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HomeMy WebLinkAboutR-94-0236J-94-263 3/30/94 94- 236 RESOLUTION NO. A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DONATING A COLLECTION OF VINTAGE FILM MATERIALS TO THE LOUIS WOLFSON II MEDIA HISTORY CENTER FOR THEIR PRESERVATION AND ACCESSIBILITY TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. WHEREAS, the City of Miami Office of Public Information has in storage a collection of vintage 16mm film footage covering a number of different topics, which have not been used for the last two decades; and i WHEREAS, the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center, one of the largest and most active film and video archives of its kind in the country, has requested that these materials be donated to the Center where they will be preserved and made accessible; and WHEREAS, the Center's mission is to collect, preserve and make accessible film, and video materials which document Florida's history and culture; and WHEREAS, since its inception, the Wolfson Center and its resources have been utilized by the general public, researchers, students, educators, cultural organizations and film and video makers; and CITY COMMISSIOji MEETING OF. APR 1 4 1994 Resolution No, �4- 236 WHEREAS, by properly archiving these materials they will serve a greater purpose in documenting our history and culture. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: Section 1. The recitals and findings contained in the Preamble to this Resolution are hereby adopted by reference thereto and incorporated herein as if fully set forth in this Section. Section 2. The Miami City Commission hereby approves the donation of a collection of vintage film footage presently stored at the Office of Public Information to the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center where they will be archived and made available to the general public. Section 3. This Resolution shall become effective immediately upon its adoption. PASSED AND ADOPTED this 14th day of April , 1994. ST PHEN P. CIARK, MAY R A T T MA TY HIRAI CITY CLERK PREPARED AND APPROVED BY: JULIE 0. BRU ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY JOB:kd:M4033 APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CORRECTNESS: _2_ 04- 236 CA= 15 CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA INTER -OFFICE MEMORANDUM TO Honorable Mayor and DATE Members of the City Commission SUBJECT FROM : CetonageroREFERENCES ENCLOSURES RECOMMENDATION: W -31 1994 FILE . Request from the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center for the Donation of Vintage Film Footage It is respectfully recommended that the City Commission adopt the attached Resolution expressing its approval of the donation of a collection of vintage 16mm film footage, presently stored at the Office of Public Information, to the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center. BACKGROUND: The City of Miami Office of Public Information has in storage a collection of vintage 16mm film footage covering topics such as sports, tourism, public education, etc., which have not been used for the last two decades. In the manner in which they are stored at present, they are not serving their purpose, as they are not properly archived nor accessible, and run the risk of spoiling. In addition the City does not have the proper equipment to view them. If these materials are donated to the Wolfson Center they will be properly archived, preserved and made accessible to the general 16 public, researchers, students, educators, cultural organizations, film and video makers and anyone having an interest in Miami's history and culture, especially as we approach the City's 100th birthday. 94- 236 L U U I S W O L F S O N 1 1 MEDIA HISTORY CENTER A State of Florida designated moving image center and archive Feb. 16. 1994 Vivian Pombo Supervisor, Public Information City of Miami 2700 South Bayshore Drive Miami, Florida 33133 Dear Ms. Pombo: Arva Parks informed me of the wonderful collection of film materials produced by the City of Miami which was In storage at your facility. As director of the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center, I am writing to request that these materials be donated to the Center where they will be preserved and made accessible. As you may know, The Louis Wolfson II Media History Center is one of the largest and most active film and video archives of its kind in the country. The Center's mission, important to Florida and part of a broader national effort, Is to collect, preserve and make accessible film and video materials which document Florida's history and culture as well as Florida's perspective on issues around the country and around the world. Since its Inception, the Wolfson Center and its resources have been utilized by the general public, researchers, students, educators, cultural organizations and film and video makers. Public access to our collection Is offered in the form of screenings, seminars and exhibitions - all presented free at our facility or at other venues throughout South Florida. The Center also has a television program entitled REWIND, featuring vintage programs from our collection which airs daily on Metro -Dade Television. Our ever-growing archive contains millions of feet of film and thousands of hours of videotape donated by a variety of sources including television station, production companies and individuals. These films would be a wonderful addition to our collection, at once enhancing and complimenting the television materials in our archive by presenting yet another facet of life in our region. Please call me if you would like any additional Information or to meet with you to discuss this further. Sincere I y , Steven Davidson Director CC: Arva Parks 61 SPONSORS: Miami -Dade Public Library • Miami -Dade Community College • University of Miami Miami -Dade Public Library • 101 W. Flogler Street • Miami, Florida 33130 • Phone (305) 375-4527 • Fax (305) 374-1573 94- 236 FIRST EDITION N[yp(n ul,n.NTut.Nout ES.SSnC..tUh Thursday, December 27 1990 WII(NIEbd'.nONt, IWT,.(,nuE M�Mb Media History Center awell-kept secret Anyone who saw PBS' Eyes on the Prize follow-up series earlier this year might wonder where the producer found old film footage depict- ing Miami before Interstate 95 divided the city. Look no farther than the Media History Center at downtown Mi2mi's Metro -Dade Library — one of the best -kept secrets in South Florida — which got a windfall from Santa this month. It won $38,000 to persevere in its work to maintain an archive of his- toric news film and video about Florida. Four govern- ment agencies — the Flor- ida Endowment for the Humanities, the state Divi- sion of Cultural Affairs, Metro-Dade's Cultural Affairs Council and the film preservation program of the National Endowment for the Arts — participated in the GAIL MEADOWS THE ARTS bequest. "It's the first time in.our three years this has ever happened," said director Steve Davidson. One of the nation's largest and most active institutions of its kind, the Center — officially named the Louis Wolfson It Media History Center — .has cataloged an impressive collection dating back to the beginning of television news in 1949. It makes the film accessible through public access, research, screenings and seminars. "Unfortunately, TV stations now discard their film immediately. You can't walk into a station and ask to see a broadcast of three weeks ago. They might save a single story, but it would be out of context." To combat that, the center has begun record- ing news shows for its archives. From Ian. 6 till Feb. 12, at the Metro -Dade Main Library, 101 W. Flagler St., Davidson will present free screenings of the 1989 winners of the George Peabody Awards, the oldest and most prestigious of all broadcasting competitions. Programs will range from 240 minutes o! CBS' Lonesome Dove to 46 minutes of Yellaw- stone National Park, Four Seasons Aftertk Fire to 90 minutes of a video of the 1989 San Fran- cisco earthquake. All will be shown on Tuesdays and Sundays, froni 1 to 3 p.m. To be mailed a listing of all screenings, leave your name and address at the Center, 375-4527, between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays. S 04- 236 April 25, 1991 Film archive aims to Liather newsreels as link to our past Bp GAIL (MEADOWS shelves are reels on Hurricane James DeVinnep, the. senior *.pro' Herald Arts Writer Betsy, the acquittal of Candace ducer, director and writer of Eyes on Mossler after her husband was the Prise, PBS' award -winning eep in the labyrinth of the found stabbed 39 times, � John Ken- series on the civil rights movement.• main branch of the Miami- nedy's remarks in Miami in 1963 "Miami is very unique in this Dade Public Library lies a before he went on to Dallas, a 1958 area," DeVinney said. "We're try- historical treasure trove unknown interview with Martin Luther King ing to get all [TV stations] to realize to most people — yet critical to Jr. at the Carver Hotel, Ku Klux the importance of holding onto their ,may; Klan rallies of the mid-1960s, the tapes rather than throwing them. It.�a reel after reel of television before -and -after trauma of the Bay out." newscasts, snippets dating back to of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile As part of that consciousness-. 1949 that document more than 40 crisis and the race for supremacy in raising effort, the archive wW give years of Florida history as TV por• tam its third annual -film and video eyed iL "It's an extraordinary thing, the awards Friday 'at a $75-per- rson For historians looking to see how finest [archive] I've experienced in banquet at -downtown Miami's events were depicted through the what I've had to do in [documenting] years, it's a gold mine. On the the visual history of America," said OP4- 236 Gathering stations' newsreels Local history is archive's intent ARCHIVE, FROM tG Inter -Continental Hotel. Juan Caldera and Roberto Alva- rez, the CBS newsmen from Miami held hostage by Iraqis, will be on hand as part of a salute of Florida broadcasters who covered the Gulf War. The program will showcase excellence in using archival footage to create documentaries, newscasts and artistic productions. DeVinney, a winner last year and one of this year's judges, will also speak — on the importance of preserving local footage. Every time I've ever shown that segment )of Eyes on the Prizel from Miami. from 'S7 or '58, that man standing on his lawn and those white women holding those nice -looking signs that said 'We want this nigger off our lawn,' it always gets a gasp, it's so outrageous. One fleeting image captures the issues of the times; it's one of the most exciting pieces of film we ever came across." To keep or not to keep According to archivists' statistics, there are 600 stations in the United States airing 400 feet of newscasts per day. That's 87,600,000 feet of videotape yearly. Little wonder sta- tions erase and re-record. But there are persuasive cases to be made for stations changing their ways. "During the Civil War, as we saw (on TV) last fall, contemporary his- tory was written by diarists, authors, eye -witness observers and photographers," said Barry Sherman, associate director of the Peabody Archives at the University of Georgia in Athens. "Today, the average person doesn't keep a diary, doesn't write volumes of letters, We record our history on floppy discs, newspaper stock, instamatic photos and videos, all extremely fragile, short-lived mediums that decay quickly. The film and TV preservation movement doesn't exist just. to preserve The lloneymooners and I Love Lucy; it's the major means of preserving our record of being here and our contri- bution to civilization." In Miami last week, Larry Visko- chit, curator of prints and photo- graphs at the Chicago Historical Society, added to Sherman's per- spective. A UNIQUE ARCHIVE: Miami's Louis Wolfson II Media History Center holds newscast reels dating back to 1949. "More than 50 percent of the people get more than 50 percent of their information from television. Video is a volatile medium; if we don't copy and preserve it now, we won't have the luxury of saying, 'Let's go collect some Babylonian tablets.' There won't be anything left to collect." Eearly vision The library's archive is officially named the Louis Wolfson 11 Media History Center, after the man who ran WTVJ-Channel 4 for 20 years and had the vision to preserve por- tions of the station's newscasts and all of its editorials. It began in 1985 when Wometco, which had launched Channel 4 in 1949 as the first TV station in Florida and 16th in the nation, announced that WTVJ was for sale. "We had had a vault specially built for the tapes, with the right temper- ature and all that," said Ralph Ren- ick, the legendary newscaster who spent 35 years as the station's anchor and news director. "We weren't sure what would happen when the station was sold." He contacted historian •Arva Moore Parks, who reached out to others. By 1987, the group had secured space for the reels in the library, established the archive as a not -for -profit organization to make it eligible for county, state and fed- eral grants, and recruited a Long Islander named Steve Davidson from New York's Museum of Broad- casting to move the project forward. ..What attracted me was the new- ness," Davidson said. From the beginning, he made the film avail- able to the public — first by booking the library's auditorium for show- ings from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Sunday, then by getting it on the air through Metro-Dade's cable Chan- nel 34. "No other archive offers any pub- lic access at all," marveled Greg Lukow, deputy director of the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at Los Angeles' Amer- ican Film Institute. In addition, Davidson proved him- self gifted at grants -writing. "Show him resource and that man will get money out of it," said Michael Spring, director of Metro- Dade's Cultural Affairs Council. "He has capitalized on every oppor- tunity available." Good thing. The center operates on less than $90,000 a year. All other funds — for two full-time film technicians and intermittent college interns who help restore, classify and catalog six million feet of film — come from grants. "It's a bare -bones operation," said the archive's board president, Margaret Pelton. How-to manual In a major coup, Davidson recently won $79,000 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in Washington to put together — with Lukow and Viskochil — a manual on how to take care of film archives. It will be the first of its kind. "Probably, we should have been preserving TV news from the time it was first created," said Nancy Sahli, director of the NHPRC's records program. "It has a tremen- dous impact on everyone ... "But there wasn't really any interest until the past 10 years. Now, these things are springing up everywhere, and only a few people really know how to manage them." The Wolfson is a model that other archives should follow, she said. Gathering process To date, none of Dade's other sta- tions has donated full newscasts to the center. "Many people think it's just a Channel 4 repository since Channel 4 got it started," said Ren- ick. But Davidson is working on arrangements with Channels 7, 10 and 23. And he is open to other offers. He would like to create a way for classrooms to use the materials and to launch more public programs. But before he can show you what was telecast on your birthday, he must have additional staff. "Your community at large doesn't realize you're on the cutting edge here," said Chicago's Viskochil. "To have accumulated what you have in just three years is unprece- dented." 4— 236 FIRST. VaJON ♦ ♦ � lam IferaO, SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1992 a�wneawo"•�.r+.+++re M E T R 0 P 0 L I :=UR'BAN `CUVfURE television reporter in a white shirt dark fie and short, establishment haircut is interviewing a man about the time he met fiidel Casten. a time he m on the 7V screen are Ittssy and gray, and neither the jourialist nor the subject seems at ease with the bu1kY microphone or the whoring amen. "l at type o(man is Castro?" the reporter asks. He speak" in.a b�'g, r dio announcer voice, emphasitmhg the word "is." 'To me, Mr. Castro seems like a person who is very. very sincere, very unassuming," the man says. A pilot, he met Castro after flying a journalist to Cuba "People, when th walkup to him, do not salute him or an ing. They walk up to him and say'Fil ell' as if they've known him foryears." 'Ire Interview, recorded on 16mm film, aired on Channel 4 in 1959, before most of the world had made up its mind about the fiery man with the agar and the ecraggTY beard. Apparently the pilot's cheerful, chummy comments wen broadcast only once. then stored to a tin can and Today, the footage has new life as part o(the Louis Wolfson u Media History Center, a collection of news stories and documentaries trom the early days of television. With 10.V 0 million feet of ibn footage and thousands of hours of video the archive, kept in the basement of Dade's Main library, is the largest of its kind in Much of the footage seems ordinary at fast Children play, the Yankees practice hitting in spring training: old Chevys and Fords motor down Biscayne Boulevard. But even those pictures hold surprises: The children, all black, live completely apart from whites; the Yankees are Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra; and there are no hookers on Bisnyne. What's here fa history, for better or for worse. "We could lock the doors and go inside for 25 years and still not we everything that's in there," director Steve Davidson sm. h7AA The Wolfson Center, named for the owner of WTV), was founded in 19M, when Channel4 donated about three million feet of film, some of it dating back to the station's founding in 1949. Since then, the archive has acquired footage from Channel 2, Channel 7, Eastern Airlines and several other sources. It is still trying to get stuff from Channels 6 and 10. The five -person staff spends a lot time cleaning the film, some of which arrives in bent, rusty cans. After the cleaning, the footage is transferred to videotape. Everything we get is unique," Davidson says. He tends to speak softly, the inevitable result of spending years in libraries. 'If we scratch a videotape or if a film isnt handfed property, we cant get replacemert (Dotage. Not even Davidson knows exactly what is in the archive. T'he Channel 4 collection was Indexed when the center got it, but CANNED FLORIDA With 10 million feet of film and thousands of hours of video, the archive in the basement of Dade's Main Library is the largest of its kind in the country. tttttatls most of the other material wasn't. it (The show is not seen in Broward.) probably will take a few years to look at the At first, the most striking thing about rest of the stuff and create a computer list the really old images is not their historical For now, the public can see footage at j value, but how primitive they look. In the the centers frequent exhibitions, and on 1950s. TV news people had to make up the the TV show Rewind, which is shown at rules of the profession as they went along, least once daily on Dadr cable Channel 34and it shows. In one newscast, anchor B Y M 1 K E W I L S O N I Ralph Renick sits behind a loge sign advertising an Oldsmobile deaiersiht In the same program, the young Lick delivers the following useful news: Me Florida Supreme Court today ruled that it is slanderous to coil a person a communist at a public ggathering, beaux it imputes to the accused a loathsome state of mind." Tbat's the whole story. In another clip, Channel 4 receives a � visit from J• Fred Muggs, the chimp who appeared on the Today Shoro long before Willard Scott The pprimate is shown sitting next to Renick C'fbat's the chimp on the i left," Renick says, ppredictably), wrapping itself in a cpool of filrrh and even using a camera to photograph the courthouse in downtown Miuni. So what can we learn from such an artifact?'that silly animal stories arc nothing new on TV, that's what. Which brings up an interesting point Inevitably, the archive reveals a lot about television itself — the shallow, fleeting way in which it treats a story, its emphasis on the bizarre. and its tendency to impart information that's titillating, but not important r 4 4 But even the fluff stories have value now. By watching, say, coverage of an old Orange Bowl Parade, we can see how Mgdressed, how they spoke, what kinds of cars they drove, and most significantly, how Miami looked. And when we see how white men dominated society — they tan all the businesses, held all the elected offices, reported and read all the stories — we can't help but notice how much (and yet how slowly) things have changed. Unfortunately, one of the best fluff stories has been lost. The archive has records showing that, in 1964, Channel 4 covered a brief meeting between Cassius Clay and the Beatles. Clay was in town to fight Sonny Liston — the archive has footage of the bout — and the Fab Four were here, basically, to take over the country. But we may never get to relive the meeting of pop culture icons. "The footage is missing Davidson says have. Channel 4, then a CBS affiliate, might sent it to the network and never got it 1 back, he says. Still, there is much in the collection to admire. The archive has a 1957 Channel 4 documentary called City of Fliltd Cubans, about the thousands of Cubans in Miami who fled their homeland after Batista came to power. It also has stories about spate launches, prosecutor Jim Garrison's search for Miarni ties to the killing of JFK, Jackie Gleason's 1964 move to Miami Beach, the Cuban missile crisis, the 1966 and 1972 Republican National Conventions, and South Florida protests against the Vietnam War. Those of us who moved here from out of state are inclined to think that South Florida was built just last week, just for us. But it wasn't, and the archive has the film to prove it For information abort exhibitions at the Wolfson Center, call 375.1505 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. to 9 �4- 236 March 19-25, 1993 Wo`men's History Seen in `Video Rewind' Programs at the Media History Center 0 The Louis Wolfson 11 Media History Center's Video Rewind screening series presents the fol- lowing film and video rarities from the Wolfson Center's collections which reflect Women's History in South Florida and the nation. -The Lee Dickens Show (1954) When WTVJ erected its new 1.000•foot broadcast tower in 1954, Lee Dickens, the station's resident female daredevil, saw it as an irresistible challenge. Dickens, whose previous adventures included alligator wrestling and valking on the wing of an airplane, climbs to the top of the sower in this, the only episode of her show known to exist. -She'sNobody's Baby: The HistoryojAmerican Women in the Twentieth Century (1981) This documentary, co -produced by Ms. magazine and Home Box Office, traces the evolution and current status of women in American society. Hosted by Alan Alda and Marlo Thomas, She's Nobody's Baby was the first televi- sion program produced exclusively for cable television to win a Peabody Award. •Susan's Pregnant (1968) This report from WTVJ's long -running "FYI" series spotlights the Florence Crittenton Home, a facility for pregnant, unmarried teenagers. Touching on a wide range of issues beyond teenage pregnancy, this show eschews a standard news report format in favor of a more direct approach based on interviews with the young residents of the Home. Screening dates and times for Video Rewind are Tues- days, March 2.9, 16 and 23 at 12:30 p.m. and Thursdays. March 4.11,18 and 25 at 12:30 p.m. Screenings are free and open to the public and all take place in the auditorium of the Main Library of the Miami -Dade Public Library System, 101 W. Flagler St. in Miami. Special screenings and archive tours can also be arranged in addition to regularly scheduled Video Rewind screenings. For more inj'ormanon, call the lihrary at (305) 375- 4527. 94- 236 // Miami Beach. North Miami, North Miami Beach VOLUME VII, NUMBER 11 Thursday, June 10. 1993 Adak n Ralr FOttAet PAID t --I,. A e...a.ld._ 111. slaw Vttaoe. Bat Harbour, Bay Harbor islander Sunny Isles. Golden Beach Wolfson Center Recognizes film, Video Excellence FRANK STREET Special to the SunPost WCD{-6 News anchor Barbara Sloan will pre- side over the Louis Wolf. son II Media History Center's fifth annual Film and Video Awards Ceremony tonight, June 10, recognizing excel. lence and community service to film and video productions in four award categories. The Wolfson Center will also inaugurate a new award, the Ralph Renick Media Award. In conjunction with the Awards presenta- tion, the Wolfson Center is sponsoring a series of seminars featuring dis. tinguished guest panel. ists from the fields of tel- evision production and moving image archives. This years Awards j Ceremony, held at the Colony Theatre in Mia- mi Beach, is a free event, open to the public, featuring screenings of excerpts from winning programs and a dessert buffet. Louis Wolfson III will present the first Ralph Renick Media Award, which recognizes out- standing contributions to the understanding of history and the welfare of, the community through the use of media and archives. The Award is named for Florida television pio- neer Ralph Renick, who was News Director and anchor at WTVJ-4 for more than thirty years. Renick died in 1991. Representatives of lo- cal television stations and Awards Program jurors will present the Wolfson Center Awards, which recognize excel- lence in Documentary, News and Artistic film and video production. Productions featuring archival film and video materials are also recog- nized. South Florida na- tive Elizabeth Deane, an award -winning producer at public television sta- tion WGBH in Boston, will address the gather- ing. Deane is among this year's Awards Program jurors. The Awards Ceremony will be recorded for broadcast by educational television station WLRN-17. Award festivities be. gin at 6:00 PM, with a reception at the Found- lings Club, located at 927 Lincoln Road, Mia. mi Beach. There is a $25.00 ad- mission charge for this two hour event; those who wish to make an ad. ditional contribution to the Wolfson Center may purchase Sponsorships at $100.00 per person. The Awards Ceremony begins at 8:15 PM at the Colony Theater, located at1040 Lincoln Road. The Ceremony, which will feature screenings of excerpts from this year 'a Award winners, is free and open to the pub- lic. The Louis Wolfson 11 Media History Center Film and Video Awards program was established to provide a showcase for excellence foi documen- taries, news coverage, artistic productions and productions which incor. porate archival footage. The awards program underscores the impor- tance of preserving film and video productions which were produced in Florida or are about Florida. Serving as jurors for this year's Awards Pro- gram are Elizabeth Deane, who, in fifteen years as a producer at WGBH-TV in Boston, has produced such award -winning pro- grams as The Kennedys and Nixon; Dan den Bleyker, Archivist/ Curator at the Mississip- pi Department of Ar. chives and History; Jim Gaffey, a producer and writer for the MacNeill Lehrer Newshour; Dr. Brian Rose, Special Pro- jects Coordinator for the Director's Guild of Amer- ica and Professor of Me- dia Studies at Fordham University; Dr. Barry Sherman, Director of the Peabody Awards Pro- gram at the University of Georgia; Ron Simon, Television Coordinator of the Museum of Televi- sion and Radio; Don Chauncey, Film and Vid- eo Department Manag- er, Miami -Dade Public Library System; Dr. Paul George, South Flor- ida historian; and Mel Kiser, South Florida filmmaker. Elizabeth Deane, Dan den Bleyker, Jim Gaffey and Dr. Paul George are scheduled to attend the Awards Ceremony, The Louis Wolfson II Media History Center is an Official Moving Im. age Center and Archive of the State of Florida. The Wolfson Center's mission — important to all Floridians, and part of a broader national ef. fort — is to collect, pre- serve, catalog and make accessible to the public an organized, document- ed and professionally ad. ministered resource for film and video materials which reflect Florida's history and culture. Since its establish- ment in 1985 the Wolf. son Center has grown to become one of the larg- est and most active insti- tutions of its kind in the country, acknowledged as a model archive by both the National Ar. chives and the National Center for Film and Vid- eo Preservation of the American Film Institute. For further informa- tion regarding the Louis Wolfson II Media His- tory Center call (305) 375-1505, .4- 13 236