The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Matt Ottinger on December 20, 2013, 11:16:31 AM
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I know there are fewer of us that are interested in the really old shows of the 50s and 60s, but for those who are...
In the past few months, somebody's been selling a handful of film prints of game shows. Some are Goodson-Todman stalwarts that have been seen on GSN plenty of times, and Groucho episodes that are easily found in packages, but others are less well-known titles, including a few (like a 1967 Supermarket Sweep) that I don't think are in circulation at any level.
In many cases, it's obvious that the prints are the same episodes that have made their way to collectors in video form, but in some tantalizing cases, it's obvious that they are not. I personally missed out on a "new" episode of Cullen's Bank on the Stars because I was outbid.
And that's the thing. Even the least well-known tends to be pretty expensive since film collectors tend to have deeper pockets. Three-digit prices are standard, and a single episode of The $64,000 Question went for more than $250.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/waly1420/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc Here are the guy's completed listings, to give you an idea of the sorts of things he's been offering. He tends to space them out so that there's no more than a dozen or so up for bids at any time. There are currently seven, including an episode of Dick Clark's early hosting effort The Object Is that I don't think I've seen before.
I just put this out there for your edification and amusement, but certainly if anybody could shed more light about any of this, I'd been very interested.
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Not to mention Say When and Concentration. Holy crap.
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Not to mention Say When and Concentration. Holy crap.
You pointing those out made me go and check, and sure enough, I don't think either of those are in the hands of video collectors. GSN has aired the 1/3/61 debut of Say When, and this one is from Friday of that first week. The Concentration episode is also unique. (The fact that Art James is prominent in both may not be a coincidence.)
BELIEVE me when I say that I understand why some collectors want to keep their collections private and not trade publicly or upload to YouTube. I know, I'm one of them. Still, I have a hard time understanding the appeal of buying canisters of film for more than a hundred bucks per episode only to have them sit on a shelf.
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When did GSN air the premiere of Say When!!? Was it before 1997? That was when I first got it.
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I've been reminded that our mysterious YouTube benefactor "videoarchives1000" has uploaded an Art James episode of Concentration, almost certainly the same one offered on film by this collector. In other words, someone paid over a hundred dollars for a filmed episode of a show that he could watch anytime on YouTube. I just don't get film collecting.
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Is it possible that this film collector and "videoarchives1000" are the same person?
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Is it possible that this film collector and "videoarchives1000" are the same person?
If it is, then he just dropped three figures on a film reel with content he is already in possession of on it.
Doesn't that sound doubly stupid to you?
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I actually meant videoarchives1000 being the seller.
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When did GSN air the premiere of Say When!!? Was it before 1997? That was when I first got it.
I would like to second this question. Really? When?
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Game of the Week time, probably.
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I actually meant videoarchives1000 being the seller.
That's actually a good point. We don't know much about the guy except that he has a lot of rare stuff, and he specifically has this Art James episode of Concentration. I would think once you've got the content saved onto your digital media of choice, you might want to make the extra bucks on selling your film stock to one of those deep-pocketed collectors. Maybe so!
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When did GSN air the premiere of Say When!!? Was it before 1997? That was when I first got it.
I would like to second this question. Really? When?
Me three! I always thought that this show, like "Mindreaders" and "Showoffs" were lost shows in the G/T vault.
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I got bit by the film collecting bug in the mid-60's. Love the hobby. It's a little like record collecting. You may be able to get every song on itunes for a buck, but to a collector, having a original 45 of the same tune at 50 bucks is preferable.
PS, everything I have on 16mm that is game show related, you probably have in your collections.
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I got bit by the film collecting bug in the mid-60's. Love the hobby. It's a little like record collecting. You may be able to get every song on itunes for a buck, but to a collector, having a original 45 of the same tune at 50 bucks is preferable.
PS, everything I have on 16mm that is game show related, you probably have in your collections.
What I find fascinating with the 16mm prints are the original sponsor tags....I always had wondered why the "Bewitched" theme seemed to come to an awkward stop..
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When did GSN air the premiere of Say When!!? Was it before 1997? That was when I first got it.
I would like to second this question. Really? When?
Me three! I always thought that this show, like "Mindreaders" and "Showoffs" were lost shows in the G/T vault.
Hey guys, my bad. I've seen an episode and for some reason had always associated it with other "from the vaults" obscurities like Number, Please and Get the Message Upon further checking, it appears that Say When didn't air on GSN after all. Sorry about that.
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To answer why people pay hundreds of dollars for a film print when they can watch the same content for free, I absolutely agree with Jimmy Owen's comparison to record collecting. For many collectors, owning the *vintage artifact* is just as important as the content. Film collectors enjoy comparing the quality of prints that they own and/or having prized rarities. And for many, setting up the projector to show their collection to friends is just a lot more fun than watching the same thing on a computer.
To take an example much older than "Say When!", anyone with $18 can buy a CD containing Bert Williams' very rare 1901 Victor recordings. But when the original records themselves turn up on Ebay once in a blue moon, collectors with deep pockets are happy to pay figures in the high three digits and beyond. The same goes for Caruso's 1902 Milan records--they're all over Youtube, but when an original 78 is up for auction--especially if it's from an early stamper--watch out!
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I was just thinking about ol' waly not long ago-- I got into a fierce bidding war with him on eBay on more than one occasion for some GS prints... and often won, thankfully. But he's got deep pockets, and if it wasn't for the fact that I had a couple of other guys as backup, he'd have an even larger number of prints deep in the vault.
I wondered if he was ever going to end up letting a few things go-- hope it's just to make room for more nice stuff, and not because he's fallen on hard times.
- Kevin
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I call "first one to post on the new Big Board!"
(Good to see that we made it back for the New Year!!)
- Kevin
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What I find fascinating with the 16mm prints are the original sponsor tags....I always had wondered why the \"Bewitched\" theme seemed to come to an awkward stop..
That's because when the show went to daytime reruns on ABC in 1968, they created that opening using the first season music, and stripped all the sponsor tags out of it. That's the version that's been used on syndicated reruns pretty well ever since, although there was a time in the mid-late '80s where the fifth season music was used on the Dick York color episodes instead. In the mid-'70s you'd see other openings occasionally as well.
There were actually four different musical openings to Bewitched on its network run, plus a few other variations. It's a shame we're prevented from seeing any of them. Luckily some of them exist in the trade circuit.
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There are currently seven, including an episode of Dick Clark's early hosting effort The Object Is that I don't think I've seen before.
What, this (http://www.ebay.com/itm/16mm-Film-The-Object-Is-Game-Show-1964-Dick-Clark-Daytime-/231116951455?pt=US_Film&hash=item35cfa4cf9f&nma=true&si=1S5fi5ndbWesHm%252FpGB%252FgHyRqXzk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557) (Joan Caulfield & Stubby Kaye; Nola vs. Leonard)? That one's been around collectors for a while now, and I got a copy several years ago -- it's the second-to-last episode, from March 26, 1964.