Bing Crosby Special for Clairol 12/24/62

[vallieone]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8uc9U5RESw

Anyone know where the first live color special for ABC was taped since ABC did not have live color capability at that time. Also note the very rare instrumental color intro at the beginning of the program. Most ABC affiliates at the time could not broadcast the color signal to their viewers so no vocal announcement was made.

[old_tv_nut]

They mention California several times, so it must have been NBC Burbank (which had opened specifically as a color studio in 1955).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bu...tudios_Burbank

The camera alignments did not strike me as up to the usual NBC west coast standards, but part of that impression may be due to the overly strong color in this transfer to mpeg.

Crosby and Martin do a great job of carrying the program.
The production and scenery is very simple, which could be OK, but is cheap looking when you see the marks on the floor.

[dhop1965]

I think the first live color special for ABC was actually taped at NBC’s studios in New York since ABC didn’t have the tech to handle a live color broadcast at the time. It was pretty common for networks to share studios like that in the early days of color TV. The instrumental intro is definitely a neat find—since many of ABC’s affiliates couldn’t even broadcast in color back then, they probably avoided the usual announcement to keep things simple. It’s a fun little piece of TV history, for sure!