Richard Bartram cablecasting “Teenage Strangler”
Richard Bartram is a well-known Huntington expert on magic, illustrating several books on the subject. He also is the programmer for Huntington’s cable access station. In April, he will be cablecasting the first indie feature film made in Huntington, “Teenage Strangler”(1964). I programmed the WV premiere on Halloween 1990 at St. Albans Public Library. Some cast members attended. Finally, in 1994 the film was first shown in Huntington at the Keith-Albee Theater with lots of people there. The film was locally first discovered by Mike Fenimore, a local radio disc jockey who told me about the film coming out on VHS from Something Weird Video of Seattle. There are lots of web resources about the film, like this and this. It has become a cult classic, and was released on DVD several years ago.
Richard interviewed Mike Lipton (who wrote a great Gazette story on the film) and me at theWV Library Commission. I talked about why it was banned in Huntington - probably because of who the real teenage strangler was. Richard pointed out that some contemporary themes are in the film, e.g., teachers being caught having sex with students.
I programmed a local showing of the film in 2004 at The South Charleston Museum. Let’s hope supporters of WV filmmaking will see the film, one way or the other. Pam Haynes, director of the WV Film Office, has an original poster for the film in her South Charleston office.
