Hosted by Ray Morgan, THE BIG PICTURE was the U.S. Army’s TV show. This episode , “Operation Amigo” show civic action at work in Latin and South America including Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador with assistance offered by members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Road-building, medical help and education for the masses are demonstrated.
A civic action program also known as civic action project is a type of operation designed to assist an area by using the capabilities and resources of a military force or civilian organization to conduct long-term programs or short-term projects. This type of operations include: dental civic action program (DENTCAP), engineering civic action program (ENCAP), medical civic action program (MEDCAP), and veterinarian civic action program (VETCAP). Entities of foreign nations usually conduct these operations at the invitation of a host nation.
The Big Picture is an American documentary television program which aired on ABC-TV from 1951 to 1964. The series consisted of documentary films produced by the United States Army Signal Corps Army Pictorial Service, showing weaponry, battles, and biographies of famous soldiers.
After The Big Picture’s run on ABC ended, it aired in syndication for several more years on some local television stations well into the early 1970s.
The half-hour weekly program often featured famous or before-they-were-famous actors and actresses in quality productions, filmed on the Astoria stages, which is now Kaufman Astoria Studios which is a historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens. The host and narrator was Army Master Sergeant Stuart Queen (1919–1981)—a World War II veteran and Korean War combat broadcaster.Though Master Sgt. Queen is referred to as both a host and narrator, he essentially introduced the profiles that were narrated by such luminaries as Alexander Scourby, Walter Cronkite, Raymond Massey, and Ronald Reagan. In the 1950s, the series was shot on 35mm black-and-white negative, but by the end of the 1960s, it was using 16mm color negative.
From the official government catalog: “THE BIG PICTURE is the official television report by the U.S. Army to its members and to the American people. Subject matter for episodes ranges from historic moments in the Army’s proud history to up-to-the-moment coverage of current actions and accomplishments.”
Ray Morgan was born on June 8, 1913 in the USA as Raymond Morgan. He was an actor, known for Congolaise (1950), Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Film Maker’s Life (1971) and The Lawless Rider (1954). He died on January 5, 1975 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
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