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Oldest surviving videotape

R

Rob Jason

Guest
All right...I should be working, but Stanislav asked for a listing of the oldest color VT that I mentioned....Here's at least some of that list -- it also includes surviving B & W VT. All of these are from before 1960.

This comes from Jeff Martin, The dawn of tape:Transmission device as preservation medium (2005). The Moving Image, vol. 5, no. 1.

The Edsel show, aired 10/13/57. B & W. CBS.

Dedication day - NBC Washington Studios dedication ceremony, aired 5/28/58. B & W and color. NBC.

An Evening with Fred Astaire, aired 10/17/58. Color. NBC.

The Dinah Shore Chevy show, produced 11/9/58, aired 5/3/59 on NBC according to UCLA. Color.

Milton Berle Starring in The Kraft Music Hall , aired 11/19/58. Color, NBC.

Playhouse 90: "The Nutcracker", aired 12/25/58. Color. CBS.

Aaron Sopher's Baltimore, 1958, air date unknown. B & W. WJZ, Baltimore.

Milton Berle Starring in The Kraft Music Hall , aired 1/14/59. B & W copy of color program, NBC.

Bishop Sheen's Program: Divine Sense of Humor, aired 3/2/59. B & W. Syndicated.

Some of Manie's Friends, aired 3/3/59. Color, NBC.

The Bishop Sheen Program: Teenagers, aired 3/12/59. B & W. Syndicated.

Milton Berle Starring in The Kraft Music Hall, aired 3/18/59. (also existing: 5/13/59 and 11/15/59.)

College Bowl, aired 3/29/59. B & W. CBS.

The Dinah Shore Chevy show, aired 4/5/59. Color, NBC.

The Mike Wallace Interview: Rube Goldberg, aired 4/9/59. B & W. Syndicated.
Other B & W Mike Wallace interviews:
Clyde Beatty, 4/9/59
Miyoshi Umeki, 4/20/59
Ethel Waters, 1959
Sheilah Graham, 1959

The Ford Show: The Mikado, aired 4/16/59. Color, NBC.

Outtakes; Pontiac Star Parade: The Gene Kelly Show, taped 4/16/59, Color, NBC. From UCLA: "Gene Kelly dances; Carl Sandburg sings and plays the guitar. Includes six takes. This number was not included in the final broadcast.

The U.S. Steel Hour: Little Tin God, aired 4/22/59. B & W. CBS.

Pontiac Star Parade: The Gene Kelly Show, aired 4/24/59. Color, NBC.

And so forth. Some other notables:

The Nixon/Kruschev "kitchen debate" from 7/24/59, which survives in B & W and color (I thought I read recently that it's being/been restored)

A number of "On the Go" episodes in B & W from KTLA

Another Evening with Fred Astaire, aired 11/4/59, color, NBC

Hallmark Hall of Fame:Winterset, aired 10/26/59, color, NBC (I've seen a B & W kine clip of this. It stars George C. Scott.)

Steve Allen Plymouth Show , aired 11/16/59, color, NBC.

Other Hallmark Hall of Fame shows:
A Doll's House, aired 11/15/59, color, NBC
A Christmas Festival, aired 12/13/59, color, NBC

A number of "Plays of the Week" (dramatic shows), B & W, syndicated

The only ABC show on this pre-1960 list:
The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: An Afternoon with Frank Sinatra, aired 12/13/59, B & W, ABC.

Plus, individual news/public affairs specials, all in B & W, from WNHC New Haven; WDSU, New Orleans; WTNC, Minneapolis; WENS, Cleveland; KIRO, Seattle.
 
Thank you for the list! If you eiliminate the B&Ws, that's still fewer than a dozen pre-1960 color tapes, so they are rarities, indeed.
 
On that list, WENS Cleveland should probably read WEWS..I wonder what Newscast or special would have been videotaped in that era and saved..
 
Tim L said:
On that list, WENS Cleveland should probably read WEWS..I wonder what Newscast or special would have been videotaped in that era and saved..

Shouldn't "WTNC Minneapolis" read WTCN, now that you mention it?
 
Yes, those calls in Minneapolis and Cleveland should be what you guys stated...I took this verbatim from the published list.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Playhouse 90: "The Nutcracker", aired 12/25/58. Color. CBS.

I thought CBS had given up on color by that time (not to return till fall 65).

Actually, their commitment had gone waaaay down at this point, to such an extent that, I.I.N.M., at least one of their annual airings of The Wizard of Oz was entirely black-and-white. :mad: The reason for CBS's renewed commitment to color in 1965 had to do with Norelco's developing the PC-60 Plumbicon color camera, and Ampex's coming forth with the high-band VR-2000. (A year later, in 1966, the network acquired 4-V General Electric PE-240 film chains for use at their [New York] Broadcast Center on West 57th, to replace the vintage RCA TK-26's they used originally at the old Studio 72 on 81st and Broadway, and then moved to the Broadcast Center when that facility first went online in late 1964.) That, plus ABC beating them to the punch in certain areas.
 
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