Nellie Elizabeth “Irish” McCalla (December 25, 1928 – February 1, 2002)

Irish McCalla was not your typical 1950’s pin-up. Not the demure Betty Page type, Irish was big! Standing 5’10” and incredibly busty (37-24-38), Irish was hugely popular in the early 50’s, posing for pin-up king, Antonio Varga and appearing in tons of magazines. From 1955-58 she became “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle”, acting in the syndicated serialization of the same name for 26 episodes. She would play bit parts in TV and movies in the early sixties but called it quits by 1969 when she was diagnosed w/ a brain tumor. Over the years she would deal w/ 4 more tumors and eventually pass away in 2002 at the age of 73  from complications.

A story from her Sheena days goes that she did her own vine-swinging and tree-climbing with her pet chimp, Chim, until the day she misjudged a vine swing and crashed into a tree, smashing her knee and breaking an arm. After that, the producers did the only thing they could do (due to her size), they hired male stunt men, and dressed them in leopard skins and blond wigs.

Brian Duffy (15 June 1933 – 31 May 2010) was an English photographer and film producer, best remembered for his fashion and portrait photography of the 1960s and 1970s. With fellow photographers; David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy was a key player in Britain’s “Swinging Sixties” – a culture of high fashion and celebrity chic.

Socialising with actors, pop stars, royalty and the notorious gangsters, the Kray twins, they represented a new breed of photographer and found themselves elevated to celebrity status. Duffy commented on the culture shock the three were to the industry: ″Before 1960, a fashion photographer was tall, thin and camp. But we three are different: short, fat and heterosexual!″

Duffy’s relationship w/ David Bowie yielded one of the most iconic photos in pop history – the Alladin Sane lightning bolt cover. He’d go on to shoot 2 other Bowie covers – Lodger and Scary Monsters and Super Creeps.

In 1979 Duffy abruptly gave up photography attempting to burn many of his negatives in his studio yard but fortunately neighbours objected to the acrid smoke, the council were called and much of his work was saved. Although a large number of his images were lost. Duffy moved onto television commercials and in 1983 Duffy directed the music videos for Spandau Ballet, ABC and The Human League. By 1990 Duffy retired from all image making and followed his lifelong passion for furniture restoration and became an accredited BAFRA (British Antique Furniture Restoration Association) restorer. Duffy died on 31 May 2010, after suffering from degenerative lung disease.

David Bowie – Alladin Sane album cover test sheet

Michael Caine

Vogue shoot

Jeanne Shrimpton & Terrance Stamp

Sammy Davis Jr. and wife May Britt

Twiggy

The Shadows

Ronnie Kray and his uncle

Jane Birkin

Bowie – Scary Monsters

Michael Caine

Angie Bowie

Brian Duffy

This is not the source material for these movies and TV shows, oh no, these are all written after the fact to squeeze one last tiny bit of cash out of the public. Nothing wrong with that. Who doesn’t want to read the novelization of, say, Childs Play 3 to get just a bit more exposition about Chuckie’s motives and thought process. I doubt that these are still being written today (though Star Trek and Star Wars both have tons of ‘inspired by’ novels) but from the 60’s through the nineties they were everywhere, most notably the used book bins of Goodwill and Salvation Army.

Taxi Driver by Richard Elman

Star Wars

Halloween

Batman – TV Show by Winston Lyon

Childs Play 3 by Matthew J. Costello

Invasion USA by Jason Frost

Star Trek by James Blish

Robocop by Ed Naha

Squirm by Richard Curtis

Return of the Living Dead by John Russo

Nightmare on Elm St 1-3 by Jeffery Cooper

Friday the 13th Part 3D by Michael Avallone

Kung Fu by Howard Lee

Escape from New York by Mike McQuay

Raw Deal by Walt Wager

Rambo – First Blood 2 by David Morell

Back before he was an old leather chew toy Iggy Pop was a vaguely glammy, pill addled kid from Ann Arbor MI. that would bend over backwards – literally, to perform with his band. Formed in 1967 with the Ashton brothers (Ron & Scot) along w/ Dave Alexander, the band would release 2 poorly received LPs before they imploded from massive heroin use and general bad feelings. Iggy would go on to have an extremely long and varied career reforming the Stooges in 2003 with the Asheton brothers and James Williamson. Ron and Scott would pass away in 2009 and 2014 respectively. And yet, Iggy lives on.

THE 2ND BEST ROCK PHOTO EVER

Raquel Welch (born Jo Raquel Tejada; September 5, 1940) – Raquel first came to the attention of the public with her role in the sci-fi film The Fantastic Voyage. The next role was the big one – 1 Million Years BC. The photo of her in a doe skin bikini became the poster in every boys room and made her an instant sex symbol. She would continue to play the sex symbol but never the stupid sex kitten. She was the tough hot chick. Throughout the 60’s she would play opposite some of Hollywoods biggest leading men – James Stewart, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra – to name a few. The 70’s would find her flirting with a singing career – releasing the dance single “This Girl’s Back In Town” (to no real success).She’d also win a Golden Globe for her role in the 1974 film The 3 Musketeers. She would go on to play roles in various TV shows, throughout the decade and into the 80’s (Mork and Mindy, Seinfeld) and act on Broadway and had a show in Las Vegas.  Most recently she’s been seen in the TV movie House of Versace – looking unbelievable at the age of 73.

The fur bikini – 1Million Years B.C.

Publicity photo for 1 Million BC – Not published until 1996

Fantastic Voyage – 1966

With Salvadore Dali

From the film – Myra Breckenridge 1970

From Kansas City Bomber – 1972

Raquel in her 40’s

Raquel at 71

Raquel today at 73!

Man oh man are these awful. I’ve only heard of a couple of these bands and a couple titles I have no idea what they even say. Not a lot needs to be said about these – enjoy.

Gruesome – Savage Land

Destruction – Release From Agony

Mortal Sin – Mayhemic Destuction

Iron Angel – Hellish Crossfire

Vanlade – Iron Age

? – Incurso

Manowar – ? (Gods of War)

Angel Witch – Screamin’ & Bleedin’

Battleaxe

Brainfever

Disgraseed (?) – Flesh Market

Pantera – Metal Magic

Revenge – Harder Than Steel

Linnea Eleanor “Bunny” Yeager (March 13, 1929 – May 25, 2014) Bunny Yeager started her career as a regionally famous model in Miami in the early 50’s appearing in over 300 magazines and publications (she won numerous local beauty pageants including Queen of Miami, Florida Orchid Queen, Miss Trailercoach of Dade County (!!!!), Miss Army & Air Force, Miss Personality of Miami Beach, Queen of the Sports Carnival and Cheesecake Queen of 1951.) Bunny augmented her modeling career with photography and meeting Bettie Page in 1954 she would find her muse. She would shoot over 1000 photos of Bettie creating her ‘girl next door image’ making Bettie the hottest pinup ever. Her shots are classics including the famous 1955 Playboy Christmas centerfold of Bettie kneeling at a small Christmas tree, naked except for a Santa hat. Bunny would also appear 5 times in Playboy as a model herself – one occasion actually shot by Hugh Hefner. Bunny would go on to shoot for mainstream magazines like Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Womens Wear Dailey in the 60’s. She is credited w/ popularizing the Bikini all over the world, primarily w/ her shots of Ursula Andress coming out of the waves in a small 2-piece from the James Bond movie Dr. No. She’s even credited with coining the phrase cheesecake (for photos of pinups and other scantily clad women). Nice work, if you can get it.

Bunny’s most famous model – Bettie Page

Bunny and Betty

Bunny

Bunny – Self Portrait

With Bettie 1954

Bunny with Chimp

With 1952 self portrait. Bunny at 84

Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-code film (pre Hayes code censorship) in which the title characters were actually played by by sideshow performers with real deformities. Directed and produced by Tod Browning, whose career never recovered really from it. Freaks has been described as standing alone in a subgenre of one.

Because of Browning’s success as the director of Dracula, he was given a considerable leeway for a major studio’s first horror film. In the film, the physically deformed “freaks” are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the “normal” members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance.

Among the characters featured as “freaks” were “The Human Skeleton”, “The Bearded Lady”; Frances O’Conner and Martha Morris – The armless wonders”; and conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Among the microcephalics who appear in the film (and are referred to as “pinheads”) were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress mainly due to incontinence. Also featured was Johnny Eck, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian and Koo-Koo – The Bird girl, who had Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism (?!).

Following disastrous test screening in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra (the villain), as she lays under a tree, was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules (The Strong-Man, & Cleopatras lover) being castrated. It’s current running time is just 64 minutes. No matter how much was cut it still managed to negatively effect people and lose money. The Kansas City Star said “There is no excuse for this picture. It took a weak mind to produce it and it takes a strong stomach to look at it.” Harrison Reports – “Any one who considers this entertainment should be placed in the pathological ward in some hospital.” With these kinds of reviews Tod Brownings career was doomed and he would never recover the fame he had pre-Freaks. It is indeed creepy and disturbing and absolutely great. If you’ve seen American Horror Story Freak Show recently you’ll see the impact this film has made (and sort of know how it ends).

Cast pointing out the evil villain, Cleopatra

Harry & Daisy Earles – The Young Lovers

Harry Earles

Prince Randian – The Living Torso & Johnny Eck – The Half Boy

Prince Randian and Wallace Ford

Johnny Eck

Johnny Eck & Angelo Rossitto – as Angeleno

Daisy and Violet Hilton as the Siamese twins & Wallace Ford as Phroso

Schlitzie as himself

Koo Koo as herself & Schilzie

Koko

The Dinner

Koko’s Dance – Gabba Gabba We Accept You …

Wallace Ford w/ Koko and Johnny Eck

THE FINAL REVENGE – CRAWLING IN THE RAIN

French Poster

US Half-Sheet – “Can a full grown woman truly love a midget?”

Tod Browning

Ah, the fifties, where a sexy pinup was appropriate for every holiday. This was a time when depictions of nudity was still resigned to the under-the-counter porn mags, but bathing suits and lingerie were completely acceptable and all the rage. A lot of these were promotions for young actresses and even established stars – that’s a young Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily Munster) in a cat suit on a huge pumpkin.

Painting by Gil Elvgren

Veronica Lake

“From 1972 to 1975, I spent my summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease for small town carnivals in New England, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. As I followed the girl shows from town to town, I photographed the dancers’ public performances as well as their private lives. I also taped interviews with the dancers, their boyfriends, the show managers, and paying customers.

The women I met ranged in age from seventeen to thirty-five. Most had left small towns, seeking mobility, money and something different from what was prescribed or proscribed by their lives that the carnival allowed them to leave. They were runaways, girlfriends of carnies, club dancers, both transient and professional.

They worked out of a traveling box, a truck that unfolded to form two stages, one opening to the public carnival grounds, another concealed under a tent for a private audience. A dressing room stands between them. Again and again, throughout the day and night, the woman performers moved from the front stage, with its bally call—the talker’s spiel that entices the crowd—to the stage, where they each perform for the duration of a 45 pop record”.

From Susan Meislas’ book “Carnival Strippers” 1976

In the 60’s and 70’s if your parents had no imagination or extra time they could buy you a extremely flammable, dangerously hard to see out of mask with accompanying ill-fitting smock.  These would come in, not only the old standbys like Frankenstein, Dracula, super heroes and clowns, but also the cultural icons of the day. To see small children in Kabe Caplin “Welcome Back Kotter” costumes or the Leather Guy from The Village People must have been something. How about creatively mind-boggling KFC’s Colonel Sanders, Robin Williams’ Mork, The Fonz, Donny Osmond, all 4 Beatles or Radar O’Reilly from Mash. The real odd-ball costumes were the “THINGS”, i.e. The shark from Jaws, Rubiks Cube, an asteroid from the video game Asteroids and Flipper, to name a very few. These went out of favor in the safety conscious 80’s when it was realized  just how dangerous they actually were. Also who really wanted to wear an flammable New Kid’s on the Block, Donny Wahlberg costume anyway.

Cat, Clown and ?

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Superheroes – Spiderman & Wonder Woman

Chewie and Yoda

Donny Osmond

Creepy Bozo the Clown

KFC’s Colonel Sanders, Spiderman and Batman

Superman vs Batman

President Kennedy w/ a couple of witches

Fuck You Frankenstein

Kid in a Bag and the Devil

Charlie Brown and Wonder Woman

Fox and Happy Hobo

Dolly Parton (?) and a Clown

Freddy Frog, Witch and Mom

Jaws (!!!) and Flash

Snoopy, Clown, Skeleton (?) and Charlie Brown

Spaceman and the Devil

The iconic Spider Pool mural is the largest remnant of screenplay writer and director John W. “Jack” McDermott’s (1892-1946) estate – the house itself was torn down in 1962 but the mural remains. The handmade tile mural and signature sculpted pool would become a popular backdrop for tons of cheesecake and nude photography from the 30’s to the 60’s. Jack would hold parties as well as camera club events (silent star Harold Lloyd being a popular face at the pool) making his property a go-to place for the hollywood crowd.

The house itself was a collection of film sets and construction pieces that Jack had appropriated from the studio back lots. As a writer for Famous Players-Lasky and Universal, he was used to seeing exquisitely-built movie sets discarded after only hours of use and decided to build his home from these discarded sets and pieces. The earliest mention of The House was in 1923 when McDermott purchased “six Algerian rooms used in Norma Talmadge’s recently completed picture, ‘The Song of Love’” and reassembled on his property. Other set pieces included palace girders from The Thief of Baghdad, tombstones from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, roofing from The Phantom of the Opera, a plaster goddess from Nazimova’s Salome, and a table from Robin Hood. It also featured pricey tile imported from places such as Italy and France due to McDermott, posing as a tile dealer, contacting tile companies for samples. In this manner, he was able to acquire thousands of dollars worth of free tile.

The house was partially destroyed by fire in 1947, demolished piecemeal by Darrell Gregory in response to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety’s demands, and eventually razed in 1962. Only the spider mural, parts of the pool, the remnants of a structure that predates McDermott’s estate constructed no later than 1900, and other scattered remnants remain.

A young Tura Satana

Bettie Blue

Dixie Evans

Mary Miles

Dianne Weber

Marge and Chris (?)

Peggy Winters

Melody Ward

Tura Satana

Tura Satana

Dixie Evans

Mr. Jack McDermott

The House (w/ canons)

All that’s left of the Spider Pool

What were they thinkin? Maybe it’s my 4th grade sense of humor but some of these seem a tad … suggestive/sexual/rapey. Some are just odd, all are wonderful. I mean “The Afternoon Tea-Baggers”, “Adventures of Uncle Cousin” or the fabulously titled “Don’t Miss the Great Snatch” by Elder Marshall Taylor. Apparently the Lord does move in mysterious ways.

Joy, Joy,  by The Afternoon Tea-Baggers

The Gospelaires Trio – Sounds of His Coming

Adventures of Uncle Cousin – Bill Salisbury

Don’t Miss the Great Snatch – Elder Marshall Taylor

Butch Yelton & Upbound – Swing That Gospel Axe

He Touched Me – Greg Kendrick

The Daugherty Sisters – Singing Gospel Favorites

Let Me Touch Him – The Ministers Quartet

If I Were a Woman – Ira North

Lord Touch Me – Orvel & Orvella

The Carpenters Tool – Wendy Bagwell & the Sunliters

Do You Want to Touch Me – Johnny Carroll

Something Happened to Daddy – David & Rhonda Bean

We Are Being Invaded by Demons – Mahulda Ezra & Pastor Deke Gozinia

The Lords Coming Again – The Amason Twins

The Feelings That We Feel – The Galileans

Don’t Pity Me – Chris Miskelly & Betty Baker

I’ve Tasted and I Know The Lord is Good – The Rathbuns

Gods Choosen Puppet – Ann Kathaleen Beaty

It’s a fact. Nothing more to say. Apologies to the great Buddy Miles.

Marlon Brando from “The Wild One”

Elvis from “Roustabout”

James Dean

Jack Nicholson from “Rebel Rousers”

Paul Newman

Marianne Faithfull from “Girl on a Motorcycle”

Steve McQueen from “The Great Escape”

Bob Dylan

Jane Russel

Johnny Depp from “Cry Baby” w/ Amy Locaine and Polly Bergen

Elvis

Ann Margaret

Bo Diddley

Brando

Brigitte Bardot

Clint Eastwood

Dennis Hopper & Peter Fonda from “Easy Rider”

Francoise Hardy

Clark Gable

Patti Waggin – Burlesque star

Buddy Miles

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition started in 1924 (tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit. The oldest being Philly’s Dunkin Donuts Thanksgiving Parade starting in 1920). The Macy’s parade however has taken the prize as the biggest and most elaborate. It has been televised on NBC since 1952.

The balloon subjects have changed dramatically over the years as the popular culture shifted, starting with Felix the Cat in 1927, Mickey Mouse in 1934, Mighty Mouse in’51, Bullwinkle in ’61. No new characters were added from 1940 – 47 as rubber was at a premium for the war effort. Surprisingly Hello Kitty made an appearance in 1976 and Kermit the Frog in 1977 (didn’t know Hello Kitty was that old). The 2000’s saw such stars as Sponge Bob Squarepants, Pikachu, Garfield and the M & M’s. This years new character is one of the Angry Birds (jeez!).

I know I haven’t watched it in years but it still draws a TV audience and well over a million people line the streets of New York watch it sail down Broadway.

A Pinup for every occasion.

Marilyn Monroe

If I hear Madonna’s version of Santa Baby one more time I’ll lose my mind (Eartha Kitt’s is the one). What the records below sound like I have no clue – but you can bet Afroman’s A Colt 45 Christmas goes pretty hard and the John Travolta, Olivia Newton John LP … well who can say? His hair alone is worth the price of this one. As for Swedish pop star Gunther, wikipedia claims; “Günther announced on his website that he is currently working on a new album with the working title Dirty Man Swedish Sex Beast. In 2011, the first single, “Pussycat”, became available on Günther’s web site.”

Christmas with Kiro

Six Million Dollar Man Christmas

White Christmas

Afroman – A Colt 45 Christmas

Wham – Last Christmas single

Christmas with Colonel Sanders (KFC Promo)

3 Stooges – Christmas Time with …

Olivia Newton John and John Travolta – This Christmas

The Rudy Ray Moore Christmas Album – Merry Christmas Baby

The Three Suns – A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas

Liberace – Twas the Night Before Christmas

Kenny & Corky – Nuttin for Christmas w/ Suzy Snowflake

Kay Martin & her Body Guards – I know What He Wants for Christmas … but I don’t know how to wrap it!

James Brown – Funky Christmas

Gunther & the Sunshine Girls – Christmas Songs

Mark Anthony – Momma’s Twistin’ with Santa Claus

Korla Pandit – born 1921, was BIG in the 50’s. he recorded over 2 dozen LP (all on the Hammond or Pipe organ), had his own TV show – Korla Pandit’s Adventures In Music, appeared on various TV shows, films, radio and concerts.  He was the king of the new medium called TV and pioneered the style of music that would become known as Exotica. In his later years as Exotica became popular again Korla would tour small theaters and concert halls with an occasional Pizza and Pipes gig for good measure.  In 1994 director Tim Burton dug Korla out of retirement to play himself in his biopic of sensationally shitty director, Ed Wood in the film of the same name. Korla would pass away from a heart attack 4 years later at the age of 77.

But, who was the mysteriously mystic Korla Pandit? An ancient Indian musician (he claimed on occasion to be 2000 years old)? A gifted keyboard player w/ an exotic name and appearance? Well, it turns out that Korla Pandit was actually born John Roland Redd in an African-American family from St Louis Missouri. In the 1940’s he played for a few years under the name Juan Rolando to some success. In 1944, he reinvented his image, eventually replacing “Juan Rolando” with “Korla Pandit” and fabricating a romantic history for him as a baby born in New Delhi, India to a Brahmin priest and a French opera singer. A good story goes a long way.

“Love Letters” LP

… Plays Music of the Mystic East (in Full Radial Stereo)

From his TV show “Adventures in Music”

With Roy Rodgers

With Paramahansa Yogananda and Mrs Pandit (far right)

Korla plays the Rose Bowl

With son Shari

Korla sans turban

Relaxin’

Hanging out with The Cramps’ Poison Ivy and Lux Interior

From Tim Burton’s Ed Wood biopic

Korla Pandit at 75

Just got back from holiday in beautiful Palm Springs, CA. One of the many reasons to go to Palm Springs is to see the art of Mr. Kenny Irwin Jr. Kenny is in his early 40’s, and as the story goes, had some sort of epiphany (or break down) in his teens and started building things and creating art uncontrollably. Kenny’s dad – possibly the best dad in America – decided to open his 4 acre Palm Springs estate to allow his son to create. The home and grounds are located in the Movie Colony area of PS, down the street from Sinatras’ old house and surrounded by serious wealth. Kenny works 12 hour days year round on his creations and a few months before Xmas he begins the amazingly huge job of turning it into a Christmas spectacle. These things are huge by-the-way. Some reaching over 30-40 feet and they cover almost every inch of the Irwin property. The lights will be on until Jan 3rd this year so check him out if your in the area.

Welcome to Robolights

David Bowie born David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016)

With daughter Alexandria -2000