This Week’s Discoveries

Media Burn is proud to announce that we have received a grant from the Illinois Historical Records Advisory Board for an exciting project to make our paper document collection accessible for the first time.

These rare documents chronicle the history of portable video and independent TV, featuring pamphlets, newsletters, notes, magazine and newspaper articles, correspondence, and more.  We have several thousand of one-of-a-kind documents and pictures that will be online someday.

We’ve found some neat things already (click on any of the images to enlarge them):

A postcard from the groundbreaking 1972 TVTV coverage of the Democratic National Convention, “The World’s Largest TV Studio”:

And, when The 90’s covered the 1992 election, they sent this photograph to Clinton campaign manager James Carville, and he sent a letter in response:

Thirdly, we found a pull-out section from the 1961 Chicago Daily News describing the fantastic world to come in 1970, complete with personal helicopters!

(click to enlarge)

Finally, for those of you who have been wanting an end to the Daley era, here’s someone who thought Richard J. wasn’t enough:

We’ve got lots of work to do over the next year, but we’ve gotten a great system started thanks to outstanding advice from Loyola University Archivist Kathy Young. We would never be as organized without the help and commitment of Nausicaa Renner who has been interning with us from the University of Chicago.

We’re off to a good start and have completed organizing the massive 90’s collection of correspondence, production notes, logs, editing records, etc.

Keep your eye out for future updates on this exciting project.

Cajun Legend Nathan Abshire, 1975

This week, enjoy some of the best of Cajun music in a video by TVTV called “The Good Times Are Killing Me.”

TVTV was an ad hoc assemblage of “video freaks” who came together from around the country in 1972 to use the brand new technology of portable videotape to create the first non-network produced video broadcast of the Democratic and Republication National Conventions.  It was an audacious experiment with creating television from an outsider’s perspective and a first step at a movement to create a new kind of television not controlled by corporate interests.

TVTV Pool Coverage, 1972

Three years later, a smaller configuration of TVTV, including Wendy Appel, Paul Goldsmith, Petur Hliddal, Robby Kenner, Hudson Marquez, David Myers, Allen Rucker, and Suzanne Tedesko, went down to Louisiana to make a very different kind of tape–a warm and enjoyable documentary about Cajun life and culture, focusing to a large extent on the music of “Mr. Accordion” Nathan Abshire.  Enjoy this portrait of a fascinating character and some great singing and dancing, and then watch the full hour at Media Burn.

Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (1928-2010)

This has been a summer full of deaths that have a close connection to Media Burn.  Yesterday, we were saddened to hear about the death of former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski.

Dan Rostenkowski was one of the most powerful Congressmen in Washington for 36 years, serving as the Chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee. His seat in the 5th district of Illinois continues to be a national and local locus of power, having been filled by Rod Blagojevich, Rahm Emanuel, and now Mike Quigley.

In 1980, Tom Weinberg spent several weeks shooting Rostenkowski at the height of his power, at the time of his first appointment to the Chairmanship of Ways and Means. In our video tribute below, Rostenkowski openly discusses the way politics actually get done in Chicago and Washington. It begins with his frank introduction to the 1980 freshman Democratic Representatives orientation meeting, where he assures the new politicians that the Democratic party will never ask them to vote for bills that will harm their chances of being re-elected, and therefore expects their loyalty. Next, he tells a story that reveals not only his own power on the national level, but shows that in all matters Chicago, Mayor Richard J. Daley trumped even President Lyndon Johnson. Finally, we see Rostenkowski in action at a rally in Pulaski Park, speaking with genuine affection about his lifetime neighborhood of Bucktown, confident that it would eventually revitalize.

Dan Rostenkowski and Tom Weinberg on Election Day, 1980

Through the support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, we were able to digitize all 15 hours of Rostenkowski from 1980, and all of these rare historical materials are available on mediaburn.org. They form an in-depth look at the Chicago and national political process and this fascinating character.

A DVD of this documentary, including outtakes of the Congressman, will soon be available for purchase through the Tribeca Film Festival’s Reframe project — keep your eye out for an announcement this fall.

Hester Street Chronicles

Mary Polon recounts a story from her childhood as a Polish-Jewish immigrant in New York, involving two calamitous trips to Coney Island, her mother’s ingenious hiding place for her prized “screws,” and a lifelong feud with their downstairs neighbor.

Mrs. Polon lived at 88 Hester Street, in New York, which used to be the center of an Ashkenazi Jewish neighborhood, but in recent years the street has become part of Chinatown.  Today, the tenement and the fire escapes that Mrs. Polon describes in the video have become Chinese storefronts:

88 Hester Street, New York, today

Go to Media Burn to hear more about Hester Street, including stories about a second husband who was so large they couldn’t close his coffin, a rotund mother’s mid-life decision to parade around in a bikini, a wintertime nude race up a fire escape, a hooker with a heart of gold (sort of), and more.

Television Legend Bob Wussler (1936-2010)

Tom introduces a piece on television legend Bob Wussler, who passed away in early June. Wussler was one of the architects of modern television. In these telling interviews, Wussler talks about the evolution of television from the 1960s through the 1980s and shares his thoughts on global television and the future.

To watch the 1976 interview, click here.

Bob Wussler’s New York Times Obit

Remembering Dick Buckley

Longtime WBEZ all-night jazz DJ Dick Buckley (1925-2010) passed away today, at the age of 85.  Buckley’s jazz program was a fixture on Chicago Public Radio every Monday through Friday night, from 1977 to 2008.

This short clip of Buckley in the WBEZ studio is from the 1989 documentary Radio Faces.  To watch the entire documentary, go to:  http://mediaburn.org/Video-Preview.128.0.html?&uid=4927

Waiting for the American Dream

What do immigrants expect of America, and how does it differ from their home countries? Videomaker Skip Blumberg asks applicants for citizenship at a New York immigration office in “Waiting for the American Dream”:

If you want to watch the full version at Media Burn, click here.

This video blog was inspired by Act 2 of an episode of This American Life, “True Urban Legends.” “Fleeing is Believing” starts at 35:32.

In 1991, the U.S. opened a one week window to receive applications for a Visa lottery through the U.S. Postal Service. They received over 23 million applications. Check out Eddie Becker’s video of the mayhem that followed in this episode of The 90′s.

And in this video from 1977, Valjean McLenighan interviews two of her relatives about their experiences immigrating from Poland, and the disillusionment they felt after they arrived.

Chicago Style Hot Dog Establishments

Though Chicago may be known elsewhere for its pizza, our video collection seems to have a preoccupation with hot dogs and hot dog establishments.

The video below features a trip in 1980 to the easily recognizable Superdawg at Milwaukee and Devon, where filmmakers Joe and Frank McGarry stop to eat before waiting for Pope John Paul II’s motorcade to pass through the distinctly Polish neighborhood.

But before that, back when they only had 3 locations in 1992,  Image Union broadcast a commercial for Gold Coast Dogs:

However, the restaurant was first featured on Image Union in 1988, when videomaker Chuck Olin captured the unique success story of Irv and Barry Potekin on tape:

Watch more footage from Gold Coast Dogs featuring Barry Potekin and

artist Tony Fitzpatrick: “The only place I never eat a hot dog is at home.”

Watch more footage from Gold Coast Dogs featuring Barry Potekin andartist Tony Fitzpatrick: “The only place I never eat a hot dog is at home.”

Summertime in Chicago

This video by Nick Despota, Scott Jacobs, and John Mabey celebrates summer in Chicago through a visit to Englewood in 1979.

To watch the full version at Media Burn, click here!

Best of the NBA Finals

Watch more vintage basketball from Media Burn.