THE CRYPT OF YESTERYEAR

Catherine Bach -- The Dukes of Hazard

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:28:00 +0000

New entry at the Crypt of Yesteryear II; Catherine Bach (the Dukes of Hazard)

LINK Crypt of Yesteryear II, Catherine Back

DUSK TILL DAWN -- one of THE best vampire films

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 07:42:00 +0000

Follow the link to "the new" Crypt of Yesteryear for the entry...

DUSK TILL DAWN on Crypt of Yesteryear 2

Adrienne Barbeau - LINK to the NEW Crypt of Yesteryear entry

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 20:46:00 +0000

Ok, so there were several entries whose pictures mysteriously vanished...one of them was an entry over Adrienne Barbeau and The Swamp Thing---here's the "new" Adrienne Barbeau entry which can be found at the end of the following link...

NEW-- the Crypt of Yesteryear II

something has gone awry

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 05:03:00 +0000

I have decided to switch over to a new site...well, it's still a blogger, just a different URL actually.

As I went through the blog, I noticed some of the entries did not have their pictures; apparently they have been deleted somehow, maybe I accidently did it, or something else happened, I don't know.

Please follow the link to the "new" site...though I will continue, in a limited way, to use this site.

New Crypt of Yesteryear II

we all loved you, John

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 03:04:00 +0000

John Lennon; Oct. 9, 1940 - Dec 8, 1980

I can remeber that day very well, I was on my way home from a date, the radio station had been playing a bunch of The Beatles music and a lot of John Lennon's music, and I wondered why. The answer came when the announcer switched over to a New York City station, and the news reporter stated that John Lennon had been assinated.
At first I couldn't believe it, there was just no way. I pulled to the shoulder of the highway to listen to the news. When I got home, my dad met me at the door; "John Lennon has been assinated..." he told me.
All I could do was just stand there, not believing it, not understanding what in hell had happened. We both watched the news story on tv about what had happened...
For those of us who grew up listening to The Beatles and listening to John's music, it was a most tragic sensation, knowing that one of our heros had been assinated.

Paige Davis { Trading Spaces }

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 05:23:00 +0000

Mindy Paige Davis (born October 15, 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), billed as Paige Davis, is an American actress best known as a host of the reality television series Trading Spaces.

The New York Post had reported in its "Page Six" column that Davis exposed her thong and permitted onlookers to touch her body. Davis responded to the story on the TLC message boards, writing that she had been dressed "...in a very modest, almost demure, yellow dress, cut to my sternum." She acknowledged that she had "flip[ped] [her] skirt for a second" and said that she "kept all of [her] clothes on at all times." She went on to characterize the article as "rumor and exaggeration" in its description of the event. The Post responded after Star magazine published three pictures of the event in their July 2, 2004, issue, noting that the photos showed Davis in poses that appeared to confirm the Post's version of the story. However, both Davis and the network insisted there was no connection between the controversies and the format change, which the network described as a decision to take the show "in a new creative direction."^[7] Davis subsequently signed a multi-year agreement with television syndication company King World Productions/CBS to develop new scripted and reality programming, including a deal to co-star in a daytime television program with interior designer Nate Berkus, but nothing came to air.

She has been representing RC Willey furniture stores in Sacramento California area for the past few years.

LINKS Wikipedia- Paige Davis

paige davis home site

paige davis info

Tarzan and His Mate (1934)

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:52:00 +0000

Tarzan and His Mate (1934) is a Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was the second in the Tarzan film series to star Johnny Weissmuller.
In 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The film begins with Tarzan and Jane Parker living in the Jungle. Henry Holt, with business partner Marlin Arlington, meet up with them on their way to take ivory from an elephant burial ground. Holt tries to convince Jane, who was with him on his first trip to the jungle, to return with him by bringing her gifts from civilization including clothing and modern gadgets but she tells them she'd rather stay with Tarzan.

Later, when Tarzan refuses to let the men take ivory from the burial ground he is shot by Arlington and left for dead. Jane, thinking Tarzan is dead, contemplates leaving the jungle. Meanwhile, Cheeta and his ape friends nurse Tarzan back to health in time for him to stop the men who shot him.

Directed by
Cedric Gibbons
Jack Conway (uncredited co-director)
James C. McKay (uncredited)
Produced by Bernard H. Hyman

Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (characters)

Starring
Johnny Weissmuller
Maureen O'Sullivan
Neil Hamilton
Paul Cavanagh

Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) April 16, 1934 (premiere)
Running time 104 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,279,142 (estimated)

in honor of vets on Veteran's Day 11/11/2010

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:54:00 +0000

Prayer on Veterans Day

"Dear Lord Jesus Christ,
those whom we honor today are examples
of your words:
"Greater love than this no one has:
that he lay down his life for his friends."

They gave up their lives in the defense of freedom
for their loved ones and their country.

Teach me to appreciate the virtue of patriotism --
a true and Christian love of country.
Let me love my country, not to follow it blindly but to make it
the land of goodness that it should be.
Let my patriotism be such that it will not exclude
the other nations of the world,
but include them in a powerful love of country
that has room for all others too."
St. Joseph People's Prayer Book

My dad; General Patton's Third Army, XX Corps. (I believe)...33rd Ordnance Company

The end of the line...the war won, this is where my dad ended his duty...before he came home.

the Beatles -- 2 versions of album cover for YESTERDAY & TODAY and John/Yoko's TWO VIRGINS

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 03:10:00 +0000

Above: the original album cover, as the Beatles wanted.

Above: the "censored" album cover...notice their sour and somewhat disapointed expressions, as compared to the original.

I was too young when the Beatles released their Yesterday and Today album, but a few years later I was introduced to a controversy about that album.
See, there were two versions, the original one which came to be known as "The Butcher Album Cover" was of the group wearing white smocks, with chunks of beef and baby dolls...the record company seriously argued that it was unacceptable, that people would be repelled by such a cover.
The Beatles went back into the photo studio and redid the shot, this time with Paul sitting inside of a steamer trunk.
From some of the stories I have read, John really did not want to redo the cover, he wanted the previous one, regardless of what the record company insisted. Paul of course went along with this, as did the rest of the group.

How interesting that many years later, John and Yoko would be censored for their Two Virgins album, where they had two portraits...John and Yoko standing totally nude. This album however was wrapped in brown paper, with just their faces showing, or at least that is what I read somewhere. Of course when it comes to this particular censorship, I believe that possibly the record company was correct in their insistence on covering it up.

Perhaps society was not ready for what they considered a "regular" rock band, like the early Beatles were---to be posed like they were for the "butcher album cover," and people would not accept them. The question was, did the record company censor the Yesterday and Today album cover because of record sales and the possible repercussions against The Beatles for a perceived "unacceptance" of them?

We'll never really know what the real reasons for the censorship of the album cover for Yesterday and Today...but the censorship for John and Yoko's Two Virgins is quite simple and aptly correct: John's desire to buck the system and be controversial was most likely the biggest reason for the album cover, and it was, alas, a correct censorship.

Below; the front and back cover of John and Yoko's Two Virgins

random "retro" movie posters #01

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:14:00 +0000

This is a short collection of some "retro" movies, most are from the 1960s, there's also the 1950s and even one from the 1930s...

above, French, 1973

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above, German, 1971

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above, French, 1979

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above, 1957

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above, 1961

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above, 1973

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above, 1965

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Italian/French, 1953

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German, date not known

German, 1973

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from 1974

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This movie was made in 1933...talk about ahead of their time! lol

two cool science fiction films

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:52:00 +0000

Here are posters for two cool science-fiction films; The Time Machine {1960} and The Incredible Shrinking Man {1957}...

The Time Machine (also known as H.G. Wells' The Time Machine) is a 1960 British science fiction film based on H. G. Wells's 1895 novel of the same name about a man from Victorian England who constructs a time travelling machine and uses it to travel to the future. It starred Rod Taylor, Alan Young and Yvette Mimieux.

The film was produced by George Pal, who also filmed a 1953 version of Wells' The War of the Worlds. Pal always wanted to make a sequel to his 1960 film, but it was not remade until 2002 when Wells' great-grandson Simon Wells, working with executive producer Arnold Leibovit, directed a film with the same title.

The film received an Oscar for time-lapse photographic effects showing the world changing rapidly.

In 1985, elements of this film were incorporated into The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, produced by Arnold Leibovit.

Rod Taylor as George (H. George Wells, as written on the time machine)

Alan Young as David Filby/James Filby
Yvette Mimieux as Weena
Sebastian Cabot as Dr. Philip Hillyer
Tom Helmore as Anthony Bridewell
Whit Bissell as Walter Kemp
Doris Lloyd as Mrs. Watchett
Paul Frees as Voice of the Rings

LINK
Wikipedia; The Time Machine

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his novel The Shrinking Man.

Scott Carey (Grant Williams), is a businessman who is on vacation on a boat, off the Californian coast, with his 5ft 8in wife Louise, when he suddenly is contaminated by a radioactive cloud and pesticide. At the time, Louise was below deck getting refreshments, so she wasn't affected.

He subsequently thinks little of the cloud, and doesn't appear to have been affected by it. At the time, Scott is 6ft 2in tall and weighed 190 pounds.

However, one morning, six months later, Scott notices that his shirt seems too big. He blames it on the cleaners. However, this trend continues, and Scott believes he is shrinking. At first Louise dismisses his fears as silly, but he continues to lose weight and height. Noticeably, this is shown when he looks his wife, previously six inches shorter than he, in the eye.

Scott visits a prominent research laboratory, and after numerous tests, learns the mist carried radioactive pesticides, causing his cells to shrink.

LINK
Wikipedia; The Incredible Shrinking Man

great classic tv shows

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:24:00 +0000

Ok, so these are shows from my childhood...I'm a Baby Boomer, and these shows were the top of the game. Most Baby Boomers watched these same TV shows, when we were all growing up. Back in the late 1950s onwards into the mid-1970s...the shows on TV were adventurous all because it was, in its own way, a new medium and everything was basically open...well, ok, there were taboo topics and there were censors. But the following TV shows were a vanguard of what was supposed to come, however as history will tell us, when it comes to TV shows which were representations of such things as World War II...somewhere along the line, the TV executives failed to learn anything of value, and programs like Combat! went out the door.

Above: Rick James (left), as Lt. Gil Hanley and right, the incredible actor, Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders

Bronze statue of Sgt. Chip Saunders by Michael Keropian Link to Statue

Combat! is an American television program that aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. (The exclamation point in "Combat!" was a stylized bayonet.) Created by Robert Pirosh, Combat! ran for five seasons, of which the first four are in black and white, with a move to color for the final season. The show covered the lives of a squad of American soldiers in France during World War II. Although the series ran five seasons, King Company never fought its way out of France. CBS Television Distribution (inherited from ABC Films, Worldvision Enterprises and Paramount Television) owns American television distribution rights to the series, while Disney-ABC International Television has international rights—original producer and copyright holder Selmur Productions was a division of ABC. On the US DVD releases, the copyright to the series was credited to Buena Vista Television (now ABC Studios).

LINK Wikipedia; Combat!

It ran on TV; 10/2/1962- 8/29/1967 on ABC

Black and White/Color 152 episodes

Cast Rick Jason as Lieutenant Gil Hanley

Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders

Pierre Jalbert as Caje

Jack Hogan as William G. Kirby

Dick Peabody as Littlejohn

William Bryant as McCall (1966-67)

Conlan Carter as Doc (1963-67)

Shecky Greene as Braddock (1962-63)

Tom Lowell as Billy Nelson (1962-64)

Steven Rogers as Doc (1962-63)

LINK Tim'a TV Showcase

A personal note; my father, who served in the General George Patton's 3rd Army, during World War II used to watch Combat! with me when it was on TV. He used to make remarks on just how much it reflected the way a lot of the soldiers were, and felt, back during the war and how accurate it all seemed to be. In his own way, this was a glowing recommendation on how great the TV show was (as compared to the very bogus TV show, Hogan's Heroes).

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Robert Lansing as Brigadier General Frank Savage (season 1)

Robert Lansing, Paul Burke, Frank Overton, Chris Robinson, Andrew Duggan, Barney Phillips, Lou Gallo, John Larkins Twelve O'Clock High or 12 O'Clock High is an American drama series set in World War II. It aired on ABC for three seasons from September 18, 1964, to January 13, 1967, and was based on the 1949 motion picture of the same name. As with most television programs, Twelve O'Clock High was created in episodic form. There is no particular order in which the episodes have to be watched. A trio of episodes produced about a shuttle raid to North Africa were in fact never aired in story order.
The stories themselves were often based more on character drama than action, usually involving individuals who felt the need to redeem themselves in the eyes of others. Other story lines focused on actual war events, such as the development of bombing through cloud cover using radar and the complexities of operating a large fleet of (often malfunctioning) B-17 bombers.
Much of the filming was carried out on the Chino Airport, east of Los Angeles. Chino had been a World War II Air Corps training field, and the combination of long, heavy-duty runways and (at the time) wide open farmland for miles in any direction was rapidly turning the field into a haven for World War II aviation enthusiasts and their restored aircraft. P-51s, P-47s, P-38s, Corsairs, B-26s and F6Fs could be found roosting here, along with a vintage B-17 Flying Fortress, used in 12 O'Clock High.
This belonged to Ed Maloney's Air Museum. The 1966 segments had ex-RCAF pilot Lynn Garrison coordinating the aerial footage. He had been drawn to the project by his friend Robert Lansing. Garrison had his personal P-51 that would be used in the series to cut costs. B-17 E and G models (with chin turret) were used interchangeably. The inclusion of actual combat and crash footage often resulted in tail designations of aircraft changing between shots.

LINK Wikipedia; 12 O'Clock High

The show ran September 18, 1964 through January 13, 1967 Cast Robert Lansing Paul Burke Frank Overton Chris Robinson Andrew Duggan Barney Phillips Lou Gallo John Larkins

etc LINKS:
Aero Vintage; 12 O'Clock High

12 O'Clock High TV

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The Rat Patrol is an American television program that aired on ABC during the 1966–1968 seasons. The show follows the exploits of four (three American and one British) Allied soldiers who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II. Their mission: "to attack, harass and wreak havoc on Field Marshal Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps".

LINK Wikipedia; Rat Patrol

The show was inspired by and loosely modelled on the New Zealand/British/Rhodesian Long Range Desert Group, which used modified trucks armed with machine guns as their transport through the treacherous desert terrain, and Popski's Private Army. The title of the program refers to the nicknames given to some of the British Commonwealth forces in the North African campaign (Rats of Tobruk or Desert Rats). Consequently, at the time of original telecast many English viewers took offense at the dominance of American characters on the program, the result being that the show was pulled from British television.

Cast
Christopher George
Gary Raymond
Lawrence P. Casey
Justin Tarr

Eric Braeden

etc LINKS

TV Rage; The Rat Patrol

TV Acres - Rat Patrol

Tim's TV Showcase; The Rat Patrol

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Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. Starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood, the series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. Rawhide was the fifth-longest-running American television Western, beaten only by eight years of Wagon Train, nine years of The Virginian, fourteen years of Bonanza, and twenty years of Gunsmoke. Set in the 1860s, Rawhide portrays the challenges faced by the men of a cattle drive. There are 20-25 riders looking after 3,000 head of cattle. Gil (short for Gilbert Favor, ep 181) revealed this is about the maximum manageable size for a herd of cows. The cattle drive begins in San Antonio, Texas, and makes its way along the Sedalia Trail (Sedalia, the final destination, is in Missouri about 50 miles east from Kansas City).

The herd is estimated to be worth about $50–60,000 if sold at market and represents a pool of cattle from approximately 200 owners. The Trail Boss carries a considerable sum of cash for all necessities and all possible emergencies. Pay was a dollar a day and "all you can eat" for the drovers.
Riding "drag" was often a punishment since it was behind the herd, so you'd pick up all their dust. Drives had a "Remuda", a pool of extra horses. If something happened to a man's horse, he would be no good without an instant replacement.
Usually the episode would be introduced by Gil Favor but sometimes by others. The typical Rawhide story involved drovers, portrayed by Eric Fleming (Trail Boss Gil Favor) and Clint Eastwood (ramrod Rowdy Yates), coming upon people on the trail and getting drawn into solving whatever problem they presented or were confronting.
Sometimes one of the members of the cattle drive or some of the others would venture into a nearby town and encounter some trouble from which they needed to be rescued. Rowdy Yates was young and at times impetuous in the earliest episodes and Favor had to keep a tight rein on him. Favor was a savvy and strong leader who always played "square" with his fellow men. He was a tough customer who could handle the challenges and get the job done. (Producer Charles Warren called on the diary written in 1866 by trail boss George C. Duffield to shape the character of Favor). Although Favor had the respect and loyalty of the men who worked for him, there were a few times when people, including Yates, were insubordinate under him after working too hard or after receiving a good tongue lashing.
Favor had to fight at times and almost always won. Some of the stories were obviously easier in production terms but the peak form of the show was convincing and naturalistic, and sometimes brutal. Its situations could range from parched plains to anthrax, ghostly riders to wolves, cattle raiding, bandits, murderers, and so forth.

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The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white, ran on ABC, from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963, a production of Four Star Television. It was also the first series ever to have a widowed parent raise a child.

According to network publicists, the series was set in the 1880s. There are also numerous episodes where the date is given in the 1880s. A wooden plaque next to the home stated that it was rebuilt by Lucas McCain and his son Mark in August 1881.
Westerns were popular when The Rifleman premiered, and producers struggled to find gimmicks to distinguish one show from another. The Rifleman's gimmick was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle with a trigger mechanism allowing for rapid-fire shots. Despite the anachronism of a Model 1892 in the 1880s, Connors demonstrated its rapid-fire action during the opening credits as McCain dispatched an unseen villain on North Fork's main street. Although the rifle may have appeared in every episode, it was not always fired, as some plots did not lend themselves to violent solutions, e.g., a cruel teacher at Mark's one-room school. There were several episodes where McCain dispatched the bad guys without the use of the rifle at all and he once threw the rifle to knock his opponent off his horse instead of killing him because he was a friend.
In one episode McCain even "spiked" the barrel of his own gun when he knew it was going to fall into the hands of the villain so that it would backfire. McCain was also well versed in the use of a six gun although he did not own one and this aspect was rarely shown.
LINK

Wikipedia; The Rifleman

CAST

Chuck Connors
Johnny Crawford
Paul Fix

etc LINKS

TV Party; The Rifleman

Watch Mojo- The Rifleman

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Wanted; Dead or Alive

Wanted: Dead or Alive is an American Western television show
starring Steve McQueen that ran for three seasons from 1958 to 1961. The series was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown (1957-59), a western TV series featuring Robert Culp as a Texas Ranger. The series made McQueen the first television star to cross over "to comparable status on the big screen.
Confederate States of America Army veteran Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) is a bounty hunter with a relatively soft heart. He often donates his earnings to the needy, and will help his prisoners if they have been wrongly accused. Randall carries a shortened Winchester 1892 Model carbine, called the "Mare's Leg," in a holster patterned after "gunslinger" rigs then popular
in movies and television.

LINK

Wikipedia; Wanted Dead or Alive

One of the best lines in an episode was when someone comments on the size of his gun (which was in fact a sawn off rifle), to which he responds, "I'm just a little bitty feller, I need a big gun."

etc LINKS

50's Web- Wanted Dead or Alive

Crazy About TV - Wanted Dead or Alive

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Have Gun — Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated either number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings during each year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version.

The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. Have Gun — Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series (several were written by Gene Roddenberry), of which 101 were directed by Andrew McLaglen and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.

Paladin — whose real name was never revealed — took on his role by happenstance, a backplot revealed in the first episode of the final season. To pay off a gambling IOU, he was forced to hunt down and kill a mysterious gunman named Smoke, who was played by Boone himself without his moustache and with grey-white hair. Smoke gave the Paladin character his nickname, facetiously calling him "a noble paladin." The question turned out to be doubly ironic, as Smoke revealed in his death scene that he was not a criminal gunfighter, but protected the nearby town from the man who had sent Paladin. Paladin adopted Smoke's black costume and confronted the other man when he arrived. It was implied that Paladin killed him. The episode was unusually allegorical and mythical for a popular Western in 1962.
Paladin charged steep fees for his services — typically a thousand dollars a job. His primary weapon was a custom-made .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army revolver that was perfectly balanced and of excellent craftsmanship. It had a one-ounce trigger pull and a rifled barrel.The accuracy was "one inch to the right at fifty feet."
The show followed the adventures of "Paladin" (no other name is ever given), a gentleman gunfighter (played by Richard Boone on television, and by John Dehner on radio), who preferred to settle problems without violence; yet, when forced to fight, excelled. Paladin lived in the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco, where he dressed in formal attire, ate gourmet food, and attended the opera. In fact, many who met him initially mistook him for a dandy from the East. When working, he dressed in black, carried a derringer under his belt, used calling cards with a chess knight emblem, and wore a conventional cowboy ammunition belt and pistol holster with the same chess knight symbol attached to the holster.
The knight symbol is in reference to his name — possibly a nickname or working name — and his occupation as a champion-for-hire (see Paladin). The theme song of the series refers to him as "a knight without armor." In addition, Paladin drew a parallel between his methods and the chess piece's movement: "It's a chess piece, the most versatile on the board. It can move in eight different directions, over obstacles, and it's always unexpected." Paladin's routine switch from the expensive light-colored suit of his genteel urbane persona in San Francisco to his alter ego who wears all-black attire for quests into the lawless and barren Western frontier is also a chess reference.
Paladin was a former Army officer and a graduate of West Point. He was a polyglot, capable of speaking any foreign tongue required by the plot. He also had a thorough knowledge of ancient history and classical literature, and he exhibited a strong passion for legal principles and the rule of law.

LINK
Wikipedia; Have Gun, Will Travel

etc LINKS

50's Web - Have Gun, Will Travel

Have Gun, Will Travel {site}

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Dragnet, syndicated as Badge 714, is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet was perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama in media history. The series gave millions of audience members a feel for the boredom and drudgery, as well as the danger and heroism, of real-life police work. Dragnet earned praise for improving the public opinion of police officers.
The original Dragnet starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Friday ran on radio from June 3, 1949 to February 26, 1957 and on television from December 16, 1951 to August 23, 1959, and from January 12, 1967 to April 16, 1970. All of these versions ran on NBC. There were three Dragnet feature films, a straight adaptation starring Webb in 1954; a TV-movie produced in 1966; and a comedy spoof in 1987. There were also television revivals, without Webb, in 1989 and 2003. A newspaper comic strip version of Dragnet, written by Jack Webb and Joe Scheiber, ran in newspapers from about 1952 to 1955.

LINK
Wikipedia; Dragnet

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Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner. At one time, the show was "television's most successful and longest-running lawyer series."
Each episode's format is essentially the same: the first half of the show usually depicts the prospective murder victim as being deserving of homicide, often with Perry's client publicly threatening to kill the victim; the body is found (often by Perry and his investigator, Paul Drake, who through circumstance happen to stumble upon the body) surrounded by clues pointing to Perry's client. Perry's client is charged with murder, but (in the second-half courtroom setting) Perry establishes his client's innocence by dramatically demonstrating the guilt of another character.The murderer nearly always breaks down and confesses to the crime in the courtroom – if not on the witness stand, then in the arms of the bailiff, who blocks the murderer's effort to escape into the hallway.
In most episodes, the identity of the guilty party was discovered without an actual trial being held. Instead, this occurred at the preliminary hearing stage, wherein the district attorney was only required to produce enough evidence to convince the judge that the defendant should be bound over for trial (this spared the company the expense of twelve extras in a jury box).^[5] During this stage, other malefactors (blackmailers, frauds, forgers, etc.) were frequently forced into confessions by Perry's relentless and clever questioning, and the real killer was exposed. At this point, it is common for the camera to zoom in on the faces of the potentially guilty (visibly uncomfortable in their seats) as Perry slowly but surely moves to the climactic identification of the real murderer, who confesses, often to the accompaniment of a kettledrum-laden orchestral score, followed by a fadeout to black, symbolizing the defeat and oblivion meted out by Perry Mason. In the closing scene (the epilogue), the characters often gather together, to discuss how the case was solved. Occasionally, Perry invites District Attorney Hamilton Burger and police Lt. Arthur Tragg to join them.
LINK
Wikipedia; Perry Mason

etc LINK

50's Web; Perry Mason

CAST

Perry Mason — defense attorney (played by Raymond Burr)

Della Street — Mason's confidential secretary (played by Barbara Hale)

Paul Drake — private investigator (played by William Hopper)

Hamilton Burger — District Attorney (played by William Talman)

Lieutenant Arthur Tragg — Police homicide investigator (played by Ray Collins)

Lieutenant Andy Anderson — Another police homicide investigator (played by Wesley Lau)

Lieutenant Steve Drumm — Yet another police homicide investigator (played by Richard Anderson)

Dr. Hoxie — "Autopsy surgeon" (medical examiner) (played by Michael Fox)

Sheriff's Sergeant Ben Landro — Still another police investigator, this one for cases taking place outside the L.A. city limits (played by Mort Mills)

Gertie — Mason's frequently mentioned but not too often seen receptionist (played by Connie Cezon)

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The Rebel

Nick Adams as Johnny Yuma

The Rebel is an American Western television series that ran originally on the ABC network from 1959 to 1961. The program was produced by Goodson-Todman Productions, marking one of their few non-game show ventures.
The series is about the adventures of young Confederate Army veteran Johnny Yuma (played by Nick Adams). Haunted by his memories of the war, Yuma roams the American West (specifically the plains and hill country of central and west Texas) in search of inner peace. Yuma keeps a journal of his adventures and fights injustice where he finds it with the help of a double-barreled shotgun having a sawed-off stock and barrel.
The first episode, "Johnny Yuma", is set in early 1867. It shows Johnny Yuma returning to his hometown, the fictional Mason City, Texas, two years after the war ended. His father Ned Yuma was the town sheriff. The town editor, Elmer Dodson, encourages Johnny to keep up his journal as he travels.
The episode "Yellowhair" has Yuma captured by the historical Kiowa chief Satanta, whose fictional adopted white daughter is played by Carol Nugent, the wife of actor Nick Adams.
Several place names mentioned throughout the series clearly place the action in post-Civil War Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Forts frequently noted in episodes, such as Fort Griffin and Fort Concho, were real frontier Texas outposts of the late 1860s and are now state historic sites; they act as markers for viewers as they follow the ill-defined travels of Johnny Yuma. In one first-season episode, Yuma encounters rag-tag rebel CSA soldiers in the corrupt mining town of La Paz, Arizona. The real town of La Paz was the county seat of Yuma County between 1862 and 1870; it stood in the Confederate Arizona Territory which existed briefly during the Civil War. Nothing remains of La Paz except crumbling foundations and an historical marker.
In "Vicious Circle", Yuma identifies the Confederate unit he served with as the 3rd Texas, but doesn't indicate the branch of service. Other episodes show him with saddlebags stenciled with CSA and an old uniform jacket with yellow collar and cuffs, indicating his regiment was likely the 3rd Texas Cavalry.
After the show's original broadcast run on ABC finished in June 1961, it was picked up by NBC and rerun as a summer replacement series from June to September 1962.
LINK
Wikipedia; The Rebel

etc LINKS
50's Web; The Rebel

Great American Photographers -- Ansel Adams

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:23:00 +0000

{above shot was taken in 1980}

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park. One of his most famous photographs was Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California.

With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those he taught the system. Adams primarily used large-format cameras, despite their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images.

Adams founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, which in turn created the Museum of Modern Art's department of photography. Adams's timeless and visually stunning photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters, and in books, making his photographs widely recognizable.

Wikipedia; Ansel Adams

Moonrise At Hernandez New Mexico

I read in a magazine that Ansel Adams waited around nearly all night to take this photograph because he wanted the moonlight to hit the houses in a certain position; that is dedication to ones craft.

Grand Tetons, Snake River

"Church," Taos Pueblo, 1942

"Shell," 1945

Ansel Adams on his car.

University of Arizona

The Brown Derby night club

Nevada Desert Road

Links
Ansel Adams official site

Marilyn Chambers

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:49:00 +0000

Marilyn Chambers (April 22, 1952 – April 12, 2009) was an American
pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate. She was best known for her 1972 hardcore film debut Behind the Green Door.
She moved to Los Angeles, California for more work. She did not receive any roles except for a low-budget film, writer-director-producer Sean S.Cunningham's Together (1971), in which she appeared nude. She left Los Angeles for San Francisco, California, where she held several jobs that included topless model and a bottomless dancer. During her early career her most visible modeling job was as the "Ivory soap girl" on the Ivory Snow soap box, posing as a mother holding a baby under the tag line "99 & 44/100% pure".

In 1977, Chambers won the starring role in film director David Cronenberg's low-budget Canadian movie Rabid. In 1980 she starred in Insatiable, which was the top-selling adult video in the U.S. from 1980-1982. She still hoped to launch a successful mainstream acting career, however was unable to do so.

Chambers saw an advertisement for a casting call and rushed to the audition, only to find it was for a pornographic film, Behind the Green Door. She was about to leave when producers Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd and agreed a wholesome blond actress was needed for the film.
After filming concluded, she informed them that she was "the Ivory Snow Girl"; the Mitchells capitalized on this by billing her as the "99 and 44/100% pure" girl. Although she said at the time that the film would help "sell a lot more soap", Procter & Gamble quickly dropped her after discovering her double life as an adult-film actress, and the advertising industry was scandalized.
The fact that Chambers image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the films ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows. Nearly every adult film she made following this incident featured a cameo of her Ivory Snow box

Link: Wikipedia; Marilyn Chambers

Awards

* XRCO Hall of Fame[24]
* 1985 XRCO Award – Best Kinky Scene -Insatiable II (with Jamie Gillis)[25]
* 2005 FOXE Award – Lifetime Achievement
* 2008 XBIZ Award – Lifetime Achievement for a Female Performer

In a 2004 interview, Chambers said "My advice to somebody who wants to go into adult films is: 'Absolutely not! It's heart-breaking. It leaves you kind of empty. So have a day job and don't quit it'".

Bruce Kirkland, "Inside Chambers", Jam! Showbiz, June 5, 2004

Link: Wikipedia; Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers (born Marilyn Ann Briggs, April 22, 1952, in Providence, Rhode Island) is a former American pornographic actress and stripteaser perhaps best known for her 1972 hardcore debut Behind the Green Door. Best known for her ground-breaking performances in 'Behind the Green Door', porn star Marilyn Chambers sparked a revolution in the adult entertainment industry. Before Marilyn Chambers there were two kinds of women: the good girls who stayed home, raised kids and baked bread; and the naughty girls, who went to bars, had sex and performed in porn flicks. Marilyn Chambers blurred the line between the two. Marilyn Chambers was every man's fantasy: The pretty young woman who looked as if she belonged in the church choir, but who, behind closed doors, showed a voracious appetite for everything hard, wet and penetrating. In many ways, she was the very personification of the sexual revolution.

Link First Porn Film

Other Links
National Ledger; Marilyn Chambers

Official Site

Hollywood Royalty -- Buster Keaton

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:32:00 +0000

Joseph Frank Keaton, known professionally as Buster Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966), was an American comic actor and filmmaker. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".

Keaton was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Keaton the 21st-greatest male actor of all time. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, [when] he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."
Orson Welles has stated that Keaton's The General is the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made. A 2002 worldwide poll by Sight & Sound ranked Keaton's The General as the 15th best film of all time. Three other Keaton films received votes in the magazine's survey: Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr., and The Navigator.

Link: Wikipedia; Buster Keaton

Other Links:

Buster Keaton

Cinepad; Buster Keaton

PBS - American Masters; Buster Keaton

The General

Silent Ladies & Gents

hollywood royalty -- vintage actress, clara bow

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:23:00 +0000

Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. Her acting artistry and high spirits made her the premier flapper and the film It (1927) made her world famous. Bow came to personify the "roaring twenties"[2] and is described as its leading sex symbol.

In 1927, Bow reached the heights of her popularity with the film It; the film was based on a story written by Elinor Glyn, and upon the film's release, Bow became known as "The It Girl". In Glyn's story, It, a character explains what "It" really is: "It...that strange magnetism which attracts both sexes... [e]ntirely unself-conscious...full of self-confidence... [i]ndifferent to the effect... [s]he is producing and uninfluenced by others." More commonly, "It" was taken to mean sex appeal. "'It', hell ... She had those", quipped Dorothy Parker.

Link: Clara Bow

Pretty risque picture for those days...right?

Link-- Golden Silents; Clara Bow

Hollywood Royalty -- Humphrey Bogart

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:45:00 +0000

One of my all time very favorite classic actors is Humphrey Bogart; these are just five of my favorite Bogart films.

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957)[1][2] was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.[3][4]

After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film. His first great success was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), and this led to a period of typecasting as a gangster with films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and B-movies like The Return of Doctor X (1939).

His breakthrough as a leading man came in 1941, with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The next year, his performance as Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942) raised him to the peak of his profession and, at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Other successes followed, including To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948), with his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); The African Queen (1951), for which he won his only Academy Award; Sabrina (1954), and The Caine Mutiny (1954). His last movie was The Harder They Fall (1956). During a film career of almost thirty years, he appeared in 75 feature films.

The Rat Pack

Bogart was a founding member of the Rat Pack. In the spring of 1955, after a long party in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, her husband, Sid Luft, Mike Romanoff and wife Gloria, David Niven, Angie Dickinson and others, Lauren Bacall surveyed the wreckage of the party and declared, "You look like a goddamn rat pack."

Romanoff's in Beverly Hills was where the Rat Pack became official. Sinatra was named Pack Leader, Bacall was named Den Mother, Bogie was Director of Public Relations, and Sid Luft was Acting Cage Manager.[99] When asked by columnist Earl Wilson what the purpose of the group was, Bacall responded "to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late."

LINK: Wikipedia; Humphrey Bogart

-----------------------------------

We're No Angels

We're No Angels is a 1955 Christmas comedy picture starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone, and Leo G. Carroll. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, who had directed Bogart in Casablanca, when both were under contract to Warner Brothers. It is one of the rare comedies that Bogart made. Paramount filmed the production at its Hollywood studios in VistaVision and Technicolor.

It was based upon My Three Angels, written by Samuel and Bella Spewack. The screenplay was written by Ranald MacDougall.

Plot summary

Three convicts - Joseph, Albert and Jules - escape from prison on Devil's Island just before Christmas and arrive at a nearby French colonial town. They go to the store of the Ducotels - Felix and Amelie, and their daughter Isabelle - the only store that gives supplies on credit. Whilst there, they notice that his roof is leaking, and offer to fix it. They do not actually intend to fix it, but decide to remain there, until nightfall, when they will steal clothes and supplies, and escape on the ship waiting in the harbour. As they stay in the store, they find that the family is currently in financial distress and offer their services to hide their all-too-sinister ruse. Joseph even gets to work conning people and falsifying records to make the store prosperous. However, the three felons begin to have a change of heart after they fix a delicious Christmas dinner for the family: mostly made of stolen items.

Andre Touchard, who owns the store but lives in Paris, arrives on the island with his nephew Paul, with whom Isabelle is infatuated. The two plan on taking control of the store due to a lack of profit from the use of credit. Also, Paul is betrothed to another woman, which dismays Isabelle. Before any action against the Ducotels is taken, both of the men are bitten by Albert's pet viper, Adolphe, and they die nearly instantly. Isabelle finds another love, and the family is happy as the convicts successfully make their final escape. While waiting on the docks for their boat to arrive, the three escaped men finally decide to turn themselves back in at the prison, judging that the outside world was likely to be worse than that of the prison. As they walk away in the final shot, angelic halos appear over each of their heads...and finally another pops up over the cage of Adolphe.

cast

* Humphrey Bogart as Joseph
* Aldo Ray as Albert
* Peter Ustinov as Jules
* Joan Bennett as Amelie Ducotel
* Basil Rathbone as Andre Trochard
* Leo G. Carroll as Felix Ducotel
* John Baer as Paul Trochard
* Gloria Talbott as Isabelle Ducotel
* Lea Penman as Mme. Parole
* John Smith as Arnaud

Directed by Michael Curtiz
Produced by Pat Duggan

Released; July 7, 1955

LINK: Wikipedia; We're No Angels

-----------------------------

The African Queen

Robert Morley and Katharine Hepburn play Samuel and Rose Sayer, brother and sister British Methodist missionaries in a village in German East Africa in 1914 during World War I. Their mail and supplies are delivered by the rough-and-ready Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) of the African Queen, whose coarse behavior they tolerate in a rather stiff manner.
When Charlie warns them that war has broken out between Germany and Britain, the Sayers choose to stay on, only to witness the Germans burning down the mission village and herd the villagers away. When Samuel protests, he is beaten by a German soldier. After the Germans leave, Samuel becomes delirious with fever and soon dies. Charlie returns shortly afterward. He helps Rose bury her brother, and they set off in the African Queen.
In discussing their situation, Charlie mentions to Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Louisa (actually Luise in German), which patrols a large lake downriver, effectively blocking any British counter-attacks. Rose comes up with a plan to convert the Queen into a torpedo boat, and sink the Louisa. Charlie points out that navigating the river would be suicidal: to reach the lake they would have to pass a German fort and negotiate several dangerous rapids. But Rose is insistent and eventually persuades him to go along with the plan.

Cast
Humphrey Bogart
Katharine Hepburn
Robert Morley

Directed by	John Huston

Produced by	Sam Spiegel John Woolf (uncredited)

Release date; Feb. 20, 1952

Academy awards 1952
Humphrey Bogart, best actor in a leading role

Nominated:
Katherine Hepburn, best actress
John Huston, best director

LINK:
Wikipedia; The African Queen

Other Site: Film Site; African Queen

-----------------------------

Tokyo Joe

Tokyo Joe is a 1949 film directed by Stuart Heisler from a story by Steve Fisher, adapted by Walter Doniger and starring Humphrey Bogart, Florence Marly and Sessue Hayakawa. This was Heisler's first of two features starring Bogart, the other was Chain Lightning that also wrapped in 1949 but was held up in release until 1950.

After World War II, ex-serviceman Joe Barrett (Humphrey Bogart) returns to Tokyo, to see if there's anything left of his pre-war bar and gambling joint ("Tokyo Joe's") after all the bombing. Amazingly, it is more or less intact and being run by his old friend Ito (Teru Shimada). He is also shocked to learn from Ito that his wife Trina (Florence Marly), whom he thought had died in the war, is in fact still very much alive. She has remarried, to American diplomat Mark Landis (Alexander Knox), and has a seven-year-old child, Joe's daughter Anya (Lora Lee Michel).

Barrett starts up an air freight business. One of his customers, underworld boss Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa), wants him to smuggle war criminals into the country in order to organize an anti-American Communist movement. When he balks, Kimura kidnaps Anya. Barrett rescues her and foils the Baron's plot, although he is fatally wounded in the ensuing struggle.

Cast:
Humphrey Bogart Joseph "Joe" Barrett
Alexander Knox Mark Landis
Florence Marly Trina Pechinkov Landis
Sessue Hayakawa Baron Kimura
Jerome Courtland Danny
Gordon Jones Idaho
Teru Shimada Ito

Directed by Stuart Heisler
Produced by Robert Lord

Release date; Oct. 26, 1949

LINK: Wikipedia; Tokyo Joe

--------------------------

Action In The North Atlantic

Action in the North Atlantic is a 1943 war film, featuring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey as sailors in the Allied merchant marine in World War II and directed by Lloyd Bacon

The cargo ship commanded by Captain Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) is sunk in the north Atlantic Ocean by a German U-boat. He and his first officer and friend, Lieutenant Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart), make it to a lifeboat along with other crewmen. When the Germans start filming their plight, they respond with rude gestures and are rammed. The men swim to a raft and are rescued after 11 days adrift.

During their brief leave, Steve spends time with his wife Sarah (Ruth Gordon), while Joe meets and marries singer Pearl O'Neill (Julie Bishop). Then, it is back to sea on a new Liberty ship, on a convoy carrying vital supplies to the Russians at Murmansk.

The convoy is attacked by a wolf pack. There are losses on both sides, but the convoy commander is forced to order his ships to disperse. One persistent U-boat chases after Steve's ship, but loses contact in the night. Two Luftwaffe flying boats find the freighter and attack. Both are shot down, but the second crashes into the bow. Steve is shot in the leg during the battle; Joe has to take command. The U-boat sights the ship again and hits her with a torpedo. Joe orders the men to set fires and make smoke so that it appears as if the ship is sinking. When the submarine surfaces to finish her off, Joe rams and sinks it. The freighter then limps into Murmansk to a warm Russian welcome.

* Humphrey Bogart as Lieutenant Joe Rossi
* Raymond Massey as Captain Steve Jarvis
* Alan Hale, Sr. as 'Boats' O'Hara
* Julie Bishop as Pearl O'Neill
* Ruth Gordon as Sarah Jarvis
* Sam Levene as 'Chips' Abrams
* Dane Clark as Johnnie Pulaski
* Peter Whitney as 'Whitey' Lara
* Dick Hogan as Cadet Robert Walker

Directed by Lloyd Bacon, Byron Haskin and Raoul Walsh

Release date; May 21, 1943

LINK: Wikipedia; Action In The North Atlantic

Etc: TCM; article

Destination Hollywood; Humphrey Bogart

------------------------------

Key Largo

Key Largo is a 1948 film noir starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, and Claire Trevor. This was the fourth and final film pairing of married actors Bogart and Bacall. Trevor won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance.
The film was adapted from Maxwell Anderson's 1939 play of the same name, and directed by John Huston.

Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) visits a small backwater Key Largo hotel run by wheelchair-bound James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) and his daughter-in-law Nora (Lauren Bacall), the widow of Frank's World War II friend. The hotel has been temporarily taken over by notorious fugitive gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) and his gang, with a hurricane headed Key Largo's way.

Frank at first appears indifferent to the situation, but Rocco's treatment of his alcoholic mistress Gaye (Claire Trevor) and his hand in the murder of two local Indians and a police officer convince Frank that Rocco must be stopped. His chance comes when Rocco forces Frank to pilot the boat by which the gang intends to escape to Cuba. Once at sea, with no hostages to worry about, Frank is able to kill every member of the gang, one by one, Rocco last of all. Frank then returns to Nora.

The subplot turns on Temple's grief over his dead son; he is under the impression that his son died a hero in Italy. McCloud resists telling tales, but at Mr. Temple's urging he relates exactly the story Mr. Temple and the widow Nora want to hear, although it is apparent that McCloud was the actual hero. Nora later says as much: "Only he had it the other way around; it was you on that hill." The climactic, shoot-out scene on the boat is a symbolic recasting of the wartime incident.

Cast:
* Humphrey Bogart as Frank McCloud
* Edward G. Robinson as Johnny Rocco
* Lauren Bacall as Nora Temple
* Lionel Barrymore as James Temple
* Claire Trevor as Gaye Dawn
* Thomas Gomez as Richard 'Curly' Hoff
* Harry Lewis as Edward 'Toots' Bass
* John Rodney as Deputy Clyde Sawyer
* Marc Lawrence as Ziggy
* Dan Seymour as Angel Garcia
* Monte Blue as Sheriff Ben Wade
* William Haade as Ralph Feeney
* Jay Silverheels as John Osceola
* Rodd Redwing as Tom Osceola

Directed by John Huston
Produced by Jerry Wald
Release Date; July 16, 1948

LINK: Wikipedia; Key Largo

"Rogue Waves" (aka Killer Waves)

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:00:00 +0000

A couple nights ago, there was this interesting program over Killer Waves, or what has been called Rogue Waves. It was a really cool show which detailed this phenomenon, I have heard of these before, however I never saw a program detailing them.
We had a family friend, when I was growing up, who was a Chief Engineer of a freighter, I can remember him telling tales of "monster waves from outta nowhere...", and then he'd go on to explain how huge they were, how dangerous they were and how everybody on board "prayed like hell," to survive the thing.
I've seen some pretty huge waves myself, however never have I witnessed something as monstrously huge as Rogue Wave, nor would I want to either.

Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners.
In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (SWH), which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record. Therefore rogue waves are not necessarily the biggest waves found at sea; they are, rather, surprisingly large waves for a given sea state.
"Rogue waves are not tsunamis, which are set in motion by earthquakes [and] travel at high speed, building up as they approach the shore. Rogue waves seem to occur in deep water or where a number of physical factors such as strong winds and fast currents converge. This may have a focusing effect, which can cause a number of waves to join together."

Link:
Wikipedia; Rogue Wave

This rare photo (above) of a rogue wave was taken on July, 21st, 2004 by first mate Philippe Lijour aboard the supertanker Esso Languedoc, during a storm off Durban in South Africa in 1980. The mast seen starboard in the photo stands 25 metres above mean sea level. The wave approached the ship from behind before breaking over the deck, but in this case caused only minor damage. The mean wave height at the time was between 5-10 metres.

(above) These rogue waves, which appeared without warning, were described as nearly vertical walls of water, up to 100 feet high. These twelve story waves were often preceded by a trough so deep that sailors called it a "hole in the sea." The ship Raffaello hit this 20 meter rogue wave which did major damage.
Rogue Waves

(above) Rogue Wave hits the NOAA ship Discoverer in the Bering Sea, 1979

Container Ship hit by "big seas"

(above) Story - Norwegian Dream

Rogue waves extreme ocean waves with heights up to thirty meters—have been common elements in stories from people working at sea, as well as in popular fiction. It is not hard to imagine why: being on a small boat in a stormy sea swell and suddenly encountering a wave maybe three times as high as the surrounding waves is a terrifying experience (Fig. 1). However, up to a few decades ago, oceanographers mainly investigated the surface of the sea using linear models and these models could not account for the numerous occurrences of rogue waves reported by seafarers and ocean workers. In fact, it was not until 1995 that the first proper measurement of a rogue wave was made. Yet the conditions that cause such waves to grow enormously in size are not well understood.

Link: Physics

...and a story about a cruise ship hit by a Rogue Wave;

It was like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie. On March 3, a sudden wall of water hit a cruise ship sailing in the Mediterranean Sea off the northeastern coast of Spain, killing two people, injuring 14 and causing severe damage to the vessel.

According to Louis Cruise Lines, the owner of the vessel, the Louis Majesty was hit by three "abnormally high" waves, each more than 33 ft. (10 m) high, striking in clear weather and without warning. "We heard a loud noise, and it was the wave that hit us," Claudine Armand, a passenger from France, told the Associated Press Television News. "When we came out of [our room], we saw the wave had flooded everything."

Link: Time

great sword-n-sorcery films -- Conan the Barbarian & Conan the Destroyer

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:20:00 +0000

Conan was the creation of the father of the "sword-n-sorcery pulps" Robert E. Howard and were destined to become great films.

Link; R.E. Howard site - Conan

Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.
Howard was born and raised in the state of Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains with some time spent in the nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing himself. From the age of nine he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was twenty-three. He was published in a wide selection of magazines, journals and newspapers but his main outlet was the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
He was successful in several genres and was on the verge of publishing his first novel when he committed suicide at the age of thirty. His mother was terminally ill with tuberculosis before she had even met his father and so was slowly dying throughout Howard's entire life. When he learned that his mother had entered a coma from which she was not expected to wake he, for reasons that are not clear, walked out to his car and shot himself in the head. His suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to varied speculation about his mental health; from an Oedipus complex, to clinical depression, to no mental disorders of any kind.
Howard created Conan the Barbarian, in the pages of the Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales, a character whose pop-culture imprint has been compared to such icons as Tarzan, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard created the genre now known as Sword and sorcery, spawning a wide swath of imitators and giving him an influence in the fantasy field rivaled only by J. R. R. Tolkien and Tolkien's similarly inspired creation of High Fantasy. Howard remains a highly read author, with his best work endlessly reprinted. He has been compared to other American masters of the weird, gloomy and spectral, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Jack London.

Link:
Wikipedia; R.E. Howard

Conan The Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 action/adventure fantasy film by director John Milius and is recognized as the acting breakthrough of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had previously been a famous bodybuilder.
The film is loosely based on the Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard and was written by Oliver Stone and John Milius, set in the mythical Hyborian Age. It was followed in 1984 by a lighter, more child-friendly, but less successful sequel, Conan the Destroyer. Both it and its sequel are sword and sorcery epic tales that include magic, monsters, and fantastical events.

Directed by John Milius
Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, Buzz Feitshans
and Edward R. Pressman
Written by Robert E. Howard
Story:

Starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger
James Earl Jones
Sandahl Bergman
Mako
Gerry Lopez
and Max von Sydow

Link: Wikipedia; Conan the Barbarian

==========================

Conan The Destroyer

Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 film directed by action/fantasy veteran Richard Fleischer (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Vikings). It is a sequel to Conan the Barbarian, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard (respectively), along with a new cast, such as Grace Jones as Zula. The critical and commercial response was weaker than that for the first film as it was felt by some viewers to have excluded the bloody, brooding ambiance of the original John Milius film, instead opting for a more kid-friendly adventure.

Directed by Richard Fleischer
Produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis

Starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Olivia D'Abo
Grace Jones
Wilt Chamberlain
Sarah Douglas
Mako

Link: Wikipedia; Conan The Destroyer

Hollywood Royalty -- John Wayne -- 2 of my favorite films; True Grit & The Searchers

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:34:00 +0000

True Grit

John Wayne, Kim Darby & Glenn Cambell

The Searchers

Jeffery Hunter & John Wayne

Jeffery Hunter

John Wayne and Natalie Wood

Movie data:

Wikipedia; True Grit

True Grit

Cast
John Wayne as Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn
Kim Darby as Mattie Ross
Glen Campbell as La Boeuf
Jeremy Slate as Emmett Quincy
Robert Duvall as Lucky Ned Pepper
Dennis Hopper as Moon
Strother Martin as Col. G. Stonehill
Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney
Donald Woods as Barlow
James Westerfield as Judge Parker

Directed by Henry Hathaway
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Written by Marguerite Roberts
Charles Portis (novel)
Music by Elmer Bernstein, Glen Campbell
Cinematography Lucien Ballard
Editing by Warren Low
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) June 11, 1969

The Searchers

Wikipedia; The Searchers

Cast

John Wayne as Ethan Edwards
Jeffrey Hunter as Martin Pawley
Vera Miles as Laurie Jorgensen
Ward Bond as Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton
Natalie Wood as Debbie Edwards (older)
John Qualen as Lars Jorgensen
Olive Carey as Mrs. Jorgensen
Henry Brandon as Chief Cicatrice (Scar)
Ken Curtis as Charlie McCorry
Harry Carey, Jr. as Brad Jorgensen
Antonio Moreno as Emilio Figueroa
Hank Worden as Mose Harper
Beulah Archuletta as Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky (Look)
Walter Coy as Aaron Edwards
Dorothy Jordan as Martha Edwards
Pippa Scott as Lucy Edwards
Patrick Wayne as Lt. Greenhill (as Pat Wayne)
Lana Wood as Debbie Edwards (young)

Directed by John Ford
Produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Screenplay Frank S. Nugent
Novel Alan Le May

Another link:
Love To Know; John Wayne Westerns

Interesting Note:

Jeffery Hunter, who played Martin Pawley also portrayed Captain Christopher Pike in the original Star Trek pilot.

Dracula vs Edward Cullen??

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:44:00 +0000

Check out The Temple of God Robert for a really cool entry...

Follow the link to the site: Temple Of God Robert

an original "soap opera" -- Peyton Place, first a movie & then a tv series

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:56:00 +0000

Peyton Place is an American prime time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.
Based upon the1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in black-and-white from 1964 to 1966 and in color from 1966 to 1969. At the show's peak ABC ran three new episodes a week. Produced by 20th Century Fox Television, Peyton Place is the only prime time series ever to run episodes continuously without reruns.
The series served as the springboard for such performers as Mia Farrow, Ryan O'Neal, and David Canary.

Wikipedia; Peyton Place, TV

Downtown Peyton Place (Camden, Maine, 1957)

Peyton Place movie; Lee Philips, Lana Turner, Diane Varsi

Peyton Place movie; Diane Varsi, Barry Coe
Tv series; Ryan O'Neal
Tv series; Mia Farrow, Ryan O'Neal, Barbara Parkins
Tv series; Mia Farrow, Dorthy Malone LINKS
Meeker Museum; Peyton Place
Meeker Museum; Peyton Place
AMCTV; Peyton Place movie
AMCTV; Return to Peyton Place
Wikipedia; Peyton Place, Tv series

Hollywood Great Movies -- THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:03:00 +0000

I became a fan of Cecil B. DeMille way back when I was a kid, when I stayed up late one night and watched Reap The Wild Wind, a film made in 1942, starring John Wayne and Paulette Goddard. I showed so much interest in the films of DeMille, even at age fourteen, that when my dad heard about a "marathon" of DeMille films, he took me to go see them. In one night we were able to see: Unconquered, and Samson & Delilah, as well as one of the finest DeMille films, The Greatest Show On Earth.
It wasn't until a few months later that I got to see The Ten Commandments on late night tv...then perhaps ten years later, I was able to see the film as it should be seen, on the big movie screen at our local cinema.
I've always loved movies, however it was the films of Cecil B. DeMille which impressed me quite a lot, and helped to give me a life long interest and love for the classic films. It is films like these, directed by Cecil B. DeMille which will never be able to be reproduced in such fantastic grandeur, and that is a shame.

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American motion picture that dramatized the biblical story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. It was released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Charlton Heston in the lead role. Co-stars included Yul Brynner as his adoptive brother, Pharaoh Ramesses II, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, John Derek as Joshua, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Cedric Hardwicke as Pharaoh Seti I, Vincent Price as Baka, and John Carradine as Aaron.

The Ten Commandments is one of the most financially successful films made, grossing over $65 million at the North American box office. Adjusting for inflation, this makes it the fifth highest grossing movie in North America, with an adjusted total of $977 million in 2010.[1]
In 1999, The Ten Commandments was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "epics" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The Ten Commandments was acknowledged as the tenth best film in the epic genre.

Links
Wikipedia; The 10 Commandments

Wikipedia; Cecil B. DeMille

Cast
* Charlton Heston as Moses
* Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Rameses II
* Anne Baxter as Nefretiri
* Edward G. Robinson as Dathan
* Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora
* Debra Paget as Lilia
* John Derek as Joshua
* Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Pharaoh Seti I
* Nina Foch as Bithiah
* Martha Scott as Yoshebel
* Judith Anderson as Memnet
* Vincent Price as Baka
* John Carradine as Aaron
* Douglass Dumbrille as Jannes
* Olive Deering as Miriam
* Mike Connors as Amalekite Herder (under the name Touch Connors)

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by Cecil B. DeMille
Narrated by Cecil B. DeMille

Written by J.H. Ingraham (novel Pillar of Fire), A.E. Southon (novel On Eagle's Wings), Dorothy Clarke Wilson (novel Prince of Egypt),
Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss, Fredric M. Frank

Spinal Tap

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:18:00 +0000

This Is Spinal Tap (officially spelled This Is Spın̈al Tap, with a
non-functional umlaut over the letter n — n-diaeresis — and a dotless letter i) is a 1984 mock musical documentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. The film satirizes the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard-rock and heavy-metal musical bands, as well as the hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries of the time.
Reiner and the three main stars are credited as the writers of the film, based on the fact that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them. Several dozen hours of footage were filmed before Reiner edited it to the released film. A 4½ hour bootleg version
of the film exists and has been traded among fans and collectors for years.
The three core members of Spinal Tap—David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel—are played by the American actors Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and British American Christopher Guest, respectively. The three actors play their musical instruments and speak with mock English accents throughout the film. Reiner appears as Marty DiBergi, the maker of the documentary. Other actors in the film are Tony Hendra as the group manager Ian Faith and June
Chadwick as St. Hubbins' interfering girlfriend Jeanine. Actors Paul Shaffer, Fred Willard, Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Howard Hesseman, Ed Begley, Jr., Patrick Macnee, Anjelica Huston, Vicki Blue, Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal all play supporting roles or make cameo appearances in the film. Scream queen starlets Brinke Stevens and Linnea Quigley appear in cameos as groupies of the band.
In 2002, This Is Spinal Tap was deemed "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Directed by Rob Reiner Produced by Karen Murphy Written by Christopher Guest
Michael McKean
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner Starring Rob Reiner
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Harry Shearer
Fran Drescher
Bruno Kirby Music by Christopher Guest
Michael McKean
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner Cinematography Peter Smokler Editing by Kent Beyda, Kim Secrist Distributed by Embassy Pictures Release date(s) March 2, 1984 Running time 82 minutes Language English Followed by A Spinal Tap Reunion: The 25th Anniversary London Sell-Out
LINK
Wikipedia; This Is Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap (officially spelled "Spın̈al Tap", with a non-functional umlaut over the letter n—n-diaeresis—and a dotless letter i) is a Grammy-nominated parody fictional heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner. The sketch, actually a mock promotional video for the song "Rock and Roll Nightmare", was written by Reiner and the band, and included songwriter/performer Loudon Wainwright III on keyboards. Later the band became the fictional subject of the 1984 rockumentary/mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. The band members are portrayed by Michael McKean (as David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (as Nigel Tufnel) and Harry Shearer (as Derek Smalls). The same trio of actors subsequently reunited as the American folk music revival band The Folksmen inthe 2003 mockumentary A Mighty Wind.

This is Spinal Tap was accompanied by a soundtrack album of the same name. In the years since the film was made, the actors who portrayed the band members have played concerts and released music under the Spinal Tap name.
Guest, McKean, and Shearer toured in the U.S. in April and May 2009[update][1] and performed as Spinal Tap in a "One Night Only
World Tour" on 30 June 2009 at Wembley Arena in London, three days after playing the Glastonbury Festival. Support at Wembley Arena came from The Folksmen

LINK
Wikipedia; Spinal Tap (the band)

Great Amrican Writers--Science Fiction; Philip K. Dick

noreply@blogger.com (34cryptkeeper56) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:03:00 +0000

Philip K. Dick (sitting with a copy of Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said)

Time Out of Joint

Time Out Of Joint

Originally published in 1959
Trade paperback published by Vintage
Currently available

Plot Summary:
Time Out of Joint is Philip K. Dick’s classic depiction of the disorienting disparity between the world as we think it is and the world as it actually is. The year is 1998, although Ragle Gumm doesn’t know that. He thinks it’s 1959. He also thinks that he served in World War II, that he lives in a quiet little community, and that he really is the world’s long-standing champion of newspaper puzzle contests. It is only after a series of troubling hallucinations that he begins to suspect otherwise. And once he pursues his suspicions, he begins to see how he is the center of a universe gone terribly awry.

Martian Time-Slip

Japanese book cover

Martian Time Slip

Originally published in 1964
Trade paperback published by Vintage
Currently available

Plot Summary:
On the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated "anomalous" children for deportation and destruction, other people--especially Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Worker's union--suspect that Manfred's disorder may be a window into the future. In Martian Time-Slip Philip K. Dick uses power politics and extraterrestrial real estate scams, adultery, and murder to penetrate the mysteries of being and time.

Clans of the Alphane Moon

Clans of the Alphane Moon
Originally published in 1964
Trade paperback published by Vintage
Currently available

Plot Summary:
When CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf and his psychiatrist wife, Mary, file for divorce, they have no idea that in a few weeks they’ll be shooting it out on Alpha III M2, the distant moon ruled by various psychotics liberated from a mental ward. Nor do they suspect that Chuck’s new employer, the famous TV comedian Bunny Hentman, will also be there aiming his own laser gun. How things came to such a darkly hilarious pass is the subject of Clans of the Alphane Moon, an astutely shrewd and acerbic tale that blurs all conventional distinctions between sanity and madness.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Dutch book cover

Three Stigmata of Eldritch Palmer
Originally published in 1965
Trade paperback published by Vintage Books
Currently available

Plot Summary:
In this wildly disorienting funhouse of a novel, populated by God-like--or perhaps Satanic--takeover artists and corporate psychics, Philip K. Dick explores mysteries that were once the property of St. Paul and Aquinas. His wit, compassion, and knife-edged irony make The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch moving as well as genuinely visionary.

The Valis Trilogy

VALIS

Japanese book cover

All three novels in one book

Valis
Originally published in 1981
Trade paperback published by Vintage Books
Currently available

Plot Summary:
A coterie of religious seekers forms to explore the revelatory visions of one Horselover Fat; a semi-autobiographical dialogue of PKD. The groups hermeneutical research leads to a rock musician's estate where they confront the Messiah: a two-year old named Sophia. She confirms their suspicions that an ancient, mechanical intelligence orbiting the earth has been guiding their discoveries.

2)
Divine Invasion

British book cover

The Divine Invasion
Originally published in 1981
Trade paperback published by Vintage
Currently available

Plot Summary:
In The Divine Invasion, Philip K. Dick asks: What if God--or a being called Yah--were alive and in exile on a distant planet? How could a second coming succeed against the high technology and finely tuned rationalized evil of the modern police state? The Divine Invasion "blends Judaism, Kabalah, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity into a fascinating fable of human existence" (West Coast Review of Books).

3)
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

German book cover

Italian book cover

Japanese book cover

Originally published in 1982
Trade paperback published by Vintage
Currently available

Plot Summary:
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, the final novel in the trilogy that also includes VALIS and The Divine Invasion, is an anguished, learned, and very moving investigation of the paradoxes of belief. It is the story of Timothy Archer, an urbane Episcopal bishop haunted by the suicides of his son and mistress -- and driven by them into a bizarre quest for the identity of Christ.

------------------------------

Various other favorite books

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale

1990

This book's short story (title story) was the foundation for the film Total Recall

Polish Cover

Japanese cover

---------------------------

The Unteleported Man

1966

-------------------------------------

The Perserving Machine

(short story collection)

1953

-------------------------------

A Scanner Darkly

1977

Link to Official PKD site

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an
American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during
his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored
sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by
monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states.
In his later works, Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal
interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life
experiences and addressed the nature of drug abuse, paranoia and schizophrenia,
and transcendental experiences in novels such as A Scanner Darkly and VALIS.
The novel The Man in the High Castle bridged the genres of alternate history
and science fiction, earning Dick a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Flow My
Tears, the Policeman Said, a novel about a celebrity who awakens in a parallel
universe where he is unknown, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best
novel in 1975.
"I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world
spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we
actually have does not meet my standards," Dick wrote of these stories. "In my
writing I even question the universe; I wonder out loud if it is real, and I
wonder out loud if all of us are real." Dick referred to himself as a
"fictionalizing philosopher."
In addition to 44 published novels (as of
January 2010), Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which
appeared in science fiction magazines. Although Dick spent most of his career as
a writer in near-poverty, nine of his stories have been adapted into popular
films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner
Darkly and Minority Report. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one
of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923.
In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The
Library of America series.

Wikipedia; PKD