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.

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.

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.

MoonDay !

The upcoming celebration of the 40th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 11 is coming soon. I've been collecting space memorabilia since that time, and would like to share some of it with you. Here is a scan from an original Daily News front page from July 21, 1969, labeled appropriately "Moonday."