| Focal Archive Zones: Summer 2003 Issue #46
Historic Films restores priceless home movie footage. From
1960 to 1965, Chicago drummer Sam Lay performed in Blues legend Howlin’ Wolf’s band. They played all the legendary
south side Chicago Chitlin Circuit lounges and nightclubs, as well as touring
extensively through the South. Sam, a home movie buff, and much to the aggravation
of the nightclub patrons, dragged along his 8mm camera and a set of lights.
The result? Absolutely priceless footage documenting the interior of the Chicago
Blues scenes circa 1960 – and in color!
Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Lloyd Price, live broadcast
of Black station WOPA, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Johnson and countless other Blues legends were captured in their prime by Sam Lay’s
camera. The Lay collection offers the only extensive record of the circa 1960
Blues scene that has yet to surface, and is a priceless resource to the Blues
and Afro-American music documentarian.
In 2001, Joe Lauro, President of Historic Films Archive in New York, secured
representation of Sam’s films and photos, and promptly sent the brittle
8mm films to Tony Treadway at Brodsky & Treadway in Raleigh, Massachusetts
to be restored and digitally transferred with scene to scene color correction
onto DigiBeta masters.
“Before we started repping Sam” says Joe, “The only way
to see this amazing footage was to go to his house in Chicago where he would
take out his old 8mm projector and show it to you on his wall. I made him promise
never to project his originals ever again!”
“Besides trying to offer great Blues and Jazz footage, I’ve also
been keen on finding B-roll to go along with the performance footage. It is
one thing to see B.B. King playing on stage to a formal audience, and quite
another thing to see B.B. King and other Blues legends playing to their friends
in a tiny nightclub during their peak years. It says more about where the music
really came from than any concert footage I’ve ever seen.”
Since the restoration has been completed, the material has been used by Robert
Gordon in his recent Muddy Waters documentary entitled “Can’t
Be Satisfied”, will be used extensively in the forthcoming Martin
Scorcese series “The Blues”, and will also be excerpted
in Blue Sea Productions’ forthcoming “The Howlin’
Wolf Story”, directed by Don McGlynn with Joe Lauro as producer.
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