The Roxbury Register

September 21, 1995

Page 3

Mount Arlington's Shay is celluloid collector supreme
Mount Arlington's Fred Shay has about 45,000 old films, television and radio shows from as early as the 1930s in his collection.

By MIKE CONDON
Staff Writer

MOUNT ARLINGTON -Preserving Hollywood's past has become a labor of love for one borough resident.
       "'I came home one night in 1976 and my wife had a radio sitting there and we heard the Lone Ranger show and I thought gee, if the radio station can get some of these shows, maybe I can get some too," Fred Shay said in an interview at his Bertrand's Island home on Friday.
       Shay later contacted a collector from Brooklyn, N.Y. and began building his massive collection, all contained on video tapes and reel to reel audio cassettes. His collection has earned him the title of "curator" of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
       "I was intrigued with the whole thing," he said. "I wanted to have some of the stuff that I had seen when I was a kid and then I started wanting to get some of the stuff that was rare because then you can trade for other rare stuff."
       Many of the shows come with the original commercials. Retired Draftsman        Shay, who retired last month after a career as a draftsman, has lived in the borough for 28 years. He hopes that eventually, copies of his materials will go to the Broadcasters Hall of Fame, which is looking for a new home.
       The hall was housed for a decade in a bank building in Freehold, until 1985 when the lease expired.
       "It was an actual museum, with a lot of equipment set up. There were slide shows and people could listen to old time radio shows," Shay said.
       When the lease ended, the museum, headed by Arthur Schreiber, moved to the Berkeley-Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park. The owner of the hotel later went bankrupt and it took the group seven years to get their property returned.
       When the collections were returned last year, the Disney Corp. showed interest in building a museum outside of Anaheim Stadium in California.
       "Then, all of a sudden, the baseball strike hit and that was the end of that. It was going to be beautiful. They had all kinds of floor plans but after the strike, they didn't figure there would be too many people coming to the area," Shay said.
       Shay has taken it upon himself to seek out new space to house the museum. Much of the museum's property is in a warehouse in Anaheim, awaiting a new home. He said he would love to find a local building owner who could grant the Hall of Fame the needed 3,500-square-feet for a new museum.

      Shay is usually busy-transferring old 16 millimeter film reels to video tape in his basement, using a projector that cost him about $3,500. He also regularly trades radio and television tapes with collectors around the country.When the Hall of Fame gets a new home, he expects he'll be doing a lot more copying.
       "I will not move my masters anywhere. I will make copies," he said.
       Among his old time radio shows are old Lassie episodes, Lone Ranger shows and Gene Autry shows. He has many Amos And Andy shows, as well as Green Hornet shows, which he said are among the most popular for collectors.
       "Radio started in the late '20s and it was all live until the mid '30s, when they started recording it on 16-inch discs," he said.
       He has old sports broadcasts and an estimated 3,000 old films. His collection includes 220 serials from as far back as 1916, when they were silent. He has television pilots and entire series from the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s. Among them are Planet of the Apes, Space:1999, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who and his most recent, the first few seasons of Star Trek-The Next Generation.
       He also has eight episodes of the Flash Gordon radio program.
       "Those are very difficult to find," he said. ,
       He's got the short-lived Galloping Ghost shows and many classic comedies and adventures from the Golden Age of television. He steers clear of the more recent television shows, such as Saturday Night Live.
       "Those aren't very popular," he said. , ,
       He's got all of the old Republic Superman serials, starring Kirk Alyn as the Man of Steel. Last month, Shay was instrumental in getting Alyn, formerly of Wharton, to attend Wharton's 100th birthday celebration. Alyn, now 85, signed autographs for hours and was inducted into the Hall of Fame, with Shay presiding over the ceremony. `Labor Of Love'        "That was a labor of love. He's been in radio, TV, movies, commercials and Broadway shows," Shay said.
       Shay has known Alyn since 1981 when Alyn called him for some old Superman shows.
       "I have everything that's in existence from those serials," he said.
       Inductions into the Hall of Fame are usually held each year and past inductees include Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Jack Benny and Bing Crosby.
       To preserve his collection, Shay uses high grade audio and video tapes that aren't sold retail. He said a well cared for videocassette should last for 15-20 years.

       "There is no way you can tell how long it's going to last but super high grade tapes makes a difference. I started this about 1986 or 1987 and all of my masters are still fine," Shay said.
       He stores his tapes in an upright position, so they don't curl on the spools and in a cool room with a dehumidifier.
       "I want to get this stuff as perfect as I can because once the film is gone, what are you going to do?" he said.
       With the recent birth of the cable TV station, American Movie Classics and the availability of more TV and film titles through Columbia House, Shay said collecting Hollywood's past is becoming more popular.
       "I had all this stuff years before they had it. People would call me up from all over and I'd say yeah, I have that," he said.
       He's even provided the tapes Warner Brothers Home Videoused to create old Superman episodes which were released for sale to the public a few years ago.
       "I said to D.C. Comics (Superman's creators) a long time ago `why don't you guys put these Seri-. als out on the market, people want them' and they said `no one will want them,"' he said.
       Sadly, Shay said 50 percent of what was once on film has been destroyed because the old film was highly volatile.
       "AMC says that 50 percent of the films made before 1950 no longer exist. Everything went to the Library of Congress and when the film starts to get gelatin like, they have big cans with acid in them and they just drop it in and the film is gone," he said.
       Once, Shay spent $7,200 to have a four-hour, 15-chapter movie serial transported by a refrigerated truck from Pittsburgh to his home.
       "That film literally could have exploded," he said.
       Among his other pieces of memorabilia from Hollywood of old is-, an original Lone Ranger doll, still; in its box, which sold for $2.95 in: 1939 at the World's Fair.
       "I've been offered $1,000 for it' but I won't sell it," he said. '
       He also admits that his collection is so large, he's got no room, to grow. His basement is filled; with box after box of video cas- settes.
       "I've got so much stuff that I've: collected over the years that my: wife says I have to stop because I haven't got any more room," he: said.
       He's got a full-sized jukebox in; his garage, complete with a full catalogue of 45 rpm records.
       "I always wanted one of thosetoo," Shay said.'

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