VIDEO: Back to Maple Grove Media Room chat

SANDI: Is there anything you are trying to say in your music?
Is there a point you’re trying to get across?
SUE-ON: Hire us! <g>
BILL: Don’t notice the mistakes ... don’t notice how rotten we are. <g>
SUE-ON: I don’t know...it’s just having fun ... and being together.
We’ve done so many things all these years -- together --
and music has certainly kept us together.

VIDEO: Cut to close up of large Chinese wok in Soo’s Restaurant kitchen.
Sue-on supervising the staff and giving directions in Chinese.
AUDIO: Ambient sounds of a busy kitchen... much talk in Chinese.

SANDI: Away from the glamour of the music industry,
Sue-On manages Soo’s Restaurant in downtown Brandon.
It was her family’s business until she and Bill bought it up three years ago
and expanded it to include a banquet hall.

VIDEO: Sue-On carrying a large bowl of deep fried shrimp out to the dining room buffet
-- mingling with and talking to customers on the way.

AUDIO: Buzzing dining room noise.
Customer overheard saying: “Are you on TV?”
Sue-On's reply: “No. You are.”

VIDEO: Cut to Strathclair Collegiate and
Bill’s integrated Computer/Social Studies/English classroom.
Bill at chalkboard... students at computers.

BILL: Take the first file...
SANDI: Bill’s full-time job puts him at the front of a high school classroom in Strathclair.
BILL: So it’s time to get organized.

SANDI: Getting organized is something that Bill and Sue-On are pros at.
You see in addition to the music and day jobs, they’re collectors.
AUDIO: Heavy guitar chord.

VIDEO: Pan across 20 guitars displayed on music room wall.
SANDI: There’s the guitar collection.


SUE-ON: Every one of the them has been a favourite at some time or other.
He tends to favour the Fender guitars and the Gretsch guitars.

.
AUDIO: Sounds of the old Red Skeleton radio show.
VIDEO: Pan across shelves filled with hundreds of boxes of reel-to-reel tape and
600 16 inch Electrical Transcription (ETs) discs.
Then to Sandi and Bill examining the tape collection on shelves.

SANDI: The old radio show collection.
BILL: I’ve compiled a collection of about 10,000 old radio shows from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s.
This is part of it and it sorta goes on and on all through the house.

AUDIO: Chinese gong.
VIDEO: Close-up shots of Chinese carved furniture.
.
SANDI: There’s the collection of carved and inlaid Chinese furniture.

. .
SUE-ON: My secretary desk here -- it’s carved in teak and camphor wood as well.

VIDEO: Quick closeup shots of magazine covers:

National Geographic, Country Music Magazine, National Lampoon, Mad, Architectural Digest, etc.
and wall shelves full of magazines and comics.

SANDI: The magazine and comics collection covering five decades and just as many topics.

VIDEO: Close-up Bill opening Playboy and starting to unfold the centrefold.
Sandi reaches out an quickly closes the magazine.

AUDIO: Hillmans performing original song Good Time Jamboree.
  .
VIDEO: Flipping album covers and pan of record collection, cassettes, CDs, DVDs and video tapes on shelves.

SANDI: And their huge music collection in all formats,
not to mention the 3000 video tapes crammed with movies and TV shows.
(Flashback: Now over 4000 video tapes and just as many DVDs)

VIDEO: Bill at computer desk at Kensington home keying titles into a computer database.

SANDI: Not only have they all been collected,
but they’ve all been catalogued on computer.

VIDEO: Shot of Bill and Sandi in front of video and magazine walls
thumbing through large book of computer print outs of video titles.

BILL: All of the "All Creatures Great and Small" series. A lot of English stuff -- a lot of British comedy.
SANDI: And every copy of Coleman and Company that’s ever been made so far? LOL
BILL: I have some. [LOL] I pick your show up on Brandon
and it’s Sunday morning on the Brandon channel, so I’m not always home to get it.
SANDI: Yeh. Yeh... excuses. [LOL] Too well organized.

Click for full-size collage from our Photo Collage Archive

BILL and SUE-ON HILLMAN CBC TV BIO SPECIAL
Script and Screen Captures

BACK TO THE HILLMAN
50-YEAR MUSICAL ODYSSEY BOOK
WebMaster: Bill Hillman
Bill and Sue-On Hillman Eclectic Studio
Photos and Text Copyright 1996/2004/2015