For no particular reason, the late John Huntley came into my mind recently, for the first time in years. Huntley (1921 2003) -- cinema and film historian, collector and impresario -- travelled around showing and giving commentary on his very large and often fascinating collection of short films, on assorted subjects. His shows were each on a particular topic -- he was a railway enthusiast among other interests, and his rail-themed shows featured his big selection of rail films from times past in the British Isles and further afield. With a couple of like-minded friends, I attended a number of his railway film shows around the 1980s period.
Although convention has it that one should say only good things about the dead; I admit to having come to prefer the highly interesting material which Huntley showed, to his commentary on it. His obituary in the Guardian mentioned his jovial manner, booming voice and ability to talk amusingly...: I fairly quickly ceased to find his commentaries amusing. In my estimation, he could have equalled most politicians in the feat of speaking a great deal but saying very little -- his copious running commentaries struck me as annoyingly vacuous; and what actual information they did contain, was quite often incorrect. I could have wished that hed briefly said at the start of each piece, this film is of..., and then shut up and let the film content speak for itself. One maddeningly frequent catch-phrase of his was to say, about some delightful segment of rail action, this is what its all about. Things became so that I felt that if he said that one more time, Id scream. (My friends who enjoyed Huntleys shows were more forgiving than me, of their high hot-air content; had my attendance of the events been solo, I would probably have given them up sooner.)
Am wondering whether anyone else was, back then, an attender of Huntleys shows; and re what he had to say about his material, whether they enjoyed or endured it, or something in between.
Although convention has it that one should say only good things about the dead; I admit to having come to prefer the highly interesting material which Huntley showed, to his commentary on it. His obituary in the Guardian mentioned his jovial manner, booming voice and ability to talk amusingly...: I fairly quickly ceased to find his commentaries amusing. In my estimation, he could have equalled most politicians in the feat of speaking a great deal but saying very little -- his copious running commentaries struck me as annoyingly vacuous; and what actual information they did contain, was quite often incorrect. I could have wished that hed briefly said at the start of each piece, this film is of..., and then shut up and let the film content speak for itself. One maddeningly frequent catch-phrase of his was to say, about some delightful segment of rail action, this is what its all about. Things became so that I felt that if he said that one more time, Id scream. (My friends who enjoyed Huntleys shows were more forgiving than me, of their high hot-air content; had my attendance of the events been solo, I would probably have given them up sooner.)
Am wondering whether anyone else was, back then, an attender of Huntleys shows; and re what he had to say about his material, whether they enjoyed or endured it, or something in between.
