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Fw: Re: Nixon tape



Title: RE: Nixon tape
 
Some Presidential recordings are of little interest to posterity.  Content should always make a difference.
 
This was one of the issues that arose during the recent litigation concerned with valuation of the Nixon tapes.  Nixon's appraiser valued all audio minutes equally.  The Government's appraiser created a chart for a couple of the long tapes, assigning a value of 10 down to 1 (Mario, please get me the brown briefcase) for each topic discussed, multiplying that value by the number of minutes the topic was discussed and coming up with a numerical weight.  This was multiplied by the value per minute as if they were all of cosmic import.  
 
There were many other factors as well, too involved and intricate to go into here.
 
The negotiated figure was very much closer to that related to the second process than the first.
 
The Government's appraiser for this purpose was the undersigned.
 
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Steven Smolian    301-694-5134
Smolian Sound Studios
---------------------------------------------------
CDs made from old recordings,
Five or one or lifetime hoardings,
Made at home or concert hall,
Text and pics explain it all.
at www.soundsaver.com
=========================
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: Nixon tape

-----Original Message-----
From: Kurilecz, Peter [mailto:peter.kurilecz@WOODSIDESUMMITGROUP.COM]
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 5:09 AM
To: RECMGMT-L@LISTS.UFL.EDU
Subject: RAIN 5/25: Missing Nixon tape found, CD longevity and Kaiser
Bill

Denver Post 5/24/01
Lost Nixon fitness tape found by Springs dealer
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E37526,00.html

by Cara DeGette
COLORADO SPRINGS - A Colorado Springs man has stumbled upon a 44-year-old
reel-to-reel audio tape of Richard Nixon chairing a Council on Youth Fitness
strategy session on what to do with an out-of-shape and spiritually lacking
young America.  Neither the National Archives nor the Nixon or Eisenhower libraries has a
copy of the Sept. 10, 1957, tape. Neither do they have a transcript of what
was said during the session.

<more snips>
Holiday said he wants the tape preserved and made part of the public record. But as an avowed Democrat - as well as a businessman - Holiday wants someone else to buy it from him and make the donation.

. . . Holiday, meanwhile, laments the lack of interest in a slice of the country's past. "I can't instill the importance of history on the bureaucrats who are charged with preserving the nation's history," he said. "They (didn't) even ask for a copy of it."

<end article>

Does anyone know any more about this?  Mr. Holiday is in business and clearly wants to make money from his find, which is fair enough.  (However, I don't quite understand why he claims that being a Democrat prevents him from donating the tape.)  But it raises my hackles when he accuses the "bureaucrats" (i.e., government archivists) of not understanding "the importance of history" and of not being interested in the country's past because they won't buy the tape from him.

The conclusion I draw from this article is that his asking price is probably too high for something that is relatively insignificant in the overall scheme of Nixon's legacy, and he's using publicity to try to shame the National Archives into buying the tape from him.  But perhaps I'm being unfair.  Anyone with more facts want to weigh in?

Julie Kerssen
King County, WA