VINTAGE 1940's -1950's RCA TELEVISION HISTORY FILMS DVD

Total runtime of this DVD is 108 minutes.

Item specifics are:

 Film 1: "The Reasons Why" (1959)  COLOR  Runtime 26:42

Television manufacturing at RCA's New Jersey plant. Includes scenes of design, engineering and quality control. Great scenes of TVs with flickering test patterns. Nowadays, when you see a RCA TV, look at the back and see where's the units are made, and it NOT in N.J. Do we see any more finished cabinetry for our TV's? Do we see any sort of craftmanship in the TV's that we have today? Does our TV's today have either a 8inch or 10inch speaker firing toward us with tonal variation, high fidelity sound? If we go to the labs, do we see white shirt employees, or just laborers in blue anti-static smocks grunting over an assembly line earning pennies per day. Sorry, black plastic cabinetry, electronic tuning, wimpy sound, and what have you isn't called "quality". Yet, RCA was the leader in TV market, with Zenith, Curtis Mathes, Fisher, all running behind real close.

Film 2: "A Welcome Guest in the House" (1957)  B&W  Runtime 23:40

Tribute to television as servant of the public in the Cold War era. Wickedly ironic piece (but totally straight) about how wonderful Television is to entertain our children about Communism, the Hungarian revolution, prison riots and other heartwarming stories! Let's plop him down in front of the TV rather then him doing creative stuff outside! Honestly, I thought this whole film was pulling my leg, when in fact the sponsors of this film (which look like they meet in someone's living room) is being damn serious about this. So parents, call jimmy in from his playtime (wherever you are, since there's no hint of parental supervision at all in this one) and plop him down to watch tornado coverage!! Plenty of cool early tv bits.

Film 3: "Story of Television"  B&W  Runtime 13:46

One side of the TV story - worth it for unique early footage

"The Story of Television" might be better titled "The Official Story of RCA Television." No hint of Baird, Jenkins, Farnsworth or other pioneers in this company promo piece. RCA always claimed to have perfected and introduced TV to the public single-handed.

The intro presages the satirical film "Your Name Here" - taking us from the Sphinx to Chartres cathedral to...wherever the camera crew happened to alight from the subway in Queens looking for rooftop antennae. A pretty model in an Andrew Wyeth-like setting realizes her eyes don't work around corners or far away. Luckily she has binoculars along, but something more remains to be seen.

That is where RCA comes in. Chairman David Sarnoff and inventor Vladimir Zworykin discuss the birth of the Iconoscope tube. Watching Sarnoff read his "conversation" off idiot cards is excruciating. He was never at his best in front of a camera, but the great mind that had built RCA was obviously beginning to stumble a bit by 1956.

Concise animation shows how TV works (still does, pretty much, except now cameras have chips instead of tubes, and 3 scanning guns for color).

Then - some 1930s footage that is absolutely priceless for showing a buried era of TV history. The ID card of W2XBS was one of the only pictures NBC broadcast for several years (along with a revolving Felix The Cat figure). The idea was to hold a place on the TV band until RCA developed a system it could own and control. Even then, they were not anxious to develop content. After $50 million spent on R&D, NBC's first actual TV show went on the air in 1936 with only one camera and no scenery. Clips with a cameraman, floor director, cyclorama and large movie lights are from that show.

Scenes of the giant 2-truck Telemobile Unit, New York World's Fair, and experimental NBC studio with silver painted cameras and small orchestra, all date to about 1938-40. Print and photo documentation on these years is plentiful, but only a few minutes of movie film is known to survive.
The narration line about "the vital bloodline of competition" rings a bit hollow. NBC stopped experimental broadcasts at least once when competitors such as DuMont beat them to the market with home sets. As NBC was the only station on the air, no one could demo sets, and RCA could be the pioneer in home television.

The film ends abruptly with a viewer's-eye shot of an early set. Is this a problem with the file?

Once again, the experimental scenes are unique as far as I know, and the overview of TV history is a modestly good, quick summary once RCA's interests are understood.

Film 4: "The Story of Television" (1956)  COLOR  Runtime 14:50

RCA's corporate history of pre-1956 developments in television. Shows efforts of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in the creation, development and introduction of the all-electronic TV system; explains how science made television a working reality. David Sarnoff tells of the early research and experiments. Shown is the first successful picture tube, the first experimental TV station, the problems of improving picture quality and reducing the size and cost of components at the transmitting and receiving ends, and the function of mobile units. Actual scenes from TV "firsts" are included -- President Roosevelt opening the 1939 New York World's Fair, the visit of the King and Queen of England, and the 1940 Republican Convention in Philadelphia. Animated diagrams demonstrate how a TV camera converts electronic beams into a picture.

Film 5:  "Television Tomorrow"  B&W  Runtime 12:16

Great film showing the earlier making of television, good shots of the hunkie heavy big studio equipment they used to use. I wonder what they would of thought of TV cameras small enough to hold in your hand back then.

Film 6:  "Magic in the Air" (1941) B&W Runtime 7:58

How TV works and the promise of its youth. A great flick to watch if you have any connections with the television. The shots from the director's booth are absolutely wonderful, and it's moving in a weird way to hear the announcer say: "Here's one of the very first images received by the television. Compare that crude image with that of today's!" as we see blurry Felix the Cat change into a beautiful blonde... Yes, they thought they had come of age.

Film 7: "Magic in the Air" (1955)  B&W  Runtime 8:12

Introduces television and explains the workings of early television technology. This is a well done film about television in the 50s. It is a good laymans view of the process, with some interesting insights. The comparison to the car is a bit strange till you realize General Motors sponsored the film. The football fan in the beginning is going to be bummed when he turns on the game at home and finds it is not in color.

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