Bear Family DVD's

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 29 Mar 2003 12:11 am

BF is putting out a great line of "At The Town Hall Party" DVD's. These are live performances from that legendary show broadcasted in the late 50's. So far four DVD's have been released: Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Bob Luman. Next in line are The Collins Kids and Marty Robbins ( to be released in May ). Since these are transferred from the old kinescopes ( not film ) the sound and picture quality are not always up to date, but the chance to see these artists in a live performance in their heyday is all worth it. The cast usually features the Town Hall house band; Joe Maphis, Merle Travis, Billy Mize, Skeets McDonald and others. So far there hasn't been much steel featured ( although Billy Mize plays a nice solo on a Luman show ), but BF has rights to around 50-60 shows, so who knows what we get to see. And yes, BF has released them as NTSC- format.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 29 Mar 2003 3:56 am

Marion Hall played her Bigsby on many, many Town Hall Party broadcasts so I'd be she shows up quite a bit on these releases.

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 29 Mar 2003 10:43 am

Yep, that's true! I do want to point out however, that these are totally different shows, than those that have already been released as "Ranch Party". All shows released so far, have been from around -58-59, whereas Ranch Parties were couple of years earlier.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 29 Mar 2003 1:45 pm

Jussi,
Are these in color or b/w like the Ranch Party Shows? And your these complete shows or just individual artist appearances combined on to one DVD?
I have about six hours of the Ranch Party Show on VHS.

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 30 Mar 2003 12:20 am

Alvin, these are b&w. Kinescopes were done by filming the picture directly off of a tv-screen. Back then, it was the only way to save a live tv performance. The kinescoping method is explained more thoroughly in the booklets of these DVD's, so I won't go into that. So far all these releases have been compiled from several different shows to present one artist. Original live THP show ran several hours on Saturdays, not all of it was broadcasted. KTTV-station hired Acme Labs to produce 90 minute kinescopes for rebroadcast the show on Tuesdays. They were also sent to Armed Forces Network for overseas broadcast.