Only a few hundred reels of film from WJZ-TV survived. People thought video was going to replace film and switched over without knowing that videotape would be a more volatile and short-lived material. Rumor has it that decades ago while repaving the WJZ parking lot, they buried the film library under the asphalt.

In the large Unknown or Unidentified footage series, we are excited to find dubs of films on Umatic and Betacam tapes. Thanks to the CLIR grant, we’ve been able to uncover some lost film footage. Some of that footage belongs to the series, Focal Point. This program was sponsored by WJZ-TV and the Greater Baltimore Committee “to make it possible for people in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area to take part in the search for better solutions to the problems of modern urban life.” It was envisioned as a town hall meeting large enough to accommodate the city through television. Informal discussion viewer groups were set up around the city in hopes of creating a more engaged citizenry. 

Two of the tapes we found were the first episode which was a 24-hour survey of Baltimore. One has narration and one does not. In total, we have about nine Focal Point episodes on film, Umatic, and Betacam. Six of them have been digitized so far and the remaining three are on film. The first one titled, “The City” or “The Sound In the Street” (1961) is a hello to Baltimore and an introduction to the series as it touches upon some issues that would be covered in later episodes.

Thanks to the CLIR grant, we’ve been able to begin organizing items such as this out of the Unknown and into their correct series. Focal Point topics we have in our collection include the history of Baltimore, urban renewal, mass transit, racism, adolescent offenders, and teenage pregnancy. We hope that by making this footage more easily searchable it can be used to further discussions happening today because after all Focal Point envisioned itself as “the drama of sight and sound joining those who strike forcefully for progress to fulfill the heritage of a city.”

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning. To learn more, visit www.clir.org and follow CLIR on Facebook and Twitter.

This blog post was written by Joana Stillwell, MARMIA’s AV Archivist.

August 15, 2023: Broadcasting Baltimore Update #3: WJZ-TV Collection Featured on Digital Maryland
June 6, 2023: Broadcasting Baltimore Update #2: Shakedown!
February 6, 2023: Broadcasting Baltimore Update #1: City Line Is Digitized
August 28, 2022: Digitizing Hidden Histories Begins
April 28, 2022: MARMIA Receives a CLIR Grant

Sources cited:

  • The Sound In the Street (with narration), 1961-10-12, WJZ-UNKN-198-003, Box: UNKN-198. WJZ-TV Collection, WJZ. Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive.
  • Focal Point, 13, Box: 41, Folder: 3. Greater Baltimore Committee Records, R0046-GBC. Baltimore Studies Archives. https://archivesspace.ubalt.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/127685 Accessed July 02, 2024.

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