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The Answer To A Chicken & Egg Question On Video Tape…

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

The Answer To A Chicken & Egg Question On Video Tape…

As I wrote and posted these 3M stories on video tape’s development, I kept wondering how Ampex could develop their machines if 3M only joined the party the day before the debut. If 3M didn’t make videotape before the debut, then who did?

Here’s the answer…Reeves Sound Craft, headed by none other than Hazard Reeves. Most of us know the Reeves name from Reeves Teletape, but he has an amazing background that we’ll look at tomorrow.

As for the videotape, I think Reeves had a plant in Connecticut that began making audio tape in 1950. Remember, RCA was also working on videotape and in the photo below, we see Reeves with RCA’s David Sarnoff and a reel of his videotape. I think this photo is from around 1953. If you have a Hazard Reeves story, let us know! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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3 responses to “The Answer To A Chicken & Egg Question On Video Tape…”

  1. Dwight Sturtevant

    The Good Old Days at Lincoln Center

  2. Dennis Degan

    I don’t have a Hazard Reeves story, except that I worked at R/T for 6 & 1/2 years. Much of that time was spent in the Beaux Arts School of Design Building at 304 E. 44th Street in New York that Reeves bought in 1947, where so much audio and video history was made. This was ground zero for Reeves’ pioneering audio work, where mag-sync sound was invented; where Cinerama films’ sound was mixed, and where Reeves’ color videotape services were utilized by all the networks in the late 50’s and into the ’60’s. RCA’s Broadcast News did several articles on Reeves’ Television Tape facility on the 2nd floor of the Beaux Arts Building. I worked on that same floor 1979-85 when R/T had their VTR room there in the same space. Here is one of those articles:
    http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-RCA-Broadcast-News-IDX/60s/RCA-Issue-110-Page-0026.pdf#search=%22reeves%22
    http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-RCA-Broadcast-News-IDX/60s/RCA-Issue-110-Page-0027.pdf#search=%22reeves%22

  3. James M Patterson

    Just a guess on my part, but wasn’t audio tape made in wide spools that were cut down or slit to 1/4″ width? I believe when the quad head machines were developed the tape formulation would have been changed to orient the ferrite material on the tape for optimum results – but, my question is, was the first 2″ video tape just a batch of audio tape cut to a 2″ width?

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