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Rutgers University Libraries

United States History After 1945: Television, Radio & Film

Selling It

AdViews: A Digital Archive of Vintage Television Commercials. A digital archive of thousands of television commercials dating from the 1950s to the 1980s created or collected by the ad agency Benton & Bowles or its successor, D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B). Major clients included are Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Schick, Vicks, and Post, among others.

The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2016. More than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952.

Television, Radio and Film

Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979
David A. Cook. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002. Available?
Film and Television Literature Index with Full Text
Indexes industry papers, news journalism, and scholarly academic journals on topics relating to film and television.   Rutgers-restricted Access
TV-NewsSearch: The Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Index to material in the collection of the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. The database includes nightly news programs broadcast by the national television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and a daily news program from CNN. Abstracts of each story within a regular news program are fully searchable. Programs include:
  • ABC Evening News: August 5, 1968 - Present
  • CBS Evening News: August 5, 1968 - Present
  • NBC Evening News: August 5, 1968 - Present

For a fee, the Archive will make copies and lend individuals DVDs of specific broadcasts. You can place an Interlibrary Loan Request for a program. However the Rutgers Libraries will only pay for the first $20 of the fee; the requester would be responsible for the remaining amount. Clips from some broadcasts are also available freely on the site. Rutgers-restricted Access

Paley Center for Media Database
The Paley Center (New York City) houses a media collection of nearly 150,000 television and radio programs and advertisements. The database includes synopsis of programs. The Edward John Noble Scholars Room has carrels equipped with an audio/visual monitor for viewing and listening to the Paley Center's collection of programs and computers that access the library's database. Use of the Scholars Room is available to students and others affiliated with educational organizations at a rate of $15 per day; The Scholar's Room is open: Wednesdays to Sundays 12:00 to 6:00 pm, and 12:00 to 8:00 pm on Thursdays.

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