The banner above is the airport escalator. Saw it and it struck me as ART! so I had to snap it, but snap it on the fly. Tarry, and it will be ruined by a person riding down, and I think the total population of the pictures I've taken that contain people is about . . . twenty. Twenty-five. Excluding family pictures, of course.
Better day again. All seems inching up. The worst part of today was a wifely request to dispose of a dead rabbit on the side hill. Not fond of dead things. No dread or horror or phobia, just not my favorite thing with which to deal.
"Why not let nature take care of it?" I said, avoiding the job.
"I don't want a decomposing rabbit on the lawn."
"But it's food for the scavengers and good for the soil!"
(Wifely look)
"I'll get the shovel."
When I found it, the situation was worse than expected. Something had recently decided to dine upon it, PROVING MY POINT, and it was more or less inside out. I wished you could call a carrion bird like you can call an Uber.
I had disposed of a mice the night before. That was strange. I came upstairs after the evening run, and saw a mouse on the kitchen floor. It did not move. Small. Wife and Dog were just around the corner, and apparently the Great Hunter Birch had not picked up the scent. I nudged the mouse, and it moved a bit. It started to claw its way at an agonizing pace to hide under the fridge. It was not a well mouse. I trapped it and took it outside, unable to perform the necessary act of mercy. Oh, I would have no problem with a trap that did the job with a swift snap of fatal metal. But I couldn't give it is quietus, and I feel bad about that.
Because it was one mouse. If I had come across a room with ten-thousand injured or dying mice, I'd loiter over the house in a Warthog and fire until the barrels melted.
What do you think this is advertising? It would help if you know the Lion's name.
Guess what? You know the Lion's name.
It's the first of a huge ad buy in a trade mag. Massive Ballyhoo.
Why this today? A search for some information on an old movie theater took me to one of my favorite place: 1920s movie-industry trade journals. Here’s where you find the ads aimed at the theater owners, advising them - with straight-from-the-shoulder talk - to get in on the ground floor now!
The layout might seem crude to modern eyes, and I think it may have been a bit crude to 1929 eyes. Other ads in the same journal are much more sophisticated. This one's just punching you between the eyes and pumping your hand and slapping you on the back. Excited yet? No? Well brother let me tell you about The Trail of '98!
I'll bet you've never heard of it. I hadn't. Not that I'm the gold standard for these things.
The Trail of '98 is a 1928 American synchronized sound action-adventure/drama film featuring Harry Carey and Dolores del Río about the Klondike Gold Rush. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film was originally released by MGM in a short-lived widescreen process called "Fantom Screen."
I'd like to know more about that, but later. Consider that the movie was about the old days of '98, which would be like a contemporary movie about 1994.
"Hailed as the logical successor to Ben-Hur"
BIG SCENES
FOLLOW THE TRAIL TO THE BANK! TO THE BANK!
AND THERE WILL BE MORE
This was the third time they'd made the Valentine movie. The previous one came out in 1920. But everyone who'd lived through the advances in the medium knew this would be worth seeing, because pictures were so much better. It was MGM's first partial talkie. It's lost, except for a copy in private hands.
But we have the title song. The lyrics tell you it's about a safecracker, and we're supposed to love him 'cause he's really a good joe underneath.
It keeps going:
Modern technology is here to validate the power of our players:
Haines was the #1 male BO draw at the end of the silent era, but his career tanked in the 30s and MGM cut him loose:
Following the Great Depression and a tight crackdown on morality, MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer insisted Haines leave his lover and publicly marry a woman. He refused and was fired. His relationship with longtime lover Jimmie Shields lasted 50 years.
He ended up as a successful interior designer.
Oh, that '98 movie? Huge hit. Do we have instantaneous access to it? We do.
Not a big fan of excessively snowy movies, myself. I don't like snow levels in games, now that I think about it. Been there done that.
I had dinner with Steve Andrij and one of the guy and a famous actor star seem to be a cross between Eddie Murphy and Charlie Chaplin. He may have been a black Charlie Chaplin. Could've been Prince, but he was wearing a dark and sober suit. The waiter came by, took orders, and left before I could make my request. I was annoyed. I had to find the waiter, who was a Munchkin, and upbraided him for this; he explained that everyone had agreed what sort of toppings that they would have on their hamburgers. I pointed out that no one had asked me.
After I’d put in the order I used the bathroom, and was horrified to find that I was barefoot.
Then I returned to the table. I figured I would have to pick up the check for everybody, but that did not happen.
Prompt: A photograph of an ornery Wizard of Oz Lollipop Guild munchkin serving hamburgers in a restaurant
More from the same prompt: bad Munchkins. I don't know what this thing is thinking. Of course, it's not. But John C. Reilly as the Tinman Clown Green Goblin is an interesting choice.
Annnd here I stopped making them.
LANCE JAWHOCK era, very early.
Either his face is huge or his cigarette is small.
This year we're going back a (gulp) half century. Remember, just because they were low-charting in the top 250 doesn't mean they didn't rise up the next year. For my rankings I use the Whitburn collection, and I'm sure there are other charts that dispute these particular ranks. Who cares! It's just for fun.
Hey, you think, why is this guy covering this old hit? It's not necessary. The originals, that's the good stuff.
Except . . .
Mr. Rock & Roll Hootchie Koo was the guitarist on the original 1965 version.
Fog lifting. Sun returning. I'll see you in March.
