Failed TV show part of film fest

— What do you get when you combine a screenwriter/mentalist, a female archery champion, Jimmy Driftwood, an embattled governor and a white German shepherd in circa 1950s Stone County? You get an utterly doomed pilot for a TV show about a dog named Sheppy.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a group of investors seeking to promote economic development and tourism filmed a 30-minute pilot called The Amazing Adventures of My Dog Sheppy.

And on the Ozark Foothills FilmFest’s website, the only public screening of the pilot was at the Melba Theater in Batesville on July 25, 1958. Nearly 54 years later, it will have its second showing Wednesday, the festival’s opening day in Batesville.

Sheppy was the brainchild of Harold Sherman. A Michigan native by birth and an eccentric by inclination, he decided to make Mountain View his home after his car broke down there during a trip across the country, according to Bob Pest of the festival.

Sherman started his career writing sports books for boys. He wrote many plays and is credited for the script of the 1944 Warner Bros. movie The Adventures of Mark Twain. Sherman was widely renowned, however, as an expert in extrasensory perception.

He wrote many books on the subject, such as You Live After Death, The Harold Sherman ESP Manual and Thoughts Through Space, the latter receiving special mention by Uri Geller, mentalist and psychic bender of otherwise perfectly good utensils, on his website in 2000.

But back to Sheppy: The pilot’s plot, such as it was, involved a little girl lost in the woods who was saved from a ravenous bobcat by - guess who? - with the help of a beautiful female archer. The archer was played by real archery champion Ann P. Marston. Arkansas folk music legend Jimmy Driftwood had a cameo role, as did other locals.

In addition to money raised by local businessmen, Sherman received a great deal of assistance from the state. He was a political associate of then-Gov. Orval Faubus, who had hired him to be “a behind-the-scenes campaign manager” in Stone County, according to the chronology of his life on Sherman’s website, haroldsherman.com.

Faubus sponsored a press event to promote Sheppy, which included Marston performing what the Encyclopedia of Arkansas refers to as “archery tricks.”

Alas, The Amazing Adventures of My Dog Sheppy turned out to be a real dog. Sherman’s website refers to “problems with Sheppy show” along with “feuds and revisions.” However, the main problem was that he had inexplicably failed to consider that Hollywood might not green light another show about a boy and his dog at the same time thatRin Tin Tin and Lassie were weekly TV stars.

Undeterred, Sherman returned to his adopted town where he proved integral to such projects as paving roads and bringing rural electrification to the county. He also cranked out several more tomes. His last book, The Dead Are Alive! was published in 1981. Sherman died in 1987.

FESTIVAL FILMS

This year’s festival features several award-winning films, including Arkansas native Mike Akel’s An Ordinary Family, which won the Grand Jury Prize as Best Narrative Feature at the New Orleans Film Festival, and the familydrama A Little Closer, which won Best Narrative Feature at the Indie Memphis Film Festival.

Independent film pioneer Morris Engel’s 1953 film Little Fugitive, which the late Francois Truffaut said helped inspire the French New Wave film movement, should be of particular interest.

Arkansas-themed documentaries at this year’s festivals include Dale Carpenter’s Love You, Too - A Life in Dance, a profile of ballet teacher Peggie Wallis of Rogers; Sarah K. Moore’s Witch Hazel Advent, about poet and peace activist John Rule; Ozark: A Celebration in Song, which profiles musicians and storytellers Kelly Mulhollan and Donna Stjerna of Still on the Hill; and Artists: A Conversation by Sarah and Emma Bailin, which has interviews with 30 Arkansas visual artists.

Several filmmakers will also appear for post-screening discussions of their films.

Filmmakers Akel, Thomas L. Phillips, Ya’Ke Smith, Zack Godshall and others will talk about making films during an informal panel conversation, “Way Out Yonder: Making Movies in Middle America.” It will be presented at 10 a.m. Saturday at MorningSide Coffee House, 616 Harrison St., Batesville. Admission is free.Ozark Foothills FilmFest Wednesday-Sunday, Batesville Admission: $5, $4 students and ages 54 and older, $3 for Ozark Foothills Film Society members per film Red Eye All Movie Pass: $25, $20 students and 54 and older, $15 for Film Society members Schedule and info: ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org

Style, Pages 45 on 03/25/2012

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