With the industry's fixation on youth, in hiring as well as in content, veterans have been marginalized further by the evolution of the business.

Rather than succumbing to those twists of fate, Fisher shifted gears. Aided by the popularity of DVDs as well as affordable cameras and editing equipment, he's turned his sights to the home video market.

''Broadcast executives in their 20s or 30s look at you like an old albatross,'' said Fisher, a 64-year-old New Orleans native. ''If I can't sell my ideas to them, I'll go directly to the public. This is a town full of people trying to reinvent themselves.''

One of his assets: archival footage of ''Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour,'' on which he was a 21-year-old talent scout. The television version of the variety program was broadcast from 1948 to 1970. The radio version was broadcast from 1934 to 1946 and again from 1948 to 1952. The program was the springboard for a host of show business names: a skinny Frank Sinatra and the Hoboken Four (''I'm Frank - I'm looking for a job . . . how about it?'' the 19-year-old said to Major Edward Bowes, host of the radio version); Ann-Margret (Olson) losing out to Arturo Escobar, a Mexican novelty performer who played ''Grenada'' on a tree leaf; director Penny Marshall (''A League of Their Own'') in the tap-dancing troupe The Marshallettes; 7-year-old Gladys Knight performing ''Too Young''; and the late Raul Julia (''The Kiss of the Spider Woman''), a paradigm of composure and linguistic dexterity in a musical number.

There's also footage of future opera greats Robert Merrill, Beverly Sills and Maria Callas, and a 16-year-old classical violinist, Louis Walcott, who went on to become Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. When Fisher's partner died, the producer became the ''keeper of the flame.''

The DVD ''Before 'American Idol': The Original Amateur Hour'' hits shelves Tuesday ($29.95). The first disc provides an overview, while the second focuses on novelty acts such as an upside-down tap-dancer. Pat Boone, a three-time winner on the show, hosts the DVD, in which comedian Robert Klein reminisces about the defeat of his doo-wop group by a one-armed piano player (''He got the sympathy vote'') and Connie Francis remembers how she was talked out of playing the accordion and sang solo for the first time in public. People will be able to access the clips online at http//www.originalamateurhour.com, where the DVD will also be sold.

''Amateur Hour'' was the rare program that crossed over from the vaudeville stage to radio, TV and, ultimately, cable, Fisher said. It was the forerunner of shows such as ''Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts,'' ''Star Search'' and ''American Idol.''