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Bing Crosby, Television Sports Preservationist 148

Hugh Pickens submits news first gleaned from a now-paywalled article at the New York Times (and, happily, widely reported) that "The hunt for a copy of the seventh and deciding game of the 1960 World Series, considered one of the greatest games ever played and long believed to be lost forever, has come to an end in the home of Bing Crosby, a canny preservationist of his own legacy, who kept a half-century's worth of records, tapes and films in the wine cellar turned vault in his Hillsborough, California home. Crosby loved baseball, but as a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates he was too nervous to watch the Series against the Yankees, so he and his wife went to Paris, where they listened by radio. Crosby knew he would want to watch the game later — if his Pirates won — so he hired a company to record Game 7 by kinescope, an early relative of the DVR, filming off a television monitor. The five-reel set, found in December in Crosby's home, is the only known complete copy of the game, in which Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a game-ending home run to beat the Yankees, 10-9."
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Bing Crosby, Television Sports Preservationist

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  • Now, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:15PM (#33694678)
    Get him for piracy...
    • I just hope the guy stood still and no-one got up for candy.

    • Re:Now, (Score:5, Informative)

      by camperslo ( 704715 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @01:06AM (#33695040)

      Bing Crosby deserves recognition for his place in history as the investor that stepped in with a $50,000 investment in Ampex Corporation [wikipedia.org] for development of the reel to reel tape recorder. Ampex was a small company with six employees prior to that. During WWII Germany developed wire recorders with improved quality as a result of a high frequency (above audio range) signal added to the record current. That overcame non-linear magnetic behavior greatly reducing distortion.
      Ampex used the same A.C. bias current technique with magnetic tape, and Bing Crosby was a major influence in the quick adoption by broadcasters.

      • Re:Now, (Score:4, Informative)

        by westlake ( 615356 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @02:08AM (#33695198)

        For more on Crosby, Alexander Poniatoff and the invention of video tape recording: Agents of Change, [americanheritage.com] The Race To Video / How Bing Crosby Brought You Audiotape [americanheritage.com]

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by rxmd ( 205533 )

        Bing Crosby deserves recognition for his place in history as the investor that stepped in with a $50,000 investment in Ampex Corporation [wikipedia.org] for development of the reel to reel tape recorder. Ampex was a small company with six employees prior to that. During WWII Germany developed wire recorders with improved quality as a result of a high frequency (above audio range) signal added to the record current. That overcame non-linear magnetic behavior greatly reducing distortion.
        Ampex used the same A.C. bias current technique with magnetic tape, and Bing Crosby was a major influence in the quick adoption by broadcasters.

        Actually the Germans had been using magnetic tape recorders since about 1935. The AC bias technique you mentioned was developed for the AEG Magnetophon [wikipedia.org], which was a series of tape recorders, not wire recorders.

        Towards 1943 or so it was pretty much a high-end system, with stereo and everything. There are a few surviving recordings that were later reissued in LP and CD form.

      • Re:Now, (Score:4, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2010 @07:21AM (#33695894)

        So, what you're saying is, not only was he pirating televised baseball games without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball, he was sponsoring the creation of piracy-enabling recording technology too?

        He's lucky he's not around anymore, or the FBI/MPAA copyright police would be roasting his chestnuts on an open fire.

      • (1) There's an error in the summary that should be corrected: "To record Game 7 by kinescope, an early relative of the DVR". Kinescope was nothing like a hard-drive based digital DVR. Or even an analog tape VCR. Kinescope was an old-fashioned film camera pointed at a TV screen, and was the main method to preserve Doctor Who and other early BBC shows (because the videotapes were erased).

        (2) If RIAA or MPAA had existed in 1960, they would have DRMed/copy-protected the game, plus made it illegal to record

        • (3) Cassette recordings can exceed CD quality using "high bias" Chrome and Metal tapes.

          By what measure? Certainly the later formulations were a significant improvement, but I've never heard of the dynamic range getting anywhere near 100 db. (signal referenced to noise level while signal is present, not perceptual noise reduction figures through companding or noise gating).

          Specifications can be a bit misleading too. It's not entirely reasonable to define a signal to noise ratio by comparing the noise level

          • Dolby B cassettes can achieve signal-to-noise ratio of 80 db... just shy of the 90 db of CD. (Of course with today's volume compression most CDs barely exceed 20 dB volume change.)

            Chrome/metal cassettes have a frequency response of 20-24,000 hertz, which exceeds the 20,000 limit of CD.

      • Re:Now, (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Stargoat ( 658863 ) <stargoat@gmail.com> on Saturday September 25, 2010 @06:22PM (#33699506) Journal

        Bing Crosby deserves recognition for being one heck of a good guy. My grandfather decided to hitchhike home after WWII - he'd had enough with slow travel on a jeep carrier following Operation Magic Carpet and didn't feel like taking the slow train home. He was in California, and he needed to get to northern Illinois. In southern California, a bald fella stops to pick him up. They travel for a couple hours together until the bald fella says that he's singing in Las Vegas in a couple of hours and needs to warm up his voice. Asks if it's alright if he starts singing. My grandpa says your car, feel free. The bald fella is Bing Crosby. Just stopped to pick up some random Marine to give him a lift.

        He beat the troop train home by a good 4 hours. :)

  • by eln ( 21727 ) on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:17PM (#33694690)
    As soon as they figure out that this recording was made without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, Crosby's estate is going to be totally hosed.
    • by yotto ( 590067 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @04:54AM (#33695596) Homepage

      You joke (and it's funny) but when it comes down to it, piracy preserved this game.

      The irony is, now that they've got it back they'll probably sell it on DRM'd blu-rays.

      • by Urkki ( 668283 )

        You joke (and it's funny) but when it comes down to it, piracy preserved this game.

        It was for personal use, and I'm sure it was covered by "fair use" even back then.

        Naturally this means, that the game is not really preserved until a permission is gained for use or distribution of the material... Until then, any act of preservation not covered by fair use is piracy of course, traditionally an offense punishable by immediate hanging without a trial.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Crosby would be proud. 33 years after his death, he's finally made the Pirate team.

    • As soon as they figure out that this recording was made without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, Crosby's estate is going to be totally hosed.

      If you've ever seen a kinescope recording...you will change your mind. Having worked in TV in the 80's and still having them around for live functions like sports before the advent of video tape...it's like watching a video tape recorded over and over at the slowest speed with rolling lines running up/down the screen at the same time. It maybe history...but not worth the headache you get after just a few minutes.

  • I am so worried about ALL their games that I don't watch, it's just too painful :P
  • by winkydink ( 650484 ) * <sv.dude@gmail.com> on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:19PM (#33694702) Homepage Journal

    is one of the all time great World Series.

    • by PFritz21 ( 766949 ) on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:54PM (#33694812) Homepage Journal
      Better yet, a World Series where they don't even appear.

      Exhibit A: 1991. Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves. Five one-run games, three that went to extra innings, including the crown jewels: Game 6, single-handedly won by Hall of Fame Twins center fielder Kirby Puckett, with his leaping catch against the left-center Plexiglas to rob Ron Gant of an extra-base hit and a game-winning home run on a 2-1 changeup from Charlie Leibrandt in the bottom of the 11th. Game 7, a masterful ten-inning shutout pitching performance by Jack Morris, and a game-winning single by pinch hitter Gene Larkin with the bases loaded. I've got both games on VHS. Some say THE greatest World Series ever, and I agree (disclaimer: I am a Minnesota Twins fan). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_World_Series [wikipedia.org]

      The defense rests.
      • I was going to school in Minnesota for that series, it was insane on campus.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Not to mention the following two world series (1992, 1993). Toronto Blue Jays beating Atlanta, followed by Philly. Montreal had a chance to win it the next year...but then the strike. And yes :-P I am Canadian.
      • >>>a World Series where the Yankees don't even appear.

        Agreed. I liked the Phillies versus Orioles game. Two cities only 80 miles apart, duking it out. It also created a lot of animosity because Orioles and Phillies fans live side-by-side. Like brother against brother.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by CRC'99 ( 96526 )

      I've never understood why its a World Series when it is only ever featuring American teams... On the same level as Miss Universe etc...

      Interestingly, the only examples I can think of where things are grossly exaggerated have their roots in America. High School education fail?

      • by pedantic bore ( 740196 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @05:37AM (#33695684)

        Despite rumors to the contrary, Toronto is not part of the USA, and they have some sort of baseball team there [wikipedia.org].

        • by j-beda ( 85386 )

          I don't know if Montreal has ever played in the WS, but they too have a team in MLB - the Expos.

          • I don't know if Montreal has ever played in the WS, but they too have a team in MLB - the Expos.

            Montreal had a team until 2004. The franchise became the Washington Nationals in 2005.

            They would almost certainly have gone to the World Series in 1994 if not for the player's strike [wikipedia.org].

            • by j-beda ( 85386 )

              Well, knock me over with a feather. First I learn that the Canadian's left Vancouver for Sacramento and now the Expos have abandoned Montreal. Clearly someone doesn't like snow-baseball. (OK, Vancouver doesn't really get much snow, but still....)

              Surely signs of the apocalypse.

      • I am pretty sure the name was not much of a concern, only now when "sensitivities" are the issue of the day. Now, since the talent in the game comes from all over the globe it has a good reason to use the name. Let alone the simple fact, they created it in 1903 who is to object? How does it offend people of other countries where baseball is not played at a similar level? If it does offend, then get over it, its a sporting event. Nothing to take offense at.

        So, there you have it, they were first so they

      • Wow, I'm surprised the baseball fans didn't fill that in already.

        The World doesn't refer to Earth. It was the name of a newspaper at the time.

        It's like "Red Bull Air Racing".

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No one seems to have trouble the format of the World Series. A number of individual contests and the team that wins most of them, wins the series. You don't hear people bitching that the Yankees should have won because they outscored the Pirates 55 to 27.

      Take the same determination of victory and apply it to US Presidential elections and suddenly it is "weird" and "antiquated" [huffingtonpost.com].

  • by schmidt349 ( 690948 ) on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:24PM (#33694726)

    1960 was a classic Series. It's right up there with 1955-6, 1986, 1996, and 2001 on my list for the all-time best.

    It's amazing to realize how different program preservation policy was in the prime of 2" Ampex quad videotape. So much of historic significance has been lost -- and not just Doctor Who and the moon landings, either. British TV before 1978 is a Swiss cheese. American programming suffered as well -- there are huge chunks of The Tonight Show that just plain don't exist anymore. For a long time, possibly the greatest baseball game of all time (1956 WS game 5) was thought to be gone forever.

    What with Google pushing something like 20 PB of data every day it kind of makes you wonder what's being done to ensure the long-term survival of the digital patrimony. I mean, I don't particularly give a damn whether the wingnuts' blogs and every video of a dog pooping on a baby makes it to the 22nd century, but isn't there some stuff worth saving? Who's taking that responsibility?

    • Don't forget, 89, Gibson's limping 3-run homerun.
        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by oldhack ( 1037484 )
          Get off my lawn.
          • I liked '87 4-3 Twins, home team won every game.

            We had a farm and two of the farm hands were big Twins fans, no FM out there and AM would cut out at night, so I'd give the score updates to them over the fixed frequency simplex base station the farm had (we had a 50 foot tower so about 30 mile range)

      • Also, 2002 called with Scott Spezio's home run in Game 6.

      • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

        My favorite was when I was in 3rd grade (I think it was 3rd grad, it was a long time ago). I don't remember who St Louis played, but we got to listen to the games in class. "Stan the man" may have still been playing.

        My second favorite was the 1985 series. I was living in Florida and watched all of them with a friend from Kansas City -- except the last one, which he was sure the Royals would lose. He'd already lost some cash betting against me.

        I still have the game with McWire's record breaking home run long

    • by grapeape ( 137008 ) <mpope7 AT kc DOT rr DOT com> on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:53PM (#33694808) Homepage

      I grew up a few houses away from Smokey Burgess, he used to tell all kinds of baseball stories but the 60 series was definitely something that meant more to him than anything else in his career. I've been thinking about him all day now, when I was a kid I didn't really appreciate and I guess took for granted his taking time to talk to we neighborhood kids. I just wish I could have known him when I was an adult rather than a snot nosed kid who half paid attention, still I heard so much about it I feel like I was a witness to the series...but it would be great to really see it.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by schmidt349 ( 690948 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @12:16AM (#33694884)

        Well, bear me out, I have a pretty interesting perspective on this. I'm a classical philologist, which means my job is to read and ponder texts written in Greek and Latin between the 8th century BCE and the fourth century CE. The difference between what was actually written and what's come down to us is colossal. A lot of people have heard of the Iliad and the Odyssey -- but most don't know names like the Cypria and the Margites, epics also thought in antiquity to have been created by Homer (whoever or whatever he was). Sophocles may have written more than a hundred plays in his career; we're incredibly lucky to have seven. Sure, some of these selections were made on the basis of quality, but I sure wish that I had been the arbiter of "quality" rather than some asshole monk sitting in a cloister in 10th century Greece looking to crib lines for a passion play.

        It may be impossible, but we should try to convey as much of our data to our posterity as we can. Folks in my line of work have a long list of texts that they would quite literally give an arm and a leg to get back. Let's not leave our descendants with the same sense of loss.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by TheLink ( 130905 )

          Let's not leave our descendants with the same sense of loss.

          Easy, just lose all the records of the loss as well ;).

          There's often lots of data loss but the records of data loss are also lost (or not recorded in the first place)...

          • by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

            That's a good point -- often we don't know what was lost. Which means we don't even know to look for it. Sucks that the ancients abandoned the durability of stone tablets and switched all their data onto ephemeral media like vellum and papyrus.

          • There's often lots of data loss but the records of data loss are also lost (or not recorded in the first place)...

            [citation needed]

            :-P

        • by elwinc ( 663074 )
          Actually, the Iliad and the Odyssey were not authored by Homer. The true author was another blind bard of the same name... (:-)
        • by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

          ...the Library at Alexandria...

          And that's merely one we KNOW about. As someone else implies, who knows what else was lost that we don't even know ever existed??

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

              If you're born blind, do you miss sight?

          • That was my first thought - so much ancient literature burned in the Great Library.
            Guessing that helps explain the relative paucity of source son Socrates, amongst other things.

            • by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

              And when you only have "selected sources" (those few that survived) it limits your perspective, as well as your objective knowledge.

              • Yes, studying Socrates, in addition to the thing itself, presents interesting challenges of historical provenance and perspective.

                Plato and Xenophon both admirers, Aristophanes a comic playwright (my analogy there was to try to understand modern historical figures, with only the aid of Stewart and Colbert scripts)

                • by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

                  Meaning you have so few reliable cross-references that it's hard to tell when one or more of them are just Making Shit Up, or using Socrates as a generic character (which I gather was often done).

                  Sortof like reconstructing a dimly-remembered extinct species from a single minor bone.

        • by Polo ( 30659 ) *

          People preserve what they have a personal attachment to.

          From my seat here in the future, I found this video of San Francisco *super* fascinating:
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHqpHf_Znzs [youtube.com]

          But people living in the past tend to preserve things like this:
          http://www.google.com/images?q=old+family+photos [google.com]

          So, in the future, 99% of what we'll have preserved from the past is people's photos of their kids, and only by chance will we find "important" stuff.

        • by adolf ( 21054 )

          It may be impossible, but we should try to convey as much of our data to our posterity as we can.

          That's a nice sentiment and all, but as someone who is completely bored with ancient history simply due to its veracity and unbelievable nature, I guess I don't really care.

          I see ancient texts as ancient, unverifiable fiction. And fiction, while it often has a basis in reality and is sometimes a great, insight-filled pleasure to read, is still fiction. And I, myself, am mostly bored with fiction.

          So, presume fo

        • but I sure wish that I had been the arbiter of "quality" rather than some asshole monk sitting in a cloister in 10th century Greece looking to crib lines for a passion play.

          Ha! Now that's a funny line... not something you hear on Slashdot everyday.

    • by ameoba ( 173803 )

      Ever hear of archive.org?

    • by inKubus ( 199753 )

      Who's taking that responsibility?

      I gotta say that like so much in this world, it's up to you. Save what you're interested in, and encourage others to do the same. It's all about the copies. Heck, if it wasn't for the invention of the printing press, there would be no bible.

      Actually, on second thought, burn it all. All that matters is now anyway.

  • by dmadzak ( 997352 ) on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:35PM (#33694754) Homepage

    Just think about all the culture that would still be available to us today, if the technology to copy was wider spread and available when TV first appeared. We would have a complete collection of all the old Dr. Who episodes.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by eyebum ( 952909 )
      Sure...except nobody's SEEDING. frickin' leechers.
    • by zippthorne ( 748122 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @12:10AM (#33694864) Journal

      Just think about all the culture that would still be available to us today, if the technology to copy was wider spread and available when TV first appeared. We would have a complete collection of all the old Dr. Who episodes.

      And hopefully some positive effects, too!

    • by westlake ( 615356 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @01:56AM (#33695166)

      Just think about all the culture that would still be available to us today, if the technology to copy was wider spread and available when TV first appeared. We would have a complete collection of all the old Dr. Who episodes.

      Some 280 rolls of film survive of Berlin television broadcasts ca. 1934-1944.

      The kinescope was in broad commercial use in the states in 1947.

      NBC, CBS, and DuMont set up their main kinescope recording facilities in New York City, while ABC chose Chicago. By 1951, NBC and CBS were each shipping out some 1,000 16mm kinescope prints each week to their affiliates across the United States, and by 1955 that number had increased to 2,500 per week for CBS. By 1954 the television industry's film consumption surpassed that of all of the Hollywood studios combined. Kinescope [wikipedia.org]

      Network kinescopes were often 35mm and can be of strikingly good quality.

      It has even become possible to recover the chroma - color - signal - that was occasionally recorded on the B/W kinescope of a color production.

      The problem was never the technology. The technology was always there. What was lacking was the desire, the will, the commitment and the money to maintain an archive.

       

    • We would have a complete collection of all the old Dr. Who episodes.

      That would be sweet. The older episodes are basically slide shows of production stills with poor quality audio dubbed over it. Where there is video, it is of very poor quality. Sadly, there are many episodes which are lost forever, unless they turn up in a collection like this.
      • And the reconstructed ones are largely from private recordings. The BBC did not archive anything back then. It got worse later, when they started recording on tapes - they actually did archive stuff, then started recording over the archives when they ran out of space. A lot of radio shows met this fate, and they've been asking people for a couple of decades to come forward with home recordings of things from the '60s to go back in the archives.
  • He could sing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) * on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:40PM (#33694780) Journal

    Man, I love those old Crosby recordings, like "I Remember Dear" and "Moonlight Becomes You". And the "Road to..." pictures he did with Hope were some of the funniest, hippest movies of the era (especially "Road to Bali"). But as as person, he was a piece of shit. Worse as he got older.

    That he saved some old recordings doesn't make him a pioneer of media preservationism as much as someone who wanted to have what other people couldn't have.

    A "preservationist" is someone like Martin Scorsese who has worked tirelessly to make sure old celluloid films aren't lost. He's doing it to make sure others can get the kind of exposure to the history of our culture as shown in cinema.

    When I was growing up, the local TV station, WGN-TV, had an amazing library of films and played at least two of them every day. There would be one a 9am and another after the evening news. Sometimes another after midnight. Everything from film noir to Busby Berkeley to Fellini (both dubbed and subbed). Howard Hawks, King Vidor, Walter Huston, Welles, Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, the Marx Bros, Kurosawa, Vittorio Di Sica. Even modern masterpieces like "Joe" or "Little Murders". Everything. Sometime in the early '80s, there must have been some change in the way they were licensed or something because those movies were replaced by back-to-back episodes of some lame TV show like Dallas or even worse. I got a remarkable education in cinema just from my local TV station. Now that's all gone. The cable stations that are dedicated to "classic" films aren't nearly so eclectic or comprehensive. When they went to commercial, the bumper music they used was "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck. Whenever I hear that song today all those images flood into my mind's eye. I'll always associate that 5/4 melody with the excitement of being exposed to another nugget of cinema greatness, curled up in a comfy chair in my parents' basement, watching an old Sylvania console TV.

    When I was in college, I had campus job in the film school's archive. It was always slow, so I could project 16mm versions of foreign and avant-garde films, such as the work of Kenneth Anger, Michael Snow, Maya Deren, Bunuel, and my favorite Joseph Cornell (if you ever get a chance, see the film "Rose Hobard" actually projected on a screen. It's a mind-bender.

    Sometimes I wonder about some young kid out there using the Internet to search out these films and to be exposed to cinema in the way I did, without effort, almost accidentally. With luck, Scorsese's foundation got to these works before the masters disintegrated beyond saving.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by e9th ( 652576 )

      A "preservationist" is someone like Martin Scorsese who has worked tirelessly to make sure old celluloid films aren't lost. He's doing it to make sure others can get the kind of exposure to the history of our culture as shown in cinema.

      Thanks for mentioning Scorsese. Besides working to preserve old films through his Film Foundation [film-foundation.org] and as the DGA representative to the National Film Preservation Board [loc.gov]), he has spoken eloquently and often on such evils as "pan-and-scan" and time compression, and how profound

      • by DrEasy ( 559739 )

        There's also Langlois' work at the Cinematheque in Paris. He started collecting and preserving reels even earlier than Scorsese.

        • There's also Langlois' work at the Cinematheque in Paris.

          You bet. Langlois was really one of the first to identify the problem and remind everyone that time was running out for the old masters.

          Scorsese was able to raise the awareness even further because of all his fancy Hollywood pals and the fact that everyone respects him.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by unitron ( 5733 )

      That he saved some old recordings doesn't make him a pioneer of media preservationism...

      Actually it was more his desire to be able to record his shows, first radio on audio tape, and later his television shows on videotape, instead of having to do them live that got him the pioneer status. That, and putting the cost of several average homes into Ampex in the early days.

      WGN was on cable down here by the early '80s, so I remember those morning movies. The change of format may have been due to Ted Turner buying up the MGM library.

      As for his singing, it was the epitome of being mellow but never

    • A "preservationist" is someone like Martin Scorsese who has worked tirelessly to make sure old celluloid films aren't lost.

      Crosby was a major figure in the early days of magnetic tape recording. He wanted better audio for his Bing Crosby show, and used some early tape recorders [mixonline.com] based on the German Magnetophon. The engineers involved with the early recorders started Ampex, Crosby put in $50,000, and pro audio rapidly moved to tape. The Bing Crosby Show was the first show to be edited before broadcast, whi

    • if you ever get a chance, see the film "Rose Hobard" actually projected on a screen You may not be able to project it on a screen, but Rose Hobart is on YouTube: part 1 [youtube.com] and part 2 [youtube.com]
      • You may not be able to project it on a screen, but Rose Hobart is on YouTube: part 1 [youtube.com] and part 2 [youtube.com]

        Joseph Cornell gave some very specific instructions for how Rose Hobard should be shown, including the playing of a certain record (yes, on a record player, with the silent breaks in between tracks and all) and various colored gels put in front of the projector's lens.

        It's still worth seeing in it's digital form, but it's nothing like having it performed live by someone who understand C

  • So how long till its repeated weekly on ESPN Classic? I usually dont understand the appeal of watching old sports but the idea of seeing something before my time and before the era of recording and highlight reels is intriguing.

  • Saw this on the front page today... First time I got news before most other people in a newspaper instead of online... :-P
  • Alert! (Score:5, Funny)

    by JustOK ( 667959 ) on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:48PM (#33694796) Journal

    Couldn't we have had a spoiler alert?

  • by gadlaw ( 562280 ) <gilbert@nOSPaM.gadlaw.com> on Friday September 24, 2010 @11:49PM (#33694798) Homepage Journal
    That's certainly a sad state of affairs when kids thing of Bing and they think of a search engine. Bing Crosby one of the greatest singers of all time playing second to a search engine. A nice Bing Crosby story out of the blue and a bit of sports history recovered. Reminds me of the recent discovery of the lost footage of Metropolis. Treasures are still out there it's nice to know.
    • Huh. People think of a search engine when they hear the word 'bing' ? Why? What search engine? /googles

      Huh. /shrugs

    • That's certainly a sad state of affairs when kids thing of Bing and they think of a search engine. Bing Crosby one of the greatest singers of all time playing second to a search engine.

      Crosby isn't innocent on this issue himself. For decades he's been unfairly stealing the limelight from my favorite cherry cultivar.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @01:35AM (#33695124)

    He was too nervous to watch the game - so he took a trip to Paris? Must be nice to have that kind of disposable income...

    As a side note - although Fitzgerald originally wrote the line I used as the subject of this post, I always remember Hemingway's adaptation instead: "The rich are very different from you and I." "Yes - they have more money."

    • Bing Crosby was a movie star and the world's biggest recording artist. Its like saying Michael Jackson made small Brad Pitt $s on the side via his movie career. He was very wealthy relative to the rest of the population.
    • Weird. I have not the slightest interest in american football, but I would certainly choose to watch the new york red mets v ohio dolphins or whatever rather than have to go to paris.

  • by matsuva ( 1042924 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @01:35AM (#33695126)
    The article is not paywalled, you just have to register to read it.
  • He's also responsible for getting the recording technology in the US up to international standards, even experimentation with early video tape recording.

  • by kanweg ( 771128 ) on Saturday September 25, 2010 @02:06AM (#33695192)

    I think it is relevant because it is an example of the usefulness of recording by the public as part of the deal between a creator and society. A copyright holder has the right to stop anyone from using the material for a (ridiculous long) period of time. The reward for society of giving a copyright holder this power, is that in the end the work enters the public domain. What you see here, is that the copyright holder got his end of the bargain from society (it is not relevant whether he actually ever sued over it; he had the right to), society doesn't get anything once the copyright holder loses interest (or trashes the recording).

    People should make a mental note of this when it comes to arguing the duration of copyright, and also when it comes to DRM. I don't think that copyright should apply to DRM material because there obviously is no guarantee that the work could end up in the public domain. More likely the DRM technique used is likely to be abandoned before the copyright expires.

    Bert
    Who refuses to buy anything Blue-ray because of this.

  • ... I have archived the 2004 Superbowl halftime show video.
  • Here's the end of game 7 of the 1960 World Series [youtube.com]. One of the two greatest moments in Pittsburgh sports history; the other is of course the one at this link [youtube.com]. (Not to sell any of the Super Bowl moments short, especially not this one [youtube.com].)

Two can Live as Cheaply as One for Half as Long. -- Howard Kandel

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