Strangest ways that a piece of 'lost media' was found?

Maybe a cop-out answer, but I think almost every rediscovery is strange. Metropolis was found in Argentina of all places, and considering how popular it was with the Nazi's... Cracks still has a lot of weird mystery to it, especially why it was under such ridiculous lock and key. I think Cry Baby Lane was crazy in how Nick literally denied its existence until it was leaked and then they had no problem owning it. Not to toot my own horn but I think it's funny I just happened to have bought Just for Kicks and had it all this time, never knowing it was considered lost until I saw the article. I think the dedicated detective work and scavenger hunting which Robert Harris has done to restore classics like Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is worthy of consideration as well. Where they found a lot of that material is certainly "strange" as is the fact that the studios allowed the films to be cut and bastardized in the first place.

Same thing. A bunch of similar incidents with "Clown Cried". I came across the Flemish TV footage online, which had been floating about undiscovered for a year, while looking for photos of it. And coincidence of all coincidences, someone else had discovered it the night before me and shared it on the imdb page, only his hadn't taken off as fast.

In regards to the Clown Cried footage shown in the German documentary, that was also miraculously saved from the dumpster by a Swedish Vault employee, who was threatened if he tried to rescue anything. It just disgusts me how there is no respect for these lost treasures.

The entire ADWSS goose hunt was pretty strange, if not the definition of hysteria.

The one that really kicks me is the fact that "Ready N Steady" was just sitting there in the Copyright Database for so long, and no one bothered to check it.

Also, any of you guys heard YouKu? The Chinese version of YouTube for whatever reason seems to have some lost/rare media on there (thanks Chinese copyright laws)

Givin to a museum, because I don't whant it, show it in 10 or something years.


lostmediawiki.com/The_Day_The_Clown_Cried_(

Don't expect any idents from non-China places though. Trust me, I tried with Minimax.

This is mostly for other forms of media.

     Sally (a.k.a "Clockman") was on YouTube for a while before anybody ever noticed that it was Clockman. This makes you think: was it ever really lost or just hidden? It was lost in my eyes, but the way it was discovered was absolutely ironic. 

    There's also "The Passion of Joan of Arc" a classic film that was heavily censored, then burned, then attempted to be reconstructed, then burned once more, then found in a janitor's closet at an Oslo mental institution. The most interesting part about this is that the film was never tracked to be shipped there.

The film wasn't ever "lost" to my knowledge (or lost in the way that Cracks or Cry Baby Lane were), but the fact that the main copies of Scent of Mystery (1960) a.k.a Holiday in Spain were neglected so terribly surprises me. 

For those of you that do not know, it was the first "Smell-O-Vision" film, which featured scents coinciding with scenes in the film to be released throughout the theatre. AromaRama, which was similar but not as technologically advanced, made its debut three weeks before (in 1959) Scent of Mystery in the form of a travelogue through China titled Behind the Great Wall. This sparked a rivalry between the two, which was in vain as neither were popular enough to warrant more films (notice how most people do not know of the existence of such a film feature). 

Nevertheless, the film is historic and a landmark, as it does hold the distinction of being the first real film (meaning not a travelogue) to use this feature. It had high expectations. The film featured Denholm Elliott and the beloved Peter Lorre as the main characters, with Elizabeth Taylor in an uncredited role. The score was by Mario Nascimbene, a renowned Italian composer regarded as one of the best of his day, and two songs were sung by Eddie Fisher. The film was adapted from the 1947 novel Ghost of a Chance by Kelley Roos, the pen name of husband and wife mystery writers Audrey Kelley and William Roos.

Unfortunately, Smell-O-Vision was extremely expensive to produce, and quite faulty, which resulted in lack of popularity. The film was re-released through Cinerama, which shows film on a widened screen.

Due to neglect of the original film negative, and the neglect of other copies, the original film is unavailable; several scenes and shots are missing. 

In 2015, Australian film producer Tammy Burnstock and artist and scent creator Saskia Wilson-Brown revived the Smell-O-Vision experience, presenting David Strohmaier's restored film at screenings in Los Angeles, Denmark, and England. The only information about the scents used in the original production was a list with entries such as "happy odor of baking bread" and "the faint smell of a yellow rose".

I think it's very interesting and shocking how a film of such (film) historical significance, with such cast members and contributors, was allowed to rot.