"The Dummy" short from USA Night Flight 1981

For Halloween, a old short that used to scare the living crap out of me as a kid.

"The Dummy" 1981

Disney's Halloween Treat

This one's near and dear to my lizard heart, Disney's Halloween Treat. Aired off and on in the 80s and has some great halloween/scary themed Disney clips and shorts.

More Children's Palace/Child World goodness

I got some more cool pics from former CW/CP guru, Bernard









Bernard also sent along a Child World video from youtube



Some other CW/CP videos

Lost Retail: Venture stores

Here's some background culled from the various online sources:

Venture Stores, Inc.
A former chain of retail stores that operated in the American Midwest. The company operated over 90 stores, and was based out of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, Missouri.
Opened: 1970 in St. Louis, MO
Headquarters: O'Fallon, MO
Employees: 18,000
Website: www.venturestores.com (archived at Deadmalls.com)

History
1970: First store opened in in the St. Louis suburb of Overland (location became a Kmart and is now a Home Depot).
1976: Expanded to 20 units.
1978: Venture purchased 23 Turn Style locations in the Chicago area from Jewel food stores, and expanded to over 40 locations. They were the largest discount chain in Chicago with inner city locations other than Zayre/Ames.
1985: Over 50 stores, most of which were in Chicago and St. Louis.
1990: Venture became a private corporation, operating in eight states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Indiana.
1995: 115 stores in 9 states, having expanded into Texas in 1993.
1998: Bankruptcy. Stores closed in late April



Laura, a Venture fan and super-friend of the blog was kind enough to share some of her cool Venture collectables to help me round out this post

Ad from Oklahoma Cit, Christmas 1984


Venture's advertising slogan during the 1980s was "Save With Style." In the 1990s, Venture used two other slogans; the first was tied to the remodel and
restrategizing to be like Kohl's and that slogan was "See What's New For You!". By the time they closed they used the slogan "See What A Little Money Can Buy".

Bankruptcy
By the late 1990s, the chain found that it was unable to compete against other retail chains, such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Venture tried to return to its founding principles as an upscale discounter and remodeled most of its stores. While facing vast competition Venture made a fatal mistake trying to expand into Texas instead of protecting its core markets. Venture sold the Texas stores to Kmart in 1996 and closed its distribution center in Corsicana, Texas. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 20, 1998, and tried to operate with a smaller number of stores. The effort was not successful, and the company announced its closing on April 27, 1998. Most of the former Venture buildings were absorbed into other chains, such as Kmart, Kohl's, ShopKo, and Burlington Coat Factory

TV Guide Halloween show ads

I'm a full-on vintage TV Guide junkie. It's probably one of my dumber geek-obsessions. I just love looking through the old one. So, here's some Halloween themed ad scans. I'll do my best to include the location, station and years.


KPTM 42 Omaha, 1988


KMEG (I think Grand Island, NE) 1988


Bugs Bunny, Raggedy Ann and Real People Halloween Specials, Los Angeles 1980


Fright Week, "The Thinkg with 2 Heads", Los Angeles 1980


"How the Grinch Stole Halloween", Los Angeles 1980


"The Halloween that Almost Wasn't", Los Angeles 1980


"In Search of..." with a pimped out Nimoy, Los Angeles 1980


"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Los Angeles 1980


The Omen and The Omen II, Los Angeles 1980


Salem's Lot Los Angeles 1980


"It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", KTSP Channel 10, Phoenix 1983


"Halloween II", KNXV Channel 15, Phoenix 1986


"Night of the Living Dead", KTVK Channel 3, Phoenix 1986


"Tales from the Darkside Special", KNXV Channel 15, Phoenix 1986


Halloween Thrillers, KMGH Channel 7, Denver 1981


Ripley's Believe it or Not, Denver 1981


Scary-ass local news ads on a multi-part cancer series,
KMGH Channel 7, Denver 1981
Skeletor VS Can-Sor, on a very special Masters of the Universe.

Famous Monsters #152 Halloween-ish Ads

Famous Monsters #152, jam packed with some killer monster and scifi ads, from 1979.


Masks


Super 8 Movies


More Super 8 Movies


All sorts o' cool stuff


Records


Tighty Whiteys!!! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit...


Superman


Close Encounters


A Shit ton of Star Wars merchandise

Starlog #8 1977 Saturday Morning TV article

A fun read with some nice publicity shots for the 1977 Saturday Morning shows.
Includes: Ark II, Far Out Space Nuts, Krofft's Supershow, Big John, Little John, Electrawoman and Dynagirl, Dr. Shrinker, Wonderbug, Land of the Lost, Lost Saucer, Monster Squad, New Adventures of Batman, Scooby Doo and Dynomutt Hour, Shazam/Isis Hour, Super Friends, and Space Ghost/Frankenstein Jr.







A fun read with some nice publicity shots for the 1977 Saturday Morning shows.

Starlog Ads: Random late 70s to Mid 80s

Since I was doing some scanning for the Halloween ad posts, I thought I'd throw out a few fun ads I ran across.


Filmation animation cel prints
Man, did I ever want those Batman cels when I was a kid. These things were advertised forever, so you'd think these would pop-up from time to time. But I've never ran across any.


Star Wars Masks


Super 8 SciFi movies


NIXON VS ROBOCOP!!!
Actually just a goofy shot from a Starlog letters page for some Boy's Club charity thing. Looks like Robocop's wearing a hoodie under his helmet.

Netflix Picks of the week #2

Dr. Geektarded's Netflix Picks: Week 2



Up this week:
Inferno
Baby Mama
Wrong Turn 2



Inferno (1980)
Dario Argeno's sequel to Susperia and the second film in the Three Mothers Trilogy. The story follows Rose (briefly) and her brother Mark as they uncover the mystery of "The Lady of Darkness" (Mater Tenebrarum).

Inferno is a beautiful looking film, with a decent story. The pacing seemed a bit off and it took me a couple of tries to figure out who was going to be the film's protagonist. As with most of Argento's movies, the atmosphere and cinematography are fantastic. The use of color really stands out and the movie almost has a 60s technicolor feel to it. Rich reds, blues and magentas.

Not my favorite Argento film, but it's still a good watch.
3 out of 5 stars



Baby Mama (2008)
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler riff on the Odd Couple. Single, baby-crazy, high paid exec (Fey) is unable to spawn and is forced to live with the trashy surrogate mother (Poehler) carrying her baby. Mild wackiness ensues and the opposites become friends. It's one to grow on.

I think I built this one up a little in my mind. I love 30 Rock and for some reason was expecting that style of humor. So, I was disappointed with a film that was a little milder and cutsie that I normally enjoy. But there was some decent laughs, mostly from Poehler's low-rent dullard character doing highbrow things like pissing in a sink, drinking while pregnant, playing American Idol kerokee, etc.

Overall, I'd say skip it. Probably worth watching on cable or something.
2 out of 5 stars.



Wrong Turn 2
Those superpowered, ultra-imbred, uber-hillbillies are back to wreck havoc on a film crew shooting a pilot for a post-apocolyptic themed reality show contest (i.e. "Survivor" after the bomb).

Wow! I was fully expecting this to suck the ass-balls. It was in fact an excellent slasher movie. Mutant hillbilly sex, decent characters/acting, crazy gore and Henry Rollins to boot. A film that finally answers the question: "What would a lady getting vertically split in half by an axe look like?"
5 out of 5 stars

Dr. Geektarded's 31 Films of Halloween

To kick off the Halloween festivities, I've cooked up a Netflix list for all you Horror fans

http://www.netflix.com/ReviewsAndLists?prid=783247454&showList=252025

Dr. Geektarded's 31 Films of Halloween

Halloween
The first flick in the trilogy from director John Carpenter, Halloween almost single-handedly invented the 1980s slasher genre. Escaped lunatic Michael Myers (no, not the Austin Powers actor) goes on a murderous baby-sitter-slaying rampage on Halloween. Only baby sitter Jamie Lee Curtis (the quintessential scream queen) and psychiatrist Donald Pleasence can stop him.

Halloween II
This bloodier sequel picks up where the original ended. An injured Jamie Lee Curtis recuperates in the hospital not knowing that murderous Michael Myers is licking his wounds in a nearby room. The hospital setting makes for spooky sequences with Myers' slow footsteps echoing loudly on the tile floor. The diagnosis for impressionable viewers: long nights of insomnia.

High Tension
Students Marie (Cecile de France) and Alex (Maiwenn Le Besco) have no idea of the horrors that await them when they head off to a remote country home to study for their upcoming exams. When night falls, a psychopathic stranger attacks, tying up Alex and taking her away. It's up to Marie to save her friend -- but first, she must figure out what is really going on. Philippe Nahon co-stars in this twisty-turny tale of terror.

Fright Night
Nobody believes horror-movie addict Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) when he discovers that his suave new neighbor, Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon), is a vampire. Kith and kin believe Charley is certifiable, and his single mother develops a romantic interest in Dandridge. When the bloodsucker starts stalking Charley, he turns to TV horror-film host and ghoul-hunter Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) in this hysterical spoof.

Night of the Comet
Earth has been ripped to shreds after a run-in with a killer comet, and those who have survived are in a fight for their lives in this campy cult classic. Valley Girl Reg (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her sister (Kelli Maroney) discover they're two of the lucky few. But scientists are after them, and now they must run. Why? Because the researchers believe they need the blood of survivors to concoct a drug that can save them all from further ruin.

Tenebre
An American novelist comes to Rome to promote his latest book, "Tenebre." After his arrival, a shocking sequence of brutal homicides occur which strangely resemble the murders he's written about in his book ...

Silver Bullet
Adapted from author Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf, this campy thriller tells of a sleepy American town that's terrorized by extreme sadistic murders -- seemingly, by a werewolf. While all the town's inhabitants prepare to lock themselves up at night, Marty Coslaw, a 13-year-old, wheelchair-bound boy, is the only person brave enough to try to track down the mysterious killer.

Friday the 13th: Part 4: The Final Chapter
Hockey-masked psychopath Jason Vorhees (Ted White) is back in business at Camp Crystal Lake in the fourth (but far from final) installment of the popular, long-running horror series. As randy teens are slain one by one, Tommy (Corey Feldman) comes up with a plan to distract the killer. Makeup master Tom Savini provides much of the gore, and actor Crispin Glover turns in an unusual performance as a stud in training.

Friday the 13th: Part 7: The New Blood
The legendary horror series continues! After lying dormant at the bottom of Crystal Lake, Jason is released from his watery grave by Tina (Lar Park-Lincoln), a telekinetic teenager who returned to the site where her father supposedly drowned in hopes of using her psychic powers to solve the mystery of his death. But, with the hockey-masked murderer on the loose, the killing spree begins again. Can she control her powers enough to stop Jason?

A Nightmare on Elm Street
A group of high school friends are being slaughtered in their sleep by the hideous fiend of their shared dreams. When the police ignore her explanation, one girl must confront the killer in his shadowy realm.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
It's been many years since Freddy Krueger's (Robert Englund) first victim, Nancy, came face to face with Freddy and his sick, evil ways. Now, Nancy's all grown up; she's put her frightening nightmares behind her and is helping teens cope with their dreams. Too bad Freddy's decided to herald his return by invading the kids' dreams and scaring them into committing suicide.

Phantasm
Often considered one of the icons of 1970s independent horror cinema, director Don Coscarelli's classic nail-biter follows two boys who, in pursuit of an odd-looking grave robber, may wind up as the newest members of a freshly dead slave race. Jody (Bill Thornbury) and Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) discover that the creature (Angus Scrimm) stealing cadavers walks the earth but lives in the afterworld -- and that it needs more corpses.

The Return of the Living Dead
The freshly risen undead are ready to party in this horror-comedy that finds two employees of a medical supply company unwittingly releasing several zombies from cylinders in which they've been trapped for years. Soon, the local citizenry is forced to deal with a large-scale zombie epidemic as the nasty, brain-eating creatures go on a rampage, hungry as ever and eager to make up for lost time!

Return of the Living Dead 2
What's that smell?? When a large container of top-secret, classified gas rolls off an army truck, a group of curious kids open the lid … naturally. But that turns out to be a fatal mistake, as the lethal stench soon wafts into a nearby cemetery, reanimating an army of gnarly zombies who want nothing more than to feed on the flesh of the living. Better send more paramedics!

Scream
Not your average slasher flick, Scream distinguishes itself with a cast of attractive up-and-comers and a self-parodying sense of humor. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campell) is terrorized by a murderer intent on paying homage to the teen horror classics (Halloween, Prom Night) by offing everyone Sidney knows. As in the grand tradition of popular horror films, sequels were born, along with the parody Scary Movie and its offspring.

Jeepers Creepers
A college-age brother and sister (Justin Long and Gina Philips) get more than they bargained for on their road trip home from spring break. When the bickering siblings witness a creepy truck driver tossing body bags into a sewer near an abandoned church, they investigate. Bad move! Opening a Pandora's Box of unspeakable evil, the pair must flee for their lives -- with a monstrous "shape" in hot pursuit.

Child's Play
A chubby toy doll named Chucky becomes an instrument of terror in director Tom Holland's unnerving tale of horror. Before cops gun down a serial killer (Brad Dourif), he invokes a spell that transfers his soul into the body of Chucky -- who ends up as a birthday present for 6-year-old Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). When a rash of murders ensues, he knows Chucky is the culprit, but neither Andy's mother (Catherine Hicks) nor the police believe him.

Re-Animator
Based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this campy send-up follows an egotistical medical student (Jeffrey Combs) who develops a serum that revives the dead. Together with his girlfriend and his obdurate roommate, Combs reanimates a corpse but doesn't factor in certain complications that arise. Filled with equal parts laughter and gore, Re-Animator spawned a similarly outlandish sequel.

From Beyond
After inventing a way for creatures from the fourth dimension to come into his own world, Dr. Edward Pretorious (Ted Sorel) suffers a gruesome decapitation at the hands of those he brought "from beyond." But authorities suspect his assistant (Jeffrey Combs) is to blame. Barbara Crampton co-stars as a beautiful psychiatrist brought in to help police solve the case in this classic 1980s thriller based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft.

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Stranded in a cabin in the woods, Ash (Bruce Campbell) and his girlfriend accidentally invoke a spell that causes the Evil Dead to rise and kill! As a lone man pitted against hordes of walking corpses, can Ash survive until the safety of sunrise? Director Sam Raimi's whip-crack direction and Campbell's comedic skills induce hair-raising fear and gales of laughter.

Hostel
Seeking out the quintessential college experience by backpacking through Europe, two American students (Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson) befriend an eccentric Icelander (Eythor Gudjonsson) and head to a hostel that's said to be brimming with women. But once they arrive, their desires are quelled by the discovery of unimaginable horrors. Quentin Tarantino presents this grisly tale based in part on actual events, directed by Eli Roth.

Candyman
While researching urban myths, grad student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) learns about the Candyman (Tony Todd), a hook-handed creature who's said to haunt a Chicago housing project. In this creepy film based on a Clive Barker story, the Candyman is made flesh by other people's belief in him. Not surprisingly, Lyle manages to summon him. Soon, the Candyman has committed a series of murders, and the cops are holding Lyle responsible.

The Hitcher
Never pick up strangers; that's a lesson Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) will wish he'd learned. While driving from Chicago to San Diego, he picks up hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) but regrets it when he begins to suspect Ryder may be a serial killer. Before Halsey can say, "Get out of my car," Ryder kills again -- and frames him for the murders.

The Ring
It sounded like just another urban legend: a videotape filled with nightmarish images, leading to a phone call foretelling the viewer's death in exactly 7 days. Newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) was naturally skeptical of the story -- until four teens died mysteriously one week after watching such a tape. Curious, Rachel tracks down the video and watches it … and now, she has just 7 days to unravel the mystery of the "Ring."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Director Tobe Hooper's horror classic is a gruesome reminder that a movie need not be complicated to scare the daylights out of viewers. Sally (Marilyn Burns), her wheelchair-bound brother (Paul A. Partain) and their friends travel to a vandalized graveyard to see if their grandfather's remains are intact. En route, they come upon chainsaw-wielding maniac Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), and it's a fight to the bloody death between good and evil.

Dawn of the Dead
Picking up where Night of the Living Dead left off, this classic horror flick from director George Romero begins with zombies taking over every major city in the United States. Running for their lives, Peter (Ken Foree), Roger (Scott Reiniger), Stephen (David Emge) and Frances (Gaylen Ross) find refuge in a remote shopping mall, only to discover they must fight a motorcycle gang as well as the undead ghouls.

Day of the Dead
The third chapter in writer-director George Romero's classic zombie film saga finds a group of scientists and soldiers hiding in an underground bunker to escape a world overrun by the flesh-eating undead. The scientists desperately seek a way to control the zombies, while the military just wants to kill as many of them as possible. But infighting between the two groups takes a backseat when the zombies invade the subterranean facility.

Night of the Living Dead
Director George Romero's low-budget horror classic continues to inspire heebie-jeebies, in part because of the randomness of the zombies' targets. As dead bodies return to life and feast on human flesh, young Barbara (Judith O'Dea) joins a group of survivors in a farmhouse hoping to protect themselves from the hordes of advancing zombies. But even with assistance in slowing down and killing zombies, soon only one person remains in the farmhouse.

The Thing
Kurt Russell leads a team of American scientists at a base in Antarctica. Their uneventful lives are disrupted by a group of Norwegians in a helicopter firing at a lone dog. When the chopper crashes, the dog moves in with the scientists. During the night, the canine metamorphoses and attacks other animals at the base and members of the team, who soon discover that an alien that can take any shape is in their midst. John Carpenter directed.

The Burning
Years after a summer camp janitor (Lou David) is severely burned and disfigured as the result of a teenage prank gone awry, he's released from the local insane asylum and returns to the scene of the crime to seek revenge against those who harmed him. Several yet-to-be-famous stars pop up in this classic teen horror flick, including Oscar winner Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld."

Freddy vs. Jason
It's the showdown horror fans have been waiting for! This slasher movie produced by Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham pits two of cinema's biggest, freakiest, scariest ambassadors of evil -- the nightmarish Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and the sinister Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) -- in the ultimate face-off. It's a battle to die for -- literally! Co-stars Kelly Rowland, Jason Ritter and Monica Keena.