Help me find Rusty's owner

June 29, 2007 1:22 PM

Can you help me find the original publisher of the educational short film featuring Rusty the narcoleptic dachsund?

Backstory: I wrote and recorded a song about this clip, and it contains short audio samples from the video. I'd like to contact whoever owns the publishing rights to clear the use of the samples so I can offer the song commercially.

Unfortunately, although the clip has been posted a kabillion times over on YouTube and the web in general, no one seems to know or mention source of the clip. If I could find the title of the full short, I might be able to Google up the publisher. But all I can unearth are more links to YouTube.

Someone out there must own the rights to this video; anyone have a clue what I can do to track them down?

posted by scottandrew to media & arts (4 comments total)

It is probably from The Stanford Center for Narcolepsy. Their Movie page includes an AVI file that includes a narcoleptic weiner dog. It may be Rusty (and they may know the source of the video in question).

Alternately, there is a video that Psychology professors often show that includes a colony of narcoleptic dogs.

The secret of sleep. [Video]. New York: Ambrose Video Publishing; 1998. 9 video; 1/2" VHS. (Sleep file series). (#318.5 here).

I also have vague memories of an episode of Scientific American Frontiers included narcoleptic dogs. It would have been no later than 2001. Their video search feature doesn't seem to work for me though.
posted by i love cheese at 1:56 PM on June 29, 2007

Thanks, that dog isn't Rusty, but contacting the Stanford Center might be a good start.

FWIW, the original Rusty video is pretty old, probably from the mid-70s.
posted by scottandrew at 4:00 PM on June 29, 2007

You should e-mail Skip Elsheimer at A/V Geeks (his e-address is at the site). He is the expert on educational/industrial films.

He may have the film available for viewing (with all of the info you need) in his collection at the Internet Archive.

Looks like he is Durham, North Carolina with his travelling exhibition tonite, so he is close to home and should be able to answer your query in a day or two....
posted by cinemafiend at 4:33 PM on June 29, 2007

Whoah! Wrong link...

Here we go:

A/V Geeks
posted by cinemafiend at 5:35 PM on June 29, 2007