The Christmas List - Philco Slender Seventeener

The Philco Seventeer, not sure if that means the screen is 17 inches or if it was geared toward 50's teens, but in an era of look-alike flat screens it's a pretty sweet looking set. Here's something Hitachi, think about making a faux alligator skin case for your flat screen sets.

Farewell Sammy Terry

Childhood is a frightening time. You’re smaller and less powerful than everything in your world, you have no say about what happens in your life, and then there are people (or creatures of the night) like Sammy Terry. Sammy, aka Bob Carter, appeared on WTTV channel 4’s Nightmare Theatre every Friday night, bringing classic b-grade horror flicks to the Indianapolis metropolitan area during the 1960s and 70s and I largely blame him for my being afraid of the dark for most of my prepubescent life. It was Sammy who introduced me to the classics: Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Phantom of the Opera. He taught me the ocean is filled with giant mutant creatures that crave human flesh, that the vacuum of space is peopled by insectoid alien horrors with unspeakable plans for humanity, and that the house at the end of the block actually is haunted. Life would have seemed a lot safer without Sammy’s dark theatre of nightmare, but then it would have been a lot more boring too.


Thank you for introducing me to the dark side of things, Sammy. Without you, I might not have become a writer. You taught me fright both as high art and cheap thrill. I’ll miss you, but then you’ll be with me every time a cloud passes over the moon or whenever I hear the sound of thunder in the night.


 

Do you have memories to share about Sammy Terry? Drop me a comment, I'll put them on the air.

1947 Indy 500 - Fame and the 500

The Indy 500 and celebrity have always gone together, and in this photograph from the August 1947 issue of Popular Mechanics we get a chance to see evidence of that connection. Keenan Wynn came into the world under the extravagant moniker Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn. He was the son of vaudeville comedian, perfect fool, Disney voice of the Mad Hatter, and early variety show host, Ed Wynn.

To be honest, I didn't recognize Keenan Wynn's name until I checked out his list of film credits. He appeared in hundreds of television and movie rolls over his long career including A World of His Own one of two Twilight Zone episodes in which Wynn would feature.

Wynn also made appearances on the big screen, including roles in Annie Get Your Gun along side Betty Hutton and Howard Keel, Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, Kiss Me Kate, A Hole in the Head with Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson, The Absent Minded Professor, and Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott.

Some amazing photos and the great story of Keenan Wynn’s little Alfa Romeo’s history can be found on the Hemmings Motor News site.