Doc on WV’s first indie feature, Teenage Strangler, still in production
Update - I finally saw a very rough cut of this doc about WV’s first indie horror film. Congrats to Richard and I hope to see the finished version within a year. Go Richard!
Richard Bartram is still working on his documentary concerning WV’s first indie feature film, “Teenage Strangler.”(1964) As I reported on this website in August 2007, Bartram cablecast the film, made in Huntington, for the first time there on cable TV. He is also working on a documentary about the film, interviewing local people who were in the film, etc. I happen to be the person who programmed the first WV showing since it was “banned” in WV because of the real identity of the strangler - a former teacher who was accused of sexual harassment, forced to become a janitor. ( Shades of the daily news on teachers, priests, piano instructors, whomever….) Mike Fennimore, now deceased, is the first person to tell me about the film. Here is what Richard told me recently -
I ran into a bit of a financial snag — no money to afford some necessary clips from the film. The copyright to the film is currently owned by two gentlemen. One of them is Mike Vraney, who gave me permission to air the film once on Huntington Public Access. I’m reassessing how to structure the documentary so that I can continue without being so dependant upon stock footage from the original film. The project isn’t dead — only temporarily stalled. What I have, so far, if pretty interesting — and goes beyond just being about the film itself.
To open the Public Access presentation of “Teen-age Strangler”, I put together a short pseudo-newsreel as an introduction. I’ll send you a copy of what aired locally.
Thanks Richard - keep up all the great work running Public Access TV in Huntington…..
