January 1, 1954...A DAY OF COLOR FIRSTS
This was the first time the new RCA/NBC color trucks were used. Unlike the black and white RCA Tele Mobile units from the ’30s, which had a camera/switching truck and a transmitter truck, both color trucks were camera trucks, with the signal feed handled by one of Ma Bell’s ever-present microwave trucks.
It was the first west-to-east color broadcast to be nationally televised and of course, it was the first color broadcast of The Rose Parade...