Brad Meltzer on ‘Lost History,’ the Missing Items, and a Call to Action

Brad Meltzer Lost History Interview
Brad Meltzer’s Lost History (Photo by Andy Ryan © 2014 A+E Networks, LLC. )

Brad Meltzer and H2 want to know what’s in your attic. Meltzer’s new series Lost History debuts on October 31, 2014 at 10pm ET/11pm PT and explores historically significant items that have disappeared. The new series doesn’t just examine the hows and whys, it asks for viewers to help find these pieces of American history by submitting info at an online tip site. To make it even more enticing to get involved, there’s a $10,000 reward for information leading to their recovery.

Brad Meltzer’s Lost History makes history come alive, something Meltzer’s passionate about both on and off the show. “What we do as a culture is we start to say that history is a bunch of dates and facts that you memorize, and history is nothing like that,” explained Meltzer.

“That’s not what history is at all. What history is is a selection process and it chooses every single one of us, every single day. The only question is, do you hear the call? And to me, whatever it is that I’m working on, that’s the call. It’s my chance to share with people the greatest stories of all. That’s what history is to me, the greatest stories of all.”

Among the items spotlighted on the new series airing on H2 on Friday nights will be the Ground Zero flag, JFK’s brain, and the missing patent for the Wright Bros’ flying machine. And in a conference call in support of the show, Meltzer explained his approach to selecting the featured items and what viewers can expect when they tune in.

In addition to missing items, the series also showcases items that have been found. Why did you decide to include those items and details?

Brad Meltzer: “I think it really came from the idea of if you’re going to try and convince people that they can find it, you have to prove to them that’s true. That’s where we started. The original version of the show began when I was in the National Archives. They pointed out to me a tracking map from the Bay of Pigs was missing for years. They said, ‘You know, this was missing for years. Do you know how we found it?’ I said, ‘How?’ and they said, ‘JFK’s secretary had it. She had take it home with her and when she died, her family found it in the attic. That’s how we got it back.

I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ One, that it was gone – this important piece of history – and two, that it just gets found. And then I started making that list of all the things that are missing.

I can tell you that things are found in the attic; I can tell you that story. But every episode is actually set up where you get two things that are still missing but the middle story’s always how it’s been found. You see all the ways and they’re always found by regular people. Sometime’s it will be the FBI who helps and gets called in, of course. But it’s someone just keeping their eye open and saying, ‘I saw this thing.’

I think for anyone who’s watching the show, then you get to see your own power. You see that story and you’re like, ‘Wait, this isn’t just possible. It already happened. Man, we should start looking.'”

Will you be including important items from pop culture as well as pieces of America’s history?

Brad Meltzer: “Jack Kirby you better believe is on that list. The second episode is James Bond’s original Aston Martin. The one that was driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger is missing. There were two of them. One of them was for exterior shots and one of them was driven by Sean Connery, and that one is missing. I love that. I actually wanted to put that story in the pilot because it was like, ‘I want to show people that we’re doing current stuff, not just old stuff.’ We already had a current one in there so we decided to mix it up.

We also do James Dean’s wrecked car. I’m trying to think from full pop culture…I don’t know if it’s going to be done or not but the Easy Rider motorcycles, Marlon Brandon – one of his Oscars, I mean there are so many things from pop culture that are in there. There’s one that I can’t say that is Superman related that I’m really hoping turns out to be what I hope it is.”

How did you figure out the tone of the show?

Brad Meltzer: “The tone of the show really came from my own outrage. I mean, when we started doing it, I came to History and pitched it to them as this wasn’t just going to be a TV show, it was going to be mission. It was discussing that these things are gone and no one knows about it, and here’s our chance to get it back. Everyone at first is surprised those things are missing but then when you start seeing how many things are missing, shock turns to outrage. Over and over as we kept doing the stories you’d find James Dean’s car at one point is hanging on some guy’s wall apparently.

First of all, if you have James Dean’s wrecked car on your wall, you need a new decorator. Right? But beyond that it’s just disgusting. History does not belong to just rich people who can afford take it for themselves. History belongs to all of us.

They said to me, ‘Brad, you should tell them how you feel.’ When we filmed the pilot I was a little nervous that they were going to say, ‘You know what? Tone it down. We want to do our History show in our normal way.’ But to H2’s credit, they really did say, ‘You know what? We think this is the way to get it back. There needs to be a call to action. Otherwise, no one is going to do anything.’ We’re not here just to entertain, we’re here to get these items returned.”

You focus on a couple of different items over the course one episode. Is there any one item you wish could have been an entire episode on its own?

Brad Meltzer: “That Ground Zero flag. It’s wild because we knew what we were doing when we did the story. We picked the story and we’re going to go do the story, but it wasn’t until we were actually filming it… I had flown into DC and I was there on the 9/11 anniversary this September. I was just emailing back and forth with my friends, with my neighbor whose wife went down on the Pentagon flight – she was a flight attendant, Michele Heidenberger.

It wasn’t until I was emailing him and I road past the Pentagon to where we filmed the pilot and as we started filming it, as we walked in we all looked at each other. I think it was that moment where all of us were shocked because we all know what the show is, and we all know we want to tell this story, but I think in that exact moment in time we realized, ‘Wait a minute. We could find this, and if we do we could bring peace to a lot of people.’ It isn’t just bring it back because we want it; it’s bring it back because it’s actually going to change someone’s emotional state. It’s going to bring them closure in a way. That was just one of those humbling moments where we started thinking of should this be the full episode. When I watched the first cut of it I said to them, ‘I could watch this story for an hour.’ It was that big and amazing of a story.

That’s the one for me that just really did it. It was one of those moments where I was watching a show that I know I had pitched and come up with and with all these amazing people we got it realized. I felt like I was watching it as a complete viewer. It’s just one of those ones you can’t take your eyes off of.”

What was one of the more surprising things that you were able to uncover?

Brad Meltzer: “We go searching for JKF’s brain. Let me say that again slowly. JFK’s brain is missing. It sounds like a bad 1950s sci-fi movie. ‘I stole JFK’s brain!’ At one point in time after the assassination of JFK, there was someone walking around Washington D.C. with a metal can that had the President’s actual brain in it. And you’d think that with autopsy and forensic study and all the things you would want to know about a man who gets hit in the head with a bullet that we would have done forensic studies on the brain itself and the government never did.

It’s one of those moments where when we were first looking for it, research is coming back and I’m thinking there’s no way this is true. When you see what gets pulled out, you’re not going to believe it. You’re going to watch it and feel like this can’t possibly be real. Not that I think anyone’s going to turn in a brain. That’s not what we want at the lost and found. But, man, the call to action there is someone at some point knows [about it].

We have the exact moment where we think it was gone. We want to know who did take it and why did they take it. When you see who the suspect is it’s pretty fascinating because it’s not one of those evil guy stroking his cat thinking I’m going to take this and it’s going to be a big, grand conspiracy. I think it was personally taken for the most human reason of all and it’s to protect a family member.”

How much time and research goes into each segment?

Brad Meltzer: “It’s months. Some are very obvious. We knew we wanted to do the 9/11 flag, we knew we’re doing Hitler’s personal photo album. I knew from the very start that we wanted to JFK’s brain because I knew that story. There are a couple stories I’ve had for years. I pitched this show two or three years ago, so that’s how long it’s been in the making. There are some items I knew for sure this is missing and we’ve got to get it back, and then there are others we kind of uncovered and looked into.

In a strange way what happens and what you see is that no one knows the story except for the people who live in that little world. In comic books we all know that Jack Kirby has missing artwork. Anyone outside the comic book world, they go, ‘Who is that? Who is Jack Kirby and what does that mean?’ The violin from the Titanic, the famous violin that was played…that wasn’t something that James Cameron made up. That was real and the guy who was playing the violin went down. They found his body but they never found his violin. But if you’re a Titanic obsessive fan in the very best way, you know that that’s one of the great items. That’s an item that was missing and then was later recovered.

What it really meant was kind of weaving through all these small worlds and in those worlds, people know very quickly what it is. If you’re a car person, you know James Dean’s car – that the wreckage has been missing. I was like everyone else, why would anyone ever take the wreckage of a car? There’s a whole story that goes along with it.

What takes the most time is navigating through each of those little worlds and finding the most important thing in it.”