The Story of the WVTV Tarantula Shoot

[Dick Nitelinger]

For a number of years, folks have asked me about the old opening to WVTV's "Saturday Night at the Movies" featuring "Shirley," a tarantula from the Milwaukee County Zoo.

I always had to respond (truthfully) that as far as I knew, nothing existed. Well, I was wrong, and good things come to those who wait.

A couple of years ago, while doing research for my book at WVTV/WCGV-TV, I came across a couple of boxes of old historical files saved from the dumpster by their chief engineer.  In one was an envelope marked "spider pictures" containing B&W negatives, as well as color slides from the shoot. A cropped shot from one of the color slides is up on my website, and one of the B&W photos is in my book.

The director of that shoot found me shortly after my book came out. We chatted. He has the footage, and as soon as he gets it to me, I'll be having it cleaned-up and transferred to a digital format for preservation purposes. I asked him to write some memories of the shoot, which he did. I cleaned them up a bit, and put together a side page for my website. Earlier this week, I got permission from the station to pop up a few more photos, and integrated them into it. You can read the story of that shoot at:

Memories of WVTV Saturday Night at the Movies Opening Shoot

which is now up on my website.

My thanks to Jack Stratmeyer for providing them. Enjoy!

- Dick :OnAir:

[John L]

I came across some illegal uploads of WVTV footage on U-tube a couple weeks ago.  You can tell someone had taped them back in the 80s with a VCR and uploaded them on U-Tube.  Whether the person had permission to do that, who knows?  There are lots of copyright violation videos on U-Tube and it surprises me how the people who upload them plus U-Tube are getting away with it all.  I am surprise U-Tube hasn't been sued and taken to court like Napster was years ago when people were using Napster to swap music files.

-John L.

[Dick Nitelinger]

I came across some illegal uploads of WVTV footage on U-tube a couple weeks ago.  You can tell someone had taped them back in the 80s with a VCR and uploaded them on U-Tube.  Whether the person had permission to do that, who knows?  There are lots of copyright violation videos on U-Tube and it surprises me how the people who upload them plus U-Tube are getting away with it all.  I am surprise U-Tube hasn't been sued and taken to court like Napster was years ago when people were using Napster to swap music files.

-John L.

It is amazing, isn't it? Some of this has to do with the ease with which one can pop things up. Some of it is ignorance of copyright, and some is simply a lack of courtesy. I ask, because it's the right thing to do, and has allowed me to build good relationships with the stations and individuals who've granted me access to the materials. Even if I suspect that the material may be in the public domain, I try to ask for permission to use it.

In many cases, the material was produced for promotional purposes, and the individuals may be tickled pink to hear that someone is interested enough to want to see it again. Nonetheless, it doesn't hurt to ask.

I think the shear volume of material on some of these sites is overwhelming. Unfortunately, the sites put the responsibility on the copyright holder to constantly monitor and object to material uploaded there, rather than requiring that the person who uploads the footage show that they have permission, or that the material is in the public domain.

I love seeing some of that old footage myself -- I think we all do, but it requires the consent of the copyright holder.

With all of the photos in my book, I had to write a little spreadsheet to keep track of all the needed permissions. It's work! In many cases the providers simply signed my standard form giving me a non-exclusive world-wide right to use the material in the book. In others, their lawyers (or those of their parent corporations) wrote usage agreements that we then had to discuss and in a few cases negotiate re: specific wording or clauses. That took more than a bit of my time. There were a few judgment calls (Copyright holder is deceased or unknown and it's been over 50 years. Who do you ask?), but there weren't that many.

As we've discussed here in another thread, a number of people hide behind "Fair Use" -- particularly on Wikipedia, where on the English language version they allow images based on rather flimsy arguments. Again, the copyright holder has to monitor the site constantly and object. Sadly, "Fair Use" has been applied inconsistently by the courts (based on what little I've read), and it'll be interesting to see how things eventually shake out. In my professorial days, we might use it to take an illustration, graph, or passage and hand it out in class. It was used for educational purposes, was free to the students, and limited to a finite number of people in class. That was before the web, where billions of people potentially have access to the material. That changes things, and we have yet to see what shakes out. A lot of people justify a "Fair Use" rationale by saying that the material is for educational purposes and that there's no charge (My website would apply.), but I don't think that it's the same limited use originally envisioned. We'll see.

The payoff for asking permission is in my relationships with the providers, which allowed me access to their materials, and the ability to share them with everyone.

- Dick :OnAir:

[John L]

I wonder if someone in the Milwaukee are willing to continue the tradition of collecting information regarding Milwaukee TV and compiling it like Dick G. did?  I would expect someone more familiar with Milwaukee Broadcasting.  I am sure there is more info that Dick G. never came across yet.

-John L.

[Gamera]

Some of you may remember me posting a digital recreation of that opener about a year ago. After discovering Dick's site and the still image of the shoot it inspired me to do a CG recreation just for fun. Around Christmas time last year I was surprised to receive an email from Jack Stratmeyer, the director of the original intro who commented on my recreation. At that time Jack mentioned that he had copies of the intro on old tapes that had been in storage for awhile that he was graciously willing to share. I met Jack and he gave me three tapes of classic 1970's era content from his portfolio that I eventually digitized for him and converted to DVD. Jack also provided me with the same behind-the-scenes write-up that Dick had posted on his site above.

So without further ado, posted with permission from Jack Stratmeyer and WVTV, the original WVTV Saturday Night at the Movies.

Many thanks to Jack for sharing his work, and to all of Dick Nitelinger's efforts in compiling and preserving our memories of Milwaukee TV history.