The true story of "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill"!
Richard L. Bare was a dear close friend and my boss for a while back in the early 1980's. I was with him as an assistant and film archivist until his death at 101 Years old! He was still sailing his boat and driving a car like a teenager at 100! The only reason he died was that he took a flue shot! Richard told me that after he directed "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" one afternoon he was driving around down town Los Angeles and saw a movie theater marquee with the letters
"The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" Richard couldn't believe his eyes! He thought "what the hell is this!" So when he got home he phoned Hal Roach Jr. And said "I just saw "Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" playing in a movie theater in LA! What the hell is this Hal, I don't direct feature films for $750.00 a week!" Hal said "I don't own that film anymore I sold it!" So Richard went to the DGA (Directors Guild
of America) and filed a compliant, and from that point onward, any motion picture made for television and later shown in a movie theater the producers would have to pay the directors full scale upwards. Interestingly Richard directed the first made for TV movie in the 1950's! When we bought a 16mm print of the picture the logo for the theatrical showing read: "Howco Productions Presents"
Turns out this distribution company which filed it's papers out of North Carolina on August 1, 1951, was formed to release "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill" The President of the company was James Alex White, the other members of the corporation were Joy N. Houck (1901-1999) and J. Francis White (1901-1987) This company which released 16 different pictures from 1950 to 1974 operated out of a home in North Carolina. The company was in operation for almost 67 years! The second feature release was another Hal Roach Jr. Production, also first shown on The Magnavox Theatre "The Three Musketeers" So Hal Roach Jr. Got away with this twice! Since "The Hurricane at Pilgrim Hill's" principle photography started in 1949, the camera original may be nitrate, and who knows what happened to those elements! It wasn't until 2010 when a used 16mm reduction print turned up on eBay had Richard ever seen the film since it was made in 1949! I still have that print in my archive! Richard L. Bare was an amazing man who do anything! He was a perfectionist, he could paint, write,
film, edit, build a house from his own blue prints, you name it, he could do it! I met and started to work with him when I was 23 years old! I could tell you a million cool stories told to me about his time in Hollywood!