Bob Monkhouse Collection

[judgefoozle]

Bob's amazing collection of vintage screen material, copied on to 36,000 VHS tapes (thirty six thousand) was revealed at BAFTA on October 24th and catalogued in a publication called Bob's Full House. The archivers promised some "astounding" revelations, and some L & H folks got excited that it might contain the elusive Hats Off. In fact nearly all the stuff is TV related, but there is a "rare movies" section, from the days of Edna Purviance, Billy Bevan, Snub Pollard etc. The only Laurel and Hardy movie included is Hog Wild, and since it is described as "rare" might be a different cut, edition or even version of the one we know and love. Unfortunately only a few copies of the catalogue were printed, and they were all sold out in minutes. The publisher is currently considering a paperback reprint, depending on demand, but since I can't get my hands on an original, I can't identify the publisher. I'm sure some of you folks will know more about this, as I have only interpreted such info as is public. Please give of your knowledge (or none of use will be any the wiser).

[piedmont]

Looks like no-one here has any knowledge ! Judge. ;D

[judgefoozle]

You're right Piedmont. I'm a member of BAFTA, and I followed up the item in the newsletter, but I never got a reply from the e-mail link given. It's all probably locked away in some vault somehwere now.

[87sal87]

THIRTY SIX THOUSAND TAPES!!! WOW!!

He was some fan! ;D
God, what I wouldn't give to have access to all them...

[judgefoozle]

Yea.. I guess you can times that by at least two (items per cassette). As I understand it, a lot of this footage was early TV, mostly in B/W, news bulletins, some early comedy series and "soaps" like Meet the Huggets, The Grove Family, Jimmy Hanley etc. and movie comedy like Edna Purviance, Mal St.Clair, Billy Bevan, Pearl White etc. Monky was heavy on Sennett, companies like Mutual, Vitagraph etc. rather than the moguls like MGM. I now understand that a very limited-edition catalogue was produced, and that copies of it are now changing hands for a fortune, but the fate of the actual collection is stlll a mystery.