Bob Link Collection

Bob Link was the sole owner of the Chicago production company YACHT Films International, which made 16mm color sound films about sailing for showings to professional groups, civic organizations and yacht clubs. Bob was a good friend of Jack Behrend who is the namesake of another CFA collection. Bob taught Jack sailing, while Jack taught Bob filmmaking. Together they made the Michelob sponsored film Sailing: Do It Right - Keep It Safe (1977), an instructional sailing film that currently resides in CFA's Jack Behrend Collection. The film was made in response to a perception that many boating accidents were alcohol related, and made the point to drink after you are in the harbor or at anchor.

Jack Behrend was born in Chicago in 1929. After getting a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Behrend joined the army in 1951. Upon leaving the army in 1953, Behrend became a partner in his father's business, selling and renting used motion picture theater equipment. Two years later, Behrend and his father decided to market their business towards television companies, where there was a greater degree of growth than in movie theaters. He worked as a professional industrial filmmaker from the 1950s until the 1990s. In the early 1970s, Behrend worked with the Director's Guild of America to set up a committee that acknowledged films being made in Chicago. For over ten years the committee held monthly film screenings first at the Sheraton hotel, and then at a space above a wine store at 745 N. La Salle street.