Hi all. I've been scouring the pay TV channel TV guides from time to time hoping to come across docos on history of television technology. I've so far taped one show a couple of years ago which dealt with the history of B&W and colour television and videotape technology and radio I think, great little doco, only thing is they didn't show a great deal of early archive television footage such as early B&W and colour video recording excerpts of the late 50s but they did show a kinescope excerpt of Philo T Farnsworth on "I've Got A Secret" which he won a pack of Winston durries and $40, how rude :thumbsdn: !

Anyhow I'm looking for TV shows on the history of television and video which shows excerpts of early B&W and colour video recordings of the late 50s and early 60s and wondering if anyone knows of any that circulates over the cab/pay TV networks. I'm particularly after the earliest surviving B&W videotape recording which is some footage of an OB truck driving along a mountain top or canyon with a B&W IO camera on top shooting the scenery circa 1956/57 and Edsel Show excerpts, and the 1958 Dwight Eisenhower speech which is the earliest surviving colour video recording and possibly excerpts of An Evening With Fred Astaire (I know about the excerpts on Kris Trexler's site). I especially want colour videotape recording excerpts of outdoor remote casts done off TK40/41 cameras as I'm so curious to see how live outdoor colour looked back in the early to mid 60s or possibly late 50s if any late 50s colour tapes of outdoor casts exist at all? I'm sure there must at least be some colour videotapes of outdoor sporting events from the early/mid 60s existing in some TV archives.

If anyone can give me leads on getting a hold of such docos I'd be most greatful.

Cheers
Troy

Troy,

In the late '50s, WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV), Channel 6 in Philadelphia, would drag its sole TK-41

http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/potpourri/TK-41atWFILtidbits3.html

from its studio at 46th and Market to Broad Street near City Hall and broadcast the mummer's parade live. When they may have begun to tape the event however, I cannot say, but parts of the parade were shown on their evening news. WFIL was the first station to originate live color in Philly. Perhaps some B roll exists, but that was a long time ago.

Pete

I'd say hardly anything has survived, prolly because nobody much thought to save it. I remember a documentary from the mid-late 70s that had a lot of the history of TV on it, including one of the 1st color videotapes-or maybe one of the 1st videotapes, period, of some guy hawking the then new Edsel. Unfortunately, they didn't have the sound track, just this guy standing & gesturing infront of the horsecollar grille....-Sandy G.

the history channel had a fairly decent show on the history of television including a portion on the battle for color. if you go to historychannel.com you can buy a copy of that episode

A little off topic, but I remember one PBS show covering the downfall of the US electronics industry (mostly RCA & how they flubbed with things like LED's, videotape, etc.) and the rise of Japan,Inc. This would have been late 80s/early 90s. What I most remember was a bouncy tv commerical for RCA color tv, a cartoon with a little guy singing something like "her hair is red, her eyes are blue". I don't remember if the commercial was in color or not.

I believe you're speaking of Magnavox....some broad comes out, says her name, and starts blabbling describing the colors including her dress. Sheesh, white people!

Anthony

Have not seen the Magnavox ad. The one I saw was RCA and all a cartoon, little guy with a funny voice.

I saw the same PBS show as badow. My memory of this show is that the Japanese TVs were sold through Sears below production cost to get into the American market. The US manufacterers sued and won, but by then the damage was done. (Possibly fitting justice for RCA who, according to another PBS show, violated Howard Armstrong's FM patents for years).

At the present time, I am finishing work on a 1971 Sears Hybrid 12" color set. This set was made in Japan. I have a Sears flyer from 1971 with this set. It was sold for around $250 then. All the other sets in the flyer appear to have the same styling and probably were also made in Japan.

I recall that some Sears portable color sets from the late 70's early 80's had a version of Trinitron type tube with vertical color striping (instead of the triad dots) and I think they were made by Sanyo or Toshiba....or one of the "lesser" Jap brands....not Pana or Sony.

Anthony

Bryan-Yeah, I remember the RCA "Color TV" guy-sang "Color TV ! RCA's new Color TV !" real nasally like.And the end, there was a prototypical '60s TV cartoon kid going "We can watch all the shows in color now !" I thought it was kinda stoopid & silly even as a kid.-Sandy G.

Thanks for the leads guys. Looking at the History Channel there's a Modern Marvels episode entitled "The Television" which I think one of you's were referring to. Seeing I'm a cheap arse bastard :D I will hold out to see if that episode gets played on the History Channel on Pay TV, if not then will buy it.

Was also searching the web and came across a program called "The fun and the feel of the fifties" which the video is available on this site (http://64.107.155.140/uhtbin/cgisirsi/WINNETKA/x/0/57/5?searchdata1=vhs+fun+feel+of+fifties&srchfield1=TI^TITLE^TITLES^Title+Processing&library=WINNETKA&item_2cat=ADULT&user_id=wnkibistro&password=ibistro) . Seeing it's a library in Winnetka, Illinois USA I've got Buckley's chance of getting a hold of this video but if any of you's live around that area then you's should consider borrowing this video if you's are interested.

Cheers
Troy

.....Seeing it's a library in Winnetka, Illinois USA I've got Buckley's chance of getting a hold of this video.....

Buckley's chance? Is that anything like "Bobs your Uncle"? LOL

Anthony

Buckley's chance means "no chance at all". Forgive me, I just love flaunting my Aussie slang around :lmao: . Anyways a lot of Aussies use that word and it's been in our slang vocabulary for over 100 years, the history of this word and where it was derived from can be found on this site (http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/ozwords/Oct%202000/Buckley's.html). Though we speak english we have a language of our own :thmbsp: !

Cheers
Troy

You know what they say about Brits and Yanks......people divided by a common language! You upside down blokes are in the same boat!

Anthony (seen any 1939 Holden coupes? AKA Pontiacs)

I remember being given an assignment in 4th grade to find out what all the odd words & phrases in "Waltzing Matilda" meant. Think we finally had to call the Australian consulate in DC. This was in '67, so calling DC from Tennessee was a big deal. Think I got an "A" on that assignment, though...-Sandy G.

How about that strange early 70's flick "Walkabout"? I had such a crush on that chick in it. She's probably a huge cow now.

Anthony

Hi Sandy. If you're interested in finding out the words of the song again here's the webpage (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~enigman/australia/waltz_mat.html).

Most overused Aussie slang is "mate" (friend), "fair dinkum" (so true), "bloody oath" (so true), "arvo" (afternoon), "servos" (petrol/gas station), "shazza" (sharon), "footy" (AFL football), "bludger" (someone who's lazy), "slack" (someone who is real mean), "shonky/bodgy" (something that is faulty or job not done properly or describing mechanics and used car salesmen or fraudulant people who do dirty deals), "wanker" (a bastard or a stupid person who thinks they're the best), "smoko" (a food/cigarette break), "dacks" (underwear), "stubby shorts" (skimpy shorts worn by Aussie footballers, yobbos, truck drivers, joggers and Warwick Capper (http://www.amiannoying.com/(520pezb0obk2w155bbnu2555)/view.aspx?ID=9782) famous for his "Capper Shorts" :lmao: ) "G'day" (saying "good day" to someone when greeting them same as saying "hi/hello"), "dunny" (toilet/outhouse), "durry" (cigarrette) etc.......... But we never say "throw a shrimp on the barby" only Hoges says that :thmbsp: !

TV history docos are pretty rare given how important television is these days. Worse most documentaries tend to be country specific. US documentaires tend to cover the US and foregt the European developments and vice versa.

The BBC did a brilliant documentary for the 40 anniversary of television (1976).

At that time many of the early pioneers were still around and were interviewed about the early struggles to get the systems to work.

Of course the BBC began broadcasting in 1931 if memory serves correctly, using a 30 line Baird system ....like many US and European pioneers it was mechanical.

Baird had actually tried colour systems with multiple spinning disks.

Many of his staff that were still around in 1976 were interviewed in the documentary, as were those from EMI who worked on the 405 line system adopted by the BBC in 1936.

Strangely little coverage if any was given to colour systems.

For the 1986, 50th anniversary, the BBC produced a "docu-drama" "Fools on the Hill" about the race between Baird and EMI to produce TV for the 1936 Radio Olympia when the two systems were used alternatively to broadcast TV and to introduce it to the public.

I have this program on videotape. It lovingly recreates the early studios at the Alexandra Palace (Allie Pallie to Londoners).

Ultimately, of course, the EMI-Marconi system won out over the Baird-Farnsworth mechanical system (for fairly obvious reasons).

But in 1936 the Europeans were all about to begin broadcasting, mainly on 443/50 systems based on the EMI system (which was of course closely inter-related to RCA ...who were working on a 343/60 systm).

The big thing of course that was hidden from the public at the time was that all of the research work also fed into RADAR development.

The French, Germans and Italians all had plans for public television broadcasting to begin in the 1940s.

The Germans of course broadcast throughout the war ....until the tv tower in Berlin was destroyed. They broadcast mainly light entertainment to hospitals and the few senior Nazis that had sets.

They also broadcast in Paris during the occupation.

I do not know what if any colour television development was underway but the war would have certainly prevented any serious work.

Of course CBS was working throughout the early 40s on its field sequential system.

The BBC also did an excellent series called simply "Television" in the early 90s. But this primarily dealt with the impact of television on journalism, politics etc. but the first epsiode, entitled "The Race for Television", contains some fine newsreel and kinescope footage of early television.

:)

TV history docos are pretty rare given how important television is these days. Worse most documentaries tend to be country specific. US documentaires tend to cover the US and foregt the European developments and vice versa.
It is so. In the rare German tv history documentations, the main focus lie upon the prewar time and upon the development of the PAL system. In Walter Bruch's tv history (PAL - Das Farbfernsehen, published by the German broadcasting museum in 1987) there is an episode about that brave technician who try to adjust the blue bananas on the screen into yellow which his fellows have painted blue. Just this episode I know as an origin American episode of the history of NTSC development which has become now an urban legend. (Instead of hue adjustment, Bruch told about PAL burst controlling.)