LibGuides: Media &amp; Music: Rock on TV

Archival Resources

Listed below are notable collections and items from the Rock Hall's Archives. You can find more by searching our catalog here.

American Bandstand

Herb Staehr Collection
Bootleg video recordings of American Bandstand, 1969-1970.

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits / KLRU Collection
The Austin City Limits / KLRU Collection spans the years 1974 to 2015, including undated materials, and consists of the records created during the process of planning, budgeting, contracting, producing, editing, distributing, and marketing the Austin City Limits television show. The majority of the collection documents the work of the show's executive and associate producers, including Bill Arhos, Dick Peterson, Lickona Watson and Casey Productions, and LickonaVision, as well as that of their teams, the associate producer/archivist, and photographer, as well as the Community Engagement Department for KLRU.

The Big Beat

The Big Beat Scrapbook
The Big Beat was a televised version of Alan Freed's rock and roll revues that featured popular recording artists. It first aired on ABC in July 1957, prior to the first national broadcast of Dick Clark's American Bandstand. However, the controversy over Frankie Lymon dancing with a white girl on The Big Beat caused ABC to cancel it after three episodes. The Big Beat Scrapbook documents the taping of this television show from approximately October 1959 through January 1960. It contains photographs of performers, including Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, audience members, and detailed taping notes for select shows.
Big Beat Heat Collection
The Big Beat Heat Collection spans the 1920s to 1995 and includes some undated materials. The collection contains mostly photocopied research materials, a few photos, and different drafts of John A. Jackson's first book, Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock & Roll. The book Big Beat Heat documents Alan Freed's life and his introduction and dissemination of rock and roll to the masses through radio and television, as well as the payola scandals of the late 1950s that exposed the links between radio airplay, record promotion, and the mob. The majority of the collection materials relate to media coverage of Freed's career and his early involvement in rock and roll promotion and entertainment. A few recordings of his broadcasts on various radio networks are included on audiocassette.
Rob Edelman Collection of Movie Stills
Stills from The Big Beat, 1958.
Alan Freed Collection
Music clearance sheets, posters, programs, tickets, performers' checks, and AV recordings of The Big Beat and the WNEW version, The Big Beat Party, 1958-1959.

Ed Sullivan Show

Bill Greenfield Collection
The Bill Greenfield Collection consists of nearly 5,000 digital images of engineering drawings, sketches, stage designs, articles, photographs, and documents and 21 original engineering drawings used in Greenfield's position as lighting director for CBS TV and the Ed Sullivan Show, from 1960-1971. Approximately 180 of the images are engineering drawings and sketches used to set the stage for the Ed Sullivan Show, including for a performance by the Beatles in 1965.
Bob Bonis Photographs
Photos of the Rolling Stones backstage at the Ed Sullivan Show, 1966 September 11.
Herb Staehr Collection
Bootleg video recordings of the Ed Sullivan Show, featuring Johnny Cash, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jackson 5, B.B. King, the Animals, and more, 1964-1971 and undated.
John Platt Collection
Video from the Ed Sullivan Show featuring the Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, Beach Boys, Yardbirds, Tom Jones, Traffic, the Kinks, Troggs, Animals, and more.
Michael Ochs Collection
Video from the Ed Sullivan Show, and an artist file on Sullivan, 1981, 1992.

MTV

MTV Networks VH1 Video
MTV Networks VH1 Video span the years 1993 to 2002 and contains 237 Betacam SP 60 minute and 160 Betacam SP 30 minute videocassette copies of television shows featured on the MTV Network channel VH1. Programs represented in the collection include 20 to 1, All Access, Behind the Music, Duets, Fan Club, Legends, One to One, Presents the 70’s, RockStory, Storytellers, and Video Timeline. The videos provide rich insight to VH1's attempts to expand its programming during the 1990s, and offer a glimpse into the documentation of rock and pop music history during time.
Herb Staehr Collection
Bootleg video of MTV programming, including Rockumentary, Unplugged, Rock Influences, Profile, News, Music Awards, New Year's Bash, and one-off live concerts, 1983-1997.
Art Collins Papers
Documents relating to the use of Iggy Pop's music on MTV, as well as appearances by the Rolling Stones, 1982-2005.
Anita Gelman Collection
Images taken of makeup done by Gelman for MTV productions, 1980s

Upbeat

Howard Kramer Collection
VHS recordings with clips from Upbeat, undated.

Articles from Rock's Backpages

Free articles are available on Rock's Backpages through the Free on RBP link. The articles below may require you to be on-site at the Library & Archives in order to read them.