The Pied Piper of Cleveland
The Pied Piper of Cleveland | |
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Directed by | Arthur Cohen |
Produced by | Bill Randle |
Starring | Bill Randle |
Release date |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Pied Piper of Cleveland: A Day in the Life of a Famous Disc Jockey is an American musical documentary film produced in the fall of 1955 documenting the career of disc jockey Bill Randle. Arthur Cohen directed the film, which was produced by Bill Randle himself.
Included in the film was live footage shot at several live shows at local high schools and auditoriums in
A plaque commemorating one of the filmed performances is located at Brooklyn High School in Cleveland, and was installed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The original forty-eight-minute film was supposed to be cut down to a twenty-minute "short" for national distribution, but never made it that far. As of 2005, 50 years after it was produced, the movie remains unreleased. There is some dispute over whether or not this film actually exists, although it was shown publicly, albeit only once in Cleveland, and excerpts were also aired on a Cleveland television station in 1956.
According to music historian Jim Dawson, Randle, before his death, sold the rights to the film to
The Alien Autopsy connection
Pied Piper of Cleveland achieved notoriety in the 1990s when it was linked to the infamous "
The FOX network produced a popular documentary, Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction? centered on this footage, which was later debunked (by FOX) as being a hoax. This has led to some claims that Pied Piper is likewise a hoax, however documentation supporting the film's existence predates the Alien Autopsy affair by many years.
References
- ^ (Information from elvis-collectors.com)
- Jim Dawson, Rock Around the Clock: The Record That Started the Rock Revolution (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005)
- Roger Lee Hall, Shake, Rattle and Roll: Electric Elvis and Bill Randle (Stoughton: PineTree Productions, 2010).
- Bert L. Worth and Steve D. Tamerius, Elvis: His Life from A to Z (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1990).