Monday, October 26, 2015

TABONGA'S HAPPY HALLOWEEN! TO EVER'BLOODY / 2015

Today, I'm giving out my personal Happy Halloween greeting to all our readers. As I was browsing images for the post, I was drawn to the postcards from 100 years ago because they make it fun without anyone getting their head chopped off our guts pulled out, and, was typical of the imagery when I was a kid. Just to compare my first Halloween outing in 1951 when I was 3 years old, here's what it was like... My girl cousins took a sheet and cut two eye holes in it, that was my costume, a ghost! Most of my relatives lived in the country, so, that's where we went to Trick Or Treat, there were around 10 of us with a few flashlights. The houses were like a half block away from each other to start with and quite honestly, I really don't remember much, just trying to see out of the holes in the sheet was a heck of a chore!

It's all about pumpkins! Almost every single image has a pumpkin in it. We'll start with this great lineup of our little buddies. Eegah!! got super elaborate with pumpkin carving a few years ago, entertaining his kids, grandkids and Trick Or Treaters.

They were very friendly little critters back then. Today, this doesn't make any sense.

And, this little gang of spooks get to tool around in their stylish Gourdmobile.

Don't forget about Devils, they pop in to create the mayhem, you know, it's their job!

It didn't take any high tech computer gimmick to scare kids back then, just notice the creepy little faces on those spooks, it was just simply design.

Hey, there's my black cat, BOO, checking out that pumpkin!

The artwork is so tasty, those illustrators back then really knew how to use color.

I wanted to throw this one in because we needed a little Pumpkin Cake with Whipped Cream!

And this, makes me think that people just don't know how to have fun any more!

Your Halloween Treat is here, this is a tune recorded by our band, Those Beasleys, in 1994. I wrote the music and played guitar and bass on it, and, it's one of my favorites. Enjoy, here's... GHOSTS!

Saturday, October 24, 2015

THE THREE STOOGES - "Shivering Sherlocks" (1948)

 I can only hope there are classes in institutions of higher knowledge about the historical significance of characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Three Stooges! 
If not, then society is obviously doomed for eternity!

 It's damn near Hallowe'en, and what better time for a spooky but stoogey tale!?
I bought a Three Stooges DVD at Albertsons a few years ago that had "Shivering Sherlocks," "Spook Louder," and "The Ghost Talks on it! Somehow after two features, it mysteriously vanished never to be seen again! Lucky for me and you, stuff like this is readily available on the internet today for free!
In some ways, life has never been sweeter!

 How much simpler can you get than three 50 year old guys who act like pre-pubescent juveniles crammed into a garbage can?
You either love The Three Stooges or you hate them! There is no middle ground!

 In this tall tale titled "Shivering Sherlocks," The Stooges are accused of robbing an armored car, a ridiculous proposition at best!

 Here's a great shot of some awesome high tech equipment from the 1940's!

The boys need to help out there gal pal Christine McIntyre as Gladys Harmon! Christine was in almost as many Three Stooges episodes as the stooges themselves!

 When's the last time you had a good fifteen cent muzzle?

 Wow! What you used to be able to get away with in the name of comedy! Shemp pours some boiling water through a chicken carcass to make some instant chicken soup!
Salmonella City! Gross!!

 This shot of Moe losing the battle to his clam chowder is for Paul from down under!!

They've obviously identified the wrong guys, but I like this shot!

 Man, here's a couple of sleazy weasels for you!

As a kid, I always preferred slapstick Curly to Shemp, but I think as you get older, you gain more appreciation for Shemp's performances! He's still an idiot, but just a little more suave!

Charles Everest Sinsabaugh AKA stunt man Duke York has the role of the monster hunchback dude named Angel! Pretty creepy, really!

 Now this looks like a shot from a classic pre-code comic, and that's difficult to pull off!

The rest of the show is the guys going in circles with Angel in not always such hot pursuit! Most of the time they don't even know he's there until he is directly in their faces!
Classic Stooges!!!

It's really crazy how much enjoyment The Three Stooges have brought to the public over decades while at the same time, a lot of the people who participated in the making of these films didn't have such happy lives at all! Duke York is a perfect example! Sadly, after some 172 acting credits, Duke committed suicide in 1952 with a gunshot wound to the head!

Yingie Yangie! What goes up, must come around!
If you'd like to read a whole sordid list of people associated with The Stooges who either committed suicide or died way before their time by stabbing or health problems, then by all means Check out this list!  It's quite informative, but it's not exactly uplifting, that's for sure!
And stop running red lights, you're really starting to piss me off!

Friday, October 23, 2015

EEGAH!! & TABONGA! AT THE MOVIES 3 / The Early Sixties

Here's my last 'At The Movies' post for Halloween Countdown... I'll be doing a Super Special Sci-Fi Spectacular next Friday for Halloween Eve, so, I recommend you show up for that one. But, for now...

Oh, man, did we love this one, an exceptional movie in every way, great monsters (from outer space) and plenty of terrifying moments!

We enjoyed the Corman horror comedies, and, even though this one is a fairy panned flick nowadays, we loved the crap out of it. Naturally, we saw the full version with all the scenes deleted from most versions on DVD today.

We always enjoyed a journey into space, even if it was a Euro trip. The thing about the Euro movies was the odd looking people and locations.

This one was another Euro production with John Agar as part of the crew. Again, we saw the uncut version that included the crazy snow creature with spinning eyeballs. It blows my mind that the full version with that thing doesn't seem to exist anymore!!.. WTF!

And, here's one for Eegah!! Yep, we saw this one too, here's our hero trying to open a pickle jar! Be back tomorrow as we close in on Halloween!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

JASPER AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE - George Pal (1942)

1942!! It must have been quite a year! World War II was raging, the film "Casablana" was released, and Frank Sinatra made his singing debut!

1942 was also the year that George Pal decided to make a puppetoon called "Jasper And The Hounted House!"

Jasper is just an innocent little kid set out to deliver a gooseberry pie to the Deacon!
I think it's pretty obvious why you will never see this cartoon on the TV these days!

But this evil scarecrow and his phony crone blackbird pal got a hankering for the taste of some gooseberry pie too!

The scarecrow switches the road sign around and sends Jasper off to the haunted house instead!

I wish it was a littler clearer because it's really a cool little set!

A ghost ends up stealing the pie right out from of under the scarecrow's nose, and then a ghost who's still got a soul shows up to play a little boogie woogie on the piano!

Everybody knows how to make a handkerchief dance
And that's what makes this cartoon rock too!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??