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A Mysterious Tale in Three Fantastical Chapters
Chapter One - Class Project Gone Wrong
The origin of "A Hobo Heart" takes place at Canisius High School in Buffalo, NY in 1983. A group of students in Fine Arts - Media had procrastinated too long in producing a video project and were facing an imminent deadline. Despite repeated warnings that their instructor did not like "candid camera" videos, they decided to make one anyway.
Canisius High School TV Studio
The premise of their video would be to startle innocent bystanders in public places by dressing one of team as a hobo complete with an Emmett Kelly mask. Kelly, a famous circus clown whose stage character was a hobo, named his character "Weary Willie" based on hobos of the Great Depression.
Appropriately it was Halloween night that the crew headed to the now demolished Thruway Mall to find their victims and record their reactions. Somehow avoiding security, probably because it was Halloween, they wandered through different stores and public spaces and waited for an interaction. The character never spoke and there was no physical aggressiveness - at least not at the start.
With the unwarranted help of someone at Chuck E. Cheese, the crew was able to enter the restaurant and stage shots, until finally (intentionally) being tossed violently out by Chuck E himself.
For still unexplained reasons, the crew shifted to a nearby liquor store to stage a scene where an obviously inebriated hobo secured a bagged bottle of something. Then to the railroad tracks near the former mall where a freight train was passing. And that was a wrap.
After reviewing the footage, the team found themselves with...nothing. There wasn't material to make anything worthwhile and especially so considering the instructor's warnings. Now what? In a desperation move, the crew asked for permission to stay overnight (without supervision which would be an almost certain cause for their instructor's termination) in the tv studio to somehow make something happen that would rescue the project. Sure, why not? What could go wrong?
Looking for inspiration in every and any direction, the team started collecting things that might be added to the mix. A recording of a piece of music they had been introduced to in Music class (Like As The Hart - Herbert Howells), an old 16mm film from the Christophers with Jack Benny (You Can Change the World -1950), some slides taken by another student that had been taken under sub-zero weather at Forest Lawn Cemetery and had been frozen distorting their color balance, a synthesizer one of the team brought in to experiment with, all gathered in the studio for editing.
Then, like so many videos & films made of desperation, something was emerging. Whether consciously or not, the elements were beginning to at least suggest an idea, a theme, maybe a story.
After a night without incident, the team asked if they could get some footage of open-heart surgery. (!)
A contact at the Erie County Medical Center provided graphic footage of such surgery and some related commentary from a physician about heart disease. This was added to the mix.
Titled "A Hobo Heart," the video debuted in Media class and was regarded as "weird," "disturbing," "crazy," and "different." Considering all those comments, their instructor gave them an A. But that was just the start of the video's arc.
Chapter Two - In the Eye of the Beholder
Avant-garde film & video was highly regarded in Buffalo in the late 70s and early 80s. The Center for Media Study, Hallwalls, and Squeaky Wheel were internationally renown organizations that fostered and heralded experimental and unorthodox artists. Occasionally, there were calls for submissions looking for new and unusual material and "A Hobo Heart" seemed to fit the bill nicely. Thus, the video was selected to be included in the New York State Festival of Design and screened for several weeks in Albany, NY, at the Empire State Plaza. What did they make of that open-heart surgery footage?
One abstract described the video as "a searing depiction of society's cruelty towards people that are other, different, disabled, afflicted, or marginalized due to alcoholism, ethnic background or economic status." The startling use of the surgery footage and violence at Chuck E's was noted. In short, the video meant something, and was effective in its messaging.(!)
Did it mean something? But was it effective? Really? Are we talking about a video that emerged unconsciously from the students' minds by means of a collection of images and sounds that were rather randomly collected and edited together? Is that unusual or just the way all artists work, except at differing levels of intensity and experience. Is beauty (truth, reality, etc.) in the eye of the beholder?
Chapter Three - A Dimension Not Only of Sight and Sound
Now consider these facts about "A Hobo Heart." Whatever the intention was in the first place, no matter what transpired after editing, beyond the many interpretations of the video - all equally valid or invalid depending upon the viewer - the reality is that the makers of the video did not know that; 1) a Hobo legend is that upon dying a hobo hops a freight train to heaven - yet that is depicted in the video; 2) that a major cause of hobo deaths was alcoholism leading to cardiac arrest or accidents surrounding train hopping - yet it is implied in the video.
Also, there were unusual slides of heavenly angels that just happened to be in a nearby cabinet. (!)
Where does inspiration come from? Who really knows? Coincidence? Probably. Humans like to embellish experiences and tell tall tales, it's fun. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
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