In the “good news / bad news” category comes this notable find: we’ve recently unearthed a complete ILR (in-line recording) of the audio portion of the original 1957 live broadcast of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”, starring Julie Andrews and Jon Cypher!

As I’m sure no one reading has to be told, this broadcast was watched by over 115 million people, and for years was thought to be lost to history, until a somewhat gritty kinescope was uncovered in the late 1990s. All other original elements, including a back-up B&W videotape used for the time-delayed West Coast replay, had been discarded or reused in the intervening years.

Eventually, the kinescope was repaired enough to lead to a home video release in 2004, but as might be expected, serious fans of the work found that although the airy beauty of the material shone just as brightly as the day it was conceived, the present-day presentation was– well, somewhat lacking in comparison. Although allowances could be made for the loss of the original color signal, the video image now had also acquired the flickery, “old movie” look so common to kinescoped broadcasts, and the film soundtrack was muted considerably, in an effort to camoflauge peristent mid- and high-frequency noise and distortion. All in all, a bit of a letdown from what was hoped for.

So, you can imagine our delight at this most recent discovery. As if Edie Adams had waved her hand, half of the problems plaguing the presentation of this epic program were suddenly gone. With a volume and dynamic range that easily surpassed the surviving film soundtrack, a quantum improvement could be achieved through that substitution alone.

But what to do about the picture?

Three words: LiveFeed Video Imaging.

Ever wondered what it would have been like to have at least been able to see the B&W videotape of the broadcast, with its marvelous natural motion and crisp sound? Well, after having done a “quick and dirty” LiveFeed demo on two minutes of the DVD kinescope footage matched to the new soundtrack, I can tell you, it makes a **world** of difference. With a sleek new re-imaging to match its vibrancy of the sound, the show literally comes back to life.

However, as we’ve all learned as adults, not all stories come complete with happy endings… as of this writing, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization has nixed the prospect of any remastering of their current DVD release, leaving a proper restoration of the epic TV spectacular as nothing more than a hazy wish, at best.

But, you never know. As Godmother says: “Impossible things are happening every day”. Perhaps it just takes enough people wishing to make it so.

If you’d like to contact the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization on this topic, you can find their website at:

http://www.rnh.com/org/index.php?page=contactus