What's new

Trying to find an oldish documentary (1 Viewer)

Leo Kerr

Screenwriter
Joined
May 10, 1999
Messages
1,698
Okay, I've a bit of a problem. I'm trying to track down a documentary I saw when I was in high school chemistry. For reference, I was in high school chemistry the school-year 1988-89.

1. I have no idea what format it was - 16mm or VHS or VHS dub of cable/PBS broadcast.

2. I have no idea what the title is.

3. The subject was gold. It covered all sorts of things from mining and smuggling, to cooking with - some restaurant that put gold leaf on their chocolate cakes, as well as Julia Childs cooking with a solid gold pan.

I'm failrly certain that I'm not making this up, 'cause if you google-search for that sort of thing, I've managed to come up with two other references - though no useful information.

I'm really looking for the sequence with Julia Childs for a project at work, and I'm not sure if they believe me that it ever existed!

Leo Kerr
 

Ray H

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Messages
3,570
Location
NJ
Real Name
Ray
Even if it did exist and you could find out the title of it and everything, what are the chances that an old PBS program about gold from the '80s has been released on DVD? Maybe if you do find out what it is you can check your local library for VHS if it's not on DVD.

EDIT: Maybe you're not looking for it on DVD, but I just assumed you were anyway. :)
 

ChristopherDAC

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2004
Messages
3,729
Real Name
AE5VI
If it had Julia Child in it, there's a decent chance it came from WGBH Boston, which was then (as it still is) a big source of educational/PBS programming. You might try contacting them ; most of their productions seem to have had at least a limited video availability. They even supplied DiscoVision with a group of Julia Child cooking shows, for the "educational" category.
 

Will_B

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2001
Messages
4,730
If it made connections between the most unlikely things, from the steam engine to how we clean clothes, it may have been Connections. An excellent series with a British host. I don't recall if they made an episode about gold.
 

Leo Kerr

Screenwriter
Joined
May 10, 1999
Messages
1,698
No, it predated Connections by a fair amount. Given my memories of what it looked like, I'd guess that it was made perhaps as early as the late 1970s, maybe into the mid 1980s.

At this point, while it'd be nice if a clean DVD print showed up, I'd take a lousy VHS or even a 1" Ampex type C reel.

The idea of shaking a cage at WGBH might be useful; even if it wasn't theirs, they might have someone there who knows more about it than I do...

Leo
 

Will_B

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2001
Messages
4,730
Ok, but for the record, Connections aired in 1976.

"1976-1979 Connections (BBC / Time Life). Ten-part series surveying the history of technology and social change. When first broadcast in the USA (PBS), it achieved the highest-ever audience for a documentary series. The series is used in over 350 colleges and universities in the USA. To date, Connections has been broadcast in over 95 countries."
 

CraigAllen

Agent
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
Messages
33
I believe this was a National Geographic special from the late 70s on PBS. I remember the gold covered cake from it. I think it was released on VHS years ago.
 

Joseph DeMartino

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
8,311
Location
Florida
Real Name
Joseph DeMartino

James Burke did at least two later Connections series, not to mention The Day the Universe Changed, so you may have been thinking of one of those. I doubt that one of Burke's series is the source of what you're thinking about, though, because the whole concept of that show was how one thing led to something completely different. I don't recall that he ever did an episode that concentrated on a single thing like gold and traced its history and uses.

Having said that, I can't find anything else that matches your description. :frowning:

Regards,

Joe
 

Richard--W

BANNED
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2004
Messages
3,527
Real Name
Richard W
Yes, it sounds like one of those National Geographic documentaries I rented on tape a long time ago. They did a special on gold.
 

Leo Kerr

Screenwriter
Joined
May 10, 1999
Messages
1,698
oh, wow; I had almost forgotten about this thread, but still remember the search.

No, I never was able to track it down. Although if it does appear somewhere, I'd love to know more details about it.. the project is mostly finished (still some arguments about captioning: the real word or the pronunciation of it?) but I think the people I was working with would like to have seen it...

Leo
 

georgexu316

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
9
Real Name
Xiao Xu
I'm looking for this video for a research project, though I never seen it myself, I was told to look for it. Do you remember any more details? Was this a program hosted by Julia or was she just featured in it? Any details would be helpful.
Thanks
Xiao Xu
 

Leo Kerr

Screenwriter
Joined
May 10, 1999
Messages
1,698
As I recall it, she was called in as a consultant on "how well can you cook with it?" and proceeded to cook a chicken à lá king or some other similar chicken sauté with a cream sauce.

Her section was actually fairly short -- just a minute or two in a ~50 minute program.

Likewise, my recollection has the bit on smuggling gold at the very end, showing vests with many hidden pockets to hold 1 ounce mini-bars of gold inside them.

Hmm.. I wonder if my old chemistry teacher (a) is still teaching, and (b) is on e-mail?
 

georgexu316

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
9
Real Name
Xiao Xu
Hey Leo, do you think you can maybe contact your chemistry teacher to ask about the video?
I appreciate it
 

Leo Kerr

Screenwriter
Joined
May 10, 1999
Messages
1,698
I looked into it. It appears that she's long-since retired, along with just about everyone else in the Science department at my hold high school that might have remembered me or her.

Leo
 

GoldFryingPan

Auditioning
Joined
Oct 9, 2010
Messages
1
Real Name
no no

TK3

Auditioning
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
1
Real Name
Travis
Okay, I've a bit of a problem. I'm trying to track down a documentary I saw when I was in high school chemistry. For reference, I was in high school chemistry the school-year 1988-89.

1. I have no idea what format it was - 16mm or VHS or VHS dub of cable/PBS broadcast.

2. I have no idea what the title is.

3. The subject was gold. It covered all sorts of things from mining and smuggling, to cooking with - some restaurant that put gold leaf on their chocolate cakes, as well as Julia Childs cooking with a solid gold pan.

I'm failrly certain that I'm not making this up, 'cause if you google-search for that sort of thing, I've managed to come up with two other references - though no useful information.

I'm really looking for the sequence with Julia Childs for a project at work, and I'm not sure if they believe me that it ever existed!

Leo Kerr
I remember seeing it ! Actually I'm looking for it too (for another reason).

I saw it on PBS here in Boston (either WGBH Channel 2 or their sister UHF station WGBX Channel 44). I believe it was a National Geographic documentary on Gold. They made the pan for her to test if it was a good metal to cook with. I believe it heated up quickly and cooked evenly. She was impressed by it. After she finished with it they melted it back into a gold bar because it was super expensive.

I wanted to see if that documentary had the medicinal uses of Gold. I know gold is used for arthritis treatments. I wanted to see if there were other medicinal uses for it. They say gold is hypoallergenic, but people DO have allergic reactions to it such as "lichen planus". I have a couple of glass nips of Goldschlager cinnamon schnapps liqueur that has gold flakes floating around in the liquid meant to ingest.

The same goes for silver. They are taking aluminum chlorohydrate out of antiperspirants because of aluminums link to Alzheimers and putting silver in as an antimicrobial. The Brita and PUR water filters have silver in them as a cleaning agent. I know there was a man who was taking silver as a treatment for a skin condition. I believe he was ingesting it. It did relieve his skin problems, but his whole body turned "blue". It stayed blue even when he stopped taking it.

I've been looking on YouTube for this documentary, but I keep getting other gold documentaries. Sometimes it takes just the right WORD to get Google to find it. I know I was looking for an episode of Conan O'Brien visiting a neighborhood with all kinds of Christmas lights. I finally came upon the episode with the words "Dyker Heights" ( a section of Brooklyn) and found it.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,810
Messages
5,123,576
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top