The Big Picture

The Cold War on the Small Screen

John Lemza

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780700632541
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Storia e critica della televisione

Capitalizing on thousands of feet of accumulated footage captured by combat camera crews during the early years of the Korean War, a small group of US Army officers conceptualized a film series that would widen viewers' understanding of the service and its mission. Their efforts produced the documentary television series that in late 1951 would become The Big Picture.Although it would take years to fully utilize the emerging technologies and develop the concept into a popularly recognized television series, The Big Picture did evolve into a vehicle whose intention was to help the army tell its story, sell its relevance in the emerging Cold War, and inform and educate its audience about American ideals. Its messages captured the early post-1945 zeitgeist and reflected a national mood that was anti-Communist, steeped in foundational principles of American exceptionalism, and trusting of elite leadership.John W. Lemza's The Big Picture argues that the show, like others produced for television during that time by the armed forces, served as a vehicle for directed propaganda, scripted to send important Cold War messages to both those in uniform and the American public. In this first systematic study of its production and reception history as well as its themes and cultural impact, Lemza shows how the producers incorporated specific Cold War themes, such as anti-Communism, into episodes and deployed television's small screen as the intersection of propaganda and policy during the Cold War period.John Lemza's study reveals that the longer The Big Picture maintained those themes the more they began to lose their resonance, especially when the cultural and social environments of the United States began changing in the mid-1960s. The series producers chose to continue on a course that was set during the early Cold War years, and the credibility of the show began to suffer. Throughout the course of its two-decade production run, however, The Big Picture cast a big shadow as the premier military program influencing viewing audiences through primetime television and syndication.

1

“Welcome to The Big Picture”

The crew that came together to move this project forward were not unacquainted with mass media communications. One of the first producers of The Big Picture, Carl Bruton, had worked for WTVJ radio in Miami prior to his service in Korea. David Burkey had spent time as a television producer, and the first series announcer, Carl Zimmermann, had worked as a writer for the Milwaukee radio station WEMP-AM. He had also seen service as an army broadcast correspondent during World War II.¹ Together with production supervisor William Brown Jr., and director Carl Flint, they would form the initial nucleus of the series production team at the Army Pictorial Center (APC) that worked under the supervision of Colonel Edward M. Kirby.² He would function as the first series distributor for the army in his position as head of the Radio-Television Branch, Office of Public Information, for the Department of the Army.³ With the creative team in place, production of The Big Picture could begin in earnest. This chapter explores the genesis of the series, describing its early production and directors and the eventual development of a deeper catalog of titles. It follows the APC’s close relationship with Hollywood before and during the production of The Big Picture and the new, mutually beneficial partnership between the military and the television industry. Also addressed is the adoption of evolving video and audio production technologies and the transition of the show away from prime-time television slots to syndication as a strategy to reach a wider audience.

The First Thirteen

Expanding on the close focus of battlefield experiences, the first thirteen episodes of The Big Picture concentrated exclusively on the Korean conflict. Against a video backdrop of fleeing refugees, columns of foot-weary soldiers, grinding tanks, and raucous artillery explosions, a somber voice-over presented each show to viewers with the explanation that “this is war, war and its masses, war and its men, war and its machines. Together they form The Big Picture.” After a brief fadeout, a uniformed Carl Zimmermann welcomed viewers with a serious, flat intonation:

Welcome to The Big Picture. I’m Captain Carl Zimmermann. The Big Picture is a report to you, from your army, an army committed by you, the people of the United States, to stop communist aggression wherever it may strike. The Big Picture during the next thirteen weeks will trace the course of events of the Korean campaign, with firsthand reports from our combat veterans and film taken by combat cameramen of the Army Signal Corps. These are men who daily record on film The Big Picture as it happens, where it happens.⁴

That statement regularly introduced each episode just as Zimmermann would conclude every show with a short summary of events and an invitation to viewers to return the following week. In addition, the closing series of images for each of these initial episodes displayed credits noting the documentary was a presentation of the US Army and a production of the Signal Corps Photographic Center. It also noted that Lieutenant Carl Bruton had been the original producer, thus providing a passing nod of recognition to another of the original creators of the series.

The focus of these first twenty-eight-minute-long episodes addressed the American experience in Korea from the first forty days of the conflict, through joint operations with United Nations troops and the ebb and flow of combat, to the final stabilization of a cease-fire line as both sides participated in truce talks.⁵ They offered a mud-level GI perspective, complementing it with a broader understanding of events. That provided a revised, elevated view through the context of a bigger picture of intents and purposes for US involvement in Korea. Leading narratives offered to mimic the dog-faced style of Ernie Pyle by claiming, “This story is best told in the language of the soldier who was there.”⁶ Scriptwriters capitalized on that approach and continually laced the text with on-the-ground expressions such as “Okay, we’re here to delay the Reds, let’s go!” and homespun comments like “The whole world had seen this [communist aggression] and knew what the score was.”⁷ Actors portraying typical GIs voiced these comments, and that comfortable, relatable dialogue ensured the attention of the average viewer. To reinforce this approach, Carl Zimmermann often conducted on-camera interviews of soldiers recently returned from the war regarding their experiences.

Figure 1.1. Captain Carl Zimmermann in the field. As did all of the other early Big Picture narrators, he would gain his experience interviewing and broadcasting while serving with the US Army Signal Corps during wartime. (Image Source: Rich Zimmermann)

Figure 1.2. Captain Carl Zimmermann on the set of The Big Picture at the Signal Corps Pictorial Center in late 1951. He was the first narrator and remained the face of the series through the forty-first episode (TV-210). (Image Source: Rich Zimmermann)

Always aware of their commitment to provide a bigger picture of ongoing events, the show’s producers complemented the film scripts with more expansive explanations. For this Korean War series, it would include the use of visual displays, such as graphics depicting operational troop movements on a map of the Korean peninsula. Carl Zimmermann always accompanied these with an explanation describing the larger theater campaign and related actions. Another technique was the production of episodes that described the wider role of the United Nations’ involvement as part of the coalition of forces, and the United States’ relationship to those nations.⁸ The narrative also made frequent reference to the actions and decision making of higher-ranking officers involved in the peninsular campaign, such as General Douglas MacArthur. Ernie Pyle might have agreed that this short thirteen-episode documentary series had adequately addressed the narrow grassroots focus as well as a broader perspective of the war. The existence of this collection of films contradicts some statements suggesting that the military made little effort to capture the Korean conflict on camera. As the art curator at the Army Center for Military History noted, there had been “no organized effort by either the Army or the private sector, to visually capture the Korean War, so the Army’s collection has relatively few images of that war.”⁹ As The Big Picture series proves, this is not the case.

This initial body of episodes, which aired on CBS, set the tone for the show and became a model for the successful Big Picture series that would eventually produce more than 800 episodes over the following twenty years. However, more than simply satisfying the curiosity of service members and the American public, these early films also set several important production goals that framed the content of future Big Picture episodes.

Coming into Focus

Foremost among the initial goals set for the series was a clear anticommunist assertion. Just as Carl Zimmermann would declare, The Big Picture was a report from the army to the American people on the actions taken to check communist aggression “wherever it may strike.” That pronouncement came at a time when former wartime allies, particularly the Soviet Union and China, had suddenly transformed into adversaries on the post-1945 global stage. As the United States was engaged in a new game of geopolitical brinksmanship, which included a dangerous nuclear dynamic, it was important that the nation bring to bear all available tools and weapons to deflect the perceived hegemonic intentions of the communists. The Big Picture would serve as a Cold War clarion call to shake viewers to wakefulness and action. It would deliver messages of warning about new enemies’ evil designs while highlighting America’s resoluteness and successes in defending the exceptional American way of life.¹⁰ Although at times dampened, that theme would remain constant throughout the entire series, as this study will show.

After the initial run of thirteen episodes, other goals began to emerge, such as the maintenance of a strong bond between the army and the American public. Telling the “army story” was a key to cultivating that relationship. The Big Picture would contain scripted narratives that offered a multidimensional image of the soldier, cast in the light of a contemporary “sentimental militarism.”¹¹ It presented them in heroic form as guardians of American values, defenders against evil, and rescuers of those in need.¹² In addition, it would depict soldiers as ambassadors of goodwill to other nations, and in a more human light show them as citizens, family members, and individuals with basic needs.¹³ Episodes would showcase them in the mold of the citizen-soldier of the new army, a product of a greater democratization.¹⁴ One of the techniques used in cementing that bond was the periodic production of army heritage stories that cast the service in a historical light. The series did this by weaving the army’s past accomplishments and sacrifices into the broader tapestry of American history. Episodes such as “The History of Cavalry” (TV-382), “Patterns of History” (TV-550), “Old Glory” (TV-625), and “Our Heritage” (TV-684) showcased the army’s role in America’s past and plucked at a common patriotic chord. Other episodes that focused on the history of particular military units or posts, or on World War II campaigns and battles, played on the same emotion by creating a connection with veterans who may have seen service then. Nicholas Worontsoff Jr., recalls watching the show with his father, a World War II veteran:

It was on TV on Saturday mornings, very early, like 7:00 AM. The show I remember the most was the one I watched with Dad. He somehow learned that an episode was going to be about Fort Monmouth. Dad was stationed at Fort Monmouth I believe after he was first inducted. This was the training center for the Signal Corps of which Dad was in. I remember Dad watching the program and pointing out buildings he remembered, or was in and whether it was used for training, or barracks, etc. Also he recognized some of the men that were shown. I guess he was really interested in seeing whether he was in any of the film footage. Back then we did not have the ability to tape the show, or rewind or watch in slow motion. I don’t remember him pointing himself out.¹⁵

Consequently, The Big Picture was a point of contact between the army and the American public, serving as “a mediating point between the Army’s internal image-mak...