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American Bandstand

American Bandstand was given a national audience when ABC was very hungry for something to fill its program schedule. It was different, timely and inexpensive - perfect for a network with the scariest logo (lightning eagle) of all. If ABC had been more established at the time, with more $$$, the country outside of Philly maybe would never have seen Bandstand. (Amazing how creative you can get when you're hungry...)

As a kid, what I marveled about the most was how a network program could originate from anyplace other than NY or LA. :D
 
With regards to video tapes or kinescopes of American Bandstand, I remember hearing Dick Clark mention at the start of a Bandstand anniversary show in the Summer of 1968 that kinescopes of the show from the 1950's had been found earlier that year in a "vault' in Los Angeles by ABC officials. When the kinescopes were discovered, Clark's office was notified and he took control of them. Some of these were aired on that 1968 anniversary show.

Clark explained that prior to that "find" kinnescopes or video tapes of special days on the show - such as when it aired from an area amusement park near Philadelphia or theme shows were all that was basically known to exist. Very little film or tape of the regular shows was available until then.
 
perfect for a network with the scariest logo (lightning eagle) of all.
Click to expand...

The CBS camera shutter eye might beg to differ on that...Back on topic, I just don't see Bandstand working now. Not only do kids get new music online, that's where new dances ("Gangnam Style", the Harlem Shake, etc.) are first seen, too. And love him or hate him, Dick Clark had the perfect personality for such a show.
 
Cincinnati Kid said:
With regards to video tapes or kinescopes of American Bandstand, I remember hearing Dick Clark mention at the start of a Bandstand anniversary show in the Summer of 1968 that kinescopes of the show from the 1950's had been found earlier that year in a "vault' in Los Angeles by ABC officials. When the kinescopes were discovered, Clark's office was notified and he took control of them. Some of these were aired on that 1968 anniversary show.

Clark explained that prior to that "find" kinnescopes or video tapes of special days on the show - such as when it aired from an area amusement park near Philadelphia or theme shows were all that was basically known to exist. Very little film or tape of the regular shows was available until then.
Click to expand...

Probably the only thing that kept those kinescopes from being destroyed was that they were in LA instead of New York. Otherwise they may have ended up in the East River along with a lot of other ABC and Dumont programs that were dumped there. :-\
 
anotherguy said:
Cincinnati Kid said:
With regards to video tapes or kinescopes of American Bandstand, I remember hearing Dick Clark mention at the start of a Bandstand anniversary show in the Summer of 1968 that kinescopes of the show from the 1950's had been found earlier that year in a "vault' in Los Angeles by ABC officials. When the kinescopes were discovered, Clark's office was notified and he took control of them. Some of these were aired on that 1968 anniversary show.

Clark explained that prior to that "find" kinnescopes or video tapes of special days on the show - such as when it aired from an area amusement park near Philadelphia or theme shows were all that was basically known to exist. Very little film or tape of the regular shows was available until then.
Click to expand...

Probably the only thing that kept those kinescopes from being destroyed was that they were in LA instead of New York. Otherwise they may have ended up in the East River along with a lot of other ABC and Dumont programs that were dumped there. :-\
Click to expand...

Which probably explains why UCLA has such a huge cache of rarities in their Film & Television Archive:

http://cinema.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
 
Many kinescopes of live network shows were recorded in Los Angeles off of the live broadcast (the East Coast feed), the film got developed, and broadcast to the West Coast three hours later.

That would explain why so many "American Bandstand" kinescopes of the early years were found in L.A.

Indeed, the first videotape of a network program made for delayed-broadcast purposes (the October 29th, 1956 edition of Douglas Edwards' "CBS Evening News") was recorded at CBS Television City in Hollywood and fed two or three hours later to the West Coast from there (it's my understanding that some network newscasts were fed to the West Coast two hours after the live East Coast broadcast; meaning 5:30 or 6 P.M. PST/PDT).
 
Ultimajock said:
Paul Brownstein convinced Dick Clark to repackage some of those for airing on VH-1 in the '90s. They were kinnied as late as 1969...
Click to expand...

But I have seen very little of the Philly years (pre-1964). I don't remember VH-1 showing much of anything before 1975, so I still wonder about those Kine's.

Are they out there? If so, they haven't been shown on tv or dealt out as DVD's.

Joe
 
Cincinnati Kid said:
With regards to video tapes or kinescopes of American Bandstand, I remember hearing Dick Clark mention at the start of a Bandstand anniversary show in the Summer of 1968 that kinescopes of the show from the 1950's had been found earlier that year in a "vault' in Los Angeles by ABC officials. When the kinescopes were discovered, Clark's office was notified and he took control of them. Some of these were aired on that 1968 anniversary show.

Clark explained that prior to that "find" kinnescopes or video tapes of special days on the show - such as when it aired from an area amusement park near Philadelphia or theme shows were all that was basically known to exist. Very little film or tape of the regular shows was available until then.
Click to expand...

But since 1968, it seems very little of the Philly days has been shown.

Joe
 
Chicago's Museum Of Broadcast Communications has a few episodes,including one Christmas themed show dating back to December 18, 1957..It included a load of "7up" commercials and ABC-TV spots, including one for the Frank Sinatra/Bing Crosby Christmas songfest, which aired that week and has been out on DVD in recent years..Included also is a WFIL-TV 6 Philadelphia Station Break and a reminder to "send your Christmas packages early" from the Post Office.
 
There should be around a thousand or more of the daily Philly years from 1957 until 1963.

Are all of these (or most) preserved on kinescope?

Joe
 
joeybabe25 said:
There should be around a thousand or more of the daily Philly years from 1957 until 1963.

Are all of these (or most) preserved on kinescope?

Joe
Click to expand...

I think some of the themed shows, such as a remote from a Philadelphia area amusement park, were put on video tape for preserving. I have also seen a video tape of the WFIL studio as the kids are walking in before the show goes on the air. Many of the regular studio shows, interviews with recording artists and the teenagers on hand and rate-a-record segments are on kinnescope.
 
By the time Bandstand debuted, ABC had switched to the A with lower case "abc". I think it was September of 1956 that the eagle gave way to the A.
 
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