FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 17 The latest news of the 'First Overland' DVD, based on Antony Barrington-Brown's original film footage of the 1955 Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition from London to Singapore. For more information contact Graeme Aldous firstoverland@teeafit.co.uk

A 50-year-old curiosity from ABC television in America; 'headscarves and handbags' in Australia, and the Wonders of Porridge — all in this Newsletter.

Bold Journey

Nowadays we (in the UK at least) think that American Television has always been rather brash and 'in your face', but I recently came across a wonderful piece of archive footage that shows that it was once as polite and deferential as the BBC was in its heyday.

I was contacted by Sascha Curzon with news of a VHS tape he had — it was originally a filmed copy of an American (ABC) TV show called 'Bold Journey', in which BB was interviewed by Jack Douglas, and gave a commentary on his 'First Overland' footage. Sascha asked if I'd be interested (would I just?!!), but warned me that it was transferred to video by projecting the film onto a white wall — hardly the most ideal conditions!

Well frankly, it was amazing. Both the video and sound quality were remarkably good, and I was able to polish it up a bit (get rid of some VHS picture glitches, and get the sound back into lip-sync), and send a copy to BB. But before you all clamour for a copy, much as I'd like to be able to supply it to everyone, there are clear copyright issues here which would be very difficult to solve (what with the age of the material, and the Atlantic Ocean in the way!), and I'm just not in a position to undertake getting the necessary clearance. Instead, I will just sneak in a couple of screen shots here:

While they were on screen, BB and Jack stood in a rather formal pose, with BB clean-shaven and looking a lot smarter in his University blazer than when he was on the road to Singapore. The interviewing style was very formal, too — "From Cambridge, England, our true-story adventure series is proud to welcome a young man who has just completed a remarkable adventure — Mr A.C Barrington-Brown....". It was "Mr Brown" throughout, and never 'Antony', let alone 'BB'! There was some rather jovial chuckling and expressions of surprise from Jack Douglas from time to time while BB was doing the commentary, but I have a slight suspicion that they might have been if not scripted, at least intended to go in to remind the audience of whose show it was!

Unfortunately the programme only followed the journey as far as Kathmandu, and ended with a promise that the jungle section through to Singapore would be the following week. Sascha doesn't have a copy of that — if somebody here does, then we'd love to hear from you. You can read more about Jack Douglas and 'Bold Journey' on the Internet Movie Database — I made a call there for anyone with a copy to come forward, but there was unfortunately no response. The odds were rather long!

BB was delighted to be able to re-live an experience from half a century ago. He wrote:
Around New Year 1957-58 I took to the Desilu Stage in Hollywood what I suppose was a complete black & white copy of the film. I spent several days in Sol Lesser's editing suite helping their editor do the cutting, and recording the commentary straight onto the film stripe. I was amazed at the assurance of my commentary — so fast and free from fluffs. I do remember doing some wild lines in the studio but they were very skillfully blended in.

Two versions were made — 'Bold Journey' and 'I Search for Adventure'. BB believes that they were essentially the same programme (with different commercials), but the former was for national transmission on ABC, whereas the latter was for local viewing in Los Angeles on Channel 13 KCOP. They were recorded — on film I guess, because video tape was still very much in its infancy at that time.

Having lived with the BBC edit of the footage for so many months, I was fascinated by this ABC version. It was clearly a complete re-edit from the original raw footage, as many of the shots were entirely familiar, but began or ended a second or two earlier or later. There was also a brief shot of the Eiffel Tower in the "Crazy English Making Tea" sequence in Paris — something that I always felt was missing from the BBC cut. We also saw some footage of the team preparing the cars, apparently in a side street in Cambridge.

And I'd often wondered why there was no footage of the journey from London to the air ferry across to France, and thought it must be that David Attenborough's BBC brief was to show films from foreign lands, so there was little point in exposing expensive film on the A20 Dover Road! But a comment from BB explains that he didn't have a camera at that time to film with:
Although the pre-Ferryfield footage must have been shot by me, I must have borrowed a camera (probably a Bolex from a Cambridge friend), because I didn't have the Bell & Howell until I got it out of bond at Lympne. Amazing how I managed to take acceptable footage straight out of the box!

BB has kept some newspaper cuttings from the trip, including some of the billings in the TV listings — again they are copyright, but I don't think any harm will be done by including a scan of an advert promoting the series. The text says "This superb action adventure features Mr. A.C.Barrington Brown of Cambridge, England. Mr.Brown has flown here from Europe to personally present this full-hour film from our KCOP Studios" (Note the motif of Oxford on the shored-up road, used as a background on these pages, and on my DVD. This time going away from the camera, though!)

There was also a 'Teacher's Guide' from April 1958, which Dr Irene Cypher from the Department of Communications in Education, New York University had helped to prepare. It said that 'Bold Journey' "was an especially worthwhile programme for family viewing, because of its broad general interest and its suitability for young viewers of many age levels as well as adults. Family viewing of such programmes should be encouraged, for it makes possible a 'shared experience'. Through such viewing, parents can share with their children a common interest and experience, and gain some understanding of what is discussed in school.". The Guides went on to summarise the films, and suggest topics that could be discussed both before and after viewing the programmes. It even included a 'Nutrition Quiz' — (What staple breakfast food did the men eat almost every morning? What was its nutritive value?) — possibly because the programme was sponsored by the Ralston Purina Company.*

And the final word must go to BB:
There was an odd coincidence attached — as the show ended in America there was a phone call for me from a British ex-pat who asked to see me. He came straight round and when I casually asked him where in UK he came from he told me "near Chester". I replied "where near Chester?", and he named a small village 3 miles out... where I was born!

*Answer: "Porridge was the basic food which BB cooked every morning. This provided the men with energy and essential vitamins. Porridge is made by cooking cereal grains with water or milk. Its nutritive value is increased by using dried, evaporated, or fresh milk instead of water for cooking. While on their expedition, the men sprinkled dried milk on the porridge to supplement their daily diet." Note that this isn't strictly true — BB explains on the DVD that the 'Nespray' was made up with water the evening before so that the lumps could settle out overnight. He doesn't say this in 'Bold Journey', but the footage (again a shot not in the DVD) shows him sprinkling something from a pot, and maybe Dr Irene misinterpreted the action. Mind you, had this been 10 years later in the Summer of Love, she might have misinterpreted it in an entirely different way!

Other Expeditions