I appreciate the offer to help with translating what I've found already and will take you up on it when I need it.
The links listed, however, are fake.
I have marked the links as fake, but I still kept them to prevent them from being spammed.
Also, I checked the facebook page and there are a few Italian comments from 2010 asking for a DVD release, and the page responded saying that it was coming out "pretty soon", but since it can't be found anywhere I think that it probably got canceled
So essentially there's no physical release outside of some select areas, 2 tv broadcasts that weren't saved, and some posts about it from sources of varying authenticity.
We know the film exists - footage of the film itself (see Streamable link) has been found as well as the trailer, albeit very little, and old footage possibly featured in the film floats around on YouTube (mostly Rhodes and his band's performance at the Hollywood Bowl as well as some tidbits from other points in Rhodes' career). The question now is who has the film and how can we reach them?
The director even posted a link for non-Italian viewers to be able to watch the film.
Do you know the link Messeri posted by any chance?
EDIT: Found the link on a Facebook page for the film, which I had not found throughout my search, but it leads you to a live stream of the channel.
So far, I have not found it in Rai Com's archives; the word "Beatles" (being the easiest term to distinguish on the Italian webpage) brought up one result which was not the film.
"(Some weird Spanish line from a robot sounding woman)" "This song is dedicated to all you guys and girls... That went to boarding school. I met- (Unintelligible) -by the graveyard yesterday. And she said that she'd love me- (Unintelligible). Then I told her that I wanted to marry her, But then she said you have to steal the candy, boy. Then I went on down to the trading post to steal the candy bar, She was waiting outside by the gasoline pump for me."
That's the beginning. Sorry the tape's kinda old so it's hard to make out some of the lyrics. I remember there being more Spanish in the song but coming back to it I notice there's mainly English. I guess I just wasn't really paying attention months ago. Note that everywhere in the song, except the start with the weird Spanish intro, it's a Spanish man singing. Again, I may record it sometime.
I think recording it is your best bet so we can broaden the search to others who may know the artist.
Update, sorry that I keep flooding this thread with them.
Tony Blass never got back to me, so unless I manage to get ahold of him through Field Dynamica, he's out of the question. That still gives me an opening with Emitt Rhodes himself but I doubt that he'll answer.
I could get in touch with Rhino Records (who premiered the documentary when it came out), so not all hope is lost.
It's been a few days since I emailed Tony Blass. He has not replied to my email, and I have found contact information for his company, Field Dynamics. It seems that they're in the field of marketing research and are operating out of the city of Enicino, California. I attempted to give them a call, only to get their voicemail.
Update: Emitt Rhodes has not answered any of my calls. Furthermore, still no contact information on any of the production crew either. This is an extremely difficult search.
EDIT: I have gotten ahold of Tony Blass's contact information - namely, his email. Now I just sit back and wait for a reply.
One thing I love to do is collect DVDs. I love collecting Nickelodeon DVDs. There was a series of DVDs called "Nick Picks" (which featured various Nicktoons shows on one disc), as well as its companion series "TeenNick Picks" (which featured various live-action series from the TeenNick block on one disc ), and "Nick Jr. Favorites" (which featured various preschool shows from the Nick Jr. block on one disc). The only one of these that were "complete" is Nick Jr. Favorites. All 6 volumes, plus the holiday edition were released. Nick Picks had all the same ones released on the same days, except for #6. It was cancelled for unknown reasons. Apparently, TeenNick Picks 2, 3, and 4 were supposed to come out, but those were scrapped also. There's not much info about them at all, so they may not even have existed. Here's the Wikipedia page for more info.
Well ... of all the short films produced in black and white of Felix the cat, this seems to be the most interesting one, cause it had an official release on VHS. From the 1930, most of the short films have been found, except this one.
Some time ago I downloaded this .DOC document: www.intanibase.com/gac/felix/FelixEncyclopediaPublic.doc which mentions the availability status of the short films and among that I found that Hootchy Kootchy parlais vous was made on VHS. This short film seems to have been included in the VHS "Early animation volume 7" of Loonic video, however, i have not found ANYTHING about that VHS on the internet.
I know that Loonic video exists thanks to this results on Google images
But other than that I have not found anything more and much less about the VHS of "Early animation" This case seems to be VERY weird, and to this point it has been a mystery that have gone around in my head for a while. I hope someone could help me with some information, because this is very rare.
Hoo boy, let's see...
This is one where we should start with the owners of the cartoon, if it isn't public domain. That may be a bit hard to find but I can do some research tomorrow.
EDIT: I did some research before I pass out for the night, and I found an IMDB Pro page with contact info for a "Loonic Video". If anyone has an account we could use it to contact them as I found no website.
So I know that the Droz accident and Owen Hart tragedy are in the WWE video archives, but they are under specific instructions to "never destroy, view or duplicate". There is often reference to the fact that such media exists, but those tapes are bound to degrade eventually, are they not? They cannot copy them, under self-imposed rules, so who knows when those tapes may last until.
WWE wouldn't want to risk those copies getting leaked.