The Home Computer in 1999 As Seen From 1966

Lord Love a Duck

Roddy McDowall became a favorite actor of mine in the PLANET OF THE APES films but long before them he had been a child star in England and Hollywood. Unlike many child stars, he studied his craft, took some time out of the spotlight and was able to come back on Broadway in CAMELOT. In 1966, he gave one of his best performances in George Axelrod's dark comedy with the ridiculous name, LORD LOVE A DUCK. At first a fairly typical teenage film in which young the young star goes out of his way to do absolutely anything to please the sensuous Tuesday Weld, things get further and further out of hand as she becomes more demanding and the viewer realizes that he really isn't quite sane. Ruth Gordon co-stars memorably.

Mae West-Wild Christmas

Mae West was all the rage in the 1920's for her too-sexy antics on the Broadway stage! Her pre-code films of the 1930's perpetuated that reputation. In the forties, she was banned on radio for her suggestive delivery alone!

By the sixties, though, the aging sexpot had become a major cult figure and released a couple of albums including this risque holiday themed LP.

TV and Movie Mags

Movie and TV magazines were hot in '66. The magazine racks at the supermarket and the local drugstore were filled with them. While some had been around for decades, many more were put together cheaply to cash in on pop culture idols and the growing cult of celebrity. They're all but gone today, replaced by PEOPLE and its more gossipy rip-ffs. Here, though, are a few examples from 1966.

Dark Shadows

One of the most unusual phenomena amongst kids in the late sixties was the unlikely success of the supernatural daytime soap opera, DARK SHADOWS. Originally bereft of the vampires, werewolves and assorted Lovecraftian monsters that would make it into the cult series it became (and remains to this day), at first it was the story of young Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke, later Isles) and her quest to discover her secret past in the gothic surroundings of Collinsport, Maine. When that didn't go so well ratings-wise, vampire Barnabas Collins was introduced a year or so later and suddenly it was like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER's "Hellmouth." Ghosts, witches, vamps, werewolves, time travel, Mr Hyde rip-offs and shambling, oozing "Old Ones" all gravitated toward Widow's Hill! And the Nielsen families were right behind them!

DARK SHADOWS, beginning in June of 1966, would run into 1971, accompanied by two feature films, a hit soundtrack LP, a full series remake years later and a currently shooting feature film with Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins!

Beatles Rain

The Beatles certainly didn't invent the concept of short promo films of songs. Those types of things had been around at least since the forties. The Fab Four did, however, popularize them, beginning with RAIN in 1966.

Doctor Who

It wasn't big in the US in 1966--in fact it wasn't seen in the US at all! In the UK, though, TV's DOCTOR WHO was far too popular to allow to come to an end just because star William Hartnell was leaving. Thus the concept of the Doctor's regnerations was conceived and a direct line to Matt Smith was begun the day Hartnell regenerated into Patrick Troughton!