Category Archives: Skiffy

Martine Beswicke’s Night is Young

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Martine Beswick

Martine Beswick

By James H. Burns: I was first introduced to actress Martine Beswicke way back in 1968 when I saw One Million Years BC — Ray Harryhausen’s dinosaur-fest (and one of the very first times I had gone to a movie to see anything but a “kiddie matinee.”) She had already appeared in From Russia With Love and Thunderball, and would soon star in Hammer Films’ Prehistoric Women and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde; Oliver Stone’s Seizure, and often forgotten now, The Happy Hooker Goes To Hollywood (a COMEDY,with Phil Silvers and Adam West!) The fantasy film icon also appeared on television in Danger Man, It Takes A Thief, The Name of the Game, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Powers of Matthew Star, and in the telemovie Strange New World.

I’ll always regret having to pass up a dinner invitation from fantasy film historians and journalists Bill George and Jessie Lilley, some years ago, to meet Martine for dinner with them.

But here, from just a little over a month ago, in this short — and funny! — film produced and directed by Joshua Kennedy over at the Monster Bash convention in Mars, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh (or rather, outside in a park near the hotel!), one can sense what I’ve always heard:

That Martine can be a great gal!

(Kennedy also headlines, and Dan Day Jr. co-stars, and assisted the director.)

Alien in the Family Tree

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alien-root-1795qxi2783_1470_1Hallmark likes to market its bizarre Christmas tree ornaments with the phrase “What better way…” Their focus groups must tell them the phrase works magic on customers, triggers them to think, “What better way for me to spend every waking moment, than figuring out reasons to give Hallmark money?”

For example —

What better way to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the science fiction thriller Alien, than to put the film’s frightening “Xenomorph” on your tree. You may even introduce a new generation of fans to this spine-chilling cult classic and its sequels.

This hideous piece of work is 4 inches tall and almost 4 inches wide; it is not going to be overlooked on the family tree. When the relatives stop in to admire the decorations they’re going to think that’s the world’s biggest Jerusalem cricket on the branch and start screaming for a can of Raid.

Yet in spite of my own peevish response this is a people-pleasing item. Among the product reviews on Amazon the only criticism I saw (if you can call it that) was that the ornament doesn’t also make a noise!

I won’t rate it lower stars for this because I knew when I bought the item, but I wish that it had been one that had sound. The hissing noise would have been fantastic but it’s still very neat.

In fact, so many people have already ordered their own Xenomorph ornament. Hallmark says it’s out of stock online and they’re advising people to call local stores to check availability.

Skeletor Wishes You Happy Honda Days

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By James H. Burns: I’m just a little too old for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series to have been part of my youth! But it’s intriguing to note that in the last era before video tapes proliferated (1983…), He-Man would have been one of the first times so many American kids were introduced to some of the basic tenets of fantasy and science fiction. It also seems that each day, more and more people forget about how much fantasy and science fiction — and humor! — was produced by Filmation Associates and its founders Lou Scheimer, Norm Prescott and Hal Sutherland, and such key figures as Don Christensen and longtime fan artist-turned- wonderful pro, Bob (Robert) Kline.

None of which really goes to explain why I got such a kick this weekend, when I caught this ad, featuring He-Man’s old arch nemesis!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u79fdqgHKRA

Four Things That Belong Under A Trufan’s Tree

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iguanacon stamps on ebay

Enevelopes postmarked at the 1978 Worldcon.

It’s not too late to spend gobs of money on that special fannish someone.

Today on eBay you can get a 3-piece set of items postmarked at the 1978 Worldcon bearing the Viking mission to Mars stamp for a mere $1,000.

Are they really worth all that? Perhaps it’s the fact that the cancellation reads “Iguanacon 1” whereas the name of the event was “IguanaCon II,” though I doubt it can be claimed the mistake makes them more valuable (like that upside-down airplane stamp) — there wouldn’t have been any cancellations with the correct name.

451 asbestos editionBesides, those collectible postmarks look like a bargain compared with the asking price for an autographed first edition of Fahrenheit 451 with the rare asbestos binding – yours for only $16,000.

More frugal fans can still delight their friends with other affordable goodies.

frankensteins-monster-root-1495qxi2753_1470_1Hallmark is offering a Frankenstein’s Monster Christmas Ornament for $14.95:

Remember the chills and thrills of the first time Frankenstein’s Monster came to life every time you hang it from your tree.

I’m sure I will…
Planet Robot COMPOr Restoration Hardware is advertising a more conventional gift, Planet Robot, for $29.95.

Nostalgic for the whiz-bang, wind-up charm of vintage tin toys, we found these spot-on reproductions, meant to call forth the child within every adult. Reminiscent of a 1950s sci-fi movie robot, this emissary from Planet Robot is at your command. Wind him up and he’ll walk gamely forward, with sparks flying behind his transparent face shield.

Walking gamely forward while sparks fly — say, don’t these sound like ready-made convention volunteers?

[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh and John King Tarpinian for the story.]

The Traditional Thanksgiving Ape

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kong2Thanksgiving Day is a good time to revisit James H. Burns’ essay for The Thunderchild on WOR-TV’s odd tradition of showing King Kong on this holiday. Also, to note these words Jim recently shared with the Classic Horror Film Board:

I didn’t realize Kong was on just now, and as I was changing channels, there it was, coincidentally, my favorite sequence in the movie, when Denham and company land on the island… I’ve recently moved, and this was my first time seeing the movie in the new place… And just a few minutes ago, it got me to wondering: How many different locales have I watched King Kong in, and from? There was the chair in my parents’ bedroom, in 1967, or thereabouts… And sometimes, in later years, I’d scoot down to the floor, laying akimbo… A trip to a giant movie palace on West 14th Street in Manhattan, to see a revival screening (along with a chapter of Flash Gordon–and far more importantly, my Dad!) around 1970… A double-feature at the Malverne, in Long Island, with Animal Crackers, also in the early ’70s. I’m sure at least one convention ballroom… And the bedroom of my boyhood home, and many bedrooms and living rooms thereafter… I just had a pretty rough week, and when I discovered Denham, and Ann, and Jack and Englehorn by chance, I was happy; for the first time in a while. We may forget our dreams as the years and age go by. But our cinematic notions can endure, light through strips of celluloid, and now bits and bytes in a digital wonderland.

Stan Lee Takes a Bath

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stan-lee-new-superhero-movieMarvel’s Stan Lee has sold his Hollywood Hills West home for $2.8 million, which is $799,000 less than he bought it for in 2006.

And it’s a huge markdown from the original $3.75 million asking price reported in the media just a month ago.

However, the property was being marketed as a “build/develop opportunity” — it wasn’t really expected a buyer would acquire the house to live in, but to tear down and replace with something else.

Lee, 92, paid $3.599 million for the house in 2006, the same year he celebrated 65 years working for Marvel and made his trademark cameo in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Stan-Lees-home-3883a4-900x350-1413998398

Pool area of Stan Lee’s Hollywood Hills West home.

Alamagordo Garbage Turns to Gold on eBay

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atariDespite all doubt the legend proved true: in the 1980s Atari dumped a bunch of its unsold game cartridges in the Alamagordo, NM landfill, including copies of E.T. the Extraterrestrial, reputed to be the worst video game ever made.

The city authorized a dig earlier this year and recovered hundreds of cartridges, including 100 copies of E.T., and has started selling them online. The first 20 grubby, dirt-smudged copies, worthless when they were new, went for as much as $1,537.

Also on the block were copies of Asteroids, Missile Command, Warlords, Defender, Star Raiders, Swordquest, Phoenix and Centipede. The initial auction yielded $37,000 for the city.

The publicity surrounding the dig prompted a museum in Rome to open the very first Atari dig exhibit. On display are games unearthed from the landfill, a certificate of authenticity and even dirt from the New Mexico dumping ground.

Another 700 of the Atari dig games are being auctioned on eBay, with the money going to the city and the Tularosa Basin Historical Society.

In addition, Atari Game Over, a documentary about the dig, has been released through the X-box.

It’s easy to rag on the dig itself. “Why bother digging up trash? Who even cares if the games are buried there?” But trust me, watch the film and watch Howard Scott Warshaw. This isn’t a story about a trash heap, really. This is a story about a guy whose career was ruined by one stupid mistake of a game, and watching him come to grips with it three decades later.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIaWAyHIqok