Alongside birthday parties and family milestones, do your home movies contain any Cleveland music history? They might have a place at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Until October 15, the museum’s archive is accepting film and video submissions for Home Movie Day. The free event returns after a five-year hiatus and culminates in a screening of recent submissions on Nov. 2 in the Rock Hall’s Foster Theater. Archivist Lyndsey Godwin-Kresge said they receive everything from local bands to Rock Hall inductees at one of Cleveland’s largest music festivals.
“We got some really great World Series of Rock footage… it was from 8mm,” she said. “Vibrant, beautiful footage of Joe Walsh and the Beach Boys performing in ‘74. We did get some great digital video of the Akron-based band Chi-Pig performing in Derby Downs in 1979.”
Members of Chi-Pig also worked with Devo, and their footage is part of the Nov. 2 screening. The Beach Boys and Joe Walsh footage is part of a World Series of Rock 50th anniversary exhibit, open by appointment only. Godwin-Kresge said even the stories behind the footage, from the era of massive video equipment, are interesting.
“For some of these smaller shows, I think people just didn't care as much,” she said. “It was more acceptable because you didn't have every single person holding up an iPhone and worrying as much about copyright infringement as maybe you do now. Hearing some stories about people trying to make friends with an owner or a manager and just being able to bring their equipment… it was not an uncommon practice.”
That’s likely how someone was able to videotape New Wave singer Lene Lovich at a Northeast Ohio Peaches Records location in 1980 – footage which will be screened on Nov. 2. Regardless of the format or back story, Godwin-Kresge said the spirit of Home Movie Day is the spirit of amateur filmmaking.
“Everything is a little imperfect and that's great,” she said. “Things might be shaky. The lighting's going to be off. They might be scratched. But all of that sort of tells the story of that piece in that time.”
Footage from any time is being accepted for consideration. Digital footage is higher quality, but also less exclusive. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, for example, is likely very well-documented.
“There will be a point where I think… archives would accept maybe the best copy,” she said. “Video or sound quality might be different. The angles will be different. The duration of the shows would be different, and you try to get the best complete record that you can. But there's no way to save everything. It's just completely impossible.”
From the pre-digital era, though, there’s still a few Holy Grails for the archive, such as Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 performance at Cleveland’s Public Music Hall.
“I've heard audio from that show, but I've never seen video,” she said. “Maybe someone somewhere shot something, but who knows? And it might be in a closet or basement somewhere. That would be amazing to have. We have received great footage in the past of David Bowie performing there in 1972. We have… no more than 10 minutes. A longer record would be really great. Just because it's represented in one way in our collection doesn't mean we're not interested in it.”
The Rock Hall has a submission form to arrange donations. The museum does not hold copyright to donated materials: They’re digitized, cataloged and made available for on-site viewing as research material.
“If you do have analog material, we'll digitize it for you,” she said. “We are hoping that people will be interested in donating their materials to the archive, but we're also totally fine to accept a digitized copy and return the originals. If you have things at home in a closet or a basement that you haven't seen in in years but might have some interesting Cleveland music history on it… have it professionally digitized and you'll get a copy of it.”
