I was one of the old school collectors tracking down VHS videos back in the 1980's and 1990's when trying to find the most complete and beloved dubs were not the easiest thing to do. I'm sure you folks Remember "Video Treasures" LP releases of several of the Godzilla films (With the "real" dubs!) or the "GoodTimes" LP VHS tapes, or the Orion VHS tapes, or those odd off-brand fly by night companies using the Cinema Shares prints? Who can forget the frustration of trying to track down "Destroy All Monsters" since it was never released - hoping to find a decent copy, or being lucky enough to still have a station airing an old package of the AIP films! Oh, those were the days. "For Best Results, Please Adjust Tracking..." LOL! Pardon the typos...
Having seen all these great posts about the fine work of a handful of people recreating/creating HD classic English Dubs of Godzilla and Toho films (Where does one get links to those? I'm curious to see what is being done these days - I don't think I've read a bad review on any of those!) got me thinking about the ones done in the 1990's some of you might remember - the crude but effective basic synchronization of the Classic English dub tracks matched with Letterboxed Japanese laserdisc and/or Dubs on VHS/SVHS. Usually mastered to SuperVHS by at least a couple of fellows (that I know of) who were doing it. If you ever got VHS videos of these (Which also included stuff like Ultraman '66, Johnny Sokko, and Space Giants) in the 1990's you'd know the stuff.
So I thought for you younger folks, or fans unaware of these, or fondly remember collecting them - I'd share some info from my collecting days in the 1990's.
There were two guys I personally knew of - it's been a good 20+ years, but one fellow was in Tennessee and the other was in New York who were doing this. (I have notes on these from my VHS collecting days, and out of respect for these long-gone fellows, I'm withholding any names and now-invalid addresses I have on tattered old lists and letters - pre internet days - old typed lists, no emails,etc - they both disappeared around 2000 or so - guess some of the old VHS guys just didn't go into DVDs - but I'm sure their stuff might have been going around!) It was just simply matching up and keeping in sync the two sources with the best obtainable English tracks with the Japanese material. I'm thinking c.1990 to about 1997 or so were when these were done. There were a couple of others doing this as I heard a copy of "Smog Monster" and "Secret of The Telegan" (In color when all there was was the B&W print Sinister Cinema offered for a handful of years) were done by another group - perhaps out on the West Coast. San Francisco maybe?
One of of the fellows (The Tennessee guy) just kept thing raw - anything not dubbed in English was kept in in Japanese, titles and all, but the other guy (New York) was a decent editor (Keep in mind this is in the linear flying-erase head and audio-dub era of video editing) and cut out anything not dubbed in English to keep things together smoothly. (His versions of Ultraman '66, Johnny Sokko and Space Giants were also done this way - although I don't think he did the whole SG series. The Edits for missing footage they didn't have dubbed scenes for were not bad - and some of the episodes kept the original Japanese sound fx and music.) I think the guy in Tennessee and the fellow from New York were working together, or atleast exchanging notes and footage.
Anyone who ever got these when they were going around kept their old VHS? I still have a handful someplace in a box - As I recall the quality of the NY guy was really good - Think he mentioned did everything in SuperVHS, although some of his Japanese sources were first Generation VHS tapes when he didn't have access to the lasers. I know a few laserdiscs passed around a few collectors helping them out. (I think I sold one of my Gamera laserdiscs to one of them. I dabbled in laserdiscs in the 1990's as well - alot of fun tracking down stuff...)
Yes, it was really old school and nothing like what the guys are doing now! You folks doing this type of stuff today, I'm impressed with the skill of recreating the English titles right down to the backgrounds and fonts and the work put into improving the audio as well.
Let me see if I can fill in the gaps from my memory of who did what - it's been like 20 years, so my memory may be off a little of information I didn't have old lists-notes on, or the odd video tape.
Features - both versions kept the original Japanese opening titles - All the U.S. Dubs
The Mysterians - Two Versions - one with the Japanese Material intact, the other without
(I don't recall RODAN or GIGANTIS being done by either - at least it's not on these old yellowing notes and lists)
Godzilla vs. King Kong - Two Versions - one with the Japanese Material intact, the other without
Mothra - Two Versions - one with the Japanese Material intact, the other without
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster -Two Versions - one with the Japanese Material intact, the other without
Invasion of the Astro-Monsters/Monster Zero - Only one version of this was done, by the guy in Tennessee so it was the Japanese print with the U.S. Monster Zero Track..
Ebirah, Horror of The Deep - Only one version of this was done, by the guy in Tennessee so it was the Japanese print with the U.S. Godzilla versus the Sea Monster Track
Son of Godzilla - As I recall, only one version of this was done, by the guy in Tennessee so it was the Japanese print with the U.S. Son of godzilla track - AND the original pre-title in Japanese, with no dub or sub. (At the time, the international English dub wasn't going around.
Destroy All Monsters - Both the guy in Tennessee and the NY Guy did this one - I think both kept the Japanese opening titles, both used the AIP dub. I also believe the NY guy had a direct 16mm transfer of the AIP TV print that was the source.
All Monsters Attack - As I recall, only one version of this was done, by the guy in Tennessee so it was the Japanese print with the Godzilla's Revenge Track.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah - This one was done by a 3rd group but the NY guy had a copy, the sync wasn't the best, but it was the AIP track.
Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla - I can't recall if they did these, not on my notes, but they might have.
Godzilla vs. Megalon - Was done by the guy in Tennessee
The War of the Gargantuas - I can't recall if this was done or not, not on my notes.
Frankenstein vs. Baragon - Frankenstein Conquers The World - Both did this film - one with the Japanese Material intact, the other without. Also before it was officially released, one of the guys had a nice 16mm full-screen transfer of the AIP version.
Matango - Attack of the Mushroom People - I think this one was done by both guys - but I can't recall for sure, I know the guy in Tennessee did it, but don't seem to see it in my notes regarding the other source. This might have been around the time Something Weird Had offered the title from a 16mm AIP-TV print.
The Human Vapor - This was done by the guy in Tennessee, and kept the Japanese material.
(one of the pre-recorded VHS of the U.S. Version would have been released by this time, or perhaps both,
the second being that version in LP or SLP. )
Atragon - This was done by the guy in Tennessee.
Lost World of Sinbad - This was done by the guy in Tennessee - perhaps it might have been the only version going around - I never saw a video copy of the AIP version from either a TV Recording or 16mm on this title. (I don't think it was even shown on TV after the early 1980's!)
Majin, Monster of Terror and Return of Majin was also done by both guys - The Sync on Return of Majin tended to drift a little in spots as I recall.
The Gamera Films - Both the The AIP Dubs (and that includes Super-Space Monster) and The Sandy Frank dubs were done by both guys. As usual, the Japanese material not used in the U.S. Versions were kept by one,edited out by the other. The Copy of Gamera was the Sandy Frank Dub and neither did the U.S. Version, Gamera The Invincible. (although good transfers were going around, I guess they just didn't want to deal with mixing a tape transfer of the U.S. Version with a decent Laserdisc copy of the Japanese Version - too bad, might have been a fun video to watch.)
TV Series
Ultraman '66 - Both guys did these - one kept all the Japanese material that they didn't have dubs on, the other removed all Japanese material (The opening credits as well!) (I Believe the English tracks were from Channel 50 in Chicago and I think a San Francisco Station) The editing was interesting as it did keep the original Japanese Monster-fight sounds and had to match the editing on the TV prints - These predate the official VHS tape of the first 4 episodes. If I remember correctly, these were a little better audio-wise in completeness overall than what was eventually released in English on DVD.
Johnny Socko - Both guys did these - one kept all the Japanese material that they didn't have dubs on, the other removed all Japanese material (Not sure where the dubs were) You can tell these by the lack of opening credits and next episode previews. This was when the laserdiscs were released, and a couple-three years before The Orion VHS tapes.
Space Giants - Both guys did these - one kept all the Japanese material that they didn't have dubs on, the other removed all Japanese material - One of them only did half the series, and were missing the audio to one of the episodes - #8 I believe. I think the WTBS broadcasts were the source of the audio.
Now besides these guys, as I mentioned, I heard at least one or two other folks were trying their hands at doing something like this. In addition to what I mentioned earlier, I recall seeing, or hearing, about someone doing a "Lake of Dracula" and "The Last War" (THere's another film rarely seen on TV but had one of those odd video releases in a "big box"), but never could locate them in my VHS collecting days.
So there easily were at least 3 or 4 different guys or groups attempting this, but I personally only dealt with two of them. Wherever they are, I hope they are well, and still alive! I've got much respect for folks who went through all this effort to put this stuff together back when it wasn't easy in the linear video world!
As a side note, I recall when the official toho international dubs started turning up widescreen in the 1990's - before the British VHS PAL Standard prerecorded tapes of several of the films (Which is where the first official letterboxed English copies of "Megalon" finally appeared!) aired on Channel 4 (Now ITV2) in England did a block of films called "Creature Features" (Clearly the British were well aware of what was being done in the states regarding names of monster movie film showings!). I know "Astro-Monsters","Ebirah", "Son". "Destroy All Monsters" was shown ("Megalon" and one of the "Mechas" might have aired as well), but I don't have notes on the others. (These also got official British VHS prerecorded releases) I remember one of my connections getting these and having them digitally converted from PAL to NTSC - So it was after the AG-W1 VHS Hifi /Converter was released so it would be post-1992 or so.
Well, that's my walk down VHS memory lane - did anyone else try to find the best copies,and attempts to create "syndconizations" with the U.S. Dub tracks and Japanese Laserdiscs out there in the 1990's or have seen this material?
Oh, a side note, anyone remember that odd Hong Kong (perhaps a 'boot) laserdisc of "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" that was subtitled,decent quality but had all the World War 2 flashback material cut! (Guess it was removed not to stur up bad memories!)
Gee, now I wish I had kept some of my now gone VHS tapes, as I'm a big nostalgic. I guess it's a good opener for my first post.
