1985 Rockin' Eve

Dick Clark was a fixture of New Year's Eve from the 70's through the mid 2000's. The original format were live shots of Dick in Times Square, juxtaposed with a taped Hollywood segment. Other shows tried to emulate his style (including MTV), but there could never be another substitute for the real McCoy. Here is the countdown to 1985 as it was broadcast live.

Year in Review

The end of the year is a busy time for the vistavuelounge video recorders. In years past, nearly all of the networks, along with CNN and MSNBC presented year end specials. Lately, they are few and far between. Most networks would broadcast a short capsulated year end summary at the tail end of the last newscast of the year. Here is a last segment from ABC news which was shown on 12-31-84.

Merry Christmas !

Another yule log on the fire

Judging by the number of views on youtube, vistavuelounge's yule log video is becoming a favorite. Some have posted requests for the show in it's entirety (around two hours). Due to youtube time constraints (along with copyright restrictions), I am presenting only two short segments. Here is part two of the WPIX Yule Log that was broadcast on Christmas Eve over twenty five years ago.

Christmas on the radio

Around this time every year, some of the New York FM radio stations start playing Christmas music around the clock. Years before they went to the "Jack" format, WCBS-FM played a great selection of classic pop and rock Christmas tunes. They even had a short jingle (presented here), mentioning nearly all of the DJs on air that year. After a short hiatus, WCBS station management came back to their senses and put the oldies music back where it belongs (and put the "Jack" music on their HD2 channel). I found this segment on an old cassette tape labeled Christmas Eve, 1985.

Foward Into the Future

The Air Force awarded Grumman a contract to construct two prototypes. Grumman assigned design number 712 to this new configuration, and began the detailed design work. It was conjectural whether this FSW would ever go into production. Just in case, though, Grumman designed hard points into the wing in order to hang various stores. Here is a concept drawing from 1979.



Both Rockwell and Grumman ran competitive advertisements in Aviation Week and Flight International. At this point in time, preliminary design was in an advanced stage.



The X-29A appeared at the Paris Air Show in 1985 as a static display. This ad appeared in Flight International.

FSW Wannabees...

Rockwell's entry in this competition was a brand new aircraft, the Sabrebat. Rockwell had won the previous HIMAT unmanned prototype aircraft contract, and hoped to succeed with this sleek design. The mockup appeared on the cover of Aviation Week.



General Dynamics based their design on an airframe that was already in production. This version of the F-16 had forward swept wings bolted on one of the YF prototypes.
Neither this, nor the Rockwell version made it past the design stage.

Grumman X-29A - 25th Anniversary

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first flight of the Grumman X-29A. In the late 70's, DARPA initiated an industry contest to develop an X-plane to be built with a novel forward swept wing (FSW). The Air Force's Norris Krone wrote his Doctoral thesis on using composites to strengthen wings (especially forward swept wings). His analysis made it possible to build a strong and lightweight aircraft. Bidders in this contest included General Dynamics (with a FSW F-16), and Rockwell (Sabrebat). Grumman won the award, and built two prototypes. The first took off at Edwards Air Force base on December 14, 1984. Here is the CBS coverage of that historic event.

WPIX Yule Log

The story behind this is that sometime during the 60's, a camera crew filmed the Gracie Mansion fireplace in New York (this is the Mayor's residence). For many years, WPIX (Channel 11) broadcast this film, which was basically put on an endless loop. During the 1980's, a sister FM station broadcast a stereo simulcast of Christmas music. The annual yule log show (always on Christmas Eve), was suspended for some time, but is now back (I think with newer footage).
So, from 1984, VistaVueLounge presents the Yule Log!

Crazy Eddie Christmas !

Ok, who remembers this? A fixture around the holidays was Crazy Eddie! He even had a Christmas in July commercial, too ! Crazy Eddie started out with a store in Brooklyn, but ultimately branched out to many locations in the New York tri-state area. I remember buying a Panasonic VCR at his Huntington Station, New York (i.e. Long Island) location. Sadly, due to intense competition (and a federal lawsuit if my memory serves me right) put him out out of business. This gem is from 1983. There have been many since that time....remember the Wiz !

O Christmas Tree !

Ok, I realize that Thanksgiving is today. Stores, though, all have had their Christmas decorations up since the end of Halloween!

Here are two video gems from 1984. The first is the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree. Years before NBC broadcast this event live for the entire nation, the New York flagship station (WNBC) taped it, and showed it an hour later for local viewers. The entertainment was so-so, but that old Rockefeller guy always pushed the red button (sometimes with help from some kids) to light up the tree.

The CNN coverage of the White House Christmas tree lighting is also a classic. Ronnie was at his best. He even stepped aside to let Nancy push the button.

Anyway, Happy Turkey Day!

Crash and Burn

After a short diversionary break, Vista-Vue Lounge is back! Let's take another journey in the way-back time machine to late November, 1984. The engineers at the FAA developed a nifty type of jet fuel that wasn't supposed to explode and burn upon impact (or so they thought). A full scale test was setup using a retired Boeing 720 jetliner. It was fully outfitted with crash test dummies, instrumentation, and probably the ultimate in radio control! A test pilot flew the aircraft remotely (sitting in front of a ground-based simulator), and purposely crashed it. As you can see from these two CBS news reports, the fireball was spectacular, albeit unintended!

Lets Go Mets

Ok, so they didn't do so well this past season, but years ago, they were something. In the fall of 2000, I took my son to his first major league baseball game....the World Series! Everybody was going nuts in New York (how could you tell!) for this subway series. In game 3, the Mets actually won this one against the Yankees.

A Halloween Treat

Let's take another deep-dive into the cavernous VistaVueLounge video vault for another gem from 1986. ABC's Our World presented a classic and award winning episode entitled Halloween: 1938. Here's a description from the book Special Edition A guide to Network Television and Special News Reports, 1980-1989 by Daniel Einstein:

Recalling Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre broadcast of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds on 10/30/38. Featured are interviews with Welles and one of his rapt listeners, Steve Allen. Also examined: the world prepares for war. Emmy winner: Outstanding Individual Achievement (writing: Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf).

Other events covered included the Hurricane of '38, and a prelude to the upcoming war in Europe. This is a great show! Enjoy (and Happy Halloween) !

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

One More Toy !

I remember seeing this commercial over and over again in the late 60's. The toy looked so good on TV, but was somewhat disappointing when you unwrapped it on Christmas day.

Yet More Toys !

I loved this one when I was a kid. Although the commercial shows that it ran well over a carpet, it really didn't. The battery lasted a lot longer if the track was setup over a hard wood floor. This was a great toy!

More Toys !

My friend up the block got this one for Christmas. I loved the sound of the fake engine. He put it on his Schwinn banana seat Stingray bike. I was so jealous!

We want Toys !

During the 60's and 70's, kids were bombarded by toy commercials, especially during the lucrative Saturday morning hours. Some good (and definitely some bad) toys were pitched in between showings of such classic cartoons as Bugs Bunny/Road Runner hour, Johnny Quest, and Space Ghost. The big toy makers were all represented; Mattel, Ideal, Marx, and Remco. Here's a great commercial from that era (I still remember the song) !

Supersonic III

We'll close out this short diversion to the supersonic era that never was, and look at the original Boeing design. In competition with Lockheed, Boeing submitted a winning design that included a massive swing wing. The Boeing 2707-100/200 was revolutionary in all aspects; titanium structure, a powerplant that was capable of propelling the aircraft to Mach 3, and an internal seating arrangement that included onboard television. Here is how the original mockup looked on display, all done up in Boeing house colors.

Unfortunately, the swing wing doomed this design. It made the aircraft way too heavy. As shown in this video, Boeing engineers said the aircraft would fly....only without the added weight of passengers! The following are segments taken from the PBS/Nova episode entitled "Supersonic Spies."

Supersonic II

The supersonic mockup was the highlight of the SST museum, but there were other interesting things on display. Inside the building, there were several glass cases containing scale models built by local modelers. There was even a factory model of the SST in Delta airline livery.

This is a photo taken inside the Boeing SST plant showing the 2707-300 mockup as it was being fabricated. The mockup was complete, but was missing the starboard wing and tail plane.

Another interesting display was one of the original Sea Dart prototypes. How this ended up in Florida, is a mystery to me. I recently saw another nicely restored Sea Dart at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. I'll show a picture of that in a future post.

Supersonic

Speaking of the world of tomorrow, here is something that was promised in our future, but never came to be. In the early '60s, the US embarked on a competition to build a civilian supersonic transport. Both Lockheed and Boeing submitted designs, with the latter being awarded a contract in 1966. The initial design, however was deemed to heavy to fly. A new concept was unveiled, but pressure from environmental groups, and a cutoff of funding from the the US Congress doomed the program (which was cancelled in 1971).

The full scale mockup of the 2707-300 was purchased from Boeing, and was transported to a site in Kissimmee, Florida. A small museum opened with the mockup as its centerpiece, along with other hardware. I visited the museum in the fall of 1980.

Visitors could walk through the entire length of the fuselage and up to the cockpit. All of the seating, and most of the instrumentation, however, was stripped out.


Due to the immense size of the mockup, the tail actually protruded from the roof, and could be seen from the outside.

The Florida museum eventually closed. A portion of the mockup (i.e. the restored nose and cockpit section) is now on display at the Hiller Aviation Museum in California.

The World of Tomorrow

I'd like to close out this short series about the New York Worlds Fair by taking a trip backwards in time to the 1939-40 Fair. My father remembers visiting that fair, which was also located in Flushing Meadows. Highlights included the iconic symbols, Trylon and Perisphere. There have been quite a few documentary films about this fair, but the best one (in my humble opinion) is The World of Tomorrow. This film was first broadcast on PBS (WNET in New York) on November 22, 1984.

Here is the description from TV Guide:

The year 1939 was a good time for dreaming. In "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy escaped her dreary Kansas existence and found herself "somewhere over a Technicolor rainbow." And millions of other Americans visited the New York World's Fair to glimpse a future of peace and prosperity "that was visible for just a moment between the Depression and the war."

Jason Robards narrates this 1984 documentary...which uses archival footage and stills to juxtapose the Fair's rosy predictions with the dark realities of the time. The film covers the exposition from conception through construction, and tours the major attractions, including General Motors' "Futurama."

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6

Souvenirs from the Fair

While taking pictures of the Unisphere, New York State pavilion, and the Hall of Science, I came upon the Queens Musuem which is located in the 1939-40 New York State building. This unique museum contains the Panorama, which is a scale model of the New York City metro area. This exhibit, first shown at the 64 Fair, has been updated over the years as new buildings were added.

The museum shop, however, sold actual souvenirs from both fairs. These items had been donated by various collectors, with proceeds from each sale benefiting the museum. Over time, I purchased a number of items, including the original blue (and pink and tan) fair poster. Another souvenir offered for sale (one I wish I could afford to buy at the time) was a toy model of the giant tire Ferris wheel.

In addition to the posters, I bought a set of NYWF flash cards. Each card had an artist conception picture of major pavilions. A short description of each scene (in multiple languages) was printed on the backside.



There is a neat sculpture that still can be found today in the same place as depicted in this scene.





The Ford exhibit I remember fondly...especially the ride in those brand new cars! Another Disney masterpiece.

Modern Ruins

Of all the remaining structures left over from the NY Worlds Fair, the one that is in the poorest condition is the New York State exhibit. When it opened, the pavilion looked like something out of the Jetsons'. The twin observation towers (predominately featured in the Men In Black movie) gave visitors commanding views of the fair grounds, and the New York City skyline. Nearby exhibits included Unisphere, the old New York State building from the 1939-40 fair, and the Federal pavilion.

Today, the elevators on the observation towers are frozen in place. The multicolored roof is long gone. Giant portions of Texaco map of New York on the ground floor are missing. The structure is in a bad state of neglect. I hope that the city will someday restore this wonderful "ruin" to it's former glory.

The Triumph of Man

Although I don't specifically remember going to this pavilion, Travelers Insurance presented a Disneyesque history of man from ancient times to present day (i.e. 1964). To commemorate your visit, Travelers presented each guest with a 7" red vinyl record. The pictures shown in the two videos below are from the fold-out record sleeve. This audio recording is in the typical wide-eyed wonder, early-60's style.

Poster Day II

Walt Disney saw an excellent opportunity to showcase his company's talents by participating in the '64-'65 New York Worlds Fair. An excellent documentary, first shown on the weekly Disney show, and later available in a boxed DVD set, detailed his involvement in four key exhibits.

While viewing this documentary, entitled Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair, I noticed two large Worlds Fair posters displayed behind Walt as he did the introduction to the segment. Several years ago, I had purchased the blue NYWF poster at the Queens Museum shop located at the former fairground. The other poster, however, I had never seen before. Since I had a keen interest in this stuff (and could not find an original poster for sale), I created a copy of it using Adobe Illustrator. For your viewing pleasure, here is a still from the Disney show, along with the two posters that were displayed in Walt's office.

64-65 NYWF: A Retrospective

The Bill Moyers' series A Walk Through the 20th Century featured a good epsiode devoted to various world fairs, and in particular the 64-65 New York fair. This short-lived series lasted only one season (1984-85), but like Our World, was well written and produced. The segment presented here is limited to the 64 show with classic archival footage, along with the fair aftermath. Some of the sites shown at the end have been cleaned up, with the exception, sadly, being the New York State Pavillion.

Come to the Fair!

It's time to shift gears (and topics) a bit. This year celebrates the 45th anniversary of season #1 of the 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair. As in previous World Fairs, an architectural icon was chosen as the official symbol. Peace through Understanding was it's theme. United States Steel constructed a huge model of the Earth, calling it Unisphere. Each land mass was represented, along with three concentric rings that appeared to float in air. This well-designed structure was placed atop a unique pedestal, and is located near to what is now known as the Queens Museum. Here is a stylized version that was used as the fair logo.

A few years ago, I visited the Flushing Meadows park in Queens to take some photos of the remaining fair structures. The Unisphere was refurbished in 1996 and looked very good. The New York State pavillion (the one with the Texaco map on the floor) was in a poor state of repair. I'll post more pictures of that on a later blog.
Here in its restored glory is Unisphere as it stands today.

In Their Memory...

The Summer of '69

We've lost quite a few famous folk this summer...Ed McMahon, Walter Cronkite, Don Hewitt, and now Ted Kennedy. All played an important part in the halcyon days prior the start of the '70s (I refer to that time as the "lost decade"). As we come towards the end of another summer, this is a good opportunity to reflect on things and past events...so why not 1969!

In 1986, ABC was up against stiff competition on Thursday nights. The Cosby Show was so far ahead in the ratings. No other show could stop it. ABC offered a sacrificial lamb by creating a new and novel show...Our World. This wonderfully produced and edited show was a low-cost vehicle, using ABC News footage and video. Here's how the book Special Edition described it:

The concept of Our World was a simple one. Each broadcast would recall a significant moment in history (a day, a week, a month, a season) and would bring to the screen the challenges, textures, and lifestyles of a era passed. It would describe events with carefully chosen archival images and interviews with witnesses and place them all into a current perspective and context. The series would encompass every facet of American life, including politics, technology, music, business, fashion, sports, science, and art.

The show was written and hosted by veterans Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf. It was widely hailed by critics, but unfortunately lasted only a single season. Since I was not a fan of Cosby, I taped and watched every single episode.

The episode presented here (without the commercials...except for the very end) is the premiere. It was broadcast by ABC on September 25, 1986. Here is the show description (from Special Edition):

THE SUMMER OF '69
Recalling the flight of Apollo 11 and man's first walk on the moon; the Woodstock rock festival; the Vietnam War divides the nation; the "amazin" New York Mets win the World Series; Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick; the Manson Family murder case; the death and funeral of Judy Garland.

Part 1 (great use of period music):



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



Part 5:



Part 6:



Part 7:




I'll be away for a few days, enjoying the last gasp of the summer of 2009. See you sometime next week!

CBS Apollo 11 Coverage Revisted

Last month, I posted a short video of the introduction portion of the CBS news Apollo 11 coverage. I received a wonderful comment for that post, and I'd like to return the complement.

Please visit the website http://jaimemendozanava.webs.com/.

It is an excellent biography of a prolific writer and producer of many memorable classic television show themes (especially those of us of my generation that can easily remember and relate to these songs). All of the classic Apollo coverage intros were written and created by this talented man. The website is a great tribute!

In return, I'd like to share all of my existing CBS Apollo 11 intro segments. The first is the intro to the Man on The Moon/CBS News Collectors series from 1981:



Next is the 1989 release "Celebrate Man on the Moon, with Walter Cronkite":



Here is the Nova Special "25 Years In Space" intro:



And lastly, the intro from "In the Shadow of the Moon":

Woodstock Revisited

Here's another segment from the massive VistaVueLounge video vault. Dateline NBC broadcast this episode on August 9, 1994, devoted to a less-known background story about the original festival. This episode predates Woodstock II, which occurred a few days later.

As seen twenty years ago...Faces Of Woodstock

When I started this blog, I had no intention of making it a total homage to Apollo 11. My theme for VistaVueLounge is to cover everything between, and including air and space. I will come back to Apollo, but there are so many other interesting things and topics to cover.

Another big 1969 event was the concert at Bethel, NY, known the world over as Woodstock. Like Apollo, each succeeding 5-10-15-20, etc. year anniversary celebration were widely covered by the media. From the VistaVueLounge video vault, I present for your viewing pleasure a 20/20 episode that was originally broadcast on August 4, 1989. Due to YouTube constraints on running time, it is split into two parts. Yes, the 60's were wild, but check out those 80's hair styles!

Part 1:



Part 2:

The Back Page

The Newseum in Washington DC had a recent exhibit of man on the moon headlines from around the world. Most of the major daily newspapers around that time published multiple editions throughout the day. Some of these front pages changed radically. Walter Cronkite held up an early edition of the New York Times (dated 7/21/69) that was completely different than the later "final" edition which ended up in the archives. This edition had no pictures taken off of the video feed, but rather the standard group shot of the crew. The Daily News edition shown at the Newseum also differs in the cover photo (compared to the final edition that was published).

Every Apollo 11 newspaper retrospective I've seen show only the front page, but never the back page! But what did the back page look like? Normally the Daily News and New York Post relegate the sports coverage to this section, but for moonday, they tried something new. Here is the Daily News version:

Sunday Morning Tribute

A few weekends ago, CBS Sunday Morning did a nice tribute, both to the man (Walter Cronkite), and the mission (Apollo 11). This nicely edited piece has the normal stock footage that you normally see, as well as some choice video and audio highlights from the coverage. As I mentioned in previous posts, I wish that CBS could release more of the "as it happened" video, as did ABC did many years ago. The bits and pieces that appear on youtube are tantalizing. The portions that I did view at the Paley Media Center are in excellent shape. CBS video was recently used in the NASA restoration project of the moonwalk coverage (due to be released sometime this fall). The source material has been well preserved.



I'm out on vacation for a few days. I'll check back in sometime next week.

Major Matt Mason

Most boys my age played with "real men" dolls....GI Joe and Major Matt Mason. I had Matt and his space sled, but alas, not the complete moon station. A few years back, the Cradle of Aviation museum located near Roosevelt Field in Long Island had a neat exhibition of space toys. The toys spanned many eras, from Sputnik to Star Wars. Matt and his moon station had his own display case. Here is a classic comic ad that was shown in the exhibition.

A classic Major Matt commercial

Apollo 11 Cover

After the astronauts returned home, NASA unpacked their bags, put the moon rocks in a safe place, and developed the film. The images taken with the Hasselblad camera are legendary. Newsweek, Time, Look and Life magazines all ran special editions showing off the best shots. The "money shot" is on the cover.



Newsweek also had a plain advertisement for the famous Hasselblad. If you get the chance, go check out the original hardware in the National Air and Space Museum.

As seen twenty years ago....The Lunar Module Eagle

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11, Grumman Aerospace Corporation created a short video entitled "The Lunar Module Eagle". This film, produced in cooperation with the National Air and Space Museum, was first broadcast on a local Long Island, NY cable channel (Cablevision). The film eventually became part of the lunar module exhibit located in gallery 112 (National Mall Museum) and has played endlessly for many years.

Highlights include a few animated sequences which appeared during the ABC coverage of the moon landing.

Here is the film in it's entirety. There are a few spots of analog interference.

ABC Radio ~ Apollo 11 Splashdown

The flight of Apollo 11 spawned an entire cottage industry of commemorative LP records. CBS issued an LP (similar to what they did with the '68. '69 and '70 year in review albums) and a 7" record (33 1/3 rpm). Metromedia and others did too, with audio highlights of their respective news coverage. ABC Radio released an album and small hardcover book that showcased their network broadcast. Here's a small snippet from the tail end of side B. The splashdown description is followed by a summary (along with Nixon's "life on other worlds speech" !) and hopeful words about the future of manned space exploration...done in that wonderful late 60's style.

Since I couldn't load an audio file directly to the site, I encapsulated the audio within a static video. Next time I do this, I promise that I'll make it more fancy!

Poster Day I

I've created a number of fan-art related posters, and would like to share one with you. In my collection is a sheet of the moon landing stamp (Scott C76) issued in September, 1969. This commemorative is a classic design, and featured prominently in the Smithsonian Postal Museum exhibit Stamps Take Flight. I'll have more to say about that exhibition (which closed in 2006) in a future post. The artwork at the top is the official Apollo 40th anniversary logo that NASA released earlier this year.

Apollo 11 Splashdown

TV viewers couldn't see the actual splashdown as it happened. The recovery of the astronauts (with their biological garments in place) could be seen via a well placed TV camera onboard the helicopter. After they were flown to the Hornet, the astronauts went directly into an isolation trailer (it looked like an Airstream). President Nixon greeted them in person. This magical adventure came to an end, but there were six more Apollo missions yet to be flown.

An Ugly (but Beautiful) Spacecraft

At this point in the mission, the astronauts were preparing for their re-entry to earth.
It was during this period that Volkswagen ran a very popular ad comparing the Beetle with the Lunar Module. It was a very good analogy; The LM looks almost bug-like in appearance.

Apollo 11 Inward Bound

All three astronauts are back in the Command Module, and are coasting to the home planet. Here's an interesting article from the Daily News. Nixon believed that we would find life on other worlds before the end of the (20th) century!

Apollo Linkup

The journey going to the moon was exciting and hair-raising; the trip home was even more so. The ascent engine on the Lunar Module had to work perfectly, and it performed well. Armstrong and Aldrin were reunited with Mike Collins in the Command Module. The Lunar Module was jettisoned, ultimately headed for impact with the moon's surface. The voyage home had begun.



There were quite a few TV specials on last night celebrating the moon landing. The History Channel showed a short 30 minute segment entitled "Live from '69." It had some Wally-to-Wally coverage, but it was far too short. The only segments I hadn't seen before were the Disneyland and Central Park remote segments, and some intros. I wish that they could have shown a lot more. When I was at the Paley Media Center last week, the library catalog had quite a few recordings (liftoff, moon walk, and splashdown) of this coverage (possibly in excess of 8 hours).

Check out the CBS News website for the video "1969, The Epic Journey," which appears to be a 49 minute summary of the mission that Cronkite narrated (and broadcast after Apollo 11 had splashed down).

10:56:20 PM EDT, July 20, 1969

Like millions of others, I watched this on a black and white Zenith 17" TV, with rabbit ears. These images have stayed with me since that time.

Uncle Walter 1916-2009

CBS Apollo 11 Exhibit

There is a limited time exhibit at the Paley Center for Media in New York City, located on 52nd street (near 5th Avenue) entitled "Apollo 11: Forty Years Later."

http://www.paleycenter.org/apollo-11-forty-years-later

The exhibit is within the Spielberg Gallery (ground floor). There are multiple poster panels depicting scenes from the CBS Apollo 11 coverage from launch to landing. The still shots are from the famous CBS book, "10:56:20PM 72069."



Cameras are not permitted in the gallery, but I snuck in my iPhone to take a few pictures. Here's a shot of the panel depicting the liftoff sequence:

Here's a better view of the filmstrip from the Paley site:

In addition, there are four monitor displays showing the following:

"The Moon Above, The Earth Below," CBS News 1989
"Man on the Moon," CBS News Special 1989
"From the Earth to the Moon: "Mare Tranquiltatis," HBO 1998
"Moon Shot," Turner Productions 1994

See this exhibit before it closes!

Launch Day !

On July 16, 1969, at precisely 9:32am EDT, the Greatest Adventure began!

A still photo from the CBS launch coverage two minutes before launch.

Searching for the Big Rocket

In 1969, Revell Models released a huge 1/96 scale Apollo-Saturn V stack. Earlier that year, I mailed in a request to Revell for a catalog, and a copy of the assembly instructions. Unfortunately, I could not afford the $12 (which is equivalent to around $97 today) and buy this rocket model at the time. I remember passing by a shelf full of these models at the local Bradlees department store.

As you can see, I checked off all the other great spacecraft models that I built. Most ended up hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom. The only Saturn V model that I was able to afford was the 1/144 scale Monogram version. I always considered this one to be a poor imitator!

Years later (and more precisely in 1982), Revell issued their History Makers kits. Happily, the original Saturn V model was made available again. Revell Germany re-released it in 1994 in celebration of the 25th moon landing anniversary. More recently, at a local hobby shop, I stumbled upon a near mint-in-box unbuilt kit, with original instructions, decals, and a mail-in coupon for the Moonlighter record. I now have a complete set!

CBS Apollo 11 Coverage

Over the years, I've collected bits and pieces of the US networks' coverage (i.e. CBS, NBC, and ABC) of the Apollo 11 mission. There have been a few compilations re-broadcast over the last two decades, the 20th anniversary being the most prominent. CBS has released two separate versions of these on VHS tape (and CED and Laservision disk). The first was issued around 1981, and the second in 1989. The former has also been recently found in DVD format. In 1994, ABC sold a condensed 6-hour VHS set of their coverage. A&E broadcast some of the NBC coverage back in 1989.

Many years ago, I saw the original CBS moonwalk coverage at the Museum of Television and Radio (now Paley Center for Media) in New York. I hope someday CBS will release the entire coverage for nuts like me who would gladly purchase it!

The video segment shown below is the introduction portion of the CBS coverage prior to launch and is reconstructed from two sources. The bulk is from a PBS NOVA segment "Twenty-Five Years in Space," originally shown 12/06/1983. A portion of the sound is from the CBS CED disc "Man on the Moon." Two years after I created this edit, I stumbled on the missing commercial interstitial from Kellogg which appeared in the DVD release of "In the Shadow of the Moon." Unfortunately, that short segment is not included here.

Lunar Module

The 4th of July weekend is over, and it's back to reality! Today's post is a a graphic from the Cradle of Aviation Museum located in Garden City, NY. This wonderful museum has a great selection of memorabilia and hardware showcasing the history of Long Island aviation. A must-see is the restored Lunar Module. This poster is a good cutaway of the the ascent and descent stages.

Dreams

Here's a clipping I've kept from the Daily News dated 7/25/69. Like many kids from my generation, I was very inspired by this, and every subsequent moon landing. It shaped my education and career path and led me to an engineering profession within the aerospace field. I wish that the current generation had a seminal event like this to shape their future course in life.