All Brooklyn news
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Special sections
About The Paper
Mobile site
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feeds

R.I.P.

By Juliana Bunim 
for The Brooklyn Paper

Tools

Print this story
Facebook this
Tweet this
Digg this
Del.icio.us

We’ve gone from seeing movies at grand, one-screen palaces to renting them to downloading them into our two-inch iPod so we can watch them on the subway. Things change quickly in the world of technology, so GO Brooklyn took a moment to look back at inventions that, though antiques by today’s standards, were cutting edge in their time. — Juliana Bunim

1906: RCA Victor’s “Victrola” model record player uses cylindrical records made of pressed wax.

1926: Scotsman John Logie Baird invents the “Televisor,” the first TV. Its screen was postcard sized and showed black-and-pink — not black-and-white — images.

1933: The first drive-in movie theater. The big screen, and teenage dating, would never be the same.

1939: Black-and-white television takes the world by storm at the World’s Fair.

1954: RCA Victor makes the first color TV. The model CT-100 had a 12-inch screen, and a suggested retail price of $1,000.

1963: Compact stereo tape cassettes and players are developed, paving the way for the mixed tape, a format no iPod playlist could ever beat.

1965: Bill Lear, he of the Learjet, introduces the 8-track tape this year, and convinced Ford to include a player in its 1966 models.

1972: Atari debuts “Pong” — the first electronic computer arcade game — and opposable thumbs are finally useful!

1975: The Betamax video recorder and tapes are introduced.

1976: VHS cassettes and players are released, but unattainable. The first VHS-format VCR is only in Japan, and for a whopping $885.

1978: Pioneer unveils the LaserDisc.

1982: Remember long boxes? The first compact discs, in their environmentally unfriendly packaging, are released.

1996: VCRs begin their long day’s journey into night: DVD players are introduced.

1999: TiVO, the first digital video recorder (DVR), is unveiled. Finally, we can pause live TV.

1999: Netflix is founded, much to the chagrin of college mailroom workers worldwide.

©2007 Community Newspaper Group

←Downtown plan: Down on Duffield
→Beside the Point: The real story of an old pool

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.

Links