David:

I'm glad you like the video -- it is marvelous.  I asked Hal Holbrook why
it took so long to come out, and he replied that he didn't want it to
appear because 1) so many people were imitating his act he thought it
would only give more ammunition to people "borrowing" his particular
editing and performance of the Twain material and 2) he wanted to maintain
the piece as live theater and not undermine it with video.  When I
suggested that at 74 he might retire someday and the legacy of his work
needed to be preserved, he said he just completed a more recent filming of
a performance in Idaho.  He hadn't seen himself perform since the 1967
version, and he judged he was better today: he wasn't as strained acting
as an old man as he was 33 years ago.

Hilton Obenzinger

On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, David L. DePauw wrote:

> Hilton...
>     ...I bought the video the moment I saw it for sale...had been looking for
> it for years, but was always told that it was not on the market.  Rich, rich,
> rich...or at least not have to work for a living any longer...the same way
> Mark referred to his discovering the lecturing circuit.
>     -David
>