Missing ‘60th Anniversary’ video

Much earlier—about 15 months ago—I tried to locate/obtain the assumed-to-exist video of the Campfire Chat via an individual once associated with the CNMI Division of Historical Preservation. This person knew or knew of Mr. Wolf, believed he might either have any such video or know of its whereabouts, and thought he could be readily contacted. (I had requested this assistance only after having heard from the Historical Preservation that it knew of no such video.) This attempt proved unsuccessful. I was eventually told by that person that Mr. Wolf had not been reached because he was “off-island” for a while. Though he, of course, eventually returned, I continued to hear nothing from him, and heard nothing from the other party, in this or any other regard; so after a few months I decided to no longer follow that path.

7. It would have been clear, from the start of the 60th anniversary week, that the video documentary which would be filed by the Northern Marianas College for the Story Telling component of the project—specifically, the Campfire Chat event—would differ from any whose content would center on events such as (a) one or both of the USO-style shows at the American Memorial Park amphitheatre, and (b) the June 15 parade in Garapan from Kristo Rai Church to the AMP. It would have been clear because, for one thing, it was already evident that events such as the latter would be filmed by the local media. These events were in fact then filmed by it. Some of this media-footage was shown on island TV during, I believe, the anniversary week itself. In addition, as I understand it, footage from selected aspects of these media-filmed events was subsequently assembled and produced as a video; and it was this assembled product that became available to the general public, perhaps a year or so after the 60th anniversary. (This may be the video that was also shown on Marianas Cablevision as a one-hour special.) A few years age, I and others purchased our respective copies of this composite item—one I’ll call Video A. It has no footage from the Campfire Chat. The final point—No. 8—identifies a second existing video and mentions certain related, relevant unknowns.

8. Nor—Mr. Boothe was told last fall—does what I’ll call Video B contain any footage of the Campfire Chat. This apparently much-lesser-known and possibly difficult-to-obtain item, which neither Boothe nor I have personally seen, may or may not be the only assembled footage that Mr. Wolf’s company has thus far provided for the Arizona Memorial Museum Association. It may, of course, be the only item his company was ever asked, or perhaps contracted with, to produce for it, whether in connection with the Oral History and Story Telling project only or else regarding 60th anniversary events more broadly. In short, we simply don’t know if (a) Video B was the only assembled-and-produced footage, and if (b) any other video had been requested or contracted-for as well—including in particular any that would center on the Campfire Chat or that would at least contain sizeable portions of it. At any rate, we think Video B is probably the video to which—according to the Northern Mariana College media department (Point 4 above)—Mr. Wolf believed the AMMA “held the rights.”

In any case, Mr. Boothe, who is a relatively recent member of the AMMA, was told that Video B contained no Campfire Chat footage; he was told this by the AMMA representative mentioned in Points 2 and 4 above, who also told him that he had personally reviewed the video. Based on this individual’s brief description of Video B, its content probably differs from that of Video A, but in a manner and degree that Boothe could not determine. Though we don’t know with certainty if B was filmed by the college’s media department’s students, the odds seem to be that it was, and, as indicated above, that the footage was then assembled by Mr. Wolf’s company and given by it to the AMMA. This video might include, for instance: scenes of invasion beaches; shots of former Japanese installations and of other campaign-related sites; and excerpts from already mentioned—and/or other—60th anniversary events.

Even if Video B also includes and possibly even highlights one-on-one interviews with World War II and possibly other American veterans filmed at such scenes, sites, and events (and we are not sure that it does), the following is the case: Based on the just-mentioned AMMA review, the video still does not contain the Story Telling portion of the overall Oral History and Story Telling project, that is, the part which is comprised of the Campfire Chat. (See point 1.) (Note, separately: One-on-one interviews may have been partly organized, coordinated, and otherwise supported by such non-college entities as the NMI Council for the Humanities or perhaps the Museum of History and Culture; also, they may have been conducted by persons outside the media department. We do not know what the actual case is, and, therefore, which such entity or entities may have been especially interested in particular aspects of the overall project.)

Mr. Boothe and I, after conversing by phone about our recent several months’ lack of substantial progress toward the goal of locating and obtaining a Campfire Chat video—here called Video C—decided there is apparently little realistic chance that we can achieve that goal, even with input from the four NMI individuals with whom we have already interacted in connection with the issue at hand. He and I then reluctantly concluded that the only possibly effective—and hopefully appropriate—next or remaining step we can take is to contact the NMI print media, which is what we have done here. In taking this step, our hope is that whatever forward movement might be needed in order to clarify and successfully resolve the issue can and will somehow emerge based on inputs and other responses, to the NMI print media and/or elsewhere, from readers who are concerned with the subject at hand and who may be in a realistic position to help.

Ted Palmer, Ph.D.[/B] [I]Sacramento, Calif., USA[/I]