I clicked through to the New York Times'
"reader submitted" video of "Woodstock Memories,"
God knows why.
Most of what's there is uninteresting current remembrance by the grizzled and the not-so, filmed in their kitchens and rec rooms.
There is, however, one haunting, mysterious home video from the time, of people driving away from the Woodstock site. It is faded, decayed, haloed and choppy and the only sound is that of a movie projector.
It is almost too oddly beautiful to be true.
The people, smiling and acknowledging the camera, seem like peace-sign flashing apparitions. The parade of cars alone is noteworthy: a record of a time when DIY jalopies were a huge automobile category....
The footage, with no other explanation, is credited to Robert Bedick.
"reader submitted" video of "Woodstock Memories,"
God knows why.
Most of what's there is uninteresting current remembrance by the grizzled and the not-so, filmed in their kitchens and rec rooms.
There is, however, one haunting, mysterious home video from the time, of people driving away from the Woodstock site. It is faded, decayed, haloed and choppy and the only sound is that of a movie projector.
It is almost too oddly beautiful to be true.
The people, smiling and acknowledging the camera, seem like peace-sign flashing apparitions. The parade of cars alone is noteworthy: a record of a time when DIY jalopies were a huge automobile category....
The footage, with no other explanation, is credited to Robert Bedick.
Postscript thought: How many middle aged advertising and fashion executives of the '60s fetishized the look or music of their youth: the 1920s. (Yes— the equivalent of the Woodstockers today would have recalled Good Old Days of wind-up Victrolas, raccoon coats and silent movies.) I suppose the simple shift dresses of Courreges, say, and the boyish Twiggy silhouette owed something to the Flapper...Something I never thought about before.
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5 comments:
amazing video.
The film was made by my sister, Barbara Bedick, when she was 19 years old using my dad's 8mm movie camera. We had a bungalow on Sackett Lake, across the way from Mongaup Rd., a road that typically saw about 10 or 20 cars a day. Suddenly, hundreds of cars were pouring down the road with kids hanging all over the cars. My dad, the white haired guy in the film, made a sign showing the way to NYC and started directing traffic. Family and neighbors came up to the road to see what was going on. I'm the 14 year old boy in the film, now 54, older than my dad was when the film was made. BTW - the day before my dad took my sister and me to the festival itself where the three of us hung out long enough to hear Max Yasgur's speech, then split when it started to rain.
Wow, thanks for the extra info Robert! How exciting to hear more.
I think the film is becoming a bit of a cult fave...
P.S.: Your link to the movie is a bit messed up because there are now two "bedick" Woodstock films on The Times site: one of the cars leaving the festival and one of the festival itself. Unfortunately, the films seem to have the same url, so your link leads to the wrong one. If people have trouble finding the film on The Times site, here's a link to the film on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP0SEIUls84
Thanks so much Robert. So great to see our multicolored VW bus about 1/4 of the way through. My sister was driving and you can see her wave out the window. I helped paint the bus but I did not go. I was 17 and had recently returned from a trip out west where I saw a 3 day rock concert called Seattle Pop Festival. I thought THAT was huge at 50,000 people or so. Not the same scale as Woodstock. Anyway our VW bus and my sister and her friends did not get there either. At about 20 miles out they came to the end of the line. They decided to go to a friend's house nearby for the weekend rather than walk 20 miles to the concert.
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