MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials

607 Pages·2017·0.81 MB·English

MCI Communications Corporation
photographs and audiovisual materials
239
Finding aid prepared by Lisa Kruczek and Laurie Sather.
Last updated on April 19, 2018.
Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department

2015.
MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
Table of Contents
Summary Information....................................................................................................................................4
Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................5
Scope and Contents.......................................................................................................................................7
Administrative Information.........................................................................................................................18
Controlled Access Headings........................................................................................................................19
Collection Inventory....................................................................................................................................20
Analyst meeting.....................................................................................................................................20
Annual stockholders meeting................................................................................................................25
B-roll......................................................................................................................................................43
Business programs.................................................................................................................................54
Conferences............................................................................................................................................75
Corporate Archives................................................................................................................................82
Corporate/Business information..........................................................................................................114
Employee information.........................................................................................................................140
Entertainment.......................................................................................................................................157
Executives............................................................................................................................................170
Events...................................................................................................................................................182
Financial...............................................................................................................................................195
Hearings...............................................................................................................................................200
Human Resources................................................................................................................................203
MCI commercials.................................................................................................................................204
MCI Engineering Groups....................................................................................................................344
MCI Network Services........................................................................................................................351
Meetings...............................................................................................................................................363
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
Newscasts.............................................................................................................................................395
PR/Advertising.....................................................................................................................................427
Product/Program information..............................................................................................................445
Sales.....................................................................................................................................................483
Satellite Business Systems acquisition................................................................................................503
Technical/Service.................................................................................................................................515
Television.............................................................................................................................................532
Video Magazine...................................................................................................................................546
We Couldn't Have Done It Without You............................................................................................570
Workshops and lectures.......................................................................................................................599
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
Summary Information
Repository Hagley Museum and Library: Audiovisual Collections and Digital
Initiatives Department
Creator MCI Communications Corporation.
Title MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
Call number 239
Date 1915-2001, bulk 1975-1997
Extent 140 linear feet
General Physical Approx. 4,500 photographic prints : b&w and color ; various sizes.
Description Approx. 2,400 negatives : b&w and color ; 35mm. 196 contact sheets.
Approx. 2,700 slides : color ; 35mm. Approx. 300 transparencies : b&w
and color ; various sizes. 224 compact audio cassettes. Approx. 2,440
videotapes. 7 reels : sd., col. ; 16mm. 7 reels : sd., b&w ; 16mm. 113 GB
of digital files.
Language English
Abstract MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was a large telecommunications
company. It was organized in October 1963 in Joliet, Illinois, by John
D. (Jack) Goeken (1930-2010), as Microwave Communications, Inc.
Goeken and his partners were planning to provide point-to-point private
line microwave communications between Chicago and St. Louis to
small businesses. This large collection documents the activities of the
MCI Communications Corporation and its subsidiaries as well as the
development of a competitive telecommunications industry in the United
States and worldwide. The materials focus on MCI corporate life, public
relations, technical operations, and sales and marketing activities. A
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
vast amount of videotapes makes up a significant portion of the MCI
collection, however, there are also photographs, slides, digital files, and
audio cassette tapes.
Biography/History
MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was a large telecommunications company. It was organized in
October 1963 in Joliet, Illinois, by John D. (Jack) Goeken (1930-2010), as Microwave Communications,
Inc. Goeken and his partners were planning to provide point-to-point private line microwave
communications between Chicago and St. Louis to small businesses that could not afford high telephone
rates offered by American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) ? a de facto monopoly of
the United States telecommunications at that time. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
approved an application from Microwave Communications to construct and operate a private microwave
system in August 1969. The approval opened an era of competition in telecommunications industry.
William G. McGowan (1927-1992), who joined the company in 1968, brought in a different vision of
its future - participation in the construction of a nationwide common carrier communications system.
In August 1968, McGowan incorporated a new company, Microwave Communications of America
(MICOM), which changed its name to MCI Communications Corporation, Inc. (MCI) in July 1971.
MICOM was created to sponsor the development of affiliated regional companies with local financing,
and Microwave Communications became one of sixteen such companies. By March 1971, all regional
companies had filed for construction permits for their section of the planned nationwide network. In
August 1972, MCI acquired Interdata Communications, Inc., which controlled a New York-Washington
microwave route. In February 1973, MCI Telecommunications Corporation (MCIT) was formed as a long
distance communications subsidiary of MCI, and during the 1970s all regional carriers merged into it.
AT&T and its affiliated local Bell Companies used their control over local networks as leverage for rate
increases and denied connections to their network by MCI and other common carriers. In 1973, with
McGowan?s (CEO) and MCI Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Kenneth A. Cox's (1916-)
testimonies at the Senate subcommittee MCI launched a campaign against AT&T for violation of U.S.
antitrust laws. A decade long regulatory and legal battle changed the very essence of telecommunications
in the United States. By the final judgment of the antitrust suit of the U.S. Department of Justice against
AT&T (1974-1982), AT&T was divested from its regional companies and all telecommunications
companies received an equal access to their network facilities starting from January 1, 1984.
After winning the right to connect its network to local systems, MCI faced another challenge ? it had to
fight for the business of government, commercial, and residential markets. Before 1984 these customers
did not have any choice of telecommunications carrier and used to think of AT&T as the only reliable
service provider. MCI?s vigorous advertising campaign introduced innovative sales techniques to the
telecommunications industry, such as comparative and negative advertising, celebrity endorsements,
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
extensive telemarketing, local paper ads, and marketing partnerships. This campaign helped MCI gain
the level of profitability necessary for staying in competition with rapidly growing telecommunications
companies. An important direction of the MCI business development was the company?s involvement
into international telecommunications. To pursue this goal MCI acquired two large international
communications carriers: Western Union International, Inc. in 1982 and RCA Global Communications,
Inc. (Globcom) in 1988, both merging into MCI?s subsidiary MCI International, Inc. During the 1980s,
MCI International became one of the dominant international carriers offering leased-line, voice, and
electronic mail services in 146 countries. It restructured monopolistic foreign telecommunications
markets into competitive ones, stimulating industry growth and making possible its transformation into an
integrated global network.
MCI?s rapid progress on telecommunications markets was primarily due to its steady interest in emerging
technologies. For instance, MCI was one of the first companies to invest in satellite communications in
order to extend its network to the areas where the microwave system could not reach. Formed as early
as 1971, joint venture MCI Lockheed Satellite Corporation requested domestic satellite communications
authorization from the FCC. In 1974 the company was sold to IBM but in 1986 the same satellite business
was bought back by MCI under the name Satellite Business Systems (SBS), which became its subsidiary.
In its aspiration for engaging in new technologies, MCI sometimes appeared to be ahead of time. Efforts
to enter paging and cellular phone business in the first half of 1980s via MCI Airsignal subsidiary failed
because it lacked subscribers? interest. MCI returned to the cellular business in 1995.
MCI entered in the electronic mail market in 1983 by introducing MCI Mail, a new data transmission
service, which combined the speed of electronic messages with the flexibility of a land courier service.
But at that time the public was not ready for the communications via computer, and MCI had to shrink its
electronic mail operations in 1985. However, in 1988, enhanced with the fax service, MCI Mail became
a valuable product; and in 1990s, combined with Internet access, paging and fax services, and video
conferencing, it completed MCI?s portfolio of on-line services called networkMCI.
MCI was the first American company seriously engaged in implementation of fiber optic technology.
In 1983 it ordered over 150,000 miles of single-mode fiber optic cable; in March 1984 the Washington,
D.C ? New York segment of new system became operational; and in 1989 MCI owned two complete
transcontinental fiber optic networks that carried a large volume of voice and data traffic at high speeds
with high quality. MCI also was the second largest U.S. owner in a joint venture of the first transatlantic
fiber optic telephone cable. When in December 1991, MCI converted its entire network from analog to
digital transmission, its modernized system turned into an ?intelligent network,? which was compatible
with other international networks and allowed the company to market new services and attract new
business partners in the last decade of the 20th century. In June 1992, the company lost its long-time
leader chairman Bill McGowan due to a cardiac arrest. He had his first heart attack in December 1986,
survived heart transplantation in April 1987, and returned to an active role in the management of MCI
in September of the same year. His death and his role as a telecommunications industry pioneer and
visionary were widely reported in the media.
Positioning itself as a company ready to get into the information age ahead of its competitors and to
offer customers integrated global voice, data, and networking services, MCI in 1993 developed the ?
networkMCI? strategy that consisted of several components: creation of a nationwide information
superhighway, entry into local telecommunications, building a wireless network integrated with MCI?
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
s products, and formation of global alliances in order to provide seamless services to multinational
customers.
Following this strategy, MCI used the high speed SONET technology to provide the National Science
Foundation with a new information network NSFNET, a part of rapidly growing Internet (1993).
When President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which declared local
telecommunications available for competition, MCI was one of the first long distance carriers to enter the
marketplace. It used operating facilities in major metropolitan areas owned by its subsidiary MCImetro
which was created in 1994 in anticipation of competitive local telephone business. To capture a share
of the lucrative wireless telecommunications market, MCI in 1995 purchased Nationwide Cellular
Service, Inc., the largest independent reseller of cellular services in the country and made agreements
with messaging companies SkyTel Corporation and Paging Network, Inc. MCI?s agreements with
Stentor group representing Canadian telephone companies; BT, formerly British Telecommunication; and
business venture AVANTEL with Mexican Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival (Banacci) in 1992-1994
shaped international communications of information age.
In the late 1990s MCI sought a partner in order to increase capital for more efficient competition
with domestic and international carriers. After the cancellation of a proposed merger with British
Telecommunications Corporation (BT), MCI entered into a merger with the rapidly growing
telecommunications firm WorldCom. The agreement completed on September 15, 1998, created
MCI WorldCom, Inc., a company that provided local, long distance and international full range
telecommunications services such as voice, data, Internet and wireless. To separate its two distinct
businesses, at the end of 2000, WorldCom, Inc., arranged two business groups under its umbrella:
WorldCom group (high-growth data, Internet, hosting and international businesses), and MCI group
(high-cash flow consumer, small business, wholesale long-distance voice and dial-up Internet access);
and created two separately traded stocks. The corporation received a SEC Inquiry in April 2002
regarding its capital expenditure accounting irregularities, and as a result of independent audits and
financial investigation, filed for bankruptcy on July 21, 2002. Under the Plan of Reorganization filed by
WorldCom, Inc. with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in April 2003, the company changed its brand name to
MCI. In 2006 the company was bought by Verizon.
Scope and Contents
This large collection documents the activities of the MCI Communications Corporation and its
subsidiaries as well as the development of a competitive telecommunications industry in the United States
and worldwide. The materials focus on MCI corporate life, public relations, technical operations, and
sales and marketing activities. A vast amount of videotapes makes up a significant portion of the MCI
collection, however, there are also photographs, slides, digital files, and audio cassette tapes.
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
The collection has been arranged into twenty-nine series. This arrangement is based upon categories that
MCI assigned to the videotapes. The series and subseries are listed in alphabetical order, and the materials
within the series are arranged chronologically, unless notated otherwise.
At the MCI Corporate Library most of the videotapes were assigned with five-part numbers, where the
first part designated the year of recording, three next numbers represented the special content code, and
the last one was a consecutive order number within each group. Numbers were designated with no regards
to the tape format. Videotapes are boxed in numerical order.
Analyst meeting series
Consists of videotapes of Analyst meetings from 1988, 1993, and 1995 through 1997. These meetings
include presentations on the history of MCI, product development, and various operations. There are
discussions of the company's strategic plan, financial status, fiscal priorities, products, services, and sales
and marketing. There is often a question and answer session during these meetings.
Annual stockholders meeting series
The videotapes of the annual stockholders meetings date from 1981 through 1998 and are divided
into four subseries: Classic events, Excerpts, Live recordings, and Presentations. These videotapes
contain speeches by Bill McGowan, Bert Roberts, Orville Wright and Daniel Akerson about operations,
achievements, financial status, and visions for the future. There are recordings of officer reports, voting
on company amendments, and election results. Many presentations or discussions are followed by
question and answer sessions.
B roll series
The videotapes in this series date from 1981 through 1998 and are divided into six subseries:
Construction/Engineering, Corporate, Facilities, People, Products, and Technology. B-roll is traditionally
defined as supplementary footage used in cut-aways during the edited final product to help tell the story.
These b-roll videotapes contain construction work, employees working on computers, various equipment,
logos, graphics, interior and exterior shots of buildings, and interviews with employees which could be
used for sound bites.
Business programs series
This series consists of episodes of television shows which feature MCI executives such as Bill McGowan
and Bert Roberts. The recordings date from 1980 through 1997 and are divided into three subseries based
on the topics discussed in the show: Financial/Corporate information, General telecom, and Program/
Product.
Conferences series
Includes videotapes from the following conferences: Bear Stearns Technology Conference, COMDEX,
ICA, IEEE, INET 94, Reston to Westin, Tri-LM, Women & Technology, and an unidentified conference.
Bear Stearns was a global investment bank which held an annual technology conference. COMDEX
stands for Computer Dealers Exhibition and was a computer expo which was held in Nevada annually
between 1979 and 2003. ICA is the International Communications Association which is an academic
association dedicated to media communication. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or
IEEEE is a professional association which promotes engineering, electronics, and information technology.
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
INET 94 was a conference focusing on the world wide web and was organized jointly by the Internet
Society and Internet Society Charter Member RARE (R?seaux Associ?s pour la Recherche Europ?
enne; now TERENA). The conference took place in Prague, Czech Republic. Reston to Westin was
a teleconference for a meeting held in an engineering lab in Reston. Tri-LM appears to be an internal
company symposium with presentations from a number of speakers. Women in Technology is an annual
summit of technology oriented women executives and entrepreneurs, though the video does not appear
to be of the conference itself, but rather just footage of women using technology. These videos date from
1981 through 1998.
Corporate Archives series
The series contains records used and created by Philip Cantelon in preparation of his history of MCI
titled, The History of MCI: 1968-1988, The Early Years, and records from the office of the MCI
Corporate Archivist Adam Gruen. It is arranged into ten subseries, each is organized alphabetically.
Advertisements subseries
Contains photographs of print ads and stills from television commercials taken between 1970 and 1985.
There is also one photograph of MCI?s first trade booth in 1970.
Buildings and facilities subseries
These photographs and slides are of MCI?s network switch called Dallas One, exteriors of MCI
Headquarters in Washington D.C., interiors and equipment from the Perryman Data Centers, and various
MCI towers. There are photographs of the construction of the MCI Moscow Global Communications
Center. These images date from 1981 to 1991.
Events subseries
Contains photographs, negatives and contact sheets from press conferences, ground breakings, grand
openings, and an exhibition presumably at the British Telecom Museum in London. There are images
from the AT&T antitrust hearings and a visit from First Lady Nancy Reagan. Additionally there are audio
recordings, one of Orville Wright commenting on a draft of a speech, another of a talk given at Robert
E. Lee High School, and a set of three tapes labeled ?William McGowan? with unknown contents at this
time.
History subseries
This subseries consists of photographs which document the early history of MCI. It includes organization
charts, slides from RCA Global Communications, and satellite paths and coverage maps. There is a copy
of Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the letter thanking Bert Robert for his support of President
Clinton?s Technology Literacy Challenge program, both sent to Bert Roberts from the White House.
These materials date from 1970 to 1997.
Oral history project subseries
Philip L. Cantelon conducted interviews with MCI employees for his book The History of MCI:
1968-1988, The Early Years, 1993. There are over 200 audiocassettes with interview recordings
which contain valuable information on many aspects of MCI history. There are also digital files which
were stored on floppy diskettes. The digital files are textual documents containing biographies of the
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MCI Communications Corporation photographs and audiovisual materials
individuals interviewed, transcripts of the interview, and cover pages for the transcripts. These files have
been removed from the disks and converted from Word Perfect files to Microsoft Word files. PDF/A
copies of these files are available for access. There were two disks which were unreadable, therefore there
is not a biography and transcript available for every interview. The interviews date from 1987 through
1995.
People subseries
This subseries are portraits of executives and employees taken in the 1980s and 1990s. The images are
photographs and slides.
Press releases subseries
Photographs and negatives of executives or technology which would be used to appear in a press release.
These images were taken in 1989 and 1991.
Sales promotions subseries
This subseries includes photographs, transparencies, and slides used for various promotions. There are
images of a golf tournament, MCI logos, building exteriors, employees, and a trade show. There are
slides of stills from television commercials, annual meetings, buildings, microwave towers, and various
equipment. The materials date from 1970 to 1984.
Sites subseries
This subseries is primarily slides of the construction of a MCI microwave networks from the 1980s and
early 1990s. There are two photographs of the foundation of a facility at Bridgewater, Michigan around
1973.
Technology subseries
Contains photographs, negatives, and contact sheets of construction, wires, cable installation, fiber optics,
satellites, and microwave towers. There is a CD-Rom called ?Financial the Future: An MCI Living Case
Study? which includes various financial data about MCI. Materials date from 1973 through 1994.
Corporate/Business information series
Provides information about the company?s direction, priorities, objectives, and strategies for the future.
The videos also highlight past performance, achievements, and operations. The series has been divided
into five subseries: Directors meetings; Executives; Financial/Performance reports; Interviews; and
Operations. The materials date from 1972 to 1997.
Directors meetings subseries
Primarily contains video presentations that were shown at director?s meetings in 1986, 1992, and 1998.
These videos highlight new technologies, products, employee service, and company developments. There
are also three charts of the MCI network (1972).
Executive subseries
Training tapes on time management (1981) and finance systems (1990).There is also a mock or practice
interview of McGowan about divestiture and MCI plans filmed in 1983.
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