More on Eisenhower 1958 dedication WRC-TV colour videotape

[Aussie Bloke]

Hi all. A while ago I mentioned that on 22nd May this year it was the 50th anniversary of colour videotape recording and was talking about that Eisenhower dedication WRC-TV colour video recording.

Anyways just found an interesting site http://quadvideotapegroup.net/ which acknowledges that event and shows some snapshots of that footage on the monitors, quality is very remarkable!!! Interesting to also know the cameras used were the earlier TK-40s, not 41s.

Also mentioned was that this tape was located at the Eisenhower Library in Kansas. So I've browsed the site and have found out they do VHS dubs of their footage at a given price so I've made an enquiry about legally buying a VHS dub of this footage, hopefully it is available for purchase, if not I guess they are going suggest I contact NBC like UCLA archives have done when I contacted them a while back. Anyhow fingers crossed.

[JB5pro]

I am so thrilled every time I learn about the precious things that have been preserved. It's incredible to me that access is granted to so much.
I admire whomever those men are that get to handle the original tapes and machines as well as film, etc. I wish I had such a career to be able to see the unaltered images. I am always greatly irratated when new specials show bits from old film or video and they zoom in or cut the top and bottom preventing many things from being seen that were originally seen in any given shot.

[dtuomi]

If they bite on making a copy, perhaps it might be cheaper to make multiple ones at the same time. If so then I'm in for a copy.

David

[Ted Langdell]

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

Anyways just found an interesting site http://quadvideotapegroup.com/ which acknowledges that event and shows some snapshots of that footage on the monitors, quality is very remarkable!!! Interesting to also know the cameras used were the earlier TK-40s, not 41s.

Hi, from the webmaster of QuadVideotapeGroup.com

I've been corrected about the WRC-TV Cameras... they were TK-41's, according to Ed Reitan, one of the three people who restored the dedication video.

Glad you enjoyed the site. I'll be adding more to it in the weeks and months ahead, so please visit again. Some of the comments will be from Ed, about the restoration process.

[Dave A]

And a big cheer for your efforts with quad and preserving the information! With Ed Reitan and the rest of the elder statesmen of quad in your corner, you will do well.

I was lucky...read old...enough to be around for quad at my old station in Rockford, IL. I was a kid director that the engineers...also kids...seemed to like and would let me touch their RCA TR's. I think I could still thread and set up a quad today.

When I started there, one of my jobs was to go to the Railway Express Agency depot to pick up that weeks supply of some show called The Phil Donahue Show on the what was called the "bicycle". We got five and shipped five to the next station. This place looked like something from an old western movie.

Before I wander too far and be convicted of hijacking the thread, I hope the Eisenhower tape can be made public for all fans of early tv to enjoy with your help. I would very much like to hear the story of how this tape was restored.

Dave A

[Ted Langdell]

Hi, Dave,

Bicycling! Another one of those terms that have more than one meaning And that meaning's about as dead as RCA Broadcast.

One of the things I hope to do as time and opportunities arise is to videotape the people involved in early videotape.

Charlie Anderson, one of the original five members of the Ampex Quad development team works at the Reno PBS station with a friend, Tim Stoffel.

Tim is the Asst. Chief at KNPB and the proprietor of "Quadruplex Park."

(That'll keep you busy for a while!)

Now in his 80's Charlie is still an active guy and is working with Tim on a Quad transfer project.

I hope to talk to the gentleman who is seen bending over the VRX-1000 checking the tape of Douglas Edwards at Television City in Hollywood.

There are some folks in their early 50's that have extensive time with Quad, and work with it every day like David Crosthwait in Burbank or Peter Brothers on the other coast.

Or like Ed, Don and Dan Einstein, have been involved in restoring early tapes.

There are folks that are now retired, but still have the knowledge of where to tap, what to tweak and when to pray (and what prayers to say) in order to successfully record and play Quad tapes.

If we can preserve the machinery to transfer tapes, the knowledge of how to use them and the skills to keep them running, we may be able to watch some of the shows stuck in a vault when it becomes easier to clear the rights involved.

I'd suspect that's the major reason you don't see them in wide release: Artist, musician, music or other performance rights may be hard to clear. Especially if the paperwork regarding who's owed something is not in order or available.

It might be hard to track down some of the orchestra musicians on some shows in order to pay any residuals due. Or permissions to use certain elements or performers may now cost way too much.

I can tell you that hearing and seeing the restored Eisenhower and Edsel tapes at Television City was a real cause for appreciating just how good things could look and sound... and I think there's a market for broadcast and DVD releases of this vintage of material. How much of one is a ??

I'll be posting more about the TVC visit in the Quad History section this week (7/09/08) so check back over the weekend.

Ted

[Ted Langdell]

Originally Posted by Dave A

I think I could still thread and set up a quad today.

If you're near Philly, you ought to connect with Charlie Churchman at Churchman Television.

He might let you thread up one of his RCA TR-600's.

Likes early color television sets and broadcast monitors. Maybe you already know or know of him.

Really nice guy. I've had several lengthy conversations with him, and he supplied an extender card and several time code boards for my Sony BVH-2000/2800 collection.

Ted

[Sandy G]

Wow- Great to have one of the guys who was "present at the creation", as it were...

[Ted Langdell]

By "one of the guys who was 'present at the creation,'" I'll assume you mean Charlie Anderson, not me.

Quad was introduced a year and four months after I was born.

My early reading (pre-10 yrs) was Perry Mason paperbacks and technical books from the library. At that time Quad was the only game in tape... and I knew how it worked in a block-diagram sense. (Math dislexia? derailed my path toward engineering

My first videotape handling was in high school... the Ampex industrial 1" format that was an ancestor of Type C.

My path took me to shooting 16mm film, then shooting and editing 3/4"... now digital with Final Cut Pro.

I have a collection of Type C machines and linear edit controllers that are the guts of the edit suite I could only drool over when you'd have to pay half a million dollars to get into the game.

With the website, I'm more of a historian and knowledge archivist, hoping to keep the ability to recover content available for future generations to use.

And who knows... I may run across a working AVR-2 I can add to the collection

Ted.

[Aussie Bloke]

Hi all. I've got a reply from the Eisenhower Library and just like UCLA archives they said I need to obtain permission from NBC and get a receipt of written release before being able to purchase a VHS dub of the footage from their library. So I've just sent an email to NBC asking for permission and I await their response. Hopefully they will grant me permission to purchase a VHS dub of this footage. If they do I will be cheerin.

[Aussie Bloke]

I've just got a reply back from NBC in regards to getting permission to purchase a VHS dub of that footage from Eisenhower Library and to my disappointment they cannot grant me permission as NBC News does not provide or give permission to private collectors to obtain this footage, so I'm not happy about that at all . Who knows maybe one day I'll somehow get to see it.

[Hawkwind]

I'm really enjoying this tread, but it reminds me of old color footage of Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev clowning around while being videotaped in the late 1950s. I think I saw the footage on a TV show called "The Secret Life Of Machines".

From what I understand, Nixon was trying to sell the idea of NTSC to the Soviets. And Khrushchev loved seeing himself on playback several times.

Would love to see more...

[dtuomi]

I wonder who they give permission to? It sounds like you got a boiler plate response, and was just ignored. I could try to send them an email, I work for Time Warner, so maybe they would respond in a more positive way to another media company.

Another place to look for a copy would be through the BBC. Although it sounds crazy, they actually own a company that sells B-roll and other footage to news organizations and they have stuff like this. I'll try to dig up the web site for it.

David

[Aussie Bloke]

Originally Posted by dtuomi

I wonder who they give permission to? It sounds like you got a boiler plate response, and was just ignored. I could try to send them an email, I work for Time Warner, so maybe they would respond in a more positive way to another media company.

Another place to look for a copy would be through the BBC. Although it sounds crazy, they actually own a company that sells B-roll and other footage to news organizations and they have stuff like this. I'll try to dig up the web site for it.

David

I can guess they'd provide permission to big wigs in the TV/film industry such as producers, directors, archivists, researchers etc. for broadcast usage on TV shows or news reports, and politicians would obviously have easy access to that material, and maybe it may be accessible to universities for historical purposes, that's my guess anyhow. I also tend to wonder if rich people can pay a big wad of cash for permission rights to this footage too?

Anyhow all n all it sucks that much of this material is unavailable due to strict copyright policies, but that's the TV/film industry works. I hope you'll have better luck obtaining permission to purchase this footage.

Anyhow this was the actual response I got from NBC News Archives:

Dear Mr. Walters,

I received your request for the NBC NEWS SPECIAL : WRC-TV NBC Washington Studios Dedication Ceremonies with President Dwight D. Eisenhower - 5/22/58.

Unfortunately NBC News does not provide or give permission to private collectors to obtain NBC Copyrighted footage. For this reason we cannot grant you permission to obtain a copy of this footage from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

Sincerely,
Luis Aristondo
NBC News Archives
Sales Operations Coordinator
Tel. (212) 413-5992
Luis.Aristondo@nbcuni.com
www.nbcnewsarchives.com

[dtuomi]

Dear Mr. Walters,

I received your request for the NBC NEWS SPECIAL : WRC-TV NBC Washington Studios Dedication Ceremonies with President Dwight D. Eisenhower - 5/22/58.

Unfortunately NBC News does not provide or give permission to private collectors to obtain NBC Copyrighted footage. For this reason we cannot grant you permission to obtain a copy of this footage from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

Sincerely,
Luis Aristondo
NBC News Archives
Sales Operations Coordinator
Tel. (212) 413-5992
Luis.Aristondo@nbcuni.com
www.nbcnewsarchives.com

The reply is peculiar in its wording. I'll see what their rules are for getting a copy and get back to you.

David