Sugar Chestnut dug through boxes of film reels. Her husband Henry thought it would make a fun evening to fire up the projector and cuddle on the couch while screening old movies. It was a prospect Sugar could certainly get behind. What exactly Henry was interested in screening he hadn't told her, so she was left to make some selections herself. They'd gotten quite a collection over the years. There were the usual home movies, of course, but also prints of most of the cartoons Henry and Sugar had made, both together and separately. Henry was quite an enthusiast when it came to this sort of thing, and had also scooped up numerous full features and episodes of assorted television programs. He even had a few trailers and newsreels. Sugar limited herself to a box of home movies. They didn't screen these reels often enough, she felt. Fortunately, the reels had their contents well detailed on their can lids, and Sugar soon had an armload resting on the edge of the bed.
Sugar adjusted her angora sweater before taking another look at herself in the mirror. Ironically, such sweaters were popular with cartoon rabbits. Annies in general wore them, but angora being favored by rabbits made for some interesting images in advertisements. Really, though, there was no better illustration of the fact that annies have nothing in common with animals beyond their shared physical traits. Some of the first annies born had rabbit features. That was some time after the Civil War. The was a superstition that annies had been born as result of the trauma of the war, but this theory quickly faded when it became clear that annies were being born all over the globe. Why they were being born was a question without answer, but they were quickly accepted into the normal patterns of life. By all accounts, annies were a minority, making up a scant 5% of the population. After the first wave of births, things returned to normal and the annies themselves were the only ones to birth further annies. Another sign that rabbit annies weren't really rabbits was that in the near century since that time, their numbers were still roughly 5-6% of the entire population. Fortunately, most people didn't care. Annies had proven themselves capable and intelligent and industrious as any man or woman.
Oddly, there'd never been a movie made about the arrival of the annies. Maybe there wasn't much interest. The first wave had been born to regular parents, after all, so maybe there were unexpressed concerns about digging into the matter too deeply. It was by virtue of multiple children being born at the same time that a lot of women were saved from accusations of unnatural depravities. There were at first thoughts of quarantining the children, but it was quickly noted that annies had been born to couples all across the spectrum. The event had nothing to do with social placement, employment, location, race, or any other common factor which could be pointed to. A nation recovering from one of history's most violent conflicts more or less wrote the event off as an act of God. Most continued to accept this, though they sometimes wondered just how He did it. Enough time had passed, however, that any curiosity about it was little more than private musing. After what had happened in Europe in the 30's and 40's, most took a grim view of any serious exploration of racial sciences.
Sugar gathered up the reels she'd collected and headed for the living room. Henry would be in soon, so Sugar set about making supper. As she fried up some beef, her thoughts went back to the day Henry first turned his 16mm camera on her. It was just before they were married, while on a trip to the beach. Henry was hesitant to aim the camera in her direction at first, as their professional lives were already spent in front of the lens. Ultimately, the adorable bunny frolicking in the surf was too cute an image not to capture on film.
Henry entered the front door with a film crate under his arm. He was still holding it as he paused to kiss his wife while she was setting the table. Sugar asked what the film was. Henry beamed with pride as he set the crate down on the kitchen counter.
"This is something really rare," Henry explained, "a 16mm print of a movie that never got sold to television after it's theatrical run. The studio that made the picture was so tiny that they only made up the one print before shopping it around."
"What's the picture?"
"Science fiction flick, called COWGIRL FROM OUTER SPACE." Sugar paused upon hearing this.
"Do they mean a Martian Dale Evans or do they mean some kind of monster women that's part cow?"
"You know," Henry shrugged, "I'm not sure. I've never seen it before."
"I've never even heard of that one before."
"I understand it only played a few drive-ins in the south." Henry laughed. "We may find out why it never made it any farther than that."
After dinner, Henry threaded the projector with his new feature. There was already visible trouble. The film had already been beaten up pretty badly during it's screening for the California television stations. It looked like a library print, in fact, saddled with numerous splices and evidencing severe sprocket damage that had been repaired. Henry took a good look at the film before he finished threading it through his machine.
"This is the cheapest film stock I've ever seen," he reported, "doesn't look like it has another screening left in it. I think I know now why I got it so cheap. I basically saved this film from a dumpster."
"Do you want to try it, or screen something else?"
"Well, I've got it threaded. I admit I'm curious to see the picture."
"I'll get the lights."
"I'd better stay here by the machine to keep an eye on it."
As the film began, the show was plagued by abrupt splices which caused the soundtrack to, as Henry put it, "ferp" every few seconds. Much of the credit sequence was gone by now, but as the film ran along the damage should become less frequent. Henry felt comfortable enough to step away from the projector and join Sugar on the couch as the picture began in earnest.
The picture was obviously shot on the cheap, but it showed some potential. In fact, the flying saucer which touched down on the outskirts of a Western town was a pretty nice effect. The scene turned to a saloon where there was conversation regarding how the new Sheriff was going to handle a swelling of arson which was plaguing the townsfolk and neighboring ranchers. Henry and Sugar had to piece some of this together as a few splices broke up some of the dialog. A mysterious figure approached the saloon, revealed to be a beautiful girl in buckskins as she entered the room. It was just getting interesting, but the show was stopped right there as the projector began to chatter and cause the image to jump up and down before the film broke. Henry rushed to the projector, but the movie was lost.
The portion of the film run through the projector had bunched up before the take-up reel could house it. The first bit was completely ruined. Henry spent the next several minutes removing the damaged film and then cleaning his projector. Sugar looked on in sympathy.
"That's too bad," she sighed, "what we saw of it had some promise."
"Yeah," Henry agreed, "but I'm not risking the rest of the picture. This stock is like tissue paper. I can't imagine what lab would have printed it."
"I guess that's the best indication of how little money the producer had on hand. I wonder if the negative is still out there."
"It might be. This picture isn't that old. You know what I'm going to do? I'm gonna talk to the Boss about this picture. If anyone can hunt down the producer of this flick, he can. He can have a fresh print struck from the negative, and if he likes it, he may distribute the picture through C.B.I.P."
"If nothing else, maybe he can track down one of the scripts so we can at least learn what happens. I'm sorry the show didn't go like you planned."
"Well, I guess one way to look at it is that we've been saved a few minutes we can put toward something else. Which reels did you gather up earlier?"
"Our trip to Big Bear, last year's Christmas reel, and a few others like that. We could still grab a feature if you're all set for one. I'd watch TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM again..."
Henry's hobby turned out to be a blessing for a number of people. The Boss hunted down the producer of COWGIRL FROM OUTER SPACE and requested a viewing of the negative. He enjoyed the picture so much that he bought the distribution rights. The film's producer had written off further dabblings in the field of motion pictures after his first film had faltered and failed to find any interest in television. Now he was planning a new slate of pictures at C.B.I.P.'s request and backing. This in turn employed a number of actors who had also figured their careers over after their first feature had staggered so. What's more, the locations used for the first film were an authentic Old West town. This provided some production value C.B.I.P. was keen on using, so the studio sent out a crew to film a couple of quickies right there in Texas. This gave Henry and Sugar a chance for a working vacation, and another excuse to take some home movies.
That was only the immediate value of the episode. With more hiring of the movie crews, this meant more hiring of local craftsmen. Houses were built onto, some even built entire, new water lines were dug, more groceries purchased, and so on. The area welcomed increased tourist dollars and engaged in a general clean-up and expansion. What's more, all this happened in short a time that Sugar and Henry could see it as they boarded their train for home. A new movie studio, a revived local economy, all the result of Henry running across a cheap film print?
"That's America," Sugar cuddled up to Henry as the pair watched the town recede into the distance, "a whole community prospers because you wanted to see a movie." Henry smiled. He knew what Sugar meant. And Henry got what he wanted in the first place, a fresh print of COWGIRL FROM OUTER SPACE, on nice stock. His print was also going to be valuable. The Boss insisted on changing the title to something less silly (though STRANGER ON THE RANGE wasn't much better, Henry thought), but this private print still had the original title.
Sugar sighed in contentment. It was going to be a long trip back home, but she was snuggled up in Henry's arms and couldn't be happier as the gentle rocking of the train caused her to nod off.
Really enjoyed this one
ReplyDelete