These historic ( and possibly unique and lost?) US Television reels were recorded live by CBS from the Ford Theatre Hour in New York in 1948 & 1949. In the very early days of network television the whole programme had to be shot and broadcast live with no way of pre-recording the show. Therefore the only way for the network to capture that show for re-distribution to other regions was to use a Kinescope to record the show onto Kodak 16mm cine film. There is therefore a high probability that these are the only surviving examples of these shows as the Kinescope only usually recorded one copy at a time.
The Ford Theatre Hour was a popular US radio show that was moved onto the screen in 1948 at the very start of Network television. As a successful weekly show that ran for three years it featured many famous and up and coming names. These historic reels represent part 1 & 2 of ‘Kind Lady’ (season 2, episode 5) which aired in Dec 1949 as well as reels 1 & 2 from the far more important ‘Years Ago’ which was the very first episode ever of the series and aired on the 17th October 1948. It starred Raymond Massey amongst others and was shot at studio 41 of Grand Central Station Studio in New York. Since the first full year of US network television only began on May 3rd 1948 that makes this pair of reels (recorded only 5 months later) extremely early and rare.
The reels are offered in good condition. I have had them professionally digitally converted to preserve the content and a hard copy DVD will be included with the sale. Overall the quality is pretty good considering they are 70 years old and a Kinescope. Visually they are fine. The sound is sadly corrupted from the first few minutes of ‘Years Ago’ and is slightly out of sync a few times throughout, but otherwise is fine.
These reels represent an important and rare piece of US Television history for any collector.
