I was not yet 5 on New Year's Eve in 1957, yet this scene has set a presidence for me for all the New Year's Eves to follow. Many a time I was among the maddening throng in Times Square to experience first hand what I had seen on television in my youth to wish in the coming year...and each year I still shed a few tears to the tune of Guy Lombardo's Auld Lang Syne. Thanks to Guy Lombardo, The Grill Room @ The Roosevelt, Times Square, The City of New York and those wonderful people at Clairol.
My parents were very religious Southern country folk...no drinking,smoking, dancing....yet we watched this "religiously" every year. Perhaps it allowed the to join in the revelry vicariously without the guilt....hmmmmm. Great nostalgia clip!!!
Bob Trout anchored numerous election nights for CBS Radio (through the 1970's), and was also first to report on the air that World War II had officially ended.
I wasent even born until 1967 but it's still interesting to watch a new year ball drop before my time. this was the year that Micheal Jackson was born , it's really weird because he wasent born yet when this was being filmed , just think he was born sometime during that year and he already lived and died.
stumbled upon this vid from a search for Guy Lombardo's "Enjoy Your life" I love these vintage videos. I was born in the 70s but for some strange reason I relate to all this older stuff that has long been forgotten about in the modern mainstream media (Britney Spears anyone?) Perhaps I'm an old soul reincarnated who knows :) Thanks for this one.
When did live TV began anyway? TV began "live" as Btty White recently explained, because they didn't know how to tape anyting. The kinescopes, such as this one, saved a few old programs, but many momre which destroyed or discarded. Saturday Night Live debut in 1975 was actually a return to live TV that had not been around for a while.
I have such fond memories of this, thanks for posting! I was 11 in 1958, and my family and loads of friends were crammed into my aunt's apt. every year for New Year's Eve, watching the old b&w TV and Guy Lombardo. I miss all of them, and miss those days! Happy New Year everyone . . . PEACE.
I think the only time Guy Lombardo's New year's Eve show showed something on tape was in 1962.
I'm not 100% certain, as it was "before my time", but I thought that the December 31, 1962 show featured a taped segment on the arrival of 1963 in London, narrated/counted down by Alexander Kendrick (then CBS News chief forgien correspondent), fed by the newly-launched Telstar satellite, and recorded in New York for broadcast during the early part of the Lombardo show.
At five years old, this was the first New Year's Eve I was allowed to remain up with the family at a party at my Grandparents' home. I can still remember standing near the television set and lighted Christmas tree in my grandparents' sun palor. I began to cry upon hearing Auld Lang Sine as it just sounded so sad to me. My grandfather passed away suddenly just days into the New Year. I have cried to this song every New Year's Eve for more than 50+ years.
You're probably referring to Guy's syndicated half-hour 1954-'56 syndicated series, 'KKD'. That ended when Guy and his Royal Canadians took a gamble by doing a live musical/"giveaway" show, "GUY LOMBARDO'S DIAMOND JUBILEE" (honoring enduring married couples) on CBS' Tuesday night schedule in the spring of '56; that lasted about 13 weeks.
These were the best years out country would ever enjoy--we were in the midst of the great postwar prosperity which would be destroyed by the Great Society and the inflation of the 1970's.
And what about the Great Society? I'm a recipient of both Medicare and COLA--but we were better off when we had multi-colored cars with tail-fins and chrome and everything we bought had "Made in America" on it. The productive, thriving, prosperous economy of 50 years ago will never exist again.
Living in fear of a Russian nuclear attack? No one on drugs except for the sleeping pills, alcohol and cigarettes? No one minded being repressed except perhaps the homosexuals who had to remain in the closet living a lie, or who committed suicide out of shame? The only people of color we saw in movies or TV were portrayed as a train conductor, a maid, a criminal, or a shoe-shine boy. Great days!
WTF? jajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja what a lame ass year thank GOD i live in the modern times HAPPY NEW year 2010 !!!!!!!
from LOS ANGELES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
People in '57/'58 drove cars with tail-fins and chrome, painted in three different colors. I was in high school and we received an education that didn't require remediation before we could take up college courses. Then we had jobs that lasted 30-40 years and retirements with pensions. We could tell the rest of the world to go to hell and it couldn't do anything about it.
This, my friends, also led to "New Year's Eve with Carson Daly" which started about 2002... I think? Literally... You gotta thank Mr. Guy Lombardo ringin in 1958 and for being the predecessors of Dick Clark and Carson Daly every New Year's Rockin Eve!
Wasn't almost all TV "live" back then? Even programs, soaps, ads, were all live..reruns and tape were almost unheard of til the 60s or 70s. That's what I thought, anyway.
I'd like to see Hugh Pierson bring the Guy Lombardo orchestra back to TV next New Year's Eve. I don't think Dick Clark will make it to this New Year's Eve...that stroke really did him in.
Guy's traditional New Years Eve gala began in 1929 - during radio's heyday - from the Roosevelt Grille. They eventually moved to the Waldorf Astoria.
Evidently there was no announcer for this broadcast, since Guy had the responsibility of plugging the sponsor. In all, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra was a 50 year tradition on New Years Eve.
The poster says television was primitive 50 years ago. I find it primitive now! Imporoved technology never meant improved quality. New Years Eve means nothing at all since Mr. Lombardo split the scene.
And, I did work for his band briefly (he died and that ended the gig).
From the mid to the late 1960's, Mr. Lombardo's New Year's Eve specials were telecast over ABC (ironic, given that network would later be the home of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" which ultimately reduced Mr. Lombardo's get-togethers to irrelevancy. Speaking of "New Year's Rockin' Eve," the inaugural 1972 special - with Three Dog Night as hosts - actually ran on NBC (I.I.N.M., its first ABC telecast was 1974).
Lombardo was a fixture for many years on TV at New Years. It was great in person...and I was at a few of them including this 1957 show from the Hotel Roosevelt in NYC
I'm sure I had been sent to bed. I was 10. But I'm sure I heard this, as my parents were real Guy Lombardo fans. At 46 and 42 then they were older than most of my friends' parents. They faithfully watched his TV show, which was on roughly at supper time on a weeknight, possibly Friday, here in NY. It's possible that THESE shows were filmed for broadcast. Thanks, Kerry.
The New Years Eve shows were all live. But yes, several years ago I saw a couple of filmed shows that they made for television. Much higher production values and scripted.
Guy Lombardo was a class act, and New Years Eve celebrations on TV had a certain class as well, not at all similar to today's version of what is called "culture"
It was definately live. I remember seeing it on TV back then. (They certainly couldn't assemble thousands of people in Times Sq a few nights before Dec 31 to be filmed.) When TV first appeared, it was ALL live. Eventually they showed film and later videotape events.
If anything, Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve uses all tape for their California segments. The only Live part is from New York. So the Guy Lombardo New Years was all live. Thanks for watching!
@caa1000 Yeah, it was live. Guy Lombardo had been doing these broadcasts since 1928, first on radio, then TV, continuing until his death in 1977. Lombardo was who made the Times Square event famous.
Thanks! This was very enjoyable. I loved seeing the Foxtroting guests and I do remember Henry Morgan....I was 9 in 57 and I'll bet I watched this on TV with my parents...Top Hat and Tails...nothing better! Again thanks for sharing and preserving this historical footage!
The shameless plugs for "Clarol" are embarresing lol.
mrpontyboi 14 hours ago
This was our culture. Some people didn't like it.
edshaw4947927 1 month ago
life is ugly, cold and scary today.
JORDANWASAGEM 1 month ago
"Blowing horns, every conceivable kind of horn" lol
Tomocide 1 month ago
Those were innocent times back then and Guy Lombardo died in 1977 not 1976 just a typo. Thanks for the post it was 8 years before I was born.
1968DodgePolara 2 months ago
Haha, everything looked classy. Everything now is all "weird". I can't think of the word.
SpartanForgeWorld300 2 months ago
Wow, I thought videos didn't have sound back then :/
KeydoGirl 2 months ago
They say that only 25 % of all those people are still alive today!
GeoStrum3 2 months ago
@GeoStrum3 Interesting statistic.
SmelOdies 2 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I was not yet 5 on New Year's Eve in 1957, yet this scene has set a presidence for me for all the New Year's Eves to follow. Many a time I was among the maddening throng in Times Square to experience first hand what I had seen on television in my youth to wish in the coming year...and each year I still shed a few tears to the tune of Guy Lombardo's Auld Lang Syne. Thanks to Guy Lombardo, The Grill Room @ The Roosevelt, Times Square, The City of New York and those wonderful people at Clairol.
Fiftiesflashback 2 months ago
Comment removed
Fiftiesflashback 2 months ago
My parents were very religious Southern country folk...no drinking,smoking, dancing....yet we watched this "religiously" every year. Perhaps it allowed the to join in the revelry vicariously without the guilt....hmmmmm. Great nostalgia clip!!!
dustydigits1 2 months ago
Lmao. Wackest new years ever like go to the 80's nd up then its a party
mrclutch88 3 months ago
I was 7 years old and my parents let me stay up for this, I remember it well I was dancing with my dad :)
KIZERVONZINGER 3 months ago
Bob Trout anchored numerous election nights for CBS Radio (through the 1970's), and was also first to report on the air that World War II had officially ended.
altfactor 4 months ago
i was born in 1980 it was really cool to see this video of old thanks for the moment into a window of time when life was simple and grand
MrSimplejack09 4 months ago
I wasent even born until 1967 but it's still interesting to watch a new year ball drop before my time. this was the year that Micheal Jackson was born , it's really weird because he wasent born yet when this was being filmed , just think he was born sometime during that year and he already lived and died.
formerbritneyfan 4 months ago
Everybody in this room is dead.
chalklounge 5 months ago in playlist New Year's Eve
That video is like opening a time capsule, the beautiful days of a bygone era.
franklindavid 6 months ago
stumbled upon this vid from a search for Guy Lombardo's "Enjoy Your life" I love these vintage videos. I was born in the 70s but for some strange reason I relate to all this older stuff that has long been forgotten about in the modern mainstream media (Britney Spears anyone?) Perhaps I'm an old soul reincarnated who knows :) Thanks for this one.
MississippiBryo 7 months ago
U cant see there faces:/
susiegupton46 7 months ago
My dad was born in '57. :)
TwilightSylvestris 10 months ago
Comment removed
TwilightSylvestris 10 months ago
ew this is oo old,and is that how they celebrated in the 50's?Im so glad i was born in the 90's
roundedother2 1 year ago
Somehow New Year's Eve has never been the same since his passing. What a great generation.
Brookside975 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
When did live TV began anyway? TV began "live" as Btty White recently explained, because they didn't know how to tape anyting. The kinescopes, such as this one, saved a few old programs, but many momre which destroyed or discarded. Saturday Night Live debut in 1975 was actually a return to live TV that had not been around for a while.
irmavep2 1 year ago
oh man, guy lombardo on new years eve has character. i never watch rockin new years eve... Boring!!!! wish we had guy back to do it every year...
18Sheababy 1 year ago
I have such fond memories of this, thanks for posting! I was 11 in 1958, and my family and loads of friends were crammed into my aunt's apt. every year for New Year's Eve, watching the old b&w TV and Guy Lombardo. I miss all of them, and miss those days! Happy New Year everyone . . . PEACE.
felinesarebest 1 year ago
I was 1 month old.
Say, Somebody Peg that minute hand for a while Would ya ?
ozgood1x 1 year ago
I think the only time Guy Lombardo's New year's Eve show showed something on tape was in 1962.
I'm not 100% certain, as it was "before my time", but I thought that the December 31, 1962 show featured a taped segment on the arrival of 1963 in London, narrated/counted down by Alexander Kendrick (then CBS News chief forgien correspondent), fed by the newly-launched Telstar satellite, and recorded in New York for broadcast during the early part of the Lombardo show.
altfactor 1 year ago
At five years old, this was the first New Year's Eve I was allowed to remain up with the family at a party at my Grandparents' home. I can still remember standing near the television set and lighted Christmas tree in my grandparents' sun palor. I began to cry upon hearing Auld Lang Sine as it just sounded so sad to me. My grandfather passed away suddenly just days into the New Year. I have cried to this song every New Year's Eve for more than 50+ years.
Fiftiesflashback 1 year ago
back then every white mans voice sounded the same
jamalload 1 year ago
You're probably referring to Guy's syndicated half-hour 1954-'56 syndicated series, 'KKD'. That ended when Guy and his Royal Canadians took a gamble by doing a live musical/"giveaway" show, "GUY LOMBARDO'S DIAMOND JUBILEE" (honoring enduring married couples) on CBS' Tuesday night schedule in the spring of '56; that lasted about 13 weeks.
fromthesidelines 1 year ago
why aint there no niggaz in the audience?
cast390 1 year ago
Micheal Jackson was born this year and so was Shaun Cassidy.
wetone2008 2 years ago
My dad was two months old then. Now he's 52.
brwhizz 2 years ago
LOL Firecrackers going off in the crowd but they don't care!
bwitz72 2 years ago
Hm.. I guess without computerized timing, the synch of the ball hitting the roof with the lighting of "1958" was a bit too much to ask for
bwitz72 2 years ago
This is fantastic ! My DAD played with Guy
from 1954 until 1958. If you look real close
you can even see him. Thanks Dad ! for
sharing some of the greatest music EVER
What could be better than listening to.
" THE GREATEST MUSIC THIS SIDE OF
HEAVEN" Johnny Mildner
knightsbb 2 years ago 2
Thank you Johnny for posting about your Dad. Always a pleasure to hear from the families of all the famous Bandsmen.
I was born the year before your Dad started with the Guy,and have been a dedicated fan for over 45 years in Aus..
Keep well and take care :-)
Regards
Noel.
Melbourne. Australia.
NoelGuyALfan 2 years ago
These were the best years out country would ever enjoy--we were in the midst of the great postwar prosperity which would be destroyed by the Great Society and the inflation of the 1970's.
VictrolaJazz 2 years ago
And what about the Great Society did you object to: Medicare? The COLA increase for Social Security recipients?
Marc001 2 years ago
And what about the Great Society? I'm a recipient of both Medicare and COLA--but we were better off when we had multi-colored cars with tail-fins and chrome and everything we bought had "Made in America" on it. The productive, thriving, prosperous economy of 50 years ago will never exist again.
VictrolaJazz 2 years ago
Right, and every one was conformist and repressed and only white folks had civil rights.
SirCecilSeltzer 2 years ago
Sounds good to me! Back then I never knew anyone who didn't have a comfortable home, no one on drugs or with STD's. Repression wasn't bad at all.
VictrolaJazz 2 years ago 2
Living in fear of a Russian nuclear attack? No one on drugs except for the sleeping pills, alcohol and cigarettes? No one minded being repressed except perhaps the homosexuals who had to remain in the closet living a lie, or who committed suicide out of shame? The only people of color we saw in movies or TV were portrayed as a train conductor, a maid, a criminal, or a shoe-shine boy. Great days!
SirCecilSeltzer 2 years ago 2
"A NY TImes electrician consults his watch." Ha ha.
SirCecilSeltzer 2 years ago
Wow, this is really great. New Years Eve just isnt the same without Guy and his original rendition of Auld Lang Syne. Thanks for sharing.
hammondplayer1 2 years ago
WTF? jajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja what a lame ass year thank GOD i live in the modern times HAPPY NEW year 2010 !!!!!!!
from LOS ANGELES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
nubesensei10 2 years ago
You really are in the year 1958, only you don t know it You are too drunk
jimmi144 2 years ago
People in '57/'58 drove cars with tail-fins and chrome, painted in three different colors. I was in high school and we received an education that didn't require remediation before we could take up college courses. Then we had jobs that lasted 30-40 years and retirements with pensions. We could tell the rest of the world to go to hell and it couldn't do anything about it.
VictrolaJazz 2 years ago 6
Guy starts playing Auld Lang syne at the 6:00 mark. Happy New Year Glen Lynn Bob Freda Elaine et al from Lee B Mason
Leebm29 2 years ago
This, my friends, also led to "New Year's Eve with Carson Daly" which started about 2002... I think? Literally... You gotta thank Mr. Guy Lombardo ringin in 1958 and for being the predecessors of Dick Clark and Carson Daly every New Year's Rockin Eve!
PDS1990 2 years ago
Wasn't almost all TV "live" back then? Even programs, soaps, ads, were all live..reruns and tape were almost unheard of til the 60s or 70s. That's what I thought, anyway.
Pdasilva0324 2 years ago
With this began the year of Brazil's first FIFA World Cup and when my uncle had born.
frab2006 2 years ago
I'd like to see Hugh Pierson bring the Guy Lombardo orchestra back to TV next New Year's Eve. I don't think Dick Clark will make it to this New Year's Eve...that stroke really did him in.
pookerville 2 years ago
Guy's traditional New Years Eve gala began in 1929 - during radio's heyday - from the Roosevelt Grille. They eventually moved to the Waldorf Astoria.
Evidently there was no announcer for this broadcast, since Guy had the responsibility of plugging the sponsor. In all, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra was a 50 year tradition on New Years Eve.
pgh45rpms 2 years ago
The poster says television was primitive 50 years ago. I find it primitive now! Imporoved technology never meant improved quality. New Years Eve means nothing at all since Mr. Lombardo split the scene.
And, I did work for his band briefly (he died and that ended the gig).
drdee51 2 years ago
From the mid to the late 1960's, Mr. Lombardo's New Year's Eve specials were telecast over ABC (ironic, given that network would later be the home of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" which ultimately reduced Mr. Lombardo's get-togethers to irrelevancy. Speaking of "New Year's Rockin' Eve," the inaugural 1972 special - with Three Dog Night as hosts - actually ran on NBC (I.I.N.M., its first ABC telecast was 1974).
wmbrown6 2 years ago
this is unreal,super,ahhh ballroom dancing,kudos,this is great.....
jimbogs1 2 years ago
I wondered if some of these were going to turn up. I remember watching them in color in the 1970's.
hopemelonfest 2 years ago
Being as I was born Dec. 4th 1958 this video holds some special meaning for me! You have some great vids here. Happy I stumbled upon this. Ronnie
rocknarchangel 2 years ago
Lombardo was a fixture for many years on TV at New Years. It was great in person...and I was at a few of them including this 1957 show from the Hotel Roosevelt in NYC
bushwickbuddies 2 years ago
1958 was the year my first son was born and the cost for the Roosevelt New Year's party was $35.00 per.
bushwickbuddies 2 years ago
Thanks...great stories! I saw Mr Lombardo (& his brothers) only once in the early 60s at his "Port-O-Call" resort in Florida.
KKD1247 2 years ago
@bushwickbuddies wow, when were you born
mczr00 1 year ago
its great to bring in a new year dancing in a club that way but i would not like to be outside at times square, very cold, very cold!
kerry that video is history, i didnt know about clariol , and it seems live!
gracias
fayeteville 3 years ago
I'm sure I had been sent to bed. I was 10. But I'm sure I heard this, as my parents were real Guy Lombardo fans. At 46 and 42 then they were older than most of my friends' parents. They faithfully watched his TV show, which was on roughly at supper time on a weeknight, possibly Friday, here in NY. It's possible that THESE shows were filmed for broadcast. Thanks, Kerry.
whizbang47 3 years ago 3
The New Years Eve shows were all live. But yes, several years ago I saw a couple of filmed shows that they made for television. Much higher production values and scripted.
KKD1247 3 years ago 2
Guy Lombardo was a class act, and New Years Eve celebrations on TV had a certain class as well, not at all similar to today's version of what is called "culture"
VirginiaPatriot 3 years ago
That was great. Thanks.
DwellerB 3 years ago
I don't think this was a live event, or was it? When did live TV began anyway?
caa1000 3 years ago
It was definately live. I remember seeing it on TV back then. (They certainly couldn't assemble thousands of people in Times Sq a few nights before Dec 31 to be filmed.) When TV first appeared, it was ALL live. Eventually they showed film and later videotape events.
If anything, Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve uses all tape for their California segments. The only Live part is from New York. So the Guy Lombardo New Years was all live. Thanks for watching!
KKD1247 3 years ago 4
Sorry, but I was under the impression that the show was pre-taped, but the live segment from New York City was the only thing live.
caa1000 3 years ago
@KKD1247
russphilly 2 months ago
@caa1000 Yeah, it was live. Guy Lombardo had been doing these broadcasts since 1928, first on radio, then TV, continuing until his death in 1977. Lombardo was who made the Times Square event famous.
ebailey140 1 year ago
@caa1000 There was live TV long before there was recorded TV. It started as a live medium back in the late 1930s. I was born in 1942.
TheMonkeybeat 2 months ago
@TheMonkeybeat Mike, did you know Frank Zappa? What did you think of him and his music?
SmelOdies 2 months ago
@caa1000 Huh ?
myrjer 2 months ago
@myrjer I did this question to the late Kerry Decker almost 4 years ago and he kindly replied about it. Sad he's no longer with us.
caa1000 2 months ago
Wow, everything was so different, and yet eerily similar. This is a great peek into our own history here. I love the adverts. Thanks!
bevscorner 3 years ago
Wow it is amazing that they said 45 minutes until 1958.... 5/5 keep um coming!
iPodGenious 3 years ago
...And....Thank you Clariol!!!.."
{:-)
ColonelPhillipGreen 3 years ago
Thanks! This was very enjoyable. I loved seeing the Foxtroting guests and I do remember Henry Morgan....I was 9 in 57 and I'll bet I watched this on TV with my parents...Top Hat and Tails...nothing better! Again thanks for sharing and preserving this historical footage!
lesenfantdela 3 years ago