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The Real Patsy Cline [VHS]

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THE REAL PATSY CLINE combines short vintage film clips with modern interview segments and re-enactments to cover salient points in the life of country music's first woman superstar. At the height of her fame, Patsy was show-closer at Grand Ole Opry or wherever she went-- unheard of for a female back then.

We learn of Cline's penchant for hanging out with songwriters at taverns and acting like one of the boys-- telling rude jokes and using salty language. Willie Nelson performs with guitar a song written when he was a starving musician known as Hugh Nelson: "Crazy." Also heard are Loretta Lynn and Mel Tillis.

Carl Perkins offers insights. Widower Bill Cline remembers how he and Patsy would fight and quickly make up. The aftermath of a near fatal car wreck that left her face permanently scarred is vividly illustrated by a hospital room snapshot.

Vintage samples of Miss Cline performing are too brief and get narrated over. Major points off for that.

Dottie West, who Cline called "Hoss," warned Patsy against flying shortly before the Piper Comanche she was a passenger in crashed in a forest outside Camden, TN. due to intense storms. Not recounted was that Roger Miller searched frantically through the woods for Cline's plane and was first to find it. The Piper went in nose first-- all aboard were dead. After body recovery was completed, scavengers picked the crash site clean.

Along with performers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins, plus her manager/pilot Randy Hughes, Patsy Cline perished just after 6 pm on 3/5/63. She was 30 years old.


"The Real Patsy Cline" is available on DVD.

Related item:
Some of Patsy Cline's very best DECCA sessions are included on PATSY CLINE - 12 GREATEST HITS, for many years the all time best-selling country album.