Relic Wranglers: Join the Hunt for Lost Cultural Artifacts

We wrote about these and some of history’s other great, vanished media artifacts in “Lost: Wired’s Guide to Pop Culture’s Buried Treasure.” We had a lot of fun assembling the package for the September issue, but the magazine’s space constraints meant we couldn’t cover everything we wanted to cover.

For instance, did you know that the initial work print of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension included 10 minutes of extra footage? Or that Shakespeare co-wrote a play based on a work by Cervantes? And as soon as the issue hit newsstands, we started getting angry letters from readers about other lost artworks we had omitted. How could we overlook the spider-pit sequence from the original King Kong? Or “Fever,” the first-ever recording by the Beatles?

All the feedback spurred us to create a forum for everyone who’s as obsessed with these missing pieces of media as we are. Our new Relic Wranglers website is a place for people to pool information, get in touch with people who might know more about lost items, and maybe help some of these missing gems see the light of day.

Sound crazy? Tell that to the Trekkies who thought they’d never get to see the original, pre-William Shatner pilot of Star Trek. Or the music fans who clamored to hear Gary Numan’s 7-Up commercial. Or the gamers who never thought they’d get to play Bio Force Ape.

Sometimes a dedicated community of fans can make all the difference. Visit Wired’s Relic Wranglers site and join the hunt.
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References:

Baker, Chris. 2011. "Relic Wranglers: Join the Hunt for Lost Cultural Artifacts". Wired. Posted: October 26, 2011. Available online: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/10/introducing-relic-wranglers/