Tom Dougall’s RINGSIDE (1938)

From March of 1935 to March of 1938, Tom Dougall wrote all the radio scripts for the soap opera, Ann Worth, Housewife, for radio station WXYZ in Detroit. While playing supporting roles on radio programs such as The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger, Dougall devoted time creating a number of new radio properties, hoping Trendle would sell one to a sponsor. By the end of the year, and inspired by the Northwoods stories of Jack London, Dougall would create Challenge of the Yukon, a Canadian Mountie adventure series later re-titled Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Between Ann Worth and Challenge, however, Dougall wrote a number of radio scripts for a proposed daily serial known as Ringside.

 

As the title suggests, this series was inspired by the newspaper strip, Joe Palooka, a fictional heavyweight boxing champion created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. Like the newspaper strip, the radio proposal centered on the adventures of Jimmy Ross who, guided by his manager, attempted to win the championship. Along the way, Jimmy made enemies with crooks and fell in love with the beautiful Ann Mason. (Joe Palooka’s fiancé was named Ann Howe.)

 

Written from June through August of 1938, Dougall’s proposal exists today through three radio scripts, episodes #one, three and five, with announcer summaries for episodes two and four. The first script was dated July 2, the second dated August 16, and the third dated August 22. 

The following are summaries of the five adventures.

In the first episode, Al Kirby, late of New York, is looking for someone to fight the champ on Friday night, after discovering his contract player suffered a number of broken ribs from a fight the other night. He promised the newspaper men a name for the sports column but does not know what heavyweight in town could stand up against the champ. After all, the spectators need to get their money’s worth. When Jimmy Ross of River City, winner of the Golden Gloves, asks Kirby for a chance to go a few rounds against the champ on Friday night, Kirby scoffs. Mike Dolan, a friend of Al Kirby, recognizes Jimmy from prior bouts and insists Jim give the stranger a chance. Jimmy has potential. Al agrees since they have a trainer named Tony who can give him the works for a round or two. Al reluctantly agrees and asks Jim to show up at the gym ay 12:30 later in the day. 

 

In private, Jim explains to Mike that he needs the money for his mother and his kid sister. His family is from Springville, about 20 miles away. Having spent three days in town and unable to get a job, Jim is willing to enter the ring once again – in desperation. Mary, his sister, cannot walk straight and the doctors will not operate to ensure she can walk again without a financial advance. During a bout in the ring that afternoon, to see what Jim was capable of, Al and Mike watches as Jimmy Ross knocks Tony down. An impressive feat indeed considering Jim had not eaten in 24 hours and still had enough strength to win a bout!

 

In the second episode, Al gives Jim a hundred dollars and promises him a bout on the Friday night card. The boy leave the city and returns to Springville to tell his mother and sister the good news. Meanwhile, the crooked Jake Winters, the manager for Tony, decides that Jim would be a good investment and determines to get him under contract. He drives out to Springville with the champ and, after persuading Jim that he wants to be friendly, offers to drive him back to town. On the way back they stop for dinner. Jake slips some knockout drops in the kid’s coffee and once unconscious, they take him to their hotel and put him to bed. They rouse him just long enough to get his signature to a contract – the boy being told it is a hotel register.

 

In the third episode, Jim wakes to discover his signature on the contract, and Jake insisting he is now legally Jim’s manager. Al Kirby has been removed from the equation. When Jim defies the suggestion that they will travel to New York for business, he attempts to muscle his way out of the scenario. Still tipsy from the drugged coffee, Jim attempts to take a swing and is knocked out by Tony with a swift uppercut. Mike, meanwhile, phones Al Kirby and insists something has happened. Jim’s mother insists her son left her house as scheduled. Playing the role of a detective and following the trail, Mike manages to find Jim at the hotel and wake him up. 

 

“Al figures you’ve double-crossed him,” Mike explains. “He figures you’ve made off with that hundred dollars.” Mike insists Jim tag along with him back to the Coliseum, after hearing Jim’s story, and reveals a surprising  bit of trivia: the contract is not valid. Jim is 19 years old, and you have to be 21 for a contract to be legit. With this understood, Jimmy agrees to return to town with Mike.

 

Back at the Coliseum, Jim goes up against Bat Martin of Toledo. Jake shows up and attempts to create a stir, waving a contract in the air, but Mike Dolan orders him to back off, threatening to phone the cops and report the incident as a kidnapping. In the ring, young Jimmy Ross came out from his corner cautiously, but after the first light exchange, threw caution to the winds. He gave Bat an opening and Bat cashed in with a right to the jaw.

 

In the fourth episode, Jimmy Ross gets up before the count of ten and rallies to win his first professional fight by a knockout. Jake, the champ’s manager, threatened to make trouble over the contract he held, but Al Kirby threatened to expose the methods he used to obtain the contract and Jake and Tony reluctantly leave for New York without Jimmy on a leash. 

 

Ann Mason, the daughter of the financier, saw Jim fight. She comes to Al Kirby with the proposal that Jimmy fight at a charity bazaar that she was sponsoring. Al was finally persuaded, but the girl’s fiancé, Lance, a lawyer, afraid of her interest in Jim, hopes to discourage her by arranging for the young fighter to be beaten. Through Jake, he hires a tough opponent. 

 

In the fifth episode, Al warns Jimmy that “woman and fighting don’t mix… This Mason dame is an eyeful and you ain’t blind.” Jimmy understands the advice and instead stays focused on the fighter hired by Lance, to whom he must battle as one of the highlights of the charity function. But Ann is a tomboy who devours the sporting page. Al later confesses that he did something he rarely ever does – agreed to a bout without knowing who the opponent was. At the Mason estate that resembled a palace, Al meets the Masons, Ann and her father, and through conversation with Lance learns that Jimmy will be going up against Nugget Carney, a man who was disbarred by a couple of commissions because of his reputation for fighting dirty. 

 

Because the bout will not be held for a few hours, Lance proposes they ride horses across the estate and Jimmy, who grew up on a farm, unwillingly finds himself mounting Diablo. Ann warns the prize-fighter that all of her father’s horses are bad tempered. Diablo was the worst of the lot. During the ride, however, Ann discovers her horse panics, running down a blind path toward a cliff. Jimmy takes off to rescue her, in full command of Diablo, to whom he was able to master. Two horses plunging along a narrow path, a sheer drop of hundreds of feet ahead… and the radio audience would have to wait until the next thrilling chapter to learn what was to become of Ann and her peril.

 

No historical documents have been found to verify why this radio proposal never met fruition. George W. Trendle insisted on copyrighting radio scripts to ensure complete ownership and avoid paying royalties. Tom Dougall submitted the three radio scripts to the Library of Congress, probably to maneuver a checkmate to ensure he would be paid a royalty if the program was to sell to a sponsor. Some speculate that Dougall’s proposal mirrored too closely with Joe Palooka to be aired on the network. Others speculate Trendle would never have accepted a radio program if Dougall had copyrighted the proposal first. Reasons aside, it has been universally agree through historical hindsight that had Ringside become a weekly or daily program over WXYZ, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon may never had occurred.

DICK TRACY MEETS HIS MATCH (Book Review)

Dick Tracy Meets His Match is a 1992 novel based on Chester Gould's comic strip, which Max Allan Collins had the pleasure of writing since Gould's retirement in 1977. It was the first of three paperback novels, the first was Dick Tracy (1990), a novelization of the Warren Beatty movie. Collins attempted to bring the screenplay's story more in line with that of the continuity of the comic strip; but at the same time, he understood he was telling a tale based respectfully if loosely on Gould.

In writing the second novel, Dick Tracy Goes to War (1991), Collins chose to continue on that course, and the same is true of this book, Meets His Match. Both novels were not a "novelization" of Dick Tracy newspaper strip stories; those stories already exist in Gould's own work, in their proper medium. It was Collins' intention here to write novels that gathers many of Gould's great characters into  new story was is faithful to the spirit of the source material. 

Dick Tracy Meets His Match (1992) was the third of the novels. The first, the novelization of the 1990 movie, covered the 1930s; the second took place during World War II. This third novel took place in 1949. It was Collins' intent to write a fourth novel that would take place in the mid fifties. But, sadly, that fourth novel never met fruition because Collins ceased work on the Dick Tracy comic strip -- and Dick Tracy altogether. 

That fourth novel was to have been titled Dick Tracy on the Beat and would have dealt with criminal infiltration of the music industry, such as the control of the jukebox business by Organized Crime, and the payola scandals. It would reportedly have featured Spinner ReCord and other music-themed characters. 

In Dick Tracy Meets His Match, Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart agreed to be married as part of a new television series that Tess was producing for Diet Smith’s SBN (Smith Broadcasting Network) television network. The wedding was disrupted, however, by a sniper hired by T.V. Wiggles, a disgruntled former employee of the network. 

 

Over the decades, Dick Tracy delivered many lawbreakers to justice -- sometimes Judgment Day meant a courtroom, other times it meant the city morgue. The latter was, for example, the destination of the notorious Public Enemy Number One Flattop Jones, the "Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills" of Oklahoma, typical of the breed of outlaw who specialized in bank robbery and kidnapping. But such transplanted rural terrorists were not the detective's usual meat. More typical Tracy adversaries were gangsters like B-BEyes, conmen like Shaky, or contract killers like "Trigger" Doom. Trigger is hired by T.V. Wiggles in this novel, attempting to exact revenge against the detective, only to meet a grim fate.  

Wiggles manages to insinuate himself into the lives of many of the fledgling network’s popular celebrities, including Ted Tellum, Dot View, Tonsils, Spike Dyke, and Sparkle Plenty. But when Ted Tellum is murdered, Tracy must solve the crime while still finding time to marry Tess. The wedding is foiled more than once, as a result of this caper. But, in the end, as in the strip, Tracy and Tess were wed on December 24th, 1949.

I have always said that while the comic strip was primarily a cops-and-robbers formula, there was always an ongoing soap opera underneath. Tess and Dick were engaged, the engagement was called off, they were engaged again, married, had a daughter, and later got divorced. Junior, their adopted son, grew up, got married, lost his wife due to a bomb, got remarried, and so on. Characters such as Vitamin Flintheart, Gravel Gertie, B.O. Plenty and others were featured in this novel. This book captures that ongoing soap opera perfectly, while functioning as a detective caper.

Dick Tracy Meets His Match had a relatively low production run, and as a result it has become highly sought-after by collectors and Dick Tracy fans. The usual price is about $50 so if you find it for much less at a yard sale, book sale or flea market, grab it.

 

I would like to add that the book cover art depicts a red-haired woman shielding herself behind Dick Tracy. This is presumably meant to be Tess, as Tess had red hair in the 1990 feature film. However, in the book Tess is described as being blonde. Unlike the title of the first two novels, the title of this one ("Meet His Match") does not adequately fit the subject matter. Regardless of the cover art and cover title, this novel is an enjoyable read just like the other two.

ANN WORTH, HOUSEWIFE (1935 - 1938)

For two years Ann Worth, Housewife ruled supreme over the Michigan Radio Network as the only soap opera to originate from WXYZ, the Detroit radio station responsible for such adventure serials as The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and The Green Hornet. Scripted by Tom Dougall, the soap opera premiered on morning of March 12, 1935, and ran three years, concluding on the afternoon of March 14, 1938. But regardless of the love affairs, trials and tribulations that occurred on the daily soap opera, the drama behind the microphone is even more entertaining. 

 

Ann Worth, Housewife was created as a starring vehicle for actress Joan Vitez, a blonde who looked and spoke beautifully. Her parents were Hungarian, but she was born in the Delray section of Southwest Detroit. With her low, vibrant voice, friends suggested she go into radio, so she applied for a job. Most of the men were in awe of her beauty, and it was Brace Beemer, then station manager, who saw potential for The Mills Baking Company, sponsor of The Happy Home Village, which was starting to wear thin. The sponsor wanted a new program. Timing could not have been more perfect. 

 

Enter stage left Tom Dougall, who co-starred in Norman Bel Geddes’ production of Hamlet, a frothy thing called Adam’s Wife, and a backstage noise in Lysistrata—all in New York. Having arrived in Detroit he tried to hire two other actors to play the lead in The Drunkard for a friend of his who was producing the show, but Dougall had to play the part himself. For seven weeks he portrayed the tragic role of the young man in the piece—the young man who was ruined by drink but finally managed to save the mortgage and his family by returning to the straight and narrow. So convincing was he in this melodramatic production that he caught the eye of James Jewell.

 

Jewell was directing all the dramas out of WXYZ, including The Lone Ranger. So thanks to Jewell, Dougall was hired. Tom Dougall started work at WXYZ in 1934 as an actor on Warner Lester, Manhunter, having co-starred in The Drunkard with Harriet Livingstone, and earlier had gone to the University of Michigan with Charles Livingstone (assistant director for radio at WXYZ). 

 

At the request of Brace Beemer, who hired Joan Vitez, Dougall created Ann Worth, Housewife, a soap opera which aired five mornings a week. Dougall himself played numerous roles including the father, and the Simon Legree sort on the program. Vitez was asked if she would be willing to star on the series for thirteen weeks—gratis—until they found a sponsor. She had already performed in two Lone Ranger broadcasts without being paid; Jewell referred to those as her “auditions.” She was green; she was naïve; but she was no fool. Vitez demanded to be paid since a radio program was worth something to somebody… and she was hired at $18 a week. When the Mills Baking Company signed up as a sponsor after having heard a number of broadcasts, Vitez received a raise to $35 a week.

George W. Trendle, the owner of the radio station, never thought much of Ann Worth, Housewife. Reportedly the series was created and premiered while he was on vacation. Upon returning from Florida, he listened to an episode and asked for an explanation, prompting him to ask, “Who’s responsible for that?” Fran Striker, who was writing The Lone Ranger, was happy to say he had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, it was a good enough show and had the backing of an important sponsor. After all, a paying client is a paying client. Trendle let the matter drop. Trendle was in favor of another soap opera on the network, Love Doctor (May 1935 to February 1936) but it was not as successful financially, never attracting a sponsor.

 

By 1937, when WXYZ signed with the NBC Blue Network, Ann Worth, Housewife aired in between Pepper Young’s Family and The O’Neills, which originated from the NBC studios in New York. In January or February 1938, with Brace Beemer no longer working for the station, Joan Vitez bumped into the former station manager at a cocktail party. After a little conversation, he asked the actress if she was aware that she was getting paid half of what the sponsors were paying for. Vitez looked puzzled, so Beemer explained all about “the clip.” 

 

To justify the expense of sponsoring a radio program, the sponsor was provided a breakdown of costs on a monthly basis. Accounts payable were submitted monthly, with the sponsor unaware that not all of the money was being allocated properly. The role of the producer was to distribute funds accordingly, and his salary was dependent on the lowest price he could produce. Within the breakdown, the Mills Baking Company was paying $150 a week solely for the talent of Joan Vitez; her salary was $75.

 

Tom Dougall

The next morning, following the completion of the next episode of Ann Worth, Housewife, the actress paid a visit to James Jewell. She confessed that she knew about “the clip,” and with disappointment she was exercising a clause in her contract that gave her the right to quit the show and to leave WXYZ at the end of the present 13-week term. Jewell thought she was joking until he coincidentally noticed her at the local bank closing her account and withdrawing her savings. Jewell begged for her to stay, and she agreed to remain for one week, long enough for him to find a replacement. She planned to go to New York City for greener pastures. A girl named Lenore Collins spent the week watching Vitez, during rehearsals and the actual broadcast, listening to her, learning to imitate her. Lenore was a buyer from Hudson’s Department Store, known for having a low voice much like Joan Vitez. But Collins was not a sufficient replacement.

 

Ruth Rickaby gathered some of the cast together for a little farewell. Joan told them about “the clip.” They had all suspected, but none of them knew definitely. 

 

“Look,” said Malcolm McCoy, picking at a hangnail and looking at Joan. “Do us a favor. Go to Mills Baking and tell them what’s going on.” 

 

“That would be great,” said Petruzzi.

 

“What have you got to lose?” Rickaby asked.

 

“You’re leaving anyway,” Petruzzi pointed out.

 

“All right,” said Joan. “Why not?” True to her word, Joan Vitez looked up a man in the advertising department at Mills Baking. She had met him before in connection with Ann Worth. She told him why she was leaving the show. He tried to persuade her to stay. She had already made up her mind and added, “the other actors wanted me to come to you and ask if you knew about the clip?” He didn’t know what she meant. She explained it. As Joan Vitez walked away from the Mills Baking Company, she erased the whole affair from her mind. She never went back to WXYZ. Lenore Collins took over the role of Ann Worth, Housewife, but—for reasons that remained unknown to the management of the radio station—Mills Baking cancelled their account a short time later, and the show went off the air in March of 1938.

TERRIFIED (2017), A Worthy Halloween Treat

Like many people who enjoy watching movies, October is reserved for horror movies. My personal preference are the Universal horrors of the 1930s and 1940s, and the British Hammer horrors of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But my wife and I enjoy a good horror film from time to time that was more recent and none have been more blood-curdling than Terrified (2017). 

This Argentinian addition to the horror genre is a refreshing submission from a fledgling director. Written and directed without the usual hubris that we as humans can solve any supernatural problem by basically willing it away, the movie is shot in just a way which evokes a feeling of being lost from the beginning. 

Told in a non-linear format with the vantage point being that of multiple characters, each with their own observations and fears, keeps the movie fresh through the relatively short run time of 87 minutes. But then again, the length of time should never be dictated for commercial value, but in the amount of time it takes to tell the story.

The movie concerns a number of strange events that occur in a small suburban Buenos Aires neighborhood, where a man is accused of beating his wife to death, and a young boy is accidentally killed in the streets. Police rule both incidents as homicide but the truth is even more terrifying. A group of paranormal experts fly into town to investigate, each taking up residence in each of the houses that the reported occurrences happened. What they discover and unearth is not a matter of verification but rather a chilling scenario that we are not alone... and time is running out before the terror spreads beyond the community.

Director Demian Rugna insisted on carefully shooting every scene in such a way that if you blink, you will miss something. This is truly one of those films that you cannot be distracted, and you must pause the film if you venture off to the bathroom. Many of the creepy moments take place beyond our peripheral vision -- a trick that not works for this the of story, but for the plot as well.

Seriously, this is one of the best horror films I have seen in years and a darn shame I missed it when the movie first came out in 2017. (Be sure not to mistake this with a different film of a similar name that came out a year after.)   

BURIAL SERVICES (1936) The "Lost" Radio Episode

Wyllis Cooper created a weekly horror program, Lights Out!, in 1934. Originating from the radio station of an NBC affiliate in Chicago, Illinois, the stories involved invisible creatures, vampires and all sorts of ghouls. The horror series was heard regionally and not nationally. Cooper, no doubt having proven he could conceive of clever horror plots, quickly made the movie to Hollywood for a career at Universal Studios (The Phantom Creeps, Son of Frankenstein). This left a void when the network decided to expand coverage of the program nationwide in the summer of 1936. Enter stage left, Arch Oboler, a playwright who would later succeed with a career on the Rudy Vallee radio program, and The Chase and Sunburn Hour. Oboler's idea of horror was different from Cooper's, and his first radio script for the series, "Burial Services," has since become both legend and folklore. 

Over the decades, rumors have circulated that the premiere episode of Lights Out! in the summer of 1936 was so gruesome that thousands of letters flooded into the network. Most of the letters were protesting and questioning how such a graphic story could be done on the radio. Forgetting the fact that the new series was heard at a very late time slot when the majority of the American public was asleep in their beds, the script was considered horrific not because of ghosts or ghouls, but because of the story. During the burial service of a young girl, the men and women who knew the deceased paused to recall various memories of her life... before the dirt was tossed onto the top of the coffin. 

Arch Oboler, interviewed over the years, often lent credence to the folklore by often recalling how many letters arrived at the studio and how he discovered early on that some stories of horror -- by nature -- were indeed too graphic to tell.

NBC never recorded the radio broadcasts of Lights Out! in 1936, so a recording of this episode is not known to exist. Thankfully, I found the original radio script in an archive and providing a PDF of the file through the link below. You can read it and make the decision yourself. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rxod68ih52z8sg1/LIGHTS%20OUT%20%28June%203%2C%201936%29%20Burial%20Services.pdf?dl=0

THE LONE RANGER: Limited Edition Newsletter

It's been a month since The Lone Ranger Fan Club celebrated the 75th anniversary of the classic television show starring Clayton Moore, Jay Silverheels, and John Hart with a special 60-page issue of The Silver Bullet. This is the newsletter that goes out to members of the club. Normally the issues are about 16 pages on average. But the response for the 60-page special was amazing, The editor of the newsletter received numerous inquiries about the possibility of receiving a printed copy of this issue. After much research, he just announced the answer is YES! 

For the first time in over a decade, The Lone Ranger Fan Club is printing an issue of The Silver Bullet. You read that correctly, because there hasn’t been a printed issue since 2010 when The Silver Bullet transitioned to an e-publication.

 

This will be a short-run printing, and members will need to pre-order their copies. To facilitate this, you can request your copy when renewing your membership for 2025. If you are not a member, you can sign up and still get the limited edition printing. 

 

Membership renewal for 2025 is now open on The Lone Ranger Fan Club website. You can renew at any time, but if you would like a Diamond membership with the printed anniversary issue, you will need to renew before the end of the month. This limited time opportunity closes on Halloween and Michael will be placing the printing order that weekend.

 

The membership rates for 2025 remain the same as 2024.

Silver - $10/Adult, $5/Youth (Standard membership)

Gold - $15/Adult, $10/Youth (Standard membership with membership certificate & card)

Diamond - $25/Adult, $20/Youth (Standard membership with printed anniversary issue)

https://thelrfc.org/products/2025-diamond-membership-adult?se_activity_id=184893899043&syclid=cs4q75di2nts73c3vh30&utm_campaign=A+Diamond+Anniversary+opportunity_184893899043&utm_medium=email&utm_source=shopify_email 

EARLY CINEMA BOOK REVIEWS: From W.C. Fields to Max Linder

Not a month goes by that I do not received a package at my front doorstep containing a book that the author or the publisher asked me to review. Somehow I feel obligated because they went to all the time and expense to ship it to me, and write the customized letter requesting the favor. The most recent box came from Bear Manor Media and contained four biographies about actors and actresses that are long overdue. 

I THANK YOU: THE ARTHUR ASKEY STORY

By Anthony Slide 

A diminutive, frenetic comedian, known for catchphrases that were once part of the English language, Arthur Askey was one of Britain’s most popular entertainers throughout much of the 20th Century. Immediately after World War One, Askey made his professional debut in concert parties at British seaside resorts. He began to appear on the stage and on radio, and in 1938, with Richard Murdoch, he introduced Band Wagon to BBC radio listeners. It soon became the most popular program on the air, and launched Askey’s career as a film star (one of Britain’s biggest), a major entertainer in pantomime and on the legitimate stage, and ensured an easy transition some years later into television.

 

Arthur Askey’s life and career is presented here in informative and readable fashion. I Thank You: The Arthur Askey Story is the first book-length biography of a great British comedian, and will, hopefully, introduce him and his humor to new audiences around the world.

 

If you never heard of Arthur Askey, do not feel ashamed. I never heard of him, either. But the fact that Anthony Slide went to all the hard work to document the life and career of this actor was essential to ensure Askey did not fall into obscurity. Through this book, his life will live on.

 

 

THE SILENT MOVIES OF W.C. FIELDS

By Arthur Frank Wertheim

The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields is a comprehensive depiction of Fields’ early years in New York and Hollywood, his personal and professional trials and accomplishments, his triumphs and disillusionments, each of which would lead to his ultimate screen legacy. Written by Arthur Frank Wertheim, who recently published a three-volume biography on W. C. Fields, this was an amusing read.

 

To my knowledge, Wertheim’s book is the first to examine W.C. Fields’ twelve silent movies and how they influenced his later career in sound films. Quite simply: the author concludes that Fields might never have become one of the premier comedians during the Golden Age of Sound Films without first embarking on a career in silent movies. In this exploration, readers discover new insights and surprises concerning Fields’ experiences in this medium. After all, he was a stage performer and acting for the screen was an entirely different field altogether.

 

The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields details Fields’ early failed screen attempts, which resulted in his decision not to abandon his successful Ziegfeld Follies career, a choice that would prevent him from joining the pantheon of great silent film stars: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd---each of whom, by 1925, had achieved worldwide recognition and success.

Wertheim relates how Fields would have to struggle against all types of roadblocks to reach the second pantheon tier – and how legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith came to his rescue by directing two of his silent pictures.

 

Generously illustrated with many new and rare photos, The Silent Movies of W.C. Fields will prove invaluable to fans of both the comic genius of W.C. Fields and his pristine time of moviemaking.  

 

 

SILENTS OF THE VAMPS: BAD GIRLS YOU DON’T’ KNOW – BUT SHOULD

By Jennifer Ann Redmond

The United States of the 1910s and 1920s was terrorized by an epidemic so pervasive, so virulent, it threatened to destroy every family it touched. Parents prayed their children would be spared. Small-town America formed tactical police units to combat it. Influenza? Communism? Nope. Vampires. Not the kind repelled with garlic, either. Author Jennifer Ann Redmond delves into the secret files of eleven screen sirens who drained the life (and banknotes) out of men by day while leading criminally captivating lives by night: Alice Hollister, Carmen Phillips, Claire de Lorez, DeSacia Mooers, Edna Tichenor, Iva Shepard, Marcia Manon, Olga Grey, Rosa Rudami, Rosemary Theby, Ruth Taylor. As a sexy vamp on the screen, the personal lives of these actresses are explored with rare photographs and summaries of their careers. I knew of Theda Bara, the most famous screen vamp, so this book helped make me more familiar with other screen sirens of the 1910s and 1920s.

 

 

MAX LINDER: FATHER OF FILM COMEDY

By Snorre Smari Mathiesen

 

Max Linder, born Gabriel Leuvielle in St. Loubes, France in 1883, started in films with the Pathe Brothers in Vincennes, just outside of Paris in 1905, making him one of the first film comedians that became world-renowned. In fact, there is evidence that Linder was the first screen celebrity to see his name in print. His comedy timing and gags (Linder started writing his own scenarios early on) have been copied and imitated by many of his followers, including Charlie Chaplin.

 

The fine line between comedy and tragedy blends into shades of gray in the story of Max Linder, a French comedian and director of the silent film era, who was often held as the standard for the legendary stars coming after him. Max's early start soon escalated into hundreds of films loved worldwide and elevated him into one of the first international movie stars years before Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. Renowned and recognized globally, his fame nearly extinguished due to World War One injuries, but he recovered, returned, and regained his status only to face one of the most terrible tragedies in human existence. His hilarious films and heartrending personal tale unfold fully in this richly researched and annotated biography and filmography. Illustrated with dozens of photographs. 

 

Author Snorre Smári Mathiesen is a Norwegian cartoonist (yes, he lives in Oslo, Norway). A silent film aficionado since childhood, he researched Max Linder’s life for the past ten years and this book is the culmination of that research. He worked as assistant and translator on sociologist Thomas Mathiesen’s autobiography, Cadenza (European Group Press, 2017), which first gave him an opportunity to learn how to write and craft a book and get it published.

 

THE RISE AND FALL OF MAX LINDER: THE FIRST CINEMA CELEBRITY

By Lisa Stein Haven

In Lisa Stein Haven’s book, Linder's story is both a comedy and a tragedy. His meteoric rise to fame by 1907/8 hit a roadblock in 1914 with the onset of World War I, and was dealt a death blow by his attempts to revive his career in America and Austria. His marriage to a young wife was ill-fated and ill-timed, leading Linder to take the life of his wife and himself on the night of October 31, 1925, leaving a 16-month-old daughter behind, Maud, who would devote her life to restoring his film legacy. 

 

It is nice to see that there are two more books exploring the life and career of Max Linder, and both have something the other does not, making them both essential for the cinema fan.

Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's FANTASTIC FOUR

With Marvel Studios' announcement that a Fantastic Four movie is in the works, it does not hurt to look back at the rendition that was never meant to be seen. 

In 1994, Roger Corman produced a low-budget movie based on Marvel's popular comic book series, The Fantastic Four, starring Alex Hyde-White, Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab and Michael Bailey Smith. This marked the first of what would be four live action renditions. Regardless of the fact that the three movies to follow had huge million-dollar budgets, fan boys at comic cons generally agree that the 1994 film is perhaps the best of them. Yet, the Roger Corman film was never released theatrically in theaters, commercially on VHS or DVD, and continues to sit on the shelves gathering dust. In fact, the only way anyone can watch the movie is to buy a VHS or DVD bootleg. Even worse is the fact that the movie was produced with no true intention to release the film - ever!

In the mid-1980s, German film producers, Constantin Films, bought the screen rights from Marvel Comics for an initial $250,000. Among the terms of the contract was that the studio had to produce a movie within ten years or the screen rights would revert back to Marvel. Just before the ten-year option ran out, and in order to meet the terms of the contract, executives at Constantin hired Roger Corman and hurriedly put this film into production. According to the story, executives at Marvel were not impressed at the low-budget results and in order to avoid damaging the brand the studio quietly bought the few existing film prints and negatives from Constantin Films to avoid the possibility of a theatrical or video release. Both Roger Corman (who produced the film), director Oley Sassone and the cast and crew of the film were not consulted or informed of this move, as there were indeed plans in place for a small theatrical release. (A movie trailer was made with this in mind.)

Constantin Films was able to maintain another ten-year option on the screen rights, secured funding from 20th-Century Fox, and the big budget 2005 version was the end result. A 2007 sequel and a terrible 2015 reboot followed.

While the movie was a means to tap dance around a contractual clause, fan boys today have managed to secure a primitive form or preservation by mass duplicating copies of the 1994 movie on VHS and DVD. It is estimated that every fan of The Fantastic Four, across the country, have a copy of this movie in their collection. (I had the good fortune to watch the movie at a fan gathering in Michigan a number of years ago.) If executives at Marvel or Constantin wanted to keep the movie locked away, their plan failed. To believe the film could be suppressed at this point would be futile. 

So you can imagine my pleasure when I learned that two years ago director Marty Langford produced an 84-minute documentary titled Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four, providing the view from the ground of what it was like to pour your heart and hopes into something that was never going to be seen by the general public. Practically every actor, writer, producer, director, stunt man and crew technician was approached and interviewed for commentary, providing background into the film that today you can find easily on YouTube. It is pop culture documentaries like these that I find enjoyable. Now available on DVD through Amazon.com, I recommend this to anyone who loved the 1994 Roger Corman gem. 

THE NARROW MARGIN (1952) Movie Review

When a mobster’s widow decides to testify and provide names of others involved in evil deeds, she goes undercover to avoid being killed. Onboard a train going cross-country, she is escorted by a detective who agrees to keep her in hiding long enough to reach their cross-country destination in order to testify. But when he discovers the mob is on their trail, and have boarded the train, attempting to make sure she never reaches her destination, he also discovers his job is complicated by a few passengers on the train.

 

Filmed in 1950, this movie was not released until 1952. According to director Richard Fleischer, when the film was finished, RKO Pictures owner Howard Hughes heard good things about it and ordered that a copy of it be delivered to him so he could screen it in his private projection room. The film stayed in the projection room for more than a year, apparently because the eccentric Hughes forgot about it.

 

Ironically, this movie turned out to be RKO’s biggest money-maker of 1952.

 

The film was shot in 13 days and the only part filmed on board a train was a few seconds of the arrival in Los Angeles. In preference to removing various walls from the sets, the director decided to make extensive use of a handheld camera that could be brought into rooms; this was one of the first films to do so. To save money, the train sets were rigidly fixed to the floor and the camera was moved to simulate the train rocking. The effect works beautifully for the cinematography, thus covering every aspect that defines film noir.

 

Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor

This was also Marie Windsor’s breakout part. She had been hyped as “the new Joan Crawford” but had not been noticed much until this movie was released theatrically. Also, the film does not have a music score in the usual meaning of the term: the director substituted actual train sounds in places where music would ordinarily be heard for dramatic effect.

 

Whenever someone wants to watch film noir for the first time, this is the movie I recommend they start out with. A perfect example of the genre, an enjoyable 70 minutes, and the film that usually turns cinephiles into film nori addicts. If you are going to watch only one old classic this year, this is the movie to seek out.

P.S. Avoid the 1990 remake with Gene Hackman. 

 

 

Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic

Vertigo is undeniably Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece (if not one of them) and perhaps his best film. To view it once is to be devastated. With each subsequent screening, most viewers notice bits of business, depths of thought, and stunning ironies that had previously eluded them. The first time I watched the film I was about nine years old and thought the movie was boring. But I have seen the film twice since and come to appreciate the film greatly. Vertigo is a riveting experience, haunting its fans in the same way that Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) is haunted by the mysterious Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak). 

Upon researching the film, author Dan Auiler found that "this odd, obsessional, very un-matter-of-fact film was created" under "systematic, businesslike, matter-of-fact circumstances." His book gives us the opportunity to witness the construction of a film that seems at once amazing complex and absolutely seamless. He discusses the painstaking development of the screenplay (including its controversial explication of the mystery only two-thirds of the way through the film), the decision to cast Novak instead of Vera Miles opposite Stewart, the typically meticulous Hitchcock shoot, the film's amazing special effects and extraordinary credit and dream sequences, and the legendary musical score composed by Bernard Herrmann. 

The book also includes a forward by Vertigo enthusiast Martin Scorsese, and hundreds of production photos, reproductions of memos, storyboard sketches, and posters. Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic is available in paperback and hardcover. If you are a fan of the movie, this book is a must-have.

 

LASSIE: The Radio Series (Re-Discovered)

Good news for fans of Lassie! A complete set of the radio scripts were found and presently being scanned into digital format. And this is a major discovery...

The fictional female collie made her debut in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight, which would later be expended into a 1940 full-length novel, Lassie Come Home. In 1943, MGM Studios released a theatrical version of the novel. This led to six additional feature-length movies with the same collie as the hero.

The dog playing the role in those movies was Pal. His owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, then acquired the trademark name of "Lassie" from MGM and began taking the dog on the road for public paid appearances at circuses, rodeos and county fairs. From 1947 to 1950, the character of Lassie was the star subject of a weekly adventure series, sponsored by Red Heart Dog Food. (No surprise as to the sponsor.) To date, very few of the radio broadcasts exist in recorded form but now that we have the complete run of radio scripts, an episode guide can be created. 

The radio version has been relatively unexplored and barely documented except in brief entries in encyclopedias. With luck, much more will be documented in the near future.

I have always said that magazine articles first began as slide show presentations. Books first began as magazine articles. And thanks to books, archival materials get scanned digitally for preservation. So in the coming year or two I suspect there will be a slide show presentation about the history of the radio program. Something equally to cheer for on top of this major discovery.

Funko Pops presents The Twilight Zone

This was a big announcement a week ago... especially trending among the Twilight Zone fandom. The company known for creating inexpensive Funko Pops figurines, licensed, will be offering The Twilight Zone among their offerings later this year. Among them is "The Narrator" (more than likely because Rod Serling's name could not be licensed). Fans of the TV series take note: grab them while you can since this is available as a pre-order, for an October release.

Link enclosed:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CND1GH5R?psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

The Shadowed Circle Compendium

After months of waiting, The Shadowed Circle Compendium has been released. This book is a mixture of both old and new articles from The Shadowed Circle magazine. At the time I am writing this blog post, the magazine has six issues out. 

After a cursory glance of the table of contents, I am prompted to provide a quick commentary about compendiums which I have said verbally spoken about for years, and I can finally put that into writing.

Keep in mind this has happened a number of times in the past... a number of magazines went out of their way to produce a limited edition book reprinting articles from back issues. While this cool from a collectible standpoint, the practicality goes out the door. And every book, magazine and fanzine should always have a practical purpose and intent -- avoiding, if at all possible, a financial cash grab. As an example, for non-fiction, documenting information from archival materials is meant to serve as a form of preservation. But magazines and fanzines also become desired when back issues are difficult to acquire due to a lower print number (compared to later issues). 

My gripe is that the value of the back issues drops when those same articles are reprinted in a compendium. As an example, I once had a complete run of a monster magazine and the first issue was not only out of print but often sold for $125. Issue number two often sold for $50. Starting with issue number four, they were easy to find and could often be purchased for $10 or less. Having a complete run, I was a proud possessor of the set. One day the editor wanted to reprint all the articles from the first three issues into a hardcover book. He publicly asked for feedback and my reply to him was “don’t do it.” I explained how the value of those first three issues would drop once he did. But he still went ahead and printing his compendium and two years later the first issue of that magazine sold for an average of $60 on eBay. Hence the demand dropped for those early issues of his magazine and, in my opinion, diminished the value of his magazine altogether.

With today's technology, print-on-demand removes the limited aspect of the print run so early issues almost never go out of print. So it may be that compendiums of today's magazines will not diminish the value of those early issues from a collectible aspect... time will tell. 

 

Which leads me to this hardcover (and paperback) edition of The Shadowed Circle Compendium. Both editions arrived in my hands the other week and many of the articles in here were reprinted from past issues. In fact, the only new articles I could observe during a cursory glance was “The Shadowed Seven” in which different Shadow authors and fans listed their seven favorite Shadow novels, and “The Shadow in Fan Publications,” which spoke about The Shadow's history in fanzines.

As a fan of The Shadow, I enjoy reading anything about the fictional character, regardless of whether it is the pulp version of radio incarnation. Whether it be perspectives, reviews or trivia unearthed in archives, any new article written about the character is welcomed with open arms.

While these new articles are featured in the Compendium, and not elsewhere, fans of The Shadow who want to collect one of everything will no doubt rush out and make a purchase. I bought my copies to support the cause, as I would with any kickstarter, and would gladly do so again. But as someone who bought all the issues of The Shadowed Circle, I question the value of my purchase of what is clearly the same articles I already bought last year. Of the 179 pages, only 30 contained new material.

 

Keep in mind that this is my opinion, but I certainly would have loved to have purchased a book whereby all of the articles were new. But if you do not have any of the back issues, this book is worth getting for your collection and comes with my recommendation… especially if you are a fan of The Shadow. 

The link to make a direct purchase, digital, paperback or hardcover is listed below.

https://www.theshadowedcircle.com/index.php/compendium