Other Video Recordings
The ‘Baritone’
© Mark Savage
Two recordings show a man dressed in a light jacket, collar and tie, singing either a ballad or an operatic solo with great gusto. Identification is difficult, but I feel there is a possibility that this is John Rorke (on the left) – a frequent performer on BBC 30-line transmissions. The photograph at the left is of John Rorke in November 1934.
If only we had the audio…
One of Marcus Games’ discs defies completely analysis, as it doesn’t include any recognisable form. This is where the low resolution causes a serious problem. We can see things happen, but we can’t figure out what’s going on from the video alone. Even having the benefit of the higher detailed restorations and the complete recordings, and years of folks making comments to me about what they see in the pictures, we are still in the dark about what the content is. These come from one of two recordings that look like a puppet show with stencil-figure animations.
On the left is some bizarre creature, who ought to be recognisable given the distinctive movement – but it isn’t. On the right there is some sort of cartoon character pushing what could be is a scene change. Weird stuff. If only we had the audio sound track. If only…