October 20, 2007

Now That's a Goof!

You know how sometimes you watch a movie and you notice a movie "mistake"? A quoted example: "When Doc is caught watching Marty's Videotape back in 1955 the footage starts of Doc saying "Never mind that now, Never mind that now". The thing is when Marty is filming Doc in 1985, he never films Doc saying this. Even if for some reason the camera is on, it is clearly pointing at the ground, and when Doc watches the tape he sees himself saying it."

There are four categories "slip-ups": TV, movies, books and quotes (yes, the "potatoe" is included).

http://www.slipups.com/


The Back to the Future Mistake:
http://www.slipups.com/items/11751.html

What an Awful Commercial!

The name of the blog says it all. There are all kind of television ads to view with analysis. Watch the "pinky waving" ad from Australia. It sucks indeed.

http://www.awfulcommercials.com/


Vincent Price

Vincent Price was born in May 27, 1911 in St. Louis to a rich family. He had many superb performances both on stage and the movies. He moved to London after graduating from Yale with a BA in Art History and English to continue his studies. It was in London where he debuted on the stage with Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000) in 1935. He remained on stage for a few years, but made his first movie, "Service de Luxe" in 1938. He went ahead to make further movies with great and impressive performances. During the early 1960's, Price starred in a series of horror movies that were based on Edgar Allen Poe stories. He played tv's characters too, such as the Egghead in Batman. In addition to acting, he also lent his voice. He was the voice in Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983), and the voice in the animation "The Little Troll Prince"(1985). Price's last role was in 1990 in "Edward Scissorhands" according to the TCM.

On http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001637/ there are three. One in 1991 and two in 1993. Two of them were his voice. He passed away in October 25,1993 from lung cancer. More details in these two sites:

Turner Classic Movies
http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=161098

Find a Grave
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=838


The Bat - Teaser 1959



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwHyfANiVXs
*Update 1/3/10: video removed by user


The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Trailer 1971


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8FJYwgPJV0
*Update 1/3/10: video removed by user

October 19, 2007

Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney, according to his great grandson... "between 1913 and 1930 he played more than 150 widely diverse roles, frequently villainous and sometimes bizarre and macabre". He is probably most known as "Erik" the ghost from "Phantom of the Opera" (1925). Chaney was born in 1883 and died in 1930 from throat hemorrhage. Now in a real quick nutshell, As someone who met end meets, he had an interesting life. He as born to deaf parents, which influence him to mimic as he communicate in sign language with his parents. He married his sweetheart, Cleva, when she was 16 (and pregnant outside marriage). They perform on the streets as their son, Creighton, would collect the coins. His relationship with his wife, Cleva, leading her to attempt a suicide. As it became a scandal, it hurt his career and led to a divorce. His son had to be temporarily placed in a home for children of Divorce and Disaster. He soon remarriedand his son came to live with him and his step mother. Eventually, he entered the silent movies businesses where he became widely because known for his diverse roles. His biography is quite rich. So, since this is a nutshell version, I recommend, if you are interested in "expanding the nutshell", to read his great grandson narration. You can see his movie clips in YouTube.

http://www.lonchaney.com/


Find Your Cereal

Cereal Aisle is sort of a mini cereal search engine to find pictures of cereal boxes from specific companies.

http://www.geocities.com/jdegarmo/cereal_index.html
*Update 1/3/10: link expired

October 18, 2007

A LITTLE ANNOUNCEMENT

If you have visited my site before, you may have noticed minor changes. I replaced the still images of the YouTube videos with the actual videos. The reason that I didn't do that before was because I was having trouble doing so. I kinda liked the way it was before, when the pictures were clean and clearer. But, I think that having the actual videos on the blog will be easier for people who don't want to click on the YouTube links. By replacing the images, I had to tweak around a bit, but the text is all the same. So for now, I'm sticking to YouTube videos on my blog, unless someone serves me a huge petition ;-)

Cheers!
The Linkster

Who is Frankenstein?



This stamp was issues on September 30, 1997.

http://www.sites.si.edu/images/exhibits/Art%20of%20the%20Stamp/index.htm


I bet that anyone who is into horror/scary movies in general, or literature know of this movies. However, contrary to common belief, Frankenstein was not the monster, but the mad doctor who created the monster. The Monster himself has no name. Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelby.

http://www.literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein/


This a government site is with a Frankenstein exhibition that is divided into four extensive topics:Birth of Frankenstein, The Celluloid Monster, Promise and Peril, and Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus"

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frankhome.html
*Update 1/3/10: link expired


Frankenstein 1931 Trailer



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYCnNb5Iyak
*Update 1/3/10: Video removed from YouTube

Toonpedia


This is probably the one of the best source of cartoons and comics on the net. I've been using it for years. Really great stuff. They always update the characters list. FYI. the bear in the picture above is Barney Bear (1939).

http://www.toonopedia.com/

Be Silent..

Silent Era is a dedication to silent movies. They have a list of actors and actresses (I have no idea if they have every single of them). They have a great list of movies for that era. What I like about that particular list is that it includes foreign movies as well.

http://www.silentera.com/

October 17, 2007

Outer Space for Children

Space theme illustrations from children books. There are illustrations from 1883 to 1974. Also, there are non-english books, and information about the artists and the illustrators. To see the pages for the years that you are interested at, look at the links that are in front of the boy with the helmet. It's easy to over-look it. I have. According to the woman who publishes the site, she had good reviews for her site, and it was even picked as the "Yahoo pick of the week".

http://dreamsofspace.nfshost.com/index.htm

Looking for the Master

A Dalek (the mortal enemy of Dr. Who) masquerades as a pumpkin.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPsXj7kVB5g

Unusual Life



Unusual Life is a blog about unusual houses, architecture and places. Lots of amazing pictures.

http://unusuallife.com/

October 16, 2007

Bela Lugosi & Vlad


The Bela Lugosi official site runs by his family. Bela Lugosi played Dracula which was probably most his famous character of all time. The interesting thing is, according to his son, that Lugosi himself was born in the western border of Transylvania (where is Dracula is from) in 1882. His son tells us of his father's amazing life.

http://www.lugosi.com/lugosihomepage.html



A little trivia: Dracula means "son of the dragon".

A while back, I watched a documentary in the Discovery channel about the real Dracula. The real Dracula was a mass murderer who was a Romanian prince known as Vlad the Impaler, since his favorite method of killing was impaling people. His level of cruely was well beyond belief.

http://www.draculas.info/

Japander

Several years ago, I came across this site and really enjoyed it. There are ton of non-Japanese celebrities, such as Keifer Sutherland, Sean Connery, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jodie Foster and even Wallace & Gromit.. who won't do commercials in the U.S, but will do it in Japan. I am not certain as to why is that (but I do have a hunch). Yet, I sure would love to watch some of these commercials here.

http://www.japander.com/japander/index.htm

Murphy's Bed

I have never seen this bed in person, but have seen this in old movies and tv shows, such as "I Love Lucy". It wasn't till a few months ago that I found out what this bed is called. Furthermore, I was surprised to find out that this bed is still around. Murphy Bed was patented around 1900 by William L. Murphy (b 1876). He started the "Murphy Wall Bed Company" in California in that year. In 1918 the first Murphy Bed was manufactured in SF. The Murphy bed was most popular during the 1920's and 1930's. The company moved to NYC in 1925 where they changed their name to "Murphy Door Bed Company, Inc Production". During the WWII the production was slow because of the military need for steel. After the war, many people didn't need small space anymore, which affected the Murphy beds production. In the 1970's when the oil recession and the embargo were going on, lots of people couldn't afford big places again. The Murphy company started to florish again into the 80's and the 90's. They became popular in places like hospitals, dorms, hotels, etc. in 1990 the company changed its name again, to "Murphy Bed Co. Inc.".

http://www.murphybedcompany.com/

October 15, 2007

Retro British Style

RetroWow is a blog about the British retro from the 50's to the 70's. As an American, I find it interesting to see retro from other cultures. Evidently, there are things that are unique to Britain.

http://www.retrowow.co.uk/index.html


Ray Harryhausen



I am a big fan of Ray Harryhausen. I've seen many of his movies, and am at owe that despites the limited technology during his era, that he was able create these amazing stop-motion animation movies. He is truly an amazing man.

http://www.rayharryhausen.com/



Here is a full compilation of Ray Harryhausen animated creatures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kmjW73-v4

Classic TV Commercials

Classic old commercials to view. Check out the categories to the left. I don't know how far back these commercials go, but I do see some from the 50's here. I'd like to note, in case you are wondering, that I use a McAfee software that tests the sites' safety ("evil and malicious sites"). So I had this site tested prior to posting it.

http://www.roadode.com/classicindex.shtml

October 14, 2007

Jack Coggins


This site runs by Jack Coggins' family. Coggins was born in 1911 and passed away in 2006. He was a very gifted and talented illustrator. He has done beautiful futuristic (space age) illustrations for sci-fi magazines, along with non sci-fi magazines such as Life, Yachting, Yank, advertising and more. He also has written and illustrated books for adults and children.

http://www.jackcoggins.info/

Advance to St. Charles Place


The Monopoly game was originally played on an oil cloth in 1933 by Charles B. Darrow. In 1935, Parker Brothers bought the rights for the game from Charles B. Darrow. More info at:

http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=ci_history_monopoly
Update 1/3/10: link expired. Main page below:

http://www.hasbro.com

Before Parker Brothers decided on the Uncle Rich theme, they experimented with game cards illustrations. You'll see a private collection of these cards (one of them is shown above):

http://www.adena.com/adena/mo/mo20.htm

On another note, the interesting thing though, is that I've looked around the web to see how many Monopoly versions are out there. I actually found different answers, that were mostly anywhere above and under 1,000. One of these people, Yehuda Berlinger, did a research and found out that as of October 10, 2007 there are 1298 versions. For further details and specific explanations visit his site:

http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/02/monopoly-versions.html


*Note: Adena is British book publishing company*

Atomic Platters

Since Halloween is coming up soon, I'll try to post a Halloween related theme every day or two. This campy site is about B "horror" movies and related stuff. Such as the Flying Saucer's restaurant review (in the Chamber Section). There is even an interview with the actors from the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" movie.

*Note. I saw this link at the B Movies Central which I've posted recently.

http://www.atomicmonsters.com/