Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Monday calling...




This week in 1953: RKO Radio Production / Dick Powell's atomic noir SPLIT SECOND opened in New York and Los Angeles. Watch the explosive trailer.



The escaped convict Bart Moore is played by Paul Kelly who himself spent 25 months during the late 1920s in California's San Quentin State Prison. He was convicted of manslaughter for the beating death of actor Ray Raymond, (1887-April 19, 1927) the first husband of actress Dorothy Mackaye (1899-1940), who was having an affair with Kelly and would later marry him. Dorothy also spent 10 months in prison for concealing evidence. They had one child together, a daughter Valerie Raymond (1922-1995), stage name as Mimi Kelly. Mimi would later have her own slight Broadway career. Both Dorothy & Ray died at age 40; Dorothy in a car accident.

Kelly's next film after this one was "Duffy of San Quentin" (Duffy of San Quentin (1954) where he plays the title role - the warden of the prison where he himself did time.



The Starlost (1980)
The Ark is a huge spaceship that is bearing the surviving cultures of a long-dead Earth. The cultures live in 50 mile wide Domes and are mostly ignorant of each others' existence. The three principal characters accidentally escape from their Medieval peasant environment, discover that the Ark's crew is long dead and the ship is adrift. They wander through the ship and its domes, seeking help to regain control of the ship and humanity's destiny. The original Starlost TV series was broadcast by CTV in 1973. In 1980, a set of 5 60-minute compilation movies were released. This one was made from two episodes guest-starring Walter Koenig as the alien Oro who seeks to gain control of the massive Ark for his own race.





May 13, 1988: The last episode of the ITV mystery series, Tales of the Unexpected, was broadcast. A British anthology series featuring tales of horror, mystery, and suspense created by Roald Dahl. Each episode told a story, with an unexpected ending. It had run for 112 episodes since 24 March 1979. Roald Dahl (1916-1990) British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace, AND member of British Security Coordination; a covert organisation part of MI6 setup in NYC, agent of influence, male honey trap/Romeo spy, and propagandist.



The more observant viewers called it "Tales of the Very Much as You Expected". The dancer in the opening titles was Karen Standley, a secretary and housewife from Berkshire. She was then 27, and the only person to appear in all 112 episodes. Her boyfriend worked on Top of the Pops (1964) and was contracted to produce the Tales of the Unexpected titles, so he used her as the dancer, dressed in a white body stocking and tights, and with arms, legs and face painted with white greasepaint. She was briefed to look "as sexy as I could".

Karen Standley was a 27-year-old secretary and housewife from Berkshire, and took a day off to record the sequence.

“The moves were my very own,” recalled Karen, who never danced professionally but got the job because her boyfriend at the time worked for Top of the Pops and was contracted to make the titles for Tales of the Unexpected.

She was seen only in silhouette on screen and for the recording had to wear a white body stocking and white tights, with white greasepaint on her arms and legs to achieve the necessary effect.

“The greasepaint kept melting under the hot studio lights,” she said. “It was horrible and uncomfortable and it took three baths to wash it all off. But it gave me some money – nothing staggering, but I got a new outfit out of it.”

“I was just told to look as sexy as I could and I made it up as I went along. I got a fair amount of fan-mail – mostly adolescents who wanted a picture of me. I suppose I was their fantasy woman.”

Karen is now a mother of two and works as a receptionist in a hospital accident and emergency department.

Roald Dahl fan site

Throughout the series the cast was made up of 680 actors (many well-known British, American, others) including Roald Dahl himself for the first 3 seasons as a fire-side storyteller. Some only appearing in one episode. Early episodes in the series were all set in the United Kingdom but a lot of the later episodes were made in the United States with American actors.



Monday looney & based memes...









KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES at the AMC Century City, Los Angeles.






Been an interesting spring thus far...




Don't forget your...




Monday words: