Chico the Rainmaker

Did You Know?

• The serial was shown in 1974 on PBS in the US.
• It was shown in British cinemas in the 1970s and 1980s as part of their Saturday Matinees.
• It was also shown on television in the Maritimes as a 7-part serial in the mid-1970s on Saturday afternoons.

Plot

Chris Page discovers a strange shrunken head inside an ornate box he finds at a local antiques shop. When he and his sister Jill accidentally play a certain sequence of notes on a flute, the head comes to life. It introduces itself as Chicopacobacowana, a two-thousand-year-old Amazonian witch doctor who serves as his tribe's protector and rainmaker. For the last three years, his people have endured a drought because Chico was taken from the jungle by explorers and sold, along with other items, to an antiques dealer who only wanted a lawnmower. An art dealer named Thornton knows the head is priceless and wants it. Two thieves who previously tried to rob the shop hear about the reward Thornton offers for Chico and try to capture him. The story follows Chris and Jill as they help Chico return to South America while avoiding both Thornton and the thieves.