tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157513690234917810.post4765014516966915079..comments2023-06-16T05:57:18.370-07:00Comments on STANLEY STORIES: Of Mice and Mensch: Woody The Exterminator, from New Funnies 115, September 1946Frank M. Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673579882180372546noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157513690234917810.post-31674890261278384222018-02-08T07:03:25.122-08:002018-02-08T07:03:25.122-08:00So get a box.com account! It's free and it'...So get a box.com account! It's free and it's one of the best free storage sites you'll ever find. I've had this file up there for six years without a single hassle. Go for it, Emily!Frank M. Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673579882180372546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157513690234917810.post-54368809864200768962018-02-07T21:19:55.021-08:002018-02-07T21:19:55.021-08:00The box.com link requires me to log in, and the ra...The box.com link requires me to log in, and the rapidshare link is down.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11433321176077333772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157513690234917810.post-54202239649998287622012-11-18T08:22:31.270-08:002012-11-18T08:22:31.270-08:00Re Bell and Don Ameche:
It was after I watched th...Re Bell and Don Ameche:<br /><br />It was after I watched the A G Bell movie in darkest Cambridge in the late 1960s that it inspired another one of the toy movies I never quite made. <br /><br />These stories read like comic books and maybe I should draw them up. <br /><br />We decided to film "The Story of Reinforced Concrete". The plot relayed the saga of an incorrigible inventor's (note apostrophe) attempt to perfect concrete. Scenes followed scenes of poured concrete only temporarily becoming solid; the concrete reverted to mush. This included sidewalks in which pedestrians disappeared up to their ankles, shoulders, toupees. (note lack of apostrophe.) Finally our desperate Don-Ameche-like hero went to a see a shrink, Mr. Sigmoid Froid, who provided the answer: REINFORCEMENT. This rang the Bell. <br /><br />Now with the secret of reinforcement, concrete was a practical building material, and to the rejoicing of his girlfriend, Millie Thrush (we gather a structural problem has been plaguing their relationship as well) the inventor builds a giant reinforced concrete architectural monstrosity, the Administrative Building of a local multinational university. (Giant reinforced concrete monstrosities were the rage of the day in Cambridge, MA, usually decorated with anemic purple and green 40 foot plastic rectangles as "decorations". ) The plot takes an Ayn Rand turn, though this multi-story building is no fountainhead. By a scheduling mistake, the reinforcing rods are not installed. Just as the city fathers and university bigwigs somewhere up on the highest floor cut the ribbon, the towering tons of concrete superstructure turn to mush. Our hero and his gal manage to surf to safety on a plastic decorative panel as the mush pours down Massachusetts Avenue, sweeping students, children and housewives out into Boston Harbor. (There is a Carl Barks element here as well.) Sadder and not much wiser, our hero reflects at the end that he will remember to use the reinforcement next time. We are left with the hope that he will at least get it up for Thrush.<br /><br />Filming this proved a challenge for even the most intrepid Super Eight fanatic. I did create a model of the giant university building out of tutti-frutti ice cream, and beamed bright power lamps down on it to make it melt. <br /><br />We also filmed the hero standing on ice that broke through so he was left standing in water; after he stood there for a reaction shot it turned out I had no film in the camera, and he refused to cooperate for the rest of the film.<br /><br />Other Toy Films included "Lorna Dune", a mash-up of "Woman of the Dunes" and Jane Eyre; the ever popular (at the time) parody of 2001 (it included the invention of golf); a film about the great blackout and earthquake (we shook a step ladder); and a spy movie featuring tin pans.<br /><br />Byron<br /><br />ps everyone get The Carter Family graphic novel. It is Astounding.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17031654598594060441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157513690234917810.post-60651609828926810902012-09-30T06:48:34.873-07:002012-09-30T06:48:34.873-07:00Thanks for catching my error on that date, Frank--...Thanks for catching my error on that date, Frank--I don't know how that happened, since I have the comic book and the date is correct in my notes from it, but, in any case, I'll fix it.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07070075804056919889noreply@blogger.com