About the Film
Every year, on the third Saturday of June, in an otherwise sleepy borough of southeastern North Carolina known as Spivey's Corner (population 49), some 5,000-10,000 folks gather from far and wide to take part in the festivities and entertainment in the day-long extravaganza known as the National Hollerin' Contest.
Hollerin' is considered by some to be the earliest form of communication between humans. It is a traditional form of communication used in rural areas before the days of telecommunications to convey long-distance messages. Evidence of hollerin', or derivations thereof such as yodeling or hunting cries, exists worldwide among many early peoples and is still be practiced in certain societies of the modern world. In one form or another, the holler has been found to exist in Europe, Africa and Asia as well as the US. Each culture used or uses hollers differently, although almost all cultures have specific hollers meant to convey warning or distress. Otherwise hollers exist for virtually any communicative purpose imaginable -- greetings, general information, pleasure, work, etc. The hollers featured at the National Hollerin' Contest typically fall into one of four categories: distress, functional, communicative or pleasure.
This print is the only known good print of Welcome to Spivy's Corner. The print became the basis for a 16mm restoration by Colorlab that was paid for with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. If you know of the whereabouts of the original elements of this title, please contact us.
This restoration of “Welcome to Spivey’s Corner” was made possible with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. The 16mm print and the new negative are stored in the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
