Got that Beta box from CA in today. Not so great in terms of find total, but when you get five when Carter was President, you can't complain too much since the seller accepted my return. Over three-fourths were Red Light District junk (a.k.a. X rated stuff), so those are going to be sent back. Only a small amount where rental copies. But here are the five tapes I'm keeping this time, in order of finds:
TAPE 1: S.H.E., the CBS Saturday Night Movies presentation starring Cornelia Sharpe and Omar Shariff, followed by the first nine minutes of the KNXT (now KCBS of course) 11 O'Clock news, recorded on 2/23/1980 w/commercials. The movie starts shortly after the first ad break following the intro.
TAPE 2: A Cheryl Ladd ABC Special taped preseumably off KABC on 5/19/1980 without commercials, opening, and part of the closing cut, followed by a rental dub of Blondie's 1981 music video compilation Eat To The Beat, then Olivia Newton John's Physical video taped off an unknown channel (not MTV) in late 1981 or early 1982, before cutting back to approximately the last 40 minutes of the special Johnny Cash: The First 25 Years taped off KNXT/CBS w/commercials.
TAPE 3: Back when "Wonderful Christmastime" was a holiday current and the day after Thanksgiving was usually called just that comes one of my earliest complete primetime blocks ever found. Sure, it isn't dramas or sitcoms, but it delivers with almost all of the ABC Friday Night Movie presentation of The Birth of the Beatles starring Stephen Mackenna and Rod Culbertson, followed by The Playboy Roller Disco Pajama Party, all taped off KABC on 11/23/1979 w/commercials. I've already got that Playboy special recorded of KSTP that I acquired in a trade a few years ago. The tape ends with about five minutes worth of clips off of an episode of Dance Fever in late 1979.
TAPE 4: This is my favorite find of this lot. The tape starts out with likely a rental dub of the Rocky Marcian-Muhammad Ali fight, then it kicks back over to KABC on 7/19/1980 near the end of the second round of arguably one of the greatest boxing fights of all time: the WBC Welterweight Championship between Robertro Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard, going the full 15 rounds and containing all of the commercials. After the decision, the tape briefly returns oddly to that same Marciano-Ali fight, but it soon returns back to ABC with part a live interview between Duran and Leonard (the match was taped a few weeks earlier). Then comes the full 6 O'Clock KABC Eyewitness News followed by the first ten minutes of its version of PM/Evening Magazine: Eye on LA, featuring a story on teenage hitchikers. Too bad the Olympics were boycotted as ABC likely would have held opening ceremony coverage instead that same day.
TAPE 5: Most of the Lynda Carter Special off KABC on 1/12/1980 with some commercials, followed by a Donna Summer special also taped off KABC on 1/27/1980 without ads unfortunately, before it jumps forward for approximately the last 45 minutes of the 1980 Oscars and the first 40 minutes of Olivia Newton-John's Hollywood Nights special on 4/14/1980 w/commercials. I've got the full Academy Awards off of ABC's San Jose affiliate from a trade already, and although that ONJ special is found on YouTube, it comes from an east/central recording with the voiceover during the credits indicating that the Oscars were up next.
Well, at least its fun to discover stuff that's truly vintage is still out there, as opposed to the "Millenial Vintage" definition of mid/late '90s through mid-late '00s that's starting to take off. It's becoming quite pricey when it appears though. I'd still prefer The Whipshers and Manhattans to Usher and 702 for instance since they've got the funk that the later two lack.
Meanwhile, I lowballed this lot and felt relived that this lot just seemed overpriced, probably living up to the hype that the seller is from NYC, and of course vintage commercials can be quite dramatically different from all the lost businesses there. Pretty much all movies and a few TV ones like The Day After. Hopefully the hunter will have fun discovering a treasure trove of late '70s/early '80s Madison Ave. gold on those. At least I'm only out shipping on mine and likely will net back much, if not all of it through my little finds.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HUGE-Lot-o...OtKspJAi8o%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc