NBC **color** network slides - 1950s edition!!

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Joel Cairo, Jun 18, 2018.

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  1. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    As many of you know, I have a "thing" about classic TV-- I love it. Not least because there are a lot of aspects to acquiring, preserving, and (hopefully) restoring classic programming.

    One of the odd things that I collect are among the most ephemeral items involved in classic TV broadcasts-- network slides. Those if you who are my age or older will recall that that "coming up next" notices weren't as sophisticated as they are today-- nowadays, you get film clips from the shows, especially edited for today's rapid-fire attention spans.

    In the mid-50s, though, since a lot of programs were still broadcast live, there were no available clips of the upcoming show-- because it hadn't been performed yet! What you would get instead was one or two slides of the star of the upcoming show, or maybe a shot of the guest star (if they were particularly notable) along with the name of the upcoming show, all narrated by the stentorian tones of a network staff announcer.

    When you stop and think about it, these graphics were often one-use only slides, since shows weren't often re-run. The fact that any at all survive, is a bit of a miracle. And of course, they were used by the hundreds each week, and then presumably disposed of, once the program they were advertising had aired.

    While I've been fortunate enough to have unearthed a few delightful sets of slides from the 1950s, as you might guess, they're almost always black and white-- because that was the way things were broadcast by most of the networks at that time.

    However, beginning in 1954, NBC started a revolution, by airing compatible color programming. And of course, this meant that the network graphics had to follow suit. So the films chains and the slide projectors also began reflecting the change. Although more flashy, though, these materials had the same shelf life as their monochrome cousins-- once that particular show was over, out they went. Mostly into the trash bins.

    Miraculously, though, a few have survived the 60+ years since their broadcast use. Many are badly faded, since Ektachrome was apparently the film of choice for the high-turnover graphics departments, but they're not unsalvagable.

    So if by some chance you were in the .001% of houses with a color TV in 1955-1956 (I'm talking to you, Mr. & Mrs. Sarnoff!), you might have seen some of these flash by as your favorite programs were ending. Hope these are a welcome bit of nostalgia...

    - Kevin

    Telops - small - Page 1.jpg
     
  2. Arliss Renwick

    Arliss Renwick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    So cool! You’re right; these things are rarer than hen’s teeth. Glad they’ve wound up with someone who appreciates them!
     
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  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Kevin, you should talk to Bobby at Eyes of a Generation -- guaranteed he would like to host these as online images.
     
  4. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    I had one. The Jerry Lewis Show, coming up next. Lost it though.
     
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  5. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    A few more...!

    Telops - small - Page 2c.jpg

    - Kevin
     
  6. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    Those are marvelous!
     
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  7. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    I've still got some television station slides that were discarded during my college internship*. This was from the late '70s, and some were pretty sharp, considering the small-town market they were serving. Some CBS Network show slides as well.
    Not nearly as pretty as those, though!

    (*first day of internship, standing in the Control Room as Dinah Shore is wrapping-up, getting ready to go from tape to net feed. As she's going down the couch thanking her guests, she stops at John Travolta and says, "...and you have a movie coming up soon?" "Yes, ma'am...it's called Saturday Night, and it's coming out next Thursday....")
     
  8. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal
    Wow! And its surprising the black and white programs included here were promoed with color slides.
     
  9. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    I once asked my wife's uncle, who worked at WGN-TV Chicago, if he could get me any old station ID slides. He questioned why in the world I wanted such a thing, but got me a few anyway. Here's the WGN logo. I'm guessing it was the 60s, maybe early 70s version?

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Hey, here's a few more... with one B&W syndie slide that I hope you'll forgive, but it was too good not to share...

    Telops - small - Page 2b.jpg

    - Kevin
     
  11. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Just bumping this...

    - Kevin
     
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  12. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Kev,
    What was Manhattan Tower? I know the Gordon Jenkins music but was this a TV series? Local?
     
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  13. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2020
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  14. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    And there's the answer... Thanks!

    - Kevin
     
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  15. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    thanks....missed it the first time...cool stuff.
     
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  16. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Thank Kevin for sharing these beautiful slides here!
     
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  17. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    My pleasure... hope I can find a few more in the future!

    - Kevin
     
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  18. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Was that Manhattan Tower preserved?
     
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  19. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    It was apparently considered to be lost for quite some time, but at least the second half of the show's kinescope has been discovered to be in the collection of the Library of Congress.

    - Kevin
     
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  20. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Ironic that the slide was preserved..
     
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  21. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Yeah-- but if they found half of the show at the LOC, there's a decent chance that the other half is there too, just un-catalogued.

    NBC apparently off-loaded an enormous amount of material to the LOC (likely as a tax write-off), and last I heard, the Library staff still didn't have much hope of actually listing everything that they received.

    - Kevin
     
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  22. Trashman

    Trashman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    It's interesting what was kept and what was discarded from that era. The BBC was meticulous about holding onto production paperwork for decades after a show aired, but they were quite happy to destroy the videotapes and films of the show itself.
     
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