A Finding Aid to Accompany the "GBH Archives Special Collection" Promotional Reel

The WGBH sting. With its synthesizer crescendo, the sting has changed very little since it sizzled across the airwaves around 1970. The flair was created by legendary composer Gershon Kingsley, who died in 2019 at the age of 97. An up-and-coming musician who elevated the Moog synthesizer to almost cult status during the 1970s, Kingsley developed the sting in conjunction with two GBH employees: WGBH’s director of creative services and the general manager. It happened in secret, and the story of its development was almost lost to history.

The GBH Archives was established in 1979 and is US public media’s oldest professional archive. It is responsible for acquiring, preserving, and providing access to the station's media assets and administrative records. The Archives is open and free to internal and external researchers by appointment. We offer guidance for archival research, access to media and materials from prior GBH productions, and assistance with the production shutdown process. Karen Cariani, the Founder and Director of GBH Archives, provides the voice over for this trailer.

This logo represents the long-running WGBH public affairs show  Say Brother  (1968-1997). Say Brother premiered three months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and gave voice to Black perspectives during a period of racial protest and rapid social change. In 1998, Say Brother became Basic Black (1998-2024), a title that producer Cynthia Johnson felt was more inclusive of women.

This is the title card for FRONTLINE. Produced at GBH and distributed through PBS, FRONTLINE first debuted in 1983 as a series of documentary films on a variety of contemporary subjects produced by the Documentary Consortium, a group of public television stations including KCTS Seattle, WNET New York, WPBT Miami, WTVS Detroit, and WGBH Boston. Today FRONTLINE is produced at GBH, where its senior editorial team and newsroom are headquartered. FRONTLINE works with a production corps of independent filmmakers and frequently collaborates with news organizations such as ProPublica, NPR, The New York Times, and the Associated Press, among others. Most episodes are one hour in length, although some are extended to 90 minutes, 2 hours, or longer. The series was founded by David Fanning, who served as executive producer for over 30 years, from 1983-2015, with Raney Aronson-Rath taking on the position in 2015. Will Lyman has served as the narrator for over three decades, starting in 1984. 

This is the title card to Greater Boston. Created in 1997, Greater Boston provides news with local depth and local perspective through conversations with the people who bring Boston to life. Greater Boston suspended production in May 22, 2024 while GBH reinvent the show as digital first.

Advocates was series that hosted a range of debates with a moderator facilitating the discussion on national and international issues – using advocates who would introduce witnesses to support their point of view. Many debates were recorded at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. Moderators included: Michael Dukakis; Marilyn Berger; Michael Harrington, Robert Maynard. Premiered October, 1969; conceived by Prof. Roger Fisher.

Groundbreaking in concept, The Press and the People: An Inquiry Into the Work of the American Press in Informing the American People was one of the first series to explore how newspaper and television reporters covered key events in the 1950s, and how that shaped public opinion and knowledge on issues such as the nuclear weapons, the Berlin Crisis and secrecy in the government. Hosted by Louis Lyons, the first television newscaster at GBH, The Press and the People brought together esteemed journalists such as Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid and Martin Agronsky to discuss their role in the creation and dissemination of current events. The episode this clip is taken from is episode 2 in the series, and entitled "Washington and the Press."

The images here come from the Ten O'Clock News. The episode covers when on June 1, 1967 members of the Roxbury-based Mothers for Adequate Welfare (MAW) organization, along with their children and a few of their supporters began a peaceful sit-in demonstration at the Grove Hall Welfare Office demanding to speak with the Daniel I. Cronin, the City Welfare Director to discuss their grievances. The following day, as spectators and supporters gathered outside the building, the Boston Police Department forcefully removed the demonstrators and dispersed the crowd. Amid accusations of police brutality, a riot erupted in the Roxbury area of Grove Hall lasting three days. This short video (no sound) shows a few photographs taken of the riot on Blue Hill Avenue and its aftermath. The video zooms in and out of approximately six different photographs that were taken by staff of the Boston Herald, one of Boston's daily newspapers. The shots include: (1) Three helmeted, White Boston police officers carrying a Black man by his arms and legs, with other officers in the background; (2) Rubbish strewn about the street, people running into stores, including two men leaving a store with large boxes; (3) A sign in front of a cement finishing company that states: "Caution! Please, I am your Soul Brother, Ruben Johnson;" (4) Boston Police officers, in riot gear and displaying firearms, walking along Blue Hill Avenue; (5) A man (possibly a police detective) inside a shoe store in which there are boxes and merchandise strewn about; and (6) another man inside a store, showing boxes and merchandise strewn around the store.

The clip comes from the series The French Chef presented by Julia Child. Between 1962-1972, approximately 300 episodes of The French Chef were broadcast. Series 1 of The French Chef was broadcast from 1963-1966 and was originally shot in the WGBH studio in black and white with over 100 episodes. The French Chef series continued with Series 2 in 1970; it was shot in color and featured Julia Child’s summer trip to France. Series 3, shot in 1972, offered French culinary classics and programs which focused on the theme of the "French Chef faces real life" with episodes like Sudden Company. The episode this clip comes from is entitled "Lasagne a la Franacaise." The episode description states: A great way to use yesterday's roast, be it poultry, veal or pork. Julia's French lasagne is a delicious concoction of pasta, Italian tomato sauce, saffron threads, dried orange peel, left over turkey, veal or whatever, and an "inner sauce" that's rich and velvety.

This clip comes from the popular locally-produced disco dance instruction program Dancing Disco (1978–1979), the episode is: Line Dancing and Disco Fashion; 101

This clip comes from James Brown At The Boston Garden. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, legendary singer James Brown and Mayor Kevin White address the crowd at the Boston Garden concert.

This sequence was shot at George Blood LP, the world class digitization facility GBH entrusts to transfer it's physical media archive into digital files.

Information about FRONTLINE is introduced at the 12 second mark. This clip is taken from the episode entitled, The Dallas Drug War and Follow-Up Discussion. This episode aired in 1992 and followed one neighborhood in Dallas Texas as it attempts to combat the drugs and violence that threaten lives and the future of the community.

This extract comes from GBH's long-running show, NOVA. Over 40 years old, NOVA is the most popular primetime science series on American television, demystifying the scientific and technological concepts that shape and define our lives, our planet, and our universe. The PBS series is also one of the most widely distributed science programs in the world, and is a multimedia, multiplatform brand reaching more than 55 million Americans every year on TV and across digital platforms. The clips here come from theTo the Moon Interviews; specifically: Interview with Leon "Lee" Silver and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt at Sunset Crater, Interview with Buzz Aldrin, engineer and astronaut, and lunar module pilot on Apollo 11, and Footage of the moon, shots of Farouk El-Baz and James W. Head.

American Experience (1988-present) is one of TV's most-watched history series, bringing to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today. The clip is taken from the documentary In the White Man's Image and explores an experiment that begun in the late 1800s, to assimilate Indians into mainstream American society.

These clip comes from Masterpiece Theatre and feature Alistair Cooke who hosted the program between (1971-1992) The first clip is taken from 20th Anniversary Favorites which introduced re-aired episodes from the first 20 years of the show as a celebration. The second clip comes from an intro to the episodeThe Death of the Heart which was broadcast on May 3rd, 1987.

New Television Workshop at GBH supported the creation and broadcast of experimental works by artists from 1974 to 1993. This clip comes from the opening sequence ofSet and Reset.

This clip comes from the record James Brown At The Boston Garden. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 a concert was held at the Boston Garden. In this excerpt Councilor Tom Atkins and legendary singer James Brown introduce Mayor Kevin White onto the stage. White addresses the crowd, urging they respect the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Brown salutes Mayor White and sings "That's Life."

French Chef: Lasagne a la Francaise; 208. See annotation at the 26 second mark.

Joyce Chen Cooks followed production of the French Chef and began in 1966. Like The French Chef, all the program first aired locally and then was distributed nationally on public television. You can read more about the show here in this scholarly digital exhibit created by Dana Polan. The episode referenced by the video is entitled Beef and Vegetables. The episode description states: The authentic Chinese way to cook Western beef with Chinese vegetables like beef with broccoli, beef with green peppers, beef with fresh mushrooms, beef with pea pods, and beef with Chinese cabbage. Flank steak, cut in slices, and seasoned in a special way is cooked by the Quick-stir method with vegetables in just a few minutes. 

The clip is taken from the popular children’s half-hour educational program ZOOM. ZOOM  was a kid-centric, mostly-unscripted show focused on giving kids, especially the cohort aged 7-12, a platform to relate to one another through games, plays, recipes, songs, and chats. The series was hosted by a rotating cast of child hosts known as “ZOOMers” who led viewers through a variety of segments with inventive names like “ZOOMovie”, “ZOOMchat”, “ZOOMphenomenon”, and “ZOOMguest”. ZOOM aired in two series, its original run from 1972-1978, and a second run from 1999-2005. This clip comes from the episode:Series I; 227.

This archival footage from the Ten O'Clock News was sourced from the award-winning GBH podcastThe Big Dig (2024). The podcast made significant use of archival footage from the GBH Archives to explore the controversies of American infrastructure by telling the story of Boston’s Big Dig. The Big Dig was a massive highway tunneling effort that is infamous for its ever-increasing price tag and became a symbol of waste and corruption. The extracted clip comes from the episode Breaking Ground

This clip featured in an episode of the Ten O'Clock News that aired on November 1, 1984 reporting on the Reagan Rally at City Hall Plaza in Boston, when anti-Reagan protesters demonstrated.

From GBH's Black public affairs show Say Brother - see note at the 12 second mark. This clip is taken from The Blue Notes The presenter Barbara Barrow-Murray interviews Jerry Cummings and Dwight Johnson, two members of the R&B vocal group The Blue Notes.

For series information see annotation on Say Brother at the 12 second mark. This clip comes from episode 419 that aired on March 17, 1975. The episode examines the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the lives of African Americans. Host Leah Fletcher interviews Vernon Sport (President of the New England Regional Conference of the NAACP), Tom Atkins (President of the Boston Branch of the NAACP), and Reverend Charles Smith (National Board Member for the NAACP) and asks how the NAACP works towards equality in America, how the NAACP has proven itself, what the role is of the court system in the NAACP's work, how the NAACP decides which issues it will pursue, how citizen or test cases are selected, in what areas the NAACP has been most effective, and why desegregation in Boston is an important issue.

This clip comes from the Ten O'Clock News broadcast on October 26, 1987 and covers the tension over school desegregation in Lowell. Jones reports that Robert Kennedy (Mayor of Lowell) called on supporters of school desegregation to show support by riding buses with students in Lowell today. Jones' report includes footage of Kennedy addressing supporters, including Evelyn Murphy (Lieutenant governor of Massachusetts), Luis Tiant (former Red Sox pitcher) and Grace Corrigan (mother of astronaut Christa McAuliffe). Jones reports that George Kouloheras (Lowell School Committee) is a leader of the anti-busing movement in Lowell. Jones reports that Kuoloheras is campaigning to elect anti-busing candidates to the Lowell School Committee in order to overturn the present school desegregation plan. Jones interviews Kouloheras. Kouloheras says that he hopes that new school committee will reject busing and find another way to integrate schools. Jones also interviews Michael Kennedy (Regional Manager, National School Bus Service, Inc.) and Donna Senior (Lowell parent) about the bus routes in Lowell. Jones notes that the coming elections will decide how school desegregation is implemented in Lowell. Jones' report is accompanied by footage of students and school buses in Lowell. This tape includes additional footage of school buses on the streets in Lowell.