcast regularly, and I remember they used those
effects for various purposes.

I remember one scene when one of the human (i.e. non-puppet) characters
was putting on his invisibility suit.  It was pretty obvious that he
wasn't actually on the set that appeared behind him.  I suppose he was in
front of a blue background, and his invisibility suit was actually a blue
suit.  Looked good, too. 

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