The death of Wim Bie yesterday shocked many: Van Kooten and De Bie are legendary in the Netherlands. Richard Groothuizen and Cees de Groot from Purmerend immediately thought of the many sketches that were recorded in their own neighbourhood. Fifty years ago, for example, ‘Koot en Bie’ stood on the football field in Ilpendam for a football sketch.
With the phone ready, Cees de Groot is the first to enter the field of SV Ilpendam. He found the sketch on Youtube and shows it to the reporter. Not much has changed here since the recording fifty years ago.
Groothuizen is the author of the Koot en Bie Encyclopedia and De Groot is handy at making maps. Together they figured out where Van Kooten and De Bie’s sketches were shot and where to find those images. In 2021, this will lead to a cycle route along fourteen places that are familiar to regular viewers. Those places are in Monnickendam, Purmerend and therefore also Ilpendam.
New discoveries
The men have done a great job. De Groot: “There was so much material, when we started making this route we came across so many things of which we said: ‘Damn, I’ve never seen that before. It’s still there!'”
A member of the club sees the men standing with the reporter and comes to have a chat. He is surprised when he hears that Van Kooten and De Bie have recorded a sketch here. “Really? I’ll go look them up later.”
Watch the full ‘four ways to score a goal’ sketch below. Text continues below the video.
“Kees van Kooten lived in Zuidoostbeemster on the Nekkerweg, a few hundred meters from Purmerend,” says Groothuizen. “Wim lived in Amsterdam North at the time, he came here by bike. They did not want to incur large costs on location. In this case they filmed around the corner, how simple do you want it?”
The cycling route is via this link to find.