loved movies wanted to restore these mutilated films to their original full-length splendor. Their passion—their obsession—was something Jill had always sympathized with.
Sometimes rumors grew up around scenes that had been filmed, but not used in the final film. For years people had whispered that the "Jitter Bugs" number had been cut from The Wizard of Oz because that old vaudeville ham, Bert Lahr, playing the Cowardly Lion, had been so marvelously funny that no one watching it would have ever looked at Judy Garland. What fan of vaudeville would not want to see that footage?
What John Wayne fan wouldn't want to see the half-hour taken out of The Alamo? And who wouldn't want to see the "masterpiece" version of Weary Hearts?
But such desires were rarely gratified. Jill knew that Ronald Haver had spent a month looking through the Warner Brothers vaults searching for the twenty-seven minutes from A Star Is Born. He found a complete sound track, but he had not been able to find very much of the film. In the end he had to remount the production using the long sound track, filling in the missing visuals with stills and even some new photographs.
The restorers of the full-length Lawrence of Arabia had the opposite result. After hunting through four hundred pounds of unlabeled footage, they had found the film, but not the sound track. The edited scenes did not correspond to the script so the restorers had hired a hearing-impaired couple to lip-read the footage and had the now-aging actors rerecord the lines. Then a sound engineer remixed their voices to restore them to youth.
But as incomplete as these searches had been, at least those people had been looking for material cut from finished movies. Finding raw footage was even more unlikely. The "Triumphal Return" sequence from The Wizard of Oz, during which Dorothy had the others return to Oz with the witch's broomstick, had been cut early in the editing process. None of that footage survived. The "Jitter Bugs" number had been cut after the first preview. Although it had taken five weeks and eighty thousand 1938 dollars to film, all that has ever been found was the sound track and a home movie taken by the composer. At least that was enough to show Bert Lahr had not stolen the scene from Judy Garland.
Jill knew that the chances of anything surviving from the rough cut of Weary Hearts were even more remote.
Since television started buying feature films, some producers saved a little more footage in case the movie had to be recut for length or moral concerns. Then, for the few years when the "Bleepers and Bloopers" shows were popular on television, footage that showed major stars making embarrassing mistakes was saved. But, for the most part, the pounds and pounds of film left over from a production were junked.
For any excess footage to have survived for the forty years since Weary Hearts had been made would have been extraordinary indeed.
Nonetheless, Jill was going to look. She had to.
CHAPTER 3
A visit to the studio was in order. Jill flipped though her reconstructed Rolodex, trying to think of someone she knew who worked there. She knew any number of people working on pictures the studio was financing, but she didn't seem to know anyone on the payroll. She had last year. She probably would again next year. But at the moment, she didn't. Except Cathy Cromartie.
Well, why not? The rule was, that if you met someone outside of group, you had to tell the group about it. That was all.
So Jill called Directory Assistance and got the number of the studio's main switchboard in order to call a fellow member of her psychotherapy group.
She had not been lying when she told Doug that she was a reasonably well-adjusted person. She believed that. And part of being well adjusted was having the sense to realize that when your mother was the sort who couldn't take a Children's Chewable Tylenol without getting addicted to it, that when you had been in the legal custody of a father
Sometimes rumors grew up around scenes that had been filmed, but not used in the final film. For years people had whispered that the "Jitter Bugs" number had been cut from The Wizard of Oz because that old vaudeville ham, Bert Lahr, playing the Cowardly Lion, had been so marvelously funny that no one watching it would have ever looked at Judy Garland. What fan of vaudeville would not want to see that footage?
What John Wayne fan wouldn't want to see the half-hour taken out of The Alamo? And who wouldn't want to see the "masterpiece" version of Weary Hearts?
But such desires were rarely gratified. Jill knew that Ronald Haver had spent a month looking through the Warner Brothers vaults searching for the twenty-seven minutes from A Star Is Born. He found a complete sound track, but he had not been able to find very much of the film. In the end he had to remount the production using the long sound track, filling in the missing visuals with stills and even some new photographs.
The restorers of the full-length Lawrence of Arabia had the opposite result. After hunting through four hundred pounds of unlabeled footage, they had found the film, but not the sound track. The edited scenes did not correspond to the script so the restorers had hired a hearing-impaired couple to lip-read the footage and had the now-aging actors rerecord the lines. Then a sound engineer remixed their voices to restore them to youth.
But as incomplete as these searches had been, at least those people had been looking for material cut from finished movies. Finding raw footage was even more unlikely. The "Triumphal Return" sequence from The Wizard of Oz, during which Dorothy had the others return to Oz with the witch's broomstick, had been cut early in the editing process. None of that footage survived. The "Jitter Bugs" number had been cut after the first preview. Although it had taken five weeks and eighty thousand 1938 dollars to film, all that has ever been found was the sound track and a home movie taken by the composer. At least that was enough to show Bert Lahr had not stolen the scene from Judy Garland.
Jill knew that the chances of anything surviving from the rough cut of Weary Hearts were even more remote.
Since television started buying feature films, some producers saved a little more footage in case the movie had to be recut for length or moral concerns. Then, for the few years when the "Bleepers and Bloopers" shows were popular on television, footage that showed major stars making embarrassing mistakes was saved. But, for the most part, the pounds and pounds of film left over from a production were junked.
For any excess footage to have survived for the forty years since Weary Hearts had been made would have been extraordinary indeed.
Nonetheless, Jill was going to look. She had to.
CHAPTER 3
A visit to the studio was in order. Jill flipped though her reconstructed Rolodex, trying to think of someone she knew who worked there. She knew any number of people working on pictures the studio was financing, but she didn't seem to know anyone on the payroll. She had last year. She probably would again next year. But at the moment, she didn't. Except Cathy Cromartie.
Well, why not? The rule was, that if you met someone outside of group, you had to tell the group about it. That was all.
So Jill called Directory Assistance and got the number of the studio's main switchboard in order to call a fellow member of her psychotherapy group.
She had not been lying when she told Doug that she was a reasonably well-adjusted person. She believed that. And part of being well adjusted was having the sense to realize that when your mother was the sort who couldn't take a Children's Chewable Tylenol without getting addicted to it, that when you had been in the legal custody of a father
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