Title
Smith, Edward oral history
Catalog Number
102792119
Type
Moving image
Description
At the age of 14, African American high school student Ed Smith’s father told him to, “Get your chauffeur’s license so you can learn how to drive a truck, because that’s all you’re ever going to do.” Ed was undeterred by the low expectations his father and the people in the Brownsville housing projects in Brooklyn in which he lived had set for him, and so he worked hard at school to try to find a way out. Facing tough odds, he persisted in the face of unrelenting poverty and despair but was handy with electronics, learning from adults in the war surplus electronics stores on Canal Street in Manhattan, absorbing knowledge of electronic circuits, and becoming a community ‘Mr Fix-it.” Smith is best known today for the design of his innovative personal computer, The Imagination Machine, now in the Museum’s permanent collection, but his life story is an inspiring tale of triumph over dire circumstances.
Date
2020-11-17
Participants
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Plutte, Jon, Camera person
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Smith, Edward, Interviewee
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Spicer, Dag, Interviewer
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Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Kissimmee, FL
Duration
02:11:52
Format
MOV
Category
Oral history
Collection Title
CHM Oral History Collection
Credit
Computer History Museum
