AF2011 Double Barrel Pistols!

In the world of "Guy Stuff" this is pretty darn amazingly cool!  I would love to fire one of these on the range.  I bet these will not be cheap.

Check it out here!

I thought this was a pretty clever display.  My youngest daughter loves Stitch. Can't wait to go to Disneyland again this year for vacation with my family! My oldest daughter will be 16!  WHERE HAVE THE YEARS GONE!  Disneyland is one place I love to just be a kid.  This picture was taken from disboards.com.

John Wayne's 1953 Corvette (51st)

Saw this at a car show recently, pretty cool. I have read many many books about John Wayne but this was the first time I knew anything about this cool Corvette that the Duke bought, in 1953 brand new off the line, the 51st Corvette built. That's pretty cool!

Seems he was too large for it and his head stood above the windshield so he gave it away to his friend Ward Bond.  Wasn't Ward Bond about as tall as the Duke, not sure, have to look that one up.  Anyway, this is not my photo but we did get pictures of it.  Had a great time at the car show with friends and family. Cool Fun!  Go here and here to learn more, although I will say there is not much out there about it.

Old Time Radio

When I was a kid I remember one day laying in bed in the attic of our small house where my Dad had built me a room, complete with pull down stairs I thought this was one of the coolest places in the world (The Beach Boys song "In My Room" comes to mind).  I was listening to my radio on one of those single flesh colored ear buds (anyone remember those) and across the airwaves came KNX 1070 News radio (I still remember the jingle) and the sound of a creaking door.

I was totally engrossed, totally captured and totally glued to my radio as E. G. Marshall came on with his disturbing voice and said "Come In, Welcome, I'm E. G. Marshall".  He then introduced the show and off on an adventure, thriller, mystery I would go.  At the end he ended the show with "Until next time, pleasant... dreams?"

Oh man, you cannot believe the excitement when I found this show and I couldn't wait until next time, I listened faithfully every night that I could from then on out for several years.  I believe this was around 1976 or 1977 and the show ran from 1974 to 1982 and produced 1,399 shows.

This experience started my life long love of Old Time Radio and even to this day I find comforting memories in listening to my favorites... CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Suspense, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Burns and Allen, Abbott and Costello and many many more.  I'm not old enough to have heard these old radio shows when they originated but I am old enough to have heard CBS Radio Mystery Theater when it was still on the air and oh such wonderful memories.

Here's a funny little story.  I remember traveling with my parents somewhere, no idea where but the people we visited had a cassette of Abbott and Costello that they gave me.  Well I had a little walkman type radio of some sort, and I had some headphones.  And you remember how the show starts out with Costello screaming "Heyyyyy  Aboooott!!!!"  Well my Dad was pulling out of the driveway and I turned on that show and that little cassette player must have been turned up all the way and that sound came over the headphones loud enough to scare my Dad half to death.  He thought he had run over a kid or something.  Like I said, great memories.  I can laugh about it now but I don't think my Dad was real happy at the time.

If you would like to experience some of these shows, try the following free sites:

Old Radio World
Internet Archive - Old Time Radio

ENJOY!

A Great Deal...

 
As a promotional deal, Ashampoo is giving away their full version Burning Studio 2012 (a $49.95 value).  This is no Nero in my opinion but a pretty good burning studio, I've used it a few times and am impressed.  Go here for instructions how to obtain it.  Hurry, I'm sure it will expire soon!

San Quentin (1937)

I've been watching Bogie lately, so consequently that is what I end up writing about.  Just finished San Quentin starring O'Brien, Bogie and Sheridan.  Not a bad little movie, storyline is a bit week but it's not bad.

The prisoners of San Quentin are getting out of hand under the iron fist and cruel treatment of the Captain of the yard (Barton Maclane).  The Warden sees this as a problem and hires a new Captain of the yard, Captain Stephen Jameson (O'Brien) to clean things up and regain the trust of the prisoners.


Bogie plays Joe 'Red' Kennedy, a mouthy little punk criminal who gets time in Quentin.  His sister is May (Ann Sheridan) a singer who believes her brother has just gotten a bad break in life.  O'Brien works with Bogie and for a while Bogie tries to reform but when the other prisoners lie to him telling him Jameson is only treating him good because he likes his sister, Bogie breaks out of Quentin to get back at O'Brien.

In the end Bogie gets shot trying to escape the police, but not before realizing that Jameson is "all right".

If you enjoy Bogie like I do, this is a pretty good movie.  If you are trying to turn someone on to Bogie, I wouldn't start them out on this movie.

Go here for a more detailed description of this movie.

TV Westerns

When I was a kid in the 70s there were still a lot of TV Western re-runs out there.  Some I suppose may have been syndicated but mostly the TV western was gone by the 70s so whenever I could find a re-run to watch I was in heaven.

As a kid, my preference for make believe playing in the back yard or with my neighborhood pals usually gravitated toward cowboys, which is kind of interesting because I have heard my Father say that his tendency as a kid was toward playing Army.

Anyway, like anyone I had my favorite TV shows so for fun I thought I would list them and maybe do some write-ups on some or all of them, the research would be fun and nostalgic.





My 10 favorite TV western shows as a kid:
1. Wild Wild West (by far this one was number 1)
2. Rifleman
3. Gunsmoke
4. Rawhide
5. Maverick
6. Have Gun Will Travel
7. Bonanza
8. Lone Ranger
9.  Little House on the Prairie (stretching it a bit I know.)
10. Big Valley

My 10 favorite TV Western shows 35 years later, some of which I didn't even know about as a kid, but I sure enjoy them now when I can find them:
1. Wild Wild West (Yes, still!)
2. Wanted: Dead or Alive
3. Magnificent Seven
4. Gunsmoke
5. Rawhide
6. Maverick
7. Have Gun Will Travel
8. Rifleman
9. Bonanza
10. Big Valley

Anyway, I'm no TV Show expert by any means, unlike kids of today I spent more time outside playing than inside watching TV but I may jot my thoughts down about a few of these classic TV Westerns in the coming days, stay tuned...

What were your favorite TV westerns and memories from your childhood, I'd love to hear from you.

Randolph Scott -- Another Favorite of Mine!

This Statler Brothers tribute makes me want to write some stuff about Randolph Scott, another favorite western star of mine.  Maybe I will, stay tuned.  Not a very good picture but a great song.

When Eagles Dared: The Filmgoers History of World War II by Howard Hughes

Here is another bit of pretty cool news, Howard Hughes has released a new book called When Eagles Dared.  It is a history of 150 WWII film classics and the historic events that inspired them.

Following is the press release:

"When Eagles Dared" tells the stories of the historical events of World War II and the films that have depicted these events on cinema screens, presenting a guide to history through cinema that compares the cinematic myth with the historical reality. Illustrated with rare posters and stills, it gives us a unique view of this war through the lenses of over 50 diverse films that have shaped our perceptions of the conflict, including "Downfall," "Patton," "Tora! Tora! Tora!, ""Anzio," "The Thin Red Line," "Letters from Iwo Jima," "Stalingrad," "Battle of the Bulge," "Cross of Iron, " and "A Bridge Too Far." The book portrays the men and women who participated in World War II, from the evacuation of the Allied forces from France ("Dunkirk") through to the battle for Berlin and beyond. Each chapter discusses historical events as they unfold and illustrates how these episodes subsequently have been portrayed onscreen by filmmakers. Events discussed include the war in the skies ("Battle of Britain" and "The Dambusters"), the sea ("Sink the Bismarck!), " and the North African desert ("The Battle of El Alamein" and "Tobruk"). There are "special mission" movies, including "Where Eagles Dare" and "Inglourious Basterds, " classic tales of ingenuity ("The Great Escape"), and human endurance ("The Bridge on the River Kwai").

I have read a few of Mr. Hughes books (Once Upon a Time in the West and Crime Wave) and he is pretty fun to read.

The Big Trail (1930) & Barbarian and the Geisha (1958)

--WALMART EXCLUSIVE --

20th Century Fox will release Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail on Blu-ray exclusively at Wal-Mart on May 8.  Also available on the same date will be John Huston's The Barbarian and the Geisha.

Now I am a huge John Wayne fan and this is big news.  Barbarian and the Geisha, while not anywhere near one of The Duke's better films, has never been released on DVD in the US, so for us John Wayne fans, this is exciting.

 The Big Trail which gave John Wayne his very first starring role (no John Ford did not do that for the Duke, Raoul Walsh did) is a wonderfully large movie of the outdoors using an experimental process in 70mm widescreen cinematography called Grandeur — and it is a breathtaking film.  Many people say Duke is inexperienced and insecure in his acting but I see a lot of John Wayne's traits showing in this movie that made The Duke... well... The Duke.


Next is the Barbarian and the Geisha which was hampered from the very beginning with problems and reportedly Duke and John Huston did not get along very well at all, however Duke being the professional that he was refused to quit his contract and followed through even though he saw disaster coming.  Being a Duke fan I like the movie, however most people see it as one of his worst, right up there with The Conqueror they say (I like that movie too).

NOW, here is my personal wish, if ever there was a John Wayne movie that deserved a complete re-master (the DVD release was just AWFUL!) and belonged on Blu-ray, that movie is John Ford's Quiet Man.  That would be amazing!

Incredible Bogie in Petrified Forest (1936)

Like many actors of old, Bogie started in the theater not in Hollywood movies.  In fact he spent many years working hard in theatrical productions making very little.  It was while working these theaters that he landed the role of Duke Mantee in the theatrical performance of Petrified Forest.

If you can imagine, Playwright Robert Emmet Sherwood had originally suggested Bogart for the part of Boze Hertzlinger, the ex-football player who can't quite let go of his past and grow up, but producer-director Arthur Hopkins had a better idea that turned out to be genius.  Hopkins who made a point of seeing everything on Broadway each season and had seen Bogart in the play "Invitation to a Murder" noticed his silent moments in the play more than his actual speeches, "when he was quiet, time seemed to stand still" he said.

Well Bogie was cast as Duke Mantee the escaped convict and from there the rest is, as they say, history.  The part of Duke Mantee that he played in the theater and later in the Hollywood movie production shaped the type of character that Bogie would play for the rest of his life.  He may have wanted to do "more desirable" acting parts but he was good at the menacing gangster and his fans loved him that way.  I too am glad he stuck with the character because one of my favorite genres is the Gangster movie and that genre would not have been the same without the larger than life Bogie!

Over the years Bogart has become one of my favorite actors, second only to the larger than life John Wayne!

Treat yourself to this little gem, Petrified Forest, Bogie, Buttery Popcorn and an ice cold pop!  Oh Yeah!