Tue, 03/23/2010

"T.A.M.I. Show" on DVD-- Archive Interviewee Steve Binder Describes the Landmark Concert

1964's historic two-day rock/r&b concert, the T.A.M.I. Show, comes out on DVD today. Although the acronym T.A.M.I. was used inconsistently, it stood for either Teen Age Music International or Teenage Awards Music International-- with free tickets to the concert distributed to high school students. The concert, which took place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, featured James Brown, the Supremes, and the Rolling Stones. Among the go-go dancers seen were a young Toni Basil and Teri Garr.

Steve Binder directed the concert and filmed it using "Electronivision," described by Wikipedia as "one of the first high-definition video camera [systems] that captured somewhere between 1000-1100 lines at 25fps." Herein lies the T.A.M.I. Show's connection to TV-- it was filmed with television cameras and crews (from The Steve Allen Show) and transferred to film for posterity. The concert has been shown on Canadian and American television in the years since, but has never had a fully authorized release on home video. It's now-authorized edition is released restored and digitally remastered for DVD.


Watch Archive interviewee Steve Binder discuss the technical know-how behind the T.A.M.I. Show and the experience of filming the concert in chapter two of his Archive of American Television Interview.