The Associated Press Puts Its Vast Archive On YouTube

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And now here's your chance to be a witness to history or at least to see the video footage of people who were there.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: There's Mr. Mandela, Mr. Nelson Mandela, a free man, taking his first steps into a new South Africa.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Associated Press news agency has made public over one century's worth of its video archives.

GREENE: It posted a million minutes of video on YouTube, like the moment President John F. Kennedy spoke at the Berlin Wall in 1963.

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JOHN F. KENNEDY: Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ich bin ein Berliner.

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INSKEEP: I am a Berliner, Kennedy said, at the height of the Cold War. The AP collection also offers footage of Marilyn Monroe's romance with Joe DiMaggio. And there's even silent film. Images show the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the launch of the Titanic in 1912, much of this footage rarely seen.

ALWYN LINDSEY: The archives were generally quite inaccessible 15 years ago.

GREENE: Which is why the AP's Alwyn Lindsey says the old footage has now been posted on YouTube.

LINDSEY: I grew up in the 1970s. I can look back and remind myself how I lived. I can see the toys that I played with. I can see the TV stars and film stars that I grew up with.

INSKEEP: When he's done with the '70s, Lindsey can turn to the 1960s, one of his personal favorites.

LINDSEY: Here's the story of the Beatles going to America.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Pandemonium paid a visit to the USA.

LINDSEY: At that point in time, both America and the wider world was going through seismic change. And whenever I watched that story, even though it's over 50 years old, you really do get a sense of how fresh and new and different the Beatles were.

GREENE: Alwyn Lindsey on the AP's release of hundreds of thousands of clips of archival footage on YouTube.

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THE BEATLES: (Singing) I want to hold your hand. I want to hold your hand. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.