Here at Frontierado Headquarters we’re doing a mini-marathon of the holiday’s Top Three films for today. Below are my reviews of those three which are perfect for Frontierado (August 7th this year.):
NUMBER ONE
Top Frontierado Movie
SILVERADO (1985) – I’ve never made any secret about how Silverado is, to me, THE official movie of the Frontierado holiday. The film has all the high spirits and family appeal of Star Wars plus the well-choreographed action scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark. On top of that Silverado features all the highly stylized gunplay of the best Spaghetti Westerns but NOT the mud, blood, sweat and brutality of that genre.
This movie is pure escapism and features the kind of preternaturally accurate gunslingers that I jokingly describe as “Jedi Knights in the Olllld West”. These guys (as well as most of the villains) can literally shoot the needles off a cactus, simultaneously draw and shoot with pin-point accuracy and can just “sense” when some low-down hombre might be pulling a gun on them, even with their backs turned and from half a room away. Continue reading
CREATURES ON THE LOOSE Vol 1 #22 (Mar 1973) 
Synopsis: Thongor (at right), as always wielding his father’s god-forged sword Sarkozan, is working as a thief in the city-state of Zangabal. During one caper Thongor comes close to being captured by the authorities but is given shelter by Kaman Thuu, a Priest of the Seven Gods of Zangabal. 
AH TOY – This Chinese American woman rose to notoriety in the San Francisco sex trade of the 1800s. Yes, Frontierado is about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality but I’ve never done a blog post specifically about a Madame of the time period. It’s a fine line to walk and I want to make it clear that this item is more of a True Crime story than anything like an adventure. 
THE BEARD aka THE WEIRD BEARD – This veteran of television and radio – real name Bob Lowrie – first gained the nickname “the Beard” from his time as a rock ‘n’ roll DJ. It is not known if the “Weird Beard” variant nickname started during his radio career or if it was coined to distinguish his Movie Host character from his DJ persona. 
Assisting the droll host was the beautiful Sugar, played by Letitia McKee, a former Miss Teen Hawaii and Miss Bikini. (She’s shoveling Hawaii’s famed sugar at right.) The program produced 126 episodes. 
TWENTY-SIX MEN (1957-1959) – This television series ran for two seasons and 78 half-hour episodes. It dramatized the early years of the Arizona Rangers, who were established on March 21st, 1901, and for years consisted of just 26 men. Stories were based on the Arizona Rangers case files.
THE RECRUIT – In this 1st episode of the series, Captain Rynning and Clint Travis receive an emergency telegram from a newspaper editor in Wilcox, Arizona. They ride there, but find the editor has been lynched, so they set about investigating what happened. With Don Haggerty as Big Red Monahan.
PART FOUR: When our previous installment ended, Ozidi had killed and beheaded three of his father’s murderers, bringing his soul that much closer to being freed from the deadlands limbo where it was stranded. 
HUGH ANDERSON – Born in 1851, Hugh was the son of a successful Texas rancher. Anderson learned every aspect of the business from his father but had a tendency to fall in with rowdy crowds and sometimes engaged in hell-raising with mad dog gunfighter John Wesley Hardin. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s love of Movie Host Shows is no secret. Recently I thanked Mike Pieper from
*** THE 1991 ELMER AWARDS – The awards were presented as the episode’s Host Segments. The Golden Turkey being shown was Bela Lugosi’s anti-classic The Corpse Vanishes. Hosting the Elmer Awards were Joan as Mrs. Spooks, owner of Spooks Hotel, and her seldom-seen husband, mad scientist Dr. Spooks (at left). Elmer himself accepted on behalf of each winner. 
MOST RIDICULOUS LOOKING CREATURE: Nominees – The Sea Creature in The Creature from the Haunted Sea … Zontar in Zontar, the Thing from Venus … The Giant Gumby Rock Creatures from Missile to the Moon … The Giant Brain in The Brain from Planet Arous. WINNER: The Sea Creature.
THE AUTOMATIC MAID-OF-ALL-WORK. A POSSIBLE TALE OF THE NEAR FUTURE (1893) – Written by female author M.L. Campbell. Obviously, I shortened the title for my blog post headline. Balladeer’s Blog’s look at “ancient” science fiction continues with this 1893 robot story. 
Balladeer's Blog 