The Not-So-Lonely Lighthouse Keeper (1967)

Off the southern coast of California is a rugged string of islands known as the Channel Islands. On one of these - Anacapa Island - stood a lighthouse built in 1932 that shone its light to warn passing ships of the jagged rocks surrounding the island. This island was manned by the not-so-lonely lighthouse keeper Captain Moses Haskell (portrayed by Clarence Hastings but voiced by actor Roy Barcroft) and his wife Miranda (Ingrid Niemela). 

Whether this couple really did tend to this lighthouse or were a fictional creation doesn't really matter for they were the stars of a fascinating one-hour episode of Walt Disney's The Wonderful World of Color television series called "The Not-So-Lonely Lighthouse Keeper," which was aired on September 17th, 1967. 

The Wonderful World of Color featured a number of documentaries focusing on nature and wildlife and this episode falls in that category as well. We get to see all of the wildlife of Anacapa Island in a short span of time - the seagulls, the wild goats, the seal colonies, and the pelicans. However, it is the story of Captain Haskell and his daily routine on the island that provides the heart to the story - and it has plenty of heart! You'll find your eyes welling with tears by the end of the program. 

Disney legend James Algar directed this sweet story of Captain Haskell and the animals he befriended on the island: the ornery goat Ajax, the playful seal Rosie, and the seagulls that he feeds. We get to see him visit the "supermarket of the sea" catching various fish and sealife for dinner, and the day he helped rescue the men in a ship that ran aground in the fog. But his peaceful life on the island abruptly comes to an end when the Coast Guard erect an automatic light tower and he and his wife are mandatorily retired from service. Thankfully, like most Disney programs (but not all), this little film has a happy ending. 

Interestingly, if you read about Anacapa Island on the National Park Service's website, you will find that this documentary was rather accurate and prophetic: an automatic light tower did indeed replace the lighthouse and the keeper's position in 1966. The buildings on the island were slated to be destroyed in 1968 but a last-minute counter-order preserved the lighthouse and its outbuildings and, in the 1970s, they became the living quarters for the U.S. National Park Service rangers.

You can watch The Not-So-Lonely Lighthouse Keeper on Youtube and be sure you do as it is well-worth seeing. 

African Safari ( 1964 )

This 1964 British Pathe newsreel highlights a very untraditional "safari"...it is actually a roundtrip road rally from Nairobi.  The annual Safari Rally was first held on May 27, 1953, as a celebration of Queen Elizabeth II and was originally known as the East African Coronation Safari. For many years it was famous for being the most difficult and most prestigious rally in the world. 

The route stretched for 3,200 miles and in this particular rally, it was a Ford Cortina GT that snagged first place. A Volkswagen Beetle ( ! ) had won the competition the first two years of the race. The terrain was rocky and dusty but very scenic, hence the title "safari" was very fitting because elephants, rhinos, and wild antelopes could be seen en route. 

If this race sounds like a good concept for a film, well, that idea was taken already. In 1978, an Italian production called 6000 Km di Paura aka Safari Rally was made and featured footage from the 1977 rally. 

The Safari Rally is still being held today and there is even an East African Safari "Classic" Rally that features just classic cars. 

African Safari ( 1964 ) 

Ready to rally? Check out these other rally clips from British Pathé :

Monte Carlo Rally ( 1965 ) - 4:07 min

Alpine Rally ( 1965 ) - 2:40 min

Triumph Car Rally ( 1957 ) - 4:11 min

British Pathé - Masks

There is such a wealth of visual material to be found online and delving into it on a daily basis is as refreshing as taking a swim in a cool pool. One of the most interesting fountains in the Youtube stream of entertainment is the British Pathé Collection, an archive of 85,000 newsreel and documentary clips dating from the 1910s to the 1970s. 

Since we enjoy sharing the film/TV treasures we are continually discovering, we are going to launch a new series highlighting some of the gems to be found in the British Pathé collection. These short posts will be released on a monthly basis, but please don't let this schedule stop you from perusing these clips in your own free time. They're inexhaustible. And quite entertaining. 

With Halloween fast approaching, we're going to start the series off with Masks, an approximately 4-minute collection of three separate newsreels dating from the mid-1930s. The first briefly shows the famous Polish artist Władysław T. Benda and his wife with some of the beautiful life-like masks that he made for costume parties and theatrical shows. Benda also created the original mask for the 1932 film The Mask of Fu Manchu. In the photo above, Jean Arthur is holding up one of Benda's creations. 

The next is a short clip of Swiss people in costume for their annual springtime celebration, and lastly, we see Duncan Melvin displaying some traditional ancient masks of African, Indian, and Australian cultures for initiations, witch-doctoring, and devilry. 

Mr. Melvin was the host of a 1937 television documentary series called Masks of the World ( yes, by golly, television was around back then ). For this series, he not only showed his audiences various masks from around the world but he would also demonstrate different mask-making techniques from artists such as Oliver Messel, Angus MacBean, and Henry Moore. 

For the British Pathé series, we'll be showcasing clips that cover a wide variety of rare and unusual subjects: the history of beards, miniature model-makers, cowboy artists, legends of Scotland, convent life, English royalty, sheep-herding, wallpaper production, etc. We hope you'll follow along and enjoy the series! 

Ready to watch Masks?

British Pathé  - Masks 

Nikki, Wild Dog of the North ( 1961 )

During the 1950s and 1960s, Walt Disney Studios produced a number of excellent documentary-story films centered around wildlife, the majority of them being released under James Algar's True-Life Adventure series banner. One film, however, was released as a feature film independently....Nikki, Wild Dog of the North ( 1961 ). While it bore a remarkable resemblance to the True-Life Adventure series, the film was not produced by Algar and was helmed by two different directors - Don Haldane and cinematographer Jack Couffer. 

Based upon James Oliver Curwood's "Nomads of the North" the film tells the story of Nikki, a wolf dog, and the adventures he encounters in the wild north woods of Canada. Nikki is trapper Andre Dupas' ( Jean Coutu ) beloved hunting dog, but when they get separated in the water rapids, Nikki learns to fend for himself while he waits for his master's return. 

Nikki is a highly entertaining blend of true-life documentary sequences ( complete with narration by Jacques Fauteux ) and dialogue scenes with actors. Just like Disney's True-Life Adventure series, the film features impressive scenery and spectacular wildlife footage. Some particularly startling shots are the grizzly bear and black bear fight, the scene of Nikki and Neewa forging the rapids, and Nikki luring a muskrat out of its underground home in the middle of an iced lake. 

Nikki is not the best film to watch with children, however. Since this is true-to-life, the dog encounters a number of hardships throughout his journey. The bear attacks will send a few goosebumps down your back, Nikki gets himself bloodied up when his paw gets caught in a wolf trap, and there is a brutal fight between Dupas and LeBeau ( Emile Genest ) who was cruelly training Nikki to become a fighter-dog. Genest would later appear in Disney's Big Red ( 1962 ) playing a kindly animal trainer, but here he is a hissable villain. 

Critics and audiences warmed to Nikki upon its initial release but over the years it has become obscure - even among Disney audiences. Fortunately, the film has since been beautiful remastered and is now available for viewing on Hoopla and on DVD.