Anyone with experience with the DVD version?

Well, if a negative has turned up in a vault, that's great! No one else has heard of this, so perhaps you could enlighten us? Until your message, Al's print was the only one known to have survived. The other was in the collection of Charlie Tarbox in Los Angeles, which was apparently destroyed by a fire in the 1970s. Perhaps you could tell us who has the negative. It would make for an interesting piece of information, and I'd like to interview the owner for an update to the story I did on Al and the film five years ago.

You are wrong about his putting a piece of nitrate in his pipe. He Apparently did it ONCE in order to make a point with someone re: how once the film had oxydized it was not explosively flammable. The incident was reported in an obscure comment that was available on the web. Mr. (or Ms. -- there apparently are two) Carey blew that way out of proportion in his/her comment here and implied that Al made a habit of taking RARE nitrate off of a reel of film and then put it in his pipe. The piece of film he used for the demonstration was from a reel that had already deteriorated.

No one ever claimed that Al was perfect. he wasn't. Did he think that his print was worth much more than it was? Absolutely! Was he eccentric? Yes.

I love the way folks like you like to say that if YOU owned the film, that you would've done all the things that you claim. Perhaps you would've, but we don't know that. Al sumbled upon a one-of-a-kind item and thought (mistakenly) that he had an original piece of rare art in his possession. Well, people value original art more than they do an original movie print. There's a simple way for you to release the film the way you'd like to: make the family an offer for the print and spend your own money to make it happen the way that Al did. Then we can all hail you as a hero and true altruist.

As for your comments re: my being from Wisconsin, or your other comments, I think they speak for themselves and go to your credibility.

..and please tell us about the other prints. Except for Charlie Tarbox's print (destroyed in a house fire in the 1970s) Al was never able to find another, and no one else has ever come forward with one. Since you "work in the film industry" you must have all kinds of information on those prints. Please share it.

And I would like to know about the negative that someone told you has turned up. If it has, I'd like to interview the owner. (Al had a negative made in 1978 by Eastman.)

While you're add it, would you please provide information on the other prints that have turned up. No one else seems to know of any. (Clips that found their way into compilations all trace their origin to those released by Al to a British company in the 1970s.)

I'm serious. If there are other prints out there, I'd like to document them.

All of the knock-off DVDs being sold were copied from Mr. Dettlaff's release. They didn't come from some other long, lost print. (Incidentally, wouldn't those folks be guilty of hoarding the film too? Do you feel the same way about them? It's amazing that they suddenly began selling copies after Al released his DVD. Coincidence I guess. But...you work in the industry and so know more than i do about such things...)