This year a slew of entertainment from 1929 has entered the public domain and can now be reused, re-recorded, re-edited and re-enjoyed for free. Songs, movies, books–the world is now awash in uncopyrighted cultural riches, and the family members of the creators of those works are now shit out of
Yesterday we took a look at the development of the long-playing record. So what better audio delivery system to next delve into than the much-mocked Eight Track Tape cartridge. I was first introduced to the format in 1976 when my father bought a flashy, new Cadillac Seville. The car came
According to my new best friend Artie Israel (AI): The first Long Playing Record albums–LPs–were released in 1948 when Columbia Records introduced the long-playing (LP) record format, which could hold up to 23 minutes of music per side. The first 12-inch LP was Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor (ML 4001),
If ever a film cried out for a remake, it’s ‘Don’t Tell My Wife.’ Though its title may lead you to think it’s a mid-60s Bob Hope vehicle with Barbara Rush as the wife, Elke Sommer as the neighbor and Tony Randall as Hope’s gay advertising agency boss, it is
My father Frank De Felitta (1921-2016) was a pilot who served with the Army Air Corps during the Second World War. To honor him on this special day I thought I’d post a couple of clips specifically about the plane he flew. The C-47 was a troop and equipment carrier
It’s humbling to realize that the films considered the best acheivemernts of the year and celebrated at the legendary awards evening known as the ‘Oscars’ may well turn into utterly unwatchable obscurities in a quick ninety to one-hundred years. (Actually it’s more likely that a couple of decades is enough
With the election of the mayor of New York City just hours away, I thought it might be instructive to flashback to a very different city and time. This is a short news clip that aired on WPIX in the early-to-mid 70s in which New Yorkers are asked what they
Here’s a little reel featuring the opening credits of the Friday night network TV show line-up in the fall/winter of 1957–and what a load of crap it turns out to have been! Far from making us misty-eyed for the golden age of television, we are instead rendered inert with boredom
I’ve always loved the cumbersome nature of old film and recording technology. At the same time, though, I’ve never been able to truly grasp it. Nowhere is this more true than with the above fascinating reel showing the method by which sound and film are recorded in the early 1930s
Apropos of yesterday’s semi-deep-dive into food on airplanes of the past, here’s a silent reel of 1970s footage depicting a few meals served in a first class cabin of a United Airlines Boeing 747. The steak actually looks rather good though there are too many carrots and no steak fries