Maid In Aberdeen -- Blackey Allegro

This is the oddest little movie, it was filmed around 1918, I'm guessing, in Aberdeen, Washington. It's the sort of film many cities still have made today, meant to show what a great place Aberdeen is to live in.

Which meant they must have had some cool dirt to sweep under the carpet. And boy, did they ever. Everything from bizarre strike breaking to a very creepy 'pirate' to general violence gave Aberdeen a few less than savory nicknames, like 'city of lost men'.

Obviously, a make over was due. Employing a small local film company, Aberdeen showed off how nicely it cleaned up. I'm not sure if it was recorded at the wrong speed by accident or on purpose, but yes, it is going too fast.




You'll see a beach motorcycle race featuring a 1915 Indian, and what looks like several other Indians, Harley Davidsons,and Cyclones. The fire department shows off its stable of what I think are REOs. Which is where I started to suspect this movie was a little weird: A heavyset guy goes tear-assing after a car before the engines show. Hm.

Moving on, the major industry is shown, a timber mill. The police, the local schools. You'll see a clip of some early football, too. The local play house shows off a bicycle riding monkey, and a banner proclaiming they will be showing moving pictures.

Then came the weird. "Little Hippo chasing an REO The Fifth". Bwuh? Well, here came the heavy guy from the fire engine muster. He and another man for no apparent reason go running down the street. The Fifth was the name of a model of REO cars, and for some reason, they mentioned that though the actual car isn't seen.

I'm assuming Little Hippo was a local character who really liked chasing cars. Specifically, REO the Fifths.

This is the city Kurt Cobain came from. This does not surprise me.

The music is from a series Tedd composed as a quartet for synthesizer. Deliberately done in the style of the 1960s synthesizer music, which was still trying to figure out what it was and what it could do, it's got that hippo ballerina quality. It's big, it's spritely, it's fun.

It's all on the black keys. There is one note played on the white. You're on your own to find it.

The synthesizers used in this piece are the Moog Voyager, the Moog MG1, and the Hammond S6.

The S6 was a sort of interesting find, incidentally. A neighbor had it out in their yard for sale for 50 bucks. It worked. It looked like it'd sat in a garage for oh, twenty years.

So three teenaged boys deciding to help out later, we had most of it loaded in the back of our PT Cruiser for a short jaunt down the street.

Safety goggles in place, Tedd fired the old lady up in the front yard. Tubes lit and he serenaded the neighborhood with the blues for a while. He really looks pretty jaunty in his safety goggles. :D

Just another random oddness off the Mother Road.

Welcome to Route 66.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Aberdeen
• Washington
• Indian
• Motorcycle
• Firetruck
• Allegro
• Moog
• Voyager
• MG-1
• Hammond
• S6

[xeasternxz]

Thanks, that was a great little window into the past. It's not so common to find on youtube a posting where contemporary music fits so well with historic images.

[Goldenthrush]

Welcome! We're glad you like it, it was a lot of fun putting together.

[paulj0557]

Your S6 is a little cleaner sounding than mine. I played the regular tonewheel hammond as a kid, then having forgotten totally about it as an adult in my 30's I found a Lowrey in someones trash. Soon I wanted a better organ.I found an M3 for $50 at a thrift store. That's when I was hooked on the Hammond sound. I ended up getting a B3 and a Leslie 122 for less than $1,200! and played it everyday for a couple of hours at least for around 3 years, but got rid of it all when an s6 was given to me.

[Goldenthrush]

We cleaned a lot of the dirt and cobwebs out ours once we got it in, and currently, the reverb necklace is missing (trying to find a new one for it), but I'll ask Tedd if he actively replaced anything to clean it up. :D

[shaykiviaho]

where did you find this video?

[Goldenthrush]

You can get the entire video from the internet archive. Just google "Internet archive", and then search for "Maid In Aberdeen". :D

[Hoquiamgirl]

This is amazing! Great find. I compared this with photos from the Jones Photo Historical Collection and identified many of the places.

[DanJDT]

very cool, I am from aberdeen. Cool to watch,

[capmconnundrum]

Thanks for the peek at Aberdeen and little hippo :^)