Re: [ARSCLIST] lost archives, was [ARSCLIST] Fwd: Re: [ARSCLIST] Hard disk drives and DAT

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On the subject of lost archives..from yesterday's Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/196214

The search for sports history
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Great chunks of classic footage – like that of the Maple Leafs' last Stanley 
Cup – may be gone forever
Mar 27, 2007 04:30 AM
Chris Zelkovich

With the 40th anniversary of the Toronto Maple Leafs' last Stanley Cup 
approaching, marketers are dreaming of a sure-fire best-seller: a DVD featuring 
all six games of the Cup final.

Parents could pass it on to their children, who could pass it on to theirs and, 
depending on how long this Cup-free streak continues, they could leave it for 
future generations.

At this point, though, it's only a dream. Video of the series doesn't exist.

And that last Leaf triumph is not alone. It's one of many great moments in 
sports history, a significant chunk of our sporting heritage, that have 
disappeared.

"Leaf fans and Leaf haters mark that anniversary every single year so having 
the entire series to mark the 40th would have been great for both camps," says 
Stewart Johnston, vice-president of programming for ESPN Classic Canada, which 
is in the business of finding and airing great sports moments. "But we'll 
continue to look and hope because we know that a lot of stuff is still out there.

"We salivate at the thought of digging up that treasure trove."

Unearthing that treasure trove is no mean feat. It requires a bit of CSI-style 
sleuthing combined with a bit of Antiques Road Show luck.

But some gems thought to have been extinct have been unearthed:
# Footage of Bill Barilko's legendary game-winning goal in the 1951 Stanley Cup 
final was found in a box at the national archives marked "unidentified hockey." 
It had been shot by a Leafs employee seated in the greens.
# The only known video record of Willie O'Ree's NHL debut, making him the first 
black player to play in the league, was discovered in a newsreel of a visit to 
Montreal by the prime minister of Laos in 1958.
# The broadcast of Don Larsen's historic perfect game in the 1956 World Series, 
thought to have disappeared, was bought at a flea market. But even that copy is 
missing the first inning.

There's a simple explanation for the absence of so many historic game 
broadcasts: Nobody thought to save them.

As a result, films were cut up for highlights, left in basements, taken home 
for posterity or simply lost. When videotape came along in the '70s, games were 
often taped over to save money.

"For all we know, some of sports' greatest games disappeared because somebody 
needed tape for The Littlest Hobo," Johnston says. "Everybody was guilty of it.

"Really, 30 years ago who would have thought that anybody would want to watch 
an entire hockey or baseball game again?"

Certainly no one envisioned the day when channels like ESPN Classic and Leafs 
TV would actually air entire games from the past.

As a result, there is still a long list of great games on the missing list.

Only four of the six games from the '67 final exist in their entirety. Game 4 
is complete with one exception: all of the goals, apparently snipped out for 
highlights.

The first Major League Baseball game played by a Canadian team, the 1969 
Montreal Expos, is still missing.

Also unavailable for broadcast is Maple Leaf legend Darryl Sittler's historic 
10-point night. Sittler has the only known copy of the entire game, but he's 
not talking.

Also on the missing list: the first two Super Bowls.

But there is hope that these and other significant games can be found. The man 
who has found many of them in unlikely places is confident that they're out 
there somewhere.

"There are a lot of things still to be discovered in attics and garages," says 
Paul Patskou, a former computer programmer who has made a successful business 
of finding such sporting gems.

He should know. This Columbo of sports has found film records everywhere.

Leafs TV wanted to show a 14-1 victory over the New York Rangers from 1957, but 
couldn't find the third period.

One day Patskou got a call from somebody who'd just bought a house and found 
boxes of films in the garage. They had been borrowed from the CBC library in 
the '60s and one still had the library card attached.

The collection included the missing period.

When plans were made to create a videotape set for the 30th anniversary of the 
'72 Summit Series, the producers faced monumental problems. Despite the 
significance of the series, CTV had erased or lost all copies while the CBC 
only had parts of the games.

Game 8 was missing the first goal of the third period because of a satellite 
glitch. The last 15 minutes of Game 2 were gone, apparently because somebody 
erased footage instead of taping it.

Then there were Games 1 and 4. Only half of the English broadcast had been 
preserved. Video from the French broadcast was used, but there was the matter 
of finding English audio.

However, Patskou learned that a Calgary fan had recorded the series' audio on 
an old reel-to-reel tape recorder.

"They married the tape to the French broadcast and it worked," Patskou recalls.

Patskou stumbled across the O'Ree film while doing research for the CBC. Others 
were found on desks at networks.

``Some producers kept copies for themselves," Johnston says. ``There'll be 
stacks of tapes on desks covered in dust and you'll find amazing stuff."

Still others show up in private collections. After all, with thousands of 
dollars at stake depending on how much networks want the video, there's an 
added incentive to collect this stuff.

"Sometimes we don't ask questions," Patskou says.

Archivists were handed a bonanza recently when the settlement of a 30-year 
dispute freed up more than 800 Hockey Night In Canada kinescopes from the '60s.

The CBC had apparently left them at Maple Leaf Gardens and owner Harold 
Ballard, being Harold Ballard, decided to toss them out. Broadcaster Brian 
McFarlane rescued them and stored them at a Toronto studio, agreeing to share 
ownership with the studio boss.

But the studio owner died and his successors hung on to them for three decades 
before eventually selling them to Molson.

For every success, there are many frustrations.

Leafs TV again wanted a 1964 game that saw the perennial sad-sack Boston Bruins 
beat the defending champion Leafs 11-0. After a diligent search, Patskou found 
a kinescope – basically a film shot off the TV screen.

Unfortunately, it contained everything but the 11 goals.

"They used to clip out film for highlights back then," he says. "There are a 
lot kinescopes like that."

While some may consider these "classic" games as cheap filler for digital 
channels, Patskou believes they've played a significant role in unearthing 
sports history.

``If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said much of this stuff would 
never be found," he says. "But if it wasn't for the classic games, we probably 
never would have found them."