Weirdsville: More Oddities From The Archives August 14, 2009

Event: “Weirdsville: Oddities from the Archives”. Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of rare, weird and some highly entertaining 16mm shorts, movie trailers and commercials culled from the 50,000+ archive at Oddball Films. This month’s highlights include: “Color For Joy”, a bizarre early 60’s promo film for RIT Dyes; “Route One”, Jr. High kids learn all about booze; “Clay Or Origin Of The Species”, Darwinism in clay; “The Blackbird”, kooky Hungarian troublemaker bird; “The What Did You Think Of The Movie Movie”, the great unwashed speak; “The Trendsetter”, colorful but dark British animation; “The Winged Scourge”, an anti-Malaria propaganda film from 1943; “Hot Dog: How Do They Make Mustard”, with Jonathan Winters in drag, Woody Allen and Jo Anne Worley; plus movie trailers and commercials straight out of Weirdsville!
Date: Friday, August 14, 2009 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]

"Weirdsville”
Oddities From The Archives
Screens at Oddball Films

On Friday, August 14, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of the strange, the bizarre, and the sometimes baffling short films, commercials and trailers from deep within the Oddball archive. These “found” films surface in the process of research for other programs: too good to languish on the shelves, they demand to be screened! A monthly companion program to the Strange Sinema series. Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Highlights Include:

Color For Joy (Color, 1962)
Housewife dances and prances around the house, dyeing everything in sight with RIT fabric dye in this odd promotional film. Stars Patricia Harty, who played Blondie in the late 1960s sitcom, in perhaps her first “film” role. No housewife has ever been this peppy- not without a handful of leapers!

Route One (Color, 1976)
Alcohol Awareness film shows an 8th grade class all about booze and hangovers with help from a dog who got drunk at a wedding reception and is suffering a hangover, plus some twisted animation of alcohol in the bloodstream- portrayed by a Kaiser-helmeted jet-chopper riding biker.

Clay or Origin of The Species (b+w, 1965)
Academy Award-nominated claymation short by Eli Noyes- a visual representation of Darwinism through clay. Noyes worked for Sesame Street in the 1970s, where he produced the beloved Mad Painter series (he also designed the MTV logo).

The Blackbird (Color, 1979)
Bizarre live-action, wordless film from the Budapest Filmstudio in Hungary- a mischievous blackbird gets out of his cage and wreaks havoc on the dog, the room, the mail, the desk, and a little sleeping boy. Revenge for the 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie!!

The “What Did You Think Of The Movie?” Movie (Color, 1970)
Early comic-documentary short from the director of Heroes, The Big Fix and The Chosen, moviegoers are interviewed as they leave the movie theater- to much comic effect. Not least of which is the 1970 NYC milieu.

The Trendsetter (Color, 1970)
Cool British animation from the great Vera Linnecar portrays a little man who is annoyed with the little trendies who ape and one up his every move. Illustrates how the trendsetters depend on others for their sense of self worth

The Winged Scourge (Color, 1943)
WWII propaganda film from Disn*y aimed at controlling Malaria through mosquito eradication. Actually a movie within a movie as the Seven Dwarves are shown to be watching and spring in to action, including use of motor oil and the highly toxic Paris Green (replaced in the 1950s with the “safer” DDT).

Hot Dog: How Do They Make Mustard (Color, 1972)
Jonathan Winters (in drag), Woody Allen and Jo Anne Worley (Laugh-In) are back in this early 1970s Saturday morning TV short on how things are made. In this episode, they tackle a hot dog’s best friend: mustard.

PLUS- Movie trailers and commercials straight out of Weirdsville!

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

Official Website: http://www.flarerecord.com/?p=290