It's cool that folks around the world are enjoying the Mac intro video. Where did it come from? The intro took place at the 1984 Apple shareholders' meeting, which was re-broadcast on public TV shortly after it happened. The re-broadcast was required because the meeting was full, so some shareholders couldn't get in, a potentially prickly legal situation. When the meeting was broadcast, I taped it on my home Betamax machine. It never occurred to me that it was so rare, or I would have tried to get it digitized years ago.
Last year, when Andy Hertzfeld started his Folklore project, I told him about the tape, and he watched it to enhance his recollections for the introduction day story.
In the comments for the story, somebody asked for a digital copy. I said I didn't know of one, but that I would happy to lend the tape to anyone who could digitize it. Several people offered, but were ultimately scared off by the prospect of converting and cleaning up a 20-year-old Betamax tape. Then I heard from majo, who proceeded undaunted, sacrificing his time and servers, and now here we are. He's working on the rest of the tape now, and more clips and eventually the whole tape are forthcoming.
So, if you live long enough, you too can get worldwide publicity for never throwing anything away. ;-)
More! :) The work done on that old betamax ought to result in some lotus blossoms being strewn on majo's front lawen, parking lot, whatever. ;) Now if I could only find that tape that shipped with the first maps with that theme song. I wonder what they brng on eBay? If I ever find it one of the boxes with hundreds of floppies safely "stored" (sort of a misnomer) I plan to run down this neighborhood kid who will know just what to do with it. ;) More@
Posted by: jerryt | Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 11:02 PM
I enjoyed the video. Thanks for posting it Scott! I did see some of it before though. There was a clip or two of the Mac speaking and Steve smiling in Bob Cringely's Triumph of the Nerds special that was on PBS a while back when he talks about the Macintosh. I suspect they have a copy of it around somewhere as well.
I bought the special on VHS when it came out (it's available on DVD via Amazon these days), and coincidentally watched it a few days before seeing your (more complete) video.
Posted by: Mike Zornek | Thursday, January 27, 2005 at 09:28 AM
Very interesting video. I don't know about the thing in its entirety, but I'm not sure what is meant by "lost" - I distinctly remember seeing the scrolling "Macintosh" text with the cheering crowd on a British TV documentary in 1995.
Posted by: Lyris | Tuesday, February 01, 2005 at 02:36 AM