Every now and then, some kind person uploads a gem to YouTube. Here’s one for long time Cleveland residents: a short film, shown below, called “Brooklyn Goes To Cleveland.” It is part of a series of short films done by Arthur Cohen, who may be better known under his stage name, Phil Foster. His character, named “Brooklyn”, was featured in many short films or travelogues to cities such as San Francisco, Paris, Detroit, Las Vegas, Rome, etc. Brooklyn sometimes made sarcastic, humorous comments about what he saw, no matter what city he visited. He didn’t spare Cleveland. This film was released in 1955.
A little bit of trivia: Cohen also directed a film called “The Pied Piper of Cleveland: A Day in the Life of a Famous Disc Jockey” , which was a documentary on the career of Cleveland disc jockey Bill Randle. The film included Elvis Presley's first appearance on film, taken from a live performance at Brooklyn (Ohio) High School. As there were legal problems over the ownership of the film, it only had one public showing, and still has not been officially released. Some sources report that it is sitting in a vault at Universal Studios, others saying the film no longer exists. Maybe someone from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame can get this film located and/or resurrected?
Here’s the short film “Brooklyn Goes To Cleveland.” The quality isn’t too great but the audio is fine.
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1 comment:
arthur cohen WAS phil foster. if "brooklyn goes to cleveland" and "pied piper" were directed by the same person, that means that phil foster directed elvis presley's first film o
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