Made In Chicago: Personal History Interviews
(CBS) -- Documenting people's life stories. This is Regine Schlesinger with Made in Chicago.
Chicago advertising executive Ron Bliwas did many interviews with Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. Afterwards, he offered friends the chance to have their aging parents on tape, telling the story of their lives.
One was the mother of Chicago restaurant executive Larry Levy. Last summer, he heard from Levy after Edie Levy died.
"He called me up and he was very emotional. He said, 'Thank God, you put my mother on tape.' He says, 'I don't know what I would have done. I can bring her back to life and I can hear the stories, etc.' I said to myself, 'There's a business here.'"
Podcast
So he partnered with another Shoah Foundation veteran, videographer Dan Gelfond and they formed the company, Personal History Interviews. Gelfond says their clients come from all walks of life.
"Everybody has a life story. You don't have to be a war hero, you don't have to be a Holocaust survivor. You didn't have to build a large business."
Bliwas says he wishes he'd had the foresight to do this when he was younger.
"If I had a video of my grandparents and they answered all the questions that I would have asked them, it would be priceless. And once the story is gone, it's gone. When they're no longer here, the story is gone and you never can re-create it again."
Gelfond says Personal History Interviews fills a need for families.
"It's just to be able to leave your story, who you are, how you became that way for your grandchildren and beyond."
For more information, visit personalhistoryinterviews.com.
