Movies
The Huntress
I would love to see this 1923 film starring Colleen Moore remade today. A white actress playing a Native American, who is so desperate for a husband she kidnaps a stranger? Uncontroversial box-office gold!
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 03, 2016 -
Comments (8)
Category: Movies, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1920s, Native Americans
Fighting Tigers
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 24, 2015 -
Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Movies, Asia
Uncle Wiggly vs. DONNIE DARKO Rabbit
Equally creepy? The earlier guy the inspiration for the later one?
Original ad here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 20, 2015 -
Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Games, Movies, 1920s, 2000s, Fictional Monsters
John Q Public, Movie Mogul
Wow, imagine if you had to go thru all this to create a cat video for YouTube!
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 30, 2015 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, Movies, 1950s
Soviets Eat Bambi
In 1985, a Soviet production of a live-action film about Bambi (Bambi's Childhood) had to be halted when three of the deer who were playing Bambi and his friends disappeared. Turned out they had been stolen, then butchered and served as the main course at a birthday celebration. The culprits were sent to a labor camp as punishment for their crime.The news was reported in a lot of papers, but the Weekly World News (below) had the best coverage of it.
Spartanburg Herald-Journal - Feb 7, 1985
Weekly World News - Mar 12, 1985
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 22, 2015 -
Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Movies, 1980s
The Hideous Sun Demon
Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 05, 2015 -
Comments (4)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s, Fictional Monsters
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
Posted By: Paul - Thu Sep 17, 2015 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Exploitation and Grindhouse, Avant Garde, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, Martial Arts, 1980s, Dance
2-Star Review
Truth in advertising. A poster for the new movie Legend, starring Tom Hardy, prominently displays the fact that the reviewer for the Guardian gave it only a two-star review.
The reviewer reacts on Twitter:
Incredible way of making my two star review seem like I didn't hate the film pic.twitter.com/zvOyIxHQ3h
— Benjamin Lee (@benfraserlee) September 8, 2015
Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 09, 2015 -
Comments (5)
Category: Movies, Advertising
Insect Art
If you've seen an insect in a movie, there's a good chance it was a prop made by insect artist Graham Owen. He specializes in the "design and fabrication of intricate life-size insect replicas" that are frequently used in movies and TV shows. His most famous insect might be the fly that tormented Walter White in an episode of Breaking Bad.A recent article about him offers more details about his art and career. And the article included this piece of info, which was new to me:
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 04, 2015 -
Comments (6)
Category: Art, Insects and Spiders, Movies
Auroratone
Auroratone was a "process for translating music into color" invented circa 1940 by Englishman Cecil Stokes. The music vibrated an emulsion of crystallizing chemicals, and this was then photographed by a color movie camera, producing a kind of psychedelic movie of shifting colors synchronized with music (but this was the 1940s, before the concept of psychedelics was known in popular culture).The hope was that these auroratone films could be used to treat psychiatric patients, and they were experimentally shown to soldiers in an army hospital suffering from psychotic depressions. Conclusion: "Observation revealed that these patients were intensely absorbed in the films, that their span of attention to the films was appreciably lengthened after exposure to the films. Weeping and sobbing was observed in some patients. Many patients became more accessible to individual and group psychotherapy immediately folllowing exposure to these films."
Their effect was also tested on juvenile delinquents. One kid told the experimenter, "I think God must have painted those pictures."
A company was formed to commercialize Auroratones and guide their development. Investors in this company included the Crosby Brothers (Larry and his famous brother Bing). Bing sang the music for many of the auroratones.
Treating psychiatric patients wasn't very profitable, so there was hope to find more lucrative applications of the auroratone process. One idea was to transfer auroratone color patterns onto textiles and ceramics. Some silk scarfs printed with visualizations of Bing Crosby singing "Home on the Range" were apparently manufactured, but never sold.
Not many auroratones still survive, but an example of one can be viewed on YouTube:
The auroratone process reminds me of the Clavilux (or Color Organ) invented by Thomas Wilfred in 1919 (previously posted about here).
More info about auroratones: Wikipedia and Milwaukee Journal, Dec 6, 1948.
Also see: Rubin, HE & Katz, E. (Oct 1946). "Auroratone films for the treatment of psychotic depressions in an army general hospital," Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2(4): 333-340.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 03, 2015 -
Comments (9)
Category: Movies, Photography and Photographers, Psychology, 1940s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |