"It's been a great time, and it's been a great experience," said broadcast pioneer Lew Klein.
Klein has the easy smile that comes along with a life well-lived and well-documented.
For 60 years, a large collection of pictures sat piled in his basement, keepsakes too treasured to throw away. Now they will live forever.
Donated to Temple University's archives, these testaments to his past will be part of the students' future.
"These gifts will truly make a difference in the lives of so many scholars and students," said Temple University Provost Richard Englert.
Lew Klein's storied career in broadcasting began with an appearance in a commercial for Dutch Boy Paints, a job for which he was paid 5 dollars a week.
"At that time, there were 3,000 television sets in the city of Philadelphia," said Klein.
His later work would spur countless more to buy TV sets and want to be on them. As one of Channel 6's earliest employees, he produced all kinds of shows, including Bandstand, which went on to become American Bandstand with Dick Clark.
While kids danced in front of the camera, Klein was the choreographer behind the scenes, as the show's executive producer. It is just one more memory that filled boxes and boxes of them, each of them mined with a fine-tooth comb.
But for Lew Klein, that was very much a labor of love, because his memories represent not just the history of our city, but of an entire industry, too.
In all, 23 boxes of pictures and film that document a changing world, and the changing industry that brings that world to your living room.
Channel 6 President and General Manager Bernie Prazenica, the head of ABC's owned station group, Rebecca Campbell, and Philadelphia show business entrepreneur Kal Rudman were just a few of the notable names on hand to pay homage to a man who helped build the TV business.
And like a good showman, this donation isn't Klein's final act.
"Janet tells me we have a lot more at home," he told Tuesday's gathering.
