Psychotronix Redux And A Very Worthy Fundraiser

Today, we're substantially less than bright-eyed and bushy tailed after mucho big screen fun last night at the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival. It was a blast!



And yes, it's true - yours truly slipped a Scrappy cartoon into the extravaganza. What can we say? Love that crew featuring the brilliant Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus and Art Davis!



Do we love seeing the DC5 followed by Mickey Rooney Jr. singing Beatles hits, those guys with the high voices and skinny neckties (The Newbeats) and 1960's heartthrob Adam Faith, doing the bunny hop dance while singing a tune this music fan associates with John Lee Hooker, on SHINDIG? Yes!



A favorite in the program that yours truly didn't bring was the amazing Howdy Doody Presents A Trip To Funland, a 1953 Castle Films opus, which featured, along with Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob and Clarabelle, scenes from the imaginative science fiction stop-motion animated film Kermesse fantastique, directed by József Misik for Joop Geesink's Dollywood studio.



Showed unintentionally hilarious Marlboro and L&M TV commercials in the extravaganza. Do we like cigarette ads too much? Yes.

Here are some additional nicotine-stained goodies filled with fine tobaccos, courtesy of Prelinger Archives.



The classic comedy fans who write this blog want to call attention to a Go Fund Me on behalf of one of our film historian pals, Nelson Hughes. $2000 more and the fundraiser will meet its goal.



Nelson has forgotten more than most of us know about classic comedy films and silent era knockabout and curated numerous wonderful programs for his That Slapstick Show! series in NYC. We especially like his programs of rare American silent comedies from the Library Of Congress (such as The Celebrity Roast Of Charley Chase) at Brooklyn's City Reliquary and Astoria's Q.E.D.



We enthusiastically support Go Fund Me on behalf of a splendid curator and showman who is among the key figures in the 21st century revival of WW1 era and 1920's Universal Pictures comedies.

In programs he curated, Nelson has brought attention to the slapstick comedy pioneer and producer-director-writer for Keystone, L-KO, Fox "Sunshine" and First National comedies Henry Lehrman (1881-1946).



Along with the ultra-wacky cartoonist turned comic Larry Semon (1889-1928), Lehrman (a.k.a. Pathé Lehrman and Suicide Lehrman) proved to be one highly enthusiastic exponent of a bigger, wilder, spectacular and mayhem-filled more-more-more approach to comedy - great for sight gags and visual humor but dangerous for extras. The fast-fast-fast and then faster Lehrman short subjects reflect that he was a comedy genius - and out of his freakin' mind!

Lehrman and Charlie Chaplin could not stand each other, but they did collaborate on Charlie's earliest films, such as his debut, Making A Living.



There's Charlie, in his tramp costume, thumbing his nose at the universe for the first time in Kid Auto Races At Venice.



Not many of Lehrman's Universal, L-KO, Fox and First National productions exist, but one that does is Almost A Scandal (1915), an L-KO (Lehrman Knock Out) comedy starring the up-to-no-good evil doppelganger of Chaplin, fellow Fred Karno troupe star Billie Ritchie. Both comedians wear that outfit but couldn't be more different; Billie's character is a scoundrel who makes Charlie look genteel by comparison!



Another is His Musical Sneeze (1919), produced by Lehrman and directed by Jack White (a.k.a. Preston Black, the future director of hilarious Three Stooges 2-reelers). There's a very goofy Lloyd Hamilton, supported by Virginia Rappe (the girlfriend of Henry Lehrman, seamstress and occasional actress now known as the unfortunate hard luck gal who shouldn't have attended that Labor Day 1921 party hosted by Roscoe Arbuckle at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel) - and a storyline that looks like a prototype for Bugs Bunny cartoons. Did Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett or Chuck Jones see this?



In closing, we encourage our readers to support this Go Fund Me for Nelson Hughes, an excellent curator and one of our colleagues and comrades in classic movies and silent cinema.