[Intro Music]
[BPA Film Collection, Volume Two, 1950-1987]
[Comments by Libby Burke]
Libby Burke: So welcome to Disc 2 of the BPA Film Collection Volume Two.
Narrator: Bonneville Power Administration is building some power lines through Central
Oregon, part of the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest Intertie.
Unknown Man. There�s no�no�no line, anything in world like this one. Nowhere.
Narrator: The biggest transmission program in the United States, these high voltage lines
will eventually tie together utilities in 11 western states all the way from Vancouver,
British Columbia to the Mexican border.
Film: Intertie
Libby Burke: So our first film on this disc is Intertie. The Pacific Northwest, Pacific
Southwest intertie, it had been talked about for many, many, many, many years before it
was ever technically possible to do it. In 1919 Carl Edward Magnuson, who was a professor
at the University of Washington was imagining a national grid. And, of course, J.D. Ross
was talking about a national grid when he was the Superintendent for Seattle City Light.
When J.D. Ross came to be a first administration of Bonneville Power Administration in 1937,
he was still talking about a national intertie. All based on this idea that this hydroelectric
power could be sent out and then connect up with other power systems across the country.
In fact, in 1938 he presented a paper called Electric Power of The Future. It was deliver
to the Engineers Club in Seattle, and it outlines everything that�s got to go into making
a national grid, with diagrams and maps of how they�re gonna connect the entire United
States. It�s a fascinating piece of writing. The technology didn�t really exist, but
he envisioned it anyway.
It took until the late fifties when the Mercury Arc Valve was invented that we were able to
test conversion from AC into DC and back into AC that it meant that long distance transmission
was finally possible. And then it was signed and permitted in 1964. And, first energized
in 1968.
Of course, you know, BPA loved to make films about these great big projects of theirs where
they had just broken through something amazing. And here was another opportunity, so they
made this terrific film. Lots of aerial photography. Uh, really great blue grass scores. It�s
made in that great sixties style where it�s kind of freewheeling. And so you have a lot
of people talking, but you don�t see any talking heads. It�s all voice over. And
they�re not identified. So it�s kind of a in your face sort of style that was very
popular in the 1960�s.
So the film was made in 1969 and heavily promoted. As a result of it�s excellence, it won a
lot of awards, including the Venice International Film Festival Diploma of Excellence, the Golden
Eagle of The Council on Nontheatrical Events. Film of the Year from Industrial Photography
Magazine. Bronze medal at the Atlanta Film Festival. International Film and TV Festival
of New York. Honorable mention at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It
won a lot of awards and it got a lot of attention. Anyway, it�s really fun and I think you�ll
really enjoy it.
Narrator: When President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated Bonneville Dam, the federal government
had taken its first step toward a grand vision, to put to widest use the power of America�s
mightiest Pacific River. This is a salute to the pioneers and builders of that vision,
and to the river that made it happen.
Film: River of Power
Libby Burke: 1987 was BPA�s fiftieth anniversary. It was a big deal. They did a big coffee table
book called BPA & The Struggle for Power at Cost. A lot of things happened around that
fiftieth anniversary. And they wanted to do big film that gave the whole story about BPA
and how these dams came to be built to begin with. And then how the transmission system
happened, and the irrigation systems happened.
Now the film isn�t just about BPA. It actually talks about the geology of the Columbia Basin.
And its historical. It pulls in a ton of footage from our older films from Columbia and Hydro.
It�s almost like the greatest hits of BPA, so it�s extremely well made. But, it wasn�t
really made by BPA. It was basically turned over to Hillmann & Carr, which was a film
company in Washington, D.C. But they did a tremendous amount of research.
And it won many awards, including Golden Eagle, which is the same aware that Intertie won.
And it also won the Award of Distinguished Technical Communication for External Audience,
from the Society of Technical Communication. Woo hoo.
Anyway, we look to this film as the last overarching film made about BPA. And, basically, the end
of the Golden Age of BPA filmmaking. BPA�s filmmaking changed after that. It�s gone
more to a video, more a subject oriented, shorter. We have a lot of great videos now,
but they�re different than these types of films that were made to be shown theatrically,
made to be shown in classrooms, at community groups; it was just the end of an era.
Narrator: This is the Big Bend country of the Columbia River. Vast. Rugged. Remote.
Almost as remote today as when Canada�s early fur traders used this route to open
up the fur trade in the Oregon Country a hundred and sixty years ago.
Film: Action on The Columbia
Libby Burke: So we�re completing Volume Two by offering you some bonus films. The
first one is called Action on The Columbia. And it was made in 1964 to celebrate the Canadian
and U.S. Columbia River Treaty. It was made by British Columbia Hydro. So by their kind
permission we show it to you here.
It�s an interesting film because it talks about putting three dams to hold water on
the Upper Columbia in Canada, in British Columbia. And it�s told from the Canadian point of
view. They are telling the people of British Columbia what this treaty is going to do for
them.
There�s some wonderful aerial footage of the Upper Columbia River before the dams went
in. Because the original dams on the Columbia River went in quite early in BPA�s history,
we didn�t get a lot of really good aerial footage of what the river used to look like.
There�s not much of it out there. Because we started building the dam quite early in
the world of filmmaking and aerial photography.
And our team here that has been working on the renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty
was fascinated to see this film because it shows the river before the dams went in. And
it�s quite spectacular. And we appreciate BC Hydro giving us permission to put this
film on our disc as a bonus for you to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Columbia River
Treaty.
Film: Hydro The Story Columbia River Power
Libby Burke: And the last film is the first film. So we�re going full circle. The last
film that we have for you, on the bonus is the shortened version, or international cut
of Hydro. Which is BPA�s first film. But if you remember it, there was a lot of local
references and a whole section comparing the rates from the private to the public. And,
apparently there were requests from the business community to remove that, so that the film
was more informational but less specific on rates.
This version was also what we�re calling the International Cut, because this was the
one that Henry Wallace, the Vice President took to Asia on his goodwill tour in 1944.
We talked about that in the last volume.
Now how did we get this? This is a great story. We knew that there was a shorter version of
this film made from different interviews that we�d read with people that worked with these
films, but we had never seen this version. And, of course as we know, most of the copies
of Hydro were burned in 1953, along with the Columbia and other materials from the early
days of BPA. So we had no idea if we would ever find this.
And one day a BPA employee came in and said, I found this film in an antique store in Vancouver.
I bought it for a $1.50. I wanted to decorate my walls with the film. I thought I�d put
the reel up and kind of string the film around. But when I pulled it out it said Bonneville
Power Administration. And then it said Hydro. And I thought, maybe this is something you
might want to look at. So she brought it to me. And I could already tell right away it�s
this much shorter. And I thought, this could be it. And we looked at, and it was. This
is a really good version of this film. I think people will really enjoy seeing it.
That�s, basically, the end of the group of films that we�ve collected for you. So
we invite you to enjoy these. And also, please visit our webpage that dedicated to our film
collection. It�s available on BPA.gov. And, we want you to also come and visit us in the
library. We�re putting in a visitor center. It�s gonna be historical and current exhibits
and, uh, material. And this is also where you can call or write or email to request
copies of these DVDs, which are being given away for free, both volumes. And we really
hope that you enjoy them. And come and visit us soon. Thank you so much.
BPA Film Collection, Volume Two, 1950-1987
[End]