Gabby Gab!

Well, pards, Gabby Hayes has been on my mind the last few weeks, as expressed in recent entries.

First I created a Gabby Hayes DVD that contains two episodes of "The Gabby Hayes Show" and his feature with Roy Rogers - Southward Ho! I haven't advertised it, I haven't been asked for it and I haven't sold one yet. I just made up the disc and DVD jacket. In the first TV show Gabby tells how his ancestor Bullwhip Hayes whipped boulders into Pike’s Peak. The exciting western that follows features Tex Riter and Dave O’Brien as Texas Rangers. In the second episode Gabby tells how Uncle Flapjack Hayes created the first flying saucers. Then Hoot Gibson rides into action against cattle rustlers.

Southward Ho! (1939) is one of Roy's early "historical" westerns set in the old west, as opposed to most of his later films set in the present (i.e. 1940s). In post Civil War Texas a former Union officer is the government's chief law enforcement official and tax collector. Roy discovers that the man is also the head of an outlaw gang. Gabby is head sidekick #1 through every scene except the love making.
Next I won the lobby card from Night Rider with Harry Carey, or stole it for only $6. That seemed a steal to me, or is it a sign of the decline of interest in B-westerns. Just scroll down to last week's notes to see the card. As far as I know, it is the earliest known lobby card or poster to display George Hayes in his soon-to-be Gabby character. A good western expert might be able to pull out other posters, but the only earlier Gabby I have seen is Hidden Valley starring Bob Steele, in which Mr. Hayes plays the 4th heavy as an extra.

A better role for Gabby than the one in Night Rider is as Dude Saunders in Border Devils, both in 1932 and both with Harry Carey. I feel this is the earliest prototype of the bewhiskered "Gabby" codger with a sense of humor and the ability to make us laugh. See if you agree. I put together a little highlight reel from this film and posted it on Youtube, which means you can watch Gabby & Harry right now!



Struck by Gabby Mania, I finally bought the book by Bobby J. Copeland and Richard B. Smith, III -- "Gabby Hayes, King of the Cowboy Comics" from Amazon.com for $20. Since it came Thursday, I haven't had a chance to read much, but I recommend it for all the Gabby talk. The earliest photos are with Hoppy in 1935, and they don't even mention Border Devils other than the filmography where they call his character Duke instead of Dude, so maybe the authors never even saw it!

Go have yourself a Gabby old time! Watch my video, buy the book, buy the DVD and spread the word. Do it ya' young whippersnapper!


Visit my website at www.fesfilms.com.

Posters -- Buy a Few, Sell a Few!

I have become an avid follower of the 3 weekly auctions at Bruce Hershenson's emovieposter.com auction site. I enjoy browsing the hundreds of movie posters and related material put up for sale each week, finding images I have never seen before and lots of bargains. I bid on occasion, and a few weeks ago won reissue press books for Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Tarzan Escapes.

The top posters still fetch high prices. Interestingly (to me only), I had auctioned this Lady from Shanghai lobby card in early August and it went for $901, while another identical one sold this past week for $854. Emovieposter.com has over 7,600 registered bidders, all of whom are movie fans and most of whom check in weekly to see which of their special wants or interests might be on the block. Around 2,000 items are auctioned weekly, so many sell for under $5.00. This is truly a great time for acquiring rare posters at low prices and I encourage all movie fans to check out the site.

The 1962 Jason Robards Sr./Jennifer Jones film Tender is the Night is a joke in my household. My wife, her brother and sister discuss it endlessly as an atrociously BAD, yet interesting, film from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and sometimes they even watch it together to ridicule the acting. We have taped versions off TCM over the years that are flat and letterboxed and once they even showed a longer, uncut version. Imagine that excitement! Anyways, I found this lobby card up for auction last week and thought I would buy it as a joke gift at Christmas, giving it to all 3 relatives in order, none of whom would really want it.

So I put in a bid for $5.00. Each buyer of any poster in the Thursday all-lobby card auction would also receive a free poster book of "John Wayne Posters," a $20 value. Shipping was an additional $10, but it still seemed like a good deal. It was indeed a very good deal if I got the poster real cheap. However, a few days later the idea crept into my head that the shipping charge would cover any number of posters, so I looked at every lobby card and put $5 bids on 20 more. I knew that $5 was way too low on the 3 that eventually sold for $46, $58 and $95. I did raise my bid on a few and ended up winning 7 posters:

2 lobby cards from The Joe Louis Story (one would have been enough) cost me $3 and $2. I bid because it is a public domain film. That's why I bid on 2 cards for Tulsa with Susan Hayward. The better one went to someone else for $10; I paid $5. The Adventures of Gallant Bess (public domain film) cost me $5. Outrages of the Orient is a public domain exploitation film that I had recently sold to Alpha Video. While I don't need the poster for anything in particular, I have a 16mm print and now have the poster for only $13. I bought Strike Up the Band as a Christmas present for a Paul Whiteman fan for $13. I don't think Paul is featured on many posters.

The last one I never thought I would get but am most happy that I did. I had seen the film The Night Rider in the past year and thought it was the very best early performance I had seen by George "Gabby" Hayes. I like Harry Carey a lot and watch as many of his films as I can. There is real chemistry between the two, and some good comic exchanges when George keeps calling the older Harry "Young feller." I should put some clips up on Youtube, now that I think of it. I bid $10 initially on the lobby card and got it for a mere $6. Anyone writing a book on Gabby, contact me....

I have consigned six minor items to emovieposter.com and will comment on them later. Two of them should appear in the Tuesday auction: 4 lobby cards from Last Year at Marienbad and the 8 lobby card set from the 1954 reissue of Dead End. Even though they are reissue cards, the first screen appearance of the Dead End Kids, and with Humphrey Bogart as well, should do well at auction. The other major, weekly auctioner of movie posters -- Heritage Auction Galleries -- sold 2 of these cards in 2006 for $431! I doubt I get close to that for all 8, but we'll see.

And what about that Tender is the Night lobby card? I forgot about the auction on the evening it was closing and someone else outbid me at the last minute and got it for $6! I would have gone as high as $8.


Visit my website at www.fesfilms.com.

Customers Outside (Da Box)!

My Website gets over 90 hits a day and 78% are new visitors. This seems huge because I am oriented to selling movies that are in the public domain. Rabid movie fans are welcome, but they generally don't care if a film is in the public domain, they are just looking for rare films or their favorites. As someone wrote me this week, "I have been collecting the Laramie episodes for 35 years, and am looking for the few I don't have." I don't have any Laramie because they are all copyrighted, but that's an example of the earnest collector I usually do NOT get.

Of the many who visit my site thru links or googling Public Domain Films, a few do contact me each week and usually with specific uses in mind for public domain films like showing them on their TV station or in their movie theater. A few have unusual ideas.

Check out Old School Horror website to watch a horror film every Saturday late night with two Horror Hosts harking back to the 1950s "Shock Theater" that played in most cities with local hosts. A new show debuts every Saturday night, but is then archived so you can watch it anytime, forever. The Dead never sleep. They will soon be adding the Boris Karloff TV show "The Veil."

Walking Shadows is another horror website showing films and selling films, some of which are their own releases. The DVD boxes are well designed and have appealing bonuses. I can vouch for the quality and contents of Reefer Madness, which includes the second dope film Marijuana and some weed shorts I have not seen before. The big challenge to any website is to attract traffic. It can be done. Good luck!

Rodeo TV on the Internet. Coming soon to your own computer. I just googled Rodeo TV and found 3 or 4 sites already operating. The one I am working with has big plans like connecting horse and steer owners with rodeos who need a large yearly supply. They plan to host a live hour Rodeo show every week and then archive them. They want to offer B-westerns and TV shows on the site as well to attract people back or give them more to do once they are there. I was surprised to hear there is a large audience for all things rodeo.

Saturday Matinee Website, again coming soon. In preparation for over a year now, this ambitious site will revive interest in the Saturday Matinee with hundreds of hours of programming.

Comic book videos in comic book stores. A long-time wholesaler with a link to comic book stores plans a new line of DVDs with comic connections, to be sold in comic book stores which currently do not sell DVDs. While the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons are easy to buy online, a young comic fan may not know this and buy a $5 DVD when he is in the store. I suggested Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and just put one of her comic book covers on the DVD case. TV Sheena's Irish McCalla does not disappoint in the scantily clad department.

Brainstorming, I pointed out that all the cowboy stars had their own comic books in the 1950s, but rather than offering Roy Rogers, etc., why not try Gabby Hayes? Once you get going in a local comic store, I said, try putting a few Gabby Hayes DVDs out for sale to test interest. Gabby had 59 comic books from 1948 to 1957. Hence I found the comic book here, which is the start of a DVD cover.

Others come to me with vague ideas about wanting to do something with public domain films. I advise them to think outside the box and find new ways to market or new audiences to market to. You can't sell to Walmart no matter how nifty your packaging is because others have cornered that market long ago and the prices are too low anyway. So think. I have lots of ideas to get you started. Next time.


Visit my website at Festival Films.

Keen(e) Stuff to Watch!

I have a YouTube channel and post occasional videos with links from this blog or from my Festival Films Website.. Last week I talked about the First Buck Rogers film and so could post a link to go watch it! It's very useful to be able to talk about movies and show them at the same time. Duhh, makes sense. In the last few days I have posted 4 films that link to archived blog posts for Matinee at the Bijou. You can go watch the videos I am about to discuss and then read the blogs. Argggh! It's talk like a pirate day, so Arrr, why do you need me when I'm just sending you elsewhere?!

While you are going elsewhere... that's mutiny, me maties... check out Movie Unlimited's Movie Fanfare daily blog about new news about old movies. Movie Fanfare has reprinted a number of the older Bijou blogs, including the ones that I posted videos for.

A Bijou Flashback: Remembering Will Rogers
The life and film career of legendary actor Will Rogers is remembered. I love the Will Rogers features from Fox in the early 1930s up to his untimely death. Judge Priest is one of the best, directed by John Ford, and also is the only one in the public domain. However, we enriched the Bijou article with a complete 2-reel Rogers comedy from 1924: Big Moments from Little Pictures. Will lampoons films of the day and stars like Fairbanks and Valentino. Why sit through the whole thing when there is only one good scene? You can watch the first half of Big Moments HERE, and then PART 2.

A Bijou Flashback: Forgotten Hollywood Treasures
Guest contributor Bob Campbell writes: Where on television today can you find short subjects starring Betty Boop, Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang or Flash Gordon? The short posted that you can view here is Star Reporter in Hollywood from 1936, that consists of 3 screen tests -- a young boy that never made it singing opera, a dance duo .. if you want to know who they are, go watch the film, cause I don't recall ... and then a long song by Dorothy Lamour in a glamorous dress and setting, miles from her sarong debut films. Well worth a look-see, and a link from the video will direct you to the article.

A Bijou Flashback: The Three Faces of Cowboy Star Tom Keene
Guest contributors Bob Campbell and Victoria Balloon write: Under the old studio system movie moguls groomed promising new stars by first creating for them ... Read the entire article after viewing an extended clip from Our Daily Bread. Tom Starred in this major depression era classic directed by King Vidor, as well as the star of a series of B-westerns through the 1930s and 40s, plus ... well, read the article.

Lou Gehrig Rides Again: Baseball Legend to Movie Star
Believe it or not, baseball great Lou Gehrig made one movie in 1938, a B-western in which he co-starred with obscure singing cowboy Smith Ballew. You can watch all the highlights right here, then link from the video page to the blog discussion. This is becoming a worn record stuck in a groove, but who's reading this far anyways! Arrgh! Go watch Lou, Tom, Will & Dorothy!



Visit my website at Festival Films.

Oh, Buck! Wasn't that a battle!

This article first appeared in the Bijou Blog on May 16, 2008. I have just re-uploaded the First Buck Rogers film to the Cafe Roxy Youtube channel and you can view it HERE, right after you read about it below. The film is included on the free Café Roxy Sampler disc. It is on the show last, so that you don't need to show it if your audience is not hip enough to enjoy "campy" fun.

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In 1934 an obscure movie short called Buck Rogers in the 25th Century -- An Interplanetary Battle with the Tiger Men of Mars was released, but not in theaters. David Stelle accurately describes it in the IMDb: “A signal from Buddy Deering on Mars warns Earth that the Tiger Men of Mars and their cruel king have broken their treaty and are attacking. Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering go to rendezvous with the Earth battlefleet before setting off to fight the tigerships. Baldpated genius inventor Dr. Huer uses the ‘cosmic radiotelevision’ to watch the space battle. Which side will be victorious? The tigerships and their paralysis ray? Or our Earth forces, armed with the flash ray and Dr. Huer's new magnetic ray?”

You might well ask -- “What the heck is this anyway?” -- either before or after you watch it. While not exactly a Hollywood movie, it is a jaw-dropping curiosity.

The first Buck Rogers film was shown to the public during the second year, 1934 edition, of the Chicago World's Fair. The Century of Progress International Exposition was held in Chicago in 1933 and 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation. Its motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms" and its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one end of the fair to the other. After a winter break, the 1934 Fair ran from May 26 through Oct. 31 and included a new Island Midway area that faced Lake Michigan. The "Buck Rogers Show," as it was called on admission tickets, was located on the Enchanted Island playground for children, at #125 on the left hand section of the 1934 Fair Map. It is unknown whether this film was the entire show, or if fans were treated to some live action event as well for their dime. It is certain that after watching the movie, visitors could purchase the very same toy spaceships and ray guns they had just seen. Pretty tricky, huh?

Buck first appeared as Anthony Rogers in an issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories in August, 1928. John F. Dille, president of the National Newspaper Service syndicate, saw the potential of the futuristic adventure and arranged for the author, Philip Francis Nowlan, to turn it into a comic strip for Dille's syndicate. The strip was re-named "Buck Rogers," inspired by the name of cowboy star Buck Jones, and that name was used for the character from then on. Dille assigned staff artist Lt. Dick Calkins (shown here) to the project, and he successfully drew the strip for the next 18 years.

The 1934 film on a zero budget resembles a “home movie” hastily thrown together with lots of spirit but little skill by amateurs. It was in fact produced by the John F. Dille Co. and filmed in the studios of the Action Film Company of Chicago. Dick Calkins appears briefly at his drawing board. The actor playing Buck is John Dille, Jr., the son of the strip’s owner! While Junior looks the part, his, um acting, um, speaks for itself. The actress playing Wilma Deering was Junior’s girlfriend when the film was being shot. Their onscreen chemistry hints at the length of the relationship. The listless delivery of her last line -- “Oh, Buck, wasn’t that a battle!” -- is priceless. Dr. Huer is played by Harlan Tarbell, a stage magician and illustrator, who also “directed” the film but never directed or acted in any other film. His baldpate make-up positively flops around on his head. The sets and special effects are equally impressive. This camp classic must be seen to be believed, so we won’t give away more of the fun!

The film may well have thrilled fair goers, particularly young kids who had never seen anything quite like it. The futuristic serials The Phantom Empire, Undersea Kingdom and Flash Gordon did not hit movie screens until 1935 and 1936, while the Buck Rogers serial with Buster Crabbe came later in 1939. Also keep in mind that Buck’s fans in 1934 avidly listened to his weekly radio exploits. The narrated space battle sounds much like a radio show and is actually more exciting, though far less funny, with your eyes closed! If the spaceships in the big battle look like toy models, that’s exactly what they are, and darned good ones we all wish we had today. To top it off, the show neatly fit into the futuristic theme of the Century of Progress.

There is no indication this first Buck Rogers film was ever shown in movie theaters, where even matinee audiences might have found it laughably amateurish. The June 1936 issue of the trade magazine “Toys and Novelties” reports that the film had a second life by being shown in department stores to promote Buck Rogers merchandise. More Buck toys were sold in the 1930s than Mickey Mouse, with countless games, puzzles, figurines, Big Little Books, ray guns, spaceships and even a full costume for boys. Toy stores devoted entire sections and Christmas displays to Buck and the film doubtless attracted even more customers.

A granddaughter of John Dille discovered a 35mm print of this forgotten film in her basement around 1983 and donated it to UCLA, who struck a new print. It was unleashed on the modern world at the 1984 Cinecon convention in San Francisco. The auditorium rocked with laughter. Despite the copyright notice at the head, the film was never registered with the Library of Congress and so is in the public domain for all the world to enjoy.

Enjoy the film now by Clicking Here. Then blast off to my website at Festival Films and request the Free Roxy Sampler DVD.

Still Tweaking 'Em Up!

In July I filled an order for the "12 Nights of Horror" and took the opportunity to spiff-up each program. This mainly entailed modulating the volume levels so the sound doesn't jump between shorts or the shorts and features. I also added a few trailers I had acquired that promoted the show next week. The 12 nights should be run in order because of the serial chapters. When I later created the 3 Saturday Matinee series I either found or made trailers for each upcoming show, which is why I now had a trailer for Vampire Bat to add into the horrors.

In August I took the same revision approach before filling an order for 12 "Turkeys in Space." Since this series was put together later the sound did not need adjusting and I only re-did 4 of the programs. Several of them included 7-8 minute segments I called "Godzillathons." These were trailers for the many Japanese Godzilla movies -- in Japanese with the colorful Japanese lettering onscreen. It didn't matter that you can't understand the voice over narration. All the plots are the same -- Godzilla, other monsters, big fights & mayhem! However, I had initially inserted two Godzillathons in one of the shows and now felt 15 minutes of Godzilla was too much in one sitting. 8 minutes = fun; 15 minutes = deja vu.

This past week a satisfied customer in Wisconsin ordered three more shows for their small movie theater. Whenever I get orders for theaters I "Roxify" the features into programs. This means adding an opening Roxy montage that runs 16 seconds to the tune of the Universal Pictures 1930s music as the airplane circles the globe. I also add a closing montage that says "This Concludes Our Show" and has about 5 minutes of exit music. Mainly I add trailers, shorts or cartoons like an old-time movie show. Then I make a poster.

The first show they requested was The Angel and the Badman, which is certainly one of my top-ten favorite John Wayne films because of the presence of Harry Carey, stunt work by Yakima Canutt, a superb story and lovely Gail Russell. This is not a plug for the remake which opens next month and that I likely won't see until Netflix has it in March or so. The film runs 95 minutes, so not much room for extras on the disc. I added the western-themed cartoon The Mild West, a color Paramount "Screen Song" from 1947, and a trailer for Roy Rogers' "King of the Cowboys." In retrospect, I should have looked for a trailer to Stagecoach or some other John Wayne.

I already had the full one-sheet poster shown here on my website to advertise Angel and the Badman, and I did not alter it to say "Plus Cartoon." The posters serve two purposes: 1) To sell the film or program to my customer, and 2) For the buyer to download, print out or post on their own websites.

This is the second time I have sold Our Town (1940) this year to a movie theater that commented: "We are a small town, and we thought people would like to see the film." I heartily agree! Thornton Wilder wrote the screenplay after his celebrated broadway hit. Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. People grow up, get married, live, and die. Milk and the newspaper get delivered every morning, and nobody locks their front doors.

The program was already Roxified by the addition of two shorts. Happy Days is a 1936 UB Iwerks cartoon set in a small town: A group of boys plan to go fishing. They don't want Pinhead to come along, but he's the only one able to find any worms for bait. On the way to the fishing hole, the other boys bully Pinhead into chipping in to buy a used car. When Pinhead fills the car's tires with air, it begins floating. The boys finally land in the fishing hole, where Pinhead catches a fish.

The second twelve-minute short is called simply "The Town," a documentary look at Madison, Indiana, directed by the same Josef von Sternberg who made The Blue Angel and 6 other early Marlene Dietrich classics. I'm not sure why he made this film, but I recall it had something to do with the war effort to show soldiers the American values and home towns they were fighting for.

Finally, for Halloween they wanted The Night of the Living Dead, a great choice since it still shocks. I remind every buyer that there is one long shot of a nude female zombie. No one has ever asked for a censored version, though it would be easy to make. I just noticed the film was rated "X" when it came out, which must have been for zombie-bashing violence that looks tame today, and that one nude shot. There is no suggested sex in the film; too busy fighting zombies. I had a program for this already made up that included a trailer to White Zombie and the cartoons The Mad Doctor and The Magic Mummy, but this show was misfiled. When I didn't find it at once I remade the whole thing and feel the new version is a tad more fun with two trailers and one cartoon.

The first trailer is for the infamous turkey Robot Monster. It's campy and quite funny, both the feature and the trailer. The second trailer is for the classic King Kong and is loaded with action and the great music score. I also added a TV ad for a Shrunken Heads toy kit. Turn out heads in a mold, paint and add hair and the next they have shrunk down. Today it feels like a ghastly pastime for kids and so is pretty funny. The Mad Doctor is the only Mickey Mouse cartoon that was never renewed. Why? Possibly it proved too intense for young audiences and was shelved and forgotten. The sight today of a madman trying to cut out Pluto's heart may upset young viewers, who should not be allowed to see Night of the Living Dead anyways!

Visit my website at Festival Films.

Most Memorable Viewings!

I woke up recently thinking about the most memorable movie moments in my life. They weren't necessarily the best movies, but ones that nonetheless stick in my head forever. In fact most of the happy memories from before I turned ten are about the movies I saw, good or bad.

At the top of the list would be the first movie I ever saw, or that I remember seeing, at the age of 5. It is impossible for anyone under 60 to recall their first movie ever because they would be watching TV before they could walk or talk. With no TV or movie theater experiences, I recall sitting on a park bench watching a serial in 1951 and being too scared to look at the screen when the Dead End Kids got killed at the end of each episode of Jr. G-Men. Chapter One ends with a fight on a runaway elevator that crashes; chapter two with them hiding in a building that blows up. They didn't even know there was a bomb inside, so how would they know to get out? Too intense for a first timer, I really thought they got killed at the end of every episode. I can recall other serials over the next 7 or 8 years of "Free Movies in the Park" in Deerfield, Wisconsin -- Lost City of the Jungle, Mystery of the Riverboat, Gang Busters -- but none had the impact of that first summer of thrills.

Just a year or two later the Tom Mix serial The Miracle Rider suddenly started showing on television late Sunday morning. It had a science-fiction element of a flying projectile in which Tom is stuck for one of the cliffhanger endings. I particularly recall an ending in which a gun is rigged to fire when Tom enters a room. This may have been the first serial I saw on TV, but the main reason it impressed was that it was on right after getting back from church! Boredom turned into excitement.

Those summer free movies in the park of course had features -- projected outdoors on 16mm and sometimes in the rain. I recall the occasional umbrellas more than most of the features: Francis the Talking Mule in the Haunted House, Destination Moon, The Deadly Mantis and particularly The Mole People, which may have been my first monster film. The familiar theme of an archeology expedition finding a lost civilization may have sparked an interest in our lost past and Atlantis that remains with me today.

When I was 8-years-old my mother dropped me off at a movie theater in Madison by myself to see a Tarzan double feature of Tarzan the Ape Man and Tarzan Escapes. It was intense at the time but mainly has been on my mind the last five years as I have researched Tarzan Escapes still looking for the lost Vampire Bats scene. For more on my quest, check out this earlier blog. The only development is that I will be getting a pressbook for the 1954 reissue of the film in a few days. I already know that it talks about the bats.

The most memorable movie experience of my entire life occurred when I was 14. You can imagine it took more thrills than giant bats to make such an impression. My mother again dropped me off at a theater in Madison. I remember standing in line to get a ticket for the sold out afternoon show, which must have been the first Saturday that it opened. The film -- PSYCHO. No one in the theater knew what was going to happen, and it sure happened. I had been primed by being a fan of Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show. I couldn't tell you which if any Hitchcock features I had seen before, but none was like Psycho anyway. I recall where I was sitting in the middle of the theater surrounded by tension, totally at the mercy of the filmmaker. At the climax someone actually screamed at the screen: "Don't go in the basement!" She did.

I often ask people what movies they saw as kids that they remember most vividly. Try it. One gets strange and fascinating replies.


Visit my website at Festival Films.