A sign in the front window of the two-story barn off Germantown Pike in Lafayette Hill advises visitors to “Go Away!”
Those who do gain entry to crusty Charlie Churchman’s cluttered workplace must traverse the messy rows of antique TVs and radios, juke boxes, film reels, canisters and used electronic equipment that comprise this hoarder’s musty reliquary.
Despite the American Pickers-style disorder, the 69-year-old Churchman is one of the nation’s leading film and video restorers. Smithsonian magazine recently called him a “video savant … a self-taught engineer who can transform strips of moldy, decades-old videotape into crisp digital images.