Back in time

This is genuinely for me only.  Most if not all of the other posts in Before I Forget can be read by anyone, on the off chance anyone else finds them.  But considering the miniscule chance that anyone will find this, and the even smaller chance they'll be as interested in early videotape as I am, I recognize this one's for me and me alone.

Back when I watched broadcast television, there was some special probably related to the history of a network.  I saw a clip of Sinatra and Bing and my mind snapped to attention.  From the live look of it, I could tell it was a videotape, and I knew that black-and-white clips from early TV were always in the form of lower-quality kinescopes.

On YouTube, I learned that it was a clip from The Edsel Show, which aired on CBS on October 13, 1957.  More about the difference between videotape and kinescope at Kris Trexler's website, King of the Road, as well as the story of how he helped make The Edsel Show available.

Also at KOTR is the story of An Evening With Fred Astaire, broadcast just over a year later on NBC, "in living color" as they used to say.  That used to be on YouTube, too.  

It also used to be the oldest existing show nationally broadcast on color videotape, until the announcement of the Kraft Music Hall that was on October 8, 1958, nine days before the Fred Astaire show.  

I have a little list of YouTube-available shows from way back when.  Some are videotapes, some are kinescopes dating back to 1948.  Near the top of the list:  the oldest color videotape of any kind:  dedication of WRC-TV studios, May 22, 1958, featuring President Eisenhower.  Here too, Kris Trexler had a hand in putting that up for everyone to see.

As of tonight, 13 of the shows I put on the list aren't available anymore, including the Playhouse 90 telecast of Judgment at Nuremberg.  When Rod Serling complained about serious shows that were interrupted by six bunny rabbits selling toilet paper, that was one of the commercials on this show.  

Also, this show was sponsored by the gas company, and for that reason, all references to gas chambers were muted.  Someone with a black sense of humor could come up with something far worse to take their place.  My sense of humor only goes so far:  I liked it when margarine ads, which were forbidden to use the word "butter", made the most of it by referring instead to "the high-priced spread."