John Kay from Steppenwolf is interviewed on a late night television show, before performing two songs with the band, taped 8-9-68 on a Hollywood soundstage outfitted to look like Hugh Hefner's penthouse (albeit "After Dark") and broadcast six months later, on 2-2-69. The show was filmed on a CBS Television City soundstage in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, located at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. The BetaGems channel also has the band on another episode of the same TV show, "Playboy After Dark 12-17-69 Steppenwolf, John Hartford, Delores Hull," as well as the entire episode this was excerpted from, "Playboy After Dark 2-2-69 Steppenwolf, Tony Bennett, George Plympton." We also have "Steppenwolf 1-29-88 late night TV performance."
You can find more Playboy After Dark in uploads such as "Playboy After Dark 5-30-69 Marvin Gaye, The Byrds, The Committee," "Playboy After Dark 2-20-70 Smokey Robinson, Vic Damone," "Playboy After Dark 2-2-69 Steppenwolf, Tony Bennett, George Plympton," "Playboy magazine TV commercial 1985," "Playboy Cartoonist Interviews 1985: Gahan Wilson, Frank Thorne, more," and "Playboy After Dark 9-29-68 Buddy Miles, Tommy Smothers, John Stewart."
BetaGems are culled from an archive of over 1000 beta video tapes recorded from the early 1980s into the 1990s. Most feature live music performances broadcast on television in San Diego CA, though there are also rarely seen commercials, comedy clips, and other material that doesn't seem to be anywhere else on KZfaq or online.
Most of the tapes were recorded on a Sony SL-HFT7 Super Beta Theater Hi-Fi Stereo - the same model was refurbished and is being used for these digital transfers and uploads. In rare occasions where a BetaGems clip does appear elsewhere, we're only uploading if our own beta master is better quality or contains material not seen previously. Much footage comes from public television and public access broadcasts that the taper, who worked for a local cable TV production company in the 1980s, monitored nightly for several years. Some of the programming is strictly regional, mostly from the San Diego area.