MORGANTOWN — He’s a cobbler, a 50s-era rock n’ roll star and the unofficial mayor of Osage.
Now Al Anderson is about to become the first subject of the documentary series “Morgantown Memories,” produced by the Morgantown History Museum.
The episode will premiere at the museum, located at 175 Kirk Street, immediately following a reception from 2-4 p.m. Saturday. The occasion will also serve as the presentation of the museum’s annual holiday display. A question-and-answer session is planned, as is a performance from Anderson, who toured with acts like The Fabians and The Dominoes.
Pam Ball, executive director of the Morgantown History Museum and herself the subject of an upcoming episode of “Morgantown Memories,” said she’s wanted to put together this kind of project for more than a decade.
“We’ve always wanted to interview these folks who are getting older and have done all these things. We want to capture what they have in their cognitive memories about Morgantown,” Ball said. “That’s what they say about old folks, they’re burning archives. That’s exactly right. You have a limited amount of time. We just want to preserve some of that.”
She said the recent passing of a 103-year-old neighbor was part of what gave her the nudge to get the project rolling, that and her introduction to Michael Meszaros, who brought the technical ability to take the interviews and edit them into short documentaries.
Meszaros said he’s proud of the first two episodes and is hopeful that the museum can attract sponsors interested in continuing the series.
“I can say that after shooting the first two episodes and editing them down, I found that they were not only historic and informative, but actually very entertaining,” Meszaros said.
“The stories that were shared in the those episodes by Al Anderson and Executive Director Ball, I think they’re just great. They’re going to be around 25 or 30 years from now so people can look back and see what Morgantown was like and learn about some of the people who have lived here.”
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