Here is a color transparentcy of the 1957 broadcast of Cinderella. You can see the TK 40 in the foreground.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JULIE-ANDREWS-IN-CINDERELLA-2-RARE-VINTAGE-COLOR-TRANSPARENCIES-FROM-TV-SPECIAL/261542440228?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1% 26asc%3D23848%26meid%3D8610290349126508292%26pid%3 D100033%26prg%3D10181%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D38 0957037267

You can also see from the ball room dance scene how tight the studio space was for this 1957 color special. Many standing sets, a large cast and, of course, crew & equipment had to share CBS' studio 72 in New York where the live colorcast originated. The West coast received a delayed black & white kinescope.

-Steve D.

You can also see from the ball room dance scene how tight the studio space was for this 1957 color special. Many standing sets, a large cast and, of course, crew & equipment had to share CBS' studio 72 in New York where the live colorcast originated. The West coast received a delayed black & white kinescope.

-Steve D.

Steve It's too bad they didn't have a copy of video tape. That would have been great.

You can also see from the ball room dance scene how tight the studio space was for this 1957 color special. Many standing sets, a large cast and, of course, crew & equipment had to share CBS' studio 72 in New York where the live colorcast originated. The West coast received a delayed black & white kinescope.

-Steve D.


You didn't happen to see it in color did you/

You didn't happen to see it in color did you/

Hey Larry,

I live on the West coast and If I saw it at all it would have been a B&W kine.
Also CBS didn't have color video tape in 1957. The network had only recently demonstrated B&W videotape from a machine loaned to them by Ampex. I do recall viewing the 1965 CBS presentation of Cinderella in color. We had a color set at that time. Here is the Youtube beginning of the '57 kinescope as seen on the West Coast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqfYQoNt3AY. You'll also see the rest of the show in parts on Youtube.

I've wondered why Cinderella's sisters not wanting her to have a chance at the prince, as only one of the two sisters could marry him, and the other sister would become his sister-in-law. But she'd be his sister-in-law if he married Cinderella. As well as the other sister. Not that I spent much time on this puzzle... :D

Too bad the kinescope's focus was so soft, otherwise it might have been a good candidate for the color recovery software they're using in the UK.

Too bad the kinescope's focus was so soft, otherwise it might have been a good candidate for the color recovery software they're using in the UK.

Color recovery from B&W only works from the PAL systems.

Since all three colors (encoded) are transmitted at the same time, there is no way to do NTSC, except to actually film it in color. This was a Hot Kine, meaning that the head of each one hour camera reel had to be telecast three hours after the tail cleared the camera! That speed wasn't possible with any color processes in use at the time.

(Color negative was very temperamental, plus it could not yield a good sound track, so the track would have to be exposed on a separate roll of B&W negative stock and the two rolls of film synced up and then printed. That took a longer time than they had. Color reversal stocks of the era were too slow, except for Anscochrome , and that stock could not yield a good track. Nobody was magnetically striping 16mm with a coating that was good enough to survive the chemical processing. )

James

Color recovery from B&W only works from the PAL systems.

Since all three colors (encoded) are transmitted at the same time, there is no way to do NTSC, except to actually film it in color. This was a Hot Kine, meaning that the head of each one hour camera reel had to be telecast three hours after the tail cleared the camera! That speed wasn't possible with any color processes in use at the time.



They could do three separate reels of film, RGB, or maybe YUV. YUV might be an easier choice, as slight mismatches in image alignment would be less serious. As U and V are about half the resolution of Y (B&W). The TV station would need 2 extra telecine machines, and feed their outputs to an NTSC encoder set up to use YUV. That's starting to sound too expensive for the day, though...

They could do three separate reels of film, RGB, or maybe YUV. YUV might be an easier choice, as slight mismatches in image alignment would be less serious. As U and V are about half the resolution of Y (B&W). The TV station would need 2 extra telecine machines, and feed their outputs to an NTSC encoder set up to use YUV. That's starting to sound too expensive for the day, though...
It would be less unreasonable if three stations interconnected by network lines each brought one telecine to a common location for what you describe.
For a timezone like the west coast I could see that kind of collaboration being feasible.

Actually, the 1957 Cinderella was replayed to the West Coast from black-and-white 2" tape; it was written up in one of the trade journals (Broadcasting-Telecasting?) as CBS's first use of tape for a 90-minute program. Unfortunately, that 2" appears to have been lost.

Jeff Martin

Actually, the 1957 Cinderella was replayed to the West Coast from black-and-white 2" tape; it was written up in one of the trade journals (Broadcasting-Telecasting?) as CBS's first use of tape for a 90-minute program. Unfortunately, that 2" appears to have been lost.

Jeff Martin

Jeff, An exhaustive search of Broadcasting-Telecasting from 1957 did not produce the article you refer to. It may have been in another publication. However a brief text from page 58 of Harold Messing's 1957 book: "The CBS Television Production of Cinderella" had the paragraph shown below. I was unable to download the entire page due to copyright restrictions. Other sources do reveal that CBS, as was sadly the custom, erased the B&W videotape recording. They did, it seems, hedge their bets and recorded the show in every available format. Thanks for updating my comments re: the use of videotape in this production.

-Steve D.

Aha, I found the source; it was in "Television Digest," 4/6/57:

"As networks continue to increase use of Ampex recorders, another landmark was quietly reached this week--the delayed broadcast of a 90-minute spectacular by videotape. CBS-TV transmitted its March 30 production of Cinderella to west coast on tape--in monochrome version, of course--receiving critical acclaim for technical quality. The New York Times reported from Hollywood: 'The telecast of 'Cinderella' was one of the best seen since the machines went into operation last November. The technical flaw of 'drop-out'--a white flash across the screen caused by microscopic imperfections in the tape--was at a minimum. The image of the colorcast, seen here in black & white, was far superior to filmed kinescope. Details were sharply defined and gradations of black & white were excellent.'"

Which makes the poor quality of the existing kine all the sadder.