"Edward Rowe Snow" Feb. 2, 1996:

Edward Rowe Snow was New England's Storyteller. He died in 1982. Snow published over 75 books on obscure and fascinating historical incidents from all over New England.

He also shot 16mm movies of his "adventures" discovering these stories, and would show these films as part of his very popular lectures. Although I had never met him, I had read many of his stories. With help from Tom Smith and Jeremy D'Entremont, I contacted his daughter, Dorothy, about transferring his films and doing a story on him. The films had been stored is a basement for over 20 years. They were covered in mold. In the process of cleaning them for transfer, I had an allergic reaction to the mold and had to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night as my throat was swelling shut. I thought of returning the films and abandoning the project, but the film was just so good, so fascinating. I decided to continue cleaning the films with a face mask. I made VHS copies of the films for his daughter and brought them back to Dorothy. When she saw the films on her TV she said she'd go get her mother, Anna-Myrle Snow, to look at the films. Soon she returned with her and we played the films. Suddenly, after not seeing these images for years, a smile came across her face, and she began to narrate these films like it was just yesterday! I quickly set up the camera as she narrated over two hours of film with a wonderful look of joy in her face at seeing her life with Edward pass by on the screen. It was absolutely magical. When the last film ended, she turned to her daughter and said: "Take me home. I am tired now." Her daughter said she had not spoken like that in years.

Her narration was wonderful as she explained all the locations and people in the films, and became the true heart of the story.

She died just weeks after the show aired and her daughter called me to say that she was so happy we had done the story and that it appeared that her mother had just wanted the story of Edward told one more time before she died.

The way everything came together for this story, I felt that someone wanted that story told.

"The Missing Reel" July 28, 1997:

John Potter made murder-mystery movies in Springfield in 1952. He wrote, shot and edited them in 16mm using local actors and leased them to local TV stations, before the networks had much to offer and stations were starving for programming.

I can't emphasize enough how early this was in TV history, it was even before UHF. The quality of these films rival "The Twilight Zone" made years later. In fact, if you watch these films today, you can't believe how well made they are. He put the films out on VHS tape and ran a small ad in a film collector’s magazine called "The Big Reel". I saw the ad and called him. He was in a wheel chair at the New Jersey Veterans Home.

He was quite an amazing character and I wanted to do an entire show on him. I wrote a script where Peter and Mary would go back into the 1950's and interact with the characters in his films in a search for him and his story. We would shoot it exactly the way he did, with the same primitive tools he had, a silent film 16mm Bolex, Photoflood lights and lip-synching all the dialogue in an audio booth. I want to say at this point, that there is not another group of people in local TV who would agree to all this, (especially Mary and Peter, who put there credibility on the line for this one) but that's what's so unique about Chronicle.

In the end, it turned out to be the most unusual Chronicle ever produced. The Massachusetts Film Bureau decided to give John Potter a citation from Governor Weld as an "Early Massachusetts Film Pioneer". John was thrilled to receive it and the attention it brought him, as he was virtually forgotten and alone with few visitors in the Veterans Home.

He too, passed away just shortly after the show aired, but I felt that somehow we had helped a true genius be recognized while he was still with us.

"Mount Greylock" Aug. 6, 1990:

I wanted to do a story on WMGT-TV74 on Mount Greylock, a long forgotten pioneer UHF TV station and the most powerful UHF transmitter in the world in 1953.

My high school TV instructor, Dave Prentiss worked at the station as a kid in Pittsfield and he was able to track down the son of the late station owner Leon Podolsky in Florida. He sent me the station's test pattern slide a 50-foot roll of 16mm home movie of the transmitter being constructed on top of Greylock. He told me that there had been a sound film made with Massachusetts Gov. Christian Herter and a tour of the studio in Pittsfield, as well as summit footage on Greylock for the opening night broadcast, but he had not seen it in years and had no idea what happened to it.

I then called WTEN (ABC) in Albany, who now own the transmitter site on Greylock (and operate it as WCDC-TV19, the Berkshire County satellite of WTEN), and told the Chief Engineer what I was looking for. He took a big pause and then said, "Do you believe in fate?" I asked him what he meant. He said "This morning we sent a news photographer to cover a house fire in Troy, NY. When he got there the owner of the house was rummaging thru the ruins and pulled out a can of 16mm film. He walked over to the photographer and gave it to him saying, "Take this, I think it has something to do with your TV station. We are just this minute looking at it on an editing bench, and it is the exact film you are looking for!"

To me the odds of that happening are so unbelievably small that I feel someone, somewhere wanted that to happen.

Art Donahue has been working in New England television for over 35 years, 20 with Chronicle. He has written, photographed and edited over 100 Chronicle programs and has photographed many more for other Chronicle producers. Art was “National TV News Photographer of Year” in 1986, “New England TV News Photographer of the Year” for seven years and has won 13 Emmys for producing, videography and editing.