The Big Picture in Bank Robberies And Animation Art

The picture above is an actual frame from the surveillance video of the Brick bank robber. (No, he didn't use a brick to rob a bank; he robbed a bank last month in Brick, New Jersey). A real robbery; an actual picture; if you recognize the gent with the head bandage, contact Brick Detective James Burgess at (732) 262-1120.

Most likely you won't be able to recognize the man in the photo. He's far from the camera. And it's surveillance video, after all.

But let's suppose, for a moment, that you and I were watching a dramatic TV show. A team of detectives are watching this video.

One of them shouts out, "Stop it right there! That's our guy! Zoom in on his face!" There's a clish-clish-clish-clish sound effect as a series of lines travel across the screen, forming smaller and smaller rectangles. The smallest rectangle flashes a few times, then zooms out full, and we see this:

Another character says, "Don't you see? He was wearing the head bandage to try to cover up that tattoo of a butterfly above his right eye... but the bandage slipped back! Can we get tighter on that?"

Clish-clish-clish-clish:

The star of the show says, "Bobby, go through all the mug books and pull out every picture of a guy with a butterfly tattooed over his right eye."

OK. Let's take a deep breath.

Can I see some hands out there? How many of you own a digital camera? Right. Well, presumably, then, you know something about resolution and image size.

In the real world, when you zoom in the first time, you'd get roughly this:

Looks like Fatty Arbuckle taking a pie. And the second time you enlarge, you get this:

There he is! That's our man! Bobby, go through all the mug books and pull out every picture of a guy with a mixture of Pantone Cool Gray 8 and Pantone Cool Gray 4 over his right eye!

We'll return to picture size and resolution in a moment. First, though...

When you add a Sitemeter to your blog, you learn a little about the people who stop by. Sitemeter tells you how many people are looking at your blog right now, and how many have stopped by in the last hour, day, week, month, and year. There's no "personally identifiable information, " but you can see where in the world a visitor is, how many pages that visitor looked at, and how long that visitor stayed.

There are always enough one-second visits to keep anyone humble.

The most useful aspect of Sitemeter data is the clickable list of "referring pages."

This tells you where people were on the web just before they clicked a link to visit you. So when somebody references or recommends your blog elsewhere on the web, you can easily go there to see what, if anything, the referring page had to say.

When you get lucky, and gain a mention and link on a highly trafficked site, like BoingBoing, for example, (and that happened here once) you instantly see why your numbers spiked. The list of referring pages will likely show the BoingBoing link over and over again. This allows you to a) acknowledge and thank the referring blog or web page, and b) work really hard to make sure your next post is halfway decent, to encourage window shoppers surfing by to stay, perhaps even return.

Guess where the vast majority of visitors to this blog find the link that leads them here?

Google Image Search. I never would have guessed it.

Google Image Search accounts for something like 90 to 95% of all Isn't Life Terrible visitors.

I have a theory about this.

Want to see the theory illustrated? Click on the picture below, then come back.

Since Blogger automatically reduces the size of pictures posted to fit the available blog width, clicking on a picture sometimes takes you to a larger version of that same picture. Not the case with the picture above, though, where WYSIWYG.

Some blogs don't seem to want you to download and save a picture that's posted.


Not terribly friendly or welcoming, is it?

Of course, there can be valid financial reasons to do this - if you created and own the pictures and wish to license them, for example.

But on a blog like this one, there's no reason to "protect" pictures. (And there's an excellent way around difficult to download pictures, anyway).

As a matter of fact, since we now know that the majority of people come here looking for images, it would be pretty stupid to make access difficult.

I suddenly realized - and I'm sure all the Search Engine Optimization gurus out there know this - that Google Image Search lists the images it finds more or less in size order, with the largest images often on the first page of results.

So that's why I keep stumbling into results from my own blog when I go looking for images - the simple fact that I usually post pictures full-size here. I was optimizing my search engine visibility and didn't even know it.

Maybe this blog will run out of space or bandwidth someday, but in the meantime, the pictures here will usually link to larger versions. For example... click on this one.

See? I said we'd return to the topic of resolution.

With access to a large file, you can "re-mix" the picture, reframe it, even grab a small detail, as I did here. You can use it. Not commercially, of course, but who knows, maybe you'll write the definitive appreciation of Pinocchio someday and need an illustration. You could pull ten different pictures out of this one cel-and-original-background set-up, thanks to its size.

Downside? We didn't even get to say goodbye to all the people with slow connections - they all left a long time ago.

I would be willing to bet that some blogs I love... like John McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows... link to large, high-resolution images just because... well, just because "why wouldn't you?" After all, Lee Hartsfeld's Music You (Probably) Won't Hear Anywhere Else links to complete music files from shellac and vinyl so obscure that Lee could remove the parenthetical modifier any time he wanted to. (And, speaking parenthetically myself, I'd like to thank both of these gentlemen for the Premio Dardo nominations. Lee correctly points out that the chain-letter aspect of these awards could crash Google, but... it's the thought that counts.)

Someday, that bank over in Brick will "up" the file size and resolution of their security cameras and those laughable, infinitely zoomable images currently available only on fictional television shows willing to stretch a point (or pixel) will become a tad less absurd.

A few final words after some astonishing, huge, hi-res images of original art from Disney films. Some of the regulars here can probably identify not only the film but also the artist before they click. Probably not for the first one, though...












The final words: please note that all of the non-bank robbery-related pictures in this post came from the listings of Heritage Auction Galleries. They're all for sale in a upcoming auctions, and all available for viewing in a size and resolution that allows you to savor and appreciate each stroke of the brush and line of the pencil. If you go to Heritage (and you should), turn off the pan and scan feature, click on the picture, and you'll see the whole enchilada.

Those Heritage people... they get the big picture... they post the big picture... and that may be one reason they get the big bucks.

A fraction of the Heritage inventory, from top to bottom: The Steeple Chase (1934), Truant Officer Donald (1941), Peter Pan (1953 - Mary Blair), Mickey's Service Station (1935), Sleeping Beauty (1955 - Eyvind Earle), Mickey Plays Papa (1934), Alpine Climbers (1936), Peter Pan (1953 - Mary Blair), Babes In The Woods (1933), Lady And The Tramp (1955, Eyvind Earle).

The final picture immediately above is an actual frame from the surveillance video of the Attempted Woodcarver Break-In. (No, it wasn't the Woodcarver who was breaking in; there's a Missing Person Report on file for him and police want to question the "little wooden boy" seen looking in the window). If you recognize the figure at the window or encounter Mister Geppetto, contact Detective G. Tenggren at (610) 566-7767.

Don't Accept Watered-Down Water

They couldn't very well have said "water-flavored" water, "tasteless" would have been tasteless, yet nobody ever wants to call their product "plain." So Poland Spring now finds itself selling "Original Flavor" water.

Video: The Secret Life Of Walt Disney

Last week, we called your attention to Fletcher Markle's Walt Disney Interview, a film shot for Canadian television in 1963. Thanks to Walt's candid answers - and the filmmakers' bare-bones "no cutaways" approach, which keeps the camera focused on Disney for long, uninterrupted stretches throughout the half-hour interview -it's a great portrait. Disney is gracious, self-effacing, unselfconscious and enthusiastic.

Those of you who loved that video... will hate this one. Fair warning.

It is an episode of a British TV series titled Secret Lives, the premise of which seems to be: "...find fifty minutes worth of dirt on a well-known personality most people tend to like, and then assassinate that person's character."

The accuracy of the information presented in Secret Lives is almost beside the point; we know that Disney had flaws, made mistakes, and was mean-spirited on occasion.

Secret Lives presents Walt's career and reputation as conspiracy, and it is not very subtle in that mission.

When the first scene appears - footage of the young Walt at his desk in Kansas City - it is accompanied by ominously unsettling music that might have been appropriate... had Disney been at work designing a bomb. And it's downhill from there.

The first interview clip comes from animator/director/producer Bill Melendez, who, with Lee Mendelson, created the critically acclaimed and universally beloved Peanuts TV specials. Melendez passed away last year at 91, and I don't doubt that he was a sensitive, compassionate individual.

But boy, how much did he hate his ex-boss Walt Disney? He's positively gleeful as he punches huge holes in the public's perception of "Uncle Walt."

Melendez is the most severe critic. As such, the program comes back to him again and again. But animators, authors and even an ex-"ink and paint girl" all take their best shots.

We hear from Marc Eliot, author of Walt Disney, Hollywood's Dark Prince ("A rare tour through Disney's World - an empire of power and vengeance... now updated with new FBI information"). This is the book which animation historian (and Disney biographer) Michael Barrier termed "...a Disney biography unparalleled for sheer awfulness... packed with errors and distortions."

We hear from Richard Schickel, author of The Disney Version, a critical biography published only a couple of years after Walt's death, which Disney fans didn't take to very kindly.

And we see some pretty remarkable footage, not only newsreel shots of the studio before, during and after the strike, but also carefully selected "damning excerpts" from the Disney films themselves. The producers must have had a huge budget for stock footage, since they couldn't reasonably claim "fair use."

If this program is used as a guide, Disney's "Secret Life" ended in 1947 with his HUAC testimony. Everything that happened in the nearly twenty years after that date is summarized in little more than a sentence. Then - bam - we've hit the end credits.

Secret Lives seeks sensation more than truth; if it happens to find both, so much the better. But it tips its hand and agenda in its title, opening credits, and marvelously mismatched music that suggests that Kansas City Walt - that reprehensible rascal and robber baron-to-be, the guy who would later create that ridiculous Fantasia movie during the tiny amount of time he had available after washing his hands thirty times per day - was plotting world animation domination through deception from day one.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Spanky McFarland Complains About Michael Jackson's "Unctuous Whine"

Spanky McFarland with the man who made "Isn't Life Terrible," Charley Chase.

Spanky McFarland met Michael Jackson in 1984. Here's what Michael H. Price, the man who arranged the meeting, claims that Spanky said following the meet-up:

Well, y’know, what Michael Jackson went yammering on and on about, was how I’d ‘inspired’ him, or so he said in that unctuous whine of his, to get up there and be a showman. Said that he’d watch us Our Gang kids on television, day after day, actin’ like the whole world was our stage — and maybe it was, at that — and got the performing bug right then and there. ’Course, I guess it helped him to have a musically inclined family. And that noise they call rock ’n’ roll was about all there was to play, I guess, by the time he’d’ve been comin’ up.

So anyhow, I guess I’d never’ve thought of our Little Rascals or Our Gang — or whatever-the-hell you want to call ’em — pictures as being any kind of an influence on this rock ’n’ roll business.

Nonetheless, according to Mr. Price, Spanky once sued the music group Spanky and Our Gang and wasn't too sure about The Young Rascals, either.

Link to Price's article, And now for something entirely Spanky.

Video: Walt Disney Interviewed By Fletcher Markle

Many audio and video biographies of Walt Disney have pulled clips or sound bytes from a 1963 interview conducted by Fletcher Markle, an actor-announcer-writer-producer-director who had just finished directing Disney's The Incredible Journey.

Markle began his career in radio, working in later Orson Welles Mercury Theatre productions, where he met actress Mercedes McCambridge, whom he married in 1950. While working in radio on Studio One, the program made the transition to television, and so did Markle. His later credits include directing and producing episodes of Boris Karloff's Thriller.

For all his industry savvy, Markle appears a little stiff and formal during the interview with Disney. This may have simply been his style, since his affect is nearly identical in other interviews he conducted, most notably with Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Marnie, probably shot just before or after the Disney interview. (From time to time, it sounds like Markle's cadences and pronunciation result from an effort to sound like Orson Welles!) There are few cutaways to Markle during the single-camera interview; the focus stays on Disney in long takes, making this 30 minute conversation a rare and illuminating glimpse of Disney in his 60's.

Infinite Number of Monkeys At Typewriters Finally Give Up On Hamlet; Now Working On Reviews Of Disney's "Alice In Wonderland"

Nikko, best known for his appearance as head flying monkey in MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" currently serves as spokesmonkey for the infinite number of monkeys who have been hard at work trying to duplicate Shakespeare's "Hamlet" by randomly hitting keys on an infinite number of typewriters. The chimp announced today [via e-mail] that the project has been suspended indefinitely due to adverse economic conditions.

"We have had to lay off 20% of our staff, " the simian stated to The Wall Street Journal, "...but that's not as bad at it sounds, because reducing our headcount by 20% still leaves us with an infinite number of monkeys, so it's a win-win for the company and the employees."

A monkey close to the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the monkeys have already started work on their next task: writing reviews of Walt Disney's 1951 feature Alice in Wonderland. But not everyone is happy with this turn of events.

A high-ranking Google executive, who asked not to be named [but was named by his parents anyway] said that the monkeys' new goal was designed to cripple the effectiveness of the wildly popular Google Search Engine [GSE].

According to the executive, "[The infinite number of monkeys] are [creating] an infinite number of blogs, each of which contains [a randomly created] review, so that [the Google Search Engine] is fooled into thinking that it continually ['sees'] new blogs that reference [a given feature film]." This way, those who have activated "Google Alerts" for a specific film, or film star, are sent multiple results multiple times each day, all of which lead to the same [illegal] download site.

Robert LaBlaw, Assistant Junior Deputy Vice President of the Isn't Life Terrible blog, offered an example of the disturbing results. "We have a Google alert set to retrieve any new postings that might be of interest on behalf of a [fan-based, unauthorized] web page about [Disney voice artist] Kathryn Beaumont. I'm now getting a steady stream of Google alerts, all of which seem to be slight variants of the same review, coming from an infinite number of blogs created solely to direct web traffic to one illegal download site."

At first, LaBlaw thought the results were amusing. "After all," he said with a wry smile, "...monkeys were created specifically to entertain us." But after a while, the false alerts simply became annoying.

"I can't explain it, " says a puzzled LaBlaw. "Maybe the monkeys have been offended by Disney films that feature chimps... like Toby Tyler, Monkeys Go Home, The Monkey's Uncle, The Barefoot Executive, and The Jungle Book. It's never a good idea to piss off a monkey, but if you piss off an infinite number of monkeys, you're [asking for trouble.]"

LaBlaw produced a number of actual documented examples of the monkeys' handiwork, the one small bit of truthfulness contained in this otherwise fictional report:

The overwhelming movie, Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set, featuring Bobby Driscoll is definitely entertaining, with a supporting cast of first-rate stars, aim at Kathryn Beaumont, will plumb be worth while to...

The overwhelming movie, Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set, featuring Bobby Driscoll is hundred-percent most enjoyable, with a supporting cast of delicious stars, like Kathryn Beaumont, will most assuredly be...

The dazzling movie, Alice in Wonderland, featuring Kathryn Beaumont is perfectly engaging, with a supporting cast of exalted stars, take pleasure in Ed Wynn, will most certainly be worth while to make good time and view astonishing...

The stupendous cast includes Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, Heather Angel. This cast just make Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set the more wonderful!

The spectacular movie, Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set, featuring Bobby Driscoll is unquestionably entertaining, with a supporting cast of extraordinary stars, take pleasure in Kathryn Beaumont, will...

The extraordinary movie, Alice in Wonderland, featuring Kathryn Beaumont is remarkably enjoyable, with a supporting cast of notable stars, aim at Ed Wynn , will surely be worth while to go out and observe. astonishing & stupendous with...

Alice in Wonderland was an unimaginable movie! Both Kathryn Beaumont and Ed Wynn were extraordinary! The superstar cast includes Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna...

Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set was an awe-inspiring movie! Both Bobby Driscoll and Kathryn Beaumont were astonishing! The genius cast includes Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson...

The extraordinary movie, Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set, featuring Bobby Driscoll is notably most pleasing, with a supporting cast of considerable stars, love Kathryn Beaumont, will certainly be worth while...

The extraordinary movie, Alice in Wonderland, featuring Kathryn Beaumont is strikingly entertaining, with a supporting cast of able stars, fancy Ed Wynn , will recognizably be worth while to voyage and behold. startling & prodigious with...

The extraordinary movie, Alice in Wonderland, featuring Kathryn Beaumont is remarkably enjoyable, with a supporting cast of notable stars, aim at Ed Wynn , will surely be worth while to go out and observe. astonishing & stupendous with...

The extraordinary movie, Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set, featuring Bobby Driscoll is notably most pleasing, with a supporting cast of considerable stars, love Kathryn Beaumont, will certainly be worth while...

Both Bobby Driscoll and Kathryn Beaumont has earned overwhelmingly positive reviews and is considered by many to be one of the best films of the year! Maybe that’s what makes the movie so good.The great cast includes Bobby Driscoll...

The surprising movie, Walt Disney Animated Anthology - The Classic Collector’s Set, featuring Bobby Driscoll is extremely pleasurable, with a supporting cast of the top stars, take pleasure in Kathryn Beaumont, will for sure be worth...

Nikko could not be reached for comment. Inquiries addressed to the return e-mail address used for the Infinite Monkeys announcement returned the following:

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: nikko@infinite monkeys.com
Reason: Remote SMTP server has rejected address
Diagnostic code: smtp;550 Unrouteable address
Remote system: dns;mail.infintemonkeys.com (TCP|157.286.4.203|37629|74.13.112.196|25) (cl35.gs01.monkeyserver.com CHIMP Exim 6.03 Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:55:22 -0800)

'Zines: Don't Miss A Single Issue! Subscribe Today

I'm a subscriber.

I'm talking about a character trait, not some specific individual subscription.

I subscribe to stuff. Always have; always will.

The more arcane, the more idiosyncratic, the more opinionated and obscure the publication; the more narrow the audience, the more impenetrable the jargon; the more sporadic the publication, the stronger the smell of ink on the page and enthusiasm in the words, the more likely you are to find my name on the subscription roll.

Take the recent issue of Classic Images, seen above right, which contains features on the careers of Jack Carson and Myoshi Umeki, two of the more mainline Hollywood personalities the tabloid-sized newspaper has covered recently. Before it was Classic Images, this was the Classic Film Collector, and before that it was a humble publication entitled The 8mm Collector, published by a furniture dealer named Sam Rubin who collected 8mm films back in the pre-home video era. Sam was mad for a couple of silent movies in particular: The Lost World (1925) and Metropolis (1927). He wrote about these and other silent films he remembered seeing as a kid with such infectious enthusiasm that a generation of kids who knew nothing of these films became desperate to see them. Happily, some of Sam's favorite films had not only survived, but had fallen into public domain and thus had become available in 8mm prints for rental or purchase. In the late fifties and early sixties, lots of kids developed an interest in silent film that was nurtured by Sam's knowledge and enthusiasm.

Today's equivalent of the old 8mm Collector is The DVD Laser Disc Newsletter, a monthly that contains comprehensive reviews of newly released DVDs that evaluate not only program content but also video and sound quality and the quality and value of extra features and commentary tracks. Once upon a time this was The Laser Disc Newsletter; Doug Pratt started writing his informative reviews before DVD arrived.

Parenthetically, you would not have believed the fear that the coming of DVD's inspired in people who owned laser disc players [My God! Movies are compressed on DVD's; they're going to be horribly inferior to our beloved LD's; it's TEOTWAWKI!]. Six months later, there was no such thing as a laser disc loyalist; DVD's were that much better. I wish I still had my giveaway tote bag emblazoned with the slogan "Laser Discs - Here today, Here for the future!"

Back to the point: Doug Pratt has been writing about films on disc since the beginning of time, so when he reviews a new release, he will compare it to all previous releases for framing, color, sound, print quality, et cetera. Rare is the month that I don't wind up buying at least one DVD reviewed in the latest issue, based on a Doug Pratt recommendation. Sample page. 47.50 per 12-issue year: DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter, PO Box 420, East Rockaway, NY11518.

Film Fan Monthly was Leonard Maltin's first self-published magazine, a relic of the home movie era, as attested to by the little "8mm" and "16mm" logos in between "Film" and "Fan," and "Fan" and "Monthly." It seems strange today, but before Leonard took on the task, there were hardly any comprehensive filmographies, and hardly any print attention paid to the Hal Roach Studio, which Leonard championed, as can be seen in this edition from 1966, the 'zine's first year of publication under the Maltin imprimatur. Included was a complete filmography for the lovely Thelma Todd. A few back issues of FFM may still be available. And while FFM disappeared long ago, ceasing publication in 1975, Leonard has remained true to his roots and currently publishes the excellent Movie Crazy. I'm a subscriber. There's also a book out that collects some of Leonard's best articles from previous issues.

Behold the November 1987 issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire, which continues to be published to this day. It's designed for people who collect insulators from the tops of old telephone and electric poles. Here, the lure was the jargon: people purchased or traded threadless purple eggs, unembossed Chesters and Pettingells, Amber Petticoats, and the English U1542 made by Bullers, a rare red glass insulator. I never purchased an insulator, but I was a subscriber. It is a magazine from another world.

If you find that publication a little too mainstream for your taste, may I recommend The Aerial Eye? You know, the quarterly publication of the aerial photography committee of the American Kitefliers Association?

Wow, what a great idea... send up a huge kite with a camera cradle attached to it. Of course, "Very few great photographs will be taken at a kite field - an open area is not all that photogenic. The ability to get a kite up and then maneuver it into interesting places is key to making good photographs. The inaugural issue seen here included complete plans for "Peter's Flying Rubbermaid," which used shoe laces to hold the camera in place. I kid you not, as Jack Paar used to say.

Alas, I can find no trace of this specific publication today, but the AKA does publish Kiting, which I assume has lots of tips and techniques about writing and cashing bad checks. No, I never tried hooking up a camera to a kite. But I was a subscriber.

If you didn't know, I'm sorry to be the one who has to break it to you: Murder Can Be Fun is dead. "For more than 20 years, ...Murder Can Be Fun ...dedicated itself to the unpleasant, unhealthy, yet oddly gratifying task of reveling in the more sordid and violent side of life." Here's the good news: there's a blog that carries on the traditions of the print version of MCBF, and from that site you can purchase the legendary "Death At Disneyland" issue for two bucks, postpaid. But, hey, maybe you're not interested in the time The Carousel of Progress turned evil, or the story behind the guy who drowned in the Rivers Of America.

If that's the case, may I recommend The Audio Carpaetorium, "the newz-letter for people hoove had-it with carpeted audio salons?" Well, no, of course I can't. I only saw two issues, and that was nearly thirty years ago. Great article about the Blattnerphone, a tape recorder the BBC was using in 1933. But never mind. It's gone, and that's that. I was a subscriber.

Well, all the screwy old magazines are all gone, aren't they? I mean, Internet publishing surely appeals to these same minds and offers a nearly trouble-free alternative to the old hectographs, dittos, mimeos, and the purple perfumed print spirit duplicators... right?

Uh, no.

If that were true, how could you explain The Duplex Planet, which still arrives in my mailbox with reliable regularity. The premise: simplicity itself - interviews conducted by David Greenberger with residents of nursing facilities: sometimes insightful, sometimes funny, and sometimes printing answers to perfectly normal questions that seem to come from some other universe. Go to the web site and head for the hardware store to get an idea of what you'll find in this incredibly original magazine.

I could go on. The Hollywood Eclectern is published as a labor of love by Ed Buchman for fans of John Stanley and Irving Tripp's Little Lulu comics (our numbers are legion - check out the wonderful series of Dark Knight Little Lulu paperback reprints to find out why). Ed Buchman, P.O. Box 4215, Fullerton CA 92834.

The Vitaphone News is a fascinating publication about the late 20's -early 30's Vitaphone films. The Vitaphone Project is worth your support; they've reunited original soundtrack discs with picture elements and restored dozens of early short subjects, many of which capture famous orchestras and vaudeville acts recreated their stage presentations for the Vitaphone Camera. Info can be found at The Vitaphone Project.

And perhaps my favorite - I've mentioned it here before - is The Mystery and Adventure Review, which is devoted to series books (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew et al) as well as printing, typography, and whatever happens to be on the editor's mind. Fred Woodworth is a very interesting guy and the magazine itself is a joy to behold - no computer equipment is used in its fabrication, the color is gorgeous, and... you can't subscribe to it. If you express sincere interest, Fred will add you to the list, you'll get the next issue, and, if you're inclined, you can send Fred some cash or stamps to show your gratitude. No checks are accepted, because Fred became fed up with banks long before the rest of us did. Fred Woodworth, The M&A Review, PO Box 3012, Tucson AZ 85702.

So, yes, I get Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Wired and Fortean Times - professional 'slicks,' and they serve their purpose - but they simply can't compete with the small 'zines. And the way the news has been headed recently... what better magazine to curl up with than an issue of Crown Jewels Of The Wire, where the discussion of amber petticoats, E. C. & M. Co. bubbly blues and mint light green castles will insulate you from the shocks that await in the mass media?

Thinking Inside The Box

Tannen's Magic Mystery Box: 50 dollars worth of magic for only 15 bucks.

Who can pass up a deal like that?

Tannen's may be the most dangerous store in the world for those who enjoy magic, because someone behind the counter will demonstrate a great trick for you; you'll be utterly baffled, and you will buy the trick just to find out how it's done.

J.J. Abrams, Producer of Lost, built a career on knowing the secret to Tannen's Magic Mystery Box: don't ever open it.

Abrams' TED talk is a must for Lost fans - but will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in movies, TV, the creative process, or just hearing some words of wisdom from a brilliant, funny, entertaining guy.

The Mouseketeers (And A Mooseketeer) on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show, 1975

The original Mickey Mouse Club presented five new hour-long episodes each week during the 1955-'56 and 1956-'57 TV seasons.

In '57-'58, the show started slipping away, cut to five half-hour programs per week.

In '58-'59, the lights were still on in Mickey's Clubhouse, but nobody was home.

Production had shut down, and Disney resorted to re-cut half-hour reruns. The loyal viewers who remained to watch the repeats had the unusual opportunity to relive a portion of their childhood while they were still children.

By the Autumn of 1959, these kids had no idea what to do with themselves at 5 p.m. on weekdays. It was in that forlorn condition that they entered the sixties, mere months later, which might just explain the entire decade.

After three years of clublessness, reruns of the show again became available through local syndication, and MMC ran in this manner for another three years, from 1962 through 1965.

If you were eight when the show had premiered, you were a teenager by the second go-round, and distinctly embarrassed if not appalled by how much you used to love this juvenile entertainment. It was left to a new group of eight-year-olds to pick up Mickey's fallen banner.

As the Mickey Mouse Club returned to the air in September of 1962, the Beatles went into the studio with their new drummer, Ringo Starr, to record six tracks. By the time the MMC "went dark" again, the Beatles had played Shea Stadium and received their MBE's.

The show then made a strong bid for obscurity, remaining "dark" for ten long years. Depending on my math skills - and the month of our fictional eight-year-old's birthday - the kid is now 28.

Not old - but not feeling so young, either. "The Sixties" really began in '63 or '64 (the Kennedy assassination or The Beatles, take your pick) and really ended in '74 or '75 (Watergate or the draft, your pick once again). This third time around elicited acute nostalgia from the original audience, now fueled by memories of what, in retrospect, seemed a far simpler time. Some of them were watching as the Club reconvened on January 20th, 1975, when the second series of reruns began.

That same evening, The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder videotaped an episode featuring original Mouseketeers Darlene Gillespie, Sharon Baird, Lonnie Burr, Cubby O'Brien, Tommy Cole, and Cheryl Holdridge (who died earlier this month at 64). For the many original viewers who were now allowed to stay up late and watch people smoke, the hour-long Tomorrow Show was the electronic equivalent of a grade-school reunion. And, especially for those who were watching their first rerun, it must have been something of a shock.

You see, each morning, you get up, you look in the mirror, and, barring misfortune, you see almost exactly the same face you saw yesterday and will see tomorrow. You never see yourself age. You only come to realize how old you are obliquely, by encountering some other face you haven't seen in a long while. At that point, logic kicks in: I don't feel older, but if that person is older, then I must be older.

If it weren't for those damn Mouseketeers, and those damn memories of winter days when the fading sunlight in our TV rooms imperceptibly accomplished a cross-dissolve with the blue glow from our black and white sets, we could have stayed young forever.

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder Jan. 20, 1975, Part 1

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder Jan. 20, 1975, Part 2

As always, I suggest a visit to The Original Mickey Mouse Club Show fan site.
Why? Because I like you.