Denizens of the Darkness

Santa's Thing

2010-08-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

McDermott/Fiorilla

Just for shits and giggles.

2010-08-09T16:56:00.001-07:00

Illustration/ Monster's Penciled by Steve Fiorilla.

Clint Eastwood,The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2010-08-02T20:28:00.001-07:00

Uncle Creepy

2010-07-30T11:38:00.001-07:00

A Few Random Cartoons

2010-07-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

McDermott / McManus

2010-07-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

Color Roughs For Animated Project

2010-07-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

McDermott inks / McManus pencils

2010-07-18T03:51:00.001-07:00

Aliens Colonial Marines Inks

2010-07-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Grimjack Inks

2010-07-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

2010-07-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

Pumpkinhead 1 Inks

2010-07-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Shawn McManus: Pencils

Pumpkinhead 2 Inks

2010-07-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Shawn McManus: Pencils

Monkey

2010-07-14T11:49:00.001-07:00

Pencils by Rev. Tom Fury

Study 2 Lady GaGa and some

2010-07-14T11:47:00.001-07:00

The Gang

2010-07-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Lion

2010-07-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

Man at Computer

2010-07-12T05:19:00.001-07:00

Wentworth by the Sea

2010-07-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

The hotel was built in 1874 by Daniel Chase, a distiller from Somerville, Massachusetts, and for the first two years was named Wentworth Hall. It was bought by Frank Jones in 1879 and expanded in the Second Empire style. With Jones's death, the hotel was sold in 1902.

In 1905, the hotel housed the Russian and Japanese delegations who concluded the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese War. Both delegations were welcomed at no charge, with Frank Jones' executor Judge Calvin Page providing hospitality as Jones' will stipulated he should. The final document was signed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where formal negotiations took place, but the final language of the treaty was drafted, and the armistice ending the fighting, was signed at The Wentworth. In addition, the Japanese hosted an "International Love Fest" at the hotel on the signing.

After a number of owners, Harry Beckwith bought the hotel in 1920 and ran it for 25 years. In 1946, it was acquired by Margaret and James Barker Smith for $200,000.[1] On July 4, 1964, Emerson and Jane Reed became the first African-Americans to overcome the hotel's segregation policy, dining at its restaurant.
The Wentworth in 1892
A hotel advertisement in the 1915 issue of Scribner's Magazine

With declining fortunes and changing owners, the hotel closed in 1982. A local group, Friends of the Wentworth, formed and tried to preserve the hotel. When they were unable to locate sufficient support, Alan Green, president of the Green Corporation (which owned the hotel at that time), announced its planned demolition in 1995.[3] Attention was drawn to the plight of the Victorian hotel when it appeared on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's (NTHP) list of America's Most Endangered Places, and the History Channel's America's Most Endangered the following year. This postponed the demolition sufficiently to identify a buyer, and Ocean Properties acquired the property in 1997. The hotel was subsequently renovated, reopened in 2003, and is operated by the OpRock Group as a Marriott resort. The Wentworth by the Sea is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Historic Hotels of America.

The now-independent Wentworth by the Sea Country Club is home to the golf course that was initially designed by George Wright in 1897, enlarged by Donald Ross in 1921, and further expanded to 18 holes by Geoffrey Cornish in 1964. The Wentworth Marina is also independently operated and welcomes Wentworth hotel guests.

A Few More From The Day

2010-07-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

Work I did on the "The Real GhostBusters" 1987

2010-06-18T08:06:00.001-07:00

The Early Days

2010-06-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

Study of Hanks, Hopkins and Susan Sarandon

2010-06-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

The Wizard of Oz 1939 (Unfinished)

2010-06-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

Washing Up Poster

2010-06-11T12:49:00.001-07:00

Wash Up Poster 2

2010-06-11T10:17:00.001-07:00

Sketchbook 2

2010-06-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook

2010-06-07T22:24:00.001-07:00

A Little Oldness

2010-06-06T23:21:00.000-07:00

Barney Fife

2010-06-04T15:19:00.000-07:00

A bit of the Creeper... Rondo Hatton

2010-05-31T01:42:00.000-07:00

Rondo K. Hatton was the only child born to Stewart Price and Emily Zarring Hatton (both of which were born in Missouri and were Teachers) on April 22, 1894 in Hagerstown, Maryland. The family moved several times during Rondo's youth, to Hickory, North Carolina, and to Charles Town, West Virginia, and at last relocated to Tampa, Florida where he spent his high school years. The Family moved to Florida to work in a family owned business. Rondo was a popular student and a good athlete, especially in football. Following his father's death, Hatton, his mother, and his younger brother Stewart moved in with his maternal grandmother in Tampa. There he obtained work as a sportswriter for the local newspaper. He would join the Florida National Guard and fought in the Mexican Border War and in France in World War I. Rondo was exposed to Mustard Gas while serving in France and was hospitalized with lung injury which eventually led to a medical discharge and a consigned to a pension. After he was discharged he returned to Florida and became a reporter for the Tampa Tribune. On April 15, 1926 Rondo Married Elizabeth Immell James. Somewhere along this point Rondo developed an ailment known a s acromegaly, it was thought to be due to the Mustard Gas Exposer. Rondo and Elizabeth were divorced on April 15, 1926, it is thought to be due to his acromegaly. Rondo had been reported to be voted the handsomest boy in his High School, eventually became severely disfigured by the disease.

In 1930 while still in Tampa, Rondo was covering the filming of 'Hell Harbor' for his paper and was noticed by director Henry King. King offered Rondo a part in the film 'Hell Harbor'. On September 29, 1934 Rondo married Mabel Housh. In 1936, Rondo and Mabel headed for Hollywood, with the acromegaly (enlarged hands, feet, facial features and internal and external soft tissues), he landed small parts as 'The Leper' in 'The Moon and Sixpence', the 'Hunchback' in 'Sleepy Lagoon' and 'a contestant in an ugly-man contest' in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. In 1944, Rondo got the role as 'Hoston 'The' Creeper' in the Sherlock Holmes film 'The Pearl of Death'. This role came after almost a decade in Hollywood. With the role as 'The Creeper', Universal saw potential as a horror film star. Rondo's career only last two more years and he starred in 'House of Horror and The Brute Man.

Around Christmas 1945 Rondo had a mild heart attack (heart weekness along with diabetes and blindness are common to acromegaly) and seemed to recover, but one month later Rondo suffered a fatal one. Rondo died February 2, 1946 in Beverly Hills, CA of a sever Heart Attack due to his acromegaly at the age of 51. Rondo's body was sent back to Tampa to be buried.

Filmmaker Fred Olen Ray was so interested in Haton's Life that he wrote a very nice article "Rondo Hatton: Monster Man". Also touched by Rondo was Rick Baker (Master Make-up Man). In 1991 while working on 'The Rocketeer" He made actor Tiny Ron have a Hattonesque likensess as homage to 'The Creeper'.

I have always thought that there was so many good films that Rondo could have helped with and probably many that we have never imagined.

A little Jack

2010-05-31T01:10:00.000-07:00

Cartoon

2010-05-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Tom Sutton's pencil with my Inks

2010-05-27T04:56:00.001-07:00

The Young Years

2010-05-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

Watercolor and Acrylic...Lowell, Mass.

2010-05-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

The Pawtucket Falls

Pawtucket Falls is the name of a waterfall on the Merrimack River at Lowell, Massachusetts. The waterfall and rapids below it drop a total of 32 feet in a little under a mile,and was an important fishing ground for the Pennacook Indians in pre-colonial times.

This location was used as a benchmark for delineating the Northern boundary of Massachusetts, which was frequently disputed between the Province of Massachusetts Bay and the Province of New Hampshire. The issue was finally resolved in 1740, when it was decreed that the boundary run along a curved line three miles from the river between the ocean and a point three miles north of Pawtucket Falls, where the river begins to turn north. From there a line was to be drawn due west.

The existence of these falls as a barrier to travel along the river necessitated the construction of the Pawtucket Canal in the last decade of the 18th century. In the 1820s, the falls, the canal, and the hydropower they provided lead to the choosing of this site as America's first planned factory town, Lowell. Over the next 30 years, hydropower from the falls exclusively ran Lowell's numerous textile factories via the city's canal system.

To maximize the head the canals provided, increase volume, and regulate flow, a dam was begun at the top of the falls in the 1820s and was enlarged into the 1840s. The final structure, which exists in the same form today, is a stone dam topped with wooden flashings, capable during much of the year of channeling the entire Merrimack into the canal system. The effect being the Pawtucket Falls are dry. When heavy flow tops the dam, the waterfall created, which is a fraction of the total loss in elevation of 32 feet, is referred to as the Pawtucket Falls.

City Hall

The City of Lowell is the fourth largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its strategic location at the intersections of Routes 495, 93 and 3, provides excellent access to all points of interest in Massachusetts as well as New Hampshire and Maine. Commuter rail also provides an easy 40-minute ride to Boston's North Station.

Lowell's National Park is known as one of the greatest tributes to the Industrial Revolution and the textile industry that boomed in New England in the nineteenth century. The rehabilitated mill buildings are further complemented by 2 1/2 miles of trolley

Crock Logo

2010-05-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

A few more Random

2010-05-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Sketches and Inks

2010-05-22T11:34:00.001-07:00

Random sketches and Inks

2010-05-22T08:10:00.001-07:00

Bela Lugosi / Karloff

2010-05-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

Frazetta, A Great Loss

2010-05-17T00:54:00.001-07:00

He recalled in 2010, a month before his death,

When I drew something, my grandmother would be the one to say it was wonderful and would give me a penny to keep going. Sometimes I had nothing left to draw on but toilet paper. As I got older, I started drawing some pretty wild things for my age. I remember the teachers were always mesmerized by what I was doing, so it was hard to learn anything from them. So I went to art school when I was a little kid, and even there the teachers were flipping out.

Frazetta died of a stroke on May 10, 2010, in a hospital near his residence in Florida

Forrest J Ackerman

2010-03-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

A Little Bill Oakes

2010-03-02T21:16:00.001-08:00

Bill Oakes, 1944-2005, was an artist extraordinaire...a man who was larger than life and a lover of life and all of its gifts. He started out as a graphic artist doing illustrations and was even an accredited courthouse artist for the Watergate trials. One of his works appeared on the cover of the Washington Post. Bill's works appeared in magazines such as Time, National Geographic, Reader's Digest and Yankee. An accomplished representational watercolorist Bill eventually evolved to his present dramatic experimentalist abstract style...the Museum of Science did a major show of his work. A passionate painter, sculptor and photographer, Bill did it all. A true artists' artist...he is missed.

Inks only

2010-01-18T21:31:00.001-08:00

Just a bit of Pooh on this post

2010-01-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

She's a Screamer

2010-01-16T21:31:00.001-08:00

Boris Karloff

2009-12-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

Old Art

2009-07-23T15:29:00.001-07:00

Anita Page (unfinished)

2009-07-23T13:01:00.001-07:00

Animation

2009-07-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Michael Myers

2009-07-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Hands of Orlac

2009-06-30T06:10:00.001-07:00

The Hands of Orlac (Orlacs Hände) (1924)
A concert pianist, Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt), loses his hands in a railway accident. Replacement hands are transplanted onto him in an experimental procedure, but the hands are those of a recently-executed murderer. From now on the pianist is tortured by panic attacks and irrational fears. He believes that with the hands of the murderer he has also gained the murderer's predisposition to killing. Strange signs and bizarre threatening letters reinforce these fears. When his father is killed, with whom he was on bad terms, the pianist is suspected of the murder. He only finds peace by clearing up the plot.

There were two direct remakes:
Mad Love (USA 1935) with Peter Lorre, directed by Karl FreundThe Hands of Orlac / Les mains d'Orlac (GB/FRA 1960) with Mel Ferrer and Christopher Lee, directed by Edmond T. Gréville.

Lon Chaney Jr.

2009-06-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973) was an American character actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of a famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935. Chaney had English, French and Irish ancestry.

Death

At the age of 67, Lon Chaney, Jr. died on July 12, 1973 of heart failure in San Clemente, California.
His body was donated for medical research.

Edgar Allan Poe

2009-02-20T11:32:00.001-08:00

Death of Edgar Allan Poe
On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849, at 5:00 in the morning. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. Some sources say Poe's final words were "Lord help my poor soul. "All medical records, including his death certificate, have been lost. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of the brain" or "cerebral inflammation", common euphemisms for deaths from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. However, the actual cause of death remains a mystery; from as early as 1872, cooping was commonly believed to have been the cause.

Born, January 19, 1809
Boston, Massachusetts, USA Died October 7, 1849 (aged 40)

Died, October 7, 1849 (aged 40)

The Art of Steve Fiorilla 2

2009-02-11T22:03:00.000-08:00

The wind blows through the crumbling canyons in Fiorillaville. The chill drives the inhabitants inside where they huddle around pot-bellied stoves and tell tales about the glorious long-ago lives of their majestic ancestors. It was a time before the Great Fiorilla Madness that changed the world forever...

Here are images found inside a locked metal box under the floorboards of an abandoned house in Fiorillaville. It was reported that the house dematerialized when the box was taken outside.

Testees

2009-01-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

The series follows two friends (Steve Markle and Jeff Kassel) as they work as human test subjects at Testico, a product testing facility. Besides being an obvious play on testes – including the descended double "e" in its logo – the name of the show plays up the vulnerability of test subjects, which is the source of much of the humor in the series.

Peter Cooper (Steve Markle): Peter is somewhat neurotic and awkwardly unsuccessful with women. He seems to dwell on the negative realities in the world, failing to enjoy life in the moment. His negativity is more subtle than aggressive. He’s a good-hearted person. Peter is slightly anti-social. He likes playing video games and DVDs like Girls Gone Wild. Despite his negative traits he’s still likeable and is rarely loud or obnoxious. He’s a bit of a slob and paranoid about the unforeseen effects of the experiments. It’s usually Peter that gets the short end of the stick. Peter has dreams of being rich but doesn’t do anything to get there.

Ron Mitchell (Jeff Kassel): Ron is slightly more normal than Peter. He doesn’t mind being a guinea pig as much as Peter does. He justifies his choice of occupation by deeming it a necessary service to society. He’s generally more composed than his pal and slightly better with women. Most people would admire his loyalty and ethics. Like Peter, he strives for a better life. He’s vaguely more aware of the real world than Peter is but he’s still a complete slacker and a tad naive. In the end he’ll always do what’s right, but it might take him a little time to figure it out.

Episode 6: Herfume
Original Air Date—13 November 2008
Peter and Ron are given a cologne that is supposed to attract women through pheromones. However, it turns out to only work on old, fat, unattractive ones, who are turned into zombie rapists.

Check out other illustrations from the TV series Testees by Jim McDermott and Shawn McManus.

Moe, Larry and Curly

2009-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. They were commonly known by their first names: "Larry, Moe, and Curly", and "Moe, Larry, and Shemp", among other lineups. The act originally featured Moe Howard (born Harry [Moshe] Moses Horwitz in 1897), brother Shemp Howard (born [Shmuel] Samuel Horwitz[1]), and longtime friend Larry Fine (born Louis [Levi] Feinberg). Shemp was later replaced by brother Curly Howard (born Jerome Lester [Yehudah-Leib] Horwitz) October 22, 1903. When Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946, Shemp rejoined the act. After Shemp's death in 1955, he was replaced by bald-headed comedian Joe Besser, after the use of stuntman Joe Palma to record several "Shemp" shorts after his death. Eventually Joe "Curly-Joe" DeRita (born Joseph Wardell) would replace him. After Larry suffered a serious stroke in 1970 he was unable to continue performing. Emil Sitka, a longtime actor in Stooge comedies, was contracted to replace Larry—but no film was ever made with him in the role, although publicity photographs exist of him with his hair combed similarly to Larry's posing with Moe and Curly-Joe. However, Larry's paralyzing stroke in 1970 effectively marked the end of the act. He died in January 1975. Moe died of cancer a few months later.

The Stooges' hallmark was physical slapstick comedy punctuated by quickly-delivered one-liners, within outrageous storylines.

Check out other illustrations from the TV series Testees by Jim McDermott and Shawn McManus.

HEATH LEDGER IS BATMAN'S JOKER FOR THE DARK KNIGHT

2009-01-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

Mr. Moto with Peter Lorre

2009-01-01T15:03:00.000-08:00

* Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)
* Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)
* Mr. Moto's Gamble (1937)
* Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)
* Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)
* Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)
* Danger Island (1939)
* Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)

Frankenstein

2008-12-28T00:41:00.001-08:00

Laurel and Hardy

2008-12-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

Laurel and Hardy were the popular American-based comedy team of thin, British-born Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and heavy, American-born Oliver Hardy (1892-1957). They became famous during the early half of the 20th century for their work in motion pictures and also appeared on stage.

The two comedians worked together briefly in 1920 on The Lucky Dog. After a period appearing separately in several short films for the Hal Roach studio during the 1920s, they began appearing in movie shorts together in 1926. Laurel and Hardy officially became a team the following year, and soon became Hal Roach's most famous and lucrative stars. Among their most popular and successful films were the features Sons of the Desert (1933), Way Out West (1937), and Block-Heads (1938)[1] and the shorts Big Business (1929), Liberty (1929), and their Academy Award-winning short, The Music Box (1932).[2]

The pair left the Roach studio in 1940, then appeared in eight "B" comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1944. From 1945 to 1950 they did not appear on film and concentrated on their stage show. They made their last film, Atoll K, in France in 1950 and 1951 before retiring from the screen. In total they appeared together in 106 films. They starred in 40 short sound films, 32 short silent films, 23 full length feature films, and in the remaining 11 films made guest or cameo appearances.

Boris Karloff in "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde"

2008-12-13T20:57:00.002-08:00

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1953 horror comedy film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, and co-starring Boris Karloff.

Loosely based on the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the film follows the story of two American detectives visiting Edwardian London who become involved with the hunt for Dr. Jekyll, who is responsible for a series of murders.

Unlike in other screen versions of 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde', Jekyll is evil in his own right, instead of being a man split between good and evil personae. He has no qualms about transforming into Mr. Hyde to commit murder.

This film version of Mr. Hyde is an inarticulate, hirsute monster reminiscent of The Wolf Man (When Tubby, in monster form, transforms others into similar creatures by biting them, it is quite reminiscent of werewolf legend); since all of the attacks take place in and around Hyde park he is named "The Hyde Park Monster" by the press, so everyone (even Dr. Jekyll) refer to him as simply "Hyde"

Vincent Price A Portrait Of Horror

2008-12-13T20:57:00.001-08:00

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American film actor, remembered for his distinctive voice, his tall 6-foot 4-inch stature and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films done in the latter part of his career.

Lon Chaney...London After Midnight,

2008-12-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

London After Midnight (1927) is a silent mystery film with horror overtones. The film stars Lon Chaney, Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran and was directed by Tod Browning. It is also a lost film, quite possibly the most famous and eagerly-sought of all lost films. The last known copy was destroyed in a fire in an MGM film vault in 1965.

Larry David

2008-09-13T03:55:00.001-07:00

Charles Laughton

2008-07-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

A versatile English stage and screen actor who made his New York theater debut in 1931's "Payment Deferred" and began a successful Hollywood career the following year. The gifted Laughton became one of the most popular actors of the 1930s and 40s, giving some of his greatest performances playing everything from self-indulgent monarchs ("The Private Life of Henry VIII" 1933) to selfless butlers ("Ruggles of Red Gap" 1935) to modest murderers ("The Suspect" 1945) to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1939). He sometimes displayed a propensity for eye-rolling ham in the later stages of his career, but it was frequently of a delicious variety, and he was always a compelling performer. Late in life he gave two superb performances in "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) and "Advise and Consent" (1962). His single directorial effort was 1955's "Night of the Hunter"; it has become a critical and cult favorite thanks to Laughton's intriguing combination of expressionism and realism, a fine script co-written by James Agee and compelling performances by an excellent cast headed by Robert Mitchum as a psychotic preacher and Lillian Gish as a resolute farm woman.

Jim McDermott Illustration of Lon Chaney Jr. "The Wolfman"

2008-06-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Wolf Man was Lon Chaney Jr.'s second horror movie and his first appearance in the role for which he is best remembered--no doubt because his Larry Talbot, the amiable young man controlled by evil impulses he cannot understand, relies on the actor's own character to generate much the same sort of sympathy as his Lennie in Of Mice and Men (1939), the gentle giant who longs to love but is condemned to kill. The intriguing conception of Larry Talbot as hero / villain is successfully achieved by the fact that Chaney is able to inject individuality into his werewolf--incongruously covered in facial fur with fangs and canine snout yet sporting black shirt and trousers, it seems less an entirely separate entity than an extension of his personality.

The film strengthens the rather weak myth of The Werewolf of London (1935) by replacing the Tibetan flower with a silver-topped cane mounted with the head of a wolf and a five-pointed star, whose implications are cleverly woven through the film. The tragic circle begins when Chaney acquires the cane from the girl he is to fall in love with, Evelyn Ankers, and ends when his own father, Claude Rains, is forced to use it to beat him to death with. At its centre is the atmospheric minatory visit to a gypsy camp in the forest where he is bitten by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi, in a minor role after being slated to play the lead), warned by a fortune-teller, and then finds the pentagram symbol mysteriously imprinted over his heart.

The Wolf Man benefits from a literate script and unusually good cast, but its trump card is the superbly suspenseful atmosphere in which Valentine's camera makes virtuoso use of fog and mist to create an eerie fairytale world out of the quaint little Welsh village, the forbidding baronial hall and the gypsy encampment in a forest clearing. Universal lavished care and money on the film and were rewarded by a box-office success that revived their languishing interest in horror and sparked off their second cycle of movies in the genre.

--PHIL HARDY, ed. from The Encyclopedia of
Horror Films, 1986

Boris, Lorre, Bela and Price

2008-05-20T09:42:00.001-07:00

2008-05-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Lon Chaney Sr. Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)

2008-05-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

Tito, a clown, adopts a girl whom he names Simonetta. The girl matures into an attractive woman, desired by Luigi, a wealthy nobleman. On the eve of her marriage, Simonetta learns that Tito loves her, and she responds, presumably, to avoid hurting him, by declaring that she returns his love. That night, disbelieving her, Tito falls while practicing a familiar trick--sliding down a tightwire--thus freeing Simonetta to marry the count. In an alternative (happy) ending, Tito survives his fall, Simonetta marries Luigi, and they all remain close friends.

Cast:
Lon Chaney (Tito )
Bernard Siegel (Simon )
Loretta Young (Simonetta )
Cissy FitzGerald (Giancinta )
Nils Asther (Luigi )
Gwen Lee (Lucretia )

Fredric March, 1931 "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

2008-05-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Fredric March won an Oscar nomination in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role based upon John Barrymore. He won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1931 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and again in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives. On March 25, 1954, March co-hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards ceremony from New York City, with co-host Donald O'Connor in Los Angeles.
March in A Star is Born (1937)

March was one of the few actors to resist signing long-term contracts with the studios, and was able to freelance and pick and choose his roles, in the process also avoiding typecasting. By this time, he was working on Broadway as often as in Hollywood, and his screen career was not as prolific as it had been.

March, however, won two Best Actor Tony Awards: in 1947 for the play Years Ago, written by Ruth Gordon; and in 1957 for his performance as James Tyrone in the original Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

March's neighbor in Connecticut, playwright Arthur Miller, was thought to favor March to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman (1949). However, March read the play and turned down the role, whereupon director Elia Kazan cast Lee J. Cobb as Willy, and Arthur Kennedy as one of Willy's sons, Biff Loman, two men that the director had worked with in the film Boomerang (1947). March later regretted turning down the role and finally played Willy Loman in Columbia Pictures's 1951 film version of the play, directed by Laslo Benedek. Perhaps March's greatest late-in-life role was in Inherit the Wind (1960), opposite Spencer Tracy.
in Inherit the Wind (1960)

When March underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1972, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last great performance in The Iceman Cometh (1973), as the complicated Irish bartender, Harry Hope. Coincidentally, co-star Robert Ryan was entering the final stages of lung cancer, so the film was the last for both March and Ryan.

March has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1616 Vine Street.

Wally Wood

2008-05-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Steve Fiorilla ....A Little Clay and Rubber

2008-05-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

Steve Fiorilla (born January 12, 1961) is an American artist born in Paterson, New Jersey, who lives and works in Buffalo, New York. Throughout his career, Fiorilla has emphasized the grotesque and surreal in illustrations, sculpture and fine art. As a sculptor, he's produced a variety of bizarre, malformed creatures.
Print
Fiorilla has illustrated for books and magazines (Heavy Metal, Video Games and Computer Entertainment, High Times), T-shirts, small press journals (Eegah!, Magick Theatre, Moody Street Irregulars), catalog covers (Gregg Press), fanzines (Horror from the Crypt of Fear) and mini-comics (City Scenes). One of his 1985 sculptures was featured 12 years later on a cover for the magazine Bloodsongs (1997).
He created numerous drawings and product designs for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, including a belt buckle, T-shirts, caps, ads and catalog illustrations. Fiorilla sometimes works in tandem with illustrator Jim McDermott, such as their collaboration for Stephen J. Spignesi's The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia (1991).
Film and television
Fiorilla's work for films includes sculptural designs for Boston's Olive Jar Animation. The short film Things Never Seen (1989), with creatures designed by Fiorilla, received multiple showings on MTV during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to special effects makeup for videos (Tennie Komar and the Silencers) and films (Winterbeast, 1991), he's designed masks for Death Studios and horror films, including Saturday the 14th (1981) and Till Death Do We Scare (1982).
The MTV animated logo "Guillotine" featured a sculpted horror by Fiorilla, and he also created the customized skeleton guitar writhing in a popular 1987 Dokken video seen on MTV. EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines owned one of Fiorilla's latex masks depicting EC's Old Witch (The Haunt of Fear). In the second season of HBO's Tales from the Crypt anthology television series, a photo of this Old Witch mask was a prop in the June 26, 1990 "Korman's Kalamity" episode, adapted from the EC story "Kamen's Kalamity." Illustrated by Jack Kamen, the original self-satirical story is set in EC's offices where the EC editors have a meeting with Kamen about his artwork.
Miscellaneous work
Buffalo's Low Down Dirty Low Brow Art Show was a 2002 group exhibition "inspired by the artwork of Steve Fiorilla," although he didn't participate in the show. Fiorilla's articles and reviews appear regularly in the online magazine, Flickhead. He also does film reviews under the pseudonym Jacques Corédor (a pun on Samuel Fuller's film Shock Corridor).
Watch

Three Stooges

2008-05-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

SHEMP HOWARD. Nationality: American. Born: Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York, 17 March 1895. Family: Married Gertrude Frank, 1925, one son. Military Service: U.S. Army during World War I. Career: Worked as comic in vaudeville; 1922—worked with Ted Healy; 1938–49—made a number of solo films. Died: 23 November 1955.

MOE HOWARD. Nationality: American. Born: Moses Horwitz in Bensonhurst, New York, 19 June 1897. Family: Married Helen Schonberger, 1925, two children. Career: In show business from age 12: ran errands at Vitagraph studios; worked in various comic and singing acts with Ted Healy. Died: 4 May 1975.

LARRY FINE. Nationality: American. Born: Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 5 October 1902. Family: Married Mabel Haney (died 1967), two children. Died: 24 January 1975.

CURLY HORWITZ. Nationality: American. Born: Jerome Lester Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York, 22 October 1903. Family: Married 1) unknown marriage (annulled); 2) Elaine Ackerman, 1937 (divorced 1940), one daughter; 3) Marion Buxbaum, 1945 (divorced 1946); 4) Valerie Neman, 1947, one daughter. Died: 18 January 1952.

Moe, Larry, and Shemp teamed with Ted Healy in mid-1920s for early Stooges act; 1930—film debut in Soup to Nuts; 1932—Shemp replaced by Curly in the act, and Healy dropped: long series of shorts and features, for MGM, 1933, and Columbia, 1934–57; 1946—Curly retired from the act for health reasons, and was replaced by Shemp; 1955—Joe Besser joined the act after Shemp's death; 1959—Curly Joe DeRita replaced Joe Besser in the act; 1965—made a series of five-minute TV cartoons.

The Dog

2008-05-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

Well... let me start by saying, I think we all have a friend like this.

Margaret Hamilton

2008-04-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

A kindergarten teacher in her native Cleveland, Margaret Hamilton began her acting career there in community theatre and with the prestigious Cleveland Playhouse. In 1933, Hamilton was invited to repeat her stage role of the sarcastic daughter-in-law in the Broadway play Another Language for the MGM film version. Though only in her early '30s, the gloriously unpretty Hamilton subsequently played dozens of busybodies, gossips, old maids, and housekeepers in films bearing such titles as Hat, Coat and Glove (1934), Way Down East (1935) and These Three (1936). She proved an excellent foil for such comedians as W.C. Fields (in 1940's My Little Chickadee) and Harold Lloyd (in 1946's The Sin of Harold Diddlebock). Her most famous film assignment was the dual role of Elvira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in the imperishable 1939 gem The Wizard of Oz -- a role which nearly cost her her life when her green copper makeup caught fire during one of her "disappearance" scenes. She played several smaller but no less impressive roles at 20th Century-Fox, including the first-scene plot motivator in People Will Talk (1951) and Carrie Nation in Wabash Avenue (1950). She alternated her film work with stage assignments in the 1950s and 1960s, frequently returning to her home base at the Cleveland Playhouse. Achieving "icon" status in the 1970s by virtue of The Wizard of Oz, Hamilton sometimes found herself being cast for "camp" effect (e.g. Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud), but also enjoyed some of her best-ever parts, including the role of professorial occult expert in the 1972 TV movie The Night Strangler. Despite her menacing demeanor, Hamilton was a gentle, soft-spoken woman; she was especially fond of children, and showed up regularly on such PBS programs as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. In the 1970s, Margaret Hamilton added another sharply etched portrayal to her gallery of characters as general-store proprietor Cora on a popular series of Maxwell House coffee commercials -- one of which ran during a telecast of The Wizard of Oz! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frankenstien Pencil Sketch

2008-04-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Vincent Price 2

2008-04-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

Vincent Leonard Price was born on May 27th, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri. He went to Yale and travelled all over Europe before making his screen debut in 1938. It was in a small movie called "Service De Luxe". But it wasn't until his next movie that Vincent really got notice. It was a movie called, "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" and it was 1939. Price played Sir Walter Raleigh, and it was a great movie for him. This is because it featured big names such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Leo G. Carroll, Donald Crisp, and Henry Daniell. That same year, Price had a role in "Tower of London". Although the movie isn't very good, Vincent became interested in its genre. . .horror! In 1940, Vincent starred in another disappointing movie, "Hudson's Bay". But also featured in the movie was Gene Tierney, who would be in later movies with Vincent. In 1943, Vincent starred in one of my favorite movies: "The Song of Bernadette". He played hard-hearted Vital Dutour, the Imperial Prosecutor. The film also features magnificent performances by Jennifer Jones, who won an Oscar for her portrayal as Bernadette Soubirous, Gladys Cooper, Charles Bickford, and newcomer Lee J. Cobb.

In 1944, Vincent played Shelby Carpenter in Otto Preminger's classic noir, "Laura". The film also starred Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Judith Anderson. This movie is absoultely wonderful! It features a great cast and a perplexing story. If you've never seen this movie, I think it's Vincent's best!

Also in 1944, Vincent starred with Gregory Peck in the critically acclaimed "Keys of the Kingdom." In 1945, Vincent and Gene Tierney were again co-stars in "Leave Her to Heaven", in which Vincent played Russell Quinton. In 1952, he starred along with Jane Russell in "The Las Vegas Story".

Vincent became known as the horror movie king after this 3-d thriller. He had many successful (and some downright strange) movies for years after this.

100 Yards of Horror!

2008-04-15T09:21:00.002-07:00

Illustration by my good and very Sensitive Friend Shawn McManus.
I headed back from the convenience store through the forest. I could see them lurking in the bushes. Who were they? My imagination began to expand. The Mobile, Alabama Leprecaun was descending from his tree and coming after me. Yee-OW! I tried to go faster, but the gout sent pain radiating through my legs. Now they huddled back into the shadows behind the trees. Were they wearing propellor beanies, or did I imagine that? Could it be... yes, no... gremlins? I was piloting a P-40 for Lt. General Chennault and the Flying Tigers, yes, World War II Flying Tigers, that's the ticket, and the gremlins were on the wing, oh my God, no, NOOOOOooooooo! Get a grip, man. Now they emerged from the shadows... and I saw... that they were only children. Kids holding rocks and branches and metal objects. Batteries? They took aim and began throwing. I wanted to run but I could not. I pulled the hood over my head and continued walking as the hurled objects whizzed past. Only 100 more yards to the house. Could I make it? I limped... only ten feet to the door and safety. Hand on doorknob. Home at last!

You no what? "Troubles don't melt like lemon drops! Little Bastards!

2008-04-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein

2008-04-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (onscreen title: Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein) is a 1948 comedy/horror film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.

This is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's film stable. In the film, they encounter Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolf Man. Subsequent films pair the duo with the Mummy, the Keystone Kops, and the Invisible Man. On a TV special in the early 1950s, the comedy duo did a sketch where they interacted with the latest original Universal Studios monster being promoted at the time, the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The film is considered the swan song for the "Big Three" Universal horror monsters – Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster – although it does not appear to fit within the loose continuity of the earlier films.

The film was re-released in 1956 along with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In September 2007, Reader’s Digest selected the movie as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time.

Orson Welles, Man in the Shadow

2008-03-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

Man in the Shadow is a 1957 thriller starring Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, Ben Alexander, and John Larch.

The cow town of Spurline is effectively ruled by Virgil Renchler (Orson Welles), owner of the Golden Empire ranch. One night, some of Renchler's hands beat a young laborer, Juan Martín, to death. The newly elected sheriff of Spurline, Ben Sadler (Jeff Chandler), decides to investigate the matter. During his investigation, he must contend with Renchler's henchmen and the fierce opposition of the townspeople, who fear Spurline would be ruined without the Golden Empire's business.

Blue Demon

2008-03-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Jack and his Friends are Back

2008-02-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

John Joseph Nicholson' (born April 22, 1937), known as Jack Nicholson, is a three time Academy Award-winning American actor, internationally renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters. He is widely recognized as being one of the greatest actors of his generation.

He has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times and has won three times (twice for Best Actor and once as Best Supporting Actor). He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three), and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (four). He is also one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, As Good as It Gets, Tim Burton's Batman, Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men and Martin Scorsese's The Departed.

James Woods' career has been noted for the intense characters he has chosen, the earliest of which was his portrayal of a sadistic murderer in 1979's The Onion Field. He appeared in an episode of The Rockford Files, playing a son whose parents were murdered and wants James "Jim" Rockford to find the murderer. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice: the first in 1987 for Best Actor in Salvador and again in 1996 for Best Supporting Actor for his acclaimed performance as Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi. He has also garnered critical praise for his voice work for Hades in Disney's Hercules. His personal favorite of all of his roles, however, is as the domineering gangster Max in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon A Time In America (1984).

He was briefly considered for the role of The Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for the Batman film in 1989. Hamm recalls that he and Burton thought, "James Woods would be good and wouldn't need any makeup, which would save a couple of hours' work every morning." The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson.[6] Quentin Tarantino wrote a part in Reservoir Dogs with Woods in mind, but his agent rejected the script without showing it to the actor. When Woods learned of this some time later, he fired the agent. Woods was also considered for the part of Donald Kimball in American Psycho, but he turned it down. The part was given to Willem Dafoe.

James Woods' appeared as himself in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer and Apu" and in an episode of Family Guy entitled "Peter's Got Woods". The high school in Family Guy is also named James Woods High after him. In 2006, Woods starred opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the political thriller End Game. Also in 2006, Woods played himself in the premiere episode of Entourage's third season. He also starred in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as Mike Toreno and voiced the falcon in Stuart Little 2.

Woods stars in the new CBS legal drama Shark. Woods plays an infamous Los Angeles defense lawyer who, growing disillusioned, becomes a prosecutor. The Shark pilot episode was directed by Spike Lee.

Willem Dafoe'
After touring with Theatre X for four years in the United States and Europe, he moved to New York City and joined the Performance Group. Dafoe's film career began in 1981, when he was cast in Heaven's Gate, but his role was removed from the film during editing. In the mid 80`s he was cast by famed Director William Friedkin to star in the classic film "To Live And Die In LA" where Willem Dafoe delivers one of his greatest performances ever as the ace counterfeiter Rick Masters. A year later he starred as the leader of a motorcycle gang in The Loveless (and later played a similar role in Streets of Fire), but his first breakthrough film role was as the compassionate Sergeant Elias in Platoon (1986). In 1988 Dafoe starred in another movie set in Vietnam, this time as CID Agent Buck McGriff in Off Limits. He has since become a popular character actor; due to his harsh facial features and crooked smile, he is often typecast as unstable or villainous characters, such as the psychotic Green Goblin in the Spider-Man film series and Barillo in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Before that, he was briefly considered for the role of The Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for the Batman film in 1989. Hamm recalls "We thought, 'Well, Willem Dafoe looks just like The Joker.'" The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson.[3] He also played Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He once remarked "To this day, I can't believe I was so brazen to think I could pull off the Jesus role", though Dafoe received acclaim despite the controversy surrounding the film.

He starred in the erotic drama Body of Evidence with Madonna. In this film, he appeared totally nude, as well as giving Madonna cunnilingus in a famous scene in a carpark. In 1991 Willem Dafoe delivered another outstanding performance in the role as a Manhattan, New York drug dealer in the film "Light Sleeper". This film received very good reviews by both critics and fans alike. Dafoe played peculiar detectives in The Boondock Saints (1999) and in American Psycho (2000). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for Platoon and 2000 for Shadow of the Vampire. After Spider-Man, Dafoe had a rare opportunity to play a heroic film role when he provided the voice of Gill in the animated movie Finding Nemo.

He worked briefly as a model in a 1990 Prada campaign. In 2004, Dafoe lent his likeness and voice for the highly successful James Bond video game Everything or Nothing as villain Nikolai Diavolo. In 2006, he played NYPD detective Stan Aubray on the hunt for a serial killer, the lead in New York-set thriller Anamorph, opposite Scott Speedman and Peter Stormare. In his most recent film he stars alongside Rowan Atkinson in the sequel to 1997's Bean, Mr. Bean's Holiday which was released worldwide 30 March 2007.

Frankenstein (unfinished art)

2007-12-27T18:34:00.001-08:00

Boris Karloff-(The Mummy)

2007-12-20T01:55:00.001-08:00

The Mummy very closely parallels the studio's classic from the year before, Dracula. Karl Freund, cinematographer for Dracula, was the director of The Mummy and scenes very much resemble each other. Some cast members of Dracula, such as David Manners and Edward Van Sloan, appear in similar roles. Some critics have called The Mummy an instant remake of Dracula, produced so the studio could cash in.

The Mummy was not based on an earlier novel or play, but those familiar with the lesser known works of Arthur Conan Doyle may notice some striking similarities between the film and Doyle's short story "The Ring Of Thoth" (to be found in "The Captain Of The Polestar"). If there is any debt on the part of the film's writers, it has never been acknowledged.

The film used names for the mummy and his wife from history and from word play. The name "Ardath Bey" is a pig Latin rendering of Karloff's often-mimicked pronunciation of his own first name and also an anagram of "death by Ra". Imhotep, the mummy's real name, was the first famous Egyptian architect, living in the Old Kingdom, while Ankhesenamun was the wife of the pharaoh Tutankhamun from the New Kingdom.

Although the Mummy wasn't on screen for more than ten minutes (and for long shots a wrapped dummy appears to have been used), Boris Karloff wore a whole body suit and a highly elaborate eight-hour makeup job for the short time he was on screen.

Boris Karloff was billed as KARLOFF on film posters, dropping his first name for several years during this period when his career was at its height before reverting back to both names by the time Son of Frankenstein was produced.

Santa Claus

2007-12-08T00:10:00.000-08:00

Santa

2007-12-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

2007-11-17T18:20:00.001-08:00

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris) is an 1831 French novel written by Victor Hugo. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The book tells the story of a poor Gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and a misshapen bell-ringer (Quasimodo) who are both victimized by a corrupt priest (Claude Frollo). The book is largely a work of social criticism

Humphrey Bogart

2007-11-17T16:27:00.001-08:00

The man who would tell Ingrid Bergman, "Here's Looking at You, Kid," at the conclusion of Casablanca (1942) was born Humphrey DeForest Bogart in 1899. He would become one of the twentieth century's greatest icons of tough masculinity, a complex blend of "good guy" and "bad guy" at a time when World War II had many Americans re-examining their personal codes of loyalty, honor, and character. Underneath his coarse exterior, Bogart, or simply "Bogie," betrayed an underdog vulnerability and a genuine desire to find the "right" answer in a world that was increasingly chaotic and off-kilter. The star was also well known for his celebrated marriage to co-star Lauren Bacall, whose sultry wit reflected his cynicism but who always drew out his romantic, heroic side.

Although Bogart became known for playing brutish characters from the wrong side of town, he was raised in the world of upper-middle -class New York City. He was eventually expelled from the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and joined the Navy for service during World War I. It was in the war that he suffered an injury which left his lip slightly paralyzed, resulting in the stiff and affected facial gestures which became one of the actor's trademarks.
Bogart began his career on stage in the 1920s and entered Hollywood by playing minor roles a decade later. But when Leslie Howard lobbied for him to co-star in The Petrified Forest (1935), he proved that he was well-suited for gangster or villain characters. He generally played this type until High Sierra (1941) in which he (with the film's screenwriter John Huston) developed a trope of masculinity which was complicated by ambivalence, pragmatism, and complex moral fortitude. Here, Bogart starred as Mad Dog Earle, an ex-convict on the run and destined for his own demise, who lays bare a particular emotional sensitivity through his sympathy for a simpler, gentler Joan Leslie. He continued to develop his star persona through this kind of role in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1941), both of which are considered his watershed films. Though he maintained a turbulent relationship with Warner Brothers, the studio which helped forge his image, Bogart made a comfortable fit with its house style which relied on the gangster genre and films which drew on the topical social problems of the day.

A bit of Frankenstein

2007-11-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Marilyn Manson

2007-11-07T03:50:00.000-08:00

The Mummy

2007-11-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Archeologists in recent years have tried to resolve lingering questions over how he died and his precise royal lineage. Several books and documentaries dedicated to the young pharaoh, who is believed to have been the 12th ruler of ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty and ascended to the throne around the age of 8, are popular around the world.
In an effort to try to solve the mysteries, scientists removed Tut's mummy from his tomb and placed it into a portable CT scanner for 15 minutes in 2005 to obtain a three-dimensional image. The scans were the first done on an Egyptian mummy.
The results did rule out that Tut was violently murdered — but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C. Experts for the time though suggested that days before dying, Tut badly broke his left thigh, apparently in an accident, that may have caused a fatal infection.
The CT scan also provided the most revealing insight yet into the life of ancient Egypt's most famous king. He was well-fed, healthy, yet slightly built, standing at 5 feet, 6 inches tall at the time of his death. The scan also showed he had the typical overbite characteristic of other kings from his family, large incisor teeth and his lower teeth were slightly misaligned.
The unveiling of Tut's mummy comes amid a frenzy of international publicity for the boy king. A highly publicized museum exhibit traveling the globe drew more than 4 million people during the initial four-city American-leg of the tour. The exhibit will open later this month in London and after it will make a three-city encore tour in the U.S. beginning with the Dallas Museum of Art.

Jack Kerouac

2007-10-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. As the author of the infamous novel, On the Road, Kerouac became a leader and a spokesperson for the Beat Movement.

He was educated at Columbia University and the novel, On the Road - a semi-autobiographical tome of prose - exemplified the carefree, Beat lifestyle. The main character in this story hitchhikes across the country with his friend Dean Moriarty (inspired by fellow Beat adventurer, Neal Cassady) and enjoys casual friendships, love affairs and experiences. The non-materialistic lifestyles of the protagonists were embraced by many readers and helped propel Kerouac's status into an almost mythical realm.

He learned English as a second language: his parents were French-Canadian. He also spent some time in the Navy where he was then discharged due to possessing a schizoid personality. Soon after, he became a merchant seaman and then decided on the life of a vagabond, from which he obtained inspiration for his later novels.

His first book was published in 1950 and titled The Town and the City. It is said that Kerouac struggled with conformity and rejected the then contemporary fictional standards. On the Road was written in less than three weeks and demonstrated a fresh style. This new writing was spontaneous and seemed to be at times unedited. It possessed a strange energy that shocked more established writers but only brought Kerouac well-deserved recognition.

Alfred Hitchcock

2007-10-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

James Cagney

2007-10-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

I've long admired his cocky attitude and herky-jerky movements, the epitome of rough and tumble manhood. Cagney's energetic acting style with staccato delivery and raspy voice became synonymous with the Hollywood "tough guy" role. Will Rogers once said of him, "Every time I see him work, it looks to me like a bunch of firecrackers going off all at once." He was a Warner Brothers mainstay for many years as the studio was setting the standard for crime drama (gangster flicks). He made 38 films for Warners between 1930 and 1941. However, Mr. Cagney was not content to play just one kind of part and proved his versatility by portraying George M. Cohan in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy, for which he won a well deserved Oscar for his singing and dancing, as well as his acting. He also was a great light comedian in such films as The Strawberry Blonde and The Bride Came C.O.D..

James Francis Cagney, Jr., born on July 17, 1899, was the child of an Irish father and Norwegian mother and was raised on New York's Lower Eastside. He did many odd jobs to support his family. He worked as a waiter, poolroom racker, and even as a female impersonator. He joined the chorus of the Broadway show Pitter-Patter and did a vaudeville tour with Frances, his wife. In the mid 1920's Cagney had begun to play leads on Broadway. He was quite successful in the musical Penny Arcade and was cast in the renamed film version Sinner's Holiday. He was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers and his role as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy made him a star. He went on to star in such classics as Angels With Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties, White Heat, Love Me or Leave Me and Man of a Thousand Faces. He directed 1957's Short Cut to Hell. Cagney retired in 1961 after making the farce One, Two, Three. He received the AFI's Life Achievement Award in 1974, was honored by the Kennedy Center in 1980, and in 1984 received the United States government's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. His autobiography Cagney on Cagney was published in 1975. He made a big screen comeback in 1981's Ragtime and starred in the small screen movie "Terrible Joe Moran" in 1984. He died of a heart attack on his farm in upstate New York on March 30, 1986. President Ronald Reagan delivered the eulogy at his funeral and said, "America lost one of her finest artists".

Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto

2007-10-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

Mr. Moto was a mild-mannered, Japanese detective that was the basis for a series of eight films (1937-39) by Twentieth Century-Fox from the stories of novelist John P. Marquand. Peter Lorre portrays Kentaro Moto (I.A. Moto in Marquand's novels), who was very much unlike Charlie Chan in that he was the master of disguises and physically more active, often using ju-jistsu.

It is seldom clear for whom Moto really works. Perhaps it is the International Police. In the first two films, he refers to himself an importer. When asked if he is a detective in the film Think Fast, Mr. Moto, he replies that it done only as a hobby. On other occasions, Moto claims to be a confidential investigator for the International Association of Importers, a member of the International Police, a college lecturer in criminology, and a managing director of the Dai Nippon Trading Company, which probably serves as a front for his activities with the International Police. However, in The Return of Mr. Moto, it is clear that Moto works for Interpol. In the novels, he is a Japanese agent in the service of the Emperor.

Many of the actors and crew members who were associated with the Charlie Chan series at Twentieth Century-Fox were also involved with the Mr. Moto films. Most notable of the actors and actresses were Thomas Beck, Harold Huber, Erik Rhodes, Virginia Field, Murray Kinnell, and Lionel Atwill. Even Keye Luke, who had already appeared as Number One son Lee Chan in eight films with Warner Oland, reprised his role as Lee Chan in Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938), much of which was salvaged from Charlie Chan at the Ringside, a 1938 movie project that never was completed.

The following are the eight Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre:

* Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)
* Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)
* Mr. Moto's Gamble (1937)
* Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)
* Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)
* Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)
* Danger Island (1939)
* Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)

Fee Fi Fo... Fiorilla!

2007-09-24T15:10:00.002-07:00

Well ever since I first met Steve he has illustrated for books and magazines (Heavy Metal, Video Games and Computer Entertainment, High Times), T-shirts, small press journals (Eegah!, Magick Theatre, Moody Street Irregulars), catalog covers (Gregg Press), fanzines (Horror from the Crypt of Fear) and mini-comics (City Scenes). One of his 1985 sculptures was featured 12 years later on a cover for the magazine Bloodsongs (1997).

He created numerous drawings and product designs for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, including a belt buckle, T-shirts, caps, ads and catalog illustrations. Fiorilla sometimes works in tandem with illustrator Jim McDermott, such as their collaboration for Stephen J. Spignesi's The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia (1991)

Here is one or the last color illustrations I completed with Steve
Fiorilla in 1998. Steve did all the creature pencil designs for the
art, and I finished with the remaining pencils and ink/color. Click
to see some of Steve's fantastic Pencil details on this.

-- Jim McDermott
.
Fiorilla has illustrated for books and magazines (Heavy Metal, Video Games and Computer Entertainment, High Times), T-shirts, small press journals (Eegah!, Magick Theatre, Moody Street Irregulars), catalog covers (Gregg Press), fanzines (Horror from the Crypt of Fear) and mini-comics (City Scenes). One of his 1985 sculptures was featured 12 years later on a cover for the magazine Bloodsongs (1997).

Fiorilla's work for films includes sculptural designs for Boston's Olive Jar Animation. The short film Things Never Seen (1989), with creatures designed by Fiorilla, received multiple showings on MTV during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to special effects makeup for videos (Tennie Komar and the Silencers) and films (Winterbeast, 1991), he has designed masks for Death Studios and horror films, including Saturday the 14th (1981) and Till Death Do We Scare (1982).

The MTV animated logo "Guillotine" featured a sculpted horror by Fiorilla, and he also created the customized skeleton guitar writhing in a popular 1987 Dokken video seen on MTV.

EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines owned one of Fiorilla's latex masks depicting EC's Old Witch (The Haunt of Fear). In the second season of HBO's Tales from the Crypt anthology television series, a photo of this Old Witch mask was a prop in the June 26, 1990 "Korman's Kalamity" episode, adapted from the EC story "Kamen's Kalamity." Illustrated by Jack Kamen, the original self-satirical story is set in EC's offices where the EC editors have a meeting with Kamen about his artwork.

Throughout his career, Fiorilla has emphasized the grotesque and surreal in illustrations, sculpture and fine art. As a sculptor, he has produced a variety of bizarre, malformed creatures.

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