I am obsessed with the 1981 short film 'Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham' and have been for some time. This incredible period piece, filmed in 1979, was the work of prolific director and producer Harold Baim, and it tickles and enthralls me for a number of reasons: it's extremely funny, hugely informative and very redolent of the world at the time I was growing up and starting to take notice.
I'm not from anywhere near Birmingham, but I know the second city quite well thanks to an ex-girlfriend from Harborne, and I think it's a very under-rated place which just happens to be full of the urban architecture I'm utterly fascinated by, especially the pre fucked with civic centre, a magnificent mess of the long gone and future past, a ramshackle and run down modernist vision characterised by a sign reading 'Paradise Place' affixed to a concrete ramp leading up to the Ballardian library complex.
Anyway, I'm incapable of not sharing gold like this, so let's start as we mean to go on - randomly - with some shots from the Gerald Irvine exhibition held at the premier Strathallan Hotel.
What does Telly have to say about this dazzling visual feast? Just that he 'looked in' and it 'nourished his brains'. Beautiful, baby, just beautiful.
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