35 Years Of TV History On Videotape
BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. This story hits home with us news junkies. Every single frame of network news, cable news, assorted local news, every news broadcast for 35 years is about to be preserved for posterity, 35 years. And for that we have this woman to thank, the late Marion Stokes. Marion Stokes hit record way back in 1977, wars, earthquakes, sports reports, weather. She didn't stop until December of 2012. She was rolling on Iran during the hostage crisis, rolling in '89 when communism collapsed. She was rolling in 1990 for the release of Nelson Mandela. Still rolling on 9/11, 2001. Marion Stokes missed Sandy Hook. She missed the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School because that is the day that Marion Stokes died, December 14th, 2012. One year later, all of that history, 140,000 cassette tapes' worth, all of that history arriving today by truck at an archive in San Francisco from Stokes' home in Philadelphia. So with me now from Philadelphia is Marion Stokes' son, Mike Metelits. We are also joined by Roger McDonald of the Internet Archive in San Francisco. But Mike, my goodness, let me just begin with you because I'm wondering first, did you help your mom do this, record 35 years of TV news?</s>MICHAEL METELITS, MARION STOKES' SON: Well, certainly I was involved at the beginning of it. I don't think anybody really visited the home without being drawn into the vortex. This was a kind of consuming passion. So yes, I was around for the beginning of it and on periodic visits back home. Of course, you'd help out and you'd see the scale of the operation.</s>BALDWIN: Mike, to use your word, let's talk about the vortex. Walk me inside of your mother's home. Did she have multiple televisions, multiple VCRs? Are we talking VHS tape?</s>METELITS: My mom started out with beta. She understood the difference between beta and VHS. She really preferred the beta tapes. I think Roger can confirm, when we watched a couple of the tapes from the '70s and '80s, the beta held up a little better. So she started on beta and was forced to VHS sometime in the mid-'80s. Yes, there would be about four or five cassette recorders. She usually sat in a room with two TVs going, usually with ideologically opposing cable channels kind of blaring at each other and recording all of them pretty much at the same time. Yes, I think -- imagine piles of video cassettes precariously balanced near several machines. I think you have the gist of it.</s>BALDWIN: I'm thinking maybe some of the offices around here at CNN looked like that with the various televisions. I have to come back to you and ask you why she did this, but first Roger, to you. You run the TV portion of the Internet Archive in San Francisco. Just tell me how rare is this collection from Marion Stokes and also in terms of worth? Did I read its estimated worth is in the millions?</s>ROGER MACDONALD, THE INTERNET ARCHIVE, SAN FRANCISCO (via telephone): Well, it's hard to estimate, but it's an exceptional collection, really an unprecedented collection. I'm actually standing in front of one of the two -- one of the four containers with Sean Fagan here at the Internet Archive. Before me stands row upon row upon row of cartons, inside of which are hundreds of VCRs and VHS tapes. I just randomly pulled some. In front of me, random now, November 22nd, 1993, CNN throughout the day. And May 12th, 1993, Fox News, NBC News, McNeil Lair. It's remarkable.</s>BALDWIN: Mike, why? This is really the question. Why did your mom -- was she fascinated by history? Did she have a love of television, a tad eccentric, all of the above, tell me.</s>METELITS: Certainly all of the above. My mother had been a political activist in the late '50s, early '60s. She understood the power of media to shape public opinion. She knew this would have an effect. She wanted to record it all. She really also had a kind of deep abiding faith in people, that if people had access to a wide range of information, they'd make good decisions. She wanted to make sure that as much information from as many sources as possible was kept. The Internet Archive's vision is very, very synchronous with my mom's vision. We're very delighted to be working with them.</s>BALDWIN: I am sorry about the passing of your mother, but what a fascinating treasure-trove that your mother has really left all of us. Mike, thank you very much. Roger Macdonald, send me a picture of those crates of VHS tapes. I'd love to see that as well. Thanks to both of you. Coming up next, we're showing you the coldest place on earth. Scientists have found it, and just this weekend a heavy metal band rocked it. They even played in a transparent dome. That's next.