WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

Reporting on the British website www.missing-episodes.com , Ray Langstone who spends a lot of time researching archive holdings worldwide for missing UK tv episodes , has located Around the World with Orson Welles episode "THIRD MAN RETURNS TO VIENNA". It is apparently held in the U.S at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

Great news, if true. Here's the thread on it:

http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/in ... 235&page=1

Yes, this is very good news indeed...just in time for a Blu-ray version of the AROUND THE WORLD series from Image Entertainment? Yeah, I doubt it too, but it would be nice if this could see a release to the public.

While it's not like finding the uncut AMBERSONS, I find it astonishing that many rights holders often make so little effort to find these so-called "lost" films and TV shows. THE THIRD MAN RETURNS TO VIENNA was sitting in a Madison, Wisconsin archive, but it took Ray Langstone to find it. Bravo Ray and thank you Philly for posting this important information!

Image is the distributor. My DVD says that Gray Film Sipirs S.A. (South Africa?) owns the program content. God, what a tangled web Orson's work has. But I agree, this would make a great Blu-Ray re-release.

Hi, I am the Ray Langstone in question who found the episode. Thanks for your kind words, and if there are any questions, please ask and I will be glad to help.

Terrific find, Ray! Nice to be able to cross another item off the Welles wish list. How did you find out about it? Have you had a chance to see it?

I haven't had the chance to see it. I only found out about it last week - completely by accident. My hobby is searching for missing UK TV, and I came across this and was amazed!

I know very little about Orson Welles, as bad as it sounds, I remember him more for sherry adverts on UK TV than anything else, but nonetheless I was eager to go public on my find and make sure that Orson Welles' fans knew about it, hence me joining here and also the Facebook Group. A lost film is a tragedy. I am delighted with my find. I will contact the Library very soon, but at this time I am just happy the show EXISTS!

Absolutely. I contacted the library last week and they confirmed that they do have it in their "Susskind" collection and that it appears to be in good condition. I may take a trip up there myself in the near future.

BTW, since you search for missing British TV shows, perhaps you might know something about a great series from the early 70's called The ABC Comedy Hour (later syndicated in America as THE KOYKATS). Orson Welles hosted one of the shows, and I remember them being very funny, with impersonators like Rich little and George Kirby. Apparently the audio for those shows still exists and is available to order online, but the video part seems lost. Thanks for any information if you have it.

Do you mean Kopykats?

I believe a pilot exists in the Library of Congress. It wasn't a show broadcast i the UK, but I am aware of that much!

Oops, typo. Yes, Kopykats is correct. Glad the pilot at least still exists. Could have sworn I read somewhere that it was first broadcast in the UK, but Info on it is so sketchy and scant, and some earlier online writeups on it may have been wrong. Thanks for the correction.

O/T :- http://www.worldcat.org/title/kopykats- ... ef_results

http://cinema.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/ ... =50&HIST=1

It's in UCLA.

Back ON TOPIC, I have now got the details of the company who MAY own the copyright (Grays Film Sipirs), thanks Lawrence French, and I will contact them soon, as well as the the library.

Thanks. Interesting that both links you provided put the KOPYKATS pilot in the genre of "British Television programs".

BTW, if anyone wants a cassette of the audio from those shows, there's a website selling them for
only $90 apiece.

Thanks for the really interesting news. Actually usually i was looking for these types of news and TV shows and i think today my search is complete all because of this forum website.

According to an April 10th, 2014 press release from B2MP, a relatively new home video distribution company, "...a Blu-ray/DVD combo of Around the World With Orson Welles: The Complete Series, including the previously lost episode, Revisiting Vienna, aka The Third Man Returns To Vienna" will be issued sometime over the next few months.

Here's a link to their site:
http://b2mp.net/home/

...but no mention of the Welles release has been made yet.