Hitchcock had mentioned the birds rise up against humans because they are fed up with us. Given how badly we’ve messed up the planet, I’m expecting The Birds to become a reality any day now. Much of nature seems to be gunning for us these days. Back in the the 1970s there were a slew of movies depicting how mother nature turned into a mean bitch. From Frogs to Long Weekend to Soylent Green, we’ve been told this story again and again. But Hitchcock makes it pretty terrifying indeed. This 40-plus page pressbook for The Birds is a showman’s dream. Like William Castle, Alfred Hitchcock liked to play pitchman to his movies, and appeared to have fun doing so. The 6 foot standee of Hitchcock in a bird cage is awesome. Now my life won’t be complete until I find one.
I was working in the Dead Letter Office when I had a brainstorm. Now, Granny would say anything in my brain is a storm, but that’s not what I meant. She had given me a list of the spots she wanted to include during her absence, so I decided to invite an old friend of the Radio Spot Crypt to come and help out. He has had many letters pile up here in the post office so I thought it was time for him to come pick them up and help me out while he was here…sort of killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.
He agreed, and so, I will turn over this week’s introduction to him…
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock. I am delighted to be here once again at Granny Creech’s Radio Spot Crypt. It has been awhile since I was last here, and I am humbled to see the mail response to my last visit when I presented the radio spots to Psycho. This time I shall attempt to go one step further and present spots to what I believe could be the most terrifying motion picture I have ever made: The Birds.
“At the request of Granny Creech’s most capable and somewhat neurotic nephew, Crazy Gary, I have broken down these spots into two offerings: This week I will feature advance and current lobby spots, those delightful little tidbits designed to fill waiting theater patrons with uncontrolled excitement over the arrival of my movie at the theater; the second installment for next week will feature the spots designed to play on various radio stations in the area to alert the theater-going public that The Birds is here.
“And so, without further ado, I, and Crazy Gary, encourage you to check your doors and windows and ensure that your chimney flue is closed as we present the lobby spots for the 1963 release of The Birds. We hope you get a kick out of them.”
Do you have any radio spots you would like to share? Contact Gary (Granny’s nephew) at [email protected].
As noted in The Hammer Vault: Treasures From the Archives of Hammer Films by Marcus Hearn, the Kinematograph Weekly stated “the principal ingredients are sex, revenge, mystery and murder and a talented and attractive cast vigorously churns them into exciting screen chop suey.” Hearn goes on to describe Christopher Lee’s return from a sunny vacation on the first day of shooting causing issues for the makeup team: he had a nice tan. Hammer’s board of directors also delayed the film’s opening date “considering the film to be below par.”
But I like it. I find Lee’s Fu Manchu-like performance (The Face of Fu Manchu followed in 1965), while rightfully questionable today, is still quite fear-inducing.
The film’s U.S. release, care of Columbia, for which it was again billed with Homicidal, had occurred a few months earlier on 15 March (though for some Stateside dates, Tongs played with The Warrior Empress [1960] or Hammer’s Sword of Sherwood Forest [1960], the latter of which must have made for a curious double bill). Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company, Howard Maxford, McFarland
The Ad Pad supplement usually came with the movie’s pressbook. It contained the print adverts for the movie that could be used in newspapers. Newspaper advertising was king before the internet took over movie promotion. Each ad pad contained a range of sizes and alternative poster art and wording to promote the movie. The theater manager would place an order for the flong that matched the advert they wanted to use. Once they had it in hand, it went to the newspaper to print the advert from it.
What makes this ad pad special is the Final Billing Requirements on page 9. The table gives a rare insight into the legal aspects of displaying cast and production credits after contracts are signed. It Came From Hollywood is not only an AIP fan, but they love Disney too and were kind enough to supply these images.
No lie, this herald for Walt Disney’s Pinocchio will make you want to see the movie twice! This herald comes from the 1945 re-release pressbook. This giveaway advertising would be folded in half to create four pages and the theater would print their information on the last page.
Here’s the 1978 re-release pressbook for The Love Bug from It Came From Hollywood. Paul at ICFH writes “Disney for the win, again! Nothing is more satisfying in the annals of movie marketing and showmanship than a Disney Pressbook. It features Fabric-backed Ad Pad pages and a pressbook filled to the brim with every possible angle of showmanship, along with yet another fantastic full-page coloring contest sheet.”
I agree. The Disney pressbooks are always jam-packed with promotion and commercial tie-ins, making them a fun read. (ZC Note: I’ll post the Ad Pad separately.)
Crazy Gary here, filling in for the ever vivacious and witty Granny Creech. I am her much-loved nephew and I work in the Dead Letter Office at the post office in Squirrel Hollow.
Granny’s mother, Hattie Jones, suffered a stroke recently and is in the intensive care unit in the hospital in Geyser Springs. Granny went to be with her. Before she left, she told me to carry on her weekly radio spot column, and I agreed, hesitatingly of course, because I don’t have the way with words Granny does nor her knowledge. I told her I would do the best I could. She patted me on the head and said I would do okay. I just wish she hadn’t had that hammer in her hand when she did it. Ha Ha. Just kidding.
Granny gave me a tentative list of the spots she wanted me to cover, and there are some good ones, believe you me. I just hope she gets back in time to do them justice. Until then, though, I will do the best I can.
Today we will feature radio spots for a movie I have never seen. It’s a 1949 comedy murder-mystery feature from Universal International called Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
Now I’ve seen several Abbott and Costello movies in the past, but this one has always escaped me. My favorite, of course, is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Isn’t it everybody’s?!), a classic in every way. I had to look up the synopsis for this one on Wikipedia to see what it was all about and it sounds very confusing…a typical ‘who-dunnit’ with lots of suspects and the patsy, of course, being poor old Lou Costello. The odd part about all of this is the title of the movie. From the synopsis I see that the killer isn’t Boris Karloff at all, and why he is billed as such is a mystery to me. Even the radio spots can’t decide the proper name for the film, announcing it in some cuts as Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer. It must have been a ploy by the marketing department to capitalize on Karloff’s reputation and drawing power.
The spots are some of the oldest Granny has, and she said to thank The Radio Reaper. He dug deep into his reliquary to provide these. An audio rarity to be sure…
So, as Granny would say, sit back and enjoy these spots from 1949, and give a toast to The Radio Reaper the next time you meet with friends to enjoy cups of Granny’s witch’s brew.
I’ll see you next time…
15, 30, and 60 second radio spots
Do you have any radio spots you would like to share? Contact Gary (Granny’s nephew) at [email protected].
I was watching Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man last night. I still chuckle at the silly gags. That made me start thinking I’d like to catch Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, so I pulled out the pressbook to prepare. There is nothing more so 1940s than seeing Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi wearing a turban and tux. The article titled Karloff Still Haunted by Monster Role is worth a gander.
The novelty of this Republic serial is the nifty atomic rocket backpack that sends our hero, Commando Cody, flying through his adventures, literally. The costume first appeared in King of the Rocketmen (1949). The Commando Cody name begins with this serial, Rader Men From the Moon, which does have a cool futuristic military ring to it. Stuntman Dave Sharpe doubled for Tristram Coffin in King and George Wallis took over the backpack for Rader Men. I am not sure who stunt doubled for him.
Looking to create a character that would be as impressionable (aka marketable) as Spy Smasher, Captain America, and Captain Marvel, Republic used the tagline Commando Cody, Sky Marshall of the Universe–ditto on the cool futuristic military ring. What little kid wouldn’t want a rocket backpack to fly around the house in? The costume reappears in Zombies of the Stratosphere, where more space aliens threaten earth, particularly one notable screen newbie who wound up in a starship later on: Leonard Nimoy.
Choosing the Commando Cody name is explained in Jack Mathis’s Valley of the Cliffhangers.
Entitled Planet Men From Mars until four months prior to production, the serial underwent more basic changes than the alteration from marturiam to lunarium for the ray-gun-powering element, and these primarily dealt with the leading character who was originally called Larry Martin. From a list of names submitted to associate producer Franklin Adreon, Republic prexy Herbert J. Yates chose “Commando” from one entry and “Cody” from another to form his composite choice “not only for this serial but for several more to come.” Through Adreon, all studio personnel were advised of the importance of this creation, which was to be promoted in theaters and on television as well as being capitalized on via the marketing of such items as ray guns and flying suits manufactured under the Commando Cody label.
I was working in The Crypt the other day, cleaning and dusting and making room for new material. Suddenly, my phone rang and I answered it.
“Granny! This is Portia! The Killer Shrews is on TV tonight!” She exclaimed.
‘What? I said. Where? When?”
“On Channel 13 tonight on The Early Late Show! At nine o’clock!” she said.
“Well, come on over,” I said. We’ll watch it.”
Portia is my rather excitable niece, my brother Ambrose’s youngest daughter. Having her over was going to be an experience to say the least. I knew that The Killer Shrews is one of her favorite movies, as is mine, so it ought to be a hoot, two fans absorbing every minute of this “B movie” classic.
She arrived about 8:30 PM and together we cooked up some popcorn and got our drinks together. At nine I fired up the old Sylvania 19” black-and-white TV and we settled in. We had a ball! …
Not to be confused with the Hammer produced Prehistoric Women (1967), this 1950 oddity is notable for its sexploitation angle that’s light on sex but heavy on the cheesecake. Here’s what I suppose the pitch might have been. “We get a bunch of beautiful women together, dress them in furs and go heavy on the makeup and hairstyling, toss in some clubs for them to use to find primitive men as husbands, add the usual battle of the sexes but make sure the guys show their superiority in the end, and, oh…save the budget by leaving out the dinosaurs. That stop-motion stuff gets expensive. And the sets will be dirt cheap, mainly because they are dirt, with some rocks for good measure. It is the stone-age right?”
And thus was born Prehistoric Women. What’s more dumbfoundingly mesmerizing than this movie (which, really, if shown during a midnight show would be perfect) is the 8-page, oversized pressbook that shows more creativity than the production itself. I’m guessing the creatives behind this held their tongues firmly in cheekiness, especially with the narrator lending the fake-science documentary flair that was a pompous addition to some movies in the early 1950s.
Here’s an interview with Creature Features’ John Stanley I did in 2007, all freshly pressed for you.
Yeah, sure, I’ll tell you what you want to know. The whole…gasp…ungodly thing: I was a TV horror host. Yeah, me. The ordinary guy without a monster suit. I was one of those who introduced monster flicks on Saturday night. Horror classics and non-classics sixty minutes before the arrival of the Witching Hour. Yeah, let the truth be heard throughout the dungeon, throughout the castle of madmen: I was a “Creature Features” man (I Was a TV Horror Host: Memoirs of a Creature Features Man, John Stanley).
Creature Features was a popular television horror movie show that aired on KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland and San Francisco, California, from 1971 to 1984. Originally hosted by Bob Wilkins, John Stanley took over in 1979. Local station horror hosts would introduce, comment, and usually have fun with the evening’s movie fare, but Creature Features took things more seriously and included interviews with horror and sci fi notables. The Universal Studios classics, Roger Corman budget movies, Japanese terrors, and anything not nailed down under a coffin lid was fair game for airplay (you needed a rabbit ears antenna back then).
In New York City, one horror host was The Creep (Lou Steele) on Channel 5. Except for his sunglasses and sinister attitude, Steele played The Creep without a dungeon backdrop or creepy make-up. I fondly recall spending a lot of time with The Creep and I’m a better person for it. I probably would be a much better person had I been lucky enough to watch John Stanley’s Creature Features. Although he sported the usual horror host trappings of a tomb-like set and outrageous throne chair, Stanley appeared as a normal nerdy guy who knew way too much about the movies he presented. He also had the most wonderful and interesting celebrity guests to chat with.
He wrote an enjoyable and informative book about his experiences called I Was a TV Horror Host. After I read it, I knew I had to ask him to step into the closet for a little chat. …
