Elaine Purkey singing at William C. Blizzard Lecture at The WV Cultural Center, March 22, 2006

Elaine Purkey is one of the great folk singers of our state and the United States. I have known her since I met her since 2005 when The West Virginia Labor History Association inducted her husband Bethel in to its WV Labor Hall of Honor. Since then I have seen her sing before the William C. Blizzard Lecture at The WV Cultural Center and at the Memorial Service for Blizzard in January 2009. When the Historic Trust people put on their Blair Mountain program in the Cultural Center, she sang at that event. She also sang before a showing of the film “The Wobblies” several years ago at The SCM La Belle Theater, co-sponsored by the WV Labor History Association in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Wobblies.  She will be starting the program next Saturday, May 9th, at 6:30 PM before the world premiere of “Remembering William C. Blizzard” by Kelley Thompson. She appears in the film at the very beginning. She has quite an impressive autobiography as you can read below.

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Amos Perrine is one of WV’s leading experts on films, in particular, new foreign and independent films. He was the programmer for the WVIFF for several years and has been recommending films to them for decades. He regularly travels to NYC, Pittsburgh, Columbus and other sites to watch new films. Here is his article about the 2009 Spring WVIFF which begins this Thursday, April 30th.

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Dwight Diller is one of WV’s greatest musicians. He also starred in a great film about the meaning of Appalachian music called “The Fifth String.” He has released a new DVD called “West Virginia Mountain Music.” It shows the beauty of Pocahontas County, with background music of banjo and fiddle music. No human voice is heard.  National Geographic photographers Bates and Jody Littlehales follow the seasons from early spring into winter. The North American Nature Photography Association recently gave Bates a lifetime achievement award. John Lilly of Goldenseal loaned me one of the copies he received from Mr. Diller. (more…)

Ken with a group before the WWI ceremony began, from L-R is Chris Truscott, descendent of Thomas Jefferson, Shannon Lanier, descendent of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Ken Hechler, Hechler relative Arnold Schnobrich, and Ike Skelton (D-Mo) Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

April 24, 2009Ex-WVa official Hechler honored for Truman tenure  
The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – One of West Virginia’s elder statesmen is in line for an award for his tenure with the Truman administration. Ken Hechler is to be honored Friday with the Edwin P. Hubble Medal of Initiative at an event in Missouri. [ Marshfield Cherry Blossom Festival. Full list of events, etc. posted.] (more…)

Jesco White will never die….and thanks to at least two new films including “The Wild and Wonderful Whites,” he will never be forgotten. ( The other is the new Brit docudrama called “White Lightnin” which I have written about several times earlier.) The first of four screenings at the festival will take place tomorrow, Saturday, at 9:30 PM, AMC Village VII Cinemas. (more…)

Ross Ballard II e-mailed me the two photos posted below of William C. Blizzard in 2008 at his last public event. Blizzard was a guest on September 20th, 2008 at the rededication of the restored Charles Town Jail where his father and other coal miners were held during their trail for “treason” after the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. Ballard has been working with Charleston filmmaker Kelley Thompson on a feature documentary about the amazing life and times of  Mr. Blizzard which ended last December. Thompson will introduce his new film, “Remembering William C. Blizzard” on May 9th, La Belle Theater in South Charleston, WV, 7 PM after music by Elaine Purkey that starts at 6:30 PM. ( Purkey sang at the WV Cultural Center when Blizzard gave a presentation. She also sang at the Memorial Service for Blizzard in January 2009 after he passed in late December 2008.)

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Caroline Gentry worked on “The Key to Power,” (working title – “The Romance of Coal), the first major Hollywood-style film ever made inside the state of West Virginia. It used Gentry’s story that combined coal, WWI, and romance in a way that probably would still be interesting today. Thanks to the Library of Congress, Motion Picture Division, I have received 15 pages of film reviews that I have never seen. I forwarded the scanned pages to the WV State Archives for their folder on motion pictures that have been created in the state.  I also forwarded the information to David Schau, the West Virginia librarian at the Kanawha County Public Library. Below is much more i nfo on the film including the AFI Silent Film Archive description of the film (once free online-no more), Turner Classic Movies notes on the film,    a short essay I wrote in 2004 about Ms. Caroline Gentry, and finally transcriptions of some of the information sent by the Library of Congress, (more…)

Update April 21, 2009 – I recently contacted the Library of Congress, seeking information on “The Key to Power.” I have been searching for anything I could find about the film for five years, asking the world’s greatest experts on finding lost silent films on any possibility of locating a copy. I e-mailed my friends Dennis Doros of Milestone Films and Jessica Rosner, recently of Kino International. Finally I e-mailed the Library of Congress Motion Picture Division, and received an e-mail telling me that no copies of the film exists. I am not surprised since 99 % of all silent films no longer exist.

However, Josie Walters-Johnson did e-mail me ads and reviews of the film that are fascinating. I will be posting some of the info on my WV film blog. The amazing world of Caroline Gentry is still continuing……. 

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Butch Maier, son of Charleston real estate/corporate owner Ed Maier, has written and directed, “The Bride & the Grooms,” a new indie feature film that he hoped to get his high school friend Jennifer Garner to star in. He made the film anyway and it will be shown for one week at the Park Place Stadium Theaters starting this Friday with a special showing including the director and cast members. In a Charleston Daily Mail story, Maier talks about his experience writing and directing the film, shot in Charleston.

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Maria Gunnoe  of The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition is one of the winners of the 2009 Goldman Award, an international award given to environmental activists. It is called “the Nobel Prize of environmentalism.” She joins Judy Bonds of Coal River Watch as the second West Virginian to win the award.( She won hers in 2003.) I wouldn’t be surprised if Larry Gibson wins the award soon. Maria has been interviewed for many films about mountaintop removal mining, most notably David Novack’s 2008 Pare Lorentz Award winning film, “Burning the Future – Coal in America.” (more…)