Glenn R. Walters (1930-) Collection
1954-1999
Introduction
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content
Walters Collection Sample Images Gallery
Introduction
The Walters Collection was donated to the University of Dayton by Mr. Glenn R. Walters in 2000. The collection is made up of 995 video segments on 256 DVC Pro tapes. The collection was originally on various film media and was transferred to the DVC Pro format for preservation. Some of the tapes have also been transferred to DVD. The segments deal with topics throughout the 20th century. In addition to the actual video footage, the collection also 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, during the years spanning from 1954 to 1999. In addition, there are some antique media materials dating back to 1893.
All information about the video segments is contained in the Walters Collection Database. Various types of information about the segments are recorded in the database. Title, date, coverage date, running time, description, original box number and format, source code, technical notes, controlled vocabulary, keywords, and rights are listed for every segment.
Controlled vocabulary terms denote the subjects of the video segments. The keywords are the names of companies and people. Each video segment is searchable by both subject and keyword.
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Biographical Sketch
Glenn R. Walters was born August 24, 1930. He attended Oakwood High School, where he graduated in June 1948. While at Oakwood, he served as senior class president. He was also president of the Oakwood chapter of the National Forensic League. He was a state champion in the Prince of Peace oratorical contest. He was also a state champion in the National Forensic League's Humorous Declamation contest and placed second in the national finals.
After high school, Glenn attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he graduated with a B.A. in English in June 1952. While at Denison, Glenn was a member of the Dean's List, student government (vice president), Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honorary society, and Denison Christian Emphasis Association (president). He also served as Head Resident for freshmen men's residence halls Curtis and Stuart.
Glenn served as a teaching assistant at Stanford University in 1953. He then took a position as Assistant District Traffic Superintendent for the Ohio Bell Telephone Company in Dayton, from 1953-54. While at Ohio Bell, he managed the outward long distance operations office as well as the Ohio Bell Southwestern Regional Film Library. He also organized and managed the Ohio Bell Dayton area speakers' bureau and Toastmasters Club.
In 1954, Glenn founded Valdhere, a Dayton-based video and film production company.
On the day of the Indianapolis 500 in 1956, Glenn 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.
Also in 1956, he 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.
In 1959, he 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 and included: 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.
In 1960-61, Glenn built the Valdhere studio facility and incorporated the company as Valdhere Films, Inc.
In 1961, he 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.
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 effecting such a great change.
In 1970, National Football League team Cincinnati Bengals selected Glenn to serve as their film director/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. In 1972, the Valdhere style of coverage and editing method were mandated by league rules as the standard for all NFL teams.
In 1980, as a consultant, he designed and installed a corporate video center for Monarch Marking Corporation. This included interviewing, selecting, and training personnel to operate the center.
In 1985, he was 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 the use of it 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.
In 1986, Glenn earned his Master's degree in Communications at the University of Dayton, with his thesis "Organizational Identification, Job Satisfaction and Productivity: A Study of Correlations."
In 1987, he 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.
In 1992-93, he 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.
In 1994, Glenn 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 will accompany the text.
In 1995, Glenn 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.
In 1999, Glenn retired, and 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.
Glenn Walters holds the position of Media Executive in Residence at the University of Dayton and resides in Bellbrook, Ohio.
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Scope and Content
The Walters Collection mainly deals with topics of business and industry throughout the 20th century. Controlled vocabulary terms denote the subjects of the video segments. The keywords are the names of companies and people. Each video segment is searchable by both subject and keyword.
The most prominent subjects in the collection are: 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: Hewitt Soap Company, Diconix Inc., L. M. Berry Company, University of Dayton, and Dayton Progress Corporation.
This collection is still undergoing processing. The database finding aid is still in the process of being updated. Consequently, the list of controlled vocabulary terms (Subjects) and keywords (Companies and People) is subject to additions in the future. The most current list is below.
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Electronic finding aid created in Mar. 2007 by Lisa Pasquinelli, using database and other materials developed by Shannon Michalak and Derek Freed, as well as Glenn Walters.
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