New Photos Added: JERRY LEWIS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, Liv Tyler, CLUTCH CARGO, Goldie Hawn, WHAT’S MY LINE?, Ernest Borgnine, etc.
July 7th, 2008 by Scott Marks
THE ADDAMS FAMILY - 5 Photos Added
Jerry Lewis’ THE BELLBOY (1960) - 8 Lobby Cards Added
BORGNINE IN BANLON!!!
Ernest Borgnine in The Split (1968) - 3 Color Stills Added
CLUTCH CARGO, with his pals Spinner & Paddlefoot! - 5 Photos Added
Tags: 8 x 10, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Brigitte Bardot, CLUTCH CARGO, Dorothy Kilgallen, Ernest Borgnine, Evan Rachel Wood, Frank Tashlin, Goldie Hawn, Howard Hawks, Images, Jerry Lewis, John Charles Daly, Liv Tyler, Liza Minnelli, Lobby Cards, Marlene Dietrich, New Photos, Paddlefoot, Photo, Photos, Pictures, PLUNKETT AND MacLEANE, promotional stills, publicity photos, Spinner, Still, Stills, The Addams Family, The Bellboy, THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY, the incredible hulk, the lady is willing, THE STRANGERS, Whats My LineFiled Under Image Blog
Britain bans product placement on TV shows
June 11th, 2008 by Scott Marks
SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS!!!
When was the earliest example of product-en-scene? There had to have been something before Billy Wilder placed the box of Ivory Snow Flakes on the store shelf between Phyllis and Walter in Double Indemnity (1944). Perhaps Wilder was vamping on soap companies, then famous for sponsoring radio dramas, by inserting a box in his anything but sudsy film noir.
Or was Wilder attempting to bring an audience impacted by the horrors of World War II a little closer to the realities of everyday living?
The man who turned product placement into an art form was Frank Tashlin. In 1949, the former Termite Terrace animator, current Harpo Marx gag man and future Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis auteur de choix wrote, and presumably had a hand in the direction of, the rooftop climax to Love Happy (1949). With the sardine can diamonds safely secured in his trenchcoat, Harpo frolics through a glorious studio mock up of a Manhattan rooftop complete with enormous glowing signs and animated billboards all screaming brand names. Harpo’s horseplay lands him atop the Mobil Oil’s emblematic “Flying Red Horse” and the neon steed flashes him to safety.
In his live action features, Tashlin’s employment of merchandise and trademarks brought movies up to date and into the modern world he was clearly lampooning. You would no longer see a character pick up a pack of Marlboro’s with a piece of electrical tape strategically positioned over the product logo. When Tuttle’s Department Store turns on Jerry Lewis in Who’s Minding the Store?, it isn’t simply a series of animated appliances waging war, but a consumerist mentality gone haywire.
After Tash it was all about the numbers as shrewd studio marketing teams began descended on corporations to help pay the bills. It’s virtually impossible to find a contemporary American film from the 1980s that doesn’t have a USA Today box lurking somewhere in the corner of one of its frames.
The advent of the VCR caused torrents of flopsweat to flood Madison Avenue boardrooms. Viewers now had the option to scan through their precious pitches leaving only subliminal traces of their wares. TiVo obliterates commercials in record time, so now more than ever product placement is essential to advertisers and networks alike.
There must be a different mindset overseas because according to Variety, in his first big policy speech on broadcasting, the U.K.’s media minister Andy Burnham, secretary of state at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport since January, indicated that he would not accept the European Union directive allowing product placement on U.K. TV.
Burnham fears that crass commercial plug-ins would somehow “contaminate” the exalted status of British TV. He added, “As a viewer, I don’t want to feel the script has been written by the commercial marketing director.” Burnham continued: “British programming has an integrity that is revered around the world and I don’t think we should put that hard-won reputation up for sale.”
Get over yourself. The idiot box was created to sell douche powder and effervescent denture cleaners and high class telly is an oxymoron. That goes double for prim, acting-driven and routinely unfunny British TV. Better a word from out sponsor rather than Benny Hill is what I always say.
Links:
Celebrity Endorsements
Vintage Magazine Ads
Filed Under News
New Photos Added: Jerry Lewis, Frank Tashlin, RAGING BULL, Mel Blanc, DRAGONSLAYER, Bette Davis, Aurora Model Kits, etc.
April 19th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Woody Allen - Ad for The Maniaks (1966) comic book
Mel Blanc - 4 Photos
Listen to Arthur, fatso!
Celebrity Endorsements:
Milton Berle for Suskana Mills, 1951
Bette Davis for Lustre-Creme, 1951
Bert Lahr for Blatz Beer, 1952
Carpet Padding Danny Thomas Style
Arthur Godfrey has the AYDS!, 1965
The Disorderly Orderly - Herald
Dragonslayer - 8 Color Photos
Jerry Lewis - 45 Photos
Groucho Marx - Comic Book profile
The Nutty Professor - 4 Page Contest and Entry Form
Raging Bull - 8 Lobby Cards
Rio Bravo - Color Shot of Ricky Nelson
The Sad Sack (1957) - 4 Page Viacom TV Promotional Pamphlet (1965)
Frank Tashlin - On the set of The Disorderly Orderly
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, mommy
Vintage ads:
Aurora Model Kits, 1964 (Universal Monsters)
Aurora Model Kits, 1965 (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman & Superboy)
Superman for Palisades Park, New Jersey, 1967
Pink Royal Typewriter Mattel Thingmaker, 1966
The Best of DC Comics on TV, 1967 (Featuring Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Superman & Aquaman)
Rocky and Bullwinkle for Cheerios, 1966
Phillip Morris Cigarettes, 1956
Oreo Cookies, 1951
Happy-Joe-Lucky Comic Strip for Lucky Strike Cigarettes, 1956
Blue Bonnet Margarine, 1956
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958
Which Way to the Front? - Herald
Tags: 8 x 10, Advertising, Arthur Godfrey, Aurora Model, AYDS, Bert Lahr, Blatz Beer, Bullwinkle, Danny Thomas, DC Comics, DRAGONSLAYER, Frank Tashlin, Groucho_Marx, Herald, Jerry Lewis, Marlo Thomas, Mel Blanc, Oreo Cookies, Photos, RAGING BULL, Ricky Nelson, RIO BRAVO, Rocky, Stills, Superboy, Superman, THE DISORDERLY ORDERLY, THE SAD SACK, Vintage Ads, WHICH WAY TO THE FRONT, Wonder WomanFiled Under Image Blog
Scott Marks talks about “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Lemon Drop Kid”
December 24th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Les…
(Dolores Hope’s version of Silver Bells plays softly underneath)
It’s not often that I step out of character, but what the hell? It’s Christmas. You know ladies and gentlemen, no website is a failure that has friends. And I mean it. When I see the look on the faces of those kids who visit Emulsion Compulsion every day to study my reviews, read my rants and know the true meaning of 2 Girls 1 Kup, I tell ya’ it gets me right here. You have my utmost fondness and appreciation.
And to the man behind the curtain, my buddy Charles who called me up one day and said, “I read your crappy AOL blog. I’d like to build you a website that people will actually come to.” For a Republican who lives as far north of Chicago as possible while still being in Illinois and hasn’t been inside a movie theater since we saw 54 together in ‘98 you see things in me that confound your average aesthete. Your advice on how to make this site tick has been invaluable. Beyond all else, you are one of the most loyal people on the planet. Who needs Scorsese when I can talk to you everyday? You’re a great man, Charles, and one that I both value and love. Thanks!
And now before we all start vomiting blood from the sugar overkill, this is a piece that I did for KPBS -Radio’s These Days that I am particularly proud of. For a guy who never had a tree in his living room, I sure do have good taste in Christmas pictures!
Leave it to a Jew to point up the cynicism inherent in Frank Capra’s beloved holiday chestnut and leave it to a die hard Frank Tashlin devotee to champion a Bob Hope obscurity over the more familiar holiday DVD stuffers.
And speaking of people that I value, I pretty much owe my life on San Diego radio to Angela Carone. Like Charles, she not only gets me, but Angela unleashes me over the public airwaves. Listen to how brilliantly this piece is put together. She’s my personal Thelma.
Take it away Tom…
Tom Fudge: When the 1946 movie It’s A Wonderful Life entered the public domain in the 1970’s, practically every television station began broadcasting the film during the holiday season. The story is a familiar one. Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, who looks back on a lifetime of dashed dreams and personal sacrifices. One day, after a string of bad luck, he decides he wants to end it all. But before he can, a bumbling angel named Clarence shows him what life would be like without him. And he convinces George that he really does have “a wonderful life.”
Some argue that Frank Capra’s film is sentimental and even a little cheesy. But our Film Club of the Air’s Scott Marks has a different take on it. He stopped by the studio to give us his impression of It’s a Wonderful Life and to tell us about one of his favorite holiday movies starring Bob Hope.
Filed Under KPBS Radio Shows
Hollywood’s Finest Christmas Musical Number: Bob Hope & Marilyn Maxwell sing “Silver Bells”
December 19th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Nobody talks about The Lemon Drop Kid at Christmas and they should because there isn’t a better holiday musical number than “Silver Bells.” It was one of the first live-action films that Frank Tashlin had a hand in directing, albeit uncredited. Sidney Lanfield received the billing, but it was Tash who directed the majority of the film.
2oth Century Fox was not happy with Lanfield’s dalies so they brought in Tashlin to direct approimately a third of the picture, including the Silver Bells number. The production design, by Franz Bachelin and Hal Pereira, is a triumph. What a set - a stunning backlot Paramount mock-up of bustling New York City sidewalks crammed with last minute Christmas shoppers. And as much as I hate the real stuff, there is nothing more magical that watching it snow in 35mm. Through it all stroll Bob and Marilyn (and Daniel Fapp’s camera) creating what would amount to song #2, behind Thanks for the Memories, as the tune most often associated with Old Ski Nose.
I’ll have more to say about The Lemon Drop Kid on Christmas Day. Until then, enjoy this glorious piece of holiday movie magic. Tags: Bob Hope, Frank Tashlin, Marilyn Maxwell, SILVER BELLS, THE LEMON DROP KID
Filed Under Rants
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in Frank Tashlin’s ARTISTS AND MODELS (1955)
June 2nd, 2007 by Scott Marks
and represent the team at their funniest and most visually inventive. In Artists, Jerry plays a comic book junkie who inexplicably dreams of secret government plans. After decades of pan-and-scan TV prints (and one, glorious screening of a pristine 16mm dye-transfer print) I can’t wait to see how this plays in the proper aspect ratio.Filed Under DVD
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