America’s favorite contemporary little big band, the award-winning retro swing ensemble Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, is set to release a new album, entitled How Big Can You Get (Big Bad/Vanguard Records), on April 21, 2009. The 11-song CD is a tribute to Cab Calloway, the legendary big band leader and jazz singer, and was recorded in honor of what would have been Cab’s 100th Birthday.

How Big Can You Get is a career milestone for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy — and not only as an illuminating revival of Calloway’s often hilarious (and just as often pointed) songbook, in the most skilled and enthusiastic hands imaginable. It’s also a revelatory moment for the band, whose musicianship, fire and interpretive powers are at an all-time high.

Says bandleader Scotty Morris, “Making the album was one of our biggest musical moments. Delving into Cab’s music made us see the high level that his songs were written and arranged at, and why they’ve lasted. We went top-to-bottom live in the studio and chose the best takes for the album, because Cab’s originals were live performances and radio broadcasts. People got a glimpse of him when he stole the show in the Blues Brothers movie. We want people to know he was more than the King of Hi-De-Ho-we want to put a light on Cab’s legacy more fully.”

Produced by Morris and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the record features several Calloway classics, including “Minnie the Moocher”, “The Ghost of Smokey Joe” and “The Jumpin’ Jive,” alongside some of his less obvious, yet just as powerful tunes, like “Reefer Man,” “Calloway Boogie” and “The Old Man of the Mountain” — all performed with the band’s usual enthusiastic approach and great interpretation.

The band also received support from Cab Calloway’s family throughout the project. Says Morris, “We felt like we were hugging an old friend when we made this album.”

Formed in Ventura, California in 1989, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy released two records independently before breaking nationally in the cult comedy film Swingers. They went on to release ten additional albums on various major labels before striking a deal to develop their own label, Big Bad Records, through legendary Vanguard. The group has sold more than 2 million albums, and several of their most popular songs, including “Mr. Pinstripe” and “You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight,” have been featured in films and soundtracks worldwide.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has also performed at the Billboard Music Awards, the White House, and during the halftimes of both the Super Bowl and the Orange Bowl. Their videos have been regularly featured on MTV and VH1, and they have appeared as musical guests on numerous television shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Live with Regis and Kelly and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Since their humble beginnings, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has outlasted the neo-swing movement and continues to deliver to its loyal and consistent fan base.

“How Big Can You Get,” the title track of the band’s latest release – now unbelievably poignant with lyrics that comment on corporate greed – is also the first single off the album. The group is shooting a new music video in Los Angeles this month, and will start a major tour in support of the new album beginning in April. For upcoming tour dates, visit www.bbvd.com.

Pin-up icon Bettie Page died on December 11, 2008, at the ripe old age of 85. Although millions of fans recognize Bettie as Queen of the Pin-Ups since the mid-20th Century, few know the other facets of her life, from her many failed marriages to her time in a sanitarium to her love for the island of Haiti. Here, pop culture connoisseur and author Bruce Lewis details the fascinating story of America’s favorite pin-up.

Forever Bettie Page

By Bruce Lewis

Bondage queen. Sex goddess. Pin-up icon. All of these words could be used to describe Bettie Page, and all would be good choices, for she was all of those things. But she was much more, besides: a scholar, a Christian missionary, and the inspiration for a character in Star Wars. She was smart. She was notorious. She was scorching hot.

And she was 85 years of age when she slipped from this world on December 11, 2008, at Los Angeles’ Kindred Hospital.

Bettie Page was without doubt the face of American beauty during the second half of the 20th Century. Yes, there were others — Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn — but these were mostly movie stars, known worldwide from the films in which they appeared. Bettie Page didn’t need Hollywood to make her a goddess. All she needed were some black-and-white still photographs — more than 20,000 individual images, by some accounts — and a few crude film loops to make her a star. And while the Silver Screen starlets’ fame was pure product, cranked out in job lots by the global Hollywood hype machine, Bettie Page became famous with nothing but her charm, her will, and a few tiny advertisements in the back pages of a cheap magazine.

“We were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stocking.”

It is 1933, and Bettie Page is walking barefoot to school. She is walking barefoot because her father has run away again — this time for good — leaving her mother to feed, clothe, and care for her and her five brothers and sisters. Bettie and one sister live in an orphanage now, but despite the cold and the lack of shoes and the bright pain of abandonment she feels every night, Bettie keeps walking, keeps putting one bare foot in front of the other, because she has made up her mind to graduate at the top of her class and go on to Vanderbilt. I’m not going to be barefoot forever, she says to herself. I’m going to college, and I’m going to get a job, and I’m going to be somebody.

Betty Mae Page was born into a family of eight in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 22, 1923. Her parents, Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle, never could get it together. Walter Roy Page molested her when she was 13; after he went to jail for stealing a car, Edna Mae Page took two jobs and sent Betty and two sisters to an orphanage. There, the young Betty Page taught herself to sew and do makeup. Her natural intelligence began to emerge during her years at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville, where she was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” by her classmates and graduated salutatorian of her class in June 1940, earning a scholarship to George Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University). She gradated from Peabody four years later.

That’s right — Bettie Page had a degree: Bachelor of Arts, 1944. She also had a husband when she graduated, an old school flame named Billy Neal. But there was a war on, and Billy Neal found himself drafted into the Navy, so Betty Mae ended up following him around for a while, eventually landing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which at the time was still a more-or-less civilized country. She loved the island, but couldn’t stay. Nor could she stay married to Billy Neal. They divorced in November 1947.

“From the first time I posed nude, I wasn’t embarrassed.”

It’s 1950, and Betty Mae Page is walking along the strand at Coney Island. She’s been all over and done a lot since her divorce: a little modeling of furs here, a little secretarial work in San Francisco there, even a screen test at Fox (which went nowhere due to her refusal to spend casting couch time with an older executive). Bill Neal had come home, and they’d tried to make it work, but after the miscarriage they had parted for good. Betty is working as a secretary now, typing all day in an office, spending her free time walking on the beach. Jerry Tibbs, a police officer and amateur photographer, is there, too. He raises his camera to capture the winsome 27-year-old’s image, and with a click of a shutter, the career of Betty Page ends, and the legendary Bettie Page is born.

“You ought to be a model”, he says, handing her his card. “I could make a portfolio for you.”

Bettie Page began her career as a glamour photography model, posing in lingerie for the various “camera clubs” that thrived in New York at the time. These clubs were less about f-stops and exposure timing and more about generating “pin-ups” — erotic but non-pornographic images of pretty girls in titillating garments and poses that were de rigueur among young, healthy male Americans in those pre-Playboy days. Bettie (as she was now known) was a pin-up natural, her combination of girl-next-door approachability and curvaceous sensuality tailor-made for the eyes of a worldly-wise but still essentially small-town male America.

By 1951, Bettie’s image graced the pages of men’s magazines everywhere; by 1952 she was the best-known pin-up in the world, thanks in large part to her partnership with bookstore owner and pin-up photographer Irving Klaw. Klaw specialized in cheesecake — saucy but essentially harmless turn-on photography featuring smiling cutie-pies in skimpy outfits, images of a type common in men’s magazines (and even in some mainstream press) of the day. Klaw’s photos and “specialty” films often showed Bettie and other women clad in kinky outfits, pretending to participate in bondage, spanking, and other acts of outlaw sexuality — yet, all were curiously chaste by modern standards. Irving Klaw catered to his clients’ tastes, but he was not a pornographer; his all-female films and stills might have been designed to thrill, but they never depicted nudity or contained explicit sexual content. Bettie would not have consented to appear nude or engaging in sexual activity in any case; beneath the curves and the silk dominatrix gear she remained the same small-town Tennessee girl she’d always been.

But she was becoming so much more. In 1953, Page resumed her dream of becoming an actress, taking classes at the renowned Herbert Berghoff Studios and making her first stage and television appearances, including some off-Broadway work and a memorable one-shot on the top-rated Jackie Gleason Show. Her first speaking part in a feature-length film came in the burlesque Striporama (the only time Page is known to have spoken on camera); two burlesque films by Irving Klaw (Teaserama and Varietease, followed. It is from these latter two films that Page is best known by her later generations of fans.

In 1954 Page met photographer and former fashion model Bunny Yeager.  Yeager’s subsequent photographs of Bettie in a home-made jungle girl getup — the now-famous “Jungle Bettie” set — catapulted Page to the big leagues. Based on these images, Hugh Hefner himself picked Page to be Playmate of the Month for January 1955. The photo shows a beautiful and buxom Bettie Page, kneeling topless in front of a small Christmas tree, a wink beneath her bangs and Santa hat. She was 31 years old, and at the pinnacle of her career.

“All of a sudden I felt a hand in mine, leading me across the street to a small church…”

It is Christmas 1957, and Bettie Page is sitting in a southbound train car, headed for Florida. Her career as a pin-up model is over. Irving Klaw has been destroyed, dragged before the Congressional obscenity hearings convened by crusading Senator Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) in the Senator’s crusade to smash the pin-up business as he had the comic book industry several years before. Klaw is still around, of course (he won’t die for another ten years yet), but the business he created has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory, and Klaw has fed the negatives of Bettie’s catalog of images into the fire.

And Bettie has gotten the message as well. The FBI boys were never rude or threatening, of course — Mr. Hoover would never have permitted such unprofessional behavior from his men — but the subpoena with her name on it, and the 16 hours she’d spent in claustrophobic room in the Capitol of the United States waiting to testify, were clear enough. She’d never been called before the committee, as it turned out, but Bettie Page was no fool. She got out. Her career as a pin-up idol is over.

Two years pass, and Bettie walks into a small church in Key West. Soon after, she severs all contact with her prior life, and disappears.

“I wish I could erase the years from 1979 to 1992…”

It is June, 1982, and Bettie Page is sitting in a California courtroom. She has 22 years, three marriages, and one trial for assault with a deadly weapon (1980, not guilty by reason of acute schizophrenia) behind her. Now, Bettie is on trial once again, this time for attempted murder. The victim, Leonie Haddad, is an elderly woman. Bettie had been her tenant when, for no reason anyone could see, Bettie had attacked her with a knife, severing Haddad’s finger. The judge is speaking now: “This court finds the defendant to be not guilty by reason of insanity. Due to the danger she poses to others, she is hereby sentenced to ten years at Patton State Hospital, sentence to begin forthwith.”

The gavel bangs. Chairs honk against the waxed floor as the Court stands adjourned. Bettie Page is carried away kicking and screaming to her second stint in the nuthouse.

But this is not the end of the Bettie Page story, because time, therapy, and a very good God smiled on her. Ten years later, Bettie emerged from Patton State well and healthy, her insanity in remission thanks to conscientious care, her own iron will, and many hours of prayer. At 70, she moved into a Los Angeles group home to live out her remaining years in obscurity — “penniless and infamous,” as she put it.

Penniless she was — although not for much longer; infamous she most definitely was not. For during her 30 years of divorce and despair, madness and mystery, Bettie Page’s images — the very images that had made her a pariah so long before — had transformed her into a superstar. And she had no idea.

When TV host Robin Leach came calling in 1993 to interview her for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Page was utterly unaware of the resurgence of her popularity. Entertainment Tonight arrived next to shoot a segment. When it aired, Page watched dumbfounded from her chair at the group home. It was only then that Page superfan Greg Theakston, whose fanzine The Betty Pages had kickstarted the Bettie craze of the 1980s, became aware that his longtime idol was yet alive. With glee, Theakston introduced a stunned Bettie Page to the universe of comic books, illustration portfolios, fine art prints, and film characters based upon her image.

And happy days were here again for Bettie Page. Newfound fame, fortune and fans followed as Bettie emerged from three decades of obscurity. The money began to flow to Bettie again, courtesy of a professional public relations firm whose owner was a longtime Bettie fan with a genuine concern for her welfare. An authorized biography was published in the late 1990s; two films about her life came next. Even the Klaw family and Bunny Yeager came to benefit from Bettiemania.

And she is not ashamed. “I never thought it was shameful,” she told “The Playboy Interview” in 1998.  I felt normal. It’s just that it [modeling] was much better than pounding a typewriter eight hours a day, which gets monotonous.”

At last, Bettie Page’s childhood dream had come true. The barefoot Tennessee schoolgirl had come a long way, but she’d made it. At last, Betty Mae Page was the one, the only, Bettie Page: Queen of the Pin-ups, icon, goddess. She was, as she had promised herself so long ago, somebody.

“Unforgettable…”

It is 2003. Bettie Page is 80 years old — and here she is again, posing for the August 2003 edition of Playboy. This time, however, there are no whips, no gags, no silky lingerie. Bettie will no more stand for such things now than she would have stood for full nudity in 1953. Today, she wears a simple plaid shirt and ordinary street dress. She is, in many ways, a very ordinary elderly woman. Yet make no mistake: Bettie Page is far from ordinary, even in her golden years. She remains eminently photographable. The beauty is still there — the same bangs, the same pageboy (now silver gray), the same naughty eyes, and the same heart-melting smile. Hef does not make mistakes in this area; his onetime Playmate of the Month is still very much a scorching hot babe — the kind of older woman that earns sheepish second glances from the teenage boys at the mall. Yes, she’s put on some weight. Yes, it’s hard for her to get up and down these days. But, Bettie Page is still the Queen of the Pin-Ups.

And it is the Queen of the Pin-Ups that the world mourns today, 85 years and eight months after Betty Mae Page came into this world. She leaves us as she came to us: forever smart, forever notorious, forever scorching hot — forever the incomparable, unforgettable Bettie Page.

Bruce Lewis is an American voice actor, writer, artist, and author. He has worked in the U.S. manga and anime industry since 1993, and his book Draw Manga: How To Draw Manga In Your Own Unique Style, is an Amazon.com Bestseller.

BACK TO THE RETRO FUTURE: PART 2
Yesteryear’s Movies of Tomorrow
By Will “The Thrill” Viharo

In this second installment of our three-part series, B-movie conoisseur Will Viharo ventures into the vaults of vintage sci-fi cinema to highlight the best in classic spaceship celluloid. This isn’t just a lesson in cinematic history, it’s a look deep into the collective American psyche in the mid-20th century. Ready for more? Then pour yourself a refreshing glass of traggle nectar, lean back, and enjoy the continuing journey into uncharted realms known only to diehard science fiction fans.

“PIE PLATES OF PERIL”: EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956)

Fear of an invasion from outer space, spurred by vague but frequent UFO sightings and whispered conspiracies, was as palpable among the panicky population of the ’50s as worry over a nuclear standoff with Russia. And, filmmakers were quick to cash in on this terror-stricken trend. Special effects guru Ray Harryhausen is better known these days for sword-and-sorcery swashbucklers like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, but in the black & white days of the ’50s, his specialty was devising methods for the destruction of various cities, including their most famous landmarks. In Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), the first feature film for which he created all the special effects, the prehistoric Rhedosaurus rampages through New York; in It Came From Beneath (1955) a giant octopus ravages San Francisco; in 20,000 Miles to Earth (1957) a Venusian monster called an Ymir makes his last stand on the Coliseum in Rome.

But for Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, Ray’s 1956 alien invaders masterpiece, the creative juggernaut devised ingenious flying saucers that became the most memorable—and mimicked—of all interstellar invasion vehicles (copied outright in Tim Burton’s outrageous 1996 send-up, Mars Attacks). Keeping pace with Ray’s other displays of urban destruction, and taking a cue from Day the Earth Stood Still, the invaders also trash our nation’s capital, but with much more malevolent force than the diplomatic Klaatu: the Washington Monument is totally toppled in the assault!

Also see: George Pal’s seminal and influential classic War of the Worlds (1953), based on the H.G. Wells novel but more inspired by Orson Welles’ infamous radio play, which caused real life panic during its 1938 broadcast; AIP’s drive-in classic Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) featuring Frank Gorshin and a gang of Paul Blaisdell’s bulbous-headed, cat-eyed, alcohol-clawed space monsters, but only one sad little saucer; Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World (1951), the crowd-pleasing classic about a hostile alien veggie-monster-man (James Arness) who crash lands his saucer near the North Pole and proceeds to terrorize a scientific expedition; and The Mysterians (1957), Toho’s entry in the space invader race, as evil aliens armed with a bird-like giant robot named Mogera lay waste to Japan, as if resident giant monsters Godzilla and Rodan weren’t doing their job properly.

“ROBOTS ‘R’ US”: FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)

While many of us want our jetpacks, the homemakers among us yearn for another un-kept promise from the architects of yesteryear: the robot maid. Postwar visionaries often pitched the home of the future as a modern oasis replete with automatic devices, self-sufficient resources and plenty of intelligent mechanisms to aid our leisure. As of this writing in the futuristic year of 2004, they’re still working on ‘em. But, perhaps the most legendary embodiment of this technological Utopia was Robby the Robot, the inhuman star of Forbidden Planet, an interstellar re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest that is arguably the most famous and beloved of all ’50s sci-fi movies.

Robots had been popular in sci-fi literature and pop culture for decades already, but with all the advances made in technology since WW2, people began to actually expect a race of robots to one day serve humankind. Nowadays, robotic humans are regularly seen in political circles or reporting the news, and Arnold’s Terminator is the current standard for our mechanical doppelgangers. But Robby remains the robot for the ages: boundlessly smart, eloquently personable, magically resourceful, and incredibly cool. Only the Robot on the Lost in Space TV series can compete with Robby’s pop cultural standing (and in fact they once teamed up in an episode).

Forbidden Planet is itself a marvel–the vividly colorful sets and costumes of the crew (led by Leslie Nielsen, long before he realized how funny he could be) and the philosophical underpinnings (including a giant invisible monster spawned by the Freudian “Id”) set it apart from its many imitators and descendents. It also boasts the premiere all-electronic score, by Louis and Bebe Barron. Word of a remake has been circulating for some time, but the fact is, only the innocent imagination of mid-century dreamers could create such a warm, vibrant and relevant masterpiece. Though set in a future where interplanetary space travel is the norm, it’s a time capsule treasure of and from the past. Leave it alone.

Also see: Robby’s return in The Invisible Boy (1957); another children’s robot classic, Tobor the Great (1954); and a more menacing metal man in Herman Cohen’s Target Earth (1954).

“SWINGIN’ AMONG THE STARS”: QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958)

This was a plot peculiar to the 1950s: a group or horny frat-boy astronauts, including at least one wisecracking sidekick from Brooklyn or someplace like it, sometimes with a pet monkey, land on another planet and encounter a race of Amazonian women wearing high heels, short skirts, thick mascara, red lipstick, and uptight attitudes supposedly caused by years of forced virginity due to the death/disappearance/unexplained absence of all males in their society. Fortunately for the guys, none of the women are lesbians, and after the requisite fights with the local giant spider puppets and whatnot, the mating process begins.

Of course this is the straight male’s wet dream come true, and it came true several times throughout the decade, reaching its zenith in Queen of Outer Space, starring Zsa Zsa Gabor (though she does not play the titular monarch). This wide-screen Deluxe color cult classic is one of the funniest movies ever made, and rumor has it the camp was intentional, years before that became the fashion, so in effect this was the earliest film to spoof its own genre (like much later efforts such as John Landis’ Amazon Women on the Moon). The script was allegedly developed from an idea by the legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht, though no one has ever really substantiated this rumor, especially not Hecht, who probably talked too loud while drunk one night at an industry shindig, hitting on the local talent. This concept was ubiquitous enough, though, so we’ll let Ben off the hook. If there is a cure for humorless political correctness, this is it.

Also see: the sexist 3D thrills of Cat Women of the Moon (1953), and its remake(!), Missile to the Moon (1958); the oddly titled Abbott and Costello Go To Mars (1953), in which Bud and Lou go to Venus and find a bevy of beauty pageant contestants; and Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956), in which the Brits prove they’re as randy (and as willing to travel for it) as us raunchy All-Americans.

There’s lots more to come, readers. Stay tuned for Part Three of
Will Viharo’s sci-fi cinematic escapades!

Beatnik lounge lizard and writer Will “the Thrill” Viharo and his wife, Monica “the Tiki Goddess,” host a live cult movie cabaret called “Thrillville” at the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater in El Cerrito, CA. Will also has a B-movie tiki lounge at home, where he watches his DVD collection while drinking homemade Mai Tais (which may have influenced these reviews somewhat).

BACK TO THE RETRO FUTURE: PART 1
Yesteryear’s Movies of Tomorrow
By Will “The Thrill” Viharo

In the first of this three-part series, B-movie conoisseur Will Viharo ventures into the vaults of vintage sci-fi cinema to highlight the best in classic spaceship celluloid . This isn’t just a lesson in cinematic history, it’s a look deep into the collective American psyche in the mid-20th century. So, pour yourself a tumbler of rocket fuel, kick back, and get ready to blast off into uncharted realms known only to diehard science fiction fans.

Many of us poor Earthlings stuck here in the dawn of the terror-stricken, economically challenging, morally complex, gas-guzzling 21st Century wonder one simple thing: Where are our personal jet-packs promised by The Jetsons back in the early 1960s?

Today’s sci-fi blockbusters are decidedly more pessimistic than the space-age films of yore. Beginning with cynical cyber-punk classics like Blade Runner (1982), modern science fiction movies invariably depict dreary, dystopian futures for our species, full of screeching sound, smoke and steel. (See also: Mad Max, Matrix, Alien and Terminator franchises, and the more recent I, Robot.) Even relatively optimistic options offered by the sundry Star Trek spin-offs or the Star Wars movies are noisy, busy and, by certain standards, downright ugly. As they say, the future is not what it used to be.

Perhaps this accounts for the current, rampant nostalgia for mid-20th Century pop culture—people of this real “future” are now longing for the pretty past that placed much more faith in us than we do ourselves. The hopes and dreams this nation had for its own technological and cultural evolution following the euphoria of the prosperous 1950s was slowly and systematically shattered by the revolutionary ’60s. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, as well as the rebellion of the counterculture, and the angry ascent of rock ‘n’ roll, destroyed the collective aspirations of an entire generation by the finale of this tumultuous decade—which, ironically, also ended with the first moon-landing, in 1969. Although many positive changes resulted from this massive upheaval, mainly in the arena of civil rights, a certain idealism and innocence was tragically lost in the explosive exchange. By the beginning of the 1980s, the country was riveted by Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, not the steps taken by our brave astronauts. Goodbye, Jetsons; hello, Joan Jett.

ROCKETS, ROBOTS & RAYS OF HOPE

Nowhere is the post-WW2 generation’s faith in (and fears of) the future more evident than in the science fiction movies of the 1950s and early ’60s, which often and ironically contradicted the public’s real fears that we’d blow ourselves up any minute and there’d be no future at all. Still, filmmakers dared to dream for the masses. For the purpose of illustrating these reveries, I’ve compiled a list of movies I strongly recommend for your homebound blast to the past. All of these titles are available either on DVD or VHS; some are still occasionally shown on late night cable TV (including re-runs of Mystery Science Theater 3000). I’ve broken them down into eclectic, and rather eccentric, categories, leading off with my own personal favorite of the bunch. But be forewarned: my tastes tend toward the pulpy end of the spectrum. I’ve also provided alternate choices from the A, B and Z lists as well.

This list leaves out obvious ’50s sci-fi categories like Big Bugs (Them!, Tarantula, The Deadly Mantis) or Red Scare Alien Possession (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came From Outer Space, It Conquered the World), focusing more on films that represent the mid-century man’s dreams, and nightmares, regarding The Future, be it In Space, From Space, or right here on “Terror” Firma. Most of these films contain the popular iconography associated with this genre—rocket ships, robots, ray guns—and represent a fairly comprehensive cross-section of sub-genres, commonly bonded with that essential B movie ingredient: Cheese. Welcome to the interstellar cocktail lounge of the Space Age imagination.

“FIRE UP THOSE RETRO-ROCKETS”: DESTINATION MOON (1950)

During the most xenophobic era in modern American history, rife with communist witch-hunts, racial prejudice, and social malaise, many Americans dreamed of a better world “Out There”. George Pal, who by now had established himself as a special effects wizard due to his innovative, award-winning “Puppetoon” animation shorts, was the first filmmaker to successfully capture these starry-eyed ambitions on celluloid. This film, though slow-paced, is a graceful (albeit naturally cornball) little masterwork of style and creativity, also considered to be scientifically sound at the time. While dated, this film is worth seeing because of its historical significance as prototypical space exploration cinema.

Also see: Rocketship XM (1950), rushed into release when it was learned Destination Moon was in production, making it the first official “rocketship” movie, complete with a little theremin on the soundtrack; Cameron Mitchell and Arthur Franz take a very early, and colorful, Flight to Mars (1951), using spacesuits left over from Destination Moon;and Pal’s next excursion into planetary orbit, the more ambitious but less successful Conquest of Space (1955).

“ALIENS ARE PEOPLE, TOO”: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) and THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955)

It’s astounding that right in the middle of a conservative era dominated by militant American chest-thumping, a film with a liberal anti-war message could even get made, much less become a hit. But Robert Wise’s sci-fi masterpiece The Day the Earth Stood Still not only went down in Hollywood history as one of the most sophisticated, exciting and intelligent sci-fi movies ever made, it was also a popular favorite with audiences across all demographics, making it the first big sci-fi “blockbuster.” It also boasted the first major sci-fi soundtrack to fully employ a theremin, composed by the great Bernard Hermann, setting a B movie trend that would last for over a decade (though non-monster movies The Lost Weekend and Spellbound were the very first to use this eerie instrument in their scores).

Day’s iconic imagery—the giant robot Gort emerging from the immense flying saucer on the White House Lawn, led by interstellar ambassador Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie—is both an emblem of classic sci-fi cinema and a symbol of peace during an uncertain, unsteady era. Of course, the actual message from space was a bit more blunt: Earth’s nations either learn to get along or they will be obliterated by an inter-galactic police force, before our volatile inclinations can infect the rest of the apparently peace-loving universe.

Another equally emblematic alien of the era was the big-brained Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth, Universal’s official entry in the epic outer space sweepstakes. This classic popcorn movie, while not quite in the league of its classy predecessor, opting for cheap thrills over political subtext, also featured an alien ambassador. The visitor, Exeter (played by genre regular Jeff Morrow), whose intentions are at first sinister, is finally revealed as noble only after he has abducted two hapless Earthlings (fellow genre stalwarts Rex Reason and Faith Domergue) to his doomed planet. The Technicolor production still stuns with imaginative visuals, and its soundtrack music, including cues by Henry Mancini, is equally essential. This Island Earth’s “interocitor” machine became as famous amongst ’50s fantasy film fans as the ultimate quote from Day the Earth Stood Still: “Klaatu barada nikto.”

Also see: Edgar C. Ulmer’s moody, sympathetic portrait of The Man From Planet X (1951) ; the bargain basement one-set wonder The Astounding She Monster (1958), with Robert C. Clarke, gangsters and a voluptuous visitor from beyond the stars; the atmospheric British chiller Devil Girl From Mars (1954), whose sexy space-travelling siren also sports her own imposing robot enforcer; and Teenagers From Outer Space (1958), which proved that juvenile delinquency had truly spread to all corners of the galaxy and the most insidious enemy was already among us.

There’s more celluloid magic in store, readers.
Check out Part Two of Will Viharo’s sci-fi cinematic escapades!

Beatnik lounge lizard and writer Will “the Thrill” Viharo and his wife, Monica “the Tiki Goddess,” host a live cult movie cabaret called “Thrillville” at the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater in El Cerrito, CA. Will also has a B-movie tiki lounge at home, where he watches his DVD collection while drinking homemade Mai Tais, the effects of which may have influenced these reviews somewhat.

Love the look of classic pin-ups from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s? Ever wondered what makeup tricks they use to get that perfectly flawless finish, those sultry bedroom eyes and those ruby red lips? Learn to do it yourself in this quick video tutorial from ItsJudyTime, and you can look like a retro pin-up model, too!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxwvGeZsWNA]

The Timeless Appeal of Retro Red Lipstick
By Jodi McNarland

Some staples to a woman’s wardrobe simply cannot be ignored. A little black dress may catch a fella’s eye, and strappy heels may turn a gentleman’s head, but nothing puts the shine on the apple like luscious red lips.

Briefest history? Babylonians used ground jewel powder (expensive, no staying power), Cleopatra used ground beetles (yuck and yes, I know we’re still doing it, but we hide it well and let’s leave it at that, shall we?), less affluent Egyptians used henna and ground leaves (poisonous mercury-based plants no less).

The long and the short of it: Women figured out thousands of years ago that red lips look lovely, and who are we to go against tradition? Time has marched on, however, and there are almost as many styles and brands as there are women to wear them. Glossy, matte, pearly, metallic–have a little fun with it. I’m here to talk about the color.

THE MAGIC OF THE RIGHT RED

Photo by Melai Parcon Lopez

Picture it: You’re in your sweetest frock, smartest suit, or slinkiest strapless number. Your hair is a masterpiece and your eyes sparkle, shine or smolder. Your beau is waiting at the door, but you’re still missing that certain je ne sais quoi. Jewelry? Right where it belongs. Shoes? Perfect match (and comfortable to boot–after all, it’s your fantasy). What could it be? The right red on your lips brings your face to life. You’re still you, just more so. Paint on a little glamour and prepare to get noticed.

MAC Dubonnet. Chanel Barcelona Red. Cover Girl Really Red. Lancome Red Desire. Anna Sui Rouge Chine. Mary Kay Red Salsa. Elizabeth Arden Slink. See what catches your eye. Just between us, I can’t tell you which brand I use–no endorsements, darling–but I don’t leave the house without it.

So, put on a little lipstick dear. The whole world is waiting for you to make your appearance.

Slippers Guaranteed to Attract a Prince
By Jody McNarland

Picture it: Hollywood 1950. You’re lounging in your penthouse flat waiting for your gentleman caller. You’re wearing the most delicious peignoir set, filmy, flowing and feminine. There’s a knock at the door and you pad barefoot across the carpet.

Wait a minute, that’s not right. Look down, what’s wrong with this picture? Your feet, love. They look so…naked.

You need mules. Marabou mules to be precise. Those princess-like vintage slippers with the delicate tuft of feathers highlighting a perfect pedicure.

A Walk Through Time
Briefest history? They’ve been around a lot longer than you may think. Mules showed up in the 19th century French courts, where a glimpse of a girl’s foot was an event to remember (and, really, is it any different today).

No one knows who added the stork feathers, but isn’t it wonderful they did? Mules reached their peak in the early 1950s, when any sex kitten worth her whiskers had a pair tucked away for special occasions. Dainty and delicate but, most importantly, fluffy. Like the best lingerie, they hint at what’s underneath but don’t give away the whole story.

Now, I hear you asking: What about my pumps? My ballerina flats? Well, there’s a time and a place for everything, love. Most women save their marabou mules for more private times, but if you have a hankering to strut into the dentist’s office or the daycare, who am I to argue? I can tell you personally that feathers on your feet will definitely spice up your next trip to the grocery store.

Simple and sexy, Maribou mules come in all sorts of fanciful colors!

So, figure out your favorite color and take those first few steps toward your next adventure. With a crossed leg and that little powder puff dangling just so carefully off of your toes, you are a force to be reckoned with.

And, when you hear that knock, get off your chaise lounge and sashay over to the door in a pair of marabou mules. Let your inner bombshell out to play because, darlin’, company’s coming and he’ll never know what hit him.

Toronto’s Decoder Ring Theatre
Swings Dramatically into Podcasts
By James Stewart

Remember when tough heroes of yesteryear meted out their own brand of justice in the streets?

Heroes like the masked Red Panda (“that scourge of the underworld, hunter of those who prey upon the innocent, that marvelous masked mystery man”) and his partner Flying Squirrel, who in the 1930s patrolled the streets of Toronto with unbreakable will–not to mention static shoes, miniature wireless transmitters, and gas grenades–taking on the city’s toughest gangs.

Heroes like tough-guy private eye Black Jack Justice (“that master of mystery, that sultan of sleuthing, Martin Bracknell’s immortal detective”) and girl detective Trixie Dixon, who find that people get some pretty strange ideas about just what a private detective does. As Justice puts it, “On the deliberately rare occasions when I meet someone new, their eyes light up with visions of murder and mayhem dancing in their heads.” These two were always looking for a case in post-World War II Toronto, even when it looked like one that couldn’t be solved.

Wait a minute, you say. You don’t remember them? Heck, the CRBC (predecessor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) wasn’t even formed until 1936.

Whodunnit, then? The clues point not to some Canadian pirate station from the 1930s, but to Decoder Ring Theatre, a group that does modern radio drama in the Old Time Radio tradition, using podcasting technology to bring their retro-stylish adventurers to life.

Retro Players Find a High-Tech Home
Red Panda, the theatre troupe’s first podcast series, actually evolved from a gag-filled World War II-era spoof in its first six episodes–with poison concealed in flasks of maple syrup and the Red Panda swallowing a bullet to smuggle it home and hoping the in-flight meal wouldn’t set it off–to a more serious homage to classic radio adventures, like The Shadow and The Green Hornet.That’s because the Red Panda episodes originally started out as a pilot project for commercial radio put together in 1999, about five years before they made a splash on the Internet.

“We were trying to prove we could make something like this happen,” says Gregg Taylor, president of Decoder Ring Theatre, who writes, produces, and stars in Red Panda Adventures.

Taylor found that commercial radio was too format-driven to give the series a chance, and what outlets his Decoder Ring Theatre could find didn’t pay enough to make the show feasible. Taylor and his cast of thespians turned their attention to traditional theater and festival productions, but eventually put the original Red Panda episodes in MP3 format on the Decoder Ring Theatre website in 2004 — “almost as an afterthought,” Taylor says. E-mails soon started coming in from all over the world from people wanting more of Red Panda.

Players Rick Persich, Michelle D'Allesandro, Stephanie Bickford and Todd Dulmage.

In its current incarnation, the series has a more serious tone, and the setting has moved to the 1930s rather than sticking with the original backdrop of World War II. The advantage of the new version — that its heroes can pursue any type of adventure, rather than being confined to war scenes — won audiences over.

The new episodes also are streamlined, since the original Red Panda Adventures had an unwieldy six characters, four of whom never left the studio. The Red Panda now has a partner, though, in Kit Baxter (Clarissa der Nederlanden), otherwise known as the Flying Squirrel.

Eventually, Decoder Ring Theatre will work out a crossover episode (“like the Flash of Two Worlds,” Taylor says, referring to the two versions of the famous DC character) to bridge the two versions.

A New Noir Hero
As 2006 began, Decoder Ring fans found Red Panda joined by a decidedly noirish kind of hero in the form of private dick Black Jack Justice. The eponymous series got its start as a play-within-a-play for the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2002.

“It was a farce set on the broadcast day of a fictional old-time series. The writers come off a three-week bender and they realize they’ve run out of scripts,” Taylor explains. The play, also titled Black Jack Justice, finds the writers working on the script even as the show airs, and the personal dramas of the company weave their way into the drama.

Although it spawned another successful series for the Decoder Ring Theatre, the original 2002 “Black Jack Justice” story hasn’t been used in the podcasts. “I’m saving that one for a rainy day,” says Taylor. “It worked well in the context of the play, but I’m not sure it would be the strongest stand-alone episode. It was one way of satisfying the radio bug” before the podcasts emerged, he says.

Catching the Vintage Radio Bug
Taylor has been fascinated with Golden Age radio dramas since hearing several classic performances in reruns in the 1970s on a Toronto radio station.”Some [plays] drove me crazy until I tracked them down,” he says, recalling one find, The Lives of Harry Lime, with Orson Welles recreating the role of the antihero from The Third Man.

The Decoder Ring Theatre aims to recreate the feel of these original radio plays, setting a retro scene in sound for a modern-day audience.

Says Taylor, “We’re trying to do the shows close to the spirit of the 1940s, although the female characters are more active than in the times. Kit [Baxter, alias the Flying Squirrel, in Red Panda Adventures] is what I wish Margo Lane ever was.”

While early Red Panda sessions were done before audiences and Black Jack Justice originated on stage, the podcasts are produced in Taylor’s “palatial Decoder Ring studio” in the basement of his Toronto home.

The possibility of doing the shows live ran into problems, Taylor says, among them the need to sell “a ridiculous number of tickets” to cover rental costs. One location that was affordable turned out to have another problem — the subway ran too close, causing a noisy rumble every five minutes, a definite problem for radio taping.

“I’d like to take some of them live,” he says of the vintage inspired performances, adding that he wants to do “Fall of the City,” a favorite episode of CBS’s “Columbia Workshop,” as a live performance someday.

The casts for the podcast radio plays generally run up to about eight characters. The current incarnation of Black Jack Justice features Christopher Mott as Jack Justice and Andrea Lyons as Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective, while the Red Panda Adventures stars Taylor and Clarissa der Nederlanden. In addition to the series leads, the Decoder Ring Theatre ensemble includes Shannon Arnold, Scott Moyle, Steven Burley, Peter Nicol, Johnathan Llyr, Lesley Livingston, Michael Booth, M. John Kennedy, Julie Florio, Gregory Z. Cooke, Brian Vaughan, Andrew Merzetti, and Dave Kynaston.

New podcasts go on line every other Saturday, alternating between six-episode runs of each series. The first series of Black Jack Justice has been completed, and the new series of Red Panda Adventures starts up April 1, 2006. After that, six more Justice episodes will be podcast. If you’re looking to catch up, a dozen Red Panda adventures and several Black Jack Justice episodes are available in Decoder Ring Theatre’s podcast archives. To listen online, visit www.decoderringtheatre.com.

Retro Pinup Model Finds Her Niche 
With Classic Cheesecake
By Bridget Hall

Pin-up queen Bernie Dexter captures the classic style of the 1940s-50s.

Bernie’s modeling work evokes the timeless poses of pinups from the post-WWII era heyday. “I have always loved the ’40s and ’50s pinups,” she admits. “During the war, it was a fact that women really worked at being appealing to men; they always had their lipstick, nails and hair done. It was a reminder for the military men [what] they were fighting for and inspiration to get home.”

“I am a rockabilly girl who lives the rockabilly lifestyle,” says pinup model Bernie Dexter. She adds, “I just love anything ’40s and ’50s. Vintage lingerie is my poison. I spend my extra time sifting through thrift stores and vintage shops for that next cute pinup outfit.”

Committed to Her Craft
In a constant effort to create new original work, Bernie’s modeling traverses similar ground as the pinups of the past, most notably Bettie Page, but Bernie refuses to simply mimic icons of a bygone era.

“I really take [pinup modeling] seriously,” she says. “I try to make something that will last for people and always be interesting. It is a form of expression for me. Art, if you will…it has become a part of my lifestyle.”

An avid collector of vintage clothes and other retro ephemera, Bernie never has trouble conceiving new and exciting sets to build, often in the comfort of her own home. “I am always on the prowl for props and costumes,” Bernie explains. “I am a mad collector of stuff, so I seem to have almost everything I need.”

After getting her start on the beauty pageant circuit as a youngster, Bernie made her first big splash when she won the Miss Teen San Diego County title at age 18. She chased the acting bug around the same time, but found little success.

Says Bernie, “I was doing auditions all the time, but [was] always rejected; [I was] tagged ‘too glamorous.’”

At 21, Bernie decided to put that glamour to work. She emerged on the Hollywood modeling scene with an agent, but once again, she found “tons of auditions [but] no work. So, I gave up.”

Thrust into the Limelight
It wasn’t until 2002, when, on a whim, Bernie found herself returning to the front of the camera from behind the scenes, where she had been doing the hair and makeup for other models.

“There was some real magic in the room. I submitted the photos to a pinup contest on the web and got a lot of great feedback,” writes Bernie on her own website, www.berniedexter.com.

“I am inspired by many women,” says Bernie Dexter. “My mom, [modern pinup maven] Kate Donovan, Bette Davis, Lana turner, Bettie Page, Marilyn Monroe, Ann Miller, and many others.”

Not your typical California beach bunny, Bernie proves that brunettes have fun, too.

All this work has kept Bernie in the public eye — both in rockabilly circles and the mainstream media — and an approving one at that.

“Most people have emailed wonderful comments to me,” says Bernie. “I have to admit, I am quite surprised at how many emails I do get from the ‘mainstream’ public, men and women alike. Most men comment on how [my pinup style] takes them back to their youth and women seem to like the fact that it is still possible to be sexy and alluring without being nude or raunchy.”

All in the Family
Although Bernie admits that she pays homage to classic pinup icons, such as Bettie Page and burlesque dancer Tempest Storm, her first and foremost source of inspiration comes from her mother.

“She was always so glamorous to me,” recalls Bernie. “The first time I saw a pack of Bettie Page trading cards at a yard sale, I was like, ‘Hey! She’s like my mom!’ I had not seen anyone like [my mom] before till I found those cards.”

Glamour wasn’t all Bernie inherited from her mother. “My mom is the one I learned how to do my makeup from,” she says. “She still did things like the ’40s and ’50s, so I got a lot of great beauty secrets from her.”

Her inspiration also comes from behind the camera, specifically from her husband and rockabilly rocker, Levi Dexter.

“He has been a collector of pinups for years. When I moved in, I did a lingerie fashion show for him he lit up like a firefly,” laughs Bernie. “[It was then that] we realized, hey, this is a match made in heaven. We have so much fun shooting together.”

As her principal photographer, Levi offers Bernie the support that even a mother can’t provide. “Rockabilly has always been a way of life for me and when I met Levi, it was even more complete,” Bernie explains. “Now this is a fun way for us to spend time together. The most important thing is Levi and I like what we are doing and that reflects in [our] work.”

With her hard work steadily paying off and more projects on the horizon, Bernie likes to retreat to the beach for relaxation: “I love spending time [there],” she says. “I love walking [along] the bay and sticking my toes in the sand.”

Spoken like a true California girl.

The Spectacular Spider-Fan
By Tony Adams, Contributing Writer

The radical social and political changes of the 1960s are a familiar part of America’s historical landscape. Some of us lived through the era while others of us have studied it. Fundamental shifts were taking place in society: Trust turned to suspicion, homes were divided, and once well-known heroes became anachronisms. Something needed to change. People were looking for a new way of seeing things, a new sense of self and a new set of heroes. John Lennon. Martin Luther King, Jr. Spider-man.

It may seem blasphemous to include Spider-man in that list, but look at it this way: by the time of his creation, superheroes (whether real or imaginary) were in decline. Superman’s nigh-invulnerability seemed quaint. Batman’s then-current goofy adventures fighting creatures in outer space seemed out of place and out of character. Spider-man was just like your average kid,unsure of himself, unsure of his role in society and unsure of his future. For the first time in the history of comic books, Marvel Comics brought to the fore a collection of heroes with real-world problems. The Fantastic Four were a family changed by cosmic rays permeating their space ship. The Hulk was changed by man’s progress into the world of nuclear power, and Spider-man was changed by a radioactive spider bite. That may seem inconsequential when compared to space flight and nuclear energy, but for the readers who became enamored with Peter Parker’s adventures, he held within him a relatable factor that the others may have lacked. He could have been you! The power and the responsibility that came with his newfound abilities were daunting, but in the face of a changing world, Peter Parker became the hero it needed him to be,and we needed him as well.

Diehard comic collectors nurture this need, at times feeding it to excess. Of course, when it comes to collecting comics, there are many roads to follow. For example, some folks just buy what they like at the time. Sometimes the cover of the comic will attract the browsing reader. (It was a long-held belief in the comics publishing world that the cover was the main reason kids would buy the comic.) For others, it’s the collecting of a certain title that brings them back week after week and for many, having a complete run of a particular comic series is essential. It’s a pursuit to which they will happily devote countless hours, so their collection will be as complete as possible at least until the next issue comes out.

And then, there’s a collector of a different breed. Not content to just search out their favorite title, they carry the adventure one step further. Todd Adkins is one of those collectors, and he’s not alone. Todd’s mission takes him in search of Spider-man. Sure, he could just buy the titles in which Spidey appears,they’re easy enough to find, because they have the word “Spider-man” in the title. But then you have to take into account cross-over appearances. Sometimes, Spidey needs to help out in the pages of The Avengers or The Uncanny X-Men. Maybe Thor needs help today and Captain America could use a hand next week. All of these cameo appearances can be readily tracked down. With a popular character such as Spider-man, the suits at Marvel Comics make sure to put his name or picture somewhere on the cover, so you can’t miss him. But, collectors like Todd know that sometimes Spider-man will show up where he’s not formally (or legally) invited to be. And therein lies a new quest.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with Todd Adkins and pick his brain about his unique passion for the world’s most notorious web-slinger. He shared with me the story behind how he got started with his comic collection, and why he thinks Spider-man is tops among modern day superheroes:

RetroRadar: How did you get started collecting comics?
Todd Adkins: I think I talked my grandma into buying me one at Peachers Drug Store in Irvington (Indiana), when I was a kid. It was Swamp Thing #12, and from then on I was very much into monster comics, horror movies and [former local late-night horror movie host] Sammy Terry things like that.

RR: When did Spider-man enter the picture?
Adkins: Probably not for a few years; the first few years I collected comics it was strictly the monster stuff. I probably came to Spider-man right around the time of Amazing Spider-man issue #100. So, it had been awhile. But, it was one of those immediate attraction kinds of things. Once I got hooked on reading Spider-man I got sucked in pretty hard. He quickly took the place of the monster books in terms of what my favorite comic was. It was a book I looked forward to every month.

RR: Is there anything you can pinpoint about Spider-man, in particular, that made him your favorite?
Adkins: I think it’s the same thing that made the movie popular and that was the human element. I identified with Peter Parker and he had a beautiful girlfriend, and I was at that age where I was starting to discover girls and I wanted a beautiful girlfriend, too. (laughs) But, I think it was the human element, the stories that revolved around Peter Parker and his world that I enjoyed, and still enjoy the most.

RR: How and when did your Spider-man appearance collection start?
Adkins: Gosh, it probably started about four years ago. I was collecting all of the monthly Spider-man titles and I kind of came up to the point where there were only a few scattered issues that I needed to complete those titles, and I felt like I didn’t want the collecting and hunting to be over. So, actually a friend of mine that I met on the Internet who collects Spider-man told me about how he had started collecting Spider-man appearances in other [non-Spider-man] books. I thought that sounded kinda fun, so that’s where that started. It was by his suggestion. He had all the monthly issues and I had all the monthly issues and it was almost like a little competition to see who could get the most obscure Spidey appearances.

RR: With so many appearances over the years in books other than his own, where did you start?
Adkins: My friend had a list and that helped a lot. From then it was just a matter of going through a lot of my own books and quickly scanning and pulling out the ones where he was on the cover. Some of them were pretty obvious, you know, if Spider-man’s on the cover, well, then that counts. Now it’s kind of this insane little thing, you know, collecting all these references to him. It didn’t get to that for a while. For a while it was just collecting all the major appearances where he was either on the cover or definitely a part of the story.

RR: What are your stipulations or qualifications for when something counts and when it doesn’t count as an appearance? I know that one of the appearances you found [in a non-Spider-man related book] was a Post-It ® note with the name Peter Parker on it.
Adkins: Well, that’s what’s insane about it I guess. I count things that are definite references to Spider-man or Peter Parker, or one of the characters that are only a Spider-man related character. Like the Post-It notes. And again it’s a bit of a fine line. The Post-It note with Peter Parker’s name on it is about

RR: That’s one on the edge?
Adkins: That’s pretty close to the edge. (laughs)

RR: What are some the stranger appearances of Spider-man you’ve found?
Adkins: There are a lot of them, but a small list would include things like in the Fantastic Four his likeness has shown up as the face on a dart board, an inflatable pool toy, a patch on a character’s jacket and on a coffee mug. In Excalibur there was a gorilla in a Spider-man costume and in Ghost Rider there’s a shot of a kid in a crowd holding a Spidey-head balloon. In Bill & Ted’s Excellent Comic Comic Book he’s seen swinging by in the background of one panel. It’s very tiny, but he’s there. He’s even shown up in an issue of the old romance comic Millie the Model. Parodies and spoofs count, too. Things like Spider-Ham, Spider-Caveman and Bug-Eye. They all count as appearances.

RR: What’s the most expensive item you’ve purchased?
Adkins: Amazing Fantasy #15. The first appearance of Spider-man.

RR: What’s the most expensive book you own? Is it still Amazing Fantasy #15?
Adkins: Value wise, yeah. There’s two ways to quantify value. One is what a price guide says it’s worth and another is what I could get for it on eBay, but it would still be Amazing Fantasy #15. There are some things I have that are really obscure that could start a bidding war on eBay and would give me, you know, a thousand times what it’s worth in any price guide.

RR: What is the most obscure item you have?
Adkins: It is Amazing Spider-man #184, but what makes it obscure is that the copy I found doesn’t have a cover price. Instead it has a large bright green sticker that says that it was a free giveaway with the purchase of All detergent and it’s one of those things that you’d probably say yeah that’s worth a couple bucks maybe $10. But, if I were to put it on eBay right now I could easily get 500 bucks for it.

RR: What is the most sought-after book that you’re looking for now?
Adkins: It’s a book called Pow Biff Pops. It is a [comic] book that was done as a promotion for the opening of the Boston Pops in 1977. It was a black and white book, and they sold it in the lobby during intermission and after the performance. Then all copies that weren’t sold were destroyed. And it featured both Marvel and DC Comics superheroes. I’ve not seen one, I’ve only heard about it, but I’ve been in contact with the guy who did the layouts for it trying to talk him into selling me his personal copy. I thought I had it but he moved and it got lost in the boxes when he was moving. I’m still looking for that.

Spider-man is © Marvel Comics. Images courtesy www.samcci.comics.org. For readers interested in the further adventures of Spider-man, be sure to check out the recent blockbuster film Spiderman 2, coming on DVD November 30th.

Tony Adams is a freelance writer and creative force behind The Bold Avenger. You can email him at boldavenger@gmail.com. He’s a nice guy. Hire him to write for you. Party rates are available, but he’s not really fond of kids.

Swinging Behind the Scenes of The Notebook
By Frankie Hagan, Special Contributor

It’s lunchtime and I’m sitting in a tent at a plastic table next to a choreographer and facing a publicist. We’re flanked on all sides by dancers and scene extras, and hurriedly wolfing down excellent food from disposable plates. The publicist looks quintessentially Hollywood. His name is Peter J. Silbermann, and he’s well dressed with a very neatly kept ponytail. The young choreographer, Chad Stall, is dressed in warm clothing and looking extremely enthusiastic. I know he’s very good, because I came up with him in the dance business.

I scribble furiously as the three of us talk about the Nick Cassavetes-directed film The Notebook, the big-screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ novel that is in production as we speak. In particular, we’re discussing the dancing in the movie. Local retro fans that have caught wind of the production are already salivating over the period costumes, cars and decor that masterfully pepper this film, which is set in part in South Carolina in 1946. But it’s the dance scenes that interest me,primarily, because I’ve been hired as an extra to cut a rug myself.

Stall, who lives and works in Charleston, where filming took place, was trained in the franchised Fred Astaire Dance Studios method of partnered dancing. Diehard Lindy hoppers might scoff at the sometimes generic dancing epitomized by franchise ballroom schools, but Stall’s simple, back-to-basics teaching method is ideal for directing a large group. Three dance scenes have been worked into the production, although their impact and length will be decided during the editing process. Each of the segments seems to promise the compelling energy of life during a specific moment in time.

The vintage costumes of the 1940s and 1950s suit starlet Rachel McAdams to a tee.

Stall notes that his desire in each dance segment was “to create the idea of fun, not just choreography, but to create a natural moment.” The first segment we film is set in an officer’s club. The line that directs the audience in the script refers to a reminiscence of a character named Lon who “could really cut a rug.” The dancing is high energy but grounded, with the dancers moving quickly in a tight area. We’re doing the jitterbug with a low level of complexity, and adding occasional Balboa steps to match the fast pace of the music. Muses Stall, “The audition process can really set the tone for a dance scene. The dancers we had to work with shouldn’t look like champion swing dancers in this segment, but young people. Young soldiers who are going off to war.”

Writer and lindy-hopper Frankie Hagan has a minor wardrobe malfunction while filming a dance scene.

“Some people may not find this particular scene to be good history, considering what club this might be and whether or not the different ethnicities would be mixing in this fashion, but we’re more concerned about telling a good story,” says Silbermann. Many of the black dancers in the Harlem nightclub scene are professional performers specializing in hip-hop, tap, jazz and ballet, but not swing. In contrast, the white dancers in the segment are all swing dancers with different levels of professional or student status.

Notes Stall, “We’ve pulled from a mix of backgrounds to make this segment work, and hopefully the mix of ideas will be really true to form for the time period,when Lindy was coming out of Charleston, Breakaway, Foxtrot and other dances.”

I nod frequently as we talk and I scribble. My shoulder hurts as I write. We’ve been working on this scene most of the day, and the number of air steps is taking its toll on me. There are still hours to go.

I ask about the third scene, which as of my notes, had yet to be filmed. “It takes place at a carnival, and it’s very impromptu,” says Stall, smiling as if he knows some secret. “Dancing should always be fun and exciting. I like the surprise that dance can create in a story. I hope we can convey that and do something good for the craft.”

I ask him whom he’d like to thank for his experience as choreographer. “Todd Lewis, Jaime Emerine, and all of the talented dancers who have participated” in the film, Stall says. “The entire experience has been life-changing.”

Frankie Hagan is a certified professional dance instructor and a member of the National Dance Teacher’s Association. Though professionally independent, he is available to teach all forms of social partner dancing at the Arthur Murray Ballroom Dance Studio in Raleigh, NC.