8mm color footage from 1954?

[Greg1995]

I'd read info about this years ago and such piece of film was confirmed by John Michael Heath to exist in private collector's hands - being an 8mm color footage taken at Cook's Hoedown in 1954.

Does anyone here have more information on this? Ownership, content, running time, exact date?

If anyone here can be of help, please send me a PM with what you know. Thanks in advance for help!

[drjohncarpenter]

I'd read info about this years ago and such piece of film was confirmed by John Michael Heath to exist in private collector's hands - being an 8mm color footage taken at Cook's Hoedown in 1954.

Does anyone here have more information on this? Ownership, content, running time, exact date?

If anyone here can be of help, please send me a PM with what you know. Thanks in advance for help!

Not aware of either John Heath or his son "confirming" such a film.

Elvis is known to have played Cook's Hoedown Club in Houston on 3 occasions:

12-28-1954
4-24-1955
8-07-1955

If color home film was made at one of these performances, perhaps it happened at the August show. Earlier that day he was caught on film at Houston's Magnolia Gardens, during an afternoon set.

[Greg1995]

I'd read info about this years ago and such piece of film was confirmed by John Michael Heath to exist in private collector's hands - being an 8mm color footage taken at Cook's Hoedown in 1954.

Does anyone here have more information on this? Ownership, content, running time, exact date?

If anyone here can be of help, please send me a PM with what you know. Thanks in advance for help!

Not aware of either John Heath or his son "confirming" such a film.

Elvis is known to have played Cook's Hoedown Club in Houston on 3 occasions:

12-28-1954
4-24-1955
8-07-1955

If color home film was made at one of these performances, perhaps it happened at the August show. Earlier that day he was caught on film at Houston's Magnolia Gardens, during an afternoon set.

Here it is (30:30 mark), read comments also:

[drjohncarpenter]

Here it is (30:30 mark), read comments also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdnjTVQpgs8&t=3758s

The video is Unboxing Elvis: A Boy From Tupelo (FTD Box Set). I know that peerless book + CD project extremely well.

Host Jamie Kelly is speaking with collector John Michael Heath.

Starting at 30:02 this is what we hear --->

. . . and there, right in that corner I believe, is the very first color picture, the earliest color picture that survives on Elvis.

550122_at Hayride.jpg

Which is where the, uh, which is where the movie takes the idea of the pink (suit).

It is.

And that's the thing that they're so, that the movie was so well-researched as well.

There is some eight millimeter film that exists from before that. So I guess it's not the first color . . .

Right.

. . . images available.

Yeah.

But the still photo is the earliest one that I know of.

Yeah.

There I, I can't really say a lot about what's out there on eight millimeter film, but I do know that eight millimeter film exists on Elvis from 1954 in private hands.

Yeah, no, that's not a confirmation of anything really. No mention of Cook's Hoedown Club in Houston, just a color 8mm film the junior John Heath either saw -- or was told about -- which apparently sits in someone's personal collection.

Now, there *is* a color 8mm film of Elvis from early 1955 that remains in private hands. It pre-dates the home movie made in Breckenridge on April 13th.

https://scottymoore.net/BreckenridgeHS.html

But the person who filmed it has kept it to himself. So perhaps Heath is referring to that artifact, but misremembers the year.

[jasper]

The Pied Piper of Cleveland still has not been found.

[Swedish]

So this is not the earliest footage, as it is claimed?

[Greg1995]

The Pied Piper of Cleveland still has not been found.

Said to be sitting in the Universal archive. Universal denies having any footage.
Nobody knows more where it can be, if it still exists.

[drjohncarpenter]

So this is not the earliest footage, as it is claimed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nouPF1cbNl0

Nope, that's the August 7th afternoon set in Magnolia Gardens which I wrote about in my previous post.

[drjohncarpenter]

The Pied Piper of Cleveland still has not been found.

Said to be sitting in the Universal archive. Universal denies having any footage.
Nobody knows more where it can be, if it still exists.

Not sure where you're getting that, but the forum's own GuyLambert (aka musician, historian and author Chris Kennedy) has spent years researching this elusive film project from 1955.

About three years ago we had a wonderful, robust discussion here. If you want some concrete information, FECC as usual has the goods.


Pied Piper - 3 Years of Research
https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=111195

Chris Kennedy research.jpeg