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University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library

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Harvey Ovshinsky papers, 1948-2014

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Summary

Creator:
Ovshinsky, Harvey.
Abstract:
Writer, journalist, news broadcaster, radio host, television producer, creative consultant, and teacher in Detroit, Mich. Includes materials related to Ovshinsky's founding of Detroit's first underground newspaper, The Fifth Estate, as well as photographs, correspondence, writings, personal memorabilia, legal materials, press articles, topical files, transcripts and audiovisual materials representing Ovshinsky's work in radio and television from the 1960s through the 2000s.
Extent:
12.7 linear feet
1 oversize box
3 oversize volumes
4.22 GB (online)
Language:
English
Call Number:
2015038 Aa 2 AC
Authors:
Finding aid created by Daina Andries, June 2015

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection traces Harvey Ovshinsky's personal and professional development as a writer, journalist, news broadcaster, radio host, television producer, creative consultant, and teacher. The Personal files include autobiographical writings providing insights into the events in Ovshinsky's childhood and adolescence that led to his early interest in writing and journalism. The Professional files contain the first issues of The Fifth Estate, and extensive memorabilia and press coverage on various radio stations and video and television production companies where Ovshinsky was employed. This series encompasses material on the history of Detroit's counterculture in the 1960s and 1970s. The Project files also include topical files on Detroit culture and history, which inspired many of Ovshinsky's documentaries and creative writing.

Materials from Ovshinsky's teaching career and transcripts from his speaking engagements in the Professional files reveal his approach to teaching writing, while drafts for films, stories, and television series in the Project files offer a view into Ovshinsky's creative process. Files named "War Dances" appear throughout both the Professional files and the Project files series. "War Dances" were an integral part of Ovshinsky's approach to both problem solving and the creative process. "War Dances" were personal notes and reflections in which Ovshinsky assessed his present situation, identified his goals and imagined paths to the solution of a problem or to the final stages of a project. Materials from the subseries Educational and children's properties in the Project files include extensive topical files from Ovshinsky's research on how children learn through play. Samples of Ovshinsky's work in radio, television, educational programming and public speaking are available in Audiovisual materials.

Biographical / Historical:

Harvey Ovshinsky was born on April 9, 1948 to Stanford and Norma Ovshinsky and grew up in northwest Detroit, Mich. From an early age, Ovshinsky exhibited a passion for writing. Shortly after his parents' divorce in 1959, Stanford Ovshinsky and his second wife Iris gave Ovshinsky a small printing press, enabling him to print his own newsletters. While attending Mumford High school, Ovshinsky continued to write and self-publish. He also worked after school at Mumford Music, a neighborhood music store owned by his mother's second husband, Adolph Marks. Ovshinsky thrived on the experience of the diverse community that frequented the music store. Further, working at Mumford Music strengthened the teenaged Ovshinsky's sense of connection with the culture of Detroit. He was devastated when his mother and stepfather decided to move their family to Los Angeles in 1965.

While in Los Angeles, Ovshinsky worked with the LA Free Press, one of the most broadly distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. This job, combined with homesickness, sparked his dream to found a similar newspaper in Detroit. He returned home that same year and founded The Fifth Estate, Detroit's first underground newspaper. Ovshinsky briefly attended Monteith College at Wayne State University in Detroit while simultaneously running the newspaper, but eventually dropped his classes to focus on The Fifth Estate. The fledgling newspaper expanded with the help of anti-war activist Peter Werbe and the Detroit Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

Ovshinsky left The Fifth Estate in April 1968. By the time of his departure, most of the staff held more radical views than Ovshinsky, who was more interested in promoting community and communication than social revolution. Ovshinsky began two years of alternative service work as a conscientious objector at the Lafayette Clinic, a state psychiatric hospital in Detroit. He started as a clerk and worked his way up to Attendant Nurse. While at Lafayette, he founded an independent self-help center called "Open City," intended to provide counseling, community, and medical and legal support to Detroit's youth. During his time at Lafayette Clinic, Ovshinsky also met his future wife, Cathie Kurek, who was working there as a psychiatric nurse.

While still employed at the clinic, Ovshinsky launched a weekly morning talk show called Spare Change in 1969, which aired on an alternative Detroit radio station, WXYZ-FM. He was hired as news director at WABX-FM in Detroit the following year. Ovshinsky's work in media and communications soon expanded to television, when he left WABX and joined The Video Group in 1973 as a writer and producer.

Quickly frustrated by the financial instability of The Video Group, Ovshinsky launched his own company, Creative Media Inc., in 1974, providing freelance writing and production services to businesses, advertising agencies, and television stations. While he enjoyed the freedom of working independently, financial difficulties led him to close the company in 1976 and return to work for a local television station, WXYZ-TV, in Detroit. In the decade to follow, Ovshinsky would continue to work on projects in both television and radio for stations such as WDIV-TV, WRIF-FM, and Detroit Public Television.

In the early 1980s, Ovshinsky began writing original screenplays. These include PJ and the Dragon and The Keyman. In 1980, Ovshinsky also began teaching to bring in extra income for his own children's education. While working with elementary school children at Grosse Pointe Academy, Ovshinsky developed a passion for understanding how children learn through play, drawing, and dramatization, which led to his development of a proprietary approach to teaching through "physual" (physical plus visual) learning. This passion would later carry over to his efforts to create educational programming for children, such as Pendragon's Park and The Mighty Hubble. Ovshinsky also taught courses in screenwriting and creative writing at the university level, lecturing at the College for Creative Studies, Wayne State University, Madonna University, and Washtenaw Community College.

In 1986, Ovshinsky founded HKO Media, which afforded him the opportunity to work on productions with a variety of clients, including former employers such as WTVS, WDIV-TV, and WXYZ-TV. With HKO, he was also able to realize his dream of producing "local-for-national" documentaries about Detroit, including Voodoo Man of Heidelberg Street (1990), Close to Home -- The Tammy Bocommino Story (1992), and The Last Hit: Children and Violence (1997). HKO Media productions received some of the highest awards in broadcasting, including a National Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award fo r Close to Home -- The Tammy Bocommino Story, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for The Last Hit: Children and Violence.

During the economic recession of 2006 in Michigan, Ovshinsky transformed HKO Media from a production company into a creative consulting service. As a creative consultant, Ovshinsky received a commission from Family Communications Inc. to create a PBS children's series to replace Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, which resulted Ovshinsky's work on The Mighty Hubble. Ovshinsky closed HKO Media in 2012. In 2021, Ovshinsky's memoir Scratching the Surface: Adventures in Storytelling was published by Wayne State University in a Painted Turtle book series.

Acquisition Information:
Donated by Harvey Ovshinsky (donor no. 10907 ), in June 2014 and December 2014.
Processing information:

In preparing digital material for long-term preservation and access, the Bentley Historical Library adheres to professional best practices and standards to ensure that content will retain its authenticity and integrity. For more information on procedures for the ingest and processing of digital materials, please see Bentley Historical Library Digital Processing Note. Access to digital material may be provided either as a direct link to an individual file or as a downloadable package of files bundled in a zip file.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into four series: Personal files, Professional files, Project files, and Audiovisual materials.

Accruals:

Periodic additions to the records expected.

Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open to research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright is held by the Regents of the University of Michigan but the collection may contain third-party materials for which copyright is not held. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[item], folder, box, Harvey Ovshinsky papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

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Collection

Harvey Ovshinsky papers, 1948-2014
Call Number 2015038 Aa 2 AC
Total components 256
Items available online Online 3
Last indexed 2023-12-08