For those who are into entertainment "before your time" what was your gateway?

At the beginning of the 1950's relatively few homes had TV sets. By the end of the decade almost every home had a TV set.

In the earlier years, there was only so much limited native product available for TV.

Movie studios filled that gap with old movies and product from the 30's and 40's.

So everyone back then grew up with vintage product.

But with the advent of VHS tapes, I put together a large home movie library, about 600 movies were pre 1960.

Now in the 21st century, streaming has brought Jazz and other music from older times to the present.

 

Similarly, my experience with early TV (3 channels), where they had to fill time with old films, when I saw lots of silent shorts and cartoons: Felix the Cat, (Disney’s) Oswald the Rabbit, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy (sound and silent), etc.. Then there were the local kid shows featuring The Little Rascals and ‘30s cartoons.

In the early ‘60s, there were prime time shows like Fractured Flickers and Silents Please and the theatrically released Robert Youngson silent comics’ compilation films. I was hooked.