| Advertising Age's CREATIVITY September 2001
Joe Lauro Of Historic Films Finds The High Notes In Television And Film
History
It doesn’t take much of an eye to see what makes the collection of footage
at Historic Films so special. Just listening to the archives of the East Hampton,
New York-based stock house reveals a hefty stash of noteworthy musical performances,
from idols like Elvis or Ella Fitzgerald or obscure artists like’60’s
Hong Kong band Hi-Dee-Ho or the Louisiana Mental Asylum Orchestra.
For the past two decades, Historic Films founder Joe Lauro, an avowed cinemaphile,
has spent his life tracking down rare filmic finds. He started his career at
Archive Films and then went on to open his own stock research house, Associated
Researchers & Image Quest, in 1991. In 1997, he teamed up with documentarian
John Solt, changing the company name to the much tider Historic Films.
Today, Historic offers about 50,000 hours of footage from vintage television
shows, news programs, advertising and home movies, not to mention its growing
30,000-clip musical library. The majority of Historic’s clients are cable
channels like VH1, MTV and A&E, along with documentarians
like PBS all-star Ken Burns. But Historic’s
footage can be seen also on a handful of spots, from agencies like Leo
Burnett, Grey, Campbell-Ewald and TWBA/Chiat/Day. It provided the footage
and photography of Virgin founder Richard Branson for Apple’s
“Think Different” campaign, and it also provided images
of Marilyn Monroe for a national Chevrolet spot,
as well as Elvis material for AIG via Ogilvy
& Mather.
In the commercials world, Lauro says, “People aren’t using archival
materials as much as they used to, but they are using it in many more ways.
For example, you can remove John Wayne from a scene, or put in your own actor.
There’s so much more you can be creative with. Commercials people need
to solve problems in the best way, and that often leads to stock footage, be
it archival classic stuff that they shouldn’t have to reshoot, or modern
material that’s easier to get than having to send your own cameraman to
shoot the scenes. Stock footage really fills in the gaps, and can make things
amazingly cheap.”
The Elvis clips were found in Historic’s specialty collection of music
footage. When Solt partnered with Lauro, he brought with him all 23 years of ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. The 1100 hours of footage
are chock-full of classic performances from the likes of The Rolling
Stones, The Jackson Five, The Doors and Barbra Streisand.
Historic has also reaped a huge bounty from overseas film vaults. One of the
company’s most recent acquisitions is the entire Danish Broadcasting
Archive, which turns up heaps of rare jazz and blues footage. “There’s
very little of American jazz artists on television in America, but in Europe,
you might have a one-hour program of Miles Davis,” Lauro explains. The
archive boasts “tons of Miles from the ‘60’s through
the ‘80’s,” as well as Duke Ellington, Coleman
Hawkins, B.B. King, Son House, and stellar rock acts like Led
Zeppelin, Nirvana, U2 and The Grateful Dead. The library even includes
footage from the tragedy at the Rockilde Festival in Denmark,
where nine concertgoers died in the mosh pit during a Pearl Jam performance.
Other international finds include ‘60’s and ‘70’s footage
from German ‘American Bandstand’-style programs ‘Beat
Club’ and ‘Musikladen’.
Historic’s TV wares also include footage from ‘The Steve
Allen Show’ (which includes a rare poetry reading by Jack
Kerouac); disco-era dance programs; ‘Jubilee Showcase’,
a Chicago gospel hour; and 135 episodes of ‘The Ernest Tubb Show’,
a country music fest from the ‘60’s.
And the beat goes on. Lauro is presently giddy over some recent acquisitions,
including a collection of Elvis home movies that shows the
King doing offbeat things like sailing on a fishing boat and wearing a Nazi
helmet. Also, rare reels from Chicago blues drummer Sam Lay have just arrived at Historic’s doorstep. Lauro finally secured a deal
with Lay, who’d played the Southside Chicago Blues club circuit in the
1950’s with musicians like Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy
Waters.
Lay’s 8mm movies captured a lot of post-gig hanging out at local bars
and clubs with his fellow musicians. “Sam had this stuff in his apartment
for 40 years,” recalls Lauro. “If you wanted to see it, you’d
have to go to his house and view the original film. It took us several years
to organize a deal he felt comfortable with. He was just very protective.”
The demand for his archives may vary with stock’s vicissitudes, but
the rush of scoring new footage is enough to keep collector Lauro going. “Historic
Films is like an unfinished symphony,” he quips. “It grows all the
time.”
By Ann-Christine Diaz
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