Televised fights of the 1940's

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 02 Mar 2002, 17:46

Is it true that during the 1940's, video tape did not yet exist? Many televised fights of the 40's(Such as Pep-Saddler 2 and Robinson-Lamotta IV)were not recorded.I'm told that some televised fights of the 40's were also filmed for posterity, however, the vast majority were not.Is this true? I've never seen a pre-1950 videotape of a fight-only film. The 1960 Ring Record Book lists every main event held in the Garden between Dec. 1925 and Dec. 1959-the vast majority were held on Friday nights.Considering that the televised Friday night fights began in 1944,it's staggering to consider how many great fights and fighters that appeared on television went unpreserved.

delisa · Post by **delisa** » 02 Mar 2002, 18:29

Actually, most were in fact preserved -- at that time fights were "kinescoped" -- that is, they were filmed off of the TV set.

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 02 Mar 2002, 21:30

Do you know who owns the rights to the kinescopes of the old Friday night fights of the 1940's?Is it the t.v. network that televised the fights? Bill Cayton is on record as saying that only championship fights were filmed during the 1940's-he also told me this many years ago when I had a brief opportunity to talk to him.I wonder if he was referring to a type of film other than a kinescope? Also, in the book Raging Bull, Jake LaMotta states that he has all six of his fights with Robinson on film.I've seen the sixth fight, but I have never heard of anyone other than LaMotta who has these fights on film. Has ayone out there seen any or all of the first five bouts?

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 02 Mar 2002, 21:32

Do you know who owns the rights to the kinescopes of the old Friday night fights of the 1940's?Is it the t.v. network that televised the fights? Bill Cayton is on record as saying that only championship fights were filmed during the 1940's-he also told me this many years ago when I had a brief opportunity to talk to him.I wonder if he was referring to a type of film other than a kinescope? Also, in the book Raging Bull, Jake LaMotta states that he has all six of his fights with Robinson on film.I've seen the sixth fight, but I have never heard of anyone other than LaMotta who has these fights on film. Has ayone out there seen any or all of the first five bouts?

Brooklyn's Buddy · Post by **Brooklyn's Buddy** » 07 Mar 2002, 19:25

I just want to mention some further research that I've done in regard to my posting.According to NBC's archives, the earliest record of a kinescope recording of a boxing match on the Friday Night Fights by NBC is March 19, 1948, the Savold-Buonvino fight.I am attempting to determine how in depth the NBC arcives are.Also, according to the Museum of Television&Radio,the use of the kinescope to record live television broadcasts was very infrequent prior to 1948.In 1948, the FCC mandated that television broadcasts be kinescoped.One of the museum's curators also told me that countless kinescopes were destroyed by NBC-many were actually dumped into the river.

delisa · Post by **delisa** » 08 Mar 2002, 13:04

I love it! Research! I haven't hasd the chance to fully develop my research on EXISTING TV broadcasts, although I have been researching early boxing broadcasts (earliest so far 1932)

The National Archives has many recordings --

http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html

NBC's archives were donated to the Library of Congress and are being cataloged online --

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?f ... +rs000001)

NBC has some on their site
http://www.nbcnewsarchives.com/

For General history of TV --

http://www.dfm.dircon.co.uk/links.htm#Television

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: delisa on 2002-03-08 17:08 ]</font>