By Robert Pincombe
Last week, Sequential joined the ranks of sites mourning the passing of the ultimate movie lover and television host extraordinaire, Elwy Yost. I wanted to take a moment to add my personal reminiscence of the man and offer up a rarely-seen comic nugget.
I first met Elwy Yost in high school when a buddy and I skipped our afternoon classes to see him speak to a ladies luncheon group in London, Ontario. The audience held onto his every word as Elwy shared anecdotes and of his moviegoing experiences and the challenges in interviewing Hollywood icons. Afterwards he did a more personal Q&A session. He was surprised to find two gangly, teenage boys in amongst the women and graciously allowed us to walk him to his car for a more personal chat.
Elwy treated our youthful enthusiasm with respect. He loved to hear we were discovering older films through Saturday Night at the Movies and Magic Shadows. But he also pointed out that the modern films we were enjoying at the time would stay with us and become classics in our hearts and minds as we grew older.
Fast forward to 1997 or so. I was a young comedian who had pitched a regular comic page to Venue Magazine, a fledgling Canadian publication that lasted just under two years. The comic page was called “Framed” and was my first taste of national exposure … or lack thereof. The magazine didn’t sell so well.
The concept was simple. I interviewed various personalities and then drew a comic juxtaposing images of their public personas with their words.
Elwy Yost was a perfect choice.
As you will see, I had yet to learn how to pare down dialogue to make room for the images and typos in my hand-lettering that were the bane of my existence.
Sadly, only one print of Elwy’s 1949 movie “In Between” survived. Apparently Elwy turned it over to the CBC to take some footage from it to use in the “Life and Times” epsisode about him. He told me they never returned it.
That is one film I am dying to see!
In the mean time, Comicanuck presents “ELWY YOST – FRAMED”!
Beavers Up!
Great strip! But that story about the CBC not returning his movie (the only movie he ever made!) is a fucking travesty! But unfortunately, all too coomon at the Ceeb — trust me, i worked there for years and heard some horror stories.