Lady In Cement is a 1968 detective film, directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel and Richard Conte. A sequel to the 1967 film Tony Rome, and based on the novel by Marvin H. Albert, Lady In Cement was released on November 20th 1968.

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Amazon Specials!

I can honestly say without hyperbole that I have seen the face of a Goddess in the form of Raquel Welch, whose 1970 TV special, RAQUEL! must be considered the pinnacle of the musical variety oeuvre. Yes, yes, we all knew about her dynamic thespic graces and feral full-bodiness, but did you know she could sing and dance too? Leave it to the multi-faceted Welch to interpret “California Dreaming” amid the gray streets of Paris with thoughtful new lyrics (“I looked into a church/I passed along the way/Oh my mind was so at ease/And I recalled the day.”) and an unthought of space-age performance dance a’ go-go in NASA-realistic Bob Mackie outfits.

The literal peak of the special must be Raquel! as a sacrificial Goddess leading a troupe of costumed Zodiac figures in an epic rendition of “Aquarius” set on the steps of an actual Aztec pyramid in Teotihuacan. You’ll wonder who or what was sacrificed to produce this spectacular pop desecration. I can almost see the virgin blood spilling down the stone ruins as Raquel! guides us through the astrological spirit world as only someone of her mystic power could. The Aztec dance number threatens to achieve almost 30 seconds of artful subtly as the camera pulls back from the pyramid lined with colorful zodiac characters, flying away from Raquel!’s distant Goddess frame overlooking the sacred temple until the entire ancient landscape spreads out in windy silence. Aquarius.

And if that’s not enough to alter the history of song interpretation, how about Raquel! schlussing like George Lazenby’s stunt double through blankets of powdery Aspen snow as she sings Helen Reddy’s “Peaceful”? She then launches her own brand of fabulous vocal earnestness on “The Sounds Of Silence,” “Here Comes The Sun,” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.” That’s not all folks. You’ll know you have approached the lip of Valhalla once John Wayne saunters out to teach Raquel! how to properly shoot and kill using stock footage before we cut to our dynamic duo visiting a Mexican orphanage, dispensing their own brand of Amurrican charity, Movie Star style. She genuflects for a daringly humble moment as all these brave children must have found a home in her heart.

Oh and did I mention Tom Jones? Perhaps I shouldn’t because only he manages to douse Raquel!’s talent bonfire — she doesn’t need HIM. Especially in a duet of  “Tutti Frutti.”

This is not all fun and wonder though. As Raquel! savors her version of “Everybody’s Talkin’” we get a rarified glimpse into her fish-bowl existence of press and flesh huggers as she dispenses the fruits of her wisdom tree, even dissing Hugh Hefner with a pithy, succinct, “I don’t agree with his philosophy, but the paper it’s printed on is very good.” This is a wonderful introspective glance at her mad-cap, pell-mell, jet-set, famous-person life-style. And she eschews the phrase “sex-symbol” since to her mind, that’s what they call a bosomy star who doesn’t fit into easily quantifiable categories. Did the Duke and those orphans know that the same year Raquel! was delivering her cosmic message to the masses, she would also play the title role of the X-rated, MYRA BRECKENRIDGE, featuring a scene with her in a Miss America bikini as she woops it up anally raping a male actor with a strap-on dildo? Perhaps it best they didn’t know; the turbulent 1970 universe could only handle so much cultural schizophrenia.

Speaking of climaxes, RAQUEL! winds up to her special’s penultimate number as she sings and shimmies with Bob Hope in a Western duet massacre of “Rocky Racoon” replete with Welch as Mae West and Hope as…Bob Hope. Did television audiences know that Mae West herself was also in MYRA BRECKENRIDGE? The synchronicity is astounding. But not as glorious as the close-ups of Hope’s comedic grace in full bloom — all he has to do is mug and swallow with iconic nose in profile and the laugh machine responds like opening night at The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. The Beatles must have been awed by this teaming of two celebrity giants warbling “Rocky Racoon” and I sense the subtle genius of Bruce Villanch behind these bits of comedy revue gold.

But what the Goddess giveth, she taketh awayth. And as Raquel! and Hope strolled off together into the back-lot sunset, I wanted to follow them — nay, HER, this complex multi-media babe on all her global spanning adventures through time and space. And I won’t be sated until every man, woman and child on planet Earth has witnessed this 1970 Lost Ark of the Pop Covenant…O’ Raquel!

From my understanding, someone told her it looked like she was carrying imaginary suitcases when she walks and that’s when all hell broke loose. Seriously though, has that girl lost her mind? She makes Raquel Welch look pretty, pretty soft.

Still Sexy After All These Years

Heidi Klum

Tyra Banks

Two Words:  Pole Vault

In praise of older women

Sexiest Women of All Time

Sexiest Black Women over 40

Helen Mirren

How to Travel Naked

Beer Alert

A Constellation of Idiots

It is Better to be Drunk than Wasted

Texas Toast

Happy GaGaWeen!

Going GaGa!

GooGoo GaGa

Oct 31 is dress up like Lady GaGa day.  Halloween is cancelled!

Happy GaGaWeen!

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New in at Cinema Books: Hammer Films A Life in Pictures by Wayne Kinsey, $54.95 cloth. Limited edition ( 2500 copies) of hundreds of rare photographs taken on the set of many Hammer Studios films.  Assembled by Wayne Kinsey, the foremost Hammer Studios expert.  Goofing off with Christopher Lee, smoldering with Oliver Reed, laughs with Peter Cushing, Ursula Andress  in costume and Raquel  Welch in much less.

Ray Salomone, Personal Trainer and Wellness Activist

 I was on a national radio show recently when the host asked me what my favorite exercise was.

 I am known as the Push Up Warrior and of course I love push ups. They’re a great upper body and core move. They challenge your strength, stamina and discipline. They’re free to do and require no equipment. And I’m a confirmed push up junkie and I do 100 push ups before I leave for work at 4am. On most days I do upwards of 300 push ups throughout the course of the day.

 But I am also addicted to deadlifts. As efficient as push ups are, deadlifts are just as productive and challenging for the legs and core. On Monday mornings I do a three set rotation of a deadlift, bicep curl and shoulder press combo. I do reps to 30. This takes about four minute’s total time, after which I often feel as if my heart will bust through my sternum.

 On T,W,TH and F, I do one set of thirty reps with a 50lb dumbbell in each hand. My legs have never been stronger or more responsive and as I inch closer to fifty years old, I’m starting to think a lot less about how defined my arms are and more about how important leg strength, balance and dexterity is to a long and active life.

 So what’s my favorite exercise? I love them both and I don’t want to live without either one of them. Sort of like Sophia Loren and Raquel Welch.

 Push Ups and Deadlifts are a great way to go through life.

 Ray Salomone   Personal Trainer and Wellness Activist

www.GrecoRomanWellness.com

Blog: www.GrecoRomanWellness.wordpress.com

The Most Provocative Wellness Blog on the Planet

 Eat Fresh, Whole Foods. Exercise Intensely

PLAY ROUGH AND LIVE LIKE YOU MEAN IT!!!

Contact Me Directly at: Ray@GrecoRomanWellness.com

Coming Soon to bookstores:

The Greco Roman Road to Wellness

by Ray Salomone and Dr. Katina Ioannidis

Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Greco-Roman-Road-Wellness-Old-World-Times/dp/0982139209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243604904&sr=8-1

Brendan Fraser plays a guy seduced by devilish Elizabeth Hurley. Are there any guys out there that don’t envy this guy?

Fraser plays a schmuck named Elliot Richards who yearns for the love of the beautiful Alison Gardner (Frances O’Connor). One day Elliot makes a wish that he would do anything to be apart of that girl’s life. At that moment a billiard ball strikes his shoe and a dazzling temptress (Elizabeth Hurley) looks deep into his eyes from across the room. Before Elliot realizes it he is playing pool with this temptress. She asks all these questions about what he would exactly do to get Alison.

Elliot is captivated by this woman and follows her around until she reveals that she is indeed the “devil”. Elliot doesn’t believe her and asks for proof. Eventually Elliot gets convinced and he is given 7 wishes for his soul.

Will Elliot ever get Allison? Will Elliot be able to find his way out of this arrangement?

Fraser is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. I really liked his comedic timing and depth in this film. He has to play all the very different Elliots which show he has a great range. Fraser has left the Jay Ward cartoon adaptations behind and is becoming a very versatile actor.

Hurley is breathtaking, captivating and putting aside the pun, devilish. Her on screen presence will make us all want to meet the devil.

“Bedazzled” is based on a 1967 film of the same name starring Raquel Welch and Dudley Moore. I liked this predictable comedy because of its stars. I also really enjoyed that Hollywood recast the devil as a woman. I think that angle added spice and delight to Elliot’s world.

Another brilliant casting was Fraser who in every new Elliot wish plays a new man and its Fraser who makes us howl as he always finds a mistake in the wish. There is one of the wishes that will really surprise you. Write me if you know the one I mean.

One thing they left out of this adaptation was the addition of the Seven Deadly Sins which advise Dudley Moore (in the original) on each wish. Instead in the current film we have Hurley in a different sultry outfit. Not that I am complaining but the Sins did add something to the first film. The new movie really works because of the stars not necessarily because of the story.

One other small problem I had with the film was the running time. Bedazzled is only about 90 minutes and some of the wishes seem kind of rushed. I would have liked to have lived a bit longer in a couple of Elliot’s wishes. Plus what happened to the scene in the trailer involving red bikini-clad Hurley and the snake? Did a wish actually end up on the cutting room floor? Can anyone say DVD added feature?

Still Bedazzled is a hilarious and star-driven movie.

4 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

Raquel Welch

It’s hard to find a copy in the United States of the original Bedazzled film score, the one that Dudley Moore composed, without paying an arm and a leg. I had to find mine new overseas for about $40–a Christmas present to me. Tonight I saw on Amazon.com that a used album costs $500. It can be downloaded on mp3, but I don’t have one of those. I still like something that I can hold in my hands, like a DVD or a CD.

People forget, or don’t know, that “cuddly” Dudley was a composer and a musician who occasionally recorded his favorite classics (some for parody) or jazz pieces. He wasn’t just an actor. Only 5′2″ and with a club foot, Moore was treated badly and mercilessly by schoolmates and strangers, and at home, was virtually unloved by his parents. He took refuge in music, starting out in choir, and then graduating to violin, piano and organ. For his efforts, he received a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he majored in music and composition, and later performed in comedy revues and jazz concerts which gave him his start in entertainment. His jazz influences turned out to be Erroll Garner of “Misty” fame, and Oscar Peterson. Between films and other projects, he continued to record, collaborating with the likes of Sir George Solti and Michael Tilson-Thomas on the classical side, and producing at least sixteen jazz albums, until the late Nineties.

The “Lillian Lust” theme was for Moore’s scenes with then-sex goddess Raquel Welch, who plays, of course, the personification of lust. She serves Dudley’s character, Stanley Moon, breakfast in bed in the bed. All the seven deadly sins are depicted in the film (including the future Dame Edna Everage), but of course, her scenes got the most interest. Peter Cook’s rendition of the main theme as the self-absorbed Drimble Wedge is always hilarious. At one point, it helped me get over a bad relationship.

This is Moore at the height of his first fame; Blake Edwards’ 10 was his second wind. It was, unfortunately, the height of the Dudley Moore-Peter Cook collaboration. Moore went onward and upward, but Cook’s accomplishments never equalled that of his former partner. He became an alcoholic, later drinking himself to death after the passing of his mother in 1995. Dudley Moore died in late March 2002, from the effects of progressive supranuclear palsy. Its early symptoms in human beings mimic drunkenness; I hate to think that when I saw him in the Arthur films, he may not have been acting at all.

by Jonathan Burrello

For those of you out there that have been searching or waiting for a great film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ spectacular adventure novel, The Three Musketeers, I submit you look no further than director Richard Lester’s (“A Hard Day’s Night,” “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum,” and “Superman II”) respectful yet rowdy treatment of this classic tale starring Michael York (“Romeo and Juliet”), Oliver Reed (“The Devils”), Christopher Lee (“Dracula”), Faye Dunaway (“Network”), Raquel Welch (“One Million Years B. C.”), Frank Finlay (“The Pianist”), Richard Chamberlain (“King Solomon’s Mines”), Geraldine Chaplin (“Doctor Zhivago”), Charlton Heston (“Planet of the Apes”), Roy Kinnear (“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”), Spike Milligan (“Life of Brian”) and more!

As a big fan of the book I was delighted when I was introduced to Richard Lester’s “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and “The Four Musketeers” (1974) several years ago. The film divides the story up into two movies in order to fit in the whole expansive story (“Harry Potter” and “The Hobbit” are getting the same treatment so it’s not so ludicrous). Both films really work together (and independently for that matter). “The Three Musketeers” and “The Four Musketeers” follow Dumas’ storyline extremely closely, but remain somehow unique and different. The marvelous cast and rambunctious script almost seems to be taking cues from Vaudeville or Monty Python at times with its quick, sharp-tongued wit and sly slapstick.

The first leg of the series, “The Three Musketeers” (1973), follows the adventures of young D’Artagnan (York), the head-strong country bumpkin who makes friends with Musketeers Athos (Reed), Aramis (Chamberlain), and Porthos (Finlay), falls in love with the lovely Constance de Bonacieux (Welch), and makes powerful enemies in Rochefort (Lee), Cardinal Richelieu (Heston), and the seductive Lady de Winter (Dunaway). Constance, a servant of Anna of Austria (Chaplin)—bride of the oblivious French King Louis XIII (Jean-Pierre Cassel)—requests D’Artagnan to retrieve Anna’s jewels from her lover, the English Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward), in order to prevent Richelieu from unveiling the scandal to the King. Richelieu sends Lady de Winter to apprehend the jewels to shame the Queen. The whole first film revolves around this one task, but it is so jam-packed with fantastic costumes, hilarious dialogue, daring chases, and spectacular sword-fights that the whole 1600s European political intrigue has to try and keep up with the anarchic exuberance of the rest of the movie. When I say this I mean it as a good thing. This film is the ultimate period adventure show.

The second film, “The Four Musketeers” (1974), although just as rowdy and fun as the first, gets a little more serious and darker. The plot gets more serious too. War has hit France. Constance has been kidnapped by Rochefort. Cardinal Richelieu, in an effort to usurp the efforts of D’Artagnan (now a Musketeer), sends the evil Lady de Winter to entice him and assassinate the Duke of Buckingham (but soon her true colors and dark past with Athos are revealed and she will have to use all of her cunning to save her own skin). Lady de Winter then wants to kill D’Artagnan and Constance. The stakes are higher, the plot thickens, and the political intrigue is more intriguing. Blackmail and battle are just two of the many dishes this sumptuous sequel dishes up. The sword-fights are no less impressive and have even more pathos. Emotions run high and the suspense keeps building until the explosive sword-clanging finale, making this a satisfying conclusion to one of the best adventure stories. (There is a third film, “The Return of the Musketeers,” that Lester directed in 1989 with most of the original cast based loosely on Dumas’ Musketeer sequel, Twenty Years After, although not bad is not essential viewing).

As a big fan of action, adventure, and humor these two films are pretty irresistible to me and I strongly recommend you see them for yourself. If you like ornate costumes, swashbuckling adventure and irreverent slapstick, watching great actors having fun, and wonderful characters come to life with energy and life then look no further than “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and “The Four Musketeers” (1974). There is much to love about the story already, and seeing it done right with an extra dose of bawdy humor is just the icing on the cake. Rent them today and watch the ultimate swashbuckling adventure.

At Knicks Fanatics, we don’t play.  This is “Knicks Spirit Week” and we are going to start it off with a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

Forget about the Miami Heat’s heart stopping championship Dance Team.  Sure the most popular dance team in the NBA is the perennial best, but they root for the D-Wade posse not the D’Antoni disciples.  We like the Knicks dance team too.  Despite their more respectably family friendly attire (they don’t dress like they live on the beach often enough), we can imagine them in a shirts and skins water-basketball game.

But we can’t spend the entire season sleeping with the enemy’s cheerleaders on our minds.  That’s not in keeping with the spirit of Knicks Spirit.  And MSG doesn’t give us enough of the Knicks women to get us through a season of even minimal stress and distress. So, in order to keep our spirits up during the upcoming season, I’m proposing we get our own cheerleaders.

What would our cheerleaders do? Cheer us up silly. Lift our sprits. Our cheerleaders would pop up at the most appropriate (and inappropriate) times on this blog and in our Live Blogging (LBEs) coverage of games.  They will help keep us engaged, if not to our girlfriends, at least in our efforts to love our Knicks through thick and thin, better or worse (worse will never happen – Knicks Spirit Week, remember?).

I’m thinking that for this year’s cheerleading job, we need to choose amongst the best Spirit Movers in history.  I’m thinking, on this blog, we are fans of the classics, we are fans of the best.  We need Mega-cheerleaders and what better place to get them than back at the Old School – believe me when I say the creator has always been a fantastic architect of human form.  I’d put my old school team up against today’s best anytime.  Move over Beyonce, you’re a Nets fan anyway, aren’t you?

So this is the deal.  We have received about 24 portfolios from some of the most talented (most of them can really dance) and beautiful women in not-too-long ago popular culture.  It is our task to check them out, look them over, evaluate their talent for our purposes and then choose the final 12 who will lead us into the 2009-2010 season.  The portfolios are divided into two groups.  Group 1 will be introduced in a couple of seconds.  Group 2 will be introduced on Tuesday.  They all will return on Thursday when you will be asked to vote and the 12 with the most votes will become our Knicks idols for the year.

And finally, thanks to the Fanatic Connoisseurs of Fine Spirits for the recommendations to the team.  Good work folks.  (Warning: if your boss catches you lingering over this post, tell her you’re looking for a new secretary; if your girlfriend catches you, tell her how disgusted you are at the blogger who did this to one of your favorite blogs. If that doesn’t work, I can’t help you. )

So without further ado, I present to you the ladies who look to join the Fabulous Fanatics Dance-Spirit Team.  LGK.

Previous Related Posts:

“It’s Knicks Spirit Week”

Knicks Top 10 Plays 2008-2009, Courtesy of NBA.com

A Little Something, Something From Other Blogs and Fanatics Old School Dance Team Prep:Updated

GULLIBLE’S TRAVELS: The Knicks’ 2010 Plan; Do You Believe That?

There are those who say Raquel Welch is really fantastic-looking for someone who is 42. That’s not true. Raquel Welch is fantastic-looking, period. Though she brushes the compliment aside, she has been called the most beautiful woman in the world. Her vital statistics? She is 5′6″ and has an I.Q. over 140.

She was born in Chicago as Jo-Raquel Tejada, the daughter of a Bolivian-born immigrant who became an engineer. When she was two, the family moved to San Diego and later to La Jolla, where she went to high school. Early on, she was singing and dancing and acting in neigh­borhood theaters. She won a drama schol­arship to San Diego State, where she married her high school sweetheart, Jim Welch. It was a short marriage, which begat two children.

Raquel became a tireless single work­ing mother who fed her kids off bit movie parts. Her first film role of note was in One Million Years B.C., a 1966 epic that wasn’t nominated for much of anything. She went on to do some 30 other films, with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Jim Brown. She put together a nightclub act, did a few TV specials, yet many critics still didn’t take her seriously.

Then, late last year, her husband and business partner, French journalist Andri Weinfeld, helped land her a job on Broadway. She replaced Lauren Bacall for a short stint in the Tony Award-winning Woman of the Year. The critics raved and Bacall ranted. Raquel Welch was to be taken very seriously indeed.

We spoke with her in New York as she was nailing down the deal that would return her to Broadway. She wore leather and suede. We wore a dazed look. She was breathtaking and bright. After we finished a long talk about America’s role in El Salvador, we went on to other important topics. The conversation went like this:

PLAYBOY: What’s attractive in a man? What do you notice first?

WELCH: His face. It says so many things, even before the man himself says anything. Then I’ll watch the way a man moves, the way he carries himself. That’s more important than any individual part.

PLAYBOY: And the face is really the only individual part you notice?

WELCH: Well, maybe not just the face. My husband Andre has a great French ass.

PLAYBOY: What’s a French ass?

WELCH: Oh, generally high and round.

PLAYBOY: And what’s an American ass?

WELCH: Low and a bit droopy.

PLAYBOY: Okay, I won’t get up. What role, then, do clothes play? Do you notice what a man is wearing?

WELCH: Yes, I do, but their role depends on the man, Woody Allen, for instance, always looks like clothes are unimportant to him. He gives the impression that he’s making a token effort, but he’s not going to relinquish comfort. He puts incongruous things together—like tennis shoes with a tux—and there’s great humor in that, which says something very definite about personal style. In Woody’s case, it brings out maternal nurturing instincts in most women.

PLAYBOY: And it’s a look, right?  

WELCH: Yes, but there are many others. There is Cary Grant, who is classic and elegant and always looks perfect. He moves fantastically, he has a wonderful way of speaking and he carries it all off so well.

PLAYBOY: From Woody Allen to Cary Grant. That’s a pretty wide range.

WELCH: I guess I’m very eclectic in my tastes. I think the thing I really dislike about a man’s clothing is if he’s dressed a certain way because he feels that’s the way he should dress. I like a man who looks like he puts things together himself and hasn’t read too many men’s magazines. Or, if he has, he hasn’t taken them too seriously—in the biblical sense. You know, those magazines that tell you this is the only thing men can he seen in this season. Those kinds of men are part of a herd that just follows blindly, with no real sense of their own opinion.

PLAYBOY: Do you think men’s fashion consciousness is finally catching up to women’s?

WELCH: I think men’s fashions have always been as important as women’s. Look at what happened with the Beatles. Long hair, a certain cut of pants. Most men followed that, and it was a total change for them. In fact, it was much more radical than anything that’s happened to women. Certainly there was a degree of femininity that came into the way men dress. All these men with their blow dryers. It makes me crazy! If I see one more shock of hair blown all around in different directions so that it covers up a receding hairline—ugh, I can’t stand that! I really like to see a man the way he is. I don’t mind a receding hairline.

PLAYBOY: Thanks.

WELCH: It’s true. Look at all those TV newscasters. They’ve either got some terrible rug or hair-weaving job on their heads or they just puff their hair around in different directions to cover up what’s not really there. And I always wonder why. Who sold them on the fact that there’s something wrong with a little extra forehead? They all try to look like Donny Osmond. It’s ridiculous!

PLAYBOY: Why do you think men are so concerned?

WELCH: Well, I suppose hair is a big thing. It’s associated with virility and sexual attractiveness and one’s seductive powers. So, in this strange time in the battle of the sexes, men feel their masculinity is being tried with every move they make. They think more hair makes them look virile and strong. They’re just so desperate—puffing up their masculinity as best they can, poor babies. I feel sorry for them.

PLAYBOY: Let’s talk about men who don’t have to be desperate. Who are America’s elegant men?

WELCH: Of course, Cary Grant is the archetypical elegant man. I think Givenchy is a beautiful man. He’s so tall and wonderfully gray. And I like the way Jack Nicholson dresses. He and Woody Allen. I like sloppy men. But I like Tom Wolfe too, who wears sort of dandified outfits. It shows a special sense of humor.

PLAYBOY: How about Ronald Reagan?

WELCH: Reagan is a wonderful clothes horse. I honestly believe that for the most part he won the election on the basis of what he looks like—his good-looking suits, that full head of hair and that perpetual tan that Reagan the actor always had. He looks so all-American. And, of course, the public bought his act. It’s a shame that people can be manipulated like that, but it is true. As actors, we just know these things, because we’re paid to play parts and dress right for the moment. And if you play the part right, you can manipulate the population through the use of the media and all that happy hype, which is why we have an actor in the White House.

PLAYBOY: Let’s talk about foreign policy—in clothes. Do you see a definite difference in style between American men and European men?

WELCH: I think European men, with the exception of the English, tend to have better taste. Not that there aren’t English men with superb taste; it’s just that French and Italian men seem to have it as a group. It has to do with tradition. It’s been bred into them. They’ve been brought up well mannered. They have some of the finer graces of life. Earl de vivre. It’s just a way of being, of dressing, of ordering food, of being with women.

PLAYBOY: Your husband is French. Does he need any help? Who buys his clothes? WELCH: He says he doesn’t care about clothes at all—although I think he’s really a great clothes horse. But it’s kind of hard for me to drag him into a store and pick out something he’d look fabulous in. Most of the time he doesn’t think about what he’s putting together. He’s kind of sloppy, actually It all seems to work out in the end, though sometimes I get really terrified halfway through his getting dressed, and I say, “Oh my God, what are you putting on? I’m not going to be seen with you.” And he just tells me to leave him alone, that he has more important things on his mind than clothes.

PLAYBOY: You’ve both been doing a lot of traveling back and forth between Los Angeles and New York. Do you notice any real differences in the coastal styles?

WELCH: Yes. I really think California people dress more casually because they’re terrified of dressing up. They don’t want to make mistakes. Things on the East Coast tend to go ten times faster than they do in the West. People in the East tend to know more about dressing for different occasions
because they have so many more things happening in a day. They dress for the weather, too. In California, you don’t have to do that. It’s mostly all the same; if it rains, you just get caught in your little white cotton pants and white T-shirt. People in California aren’t as laid back as everyone thinks they are. They’re much more nervous and anxious, possibly be­cause they don’t have as much human contact as people on the East Coast. I mean, there’s nobody on the street in L.A. Everybody is in their cars. There’s no rubbing shoulders with other people. It makes you feel more isolated and anxious.

PLAYBOY: Can you give men, on both coasts and in between, any tips about dealing with women? There are a lot of guys out there who aren’t sure who should be opening the door these days.

WELCH: Yes, I have a feeling that sometimes they think about it too much now, which is a shame. I don’t think it should be given any thought, because we are physically the weaker sex. I’ve read so many stories that say the contemporary woman doesn’t need help—that we can do it all by ourselves. And a lot of men have spoken to me about it. They feel very self-conscious. Not just about opening doors, but about every atti­tude they feel about women. They start second guessing everything. I think we’d be a lot better off with a little more spontaneity and less analysis.

PLAYBOY: Over the years, you’ve changed as a woman—not just in your attitudes, but in your looks.

WELCH: Oh! When I look at my old photographs I really have to laugh, because some of them are so grotesque it’s unbelievable. I used to wear so many pairs of eyelashes it was hard just keeping my eyes open. And all those miniskirts. But I do believe you learn from experience. I do think I’m much better looking now than I was then. Which probably sounds pretty self-serving, but I was pretty horrible-looking. I can’t imagine why anyone thought I was good-looking. God! I was so grotesque!

PLAYBOY: Yet you’ve been called the most beautiful woman in the world.

WELCH: It’s difficult to ever justify why one should be called that when there is no such thing. Especially when you look in your bathroom mirror and say, “My God, we know this isn’t true, don’t we.” And you think—when are they going to find me out? There’s this terrible hoax they’re passing on about me and somehow I’ve got to try to live up to it.

PLAYBOY: But look at the so-called beautiful women of today. What does it say about where we are now that Brooke Shields is a sex symbol?

WELCH: It says that we like beautiful girls.

PLAYBOY: But it’s a very different kind of beauty.

WELCH: Well, I think we feel that way about Brooke because she’s a delightful and gorgeous creature we can watch grow up. We can watch all the various phases she goes through. It’s kind of what happened to Elizabeth Taylor. You get to see her first love affairs, her first marriage, her second marriage, her eighth marriage. You get to see all the divorces, all the infidelity. But I think Brooke will survive nicely. It’s just that you never know when it’s all going to turn. You just don’t know when the media is going to say, “Well, okay, we’ve had enough of this. We’re bored silly with her.”

PLAYBOY: What about other women? Which actresses do you like in films now?

WELCH: I think Meryl Streep is wonderful. And Laura Antonelli and Diane Keaton.

PLAYBOY: Some people knock Keaton because she often plays herself, or at least a certain type …

WELCH: Diane Keaton is more than just a type. She has a style that’s all her own, and I think she’s a wonderful actress. Who the hell cares if she’s still Diane Keaton, if she’s something like Diane Keaton in every part she plays. My God, Katharine Hepburn was always Katharine Hepburn in every part she played. There was no way to get around it.

PLAYBOY: What about leading men?

WELCH: All of our classic leading men are apologizing for being classic leading men. Robert Redford doesn’t want to do anything unless it’s socially relevant. He doesn’t want to be thought of as a pretty boy, just another good-looking guy. Christopher Reeve is having a terrible time of it. He’s taking a lot of knocks because he was so wonderful as Superman. I think he’s a great-looking guy who looks great in clothes, and I think he’s having his prob­lems with that. Richard Gere is a good-looking guy Jack Nicholson sets a certain style. So does Jean-Paul Belmondo. Alain Delon is a fantastic-looking man.

PLAYBOY: What about Warren Beatty?

WELCH: Warren Beatty. We don’t see much of Warren, you know. Warren only shows himself every three or four years in his masterpieces. I think he’s the cleverest man around. Oh, and I love Dudley Moore. He’s my idea of a really terrific guy, and I think he dresses wonderfully. I mean, I don’t even know what he puts on, but whatever it is, it’s okay with me. He’s just scrumptious.

PLAYBOY: But not exactly the model of the typical leading man, not someone women would normally swoon over.

WELCH: I think high school girls tend to go after football heroes. Then they learn. Sometimes the most exciting men, the men who really have something on the ball, are the ones who, in high school, were the last ones in line to get the girl. I mean, look at Henry the Kiss [Kissinger]. He is terribly attractive. He obviously was not a hand­some boy, but now all the women are lining up. They can’t wait to get introduced to Henry. There’s more there than meets the eye. You can’t get through life on just good looks anymore. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.

This past Tuesday, September 8th was the anniversary of the first Miss America contest way back in 1921.

According to Cindy Adams gossip column here are several famous women who were once…excuse me?..Yes, that’s right Cindy Adams gossip column…hm?…all right that’s enough of that, not all my sources are the Encyclopedia Britannica. Anyway there are a great many beauty pageant losers and winners that went on to fame afterward; for instance, actress  Dyan Cannon was once Miss West Seattle– “not even all of Seattle”– carps Ms. Adams.

So okay, like what beauty pageant did Ms. Adams ever win even that she can make fun of Dyan Cannon winning Miss West Seattle? Oh I see, none. Wow. Big surprise. Bet the smartass wouldn’t even win a beauty pageant in her apartment building.

Gena Lee Nolin of “Baywatch” (Pamela Lee Anderson Part Deux) was Miss Las Vegas. Or as Miss Adams might scoff, “Hmph..not even all of Nevada.” And Maria Conchita Alonso was 14-years-old when she won Miss Teenager of the World. Or as Ms. Adams might say, “Pfft…not even all of the solar system.” Speaking of Pamela Lee, her ex-husband Tommy Lee is from pageant-winning pedigree. His mother, Vassiliki Papadimitriou was Miss Greece in 1957.

Susan Anton won Miss Muriel Cigars in 1970, which led of course to her sweet and excellent prestigious job as an actress in Muriel Cigar TV commercials.

Halle Berry was a Miss USA runner-up, and Cloris Leachman was a 1946 Miss America runner-up. Faye Dunaway was a Tallahassee May Queen loser, in good company with Linda Evangelista, a loser in the Miss Teen Niagara Pageant. Jeez, what did the winner look like if Linda Evangelista lost? Ah, but you never know. Ever see a picture of Jennifer Garner as a kid? Puzzling.

Some women were apparently beautiful immediately upon leaving the womb. Beginning when she was 13-years-old, Raquel Welch won Miss La Jolla, Miss Photogenic, Miss Contour, Miss Maid of California, and lots of men’s hearts with her Cave Woman “One Million Years B.C.” poster.

Similarly, before pin-up hottie Loni Anderson entranced America on “WKRP in Cincinnati” the busty star represented Miss Roseville in the 1964 Miss Minnesota Pageant. She was runner-up. Get this though: She was a brunette. In fact she was born with jet-black hair, dying it blonde when she moved to Hollywood.

Natural blonde actress Cybill Shepherd was Miss Teenage Memphis in 1966, at age 16, and a decade later, Deborah Norville was 1976’s Georgia Junior Miss winner, the same year that Michelle Pfeiffer was Miss Orange County. And two decades later again, Ali Landry, the Doritos Girl from that 1998 Super Bowl commercial (no relation to Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry) was Miss USA in 1996.

Even Alan Alda’s mother, nee Joan Brown, was in on the action, winning a beauty pageant in which she was called “Miss New York”. I worded that coyly because a list of Miss New York winners does not show her to be among them. So I guess there was some other Miss New York-like pageant? You would think that with all the idiosyncratic pageant titles out there–Miss Muriel Cigars, Miss Burbank (won in 1948 by a barefoot Debbie Reynolds), Miss Eleganza in Naples (won by a 13-year-old Sophia Loren in white shoes she painted black)–you would think that a pageant wouldn’t have to name its winner the same name as another pageant.

There was a Miss Greenwich Village, which smoky-voiced Lauren Bacall won in 1942. At least it is believed smoky-voiced Lauren Bacall won. Being Greenwich Village it could have been…well…let’s just say a “smoky-voiced” impostor.

Oh now here’s a fun one: Martha Stewart won Glamour magazine’s Best-Dressed College Girl in 1961. “Best Dressed College Girl”. It almost sounds like one of those consolation descriptions when someone’s getting set up on a blind date: “You’re asking me what does she look like? Oh. Well, She’s got a great personality.” Or, “You wanna know what his hair looks like? Oh. Well, it’s a lovely flesh-tone actually.” “Best Dressed College Girl”. Technically speaking, you can look like Ernest Borgnine and win “Best Dressed College Girl.”

Vera Miles, the actress who played Janet Leigh’s sister in “Psycho” won the swimsuit competition at the 1948 Miss America contest. She lost the overall competition though, coming in 3rd place. The winner? A Minnesota farm girl named BeBe Shopp, who played the marimba in the talent portion. I think I was in a BeBe Shopp once–buying pellet gun ammunition.

Speaking of “Psycho”, Kathie Lee Gifford was an America’s Junior Miss Pageant contestant representing Maryland. She was disqualified however when she accidentally broke the rules by talking with a man in public. Did they actually think Miss Gifford would be able to NOT talk in public for any extended period of time. But in her defense, “Talking with a man in public” was her crime? Is that a typo? Maybe they meant “talking with a man in pubic?” Tsk tsk.

Before Regis Philbin teamed up with the perky Kathie Lee Gifford for their morning TV show, Regis co-hosted PM Magazine with perky Mary Hart who finished in the top ten in the 1970 Miss America Pageant. She was Miss South Dakota.

The following year, Miss Texas won the 1971 Miss America title. Phyllis George was her name and she went on to fame as a TV host on many shows. She has the distinction of being the only winner to drop her crown on live television. So naturally she was steered into sports broadcasting by the TV network geniuses. Ms. George was maligned in the beginning of her career as being a pretty face placed unfairly into various hosting duties.

Former pageant contestant Diane Sawyer faced the same sort of criticism at the start of her career, perhaps even moreso. Maybe because she was blonde. Or maybe because she was a press aide to Richard Nixon during his presidency and after his Watergate resignation. After his Watergate resignation. Regardless, Ms. Sawyer’s career isn’t exactly suffering, being one of the highest paid newswomen in history, so who’s to say blondes don’t make smart moves.

Take fellow blonde Marla Maples  for instance, who placed 4th in Georgia’s Miss Teen Pageant, winning Miss Photogenic. A wily and smart young lady, she set her sights on Donald Trump, or vice versa, and look at her career now! She’s in a reality TV show! Yeah I swear! A real honest to goodness reality TV show! Top that Ms. Sawyer!

Here’s another fun pageant title: In 1957 Ali McGraw was a contestant in the “Prettiest Waitress” pageant. I’m not kidding. The winner received a pinch on the ass by Bob Barker while being told: “Hey sweet cheeks, I’ll have another cup of coffee when you get around to it.”

True Amazing Trivia Alert! Which of the following ladies is a pageant champion? Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Imelda Marcos or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis? The answer? None other than the enchantingly gorgeous Imelda Romualdez who reigned as Miss Manilla in 1953 before becoming First Lady of the Philippines beside hubby Ferdinand Marcos. Who knew? In the final question phase of the competition I wonder if she mentioned her goal to own a bazillion pairs of shoes.

I like that Delta Burke is an actual former beauty pageant contestant who played a former beauty pageant contestant on the show “Designing Women”. She was Miss Florida in 1974 but came up short in the Miss America Pageant after the talent portion of the contest in which Miss Burke performed a British dramatic theatrical recitation by the soon-to-be-beheaded Queen Anne Boleyn…in a Southern accent. Maybe she should have played the marimba.

There’ve been many more beauty pageant contestants who became famous I could mention…Vanessa Williams, Jeri Ryan, Mary Frann, Sharon Lawrence, Kim Basinger, someone named Oprah Winfrey, Debra Messing….

But the last one I will mention is actress Sharon Stone who won the Saegertown Spring Festival Queen title and the 1976 Miss Crawford County Pageant. As it happens I used to date a woman who had competed in that very same pageant! Not the same year as Ms. Stone, but a few years afterward. I asked her if she would share any details she can remember about what it was like to be a contestant in that Pageant. Kindly answering back, she wrote: “… several years prior to my entering the pageant, this was the place that Sharon Stone launched her career by actually winning the Miss Crawford County Pageant.” And with regard to the activities involved she remembered: “Well, all the contestants had to meet in a place about 5 miles from the fairgrounds, and we all were assigned to a topless Corvette. We had to sit on the top of the seat so that our bodies were up in the air and had the crap blown out of our nicely styled hair as we were paraded through town to the fairgrounds.”

I had to do a double take when I read “assigned to a topless…” before registering the sentence correctly in my mind.

Well that’s the trivia for today. I’ve been remiss the past few days due to working long hours on “Law and Order” which I hope to provide fun details about later.

Right after I solve world peace.

(Sources: http://www.missamerica1933.com/missamerica.html; http://www.pageantcenter.com/famous.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America’s_Junior_Miss)

Raquel Welch

 

 

 

Raquel Welch (born Jo Raquel Tejada, September 5, 1940) is a Golden Globe-winning American actress.

In 1959, Welch played the title role in the famous Ramona Pageant, a yearly outdoor play at Hemet, California, which is based on the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson and Bob Biloe.

She became a weather forecaster at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. Because of her heavy schedule, she decided to leave college. Her marriage broke up and she moved with her two children, Damon and Latanne, to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman Marcus and worked as a cocktail hostess, intending to move on to New York City from there.

Instead, Welch moved back to California and found a place in Los Angeles and started making the rounds of the movie studios. She was cast in bit parts in two films and in the television shows Bewitched, McHale’s Navy, and The Virginian, as well as on the weekly variety series The Hollywood Palace as a billboard girl and presenter of acts.

Welch’s first featured role came in the beach film A Swingin’ Summer, which led to a contract with 20th Century Fox. She was subsequently cast in a leading role in the sci-fi hit Fantastic Voyage (1966), which made her a star. She was the last star created under the studio system.

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On loan out to Hammer Studios in Britain, Welch starred in the remake of One Million Years B.C. striking an iconic pose in a prehistoric animal-skin bikini. After her appearance as lust incarnate in the hit Bedazzled, she returned to the U.S. and appeared in the Western film Bandolero!, with James Stewart and Dean Martin, which was followed by the private-eye drama Lady in Cement with Frank Sinatra.

Welch’s most controversial role by far came in the notorious Myra Breckinridge with Mae West. She took the part as the film’s transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress, but the movie turned out to be a dismal failure.

Welch became one of the leading sex symbols of the 1960s and 1970s. Her most memorable publicity still for One Million Years B.C. became a bestselling poster. Playboy called her the “Most Desired Woman” of the 1970s.

In 1970, Welch teamed up with Tom Jones and producer/choreographer David Winters of Winters-Rosen Productionsfor the TV special “Raquel!”, considered by some viewers to be a classic pairing together of 1970s pop-culture icons in their prime. The multi million-dollar TV song-and-dance extravaganza was filmed around the world, from Paris to Mexico. The show featured lavish production numbers of classic songs from the era, extravagant costumes, and notable guest performances, including John Wayne and Bob Hope in the Wild West.

In 1974, Welch won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy for The Three Musketeers.

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The actress was due to star in an 1982 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, but was fired by the producers a few days into production (allegedly, she was taking too long to get ready each day). She was replaced with Debra Winger. Welch successfully sued, collecting a $15 million dollar settlement.

In addition to her break out special, Raquel!, her television appearances include the TV movies The Legend of Walks Far Woman and Right to Die in which she turned in a stirring performance as a woman stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and in the PBS series American Family, about a Mexican American family in East Los Angeles. She has appeared in the night-time soap opera Central Park West and made infomercials and exercise videos.

In 1987, she flirted with a pop singing career, releasing the dance single “This Girl’s Back In Town.” She has performed in a one-woman nightclub musical act in Las Vegas and has starred on Broadway in Woman of the Year, receiving praise for following Lauren Bacall in the title role, and in Victor/Victoria, having less success following Julie Andrews and Liza Minnelli in the title roles.

She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the TV drama Right to Die (1987).

In a 1997 episode of the comedy series Seinfeld entitled The Summer of George, Welch played a highly temperamental version of herself, assaulting series characters Kramer and Elaine, the former because he fired her from an acting job and the latter because Welch mistakenly thought that Elaine was mocking her.

She also appeared as a guest on the popular American TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, as Sabrina’s flamboyant Aunt Vesta.

She appeared in Welcome to the Captain, which premiered on CBS television on February 4, 2008.

Trivia:

Graduated La Jolla High School, La Jolla, California. [1957]

Miss Fairest of the Fair, San Diego, Ca. [1957]

Mother of Tahnee Welch.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#18). [1995]

Her father is Bolivian.

Turned down the lead in Barbarella (1968) – which eventually went to Jane Fonda.

Husband Richard Palmer is a restaurateur.

She was fired from Cannery Row (1982) and replaced by Debra Winger. She then sued MGM and won a $10 million judgement.

Among her many beauty contest titles were “Miss Photogenic”, “Miss Contour” and “Miss Maid of California” – all won while she was in her teens.

30 August 2003 – Broke her wrist in a Los Angeles car crash.

Measurements: 37C-22 1/2-35 1/2 (measured in 1967), 37-23 1/2-35 1/2 (from 1980 fitting), 37D-26-36 (@ age 43 in 1985), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Mentioned in the theme song of the 1980s TV hit “The Fall Guy” (1981).

Had a notorious backstage feud with the indomitable Mae West on the set of Myra Breckinridge (1970).

Auditioned for the role of Mary Ann in “Gilligan’s Island” (1964).

Mother of Damon Welch.

Was a former cocktail waitress.

Has a home on the private island of Mustique

Dated producer Robert Evans with whom she attended Super Bowl (X) at Miami’s Orange Bowl in 1976

Son Damon Welch married the daughter of England and Yorkshire cricket legend Freddie Trueman.

One of the bombshells shown in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). (The other two were Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.)

In 1970, she accepted the Oscar for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” on behalf of Goldie Hawn, who wasn’t present at the awards ceremony

Second husband, producer Patrick Curtis, reportedly was one of several infants who took turns playing the baby of Olivia de Havilland in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Profiled in the book “Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973″ by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul (McFarland, 2002).

On September 5:

1839 The first Opium War  began in China.

1850 Jack Daniel, the man behind Jack Daniels whiskey, was born.

1939: Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage declared New Zealand’s support for Britain from bed where he was recovering from an oepration for colon cancer.

I am satisfied that nowhere will the issue be more clearly understood than in New Zealand – where, for almost a century, behind the sure shield of Britain, we have enjoyed and cherished freedom and self-government. Both with gratitude for the past and confidence in the future, we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand. We are only a small and young nation, but we are one and all a band of brothers and we march forward with union of hearts and wills to a common destiny.

1939 Australian actor George Lazenby, who played James Bond inOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service,  was born.

1940 US actor Racquel Welch was born.

1944 Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg formed Benelux.

19 45 Scottish singer Al Stewart was born.

1946 singer Freddie Mercury was born.

Sourced from Wikipedia & NZ History Online.

Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner.  Bantam Books obtained the rights for a paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it.   Because the novelization was released six months before the movie, many people mistakenly believed Asimov’s book had inspired the movie.  According to Fred Schodt’s The Astro Boy Essays, FOX also approached NBC to get the rights to an Astro Boy episode which had the same premise, but they never contacted the manga artist or credited him in the final product.

The movie inspired an animated television series, as well as a painting of the same name by Salvador Dalí.

Plot: A diplomat is nearly assassinated. In order to save him, a submarine is shrunken to microscopic size and injected into his blood stream with a small crew. Problems arise almost as soon as they enter the bloodstream. Directed by Richard Fleischer. Starring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O’Brien, Donald Pleasence and Arthur O’Connell.

Tagline:  The screen’s most fantastic voyage

Production:

The “whirlpool” scene where the two-inch Proteus miniature was spun around and sucked into a fistula shortly after the sub was injected into Benes’ bloodstream was made using a large punch bowl, strawberry-flavored milk, and three cups of Cheerios cereal. According to L.B. Abbott, a bird stole the miniature while it was drying on a window sill following a paint touch-up. It has never been recovered, and Abbott jokingly theorized that it is probably still part of some bird’s nest up in some tree.

Donald Pleasance’s final scene involved a lot of screaming in agony. Much of that turned out to be real, as the soap suds that were used to represent the white blood cells attacking him had gotten into his eyes, and as he was trapped in the command chair as the scene called for, he was unable to wipe his eyes free of the suds or receive medical attention until the scene was safely ‘in the can’.

Much of the interior scenes of the secret complex were filmed at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena at night. Brief glimpses of the outside playing field area can be seen as General Carter takes Grant through the complex on a small golf cart, as they pass the stairway entrances to each section of the stadium.

The entire operating theater, control room, and miniaturization chamber were all one contiguous set. The only piece of this area of the complex that was separate was the sterilization chamber.

The film was originally planned to have an epilogue, with Dr. Benes having recovered from the microsurgery. However, despite the success of the mission, he still suffered some minor brain damage; specifically the portion of his memory that contained the secret of how to

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maintain a miniaturized state for longer than an hour. Verified as genuine, copies of scripts containing this ending have circulated in conventions for years, and can be found on the Internet. Asimov’s novelization includes a similar epilogue, though omitting the memory loss.

Re-use of sets and Props:

The actual full-sized set and prop for the Proteus was placed in storage at the 20th Century Fox backlot for years, and maintained in relatively good condition. It was brought out of retirement briefly for use in filming a Public Service Announcement in 1972 for the American Medical Association on the risks of heart disease. Shortly afterwards, it was

 painted orange and modified for use as a rescue vessel in Irwin Allen’s disaster film, The Poseidon Adventure. However, due to budget constraints, all scenes featuring the rescue craft were cut before any scenes were filmed, and the hull of the modified Proteus was later scrapped.

Raquel Welch and Stephen Boyd

Parts of the miniature sets, as well as some of the full-sized sets, were “borrowed” by Irwin Allen for use on some of his various TV shows. The season one Lost in Space episode, “The Derelict” features the brain set used as the interior for the alien spaceship that has swallowed the Jupiter 2. The brain cells were explained to be a “crystaline power source.” One of the blood vessel sets was used as a conveyor tube in an episode of Lost in Space where Will Robinson has just been converted into a diminutive duplicate of Dr. Zachary Smith. Part of the inner ear miniature set was used in the episode “Jonah and the Whale” on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The laser gun was used on several of Allen’s series as an alien weapon prop.

Much of the aforementioned usage of sets and props from Fantastic Voyage in Irwin Allen’s TV efforts can be attributed to two facts: Special effects for both efforts were supervised by L. B. Abbott, and both were filmed in adjacent stages at the 20th Century Fox studios. Paul Zastupnevich, Allen’s associate during the majority of his science-fiction TV work, stated in numerous interviews that the use of the Fantastic Voyage sets and props was, at times, due to “midnight requisitioning” on the part of both Allen and Abbott. Richard Basehart also referred to specifics on filming the episode “Jonah and the Whale” of having to film certain scenes long after normal studio hours because they were “borrowing” a set from another production and had to finish shooting before that production resumed shooting the following morning.

Awards:

The film won two Academy Awards and was nominated for three more:

Won

• Best Art Direction (Jack Martin Smith, Dale Hennesy, Walter M. Scott, Stuart A. Reiss)
• Best Visual Effects

Nominated

• Best Cinematography
• Best Editing
• Best Sound

Make Up Department
  Margaret Donovan … hair stylist
  Ben Nye … makeup artist

Special Effects Department
  L.B. Abbott … special photographic effects
  Art Cruickshank … special photographic effects
  Emil Kosa Jr. … special photographic effects
  Greg C. Jensen … special effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects Department
  Marcel Delgado … miniatures (uncredited)

11x17 Movie Poster

“You will find, young man, that the future looks rosiest through the bottom of a glass.”

PS1: Há duas versões para a obra de Alexandre Dumas. A primeira, feita em 1973, foi dividida em duas partes e traz Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay e Michael York como Athos, Aramis, Porthos e D’Artagnan, respectivamente.

Conta, ainda, com Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway e Charlton Heston - este último como o Cardeal Richelieu.

PS2: O segundo filme foi lançado vinte anos depois e tem no elenco Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt e um jovem Chris O’Donnel.

Acho que essa foi a primeira e única vez que o Charlie Sheen interpretou um personagem sério e sisudo.

i am sunbathing with judy. the sun is bathing me. in my head i am raquel welch, by  a swimming pool, with a cocktail and a knickerbocker glory.

a handsome man is walking this way…

In response to the first “Know Yer Nuts” post made last month (read it here), that had a laugh and a question or two at the expense of the Creation Truth Ministries and Alberta Dinosaur Museum, The Thinking Shop has received the following well reasoned communication:

“Evolutionism The Lie Agreed Upon!”

You CLOWNBOYS are hopeless! Evolutionism is a JOKE! Dick Dawkins and Eugenie Scott are clueless. They BELIEVE in EVERYTHING FROM NOTHING. Ya right! nice belief system! I guess that’s why neither will debate John Mackay. They don’t want to prove their loser’s like we know they are! lol. I wish I had as much FAITH as you Clowns! Check out You-Tube wazooloo (aka) Ian Juby. It will shake your FAITH to it’s foundation! lol!

An anonymous creationist with the email address of  bvcsm@*****.*** sent it in. I wonder what those letters could mean. “Big Valley Creation Science Museum” comes to mind. Which reminds me, I visited there last year and have a mess of pictures. I will post the good ones this weekend!

Anyway, here is Ian Juby, be prepared to have your FAITH shaken to it’s (sic) foundation. Or fall off your chair laughing. Or just get up and get more beer and go watch TV. The video goes on for almost half an hour. And he has scads of other videos.

Speaking of more beer *gets up to go to fridge…*

*comes back with a nice cold Pilsner Urquell*

Ok, so where was I? Oh yeah… pontificating.

What the hell would be the point of Dawkins or Scott debating some creationist with a small time operation out in Alberta? Really, you people are not really that important!

And why debate at all? Will anybody convince anyone to change their minds? Not likely. Will the “winner” of the debate establish what truth is? No. Science and most other kinds of academic knowledge is not demonstrated by agreeing to debates with people who deny the most basic fundamentals of critical study. If this John Mackay of the Creation Truth Ministry, wants to establish that the world was created, let him try to win scientists over in the proper way, publishing the findings of his research in proper venues. If he isn’t prepared to do that, he is just another Joe Blow selling the equivalent of flat earth theories.

There, I feel better now.

Now, it has been a while since I ended a post with a totally gratuitous and sexist picture of slinky woman that has absolutely nothing to do with the post. But since I’m now in a good mood…

Carole Landis, in the 1940 dinosaur meets girl film, One Million Years BC

Ah, and then there is the remake of that film in 1966.

Raquel Welch

The controversial picture that was supposed to have graced the posters for the film. Apparently some people had problems with it.

Of course, ridiculous as these films are putting dinosaurs and people together, they are at least putting together a long time ago (but at a time when neither dinosaurs or modern humans lived…). Young earth creationists would put the age of the earth at only a 6000 years or so. It’s pretty bad when pure movie fantasy bears a little more resemblance to reality than what many people sell as truth.

Oh, and check out my pics of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the REAL dinosaur and so much maur museum in Alberta! HERE

Technorati Tags: big+valley+creation+museum, creation+truth+ministries, alberta, alberta+dinosaur+museum, Richard+Dawkins, Eugenie+Scott, evolution, creationism, dinosaurs, Ian+Juby, John+Mackay, Carole+Landis, Raquel+Welch, One+Million+Years+BC, Christianity, Bible

Still from "Addicted to Love" video; image courtesy of onlythe80s.com

Lately I’ve been revisiting Robert Palmer, The Power Station, and mid-80s to early 90s Duran Duran. For some reason. It may have something to do with Duran Duran’s Liberty being the first CD I ever got. Again, for some reason. I’ve been offsetting this with Daft Punk in the car, so I can pretend I’m in the Tron remake.

(Aside: The first tape I ever got? New Kids on the Block’s Hangin’ Tough.)

So, there’s probably two reasons for my Miami Vice-rock renaissance.

1. Glossy production aside, Power Station drummer Tony Thompson rocks it.

2. When my parents split up in the mid-80s, my dad moved to West Palm Beach and lived the single life for a while. One artifact that I wish he’d kept from this period was a glass he got from a night club called Banana Max. The glass was cylindrical, opaque, beige, and made out of (three-dimensional) naked women. Aside from a rock that he découpaged with a photo of Raquel Welch and my grandfather’s April 1970 Playmate of the Month jigsaw puzzle mounted on cardboard (both in my possession), this is the weirdest item owned by a male  family member that has, in opposition, shaped my feminist beliefs.

The glass is also a document of its era. If you don’t have one, a copy of Riptide is the next best thing. And this is where Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” music video comes in. 

As a feminist, I have trouble with this music video for one big, obvious, highlighter-yellow reason. It’s so blatantly sexist. The models who comprise Palmer’s backing band are normatively beautiful, musically inept, interchangable, ornamental, passive, and blankly spectacular. They’re kinda like a Busby Berkeley chorus line, only on sedatives and with visible nipples.

And yet. I can’t let this one go so easily. It’s an indelible image that is simple and yet iconic in design (it’s so effective that ”Simply Irresistible” and “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” only mildly revise the concept). Thus, it’s also easily replicable. When you put “Addicted to Love” alongside another lexicon 1980s video like, say, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” it’s much easier to match (many people, including Jackson, tried and failed to reach or exceed that video’s epic proportions).

It’s also an easy concept to subvert, which is my primary interest. I’d like to highlight a few instances where women take on “Addicted to Love” and, in the process of recasting and reconfiguation, potentially disrupt the original music video’s sexist aims.

The one most of us probably all know is Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like A Woman,” which shows the singer flipping the script. Twain is Palmer, and she’s accompanied by a group of beefy, bronzed, eyelinered boys in mesh shirts and leather pants. While I think the clip’s clear limitation is that the switched-gender roles only go so far when it glamorizes and sexualizes Twain via skimpy attire in a manner similar to the girls in the original video, I do enjoy its winking, campy sensibilities (i.e., visible male nipples, having one of the boys lick his lips just like one of the girls in “Addicted to Love”). Also, I kinda read her backing band as gay.

Blink and you miss it, but Britney Spears also plays Palmer in a Pepsi ad from the early 2000s (start it at :57).

Kinda interesting. She’s got a shaggy wig and a suit on, which could potentially queer her. However, the cut of the jacket and dance moves highlight her breasts, reifying her femininity. Also, she has no contact whatsoever with the (female) background dancers. To me, this further emphasizes that “Addicted to Love” was an iconic video of the 1980s and fails to do much to subvert the original video or the singer. That she’s only in a suit and tie for ten seconds before going back to tight ensembles that show off her decidely feminine torso furthers this claim. Britney and Pepsi are just trying on Palmer — they aren’t doing anything new or different with him; just using him to sell Pepsi.

There’s also Beyoncé’s “Green Light,” which I mentioned in an earlier post. She positions herself as both Robert and a member of the chorus through her costuming, queers her interactions with the chorus through choreography, and showcases an all-female band who are clearly playing their instruments.

And let’s not forget Kim Gordon, who covered the song as part of Ciconne Youth (a Sonic Youth-related project that, alongside Palmer, also championed and mocked Madonna — how very art school of them). This version makes me wonder what would happen if one of the girls in Palmer’s “band” let down her hair, smeared her make-up, snatched a microphone, and used Palmer’s song to mock him.

Also, my friend Curran posted the video in the comments section, but it’s too good not to mention in the post. Michelle Shocked sent up the music video in 1990 with “On the Greener Side,” taking the queerness, campiness, cleverness to the next level. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Curran!

In sum, when ladies put on the Palmer drag, we might a broader sense of how women can turn being spectacle into a position of power, as well as a position containing multiple possibilities for the performer.