I found the original reels to Garbancito de la Mancha (The Enchanted Sword) Spain and Europes first animated film from 1945 - at two separate yard sales in New York a year apart from each other 2 2

[Black Bat]

HispaNoScope!?

[VintageComics]

This is an amazing story that should make the news.

It would be nice to have something positive like this to talk about.

[kav]

7 hours ago, VintageComics said:

This is an amazing story that should make the news.

It would be nice to have something positive like this to talk about.

Pretty sure if he called any news station they would feature it.  

[ashsaytr]

this is awesome! good job OP!

[ivegotneatstuff]

On 7/24/2020 at 4:04 PM, kav said:

so how did you go about contacting Spain?  If I was Spain i would not trust the mail with such a historical item but send someone over to pick it up.

I actually called a couple Spanish film organizations and surprisingly they didn't write back - maybe due to my poor english (I think I might have been saying to them - "Hello! My name is David and I have original very small chick peas" in which case, I would have hung up too in disgust  ..

Anyway, I finally reached a woman named Marian and I think she could tell in my voice I had something so she asked me to write her an email (even getting her email address correct took some time due to accents, etc.. 

This is what I wrote to her

"Good afternoon. My name is David Bull and I first apologize I do not speak Spanish. I live in New York and I am writing as I recently purchased a collection of film and, in that collection, are many many reels of film of and related to Garbancito de la Mancha. I believe these films are old (some are nitrate_) and I also believe there are some reels which were used in the production of the film (unused audio etc) but I am not an expert. I am writing because I believe these may be culturally and historically important to Spain and perhaps Portugal, which many of these cases are labeled with. 

Here is a drop box with some of the photos of the film https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e291ob4gbvf1bnm/AAD-KdWjmaEofcSV-5lBH3F7a?dl=0

 

I would love to speak to someone regarding this film, as I feel it belongs in Spain - or at least with a Spanish partner in the United States who can properly store and “restore” the film. I have read online that this film is scarce - and that there are no good copies of it. Perhaps this will solve that problem!

 

I would love to speak to someone - my phone number is XXXXX

 

Best regards

 

David Bull"

 

They actually WERE going to fly over - the top guy in their department and her - but then they remembered someone who used to work for them in Madrid now worked at Cineric in NYC - http://cineric.com so we realized the easiest solution would be to just drive them to him to inspect the collection. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by ivegotneatstuff

[kav]

42 minutes ago, ivegotneatstuff said:

I actually called a couple Spanish film organizations and surprisingly they didn't write back - maybe due to my poor english (I think I might have been saying to them - "Hello! My name is David and I have original very small chick peas" in which case, I would have hung up too in disgust  ..

Anyway, I finally reached a woman named Marian and I think she could tell in my voice I had something so she asked me to write her an email (even getting her email address correct took some time due to accents, etc.. 

This is what I wrote to her

"Good afternoon. My name is David Bull and I first apologize I do not speak Spanish. I live in New York and I am writing as I recently purchased a collection of film and, in that collection, are many many reels of film of and related to Garbancito de la Mancha. I believe these films are old (some are nitrate_) and I also believe there are some reels which were used in the production of the film (unused audio etc) but I am not an expert. I am writing because I believe these may be culturally and historically important to Spain and perhaps Portugal, which many of these cases are labeled with. 

Here is a drop box with some of the photos of the film https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e291ob4gbvf1bnm/AAD-KdWjmaEofcSV-5lBH3F7a?dl=0

 

I would love to speak to someone regarding this film, as I feel it belongs in Spain - or at least with a Spanish partner in the United States who can properly store and “restore” the film. I have read online that this film is scarce - and that there are no good copies of it. Perhaps this will solve that problem!

 

I would love to speak to someone - my phone number is XXXXX

 

Best regards

 

David Bull"

 

They actually WERE going to fly over - the top guy in their department and her - but then they remembered someone who used to work for them in Madrid now worked at Cineric in NYC - http://cineric.com so we realized the easiest solution would be to just drive them to him to inspect the collection. 

 

 

 

 

omg what did she reply when you informed her that you had found the holy grail????

[mrwoogieman]

34 minutes ago, kav said:

omg what did she reply when you informed her that you had found the holy grail????

She said, "What is the secret of the Grail, who does it serve?"

of course

[kav]

5 minutes ago, mrwoogieman said:

She said, "What is the secret of the Grail, who does it serve?"

of course

-"We already got one.  It's very nice"

[mrwoogieman]

47 minutes ago, kav said:

53 minutes ago, mrwoogieman said:

She said, "What is the secret of the Grail, who does it serve?"

of course

-"We already got one.  It's very nice"

Did you just parry my Excalibur quote with one from Monty Python??
 

Kudos!

[bc]

On 7/22/2020 at 6:10 PM, ivegotneatstuff said:

A two year project finally coming to fruition... Spain just started making press releases a couple days ago. I know its not a comic book - but know there are many animation fans here and just wanted to blab about it  I sold them back to Spain for pretty much what I paid for them plus my costs (I think I saw Hugo and Cinema Paradiso too many times lol)

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/21/garbancito-hero-of-europes-first-feature-length-animated-colour-film-to-fight-again

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent job sir!

Agree that it would be worth covering in media - rather see more stories like this!

-bc

[kav]

5 hours ago, ivegotneatstuff said:

(I think I might have been saying to them - "Hello! My name is David and I have original very small chick peas"

Oh and ps-can you start checking yard sales for the original Action #1 art?  Asking for a friend.

[ivegotneatstuff]

On 7/27/2020 at 7:29 PM, kav said:

Oh and ps-can you start checking yard sales for the original Action #1 art?  Asking for a friend.

ha yes I'll get right on this

[bobotski]

On 7/27/2020 at 4:20 PM, bc said:

Excellent job sir!

Agree that it would be worth covering in media - rather see more stories like this!

-bc

Somebody call the local TV news station and have this story featured

[kav]

I was talking to postal clerk today she mentioned she was from spain so i had to bring up this story-of course she knew garbancito de la mancha.
Interested in film preservation I turned to wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_preservation

[kav]

On 7/22/2020 at 3:10 PM, ivegotneatstuff said:

A two year project finally coming to fruition... Spain just started making press releases a couple days ago. I know its not a comic book - but know there are many animation fans here and just wanted to blab about it  I sold them back to Spain for pretty much what I paid for them plus my costs (I think I saw Hugo and Cinema Paradiso too many times lol)

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/21/garbancito-hero-of-europes-first-feature-length-animated-colour-film-to-fight-again

 

 

 

 

 

Is there any way you can go back to those yard sale guys and ask where they acquired these reels??  And possibly track down the other 2 reels.   I continue to be fascinated bt this story.  I want to know the entire history of those reels and how they ended up in yard sales.  The Guardian article says you sold the reels for a mere €5,200.  I am updating the wiki article on this film and if you have any edits let me know.

Edited September 4, 2020 by kav

[ivegotneatstuff]

On 9/4/2020 at 5:57 PM, kav said:

Is there any way you can go back to those yard sale guys and ask where they acquired these reels??  And possibly track down the other 2 reels.   I continue to be fascinated bt this story.  I want to know the entire history of those reels and how they ended up in yard sales.  The Guardian article says you sold the reels for a mere €5,200.  I am updating the wiki article on this film and if you have any edits let me know.

ha cool thanks - I am just seeing this. I can tell you the entire story - I just didn't want to add it all on here 

[kav]

3 minutes ago, ivegotneatstuff said:

ha cool thanks - I am just seeing this. I can tell you the entire story - I just didn't want to add it all on here 

PM me as much as you want I am very curious

[Domo Arigato]

On 7/24/2020 at 3:04 PM, kav said:

So how did you go about contacting Spain?

 

[kav]

9 minutes ago, Domo Arigato said:

 

[ivegotneatstuff]

Anyone know how to legally ship nitrate animation cells in the mail?