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The Bootleg Files: Wacky Wigwams

BOOTLEG FILES 804: “Wacky Wigwams” (1942 animated short).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:
Probably not.

Unless you are a die-hard animation aficionado, there’s an excellent chance that you are unfamiliar with the output of Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems animation studio in the 1930s and 1940s. Truth be told, their films were never as invigorating or innovative as those from the major Hollywood animation studios of the time, and their obscurity was compounded by not being part of the television rerun culture that ensured cult status for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation.
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The Bootleg Files: Stick Around

BOOTLEG FILES 803: “Stick Around” (1977 TV pilot starring Andy Kaufman).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Mostly likely due to rights clearance issues.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Probably not.

During the mid-1970s, Andy Kaufman began to percolate across television in a number of guest appearances on popular programs ranging from Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” to “The Midnight Special” to the premiere episode of “Saturday Night Live.” He was also a regular on Dick Van Dyke’s short-lived 1976 variety show “Van Dyke and Company,” where he used his Foreign Man persona for a running gag of coming out in the middle of a skit and interrupting it with sincere bafflement over what was transpiring on-stage.
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