Continuing this weeks theme of exploring old audio/video formats, here is a seven minute film (probably made for a trade show) circa 1957 introducing the first cassette tape, brought to you by RCA Victor. It’s ‘small’ size is touted as one of its finer features but honestly the tape looks
Here’s a 1977 commercial for Pioneer home stereo components that appropriates Sonny Rollins’ story of dropping out of the music business in 1959 for two years in order to take his playing to another level, which he did by practicing at night on the Williamsburg Bridge. It’s a wonderfully evocative
In corporate America (and show-biz–which I guess belongs to the former and thus is the same thing) you can’t stuff the Genji back in the bottle. When a studio hints that a project might go into turnaround, that project is 99/44/100% dead. When the very whisper was made of TCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu1FLQ3sFEghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kz469Be8CQ&list=PLzIxbVR-uc38-qT2ytfezf_rpJdzhETIh&index=49https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZr9CbK59s&list=PLzIxbVR-uc38-qT2ytfezf_rpJdzhETIh&index=23https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK3I4op-M5E&list=PLzIxbVR-uc38-qT2ytfezf_rpJdzhETIh&index=83 Above are a veritable Valhalla of television station I.D. sign-offs and sign-ons which continue to prompt my unanswered question from yesterday’s post: why did TV stations bother signing off and on? Wasn’t there sufficient viewership in the wee morning hours to warrant spending a little dough on an overnight
Why did television stations used to sign off in the wee morning hours? Couldn’t they get anyone to work the overnight shift? Aren’t TV stations supposed to be like hotels–they never close? At least the sign offs were dramatic and interesting. Dig the above 1970 sign-off from KHJ-TV, Channel 9,
Yesterday’s posting of the Merv Griffin theme song brought forth a memory (in the middle of the night, unfortunately) of the KTTV logo and theme song, which naturally preceded Merv’s opening theme. (KTTV was the L.A. station owned and operated by Metromedia television that aired Merv’s syndicated talk show).The potent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QIA4Q3t67ghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TJrxLrjeFs Yesterday we saw the K-Tel Record Selector in action. Today I bring you the 8-Track Tape Selector. It’s funnier watching the 8-Track tapes fall forward in their slots than the records. However I am unable to locate a vintage Tape Selector. But there are several vintage Record Selectors on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ja3NxeLhWghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFevOxOn7Ow Yesterday I posted several K-Tel records commercials along with a nice little history and discussion of the brand and the recordings. But did you know that, in addition to somewhat cheesy LP compilations, K-Tel made more-than-somewhat cheesy home products? Above are two commercials. The first is the K-Tel ‘Record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWdcPdYjGFE For those of you too young to remember K-Tel record commercials, they were ubiquitous and played so often that I can still recite some of the over-the-top sales pitches from memory. Above is a very nice video compilation of some of the best K-Tel commercials. Below is an excerpt
In 1951 my father, Frank De Felitta, was a free-lance writer for various anthological dramatic television series. One of them, a Sci-Fi show called ‘Tales Of Tomorrow’, put out a call to a number of writers asking them to write a script that could ‘only be produced on TV and