Greenbriar images of the past month took a powder this weekend and remain AWOL. It's a problem faced by many in the blogging community, and efforts are being made to resolve it. Google techs are on the job and assure us the problem can and will be fixed. Greenbriar has experienced blackouts of one sort or another, many in fact, since 2005 when doors opened. I've stuck with Google since they took over hosting duties, as they have been efficient and responsive to user needs. Fortunately, Greenbriar archives are intact with photos, ads, etc. still on view (comment pages also operative). It is just April entries and a few from March that are affected. There will be a new column to go up as soon as things are back to normal. Like the voice says as we wait interminably for live operators, "Thank You For Your Patience." UPDATE --- 4/23 --- The problem still isn't fixed, as is evident below, but I am able to upload new posts, as in evident above. The humorous take-off on The Satan Bug ("The Google Bug") comes courtesy Griff.
I think I still have a a little box of intermission slides from Blackhawk, along with a set of advertising slides from the 20s. They came from Blackhawk films. Never had an opportunity to actually show them; hard enough to hold an audience with the 8mm projector and barely appropriate music on the record player.
A DVD I always sought but never found would be a good, curated collection of intermissions, separated by hardtop and drive-in and sorted by decade. Something Weird Video put out some DVD-Rs that featured heaps of good stuff, but randomly mixed with bad and incomplete footage without even chapter breaks. Early on, SWV and a few others issued double features of low-grade PD and exploitation films with a "genuine" intermission between them, but the ones I saw were not that persuasive (Did grindhouses bother with such niceties?). One can find a few others on Amazon, but they tend to look dodgy and have negative reviews.
Speculation: There's trademark or copyright tied to promos featuring (and made by?) Coca Cola, Pepsi, and other branded treats. Also, it seems the legendary "Let's All Go to the Lobby" is still under copyright. So mainstream DVD companies might have decided, based on either investigation or simple assumption, a proper intermission show as a bonus feature would be too expensive and troublesome.
Thunderbean's "Lantz Studio Treasures" includes a couple of 1950s Coca Cola commercials that look like they were meant for theaters: quick, wordless riffs on Ali Baba and Red Riding Hood that end with everybody drinking Coke. If you're doing a double feature at home, one of those might help set the mood.
Has anybody viewed the Hal Roach Harry Langdon shorts yet? I have, and I enjoyed them. They do support the idea that Langdon was not a comic desperately chasing pathos, but a genuinely odd comic mind. The commentaries state that the series was successful and Roach exercised his option for another year, but ended up releasing Langdon to make features elsewhere -- one of many mistakes in Langdon's life.
Anyway, the last short is titled "The King", with Langdon playing a childish, mischievous monarch eluding his shrewish queen, played by Thelma Todd. A sudden thought occurred: It is possible that this started out as an official adaptation of "The Little King", the popular newspaper strip? Cartoonist Otto Soglow was certainly open for business. There was a series of animated shorts from Van Beuren and the Little King was later "auditioned" in a Betty Boop short (Henry and Little Jimmy also appeared with Boop. The Fleischers were obviously hoping for another Popeye).
Granted, Langdon doesn't resemble the fat little fellow with a pointed beard. But he does channel the semi-innocent bad boy of the comic. Audiences might have accepted him as the Hollywood version. Another possibility: Roach may have considered a better physical match for the part, then switched to Langdon when a deal to use the comic character fell through -- if they were indeed planning on a deal.
I'm sorry Donald, but there is no evidence at all to indicate that Harry Langdon's THE KING has anything at all to do with THE LITTLE KING comic strip. THE KING is really a reworking of a silent Harry Langdon comedy called SOLDIER MAN where he plays another addle-pated monarch with an angry Queen looking to do him harm. I think the fact that THE KING was shot in February,1930 and released June 14,1930 when Otto Soglow's comic strip character didn't even make it's first appearance in THE NEW YORKER until June 7, 1930 makes it rather impossible for it to have been an influence on Harry Langdon.
Greenbriar images of the past month took a powder this weekend and remain AWOL. It's a problem faced by many in the blogging community, and efforts are being made to resolve it. Google techs are on the job and assure us the problem can and will be fixed. Greenbriar has experienced blackouts of one sort or another, many in fact, since 2005 when doors opened. I've stuck with Google since they took over hosting duties, as they have been efficient and responsive to user needs. Fortunately, Greenbriar archives are intact with photos, ads, etc. still on view (comment pages also operative). It is just April entries and a few from March that are affected. There will be a new column to go up as soon as things are back to normal. Like the voice says as we wait interminably for live operators, "Thank You For Your Patience."
7 Comments:
Too bad the glitch precludes you from posting some of those old intermission slides like,
PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE WE CHANGE REELS
PLEASE VISIT OUR SNACK BAR IN THE LOBBY
LADIES WILL PLEASE REMOVE THEIR HATS
DON'T SPIT ON THE FLOOR - REMEMBER THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
Maybe you could put one of 'em in the masthead!
Will the help desk restore the photos, or do you have to do it?
I think the photos will be restored as they were, and it won't be necessary for me to replace them. At least, I am hoping that will be the case.
I think I still have a a little box of intermission slides from Blackhawk, along with a set of advertising slides from the 20s. They came from Blackhawk films. Never had an opportunity to actually show them; hard enough to hold an audience with the 8mm projector and barely appropriate music on the record player.
A DVD I always sought but never found would be a good, curated collection of intermissions, separated by hardtop and drive-in and sorted by decade. Something Weird Video put out some DVD-Rs that featured heaps of good stuff, but randomly mixed with bad and incomplete footage without even chapter breaks. Early on, SWV and a few others issued double features of low-grade PD and exploitation films with a "genuine" intermission between them, but the ones I saw were not that persuasive (Did grindhouses bother with such niceties?). One can find a few others on Amazon, but they tend to look dodgy and have negative reviews.
Speculation: There's trademark or copyright tied to promos featuring (and made by?) Coca Cola, Pepsi, and other branded treats. Also, it seems the legendary "Let's All Go to the Lobby" is still under copyright. So mainstream DVD companies might have decided, based on either investigation or simple assumption, a proper intermission show as a bonus feature would be too expensive and troublesome.
Thunderbean's "Lantz Studio Treasures" includes a couple of 1950s Coca Cola commercials that look like they were meant for theaters: quick, wordless riffs on Ali Baba and Red Riding Hood that end with everybody drinking Coke. If you're doing a double feature at home, one of those might help set the mood.
Has anybody viewed the Hal Roach Harry Langdon shorts yet? I have, and I enjoyed them. They do support the idea that Langdon was not a comic desperately chasing pathos, but a genuinely odd comic mind. The commentaries state that the series was successful and Roach exercised his option for another year, but ended up releasing Langdon to make features elsewhere -- one of many mistakes in Langdon's life.
Anyway, the last short is titled "The King", with Langdon playing a childish, mischievous monarch eluding his shrewish queen, played by Thelma Todd. A sudden thought occurred: It is possible that this started out as an official adaptation of "The Little King", the popular newspaper strip? Cartoonist Otto Soglow was certainly open for business. There was a series of animated shorts from Van Beuren and the Little King was later "auditioned" in a Betty Boop short (Henry and Little Jimmy also appeared with Boop. The Fleischers were obviously hoping for another Popeye).
Granted, Langdon doesn't resemble the fat little fellow with a pointed beard. But he does channel the semi-innocent bad boy of the comic. Audiences might have accepted him as the Hollywood version. Another possibility: Roach may have considered a better physical match for the part, then switched to Langdon when a deal to use the comic character fell through -- if they were indeed planning on a deal.
I'm sorry Donald, but there is no evidence at all to indicate that Harry Langdon's THE KING has anything at all to do with THE LITTLE KING comic strip. THE KING is really a reworking of a silent Harry Langdon comedy called SOLDIER MAN where he plays another addle-pated monarch with an angry Queen looking to do him harm. I think the fact that THE KING was shot in February,1930 and released June 14,1930 when Otto Soglow's comic strip character didn't even make it's first appearance in THE NEW YORKER until June 7, 1930 makes it rather impossible for it to have been an influence on Harry Langdon.
RICHARD M ROBERTS
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