Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith (May 29, 1923 – November 27, 1991) was an American polymath, who was credited variously as an artist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian, mystic, record collector, hoarder, student of anthropology and a Neo-Gnostic bishop.
For other uses, see Harry Smith.
Harry E. Smith
(1923-05-29)May 29, 1923
November 27, 1991(1991-11-27) (aged 68)
Visual artist, filmmaker, ethnographer
Smith was an important figure in the Beat Generation scene in New York City, and his activities, such as his use of mind-altering substances and interest in esoteric spirituality, anticipated aspects of the Hippie movement. Besides his films, such as his full length cutout animated film Heaven and Earth Magic (1962), Smith is also remembered for his influential Anthology of American Folk Music, drawn from his extensive collection of out-of-print commercial 78 rpm recordings.
Throughout his life Smith was an inveterate collector. Other than records, his collections included string figures,[1] paper airplanes, Seminole textiles, and Ukrainian Easter eggs.
(1939-56 or 1941-57 or 1946-52 or 1946-57) (assembled ca. 1964) 16 mm, black & white and color, 22 min. Originally silent, then accompanied by a reel-to-reel tape with songs by The Fugs—whose first album Smith produced, and subsequently by an optical soundtrack featuring Meet the Beatles!. The 1987 video release features Teiji Ito's musical piece Shaman. At first, the anthology included only No. 1-4, later No. 5, 7, and 10 were added. The individual films however are not divided, they play as one. This anthology was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2006.[47]
Early Abstractions
No. 1: A Strange Dream (1939-47 or 1946-48) hand-painted 35 mm stock photographed in 16 mm, color, silent, 2:20 or 5 min. Initially intended to be screened with and synchronized to 's "Manteca" or "Guarachi Guaro". "... the history of the geologic period reduced to orgasm length."
Dizzy Gillespie
No. 2: Message From the Sun (1940-42 or 1946-48) hand-painted 35 mm stock photographed in 16 mm, color, 2:15 or 10 min. Initially intended to be screened with and synchronized to 's "Algo Bueno" (also known as "Woody 'n' You"). This film "takes place either inside the sun or in ... Switzerland" according to Smith. To produce this film he used a technique that involved cutting stickers of the type used to reinforce the holes in 3-ring binder paper. These were applied to 16 mm movie film and used like a stencil. Layers of vaseline and paint were used to color each frame in this manner. The effect is hypnotic, psychedelic and is something like a visual music.
Dizzy Gillespie
No. 3: Interwoven (1942-47 or 1947-49) hand-painted 35 mm stock photographed in 16 mm, color, 3:20 or 10 min. Reportedly cut down from about 30 min. Initially intended to be screened with and synchronized to 's "Guarachi Guaro" or "Manteca". "Batiked animation made of dead squares ..." (Available on the DVD collection Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 (2008).
Dizzy Gillespie
No. 4: Fast Track a.k.a. "Manteca" (1947 or 1949-50) 16 mm, black & white and color, 2:16 or 6 min. Silent though possibly intended to be screened with 's Manteca. The film starts with a color sequence showing Smith's painting Manteca (ca. 1950) with which he tried to subjectively depict Gillespie's song, every brushstroke representing a music note. The film concludes with black & white superimpositions.
Dizzy Gillespie
No. 5: Circular Tensions (Homage to ) (1949–50) 16 mm, color, silent, 2:30 or 6 min. Sequel to No. 4.
Oskar Fischinger
No. 6 (1948-51 or 1950-51) 16 mm, color, silent or mono, 1:30 or 20 min. Untraced red-green 3-D film.
anaglyph
No. 7: Color Study (1950-51-52) 16 mm, color, silent, 5:25 or 15 min. "Optically printed in four movements supported on squares, circles, grillwork, and triangles with an interlude concerning an experiment."
Pythagoreanism
No. 8 (1954 or 1957) 16 mm, black & white, silent, 5 min. Untraced collage. Later expanded to No. 12.
No. 9 (1954 or 1957) 16 mm, color, 10 min. Untraced collage.
No. 12: a.k.a. The Magic Feature a.k.a. Heaven and Earth Magic Feature (1943-58 or 1950-60 or 1950-61 or 1957-62 or 1959-61) (reedited several times between 1957–62) 16 mm, black & white, mono, initially 6 hours, later versions of 2 hours and 67 min. Extended version of No. 8. Collage animation culled from 19th century catalogs meant to be shown using custom-made projectors fit out with color filters (gels, wheels, etc.) and masking hand-painted glass slides to alter the projected image. Smith explains, "The first part depicts the heroine's toothache consequent to the loss of a very valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land, in terms of Israel and Montreal. The second part depicts the return to Earth from being eaten by Max Müller on the day Edward VII dedicated the Great Sewer of London." Jonas Mekas gave the film—which is often regarded as Smith's major work—its title in 1964/65.
Heaven and Earth Magic
No. 13: Oz a.k.a. The Magic Mushroom People of Oz (1962) 35 mm widescreen (), color, stereo, 3 hours or 108 min. but only 20-30 min. are known to survive. Unfinished commercial adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which was shelved after Smith's close friend, the executive producer and primary financial backer Arthur Young died of cancer. Portions released as No. 16, 19, and 20. From the reported three to six hours of camera test footage (rushes) only ca. 15 minutes, in the form of non-color-corrected rushes, is known to be extant. The only completed part is The Approach to Emerald City, a 5 (other sources say 9 resp. 12) minute sequence set to music from Charles Gounod's Faust.[48]
scope
No. 14: Late Superimpositions (1963-64-65) 16 mm, color, 29 min. Structured 122333221. Features the beginning of the opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht as recorded in 1956 by Lotte Lenya, the NDR Chor (Max Thurn) and the Norddeutsches Radio-Orchester (Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg). Later expanded to No. 18. "I honor it the most of my films, otherwise a not very popular one before 1972." Shot in New York City and Anadarko.
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
No. 15 (1965–1966) 16 mm, color, silent, 10 min. Animation of .
Seminole patchwork
No. 16: Oz - The Tin Woodman's Dream (1967) 35 mm widescreen (), color, silent, 14:30 min. Consists of The Approach to Emerald City (cf. note on No. 13) followed by about 10 minutes of kaleidoscopic footage shot ca. 1966.[49] See also No. 20.
scope
No. 17: Mirror Animations (extended version) (1962-76 or 1979) 16 mm, color, 12 min. Features 's "Misterioso". Extended version of No. 11 printed forward-backward-forward.
Thelonious Monk
No. 18: Mahagonny (1970-1980: shot 70-72, edited 72-80) 16 mm, color, tetraptych screen (initially with four 16 mm projectors, now composited onto a single 35 mm strip), 141 min. (edited down from over 11 hours of material). With , Jonas Mekas, Patti Smith and images of Robert Mapplethorpe installations. "A mathematical analysis of Marcel Duchamp's The Large Glass, expressed in terms of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"[50] upon which it is loosely based. Smith divided the images into four groups (Portraits, Animations, Symbols and Nature) and, with the assistance of Khem Caigan, arranged them as a series of procedural permutations in relation to the opera: every reel contains twenty-four scenes forming the palindrome PASA-PASNA-PASAP-ANSAP-ASAP-N. Note that the entire series hinges on Nature. Extended version of No. 14 (it also uses the same 1956 German language recording) Smith considered this film to be the ground-breaking harbinger of his unfinished masterwork, which was to have been an explication of the Four Last Things.
Allen Ginsberg
No. 19 (1980) 35 mm widescreen (), color, silent. Untraced excerpts from No. 13. See also No. 20.
scope
No. 20: Fragments of a Faith Forgotten (1981) 35 mm widescreen (), color, silent, 27 min. Consists of No. 16 and No. 19.
scope
. American Magus: Harry Smith (2001–02). Video. Includes clips from Smith's films, drawings, paintings, rare archive footage and interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lionel Ziprin, Robert Frank, Jonas Mekas, John Cohen, James Wasserman, M. Henry Jones, Percy Heath, Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, DJ Spooky, Khem Caigan, Harvey Bialy and Rosebud Feliu-Pettet.
Igliori, Paola
. Birth of a Nation (1997) 16 mm, color, 85 min. Snippets of 160 underground film people (including Smith) recorded between 1955 and 1996.
Mekas, Jonas
Lund, Simon (c. 2000, 2002). Archived May 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Short documentary on the restoration of No. 18.
Restoring Harry Smith's Mahagonny a.k.a. Making of Mahagonny
Singh, Rani (2002). On Mahagonny. Video. and others discuss No. 18. Features conversation between Smith and critic P. Adams Sitney shot by André S. Labarthe in 1971.
Jonas Mekas
Singh, Rani (2006). The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Video with , Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Emmylou Harris, Percy Heath, David Johansen, Luis Kemnitzer, Greil Marcus, Bob Neuwirth, Beth Orton, Lou Reed, Hal Willner and others.
Beck
Harry Smith Archives
The Celestial Monochord: Journal of the Institute for Astrophysics and the Hillbilly Blues]. Webzine "Dedicated to Harry Smith's Folkways anthology, early old-time commercial recordings, and the folk music revival."
The Celestial Monochord
on Vimeo, reviewed by Levi Fuller, Big Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly, November 24, 2011.
Some Crazy Magic: Meeting Harry Smith. Short film animated by Drew Christie. Based on anecdote by John Cohen (narrator)
Khem Caigan, interviewed by Paola Igliori. Excerpt from book, American Magus: Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist, Paola Igliori, editor, (1996).
"American Magus: Harry Smith: A Modern Alchemist".
Archived June 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, L. A. Weekly, May 10, 2001.
Doug Harvey, "Dismembering Harry Smith"
Essays excerpted from new Liner Notes for The Anthology of American Folk Music. Smithsonian Folkways, 1997 CD reissue of Smith's 1952 Folkways Anthology.
Tom Paley / Peter Stampfel: "Harry Smith" Tributes"
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