I've been looking for that for SO long!

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