41st Anniversary of the Monkees Movie Head

On this date November 6, 1968 The Monkees movie Head premiered at a private showing to family, friends and industry insider at a Columbia Pictures studio. You can say many things about the picture. Most people that I know don't like the movie. Mainly because the movie lived up to it's claim that if thought you found the meaning to the movie they would just take it back again. If you ever want to know what the young filmakers were producing in the 60's Head is a perfect example.
I recently read a funny story about what happened on the night of the premiere to the film's producer and director, Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson. They were putting stickers all over New York to promote the movie. Then Rafelson saw a cop about to arrest a man for selling chestnuts without a license. Rafelson tried to come to the mans rescue. While he was talking to the policeman, who was wearing a white helmet, Nicholson was behind him trying to put a sticker on the helmet. Just as he was about to put it him the policeman turned around and got the sticker on the side of his face. With that the producer and director, of a movie that was to premiere in an hour, were arrested and taken away in squad cars. Rafelson was tempted to call a radio station to let the word out to help promote the film.
Below is the trailer for the movie.

Werewolf of Woodstock

Here is a clip from the campy fun movie from 1975 the Werewolf of Woodstock. It starts with a farmer who is upset that the hippies ruined his farm for their long concert. After all those years he hasn't gotten over it. He is hit by lightning and that somehow turned him into a werewolf. Now take a few minutes to watch this clip. Whis this was available on DVD.

Cool Ghoul Documentary

To celebrate Halloween here is a documentary on the first horror host that I ever saw. Cincinnati's one and only Cool Ghoul.

Video of the Week: The Uncle Al Show

I was looking for video for a special that aired almost every year in the Cincinnati area when I was a kid. It was a special at Halloween that was hosted by kids show host Uncle Al Lewis, his wife Wanda as Captain Windy and the character of Pal the dog from the show. It had them journeying to a haunted house in some spooky woods. Can't seem to find any video on the special. If you do know where I can finde it please let me know. Till then here is some parts of his show that you can listen to here.

Rocket Robin Hood Volume 1

This DVD set is only available in Canada from Amazon.com. Now I loved this cartoon when I was a kid and would love to have it. However, since it is only available in Canada I am not sure that I would be able to play in on my DVD play made here in the USA. So I almost didn't show it. Then I had to remember that not everyone who reads my blogs only live in America. So here it is for those who live in Canada. It is available on November 24th. Pre-order it by clicking here.

Bruce Lee Ad

Here is a rare TV ad with Bruce Lee plugging his new TV series "The Green Hornet."

The Blackest Breakfast

I saw this at the Weekly Crisis and just had to share it with you here.

Man From Atlantis on DVD

Well they have finally decide to release the Man from Atlantis on DVD. Well at least the pilot film. If you click here you will be taken to the WBshop.com. There you can buy it for $19.95. At present it is only available as a MOD (Manufacture on Demand) I heard about this from TVshowsonDVD.com.

The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry

Click here to read about Gavin MacLeod's new movie called the Secrets of Jonathan Sperry. The above picture I saw on Hollywood.com.

New Background

Have a new background for the site. Hope you like it but if not I understand. I had a hard time finding something as the site covers a variety of subjects. Since most of what we talk about here is things from the 60's and 70's I tried to find something related to those decades. No luck there so since we also cover the music of those decades I tried that and came up with this. Not too bad but still doesn't catch the spirit of the blog. I may change it again if I find something that shows the spirit of the blog better then this one.

Christian Knight Comics and Spire Christian Comics

If you were rasied in a Christian family and a were a comic book fan then you may have grown up reading Spire Christian comics. If so then you may be interested in going to Christian Knight Comics. On that site they have some that you can read on line. Another site that has them on line is Carpsplace.com.

Frito Bandito Commercials

Here are a couple of Frito's Corn Chip Commericals with the Frito Bandito. The character was popular with children till the early 1970's when he was dropped for not being politically correct to sell the chips to children. I liked the character and had one of those erasers that one of these commercials tells about.

Looking for Millie the Model Splash Page #17

I have been contacted by Brian of Blamken.
He said that Roy Thomas is looking for the splash page to Millie the Model #17 for his mag Alter Ego. I woiuld say why but I don't want to give anything away before it is published. I don't have it and can't find a scan of it. If any reader of this blog has one please e-mail me a scan of it and I will get it to Brian who will then get it to Mr. Thomas. The cover above I found on Atlas Tales.

Happy Anniversary to the Monkees

Happy anniversary to the Monkees. Their first TV episode aired today in 1966. Dartman has been celebrating this all month at his site with
his Month of Monkees. Too bad that the month ends today as I was having fun. If you haven't been there please go and catch up. You will enjoy it.
Above is a TV Guide ad that promoted the first season of the show. Below is a clip from the episode "Royal Flush" that aired today in 1966 on NBC.

Double Celebration

We are having a double celebration today as it is my birthday and the second anniversary of my site Mail It To Team Up. Come on in and have a good time. Luke of El Jacone's Comic Book Bunker and Being Carter Hall is taking the coats and hats. Passing out the soft drinks is Brian of Comics in Crisis. Taking care of the tunes is Kent of Forgotten Hits. "Hey Kent! Make sure you play some Monkees songs." Taking care of the grill is Robby Reed of Dial B For Blog and right now he is talking to Adama of Dispatches From The Arrowcave and Paul of Comicbook World. Rob is making like Aquaman out back in the pool. In the family room Marty of the Ephemera site is watching some old movies. Out by the garage John of Pop Culture Safari is tossing horse shoes with David of Superman Fan.Net, Protos of Superhero CD and Jon of Random Acts of Geekery. Well here comes my wife with the cake. So everyone have a piece and enjoy yourself. Here is to another year of blogging fun.

Movies That Made Us...Afraid!

Over at Retrospace they had a post that was movies that made you want to take a shower. This got me to thinking of movies that made you afraid or happy or any other emotions. So I wanted to do a post on that from time to time. Here is one that made everone afraid to take a shower. PSYCHO!!!
The one directed by Hitchcock is the best. In the hands of a lesser director it may have come off as campy and been laughed at. Especially seeing Anthony Perkins in a dress near the end.
The movie became part of Hitchcock's crown jewels and made a star of Anthony Perkins. However, Perkins was typecasted in this role forever. He must not have minded as he was the star of the sequals that were made years later. He also played similar type charaters in other movie and TV shows.
The movie starts out like it is a simple caper movie. Vera Miles is a secretary who steals money from her company so she can afford to get married. You could have gotten a good crime drama out of just this. However, things take a twist when she stops at an out of the way hotel. It is run by Perkins playing Norman Bates. This is the part were audience members got so scared that they wouldn't take a shower for quite some time. Norman enters her room. She can't hear over the sound of the shower. He sneeks upon her and stabs her to death. To this day some people of that generation would rather take a bath then a shower.
Based on the novel by the same name, writer Robert Bloch sold the movie rights to Alfred Hitchcock for $9,000. B grade movied but producers like Roger Corman and others were getting bad reviews but making lots of money. It was also cutting in on major movies made by great directors like Mr. Hitchcock.
Hitchcock liked the story as it started as a simple theft but turned to murder. He liked out the murder in the shower came from out of the blue.
According to Wikipedia the film was nearly censored. Not because of the brutal murder. It was because of glimpses of parts of Janet Leigh's body. Hitchcock waited a few days and resubmitted the film and it was passed without censorship.
Like the B grade slasher movies it got bad reviews. When the movie was a hit beyond anyones wildest dreams it was "re-reviewed" and then they were good. (I have little respect for critics who do this. Stand by what you say to begin with if you really don't like the movie. Some critics did this when Star Wars came out in the 1970's.)

The movie became a popl culture hit and is show in film courses across the nation.

The Best of 1960's TV

AOL has listed the top TV shows of the 1960's. None of these ever cracked the top 3. You can click here to see the list.

This Day in Music History: The Elegants and Little Star

The Elegants were formed in 1956 when a group called The Crescents broke up. Two members, Vito Picone and Carmen Romano of Staten Island, New York, recruited Artie Venosa, Frankie Fardogno and Artie's friend Jimmy Moschella. Now they had a group but no name. They saw the word "elegance" on an advertising billboard. It inspired them to name themselves The Elegants.

For their first song Vito and Artie took Mozart's "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and adapted it into a rock tune they called "Little Star." They signed with local label Hull Records but then it was leased to ABC-Paramount Records. ABC-Paramount was starting a new label. It was released on the APT Record Label and on this day in music history, August 25, 1958, it was the #1 record in the country on the Billboard Charts.

At the time The Elegants were toruing all over the country to promote the song. This ment that they didn't get any studio time to release a follow up record. As a result they never returned to the top 100 again.

They did release other records but not in time to capitalize on the momentum they had with "Little Star." While the group remained together they had obsticles to over come in the membership. Two of them were drafted into the Army. One got married and Vito was laid up for 6 months after an accident. By 1962 The Elegants broke up for good.

Crisis on Earth-Blog: Super Powers 25th Anniversary

Well there is another Crisis on Earth Blog and being that I am a Plastic Man fan was asked to take part. I was all set to do so. However, at the time this was asked of me things were abit up in the air around my house. Also, I have never read the Super Powers series. Aside from an action figure I was told Plas was never in the mini-series. Even his action figure didn't have one of the mini comic books that the others came with. So I didn't know what to write about it. So I bowed out of the project. Still I want to provide links to those who stayed with the project. They are as follows:
Aquaman Shrine
Bat-Blog
Being Carter Hall
Crimson Lightning
Dispatches From the Arrow Cave
Doom Patrol
Firestorm Fan
Fortress of Baileytude
Idol-Head of Diabolu
Justice League Detroit
Love Dat Joker
...nurgh...
Once Upon A Geek
Speed Force
Good luck in this endevor guys. I know that one of the slogans of Crisis on Earth-Blog is "Blogs will live. Blogs will die." Don't think that my blogs have died. If you do another one I would like to be considered to participate.

Archie #600

I just got Archie #600 and I have to say it was a good read. How many people have ever said that about a comic book? Michael Uslan weaved comic book and Archie Saturday morning cartoon nostalgia in and out with flawless artistry. The issue, before publication, actually caused some controversy as it has Archie getting ready to marry Veronica. The mild controversy came as most people figure that he would marry Betty. It is a six issue series so I think they will rectify that before we get to the end. The plot starts with Archie and the gang graduating high school. Then he takes a walk UP, not down, Memory Lane. Archie comes to a fork in the road and takes the left fork. I think he will go back and take the right fork and marry Betty but the time this story ends. At the end of the walk suddenly Archie is graduating college. Now this was the only part that in real life I would find unbelievable. He was graduating college with all of his friends from high school. From what I have seen that almost never happens. There were only a few that I saw in college that I went to high school with and, except for my cousin, I didn't know them that that well. I loved how Dilton felt the love from his friends so much that he didn't want to leave them and how honored he was that Archie ask him to be a part of the wedding party. However, he seemed to have a little inferiority complex when he said if he left Riverdale others would just see him as a nerd. Follow your Dad's advice Dilton and you will make new friends.
People, like myself, grew up with these characters and they seem real to us. Like they are our high school friends too. Mr. Uslan knows that and made it feel like a high school reunion for the readers. I loved this issue and can't wait to see how it ends.

Need New Space

Does anyone know a site where I can store my photos? Blogger tells me I am close to the limit so I switched to photobucket. Now they are telling me the same. Both sites suggest that I pay for an upgrade but I can't afford that. Does anyone know of a site that gives unlimited space? If not I may have to stop blogging or cut back on all of my blogs.

A Month of Monkees by Dartman

No the above album isn't a foreign release of the Monkees second LP. It is an "alternate reality" release and part of Dartman's Month of Monkees celebration at Dartman's World of Wonder. He started it August 12th and will end it on September 12th. That is the anniversary of the first showing of the Monkees TV series. It is really cool and he has some great downloads that may be hard to find. Check it out. Keep it up Dartman.

This Day In Music History: Sonny and Cher and I Got You Babe.

When Salvatore met Cherilyn at a coffee shop no one knew that music history was going to be made. You see this was really the first meeting of Salvatore "Sonny" Bono and Cherilyn "Cher" LaPiere. Later known only as Sonny and Cher.
Sonny had worked in the music business for a few years. He had some hits under his belt that he had written. Now he was the promotion man/background singer/writer for producer Phil Spector. Cher told him she was 18, she was really 16, and wanted to be a singer. Sonny took her to see Phil and got her a job as a background singer on his records. For awhile Sonny tried to get Phil to produce songs for Cher but mostly he refused. So Sonny used his own money to produce one for her. At the last minute Cher got nervous and asked Sonny to sing with her. So they recorded "Baby Don't Go" as a duet. Sonny said the best way he knew to tell if the song was a hit was to see if Phil liked it. If he wanted to buy the song Sonny knew it was a hit. Phil offered $500 for half the rights to the song. It only cost Sonny $135 to record it.
At the time Cher was under contract at Imperial as a solo artist under the name of Cherilyn. She had just released her first solo song titled "Dream Baby." Over at Atlantic Ahmet Ertegun was interested in signing them as a team. Reprise had some of their songs but no contract with the duo. They decided to sign as a duo with Atlantic and their songs would be released on their Atco label.
"I Got You Babe" was their second single for Atco. Sonny was excited and sent the tapes to Ahmet in New York. When he got a call from him Sonny was shocked to hear that "I Got You Babe" would be the B side and the A side would be "It's Gonna Rain." He could not convince him to release the song as the A side. So Sonny took the song to a local Los Angeles radio station. The program director, Ron Jacobs, only agreed to play the song once an hour if he got the song exclusively. The song became a huge local hit and forced Ahmet to release the song as the A side of their second single. It climbed the Billboard charts and became the #1 song in the country on this day in music history August 14, 1965. By the 1970's they got married, had a little girl and were contracted to host a TV show. The song became the theme to their show.
As we all know the marriage didn't last and the couple got divorced. But in November of 1987 the two reunited on the David Letterman show and sang "I Got You Babe" one last time. Fans finally saw that there was no animosity between the two.
A little over ten years later Sonny was killed in a skiing accident in South Lake Tahoe, CA. He was 62 years old.

Jeff Barry and Archie Comics

Hey Jeff Barry fans! Here are a couple of pages from Archie Comics in 1969 with whom Jeff had strong ties to back then. Fans wanted to know more about Mr. Barry and the songs he produced for the Archies. I hate posting these as big as I had to on this one as it cuts off part of the article. But if you click on the picture you can read the whole thing.

Spirit TV Movie

If you were disappointed with last years Spirit movie like I was then you should see the TV movie from 1987. It's star was Sam Jones of the Flash Gordon Movie. You can find it here.

Spire Christian Comics

Over at For God So Loved I will be posting from time to time stories in the Spire Christian Comics Series. Today is a story from Archie's One way. All stories are by the late, great cartoonist Al Hartly.

Archie in the Soft Sell

Here is one of my favorite stories from Archie Comics.

Tina Louise's Wedding

I just saw this photo at Learning to Share. It's great to see the cast of Gilligan's Island in wedding setting. The editor of Learning to Share says it seems odd that thte Professor isn't there. He said he likes to think he is the one taking the picture. I hope so too.

Monkees Teen Beam Ad

Here is an ad for DC Comics teen mag that was short-lived. The Monkees were popular in their magazine as they were in others back then.

David McCallum

If you are only familier with him as Ducky on NCIS then it may be a surprise to you that David McCallum was something of a sex symbol in the 1960's. He was the co-star of the spy drama "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." He played Russian agent Illya Kuryakin. He almost didn't get on the show. After the network viewed the pilot they asked that one actor be recast. The Network was referring to Mr. McCallum. The series creator and producer was thinking of recasting the agents boss Mr. Waverly and thought they ment him. So there was no arguement with the request. The executives were surprised to later see Mr. McCallum in the first show. When teenage girls became fans of the show as they were attracted to him the ratings went up and made the show a hit.
Years later,after the show left the air, the creator of the show met one of the network executives at a party. They finally talked about the mix up. The network executive said it was the best mistake that was ever made for the network. Below is an ad for a pin-up that was selling in comic books and magazines at that time.

Rest in Peace Gordon Waller

People who follow this blog know that I am a fan of broadcasting espically the early days. So it may come as a surprise that this posting isn't about Walter Cronkite. I want to express my sorrow to another icon. One of those from the music world of the 1960's Gordon Waller. He is more popular as Gordon from the duo of Peter and Gordon.
I can't believe that it was 3 years ago that I mentioned their reunion here. At that time they had renewed their battle against "A World Without Love." This past weekend the world lost one of it's musical soliders in that battle. On July 17th Mr. Waller died of cardiac arrest.
In the music world Mr. Waller's career seemed to be overshadowed by his friend and partner Peter Asher. Gordon looked like the high school Quarterback teaming up with the school nerd. It looked like Joe Montana joining with Bill Gates.
Gordon had the deep baritone voice that gave their songs the solid rock foundation that every group needs. Yet it was Peter who overshadowed Gordon with his connection to the Beatles. Peter's sister Jane was Paul McCartney's girlfirend. Thanks to that connection they had the songwriting talent of Lennon-McCartney behind them. With Paul's help they got a recording contract. Still no matter how big your connection is in the business you have to have talent to stay there and keep cranking out the hits. They had that talent and someone somewhere releases the Greatest Hits of Peter and Gordon for record buyers.
I am surprised that when they split up that Gordon didn't have a big career in country music. Yes I said country. Everytime I heard about any new releases that he had, it always seemed country flavored. His first solo album was a country album. For some reason he never became the big solo musical star. Yet Peter went behind the scenes and became famous as a producer and manager of stars like James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and others. Even after their split Peter still seemed to overshadow Gordon.
Now Gordon had the bad luck to die the same weekend as Walter Cronkite. Overshadowed even in his death. I was recently over at Gordon's official site and heard part of his latest song "Rebel Rider." The last line I heard him sing was "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone." I never knew you Gordon but I do miss you.

Archie

If you miss Archie being in your local newspaper like I do then here is what todays installment is for this strip.

Video of the Week: The Odd Couple Opera

Closing out the week is another segment from the Odd Couple Sings. This is the Odd Couple Opera. It is ofer 10 minutes and took up most of the second side of the album. It is basically one of the episodes set to music. I liked it and I hope you do too. I have chosen this as the video of the week.