Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (8mm)

My luck in finding favorite old films in 8mm format has been surprisingly high lately, (see my "Spooky Hooky!" post HERE!) And as the antique malls begin slowly filling up with spooktacular Halloween related items for this time of the season, it was time time time for me to make the local rounds yet again yesterday, and stepping into a vendor booth I've been to a hundred times, this visit again proved quite fruitful-- that is, by finding a Castle Films 8mm reel featuring the fruitcake antics of my favorite classic comedy duo, Abbott and Costello, starring in their best film, "Meet Frankenstein!" See this surprisingly well condensed 8mm version by clicking HERE!

Not only is this my favorite A&C film, it's one of my all time favorite films period. It might even be my favorite Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man (and yes, even Invisible Man) film, though I'm sure saying that out loud will likely annoy a few of you diehard monster kids out there! Anyway, the box has clearly seen better days, and the reeled film itself is unfortunately melted, warped, very brittle, and completely unplayable (hey, you can't win 'em all!), --but good lord, I'm such a diehard freak for this monster mash-o-rama, that it will still make a great display piece in my office anyway, so no worries. I love all of the slightly off model cartoon art on the back of the box too! You go, Creech!

Weegee's Weird World

Here's another kooky camera article from the same terrific issue of TAB as seen in our previous post! Dig those crazy "elastic" lens shots! Cheesecake never looked so... uhhh... well, it's funny to think that nowadays you can just simply do this sort of thing on your phone with a couple mere clicks of the app. Boy, kids today sure got it easy-- but they ain't got Martha Raye!

Ghost-To-Ghost Interview '54

Short, but fun little article from the October 1954 issue of TAB Volume 4, #4. When no spooky spirits materialize during your visit into their haunted domain, what's a photog to do? Create your creeptacular own, of course! Nice, mid century camera trickery that looks like stills from a cool old British horror movie that I would totally love to see.

Arrow Book of Tricks and Projects

Almost exactly one year ago (give or take a few days) I posted some fun pages from Scholastic's Arrow Book of Tricks and Projects, first published in 1960-- specifically the "Make a Puppet" chapter-- CLICK HERE to check it out! Today I have a small sampling of even more great key art from some of the other cute sections in the book, and apologies to incredible illustrator, William Meyerriecks, as I just noticed I forgot to even mention his name in the puppet post as well.

15 Young Fun Minutes

What other blog will give you a soul-pummeling Devilman post one day, and then a pretty lil post about young lady perm hair styles the next? You'll also likely never find a cuter giveaway booklet than this one from Tonette Curls when it comes to girlie's 'n their curlys, plus the age old question: how does one spend the 15 minutes while allowing ones hair to permanently set in those juicy rollers? The answers are right here of course-- with poems, games, and plenty of lovely hair style examples (via 1955), all expertly laid out in 15 pages of colorful illustrations and photos.



















Speaking of cute, check out a Tonette Curls commercial from 1960 by CLICKING HERE!

Devilman 33 1/3 LP (Columbia Records, 1979)

Many of you know I collect anything and everything Devilman from Japan. Being my favorite Go Nagi creation (next to his giant battling robots and Cutie Honey), my fascination with this young man possessed by the spirit of a devil to protect the world knows no bounds-- to both my imagination and my wallet! This recent vinyl acquisition is no exception, with its double sided, 8 tracks of music and story awesomeness, (you'll have to take my word for it as I'm not finding any uploads to youtube online anywhere), PLUS, a stunningly colorful, action packed gatefold booklet glued inside-- it is most certainly a worthy companion piece to the other Devilman record I posted here back in March 2018-- CLICK HERE!)

Monster News & Hit Parade

Time for some cornball monster hilarity from the January 1962 issue of Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats #2, with not so frightful, but never the less fun art by Orlando Busino.

Pizza Hut Matchbook

I was recently reading about how Pizza Hut is bringing back one of their old logo designs (you can read all the details HERE.) They're not going back in time quite far enough to the logo (and super mascot) that I grew up lovin' so much, so I thought I'd dig out one of my favorite matchbooks and give you all a taste of which design that I believe actually reigns supreme!

Mature Ham

There seems to be a handful of funny golden era comics about working girls trying to make it big in Hollywood (see my Mopsy post HERE for more), and this particular Peggy Dean tale from the February 1954 issue of Meet Merton #2 mixes silly jungle film set action with a few bits of good girl art, minimal dialog, and maybe even a poke or two at actor legend, Victor Mature (maybe?)











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