Ray Glasser, Keeping Betamax Video Tape Alive

Cleveland’s Ray Glasser, who maintains the Ultimate Betamax Information Guide, is a hardcore collector of Betamax equipment and tape recordings. He recently joined YouTube and posted his introductory video explaining how he first became obsessed with the Betamax format in 1975, which he then used to start recording television for over 25 years. He has over 2500 Betamax tapes of TV recordings.

One of the gems in Ray’s collection is the amazing 1975 “The Flying Clouds” promotional video for the very first Sony Betamax.

This is a promotional video, named “The Flying Clouds”, for the very first Sony Betamax, the LV1901D Betamax/Console TV combination. The unit was released in late 1975 with an MSRP of $2495, and included a 1-hour Betamax VCR and a 19” Sony Trinitron TV. A copy of this video was given away with each unit!