Twin Cities' MONSTER KIDS & MORE *

A CANDY TO PLAY WITH

2011-10-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2011:
continues with - -
Candy-Corn vampire teeth (I'm really reaching now, I know it :) )

I've got to be honest and admit up front that I've never cared all that much for Candy-Corn. I love the way it looks - - it's colorful and has my favorite (as a young kid) color ORANGE displayed prominently! But to me, it just always tasted waxy and made me think I was eating bits and pieces chipped off from a candle.

They just looked so incredibly cool and mond0-colorful (see above) like a bucket load of teeth just freshly "knocked out" of the mouths of those oh-so precocious Beech Nut FRUIT- STRIPE Gum animals from the '60s (actually I did like those characters but not the gum; 45 seconds of chewing and the sugar was gone... than just chewing cardboard; hmmm.... so THERE IS A CONNECTION TO CANDY-CORN)

They also looked like you could play with them - - chips in a Monster poker game? Or, the pointy, canine-like incisors of a Vampire (er, maybe a Fruit- Bat)

So, like any kid (c'mon, tell me that you NEVER DID THIS???) I would take a couple of the Candy Corn.... 'corns' and put them up into my mouth trying to "squish" them on to my own teeth.....

BLEAH!!! BLEAH!!! I want to bite your sugar diabetes

PARK BROOK HAUNTED ROOM: Part 3 (Finis)

2011-10-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2011:
continues with our final installment of my attempt to "brave" the SPOOK ROOM at Park Brook Elementary School's annual Fall Carnival.
(and you thought I would never get back to the final denouement? HA)

The thing that bothers me most is that I can't remember by 5th grade friend who participated in this adventure with me. It could have been Ricky Myer (or Meyer?), or it might have been Scott Frank, maybe even Corey Darsow. But it could have been Steve Albrecht as well. Funny how time robs one of events that "at the time" seemed to permanent.
Anyway.

We went to the Carnival; we meaning me and the guy I can't remember. I was totally determined this year to go throught the "haunted house " room and relish all the squeamish and bloody gags. But along the way my pal came to me and said... "rogue evolent, you've got to go to the gym and win one of these toys!!!" He then held up a toy/novelty plastic (pinkish maybe in color) baby bottle. The little toy was much like what one would have gotten out of a vending machine for a nickel. It was small enough to be easily concealed in the palm of an 11 year old. I said, "why would I want some stupid girly toy" only to instantly have my face blasted by two or three quick squirts of water. "That's why!" said my pal.... they were as good as squirt guns (we called toy water pistols Squirt-Guns in Brooklyn Park). "Where do I get one" I said. Come and follow me said ........my friend.

He took me into the gym to something that looked a little bit like this Cue-Ball drop game (above)... sort of. It did have the two long pool cue type sticks and the ball. The longer you could keep the ball on the two sticks and work it all the way down, the better the "toy" you would win. The crummiest, lamest, and most worthless toy was.... YOU GUESSED IT.... the baby bottle. So I, under coaching from my friend, gave my ticket to the ticket taker, grabbed the two cues, and simply opened them up to lose instantly. My cue ball dropped in the first "loser-type" area, entitling me to crap. So I quickly took my choice of crap: i.e. the plastic squeeze weapon.

Little did they know.

We both filled our weapons (it might have looked something like the 'pic' above only smaller and cheaper looking) and got into the long line at the door to the Spook Room. This year was going to be my triumphant victory. This year I would exorcise my past inability to go through this den of darkness.

The gi-normous FRANKENSTEIN guy was again the Ticket-Taker at the door. He stood there taking tickets. Me and my buddy got right up close next to him and gave him our tickets... as he ushered us inside the room....right passed the door jam, RIGHT INSIDE THE ROOM.... we both drew our squirt weapons and let him have four or five blasts of water right up in his HUGE MENACING FRANKENSTEIN GREEN FACE. I guess we thought a) it would be funny b) it would be dark enough and crowded enough that he wouldn't know who blasted him, and c) we'd paid our ticket, and HECK, we were ENTITLED to see the Spook Room regardless of innocent Tom Sawyer hi-jinx.

WE WERE WRONG!

Yeah, the ADULT was pretty steamed at being sprayed with water from baby bottles. He was even angrier than Bela Lugosi (above). His voice didn't yell but it was meaner and gruffer than any voice I think I'd heard up to that point in person said: "give me those!" As we surrendered our water cannons to his (you know I'm going to say huge) HUGE hamhock fists... he then promptly grabbed us by the shoulders and escorted us back out of the room BANNING US FOR LIFE from ever returning.

WHAT!!!!
Yeah, my friends. that's how it all ended. A tragic losing ending (like something Stephen King would write). No happy ending.
I never did get to see the SPOOK HOUSE at Park Brook Elementary.
We moved the following Summer after my 6th grade year, to Wausau, Wisconsin.

Moral of the story: If you're going to attack the MONSTER... maybe burning torches and pitchforks is preferable to baby bottles filled with water from the school's drinking fountain.

ADS FROM THE OLD DAYS

2011-10-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2011 - -

Who doesn't love old "retro" Halloween-spook-tinged adverts from the glory days... (even BEFORE MAD MEN :) ).

This first one (above; click mouse on it to enlarge for readability) is from 1946 and features Al Capp's famed Li'l Abner and his curvey bride Daisey-Mae. Plus, I've always like the famous CREAM of WHEAT Chef guy! My Dad use to make me Cream of Wheat on many a school morning to fortify me for the grueling (horror filled) day of public education that lay ahead. And there is a ghost after-all

This second magazine advert is for EVEREADY BATTERIES and is from 1950. I always prefered these as a kid to Ray-O-Vac (sorry Bookman 187) cause they had the stylized "BLACK CAT" jumping through the number 9 as their logo. I still think that's pretty cool. And, OOOOOHHH.... a scary Haunted House!!
[click mouse on picture to enlarge]

Both ads are from the private collection of rogue evolent and NOT from Google Images :)

SWEET MEMORIES of SIMPLER SPOOKS

2011-10-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

Now, I like movie Serial Killers, brain-eating Zombies and flesh-ripping sewer creatures as much as the next genre-movie fan... but.... Twin Cities' MONSTER KIDS & MORE* has a deep and abiding appreciation for the more innocent and simpler HALLOWEEN times of the 1950's and 1960's as well. Although I have no direct and lasting memories of 'Trick or Treating' during the day-light hours, I still think the sweet picture (below) marvelously captures a different age and era. Today, parents have no problems letting their 6 and 7 year old sons go out the door looking like some Greg Nicotero rotting-flesh Meat Puppet from WALKING DEAD, or their little daughters looking like ELVIRA wannabes or (far more horrible) Britney Spears or Lady Gaga prostitutes.
Give me and my Minneapolis memories a "Cowboy," a "Princess" and a "Smiling Skull" any day.
(and some Butterfingers please)

just saying - -

PARK BROOK HAUNTED ROOM: Part 2

2011-10-07T18:59:00.001-07:00

Well, that (part 1, see below) was when I was about 5 and a half years old. But it didn't end my connection/fascination with Park Brook's Carnvial SPOOK ROOM.

When I was in third grade (maybe fourth) I was determined to go through the Spook Room by myself, well not by myself alone, but certainly without my parents.

And I think I was more than ready... as long as I had my pals with me. For whatever reason, I chose not to pick actual class mates (the guys my own age in my grade: Kelly C, Jeff L, Ricky, Steve, Corey, Jeff C, or a host of other good guys) but rather my dearest and oldest Brooklyn Park friends Alex and Gary. These guys were brothers and lived "kitty-corner" across the street from me. They were the two most decent and nicest kids a guy could ever know growing up in Grade School. But..... Alex was (I think) two years younger than me, and Gary was three years my junior (or maybe it was 2 and 1 ). So, while I was ready to face the ghouls of my past and the ignominous embarrassment of kindergarten fear... my bestest buddies who were probably 2nd and 1st grade respectively, were not quite as certain.

We talked ab0ut. We planned for it. We stated how we'd respond in brave flippancy to any affronts the "fake" monster guys might accost us with. We steeled ourselves and got in line. I was in the lead with Alex and Gary right behind me. We were the first three in the new queue that had formed for the next "tour" through "Elementary School Room horror."

The the door swung open, the strange sound gave groaning out into the tiled hall-way, and we were confronted with:

Now I don't know if it was the SAME 8 foot guy that had "played" the Monster when I was 5.... but whoever it was he was scary looking and sounded mean and nasty. He growled something at us like: "And what do you want????" I said "here's my ticket" and handed it to his over-sized hamhock of a hand.

Then, looking over my shoulder saw that Alex and Gary were "headed for parts unknown." They were so terrified by the door-man "Frankie" that they had reneged on our "pact of perilous adventure." I turned back, looked at the Monster, and sigh.....

I too slipped shamefully away. It was horrible to admit to myself that I was too "chicken" to go through the Spook Room all by myself.... man, maybe I was only in 3rd Grade, for NO FOURTH GRADER would be so craven and jelly-boned.

I vowed to myself that NEXT YEAR.... I would go into this Den of EVIL no matter what.... no matter that I had to pass the Scylla & Charybdis of a quarrelsome and spiteful door keeper like:
FINAL INSTALLMENT TO COME... as we continue our

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2011

Hitchcock, Castle, naaaah: It's Harold Daniels!

2011-10-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

I saw this movie as a kid in Minneapolis. It was shown on WTCN channel 11. I liked it and thought it was interesting. It gave me some anxiety and unease, but no great terror. I still remember some of the scenes, especially with "Tiger" the German Shepherd dog. But it was not until I recently re-watched it after almost 46 years (or s0) that I can now write a mini-review and give it the accolades it deserves!
TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE (alternate title: My World Dies Screaming) 1958, b&w, USA, English, 85 minutes, Directed by Harold Daniels, written by Robert C. Dennis, STARRING: Kathy (Cathy) O'Donnell, Gerald Mohr, William Ching, John Qualen, Barry Bernard.

First off worth mentioning is the "gag" gimmick that Director Harold Daniels throws (or attempts to) at the watching audience. The movie features the not-so-subtle micro "quick cuts," or inserts, (very, very quick, but nonetheless very see-able) of monster faces and warnings (Scream Now! Scream Bloody Murder!). This is called subliminal visual suggestion, but in reality it's just a cheap trick that doesn't work and only cheapens the movie. Daniels calls it his MIND-ALTERING PSYCHO-RAMA! Ha.

Despite the title, the movie does not feature a HAUNTED HOUSE or ghosts, goblins, or ANYTHING supernatural. But that's okay as the film is a fairly intelligent, well-writen, beautifully acted, and taut mystery/suspense drama. It's not so much a psychological thriller (though there is an element of digging up sublimated and repressed memories of a childhood truama) as it's a murder mystery and a tense puzzle as to who the bad guy really is. In the colorized lobby half-sheet (above) we see the attractive Cathy O'Donnell as the frail and distraught newly-wed, who is fighting for her sanity. Ms. O'Donnell played in tons of 1960's television, but is best known for her smaller roles in BEN HUR and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE.

The above photo shows the opening of the film where O'Donnell is undergoing regressive hypno-therapy in an attempt to dredge up some past traumatic experience(s) that are plaguing her as a horrible reoccuring nightmare. The spinning vortex makes me think of the Hypno-Coin that my Mom let me send for (I think it was only 1 buck) cut from the back ad in an X-Men comic book circa 1964. I tried to use it to hypnotize my cousin - - no success.

Almost all the action takes place in the house (above) that, though NOT haunted, has ostensibly been un-inhabited for 17 years after the strange family of "The Mad Tierney's" simply disappeared.

Above we see one of the subliminal "quick shots" that is inserted at various points in the movie. There are a lot of these in the first few minutes after our two main characters enter the house, but they trail off (thank goodness) after the initial onslaught. I dunno... maybe these things really worked on my young impressionable mind. The movie did have me agitated and kind of creeped out at parts.

Cathy O'Donnell though not a stereotypical screen glamor girl, is attractive and has a real nice "girl next door" presence in this film. She is the real star and is in almost every single scene. Her close-ups are flattering and her acting is top-notch. I totally believed her character and her motivations and actions. Maybe she screamed a little too much :) and when she misplaced the necessary hand gun - - I thought "ooops... dumb broad movie gag # 47 "

Above we see Gerald Mohr who plays O'Donnell's brand new husband. Mohr's character has a hidden past and numerous shiffty mannerisms that immediately focuss attention on him as the possible killer/no goodnick. He also turns in a fine job of acting and his nuanced performance keeps the audience guessing until the end of the movie ( also credit is due to screen writer Robert Dennis) I kept thinking while watching Mohr is all his scenes "Dang this guy looks like he could be Pernell Roberts' older brother."

The third main character (though not introduced until about half-way through the film) is William Ching (above). Though he looks like Willam C. Macy's dad... he's not. He also doesn't act as good as Macy, or his co-stars. But in the role he plays (which also keeps us guessing until the bitter end) he does what has to be done. His clipped delivery and overall edginess actually serves the tension of the movie. Ching does keep us guessing.

In a small, but very, very, pivotal supporting role we have the veteran character actor John Qualen (above) who plays the creepy-crazed-man with a hidden secret CARETAKER.

Above are our three main characters: Mohr (the strange and un-trusty husband with a secret??) O'Donnell (sweet, breakable, and very cute in her omni-present night gown; though not in this shot) and Ching (inscrutable, twitchy, and seemingly the hero) The final scene of confrontation between Mohr and Ching is well done (no stunt men) for the late 1950s. Four-words: Emperor of the North!

Maybe a hidden key is given us in the type of automobile each man drives.

Above we see Mohr's super-cool two-seater sports car. Is that a Triumph, MG or something else?

Whereas Bill Ching's character drives a De Soto Fireflyte. Nice car... but something just ain't right :)

Sure it's a spoiler.... but hey..... guys that try to hard to be Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont) deserve an extra set of eyes on them!

There's great chemistry between the two-leads (O'Donnell & Mohr), pretty crisp dialog, and some good confusing guessing games for the viewers. No it's not Hitchcock. No it's not William Castle. But it's a darn good little unknown movie that deserves a better reputation. I was intrigued, though to a modern youth audience, the one criticism that I would guess would be hurled abroad would be: BORING. No, I don't think so. Sure, it moves a little glacial at times, and to modern day movie sensibilities it may seem to drag. But in the context of the day (1958) and the actual cinema genre: suspense/mystery, it clips along at just about the right pace.

A fine little movie that you should search out. I give it a 3 out of 5.

PARK BROOK HAUNTED ROOM: Part 1

2011-10-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN!
Okay, my Grade School looked nothing like the above picture except that it too was one story and built with two long wings. I can't find any pictures of what PARK BROOK ELEMENTARY looked like circa 1960- 1966. Use your imagination. Every Fall/Autumn the PTA would hold a CARNIVAL to raise money. The entire gymnasium area (which also doubled as the lunch room during the school week) was turned into one vast side-show/midway area for games of chance. You paid your tickets (purchased for hard cold cash) and tried to throw the ring toss rings on to the pole, or throw the bean bag through the hole, or ... yeah, other simple but (marginally) fun stuff to raise cash.

But, it was near Halloween, so the theme of the CARNIVAL had tangential connections to spooks, monsters, and black cats. Every year the most popular attraction at the CARNIVAL was the SPOOK ROOM! Or maybe it was called the HAUNTED HOUSE ROOM... I really don't remember.

What I find deliciously ironic was that this grade-school class room which was yearly turned into a TORTURE CHAMBER of Horror was one of the two Kindergarten class-rooms located on the buildings west side corridor right after you came in at the main south-west entrance. I was in Kindergarten that first year I attended PARK BROOK. My teacher was Miss Groundhome. It was her class room that was used. It looked something like, from the outside, the photo above. Only at CARNIVAL time the glass window was somberly covered over with dark black construction paper. The door was shut tight till you paid your ticket to the gate/door keeper. Scary sounds were coming from inside.

Yeah, hokey, fun, a bit lame since due to size limitations how much can a group of PTA adults (assisted by their teen-agers) cram into a school class room.

Let me tell you.....

And the guy at the Kindergarten Horror Room taking the tickets seemed like he was about 6'8'' to a 5-year old rogue evolent. I was taken into that abatoir of angst that first year by both my Mom and Dad who both wanted to see the attraction for themselves. We even met Miss Groundhome at the door as she was exiting out with her tour group. I guess people were taken into the room in small groups. I don't remember much. I was scared so bad I wanted to go to the bathroom. It was my first encounter with grown-up horror (even if it was insipid and goofy PTA suburban parent horror). Heck, I would have been terrified by Rudolph's THE BUMBLE when I was 5!

My Dad ended up carrying me. I burried my face in his shoulder and shut my eyes. The moaning, groaning, and ghastly howls was too much for me.

Also the chains rattling and the whip noises frightened me. I remember that they had various white sheets (probably just bed sheets) hung up where some hideous scene was "back-projected" by the people on the hidden side. One would see no actual horrible event but rather only the shadows of dungeon doom. I vaguely remember the shadow pictures of drills, heads being sawn, people in chairs screaming, and squishy pumpkin-gutting noises as things seemed to be removed from people.

And this was a Grade School in family-friendly "Leave it to Beaver" America of John F. Kennedy.

What an introduction.

More to come -

- rogue evolent.

FOCUS on a FRAGMENTARY FRIGHT: TABONGA

2011-09-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

I have very few memories of this horribly frightening movie. Okay, if you've seen it as an adult (or as a person past the age of 10) you know it's one of the Grade Z "king of cheese/cult classics" and not one whit scary. Scary maybe in the Eugene Levy "Count Floyd"
AHH-OOOOOO kind of way.

now where was I?
Oh! I don't remember much about this movie at all. That's why my words here won't be in a traditonal "review" format, but rather a fragmentary rambing.

Growing up in Brooklyn Park, MN (a suburb a little north of Minneapolis) gave me the opportunity (when Mom and Dad permitted) to watch old movies on WTCN, Channel 11. WTCN was our local, independent channel that showed tons and tons of older stuff. I don't remember for sure whether FROM HELL IT CAME appeared on WTCN... but man, I'm thinking it simply HAD TO! I also don't remember how young I was, but I'm betting I was 7 or younger. I was a pretty naive and sheltered kid for the most part, and thus the "cheese" of this film did not mitigate or extenuate the raw terror it produced in my heart. I'm just glad I didn't see that full-color (above) lobby poster featuring the THE BEAST-THING in all his lurid, woman-stealing, knife plunged into his breast (I thought it was more of a dagger actually), gorey!

FROM HELL IT CAME is a true cult-classic. If you have any doubts about its lasting cultural influence in our (well, not "our" but some people's :) ) day to day existence, you've simply got to "surf" over to the FROM HELL IT CAME THREAD on the Classic Horror Film Board (CHFB) to gaze upon its 498 pages of (get this) NOT commentary and film anaylsis, BUT PUNS and wordplay (close to 10,000 comments)!!!! What other "bad" movie from 1957 has this kind of "staying power?"
Find that fun at: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/2427/From-Hell-it-Came-1957

The movie was in black & white which was fine by me since the rogue evolent household owned only a portable b&w Zenith televison when I sat down to watch. I don't think (as I vaguely remember) I saw the whole movie. I have no recollection of a seamless chronological plot (not that there is much of a plot :) )
see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050414/

But the one thing that was seared into my young imagination was the monster. It was a walking TREE demon... Let me explain... a walking TREE DEMON!!!!! We didn't have wolf men, Amazonian amphib-men, or Vasarian cadavers in Brooklyn Park, BUT WE HAD PLENTY OF TREES! I must have been young and way-too accomodating in taste - - BECAUSE I actually did not think the costume that the stuntman/actor wore was hokey, fake-looking, or (to use it again) cheesy. It scared the crap out of me. This monster was named TABONGA. His name is spelled several different ways but I'm settling on TABONGA! He was evil. He liked to kill cause killing was what he did. I think it was part of some ancient curse and such.

He had a perpetual grimace, scowl on his wooden face (see above) and a dagger (hunting knife? or sword??) handle/hilt protruding from his heart (see white handle on right side of TAB in photo above)

So, as I don't really remember any more, I'll bring this rambling to a close.

I DO REMEMBER the climactic ending (or at least the heroic first part of it). I remember watching with squirming delight/angst as the hero (or just an incidental character?) took careful aim with a high-powered hunting rifle and shot a bullet directly onto/into the butt-end of said knife/sword, thus driving it, propelling it, ALL THE WAY into the evil TREE DEMON's blackened heart.... thus finally killing TABONGA.

Okay, a lame film by today's (or any day's) standards-

An even lamer post by the blog-o-sphere's standards (ha!)-

BUT, c'mon... check out that colorized pic above of ol' TAB and the polynesian cutie that he's kidnapping...

If you're 7 years old that is sooooooo SCARY...... and COOL!

I really should watch it again (after all these nearly 50 years) as it's available on a 2009 Warner Brother's archive collection DVD.

Amazon site: http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Came-Tod-Andrews/dp/B002WJHBDG/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1317391660&sr=1-1

But at the asking price of $22.00.... mayhaps I'll just stick to my wonderful memories.

Vending Machines, A Super Hero Costume and Kid Heaven

2011-09-26T18:31:00.001-07:00

Though after I was born I lived the first 3 or 4 years of my life in South Minneapolis, I "came of age" when we moved to Brooklyn Park before I started Kindergarten. Brooklyn Park at that time had no large retail stores (that I can remember) but neighboring (just a few miles; an easy bike trip for that matter) south east was Brooklyn Center and there was located the greatest store in my early (age 5 to 12) life: SHOPPER's CITY!

Shopper's City was the proto-K-Mart; the nascent Target! SC had groceries, house-wares, hardware, toys, drugs & cosmetics, home furnishings, and a cafe. For us kids it had a food counter where they sold fresh popcorn and fresh donuts. In fact, the donuts were made in a revolving stainless-steel rotisserie type automated machine enclosed in a plexi-glass cabinet. The dough would plop out onto the mold-thingie, and then it would be automatically dipped in the frying grease or what-not. This was a marvel of Western technology to a 7 year old. My Dad would many times buy both of us our own bag of fresh popcorn. The bags were long (maybe a foot) and narrow. Since it was hard to thrust your hand down as the corn level fell, you'd just sort of rip off the bag as if you were peeling back a candy wrapper. My Dad would do ventriloquist voices pretending he was talking to a little man at the bottom of his bag (ala Senor Wences)

The store was so large that it had three entrances instead of the modern two for your local Wal-Mart. I knew all three entrances like the back of my hand, as well as all the secret coridors (i.e. the merchandise aisles that were usually less crowded and thus allowed a near-running kid to get to the toys by the quickest route). The thing that made Shopper's City heaven on earth for a young rogue evolent was the comic books that I would purchase there. Sure, there was the big news-stand SHINDER'S in downtown Mpls., but I didn't get down there but on rare occasions. I also was able to secure comics in other locations, but Shopper's City had the most comics...BECAUSE they had five (5) as I remember, comic-book vending machines!!!

The above photo is the only one that I've been able to find on the internet. It does in fact closely resemble (and may be identical to) the ones that were at SC. The red handles which can be seen in the photo were where you would pull out the mechanism, insert your dime to the left of the receptacle and your two pennies to the right side, and then push the device in to the machine and quickly pull it back out (it in fact made a wonderful "cha-ching" sound). Then the comic book corresponding to your lever, which was the top one on a pile of others (maybe 20 or more) would slide down into the bottom chute for retrieval. The nice things? The machine was always loaded with lots of comic books; the issues were always delivered to you mint and pristine and free from the dog-ears and stains from other 7 year old mugs pawing over them (like at a spinner rack at the local Drug Store); with the multiple machines situated in two locations in SC, one was always sure to have a decent seletion to chose from. The bad things? The machines only showed you the top comics on each pile. You had to buy the ones currently in the loaded-ready-to-go-position not knowing if an even cooler one waited immediately below. Except, you could sometimes see just enough of the spine (if it was slightly to the left 0f the pile in general) of the comics hidden below to know that THAT hidden one was the title, the ONE you REALLY WANTED. Then, like a cagey gambler at a Casino watching the slots being played... you waited until it was your turn to strike. You waited for the other kid to blow his 12 cents on Lois Lane (ughhh) so you could then swoop in and select the number 2 (now on the top of the pile) gem: ADVENTURE COMICS featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes.

I can't remember the very first comic book that I purchased at one of these, "oh so modern and technologically sophisticated state-of-the-art MODERN marvels" of a machine... but it could have been Aquaman 13 (above). That issue of the Sea King's own mag vaulted him into a life-long status as my favorite DC character. My Mom even took the coupon out of the issue (I didn't know then that one should NEVER cut the coupon out of a comic that will one day be worth more than cover price) and sent away for me the check that purchased me a 12-issue subscription. It was my first subscription ever. My Mom was great. One day while riding the bus with her, and while perusing the latest issue of Aquaman, I asked her with all the earnestness of a grade-school boy: "Mom would you make me an Aquaman costume?" My Mom said words that were magical to me (if not ever actually real or delivery laden) "We'll see rogue evolent, we'll see!" To me that meant YES, if I didn't nag at her. I didn't mention it again. On the other hand, my Mom never did sew me up an Aquaman costume. :)

I was a DC kid, though back then we just called them Superman/National comic books. I loved the Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America (and yes, Batman and Superman too, but to a lesser extent), and ADVENTURE COMICS featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. One fine Saturday morning my folks and I drove the 10 minute trip from our house to Shopper's City. While my parents were shopping for groceries I was in heaven. When I came by the Vending Machines of Joy, there was the latest issue of ADVENTURE COMICS.... on the top of the pile, second from the top receptacle. Oh how I loved the Legion! I quickly, spastically, maniacally, and clumsily thrust my one dime and two coppers into the red push/pull slot (way to quickly and un-focussed) and sent the money into limbo. I HAD BY MISTAKE placed my 12 cents (all the money to my name) in the slot for the comic book corresponding to the top tier, right side. "Cha-ching" I knew in an instant that I had selected the wrong one... it wouldn't be the Legion, it would be.....

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS GARBAGE???? Journey into Mystery? I didn't want Mystery I wanted SUPER-HEROES.... a whole lot of super heroes. And what is up with this guy with the long-blonde girly-girl hair.

Thor? Who the heck is Thor?

The comic you see above (Journey into Mystery 102) was the one that dropped down to me through the chute of destiny. I still own it, though the cover is long gone. I read it carefully if disdainfully. I was won over to Marvelmania that very day. This Jack Kirby guy drew people like I'd never seen them drawn before in any Superman comic. Stan Lee was the writer and he actually told a pretty cool story (I was even impressed that they valued their creative team enough to give them credit...like in the movies or TV). And Thor, he wasn't just a hero in a costume, he was a Nordic (what's a Nordic?) god with a a magical Uru hammer with a cool name (Mjolnir) and a huge back-story. Wow. My mind was blown. To this very day Thor remains one of my favorite Marvel characters. And incidentally, a few years later I ordered another mail-order subscription to the God of Thunder's own eponymously titled book.

The coolest thing of all was that I later (but I no longer remember exactly how) did indeed buy a copy of the ADVENTURE issue (shown above) that I had intended to buy that fateful Saturday. It turned out to be a decent story itself. I would remain a faithful follower of the Legion all through Jim Shooter's run. It was a win/win for rogue evolent.

The young boy's heaven (and haven) of Shopper's City, Brooklyn Center, MN is long, long gone. Its location (the north east corner of 63rd avenue north & Hwy 152) is now occupied by a MaxSun and an Arc's Value Village (whatever they are). But my memories and remembrances are still safe with me.

IT'S ABOUT TIME

2011-09-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

And.... it's also about TIME that ol' rogue evolent post another entry on/in this much neglected little "craft-blog."
But.... that's not the subject of this entry.
Instead.... I just remembered a TV show that I loved as a wee-lad, but only for a brief flashing moment in time. You see, It's about Time.

Out of the shoot this zany (but not so much in a good way) sit-com had one of the better Television theme songs in the mid-60s. The tune was goofy, loveable, and wholesome in that Vic Mizzy kind of way. And the animated sequences were done in an almost Jack Davis (or some other MAD magzine artist) kind of style which made the whole opening engaging and likable.

What I have a hard time accepting is the show's actual run was from 1966 to 1967. I discovered this by checking both
IMDb and wikipedia. My own internal "clock" memory would have sworn on a stack of Famous Monsters of Filmland number 1's that the show ran much earlier in the decade - - say circa 1963. Memories rust and fade.

But I do remember sitting on the old raggedy green couch with my Mom and Dad, in our TV room (a third bedroom devoted to television and other den-like stuff; also my Mom's sewing area) and watching the debut episode. I remember liking the show a whole lot. It had astronauts. What American boy in the mid 60's didn't just love astronauts, but practically idolized them? It had dinosaurs, even if the stop-action wasn't that good and mostly copied from other sources. Still... a tyrannosaurus is a boy's best friend. And it had the wonderful character actors JOE E. ROSS and IMOGENE COCA. I also knew it was being done by my Gilligan's Island hero Sherwood Schwartz.

The only thing was, it turned out not to be that funny. The show only ran one season (26 episodes) and only half of those were what I was after. The show's premise was that two American Mercury astronauts piloted their capsule NOT JUST AROUND Earth in an orbit, but actually passed through the Time Barrier and wound up on a pre-historic Earth. As memory serves, it was only after a handful of episodes that the two astronauts (played by Frank Aletter and Jack Mullaney) managed to reverse their time-travel and go back to modern day 1960's Manhattan. I'm sure the writers (well, Schwartz) took this tact in order to give the characters and the writers more grist for the humor mill. They judged that it would be funnier for two pre-historic cave people (Imogen Coca and Joe E. Ross) to interact with bumbling naivete and bug-eyed fear/amazement/prat-falls and inappropriate non sequiturs-- to the 20th century, than it was for the two American heroes (Aletter & Mullaney) to interact with cave people and rubber dinos. Maybe it was a strange ethnic chauvinism: let's laugh at the two dim-bulb foreigners (foreign in time) rather than having them laugh at us. Hmmm? They were correct from a strategic and theoretical point of view, but they were OH SO WRONG from a tactical and practical point of execution. The show just wasn't funny - - period. Even as a 5th/6th grader I knew the show was mighty lame. It was all premise but no carry-through. Whereas both back then, AND NOW, I recognize Gilligan's Island as a true classic of slap-stick and inane humor done with professionalism and verve (and Ginger and Marry Ann too) this show was destined to be a forgotten foot-note in TV lore.

Aletter and Mullaney were okay; workmanlike. The two long-time veterans of vaudeville, stage, film and early 50's TV: Coca and Ross were very good.

But the show just wasn't funny. It wasn't about Time for another Sherwood Schwartz series. But on the other hand, here I am some 45 years later STILL singing the theme song. Ah... pop culture.

The Death of My Siegfried of Sports

2011-05-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

Growing up in a far more innocent age (the 1960s) young boys could have sports figures/players as real-life Super Heroes.
Harmon Killebrew was my hero. Harmon Killebrew died this past Tuesday of esophageal cancer.

I'm sitting here in my kitchen as I type this post (where my PC is located) but only a few steps away is my study/library. In my study I have a framed picture of Harmon on the wall. I also have several old (and now grainy) photographs that me and my Dad took of Harmon and some other Twins back in the early 60's on one of the Twins' "camera-days." I remember that before the game all the kids and their parents were allowed to line up down near the first base line (as it extended out into right field) and those Twins that wanted to participate ambled over and posed as we all took pictures with out "boxy" Brownie cameras (or whatever they were called). I got some photos of Harmon along with ones of Bob Allison and Jimmy Hall.

My Dad never really cared for "Killer" (one of Harmon's nicknames) because according to him, Harmon, though he hit a heck of a lot of Home-Runs, did it usually when the Twins were ahead and the runs didn't really count (except I guess as 'insurance' runs). I'm not really sure if the stats bear my Dad's theory out. For me, it didn't matter. Harmon was a deadly home-run hitter, and for a while in the mid to late 60's was considered the only man who had a chance to get close to Babe Ruth's (then) all-time record, if (and that was a big "IF" that didn't hold out) Harmon kept hitting "dingers" at the pace he was hitting them.

The very first Twins game I remember going to was one in which I didn't really even watch the game all that much. I was probably around 5 years old and was with my parents, my Uncle Garfield and Aunt Lucille and cousin Sandy. Sandy was about 3 at the time. I remember being more interested in eating all the snacks and candy which was provided us and just chatting and joking with my "cus" than in keeping the 'Box Score.' :)

But there would be other occasions to watch the Twins at old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota (a Minneapolis suburb where now sits the Mall of America). I saw him hit more than long ball. I saw him strike out a lot too.

In many ways, boys could identify with baseball stars the way they identified with bigger than life heroes in fiction and reality. If one liked vikings, knights in armor, pirates and cowboys; if one thought that the colorful costumes, nicknames and heraldry of ages past to be glorious and honor laden, it was not a far reach or stretch to embrace sporting teams, logos, colorful sports uniforms, and the men who performed physical feats of strength, speed, and grace. Siegfried used a sword to banish his enemies and Harmon used a honking-big Louisville slugger to banish the dreaded dragon which was the New York Yankees ( or the White Sox, Indians, Tigers et al).

I remember when my beloved Twins won the American League pennant in 1965 and Miss Holton (our 5th grade school teacher) brought in a big bulky b&w television into the class room to let us kids watch the World Series against the Dodgers. This was when the Series was still played during the day (in the afternoons).

Harmon had a great career. Although he hit a career batting average of only .256 (mediocre) he had 573 home-runs back (pre steroids and performance enhancement drugs) when home-runs mattered. He also had a whopping 1,584 r.b.i.'s He won the American League's M.V.P. award in 1969 and almost took the Twins to the World Series that year (the Twins were still in contention with the Red Sox up through the last weekend of the regular season when Boston clinched). Harmon was elected and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984. He was the first Twin to have his "number" (# 3) retired.

His awesome offensive skills notwithstanding, Harmon's greatest claim to heroism was his on-field and off-field decency, modesty, affable charm and good sportsmanship. He indeed epitomized the "white knight" of American Baseball. He was a gentleman first, last, and always.

Harmon Killebrew: 29 June 1936 - - 17 May 2011.
R.I.P. Killer.
Minneapolis Monster Kids (& More) will never forget you!

Marvel Super Heroes

2011-03-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

WOW indeed! I was 11 years old (or there abouts) and a reader of any Marvel comic book that I could get my hands on. I had turned to the Bullpen Bulletin page (I think it was in a Daredevil comic) one late Autumn day and read Stan Lee's hype on a new animated series of Marvel Super Hero cartoons for television. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
I don't exactly remember when they debuted in Minneapolis (i.e. what Month) but I do know that it was on CLANCY & Company. Clancy (playced by beloved Minneapolis TV kid's host John Gallos) was an early morning show that ran on Channel 4 WCCO right before we kids had to get out the door on our way to school Monday through Friday. More on Clancy, Carmen and Willie Ketchem at a later time. Suffice it to say, that when Clancy began playing the Marvel Super Heroes every morning before I had to go to school..... the day went a whole lot better. Man I loved these things.
And yes, I did know, even then, even that young, that the animation was HORRIBLE.... didn't matter! I had seen Good Disney animation and pretty decent Warner Bros. stuff (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies). I knew what good animation was. These Marvel "cartoons," and I use the word cartoon "loosely" were terribly constructed, executed, and oh-so-barely "animated." They made the limited "for TV" cartoons of Hanna-Barbera look like Max & Dave Fleischer masterpieces. I have included a clip of an episode of THOR (below) for your perusal. It's almost like a moving story-board. The saving grace, the "sine qua non" of their endearing nostalgic greatness is the source material! Jack Kirby's art work from the original comic book stories is simply photographed in a "pan & scan" style with a few limited animated body motions thrown in - - an arm moves up and down; a mouth moves; eyes blink; etc. Crappy animation. DIDN'T MATTER. The stories were the same as the comics I loved. The voice acting/characterization was spot-on to what I read. My heroes were on TV.... These were some of the best days of my young life.
6th grade at Crestwood Elementary was now tolerable.

I also loved the theme songs that each of the 5 rotating characters had. The theme song for the HULK was a tad corny but the others were neat.

In addition to "King" Kirby's art on THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA (and some early HULK) we were treated to Don Heck on IRON MAN and Marie Severin (maybe Dick Ayers and Bill Everett too?) with the NAMOR episodes.

I saw my last installment of this quintet of Super Heroes sometime in early summer of 1967. Then I up and moved with my family to a small town in Wisconsin that did not have the television fare of the mighty Twin-Cities. I did not see any of these "cartoons" until sometime in 1984 when, with cable, I picked them up on TBS (Ted Turner's "Super Station" from Atlanta) before having to go off to work in the morning (some things just don't change :) )

The nostalgia was still there, but I found them almost unwatchable. I was a bit of an "animation snob" in the 80's. The next time I saw these joys of my childhood was with the advent of the internet circa 2001.

In the passing of time since 1984 my tolerance for bad animation had mellowed and I again truly loved them... and love them now as if I was that 11/12 year old boy in Brooklyn Park.... watching my heroes from the comic books ON T.V. before trudging off to Mrs. Feehan's class.

An Anecdote; A Comic Reprint; 3 Bonus Pics

2011-02-27T17:56:00.000-08:00

The other day my "bestest" friend ( bookman187 ) sent me a slew of old COMICS BUYER'S GUIDES. It was a lot of fun to read several articles about great SILVER AGE characters and titles from the magical 1960's. That got me thinking... which brings us to this post.

It was early January 1965 and I was in 4th grade. Except, I was actually home from school quite sick for several days. Running a fever from the Flu, I was simply bed-fast doing nothing but drinking liquids and staying "quiet." I really didn't feel very good. My Mom and Dad popped out for about a half-hour to go to the Drug Store to get some medicine (this was back in the day when you could leave your 4th Grader alone for 30 minutes without being sent to Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp!

When they came back they had the medicine for my sick body, BUT THEY ALSO HAD medicine for my bored soul and spirit. My Dad had bought 4 or 5 comic books for "his boy." I wish I still had them all, but I don't. I do have D.C.'s STRANGE TALES # 173. It's literally falling apart but, like a favorite worn Teddy-Bear, it has great sentimental value.
I reprint for you (below) a very fun story called:
'ILDA -- THE GLAMOUR ROBOT.'
This is a beautiful little yarn for a number of reasons. First off, it has some spiffy art-work by the one-and-only GIL KANE . I had fallen in love with Kane's art from reading GREEN LANTERN. Another reason this is a fun story is that it's a Science Fiction piece set in the future ... WITH ROBOTS! I loved, love, and always will love ROBOTS (at least fictional ones :) ) And lastly, I just "dug" the hero Star Hawkins. As young and innocent as I was, I thought the character of a "slacker," somewhat cowardly, and anti-heroic Private Investigator was cool. Little did I know then that the "template" which Star Hawkins was following was as old as Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe and the noir detectives of the prior two decades. He was "jaunty," a great "wise-cracker," and good throw a good "right cross." What boy wouldn't think he was cool?

Enjoy [ just click on the images to enlarge them for easier reading/ all scans are from my comic ] And look for the three bonus pages after the story!

I loved D.C. as a grade-schooler. Yes, I learned quickly to become a Marvel Maniac, but in the beginning it was Superman, Batman, Aquaman and the JLA. And I also really enjoyed the odd, more spooky, sci-fi and weird adventures. While HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS (advertised above) were certainly no EC classics, they were still enjoyable, and primed me to become a lover of Outer Limits and Twilight Zone on TV.

And oh how I loved the ads!!! I actually owned a set of plastic space-men like the ones above (though I just had the men without the missile launch stuff).

And, it was from a "house ad" (above) like this that my Mom went ahead and let me subsribe to my first comic "by mail" (my first subscription of ANYTHING EVER) when she sent away a check for AQUAMAN!

And lastly, check out this famed ad for "Big Frankie" which graced the back of my comic book. This is one toy that I really, really, wanted but never did get.

But I'm still appreciative of the comics that Dad brought home!

I did get better and go back to school.

The Phantom Planet

2010-11-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

THE PHANTOM PLANET (1961) USA, English, 82 minutes, b&w, Four Crown Productions, Inc., directed by William Marshall, starring: Dean Fredericks, Coleen Gray, Anthony Dexter, Francis X. Bushman, Dolores Faith, and RICHARD KIEL as the Solarite!

One of my favorite music critics, Daisy Jane Font (Prog'opolis podcast at http://www.thedividingline.com/p.html ) has said (and I paraphrase) "If you like everything, then you really don't have any 'taste' at all and in reality like nothing!" I know what she meant. And, she's probably right. A man with no taste buds will eat manure and not distinguish it from shrimp & steak. But on the other hand, some people are truly omnivorous in their entertainment pursuits while others are niche aficionados.

(How's all this by way of disclaimer as to this movie's ...ah...em..."quality.")

I saw this flick as a little boy and absolutely loved it. I have fond memories of the space ships, the "little people," the monster, the military space base, and all the other action/adventure trappings that boys in the early 1960's liked. No excuses.

But... I also just re-watched it on Hulu and STILL like it; maybe for all the wrong reasons. It's bad. It's really bad. But like John Mellencamp sang: "It hurts SO Good!" And it tries so hard to be serious with no attempts to play any scene for laughts or light-hearted matinee fodder. This is pure MST3K "fish in a barrel!" But I found it entertaining and fairly well-paced. It's like a really early and rough Star Trek episode (the original series)... only without any acting skills, decent special effects, or writing competence. I don't care - - I like it. ONWARD.

Synopsis: Okay. There is a mysterious moving planetoid/asteroid/large chunk of ground that is flying around in space seeking to avoid any contact with its ancient enemy the Solarites (Solarites are the bad-guys; they are fire shooting, fire beings). This "Phantom" planetoid doesn't want to be discovered by Human (i.e. U.S.A.) space exploration, as any "blown cover" will increase the chance that the Solarites will come and destroy the "Phantom" planetoid. So, the Rhetonites (the planetoid is called Rheton by its natives) both "cloak" their postition in space as well as destroy any US rocket ship (and crew) that gets too close.

I say, "planetoid" rather than planet because, in reality, the Rhetonites are about the size of small toy figurines (maybe 4 t0 5 inches in height). Thus, there home "world" is not so much a planet as a small chunk of space rock. Dean Fredericks who plays the hero (Captain Frank Chapman) is sent with his partner (co-pilot/navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen) played by Richard Weber, to investigate the missing (destroyed) American rocket ships. Fredericks winds up being tractor-beamed to the asteroid's surface, where after being shrunk by its atmosphere down to the size of the aliens, he is captured and forced to participate in the Rhetonite's society with no hope of ever returning back to his human space-mates.
The movie is not really good enough for any more or detailed plot anaylis. This fun flick deserves some "stream-of-unconciousness-comments."

The Hulu print (on-line) is crisp and clear so you can save the 5 bucks that an Alpha Video DVD might cost you. Though the cover art (above) of Rheton babe Dolores Faith is n-i-c-e.! Faith plays a mute who finally "learns" to talk because of her love for Fredericks! Ahhhh!

The movie looks better in b&w than in color (so avoid the cheaply done colorized print). The monster (the Solarite; see above) does not look that goofy when actually watching the movie on Hulu. In the full color pic (above) Richard Keil looks like he's wearing a "Pluto in Space" tie-dyed costume.

The corn-ball animation of the rockets and asteroids is nostalgic nirvana!

The movie is set in the far-distant future of "March 1980," wherein the space ship (Pegasus 3) is equipped with futuristic devices like a reel-to-reel tape recorder and other mechanical odometer type devices (with knobs and switches and stuff).

The interplanetary sound (the cues and music) credited to Hayes Pagel and Walter Dick makes one wonder what major score they "appropriated" this decent music from.

Fredericks wears the WORST SPACE SUIT EVER (so says rogue evolent & the Simpson's Comic-Book Guy). The suit makes the otherwise fairly fit looking Fredericks look like he's either got a diaper on under the suit, or, that he's got one heckuva pear-shaped ass.

Actually, the sfx (guys walking on plywood props in a darkened sound stage) of Fredericks and Weber walking outside the Pegasus 3 are pretty decent. I was amazed that when Weber has his little accident (he was obvioulsy the token Red Shirt) and then floats away to his death in space that he begins to recite the "Our Father" (the Lord's Prayer). Times have changed in movie making.

It's a nice touch that when Fredericks shrinks down to miniature size on Rheton, that he is nude (not seen on camera below the waste) inside of his now cavernous empty space suit.

The bearded, wizened, stately leader of the Rhetons (played with hamminess by Francis X. Bushman when he's not just reading off of cue cards) is named Sessom. Which spelled backwards is??? I loved it when Sessom tells Fredericks (pre-Star Trek Universal Translator days) "We are able to translate all languages through their voice tone waves." Woa!

The cave like tunnels and caverns of Rheton, the sets, look like they too are right out of a '67 episode of Trek. Cardboard and paper mache boulders are very reassuring to us 60's monter-kids.

Again, in all fairness, with it's low budget and all (considering the times) the effects, props, and over-all "look" of the film are not all that bad.

This scene (above) is one of the fly-by attacks of the Solarites on the planetoid Rheton which occurs near the end of the movie. I did enjoy their "Human Torch" type burning ships. As movie expert Brian Lindsey (aka Omega Man) said over on the PHANTOM PLANET thread at CHFB (Classic Horror Film Board) - - every time the Solarites shoot a blast of their "heat-ray" it sounds just like a Winchester rifle shot. Ka-chiiinnnngg!
And while the straffing attacks by the Solarites aren't a cool as the saucer attacks in Robinson Crusoe on Mars, they're still pretty decent.

We see above the first picture of a captured enemy Solarite who is being held in a energy force-field cage. The Solarite was played by famed veteran character actor Richard Keil (most famous for playing "JAWS" in the James Bond franchise during the 1970's). Except for the non-articulating (painted-on-look) eyes of the costume, and a slightly goofy tongue, the Solarite "look" wasn't all that lame. The suction-tipped fingered hands of Keil gave him that suitably cool B.E.M. 50's feel!

Keil about to abduct Dolores Faith in the movie's Creech/Julia Adams homage.

I loved the way the Fredericks kept his jump-suit shirt open (sometimes almost to the mid stomach) so we could all see his manly chest hair.

I don't mean to "hate on" Dean Fredericks. He did after all give us kids tons-O-fun in his portrayal (34 episodes!) of Milton Caniff's STEVE CANYON back in television's glory days (1958 - 1960). But in this movie he's merely "phoning it in," and looks positively bored most of the time.

EXCEPT in that hilariously lame fight-to-the-death scene with Rhetonite "tough guy" Herron (played by Anthony Dexter).
I recommend anyone who loves cheesy B's from the 50's to watch this little gem (well, zirconium). It's a fun Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) Rocky Jones, Space Ranger kind of experience.

Halloween Memories #3

2010-10-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

It would have been Halloween 1966... the last time I went 'Trick or Treating' i n a totally legitimate way. I was in 6th grade. When I moved from Brooklyn Park, MN (Minneapolis) to Wausau, WI. I tried going door to door with Jim C. on Halloween 1967. BUT: when we got to the door of our Jr. High School principal (forget his name) he asked us if we went to his school. We thought he was being friendly, and maybe even recognized our joyful faces. NOPE. He refused to give us candy and instead upbraided us, chastised us, and almost started yelling at us to GO HOME; that we were TOO OLD to be going door to door. Well, he was probably right, but he might have used a bit more discernment and tact, as we were actually a couple of pretty decent, non-threatening, milktoast guys. So anywho.... '67 was a wash. And the childhood tradition was OVER!

But in Brooklyn Park of 1966, the whole of the neighborhood lay at Corey's and my feet (I believe I was going door to door with Corey). I was dressed as a Russian.... a "White Russian" my Dad made clear to me... not some stinking Bolsehvik Commie! (well, he didn't quite say it that way, my Pop was not a mean guy). I wore his old 3/4 leather jacket, a faux fur winter hat (called a Russian-style hat in many of the Sears catalogs of those days) and had a binocular case around my neck. I think I sort of pretended that the bino case was really an ammo pouch of some kind. :)

I remember that whenever we rounded the short "side-streets" to enter in/on to another north/south block (actually multiple suburb blocks making up the street) that we would look down the vast expanse of lighted porches and always remark (as we had Halloween '65 and '66) that we were "reminded" of the Funeral of President John F. Kennedy. Why or how seeing house after house with the porch lights on had us ruminating about the assassination which had taken place that day when we were sent home early from our 3rd grade elementary school, isn't totally clear in my mind anymore. Maybe all the neighborhoods had porch lights on during those dark November days in '63. Or, maybe it somehow made us think of Arlington Cemetary and the "eternal" flame.

The other thing I most remember is going to Greg's house. Greg was an older high school kid that was a close friend of my family. He had served as by "baby sitter" for years. He was the kind of cool guy that would come over and pretty much let me do what I wanted. He would let me stay up late to watch WTCN All-Star Wrestling while he talked on the phone, listened to rock 'n roll AM radio (WDGY, with D.J. Paul Bunyan) or did his homework. Greg was also the guy that always let the "little kids" play in the wiffle-ball baseball games in his back yard in the Summer and the pee-wee football games that traversed three front yards during the Fall and Winter months. He was a great guy and good friend.
At his door step, before giving out the candy, he would ask each kid what his favorite Football or Baseball team was. If the kid said the Twins or Vikings (as almost all did) they would get a "yeah right" and the obligatory one piece of Candy. I knew Greg. Corey and all the other kids who went first replied with the standard Mpls. "lines" and got their one piece of loot. I stepped up and when Greg querried me, I replied: The New York Yankees and the Baltimore Colts (his two favorite teams). He beamed and then belted out: "WE HAVE A WINNER!" and then he dumped a dozen or more candy bars etc. into my open bag.
Greg was cool. I miss him. I miss those wiffle-ball games at his famed "Wallin" (for "Walled-IN") Park.
But Halloween 1966 though my last time 'Trick and Treating' was a great way to go out!

Halloween Memories #2

2010-10-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

YES... It was a potato costume (I think)... but not quite like this one (below)

Since I can't really remember clearly the various costumes I wore between the first time I went "Trick or Treating," and the last time, let me share some other fond and/or nostalgic memories.

Living in Minneapolis there was a good chance that the end of October (at least back in the early 1960's... you know, BEFORE Global Warming) would be both cold and snowy! One Halloween, which ocurred on a weekend (I'm thinking a Sunday) was bitterly cold; probably in the 20's (the low 20's) and had most of the frozen ground covered with a couple of inches of snow. My Uncle Garfield and Aunt Lucille came over for a late afternoon Dinner, and brought with them my younger cousin Sandy! Sandy was probably about 5 or 6, and I was around 8 or 9. I think I was dressed as a ghost. I think I had a loose fitting white sheet which was bulky enough to fit over my heavy winter coat. And I probably wore one of those light-weight plastic masks that had the eye-holes cut out, a hole or two where the nose would go (if you were lucky) and the elastic springy string to loop it around your head. Ahhh, but Sandy was dressed in a huge, heavy, relatively imobile HOME MADE Potato SUIT. Yes, she was like - - Mr. (or Miss I guess) SPUD. As I look back trying to remember this, my memory tells me the costume did look pretty cool, sort of a cross between the kind of costumes that High School mascots wear, and a professional costume. The problem was, that Sandy, small, short, and not very old, was a bit overwhelmed by what for all intents and purposes LOOKED like a cross between BIB, the Michelin Tire Man, and the Bulky Bomb Suits that Police Disposal Teams utilize.

The poor kid could hardly waddle, much less walk with ease. And it was so cold that 30 minutes into the 'door-to-door' we were suffering from the beginning stages of frost-bite (or so I remember).

And what's worse, both my Dad and my Uncle were as cold, if not colder than we were. Frankly, it was miserable.

On the upside: I still got a fairly full bag of candy, AND, I've held on to a sketchy memory that still makes me smile. And, Sandy was never just a cousin, she was also always my friend!

Yeah, I think it might have looked kinda, something-like, this one above. :)

Halloween Memories #1

2010-10-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota (North Minneapolis) and spent almost all the first twelve years of my life there (Jersey Ave. North). I did ALL of my trick n' treating there... and ONLY THERE!

I wish my own memory was better or that my folks were still alive to help me in remembering more about the costumes that I wore as a youngster.

But I do remember one year I went "door to door" as a HOBO! Being a bum was cool back then because my Dad had all sorts of stories and tales about real life bums/hobos/tramps that he had seen prowling about South Minneapolis during the Depression years. Plus, Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" was still fresh in the minds eye of most people (I mean, even BEFORE, his renaissance in popularity). Plus again, dressing your kid up like a HOBO was cheap. My Dad gave me one of his old work shirts (appropriately cut down and "sized" with a scissors) along with a dirty old beat-up hat of his. I could easily supply my own blue jeans full of holes and stains :)

AND, as the "piece de resitance" there was burnt cork for the face make-up.

My Dad just loved the idea of making black make-up sticks by burning the end of wine-bottle cork. It worked. My Dad suitably groomed my fresh little mug with grungy sideburns, disheveled chin whiskers, and a Groucho mustache. I looked like a HOBO's kid... close enough.

ATOM AGE VAMPIRE

2010-08-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

ATOM AGE VAMPIRE (1960) aka: Seddok, l'erede di Satana, Italian, b&w, 84 minutes, directed by Anton Majano, starring Alberto Lupo

This is an interesting movie with a very good (very good) performance by Albert Lupo as the "mad-scientist" Prof. Alberto Levin. This is a movie which starts off very slow. Indeed, I was thinking as I watched (about 15 minutes into it) "this is one of the slowest moving pictures I've seen in quite a while." To be sure, the pacing reflects the stolid attention spans of 1960 audiences. But the picture "hooked" me in with its subtle switch from "Frankenstein" Doctor creating something abominable on/for his victimized patient, to a self-destructive "love affair" melodrama, wherein the Doctor himself becomes the victim of his own jealous insanity.
To be clear: THE MOVIE HAS NOTHING WHATSOVER TO DO WITH VAMPIRES!
The "atom age" appellation is appropriate due to the references (including tragic actual photos) to the victims of the Atom-Bomb attacks of 1945 upon Japanese civilians. But there is no Nosferatu, no blood drinking, no supernatural goings on.
This is more of "Mad Scientist" movie where the doctor falls in love with his guinea pig. What I liked was the way it then morphed into a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde riff, where the Doc ends up being undone by his own crimes. The last third of the movie had a real German "Krimi" feel, ala "THE DEAD EYES OF LONDON." Part of this suspense/detective mojo is due to the wonderful scenes with actor Ivo Garrani who plays the Police Inspector tasked with solving the crimes of the so-called "Seddok." I'm not really sure what the term "Seddok" means. I'm starting to think it's not an Italian phrase, but rather refers to some kind of monster from Asia. The tie-in to this movie is that the victims of Prof. Levin's Hyde-beast are street-walkers, and working class stiffs from the docks and waterfront areas. This is the place where ships from the East have docked; including ships with those suffering mutations from the Hiroshima blasts. Much more could have been deduced were this a CRITERION edition in Italian with award winning English sub-titles :) Alas, this merely Hulu entertainment.

I did like the animated (crude 1960's limited animation) bat which flaps down into the opening title sequence to become the "V" in the word Vampire.

The movie succeeds mainly due to the credible, feverish & tortured performance of Alberto Lupo (above) as Professor Levin. Due to his studies in post-war Hiroshima, Professor Levin becomes obsessed with finding a cure for dying and dead human tissue. Because of the damage which the "atom age" has inflicted upon humanity, Levin wishes to find cures to re-build destroyed cells.
The viewer is led to believe however, that this desire to restore and regenerate living cells has less to do with human altruism and charity than with sheer Scientific knowledge and hubristic godlike delusions. Professor Levin proclaims: "I have found the secret of life itself!"

The lead feminine character is Jeanette (played by Susanne Loret) who is a singer/dancer who has become a suicidal hospital recluse due to having the left side of her face scarred in a fiery traffic crash. In one of the movie's biggest "dropped balls" the make-up for Jeanette's disfiguring curse is woefully inadequate. Her scars are really not that bad. Ahh, suspension of disbelief.
Prof. Levin and his attractive assistant (who is either a nurse or research scientist herself) Monique (played by Franca Parisi) convince Jeanette to secretly leave the hospital, and come to live at Levin's house/laboratory where he will treat her disfigurment with his "wonder drug." She ends up staying at the house-compound willingly at first in order to have her vanity satiated. But later she becomes a captive kidnapped victim.

Loret is a mediocre actor (or maybe an exellent actor?) who infuses the character of Jeanette with a whiny, complaining, fainting, obnoxious, self-centered, unappealing personality. Frankly, I didn't really care what happened to her. I was much more intrigued with the jealous and ruthless Monique (Parisi) who in addition to having a less grating character, I found to be the more physically attractive of the two women in Prof. Levin's life. Although you wouldn't know Franca Parisi was pretty from the masked picture (above) I include.
The injection of the miracle cure (Derma 28) proves to be short-lived. The Professor realizes he has to supply the thyroid/glandular? ... I'm not really sure about this, ah... "parts" from living women, in order to keep Jeanette from reverting to her scarred (yeah) self. Professor Levin's first victim is Monique. But, because the Professor cannot kill enough women due to his queasy reluctance to kill wantonly (showing that as twisted as he is, he's not just an easy-going serial murderer), he injects himself with his first generation Derma drug (Derma 25) which only creates mutated monsters. Prof. Levin chooses to become a hideous Hyde-like beast-man, so that he can kill with less compunction and guilt. Also I suppose, by having a "beast-man" responsible for the grisly murders of several young women (ripped open from throat to sternum we're told) the possiblities of suspicion ever falling on a mild-mannered Professor are lessened. The "jump-time exposure" special effects (or whatever they're called) of Alberto Lupo transforming into the "Seddok," while not a whole lot better than Barrymore's transformation into Hyde way back in the 1920 silent, is still fun for any monster-kid.

The above picture is of Italian character actor Ivo Garrani, who plays the Police Inspector who eventually is put on the trail of Prof. Levin, and who doggedly follows every clue until the case is solved. Garrani, along with a couple of his detective associates, as well as Jeanette's love interest Lt. Pierre Mornet (played by dashing & handsome & generic Sergio Fantoni) slowly close in on Professor Levin.

There's also a nice acting "turn" turned in by Roberto Bertea as the mute "house-servant/gardener/factotum" Sacha. Bertea even looks a bit like a young Christopher Lee in several shots. He aquits himself well as the loyal servant that every Mad Scientist has to have.

The monster "make-up" for Levin as "Seddok" isn't all that scary either, but then again, he's more of Hyde than any kind of supernatural beastie. He kills to secure the body parts he needs to keep the object of his love from turning ugly. Levin will murder to keep from losing Jeanette.

A slow movie? a badly dubbed movie? Yes. A mean-spirited movie (as someone said over at IMDb)? Possibly.
A very competently shot movie (camera angles, sets, lighting, backgrounds, out-door scenery? Yes. A "scene-chewing" captivating performance by Albert Lupo? OH YEAH!

If you're looking for a "run-of-the-mill" wolfman pastiche, or a 1950's B.E.M. mutated creature flick... give it a "pass."
If you're open to an almost Noir-ish, Krimi-flavored, detective chasing, Hyde-like crazy Scientist movie, I'd recommend it.
I would watch it again. I would buy it on an Alpha Video for $4.99.
I liked it when I saw it back in circa 1962 on Minneapolis/St. Paul televison (probably the Chiller package), and I like it now.

The Funny Company

2010-08-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't "monster stuff" per se... but close enough for rogue evolent work. Y'see, this was a cartoon show that I loved watching back at the same time that I was cutting my eye-(ball)teeth on 50's sci-fi and horror flicks. Plus there is a pterodactyl character (Terry Dactyl) which reminds everyone of dinosaurs, which reminds us of Ray Harryhausen, which reminds us of Willis O'Brien and KING KONG... one of the KING OF THE MONSTERS! Now you see the connection? And what's more, in the YouTube episode I'm posting (go over to YouTube for several more complete FUNNY COMPANY episodes) the villain is none other than Belly Laguna - - a wonderfully corn-ball homage to Bela Lugosi's DRACULA. Only, is it just me, or does Belly Laguna come off more as a Jewish Vampire rather than a Romanian one? :)

If you click on the post title you'll see the IMDb entry for THE FUNNY COMPANY, and you can also click on the link below to see what Wikipedia has to say.

My own personal memories surround watching these cartoons daily in the afternoon on WTCN's (independent Channel 11) kid's show GRANDMA LUMPIT's BOARDING HOUSE. The "Boarding House" (back then kids could just ask their parents what a Boarding House was, and their Moms and Dads [who grew up during the Depression and the War] usually had intimate knowledge of said living conditions) was a "spin-off" show of WTCN's flag-ship kid's show LUNCH WITH CASEY. It featured Casey's sidekick ROUNDHOUSE RODNEY (played by former Ice Capades skater and all around acrobat/gymnist and athlete LYNN DWYER). In this afternoon show ROUNDHOUSE RODNEY played his own Grandmother, (yes, in drag.... remember Milton Berle?) GRANDMA LUMPIT. GRANDMA LUMPIT ran a boarding house, and of course, when not entertaining the audience with gags, jokes, set comedy sketches, guest interviews, et al, PLAYED CARTOONS! Life didn't get any better than that my friends. To learn a little more about the amazing (and sadly very short) life of Lynn Dwyer, click on the link below his picture.

What I loved about THE FUNNY COMPANY was the great ensemble cast which included Club Leader Buzzer Bell (an "everyman" that we kids could identify with), Spot the dog (the token dog), Polly Plum (the token nerdy eye-glass wearing kid), Mary Twitter (the token fat kid), Terry Dactyl (the... ah, prehistoric comedy bird-kid?), Shrinking Violet (the female lead who could actually shrink in size; sort of a superpower if you will), along with villains Dr. Von Upp (with his henchman: Von Henchman) and the aforesaid Belly Laguna.

The show was very educational in its episodic inclusion of a "teaching film" (much the same way Mr. Whoopie would later instruct Tennesee Tuxedo and Chumley). I gather the show won the accolades of a lot of important Children's television advocates and educators. But for me, it was the whole idea of "the gang," and the "club house." I loved Spanky's OUR GANG series. And in a different (yet similar) way, I resonated to the gang camaraderie of THE FUNNY COMPANY. Their clubhouse had a computer (the Wisenheimer), an attached tree-house, a roof-mounted telescope, a hole chopped in the roof, a tunnel entrance, and an Indian teepee attached to the side. Oh! for a clubhouse like that to play in with the neighborhood kids when you're all 7 to 9 years of age!
Speaking of that teepee. Two of the regular characters were American Indian caricatures. We call them Native Americans today, but back then they were simply Indians. Super Chief was the neat one, who, instead of talking (neither English nor any Indian dialect) honked with a deep booming fog horn blast. His assistant, Broken Feather, interpreted just what each (always exactly the same sounding) blast really meant. This was a precursor to the GO GO GOPHERS schtick that would come a few years later. Although by today's standards these two Indian characters would be called hateful, prejudicial, racially insensitive stereotypes... I assure you that's not how I, or my friends who also watched the show, felt about it. We thought they were two pretty cool characters; part of the heroic gang: THE GOOD GUYS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funny_Company

The one and only, much beloved, energetic, and charitable LYNN DWYER. He truly loved kids, and it showed!

http://www.pavekmuseum.org/dwyer.html

The Giant Gila Monster

2010-07-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

I liked MST3K a lot so I don't want anyone to misunderstand. Being able to poke fun at something is as American as Apple Pie, I guess...and Joel/Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot were an absolute "hoot." BUT....
Sometimes it's like "shooting fish in a barrel." Where's the sport in that? Some of these old 1950's flicks are so low-budget, so poorly shot, so badly acted, that to make fun of them misses something. Some of them, like the one I'm about to review, were made by people who just wanted to try and make a movie. They suceeded. I feel very protective towards these lost, wayward and "Talent-Challenged" cinema bastards. This one, (below) is probably the one I would have made.

THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, (1959) English, b&w, 74 minutes, Hollywood Pictures Corporation, directed by Ray Kellogg

I do remember watching this movie on Minneapolis/St. Paul television back in the 60's. I liked it then and I still like it now. It's a decent movie with decent characters. It's got a real "Ozzie & Harriet" vibe going with it. It plays almost like a two, or three-part (episodes) television series.

SYNOPSIS: In a small and lazy desert town somewhere in the American South West (I'm thinking Texas possibly or perhaps closer to California: The Nevada,California, Arizona boarder area) there is a stretch of forested brush, scrub tree, and over-growth so thick and dense that, as they say in the movie, "even the hunting is no good in it." But, dwelling in this off-road tangle of trees and shrubbery is a giant mutated Gila Monster. When some of the local cattle and livestock go missing, nobody takes much notice. But, when a teen-aged couple (out parking one night) are attacked and killed, then the local sheriff is forced to try and investigate.
Once the Gila Monster moves on from killing isolated motorists and hitch-hikers, and attacks a passenger train, it isn't long before the sheriff knows it's possibly a, well, a Giant Gila Monster.

Okay, it is a stupid premise, and it is a stupid monster. In fact it probably isn't really a Gila Monster playing the GIANT GILA Monster but rather a beaded lizard. Dinosaurs and giantic monsters were all the rage back in the 1950's and it only shows some down-home loyalty to try and make the local Gila Monster into a star in his own right.
This movie was made my local Texas radio entrepreneur (he also made 1959's companion picture THE KILLER SHREWS) Ray Kellogg who had had a long career as both a camera man and special effects guy. He's also credited with having directed John Wayne's much criticized 1968 propaganda film THE GREEN BERETS.

THINGS I LIKED: The opening theme, and indeed the entire score, by Jack Marshall is above the norm for these types of low-budget affairs. Marshall's use of the electro-theremin (or whatever he used) to achieve the moaning, groaning, whistling drone noises is nicely done. The "cue" for the Monster is sufficiently distinct and menacing.
The four or five main characters are played with an inner decency and small-town likeability that you just don't see any more (unless you're watching LEAVE IT TO BEAVER re-runs). The casting is done in such a way that leads the viewer to believe that director Ray Kellogg just opened the casting up to his own close friends and relatives. These are not Hollywood "pretty people" but look like everyday 1950's American working people.

The hero of the movie is Chase Winstead (played by Don Sullivan --photo above) who with his girl friend Lisa (played by Lisa Simone) is the unofficial leader of a gang of teen-agers who hang out at the local drug store soda-bar counter, and who "dig" drive-in movies, drag racing, souping up their drag race cars, and dancing to that "rock n' roll" music. These are good teens, clearly not aware of the rebellious angst and brooding hostility (ala REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) that more sophisticated teens might exhibit.
Don Sullivan works as an auto mechanic and tow-truck operator for Old Man Compton. Don Sullivan is also the local Sheriff's favorite young teen in town and the two of them (Sheriff Jeff played with Bonanza/Andy Griffith gentility by actor Fred Graham) are in most of the scenes.

The only disagreeable antagonistic character is Mr. Wheeler (played by Bob Thompson). Wheeler's young son is one of the two teens to go "missing" in the opening scene as the result of the Giant Gila Monster's attack.
Sure the acting isn't very good, but darn it all, this movie seems to have its "heart in the right place." This is a different era, a different country, a different set of people with different mores, folkways, and customs than we have today in 2010. I'm not about to make any values assessment because this is a blog that reviews Monster Movies not lobs grenades into any real or perceived culture war. But, by way of full disclosure, at the age of 55, I remember this alien world that the movie THE GIANT GILA MONSTER takes place in. It wasn't cornball back then to any of us (praying to God that our missing child might be found, singing a song [a camp-fire dittie really] on a Ukelele (remember Arthur Godfrey?) encouraging kids to laugh and smile, and being a shade tolerant of the town drunk. Yeah, I know the character "Old Man Harris" (played by Shug Fisher) was D.U.I., but he was driving a Model A at about 15 miles per hour on a county road with no other traffic in a community of less than a couple hundred. No excuse for drunk driving will be put forth (there is none) but darn it all, we've lost a lot of common human decency in the last 5 decades of "advancement, progress and growth." Maybe if more police acted a tad more like Sheriff Jeff, there would be a tad more respect and cooperation for that so-called "long arm." Just sayin.' This movie shows a different time, and, as a cultural time-capsule it has merit.

This is a great movie for any hot-rod or old auto enthusiasts. There are enough tail-fins to to equip a school of sharks.
I also think the scenes where KILT disc jockey "Steamroller Smith" are in (played by Ken Knox) are wonderfully done and a big plus. Knox's "hip teen-ster" patois are some of the best smile enducing parts of the movie; a lotta charm!

Did I mention that according to the experts, the actual live-action animal actor was actually a Mexican Beaded Lizard and NOT an actual Gila Monster? Yeah, I guess I did. Still, a lizard by any other name would be hard pressed to act as well as this cold-blooded thespian did. The lizard moved well, stuck it's tongue out well, and worked for flies.

The one miniature set that looked pretty decent was when the MONSTER comes up to the barn/dance hall where the teens are having their rock n' roll party. The shots of the LIZARD next to the toy cars is fairly believable.
The shot where the MONSTER pokes his head through the wall of said building, unfortunately, is NOT a good scene.

A minor quibble is that I wish they'd have cast some younger actors to play the "teens." Most of these actors were in their mid to late twenties. Still, it's nowhere near as bad as casting Stockward Channing (at what, 35?) to play Rizzo in the screen version of GREASE. :)

Above is the penulitmate scene where hero Chase (Don Sullivan) sacrifices his one true love (his hot-rod) to kill the GIANT GILA MONSTER. Remember you scoffing critics (those of you who remember the key plot element of TAKING PELHAM 1,2,3) that Chase is a crackerjack auto mechanic who knows cars. He could easily have made this scenario work the way the flick shows it working. :)

I heartily recommend this movie and give it a rating of 5 Rogue Elovents on a scale of 10. Or, GIANT GILA THUMB UP.

TERROR IS A MAN (aka Blood Creature)

2010-07-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

TERROR IS A MAN (aka: Blood Creature) 1959, 89 minutes, Philippines, English, B&W, directed by Gerardo de Leon, starring: Richard Derr, Francis Lederer, Greta Thyseen, Oscar Keesee, Music: Ariston Auelino, Special Effects: Hilario Santos, Makeup: Remedios Amazan

SYNOPSIS: Fitzgerald (played by Richard Derr) is the sole survivor of a freighter lost at sea somewhere in the South Pacific. His life boat washes ashore on the mysterious island inhabited by Dr. Charles Girard (played by Francis Lederer) Mrs. Frances Girard (played by Greta Thyssen), lab assistant Walter (played by Oscar Keesee) and a couple of house servants. Dr. Girard has spent the last two years on this secluded island performing countless surgeries and chemical brain therapies upon a black panther. Dr. Girard has sped up evolutionary adaptation and has changed a quadruped jungle cat into a bipedal Man/Panther. All of the island's natives (between 50 and 75 people) flee the island by canoes, outriggers and other boats when the creature escapes (which it has done before) its underground lab/cage and brutally kills two of their village. Only the house boy Tiago (played by Peyton Keesee) and his older teen sister Selene (played by Lilia Duran) remain as domestics of Dr. Girard.

THINGS I DID NOT LIKE: Not many really. This is what a low-budget B-movie from the 50's (and one made by Filipinos in the P.I. at that) should have been, could have been, and here, IS!
The opening scene where sfx director Hilario Santos uses the double-exposure of clouds to similute a foggy ocean was pretty lame however.

THINGS I LIKED:
The scene where the villagers flee the island was done realistically and looked as good as most of the scenes of fleeing Japanese residents of Tokyo whenever the big "G" attacks.
I also loved the opening inter-title card (screen shot below) where in a true "William Castle" promo-gag idea, the audience is warned, that if they're squeamish, to shut their eyes when a bell is rung. The bell rings only once, and about 45 minutes after seeing, and forgetting, the warning-card. I'm sure nobody shut their eyes in time. I love it. The scene is one where we see, what purports to be a human body, cut into with a scalpel. It does look like actual surgery being filmed. Gotta love that bell though!

The strongest thing about the movie is the acting. The plot is your typical, "mad scientist" who creates something that "tampers with the normal order of creation," and ultimately has to face the results of his own hubris. The movie does move rather slowly, but that didn't bother me for two reasons: 1) this is a 1959 production, and needs to be judged on a "pacing- scale" that is different from our own post-MTV frenetic quick-cut ADHD pin-headed attention spans; and 2) the slow going allows the oppresive atmosphere of day-time heat and night-time humidity and moisture (via the monsoons), to settle the viewer down into a claustrophobic dread of how the whole situation with the Doctor's experimentations are going to resolve themselves.
Francis Lederer (below) is magnificent as the driven scientist/surgeon. What's so nice is that he is not portrayed as the typical (stereotypical) crazy or demented genius but rather as a driven and hyper-focussed research surgeon. Even the hero Fitzgerald (Richard Derr) remarks, "no, he's not mad!" There is a real sympathetic bond between Dr. Girard and his own "monster."

Girard's wife, Frances Girard (played by Swedish beauty Greta Thyssen) adds not only appealing "eye-candy," but a decent performance of a tortured wife who is truly afraid of her husband, but at the same time, guilty of wanting to abandon him and her marriage. The sexual tension and chemistry between her and Fitzgerald (which is conumated; but "off-screen" per 1959) is real, palpable, and steamy. What is refreshing is that after the two of them have their one-night stand, Fitzgerald (Derr) thinks she's now going to be his girl and leave the island with him. But no, in an interesting and believable plot-twist, Thyssen seemingly regrets the adulterous liason, and wants to leave the island by HERSELF. As she had said in an earlier scene: "I'm NOT LONELY, I'm frightened!" The Frances Girard character is a strong yet feminine character. Cut from the Beverly Garland mold, she only scream (as I remember) one time at the end when the monster breaks down her bedroom door to carry her out to the cliffs.

The nominal hero, and I say that without dis-respecting the Fitzgerald character, is played by one of my favorite male leads of the 50's Richard Derr. You probably know him best for his lead-man character in 1951's epic WHEN WORLD'S COLLIDE. Here Derr completely won me over with his easy-going nature, somewhat amoral (and thus believable) attitudes towards scientific vivesections, and a low-key approach to the truly strange situation he finds himself in. He doesn't try to stop Dr. Girard as much as he tries to protect his own self-interests. A very good performance.

In the picture below Fitzgerald discovers the abandoned native village. Admitedly, this scene meanders a tad too long and should have been edited down.

The monster is an interestng combination (visually speaking) of the Frankenstein Monster, the Mummy (he's wrapped in bandages) and Mr. Panther-guy. I love the little roundy-ears that poked up out of his head bandages, and his extra-long eyelashes.
Below (picture) we see the monster's hand with claws right before he slashes and kills lab assistant Walter. Walter is also played with a great deal of skill and versimilitude by veteran Filipino actor Oscar Keesee. Even though Walter is a bitter Guatemalan lab tech (and former Mental Asylum worker) who is also a bully (he does the Fritz/Igor picking on Monster shtidk to the creature), a lecher, and a coward. But still, he's a character that, all-in-all, the audience takes no relish in seeing killed. There are no villains in this intelligent film.
No, it's not The Island of Dr. Moreau, but the dialogue is smart, and the plot makes sense with no eye-rolling Deus-ex-Machina intrusions or goofy switch endings.

Below is a picture of our monster. Is it a beast or a man? All of the characters come to realize, along with Dr. Girard, that this is no Panther-monster, but a nascent & developing man. As, Dr. Girard says: "What is a man? If he has a soul, I gave it to him!"
The makeup is adequate to the story.
The ending, though somewhat sudden and pro-forma (monster, girl, cliff, gun, et al) is about the only way the conflict could have been resolved.
What I do like about the ending is that it's fairly certain that "Hero" does NOT GET Girl, and that, the monster actually gets away. The last couple of scenes would have left this PantherMAN character available for sequels.

I enjoyed this movie and I recommend it!

Attack Of The Puppet People

2010-07-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

By way of full disclosure: I love the movies of Bert I. Gordon, Mr. B.I.G. as he is known. I haven't seen all of his movies yet, but I'm working my way through them. Right below is an old 1950-ish photo of Gordon. No, he's no William Castle, but he's no Roger Corman either!
The story idea for this film came from Gordon; he also produced and directed it. His direction is very competent.

ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958) Alta Vista Productions, b&w, 70 minutes

I remember seeing ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE when I was a lad in the Twin Cities. It scared me, but not in the way you might think if you've never seen it. SEE IT! It's not what you think, and it's not what you might think it's "about." If you eschew "Chucky the mad slasher doll" and his countless clones, and if you are still far more frightened by ventriloquist dummies than by Clowns or Mimes (which is ME I'm talking about... drive a steak through Charlie McCarthy's heart I say!), don't worry about ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE being anything like tiny maniacal Pinnochios carving people up with butcher knives.
It's far more like one of the "better" espisodes of the original Twilight Zone or Outer Limits than like the Zuni Devil Doll (Karen Black with the buck teeth anyone?) T.V. movie, Trilogy of Terror.

The movie is all about one old European ex-marionette maker/repairer/performer by the name of Mr. Franz who has relocated to sunny Los Angeles to spend the rest of his lonely existence running his small three-room Doll Factory on the fifth floor of a downtown office building. We learn a bit of Franz's back-story when his old marionette partner (still touring with his stringed puppets) Emil shows up. We learn one of the key pieces in Franz's mental breakdown/illness: his beloved wife abandoned him years ago in Brussels by running off with one of the circus acrobats. This divorce/abandonment has so scarred Franz that he becomes a very, very troubled man. Being lonely is one thing, but kidnapping a dozen or so people (6 of whom are prominently featured in this movie) makes the sad and tragic into the criminal and insane. BUT IN A NICE WAY. Franz doesn't ever physically harm anyone. He just shrinks them down to Barbie & Ken size, puts them into suspended animation, and then takes them out daily to "play with." By controlling the lives of his helpless captives, "nobody will ever leave me (him) again" says Franz.

Below is a photo of the one actor who makes this movie come together and work. John Hoyt, veteran character actor (he had recurring character roles in both Perry Mason and Hogan's Heroes, plus played in dozens of 1960's television fare), plays Franz with a sensitivity coated over with a veneer of menace and control fetishism. He's evil by his very actions, but yet, sympathetic by his deep and broken character. This film is worth watching for his acting alone.

It's rare in some of these 1950's B-movies for the heroine to be both a competent actor and a stunningly charismatic beauty (usually the second is achieved at the expense of the first). June Kenney, who plays Franz's newly hired secretary/receptionist Sally Reynolds is an outstanding addition to this movie. When she is on the screen you just keep wondering why she didn't have a huge career. She appeared in 1958's EARTH VS. THE SPIDERS, but then seems to have vanished from performing in 1963.

The third lead character is the one & only JOHN AGAR. Agar is Agar, playing the likeable, jovial, clean-cut, all-American hero. From the MOLE PEOPLE, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, and DESTINATION SPACE, to this movie and hundreds of other roles, Agar is the "every-man glue" that holds the action and adventure together.
He's mostly wasted in this movie as there isn't much action. But he's nonetheless solid and believable. His ulitmate scene of fisticuffs is when he beats the "stuffings" (literally) out of a Dr.Jekyll/Mr. Hyde marionette.

After kidnapping, and shrinking, both the U.S. Mailman to his building (hey! that's a Federal Offense, Patriot Act boys & girls) and his former secretary, Franz hires JUNE KENNEY. When she falls in love with traveling toy salesman JOHN AGAR and is about to leave L.A. to go back to St. Louis with Agar, Franz locks her in his back room and ....

Shrinks her down to the size of a napkin wearing doll (or, Puppet Person).

June finds that John has also been shrunk and that their shared fate, by being shared, at least re-unites them together. They soon discover that Franz has four other special puppet people that he enjoys taking out of their cases to play with.

Franz seems to get all his joy and fellowship by voyeuristically and vicariously observing the enjoyment of the shrunken kidnap victims. We meet the other four soon after June Kenney and Agar find each other. There is a U.S. Marine, a Strumpet (yeah, I don't know what that is either, she's just kind of a floosy, a dame), and two teen-aged kids. The kids like to do that pre-rock n' roll teen dance thing to the record player that Franz plays for their parties. He also feeds them cheese, cakes, and champagne. In fact, other than keeping them in suspended animation when not watching them party, and, holding them against their will at about 9inches in height, Franz is fairly nice to his prisoners. A concentration camp guard with a heart of gold. They've all given up hope of ever escaping until the feisty Kenney and Agar put some spine back into them all.

Ken Miller (who plays teen age boy Stan) is most famous for playing the bongo-playing hip teen in Michael Landon's I WAS A TEEN AGE WEREWOLF the year before Gordon used him in this classic. Marlene Willis, (who plays teen age girl Laurie) also sings the vocal number "You're My Living Doll" during the party sequence.

The group tries one escape by using the telephone to call the Police for help. But they are all so small that their voices can't be heard over the record player by the Desk Cop at the other end of the line. Then they use the telephone receiver cord to climb down from their table top in an attempt to use Franz's shrinking ray in reverse. Franz returns too soon thwarting their attempt but not discovering their valiant try.

Because of the persistent snooping of
Police Sgt. Paterson
(played by Jack Kosslyn) and the information that a little Brownie (as in a 6 year old Girl Scout Brownie, not the Gremlin kind) has learned, Franz realizes that his nefarious crimes are about to be discovered. He plans on taking the 6 puppet people with him to the Theater (where his old friend an colleague Emil is playing with his troop of marionettes) and taking his own life, and theirs (murder/suicide) so that "no one will have to ever be alone or abandoned again."
First he has them bathe, shave, and clean up for the big finale.

At the theater they manage to escape from their table top viewing seats, primarily due to the constant bungling interruptions of over-night janitor Hank Patterson (FAMOUS FOR PLAYING MR. ZIFFEL, ARNOLD THE PIG'S FATHER ON GREEN ACRES). Patterson chews up the scenery in a truly comedic tour de force of under-played inneptitude.

Agar and Kenney race back some 6 miles to the Doll Factory.
Do they make it in time? Does the giant puppet-eating dog eat them?
Does Franz re-capture his little group of rebellious rapscallions?

I watched this movie on Hulu and was very pleasantly surprised. Of all their 1950's selections this one had the cleanest, clearest, most crisp b&w transfer.
The special effects were very well done. I'd have to say that though there weren't as many "shrunken down effects" and props as say as in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (nor done as well), the overall quality was on par with Irwin Allen's famous mid-60s television series LAND OF THE GIANTS.

The scene where Agar takes Kenney to a drive-in theater for a show, and it turns out to be Bert I. Gordon's THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN was not only fun, but very clever as it emphasized the other end of the size-spectrum.
The folded up airpaper rescue note "gag" was very funny.
The Albert Glasser score was creepy when it had to creepy and tension filled when it had to move along the action and confrontations.
This is a keeper from the decade of the B's.
Rogue Evolent gives it a 4 out 10 rogue evolents.

THE SNOW CREATURE

2010-07-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

This movie during much of it's first half makes me think fondly of the "Val-deri, Val-dera" song (The Happy Wanderer) for there's a WHOLE LOT OF WALKING GOING ON! The first part of the movie is done well, almost in a faux TRAVELOGUE style. I note the way the airplane, (a four-engine Lockheed Martin maybe?) with our hero, travels ever east - - first crossing the NYC skyline, then on to Egypt all the way to a landing in Bombay. But, he's taken off originally from L.A. I'm still thinking wouldn't it have made more sense to fly west by way of the Pacific if one were heading to Nepal?
The hero is a botanist sent by his employer the Corey Foundation to find and study new and interesting plant life high in the Himalayas. Dr. Frank Parrish is ably played by B-Movie sci-fi veteran PAUL LANGTON. Langton is most famous for his excellent supporting role in 1957's thought provoking THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. He's saddled with a slothful, scotch drinking, pipe-smoking photographer team mate named Peter Wells (lamely played by Carey Grant wannabe [listen to that goofy accent, 'old boy'] ) Leslie Denison. I wish it could have been Leslie Nielsen.
Langton and Denison hire a group of about a dozen Sherpas and head up the mountains looking for plants. They in turn are assisted by English speaking "head Sherpa" Subra (played by Teru Shimada). After just a day or so up on the mountain, an abominable snowman, a Yeti, a ...... SNOW CREATURE ventures down into the village that the Sherpas have just left, and kidnaps Subra's wife.
We are told that this is what Yeti's do from time to time. When you look like a SNOW CREATURE you are compelled into this kind of forced 'blind dates.'

I think a lot of credit needs to be given to Director W. Lee Wilder and the entire camera crew (Director of Photography etc.) for some really believable mountain climbing and treking (and a WHOLE LOT OF WALKING) scenes. These "establishing" outdoor shots were taken in the Bronson Canyon and Bronson Caves region of California and really put the viewer into a rugged, mountainous terrain. But for the fact that none of the actors ever has any "frozen breath" coming out of their mouths or noses, it could well have been filmed in the high elevations of Nepal. A solid "A" for the outdoor scenes. Again, much of these treking scenes have a very "news-reel-ish" vibe.

After Subra's wife is kidnapped (this info is brought to him by his brother and several other Sherpas who climb to their base camp) Subra naturally wants the expedition to look for his wife and kill the beast. I agree with Subra. But both Langton and Denison are callous and unconcerned with this man's personal grief. They're not even sure they believe in the legend of the Yeti.
Subra and his Sherpas mutiny and take control of the group by stealing the guns and Denison's box of Scotch Whisky (just the thing to be carting up into the Himalayas).

Did I say how much I loved the ambient noises of the ever-present blowing, moaning, and droning wind (which could well drive a man crazy were he forced to endure it for long periods of time) and the swirling, gusting snow squalls? Nice special effects once again in the great California outdoors. The actors themselves (or their stunt doubles, or whatnot) had to be in pretty good condition for all the steep incline walking (A WHOLE LOT OF WALKING).

Well, after being forced into a cave by a raging storm, the (now) hunting expedition finds the Yeti and captures him after a small cave-in of rocks and debris temporarily knocks the beast unconcious. They wrap and tie him up in a stretcher device, sedate him with a tranquilizer shot (why a botanist carries a knock-out syringe is never explained) and trundle him back down the mountain. Also, Langton and Denison have re-taken the expedition by re-capturing their rifles in the dust-up of the rock slide and attendant confusion.
Langton has a super duper refrigerator box sent to Nepal in which he has the Yeti placed for safe transit back to L.A. Denison after a "quick buck," publishes an un-authorized picture of the Yeti, calling him a Snow-MAN! (note, "man" not "creature") And again, Langton flies back to California by way of heading west (reversing his long trip back over the Atlantic and through NYC air-space (so the viewer can see a skyline that is instantly recognizable I guess).

The last third of the movie (or so) takes place in Los Angeles. The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Immigration, (and maybe CUSTOMS too, I guess) prevent the Corey Foundation from taking immediate delivery of the Ice-Box with the frozen Yeti-pop inside. The government is not sure whether the Yeti is a Man or an Animal, that is, a Snow Man or a SNOW CREATURE (sheeese, the title of the picture should have told them the answer to this one). It's quite comical that during the initial confrontation between Mr. Corey Jr. Langton and the CUSTOMS officials, the huge refrigerated box with this living thing inside is just sitting there out in the open on the tarmac. Nothing like a little security when dealing with a newly discovered hominid species that could be the missing link) While the government hired expert casually discusses matters with the botanist, the Yeti (in a nearby warehouse) rocks his Ice-Box back and forth knocking it over and breaking open its door. The SNOW CREATURE ecapes and begins wandering through the alleys of L.A.

During his first nocturnal stroll the Yeti kills one woman and chases another one into a Drug Store. It's effective the way Director Wilder shoots most of these scenes in dark shadows and low light. The viewer can see the Yeti (he's pretty tall, close to 7 feet it looks like) but never gets a really close and CLEAR look.
Did I mention that Langton's character (Dr. Frank Parrish) sure smokes a lot? He's lighting up a fag about every scene he's in (sometimes two smokes per scene)
The cops are brought into the man-hunt (or Creature Hunt depending upon whether you're with State or CUSTOMS) which means plenty of cool cop cars, cops, and motorcycles.
It's in this last segment of the movie that another veteran stock-actor, William Phipps, gets a lot of camera time (next to the puffing Langton). Phipps plays Police Detective Lieutenant Dunbar who is tasked with capturing or killing the murderous Himalya thing.

Seeking the coolest areas of L.A. (temperature wise not culturally, dig-it?) the Yeti has retreated to the miles and miles of underground storm sewers, and thus has eluded all the cop-car, foot-patrol and motorcycle vrooming. So Lt. Dunbar and his men, with botanaist Langton tagging along to make sure the Yeti is captured and not tazed, shot, and then sprinkled with crack, descend into the sewers with about 9 minutes left in this movie's 69 minute running time. You wanna know what? There's a whole lot of walking and walking and more walking that's done by the Police Search team. We're told that there's hundreds of miles of underground tunnels - - we did not need to see all of those miles up close and personal.
They finally capture the Yeti in a net, but because he manages to get a death-like stranglehold around the neck of Langton with his giantic Yeti hands, Lt. Dunbar is forced to shoot him three time with his Service .38. Hey! he had other cop witnesses to back up his story.

I enjoyed this movie. I love Yeti's and I love movies about these big abominable galoots. For all my ribbing, both Langton and Phipps do a decent job of playing this whole thing "straight." Both the mountain scenes in the movie's first half, and the sewer scenes in the movie's last third (along with the dark alleyways) are done well and add a great deal of atmosphere.

One criticism that some might have is with the costuming and makeup of the SNOW CREATURE. Yeah, it's pretty mediocre. It looks like they just took the actor who was playing the Yeti and glued on to his body a bunch of dark rabbit fur. And the gloved hands are really fake looking. I think again, we could all get together at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby and buy some stuff off the shelf and do as good a job as they did. But nonetheless, it is an actor who is 7 feet tall walking around in fur, and wearing a very furry head. That's good enough for me! When it comes to Yeti's, Sasquatches, and Big Foots, I suspend disbelief in a nano-second.

IMDb says it was probably Lock Martin (the actor also known as J. Lockard Martin) that portrayed the Yeti. Martin is most notable for his portrayal of the alien robot GORT in 1951's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (wherein he turned in an acting job that was still far superior to Keanu Reeve's reprise of Klaatu in the re-make)

When I look at the elongated face of Martin in the publicity photo and then compare it to the SNOW CREATURE's facial close-up (in the screen grab) I'm not totally convinced. Many of the monster/sci-fi experts over at the CHFB (Classic Horror Film Boards) do maintain that it was Lock that played the Creature. Good enough for me, I guess.

So, other than the excess walking, the flying across the mid-east, Europe and the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, the horrible and unnecessary inclusion of Leslie Denison's character, and maybe the dark fur instead of the more "traditional" white fur for Yeti's (think BUMBLE), this is a great addition to anyone's B-Movie sci-fi pile.

VAL-DERI, VAL-DERA.... my knapsack on my back!

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues

2010-07-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is not an Oscar-worthy piece of cinema. Okay, there are other bad B-movies I'd rather watch again (or C, F, or Z movies for that matter)... but this flick is NOT as bad as most of the on-line reviewers would lead you to believe. Just because the acting, sets, props, dialog, plot, lighting, costumes, and directing are all really, really bad... doesn't mean this movie deserves all the "hating" it tends to get. How's that "damning it by faint praise" setting with you?
The music by Ronald Stein is decent; not his best, but solid! Cathy Downs is okay; she's a 1950's "sweetie." Michael Whalen as the monster-making Professor King is kind of adequate. There's a spear-gun in the movie!!!! And a murder with a spear-gun!!!
Plus, well, there's lots of under-water scuba diving.
And for a young boy growing up in Minneapolis, (that's me I'm talking about) scuba diving legitimized and vindicated any movie or televison show: PERIOD!
I saw this flick as a kid and liked it. I saw it the other day and, am glad I liked it as a kid! But I still have a soft spot for "attempts" at movie making like this 90 minute... one.
It's usually just NOT a good idea for film makers to put the monster up on the screen in all his "glory," or in this case, mediocrity, 2 minutes into the picture. That is, unless you plan on having him at a later time do something cooler, meaner, more revealing of all his monster-costumed "monster-ness." Nope. When we first see him he just kind of stands there, vertical in the water, moving his arms a bit. That's about it. He looks more like a statue outside the Panda Garden Chinese resturant down the block from your house than an aquatic horror.

And by the way, why they (some of the actors; well, this is such a low-budget production that I think the entire cast is less than a dozen people) call this monster the "PHANTOM" is never explained. It's not a horrible name since his existence is not taken as real by everyone, but, Phantom just seems to bespeak Erik in the sewer playing the pipe organ, or Kit in his purple underwear fighting slave-traders in darkest Africa. A minor point I know.
The "10,000" leagues thing is also a tad misleading. The deepest anyone dives down into the ocean seems to be about 40 feet.
The underwater camera work isn't too bad; it's about what I could do if you gave me the aqualung and the camera... so hey... not bad.

A movie where guys constantly wear their suits (and ties), black lace-up dress shoes and socks on the sandy beach, is, well, fastidious I guess. Also it would have been nice for the main protagonist, Dr. Ted Stevens (played by Kent Taylor with a wooden affect that makes Hugh Beaumont look like Jim Carey) had been able to wear a different dress shirt for the 2 or 3 days he's at the ocean community.

Phil Pine turns in a decent performance as an oily, incompetent, assistant-Oceanographer spy. And I actually liked the grousing, scowling (she knew what this movie was going to do to her career) and bitter performance of Vivi Janiss as Ethel the Professor's secretary. Rodney Bell is also "workman-like" in his portrayal of the Federal Investigator Agent Bill Grant.
The less said about lead actor Kent Taylor the better. But both Michael Whalen (as Prof. King) and Cathy Downs (as his single, attractive, shower-taking daughter Lois) hold up the standards of "passable" B-Monster-Movie acting quality.

Some of the stilted delivery of dialog (e.g. any scene with Kent Taylor) made me remember certain episodes of the original DARK SHADOWS television series. Maybe this cast also received the shooting script a few minutes before the camera began to roll?

But I was (and still am) as a youngster, a "sucker" for Ocean movies, especially if they had scuba diving. I loved Lloyd Bridges' SEA HUNT, and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is my favorite monster movie of all time.

I loved it when Cathy Downs, while sunning herself on the beach in her sexy 1950's one-piece, almost immediately offers Taylor a cigarette when he kneels down to talk to her. Hey, at least she's a sharing individual!

You see, there's this nuclear shaft of radiation and light emanating from a huge deposit of uranium ore on the ocean's bottom (about 100 feet out from the shore... and like I said, about 40 feet down) that's being guarded by Professor King's radiated/mutated PHANTOM creature. The PHANTOM is the evolutionary end-product of a hapless sea-turtle.

Above is a small photo of Michael Whalen (he also appeared in 1958's Missile to the Moon, and, interestingly enough - - an episode of SEA HUNT). One of his best quotes from this movie should be posted above every College Science Lab: "SCIENCE IS A DEVOURING MISTRESS." Einstein knew that too I'm betting.

I got to thinking that this whole under-water world was being filmed in a giant swimming pool because there were no life forms whatsoever in any of the sub-surface scenes: NADA... until about 5 minutes to the movie's end when I did spot one sickly looking fish swim by. Maybe there really was radiation in the water.
So, with one car, one shirt for Taylor, three interior sets, a beach, and one fish, the producer got his money's worth. No spend-thrifts on this set.

The actor that played the "slow" College janitor looked like he could have been actor Geoffrey Lewis' (Every Which Way But Loose) father. Did I say that Special Agent Bill Grant was a man's man! I like stereo-typed tough guy government agents (just not wearing short, short swimming trunks)

The un-fixable problem of this little movie (besides the too many scenes of Prof. King switching his suit-coat jacket for his lab coat) is that you can't really have a decent monster movie where your monster doesn't do anything particularly monstrous. Our "Phantom"... opens his mouth once... he holds a couple of guys... he's there.

Lois (Cathy Downs) should have had more bathing suit scenes (and/or shower scenes).

Lest you think I did with this review exactly what I said others have done before, I can only point to the fierce interior struggle between my adult brain and the 8-year old boy that really did enjoy this thing when seeing it on the small-screen black & white Zenith.
There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. I would probably even purchase this movie if Alpha Video had it for $4.99
As Professor King solemnly intoned: "Nature has many secrets that man must not disturb -- and this was one of them."

EPIC THEATER - - indeed!

2010-07-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

I have had a "love affair" with mythology since I was about 7 or 8 years old. It's, for the most part, due to EPIC THEATER.
EPIC THEATER was the generic-sounding local name for the Peplum that WTCN, Channel 11, would show on Friday nights around 7pm. The really cool thing for us kids, is that WTCN would RE-BROADCAST the whole movie the following day (Saturday) in the afternoon. So if you missed it on Friday, or, if like me you had to see these EPICS (ahh, such an appropriate name) more than once --viola!
I didn't know Peplum from Pablum back then. And to this day, my own knowledge of Italian movies is quite sparse. But back then I was being introduced for the first time to characters like HERCULES, the Sons of Hercules, Theseus, Perseus, Ulysses (i.e. Odysseus), and a whole host of others. I'm thinking this is also where I saw Harryhausen's JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS for the first time.
But it was Steve Reeves as HERC that ushered in my 5 decade long interest in Greek and Roman myths. Marvel Comics (and Jack "KING" Kirby) would very quickly do the same for Norse Mytholgy.

It all started when my youthful eyes fell on the half-page newspaper ad (in the television section) of that Friday evening's copy of the Minneapolis Star. We were an evening paper family...none of that morning Tribune nonsense (plus, our comic section had Peanuts!) The add, was a black and white poster, with I think original art (modeled after the theatrical poster no doubt) of Steve Reeves for HERCULES UNCHAINED! There was Reeves looking as demi-god as any kid could imagine, staring out at viewers with the look of a hero who was about to kick some real.... burro!
I watched the movie with my mouth open and my fists clenched. I didn't care about the horrible dubbing, the lame (by my adult standards) sword play, or the simplistic special effects. This was HERCULES fighting the bad guys (with Zeus, Ares, and other creepy trouble-making Gods in the mix as well).
Needless to say, that the next morning (Saturday) after my bowls of Captain Crunch, me and the guys (probably Alex, Gary and Tommy) played Hercules rather than Army, or Super Heroes, or whatever else we might have played.

I don't know how long it was before EPIC THEATER broadcast the first of Reeve's HERC flicks (HERCULES) but I saw that one too.
Sadly, I must have gotten in on this "EPIC THEATER" Friday night slot a bit late in the game; or, the Movie Night thing just didn't run that long. But I'd say, all in all, I probably only saw a dozen movies on this marvelous showcase. I remember very little now about any of the plots/stories as I have not revisted this genre since 1965. That of course now will be remedied! Some of these Italian genre gems can be viewed on Hulu, YouTube, and of course are for sale on the jumbo DVD packs of public domain compliations (48 movies for 9.99)

My next step was to haunt the grade school library (Park Brook Elementary, and then when I was at Crestview for 6th grade, their's as well). I checked out and devoured every book on mythology I could find. Edith Hamilton's famous paperback became a favorite.
And now to this day, I can still hum (and sometimes remember the few words/lyrics to) the catchy tune for the series of Peplum that featured buff Italian weight lifter/actors playing various "sons" of Hercules: i.e. "The Mighty Sons of Hercules" series.
I include now that opening theme for your joy as well!

But also, and this is the Piece de resistance of this whole post... watch the 1:28 clip of the penulitimate fight scene in that first EPIC movie that started it all, all those years ago: Steve Reeves as HERCULES, whipping chains and kicking butt! When your 7, it just didn't get any better than this!

Quick "SHOUT-OUT" to Chicago Ghouls & Roy Ware

2010-06-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Just a hyper-quick "Goober says hey!" to my Monster/Kaiju buddy Roy Ware and his "state-o-the-art" monster movie blog CHICAGO GHOULS. You should be a "follower" of this blog if you're not already. http:chicagoghouls.blogspot.com - - or just click on this post's title for a quick-link. Roy's CHICAGO GHOULS is EVERYTHING that a retro-nostalgic-intelligent-informed Monster Blog "tip of the skull" love letter to one's City and one's Monster Movie traditions/horror hosts SHOULD BE!
When TCMK&M grows up... we wanna be like Roy's CHICAGO GHOULS.

BEYOND THE FLAME BARRIER: The Head in the Cave - - 46 years later

2010-06-25T18:21:00.001-07:00

I wish I could tell you more (yeah, like I wish I WOULD post more) about BEYOND THE FLAME BARRIER. I saw this movie as a wee-lad in the frozen north tundra of Brooklyn Park (then, a suburb of Minneapolis) sometime in the early 60s. I don't know the exact date but am fairly sure that it appeared on Channel 11, WTCN during a late Saturday night showing of its syndicated Chiller package (or, maybe it was Thriller.... or Phyllis Diller Theater-- now there's real terror).
I'm sure my folks didn't want me watching this one either. I remember only this; IT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!
The only scene that I remembered over the years (although to be sure, forgetting it all for large stretches of time) was the denouement...the climactic final revelation near the film's end when we see the "monster" in the cave... with the.... (shut your eyes kids; take a deep breath) the HUMAN HEAD stuck in all that jelly-like goo... possibly... decapitated??? This image gave me nightmares, and, caused me to (no doubt) blank the entire movie out of my concious memory data base for decades.
Only about a year ago did I remember it again, and began searching out what the name of the flick might be, and what the whole plot line might be about. With only "the cave," and the "human head," as clues and not much more to go on, I posed the question to the gurus of sci-fi & horror movies over at CLASSIC HORROR FILM BOARD (CHFB). If you're not already a member you need to be. Check them out at http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/directory
Anway, it took the 'aficionados of the obscure' all of about 30 minutes to give me the possible answer. Yup, the name of the forgotten psychic scar was: BEYOND THE FLAME BARRIER.
This 1958 movie (per IMDb) has the hyberbolic tag-line: "The first Satellite that returned to Earth...and the Hell it brought with it" How cool is that? If you want to know the specifics of who starred in this grade e black & white creep-fest, you can go read about it at IMDb I suppose. There's also a torrent downloading site for those of you who are in to that. To my meager knowledge the film has never been released on VHS, Beta, laser disc or DVD. So I guess the malum in se of downloading it (off what I wonder??? some guy has a kinescope or 16mm copy???) is more of a malum prohitum.
I would give you my review of the movie, if I remembered any of it. I only remember how it terrified my poor, little, innocent, four-eyed face and mouse-brown hairy head. AHHHH... the good old days of Twin Citie's MONSTER KIDS...
I do invite your attention to a pretty good review over at WTF-FILM.COM, which was written by one Kevin Pyrtle. The url for Pyrtle's review (as I found it by way of Google) is: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://wtf-film.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://wtf-film.com/site/2009/11/07/flame-barrier-the/&usg=___HaR2ZjdMLBDka1hYY1QGCqY-M8=&h=1011&w=789&sz=591&hl=en&start=7&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Ri7zBkpfgOx-mM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3DThe%2BFlame%2BBarrier%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7DKUS%26tbs%3Disch:1 ( I guess you can just copy and paste this to go to the site).

IT: The Terror From Beyond Space (movie review)

2010-03-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time with this new/nascent blog doing: a) nothing whatsoever, and b) moaning about the lack of a charismatic "horror host" in the early 1960s for the Minneapolis/Saint Paul television market. Enough inactivity. I did watch monster movies when I could, and I was young enough to know that I liked 'em all regardless of their cinematic/artistic merit (or lack thereof). Monsters and aliens were both cool. One of the movies I remember watching had an alien - - WHO WAS A MONSTER! A real "two-fer." I could spend a little time reminiscing about half-forgotten snippets that I sort of remembered, but instead...I'm going to give you a movie review. I saw this flick for the first time in the early 60s. I saw this old favorite most recently (via Hulu) a couple of weeks ago.

IT! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) 69 minutes, black & white, Robert E. Kent films, directed by Edward L. Cahn, starring: Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding,Ann Doran, Dabs Greer, Ray Corrigan (as It).

I suppose for a detailed plot synopsis I could re-write both the wikipedia or IMDb capsules. But let's cut to the chase. An American Space rescue mission rockets to Mars and finds only one survivor of the doomed first landing party. The only survivor is the original mission's Captain (played by Marshall Thompson) who is accused by the rescue team of murdering all of his crew in a fit of psychopathic evil. Thompson's story of an "alien" menace is dismissed as either lunacy or alibi. They rocket off back to earth with the express purpose of puting Thompson on trial (a General Court Marshal) convicting him of murder and executing him. On the voyage back to earth it becomes clear that an alien presence (a Martian monster) is aboard the rocket, bent on killing each and every one of the crew. That's the plot, the story, the movie in a nutshell. It's Creature From the Black Lagoon on a space ship...without the lagoon, the stellar acting, the believable props, sets, and locations, and the cool monster. BUT - - there is much to recommend this movie. Yes, I did like it quite a bit upon re-watching it almost 40 years after first viewing it with glee.

There's a great scene, right after "IT" has killed the first two crewmen, where one of the astronauts has to go into the duct-work (as it were) to attempt to retrieve the dead bodies. This effectively plays on claustrophobia, the "jump from behind the hidden corner gag," and the discovery of an unbeatable enemy. This is all "proto-Nostromo" stuff (y'know, the Alien in the ductwork in Ridley Scott's epic 1979 blockbuster) and still comes across very well.
And no, it's not a George Pal design, but the overall "look" and feel of the rocket ship is wonderfully retro-ish 1950 futuristic. This is how we all thought the rocket ship would look like... you know, sort of a vertical, multi-level, spacious outer-space submarine... complete with bulkheads, ladders, and hatch covers. I'd give the overall sleek rocketship an "A" and the inside sets an "A+"
The astronauts do an out-side (in Space) walk which is believable enough once the viewer is into the action (a "B" ).
It's a low, low budget movie, so serendipitous production values had to run out sooner or later. The SFX for the rocket ship "flying" through the void of outer-space is not much better than a Saturday morning Flash Gordon serial from 20 years earlier. The ships actual mode of propulsion rates only a "C-." The space suits themselves are among some of the lamest and chinciest gear I've seen.
And IT (the creature) is not very convincingly designed or made. The look is generic Gill Man meets Creature from Piedras Blancas, by way of the Hideous Sun Demon - - sort of - - sideways. But I guess when you don't have much of a budget, there's only so much you can do with the standard bi-pedal humanoid creature with a tough hide and claw/mandible hands. I could have sworn you could see the seems and zippers in the IT suit. Also, the eyes holes (sockets) on the IT body/head are pretty fake looking.
But what makes this movie, ultimately, worth your time, and a fun, throw-back to those glorious Twin-Cities' Monster Kid evenings... is the likeability of every one of the characters. These are just decent American Astronauts (women astronauts too) fighting a terrible creature that just can't be stopped. Even Marshall Thompson, known for his acting style of impersonating a zombie (when it's NOT a Zombie movie), gives a good solid & heroic turn.
AND THEN - - there are two little throw-away scene snippets which I'm sure did not even register with me when I saw them all those decades ago on the black & white portable Zenith TV, but, which now, rise to the level of brilliant "fly-in-amber" social recording: First, the male astronauts pull out a pack of cigarettes, and light up - - ON BOARD THE ROCKET SHIP!!!! There they are just puffing away as if they were riding in the back of a large Jet-airliner on the way from Texas to California... oh, wait, we (myself included) WERE ABLE TO DO THAT as recently as 1985... :) But to see tobacco so easily accepted in the projected and imagined retro-futurism of that day, is both fun and politically-incorrect refreshing. And secondly, the two women astronauts (one of whom is the Rocket Ship's Medical Doctor) are also given the important job of serving the meals and the coffee to the male astronauts. WOA!!! N.O.W. - - set your phasers on kill.

Go to Hulu, watch this gem! Have some Twin Cities' Monster Kids FUN!

CITYCIDE: You Can't Go Home Again - - It Isn't There Anymore

2010-03-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

I was born in Minneapolis in 1954, at the Swedish Hospital. I'm assuming that that hospital exists no longer, at least not with that name. "Change and decay in all around I See" goes the famous Christian hymn. Ain't it the truth?
All of us have to accept the fact that things and people grow old and fall apart. People live for only so long no matter how many replacement parts our modern scientific medicines can steal, manufacture or clone.
Buildings and monuments also have a life, which, though capable of being prolonged (the Pyramids) also, for the most part, end up crumblng to dust; Ozymandias - - where is thy sting?
But what about Cities, towns, villages, local community-squares, downtowns (or Uptowns) and our own individual "streets" where we grew up? Sadly, they too exist for only a temporary blink of the eye.
I've always known this I guess, but it was brought home again to me recently as I read a wonderfully poignant post over at "The Bewildered Brit" blog (Richard Peevers). His post was about something called "Ghost Signs" in the City of Chicago. A Ghost Sign is a faded advertising which had been painted on a City commercial building (usually the name of the store or the name of some product for sale). Heck, we've even got these Ghost Signs here in Kansas in my own town (where I'm living now in exile from my memories of childhood). Thinking about things which are "no more" probably is not healthy. So be it; some smoke, some refuse to wear their seat-belts, and some, like myself, remember the past "which is no more."
But this post is not about the natural order of decay - - which we can't do much about other than lament and wistfully hearken back to.
My point is to illustrate citycide. Citycide is the intentional destruction of our cities, towns and communities. I am not talking about tearing down a building which has been irreparably damaged. I am not talking about socializing all private property so that no man/woman has the right to make improvements or changes to the family estate. I am talking about urban renewal which though (in many cases) could be motivated by the best intentions, ended up doing as much damage to our people's culture, traditions, and architectural treasures as the bombing of European cities in the mid 1940s. I am talking about "special interests" and "bottom-line" (bottom feeding) deep-pockets which care only for profits and not for people. Mere labels? Over generalizations? Sure, but this is my blog - - my prejudiced meanderings.
I will always remember the sadness on my Father's face when he saw the result of putting the new Freeway right through the former Minneapolis neighborhoods of his own youth. The "planners" in their desire to have a new super road, destroyed not just a block or two here & there, but literally gutted, razed, and obliterated block after block (acre after acre) of homes, businesss and actual living history.
Sure we need roads (I guess) but at what price.
I mean no disrespect to modern architecture and building design - - the beauty in man-made structures is somewhat subjective. But, the old buildings with their brick & stone, rising up majestically on downtown streets, are routinely destroyed to be replaced by ugly box-like glass and steel geometric widgets.
I myself remember feeling a great sense of loss when, over in Topeka, Kansas, a tall Art-Decco skyscraper (sort of) which looked like the building used for the "Daily Planet" in the 1950's televison show Superman was torn down to be replaced with a toadish squat of steel that had all the charm of a cardboard box of snot. Sigh.
When a city is systematically changed, destroyed, and drastically remodelled rather than allowed to grow and evolve a bit more "organically," the "planners" are destroying far more than building material. It's like going out to the great old 100 year old Oak tree and cutting it down rather than pruning off the few rotted branches which should be taken out. Destroy a man's house and his home is gone. Destroy a man's grade-school, his high-school, the Walgreens where he had his first job, the Bijou where he saw his first movies and took his first dates, the church where he spent all those Christmas Eve services with his family, etc. etc. and you destroy not just his past, but you wipe away the history of the city itself... one block at a time, maybe, but like Alzheimers, the decay is chronic and irreversible.
It isn't that the old is always better than the new... although look around and make some judgements based on beauty and form, normed by style, grace, and artistic-line.
It's that as a people, we don't think and plan enough. We are too quick and impulsive in embracing anything which bespeaks novelty and so-called "cutting edge" sensibilities.
I'm also not saying that every mid-western Metropolis has to be frozen in some 1939 (or pick whatever decade you, your Dad, your Grandad grew up in) amber. Our larger cities simply can't be like the small communities in Rhode Island (Newport is a good example) which have just about every house, building, and dog-shed, officially declared to be an historical structure, incapable of being altered without a joint-resolution from Congress and the U.N.
I'm longing for the day when people (the average "joe") take the past a bit more seriously; a day when they afford the architecture of their forebears some of the attention they give to family photographs, artifacts, furniture, and memorabilia.
It won't happen though. We don't treat our old buildings and blocks any better than we treat our old people.
The glorious Bijou will be imploded and swept away as if it never existed. And that nasty google-plex with its ubiquitous postage-stamp-sized screens (and the sea of cell-phone screens lighting up in blue in the "audience") will continue to metastasize across the fruited plain.
Change and Decay in all around I see. Citycide.

The Twin-Cities: Hostless...The Horror!

2010-03-13T15:00:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm sad. That's why you see the picture of the GREAT KARLOFF (as "The" Monster). It's supposed to be a picture of his CRYING... and supposed to be from James Whale's sequel "The Bride of Frankenstein."
I'm crying (symbolically) too because it would appear that my old home town of Minneapolis (and Saint Paul) and the surrounding environs DID NOT HAVE A T.V. "HORROR HOST" back in the 1960s. No doubt, that is why I do not remember seeing one - - why I have no memories of our own Zacherly, Ghoulardi, Elvira or Vampira.
I went to the experts, the readership of CHFB (Classic Horror Film Boards) and posted my question: "Did Minneapolis ever have its own TV Monster/Horror Host in the late 1950s and early to mid 1960s?"
After some 56 "hits" on my post (assuming that they read my querry) I have yet to receive an answer. I will graciously, and sadly, take this as a "no."
Why many smaller markets (and communities) had their own local talent dressed up in bad capes and fake fangs and WE DID NOT...will be a question veiled in forgotten television history.
Why the Twin Cities had tons of Kid TV hosts (Casey, Clancy, Axel, Dave Lee, Grandpa Ken, etc) but no "Count Spookala" we'll never know.
I guess we just didn't.
Ah well.
Many monster flicks WERE in fact aired on our channels (cause I watched them) without benefit of the commercial breaks with "on-camera" personnel shenanigans. The Twin-Cities' probably had one of the CHILLER or THRILLER package deals. The TV stations got the movies and simply played them straight.
What a gyp (no offense meant to my Gypsie friends and neighbors...it's just that's how we kids talked in the sixties :) )

ATTENTION ALL TWIN CITIES' Monster Kids

2010-02-14T16:33:00.000-08:00

All of my searching on the internet has yet to yield a name, or even the fact, that Minneapolis and Saint Paul HAD a local horror host who would play cheezy monster flicks for us in the late 50s or early 60s. I asked the experts over at CHFB (Classic Horror Film Boards) if anyone knew of a Twin Cities' Horror Host, and as of today, 34 people have read my querry, but not one has responded.

It would appear that the market I grew up in, with, and under, did indeed show Monster and Science Fiction movies, but did it with a generic package and no local host; no local talent or color.
This is sad.

I know that more recently (I'm thinking in the 1990s and maybe beyond) that Minneapolis/St. Paul had the Horror Incorporated gang over at KSTC-TV 45, but this is way, way, after the fact; after the rogue evolent. I may still post some stuff about the H.I. group at a later date.

If any of you reading this think that my sad announcement of NO local Horror Host is not accurate....please let me know.
Why smaller markets had hosts and the vibrant Twin Cities didn't, especially in light of ALL of our wonderful Kids' Shows hosts... doesn't make sense.

The One That Got Away: KEN WAGNER

2010-02-11T06:32:00.001-08:00

I wish my memory was better. I can no longer remember exactly why I never watched the multi-talented Ken Wagner. It was probably as simple as: there was something on one of the other three TV stations at that time-slot that I liked better. That's how I'm remembering it. I knew about Captain Ken. He later became Grandpa Ken. I vaguely remember seeing his show, but I was not a regular. My loss.
He got his start as a cartoonist, graphics man, and artist/illustrator in Iowa. He started his career as Kids' Host on WOC, Davenport in 1949. It was down south of the Twin Cities that Ken Wagner honed and perfected his friendly, folksy, artistic style of mingling cartoons with sketching, reading, and puppet interactions: ALL TO THE DELIGHT OF HIS YOUNG LEGION OF FANS.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul markets were fortunate when he left Iowa and moved to KMSP, Channel 9 in 1960. I would have been 5 years old at the time.
When Ken Wagner first launched his career in the Twin Cities he was Captain Ken, the Skipper of the Showboat "Dixie Bell." This was a continuation of his Davenport persona. Later, as he aged, he became the kindly, and gentle Grandpa Ken. Oh that all kids would have had a Grandpa as talented with the pen and pencil as Ken Wagner. I do remember him sketching on a large white pad, set on an easel, and radiating joy and enthusiasm for drawing. Man, I should have watched more of Ken Wagner (if you've seen my "art" you'll appreciate that comment).
An absolutely NECESSARY link for those interested in the career of Ken Wagner is available at http://captainerniesshowboat.com/kenwagner.html where Ken Wagner's son Ken Wagner Jr. writes a detailed historical retrospective of his multi-talented father.
We Twin Cities' Monster Kids were darn blessed to have had Captain/Grandpa Ken for as long as we did... I wish I had watched him. Where were VCRs when you needed them :)

WHERE I FIRST STARTED WATCHING MOVIES: Movie Review # 1

2010-02-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

My Mom and Dad were super about taking me to the movie theater. We, as family, saw more movies than most of my other friends' families. Some of my fondest memories are of seeing movies with just my Dad (a couple of guys hanging out). But, TV was where most of my film watching was done.
I wish there was a magical inter-net site that had ALL the television listings (the daily listings of all a cities' broadcasts) for any particular day, week, month or year. I would love to be able to research when I saw this movie I'm about to review, at what time of day, and on which Twin Cities' channel. I can't believe my folks let me watch it, with a title like:

THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, (1960) directed by Roger Corman, starring Antony Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Robert Towne (as Edward Wain), 71 minutes, English, color

Although this is one of Corman's "made-on-the-quick" Puerto Rican trio flicks, it's not a bad little science-fiction morality piece. The way it ends is not quite what you'd expect even when you're more than half-way through it.
It was a color film but when I saw it (sometime after 1960, when it was being shown on the tube) all broadcasting was still in b&w. I saw it on a smallish, portable, Zenith b&w television in what we called the TV ROOM. The family had taken the third bedroom of our ranch style house and made it into the TV ROOM, i.e. the den, study, office, sewing area for Mom, desk for Dad, family room. I still get wistful when I think about that place of warmth and wonder (the rest of the house was pretty cool too). anyway...
I vaguely remember laying on the floor watching this Corman movie. I no-longer have any independent memories of the plot or how I felt about the movie. The only vivid memory I have is of the sequence where the three lead characters are scuba-diving in the Caribbean, off of Puerto Rico, and then when they surface to their boat, discover that something in the atmosphere has apparently killed off everyone who was "top-side" and breathing the atmosphere of earth. That concept creeped me out as a kid in a "sense of wonder/what if" kind of way. Plus, I've loved any show or flick where there is scuba diving or skin diving; I cut my viewing teeth on Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) and Sea Hunt.
The nuts & bolt plot (such as it is) is succinctly summarized on both IMDb and wikipedia. The hard-charging workaholic self-made millionaire SOB husband (Antony Carbone) and his miserable, reasonably attractive trophy wife (Besty Jones-Moreland), along with the husband's Lawyer (Edward Wain) are the last survivors after some kind of catastrophic world-wide event. The viewer is never told any details, and after the trio return to land, they are the only actors in the remaining 2/3 of the movie. (Corman knew how to stretch those miniscule budgets). The husband who initially is portrayed as an unlikable, misanthropic heel, actually is the only one (post holocaust) who seems to be employing long-term, survivalistic planning, wedded to core-human traits of survival, struggle, and eventual triumph. His wife and the lawyer (especially the lawyer) seem content to drink, lay about, and make sardonic and pessimistic quips and retorts. Things turn ugly when a romantic spark between wife and lawyer make the inevitable split-up of our survivors ugly and physcial. The Puerto Rican scenery is nice and the score by Ronald Stein is actually pretty cool. Some of the dialog is a bit stilted and the acting is fairly wooden, but all in all, the three leads turn in a day's work for a day's pay. The film is considered a cult classic and rightly so. It's worth watching especially if you're a completist in either Corman's filmology or dystopian/apocalyptic/end-of-the-world movies.
I bought a copy at Half Price Books for $4.99 and am keeping it. It was money well spent as I re-visit my Twin Cities cultural development.
Because... there I was, on the floor, head up against the couch, my Dog Fido nestled up next to me, Zenith tv glowing like a cyclopian eye, in my own hearth of happiness.

But We Had Networks Too

2010-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Sure, WTCN Channel 11 (at one time a "Chris Craft Station" :) was independent and thus provided us kids with tons of stuff left over from the late 50s as well as more recent re-runs and bad science fiction/horror movies, BUT WE STILL HAD THE BIG THREE as well.
CBS had WCCO channel 4 as its local affiliate.
NBC had KSTP channel 5 as its local.
And even then, bringing up the rear, ABC had KMSP channel 9 showing its network fare.
As you've noticed, there is a mixture of the ol' "W" and "K" going on here in the call letters. When the FCC began licensing television and radio stations, they began the practice of assigning (requiring) those stations east of the Mississippi to start their four letter designation with the letter "W" and those west of the Big Muddy to start with the letter "K." Seems counter-intuitive to me since west of the divide should be W (duh, for west). But whatever. Many of the earliest stations that had not followed this, were simply "grandfathered" in and did not have to change.
Old AM radio station WREN in Topeka, Kansas immediately springs to mind. You all know that/this, so back to the story.
The Twin Cities sit straddling both sides of the Mighty MissiSIP: East and West. Saint Paul is towards the rising of the Sun (and Wisconsin), while Minneapolis is on the Californy side of the water.
Thus in our fair towns we had plenty of "K's" and "W's." I liked that.
Of course today, the network affiliation in the Twin Cities are not what they were in my day. KSTP is now ABC, KMSP is now FOX, and only WCCO remains as it was: CBS.
[more in due course]

PETE THE PENGUIN, Dave Lee (and Popeye too)

2010-02-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

Dave Lee was a genius. His puppets did not rise to the technical artistry of a Jim Henson, but their personalities were so "real" that they became friends to thousands of kids growing up in the Twin Cities. I call this the "Mr. Rogers Effect."
Lee had started his on-air career back in 1959 on channel 9 (KMSP) but it was in 1962 that he moved to good old WTCN channel 11 at began hosting "Popeye and Pete." This was the standard mix between a host showing animated cartoons AND having on-camera segments to do comedy puppet routines and interact with studio audiences of kids. Dave Lee had a trio of perky puppets. There was "Fragrant the Skunk," "Omar the Alligator" (think Farfel painted green) and the show's hero: "Pete the Penguin." Pete was a feisty (Donald Duck-like sans the indecipherable voice) Penguin who loved pulling the pony-tails of some of the little girl audience members. Dave Lee was very adept at working with kids, rarely if ever did he have Pete pull the hair of a little girl who did not giggle or squeal with honor (no crying is GOOD when you're on the air live). My Dad absolutely loved that segment, as did I, and to this day a rogue evolent schtick consists in pulling the top knots, puppy dog ears, or pony-tails of the little ones who are friends of the Mrs. and me. :)
Anecdotes were told how certain members of the shows crew delighted in taping or even stapling shut the mouth of Omar the Alligator minutes before going on camera. Ahh, the good old days of pranksters.
"Popeye and Pete" was broadcast for a while at 4 pm daily. Young rouge evolent was always there!
I remember once around Christmas time I think, Dave Lee introduced a really spiffy Mechanical Man/robot puppet. I think he looked something like Gerry Anderson's Robert the Robot (of Fireball XL-5 fame).
I'm glad I was there. Memories, unlike cloth and gold, neither rot nor tarnish.

There Is No Way To Tell You How Much I Loved Casey

2010-02-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

WTCN: Mothers' Milk to Minneapolis Monsterkids

2010-02-02T09:17:00.000-08:00