Old home movies make their way to TV in WILL documentary

Al Bean remembers well the night in 1948 that his dad got
him out of bed to watch downtown Urbana's Flatiron Building
burn down.

"He looked out of the second story windows of our house and
saw the flames downtown," said Bean. His dad grabbed his
movie camera, and off they went. "We were there most of the
night," said Bean, who was 12 at the time.

Now J.M. Bean's movies of the fire provide an exciting
segment for a new WILL Channel 12 documentary, "Do You
Remember?," which uses old home movies and recollections of
residents to illuminate the history of Central Illinois.

Premiering at 7 p.m. March 12, "Do You Remember?" also
includes film of boy scouts at Camp Drake near Danville
around 1932; Bloomington- and Springfield-area footage of
the Interurban Railroad, which joined cities in Central
Illinois; and film of the "Broomcorn Johnnies," migrant
workers who came to the areas around Arcola and
Charleston/Mattoon between 1900 and the 1950s to harvest
broomcorn.

Producer Jeff Cunningham asked people across Central
Illinois to lend him their old home movies of the area, and
to talk to him about the films they took. Many people, not
really knowing what they had, simply went into their closets
or attics and brought Cunningham whole boxes of film.

He painstakingly viewed it all to look for portions that had
historical significance. The result is an evocative portrait
of the past, seen through the lenses of old 8mm and 16mm
cameras, and filtered by memories of people who were there
when the film was taken or who remembered the subject.

The segment on the Flatiron Building fire features not only
Bean's movies of the blaze, but also of the demolition of
the building afterward. His daughter, Vivian Mason, provided
the film. Cunningham interviewed Urbana fireman Bud Glenn,
who fought the blaze, and John Finfrock, whose father's
office was in the Flatiron Building. The brick landmark was
situated on the point of land where Springfield Avenue joins
Main Street.

Cunningham said that after viewing the films he was left
with a sense of the constancy and importance of family life
through the generations. "If you believe people took moving
pictures of things most important to them, what you saw the
most of was family," he said.

The process made him something of a crusader for the
preservation of old home movies. "Even if people don't have
landmarks, it's so important that they preserve the film and
have it transferred to videotape," he said. Otherwise, he
said, they lose not only the visual family record, but the
wonderful oral tradition of storytelling that occurs at
family showings of the movies.

Cunningham, an independent producer working on the
documentary for Channel 12, was the original host of the
station's monthly magazine show "Prairie Fire," and was the
videographer for a recent Channel 12 documentary about
archaeological research in Rome.

"Remember When," a national documentary on disappearing
institutions and landmarks, will air on Channel 12 following
"Do You Remember?" at 8 p.m. March 12. "Do You Remember?"
wi11 be repeated at 9:25 p.m. March 12 and again at 2:30
p.m. March 19.