I'm guessing '59 - '60? I love the old Ampex Reel to Reel video machines, very impressive. To think they came out with those in '54 is mind boggling. Too bad it was expensive to keep tape then, most were reused over and over (until destroyed) and not much is left to us of that period in television history, seen as it was, clear and devoid of defects, as we see in 2nd, 3rd & even 4th generation kinescopes, too bad. Thanks for the great film about video!
Look - a working 2 inch videotape player! Very rare and getting rarer. It's ironic that we're watching a 16mm movie transfer here of what was originally produced on videotape, and is entirely ABOUT videotape. But to show this to potential advertisers or production people in the early '60s could only have been done by using film, on a projector, when making a sales pitch in someone's office.
I love the 'Hey Now Daddyo'-esque big band jazz combo music cue that crashes in during the showcasing of mrchdse. demo. It totally sets the pace for the bold & exciting world of videotape, um, excuse me "Television Tape" whose easy editing & inexpensiveness was being sold here by a private/independent studio. That same bawdy jazz sound slowly started to creep it's way back into TV advertising again during the latter portion of the "big" '90's & through to the mid "0h-0h's. Great stuff, Thanks!
Just had breakfast with the "star" of the show, John Vrba. First met him in the early '80's when he worked at Greenstripe Media in Newport Beach, CA. He just celebrated his 98th birthday! Fondly called the Patriarch of Media here in SoCal. Still has his fingers on the pulse of media and technology. An amazing man :-) Follow him @vrbage
DIVORCE COURT was a great show. When I was young, my friends and I continually addressed each other by saying "isn't it a fact…" or "you're under oath..".
Several people have rightly pointed out that this is a 16mm kinescope. In 1961, virtually the only videotape recorders available were the large studio models pictured here, which would be owned mostly by other TV stations, and video production companies, who were not the target audience of this promo video. Even some smaller TV stations in the US still did not own a videotape recorder at this time. On the other hand, virtually any company, business, advertising agency, school, church, TV station or other organization of any size at all would own a 16mm sound projector. Even after the first business and consumer videotape recorders became available in the mid to late 60s, , 16mm film persisted for years, because it was available, easy to use, and familiar.
your right. even today i still use the same equipment and style of editing (and i'm charging $2500 per job). i love using black and white videocameras and the people LOVE the quality of the 1960's video for some reason and they pay up for it !
Around $55,000 for one machine...And it's not expensive lol...$1,2000 PC with better effects for practically free!! How times have changed, we forget how easy we have it now. We take too many things for granted and the ease of video editing is just one of them.
