Oldest surviving quad videos?

[Aussie Bloke]

G'day all.

I've recently viewed a valuable information resource featured on the ETF site listing the earliest surviving kinescope recordings of television programs http://www.earlytelevision.org/image...rigins.pdf.pdf and whilst I was very happy to see all the info on the early kinescopes and audio recordings I was a bit disappointed there was no mentioning of the earliest known surviving quad videotape recordings from the 50s. So I was wondering if such a list has been made for the earliest known surviving B&W and colour quad video recordings from say 1956-1959 for B&W and 1958 to 1962 for colour? I am really interested to know more of what has survived than what I have already found out browsing the UCLA site and Quadvideotapegroup site and YouTube.

[jmdocs]

Hello--

That's a tough question. I'm attaching an article I wrote a few years back for AMIA's journal, The Moving Image; it started as a project when I was in the NYU Moving Image Archiving and Preservation MA program. (I might have posted this before, come to think of it.) As the article points out, it was (and presumably still is) impossible to get this kind of information out of archives, networks, etc., for a number of reasons.

It does include a listing of the early quad recordings I could find; I'm also attaching an updated listing. (Not included are the extant 1959 recordings of The Jack LaLanne Show.)

But, thinking about it, this might be something worth revisiting in a wiki somewhere. I wrote this in the pre-wiki era; crowdsourcing this kind of information could be helpful.

Enjoy!

Jeff

[Aussie Bloke]

Thank you so much for all the info Jeff, wow there certainly has been quite a few more colour recordings from the 58-59 period showing up, am amazed to see a colour Kraft Music Hall episode from 1958 in existence!!! I am however surprised there is very little B&W quad tapes from the 1958 period, I thought there would be a good dozen tapes at least. Anyhow a couple of additions to the list would be:
Meet Cyd Charisse from 12/29/59 (colour)
http://galaxymoonbeamnightsite.blogs...odcast-37.html
Playhouse 90 "Portrait Of A Murderer" 2-27-58 (B&W)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMY5JlU1OYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP06nxMlWHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bsEW39v1JI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRe2d_iZ2PQ

I also have some blooper footage of Johnny Carson on "Who Do You Trust" dating probably around 1958/59 period which shows Carson falling into a water tank with scuba gear on and crashing a mini race car in the studio, this was shown on "Life's Most Embarrassing Moments" circa 1983 hosted by John Ritter.

[jmdocs]

Well, to be clear, there are definitely more than this--a number of Ed Sullivans, for example.

[dtuomi]

There are some recordings that were made by Ampex during the development of their recorder which still exist. I would think they would be the earliest. I think I even saw one on YouTube, in which the they had a camera mounted on a van which had a VTR in it that recorded as they drove along. Memory is a little fuzzy on it.

David

[Sandy G]

Seems like I remember an Edsel commercial from LATE '57 of "The NEW 1958 Edsel !", but it had no soundtrack. I've seen it somewhere-its a HOOT. As an aside-The Edsel-now, THERE'S a lollapalooza for you. In 1955, Detroit had their Best Year EVER. Ford was led by young Henry Ford 2nd, & a bunch of Young Turks who'd saved Ford from extinction in '49. They wanted to flex their muscles, & beat GM. Ford really was kinda weak in the upper-middle price range, so the Edsel was concocted to be Ford's answer to Buick. Oldsmobile, & Chrysler. ENORMOUS sums were spent on market research, to the point that the whole project was really WAY overcooked. Also, in late 1957, the economy of the US turned sour, & entered a recession that really didn't entirely go away til Kennedy. Plus, apparently, everybody at Ford's had "Go Fever", or were too scared to say to The Boss-"Are we REALLY going into production with THIS ?!? Goddam thing's front end looks like a toilet seat/vagina/horse collar, take yer pick. The back end looks like 2 badly ingrown toenails...They'll laugh us off the map !" Which they did. The Edsel, even today, is synonomous w/"Abject failure", which is really unfair to the memory of Edsel Ford, who was a brilliant, troubled, vastly underrated man.

[Aussie Bloke]

Originally Posted by dtuomi

There are some recordings that were made by Ampex during the development of their recorder which still exist. I would think they would be the earliest. I think I even saw one on YouTube, in which the they had a camera mounted on a van which had a VTR in it that recorded as they drove along. Memory is a little fuzzy on it.

David

I have a bit of that footage in short in my collection, it actually dates 1959 as they were demonstrating the convenience of an all mobile TV studio called the Ampex Video Cruiser, the video can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-USmM6YDa-I . It was effectively the first camcorder!

I have also gotten a hold of a couple of B&W quad videotaped clips from 1957 of Pantomime Quiz which I've uploaded and can be viewed in the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cprLhQjQSPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX3oo1M0g3o
Whether they actually date 1957 or not is questionable, but going by the title in the first link it was recorded that year.

[dtuomi]

You're right, later than I thought.

1957 would be some of the earliest. I seem to remember it took Ampex time to ramp up production, and so the video recorder was backordered for some time.

David