[78-L] For old timey TV fans..slight 78RPM connection

[Michael Biel]

From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl at midcoast.com>
> Individual prints were often bandsawed after their distribution rounds
> were finished -- the whole reel was passed thru a bandsaw blade and
> tossed in the trash to keep anyone from illegally using it.

Of course a lot of these were the multiple prints (we hope!).  One or
two dozen prints were often needed for syndication or for non-connected
network stations in the early to mid-1950s.

> Other prints
> might escape the bandsawing but might be sent off for silver reclamation
> or just tossed out -- which is how most prints held by collectors of TV
> shows got there.  Elizabeth

I got my Ozzie and Harriet prints when a dealer had a fairly complete
set of the original as-aired films that we assumed were de-accessioned
by ABC or Ozzie.
>
>
on 10/27/11 12:06 PM Jeff Sultanof wrote:
> > I don't think anyone deliberately destroys negatives (vs. kinescopes),
> > although there are exceptions.

Well, NBC did destroy 90% of their kines and negatives around 1968. 
They did keep about 50,000 reels that are now in the Library of
Congress.  They destroyed all of the positive prints of Milton Berle but
kept the negatives.  This info came from Ruth Terry Preston who was head
of NBC Central Files.

> > The master video tapes of the children's
> > program "Winchell-Mahoney Time" were (supposedly) deliberately destroyed
> > by Metromedia when Winchell sued them over syndication rights (although
> > there are a couple of clips at You-Tube, so some may exist).  Jeff Sultanof

Funny, I heard this exact same story about Steve Allen and his
Metromedia series.

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com