That is not the case. ABC was not broadcasting entirely in color in 1968, especially when it came to news. It's Los Angeles affiliate had ONLY black and white cameras so all of the Ambassador Hotel and Good Samaritan coverage was in black and white. Studio cameras in New York and Washington were color cameras. In addition, there were times that ABC utilized a pool feed in which color cameras were used so their picture reflected that.
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Question about ABC News' coverage of RFK's assassination in 1968
- Thread starter spencerkarter85
- Start date
In many cases with regard to the Carson Tonight Shows from the 60's, the only existing record of the shows are on black and white kinescopes (the television image transferred to film). It's sad because all of his shows were broadcast in color, as were moast of the Jack Parr Tonight shows that preceded him.
RE: The Ambassador Hotel. It may have not been a hotel after 1989, but it remained standing until the 2005-2006. The hotel was used in many films after it closed, however, perhaps its most famous was in the 1967 classic "The Graduate", with a full view of the lobby/check-in area, and the bar. This of course is where newcomer Dustin Hoffman lost his virginity to Anne Bancroft, atleast from a cinematic standpoint. The major reason it closed was the neighborhood around it was deteriorating, though Donald Trump proposed a 125 story hotel on that property at one point.
My recollection is The Tonight Show did not preserve their color episodes mainly due to cost. Too bad and looking back very short-sided.
My recollection is The Tonight Show did not preserve their color episodes mainly due to cost. Too bad and looking back very short-sided.
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It's been pointed out before that one hour-long videotape during that era (60s) cost the equivalent of $100 today. For the first four years, Carson's Tonight Show was an hour and 45 minutes long, which would have meant effectively spending $1,000 a week to preserve them--since they only showed reruns on the weekend. Now, that seems like a pittiance to preserve such history, but networks aren't exactly known for their historical perspective and instead saw greater value in re-using each tape.
I know there's some mixed information about the Carson tapes, with some saying that the shows were taped over, while others said that NBC just callously trashed the tapes.
Take it with a grain of salt but for many MANY years Dick Clark had said in the past that the last ABC show and network TV in general to make the switch to color was American Bandstand in December 1967. Now with that being said I do find it interesting and a bit odd that such a big station in a major market as KABC in Los Angeles was still locally black & white while at the same time there were many smaller stations in smaller markets such as WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota or KOAA in Pueblo, Colorado who had went totally local color way before 1968. In 1968 didn't the other big ABC stations at the time of RFK's murder such as WXYZ, KGO or WBKB/WLS in local color ??
Much like during the early hours of the JFK assassination coverage, when black and white NBC was being upstaged by the color broadcasts from the Dallas affiliate--even though most viewers likely didn't notice with their B&W sets.
So true. I have the original NBC footage and it was definitely not a great look for NBC at the time. They couldn't get on the air quick enough because their cameras needed to warm up, though to be fair, CBS had the same issue. Then, they had horrible phone connections to Dallas. Admittedly, this was an unexpected event and took everyone by surprise. But I bet NBC made major changes on how they go live in an emergency after this event. Fortunately for NBC, viewers were so shocked that they didn't notice NBC's troubles.
Fargo and Pueblo? Interesting. And you know this how? Having lived in those markets at the time of the transitions? A Public Storage pod full of old Broadcasting magazine issues and TV Guides from various markets large and small? YouTube?
ixnay
Easy one....through a bunch of old TV Guides from that era. "Welcome to colorful KOAA channel 5" was in their ads from 1965 ( maybe 1966 ) while with WDAY/WDAZ in 1966 their staff was seen in an ad standing beside a color camera.
TV GUIDE back then was a great indicator of which stations had made the move to local color; all you had to do is look at the local news timeslots. In that era, you'd have two different entries, one with a COLOR bullet and one without (B/W). It would appear like this:
6:00 (2) (6) (10) [COLOR] NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER
(4) (8) (23) NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER
It was sometimes surprising at which time stations made the leap to color. By early 1967, all the Little Rock, Ark. commercial stations were airing local shows in color, while Birmingham, Ala. didn't have local color until April 1967. And the first station in Alabama to have color cameras was another surprise: Montgomery's WCOV 20 (then CBS).
Whichever case, once one station dropped the hammer, the pressure was on for the others in the market to follow suit.
--Russell
All that I am certain of was that ABC affiliate WNAC-TV Channel 7 in Boston was broadcasting locally in color in 1968.
Yes there were some surprises. Another one was who was the first full time color station in Pennsylvania ?? Big cities such as Philadelphia or Pittsburgh ?? Big cities for that time such as Erie who had their own station since the early days of TV ?? NO !!! It was actually WGAL channel 8 in Lancaster !! WGAL had went to local color in the early 60s if not the late 50s. They even beat Baltimore there. What was even more of a surprise was that WGAL's then sister station in Providence/New Bedford WTEV ( now WLNE ) didn't make the switch to color until later on in the 60s. Guess this sort of thing makes up the mysteries of old TV such as why aren't there any color tapes of President Kennedy but there are a few of President Eisenhower and lots of President Johnson ?? How did Salt Lake City and Phoenix which was a small city in those days got TV back in the late 40s while bigger cities at the time such as Denver and Portland, OR wouldn't get TV until later on in the 50s ?? We will probably never know.
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In 1963, Boston station WHDH-TV channel 5 had local color capability, in fact, all local programming including newscasts, was broadcast in color. I knew an engineer (since passed away) who worked at the old channel 5 and he said that when JFK visited Boston in October of '63, a month before he died, they carried his remarks at the Commonwealth Armory live and IN COLOR. Unfortunately, he told me all the old two inch tapes were either lost or reused in the years to follow. So sad.
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