Earnest Andrew “Ernie” Neath was born May 17, 1915, in Cheyenne, Wyo., to Joseph Herman and Ethel Fisher Neath. He graduated from Rawlins (Wyo.) High School in 1932. In 1936, he attended the First National Television, Inc., School in Kansas City. Ernie’s long career in broadcasting started in 1933 at KGKB in Scottsbluff, Neb. He moved to Butte in 1936 after joining the staff at KGIR (now KXLF) and was transferred to Helena station KPFA (now KBLL) in 1937. There he met his wife, the former Dorothea Casper. Ernie and Dorothea were married on Oct. 15, 1939, and lived in Helena until 1940, when Ernest was transferred to Bozeman as manager of KRBM (now KXXL). Neath returned to Helena to manage other broadcasting stations in 1960. He died there on June 13, 2001.
The Montana Winter Fair film is 16 mm sound motion picture which was the first ever broadcast on Bozeman television in March 1957. In preparation for the fair, which took place in Bozeman on March 9-16, the board of directors met with Neath to arrange the telecast and filming took place shortly before the opening day. The film features Ernest Neath interviewing former Gallatin County extension agent and sheep rancher Francis L. Niven and a number of other area livestock ranchers at the fair. Among those who appear on camera are Lesley Anderson and his daughter Patricia, Hartman B. Manley, Lawrence G. Christie, Larry Cooper, and Paula Dudley.
This collection is open for research.
An original sound 16mm motion picture of the Montana Winter Fair was donated to the Montana State University library by Francis L. Niven of Bozeman, Montana in 1964.
This collection was processed 2018 May 31