Ads and Oddities #4

Ad/Odds: Hopalong Cassidy, Design for Death, The Outlaw, and Sarong Revue

YEAR-ROUND HOPPY HOLIDAY --- Show me someone who to this late day collects Hopalong Cassidy merchandise, omitting those passed whose heirs dump precious cargo onto eBay or elsewhere. They say Elvis records from the fifties went same route, as in who cares now and how much will you give for the lot? If someone drove up and offered me the completist ever collection of Hoppy merchandise, would I bite, or even discuss biting? I remember a Columbus con where the paper auction featured a Roy Rogers accumulation from years a late fan dedicated toward having it all, and what happened? You might guess. One was either there for Roy, or Hoppy, or not. Hoppy had one, several, epochs, a first when he launched in 1936 for Paramount, then after the war when William Boyd bought the negatives and brought Hoppy roaring back to television viewership many times the number of those who watched him in theatres. This was popularity beyond anything previously witnessed for a cowboy. Others had lunch boxes sure, maybe comic books, bric/brac here or there, but nothing like seismic shift brought on by Hopalong Cassidy as a new generation’s idol. The event was so large as to inspire a movie spoof, Callaway Went Thataway, the Citizen Kane of sagas spun off an old-time western star who was not what his image seemed. They say Boyd, at least his handlers, reacted Hearst-like to humor near the knuckle which caused MGM to add disclaimers for Callaway. Look at variety of product under Cassidy banner --- everything but a Hoppy tuxedo and evening gown for Dick or Jane. I like the “Slick-Up Kit” to promote good grooming, and the “Bath Roundup to Make Bathing Fun for Junior.” What would such Loot of the World, to borrow for Kane’s newsreel narrator, come to in eBay dollars? Could it all be catalogued and appraised? Kidding of course, but if this were thirty-forty years ago, I’d be asking straight-faced, and Hoppy hunters still on the job would answer.

DESIGN FOR DEATH (1947) --- Outrage documentaries were still catnip well after the war, real-life atrocity a gift to keep giving. Did Design for Death really win an Academy Award? Makes me kind of want to see it, except nobody seems willing to present it, at least streaming or broadcast on TCM. Maybe Design for Death would be a hotter potato now than when new. In any case, it probably would not be worth the guff of tracking down. Imagine an “Oscar Month” featuring Design for Death, TCM cheerleaders gathered for a “responsible” introduction explaining necessary context and “problematic” aspects. Exploitation features belong to their time for sure. Most couldn’t get a pass except in plain brown wrapper that is small label discs. Look at this doozy of an ad however. Aggressor Nations Plot War! One guess, maybe two, as to who they’re referring to. Then there’s venerable “Captured Secret Jap Films” as if a previous war was ongoing still. Had the government urged restraint in this area? Conflict was after all over. Why fan old flames? “Police-State War Rackets” has entertainment possibilities that sort of foretells The Third Man to come. You could call Design for Death a scare film … in fact, let’s definitely call Design for Death a scare film. Do note these credits --- Dr. Seuss and his wife wrote it! That is surely one for Ripley. Richard Fleischer co-produced. I should check his memoir to see if Design for Death is covered. With such talent aboard, Design for Death was no catch-penny project. It only looks like one. Check the supporting program, five units of fun with swing, Leon Errol, and cartoons to rinse off with.

THE OUTLAW (1943) --- For whatever good or bad reason, I have never sat through this notorious event of a western. Maybe missing out on the forties and billboards splayed everywhere made me self-conscious for not knowing the real show that was publicity for Jane Russell as directed by Howard Hughes, who took charge after Howard Hawks had enough and walked off. The Outlaw floated around theatres for many years, especially I suspect in the southland, our Starlight Drive-In using it as late as 1974. Public domain status enabled stations to rely upon The Outlaw rather than pay for better product, but today is not to praise or damn, but to recognize one among what surely were thousands of arresting ads sent out on behalf of a greatest tease in so-far history of film. This was for an early San Francisco engagement in 1943, no doubt a Hughes test run to see what he could get away with on the promoting end. You can bet there was nothing in the movie to measure against depiction here of Jane Russell, but wait … how do we know how much Outlaw they saw in Frisco? Surely multiple versions played prior to a final and general release three years later. Someone could write a book on the checkered exhibition history of The Outlaw. Hughes had boldness his money made possible and did not answer to anyone. Others no matter maverick reputations toadied to somebody, in any event to wider corporate interests. Hughes was his own vast corporation, pity that for all his panache and talent, he was not a sane man. The Outlaw shows up often on TCM. Is their print good? If there’s an “owner,” at least of original elements, it would be Universal, as they have most of the rest of Hughes.

JUNGLE DUO --- Couple of spoiled boys in the neighborhood (more so even than me) had an 8mm film called Jungle Witch, unknown quantity because when was there ever a movie called Jungle Witch? Some of us were invited to watch eight minutes where among other things a gorilla killed natives and maybe Buster Crabbe was in for a look. Latter query suggested the feature from which Jungle Witch was culled went by name Nabonga, a PRC circa 1944 that featured Crabbe and “introduced” Julie London. What difference did titles make? Hardly mattered if there ever was a Jungle Witch. Showmen felt largely the same when such pictures were new or nearly so, per here combo of “Swamp Woman” and “Jungle Man.” I won’t hazard a guess as to identity of the two features --- they’d suffice for this occasion and maybe other where what you saw mattered less than getting a load off feet or catching winks between plant shifts. I’ll guess this was wartime and minds were on something other than silly happenings on screen. Reaction might have approximated mine twenty years later for Jungle Witch. There actually was a Crabbe vehicle called Jungle Man that PRC released in 1941, but I’ve got a guess this show could have been anything of Buster in pithy headgear. Swamp Woman came also of PRC, with Ann Corio, who stripped for burlesque when not jungle engaged. Her work and identity were called “exotic,” and customers could and often did pay into theatres hoping she would do something up to then forbidden in movies. “Sarong Revue” sums these up, and I give the Studio Theatre credit for programming and ad design. Note doors unlocked at 9:30 am and “Open All Night,” clean-up crews busy during interim.