Last weekend I had a great experience at the Heritage Hill State Historical Park in Green Bay, WI. Heritage Hill invited me to come in order to help them celebrate Laura Ingalls Wilder Day. Other special guests included William Anderson, the very talented writer and Beth Ingalls-Leisses who is a living relative of Charles Ingalls. Over 3,000 people gathered at Heritage Hill last saturday and broke the museum’s attendance record, which was set last year on the previous Laura Ingalls Wilder Day. The fact of the record breaking day is nice, but what made it even better was that  the record was broken competing head to head with the first 2009 training camp practice of the Green Bay Packers, only miles away. In a city like Green Bay, which is more than a little obsessed with the Packers, that was pretty cool.  It truly amazes and touches me that so many people continue to love our series and the books on which they were based.

My involvement with Laura’s world began 30 years ago and it has been an honor to be joined with so many others who preserve and celebrate her stories focused around the challenges and romance of a family struggling to survive America’s great western movement. The more I learn about Laura and her life I am increasingly impressed by her desire to turn a life filled with hardship and tragedy into one that has inspired and enriched people of all ages for more than seven decades.

While I was on-site at Heritage Hill I had the opportunity to join Bill and Beth in four different gatherings of visitors in order to speak, sign autographs and answer questions. In advance of the event I prepared a brief Legacy Documentaries DVD that included the romance segment from Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura, brief clips from LHOP bonus content, as well as a tease for Legacy’s next Little House documentary project, The Life Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The reaction was wonderful. Look for it 2nd quarter of 2010. I’ll be talking much more about this project in the months ahead.

After the event was over we started talking about what we could do next at Heritage Hil…a lot of good ideas came out, including one for the entire family that will connect holiday music and spoken word. I’ll share more when its all locked in place.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Hi all…

According to my manufacturer in Minneapolis the first batch of our revised DVD will be shipped to the Wilder Homestead tomorrow for delivery early next week. The Wilder Homestead will be able to begin fulfilling DVD orders at that time.  I thank all of you for your patience and look forward to hearing that you are receiving your DVDs and enjoying them.

The wait is almost over…

Dean

I wrote on this blog the other day that we  were re-manufacturing the Almanzo Wilder DVDs because they had been delivered to the Wilder Homestead in late September with a flaw…a small flaw…an inadvertent  flaw, but none the less a flaw that I didn’t want  buyers of the DVD to see.

We only discovered the flaw on October 1 after 150 DVDs were either sold in person or purchased for delivery  during the final days of the Homestead’s annual season at the end of September.  Some were shipped before we discovered the  flaw…but most were not.

We made a decision at that time to stop further shipping and recall all the Homestead’s remaining 850 discs for repair. The process has taken longer than expected and has caused some frustrations among individuals who either purchased the DVD in advance or who want to purchase it  now.  

I asked The Wilder Homestead to not reveal the flaw, but rather  to simply promise delivery as soon as possible.  After I revealed the flaw myself the other day, the Wilder Homestead has been overwhelmed with  calls and emails seeking clarification on purchase and delivery.  We ask for your patience and understanding.  None of this is the  fault of the Wilder Homestead. The DVDs are coming. They  are beautiful and I know you will enjoy them.

As soon as the new discs are  available I will communicate with you on this blog. The good news is that Almanzo’s wonderful story  is timeless and will never go out of date.  I can say with all sincerity that the repairs we’ve made, while causing some delays in delivery, will truly enhance your long term enjoyment of ALMANZO WILDER: LIFE BEFORE LAURA.

Thank you for your support of our program and the Wilder Homestead. 

Our long awaited DVD is now out for review to a number of Little House bloggers and other relevant organizations who will hopefully view the program favorably. It’s a bit disconcerting to put your work in other people’s hands for criticism but there is no other way to be in the game. At some point all creative people have to be willing to share their efforts with others or its just private dabbling. 

On a related matter, our first release of the program had an undetected problem, which is now being fixed. Unfortunately we’ve had to pull back all the manufactured discs that had been delivered to Burke, NY in order to make the fix.  This has caused a delay in shipment of purchased discs, but I couldn’t have something go out to viewers that wasn’t the best I could make it. People who have ordered the DVD should expect to receive it within the next 14 days.  Thanks for your patience.   Dean

In advance of our ALMANZO WILDER: Life Before Laura release later this month I’ve uploaded our release trailer to YouTube. We’re really happy with the show and I hope you’ll take a look at it and let me know what you think. See the trailer at my channel, DeanBLegacy, on YouTube starting Wednesday.

Thanks,

Dean