Three-Camera Method

On reading the Bart Andrews article (TV Times, Feb. 10) that says Desi Arnaz created the three-camera method for TV, I felt that the time had come to correct an untruth that has been perpetuated for 40 years.

Yes, “I Love Lucy” did use the three-camera method and was the first sitcom to do so. However, the three-camera method was first used on “Truth or Consequences” in September, 1950--a year before “I Love Lucy” went on the air.

Ralph Edwards, with the aid of Al Simon, developed this new technique for “T or C” as a means to produce “live” TV shows on film.

I have full documentation of this and clippings from press conferences in New York in November, 1950, where Edwards explained the process and distributed a 10-page fact sheet.

There are many persons besides myself who were working on “Truth or Consequences” at the time who will corroborate these facts. The primary one is Al Simon.

Simon was a “T or C” writer and he worked on the project for a year, getting union clearances and getting the bugs out of the system. The following year Simon went to “I Love Lucy” and introduced that show to the process. “I Love Lucy” did use it--just didn’t create it or use it first.

SUE CLARK CHADWICK

Hollywood