I am always on the lookout for TV shows, commercials, and clips from before 1960 on youtube. I thought it might be fun to have a thread where we can share great finds. I'll start with this priceless Hank Williams footage. Look at how smitten he's made Anita Carter.
I always thought this one was interesting: a clip from a February, 1958 episode of The Steve Allen Show on NBC... This was a very elaborate production for this era, since it was live and they had to move the cameras all over NBC "Color City" studios in Burbank to shoot the singers as they walked.
Note the use of floor-level camera angles in some shots. Was this the suggestion of Jerome Robbins, or did the Sullivan director come up with the idea (copied by the film version three years later) ?
I'm not sure what's most fascinating about this clip: the singing, the spirit of interracial harmony, the hats, or the homoerotic undertones of the back scratching. Newsreel footage of Nat King Cole meeting "Nature Boy" writer Eden Ahbez: Eden Ahbez 1948 gulf oil Cole & Boone
Fantastic! That's the kind of stuff I like. I picked 1960 kind of arbitrarily. I was really thinking of the "Live TV" era, which probably ended more around 1958 or so for the most part.
Wow! I didn't realize there was any existing Steve Allen Show footage. I just recently read the chapter about 50's TV in the book THE COMEDIANS, and it talks a lot about Allen, Paar, Sullivan, and the others. Cameras in those days weighed a lot. Just moving around the studio and holding the shot steady was a major feat in itself.
Priceless. Can you imagine a broadway show that's been running for two years getting a slot on a talk show? I have never seen WSS on stage. But I rate the movie and cast album (and movie soundtrack) about 12 stars out of 5.
I have 4 cds of Steve's old shows (circa 1960) for Westinghouse (I think, I'll have to check now). It was great to see the full (kinescoped) shows rather than just clips. Haven't watched them since the first time years ago. I'm surprised these shows aren't more widely available, being PD and all.
I believe the Westinghouse show was '62-4. That's the show that was so hugely influential on a teenage David Letterman, featuring stunts like Steve diving into vats full of various substances. The Steve Allen Show, from December 1957. Highlights include Don Adams doing his hilarious "Football Coach" routine (complete w/Maxwell Smart voice) and a classic spoof of To Tell The Truth.
The Teen Tones, with 15 year old Robert Klein, singing "Sunday Kind Of Love" on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour (Sep 10, 1957) Klein later did a classic standup routine about this appearance on one of his '70s albums
The Old American Barn Dance was broadcast on the Dumont network from June to September 1953. Three episodes are known to survive. This one features Kay Brewer, The Saddle Pals, Nancy Lee, Kenny Roberts, Homer & Jethro, Doc Hopkins, and The Candy Mountain Girls.
For kids in the early 1950s, who were not too discriminating when it came to special effects, there was the endearingly cheesy Space Patrol program.