Universal Newsreel from 1933 showing Cecil H. Dill, a farmer from Traverse City, Michigan, demonstrating his ability to render popular melodies by pressing his hands together. After the performance, which seems to be of Yankee Doodle, Dill, while staring rather intensely into the camera, modestly tells how he discovered his unusual talent.
This is by way of noting that today is the last day to order The Public Domain Review: Selected Essays, Vol. V for the introductory price and with delivery before Christmas. I have no affiliation! PDR is one of the sites I visit occasionally because they post essays about photography like this one about the blinds and camouflages used by early nature photographers the Kearton brothers.
—Yr. Hmbl. Ed.,
Like Cecil H. Dill A Man of Peculiar Talents
(First para from PDR, mod. auct.)
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
FraserGJB: "Are you sure this isn't a short film David Lynch made in art school? Wonderfully weird."
today's time waster. perfect.
Posted by: Bruce | Tuesday, 13 November 2018 at 12:43 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldRDjgKZWAM
This is the classic of The Horny Frenchman - playing bicycle horns.
Don't get a headache laughing too hard.
Posted by: Daniel | Tuesday, 13 November 2018 at 01:48 PM
A victim of reefer madness.
Posted by: Robert Rosinsky | Tuesday, 13 November 2018 at 03:30 PM
I suppose by now lots of folks have sent this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSmD9hrbrF0. Classic.
Posted by: GKFroehlich | Tuesday, 13 November 2018 at 05:59 PM
Nice article on the Cherry brothers... interesting site.
Posted by: Bob Gary | Wednesday, 14 November 2018 at 07:52 AM
I'll be in Traverse City tomorrow. Maybe part of the original Dill's Old Town restaurant in TC? Well-known for their amateur theatre productions each summer. Maybe he was the first "handliner," er "headliner." Sorry, couldn't resist.
Posted by: Bob Cook | Wednesday, 14 November 2018 at 10:52 AM
Hello,
A version of Star Wars with hands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_yl9iRPock
And it's Belgian.
Posted by: Cy | Wednesday, 14 November 2018 at 11:40 AM
http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/person/166/photo/505/Cherry+Kearton+standing+on+Richard+Keartons+shoulders+to+photograph+nest+high+in+hedge.html
Posted by: John | Wednesday, 14 November 2018 at 04:07 PM