A Bit More Balloon Hooha and Some Halloween Links - 2009-10-22 18:19:33
<<< Previous - Balloon Hooha and Mythbusters | Next - A Few More Odd, Creepy, and Somewhat Seasonal Links >>>With all the hooha going on about Balloon Boy, now's a good time to read up on the case of
Jackie Coogan, who most television viewers will remember as Uncle Fester of the
Addams Family*. Coogan was a child star in silent films whose parents squandered his earnings - they literally used up millions of dollars, leaving Coogan nothing when he reached adulthood. The case prompted California to pass
The California Child Actor's Bill, also known as the Coogan Act. I'm hoping that the case of Balloon Boy will bring about similar legislation. I'm also thinking that the eight children in the TLC show
Jon and Kate might also need a bit of outside supervision/help. In any case, it's time again for some television oversight, either with state legislation or industry self policing (which has worked in some cases, when the industry gets nervous enough about the potential harshness of legislation).
On a more lighthearted note -
Balloon Boy Halloween costume. And via
Game Politics I found this
Balloon Boy Game where you float around and see how many tax dollars you can waste. In theory I could embed the game here...but I don't feel like being that trusting.
This list was particularly fun, for those of you into comics:
Down For The Count: Dracula's Greatest Comics Appearances
Chris Sims, Comics Alliance, 10/13/2009
"....Dell Comics Dracula
If Batman's original look was inspired by Dracula, then we're pretty sure that the super-heroic Dell Comics version, who made his debut in 1966 at the height of Batman's TV popularity, evened the score on that front. This Dracula was a descendant of the original who gained super-powers through the miracle of SCIENCE! and decided to come to America because, as seen above, nobody in America knew the name "Dracula" in 1966. And bear with us, because it just gets crazier from there.
Once in America, he sets up a "Dracula Cave," adopts the secret identity of -- wait for it -- Al U. Card, dedicates himself to battling the rampant scourge of zeppelin crime (which actually does sound awesome, but trust us, it's not) and even manages to rustle up a sidekick, Fleeta, whose name is short for "fleidermaus." Unsurprisingly, it lasted for only three issues before it was given the axe, though his series went for another three issues of reprints that gave the world a second chance at his mind-numbing adventures. They probably shouldn't have bothered."
You really need to go look at the illustrations to fully appreciate that one.
Oh, and before Captain Kirk fought Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula showed up...
Kevin Church, BeaucoupKevin.com, 02.12.09
Proof that yes, in the Star Trek comic Kirk actually did go up against Dracula. I would love to know how this one ended.
This Stuff Sucks: The Worst (And Weirdest) Vampire Products
Chris Sims, Comics Alliance, 10/21/2009
Totally worth reading if only to laugh at the $100 wooden stake that apparently some folk will buy as a bit of
Buffy memorabilia. Oh sorry, it's actually called a "Stake Replica." Some of the items on this list are totally
Not Safe For Work - you have been warned. I was kind of horrified by some of them - you'll immediately be able to guess which ones, trust me.
From Jigsaw to Leprechaun: Horror movies' lamest villains
Andy Grieser, Zap2it
(Random thoughts on the contents of this list to follow!) I really wanted to love Attack of the Killer Tomatoes more - but the joke really wasn't enough to carry it for the whole film. But it's a great movie to leave on in the background of a party. Meanwhile it's thanks to
USA Up! All Night that I've seen many of these films. Not sure if that's a recommendation or not. ...One of the
Critters films has a plot summary that I once read in TV Guide that I still remember some 20 years later: "Hungry hairballs from outer space land in Kansas and eat a cow." When you remember that TV Guide writers were working with a limited amount of space to explain each film/program - well, that summary is almost artful. And accurate. ...Now I'm wondering - if you kill
The Gingerdead Man, if you then eat him is that cannibalism? I mean, he is made of gingerbread after all. Even if he is, in reality, Gary Busey. ...George Hamilton's Dracula may be on this list, but I remember
that film fondly anyway, even though the jokes are fairly corny. But then it's no surprise that Dracula plus disco equals deep dish cheese.
I've never seen any of the Saw movies, and I'm not really interested in them. But I was amused with this interview, where Tobin Bell makes out the killer as more thoughtful and intellectual than I think might be the case.
Saw VI’s Tobin Bell on Torture Porn and the Barren Frontier of the Jigsaw Killer
Mark Graham, NY Magazine, 10/22/09
"It's been a few summers since the media got worked up about films like Saw and Hostel, which were, at the time, labeled as "torture porn." How did you feel during the time when that was a hot-button issue, and what did you think about the groups of people who derided your work on cable talk shows?
I understand it, I'm not stupid, I know where they're coming from. But as an artist, my job is not to make moral judgments. Violence has existed in art since the dawn of time. Look at Guernica and the Spanish Civil War. Whatever exists in the human condition, whatever is possibly true, it's fair game for someone to take a brush and put up a canvas and interpret it. It's up to the viewer whether they want to go see it or not. Frankly, I'm much more concerned with the violence in the real world than I am with violence in art. If you don't want to see it, don't go! And, of course, it's always up to parents to make decisions regarding what they want their children to see. I talk to people who have 8-year-olds who have seen these movies and they're fine with it. And I talk to other people who wouldn't have their kids look at it in a million years."
Someday I need to catch one of the Saw films on tv. Just to see if indeed the killer is anything more than
Freddy or
Jason or any other of the
thrill ride type of movie monsters/killers. I'm not against that sort of thing - but I'm not into excess blood. I prefer being scared via suspense, not the gross out method.
One of the silent movie stars who always makes me think of Halloween is
Theda Bara. Partly it's because of her make up and some of the type of photos she seemed to pose for, and partly it's because she was known as the "
vamp" - which was once slang for "femme fatale" or vampiress. In other words, she worked hard to have that spooky sort of image.
If looks could kill: Theda Bara had a bulbous nose, an overbite and a squint - yet she was a star of silent movies.
Kira Cochrane, The Guardian, 10 January 2008
"It's mean to say it, but here goes: one of the things that has always fascinated me about the actors of the silent era, especially the sex symbols, is just how plain, ordinary, even ugly, many of them are. Francis X Bushman, for instance, star of the original 1925 Ben-Hur, may have gloried in publicity pegging him as "The Handsomest Man in the World", but photographs suggest he was in fact a baggy-eyed bloke with bushy eyebrows and an improbably long nose. Rudolph Valentino, the man whose untimely death from peritonitis in 1926 caused mass hysteria and fainting among his female fans, wasn't actually all that much of a looker. I'm not saying he was ugly. But gorgeous enough to cause two women to commit suicide on news of his death, as was alleged? It's debatable.
The silent star who fascinates me the most in this respect, though, is Theda Bara. In a short career, largely played out between 1914-19, Bara became a massive star, her popularity at one stage second only to Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. But unlike Pickford (America's fresh-faced sweetheart), Bara's success was based on her reputation as a "vamp", a woman so cruelly attractive that she could ensnare any man, exploit him, trample him, and walk away with an enormous grin on her face. Bara became so synonymous with the term that she is now referred to as the original on-screen vamp, the woman who made performances such as that of Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box, Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity and Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction possible.
I have read biographies of Bara and pored over her still photographs, and found it hard to fathom her appeal. Her figure isn't bad, though it could most accurately be described as "matronly". She has a bulbous nose, an overbite and a definite squint (she was extremely short-sighted). Just what was it that so enraptured audiences?
I found out this week, while watching one of Bara's only surviving films..."
So you can judge for yourself:
Francis X Bushman (other photos
here),
Valentino (other photos
here). Those links I've added in parentheses are to a particularly interesting site,
Doctor Macro's High Quality Movie Scans - a great collection of publicity photos of movie stars, many from the silent era. Here's the page for
Bara. Note the links to more images in the upper right corner of the page. For example, I'm sure
this image of Bara was supposed to be frightening, but now it's just worth a smile. Some of the photos on
this page (tame, but probably
Not Safe for Work) - will definitely show you why Bara would be considered to have a figure not typical of today's film stars. She apparently didn't wear much for her role as Cleopatra.
_____________________________________
* In sad news, for those of us who are into television history:
Vic Mizzy dies at 93; film and TV composer wrote 'Addams Family' theme song
Dennis McLellan, LA Times, October 20, 2009
"Vic Mizzy, a film and television composer best known for writing the memorable theme songs for the 1960s sit-coms "Green Acres" and "The Addams Family," has died. He was 93.
...Then came an offbeat assignment: “The Addams Family,” the 1964-66 TV series based on Charles Addams' macabre magazine cartoons and starring John Astin as Gomez Addams and Carolyn Jones as his wife, Morticia.
For his theme song, Mizzy played a harpsichord, which gives the theme its unique flavor. And because the production company, Filmways, refused to pay for singers, Mizzy sang it himself and overdubbed it three times. The song, memorably punctuated by finger-snapping, begins with: "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're altogether ooky: the Addams family.""
Theme music may seem like a little thing, but often it sets the mood for the whole show, and when it's popular and catchy such music can have real staying power. Many, many of us who grew up when these shows were on can easily sing these songs. I have the
CD of Mizzy's music used on the Addam's Family - which was more than just the theme, and included some nice harpsichord numbers. And if you think about it, it's not just every day that a television show uses the harpsichord.
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