I've been looking for that for SO long!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 07:53 PM

I have known "Torelli" for, oh, 50 years, but am waiting, not quite with bated breath, for the movie in which it is sung (_Tortilla Flat_, a musical based on Steinbeck's book) to come out on DVD.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 07:54 PM

There was an American TV series shown in Britain back in the early '60's called the 'Adventures of Hiram Holliday', starring Wally Cox.

I think it ran for one season here in the U.S. but back home we got the re-runs on a regular basis.

I'd love to see the series on DVD.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: mike j
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 06:31 PM

dale, mr. moody did not record his two great songs. he could sing all harmony parts but did not like being out front on lead. i do not think you will ever hear a lead singing song by him on record. paradoxically, he was choir director in calhoun, ga for first methodist and first presbyterian at the same time! mike j

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,mike j
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 05:04 PM

i have recently posted a message informing everyone that dr. bob l. and i have nominated charles moody and the georgia yellow hammers to the georgia music hall of fame.thougts, ideas, about them would be helpful dr. l and i have done orginal research, speaking to various relatives and friends of the hammers.
i want to share one story that shows the depth of these folks, in this instance mr moody(c.e.). as most of you know the hammers and the baxter brothers(the black group)were fans of each other and playing partners at times. on the fatefull recording together in 1927 they made history. either they were the first or among the first black-white groups to record together(old-timey groups)and in a special way were sharing their masterful talents a new path was forged.
on our interview with mr. moody's son he related the folowing story. in the late 50's, 60's various print publications were sending their journalist to calhoun, ga to uncover more understanding of the group, especially mr moody. moody was puzzled that people from the atlanta journal-constitution would have any interest in him and was entirely unassuming thru-out the whole process. but here is what the newspapers never knew or realized. a few days after some interview son moody went to the modest home of mr moody(a highly frequent thing), talked about the interviews and decided to put some of the lp music on to reminish of the "glory days". son moody put on the joint baxters-hammers recording and mr moody quietly talked of the historic day and then tears drained from him as he said to son moody, "we did the right thing". young moody said," dad you knew what you were doing" and the answer came," yes son i think so".to me this is powerful, straight from the deep heart of a profundly good and christian man. mike j   ( there are other such stories)

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Feb 09 - 05:26 PM

Dale..I since have found a copy of the Walter Forbes album....so now I have both of them.

But, alas...still no luck on "Logan English Sings the Woody Guthrie Songbag"

I HAVE acquired some very old items on labels like Prestige International, and am slowly getting them onto CDs...When I get organized, I'll make a list. (I'm sure some of these have never been re-released)

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 23 Feb 09 - 03:48 PM

I managed to get hold of a copy of Song Of The South in the UK and Kendall watched it when we were over there.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 23 Feb 09 - 03:28 PM

So much of interest in this thread, it really is a treasure to us all. First post nearly six years ago and started by Rick. How can it go wrong?

Mike Jones who posted on 31 Jan 09 - 05:27 PM , I just now saw your post for the first time. Yes I can see that you appreciate the finer things in life as I do. :)

Bill D: Did I ever get that copy of Ellen Smith to you? If not, get in touch again and we'll make connections. If you don't have my current email, ask Joe, or you can just use dale8r AT hotmail and I'll eventually see it.

Song of the South is considered too prejudiced. It wasn't, but the PC people who judged it so didn't ask me. At least we've still got Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah !!

Bob who just revived this thread on 23 Feb 09 - 01:12 PM about The Snow Goose: what a classic you have there! I think I read somewhere that Paul Gallico didn't like the adaptation, and somehow withheld the rebroadcast rights. Another pity.

Dale

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 23 Feb 09 - 01:12 PM

I was fortunate enough to be staying up late in 1972 and happened to tape the original Hallmark "Snow Goose" by Paul Gallico on reel to reel. Recently I just transferred it to DVD so friends can see it.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,mike jones
Date: 31 Jan 09 - 05:27 PM

Dale, I am plesed and appreciative for your enthusiasm for the Georgia Yellowhammers and Charles E. Moody. Mr Moody, like his son, could sing all parts of harmony. However, I am quiet sure he never sang lead on a recording with the Hammers and did not record his huge songs "Drifting" and "Kneel". Mr. Moody's great talent was that of a highly skilled craftsman, a contemplative, studious, totally modest man who did not give a hoot about showmanship. He also attended several schools of music beginning with young Harris college in young Harris, Georgia. He was totally immersed in music and religion. Finely, I can also tell you that numerous composers called on him to "polish" their songs, I believe more so in melody than lyrics. I am not totally sure of this but that is my somewhat informed opinion. At a latter time I can share with you a highly interesting story about "drifting". for me, a devotee and admirer of Mr Moody it is a fascinating look at the the soul of this great man.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 12:12 PM

Thanks Nerd.

refresh

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Nerd
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 10:54 AM

Rick,

I had forgotten that's on Lifeline! Great album, by the way!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 05:17 PM

Modern reprints of "How The Rabbit Lost His Tale" are available on Ebay. Moulin Rouge comes up rarely. I will watch for it. Bet both can be ordered through Blockbuster. They have catalogues available to the public and sources for every movie on VHS - no, no "Alabaster Box". I checked.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: MMario
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 01:58 PM

They released in it the UK - it has NEVER been released in the US on video.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 01:34 PM

zowee! Maybe Uncle Walt don't have a good copy!..(I saw it in New Orleans when it was first released..1946? 47?...I was in 2nd grade)

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: MMario
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 01:16 PM

and I just found a source for it on the internet - but it costs $230 bucks!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: MMario
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 01:08 PM

I remeber the book Kendall is looking for- don't recall it's title though.

"Song of the South" is pretty rare in the states. I saw it for the first time just recently.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 01:05 PM

Nerd, I recorded that Robin Hood song on my Folk-Legacy album "Lifeline". Didn't know it was an Allan Taylor adaptation, til a day before we recorded. Thank goodness we got the credits right!

Cheers

Rick

P.s. Can someone help Kendall.....those shouldn't be hard to find.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Nerd
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 12:45 PM

Well, the old TV show The Avengers has a lost first season. Patrick Macnee's character Steed was the sidekick, and the main star was a guy who had previously been in "Police Surgeon," I think. Basically, the main guy's fiancee is murdered, then Steed mysteriously turns up in his flat and says "I can help you get to the bottom of this," and off they go. In fact, the show was called "The Avengers" based on the idea that they were going to avenge the fiancee's murder. The show was, I believe, performed live, and the only official tapes were overwritten. Some private copies of some episodes do exist, but who's got the time to track 'em down?

I recently had a nice experience of providing the solution to someone's quest. I am teaching a course on folksong and ballad in a university. One of my students is a university employee, hence not your typical 18 yr old college student. In the 1970s he heard a song on the radio, a version of "The Birth of Robin Hood." It was played twice, on two consecutive weeks of Gene Shay's folk show, but Gene did not announce the singer's name (shame on you, buddy!) This student of mine was captivatd, and put it on his mental wish list ("gotta find out who that was!") but he never got around to it.

So now it's 25 years later. In my course I use both field recordings and revival renditions as audio examples. This past week we discussed the Robin Hood ballads, and I actually played this song that he had been thinking about for a quarter century! After class he asked me who the heck it was (it was Allan Taylor)and if it's out on CD (it is). I'm so happy I was able to help...

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Deda
Date: 26 Mar 03 - 05:24 PM

A ridiculous, goofy comedy, maybe late 1970s, starring James Caan, Carol Kane, Diane Keaton and Elliot Gould, called "Harry and Walter go to New York". I guess it bombed at the box office, and then HBO played it for about a month, and then it disappeared. AFAIK they never put out a video. But it was really very funny, with a Laurel and Hardy shtick between Caan and Gould. My ex-husband loved it. It also had a great song over the credits, many, many verses of "you've got the right cigarello but the wrong cheroot" (etc. etc.).

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 10:26 AM

I have tried to find "The King Of Hockey" the awful, campy movie from the thirties. They used to run segments of it during intermission on Hockey Night In Canada back in the early seventies. I have tried the CBC, the Internet Movie Database (they list it, but they don't show anywhere that you can buy it). It was so bad that it was good.

Another one that I would like to get for selfish reasons is an episode of a CBC detective series called Sidestreet. It was filmed in 76 or 77 and was about a tremendously talented Junior hockey player who was from the wrong side of the tracks and runing with the wrong crowd. To film the hockey scenes they used two OHA Jr. "B" teams, The St. Michael's Buzzers, who I played for, and the Seneca Young Nationals. I can think of at least three players who would have been involved who went on to play in the N.H.L., the most noteworthy was the stunt double for the troubled kid role, a fifteen year old Wayne Gretzky. I doubt that the CBC even know they had that footage. I didn't see the show when it aired, but I heard that I was on screen a few times, unfortuanately as the goalie that the star was scoring on. I doubt that they would have it anymore, but what the heck, I should contact them.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Fiddlegrrl
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 10:12 AM

British trad music is still relatively new to me, so "SO long" isn't quite right, but here are the two things that I wish would spontaneously manifest in my little hands:

+ the 8 records of A.L. Lloyd and Ewan McColl singing the Child Ballads, as previously mentioned by Uncle_DaveO

+ Bertrand Bronson's Child Ballads songbooks, either the four volume version or even the single volume version.

Like I said, I'm all new to this, so I'm really quite clueless about how much this stuff costs or how easy (or not!) it is to get. I got a little dose of reality when I spied a set of the four Bertrand Bronson volumes on abe.com for $2250!! Shriek!

Still, I wish there was some way. The New York Public Library has a copy, but they frown on photocopying and I don't know how hard it would be to get them to give it up for an afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised if it was "special collection"ed.

*grump*

xo,
E. Bess

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: kendall
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 07:29 AM

There are three things I'd like to find;
Films:
Song of the South (1946)
Moulin Rouge (1950)
and a book. It was a school book when I was a little boy. There was the story of how the rabbit lost its tail, and, the cover was dark green with an orange silouette of Simple Simon and the Pie man. I remember the damndest things!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Mar 03 - 08:19 AM

The Emeric and Pressberger Tales of Hoffmann is indeed on video, I saw it about three weeks ago. I found it very disappointing. The Red Shoes was more interesting. Beautiful colour though.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 10:23 PM

I extremely doubt that it is, was, or ever will be available in VHS or DVD, but I'd love to see again the wonderful English production of The Tales Of Hoffman, back in the early to middle 50s. It was outright GORGEOUS cinematically, and musically wonderful. I saw it twice or maybe three times. If it ever WERE to be on DVD, I sure would buy it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 08:26 PM

Well, I just SAW for the first time one of my holy grails! In a French documentary on Jazz......there was the COMPLETE two minute clip of Leadbelly playing Irene Goodnight in Prison, and then embarassing himself in a dialogue with John Lomax!!!

Damn, I've waited a long time to see that. Leadbelly plays Irene in C(!!) on his green Stella 12 string (the one held together with tape), although he's tuned wayyyyyyy down. He often played it in A7th formation as his voice lowered.

Lomax says "welllll Leadbelly, you're the best nigra songster in this hyar prison (or something like that) and Huddie asks him to take the song (not Irene) to the Governor and get him a pardon. It's hokey and very racist....but am I glad to have finally seen it!

Those French may be Jerry Lewis lovin', Dubya dissin', surrender monkeys, but man to they give good documentary.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Little Robyn
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 06:48 PM

Almost 40 years ago I bought (secondhand) a set of 7 records called "Southern Folk Heritage Series" recorded by Alan Lomax and assisted by Shirley Collins. I enjoyed them for about 20 years and then when our little folk club started a record library I "loaned" the set, along with a few other records, so others could also enjoy them. They're field recordings and for anyone who doesn't know the collection, the record titles include "Sounds of the south", "Blue Ridge mountain music", "Roots of the blues", "White spirituals", "American folk songs for children", "Negro church music" and "The blues roll on". It's a great collection tho' I was not playing it any longer - by then I was listening to British trad and I'd absorbed all I needed from them.
What I didn't know was that the library was later added to the record library collection at the Wellington Folk Centre (in New Zealand). Again, I thought they'd be safe enough, and enjoyed by others.
When the Folk Centre eventually closed down and vacated the premises, about 10 years back, everything was sold.... tho' I managed to get most of my records back. Unfortunately one of the set was missing - gone, without trace - even tho' the library had a card system. It had walked!
So if anyone comes across Vol 2, Southern Folk Heritage Series, Blue Ridge Mountain Music, if it has Robyn Williams written in blue biro on the top right corner of the back, I'd really appreciate it back again. A collection isn't complete if Vol 2 is missing!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 05:03 PM

Ah, we're going to have to get away from Kim Novak, or face having this wonderful thread turned into BS! (Actually, I was going to make some smart remark, but Bob beat me to it. I think he'd have known it if he had run into her.)

And now for something completely different.

I have been waiting AND waiting for the complete Uncle Dave Macon. Haven't checked the progress lately, but here's hoping Bear Family beats Document to the punch. Nothing against Document, but . . .

Other things that have been too long in reissuing:
First and foremost, The Georgia Yellowhammers. Anyone know if Ernest Moody ever recorded Drifting Too Far From The Shore or Kneel At The Cross? He wrote both before his time with the Yellowhammers. What a waste if he didn't.

A comprehensive, everything box of Charlie Poole. This is a serious omission in Old Time Country.

The rest of the complete Annette Hanshaw. I guess I should be thankful that three CDs worth HAVE been issued, but I am greedy.

The complete (or at least a bunch of) Mac & Bob , Bradley Kincaid, Tenneva Ramblers, The Hot Mud Family ~~ I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. At any rate, there are a LOT of things I'd like to hear before it's too late.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Deckman
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 04:25 PM

Sinsul ... It might have had something to do with ticket sales, but I can't pretend to have the inside scoop! Bob

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 03:44 PM

For the record: by the end of the movie Moll flanders was well into her 60s or older. How come she never aged past 32?

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Deckman
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 03:10 PM

Peter T ... actually, I had a LOT more than just my curiosity piqued!
CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Peter T.
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 03:01 PM

I am second to none in my admiration for Miss Novak, who nevertheless, well, let us say had a limited palette. The role that fit her like a glove was Judy in Vertigo, all that moody introversion. She was truly terrific. Heaven knows what she would do with Moll Flanders, the original extrovert. Actually, my curiosity is now piqued.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Deckman
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 01:52 PM

Peter T ... You could call Kim Novak many things, but "dreadful" is not the first thing that comes to my mind! I did see that film. In fact, with very little effort, I can still see her ... I mean THAT FILM. She was truly gorgeous. As I recall, I spent several weeks hanging out at Limekiln Creek, in Big Sur, just hoping to run into her. Never did ... Oh well ... her loss! (hee hee) Bob

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Peter T.
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 01:41 PM

Anybody ever seen what I suppose was a Hallmark presentation (on TV) of "The Snow Queen"? Many years ago, and in black and white, but I would dearly love to see it again.


Somebody here obviously knows how to find out on the web: can anyone here tell me if Kim Novak's "Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" has ever been released to video? I am told it is a dreadful movie, but an English student friend of mine is studying the novel, and is considering making a comparison -- another student is doing "Tom Jones" film and novel. The only person I know who ever saw it says that there is a lot of Kim Novak, er, upfront, which would certainly enhance any scholarly viewing.


yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 01:18 PM

Your welcome, Bob.

I too saw the Snow Goose many years ago and would love to have a copy. I was thinking of it when all the talk about chemical weapons started. Didn't Richard Harris' character suffer from his WWI exposure to mustard gas? At least that is how I remember it.

The hunt for "An Alabaster Box" continues.

As for Rick's "dorky", it is hard to picture you as anything but the strong, silent, sexy type. But if you find a copy, keep in mind that no one here will feel the need to be less than honest.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Deckman
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 01:09 PM

I actually have a SUCCESS story, thanks to the wonderful Sinsul!. For some years I had been searching for a rather obscure film that the late Walt Robertson starred in titled "Island Bound." Lo and behold, a while ago, Sinsul contacted me sayinh that she not only had it, but was sending it to me! How's that for wonderful. Thanks again Sinsul. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 11:44 AM

Dale, I saw the Snow Goose when it originally aired, and always wanted to see it again. I also searched for years for a movie I'd seen in a theater: "The Black Rose." I finally found it and I've seen it on TV. BORING! It's strange how these things develop an air of mystery and myth. When we finally find them, we think "I really wanted to see THAT?!" I'd still like to see the Snow Goose though.

Rick, I don't know if this page at Queen's U means they have the shows listed, or not. May be worth an e-mail.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 10:47 AM

Sins...good luck on this. I think it may be quite do-able.

For many years I tried to get a copy of a TV show I did with Oscar Brand in the late sixties, called "Let's Sing Out". I was told that the film no longer existed, as most networks considered "Folk" such a passing phase, they simply taped over them. Oscar also has been trying to locate shows from this series, and even with his considerable clout has had no luck.

But......last year I heard of a man up in Northern Ontario, who had a BUNCH of those shows on tape. I've almost tracked him down. My quest is strictly from a novelty point of view, to see if I was as Dorky as I think I was!! Ha ha!

Rick

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 04:42 AM

I have seen Pennypacker a few times, but not recently. Seems I saw it listed somewhere down the line on either American Movie Classics or Turner Classic Movies.   TCM has a place where you can suggest movies. Suggest A Movie That might be an option for Sinsull, as well.

I just used the link, and neither is scheduled on TCM at the moment, but the link provides a bulletin board for posting, so go there and try it. Can't hurt. I didn't check at AMC, which has gone rapidly down hill the last few years.

Back years ago, WGN in Chicago used to show The Cheaters every year at Christmas time. Watching it was a tradition in our family, just as was watching multiple versions of A Christmas Carol and watching A Wonderful Life multiple times. Back then Scrooge McTelevision didn't have a monopoly on it, and you could find it playing somewere virtually every day during the Christmas season, often without commercials.

Well anyway, The Cheaters ~~

The Cheaters (1945, Republic) -- A virtually unknown Christmas tale about a has-been actor invited to Christmas dinner by a rich family. Joseph Schildkraut, Billie Burke and Eugene Pallette star in a heart-warming story that originated surprisingly from Republic Studio. Not on DVD. Rights presumably held by Artisan. (The film is also sometimes known as The Castaway.)

I see the BBC played it as recently as this past season, December 17, 2002, but it has not played on cable in the US in a LONG time. I look for it every year, but it is never there ~~ at least I haven't found it.

Another film I would love to see again is the 1971 Hallmark production of Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose, starring Richard Harris and Jenny Agutter. It was repeated in 1972, but not since. Depending on your source, either Hallmark isn't interested in reissue or Gallico's estate will not permit it to be shown.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Max
Date: 22 Mar 03 - 01:19 AM

SINS, you must learn that only I know and have everything.

And SINS and George, neither film has been made available on video or DVD.

For Pennypacker, I'd probably try to contact a TV station that fits the profile of playing it a 3am and talk to the acquisitions fellow to see where he would get it. It obviously exists in some reasonable form, just not commercially. You can also search online TV listings worldwide to figure out if any station, anywhere, is playing it, and contact them or tape it.

As for the Alabaster Box, it probably has never been transfered to tape. You'd probably have to contact whoever caretakes the estate of the director or the old production company. Who knows.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From:
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 11:43 PM

Max, you're right. However the video stores around here have never had it. I've looked. Believe me! I've given up the last few years.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 07:07 PM

Update: At least now I know that it really exists. There is a poster but so far no one can tell me where to a copy. Strange, The Museum Of The Moving Image in NYC didn't know it existed. They are supposed to know and have it all.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 07:02 PM

ok, then! The other item that hurts is a loaned-but-never-returned copy of "Logan English Sings the Woodie Guthrie Songbag"...that one left in 1967. I know who has it, but they avoided me for several years until I lost track.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 06:56 PM

wow, Dale!...that was fast!..*big smile*...now, maybe I need to make a list of the OLD stuff I have and negotiate a trade!

The thing I REALLY wanted was Walter's version of "Poor Little Ellen", which my friend Roland Appleton made sort of his signature song. We did a radio show in 1962, and when Roland lit into "Poor Little Ellen", I watched the sound engineer rip off his headphones..*grin*..now THAT was frailing!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 06:18 PM

Max! It may be. The director died in Brookln in 1927 according to another website. It couldn't be that simple - I've been looking for THE Alabaster Box and it was AN...
Now i have to get a copy and see. If it is the right movie, the Sullivan Clan owes you bigtime. Name your price!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Deda
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:55 PM

Amos, if you ever find that video please let me know. I spent several years trying to recover a video of our Dad's one 1962 appearance on "Meet the Press", and I finally got it from NBC and made copies and sent it around. After he retired he was on CBS radio regularly, on a show called "Viewpoints". He was supposed to represent the political center, I think. I've always wanted to get audio cassettes of those shows, but I never got a response to my letters to CBS. Maybe I'll take up the search again.

Finally, our parents were in an old black & white film, about which I know almost nothing -- but 3-second clips of them have shown up in the weirdest places. They were in a bar in NYC drinking martinis in this film, looking pretty sophisticated, probably late 1930s, and the clip was inserted into a film about Lucky Luciano, as an image of the classy NYC set that Luciano wanted to break into. Then the same clip was in a film about how the 1930s Germans thought of all Americans as being decadent and spoiled (and there are my parents, drinking, as proof positive). I'd love to be able to track that down. I actually bought the Luciano video and wrote to the producers but again, I never heard back from them.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:54 PM

I remember seeing Bob Dylan's first appearance on British TV many years ago, when he appeared as a virtual unknown, in a play called "The Madhouse on Castle Street". His role was to wander around strumming a guitar and singing songs, as a kind of chorus.

The BBC, of course, wiped the tape, or rather over recorded it - they used to do that kind of thing regularly, to save money. But I've wondered if anybody might have bootlegged a copy somewhere, at least on audio, and I'd love to hear them again. I'm pretty sure at least some of the songs aren't in his collected songs and verse.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:35 PM

Sadly, almost every one of my real favourite records have gone missing. Why? totally my fault. I get SOOOO enthusiastic that I have to share the sounds with others...I loan the records....and forget (almost instantly) that I HAVE, and who it was to. Probably one out of three people forget to return them and after twenty years, yer missing about a dozen favourites.

My one absolutely ireplaceable treasure? Lucretia Bori singing Un bel dia (in 1919) from Butterfly. Guess I've never met met anyone who WANTED to borrow it. She had a bit of a thin voice, but was POIFECT for that aria......was also a serious babe who hung out with Caruso, woo, woo!

Rick

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Max
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:30 PM

SINS: Is this it?

George: I think it is actually The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:22 PM

Don't know if it will be of any help, Sins, but James Allen's novel The Alabaster Box was published in 1923. Maybe the film was a Brooklynized version of the novel. All "Alabaster Box" references are usually to fallen women (the breaking of the alabaster box releases the perfume, e.g. Mary Magdalene anointing Christ). yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From:
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:04 PM

oh yes, Congratulations on your good luck, Rick!

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From:
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 05:03 PM

I've been looking for a number of years, 14? 15?, for any copies of OLD (early 20th century, or 19th century) Gaelic song books. IF anyone sees anything in bookstores near them, please let me know.

Other than that, a copy of the movie The Amazing Mister Pennypacker. I'd seen it on one of those LATE, LATE shows on CBC ages ago. I haven't seen it on any video store shelf anywhere I have lived since video stores were around.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 04:55 PM

rICK,
I POSTED AND SIGNED OFF. i HAVE CONTACTED SEVERAL (damn!) museums. They doubted that it existed at all. I also contacted some Ebay sellers who carried silent movies but they too said they could not find it on any list. Directors? This was some fly by night movie company that grabbed two 14 year olds off the street, filmed and moved on. Aunt May and Aunt Jen thought they were headed for stardom...or the basement if their father found out. They never mentioned any more about it. This was the same year they "bobbed" their hair which had NEVER been cut and wore scarves for days out of fear of my grandfather. I wish they were here today to tell me more. A google search turned up nothing.

Don't feel too bad for me. I do have some amateur waxed records recorded the year I was born. Dad, Aunt Jen, Aunt May, and Nana Sullivan.If the house were burning, I would grab thecats and the records.
SINS

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Carly
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 02:32 PM

When I was in high school, a friend of mine went off to college in Salem, West Virginia, and came back with a lovely bit of a song, The Ivy Leaf. He had gotten it from the published collection of one of his professors, Dr. Patrick Gainer. I felt that there must be more verses to the song, but my friend could not remember any more, Dr. Gainer passed on, and no one, not even the Archive of Folksong at the Library of Congress, seemed to have a copy of the book or know the song. Years passed; I sang it here and there, always asking; I haunt used book stores, and it was on my list; more years passed. Last year, I was at a Civil War artifacts sale, and there among a shelf of books on the Battle of Bull Run and the Death of Lincoln was Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills by PATRICK GAINER! I bought it and turned to The Ivy Leaf. I'd waited 33 years to find-he had only collected the two verses I knew! Finding that book was a triumphant moment, nonetheless. And I still have the fun of the hunt for more verses.

I also have a person I would love to find. Carol Thomason and I went to junior high school together, and we shared a passion for "folk music" She,lucky girl, even went to the Campbell School one summer.
We were very close; I still have a songbook she made for me, with construction paper covers and songs like We Shall Not Be Moved inside. I was devastated when my family moved away, but we kept in touch until she got married. I do not know her husband's name, and I heard vague rumors they divorced in a short time and she left the Washington,D.C. area.That was in the mid-1970s; I have thought of her often over the years. Our junior high school no longer exists, and the high school she attended sent me to the reunion committee and another dead end.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 12:57 PM

Not as hard to find as I thought. After skimming a couple or three wrong boxes, I went to the other closet, and a thorough search of the FIRST box turned them up.

Ballads And Bluegrass RCA 2472, 1962
Whoa, Mule, Whoa!
Fenario
Poor Little Ellen
Ballad Of Lost Jimmie Whelen
Take This Hammer
Feast Here Tonight
Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye
Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase
Cod Liver Ile
Pretty Polly
Willow Garden
Rake And Rambling Boy

Folk Song Festival RCA 2670, 1963

Nashville Coyote JMI 1005, 1973
Talkin' Blues
Goin' Where The Rails Go
Before I Met You
Hangin' On The Edge Of Music City
Coyote Blues
You Can't Go In The Red Playin' Bluegrass
That Little Tune
The Last Longhorn
Goin' Back
Down In Nashville, Tennessee

This last album was from the Disney film "Nashville Coyote" which Forbes starred in, along with Chico the Coyote. I think I saw part of it years ago, but failed to make the connection.

Saw Walter Forbes guesting on the Grand Ol Opry 61 or 62, doing Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase, and that was the one and ONLY time I ever saw him, but I did always want that album.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 12:40 PM

3 reports:
(1) For a lot of years I was looking for a colour photograph of Greta Garbo -- there were some shot for Camille -- and never found it. Then one day, right out of the blue, it turned up in one of those big books of movie star photos. I just about fell over. There is, so the rumour goes, some colour film of Garbo in a test she did for a production that was to happen in the late 1940s that never came through. I would love to see that.
(2) One foolish day, I gave away a copy I had of one of the volumes in the complete Dent Dante series I have, and have never seen another copy of that volume. I have tried to order it, checked every second hand bookshop I entered, and no dice. Maybe one day.
(3) About 25 years ago, the BBC did a War and Peace series (starring Anthony Hopkins) which was utterly wonderful. I never saw it again, and they never showed it again after the first spasms on PBS, CBC, etc. I really wanted desperately to see it again. Once, when I was in England, I even phoned up the BBC to ask if they were ever going to broadcast it again, could I buy a copy -- all no. I was in a record store last Christmas looking around, and there in the video section was the entire series, reissued -- $100. The best $100 dollars I ever spent.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 12:13 PM

Ah, Bill, I GOT it! I too passed over the Walter Forbes (RCA 2472, I think), but by the time I got to thinking I really had to have it, it was GONE, never to return to the racks again. A couple of years ago, I picked it up from Ebay with TWO other WF albums, one recorded after the RCAs.

Did you know Norman Blake and Bob Johnson were on those two RCA albums?

You will be dismayed to know that they have disappeared into that vast wasteland I call my storage closet. I do have next week off, so I will TRY to dig them out. No guarantees, though. I am so far behind on just about everything I need to do in my "spare time" that I am not sure if just one week off will get it all done.

That was on my "Lost for SO long list" too, and I was thinking about posting it, but hadn't gotten a round tuit.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 11:52 AM

Ewan McColl and A.L. Lloyd did an LP set in the early 50s, on Washington/Riverside, with EIGHT HOURS of unaccompanied ballads, called (surprise!) The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.   

In about '58, I guess it was, I was able to borrow the set from an acquaintance at a folksong club. He said, "I'll have to have some hostages."

"Like what?" said I.

"What do you have in your collection?"

I named what I had, probably 40 LPs.

"Okay," he said, "that'll do."

"Which ones?" I asked.

"ALL of them!"

So I delivered my entire collection as hostages for the return of his McColl/Lloyd ballad set. I taped them on my old reel-to-reel tape recorder, returned the ballads, and got back my LPs.

Over the years the tapes have deteriorated, broken, got lost, etc., more's the pity. To use a phrase of my grandmother's, "I'd give a pretty" to get hold of that set now.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Alice
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 10:42 AM

I'm still looking for three paintings stolen from me by a gallery owner named Roger Wetherholt who skipped town from his Georgetown, Va, gallery, never returning my work. The last address I had for the gallery office was Vienna, Va, but he seems to have disappeared.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 10:14 AM

well...an old friend of mine once recommended an album to me of a young banjo player, and 10 years later I FOUND it in a 2nd hand store..but had NO money with me. I came back the next day, and it was gone...*sigh*...that was 25 years ago.

artist was Walter Forbes, one of the the young folkies of the 60s.
He seems to have made two albums, and I have the 2nd one, but have never seen that first album again.....so, anyone?

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 10:01 AM

Good stories. By the way I should mention that it was Mudcatter Mark Clark who finally aimed me in the right direction, for the treasure I discovered above.

Well....ONE of the things I'm still hunting for is hardly a thing. It's a person. Alison Grant. A wonderful woman from my past who I like to say a couple of things to. Problem is I have no clues where she is (she was born in Cleveland and lived in Toronto during the late sixties) or even what her name might be today if she was married. T'would be nice.

Oh......and a recording of Bix and Louis jamming in 1927!

Rick

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Sam L
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 09:21 AM

I'd love to find tapes of my dad singing, and there were reel-to-reels of songs he co-wrote from his collection the More Things Change The More They Stay The Same. Have been through all the tapes I could find in the house.

Also, four or five of my short stories went missing when we moved once. The ones I'd set aside to keep. My dad once lost years of work, translations of the poet Emile Lerperger, when his publisher sank into depression and threw things out and all around. Dad found handwritten letters from Flannery O'Connor, incredible things in the trash and on the floors, but never found his manuscript.

And I had a magic red shirt. The three times in my life when women have made friendly advances in my direction, I was wearing this shirt. When I figured it out, I told my wife how odd it was, and soon the shirt went missing. It was nice, strange, mysterious, and a rare ego boost which I miss. I'd settle for finding my wifes old cheerleading uniform, but that's gone too.

Generally, I always like to have an obscure quest going, and the internet has taken some of the sport out of it.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 08:23 AM

Sinsul, any thoughts?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 09:57 AM

They sure DO sing it Ken....Four times ('cause there's four 'live' programs).

One real problem with trying to find old TV shows is that they often recorded OVER tapes. Who decided what was worth saving and what wasn't? Who knows...but chances are it wasn't a folkie.

I would LOVE to get a copies of my appearances on Oscar Brand's "Let's Sing Out" from the sixties. They're apparently out there, but even Oscar can't get 'em.

SINS.....in what directions have you gone as far as searching for that film? Do you have any idea if it still exists? How 'bout hunting down the children of the tech people....producer, director, camera guy etc.?

Rick

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: JJ
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 06:42 AM

Sage, you're thinking of the Museum of Television and Radio (www.mtr.org) with branches in New York and LA. Unfortunately, the only way to check what they have is to go there and look -- the catalogue is not available online. And no, they won't run a copy of something for you, either, dangit.

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: khandu
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 11:49 PM

Hey Rick, do they sing "Martha White Self-Rising Flour". When they toured Japan they were amazed to discover that it was their most requested song!

I have been looking for my old friend, "Dinky" for over thirty years. Haven't found him yet, but I shall!

Ken

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Amos
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 11:15 PM

For one long summer in the 1980's when me mum was alive,, my wife went to the NYU School of Cinematography and on her final project made a simple B&W film which featured my mom, my two oldest nephews, and a couple of other people. The only copy of the film was kept by another student who was part of the production team for the project and we have no idea who she was now, but I have always wanted a copy of that damned film.

A

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 10:13 PM

There's a television hall of fame kind of museum back east somewhere that supposedly has copies of tons of old programs. Had you tried that place? I'll go dig around to find what it's called if someone else doens't have the name. I think it's in NYC. I know there is a place in Virginia that has to do with news, but that's a much newer, more interactive environment.

SRS

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 09:30 PM

That sounds lie profit to me. Careful, Rick. You may break your promise.

I have searched for many years for a silent movie called the "Alabaster Box". It was filmed in Brooklyn in the 20s and my two aunts appeared in it as dance hall girls WITHOUT THEIR FATHER'S KNOWLEDGE. A capital crime in the Sullivan house hold of those days. I would give almost anything to have it...

Subject: RE: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 09:18 PM

Okay Rick, how can I get a copy??? I'll trade you a well used Fielding-Cutler Banjo Mute and a tape of me practicing (just so that you will appreciate Earl that much more).

Subject: I've been looking for that for SO long!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 09:09 PM

In the last year I've been fortunate to acquire a couple of things that I'd searched for literally all my adult life. THis is about one of them. I mean I REALLY hunted hard with no luck for a long time for a video copy of Flatt and Scruggs from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

I knew of it's existance, because clips were often used in those commercials for "Bluegrass' Greatest Hits, but not even industry people had a clue how a copy might be obtained.

By accident one of the people I'd contacted, sent me to someone else, who after a bit of polite conversation, admitted he MIGHT have what I was looking for. I expected to be presented with a monetary figure that would make me cringe (although I would gladly have gone to a thousand bucks....assuming I could have hidden it from Heather!) but NO! He didn't want money, he wanted a vow that I wouldn't profit from it. Easily done. I sent him a couple of my albums and he made me a tape from these old 1960 Kinescopes of the:

Martha White Flour and Pet Milk present....The Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs TV show(!!!!) Complete with commercials about makin' biscuits, hushpuppies and candy. With the original announcer T. Tommy Cutrer, sayin'"Martha White, Goodness Gracious it's Good!!"

It's grainy and at times unwatchable but I've felt sooooo blessed to get about three hours of the finest band of all time, plus some surprises: Flatt introduces "Little Ricky ScRaggs" sic. and it's the first time I got to see Hilo Brown, a great artist in his own right.

Just to watch and hear the duets between Flatt and Curly Sechler, watch and see the wonderful Gospel guitar of Scruggs, and the amazing choreography of that band, as they work one mike (even on TV) it makes all those years of waiting worth while.

So.....has anyone else got a HOLY GRAIL? Something you've been huntin' for for sooooo long? Trust me, sometimes finding it is simply a matter of luck. Maybe this'll be a lucky thread.

Cheers

Rick