The Bootleg Files: Around the Beatles

Posted on November 15, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 885: “Around the Beatles” (1964 British television special).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Bits and pieces of the show turned up on home entertainment release.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The full show has been unavailable for years.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Sixty years ago today, ABC broadcast “Around the Beatles,” an hour-long musical special that was first broadcast on Britain’s ITV on May 6, 1964. This production was notable as the rare television variety special with the Beatles as the starring attraction – for the most part, the Fab Four only showed up as guests on someone else’s small-screen music and comedy revue.
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The Bootleg Files: The Slim Whitman Commercials

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 884: “The Slim Whitman Commercials” (a series of television advertisements featuring the yodeling country singer).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No perceived re-release value.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

If you were watching American television in the 1980s, there’s a good chance that you’ll remember commercials for albums featuring Slim Whitman. These commercials resonated with audiences – mostly for the wrong reasons – but they managed to reanimate the career of a unique performer who was mostly forgotten in his own country.
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The Bootleg Files: Let the Good Times Roll

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 883: “Let the Good Times Roll” (1973 concert film featuring Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Music rights clearance issues are a big obstacle.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

During the early 1970s, there was a wave of nostalgia for the music and pop culture of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Broadway musical “Grease,” the movie “American Graffiti” and the sitcom “Happy Days” were the most prominent examples of this retro celebration of the era, while Sha Na Na kept the old tunes alive with their kinetic stage and television appearances, but a series of concerts dubbed “The Rock and Roll Revival” brought a number of the prominent music stars from that period to perform their old hits for admiring audiences.
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The Bootleg Files: Roadhouse Nights

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 882: “Roadhouse Nights” (1930 feature starring Helen Morgan and Jimmy Durante).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.

The 1930 feature “Roadhouse Nights” is a production that is more famous for its back story and assembled talent and less celebrated for its contents. To be frank, it is among the most interesting and most boring films ever reviewed in The Bootleg Files series.
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The Bootleg Files: The Lord Don’t Play Favorites

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 881: “The Lord Don’t Play Favorites” (1956 television musical starring Kay Starr, Louis Armstrong, Buster Keaton and Robert Stack).

LAST SEEN: On Internet Archive and YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Music clearance issues and a poor quality surviving kinescope.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.

One of all-time favorite books is Arthur Shulman and Roger Youman’s “How Sweet it Was,” which chronicles American television from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. While many of the entries in the book are well-known, there was one photograph that always intrigued me – it was for a 1956 musical called “The Lord Don’t Play Favorites” and it showed Buster Keaton wearing a polka dot clown costume and his trademark flat hat while playing a calliope. Next to Keaton was Kay Starr, a popular singer in the 50s, who had a straw hat and a cane while wearing a striped blouse and a long black skirt. The caption for the photo only said that the show was a musical with a circus setting and co-starred Robert Stack, Dick Haymes and Louis Armstrong. (Yes, that’s the photo at the top of this page.)
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The Bootleg Files: The Apocalypse Now Workprint

Posted on September 27, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 880: “The Apocalypse Now Workprint” (five-hour version of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 classic).

LAST SEEN: On Internet Archive and YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Coppola doesn’t want this to be commercially released.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.

I have a confession to make: I never liked “Apocalypse Now.” I’ve seen it several times, and with each new viewing I wished that my indifference to the film would be replaced with a sudden awakening of belated appreciation. I was hopeful that the longer “Apocalypse Now Redux” would trigger a positive response, but I found that more annoying than the original.
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The Bootleg Files: A Night on the Town

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 879: “A Night on the Town” (1983 British television musical starring Ann Reinking, Eartha Kitt and Bobby Short).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Clearing the music rights is too expensive.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not in the U.S, although there was a U.K. release.

Musical comedy is, arguably, the most difficult genre to create. Not only is there the challenge of having on-screen talent who can sing, dance, and carry off light comic material, but there is the equal challenge of behind-the-camera talent involved in orchestrations, choreography, and the various production duties needed to create a magical world where people break into song and twirl about as if it was part of the daily routine.
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