Acting Residuals — Why + When — Brief History In Broadcasting
Rare Television Acting Clips:
One with Paul Newman, and one with James Dean
…at bottom of post…( Hey, don’t skip now! )
Acting Residuals Began In Radio Days
Residuals are entirely a “show business” invention, and an American invention. They were conceived in the era of radio broadcasting, when technological advances created a broadcasting dilemma…which arose when recording became possible.
Prior, on radio, all American broadcasting was performed live. And…just like the regular programming we now have on television, there were regularly scheduled programs, on radio.
Except there was no “recording” yet.
Acting :: Radio
All the programs were performed, by actors, live.
Every show, every time. Due to the expanse of America, and different time zones; the shows were performed twice a day…Once, for the Eastern part of America,\; and a second for the Pacific Standard Time Zone.
Actors would need to be at a studio, at the time of broadcast, and physically perform the shows over the air. They would get paid for their performance. Paid for each performance; the same as they would for every live performance in a theater.
Joan Crawford
Technology Evolved, and Acting Was Able To Be Recorded
In the mid-1930’s, they figured out a primitive way to record the shows. The actors wouldn’t have to act each performance out more than once, per each episode.
Fanny Brice, Comedy Actress
Or so it was conceived. But the recording technology wasn’t reliable enough, not at first.
Actors Still Performed Live, For The First Show, At Least
And it was broadcast that way, with the actors gathered around a microphone, performing in the studio.
But because the recording was such a new technology, and not yet reliable, the actors would have to remain in the studio, wa
iting around, to be sure that the recording was good enough for the next time-zone broadcast.
If not, they would act out the entire show, live, once again.
Superman, Acted Live, On Radio
Thus, the term “residual”. Actors were paid for their performances for the second show, just like when they performed it live. Except the residuals were the payment for the recorded broadcast of their performance. This began in 1941.
Acting Was Live Only, In Early Television Performances
When television broadcasting came about, in the 1950’s, all performances were live also; the only thing that broadcast on TV that wasn’t live were actual movies: “re-runs”…which were originally made for, and had played first, in movie theatres.
In 1951, the first TV residuals, were paid. They were compensation for the movie re-runs. To musicians…who had played music in the films, while in production. (Like “royalties”) This was set up by the musician’s union, called the American Federation of Musicians.
Actor Ronald Reagan
Kinoscope: First TV Recordings
Until a recording technology called kinoscope came into use. In 1952, an actor named Walter Pidgeon, was the president of SAG. He called for the first SAG strike, and it was then that actors received residuals for recorded performances.
Here’s James Dean, acting on television, in an early kinoscope recording:
Again, kinoscope wasn’t the greatest, but it did allow television to be broadcast and shows to be rerun.
Frank Sinatra Show with Elvis Presley
The following is a kinoscope called “The Army Game”. It was broadcast on television, and starred a young actor: Paul Newman.
Director Sidney Pollack (who passed away in 2008) was an actor before he became a director. He c0-stars in this theatrical “television special”.
More on this, at a later date…
Best,
Dana
© ®
All Rights Reserved.
Thanks for passing the word! (Especially to you: Twitterers!) Follow my update announcements on “Twitter”, my name is __dana__ .
AND, thanks very much for sharing with your actor friends, there is strength in numbers, for sure…All of you who are putting this blog on Facebook and MySpace–you rock + rule. I am smiling at you, right now!
