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Glenn R. Walters collection

 Collection
Identifier: UASC-015

Scope and Contents

The video recordings and associated materials in the Walters collection mainly deal with topics of business and industry throughout the twentieth century. The collection as a whole is a resource for the history of local video and television production in the second half of the twentieth century.

In addition to video footage, the collection includes scripts; shooting, editing, and sound mixing notes; and pre-production research. All materials in the collection were produced by Glenn Walters during his active career as a non-theatrical film and television producer, between 1954 and 1999. Additionally, there are some antique media materials dating back to 1893.

The most prominent subjects in the collection are as follows: Enterprise, soap manufacturing, industrial equipment, television production, printing, economics, metal casting, telephone directories, computers, supply centers, bicycles and bicycle racing, metal stamping, human factors research, music, construction, and the University of Dayton. The most prominent keywords in the collection are as follows: Hewitt Soap Company, Diconix Inc., L. M. Berry Company, University of Dayton, and Dayton Progress Corporation.

Dates

  • 1893-1999
  • Majority of material found within 1954 - 1999

Creator

Access to Materials

These materials are open and available to the public for use in the University Archives and Special Collections' reading room.

Copyright Notice

The materials in this collection are protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). Copyright for materials produced by Glenn R. Walters and Valdhere, Inc. was transfered to the University of Dayton in 2010. Copyright for some materials in the collection is owned by a third party.

Biography of Glenn R. Walters

Missing Title

24 August 1930
Birth date.
June 1948
Graduated from Oakwood High School, where he was senior class president. During high school, he was president of the Oakwood chapter of the National Forensic League and a state champion in the National Forensic League's Humorous Declamation contest, in which he placed second in the national finals. He was also a state champion in the Prince of Peace oratorical contest.
June 1952
Graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, with a B.A. in English. While at Denison, Glenn was a member of the Dean's List, vice president of the student government, president of the Denison Christian Emphasis Association, and a member of the national leadership honorary society, Omicron Delta Kappa. He also served as head resident for freshmen men's residence halls Curtis and Stuart.
1953
Worked as a teaching assistant at Stanford University.
1953-1954
Was assistant district traffic superintendent for the Ohio Bell Telephone Company in Dayton, where he managed the outward long distance operations office and the Ohio Bell Southwestern Regional Film Library. He also organized and managed the Ohio Bell Dayton Area Speakers' Bureau and Toastmasters Club.
1954
Founded Valdhere, a Dayton-based video and film production company.
1956
Began producing the television series Enterprise, which broadcast live. The documentary series ran for three years on Dayton's WHIO-TV, Channel 7, and received the highest Arbitron ratings of any locally produced program at that time.
Began daily 16mm color film processing services. He provided film services for Dayton's three commercial television stations and provided sports film services for more than 40 high schools and universities.
1959
Produced Venture into Space, a six-week special series on WHIO-TV, Channel 7. This program was the Air Force's first official release of information about their preparation of pilots for space flight. It featured weightlessness flight tests, Zero Gravity blood flow studies on the Wright-Patterson centrifuge, the Human Factors Research Laboratory (now Armstrong Laboratory), space nutrition studies, and America's first communication satellite.
1960-1961
Built the Valdhere studio facility and incorporated the company as Valdhere Films, Inc.
1961
This overall series of films produced and distributed during the 1960s and 1970s for the bicycle industry was widely recognized for having a major impact on the industry. In 1960, total U.S. output of bicycles was less than 2 million units per year, and the average retail sale price per bicycle was $65.00. By 1972, the total U.S. output of bicycles was more than 12 million units per year, and the average retail sale price per bicycle was $135.00. There were no significant marketing increases by any U.S. bicycle company during that time; thus, the film series has been credited with affecting such a great change.
Produced a film for Huffy Bicycles, entitled The Singing Wheels. This was the first in a series of more than 40 films he produced for the bicycle industry over a span of 10 years. The Singing Wheels featured the first public media appearance by Dr. Paul Dudley White, cardiologist and personal physician to President Eisenhower, to endorse the health benefits of bicycle riding. The second film in the series, The Magic of the Bicycle, was produced as a 28-1/2 minute free TV time filler, a very widely used genre at that time. It was distributed by Association Films, and in its first six months of release, it set an all-time record for the greatest number of bookings and the highest total television viewership (36 million viewers) of any industrially sponsored documentary film produced up until that time.
1970
National Football League team Cincinnati Bengals selected Glenn to serve as their film director and contractor. He set up and managed a crew to film all home and away games and managed a laboratory operation for processing, editing, and printing all the films in order to exchange prints to other league teams and to the league office.
1972
The Valdhere style of coverage and method of editing were mandated by league rules as the standard for all NFL teams.
1980
As a consultant, Glenn designed and installed a corporate video center for Monarch Marking Corporation. This included interviewing, selecting, and training personnel to operate the center.
1985
Selected by the league office and NFL Films to evaluate and refine a proposed format being advanced to replace film for NFL coaching uses. The format was component BetaCam, and after substantial modification during its use in 1985 and 1986, it was adopted. He set up and trained a video crew for the Bengals and retired from the NFL in 1986.
1985
Earned a Master's degree in communications at the University of Dayton with the completion of his thesis, "Organizational Identification, Job Satisfaction and Productivity: A Study of Correlations."
1987
Worked as a consultant for the University of Dayton's Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) to design and manage the installation of the CEBR Usability and Testing Facility in the Anderson Center.
1992-1993
Developed a video lecture on Orson Welles' 1938 radio production of War of the Worlds, featuring a series of newsreel and radio clips from the 1930s to reveal to students the emotional, cultural, and social environment that made the famous radio play have such a dramatic impact on its audience. A video report on this teaching technique was presented at the 1993 Popular Culture Convention in collaboration with colleague Alan Hueth.
1994
Completed the first draft of a multimedia text on the history of electronic media. The text, entitled The First Century, consists of a 25-minute video with numerous clips of historic films and radio and television shows. A CD-ROM reference work accompanies the text.
1995
Wrote Visitors, an adaptation of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. It was produced with student actors and broadcast on April Fool's Day, 1996. The experimental radio play is set in today's world and offers a social commentary on some key issues for the new century.
1999
Retired.
Valdhere was acquired by the Cincinnati-based visual communications company Curtis, Inc. Valdhere had provided video production, post-production, and graphics services, as well as the region's only 16mm film reversal processing, printing, and digital film-to-tape transfer.
2009
Glenn Walters is media executive in residence at the University of Dayton and resides in Bellbrook, Ohio.

Extent

126.3 Linear Feet (including 995 video segments on 256 DVC Pro tapes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Collection of video recordings produced by Glenn Walters and his production company, Valdhere, Inc., during his active career as a non-theatrical film and television producer. The recordings cover topics of business and industry throughout the twentieth century. In addition to video footage, the collection includes scripts; shooting, editing, and sound mixing notes; and pre-production research.

Arrangement

A searchable Microsoft Excel inventory contains information about the video recordings. For each video segment, the following information is recorded: title, date, coverage date, running time, description, original box number and format, source code, technical notes, controlled vocabulary (subjects), keywords (companies and people), and rights. The inventory is subject to additions in the future. The scripts, original film formats, and other materials are currently unprocessed.

Technical Requirements

The video recordings were originally on various film media and were transferred to DVC Pro format for preservation. Some of the tapes have also been transferred to DVD. Some formats may require special equipment. Please contact the Archives and Special Collections in advance of your visit.

Location

Converted copies located in Room 209. Unprocessed and originals are in Room 201.

Acquisition Information

The Glenn R. Walters collection was donated to the University of Dayton by Mr. Walters in 2000.

Processing Information

This collection is still undergoing processing. All information about the video segments is contained in the Walters Collection Inventory, which was created in 2000 by Shannon Michalak, Derek Freed, and Glenn Walters.

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Glenn R. Walters collection, 1893-1999
Status
Completed
Author
Lisa Pasquinelli
Date
2007
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the University Libraries Repository

https://www.udayton.edu/libraries
Contact:
300 College Park Dr.
Dayton Ohio 45469-1360

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