Dylan 50's film found, to be issued on videotape
Helen_Ochs
virtually no visual record remains from their broadcasts of the
late 1940's and of the 1950's. But, it turns out, things are
different in Duluth, Minnesota. One of its early broadcast
"stars," Harold Ochs, worked as weekend news anchor, hosted an
afternoon kids' cartoon program (dressed up in a ludicrous fake
beard), appeared in scores of station-produced commercial spots
for
local businesses, announced baseball, football, and basketball
games, and ultimately hosted 'Duluth Dancestand', an obvious
knockoff of 'American Bandstand' which also featured local
performers, all for Duluth's KNRD-TV, where he worked from 1947
to
1964. Ochs, without any fanfare, made kinescopes of many of his
programs.
After his death in 1995 (at the age of 76), his family went
through several thousand hours of these relatively crude
recordings, and were startled to find out what a wild variety of
programs Ochs had preserved. Long-lost college and professional
football games, nearly 12 hours of interviews with baseball great
Roger Maris, visits by celebrities great and small, political
events, even what would now be called 'blooper' reels from local
shows. Ochs spent much of his retirement reviewing and
cataloguing
The Ochs family is planning to transfer all this material to
videotape, and, with the help of the Minnesota Historical Socety
and the Minnesota Broadcasters' Association, to organize all the
footage and make it available to schools and local historical
associations. They have received some significant donations, and
hope to close the remaining financial gap by selling several
video
collections. While negotiations are continuing over the sports
programming, several videos drawn entirely from station-owned
programs will be put on sale soon -- and the remarkable first
volume will feature a very young Robert Zimmerman, better know as
rock legend Bob Dylan.
The 90-minute Zimmerman/Dylan includes footage that many of
the rock star's devoted fans will find indispensible, even though
much of it has no musical content. It includes the following
segments:
January 16, 1952. 'Weather'. After a heavy snowstorm, the
KNRD local news crew went to several of the hardest-hit
communities. In Hibbing, it filmed the damage caused when a 70-
foot spruce tree toppled, crushing a garage, badly damaging the
attached home on 25th Street, and downing power lines. Among the
neighbors filmed watching the utility crew removing the tree are
Abraham Zimmerman and his two sons, Robert and David.
May 24, 1953. 'The Captain's Cartoon Cavalcade'. Every
weekday afternoon, Ochs hosted a one-hour live children's
program,
complete with participating studio audience. Tickets were prized
by children in the area, who were not only able to sit in at the
studio as the 'Captain's' crew (and receive a souvenir hat), but
also participate in the "Captain's" skits (and commercials).
Almost every program featured a birthday party, and, on this
program, the honoree was the eleven-year-old Bobby Zimmerman
(Dylan). [For copyright reasons, the actual cartoons are
deleted.]
(1953-1958). Zimmerman Electric commercials. Like many
local
stores, the appliance businesses owned by the Zimmerman family
advertised regularly on KNRD-TV. The commercials are, by modern
standards, rather crude, but they show off the style of their
times. Several of the surviving ads stress the family nature of
the business (which began as Micka Electric, but shortly changed
its name); these include photographs of the rather large extended
families, including Abraham, Beatty, Robert, and David Zimmerman.
Others show off the newest model appliances; in several of these,
Robert and David Zimmerman look on as one of the store's owners
demonstrate an new technological marvel to other customers. And,
in a series of 1958 commercials, the 16-year-old Bobby Zimmerman
works as a clerk/stockboy as the camera tours various departments
in the store.
Summer 1955. 'Blackboard Jungle'. The local news filmed
the
long lines of teenagers waiting to see the movie, and interviewed
several of them leaving after the movie. Among the knot of teens
approached by the reporter is Robert Zimmerman; although he is
not
interviewed himself, he can be seen giggling over several of the
reporter's less-than-penetrating questions.
April 9, 1957. 'Duluth Dancestand.' Each weekend, this
teen
program gave away tickets to a local high school, and this
weekend
the tickets went to Hibbing High. The young Bobby Zimmerman can
be
picked out several times, dancing during the program, and in the
closing dance contest, Bobby and an unidentified blonde partner
survive the first two rounds of cuts before being eliminated for
the semi-finals.
July 5, 1958. 'News Report: Holiday Rock & Roll Teenage
Concert'. To celebrate the 4th of July, a relatively large
concert, featuring Duluth-area amateur and semi-professional
bands,
was staged in the National Guard Armory by a local radio station.
KNRD-TV sent Harold Ochs to cover the event, apparently the first
of its kind in the area. The report shows several bands
performing, and the longest screen time is given to the 'Shadow
Blasters' and its very animated frontman/vocalist, Bobby
Zimmerman
as they rip their way through a raw but recognizable version of
Little Richard's classic 'Lucille.'
July 9, 1958. 'Duluth Bandstand.' This program includes
short interviews with local teens about the concerts -- one of
them
even answer's 'the Shadow Blasters' when Ochs asks her which band
she liked best, although several of her friends boo her response.
It also includes more film from the concert, including cuts of
two
more songs from the Shadow Blasters, 'Matchbox' and an
unidentifiable song, where the only line in the chorus that can
be
made out is 'Her name, it's Echo'. [Several biographies of Dylan
report he wrote a song about a high school sweetheart named Echo
Helstrom, so this is probably that song.]
February 5, 1959. 'Buddy Holly'. While no film survives of
Holly's Minnesota concert shortly before his death, when KNRD ran
this feature, it described that appearance, and illustrated it
with
still photographs provided by a local newspaper. In pictures
showing the crowd pressing up against the stage after the final
encore, as Holly bows and waves to the audience, young Bobby
Zimmerman is clearly visible.
June 5, 1959. 'Graduation in Hibbing." This short feature
reports on the ceremonies for the Hibbing High class of 1959. As
the camera pans along the line of more than one hundred graduates
waiting to begin the ceremony, it is easy to pick out the
apparently restless, uncomfortable Bob Zimmerman, waiting near
the
end of the (apparently alphabetical) line of students.
Volume 1 of 'The Minnesota Broadcast Archives', 'Bob Dylan
--
The Early Years,' will be available in two editions. The regular
edition will sell for $29.95, and will include a 16-page booklet
with text drawn from Harold Och's detailed annotations on each
selection. 35 copies of a 'Patron's Edition' will be sold for
$100.00. Each 'Patron's Edition' will be contained in an
authentic
kinescope case, used by Harold Ochs to store his video
collection,
and will include a photoprint showing the KNRD-broadcast studios,
with a tipped-in Harold Ochs signature taken from one of his
cancelled checks. Both editions will be released on May 24,
2000,
coinciding with Bob Dylan's birthday.
All profits from the sale of these videotapes will be used
by
the Minnesota Historical Society to develop appropriate resources
based on the Ochs collection.
For further information, and instructions on preordering
both
editions of the video, please contact Helen Ochs at
hele...@excite.com, or contact the Minnesota Historical
Society.
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Wolfds
break every year at this time.
Marion Hitzenhammer
Good to see some humor in this newsgroup
Kenneth Wilson
>> But I wonder if you were around in 1969? It wasn't just academics, it was
the whole body of music fans who were, at the very least, puzzled, that in
the political climate of that time Dylan should have chosen to issue an
album of innocuous love songs performed in a style then associated with the
most conservative elements of American society. And Dylan would have had to
be extremely stupid (which he ain't) not to have anticipated such a
reaction. <<
That's an excellent point, except since when does Dylan make career moves to
send a message? Of course, to answer my own question, there is the
speculation about Self-Portrait.
Ken
Raymond Brown
post before I realized I was had. Damn! I was going to buy a copy! You got me.
- - Señor Silvio
To Reply, delete NOSPAM from my address
"When something isn't right, it's wrong."
- - Bob Dylan
Charles Schultz 1922 - 2000
Thank you, Sparky
robertandrews
Helen_Ochs <helenoch...@excite.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:2587d538...@usw-ex0104-028.remarq.com...
> While no film survives of Buddy Holly's Minnesota concert shortly before
his death, when KNRD ran this feature, it described that appearance, and
illustrated it
Zimmerman is clearly visible.
Just to inform you that there's a somewhat grainy Super8 of this concert
shot by a guy named Zapruder, & that you've mistaken a young Bobby Zimmerman
for one of Holly's roadies, E. Howard Hunt.