This is one hell of a story, and given the spotlight on the research process, it's also a great way to commemorate National Library Week. Yay, Archives!
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:19 AM on April 4, 2022 [24 favorites]

How could you see that smirk at 1:20 and not believe it's Prince? But what a great job of doing some actual investigation.

I recently was contacted by an elementary teacher from around the same time in my life and it's amazing how quickly and clearly the memories come back with just a little prompting.
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:26 AM on April 4, 2022 [10 favorites]

Hey! This is amazing. Thanks for sharing. Really touching.
posted by Zumbador at 5:38 AM on April 4, 2022

The video isn't working for me, but that gave me time to consider my mental image of what Prince might look like at 11, and reconsider whether he would still have a pencil moustache.
posted by biffa at 5:43 AM on April 4, 2022 [15 favorites]

I couldn't get the video on the news site to work, either. But here it is on youtube.
posted by antinomia at 5:45 AM on April 4, 2022 [14 favorites]

What a funny coincidence. Purple Rain is on HBOmax and I watched a few minutes of it over the weekend and it made me wonder what Prince's early career was like, so I went down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole, probably no more than a few hours before this story was posted.

Let us all live inside our own hearts, Matt Damon.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:07 AM on April 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

This is great. 11 year old Prince supporting his teachers' labor rights is just what my Monday needed, thanks!
posted by the primroses were over at 6:13 AM on April 4, 2022 [42 favorites]

I recently was contacted by an elementary teacher from around the same time in my life and it's amazing how quickly and clearly the memories come back with just a little prompting.

I'm wondering why his boyhood pals don't remember the time he was on TV talking about the teachers' strike? I guess memories fade, but that would be a big deal if my buddy were on TV.

I'm going to ask some of my boyhood friends to see if they remember me being on the front page of the Antrim County (s)News (I was opening a pack of baseball cards) back when we were 10 years old. I remember not hearing the end of it for a very long time, but the memory of that may have faded for them.
posted by NoMich at 6:17 AM on April 4, 2022

I'm wondering why his boyhood pals don't remember the time he was on TV talking about the teachers' strike? I guess memories fade, but that would be a big deal if my buddy were on TV.

I got the impression his clip never made it on the air, it was just part of the raw footage they had shot.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:25 AM on April 4, 2022 [9 favorites]

Maybe his friends never saw him on television? This was the 1970s and "film at eleven" was a thing. And even if he was interviewed, not all footage makes it to air.

[on preview: Rock Steady beat me to it]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:27 AM on April 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

We see the interviewed production manager, Matt Liddy, recounting how he brought the image to his colleagues and asking (without prompting) who they thought it was.

It could only have been better if he framed it with, “Dig, if you will, this picture.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:33 AM on April 4, 2022 [94 favorites]

Absolutely unmistakeable as Prince. Those eyes!
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:45 AM on April 4, 2022

I'm wondering why his boyhood pals don't remember the time he was on TV talking about the teachers' strike? I guess memories fade, but that would be a big deal if my buddy were on TV.

It's not like he did anything much after that which could have displaced this memory.
posted by srboisvert at 6:56 AM on April 4, 2022 [19 favorites]

From the explanation of the story, the childhood friend they interviewed to confirm it was Prince wasn't there when the footage was taken. He likely saw the news crew outside when he got to school and maybe young Prince mentioned it he might have never known anything about it.
posted by VTX at 7:02 AM on April 4, 2022

This is amazing. Prince is such a treasure - and I've got to be weird about him, I'm from Minneapolis - and my folks participated in that 1970's teacher strike. We all know that he grew up here, went to North High, started a band, got huge but instead of leaving for LA he stuck around to create his own scene, mentored other musicians, and left us too soon. But to see one little point of his life pop up like this is such a reminder that he really was here. A larger than life figure was once just a kid who went to one of our schools and got interviewed by 'CCO while his friend mugged in the background. That's just so, so cool.
posted by Gray Duck at 7:10 AM on April 4, 2022 [42 favorites]

I prefer to think that Prince's friends didn't remember this happening because "Prince was on TV!" was downright boring compared to just everyday Prince-at-11 stuff. Like, if you told me Prince had a pet emu and a talking airplane and they solved the mystery of why everyone thought their junior high might be haunted, I would absolutely believe it.
posted by Etrigan at 7:23 AM on April 4, 2022 [19 favorites]

How cool! What a gift, too: seeing his friend's delight was just so wonderful.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 7:30 AM on April 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

Union organizers have happily embraced this footage, too. My morning was made extra happy by Jorts the Cat re-tweeting organizers’ delight.

Given all of the anonymous charity efforts we learned about after Prince’s death, I bet he’d be ok with that.
posted by Silvery Fish at 7:57 AM on April 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

HIS LITTLE FACE, Y'ALL
posted by potrzebie at 8:05 AM on April 4, 2022 [22 favorites]

He looks like someone took ~50 year old Prince and shrunk him down!
posted by SoberHighland at 9:05 AM on April 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

That is a wonderful, happy story - thank you for sharing it. Seeing his childhood pals light up was joyful. And big props to how WCCO produced the story.
posted by davidmsc at 9:08 AM on April 4, 2022

I recall seeing a very interesting TV interview with Prince circa 1977 (?) when his recording career was just starting out. He was shy, very self-confident, and a bit thorny.
posted by ovvl at 9:21 AM on April 4, 2022

ovvl -- not sure if it's what you're thinking of, but is it the American Bandstand performance in 1980?
posted by dismas at 9:41 AM on April 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mini Prince. Skipper!!!
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:52 AM on April 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

He was shy, very self-confident, and a bit thorny

Also a bit horny.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:55 AM on April 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

Was fortunate enough to see Prince on his last tour. My wife bought two tickets very last minute. The seats were way, way to the side, but only one tier up, so pretty close to the stage. Still, looking at the map of the gigantic stadium we figured we wouldn't be able to see much at all.

Turns out his stage extended way out into the venue, and the performers moved all around. Prince performed to every side of the stage and we got to see him fairly close up! We couldn't believe how much we lucked out. Jennifer Hudson made a guest appearance and they did a duet (this was in Chicago, her home town).

The show was like a long, extended dance/funk/rock party jam and guitar solo extravaganza with just a few "set pieces" like Purple Rain and a few other big hits. At that point in his career he could have phoned it in, but it was a tremendous and long show overall. I left being a much bigger Prince fan than I was coming in.

I gotta admit, I'm 51 and grew up with his music, but a lot of it back then just sounded so "glossy '80s" to me (a white cis het kid) that it didn't appeal much to me at the time. Seeing him live was a complete revelation. The guy was a Rock Star. I was ignorant.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:04 AM on April 4, 2022 [6 favorites]

Bless his little heart!
posted by Jess the Mess at 10:23 AM on April 4, 2022

SoberHighland, Prince's last tour was "Piano and a Microphone" and was just him, solo, singing and playing piano, no guitar. He played no shows in Chicago: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_%26_a_Microphone_Tour
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 10:23 AM on April 4, 2022

Really touching.

what struck me is probably generational. Prince and I would've been about the same age in 1970. A time well before affordable home video gear. So nobody I know has any old footage of themselves when they were kids -- not with synch-sound. So to suddenly see footage of someone that I knew as a kid, smiling and talking and shrugging, just being who they once were -- that would be a shock, a good one, but nevertheless a hit on an emotional level ... the dim past rocketing forward, becoming present, alive.

wow indeed
posted by philip-random at 10:28 AM on April 4, 2022 [14 favorites]

Flock of Cynthiabirds, SoberHighland: Perhaps it was the "Welcome 2 America" tour in 2012
posted by now i'm piste at 10:35 AM on April 4, 2022

Also a bit horny.

we might as well go full-on silly and say Prince was a bit sexy
posted by elkevelvet at 10:45 AM on April 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

"film at eleven" was a thing.

WellllAKXshully.... in MN the evening news was on at ten o'clock, not eleven. That's an Eastern Time assumption. :7)

(And to have it be on 'CCO, the Old Neighbor -- that's a laugh in itself!)
posted by wenestvedt at 11:01 AM on April 4, 2022 [7 favorites]

Adding the tangential note that after watching the Youtube video, I am KICKING MYSELF for not having titled this post "The Little Prince."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:06 AM on April 4, 2022 [24 favorites]

This is the best. Thanks for brightening my day!
posted by unwordy at 11:55 AM on April 4, 2022

I went to college in southern Minnesota. Freshman year, there was a junior across the hall from us wh grew up in Minneapolis. He went to High School with Prince. This was early 80s, so Prince hadn't really had any of his Purple Rain era success yet, just lots of songs about being horny.

Anyway, the guy across the hall said, he was kind of introverted. Used to skip class and sit out in the hall with his guitar. Which pretty much sounded about right.

What a great find this is. Skipper. LOL
posted by Windopaene at 12:06 PM on April 4, 2022

we might as well go full-on silly and say Prince was a bit sexy

And his hair was a lot glorious.

That old video was wonderful. It's as if smirky little 11-year old Prince knew he was headed for greatness.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:29 PM on April 4, 2022

I am KICKING MYSELF for not having titled this post "The Little Prince."

Depending on your source, the adult Prince was either 5’2” or 5’3”, so pretty much any post about him would suit this.

Towering in talent only.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:23 PM on April 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

(And to have it be on 'CCO, the Old Neighbor -- that's a laugh in itself!)

I grew up in the Twin Cities about the same time as Prince and remember listening to my one-earbud AM transister radio, delivering the Minneapolis Tribune on my bike before sunrise, and thinking that WCCO was beyond parody for old and out of touch. Corn detasseling crew reports at 5:30! Then over to KDWB or WDGY for the possible religious experience of "Hey, Jude" at sunrise in June after overnight rain and the delicious smell of Minnehaha Creek and the urgency of getting the paper properly behind the screen door before the old lady who had only recently stopped storing her frozen meat on the front porch woke up and looked for it. Oh, and learning all the star constellations before my eyesight failed.

Twin Cities AM radio. Delivering the Tribune in the dark.

And nearby, there was little Prince, in the dark, a couple of years older than me, a couple of miles from me, half-asleep, quietly and confidently plotting to blow my little mind.
posted by Scarf Joint at 2:43 PM on April 4, 2022 [11 favorites]

Matt is my husband's cousin so we always watch WCCO at 10, but we didn't know he was such a big part of this until we watched the story. It was very heartwarming to Skipper's friends' reactions!
posted by soelo at 6:02 PM on April 4, 2022

I got goosebumps when I saw this. And it snowed in April last night :)
posted by Bacon Bit at 8:19 PM on April 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Prince was making a big impression on people from an early age. My mom was a pediatric nurse in Minneapolis around this time and remembers meeting a young Prince Nelson. He came into the hospital where she worked on a couple of occasions. It was nothing serious — I think she just took his temperature and other vitals. But it was enough for him to earn a mention in the diary she kept, as she was struck by the sly smile, the sideways looks, and an air of having everything figured out. When Prince started getting famous about 10 years later she recognized him instantly as that kid with the eyes.
posted by theory at 9:41 PM on April 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

And it snowed in April last night

I'm not sure what you mean by this. That's routine for April in Minnesota.
posted by VTX at 10:57 AM on April 5, 2022

VTX: Prince did a song called Sometimes It Snows In April.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:11 AM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]