Cut and sell

[Phil Moors]

On eBay uk over the last few days has been a Super 8 print of Mickey Mouse as the Brave Little Taylor. Listed at 75 feet on a 200’ roll it sold for a staggering £31. I now realise that this and the copy of ‘Magician Mickey’ at 110 feet ending at £30 are cut from Mickeys Memorable Moments vol 1.

Clearly the people bidding had no idea that this is an abridgement. They can’t be regular collectors 75 feet for a cartoon which could be 100 feet short!

The seller had clearly explained the amount of footage on each reel.

Maybe this is the future selling sections of film for big money. Mickey and his Pals in four parts, each part £25.

This is an odd one to be sure but things are looking up when people will bid so much for such a small reel of film.

[Melvin England]

I know what you mean, Phil. I have seen sets of academy leaders for sale at silly high prices, or more often see someone is selling a 50' reel with, for example, a 20th Century Fox logo intro on it. That is it..... and they get bought!

On the other end of the spectrum, I am trying to sell some 400'ers at just £1.99 + PP. Is anyone biting ? NO !

As they say...... There's nowt as queer as folk !

[Mike Newell]

Is that where those listings came from. Only another million copies to get through. Least they were decent colour most are pink. Coming soon segments from Memorable Mickey 2, Mickey and Pals, Mickey Mouse 1st Fifty Years, Donald Dilemmas 1and 2 Goofy Golden Gags 1 and 2 and the Sports not forgetting Pluto Playful Planks More sequels than the Marvel Universe. Think how many academy leaders they will harvest in time.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Not sure whether someone got greedy or whether someone is simply selling an officially shorter version…

E.g. Disney’s „Susi und Strolch“ (Lady and the tramp) was available in two different lengths in Western Germany:

revue: 45m: http://www.super8rezensionen.de/revzent19.htm

piccolo: 65m:
http://www.super8rezensionen.de/rezent38.htm

And this isn’t the only Disney digest that was 20m shorter when buying it from Quelle (who distributed „revue“).

[Joerg Polzfusz]

And when Globus films was the only official distributor for Disney films on 8mm/Super8 in Western Germany in the late 1960s, the digests have only been available in „approximately 4.5min and 9min“:
http://www.super8rezensionen.de/k-gf68.htm
And the 75feet (22.86m) are pretty close to the 27m that Kodak’s calculator shows for 4min 30s, aren’t they?

[John Halfacre]

Hi Phil. Well that was one of our (ISuper8) auctions. It confused us as obviously the film length was wrong for the full cartoon - my colleague thought, as you did, that it was a cut from Memorable Moments - but each of Magician Mickey (only about 100ft) and Brave Little Tailor had a Disney Mickey ident, which the compilation Memorable Moments versions I dont think did - they just go to the next title card (I stand to be corrected - my ageing brain might have forgotten). They were also far better colour retention than the compilation. So we decided to re-box each of them into a clean generic box from the tatty/torn card boxes they each came in, and put them up for auction with a £7.99 start to move them on with the length clearly stated and let buyers decide if they wanted or not. Interesting comment from Joerg about the Globus cut down - I wonder if that might be the case here. The films came as part of a collection of about 300 titles from a long time collector who was buying his films from around 1970 to the mid 80s from what we could work out (so unlikely to be a modern 'chop' job) They have sold to 2 of our regular customers who have bought alot of films from us, not a random bidder - so maybe that was the reason for the bidding competition. Anyway just thought I'd provide a bit of background in case anyone else has some other thoughts. BR John

[Phil Moors]

Hi John, Mickey’s Memorable Moments did have brief title cards between the excerpts. I hope you don’t think I was criticising you for selling them. You clearly stated the footage length and anyone in the hobby would know they are shorter than the full length. Good luck to you a tried and trusted trader.

It’s been 18 months since I asked you, but I am still looking for the 2nd part of the Pastoral sequence from Disney’s Fantasia. This features the gods Zeus and Bacchus and his donkey and the Centaurs and Centaurette’s. Have you ever had a copy of that. If you do get one let me know, many thanks.

[John Halfacre]

Hi Phil. No not at all, we were also a bit confused whether it was a chop job or something different because of the colour and ident. We never stop learning whats out there - didnt know about the Globus prints. Checking our records we have had 3 Pastoral Fantasia in the last 6 years, the most recent about 3 years ago so they dont come in often. I think I've made a note when you asked before but I will check our Films Wanted log. BR J