I am a nerd, a social outcast, very uncool. And always have been. One of the reasons I cite for this (other than my own basic character flaws and maladjustments) is that my parents were older than most of the parents of people my age. This might not seem like much, but it caused me to grow up with a different perspective and frame of reference than other kids.
What most people my age call "the comics" I call "the funnies", because that is what my parents called them. Many of my friends' dads went to Viet Nam. Mine went to Korea. Many of my friends' parents were ex-hippies, or grew up in that era. My parents grew up in the days of greasers and hot rod racers. To this day, I love big band and boogie-woogie because of my parents' influence - although now everybody calls it "Swing" and even it's rebirth into popularity faded years ago.
And when most people my age hear "Flash Gordon" they think of the movie with the Queen soundtrack (Flash! Ah-Aah!) and when they hear "Buck Rogers" they think of Gil Gerard on the TV (Beedeebeedeebeedeee, Hey Buck!). Certainly I watched those things, but when I hear those names, the first thing I think of is Buster Crabbe and the serials he starred in.
Why? Largely because of a show on PBS that my mother watched every weekend, called Matinee at the Bijou. Matinee at the Bijou showed old movies from the '30s, 40s, and 50s; but they showed them the way they were done back then. First they would show a newsreel from the era, then a cartoon (often Betty Boop), then an adventure serial such as Flash Gordon or Zorro, then the movie.
For a seven- or eight-year old boy, it was like heaven. Nothing was cooler than Zorro or Flash or Buck. Usually I would get bored with the full-length movie, but during the newsreels I would ask my mom questions about FDR or the war or what-have-you, laugh through the cartoon, and watch the adventure stories with excitement. When they showed the original Bela Lugosi "Dracula" around Halloween, I was hooked, and have loved vampires ever since.
I miss that show. But! PBS is bringing it back. In HD, apparently. I may have to get HD from DirecTV just for this.
The missus got me the old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon collection on DVD last Christmas, and I've been neglecting to watch it. Shame on me. I just may have to bust it out and watch it this weekend to celebrate.
8 months ago
4 comments:
I remember watching the old Buster Crab serials with my mom. It's cool to point out the influence it had on George Lucas. Note the scrolling text and the hair buns.
my parents were at the other end of the scale...very young. They were still in their 20's in the 80's. I remember Fleetwood Mac, The police etc. When my mom was my age, I was six....crazy!
I have to admit I didn't know a lot of the stuff you were talking about in this post :)
wiwille - I love it that you watched those old things too. And Lucas definitely used elements of those in the Star Wars movies...the screen wipes were another telltale sign of that.
Rawbean - you kind of prove my point a little bit. I have always been an anachronism to my own generation. Although I think you are on the other end - did you find your upbringing different from your peers whose parents were a little older?
As an addendum to this post: I called my mom and told her PBS was going to be putting "Matinee at the Bijou" back on. Her response was, "Oh. Huh." I was kind of stunned for a moment, and said, "You used to watch it all the time when I was kid. You loved that show, and so did I!"
She said "Did they show old cowboy movies?"
I was astonished. She barely remembered this show that is one of my fondest memories of childhood; one of the few things we watched together. It was very weird.
Sooo, um, how many of you out there grew up Feral?
You know raised by wolves, left to fend for ones self out in the woods, foraging for food all day, hiding from the kids who where a couple grades higher then you when walking home from school, etc.
I started showing my son the finer art of eating berries (which ones to eat and which ones to leave alone) and hiding from cars when you hear them coming down the road (Feral people hide from things, unless it’s food.)
I love the old black and white Flash Gordon shows, amazing Tech, they could make ships fly with sparklers!! Who needs million dollar space shuttles when they did everything with sparklers? That and Space-1999 (with the moon base, where the moon left earth orbit and went off into deep space.)
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