The Bootleg Files: Dames at Sea

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 849: “Dames at Sea” (1971 made-for-television musical starring Ann-Margret, Ann Miller and Anne Meara).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There could be a rights issue preventing its release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

In 1966, the tiny Caffe Cino in New York City’s Greenwich Village offered “Dames at Sea, or Golddiggers Afloat,” a good-natured send-up of the 1930s Warner Bros. musicals. With music by Jim Wise and lyrics and a book by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller, this 50-minute mini-production presented an unknown 18-year-old Bernadette Peters as Ruby, a send-up of the kid-in-the-chorus-who-becomes-a-star role that Ruby Keeler played in the yesteryear extravaganzas.
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The Bootleg Files: Talking Pictures

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 703: “Talking Pictures” (unsold 1968 pilot for a TV game show).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No commercial value for a single episode of a failed production.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

For every television show that gets on the air, there are an infinite number of projects that get proposed but fail to find a slot on the broadcast schedule. Many of these projects never advance beyond the concept stage, but often these endeavors find their way to a level known as a pilot, which serves as a test of what the program would look like if it received the okay to become a full-fledged addition to the channel line-up.
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The Bootleg Files: The Ann Miller Great American Soup Commercial

Posted on September 6, 2019 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 699: “The Ann Miller Great American Soup Commercial” (1970 television advertisement).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube in both its full-length and truncated versions.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There is no market for old-time television advertisements.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

If you are a frequent viewer of today’s American television, you may have noticed some depressing trends regarding advertising. It appears there is a surplus number of commercials for pharmaceutical products that display cheerful images while running soundtracks full of dreadful warnings of toxic side effects, and there are too many commercials from insurance companies that offer obnoxious characters who try and fail to be funny, and there are also too many commercial from packaged food providers that promise immediate and drastic weight loss if you shift your diet to an exclusive focus on their offerings.
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