Bing Crosby, Television Sports Preservationist 148
Hugh Pickens submits news first gleaned from a now-paywalled article at the New York Times (and, happily, widely reported) that "The hunt for a copy of the seventh and deciding game of the 1960 World Series, considered one of the greatest games ever played and long believed to be lost forever, has come to an end in the home of Bing Crosby, a canny preservationist of his own legacy, who kept a half-century's worth of records, tapes and films in the wine cellar turned vault in his Hillsborough, California home. Crosby loved baseball, but as a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates he was too nervous to watch the Series against the Yankees, so he and his wife went to Paris, where they listened by radio. Crosby knew he would want to watch the game later — if his Pirates won — so he hired a company to record Game 7 by kinescope, an early relative of the DVR, filming off a television monitor. The five-reel set, found in December in Crosby's home, is the only known complete copy of the game, in which Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a game-ending home run to beat the Yankees, 10-9."
Re:He could sing (Score:2, Informative)
Thanks for mentioning Scorsese. Besides working to preserve old films through his Film Foundation [film-foundation.org] and as the DGA representative to the National Film Preservation Board [loc.gov]), he has spoken eloquently and often on such evils as "pan-and-scan" and time compression, and how profoundly they can alter a director's work. I have great respect for that man.
Re:Now, (Score:5, Informative)
Bing Crosby deserves recognition for his place in history as the investor that stepped in with a $50,000 investment in Ampex Corporation [wikipedia.org] for development of the reel to reel tape recorder. Ampex was a small company with six employees prior to that. During WWII Germany developed wire recorders with improved quality as a result of a high frequency (above audio range) signal added to the record current. That overcame non-linear magnetic behavior greatly reducing distortion.
Ampex used the same A.C. bias current technique with magnetic tape, and Bing Crosby was a major influence in the quick adoption by broadcasters.
article not paywalled (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Now, (Score:4, Informative)
For more on Crosby, Alexander Poniatoff and the invention of video tape recording: Agents of Change, [americanheritage.com] The Race To Video / How Bing Crosby Brought You Audiotape [americanheritage.com]
Re:Any World Series where ther Yankees lose (Score:4, Informative)
Despite rumors to the contrary, Toronto is not part of the USA, and they have some sort of baseball team there [wikipedia.org].