Oldest Color Entertainment Videotape Discovered, Preserves the 'Kraft Music Hall Starring Milton Berle'

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Until recently, the oldest entertainment program known to survive on color videotape was NBC’s An Evening with Fred Astaire, broadcast live on October 17, 1958.

But now, a rare color videotape of the Kraft Music Hall Starring Milton Berle that predates the Astaire special by nine days (airdate October 8, 1958) has been discovered. The tape will be shown at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood on Saturday, February 24th at 7:30 PM in a program that is free and open to the public.

“With the introduction of videotape technology in the broadcast industry starting in 1956, one of the main virtues of videotape for producers, networks, and local stations was that tapes could be reused repeatedly to save costs,” Quigley said. “Many important programs were simply taped over, as no anticipated future use was envisioned. It was common practice for networks and stations to erase programs. For that reason, every 2-inch tape that survives is something of a happy miracle and a time capsule.”

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Milton Berle made his TV debut hosting NBC’s The Texaco Star Theatre in 1948. That landmark series was so successful that in 1951 Berle signed an unprecedented 30-year contract with NBC, granting the network exclusivity to his talents.

Read more: https://deadline.com/2024/02/oldest-color-entertainment-videotape-discovered-preserves-the-kraft-music-hall-starring-milton-berle-1235818725/