A local Minneapolis television station unearthed footage of an 11-year-old Prince from a newsreel stashed in their archives.
Local CBS affiliate WCCO-TV reports the reel was untouched for 52 years and is dated April 1970. During that time, Minneapolis Public Schools saw their educators go on strike. The footage was restored “…to offer context to the educators strike that happened in the same district just last month.”
When WCCO Production Manager Matt Liddy viewed the restored footage, he said, “I immediately just went out to the newsroom and started showing people and saying, ‘I’m not gonna tell you who I think this is, but who do you think this is?’ And every single person [said] ‘Prince.’”
While the footage didn’t contain Prince identifying himself to the news crew, WCCO did some digging and was able to contact a Prince historian and one of the music legend’s childhood friends. No question, that young boy was Prince.
The full 6:13 piece below is well worth a watch, if only to see a rare glimpse of Prince as a child.
