Chelsea Girls

Pop Art was huge in '66 and Andy Warhol was its king. CHELSEA GIRLS was his first attempt at a movie other than short, avant-garde films. It was...at best..unconventional. Music for the film was by the Velvet Underground and in the cast was their sometime vocalist, Nico, along with Mary Woronov, later to be a cult film superstar in movies like DEATH RACE 2000, ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL and EATING RAOUL.

To quote Wikipedia: It was shot at the Hotel Chelsea and other locations in New York City, and follows the lives of several of the young women who live there, and stars many of Warhol's superstars. It is presented in a split screen, accompanied by alternating soundtracks attached to each scene and an alternation between black-and-white and color photography. The original cut runs at just over three hours long.

00 Division # 6

MISSIONE SPECIALE LADY CHAPLIN was yet another Eurospy film starring a third-tier American star, in this case Ken Clark who had done much television and a few films, both big and small. Clark played CIA operative Dick Malloy, Agent o77, in several films.

The "Lady Chaplin" character was played by former beauty queen and former Bond girl Daniella Bianchi (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE). Also appearing was Jacques Bergerac, known previously for his marriages to American actresses, Dorothy Malone and Ginger Rogers and known later as French Freddie the Fence on several episodes of BATMAN.

Comic Book Foldees

Originally posted in 2009 at HOORAY FOR WALLY WOOD

When I was in the first grade, COMIC BOOK FOLDEES from Topps were one of the big things at my school. We'd all play with them and trade them back and forth at recess. They were small foldable pieces of thin card stock paper. On one side in the middle was a DC superhero or supervillain. On the other sides, split in half, were drawings of a dancer, a cowboy, a politician...just about anything as long as it was in a similar pose. Then you would fold over either the top or the bottom and get a funny picture with a funny caption. Simple but fun! Imagine my surprise when I discovered that THESE had been done at least mostly by Wally Wood! I say mostly because there are a number of the small drawings that don't really look like Woodwork to me but may be. Most, however, are quite good. The only one I have left after 40+ years is the FLASH one seen here but I recently was able to download images of the whole set online so here's a few of what I think are the best examples of Wood!

Sixteen Magazine

SIXTEEN MAGAZINE always had fun covers that took photos of various teen and tween celebs and added them to fantasy illustrations by various artists. I THINK all of the issues seen here are from 1966.

Monster World

Monsters were big in '66 and so were monster magazines. Here's a groovy cover from MONSTER WORLD, the official companion to FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND (itself later incorporated into FM).

Tijuana Taxi-Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

Here's a fun promo film done for TIJUANA TAXI, a 1966 hit for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. When people think of the sixties, they sometimes forget that the music wasn't all rock and psychedelic. The Latin-influenced pop exemplified by Alpert, Julius Wechter and Sergio Mendez was omnipresent for much of the decade. Alpert went on to become a major record executive and was largely responsible for the career of The Carpenters.

Marvel Flyers

One of my personal favorite things of 1966 was a Topps product called FLYING THINGS! I was even more elated as they came out with superhero ones called MARVEL FLYERS to tie in to the burgeoning post-BATMAN popularity of all things comic book related! As I recall, there was a Dr. Doom one that actually flew best. I used to go up to the third floor hallway of my apartment house and toss them out the window, hoping they wouldn't fly out and land on the roof of the one-story office building next door!