A Trip to the Mountains
From the Blue Ridge to the Smokies
This week I’ve pulled together another virtual vacation for you to take from the comfort of your own Fritz Hansen Oxford Chair! This one is all about the mountains of south-east America and the towns in between.
Over the course of a few weeks before my recent trip to the beach, and while I was there, I came across a ton of commercial grade footage of the Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains. From Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, to Georgia, the following selections will guide you through what these areas looked like in the 1980’s - the mid 2000’s.
The Blue Ridge Parkway Video Guide
1986 | Runtime 45 Minutes
A complete travelogue! Produced by Pearlman Audio and Video. A unique and colorful adventure spanning the length of the Country's most popular playground. Marking the Parkway's 50th Anniversary, this program is a tribute to its beauty and an invaluable aid to the traveler.
I found this tape while I was in Surfside Beach in South Carolina at Hudson’s Flea Market. A winding and chaotic place filled with niche booths, some of which were incredibly interesting. I didn’t get any real photos there, I just snapped a few so I could make it back to the spot where I found the booth that sold me this tape if I ever visit again in the future.
Deep in the depths of the multi-unit book booth is where I managed to dig out this Blue Ridge Parkway Video Guide from 1986. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a booth quite like that, just thousands and thousands of books in stacks waiting to fall over. I don’t really get claustrophobic often, but I got a weird feeling here. I’d go back.
A Video Tour of Western North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains
1995 | Runtime 25 Minutes
Featuring: Banner Elk, Boone, Sugar Mountain, Valle Crucis, Beech Mountain, Blowing Rock Grandfather Mountain, and Linville.
Season's Greetings and Festival of Flowers from Biltmore in ‘97 & ‘99
These two tapes from Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, as far as I can tell, were sent out via mail to people who had previously visited as a way to show them what was new for the season and to remind them to come check the place out again. Only the Festival of Flowers tape had it’s original cover when I found it, which had prepaid postage printed on the backside of the slip.
The tapes themselves are the extremely cost-cut type of tapes, which is sufficient for the purpose they were used for. No clear window to see the spools of tape, no metal in the braking system inside the tape, and no screws holding everything together, as the tape is plastic-welded shut. I wasn’t even sure how long these tapes were since I couldn’t see the spools.
I found these really interesting, and I hope to come across more of these from Biltmore someday, but now that I’ve seen these, it’s got me thinking about other attractions or businesses that may have put together something similar. I hope I manage to dig up some of those too.
1999 | Runtime 4 Minutes
1997 | Runtime 5 Minutes
The Best of the Smokies: A Traveler's View
1995 | Runtime 30 Minutes
Included in this video:
• A Train ride from Bryson City, N.C.
• Aerial scenes of Fall and a Winter Snow
• Mountain Panoramas
• Deer, Bears, Wild Turkeys and more
• Mingo Falls in the Fall and Laurel Falls in frozen winter
• Many other water scenes
• An early Fall and a Winter snowfall
• Wild Flowers
• Making Cane Syrup, Baskets and much more at the Oconaluftee Farmstead
• Light Classical Music, a sample of Mountain Music, Natural Sounds and just a little Narration
Great Smoky Mountain Video Journal
1996 | Runtime 70 Minutes
Travel with us through the timeless wonder and beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. Adventure with whitewater kayakers, hot-air balloons, soaring hang gliders and choppers. Re-discover the folklore and heritage of the pioneers through craftsmen, storytelling and mountain song. See stunning wildlife photography; black bears, red wolves, wild turkeys, coyotes, and a whitetail buck fight. Visit Dollywood, Dixie Stampede and other famous attractions. Enjoy majestic National Park vistas through all four seasons.
Elwood Smooch's Ole Smoky Hoedown
3/21/2005 | Runtime 2hr
Seeing Elwood Smooch, portrayed by Billy Jim Baker, on the front and rear covers of this tape did not instill a lot of confidence in me that this would be something worth digitizing. Knowing this was from the mid-2000s sent my mind comparing the two images against the stereotypical portrayal of a person with an intellectual disability of the time. Thankfully, this isn’t the case.
Elwood is bumbling and goofy, yet depicted very talented here, and that’s no surprise since Billy Jim Baker is a veteran in both country entertainment and clowning, having worked in both since the 70s. Some of his achievements include: appearing on Hee Haw in 1992 and 1993, working as a clown at Silver Dollar City and eventually Dollywood throughout the 80s and 90s, being inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 2001, and continuing his career as a clown into the late 2000s by performing at his own variety show at the Chattanooga Choo Choo in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
That’s it for this week! I have another media post coming up next week, and I hope you’ll stay tuned for that. Until then stay safe!
Thanks so much for checking out this edition of Diptych Newsletter. I keep Youtube Playlists of the all the wonderful media I find. You can check out the Video Archive here, and the Audio Archive here. As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can get at me here or here or leave a comment below this post.
See you soon.
—Forrest
Great Article! Can't Wait To Watch All Of These!!