Marion Stokes

For 14 1/2 years in Brooklyn I had a roommate who was a hoarder worthy of being on one of those scary hoarder tv shows. He also videotaped every single David Letterman show, every night, along with some other shows I can't remember. He kept every Daily News for decades, and had entire file cabinets stuffed with fliers from the early 1990's. I always joked that if moving day ever came I'd break my leg so I wouldn't have to help. Every year, the walls in our loft would come closing in by another 6 inches.

While poking around PBS just now, because that's just what I do and yes this makes me better than you, I noticed there's an episode of Independent Lens about a woman named Marion Stokes. With a 60-second trip to Wikipedia a deep dive into research about her, I learned:

- She single-handedly amassed hundreds of thousands of hours of television news footage spanning 35 years, from 1977 until her death at age 83. She used 8 VCRs to get 24/7 coverage of all the news networks.

- The archives ultimately grew to live on 71,716 VHS and Betamax tapes stacked in Stokes' home, as well as apartments she rented just to store them.

- She received half a dozen daily newspapers and 100-150 monthly periodicals, collected for half a century.

- Stokes had also accumulated 30,000-40,000 books. In the mid-1970s, she would frequent the bookstore to purchase $800 worth of new books. [Xmas note: $800? Why $800? Curiously specific - why not $1,000? And in 1977, $800 was worth $3400 in today's money.]

- Stokes bought many Macintosh computers since the brand's inception, along with various other Apple peripherals. At her death, 192 of the computers remained in her possession. Stokes kept the unopened items in a climate-controlled storage garage for posterity. 

But what Wikipedia my thoughtful research did not tell me? a) if she ever watched any of the videotapes, and b) HOW SHE GOT THE MONEY TO DO ALL THIS SHIT!!!

Fascinating. Will surely watch the Independent Lens episode to find out. as well as maybe learn a little something about my old roommate...