The Belated Remembering of Kevin McCarthy

One of the purposes of this blog is to post some of the goofy stories of people I have encountered over the years. Since I just started this blog, I never had a chance to share my story of Kevin McCarthy when he sadly passed away last year. In the late 90's I owned a mail order company that specialized in commercially released TV shows on video called "Don't Touch That Dial". We were one of the first internet web stores of it's kind, carrying stuff from the major studios, like Star Trek, Cheers & I Dream of Jeannie, but we also carried stock from smaller labels like classic commercial compilations and 50's TV shows. We would frequently have tables at various science fiction and Hollywood autograph collectors shows. One such show was Ray Court's Hollywood Collector's show. These are shows that featured TV and Movie memorabilia dealers as well as Hollywood stars who would talk with fans, sign autographs and sell merchandise. Ray started doing shows in Chicago so we'd get a table, and usually wound up next to some type of celebrity. One year we ended up next to Kevin McCarthy on one side of us and one of the stars from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on the other (to keep it simple I won't mention any names). We got set up, the Willy Wonka guy arrives, pictures on his table on the other side of us, neatly organized in nice, straight stacks with a sign stating "all pictures signed $40". A bit steep for a guy who only played a bit part in the film. Kevin arrives sharply at 9:57 (show opened at 10) carrying a suitcase direct from the 1940's, with photos bulging out of the sides of the thing like they were crammed in there last minute. Kevin opens the suitcase and dumps everything on the table in one big massive pile, turns to me and gives me a smile "How ya doin'? Okay let's get started!" Just like the crazy, fun  uncle all the kids love, but the parents don't like because they think such behavior is a "bad influence" on the kids! Throughout the day Kevin has a HUGE line, greeting fans, signing photos and talking up a storm. Meanwhile Willy Wonka-boy has 1 or 2 people at the most. Throughout the weekend I get the chance to talk to Kevin about everything from 50's pulp magazines, cookware (I'm NOT kidding) to some of the roles he played and many of the GREAT people, and assholes he has had to work with throughout the years. Many of the celebrities of the shows are collecting piles of cash, however I never noticed Kevin taking even a dollar, much to the chagrin of "Willy Wonka Boy" who took in very little. Sunday rolls around near the end of the show and I decided to get a autograph photo from Kevin. I asked him if he has any Invasion of the Body Snatchers photos (I know, dump question). He dives in this HUGE mountain of pictures on his table, pulls out one and signs it. Before I could even thank him Kevin snatches it from my hands and exclaims "Fuck that, that's an AWFUL picture!" rips it up, pulls out another one and does the same. "Shit! That one sucks too! HERE!" This goes on about 4 or 5 times when he finally settles on one he is satisfied with. I ask him how much for the picture, he replies "No charge, it's yours!" I asked how much he made during the weekend, he replied "About 10 bucks, that's because the woman ran off before I could give her the money back!". It was then I realized Kevin was having the time of his life that weekend! Just then Willy Wonka boy whined "Well I've been here all weekend and haven't made shit!" to which Kevin quipped back using the PERFECT Victor Eugene Scrimshaw voice and smiling "Well some of us don't do it for the money ya know!" It was then I realized many of these people DO do it for the money, however some do realize that there are many people out there, who REALLY appreciate the work they have done throughout the years, and sometimes they just like to do things, not for the money, but for that gentle reminder.

The Weekend Is Here...

Had a few Star Wars conversations at work today and ran across this. Have a safe weekend!

Quisp or Quake...

...or a 3rd party candidate?

Paul Lynde Does The Weather in Toledo 1978!

I've posted this a few times on Facebook, this is HYSTERICAL! Thanks to Ray Glasser for posting it!
 

Los Tiki Phantoms - SURF GUITAR ULTIMATE!

 LOS TIKI PHANTOMS FROM SPAIN!

LOVE, LOVE LOVE THESE GUYS! 

WATCH THE VIDEO AND GO TO THEIR WEBSITE! GO! GO! GO

Not Surprising Dept.-Peter Gabriel: Possibility of Genesis Reunion Is Slim

 Peter Gabriel is a man who does things on his own schedule. He's only released three studio albums of new material since 1982's Peter Gabriel IV, and he's resisted the immense pressure to reunite with Genesis for a brief (and highly lucrative) reunion tour. He did call a band meeting in 2005 to talk about it, but quickly changed his mind. Two weeks ago we sat down with Gabriel to talk about his new LP New Blood, but we couldn't resist grilling him about Genesis.

Full article at  ROLLING STONE

Mailbox Arrivals...

Guess I'm in for a depressing evening.

BBC 3 Cancells Doctor Who Confidential

BBC announced today that they are cancelling their Doctor Who "making of" companion series Doctor Who Confidential. As it's unfortunate, I have to admit I haven't been watching it the past couple of years since it expanded to 45-minute episodes (when you could have covered everything in 15 to 30) Many are asking "Is Doctor Who next?" I doubt it. It's been going great for BBC, especially since it's getting so much recognition here in the states. However only time will tell.

Via BBC Website

F Troop

I LOVE the artwork.

T.H.E. CAT HAS ARRIVED!

The painting I've wanted for the past 20+ years has finally arrived thanks to El Gato Gomez! Be sure to check out her website and E-Bay auctions at El Gato Gomez Arts.

Meanwhile my new acquisition is settling in quite nicely in my office until it gets framed.

Happy Birthday Zacherley & the Art of the Horror Host

Not sure how I forgot this but yesterday was Zacherley's birthday, who turned 93 yesterday!! I know many are asking "Who is Zacherley" and obviously you didn't live in the Philadelphia NY area in the 50's and 60's. Zacherley was a television "horror host" who really helped start the genre. In the late 1950's Universal Studios issued a package of their early monster movies (commonly known as the "Shock Package" to local TV stations, who encouraged each station to create an on-air "personality" to introduce each film and perform skits, songs & jokes before and after each commercial break). One of the earliest and most famous "hosts" was Vampira out of Los Angeles. If you've seen the movie Ed Wood, she was the one that Ed and Bella Lugosi were watching on TV, who eventually starred in Ed's film Plan 9 from Outer Space. Zacherley is one of the more well remembered local hosts mainly in part to being featured in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and hosted "Chiller Theatre" on WPIX in New York in the 60's. It seemed at one point each city had their own host they remember and some even received nationwide exposure such as Elvira and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Here's a GREAT montage of some of the hosts from local TV stations:

Thankfully many hosts are "alive" and well today, hosting programs on the internet like Count Gore DeVol & The Bone Jangler and some are even airing nationally (Elvira  hosts her weekly horror movie on THIS! TV and Svengoolie who hosts on ME-TV). For the ULTIMATE database of TV Horror Hosts, check out E-GORE'S CHAMBER OF TV HORROR HOSTS

Here's an interview with Zacherley on The Mike Douglas Show from 1975:

Thankfully Zacherley is still very active, having hosted a special Chiller episode in 2008 and still attends horror conventions on the east coast. Happy Birthday to the "Cool Ghoul" Zacherley!

Okay, This is Beyond AWESOME!!!

...Starting off with Shatner singing Iron Man ain't a bad way to kick off the morning. Our good friend Bill is set to release his new album "Seeking Major Tom" is due out next month. The album with consist of cover tunes including his infamous "Rocket Man" as well as covers of Iron Man (Black Sabbath) Learning to Fly (Pink Floyd), She Blinded Me with Science (Thomas Dolby) and Planet Earth (Duran Duran). However the real kicker for this thing will be the guest musicians which include Peter Frampton, Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple/Rainbow), Alan Parsons (Alan Parsons Project), John Wetton (King Crimson/UK/Asia), Johnny Winter, Patrick Moraz (Yes/Moody Blues), Michael Schenker (UFO/Scorpions), Steve Hillage (Gong), Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream), Dave Davies (The Kinks) & Steve Howe (Yes/GTR/Asia)...WHEW!
More info on the album is HERE
Here's some footage of Bill singing Iron Man!

A Quick Introduction to Progressive Rock in 5 Minutes

Alright, this is pretty funny:

CRACKED.COM 

When Pigs Fly!

From pinkfloyd.com:
London commuters were bemused this morning when, as promised, a new pig was floated above Battersea Power Station to mark the launch of the 'Why Pink Floyd?' campaign of 2011 remasters and collectors' editions. The Animals sleeve was recreated with the 2011 version of 'Algie' (the original has been put out to pasture) successfully inflated under grey skies, to amaze and astound passers by.

Monster Cereals Are Back (sort of)

Visiting the grocery shelves I was delighted (and horror-fied) to see my childhood friends FRANKEN BERRY, COUNT CHOCULA and BOO-BERRY back on the store shelves in time for the Halloween season. Naturally everything has to be "redesigned" and "new". Now I don't expect to see the original packaging as I remember (though with all of the retro revivals among grocery items it would be possible) but I didn't expect to see this:

 Mrs. Atomic mentioned the new design, Franken-Berry now looks like a baby. I gotta agree!

Boo-Berry even looks WORSE! He looks...well like...some sort of blob thing instead of a ghost.

Chocula is the least ruined (he still looks like a baby. Okay maybe a 1 year-old with his first tooth)

Here's the classics as we remember them:

And here's a couple for extra credit. Fruit Brute was VERY limited (only lasted about a year) however I've seen original empty boxes sell on E-Bay for over $1,000!!

Yummy Mummy came out in the 80's but didn't last long either.

Here's one last Halloween treat.

THE BEST TOY COMPANY THAT NEVER EXISTED!

I LOVE this site! Gobler Toys was a (sadly fictitious) toy manufacturer in the 60's and brought kids classic toys like Senior Sandwich, Kiki the Fashion Tiki and the Wiener Works Home Hot Dog Maker (you make hot dogs at home using table scraps and the Meat Maker Mix) Shame it's all fake:-(

GOBLER TOYS WEBSITE

WIENER WORKS COMMERCIAL

THE STAR WARS TOYS THAT NEVER WERE

HALLOWEEN IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

My good friend Butch Patrick has a website dedicated to my ALL TIME favorite sitcom, THE MUSTERS

MUNSTERS.COM

THE HYPNOTIC EYE!

Back in the late 90's I was running a community access cable TV station in Beach Park Illinois. The channel ran a total of about 6 hours a day and one of my goals was to start running 24/7. We had plenty of local programming however I was open to accepting outside programs for playing "off hours". One show that came across my desk was a tape labeled The Hypnotic Eye out of Dallas, Texas. Most of the outside shows I received were crap but this show was AMAZING! Produced by Joe Riley the show's host was a giant eyeball puppet (stick with me on this, it gets better!) and featured classic 60's commercials, Japanese monsters, psychedelic music, B-movies, Japanese surf guitar bands, exploitation movie trailers, punk bands and bizarre cartoons. If anyone remembered Night Flight on the USA Network in the 80's, this was like the community access version of Night Flight from Hell! I was hooked and immediately gave the show a Saturday midnight timeslot (right after my own show *progrock;-) Sadly it was not meant to be, the show was soon cancelled and never aired on our channel:-( As years passed it became sort of an urban myth that such a bizarre thing even existed. Thankfully a few of the episodes are being hosted on the Archive.org site for your viewing pleasure!

Finally got around to this place!

If you are ever in the Denver area be sure to check out Flossy McGrew's Vintage Clothing and Costume shop at 1824 South Broadway. They have EVERYTHING including an entire rack dedicated to "KING COATS". How cool is that?!?!

T.H.E. CAT

 

I always thought one of the coolest “lost” shows of the late 60’s was T.H.E. CAT. It was the story of Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, a former circus performer/cat burglar who started working as a “bodyguard” for hire. It starred Robert Loggia, who went on to star in Independence Day, Big, Jagged Edge and countless other movie and TV roles. I’m always a sucker for these types of shows/movies, especially heist plots from the 60’s, and this series was no exception. I also liked the fact it was a 30 minute drama (which was a little more common for the time, which you almost NEVER see these days.) so it really “cuts to the chase” in terms of action, plot and moving the story along. Another thing I found interesting is it’s rarity. Sadly, it lasted only one season on NBC and It’s never been officially released on DVD, VHS or even widely rerun on television (a local station in Canada, CKVR is the ONLY station that I know of that ever re-ran the series in the early 80’s). I’ve seen it many times under people’s “want” section of their video lists and has quite a cult following. I was shocked watching an interview with Robert Loggia on The Tonight Show when he brought up the series, impressed it has such a ”cult” following with fans exchanging episodes video tape. However the BEST thing about the series was the opening title sequence. I’ve mentioned the series to several people including SHAG, who I was CERTAIN was, at least partially influenced by it, only to be shocked that they had never seen it before! (SHAG thought it was the COOLEST after I showed it to him on the iphone;-) Recently I discovered the artist El Gato Gomez who again, has a similar style but has never seen the series before! I always thought it would be GREAT to find a painting of the opening titles (fat chance of that) however after showing the title sequence to El Gato, I’m having her do one! Anyways here is the title sequence:

Please fasten your safesy belts and put your tray tables in the upright position!

After much hounding from friends I have decided to put a blog together, hiring the best writers and traveling the globe to bring late breaking news stories from around the world. Not really but I plan on posting some cool stuff. Also please be sure to visit my other blog based on Denver here Television at TV DENVER. Here I'll be posting various items of interest as well as updates. First a little but about myself I guess. I've been collecting classic TV shows on video since I was 17, TV at the time sucked so I decided to collect shows I remember growing up with, and several shows I never got to see. For my "day job" I work as a video editor at National Cinemedia, we're the ones that do the in-cinema advertising so if you've ever seen the "First Look" pre-show, then you've seen some of my work. I'm also running a PR company and will be representing several atrists, actors and musicians (more on that later). Well enough of my babbling, let's get to work!