The Cool World

In the early '70's, at age 12 I was sleepily channel surfing late at night, (past my bedtime at a friend's house) looking for monster movies. I believe I was watching Channel 2, (KTVU Oakland, California's then independent now Fox-affiliated TV station) when I was riveted awake by the most amazing film. For years I looked for it, telling anyone who would listen about how real it seemed. How compelling it was. I never found anyone else who had seen it, let alone a theater showing it, a video or a DVD of it. One of the reasons I came to IMDb was to at last find confirmation of The Cool World's existence (not the Ralph Bakshi cartoon). I found some lobby cards at a collector's fair and bought them. Hope was awakened in me in the early '90's when I heard of a special showing at the Roxie Cinema. The print was on loan from Shirley Clarke as it was so rare. The day came and I arrived at the cinema and the print didn't appear due to a shipping snafu. By now I was losing hope. When I first wrote this I hadn't seen it again. Recently, I saw it at last. It is an amazing cultural document of 1960's Harlem.