Comments on: Tele-Snaps

Tele-Snaps

feelinglistless — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 06:31:55 -0800

Tele-Snaps: "Operating for 21 years, until 1968, this gifted amateur took considerably in excess of 250,000 still photographs of television programmes as they were being broadcast, perhaps even as many as half a million. He called them Tele-Snaps, the name a literal definition: by the direct method of fixing a 35mm camera to a tripod a short distance from his screen and shooting rolls of film, John Cura photographed entire programmes from the opening titles to the closing credits, creating usually up to 80 stills, sometimes more, as a unique record of a broadcast." One of the results of his hard work can be found here.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 07:16:37 -0800

Wow.

By: briank

briank — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 07:54:38 -0800

Simply incredible. What a great shame that so much of his work appears to be lost. The BBC link demonstrates exactly how well they could have been put to use by broadcast historians.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:09:15 -0800

Fascinating stuff - thanks, feelinglistless. It seems that the Doctor Who clips are the only readily available telesnaps - too bad! Even an e-bay search came up with bupkis for "telesnaps."

By: mrbula

mrbula — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:28:57 -0800

Great link. I wonder if anyone was doing this in other countries.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:35:09 -0800

this is great--thanks! maybe more will show up? newspaper/magazine offices must have some in their archives.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 08:48:11 -0800

And any excuse to sneak a Doctor Who link on the front page is fab by me.

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:27:40 -0800

> ...and an executive had replied, "We're moving forward, Mrs Cura, not backwards." Emily told us she was so upset that she destroyed the lot.' It is funny how little things have changed. >Cura was veritably pixillated by the 1955 arrival of commercial television. '...I have never seen such inane rubbish... Already, when I am forced to look at one, I could cheerfully kick the screen in.' Great link.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 11:09:20 -0800

This is mindblowing. If only just a representative fraction of these were catalogued online ... what a resource! Wow.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 12:36:36 -0800

Great link and story. Hard to believe they were virtually all destroyed. Epitaph: "We're moving forward, not backwards." Bastards.

By: feelinglistless

feelinglistless — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 12:41:59 -0800

It seems that the Doctor Who clips are the only readily available telesnaps But funnily enough even here there are gaps, An episode of Marco Polo isn't around because Cura was off taking pictures of something else that week and no one was contracted to cover him. So there are some episodes which literally only exist as sound tracks now. I think the reason the majority of the snaps available are from Who is because of fan interest -- it's like having a million or so detectives looking in their attics or whereever.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 14:39:31 -0800

What a senseless waste that it's all gone. But what an interesting story, feelinglistless.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:50:43 -0800

Great link. Thanks!