Timeless TV

This is a Color Presentation

March 30, 2007 4:08 PM

Kris Trexler, a Hollywood film and video editor, has created a great Web site about the early days of color TV—well, it’s mainly devoted to his extensive collection of fabulous ’50s and ’60s cars, but at the bottom of the home page is a section all about the beginnings of color broadcasting.

There’s a sample somebody swiped from Kris’ site and posted on YouTube: the opening and closing of NBC’s second-oldest surviving color videotaped broadcast, the October 1958 special “An Evening With Fred Astaire.” Check it out:

Kris also has a fantasic clip from the oldest surviving videotaped black-and-white broadcast, CBS’s 1957 “The Edsel Show” spectacular. The car was infamously ghastly and so was the musical fanfare announcing it, but the show was a landmark presentation and full of amazing talent: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong. Give a look: http://www.ev1.pair.com/edsel/edselshow2.html