jim henson

(Reposted from 'Brief Window')






Dang it.

Legendary science-fiction fan and memorabilia collector Forrest J Ackerman passed away a few weeks back, but I didn't find out about it until now!

I knew that Ackerman had been ill and not expected to recover, but somehow I feel bad that I missed hearing of his death on December 4th, at the age of 92.

Our beloved 'Uncle Forry' was a pioneer in the world of sci-fi fandom.
Among other achievements, he 'discovered' author Ray Bradbury and coined the phrase
'sci-fi'.

The magazine he founded, 'Famous Monsters of Filmland', figured prominently in the 'perfectly maladjusted' upbringing of many happy nerds of my generation, and the tales of his guided tours of the vast collection of cool stuff in his 'Ackermansion' in L.A. totally rocked.

Forrest J Ackerman is gone. He was unique, and he will be missed.

- Follow links to to a couple of obits; at the
Los Angeles Times, and Time magazine.

- Check out a gallery of 'Famous Monsters' magazine covers at Mad-Monsters.Com

In addition to all of her other works during her long career, Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck wrote several 'juvenile fiction' Christmas-related stories.

This 'storybook insert' originally ran in the December, 1956 issue of Family Circle magazine (the same issue that provided last week's
Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy 'Night(mare) before Christmas'
photo-spread post).

The story was published in hardback form the following year, with different (non-Disney) artwork.

Other than "Visualized by
Walt Disney and Staff", I'm not finding any credit for individual artists on this piece.

If you have any insights or clues, I'd love to hear about it - - leave a comment or drop a line.

In 1956, Disney was running full-steam with their brand-new Anaheim theme park and two popular TV shows.

More and more of their visual output on TV and in theaters was live-action. Disney animation was still producing theatrical shorts, had released the feature-length 'Lady and The Tramp' the previous year, and began production in '56 for the 1959 release of 'Sleeping Beauty'.

So far, I see no evidence to suggest that there had been any plans by the Disney studios to produce an animated version of Pearl Buck's 'A Christmas Miniature'. Again, any info you might have on the topic is appreciated.

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(Reposted from 'Video Cabinet in Limbo')

1950s pin-up queen Bettie Page died yesterday, December 12th, at the age of 85.

There are plenty of places to see her racy photos and read about her career and her mystique, and I urge you to click around the web and take a peek
- - especially if you're not that familiar with her.

There's also much that's been written about her that tries to define her particular allure.

I think the vintage 'dance' footage below typifies the quality she had for transmitting a sex appeal that wasn't lascivious, but wasn't really about innocence, either.
Maybe just the joy of 'pretend' or 'play'?

In these 'striptease' films, Bettie looks gorgeous, but her dance moves are just downright silly (Was she self-taught?), and for the most part seem to have very little correlation to sexiness - - and maybe that's what makes them - - and her - - so fascinating.

I suppose that the video clips below are NSFW, but gosh, are they tame by today's standards...





(NOTE: Please leave a comment if you discover dead video links. Thanks.)