Pete, Julie and Leeen-conn!

Fifty years ago this month, The Mod Squad wrapped up its first season on ABC television. For a 12-year-old boy like me who loved all things that were labeled "Mod" and who wished he could have been a hippie living in Haight-Ashbury, this show was catnip. I remember being a little disappointed that all the episodes had rather downbeat endings, but I kept watching it through its first two seasons at least (it ran for 5 seasons, into 1973). The show's first season also coincided with the onset of my adolescence, and, mirroring my own sexual confusion, I had a big crush on both Michael Cole (Pete) and Peggy Lipton (Julie). Below is a newspaper ad for the show's premiere in September 1968.

Next an ad from an Arizona paper, advertising both the Mod Squad (running at Mountain Time) and another show I watched occasionally, That's Life, a musical sit-com with Robert Morse who I had liked so much in the movie How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

I bought a couple of issues of the Mod Squad comic book (below) and at least one of the Mod Squad novelizations (further below). I remember thinking Pete was even sexier in the book that he was on TV, but how can that be?

As I got more and more into rock music and science-fiction, I watched less TV, and I lost my interest in Mod Squad--and transferred my pop culture crush from Michael Cole to Jan-Michael Vincent (below) after seeing him shirtless in a teen magazine photo spread. But I will always have fond memories of the tortured young cops Pete, Julie and Lincoln.

Adventures of the Wasp Woman

The audio commentary on the Blu-ray disc of Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman has an interesting section on the exhibition history of the film. It didn't have a single national "laydown" date but, like many B-horror and SF movies of the era, it was released gradually around the country. Wasp Woman was featured on a double bill with another Corman film, Beast from Haunted Cave. It seems to have premiered in Bryan, Texas in July 1959:

Typically, Wasp was first billed, but because Beast was shot in South Dakota, that film took first place in Deadwod in August:

One of the bigger ads I found was from a Marion OH newspaper in July of '59:

By December, it was playing as part of a triple feature in Troy, NY:

Finally, this ad from Ft. Lauderdale from Christmas week in 1959. Note the "first showing anywhere" claim, which is patently not true (this tidbit is mentioned on the commentary). Also note its odd pairing with the 6-year-old religious movie The Silver Chalice w/ Paul Newman. One more thing to note: the giant wasp monster depicted in the ads is nowhere to be seen in the movie--only the character's head makes the transformation.

The Quiet but Tense American

Three ads for The Quiet American (1958), a thriller combining politics (Vietnam in 1952) and a love triangle between the title American, a jaded British reporter, and a native woman. These posters make the movie look a little more action-filled than it is, though I highly recommend it, and the male figure in the ad doesn't quite look like either Audie Murphy (the American) or Michael Redgrave (the Brit).

The above ad is from its initial New York City engagement. Below is a poster which emphasizes the scandalous romance.

Auntie Mame and Dorothy Dandridge

One of my favorite movies of all time, Auntie Mame, playing 60 years ago this week in Salinas, CA. Oddly paired with a maritime mutiny adventure featuring Dorothy Dandridge.

The Tongfather

The Tongfather, showing in New York in April, 1974. Sounds totally cool--Kung Fu movie meets Vito Corleone. Also released as The Notorious Bandit and Hands of Death. Those two titles do nothing for me, but I'd be sorely tempted to see it under the Tongfather name. Funny thing about titles.

Early 70s drive-in porn

Even though I was a teenager in the 70s, and quite active in appreciation of pop culture, I'm amazed as I go through the newspaper ads of the era how much porn was playing in Columbus, or perhaps I should say "porn," as most of the hard-R and X-rated films of the time were actually what was called "soft-core," typically with lots of nudity and simulated sex, not the clinically detailed close-ups of real sex that became accepted later in the decade. This triple bill of hard-R films played Columbus in December of 1973, at (presumably heated) drive-ins. "Unclaimed girls"? "Super-chicks"? A kiss away from jail? The mind reels. Probably these movie could play practically uncut on Cinemax or HBO today.

2 approaches to Electra Glide in Blue

Below are two different ads for Electra Glide in Blue (playing in Columbus in October 1973) which ran one week apart. The first makes it look like an action film, and second sort of like a comedy. It's really neither one. It's more of an indie character study about a cop trying to do good in dangerous times. It is an interesting film with a really good lead performance by Robert Blake and solid support from Billy Green Bush.
 

The Adventurers

The Adventurers (1970), a mostly forgotten film based on a mostly forgotten Harold Robbins novel. Was supposed to be a big break for Yugoslavian actor Bekim Fehmiu but I don't think it was, though he remained active in European films for a while. Playing this week 49 years ago. (Does anybody read Harold Robbins anymore?)