The Incredible Story Of Marion Stokes, Who Single-Handedly Taped 35 Years Of TV News

[Ohio Joe]

Via Blues News:

In a storage unit somewhere in Philadelphia, 140,000 VHS tapes sit packed into four shipping containers. Most are hand-labeled with a date between 1977 and 2012, and if you pop one into a VCR you might see scenes from the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the Reagan Administration, or Hurricane Katrina.

It's 35 years of history through the lens of TV news, captured on a dwindling format.

It's also the life work of Marion Stokes, who built an archive of network, local, and cable news, in her home, one tape at a time, recording every major (and trivial) news event until the day she died in 2012 at the age of 83 of lung disease.

Stokes was a former librarian who for two years co-produced a local television show with her then-future husband, John Stokes Jr. She also was engaged in civil rights issues, helping organize buses to the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, among other efforts. She began casually recording television in 1977. She taped lots of things, but she thought news was especially important, and when cable transformed it into a 24-hour affair, she began recording MSNBC, Fox, CNN, CNBC, and CSPAN around the clock by running as many as eight television recorders at a time.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3022022/the-incredible-story-of-marion-stokes-who-single-handedly-taped-35-years-of-tv-news

Wow... This is pretty awesome, I'd really love to see an index of everything.

[PCIntern]

1. Interesting...and here is another story from Philly

Many years ago we had John Facenda on channel 10, the CBS affiliate here at the time. He was on from the late 40's or early 50's through into the early 80's or so, and when he died, the station went to produce a program to showcase his years of evening news. There was nothing in the archives...they ran the same loop over and over - for all the thousands of hours on the tube, there was virtually nothing remaining at least at the station.

Facenda was the first voice of NFL films and I believe, was credited with pioneering the early evening and 11 PM news combination and the format that eventually was utilized universally. It is a real loss to broadcasting and to the community.

For other Philly TV worshippers there is no video or Kinescope of Sally Starr who was on for over 20 years here. Just some film of her public appearances. It is almost unbelievable and is probably true in general nationally. What a travesty.

[hunter]

2. I'm so glad the collection is getting a good home.

It would have made Ms. Stokes happy.

Obsessions like this can be a burden, but sometimes things turn out well.

(My own grandma collected burned out light bulbs and Styrofoam fast food containers, among other things... not the sort of "history" any sane person would be interested in.)