What, Why, and How

The Outdoor TV Classics Project is the effort to save and preserve the largest known library of old fishing and hunting films on earth. There are more than 1,000 of these films/movies/videos in the library.

Unfortunately, they are decaying a little more every single day.

Some of the materials in the library are in poor condition; most are in good to excellent condition. But time, temperature and changes in humidity cause old film to deteriorate, discolor and fade away until it is eventually destroyed.

We are working hard to save these films as a way to recognize the Heroes and Legends of the great outdoors who made a positive impact on the lives of millions of Americans.

The collection of films, movies and videos dates back to the 1930’s and includes hundreds of well-known celebrities and ordinary folks who were influential in the beginning of the conservation movement. Some of the personalities in the classic’s library include movie stars, entertainers and athletes including Walt Disney, Ted Williams, Fred Bear, Lorne Green, Arthur Godfrey, Errol Flynn, Lee Majors and hundreds of others including some popular outdoor TV Hosts of their day.

The process of saving these old films is lengthy and costly and involves production facilities that specialize in handling very old (fragile) 8mm, 16mm, 35mm film as well as one-inch videotapes, two-inch Quads, U-matic videotapes and more. The process includes cleaning the film, digitizing, color correcting and saving to hard drive. While the process is very detailed and expensive, once a film is digitized and saved onto a hard drive it will never lose its quality and will be preserved forever.

The objective of the Project is to save as many of these classic films as possible; as quickly as we can.

Will you help?