Oh my god. I am speechless. Trembling – I can’t even tell you what I’m feeling.
I have been haunted by a documentary I saw in about 1978 for 30 years. It was about Ray Bradbury and the process of writing, and featured a story he was working on called “Dial Double Zero,” which was dramatized intermittently throughout the documentary. I spent about 10 years trying to find that story. I remember looking in card catalogues, talking to stuffy librarians. Since the advent of internet, I’d google the story every now and then, and gradually I found out the backstory that the documentary was about a story that never actually was published, and that several other people had the exact same memory of it that I did. Haunting and mesmerizing. Apparently it was a documentary that aired only once, on NBC only on the West Coast, and then was rented out to schools such as mine – the John F. Kennedy elementary school. A few years back I saw it was available as a DVD, but I was too frightened to purchase it. I didn’t want to spoil that childhood memory. What if it wasn’t as magic?
Well – I checked tonight, and as I suspected it might be, it’s on YouTube. I am freaking out. I am embedding it here in three parts. I haven’t seen it yet. Tell me what you think.
Now I’ve seen it – it’s GOOD!!! I remember it so clearly, though I was only wee when last I saw it.
Thanks Dan! Now why didn’t we get to see that at Baker? Think what could have become of me!
Oh, sweet! I’ve never even heard of this, but I’m a huge Bradbury fan. In fact, I’ve been thinking lately that I should write him a fan letter before he dies. Although I heard he’s pretty out of it already, not really cognizant of things.
It was decent. It reminded me of a few videos from my childhood. I love that feeling of rediscovery, when you realize that a forgotten intimacy- you remember every line even after you forgot it existed.
I’m sure it’s that creepy voice that made the imprint on you. I had a similar obsession with an old old video game I played a few times when I was a young ‘un; it had a creepy voice which I thought was amazingly cool. A few years ago, someone had it on one of those old-game emulators, and, well, it wasn’t really very cool, as an adult.
My google-fu is strong. Full movie in MP4 format: http://www.archive.org/details/RayBradburyStoryOfAWriterByDavidL.Wolper