The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Broadcast Pioneers member George Finkel (lower right) directing
NBC-TV coverage of the Super Bowl
1979

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Broadcast Pioneers member Tom Moran brought our attention to this story. For many years, the Paley Center for Media has been searching for a copy of the very first Super Bowl Game from 1967 between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

There should be two different broadcast versions of this game as it was televised live by both CBS-TV and NBC-TV. Neither network saved a recording from their feed. All that had been found was sideline shots filmed by NFL Films. There was also 30 seconds of CBS footage that was used later in a Super Bowl pre-game from the nineties. As the Wall Street Journal reported in February of this year, "Somehow, an historic football game that was seen by 26.8 million people had, for all intents and purposes, vanished." HBO Executive Rick Bernstein referred to it as "The Holy Grail."

CBS received the lion's share of the audience with a 43 share to the Peacock's 36 share. A 30 second spot went for a measley $42,500 for a 30-second spot on CBS and NBC received five grand less.

CBS News on their website said on February 6, 2011:

Vintage television broadcasts have not fared well - either due to poor archiving or the fragility of early videotape recordings. And then there was the expense: When videotape was first developed it was expensive, and broadcasters and TV stations often wiped it and reused it rather than pay for costly storage.

It seems odd today that a world championship NFL game - especially a Super Bowl - would have disappeared, especially as it was broadcast by TWO networks, CBS and NBC. As it turns out, copies of the January 15, 1967 broadcast of Super Bowl I between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs were not kept by either network, and home video recording was virtually unknown then.

Fast forward to several years ago, when a gentlemen came to the Paley Center with a shopping bag containing two videotapes recorded by his father. They were stored in his attic for over a third of a century. The owner of these tapes said (through his attorney) that these tapes (on beat-up and warped two inch tape) were cut by his dad off the air of WDAU-TV, the CBS-TV affiliate in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pa. That station, at one time, was the sister station of WCAU-TV and both were owned by the Evening Bulletin.

In 2005, Sports Illustrated magazine estimated the value of a tape of that broadcast at above one million dollars. The center hired Specs Brothers to restore the tapes. Once completed, the center was allowed to retain a copy with the provision that it cannot be shown without the owner's permission.

Broadcast Pioneers member Tom Brookshier
CBS-TV coverage
1970

The NFL claimed in a letter dated December 16, 2005, that they own the exclusive copyright of the recording. However, our information is that while they do own the copyright, they do not own the physical tapes. The owner's attorney said that the NFL offer the owner $30,000 for the recordings but the offer was declined. The known recording is of the CBS-TV feed. So far, no one has turned up a genuine copy of the NBC-TV telecast.

According to Ron Simon, the Center's curator:

Until the 1970s the networks did not have a systematic policy to preserve programming other than prime time. So all other genres—sports, talk, daytime, news—were haphazardly recorded and archived. Over the years we received many leads for that first Super Bowl. One music publishing company had recorded the entire game, but improperly stored the tapes so that all the information flaked off the acetate.

All that remained of the game was the NFL Films version of it. Until recently, the NFL did not want to replay broadcast games; each game was considered a unique event seen once and then reinterpreted with music, mixing in the voice of "God," John Facenda.

But several years ago a gentleman brought in two videotapes that his father recorded at a production house in the Scranton area. In the late sixties, there was no home video recording equipment so any copy would have to be accomplished professionally. We worked with a expert restoration company and were able to bring most of game back to life. The tape was destined to remain in limbo until two intrepid journalists from the Wall Street Journal wrote about this missing game.

Again, we go to the CBS News website and a posting dated February 6, 2011:

The 94-minute tape is in color but incomplete - it is missing part of the third quarter and the half time show, and does suffer from occasional static. The recording was stopped and started in-between plays, probably to conserve tape. But it does boast some period commercials, and instant replay.

Watch a video from the Wall Street Journal which includes about 30 seconds of footage of the first Superbowl.

Superbowl I isn't the only sporting event that has been hard to find. The seventh game of the 1960 World Series is the Holy Grail for baseball fans. Some refer to it as the best baseball game ever. It was broadcast live by NBC-TV, but no copy was saved. It was the Yanks playing the Pirates. Eventually, a complete film (5 reels) turned up and you'll never guess where! It was in the former wine cellar of singer Bing Crosby, who was part owner of the Pittsburgh baseball team. Seems that Crosby didn't want to jinx the Pirates luck so he flew to France and hired a production company to kinescope it off air. We don't know why it wasn't videotaped since video tape did exist at that time. The MLB TV Network rebroadcast that game last December, the first time it was ever seen since the game was played.

These stories absolutely reinforce the commitment of Broadcast Pioneers and our Archival Project. If we don’t save it, history will be gone forever!

This regular monthly column is written and researched by Gerry Wilkinson

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com