Minnesota T.V. Station Finds Old Footage of a Very Young Prince (original) (raw)

U.S.|Film at 11: How a Minnesota Station Found Old Footage of a Very Young Prince

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/us/prince-1970-teachers-strike-wcco.html

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Film at 11: How a Minnesota Station Found Old Footage of a Very Young Prince

The 1970 clip is a “miraculous” find, a former editor at the local CBS station said. It shows an interview with Prince, 11, commenting on a teachers’ strike in Minneapolis.

An archivist at WCCO, a local CBS station in Minneapolis, discovered a video of Prince being interviewed by a reporter in 1970, saying he supported teachers during their strike.Credit...WCCO

April 7, 2022

Matthew Liddy, a production manager at WCCO-TV, a CBS station in Minnesota, was watching footage of a 1970 teachers’ strike in Minneapolis in late February when he saw a familiar face.

On the screen was a boy, 11, in blue ear warmers and a jacket, being interviewed by one of the station’s reporters and giving a sidelong look and a sly half grin.

“It has to be Prince,” Mr. Liddy recalled saying to himself.

That hunch led to a five-week investigation by producers and reporters, who verified that the boy in the clip was in fact Prince, the music legend and celebrated son of Minneapolis who died on April 21, 2016, at age 57.

Long before “Purple Rain” and “Little Red Corvette” made him an international star, Prince Nelson is seen in the footage, just another kid in the crowd, supporting labor rights and hamming it up for the local television station.

“Are most of the kids in favor of the picketing?” a reporter, Quent Neufeld, asks.

“Yup,” Prince replies, adding, “I think they should get some more money” because they’re “working extra hours for us and all that stuff.”

The interview lasts less than 20 seconds but the footage has elicited glee from musicians like Questlove and Sheila E, a frequent Prince collaborator, and has captivated Minnesotans and Prince fans and scholars.

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