Here is yet another college sports team with a fairly unique name.
ROGERS STATE UNIVERSITY Continue reading
B-MOVIE HOST DR. LUCIFER (1957-1959)
DR. LUCIFER (1957-1959) – The actor playing this Movie Host was named Richard Dix, but to be clear he’s NOT the same Richard Dix who starred in old westerns and was jokingly mentioned in Blazing Saddles. This Richard Dix was a legend in Baltimore, MD for his stage and television work with a few movies thrown in.
From November 9th, 1957 to March 21st, 1959 Dix as Dr. Lucifer would emerge from a coffin to host B-Movies on Shock on Friday nights at 11:15PM. The program was broadcast on Baltimore’s WBAL-TV. This eccentric Mad Scientist had a very disorganized laboratory and was noted for carrying out bizarre experiments that often went awry, earning him the nickname “the bumbling bogeyman of Baltimore.”
The doctor hated bill collectors and a memorable booby trap for one involved dropping a marble slab on top of him. An attempt to bring a supposedly beautiful ancient Egyptian princess back to life actually succeeded, but in reality she weighed 350 pounds. An experiment to prove the existence of Santa Claus by catching him in a bear trap ended with Dr. Lucifer’s leg getting caught instead. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: TWO MILNE SHORT STORIES (1879)
Two more Robert Duncan Milne short stories. This pair features his recurring character Philip Hall.
PHILIP HALL’S AIR SHIP – This tale was first published in the October 11th 1879 edition of The Argonaut. Inventor Philip Hall has constructed a steam-powered flying machine that also uses controlled explosions from compressed cartridges.
The vessel is part helicopter and part airplane. Vertical takeoff and landing are achieved via sixteen propellers that operate separately on a central shaft. Additional propellers positioned horizontally allow for forward motion through the air.
The aircraft is boat-like in design, but with enclosed decks. Hall’s first trial flight ends in disaster but after some slight redesigns the second flight goes smoothly. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
NEWS ROUNDUP: MAY ELEVENTH
Start the week with this current events roundup courtesy of Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.
UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP’S POLICIES WAGES ARE RISING FASTER THAN INFLATION. The greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime.
EVEN UNHINGED VLAD PUTIN ADMITS THAT TRUMP IS BRINGING AN END TO THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE. President Trump’s comments HERE.
IN PORTLAND, THE DEMOCRATS’ BROWNSHIRTS CALLED ANTIFA COMMIT ASSAULTS AND MAKE THREATS. Same ol’ same ol’ for the party of endless violence.
INDICTMENT COMES DOWN ON THE TEXAS WOMAN FOR ATTEMPTED ARSON AT REPUBLICAN PARTY OFFICE. The Democrat war on the rest of the country continues.
SENATOR TUBERVILLE POINTS OUT THAT THE DEMOCRATS DEIFY (AS IN WORSHIP) VIOLENCE. Their adoration of Luigi Mangione is just one example of many.
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES TECH COORDINATOR FURTHER EXPLAINS HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP’S MOVES CAN SAVE PEOPLE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS ON PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS. Did someone call Trump the greatest president for the working class and the poor during their lifetime? Continue reading
THE HUNTRESS (2000-2001) MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOUNTY HUNTERS FOR MOTHER’S DAY 2026
THE HUNTRESS (2000-2001) – This Forgotten Television series is appropriate for Mother’s Day. Annette O’Toole and Jordana Spiro starred in what was basically a continuation of the Steve McQueen movie The Hunter. McQueen depicted the real-life bounty hunter Ralph “Papa” Thorson.
In 1994 Thorson was killed by one of his previous captures via car bomb. He also planned on killing Ralph’s widow Dottie Thorson and daughter Brandi. The two women carried on “Papa” Thorson’s bounty hunting business while simultaneously dodging assassination attempts by the man who killed their father and husband.
This actually happened and was covered in the True Crime book Deadly Games, written by Christopher Keane, who had also written The Hunter, on which the Steve McQueen film was based.
A made-for-TV movie titled The Huntress was produced in 2000 about the mother-daughter bounty hunters based on Keane’s book and launched the 2000-2001 series of the same title. The series ran for 28 episodes in the spirit of previous television dramas about real-life figures like Serpico, Elliott Ness and others.
Keane wrote or co-wrote nearly every episode.
THE HUNTRESS – This telefilm aired March 7th, 2000 with Annette O’Toole portraying Dottie Thorson and Aleksa Paladino playing Brandi Thorson. Paladino would be replaced by Jordana Spiro for the subsequent series. Craig T. Nelson played Ralph Thorson before his murder.
Alanna Ubach played another real-life character – Robin Ripley, a tough juvenile placed in Dottie Thorson’s temporary custody. The chemistry among the three actresses is great, with daughter Brandi focused and ready, mother Dottie struggling to adjust to bounty hunting and Robin providing extra street-savvy. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Neglected History
BAD MOVIE: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! LOVE, GEORGE (1973)
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! LOVE, GEORGE (1973) – Directed by THE Darren McGavin and featuring his wife Kathie Browne in a small role, this hilariously bizarre film is also known as Run, Stranger, Run. “Run, Potential Viewer, Run” would be a more appropriate title.
Happy Mother’s Day Love, George (henceforth HMDLG) is often described as a psycho-sexual thriller but actually it is nothing more than a melodramatic soap opera with a few murders and VERY few scenes of blood and gore. Those blood and gore scenes are so over-the-top they are completely at odds with the low-key, almost made-for-tv mildness of the rest of the movie.
This was a theatrical release but is so subdued and slow-paced it seems like a telefilm. You and your friends can keep yourselves entertained making jokes about the recognizable cast members to kill time since the first murder doesn’t happen until we’re more than an hour into this flick.
Balladeer’s Blog
Ron Howard IS Johnny, a teenager who has come to town to discover who his birth parents are but who mostly just stands around staring at people and ESPECIALLY at houses. He seems completely taken aback that the townspeople find this somewhat creepy. Johnny is intrigued by the rash of missing persons plaguing the small town and feels they are connected to the secret of his past. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
AUGUST 2020 IN THE DEMOCRAT WAR AGAINST THE REST OF US
A past look at the Democrat war on the rest of us in the form of their never-ending riots, lawfare and attempts at unconstitutional acts.
Balladeer’s Blog is the site for Independent voters, but there is no denying that in recent years it’s been the Democrats who have been dividing the nation with their hatred and violence. Here in 2020 Democrats have expanded their violence – including killing more and more frequently – to the level of an all-out war on the rest of us.
DEMOCRATS CONTINUE THEIR WAR ON THE POLICE – Patrick Lynch, head of the largest Police Union in the U.S. pulled no punches in the way that Democrats have turned the streets into battle zones.
“The Democrats have walked away from us.” he said. “Democratic politicians have surrendered our streets and institutions …In city after city, they have slashed police budgets. They have hijacked and dismantled the criminal justice system,” he continued. “They have passed laws that made it impossible for police officers to do our job. The violence and chaos we’re seeing now isn’t a side effect.” HERE
DEMOCRAT PARTY
DEMOCRAT RIOTERS IN PORTLAND BURN BUILDING WITH THE COUNTY’S SUPPLIES FOR FIGHTING COVID-19 – That silence you hear is Senile Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats failing to condemn the warfare being waged by their people. HERE
BLACK JOURNALIST STABBED BY ANTIFA/ KLANTIFA – “They don’t really care about black lives” the courageous Andrew Duncomb stated. HERE
ANTIFA/ KLANTIFA GOES DOWN – As always, when the bacteria from Antifa/ KLANtifa aren’t attacking the elderly or the handicapped they lose badly. Continue reading
Filed under Anti-Donald Trump hysteria, opinion
FRENCH-CREATED SUPERHEROES
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at several superheroes created in France.
FANTAX
Debut Year: 1946
Secret Identity: Horace Neighbour
Origin: Horace Neighbour was a diplomatic attache at his country’s embassy in Washington D.C. He decided to fight international and purely American menaces by adopting the costumed identity Fantax. As Horace he was suave & sophisticated and as Fantax he was tough & streetwise.
Powers: Fantax was in peak physical condition and was an expert at unarmed combat. He was also more agile than an acrobat and was skilled with a knife. This hero would periodically wield a gun or blunt objects. In addition, Fantax was a master detective.
Comment: Fantax’s wife Barbara sometimes assisted him, as did his butler Murph and muscular aide P’tit Louis. This hero’s foes included the Cobra, the Black Tigers, Nazi fugitives, the Gentleman Ghost, the Mafia, the Werewolf, the Ku Klux Klan and the Mikado. Later, Fantax’s son Horace fils became the costumed superhero Garcon Noir (Black Boy).
SALTARELLA
Debut Year: 1980
Secret Identity: Priscilla “Bibi” Conway
Origin: The insectoid alien race called the Svizz wanted to conquer the Earth with an army of human slaves granted insect-related superpowers. As the costumed Saltarella, this heroine rebelled against the Svizz and helped defeat the interstellar invasion, then battled other evil forces afterward.
Powers: Saltarella could fly via the wings added to her body by the Svizz, possessed super-strength (say, the proportionate strength of a winged insect), was capable of long leaps and could shrink. Priscilla was a former Olympic gymnast and was very agile.
Comment: Priscilla Conway was a top-level research entomologist. Among her other foes were Psi, the Gondolier Noir, Microbios, l’Executeur, Cagliostro and Vaudou. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
BAD MOVIE: THE BRAIN (1962)
THE BRAIN (1962) – Freddie Francis directed this black & white film, which was the third movie adaptation of Curt Siodmak’s science fiction novel Donovan’s Brain. The characters’ names were changed and the sci fi elements were mixed with detective story elements this time around.
Max Holt, a callous, bloated rich pig of the George Soros/ Koch Family type, is one of the passengers on an airplane which crashes near the laboratory of Dr Peter Corrie (Peter van Eyck). That reclusive doctor and his colleague Dr Frank Shears (played by Bernard Lee himself) have been conducting experiments to see how long they can keep monkey brains alive once removing them from their host body.
Corrie and Shears discover that Max Holt is the only one of the airplane passengers still clinging to life, but just barely, and has no hope of survival. Corrie browbeats Shears into helping him get Holt’s body back to their lab, where they remove his brain to see how long they can keep it alive in one of their fish aquarium containers filled with life-preserving fluids and equipment.
The pair of unethical physicians turn over the rest of Holt’s body for burial while continuing to monitor the preserved brain of Max Holt. Instrument readings indicate there is still thought wave activity in the disembodied organ. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
MAY EIGHTH NEWS ROUNDUP
Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog ends this week with another current events roundup from an America where it’s no secret that Democrats have become so idiotic that they believe Donald Trump has caused everything they don’t like about their own self-centered existence. In reality, the only bad thing that has happened to privileged white one-percenter Democrats is that the echo chamber media outlets they restrict themselves to drive them to greater and greater heights of frothing at the mouth insanity just because a man they hate is President.
Not that they’re much better when one of their candidates is in office because current Democrats apparently cannot sleep at night if even one person somewhere in the country holds an opinion they disagree with.
AND EVEN MORE DISNEY CRUISE SHIP EMPLOYEES ARRESTED IN CHILD PORN STING. Disney is the company of kissing up to China’s concentration camps and child porn rings.
DANIELS POINTS OUT THAT IRAN IS NOT “A WAR OF CHOICE“.
MIKE MCDANIEL’S LATEST ITEM CATALOGUES ANOTHER LONG LIST OF DEMOCRAT MALFEASANCE.
BIDEN-RELEASED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WANTED FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING TWO ELDERLY WOMEN AT A NURSING HOME IN A DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY” COUNTY. Never any sanctuary for the victims under Democrats. Only for the perpetrators.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN NEW JERSEY PLEADS GUILTY IN CASE INVOLVING BILKING MONEY FROM ELDERLY VICTIMS AND LAUNDERING THE FUNDS. If only Democrats could show as much attention to such situations as they do to opposing President Trump’s White House Ballroom project.
ALSO IN DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY” NEW JERSEY, ICE ARRESTS YET ANOTHER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WANTED FOR MURDER.
APRIL’S NEW JOBS TALLY NOW INCREASED TO ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN THOUSAND.
PRESIDENT TRUMP AND STAFF HELP ALABAMA TEEN GET NEW TREATMENT FOR HIS BONE CANCER.
VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT DECLARES THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S GERRYMANDERING SCAM UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Millions of dollars in advertisements from both sides wasted. Continue reading
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