We have a special twofer in this edition of Beautiful Billboards. This great slide from 1965 features ads for Mountain Dew and baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals on KMOX-AM, which would seemingly place it somewhere in Missouri.

Fans of old advertisements will of course note that this Mountain Dew was from well before their hip, extreme rebranding toward the end of the 20th century. In the ’60s they were still playing up their image as being associated with hillbilly culture.

KMOX, meantime, is still the flagship station for the Cardinals and has been — with some interruptions — since 1928.

WASHINGTON, FEB. 8 (1963) — A MOMENT IN A WORKING DAY — This is a candid glimpse of President John Kennedy seated today at his White House desk. The photo was made just before he broadcast a speech by shortwave radio to Greenville, NC, as part of the dedication ceremonies of the new $23 million Voice of American broadcasting station.

It may be hard to believe now, but The Jetsons began its life as a prime time show. It originally aired on ABC during the 1962-63 TV season. Perhaps more notably, it debuted as the first program broadcast in color on ABC.

Here is the full Jetson family, sans Rosey/Rosie the Robot — Judy, George, Jane, Elroy, and Astro. 

Today’s TV viewing takes us back to the frontier. Or at least the frontier as imagined on NBC in the 1960s.

Courtesy the Sioux City Journal from February 3, 1966 is this ad for Daniel Boone, airing on KTIV-TV in Sioux City. Thanks to Wikipedia, we know that this was the season two episode “The Gun.”

Here’s a small slice of life from New York’s Chinatown, circa late 1960s. If anyone can identify the street or approximate year please let me know!

SAN FRANCISCO AT NIGHT

The fabulous city of San Francisco, as seen from Twin Peaks, is a never-to-be-forgotten sight. The city with its myriad lights and skyscrapers has a perfect background in the waters of the Bay. The imposing Bay Bridge is San Francisco’s link to the East Bay cities in the background.

(This card was postmarked 1960.)

Detroit, Michigan, April 24, 1969 — CLASSY CHASSIS — Anne Burr of Ann Arbor, Mich., watches over the Astro III during the annual sports car show at Cobo Hall in Detroit. The one passenger tricycle is a General Motors prototype designed by William L. Mitchell.

I’m not a Bee Gees superfan so I’m not totally certain when this group photo was taken. But based on the little I do know about the group and what they look like I’d put this at around 1967-68, give or take a year.

If I’m correct that means the band lineup was Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Colin Petersen, and Vince Melouney. Melouney was the band’s lead guitarist for a brief time and left in 1968.

Many, many years ago, when television technology was still somewhat crude, stations used still images to promote upcoming shows or events. Often they used slides that were simply projected to the screen.

Of course, the need for these slides is long past but they remain a fascinating reminder of a simpler TV age. And so I was thrilled to come across a series of them for sale on eBay recently. According to the seller of these slides, they were used by NBC affiliate WRC-TV Channel 4, and were shown thanks to a piece of technology called a film chain. The film chain allows a station to convert a slide into an electronic signal and project it to a TV camera for broadcast.

I’m not certain of the dates on these, but I suspect many of them are from the 1950s and ’60s. I know the 1960s are in play because several of these slides feature the classic and underappreciated NBC snake logo. In any case, I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. Let’s look at some vintage slides!

(Click on any image for the full-size version.)