JFK Inauguration 20th Jan 1961
 

Hi all. I've read up that the Inauguration of President John F Kennedy 20th Jan 1961 was televised in colour and here's a clip of his Inaugural address http://www.c-span.org/classroom/govt/inaug_kennedy.asp . I was wondering does the colourcast of this exist on colour videotape? And is this clip a video recorded clip via a TK-41 or is it a film clip from a film camera?

Cheers
Troy

I believe that this event was filmed. I've seen it complete before.

Depends on how many times the tape the station has was copied. Color is lost with each copy. The address was filmed in color. I've seen it many times on the History Channel. Here in the states, CBS was last to go to color programing, 1965, IIRC, so it depends on the source.

Ron

Seems like the inaugaration was filmed in color, don't know if they had color videotape machines in '61...at least not ones that were "portable".Most of the coverage of the assasination looks to have been either videotaped or "kinescoped"...Come to think of it, the videotapes are pretty primitive & lousy looking...I remember the eternal flame completely wreaking havoc w/the picture...washing it out, & overloading...as did the glasses frames of one of the Dallas cops...He had chrome-frame glasses,VERY shiny, the light would catch 'em just right, & wreck the TV picture...The TV pictures from then look like they coulda been made in the '30s or '40s,they're so primitive, not the '60s..

Most live news feeds were still B/W at that date. I'm sure the event was filmed as well as live. If it was broadcast live in color it would have been by NBC and I'm sure there is a good chance NBC would have saved it on video tape. That being said if a tape from that date was found it would be very hard to good good playback but it is possible as there are still operating quad recorders around.

I remember it well...
 

I believe at JFK's inaugural address, the principle camera on the president was a b&w pool feed to all three networks. Certainly, NBC could have sent a color mobile unit to D.C. but why go to the expense? In 1961 the % of homes with color sets was still tiny. And there was not nearly enough color equipment to cover all the festivities. This is why the pool coverage was used. To spread the cost and maximize the available network equipment which was still mainly RCA TK-10 era b&w camera equip. Had NBC chose to use color for portions of the event, it would have been a simple matter to microwave the color signal, as they did with the b&w to WRC-TV, the NBC D.C. station and feed it live to the Network or record it to available color video tape machines as easily as they actually recorded it to b&w vtr's. As for the asassination coverage in Nov. 1963. That was also in b&w. Exception were live cutins from the NBC affiliate in Dallas, WBAP-TV which had live color capability at the time. There was also a memorial concert from Chicago, on NBC, that was telecast in color. I believe the first color telecast of a major event from the White House was the marriage ceremony of Pres. Johnson's daughter in 1964 on NBC.

-Steve D.

The inauguaration was filmed. Sorry for rotton spelling.

The funeral was all shot with video. Believe me, I saw all of it originally. I saw a load of low-band black and white videotape 20 years or so ago of several hours of the procession. Camera blinding was normal at the time.

The footage moments after the assassination was film. In their hurry to brodcast it, the film wasn't set out to dry. The result is the lines seen on the film.
You can tell the difference between film and tape. Tape has a live look to it while film looks rather flat.
In 1963, the 3 networks were B&W except for primetime shows. Walter Cronkite said something in an interview that stands out in my mind. When CBS broke in on the first report of the shooting, they used a voice over because the camera needed to warm up! This was late in 1963!!

Ron

Absolutely, the 1961 inauguration was also filmed in color and b&w as well as being telecast live to the nation. The funeral.in 1963, was also recorded on motion picture film as well as being telecast live to the nation and via satellite to the world.

(QUOTE) moments after the assassination was film. In their hurry to brodcast it, the film wasn't set out to dry. The result is the lines seen on the film.
You can tell the difference between film and tape. Tape has a live look to it while film looks rather flat.
In 1963, the 3 networks were B&W except for primetime shows. Walter Cronkite said something in an interview that stands out in my mind. When CBS broke in on the first report of the shooting, they used a voice over because the camera needed to warm up! This was late in 1963!!
Ron(QUOTE)

My recollection of this event is that CBS was covering the funeral and was late cutting to Dallas and the Oswald shooting. NBC & ABC had the shooting live. I also, was watching it at the time and will never forget that moment.

-Steve D.

Those old B&W cameras also distorted the images-I remember they had pics at Andrews AFB or Dulles bringing Kennedy's body home to Washington, & the Pontiac ambulance/hearse looked VERY distorted-way too wide & long. Sorta ironic, nowadays every man Jack & his brother has a camcorder that does a better job-or at least as good-as what the networks had in '63...

Some of my older TV engineering friends like to tell me stories about how they would have to tweak those old RCA B/W cams while on the air. Sometimes a pot control would get intermittent, and (for instance) the vertical would stretch. The video I saw 20 years ago was pretty clear, and easy to see, but I'd like to see film copies.

I think that television grew up a bit in 1963. I bet co-ordinating all those cameras with their sync problems, etc, was a technical nightmare. TV sure came through for us. I remember how the streets of Asheville were quiet the day of the funeral. I guess close to everyone here was watching it.

I had to watch it on a new 1963 GE 19" B/W portable on a cart. Had one of those awful 2x6" speakers in it. Made the music, etc, sound really shrill.

I remember the day of the assasination-I was in the 1st grade, we had been outside at Recess, it was a GORGEOUS day, the sky that deep blue it only gets in the fall, we were in the school cafeteria for "milk break", they had a radio playing over the school P/A, the radio said Kennedy had been shot, I'll never forget the look on my teacher, Mrs. Armstrong's face. We went upstairs & prayed for him-you could still do that in '63-& seems like they let us out of school early that day.

I was in the 5th grade in 1960-61, we were all herded in to the lunch-room and up on the stage was a 21" B&W RCA TV and an antenna had been installed on the roof so we could watch the inauguration. I was in the 8th grade in Nov '63 and sitting in study hall when the librarian came out and announced the president had been shot, a few minutes later she came back out and said he was dead. We stayed in school but it sure was quiet.

I've also noticed that when the networks went whole-hog in color in '65-'66, the live shots didn't seem to have a lot of the funky weirdness-distorted images,washouts, etc-the B&W cameras had. I've heard, or read perhaps, that the B&W camera pickup tubes didn't have much dynamic range, & that contributed to a lot of the problems. Any of you fellas wanna comment on that ?

I don't think they used those color cameras outside much. Film was used. The color cameras were always inside except for the Rose Parade, right?

However member Steve D. used to haul them around to varions disaster locations (like local fires) when he worked at KTLA Channel 5 here in LA back in the vacuum tube days so he would know. He has some great stories..

Steve,
I was referring to the first reports of the shooting on Friday 11/22. The network(s) didn't have time to setup. They needed to go on air ASAP.
The other events were planned and the networks had time on their sides. CBS, for some reason, felt it necessary to cut away from Oswalds movements to show some tape on JFK. Turned out to be a very 'historic' mistake.

Ron

They also had to change lens. On the Oswald shooting, you can see the lens change a fraction of a second before he's shot. The picture is distorted while the lens changes. If you look at the TV station cameras of that time, the lens would rotate for closeup or long shots.

Ron

The JFK Inauguration was Telecast in Color
 

Portions of the JFK Inauguration were Telecast in Color. I recall playing hookey from Westside high school in Omaha to stay home to watch it on the 21-inch Hallicrafters color television in our home. I do not know if a color video tape survives of this event.

Ed Reitan

I was home from 1st grade that day. I was playing on the sofa with a toy truck, the kind that delivers cars to the show rooms. In September, 1963, my mother had drawn a Bozo The Clown that she cut out for me before starting school. When the report came over the TV that there was a shooting, my mother got up slowly and made the TV louder. I said something and she told me, "Shut Up!" I didn't understand what was happpening, I was 5 at the time.
Here's something of that weekend I'll never forget. My parents, brother and I were watching the events on the day Oswald was shot. At the moment of the Oswald shooting, my mother said to my father, "Don't let them watch that." My father said, "Let them watch it. It's history." Two different views of reality.
BTW. JFK was here in NYC the Friday before he was killed. He insisted that he drive through rush hour traffic. That drove the Secret Service nuts.

I've always felt sorry for the people of Dallas for what happened on their turf. I'm sure many people commented that they traveled the assassination route many times. Since 9/11, I can say I know how they feel.

Ron

Steve H.

Just to drift a bit off topic here, We did indeed haul our KTLA RCA TK-41 color cameras to many a remote broadcast site . This included baseball, football, basketball, boxing and wrestling. Also did other parades and beauty pagents ect. The cameras were tarnsported in a large crown coach bus unit. However, we never covered what they now call, breaking news with these cameras. Out "hot" news Telemobile used a b&w TK-10 or 11 until 1966 when it was converted to color with a Norelco Plumbicon camera.

-Steve D.

Ron,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. You are absolutely right. CBS interrupted a soap opera and Cronkite did a voice over a "BULLETIN" slide for the first cut in. Over at NBC they went on the air live but neglected to start rolling tape of this historic broadcast for over 10 min. I have a tape copy of NBC's coverage that day, less those 10 mins., with Chet Huntley & Frank McGee as primary anchors.

-Steve D.

JFK inaugural color film info
 

Some information on color filming of the JFK inaugural speech. Text courtesy this site:
Our Stewardship of JFK's Greatest Speeches, Mark Sobel
Address:http://www.jfklancer.com/sobel/speeches.html

"The Inaugural Address
There appears to have been two sources of color film of the Inaugural Address; a 35mm color negative taken by the Department of Defense, and a 16mm color film presumably taken by the White House Press Corps that now exists in the JFK Library, readily available to the public on video for a nominal fee. Short clips from B&W duplicates of the Department of Defense 35mm color negative can be found in theatrical newsreels of the day. I studied the newsreels dealing with the Warren Commission for set design in "The Commission".
Within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), only the first minutes of the Inaugural Address, as well as the final minutes, survive in 35mm color. Although the camera position was inferior to that of the 16mm cameras, the 35mm negative would have allowed for enlarging the image to generate close shots of JFK, something that none of the color films possess. The B&W video of JFK's Inaugural Address does have many good close-ups, and I can think of no better use for the process of colorization than to sample the actual colors from existing color photos, and colorize this video material for the historical record."

-Steve D.

When I'm wrong, I'm wrong....
 

Ed,

My faux-paux for incorrectly assuming, in my AK post, that the JFK inaugural contained no live color tv elements. At least portions, if not all of the inaugural parade were telecast in color by NBC. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. You list this NBC color first on your site and I also found reference at the following sites:

"I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations
The text:
First time that the parade was televised in color (NBC). (New York
Times, 1/15/1961).

Also this from the C-SPAN.org site:
Fun Fact: John F. Kennedy's inauguration the first time the inaugural parade was televised in color (on NBC).

I will be at the library next week and will locate the NY Times article and send it along to you.


-Steve D.

Well, I don't know if it counts as being outside, but every year from at least 1956 on, if the World Series was on NBC, it was telecast in color. The footage that I've seen that survives are B&W kinescopes shot off a color display (for maximum crapitude in the image, as Bart Simpson would say...)

As for the JFK inaugural, if I ever find a good color version of the film, I'll try some LiveFeed magic on it, and then we can rectify that B&W pool set-up... :)

-Kevin

Hey Kevin,

The World Series certainly qualifies as an outside-remote telecast. The first telecast in color:
1955 1st World Series color TV broadcast on NBC-TV (Yanks beat Dodgers).

Also here is the text from an article in the NY Times from Jan. 15, 1961 on NBC's plans for their color telecast of JFK's inaugural parade. This is just a portion of a larger article on live broadcast coverage for the entire day:

"The parade will be televised in color for the first time by NBC . Because of the limitation of color cameras, NBC's coverage of the eariler ceremonies will be in black and white only. The color cameras will be positioned in Lafayette Park across from the White House reviewing stand."

-Steve D.