R.I.P. David Hess

David Alexander Hess started out his incredible career as a songwriter and musician. At the age of 15 he was the first to record Otis Blackwell's "All Shook Up". Later picked up by Elvis.
His stage name was David Hill.



He also penned (with Aaron Schroeder) "I Got Stung" for Elvis and then also co-wrote and recorded "Speedy Gonzales", later made famous by Pat Boone. He now called himself David Dante.



He then went on to record 2 solo albums for Kapp Records.
At the end of the 1960s he co-wrote the rock-opera 'The Naked Carmen' with John Corigliano.


In the 1970s he also started to act in movies. His first major achievement was as Krug Stillo in Wes Craven's 'The Last House on the Left' in 1972. He also penned and recorded the score for the movie.


In 1977 he starred in the italian crime 'Hitch-Hike' as the psychotic and sadistic hitcher.


In 1980 he had a seat in the director's chair himself and directed 'To All a Good Night'. Apparently a typical 1980s teenage horror flick.

He also starred or participated in several other horror and/or cult flicks, such as Ruggero Deodato's 'House on the Edge of the Park'; Craven's 'Swamp Thing' and in later years 'Zodiac Killer'.


-Why don't you lay back and enjoy being inferior?

I do, I do. Now, rest in peace.

When sex leers its inquisitive head

I know of Peter Wyngarde mainly from his appearance in The Prisoner as No. 2 in the episode "Checkmate."
In 1970 he took time out from playing TV's Jason King to release an eponymous LP (now available on the once-popular compact disc format as When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head); here are some representative tracks of an album I'm at a loss for words to describe.


"Hippy and the Skinhead"



"Rape"


"Neville Thumbcatch"

R.I.P. Ricky Bruch

Ricky Bruch and Christina Lindberg.

ETEWAF

ETEWAF: From WIRED a couple of months ago. I have run out of interest. Everybody seems to have eaten Quake and Quisp with Wanda Jackson and Hasil Adkins while wearing their soupy Sales Fan Club Badge, nowadays.

I go do now.

Yes- YES there's an ad at the beginning of the clip I CAN'T HELP THAT. Hit mute or something.

I find that this is always a real pick-me-up, Dave's "I Can't Read":



Yes I'm all curmudgeon-y today.

John Wayne fights tuberculosis for Christmas

Public Service Announcement from Mr. Wayne supporting christmas seals in favor of kids suffering from tuberculosis. 1955.

Uploaded by mrdantefontana666

The Hammer and the Kitten

Fred Williamson and kitten. Playgirl 1973.
(Thanks to Dr. Manta)

Rowdy Roddy Is Your Man!

The fifth entry on PCL was about this man. That, if anything, says something about his importance. 'Cause you know: He's your man!

Uploaded by mrdantefontana666

Christian Bale loses it. (NSFW)

Listen here.

Jerry Reed (R.I.P.)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jerry Reed, a singer who became a "good ol' boy" actor opposite Burt Reynolds in car chase movies like "Smoky and the Bandit," is dead at age 71, according to his longtime booking agent.

Carrie Moore-Reed, who is no relation to the star, says Reed died early Monday morning of complications from emphysema.

Reed was a gifted guitarist who later became a songwriter, singer and finally an actor.

As a singer in the 1970s and early 1980s, he had a string of hits that included "Amos Moses," ''When You're Hot, You're Hot," ''East Bound and Down," and "The Bird".


In the mid-1970s, he began acting in movies like "Smokey and the Bandit," ''Gator" ''Hot Stuff," ''High Ballin" (with Peter Fonda), "The Survivors" (with Walter Matthau), "BAT-21" (with Gene Hackman) and "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings."

Ultimate Warrior

" ... Warrior retired from professional wrestling in 1999 and became a motivational speaker. ..." (Quoted form Wikipedia entry)

Added by vigillobo

Note: also check some classic Ultimate Warrior quotes.

Tanks to Orvar.

Artists in Action

Errol Flynn does standup in If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats' series Artists in Action.

celebrità

Claudia Cardinale & Charlton Heston

A great set at flickr of celebrites from back in the days:

Josephine Baker, Laurence Olivier & Merle Oberon (still from 'Wuthering Heights'), Gina Lollobrigida, Britt Ekland (eh ...), Rita Conde (O'la la!) and Yul Brynner (or is it Vladimir Putin?). (via Senses Working Overtime)

Then Charlton Heston put his vest on

RIP Charlton Heston.

Stump (with the irresistable force) - Charlton Heston:

Video uploaded by frenchaccent

Doctor X

John McElwee, and his Greenbriar Picture Shows has a highly interesting post up about Pre-Code Horror movie Doctor X:
" ... Doctor X and Mystery Of The Wax Museum are unique for being the only horror films shot in any kind of Technicolor during the thirties. The two-color process was never satisfactory for cartoons, and musicals suffered from pallid representations of costumes and décor, but horror films stood to reap enormous benefits from not of this earth color seemingly shot through lens smeared with formaldehyde. I don’t know how that Doctor X crew stood workdays that ran to twenty hours under the martinet direction of Michael "Skip Lunch" Curtiz (shown here with star Lee Tracy) [Edit by mrdantefontana: shown in the full post over at Greenbriar Picture Shows. Not in this post] . Unions in 1932 were proposed, if at all, in secret meetings among participants who knew not the meaning of days off. On Sabbaths while most rested, the Doctor X team had worked straight through Saturday night and into early morning hours, so that when they did finally arrive home, sheer exhaustion negated Sunday recreation other than blessed sleep. For those in the camera’s glare, lights needed to enable Technicolor were intense beyond endurance and some players sustained damage to eyes they’d keep for life. ..."

Enjoy the full post here.

Broadway photographs 1900-1930

Jerome Kern & Ona Munson

Broadway photographs - Art Photography & the American Stage 1900-1930 (thanks to KD over at Pop Culture Links)

Richard Widmark R.I.P

Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death"

Ny Times Obit
In reality, the screen’s most vicious psychopath was a mild-mannered former teacher who had married his college sweetheart, the actress Jean Hazelwood, and who told a reporter 48 years later that he had never been unfaithful and had never even flirted with women because, he said, “I happen to like my wife a lot.”

God Bless.

I envy us

Michael McKean loves us.
You are okay too, Michael. We don't go to your website that often. But we like you anyway!

Smell the Glove, blogging friends out there, smell the glove!

My First Record - Even Stupider!

The father of Tony and Hunt Sales of Tin Machine performs "Do the Mouse" (my first 45) on his show (the B side of which was "Pachalafaka"- (I think he was just happy saying "faka" on TV)



Having said that, here's another according-to-the-world-but-their-wrong-and-I'm-right bad yet modern musical choice, Tin Machine, doing one of my favorite songs of theirs, Bus Stop, C&W style:

Pop should be proud.

Conversely, my first album was impeccably cool- Best of the Animals. Ha.

Mmm... Mandom

"All the world loves a lover"
Charles Bronson - Mandom Aftershave, Japanese TV Ads

Clip 1 - Clip 2 (via Beyond the Groovy Age of Horror)

Yep. The perfect gift for every man.

Juice Boots

OJ wasn't always wearing Bruno Magli.......



Link to original post (& larger image) at picture above & HERE