Danse Macabre filmstrip with Harold Dexter Hoopes watercolors

[tlenzendorf1]

I have been looking for something similar to this for years. I remember it moving, though? It's the closest thing to the film strip that I remember, though.

[Gideon1928]

I saw this in 2nd grade in the early 1980s. Our music teacher would tell us a scary story about a virtuoso violin player (Paganini?) who became demented and old and asked to be buried with his violin. When this promise was reneged on, he would rise out of the graveyard with the other skeletons, leading them in the celebration. My music teacher claimed to have bought a house overlooking the cemetery where this happened and the ensuing strip were pictures she took. Scares me to this day.

[hlltwin]

I remember watching this when I was a little girl. I always loved it. What's strange though... I thought I remembered the skeletons moving. But these are the images I saw and the fact it's an old filmstrip... yep. This is it. I had a wild imagination as a kid.

[ProfesseurLeRoux]

Me too. This actually dates back to at least the early 1960s. That's when I was in elementary school.

[Muffinzgalore52]

THANK YOU for this wonderful memory. I had a music teacher who played this each Halloween for us and I absolutely fell in love with it.

[sugarbunnie15]

I'm pretty sure this is the version they were still playing at my elementary school in the early 80's. It terrified me at the time and I got yelled at for not paying attention on year. Strangly enough, I now LOVE Halloween and creepy things. :)

[MasterJediV]

YES!!! I've been searching for this for ages, I kept telling myself it wasn't the other one that's in color from the 1980's because I swore it was different. Thank you!

[teddycarroll]

Thank you so much for posting this. My elementary school music teacher, Mrs. Schoup, played this for us every Halloween. I'm so happy to see it again after all these years.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

[Dracula766]

I've been searching years for this. These paintings were burned into my memory and the music has influenced me greatly.

THANK YOU!!!

[PrairieMoonFarm]

You. Are. AMAZING!! Thank you for posting this!!!!!

[johnnystir]

Mrs. Vaughn. Virginia Vaughn, my elementary music teacher always showed us this. Thanks for finding it and posting this here on YouTube. Elementary music programs must be saved!

[chadratic]

Is it weird I've been avoiding searching for this for like 20 years since it ruined my first grade Halloween? Yeah it's weird...thanks for the video!

[ubee0173]

@chadratic I have been doing the same thing. I dreaded it every year at school, but here I am watching it! It's the cat... it just has this hypnotic, gut-liquifying gaze that will haunt your dreams forever. I guess my love of the music outweighed my irrational fear of this filmstrip, though- VICTORY!

[punkypower21]

Thank you so much for posting this!!! I've been searching for this version for ages. The later versions are not nearly as great at this. It definitely brings back memories of music class in elementary school.

[kriswright]

Thanks so much! This used to terrify me as a kid, but I loved the music so much. So special to be able to see it again.

[jpenny5]

Thank yo SO much! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

[blondegirlfrnd]

This used to freak us out when our music teacher showed it to us in grade school every Halloween. Then, as we got older, we wanted to watch it a 2nd time. Finally in 5th grade, our last year at that school, she let us watch it twice. I haven't seen it since then. What a real treat! Thanks for sharing.

[aritae]

You've absolutely made my month. Elementary school friends and I have been looking for this for years, and I've gotten desperate enough to consider purchasing it from a filmstrip storage company. Thank you!

[lauper25]

This song was the first orchestral piece I remembered as a child, and this filmstrip became the origin of my appreciation of classical music. Thank you.

[blytheleighcreamer]

i have been looking for this filmstrip for years!!! thank you!! where did you end up finding this? we have a filmstrip projector--i would DIE to get a copy!

[kyuti1]

YES!!! This is IT!!!  You have brought me so much joy by posting this. Thank you a million times over!!!

[PoisonClan73]

This is what turned me on to classical music in grade school. I'd love for my music teacher, Mrs Hurley to know the lifelong impression she made.

[Elizabeth1763]

Thanks sooo much for posting this!

[StrangeDaisy]

I haven't seen that in 20 or so years! I think I speak for everyone searching for that filmstrip when I say "Thank you for helping us relive a little bit of our childhood, youth, etc."  I can't believe to took this long for the film to surface on the internet and now that it has, I need something else to obsess over.

-Cheers

[StrangeDaisy]

My hero! Thanks so much for putting this up.

[Yukon5G]

This gave me the heebiest of jeebies in 2nd grade. It stormed the night after I saw this in Music class. I was terrified.

[turkishprawn]

YOU FOUND IT!!!

I have been looking for this for years now. I even went so far as to go back to my old grade school and inquire if they still had their filmstrips (which they had naturally all thrown out. Gah!)

I can not thank you enough for this nostalgia hit. One question: Did you find a film of the film strip or did you find the actual film strip its self?

[Mavarin]

Hooray! At last, after all these years, I finally get to see what made such a huge impression when I was 8 or 10 years old. And the art is wonderful, albeit faded. I'm in tears here. Thanks!

[Doodlewack]

Thank you! I *have* been searching for this.

[relentless138]

OH MY GOD!!!! FINALLY someone has posted this version! Thank you very much!