Here’s a rabbit hole for Ampex OldTimers and Ampex fans… A TON of content, much broadcast-related, but other content shows the breadth of Ampex’s product line over the years. https://archive.org/search?tab=all&query=Ampex Here’s the front cover and table of contents for the second edition of Ampex “Horizons,” from July 1979. Recognize any names? Maurice Lemoine and Joachim P. Diermann. H. K. Regnier and Lawrence J. Evans. Michael O. Felix. John C. Mallinson. Abe Eshel. What were they up to? Read on! Surprises await. https://archive.org/details/Ampex-Horizons-Number-2-July-1979/mode/2up
Ted’s Tease: What are these? These are “lollypop” video heads and a scanner for the Ampex VR-8000 Helical Scan Videotape Recorder, a recorder developed at Ampex by Alex Maxey, one of the six engineers who developed the transverse (across the tape) scan Ampex Mark III and Mark IV four-head, 2″ tape video recorder prototypes that led to the VRX-1000 pre-production machines in 1956 and VR-1000 series of Videotape™ recorders from Ampex. The VR-8000 was a development that took several years to turn into a marketable product. Introduced in 1961, only a few were made. The cabinet/frame design became the basis for Ampex’s first transistorized VTR, the VR-1100 monochrome 2″ Quad VTR. The heads and scanner were identified during a May, 2026 visit to triage and catalog hardware that’s part of the former Ampex Museum of Magnetic Recording, acquired from Ampex by former Ampex engineer Ray Dolby (founder of Dolby Labs) and gifted to Stanford University. See the lollypop head being inserted into a scanner, and another take on packaging the VR-8000 in photos from the Joe Rozien collection at LabGuy’s World. https://www.labguysworld.com/CharleyAnderson.htm
JUST ANNOUNCED: The 2025 Ampex OldTimers BBQ, Picnic and Zoom on Saturday, Sept. 6, in Mountain View has a SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER: James Spriet, Ampex Data Systems, EW/ISR SME Strategy and Communications Manager: James will show how Ampex Data Systems continues exploring how to process and record “spectrum,” a trip that started at Ampex in 1946 with the initial foray into analog magnetic audio recorders, then instrumentation recorders, and kicked spectrum recording up a notch with the first successful video tape recorders operating in the Megahertz range using FM modulation. James anticipates he’ll be IN PERSON, and is working to have examples of current Ampex Data Systems products on display. Some Ampex products are behind the scenes on the International Space Station, manned and unmanned reconnaissance via Air Force and Navy aircraft. Other products scan RF spectrum and record the sections for further analysis. In person or on Zoom, expect to learn how the legacy of Ampex exists in the 21st century, with today’s Ampex technologists applying science and determination to challenging opportunities. If you know former Ampex Corporation or current Ampex Data Systems employees, retirees, contractors, spouses and their invitees who would enjoy mingling and learning about Ampex’s 81 year history, engaging internationally on Zoom, and learning more about the ongoing activities at Ampex Data Systems, please share this Facebook post with them. By signing up for the Ampex OldTimers mailing list , former Ampex Corporation or current Ampex Data Systems employees, retirees, contractors, spouses will get an e-mail with registration information for the 2025 event, and quarterly Zooms. Click here: https://www.ampexoldtimers.org
Ampex’s involvement with Cold War diplomacy Thursday, July 31, 2025 Before we leave July: 66 years ago, Ampex was directly involved in the incident now widely know as “The Kitchen Debate” between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon. It happened July 24, 1959 when they were touring the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow. A representation of a suburban American house with labor saving and recreational devices was one of the locations in which the two leaders met on four visits. Their second visit included a television studio that was part of the Exhibition. Ampex had a VR-1000 color videotape recorder, being fed from an RCA TK-41 color television camera. That’s where the famous exchange occurred. The video you’ll see here was posted by Ampex Data Systems to its YouTube channel and the 16 minute exchange is in two parts. Links below. The conversation in the studio went from Nixon describing American technological advances, to Khrushchev interrupting with accomplishments of the communist country and form of government. The back and forth—and humor that was interspersed—caused Nixon to point to the video recorder and the ability to video their discussion as a way of promoting communication between both countries. Both men agreed that the recording—with English and Russian translations— would be shown on US and Soviet television. Ampex engineer Joe Roizen had set up and was running the VR-1000. Former Product News Manager William Slatkin wrote on “The Ampex Story” website in 2016, “As Ampex Video Manager Joe Roizen operated the video equipment during the debate, he recognized its importance as world news and he doubted that the Russian leader would agree with Nixon’s idea. Roizen and a few colleagues felt it would valuable to send home this visual record of the debate and share it with all of America. But they feared it would be confiscated by a suspicious Soviet customs agent. Volunteering to “sneak” the recording out of the country was the top ranking Ampex executive at the show. A company vice president, Phil Gundy, wrapped the tape reel in an old shirt and stuffed it into the bottom of his luggage.” The recording was copied, translator voices laid over the reduced level of Khrushchev and Nixon. Tapes were released to the US networks, which broadcast on July 25. A standards conversion was made for shipment to the Soviet Union, where it was broadcast on July 27, with Nixon’s remarks only partly translated. Slatkin writes: “It seems that Soviet authorities wanted to see the tape and review its contents before deciding whether or not it could be broadcast. The tape was gone. The Americans (Roizen, Ampex show manager Jack Miller and company engineer Bill Barnhart) were to be held indefinitely. And their captors weren’t convinced when Roizen offered the explanation, in the best Russian he could muster, that Khrushchev had said it was okay for the tape to be sent to the U.S.: Roizen said that while waiting to learn their fate, each recorded on audio tape his last will and testament. “Some diplomatic maneuvering followed, with participation by Llewellyn Thompson, the U.S. ambassador to Russia. And when Russian officials had the chance to see what the American audience had viewed, it was decided that they liked what Khrushchev had to say to the rest of the world. That fortunate turn of events led to the quick release of Roizen, Miller and Barnhart. They and their families were relieved about the outcome, particularly because an Ambassador Thompson, angry that they had interfered with diplomatic protocol, warned them earlier in this very brief, little-known hostage crisis: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Watch the videotape here: Ampex: The Kitchen Debate Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7HqOrAakco Ampex: The Kitchen Debate Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6RLCw1OZFw What did Ampex Data Systems use to create and post these files? We’re asking an Ampex contact. Former Ampex Museum of Magnetic Recording Curator Pete Hammar told me today that Ampex Teleproductions had a copy which generated at least one 1” Type C copy in the late 1978 or so. A demo in the 1976 NAB was on Ampex 1” “Type A” format. Joe Rozien apparently had a copy in some tape format. It was loaned to Stanford University’s special collections by his daughter Heidi, where a DVD of the debate was made in 2005, and is available for viewing at the Stanford University Library Special Collections Reading Room. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/6688510 What happened to the original reel and recording that Phil Gundy flew out of Moscow? In 1997, Preservationist and VidiPax founder Jim Lindner wrote: “No one knows what happened to that original tape. A tape that would appear to be an original exists at the Library of Congress, given by Ampex to register copyright. Typically, however, companies send copies, not originals, for this purpose. The Library of Congress version of the tape starts off with a model in front of the camera which would tend to indicate that the images were test images made before Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev arrived. This same recording, however, has very poor sound and it is virtually impossible to hear Nikita Khrushchev’s voice at all, much less hearing it change in volume. Another recording is held by a broadcaster in a corporate collection. This recording has excellent sound. However, it is labeled as a “dub”12 or copy, and the video is quite poor, which would be typical of a copy made at that time considering that this was one of the first color recordings using the RCA electronic color system. This “dub” recording has several elements that differ from the tape at the Library of Congress. At the beginning of the tape, no model exists. Further, a test pattern that says RCA (who supplied the cameras) is clearly on the tape. Following the test pattern are introductions by Frank McGee and two closings also by Frank McGee who is in black and white. Documentation with the tape clearly indicates that this tape was not edited, and yet Frank McGee appears (in black and white) and the model does not appear, the discussion between Nixon and Khrushchev appears in color, and the sound is excellent on a tape that is marked as having not been edited. How could Frank McGee, who was in New York, appear on a tape that was not edited? A unique restoration effort that was completed in 1995 by the author incorporated elements held by the Library of Congress and elements held by UCLA and a broadcasting company. Despite these efforts, no one knows if this restoration accurately represents the original tape, because neither the documentation nor the original are known to exist. Although we will probably never know what happened to the original tape, a clue may appear in the New York Times. Part of the furor surrounding the tape was the Soviet demand that the tape be shown in the United States at the same time as in the Soviet Union. That could not be done because of “the need to adapt it to the different technical standards of Soviet television and the delay in the work of translation” according to Mr. Gundy.13 This meant that the tape had to be transferred to the Soviet Television Standard (SECAM) by Ampex which could have only been done at the company’s headquarters in Redwood City, California. If this is the case, none of the copies held are accurate representations of the master recording which had to be used to make the copy for the Soviet Union. So we may never know exactly what the original recording did look like. https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byorg/abbey/an/an21/an21-7/an21-708.html Read Slatkin’s account here: https://web.archive.org/web/20161214025947/http://www.theampexstory.com/2016/11/29/the-ampex-contribution-to-u-s-diplomatic-history/ Additional resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate
Get set to register for the Ampex OldTimers Barbecue, Picnic and Zoom… Sept. 6, 2025. In-Person and Zoom Registration Info goes out Friday, Aug. 8. If you’re a current or former Ampex employee, an Ampex contractor or worked for an Ampex contractor, we’d love to see you at the park not far from the old Ampex HQ, or world-wide via Zoom! Get on the AmpexOldTimers Mailing list at AmpexOldTimers.org In Person event runs from Noon to 6 PM, and the Zoom runs from approximately 1 PM to whenever people quit!