For Sale: The Original Robby the Robot

Robby the Robot is back in the news again. He made his debut in the 1956 classic, Forbidden Planet, designed by a talented group of individuals at the MGM prop department, a radical advance from the walking tin cans that appeared in such films prior as The Phantom Empire and... well, name a movie that pre-dates Forbidden Planet and you know what I am talking about. He's become an iconic symbol for fans of classic science-fiction films, marketed as wind-up toys and figurines multiple times, and the costume was reused multiple times on other productions. And Robby is up for sale.

Robby was cool. He cost $125,000 to be made (equivalent of more than $1 million by today's inflation), considered themes expensive movie prop made up to that time, and was worth every penny. He looked like a million bucks. The diorama used as a backdrop of Altair IV looked cheap compared to Robby, who overshadowed the cast (with respect to Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis) upon his first entry in Forbidden Planet. It was not until Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey that the bar was raised with science-fiction production. (Some might debate that Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still was equally cool, and I won't dispute that.) 

Because Robby remained a prop on the MGM lot, he was recycled for use on numerous movies and television productions, from The Invisible Boy (1957), four episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, My Little Margie, The Thin Man, Morky and Mindy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Love Boat, Wonder Woman, The Monkees, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Hazel, Lost in Space and Columbo. Robby makes a brief appearance either in tribute or as a spoof in such films as Heavy Metal (1981), Gremlins (1984), The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, and in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. 

So it might come as a surprise that a recent auction at Bonhams will offer Robby the Robot to the highest bidder. In conjunction with Turner Classic Movies, the annual auction of movie memorabilia, props and costumes usually contains half a dozen eye-brow raisers. Among the items this year is a trench coat worn by Peter Falk on Columbo. 

Robby was on display behind glass as the 2006 San Diego Comic Con and had I known about that beforehand, I would have flown out there just to have my photo taken with the iconic movie prop. My only hope is that Robby will be purchased by someone who can put him on display at a museum for fanboys like myself to pay a visit.

The auction house offers an online catalog for curiosity seekers and potential bidders, with descriptions of the items. (I often read the descriptions for those occasional bits of trivia, which I find fascinating.) The link below offers a direct view of Robby the Robot as promoted on Bonham's website. 

The Bonhams auction will be held November 21. If you cannot wait to see what the gavel price will go for, check out Julien's November 17 auction when an x-ray of Marilyn Monroe's pelvis and Evil Kinevel's motorcycle goes up for sale.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24465/lot/1070/

The Passing of Lois Laurel and Joan Winwill

In reading the latest issue of Bob King's Classic Images magazine, I was reminded that no matter how many newsgroups, Facebook groups and digital newsletters I subscribe to, there is always something news-related that fell below the radar. Proving that subscribing to hardcopy magazines in a digital age is still worthwhile. Case in point the mention of the passing of two women with minor acting careers.

Lois Laurel with her father, Stan Laurel

Lois Laurel, the only daughter of comedian Stan Laurel, died after a long illness in a Mission Hills, California, hospital on July 28, 2017. Her father was half of a legendary comic team of Laurel and Hardy. Her mother was actress Lois Neilson, the first of the comedian's four wives. She appeared in uncredited roles in several of their comedy shorts, The Chimp (1932), Swiss Miss (1938) and The Bullfighters (1945). She was married to actor Rand Brooks, who plays supporting roles in numerous movies including Scarlet O'Hara's first husband in Gone With the Wind (1939), and Lucky Jenkins in a number of Hopalong Cassidy movies. 

Among her favorite stories to relate was the day she received a phone call from a journalist who asked her if she was "the daughter of Laurel and Hardy." For those familiar with Stan Laurel's appearance on This is Your Life, Lois was among the guests on that telecast. You can watch that loving tribute through the link below and Lois appears at the 23:45 minute mark.

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

Lois Laurel was 89.

Joan Winmill Brown

Joan Winmill Brown passed away at the age of 89 in June 29, 2017, in Maui, Hawaii. Windmill was born in London, England, on December 21, 1921. She began her career as an actress on stage shortly after World War II. She played a major role in the hit play, The Chiltern Hundreds, at London's West End in 1947. She met Robert F. Kennedy after a stage performance and the two became romantically involved over the following year. The two year affair was ended when Kennedy's family put an end to the relationship. Following the breakup, her career took a downward turn as she frequently turned to barbiturates and sleeping pills to help with her insecurities. She took on a small role on stage as Mary Wells, the maid, in Bela Lugosi's British tour with the play, Dracula, from April through July of 1951. 

Joan Winmill Brown, as she was known during her 30 years of marriage to William F. Brown, was also the author of 18 successfully published books. 

Halloween, Hollywood Style

I love Halloween. The time of year when the seasons change, the leaves change colors and an excuse to watch the good ol' horror films with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. My favorite are the Universal monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, The Invisible Man... well, you get the idea. And of course, I like to browse through my collection of photographs (and photographs people sent me) of gorgeous Hollywood starlets who also love to celebrate Halloween. Here are a few of them!

Adele Jergens

June Knight  1938

Yes, that's Virginia Bruce

Ava Gardner

Esther Ralston

Ida Lupino

Joan Crawford

Mae Murray of the Ziegfeld Follies

 Special thanks to David Tribble, for supplying some of these photos.

The Premature Death of the Video Store

Movie Madness has been a Portland institution since 1991. Known for its vast collection, knowledgeable staff, and display cases full of legendary film props, the iconic Belmont, Oregon, storefront has a deserved reputation as one of the best video stores in the country. One visit and you will notice how the store has practically every movie you can imagine. There is a section devoted to silent slapstick, containing hundreds of commercial DVDs; another selection devoted to the films of Preston Sturges.

With the video rental business going the way of the Dodo, and a drop in membership over the last few years, the iconic video store was recently threatened extinction. Thankfully, the Hollywood Theatre in Portland started a Kickstarter to raise $250,000 by November 10, necessary to purchase the entire collection/inventory, including movie props and memorabilia, to transform Movie Madness into a community-focused, member-supported non-profit.

A Kickstarter to raise money and save a video store rental facility might sound offbeat by today’s standards, with Redbox, Netflix DVD rentals and Amazon streaming available at our fingertips. But this story has a surprising ending.

Dresses worn by Faye Dunaway
and Julie Andrews on display.

In the fall of 1970, Michael Clark got his start in the movie business as an apprentice editor for 20^th Century Fox’s television studio on their Movie of the Week. Irwin Allen’s City Beneath the Sea was the first film he worked on. From there he worked his way up from studio to studio, working on both film and television productions until he landed the “job of a lifetime” as a post-production coordinator for MGM and Warner Brothers Studios. While in this position, he worked on films such as Poltergeist, Rocky IV, War Games and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In 1990, MGM sold their studio lot to Sony Pictures, and moved to a corporate office. Clark was offered a position at Universal Studios, but instead he followed his ambitions and opened a video store. He went back to his hometown of Portland and created a film archive that had a little bit of something for everyone. A video store with a selection so large that it was almost impossible not to find the film you were looking for. At least, that was the goal.

Movie Madness and More opened doors on April 12, 1991, in a tiny 895 square-foot space, with 2,000 titles on VHS. From this began an empire that experienced multiple phases of growth. The first big change was the takeover of the adjoining storefront in 1993. Then in 1996 a hallway was constructed to incorporate what had previously been a garage in the back. Each expansion led to more shelves and more movies. In 2003, Clark purchased the building and four years later, installed permanent cases for his collections of costumes and props from iconic cinematic masterpieces such as Faye Dunaway’s dress from Bonnie and Clyde, the Fu Dog from Citizen Kane, the knife from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the iconic baby buggy from The Untouchables, and Ingrid Bergman’s chair from Rick’s Café in Casablanca.

Though most of the pieces in the collection were purchased from various auctions, there were props donated from people Clark knew from his studio days. Even actress Margaret O’Brien donated multiple items for a display case in the video store. Thus, the video store doubles as a museum.

Today, you can rent a new release DVD or Blu-Ray for $4 for three days, and a regular DVD or Blu-Ray for $3 for three days. But hard times fell on the video rental and no amount of patronage was going to save it… until the Hollywood Theatre jumped in to save the day.

Last year the 71-year-old decided it was time to retire, but he did not want to see his life’s work up on eBay. So he approached the Hollywood Theatre and made them an offer that was too good to pass up. Program director Dan Halsted, who relied on Movie Madness for researching films to program at the theater, knew something had to be done. “I think there is a misconception right now that movies are all available online,” said Halsted. Having restored a 1926 movie palace, and opened a new Microcinema at Portland International Airport, the nonprofit organization thrives with 3,200+ members.

Movie Madness had an estimated 80,000 titles in the collection to choose from. Impressive when you consider the fact that, according to Variety in 2016, Amazon has 18,405 movies available for streaming (and 1,981 TV shows), Netflix had 4,563 movies (and 2,445 TV shows), and Hulu had 6,656 movies (and 3,588 TV shows.) Movie Madness had twice as many titles available as all three platforms combined. And the video store was facing the possibility of closing doors.

“Streaming services offer only the illusion of choice,” said a rep for the Hollywood Theatre. “In reality, their constantly-shifting lineup is dictated by studio licenses and distributor contracts, with titles subject to vanishing without notice.” And sadly, whenever there is an industry transition to a new format, movies are left behind. Obscure and cult titles rarely make the cut.

So on October 11, a Kickstarter was created with a goal of $250,000 to be raised by November 10. This was an all-or-nothing venture and a campaign to raise awareness, from local news coverage to distribution of postcards, to spread the word. (This was not the first video store to go the nonprofit route. Santa Monica’s Vidiots went nonprofit in 2012. Scarecrow Video in Seattle took the plunge in 2014.)

The response was overwhelming and the Hollywood Theatre reached their goal in the first nine days. Proof that physical home media still reigns supreme in an era where digital video streaming is considered by many as the wave of the future.