DuMont Programming Library
DuMont produced more than 20,000 TV episodes during the decade from 1946–1956. Because the shows were created prior to the launch of Ampex's electronic videotape recorder in late 1956, all of them were initially broadcast live in B&W, then recorded on film kinescope for reruns and for West coast rebroadcasts. By the early 1970s, their vast library of 35mm and 16mm kinescopes eventually wound up in the hands of ABC, who reportedly disposed of all of them in New York's East River to make room for more recent-vintage videotapes in a warehouse. Other kinescopes were put through a silver reclaiming process, because of the microscopic amounts of silver that made up the emulsion of B&W film during this time. It's estimated that only about 350 complete DuMont TV shows survive today, the most famous being virtually all of Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners comedy sketches.
Read more about this topic: DuMont Television Network
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