No doubt my pals and longtime colleagues/collaborators across the country in the San Francisco Bay Area presented a splendid KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival last night at Foothill College.
For today's blog post, here are films I would have LOVED to acquired on 16mm film, "The Vinyl Of Visuals," and presented as part of a KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College's Room 5015. A.K.A. hours of movie fun, all projected using the intrepid Kodak Pageant 250 series machines by equally intrepid Psychotronix Film Festival projectionist and co-producer Sci Fi Bob Ekman.
Granted, this is without the continuity, flow, rhythm, audience response and sounds of a beautiful Kodak Pageant 250S - and my friends Robert Emmett, Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon, KFJC sound board aces Austin Space and Grawer, and a display of cool movie posters courtesy of Gary Hascall, the movie poster and 1964 Ford Mustang king. That said, have never shown any of the following celluloid in this post at a KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival.
First and foremost, here's Joi Lansing!
Have I wanted wanted wanted to acquire 16mm theatrical trailers for the following film and Las Vegas Hillbillys?" Yes.
It wouldn't be a Psychotronix Film Festival without a Z-movie trailer featuring Sonny Tufts!
Or coming detractions from a science fiction epic missing one important thing: a budget.
There's at least one early 1930's Fleischer Studios cartoon never shown at the Psychotronix Film Festival. . . this one!
Am a fan of seeing cigarette commercials and car ads go over with a modern-day audience. Since I can watch vintage 1950's ads for hours on end and be entertained, must be reminded to not put 15 of them in a row and lose the entire audience!
Scopitones, anyone? C'est le Mashed Potatoes?
Hoped to buy Neil Sedaka's Scopitone, but nobody ever sells their 16mm prints.
Not surprisingly, this catchy hit by the always-upbeat Sedaka, assisted by The Scopitone Dancers, easily exemplifies the 1960's style swing of the Scopitone brand: silly and sexy!
Been seeking this Soundie starring The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
Have run a few Coronet films in these shows, but not this one, What To Do On A Date (1950).
Castle Films sold 16mm blue track I.B. Technicolor prints of Walter Lantz Studio cartoons. Could only find a B&W print of this Swing Symphony, directed by Shamus Culhane and featuring the outstanding animation of Pat Matthews. Still holding out for a blue track Technicolor print!
We've shown lots of extra-cheesy TV ads, but none of the following commercials.
Hear there was a Wildroot Cream Oil ad in last night's program, but don't know WHICH of the hundreds of 1950's Wildroot commercials was on the bill. Still can't believe 1950's women actually liked those awful men's hairdos, invariably slicked down with Wildroot, Brylcreem, Vitalis or something else.
Scott Moon and Sci Fi Bob Ekman carry on the Psychotronix tradition with their shows at the Orinda Theatre. This curator/DIY programmer and co-founder of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival, Paul F. Etcheverry a.k.a. Psychotronic Paul, left the Bay Area and moved to upstate New York in 2016.
This Saturday, June 28, 2025, from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM, in room 5015 on the Foothill College campus in the lovely Los Altos Hills, the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival will be back.
The fellas who have made this extravaganza happen since the last century will be on KFJC tomorrow night, Monday June 23, with host with the most Robert Emmett on Thoughtline on KFJC from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m, Pacific Standard Time.
"Psychotronix" is a variation on Michael Weldon's "Psychotronic History Of Cinema", the encyclopedia of all varieties of under-the-radar B-films: monster movies, horror films, science fiction, oddball comedies, rock 'n' roll clips, etc.
Our shows delve much more into the comedy, animation, musicals and vintage commercials end of 20th century entertainment than Weldon does, and has been closer to the sensibility of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
Yet another hallucinatory excursion through the always-irritated bowels of 20th century popular culture awaits the unsuspecting audience!
That means trailers from wretched movies, well-meaning 50's educational films, clips from schlocky drive-in movies with guys in stupid-looking robot and gorilla suits, vintage TV commercials and theatre ads, Scopitones, Soundies and other even more obscure musical shorts, surreal cartoon rarities and more.
The three amigos who founded this extravaganza back in 1992 are Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Robert Emmett of KFJC and yours truly, Paul F. Etcheverry. Fellow curator/showman/film buff/expert Scott Moon joined us in 1997.
The festival is also something of a reaction against all standard rules of film programming, none of which have any appeal whatsoever to all of us involved in presenting these shows.
Instead of devoting a screening to one director, one genre or one series, we throw a wide variety of films from different places, genres, techniques and time periods together.
The more obscure, the lower the budget, the more under-the-radar, the better.
If we can establish a subject link or a Monty Python-esque visual or verbal link between the segments, great, but this is not absolutely necessary.
Or to make a further Monty Python reference, this could be called the "And Now For Something Completely Different" approach to film programming.
The KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival Saturday, June 28, 2025 Room 5015, A.K.A. Forum Classroom Foothill College campus 12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022 (El Monte exit off of Highway 280)
Admission: $5 donation benefits KFJC.
Showtime is 7:00 p.m.
Arrive early, as the shows often sell out. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
Now, for a not especially entertaining finish to today's post - bear with me, readers, the following rant is admittedly more than a bit self-indulgent - must note that, after 32+ years of involvement in the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival, this grizzled DIY programmer/curator will not be able to be there for the first time ever and has been acting A LOT like Debbie Downer since that became apparent.
Too bad Batman is not presently available to slap me and my passport-less self to just show up at JFK airport and hope hope hope TSA and the airline will let me board a flight.
The travel from where I live in upstate New York to the San Francisco Bay Area necessary to get to Foothill College will not happen. Hesitated to get the ball rolling on getting a new U.S. passport and passport card that would have enabled me to do air travel again. And, while a cross-country train travel itinerary each way would have been fun, for various reasons, that presented a non-option this time around.
Why the delay? Frankly, am, for the first time in my life, nervous about flying, due to the Department Of Grift & Exploitation's reckless, mindless and Draconian cuts to an already alarmingly understaffed FAA, followed by airline disasters in late January and February. Very much not eager to travel and both furious and outraged by the utter idiocy of firing air traffic controllers and other key FAA staff, opted not to fly to the Bay Area for family birthdays in April.
RE: the post-May 7 rules for boarding flights, e-mailed TSA a question about boarding with a non-certified copy of my birth certificate, driver's license (featuring a non-current address) and original social security card. The answer was NO, NO, and in case one even thinks of boarding a flight without Passport/Real ID, NO!
Does this member of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Fest crew desperately need a working Star Trek teleportation device so he can join his pals at Foothill College Room 5015 bearing boxes of 16mm reels on Saturday?
Yes! Where are Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhuru, Sulu and Chekov when you need them?
With apologies to author Judith Viorst for stealing her phrase, it has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stretch of days in an what has been an unrelentingly godawful year thus far. Just when a momentary respite from the unending horrid, vile, appalling, sickening, disgusting, horrifying current events is desperately needed, there's the news that Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, two GIANTS, innovative composer/arranger/performer/bandeaders gifted in leading one's heart, soul and consciousness to a better place, passed within the same 48 hours. . . WHAT? THAT CAN'T BE!
At least Sly lived long enough to finish his memoirs and receive rousing recognition from music fans and prominent musicians in the last decade of his life.
Sly Stone, a brilliant musician and arranger who's on the funk Mount Rushmore with James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton and Prince (wonder if Prince met Sly), sure made the rounds in his heydey. His importance cannot be overstated. Must buy this release of a set Sly and his first version of The Family Stone performed in my old stomping grounds, Redwood City, CA. Sly was already a bonafide Bay Area celebrity from his successful stints as a deejay on KSOL and KDIA.
Sly & The Family Stone, featuring Larry Graham (electric bass), Cynthia Robinson (trumpet), Rose Stone (keyboards, vocals), Freddie Stone (electric guitar), Greg Arrico (drums) and Jerry Martini (saxophones), were a devastating powerhouse band from the git-go.
Here's Sly with Dick Cavett.
And David Letterman. . .
Sly & The Family Stone were inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993 at long last - and that was overdue. Sly makes an appearance at the end of the clip, following his bandmates, including the outstanding vocalist-bandleader-songwriter-bassist Larry Graham.
As all who have seen the fantastic Summer Of Soul can attest, Questlove is a superlative documentary filmmaker.
This music aficionado's favorite Sly record? The 1973 album FRESH, which presents a stripped-down yet ingenious version of the essential sound, minimalistic and beautiful.
Another composer/pianist/arranger/bandleader of astounding abilities was Brian Wilson, the master of symphonic pop.
While I knew he was seriously ill and that Brian's wife Melinda passed last year, this still came as a shock.
Indeed, when heard on headphones, the "pocket symphonies" on the original SMILE sessions can be quite astonishing.
After The Beach Boys hit a lengthy stretch of creative stagnation following the departure of Carl Wilson and the untimely, tragic passing of Dennis Wilson, Brian quite fortunately got to enjoy an extended comeback in the 1990's and oughts, backed by The Wondermints (Darian Sahanaja, Mike D'Amico, Probyn Gregory and the late Nick Walusko), percussionist Nelson Bragg, multi-instrumentalist Paul von Mertens and the late, great Beach Boys tours veteran Geoffrey Foskett.
In this clip, Brian's pal Sir Paul McCartney inducted him into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
Much enjoy this tune Brian and Burt wrote together.
Here's a documentary, Pet Stories, about the making of Pet Sounds, which, along with the 1966-1967 Smile sessions, remains this music fan's favorite Brian Wilson/Beach Boys album.
Much enjoy the interviews in which Brian talks music!
In closing, this blogger got a chance to meet Brian and his bandmate and the aforementioned "CEO of falsetto" Geoff Foskett at a record signing in San Francisco, made sure to tell him that his music got me through tough times. Brian's response: a smile and "thanks, man!"
Unfortunately, I never got to see Sly Stone in concert - he retired right before I started seeing tons of live music performances - or meet him. Sly did occasionally do interviews, but one would imagine that due to the many bad things that happened to him and individuals who did him wrong over the decades, perhaps he'd be a tad reticent. Thankfully, Sly's three children did a great deal to assist him.
All the thanks in the universe to all the master musicians noted in this post!
Now how does National Name Your Poison Day relate to this blog? Well, frankly, it's as good an excuse as any to post a bunch of classic cartoons that feature inebriation, a well as clips of great movie comedians delving into that topic (at least onscreen).
One film that never fails to get me ROFL is Laurel & Hardy in BLOTTO.
In this classic 1930 short, the boys think they're brazenly putting one over on their wives by sneaking out to get smashed on bathtub booze.
The greatest cartoon involving altered states would be. . .
Of course, for this blog, National Name Your Poison Day means Prohibition-era cartoons, starting with Fleischer Studios.
Felix the Cat stars in one of the very best in that mind-bending genre. Otto Messmer and crew always deliver the goods - and producer/promoter Pat Sullivan very likely was stone drunk somewhere during the making of this cartoon.
Hands-down, this writer's favorite of all the early Harmon-Ising Merrie Melodies is YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOIN' (1931). The unabashed inebriates who heckle the cartoon's plucky protagonist, "Piggy," resemble characters from another great early Merrie Melodie, GOOPY GEER (1932).
In WISE QUACKS (1939) just one of many outstanding cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, Daffy Duck is a tad nervous about becoming a father and relieves stress by getting hammered on "corn juice." It creatively re-uses segments from the brilliant 1936 Looney Tune directed by Frank Tashlin cartoon, PORKY'S POULTRY PLANT and, as is the case with Clampett's crew, animated with a certain crazed glee. This review by the gang at Anthony's Animation Talk gets into the nuances.
Yes, even dogs get obliterated in Columbia cartoons from both the Charles Mintz and Screen Gems studios and dont ask how Rover got blitzed on local anesthetic in the following opus. If it's jokes about hallucinations and dangerous levels of inebriation you want, look no further than the work of director/gagman Sid Marcus!
Is it possible to make an entire cartoon about a cat who gets wasted on pickled herring? Yes. That might not be a good idea, but it's possible.
Are there any cartoons for National Name Your Poison Day that don't involve booze? Yes, this way-out 1938 Hugh Harman MGM cartoon, Pipe Dreams.
This "goodie goodie monkeys" opus definitely anticipates the hippie era by almost three decades, especially the scene with the simian trio taking hits off a pipe like Dennis Hopper thirty years later.
What was in that Helz Fire tobacco?
These monkeys act like they're smoking kif!
Any letters between MGM brass and Hugh Harman demanding an explanation for this cartoon must be hilarious - and we all know darn well that Harman ignored them!
Hugh Harman made some wonderful weird cartoons, including all three of the Gothic ones featuring the "goodie goodie monkeys."
In closing, noting that there is a dark side to National Name Your Poison Day, here's the late, great Robin Williams making comedy out of the painful realities of alcoholism and jumping into the flaming center of that volcano (in a definitely NSFW clip).
Now, amazingly, the middle of the year is upon us and Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog realizes that May 31 and June 1 brought the world two blazing comedy greats, Fred Allen, born on this day in 1894, and the funniest blonde not named Marion Davies to ever hit the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe, born on June 1, 1926.
The mindbogglingly witty Fred Allen, performer/satirist/writer supreme, personified comedy genius on radio.
Only always, this dyed-in-the-wool comedy aficionado marvels at how Fred and his pal Jack Benny consistently do with radio what Kovacs subsequently did with television.
These guys and their pals George Burns & Gracie Allen mastered the art of radio comedy as expertly as Jack's hero, Isaac Stern, rocked the Stradivarius. They even appeared in a couple of movies together (Love Thy Neighbor, It's In The Bag), thanks to their popularity on radio.
The only way Jack's radio show can be equalled is with the absurdist feature film, It's In The Bag (1945), starring Fred Allen, Jack Benny and a slew of hilarious character actors in a storyline that anticipates the Mel Brooks film The 12 Chairs made 25 years later.
After his Allen's Alley radio show went off the air in 1949, Fred made numerous appearances on television, most frequently on WHAT'S MY LINE, during the early days of the medium. While he was imaginative and funny on TV, radio comedy was Allen's strong suit.
Nonetheless, Fred Allen and Groucho Marx together on What's My Line is a comedy grand slam.
Had Fred, who passed at 61 on March 17, 1956, lived another decade, it is likely he would have left his distinctive satiric mark on television, possibly in the American version of That Was The Week That Was.
This blog now transitions from our favorites Ernie (Kovacs) and Edie (Adams) . . .
To favorites named Stubby, Soupy, Pinky and Andy!
We're big fans of the chubby yet dapper entertainer Stubby Kaye. Here's the irrepressible Stubby extolling the accomplishments of "Jubilation T. Cornpone" in the 1959 movie of Al Capp's comic strip Lil' Abner.
Now watch Stubby crush it as Nicely Nicely in Guys & Dolls!
Stubby was so cool, he recorded an album titled Music For Chubby Lovers. As a short chubby guy (and much closer to resembling Stubby than Frank Sinatra of Songs For Swingin' Lovers fame) I think this is great!
Vividly recall seeing a game show for kids on TV back when I was 8 years old - and did not see said program again until 61 years later on YouTube. This elaborate kidvid program was titled SHENANIGANS and sponsored by toy-meisters Milton Bradley. The host was - drum roll - Stubby Kaye!
Was there anyone who hosted kids' shows at that time this blogger liked as much as Stubby Kaye (including local San Francisco Bay Area TV hosts Mayor Art, Marshall J and Captain Satellite)? Heck, yeah - the goofy and always wacky Soupy Sales!
Soupy packs an impressive quantity of 100 proof silliness into the briefest of bits - and sustains the unabashed lunacy over a half-hour show.
Soupy very likely was inspired to enter by the popular kidvid shows by the alarmingly energetic but upbeat and likeable burlesque comedian and tap dancer Pinky Lee.
Pinky was something of a king of kidvid in the 1950's and often booked interesting acts on his show, such as the gal here with her trained dogs.
As fate would have it, one of the films I have sought out to spring on a unsuspecting Psychotronix Film Festival audience (but never actually landed) was the 1937 Educational Pictures 1-reeler Dental Follies starring Pinky Lee and directed by Christie Comedies mainstay William Watson. It's not as funny and unrelentingly bizarre as the three Jefferson Machamer's Gags N' Gals 2-reelers produced by Al Christie for Educational in 1936-1938 but still pretty good.
A competitor of Soupy and Pinky in the kidvid universe was Andy's Gang, hosted by Andy Devine.
A favorite bit from Andy's Gang is the Squeaky's Circus segment.
For some reason, Andy Devine and Andy's Gang get me thinking of . . . Andy Kaufman.
There was a meeting of one of Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's all-time favorite movie directors and favorite comedians when Andy was a guest on an unsold pilot, Orson Welles' talk show. Not surprisingly, Orson, an avid fan of comedy and comedians, is a very good interviewer and manages to disarm Andy.
Welles, a magician and provocateur himself, understands and respects Kaufman's derring-do as an actor, comedian and performance artist, so this the only time this writer has ever seen a talk show which offers a glimpse of Andy the person as opposed to Andy the performer.
And then, while fondly remembering Stubby Kaye, Pinky Lee, Soupy Sales, Andy Devine and Andy Kaufman - and with apologies to late-night TV sidekick supreme Andy Richter and Mack Sennett Studio/Columbia Shorts Department slapstick king Andy Clyde - we now direct the spotlight to Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman, star of the greatest kidvid show in the history of television, Pee-wee's Playhouse and member of The Groundlings. Do we believe Pee-wee was profoundly influenced by Pinky Lee, 1950's kidvid and 1930's radio comedian Joe Penner? Yes.
The gang at Way Too Damn Too Lazy To Write A Blog regard the epic feature comedy Pee-Wee's Big Adventure as a high holy water mark for both Mr. Reubens and director Tim Burton.
Pee-wee's appearahces on late night TV, especially with David Letterman and Conan O' Brien, were invariably memorable.
Want to see the following documentary, Pee-wee As Himself very much. Like the late, great Mr. Reubens, it looks like tons of fun.
What's the best way to follow up these clips? With the first episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse!
In closing today's post, we express appreciation for the chuckles, chortles, guffaws, laughs and good entertainment provided by Stubby, Soupy, Pinky, Andy and Pee-Wee. As the talented, funny and reliable performers George Wendt (of Cheers and Second City Chicago) and comedienne/cartoon voice artist Ruth Buzzi passed recently, the world's rations of belly laughs have taken a most unwelcome hit at the worst possible time.
