Biography

Art Trugman -- a graphic designer-art director, was the Art Director-supervising manager of NBC Television -- Burbank -- Studio's division Graphic Arts Department for forty three (43) years. RCA engineered, developed, their patented television color camera technology system, began manufacturing both color television cameras and home receiving sets in 1954. The west coast NBC Burbank "Color Television Studios" were opened in 1955, a necessary expansion for RCA's color television broadcasting purposes to fill programming air time. The original radio and black-and-white television broadcasting studio facility was located in Hollywood, California, at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. Tom Sarnoff bought the Burbank property from Jack Warner, CEO of Warner Brothers Studio, to develop and provide a new color broadcasting facility. The Burbank television studio innovative complex was designed similar to a motion picture studio facility -- all under one roof, Art began his employment at the Burbank color television operation, joining a relatively small graphic arts division early in his career. Art was made graphic arts division director and supervisor in 1960 when Milt Altman was promoted out of the graphic-department, made supervisor of the production facility's umbrella Production Art Department (which included wardrobe -- Angie Jones, supervisor, and graphics -- Art Trugman, supervisor. Art contributed graphics and titles for network television shows including the following: day-time dramas -- the Lux Soap Drama Show (film projects reduced to a one hour daily scenario treatment), Days of Our Lives (1965), Bright Promise (1969-1972), Return to Peyton Place (1972-1974), Santa Barbara, Sanford and Son, CPO Sharkey; live and video taped musical comedy variety programming -- The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1955-1961), The Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin Colgate Comedy-variety Show, The Jack Benny Show, The Bob Hope Comedy Hour, The Danny Kaye Show, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Andy Williams variety and musical comedy Show, The Red Skelton Show, as well as, live comedy-variety audience shows such as Jimmy Durante, Danny Kaye, Milton Berle, Phyllis Diller, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin's hosted Laugh-In comedy sketch show, Midnight Special; variety game shows: Queen For A Day, Ralph Linkletter's Truth or Consequences, Wheel of Fortune, Run-A-Round, Celebrity Sweepstakes, Hollywood Squares, Jeopardy, Scrabble, $10,000 Pyramid; live television commercial accounts: Hallmark Cards, Chevrolet Automobiles; live video-taped dramatic and comedy specials including: the Bill Cosby Show, the Andy Williams Specials, the Jack Benny Specials, Jimmy Durante Specials, the Danny Kaye Specials, the Bob Hope Specials, the Frank Sinatra Specials, Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentations, the Fred Astaire Dance Specials, the film Academy Awards annual specials. (In 1966, ABC Television transitioned to color broadcasting, taking the Academy Awards televised contract away from NBC TV); and numerous closed circuit broadcast feed programming to medical facilities hosted by network news celebrity reporters (Hugh Downs).

Art was known as the "artist" and "man" who body-painted Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne and others on the late 1960s and early 1970s comedy sketch show "Laugh-In".

"ART" -- Arthur Trugman, a graphic designer was born in 1928, deceased November 11, 2003 at 75 years of age, in Los Angeles of complications resulting from a heart attack and stroke. He attended New York University and the Los Angeles Chouinard Art Institute, and served in the Navy from 1946-48. Art was hired in his early career as a graphic artist by NBC Television, when the Burbank studio facility was opened in 1955. He became the department's manager in 1960, developing and leading the graphic arts division into the largest television studio graphic art department of the three major west coast networks, CBS, ABC, and NBC, until his retirement after forty three years. His NBC Graphic Art's division fluctuated with designers and print artists from ten employees, to over thirty artists. With the advent of computer graphics, the department expanded with additional personnel. His department was the most progressive profitable NBC division, accepting outside jobs, providing a profitable Tele-Sales division for the network's profit. His department included David Rose, the court illustrator, whose on-sight courtroom sketches were featured on both local and network news reporting. He is survived by his wife, Shirley; son Mark, CEO of trailer house Aspect Ratio; two other sons; and five grandchildren.

In the "Golden Age of Television" the three major broadcasting television networks had west coast facilities. CBS Television City was located at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Boulevard, with four stages, and the capability to broadcast in color. Their color cameras were a technical failure rarely pulled out of moth-ball storage, where the elephant sized equipment was relegated to the studio hallway adjacent the scenic drop storage corridor wall between the drapery department and the scenic paint shop. The CBS art department was located on the top floor of the studio facility complex, which included rehearsal halls, the art department offices, and the graphic arts department. The director of the art department was originally James McNaughton, upon his retirement, Robert Tyler Lee was placed in charge. Jane Sai (Saye) was the graphic artist-designer department supervisor of a very small graphic division. Across town, on the eastern fringe of Hollywood, ABC Television had acquired a film studio property, expanding the facility with a production shop which included a construction, drapery, scenic, property, art department, graphic department, production offices and set-furniture storage area. The production department was managed by Lou Sanman. Harold Deino was in charge of a small Graphic Arts department. The three networks primarily television broadcast was in black and white. ABC rented/leased theatrical stages in Hollywood for additional broadcasting audience studios (the original 1735 Vine Street -- El Capitan Theater, renamed the Vine Street Theater. The Vine Street theatre had been converted into a radio broadcasting studio, utilizing the audience area for "live comedy" radio shows for Milton Berle, Jack Benny, ventriloquist Edger Bergen and his dummy son Charley McCarthy and Mortimer Sneed, etc.). NBC originally had radio-audience stage and production facilities located at the cross roads of Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard. The Don Lee Broadcasting (4th minor network) was located three blocks south of Sunset Boulevard, on Vine Street. Merv Griffon purchased this studio property for his showcase in the mid 1970s.

Major entertainment radio broadcasting networks were clustered in the heart of Hollywood, radiating from the center of Sunset Boulevard intersecting Vine Street. The NBC radio and television black & white transmission broadcasting studios originally were located in Hollywood - located at the North-East corner property of Sunset Boulevard intersecting Vine Street. NBC was licensed by the FCA to broadcast from Hollywood, not Burbank -- the reason an announcer would announce -- "From Hollywood". Not until the 1969 comedy show "Laugh-in" announcer proclaimed the program was coming to you from "downtown Burbank" ... CBS had radio-audience studios a block East on the North side of Sunset Boulevard. The Don Lee Radio Broadcasting network was located on North Vine Street, located on the West side of the Vine Street two blocks South of Sunset Boulevard. ABC TV rented the original North Vine Street stage venue "The El Capitan Theater," one-half block North of the Hollywood Boulevard intersection with North Vine Street. The original legitimate-stage (with a stage counter-weight fly floor), backstage dressing rooms, orchestra pit, theater audience main floor and up-stairs second floor balcony, was used to broadcast hosted radio-audience shows, then converted to electronic B&W TV-audience broadcast studios during the early-mid 1950s. With the advent of RCA's new color camera and electronic transmission developments in 1954, new NBC Television color video studios were relocated to property in Burbank. The real estate property was purchased from Jack Warner - Warner Brothers studio real-estate. This property had been primarily used for Warner Brother Studio's back lot exterior location sets, but proved a hazard for constructed studio sets because of an unstable old river bed which divided the property; the unstable deep river bed terrain usually caused the telephone pole anchored sets to be damaged or destroyed because of heavy wind storms - or washed out from heavy rain storm flooding. RCA's Tom Sarnoff negotiated to purchase the property in order to develop and construct new NBC-RCA color studios for the network's expansion into a full color broadcasting domain, exactly like a typical Los Angeles area 1930s-'40s feature film studio, utilizing the new patented RCA television color cameras. The new RCA-NBC TV color facility was opened in 1955. "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show" was one of the first "live" variety audience shows produced weekly at the new all color-video-tape Studio-stage 2. The technical facilities were centered in the plan-foot print with four main stage-studios and rehearsal halls located on the North and West facility perimeter. The engineering, construction-mill, scenic shop with four motorized scenic drop-frames (basement wells), drapery shop, costume-wardrobe shop, prop-storage receiving room, graphics art department, lighting-electric cable shop, transportation department office, design-art direction and production-supervision departments - offices were centered, clustered together. The new NBC Burbank facility was a bee-hive of theatrical activity developing and producing new television programming and productions, which included the following entertainers: Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Danny Kaye, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Queen for a Day, Truth or Consequences, Lux Video Theater, etc.. Stage 1 had a bowling alley built in the basement for Danny Kaye. Stages 1 and 3 were adjacent to each other on Alameda Boulevard (North side) sharing a main corridor with make-up and hair, wardrobe room, second floor dressing rooms, TV lighting and video control booth for each stage, client viewing rooms, lighting control rooms, and a music library. Stages 2 and 4, with a larger floor-foot-print, were located on the West side of the complex, with the identical floor plan and TV facility production layout. Stages 1 and 3, each had a permanent built audience seating at the North end of the stages. Stages 2 and 4, each, utilized an open full stage floor plan, with portable audience seating. All the stages were equipped with a counter-weighted fly floor for flying stage scenery and lighting pipes; a 3/4 soft fabric muslin hung cyclo-ra-ma, with a shark-tooth soft fabric scrim positioned in front of the neutral colored cyclo-ra-ma. Stage 2 had an Olympic size swimming pool pit built - concealed under the stage 2 floor, with pit covers for removal exposing the heated swimming hole. Basement camera sealed window-ports surrounded all sides of the swimming pool This was initially built for aqua-cade production numbers, a la Busby Berkeley, with anticipation for the reigning MGM synchronized swimming actress Esther Williams to perform television aqua-musicals. (Esther Williams rejected the network show deal and the swimming pool was eventually filled with concrete). Studio 2 became Dinah Shore's show stage. The Chevy automobile commercials, the program's sponsor Chevrolet, were simultaneously performed during the Dinah Shore live-hour variety program, performed in the adjacent color TV Studio 4 stage. Up to four and occasionally six automobile vignettes were set up on stage 4 for commercial program spots. A complete separate production team was required to produce these "live" featured Chevy big production commercial spots. Each spot featured a single Chevy which was the focus in each stage setting, embellished with a cast - attractive costumed female and male "action" models related to the Chevy commercial spot's theme.