Vintage 7 Up ad: Nothing Does it Like Seven Up!

Yeah, nothing does it like Seven Up. That's why they have the youngest customers in the business.

Bob Dylan: The Times they are Changin' (1964)

The Times They Are a-Changin released on Dylan's 1964 album of the same name. The song was ranked #59 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The Times They Are a-Changin' has been covered by many other singers, including Billy Joel, Marc Bolan, Phil Collins, Joan Baez, The Seekers, The Byrds, Peter Paul & Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen and Nina Simone, and Blackmore's Night and Les Fradkin.

Less than a month after Dylan recorded the song, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The next night, Dylan opened a concert with "The Times They Are a-Changin'"; he told biographer Anthony Scaduto: "I thought, 'Wow, how can I open with that song? I'll get rocks thrown at me.'

Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings Animated (1978)

Ralph Bakshi's animated fantasy film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has been cited as an influence on director Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on The Lord of the Rings. Bakshi on his interview with IGN is quoted as saying "Peter Jackson did say that the first film inspired him to go on and do the series, but that happened after I was bitching and moaning to a lot of interviewers that he said at the beginning that he never saw the movie. I thought that was kind of fucked up."

The 1978 animated fantasy film makes some deviations from the book, but overall follows Tolkien's narrative quite closely. Bakshi had created it by utilizing new technique in animated filmmaking, used live-action footage which was then rotoscoped to produce an animated look. The technique could transform highly complex live-action scenes into animation, thus saved production costs and gave the animated characters a more realistic look.

Same as Peter Jackson's version, Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings was both financial and artistic success. While the budget was only $4 million, it grossed $30.5 million at the box office. At the Giffoni Film Festival Bakshi won a Golden Gryphon award for the film. The film's score (composed by Leonard Rosenman) was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Motion Picture Score. The Lord of the Rings was ranked as the 90th greatest animated film of all time by the Online Film Critics Society.

The film, along with The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) has released by Warner Bros as a boxed-set "trilogy" of films on VHS and DVD format (packaged separately).

The Worst Movie Ever Made(?)

Plan 9 From Outer Space, a 1959 horror/science fiction-wannabe film written, directed, and edited by Edward D. Wood, Jr (Ed Wood) has earned Wood a posthumous Golden Turkey Award as the worst director ever, and the film itself dubbed by author Michael Medved (who created the Golden Turkey Award) as the worst movie ever made because of its grotesk absurdity and multiple continuity problems, along with so many amusing goofs and very poor special effects.

Plan 9 From Outer Space was shot only in five days on a budget of around $20,000. The plot is focused on aliens from outer space implement their "plan 9" (Where's plan 1 to 8, Ed?) to stop humans from creating mass destruction weapon that would destroy the universe by resurrect dead bodies as zombies to causing chaos on earth.





Plan 9 From Outer Space originally titled as Grave Robber From Outer Space, but retitled by members of the Southern Baptist church (film investor) because the title considered profane. The film bills Bela Lugosi (as Ghoul Man) posthumously as a star, although Lugosi only completed a few minutes of footage just before his death in 1956. The film was not released until July 1959 through Valiant Pictures. Other cast including Maila "Vampira" Nurmi as Vampire Girl and Tor Johnson as Insp. Dan Clay.

Bela Lugosi: Sad Ironies of Hollywood's Count Dracula

"Every actor's greatest ambition is to create his own, definite and original role, a character with which he will always be identified. In my case, that role was Dracula."

Bela Lugosi was born as Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó on October 20, 1882, in Lugos, Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), outside the western border of Transylvania. Lugosi began his acting career in 1902. He then moving to Budapest in 1911, where he played dozens of roles with the National Theater of Hungary in the period 1913–1919.

Legally inspected for immigration at Ellis Island in March 1921, Lugosi became an American citizen in 1931, then entered the theater in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. In the summer of 1927 he was approached to star in a Broadway production of Dracula adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel, subsequently filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing him as the screen's greatest personifications of Dracula. Following the success of Dracula, Lugosi received a contract with Universal.

Ironically, his association with Dracula, along with his heavily accented voice limited the roles he could play to only typecast as a horror villain in such movies. Throughout the 1930s his career rapidly decline. Lugosi accepted only small roles in non-horror, low-grade Hollywood's Poverty Row or B-movies where he was used for his "name value" only.

Lugosi ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time Edward D. Wood, Jr., such as Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and in Ed Wood's legendary Worst Movie of All Time Plan 9 From Outer Space as Ghoul Man (interspersed with a double because Lugosi died during production). At the time of his death (16 August 1956), Lugosi was in such poor financial straits that Frank Sinatra quietly paid for his funeral. He was buried in his Dracula cape, in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

An excellent video Tribute To Bela Lugosi by FritzFassbender:

Cab Calloway Performed "Minnie The Moocher" (1942)

"Minnie the Moocher" recorded in 1931 and remain as Calloway's most famous song. He even gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man" (scat phrase from the lyrics) following the success of the song.

Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" is based on Frankie Jaxon's 1927 "Willie the Weeper". Its lyrics are heavily laden with drug references. The phrase "kicking the gong around" in the lyrics was a slang reference to smoking opium, and "Smoky" is described as "cokey" meaning a user of cocaine.

"Minnie the Moocher" also performed in a series of short films for Paramount in the 1930s, and in 1932 Fleischer Studios Talkartoon, starring Betty Boop and Bimbo.

Uploaded by AbejamariposaJr

Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat (1972)

Fritz the Cat (1972) was the most successful independent animated film of all time, grossing over $100 million worldwide. The film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi based on the comic strip of the same name by Robert Crumb, and is widely noted for featuring explicit sexuality and violence.

MPAA gave Fritz the Cat an X rating, something make the film lost playdates and 30 American newspapers rejected display ads for the film or refused to give it editorial publicity. The misconceptions were eventually cleared up when it received praise from Rolling Stone and The New York Times, and the film was accepted into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.

Fritz the Cat is not a pornographic film (at least not intended to be). It's a satire on American college life of 60s era, mixed with race relations and the free love movement. Of his direction of the film, Bakshi stated "My approach to animation as a director is live action. I don't approach it in the traditional animation ways. None of our characters get up and sing, because that's not the type of picture I'm trying to do. I want people to believe my characters are real, and it's hard to believe they're real if they start walking down the street singing."

Fritz the Cat movie Trailer (warning: featuring some explicit sexuality):

Uploaded by StraightAngeee

He Couldn't Take My Boop-Oop-A-Doop Away!

Boop-Oop-a-Doop (1932) is Betty Boop's fifteenth cartoon appearance (includes in her Talkartoons filmography which consist of her earlier appearances). Known as the first and one of the most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, Boop-Oop-a-Doop along with Chess-Nuts (1932) were reflected attempts to compromise Betty Boop's virginity. Boop-Oop-a-Doop is considered one of the earliest portrayals of sexual harassment on the screen.

Boop-Oop-a-Doop portray Betty as a highwire performer in a circus. She makes the villainous Ringmaster (her boss in circus) lusts as he watches her from below. The Ringmaster follows her as she returns to her tent and sensually massages her legs, surrounds her and threatens her job if she doesn't submit.

Koko the clown hears the struggle from inside the tent and save Betty, struggling with the Ringmaster who loads him into a cannon and firing it. But Koko - hiding inside the cannon - strikes the Ringmaster's head with a mallet. When Koko expresses concern about Betty's welfare, she answers in song, "No, he couldn't take my boop-oop-a-doop away!"

Uploaded by otzi08

What the Heck is Electronic Mail? Ask Honeywell

Classic commercials that offer "future technology solutions" often look ridiculous when read back a few decades later.

Honeywell 70s Ads (I don't know the exact year) offers electronic mail (email) technology as a future automated office solution - but is available for today. Complete with illustration a letter came as fast as lightning:

This is complete text of the print ads:

Electronic mail is a term that's been banded about data processing circles for years. Simply put, it means high speed information transformation.

One of the most advanced methods is terminals talking to one another. Your mailbox is the terminal on your desk. Punch a key and today's correspondence and messages are displayed instantly.

Need to notify people immediately of a fast-breaking development? Have your messages delivered to their terminal mailboxes electronically, across the hall or around the world. Electronic mail is document distribution that's more timely, accurate and flexible than traditional methods There's no mountin of paperwork. Administrative personnel are more effective. Managers have access to more up-to-date information. Decision-making is easier.

Tomorrow's automated office will clearly include Electronic Mail. But like the rest of the Office of the Future, it's available at Honeywell today.

For more information call Mr. Laurie reeves at (800)225-3222/3 (within the 617 area, call 552-2948). Or write him at Honeywell Office Automation Systems, Three Newton Executive Park Drive, Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts 02162.

Jimi Hendrix's The Star-Spangled Banner Solo Improvisation

Jimi Hendrix solo improvisation which is now regarded as a special symbol of the 1960s era. Climax of Woodstock Festival 1969.

Uploaded by pedrofontex

Bob Dylan's Mr Tambourine Man (1965)

"Mr. Tambourine Man" featured on Bob Dylan's 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. Rock band The Byrds also recorded a version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" that was their first single and title of their first album. As for Dylan's version, in a 2005 reader's poll reported in Mojo, "Mr. Tambourine Man" was listed as the #4 all time Bob Dylan song.

The song has become famous in particular for its surrealistic imagery that has evoked speculation about its meaning and theme. It said that major influence on the song is the poetry of 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Federico Fellini's movie La Strada.

Bob Dylan singing Mr Tambourine Man Live At Newport Folk Festival 1965:

Uploaded by Discoberryz

Mama Cass Elliot's "Dream a Little Dream of Me"

"Dream a Little Dream of Me" lyrics were written by Gus Kahn. The song usually credited to Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, but well received by public after performed by The Mamas and Papas' with solo voice by Cass Elliot, released as their single during 1968, and for the Mamas & the Papas April 1968 album release The Papas & The Mamas.

According to NPR "Dream a Little Dream of Me" being one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century, and the 1968 recording of this song by Cass Elliot and The Mamas and the Papas sold nearly 7 million copies nearly forty years after its composition.

In the video below the song live performed by Mama Cass Elliot on the 1968 Smothers Brothers Show (uploaded by r3mold).

The song now included in Mama Cass Elliot's album Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Music of Mama Cass Elliot.

The Rumble in the Jungle: Great Match Ali vs Foreman

One of great boxing event of the century, The Rumble in the Jungle took place in the Mai 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa) on 30 October 1974. Foreman, who was greatly feared for his punching power, seemed an overwhelming favorite against Ali since he knocking Joe Frazier and Ken Norton down, two boxer at that time to defeat Ali.

The Rumble in the Jungle have been among the greatest demonstrations of tactical planning and actual execution, and Muhammad Ali regaining his title as "the greatest" against a younger and stronger George Foreman.

The events before and during this match are depicted in Leon Gast's Academy Award winning documentary, When We Were Kings. The documentary, released in 1996, covering six weeks to the fight as journalism moment and moment in America's cultural understanding of African American roots.

The whole fight of The Rumble in the Jungle now included in DVD contains footage of Ali's 1964-1080 fights: Muhammad Ali - The Greatest Collection

The Great Dictator: When Chaplin Mocking Hitler

Perhaps a bit reckless in his time, but the Great Dictator show that Charlie Chaplin is an intelligent comedian who has a sociological abiliity to see the possible birth of fascism and antisemitism, even before most people realize it.

In The Great Dictator, Chaplin leveled his comedy arsenal at Der Fuehrer by playing the dual roles of Hitler-like Adenoid Hynkel and unnamed Jewish barber and private fighting for the Central Powers in the army of the fictional nation of Tomainia. After a plane crash in which he survive and had been hospitalized for the past twenty years (but having suffered memory loss), the Jewish private and barber returns to his barbershop in the Jewish ghetto.

Briefly, the Jewish barber, who has assumed Adenoid Hynkel's identity because of their resemblance, is taken to the Tomainian capital to make a victory speech. In contrast, "Hynkel" declaring that Tomainia and Osterlich (a corruption of Österreich, the German name for Austria) will now be a free nation and a democracy.

At the time when the film released to public (October 15, 1940), the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Even the British government announced (when the film was in production) that they would prohibit The Great Dictator exhibition in keeping with its appeasement policy concerning Nazi Germany.

Here is a scene from the film The Great Dictator when the Jewish barber, who has assumed Der Fuehrer Adenoid Hynkel, make speech:

THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) Charlie Chaplin (IMPORT HIGH QUALITY FOR ALL REGIONS)

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

"What a Wonderful World" was first recorded in 1967 and released as a single in January 1, 1968. The song - a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future, intended as an antidote for the increasingly racially charged climate of everyday life in the United States. What a Wonderful World was re-released in U.S shortly after Armstrong's death in 1971 and became a top ten hit.

The clip below is from the first of two BBC-TV shows, taped on the same day, July 2, 1968. Aside from Louis the rest of the band is Tyree Glenn (trombone), Joe Muranyi (clarinet), Marty Napoleon (piano), Buddy Catlett (bass) and Danny Barcelona (drums). Louis died three years later, on July 6, 1971 (uploaded by davidnob.

Remembering The Legendary Marlboro Man

As brand image of the most successful ad campaign of all time, Marlboro Man stands as masculine trademark, bring to the world an American cowboy masculinity myth, transformed a feminine 'Mild as May' Marlboro filtered cigarette image drastically into one that was pure masculine in a matter of months. It also helping establish Marlboro as the best-selling cigarette brand in the world.

The Marlboro man also considered as one of the biggest marketing icons in modern marketing world. On the other side, Marlboro Man being a most hated brand image, gaining the new nickname "Cowboy killers", as the anti-smoking movement has spread and attack its role in luring peoples to a cancer-causing habit.

Philip Morris, a London-based cigarette manufacturer who created a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell several of its cigarette brands, including Marlboro, had introduced Marlboro as a woman’s cigarette in 1924 with slogan "Mild As May". Later, in the 1950s they decided to totally revise the brand campaign.

Advertising legend Leo Burnett hired by Philip Morris then created the macho icon as Marlboro's brand image reposition. Burnett's original newspaper ad involves a rugged cowboy in nature with cigarette in his mouth, carried the slogan "delivers the goods on flavor". The concept of a cowboy character itself was inspired by a photograph that appeared in an issue of Life Magazine in 1949. In the United States, where the campaign originated, Marlboro Man ad campaign was used from 1954 to 1999.

Marlboro's TV commercial in the '60s reflected the idea of freedom in wide-open spaces. In 1964, the company revived the cowboy and gave him a mythical land all his own known as Marlboro Country. The Magnificent Seven movie theme was added to the scene when Marlboro Man enjoying a smoke on horseback or leading their herds through "Marlboro Country" dusty canyons or prairie and carried slogans "Come to where the flavor is"; "Come to Marlboro Country".

The Magnificent Seven Theme:

However, the Marlboro Man's TV commercials were discontinued when tobacco advertisements were legislated off the air in 1971, followed by radio, billboards and print advertisements in youth markets.

Marlboro Man TV Commercial:



The first Marlboro Man was Robert "Bob" Beck. Other actors who also portray the Marlboro Man were Brad Johnson, Darrell Winfield (who appeared the majority of the print ads), Dick Hammer, Wayne McLaren, David McLean, New York Giants Quarterback Charley Conerly, Dean Myers, Robert Norris, Tom Mattox and John Bryant (best remembered as the original "Marlboro Man"). For the European market, Marlboro Man portrayed by George "Bond" Lazenby (who played James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Ironically, two men who appeared in Marlboro advertisements - Wayne McLaren and David McLean - died of lung cancer. Before his death at the age of 51, McLaren testified in favor of anti-smoking legislation.

Related product link:
Vintage Tobacco Films - Dangers of Cigarettes and Cigarette Smoking, Nicotine, Cigarette Commericals, Smoking Related Cancer, Tobacco Industry Advertising and More
(a variety of films in a DVD discussing the health risks of smoking counterbalanced by a variety of commericals promoting smoking to the tv viewing audience.)

More Doctor Smoke Camels than Any Other Cigarettes!

If aired on national TV today, maybe Camel cigarette ad campaign version "More Doctor Smoke Camels than Any Other Cigarrettes!" will be the most condemned ad by anti-tobacco activists and doctors. But this ad was made and aired in 1949. In one version of the print ads, they even made such claim:
------------------------------------------------
113,597 DOCTORS FROM COAST TO COAST WERE ASKED!

According to this recent Nationwide survey:

More Doctors Smoke Camels THAN ANY OTHER CIGARETTE!

This is no casual claim. It’s an actual fact. Based on the statements of doctors themselves to three nationally known independent research organizations.
THE question was very simple. One that you . .. any smoker . . . might ask a doctor: “What cigarette do you smoke, Doctor?”

After all, doctors are human too. Like you, they smoke for pleasure. Their taste, like yours, enjoys the pleasing flavor of costlier tobaccos. Their throats too appreciate a cool mildness.

And more doctors named Camels than any other cigarette!

If you are a Camel smoker, this preference for Camels among physicians and surgeons will not surprise you. But if you are not now smoking
Camels, try them. Compare them in your “T-Zone.”
------------------------------------------------

I hate cigarettes, but somehow to me it looks as funny ads than provocative. Just another form of innocence from the past.



1949 TV commercial from Camel cigarettes:

Racist Stereotype in Vintage Betty Boop Cartoon

Cartoons made in the 30s often depict African-American characters in a typical racist stereotypes: extremely dark skin, gigantic red blood lips, messy hair, raggedly clothes, and watermelon eaters. David Pilgrim, from the Jim Crow Museum, wrote: "the association of Blacks with watermelons is, at its root, a mean-spirited attempt to insult and mock Blacks. Why worry about persistent patterns of institutional racism and racial economic and health disparities when you can just eat a watermelon."

One of the Betty Boop cartoon episode entitled "Making Stars" clearly illustrates these stereotypes. Betty calls talent search contest participants consisting of a trio of African-American babies onto the stage, and then introduces them to the audience as "the colorful three". Also shown how a black mother soothe her crying baby by simply giving him a slice of watermelon.

Most of the racist cartoons, however, were intended to be funny, not hurtful. They just represent a period of American history where views were very different than today. In the real world that kind of racism still occurs in some cases, but in the mainstream entertainments there have been many drastic changes, in which the popular media is consciously avoid racial stereotyping depiction.

Green Inferno, a la Ruggero Deodato

I always think Quentin Tarantino a little too far in exploiting sadism and violence as a mass entertainment through his films. But after watching the controversial film by Ruggero Deodato, Cannibal Holocaust (1980), Tarantino movies is now seen like merely softcores.

Violence and sadism in Cannibal Holocaust is not spices, but the main course. The portrayal of gore, human body impalement, animals killing, and sexual violence scenes are presented graphically, so Deodato must face a lawsuit for allegedly making a snuff film.

Deodato seem to use Cannibal Holocaust as his media to criticize hypocrisy of modern civilization in the spirit of anti-imperialism. In the film, he shows how "more civilized" people (group of documentary filmmakers from New York) treat the lower civilization (primitive Yanomamo tribe in the interior of the Amazon) arbitrarily. As a result, they receive a punishment that is slaughtered and eaten by members of the cannibal tribe. This is more obvious when the film was asking a rhetorical question "what is it to be civilized"?

But on the other hand, Deodato was also criticized. His interpretation of the essence of civilization in the film is just a cover and a poor justification for a film that gaining controversy because of many disturbing and gore materials presented.

However, as a cinematographic work, Cannibal Holocaust is considered innovative because it uses the concept of "found footage" as a plot structure - which later used by some other directors. The plot structure allows Deodato to make the film look as a true story of the people who lost in the Amazon jungle, leaving the videotape footage of the last moments of their lives. Seen very realistic, so that Deodato was taken to court to prove that he hasn't slain real people for his motion picture ..

The First Animated Appearance of Popeye the Sailorman (1933)

July 14, 1933 is the first time Popeye the Sailor appeared as a short animated film characters. Short animation was produced by Fleischer Studios animated short and directed by Dave Fleischer.

Popeye was one of the newspaper comic strip character that Fleischer animated. In the film, Betty Boop appeared as a cameo (appearing as a hula dancer). The appearance of Betty Boop - which was popular at the time - intended to boost the success of Popeye.

The first Popeye cartoon is now included in the DVD collection, Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1, released by Warner Home Video in 2007.

This is the first animated appearance of Popeye the sailorman video (low-res), uploaded to YouTube by jony0091: