No, I haven't unearthed some unknown Scopitone,or even figured out who that guy is that sang "High Boots" (and if you tell me "Mr. Eraserhead", I'll hit you). But while I was watching the 1st season of "Lost" on dvd last night and the "Hurley" character is flipping around on the TV in a flashback, I noticed some funny stock footage, and when I rewound and looked at it again I realized, "it's a Scopitone!". I immediately recognized it as "For You" by Freddie Bell and Roberta Linn. Dunno who snuck that in there, but it's pretty cool. It's just the video, not the music, the music is just a square dance call (guess they probably don't have to pay royalties for that).
Lost, by the way, is a really great show. Genuinely original plot twists, great scripting, acting and casting. The music is exceptionally good. I was sceptical about it at 1st (as much as I love TV I realize that most of it sucks), but I'm not any more. It's definitely worth renting the 1st season (we got it from Netflix) and getting caught up.
Here's the clip from Lost and the Freddie Bell and Roberta Linn Scopitone.
Lost Scopitone.mov
For You-Freddie Bell & Roberta Linn (Scopitone).mov
Buy "Scopitone Guys, Scopitone Gals"
That clip was also featured on an episode of The Tonight Show.
Posted by: Juanita | September 25, 2005 at 03:08 AM
Ha! I lurve the overdub on that one. "Swing your partner, do-si-so".
'Up the Loggin' Road'
Posted by: Elvis | September 28, 2005 at 05:50 PM
Dear Cookie,
Sorry that you'd want to hit someone who says Mr. Eraserhead does High Boots. According to most people who really know about Scopitones, I have the only film of High Boots. I've wanted to know who the singer is for fifteen years. When I first showed Scopitones in Seattle in 1991 I called the guy Mr. Eraserhead as I had no other name for him and thought it appropriate. In 1997 I did the Scopitone show in NYC and MTV came to the press screening. They wanted to interview me on the news. They transferred my show to video so they could include clips with the interview. They gave me the transfer tape. I make dubs from that and sell them. Some guy bought a dub of a dub of my tape and put it on DVD and started selling it on Ebay. He didn't know I had made up Mr. Eraserhead and passed it along. I'm really sorry about that. He could have asked me first and I would have set him straight. He also has blocked me from further contacting him.
Best Wishes
Dennis
Posted by: Dennis Nyback | November 16, 2005 at 11:42 AM