Does anyone remember this weird bit?

[Frodis]

Hey all,

There is one very strange Sesame Street clip that I recall that haunts me to this day. I was wondering if anyone else can help me remember more about it, since I doubt anyone has it on tape.

It was a live action clip from the mid 70's featuring Northern Calloway, dressed in swami garb, complete with a turban. He's sitting "Indian style", blankly staring into the camera, and not saying a word. There is a wicker basket on each side of him. He picks up a clarinet-type middle eastern musical instrument and starts to blow into it. Some funky music starts playing as he "snake charms" an animated number 12 from the two baskets. The animated numbers wiggle like a snake. After the numbers fully appear on the screen, I believe he stops playing and utters the word "twelve". Then he just sits there staring into the screen. Slowly, he begins to disappear into thin air and eventually the picture slowly "morphs" into the next segment.

I remember seeing this clip often when I was young. Has anyone else seen this?

Frodis

 

[Saginaw]

Oh yeah. I remember that clip.

You mentioned the word "haunt". For me, it was definitely the music. Kinda heavy for a seven-year old, IMHO, but then again ALOT of things haunted me back then.

These days I'd call them products of my own imagination. *heh, heh, heh*


--Saginaw the Sane

 

[Splurge]

It was a live action clip from the mid 70's featuring Northern Calloway, dressed in swami garb, complete with a turban. He's sitting "Indian style", blankly staring into the camera, and not saying a word. There is a wicker basket on each side of him. He picks up a clarinet-type middle eastern musical instrument and starts to blow into it. Some funky music starts playing as he "snake charms" an animated number 12 from the two baskets. The animated numbers wiggle like a snake. After the numbers fully appear on the screen, I believe he stops playing and utters the word "twelve". Then he just sits there staring into the screen. Slowly, he begins to disappear into thin air and eventually the picture slowly "morphs" into the next segment.

I remember seeing this clip often when I was young. Has anyone else seen this?

Frodis

I remember that well. What I remember that the part with Northern playing the horn again cross-fades into an image like an oriental rug, or something like that. Only the "matted" number 12 stayed on the screen, growing bigger into the center of the screen.

Maybe it wasn't exactly a rug design, I could be mixing that up with the 1-20 animation with the 4 armed guru. Maybe it was a cave drawing.

 

[Saginaw]

By the way, I've looked it up. The Indian snake charmer's horn that Northern 'played' is called a 'pungi'. It's not to be confused with a 'nagaswaram', as the former instrument is much smaller than the latter.

Interesting. Looks like another .mp3 file for me to look up.


--Saginaw

 

[Frodis]

I remember that well. What I remember that the part with Northern playing the horn again cross-fades into an image like an oriental rug, or something like that. Only the "matted" number 12 stayed on the screen, growing bigger into the center of the screen. Maybe it wasn't exactly a rug design, I could be mixing that up with the 1-20 animation with the 4 armed guru. Maybe it was a cave drawing.

I remember it as being a country farm scene that it faded into.

Frodis

 

[jellyman kelly]

By the way, I've looked it up. The Indian snake charmer's horn that Northern 'played' is called a 'pungi'. It's not to be confused with a 'nagaswaram', as the former instrument is much smaller than the latter.

*laughs raucously....whomp....falls off chair*

 

[Splurge]

By the way, I've looked it up. The Indian snake charmer's horn that Northern 'played' is called a 'pungi'. It's not to be confused with a 'nagaswaram', as the former instrument is much smaller than the latter.

Interesting. Looks like another .mp3 file for me to look up.


--Saginaw

Sounds a lot better than calling it a "horn", I guess. In hindsight it looked like a toy.

 

[Siduri]

Man, this is an old thread — but it's the only "honorable mention" I've ever seen of this sketch. I was beginning to think I'd imagined it.

It left me with very similar feelings as the "Swami #20" animated short that was done in both English and Spanish. Very eerie, especially the music.

Does a copy of it survive anywhere, or do we need to put out a call on Lost Media Wiki? If they found "Cracks", they can probably find this.

 

[Luke kun]

Yeah, I wonder why LMW hasn't tried looking for this yet. Although it could be found by one of our members, like how the Count at Charlie's Restaurant was found.

 

[wiley207]

Sorry for the thread bump, but Scarecroe has provided a screencap on the Muppet Wiki!

Still not on YouTube yet though, probably because of how SesameWorkshop lately is with their YouTube copyright policies...