A recent History Channel episode of Toys That Built America included the origins of the Hula Hoop. The Hula Hoop was very popular in my childhood. The film The Hudsucker Proxy is a fictional story of the invention of the hoop.
Watch the whole show here.
Joan Anderson, who twirled her way into hula hoop history, dies at 101
I recently watched Massacre at Central High (1976) in the outstanding Blu-ray/DVD package from Synapse.
This is a unique low-budget horror film about high school students. A new student at Central High finds that the school is run by bullies, one of whom is an old friend. He challenges the bullies who cause him to have a crippling accident. He takes revenge but finds that the oppressed students (the fat kid, the nerd, the pot smokers) are no better now that they are no longer intimidated. There are no adults in the film until the end which is at a high school dance.
Synapse includes a long extra with new interviews of actors and others involved with the film.
The original commercial showed a diamond being cut in the back seat of a car. The SNL parody had a rabbi performing a bris where the male infant is circumcised.
This is a link to the SNL parody
The Unknown Comic was on The Gong Show over 150 times. He performed with a paper bag over his head. He was really comedian Murray Langston.
Interview with him from the A.V .Club
One of my favorite SNL fake commercials
This was a great commercial from many years ago.
I was playing a trivia machine game at a bar and one question was what color was Gilligan’s shirt – red, yellow, or blue? I didn’t know. It was always gray on our black and white TV.
They are emphasizing the small number of people who won’t get vaccinated instead of the large majority who have been vaccinated.
Sad! 