I heard Rush after I posted this and he said that the rules said at the end of the legislation day if members remained on the floor the cameras would stay on and Gingrich figured how to use that and called it Special Orders.
I didn't know the how but I sure remember the what.
The members would speak as if they were talking to a full House and once Tip caught on that a lot of people were watching these scam debates he went to the House and made C-SPAN show the empty House
Rush is wrong on that. It was only if members remained on the floor for special orders - which had to be requested at the beginning of the day. If members were just walking on the floor, but the House had adjourned for the day and there were no special order requests, the cameras were turned off. Gingrich was the first to take advantage of the cameras during special orders. I don't know if the term "special orders" was first used by Gingrich, but special orders themselves existed long before Gingrich was in the House. There are three forms of non-legislative debate ( which existed before Gingrich). They are special order speeches, one-minute speeches ( done at the beginning of the legislative day ), and morning hour debates.