Who Owns The Rights to the Snader Telescriptions?

Question

The Snader Telescriptions were short films of popular musical performances by top musical artists, made in the early 1950s, and used as filler material for TV Stations. I am wondering who owns the rights to them?

Answer 1

In 1949, Louis D. Snader, who made much of his money in real estate and started “Snader Telescriptions” had a light bulb go off in his head. This new medium of television needed a lot of product and in the early days, a lot of filler. They thought that there was a market for short music segments.

These were shot live on to 35mm black & white film (TV stations aired 16 mm versions) and are considered to be the first TV music videos. They were done on the cheap and most were done in one take with no editing, many at California Studios. A normal eight-hour production day would yiel ten or more films. Duke Goldstone shot most of them for the upstart company. The films were made in 1950 through 1952.

They made about a thousand titles, especially made for television and featured some of the top musicians of the day like Mel Torme, Charlie Barnet, Frankie Carle, The DeCastro Sisters, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Burl Ives, The King Sisters, Steve Lawrence, Sarah Vaughan, The McGuire Sisters, Tony Pastor, The Pied Pipers, Gale Storm, June Christy, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, The Weavers with Pete Seeger, The Ink Spots, The Four Freshmen, Lawrence Welk, George Shearing, Nat King Cole and Teresa Brewer.

When the film studios raised the price of British movies and “B” films, Roger Clipp, Vice-President of WFIL-TV, Channel 6 in Philadelphia decided not to pay the freight. He went a different way and purchased the rights for our market of “Snader Telescriptions.” Broadcast Pioneers member George Koehler, who was Station Manager for WFIL-TV said that Roger “got them really cheap” and so “we used them a lot.”