NBC Color Kinescope - (1958) The Perry Como Show - [COLOR CORRECTED]

Watch time-shifted color TV like it was 1958 again - with a WRCA-TV (now WNBC-TV) ID followed by a color-corrected and frame-synchronized version of the faded color kinescope film of the April 13, 1958 live NBC color broadcast of The Perry Como Show found here on KZbin - originally filmed on Anscochrome (GAF) color film stock using NBC's KINEPHOTO process (RCA Kinescope recorder) on 16mm film. This was NOT a 'lenticular' color kinnie - just faded Anscochrome film stock.
In 1958, while color videotape was still in its infancy, since September 1956, NBC would use color film kinescopes to time-shift and preserve their live color television shows and 'spectaculars' - until they would eventually transition to color 'television tape' later in 1958-9.
However, I am tempted to believe this edited-down color kinnie was utilized for the Advertising Dept at NBC (aka 'On-Air Marketing') due to the fact that elements are missing from this show - therefore it is obviously not complete. But who knows (or really cares anyways)?
Here you will find I have imported the original color faded kinescope print found on KZbin - and did some down-n-dirty color correction on the original print (which completely lacked any blue) and was typically faded pink/red - which gives away the fact the original film stock was NOT Kodachrome - and the fade also resembles multitude of Eastmancolor prints. Research showed NBC would use GAF Anscochrome film stock (General Aniline and Film Corp.).
That being said, the video color correction is roughly done (i.e. didn't spend much time on this) in Avid Media Composer - and additional effects come from the Gen Arts Sapphire and Boris FX collections. My goal was to attain at least a pseudo Kodachrome-ish effect, in other words, proper saturated color. I used certain film presets (adjusted) with the "Film Effect' plug-in.
My goal with this was at least to showcase the COLOR as best as I could make it pop out. My favorite is the Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang segment where the blue colors pop out of the backdrop curtain.
Of course, this being a kinescope (faded, no less), you can tell there are exposure issues with the tubes in the TV camera, the brightness of the iconoscope on the KINEPHOTO recorder - and the over-exposure on the original film - so faces become light blue at times...
Best part of the show are the Mitchell Ayres arrangements and orchestra. You'll know him in the 1960's as "The Hollywood Palace" musical director.
Worst part is the Bob Hope segment.
The sound was crappy too - so I gave it the Dyna-Stereo treatment.
NOTE: The end credits are from a different Perry Como show episode - from 1959 - as is the NBC endpage and the 'rainbow' motif in his show logo. The 1958 episode just had that ugly red star.
ADDED ATTRACTION: Period advertisements for selling RCA Color TV's using The Perry Como Show (and The Dinah Shore Show) and NBC Color as the draw - helped by Perry's records on RCA Victor records! He was indeed, the RCA Color King!

[@hankaustin7091]

This restoration is incredible!! Fantastic!

[@sandratuttle]

Thank you for this beautiful restoration. Perry Como was the first show I ever saw in color in an appliance store window in Monaca, PA. It might have been this one because I remember he was wearing a blue shirt. Perry was very popular here because he was from Western PA. I was 8 years old in 1958.

[@edwinkirkland8856]

😮ohh my lord jesus of Nazareth, im63 years old, in 1958 i was a year old 153rd st Broadway (block and a half from Columbia Presbyterian hospital in which I was born, now my grandparents who were on the 2nd floor and me and my parents 4th floor had a magnavox black and white TV all these years i thought that the color television was promoted in 1967 How wrong i was.its sheer pleasure to see mr Perry cuomo IN COLOR FOR THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE of my grandfather and currently uncle buck w/the late john candy 👴i reintroduced myself to Mr Perry cuomo, i heard he was a very nice,and humbled man, thank you whomever got the kineoscooes, and bought them back, God bless you, also rest in peace mr perry cuomo 👨‍💼

[@musicom67]

I'll take any blessings I can get :-) Enjoy :-)

[@sydneystone9987]

wow he kind of had Russ Columbo esque timbre singing “Peg O My Heart” amongst the crowd. kind of a melancholy video after living around today. nothing will ever be this wholesome

[@musicom67]

Unfortunately not...

[@CostAnder]

Thank you very much for this! The color and sound is much better than in the existing on KZbin video of this show. It is very sad that to this day there are so few episodes in color :(

[@altfactor]

My girlfriend's late mother was a huge Perry Como fan, and never missed his show. She told me that when the show was on Saturday nights, her dad could never take her mom out because she insisted on staying home and watching Como!

[@joemackey1950]

The Perry Como Show was the first time I ever saw colour tv. It was in the bar area of a restaurant. Begged, whined, cajoled and generally made a pest of myself wanting my parents to buy one. Nope. It was several years before we finally got one, a few months before the net's all went colour. :)

[@musicom67]

I first saw color TV in 1971 :-)

[@haroldbregman2102]

Amazing how technology has improved.I remember when very few people had color tv's They were very expensive& the colors were horrible compared to todays HD sets. I always liked Perry no matter weather the show was in black& white or color

[@1219Jeffrey]

To go on further on the subject of few people having Color TV at the time, we up in Canada were not able to actually buy color sets until the summer of '65, due to the fact that authorities did not permit their use in the 50's for the utterly false claim that operating and maintaining such sets would cause interference on B&W receivers.

[@someguy23475]

CFPL London actually bought a color camera in the 50s but couldn’t use it! Did they allow bringing color sets in from across the border? Color TV was available from Detroit and Buffalo for sure.

[@ronaldwilliamson4762]

Maybe blue spotlights.

[@irenemccann7032]

My favourite singer a lovely man and so very very cool.

[@altfactor]

Roncom, the production company that produced this show, was owned by Perry Como and was named after his son Ronnie (actually a contraction of RONnieCOMo). In 1963, Perry cut back his TV schedule from a weekly series to monthly specials. The other three weeks of the month were filled by "Suspense Theatre", an hour-long dramatic anthology series filmed in color and produced by Roncom. Kraft (which began sponsoring Perry in the late 1950's) sponsored both the Como specials and "Suspense Theatre" during the two years (1963-65) that both shows shared the same timeslot. After that, Perry's TV specials were less frequent and I think GTE/Sylvania eventually succeeded Kraft as the sponsor.

[@MostlyBrenda]

“Ron” Como died in 2019 at 78. Parkinson's disease. He had one sister who was adopted by Roselle and Perino Como. They had some dispute over the estate, but I don't remember what it was about. Ron had six kids Ronald Jr., Paul Como, Melanie, Wendy, Paige, and Mary . I don't what happened to the sister. [Edited to correct an error.]

[@reaganenglish]

Wonderful !!! Thank you !!!

[@cats0182]

Mitchell Ayres had a long association with Como, starting in the 1940's. He was killed in a traffic accident in 1969 in Winchester, NV where he was Music Director for Connie Stevens.

[@1219Jeffrey]

Ayres also was the maestro for the Hollywood Palace on ABC

[@musicom67]

@@1219Jeffrey Nick Perito (who?) inherited the job after Ayres. Didn't sound any different because it was still Joe Lipman's showy arrangements!

[@steveomusicman6645]

WInchester is an area of La Vegas..I think he was struck down as a pedestrian :(

[@altfactor]

The onscreen lyrics beginning at 11:50 of this clip was a precursor to "Sing Along With Mitch" (1961-64) and the grandfather of karaoke.

[@Telcom100]

At the end the announcer says stay tuned for Black Saddle with Peter Breck on many of these NBC stations. But Wikipedia says that Black Saddle was an ABC show. Also, it says Black Saddle was on for the 59-60 years.

[@musicom67]

I tricked you: The end credits are from a different episode of the Perry Como show (from 1959) since the color kinnie ended short - and Black Saddle started out on NBC: Jan. 1959-Sept. 1959 NBC Saturday 9:00-9:30. Sometimes you gotta do more research than Wikipedia :) Thanks for watching!

[@RadioHamGuy]

That was great!

[@stanleyhoover4244]

❤❤❤

[@brianweber4616]

Great job!

[@a1wireless1964]

Would love to see more programs! Thanks for posting, by the way the format reminds me of the 15GP22 crt

[@musicom67]

Much appreciated... Wish I had more as well :-) Cheers! It was a fun project.

[@LeonZetekoff]

I'd prefer the standard 4x3 instead of masking it.

[@100PurpleAvenue]

Wow, nice

[@sunrise8263]

Could you make the round picture tube a little smaller, please?

[@altfactor]

I believe it was later on in 1958 that NBC replaced color kinescopes with color tape for delayed broadcasts to California of color shows seen live on the East Coast. But whether color kinescope or color tape, very few NBC color programs from the mid 1950's through the mid 1960's still exist in color. Most survive only as black-and-white kinescopes.

[@eamonhorahan666]

wait till you see actual videotape from the era.... via the one and only fred Astaire. save those kinescopes where you can. great job!!!!!

[@musicom67]

Those that are "really" restored are gorgeous. DC Video is tops - and has the equipment and the original sources. My crap is just lipstick on a pig :-)

[@kevink973]

Ahh, but good lipstick nonetheless!

[@xanthia9536]

Great.More please...

[@steveomusicman6645]

Love the big band version of Tequilla at 4:35

[@vincenzocanta5111]

In Italy, we saw it only b/n; colour arrived only in 1976!

[@fromthesidelines]

7:28- Jack Benny parodied that "sunshine face" backdrop opening at the beginning of his February 28, 1958 show. Only when the "sensational dancer from London, England, Mr. Gregory Winthrop" is introduced, he sticks his head out- and it gets chopped off!!! {It was really a "dummy head"} Jack sticks his head out, looks down at it, and says, "That's the last time I'll pay anybody in advance!".

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Thanks very much for this add! I wonder why NBC waited so long to use video tape to time shift? Was this true for all of their shows, even black and white? CBS was already using tape, at least to time shift Douglas Edwards. GREAT job!

[@musicom67]

Realize at that time, NBC's color videotape machines were only in Burbank and New York - and all the affiliates still only had film chains into the early 1960s - so NBC would use tape to time shift once they felt solid about the technology - but not all NBC affiliates were capable of color or video - so NBC kept on with its Kinephoto process not only as a trusted backup, but as a necessity for many affiliates. I believe they'd even still kinnie up to 1970!

[@MrJoeybabe25]

You are a fount of information Musicom! Thanks very much!

[@musicom67]

Thanks for watching my videos! More to come!

[@noel888]

A year earlier, 1957, Hedy Lamarr was the guest on Perry's first color show. The popular song was "Round and Round", also the Laugh In duo were guests. Why is this not shown here?

[@kennethreed2186]

😎📀👍😊

[@steveomusicman6645]

Did this show eminate from RCAS Hollywood and Vine Studio? or was it from NBC NEw York?

[@musicom67]

The "Eyes of A Generation" website says NBC presented Perry Como's show during 1957 at the Ziegfeld Theatre on 6th Ave in NYC, razed in 1966 for the Burlington House bldg. Perry then went to NBC Brooklyn when the show went full color to videotape. The Kraft shows from the early 60s were done there as well.

[@steveomusicman6645]

Musicom ty very much...NBC Brooklyn eh? : )

[@ApartmentKing66]

@@steveomusicman6645 Yup. NBC bought the Brooklyn production facility in 1952 and let it sit empty for a couple of years. Why let it sit? They were waiting for the FCC to make a decision as to whose color system would be picked as the industry standard, RCA's or CBS's. While the "jury" was out, the studio sat vacant.

[@choxxxieful]

New York.

[@ronlevine8873]

Why cut off the upper and lower portions of the frame?

[@musicom67]

Nothing is cut off. The original was high in the frame as well. Only thing was the frame was slightly stretched as linearity was off in original. Hope that answers your question.

[@crist67mustang]

When you say GAF , you mean GAF corporation the View Master 3-Dimensional pictures visor maker ..?

[@musicom67]

Yes. GAF owned Sawyer's (View Master) and Ansco Film (and Anscochrome from the 1970s) - which has its origin as a German company, I believe I.G. Farben....then WW II and Americans took over German companies yada yada yada.

[@crist67mustang]

Thanks! I am from Santiago, Chile, SouthAmerica. As you can see, I¿m not from the US. XD But I adore all from USA.

[@jeffmissinne3866]

Ansco was originally a US company, E. & H.T. Anthony, started in 1848. They merged with Scovill Bros. Manufacturing Co. in 1901; ANthony + SCOvill = ANSCO. They merged with the German photo company Agfa in 1928, which got them involved with I.G. Farben... and eventually a lot of trouble. They were the last company seized by the U.S. Enemy Alien Properties board to be resold into private hands in the early 60's.

[@larryshaver3568]

what orchestra is that?

[@musicom67]

Mitchell Ayres - who later in the 1960s did ABC's "The Hollywood Palace"... You can see him and his orchestra perform on camera on another Perry Como show with Chesterfield...

[@tomperrone1846]

A very small point... your info says the Como show started at 9 p.m. ET - it did NOT - it started at 8 p.m. ET - It was in direct competition with the Jackie Gleason Show on CBS-TV, which started at the same time...

[@musicom67]

I'll have to double check that for that night in the New York times archive, but with your enthusiasm I'll guess you're spot on and you're probably the type that figures out why our space rockets don't blow up after all the hard work is completed.

[@musicom67]

That's called extreme accuracy kids

[@afathersdevotions]

RCA TK 41 video cameras.

[@LeonZetekoff]

Why does the audio sound like it's in a tin can?

[@eamonhorahan666]

so lets just find whats left....... okay,guys..... its 2018 already.

[@markblass4490]

In a word, grotesque!

[@musicom67]

In regard to...

[@markblass4490]

@@musicom67 The colors are sickening! It reminds me of a bad dream I once had. There are so many higher quality color shows out there don't know why you bothered "restoring" this.

[@frankprovasek5394]

@@musicom67 The medium brightness areas are all squashed to black, people look like they have black holes for eyes.

[@KDoyle4]

The reverb added to the sound is unbearable.

[@musicom67]

Yeah, it is too much. What should I do now? Listen to the original. It ain't much better. You DID do that, right? Didn't think so...

[@LeonZetekoff]

There are ways to clean it up using software tools. Better than what we have here.

[@GeorgeRellas]

Considering that by the end of that year they were already using Ampex Color Videotape, it's too bad they didn't have it sooner or that more were saved on the expensive process. To be honest, in comparison, this kinescope looks pretty crappy (just being honest). The "Evening With Fred Astaire" Specials on NBC were on Color Videotape, starting in 1958 & many folks have uploaded here on youtube but it always gets pulled by Astaire's last wife, who selfishly will not allow the historic specials to be released to the public nor will she allow examples of it to be on youtube.

[@michaelmcgee8543]

What happened to the hour-long version? I think he began to use color videotape by 59. I remember seeing his show in color for the first time in 62 when we got an RCA color. t.v For whatever reason he never bothers to preserve his color videotape episode. His show was a hit. He could have afforded it. I wasn't aware that his t.v show lasted till 67, also black n white kinescopes guess some people don't think. Only his later Xmas specials are preserved and his appearance on Doris day's first live special in 70.