Pied Piper Of Cleveland/ Exhibit

[ROCKABILLY MAN]

Come on people. The world doesn't look upon us with favor. We need to stick together.

Remember - "We may be in different boats but we are still on the same lake" (TM).

[Rob]

You all preach about wanting info, and knowledge, yet you shoot the very messenger bringing it to you.

Not all of us want your information. I for one cannot ever remember asking you for anything. However, you are usually the first to say something negative about any footage that someone has obtained. Certain people who have never seen some of this circulating footage get excited about seeing it and you can't handle the fact that someone else has it, so you come down on them.

I have delivered info YOU ALL wanted.

Again, I've never asked you for anything, nor do I plan to.

The level of gratitude is zilch.

Maybe it's because there is nothing to thank you for. The way you talk to some of these people gets very old. They are just excited about the possibility of something being filmed and/or recorded. Let them have their fun without running them in the ground. A new excited Elvis fan is what makes it fun to be here.

I have provided valuable information for years on this site.

You've had plenty of back patting. It's just too bad that the hand prints are upside down.

I have also rumbled with the best.

LOL! Is that what you call it?

This board has gotten so bad, that it is no longer viewed as a valid source of information. Its nothing more than a school yard for the "Burning Love" boxer shorts crowd.

The EXIT sign is straight ahead.

Rest assured myself, and others with knowledge, footage, and artifacts to contribute, will no longer.

Not true. There are others who will be more than happy to answer questions and/or help out whenever they can. There are some very generous people on this board who will do things for someone and not keep reminding them of it.

Your better off listening to Ger Rijff, and his "expertise".

At last, something I agree with.

Congrats on again severing another link to the very treasure you hoped to obtain.

Stop flattering yourself! You're not going anywhere. If you do, you'll be another one who comes back sooner or later. Probably sooner.

Ger Rijff don't come knocking when the well runs dry again.

I can't and won't speak for Ger. However, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

You wouldn't be such a bad guy if you'd just lighten up and let these people enjoy what they have. Stop coming down on everyone that asks a question or states that they have added something to their collection. Your attitude towards these people totally sucks. No one wants or needs your input so much that they have to put up with your chastising. However, it seems that you give input whether it is asked for or not and then it is in a negative manner. So what that you are a BIG collector and have 10 sealed copies of Elvis Sings Burning Love And Hits From His Movies? No one cares. Change your attitude and maybe someone would care. In the meantime, go count your Elvis bubble gum cards to make sure none are missing.

We'll see you back here when you realize that there are not very many that care if you're gone. You need the board. The board doesn't need you as long as you maintain your crappy outlook on some of the newer collectors here. Adios!

[Delboy]

From John Soeder, Music critic, Cleveland Plain Dealer. 24 October 2005.

Pat Randle (Bill's daughter) told me recently that she does not have a copy of the film and that she never saw the film.

I have been unable to ascertain if Polygram (Universal) still owns the footage.

I haven't heard anything new about the film in the wake of the events surrounding the 50th anniversary of the concert.

One of the great rock 'n' roll mysteries rages on....

John

[Tallhair AKA Ger Rijff]

... Back in 1940- 45, The Netherlands had to put up with uninvited guests who thought of themselfs as a superior "volk". They bullied the hell out of the people. They were real nasty, bigheaded and always right. Very much the attitude you have EPC... Expert, or not, you are a very unfriendly person.

[Steve_M]

Somethnig doesn't sound quite right in that article, but maybe there's a bit missing that bridges it with the other info I'd heard.

Remember the alien autopsy footage ?

Well one of the camera crew filming in 1955 was suppopsed to be the one who filmed the autopsy.

I understood that those who purchased the rights to that also purchased a copy of the Pied Piper at the same time.

Now I might have had one of my normal dreams, weird by anyone elses standards, but does anyone else recall this ?

[ElvisAhlgren]

It seems funny that Ernst and EPE hasn't been able to find out that this footage doesn't exist. Didn't someone try to locate this at the owner (Universal, Polygram?) and came up empty handed.

It seems like a big scam if EPCOLLECTOR is right. Obviously something that didn't exist was sold for big money. Maybe that's why no information can be found. Someone's trying to hide his mistake. I don't remember if the complete footage was sold or specifically the Elvis part. But I read that the Elvis footage would be released soon. But if they bought it all they should have released it to get back some of the lost money.

If several copies exist it's strange nobody has claimed to have seen it since the fifties.

And if some strange collectors club has the footage why wouldn't they provide evidence like a couple of stills from it. If Elvis wasn't filmed why is this material so valuable that nobody want to share. And why pay a lot for something that doesn't exist. OK Elvis can briefly be spotted in a corner signing autographs but this cannot make this so expensive and exclusive.

And if someone has this footage how do they know that it is all that was filmed? If big companies can be fooled to pay millions for nothing I would think that individual collectors can also be tricked.

I think that the only thing that can be confirmed is that the event was filmed. We don't know which parts. Elvis must at least have been seen somewhere in the footage. Randle said so on TV and there is no reason that he would have lied then. The footage was lost. The rights seem to have been sold but the footage is still lost.

The story with the alien autopsy footage make this thing even more strange.

All this is strange and much can be questioned. The day we see some material we can try to analyze but right now we really don't know anything.

If it existed this would be the most exciting Elvis footage ever but it seems like we will never see it.

[Gregory Nolan Jr.]

If you look closely, you see that "Big Foot" is carrying
a cannister of film- surely the lost Elvis in Cleveland footage...!

Thanks to Pep for the PEOPLE magazine scan. Maybe Bill
Randle was a bit of a con-artist after all.
[

Randle with Bill Haley and Arthur Cohen (Left to right)
If all that's left is some footage of Elvis signing some autographs
near or on-stage, then the hype has not been worth it. Such
footage is on par with any number of public domain newsreel
footage.



P.S. Rob, a bit harsh, but well said. I like your "red" response
technique.

[Joe Car]

If you look closely, you see that "Big Foot" is carrying
a cannister of film- surely the lost Elvis in Cleveland footage...!

Thanks to Pep for the PEOPLE magazine scan. Maybe Bill
Randle was a bit of a con-artist after all.


Randle with Bill Haley and Arthur Cohen (Left to right)
If all that's left is some footage of Elvis signing some autographs
near or on-stage, then the hype has not been worth it. Such
footage is on par with any number of public domain newsreel
footage.



P.S. Rob, a bit harsh, but well said. I like your "red" response
technique.

Greg, that's brilliant. Rob, well said. A lot of us fans who don't either have the money nor access to collectors video, appreciate any video we can get and when somebody or some forum is kind enough to post unseen video, or even audio for that matter, it's very exciting.

[Eileen]

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=42364



Elvis made northern debut 50 years ago in Brooklyn

Reported by Jeff Maynor, 10/21/2005

BROOKLYN -- DJ Alan Freed may have started rock and roll music in Cleveland but 50 years ago this week it was another influential Cleveland disc jockey who changed everything when he decided Elvis Presley was something more than just a country singer.

In 1955, young Elvis Presley was a hillbilly novelty act; opening shows for Johnny Cash and Slim Whitman.

Cleveland was the first northern city to see Elvis, booked on country shows at the Circle Theater by DJ Tommy Edwards.

"Tommy did a lot of country shows and, as you know, Elvis started as a hillbilly act," Chuck Rambaldo with Tommy Edwards Records says.

And he might have stayed just a hillbilly act if he had not crossed paths with Cleveland's star-making disc jockey Bill Randle who would introduce Elvis to the nation on network television.

Three months before the nation first saw Elvis, Brooklyn teenagers would see him at their new auditorium as Randle made his movie.

"I remember the trucks, movie trucks outside on the circle there, [with] lighting. Cameras," Paul Smith of the class of ' 57 says.

Those 1955 teenagers were excited that the top recording stars of the day were coming to their school.

"I loved Pat Boone, probably most impressed with Bill Haley and the Comets," Pat Smith of the class of ' 50 says.

But no one had ever heard of Elvis Presley.

The high school guys that day thought he looked weird in his red-orange sports coat.

Pat Boone thought he looked like a grease monkey.

But when the girls walked home from school later that day.

"The girls were saying 'Wow, wasn't he something, wasn't he cute," Joyce Harrison of the class of ' 59 says. "And I think that really started it."

Joyce still has the snapshot she took of Elvis that day, folded over from caring it in her wallet.

The movie of what would become rock's "big bang" is lost. Randle died last year. His daughter says she's found no trace of it.

Saturday night at the Brooklyn High auditorium they'll have a 50-year reunion concert to mark the anniversary, with Bill Haley's Comets, The Four Lads and others.

Tickets are available at the door.

©2005 WKYC-TV

[Eileen]

edited
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1129811457287100.xml&coll=2


When Elvis rocked Brooklyn

Thursday, October 20, 2005
John Soeder, Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic

W hen Elvis Presley performed Oct. 20, 1955, at Brooklyn High School, he was relatively unknown. A half-century later, we've almost come full circle.

The show features co-headliners who were on the bill with Presley in 1955, including Priscilla Wright, the Four Lads and Bill Haley's band, the Comets.

Pat Boone also was part of the original package. He can't make it to the reunion gig because of other commitments.

...the 1,055-seat school auditorium hasn't changed much over the years. The wood at the rear of the stage was replaced recently, although the boards up front are the same ones trod by a certain up-and-comer from Tupelo, Miss., by way of Memphis.

Presley was 20 at the time, a hunka hunka burning ambition with a slick DA haircut. He sang "That's All Right," "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Mystery Train" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget," accompanied by S cotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass. 50 years ago, Elvis came into the building

Moore, 73, doesn't remember many specifics. But those were happy days for Presley and his sidemen.

"We did a lot of driving and a lot of playing, OK?" Moore said with a laugh, reached by phone at home in Nashville.

"Elvis was a fast learner," he said. "If he saw something the crowd liked, he'd embellish upon it. It just got worse as he went along. Worse or better, depending how you see it."

"Nobody knew we were looking at a future giant," said Boone, who tried to strike up a conversation with Presley backstage.

"He was painfully shy," Boone said. "He sort of mumbled and his handshake was soft, like he wasn't used to shaking hands.

"I thought, 'Boy, this guy is already petrified with fear. This is going to be a disaster.' "

Presley didn't make much of an impression on Bernie Toorish of the Four Lads, either.

"He was one of those rockabilly people, of which there were hundreds," Toorish said. "To us, it was a lower form of life. He was no better or no worse than a lot of 'em."

Following that Thursday afternoon assembly for students in grades 6-12 at Brooklyn, Presley gave an evening concert at St. Michael's Hall in Cleveland. The performances were filmed for a documentary about legendary Cleveland DJ Bill Randle, who emceed the shows and championed Presley early on.

Randle died last year. He sold the rights to the concert footage in 1992 to the London-based Merlin Group. Polygram International subsequently bought the film, which has yet to see commercial release.

Contrary to a common misconception, the Brooklyn engagement wasn't Presley's first concert north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Another local DJ, the late Tommy Edwards, brought Presley in for a February 1955 concert at Cleveland's Circle Theater. Presley played there again the following month and the night before the Brooklyn show.

Mickey McCormick, 67, of Brooklyn, was a junior when his alma mater was rocked by Presley.

"I'll say this: He was different," McCormick said. "Most of the artists wore suits and ties. He came out in a red-orange sport coat and jumped around the stage. Plus he had that funny name. I mean, who the hell was named Elvis?

"The guys laughed. Not the girls. They went bananas."

Not too bananas, of course.

"It wasn't a wild rock 'n' roll concert by any means," McCormick said. "The teachers told us not to act up. It was a school function."

North Royalton resident Joyce Harrison was an eighth-grade eyewitness to Presley's set.

"His legs moved a bit when he sang," said Harrison, 64. "But he didn't do the gyrations he became known for later."

She brought her mother's Brownie camera to the assembly. Afterwards, Harrison took a snapshot of Presley as he leaned against a wall.

She thanked him for posing for her.

"No - thank you, ma'am," Presley drawled politely.

When John Coyne, then mayor of Brooklyn, caught wind of the star-studded show at the school, he went to check it out, with the police chief and the fire chief in tow. They arrived just in time to catch Presley in action.

"We saw this fella running up and down the stage with a guitar, running back and forth," Coyne recalled. "We looked at one another, like 'What the hell are they doing watching this nut?' So we walked out like damn fools."

Warren Zanes, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's vice president of education, went to the school Wednesday to lecture about Presley.

A plaque hangs outside the auditorium, designated a rock 'n' roll landmark by the Rock Hall in 1998.


To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jsoeder@plaind.com, 216-999-4562
© 2005 The Plain Dealer

[Gregory Nolan Jr.]

"I've heard some of his songs," said Brooklyn senior Brittney Bond, 17, a hip-hop fan whose tastes run more toward rapper Bow Wow.

"It's not bad," Bond said of Presley's music. "It's just not my style."

Twelfth-grader Joe Mass, 17, offered this reality check: "My grandma is really into Elvis."

[jurasic1968]

Only if such a smart and educated man like Bill Randle could became Elvis's manager.... that's another story.