Let's Talk About Horror Fiction and Film

clooney is one of thr few that really fits in with period pieces.

disappointed to see they are redoing the wolfman makeup.

 

Interesting, because I thought that too, especially concerning the letter jacket; I just wasn't certain enough to actually say it. [/QUOTE]

Actually that style of letterman jacket was around since at least the late 30's. Here ar 2 - 1 from 1944, 1 from 1946. People mistake the leather sleeved wool varsity jacket for the all-wool letterman sweater. If you look, the HotWM jacket has the same buttons/sleeve style as these...

Pic.

Pic.

We didn't see many college kids in pre-50's movies, so we associate the jackets with the 50's, but they were around quite a bit longer.

 

The closest thing to teen idols in the '30s/'40s were Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Lana Turner, etc... Those were the most popular teen movies of that era (Mickey was the biggest box office star for a period). There's a well-known scene where Judy Garland sings about being a fan in love with Clark Gable, clearly echoing the thoughts of teenagers in the 1930s.

Judy Garland - Dear Clark Gable, You Made Me Love You

While youth culture didn't blossom until the mid/late 1950s and teens didn't have money to spend like in the 1950s, there was a youth culture beforehand (Frank Sinatra's Bobby Soxers, for example). Of course, Mickey and Judy were icons of the Depression/WWII. Money was especially tight and people were struggling to put food on the table, much less buy records. It was the adults who bought records, not the kids. Theater attendance was very high in those days, however. Gone With The Wind still holds the record for amount of tickets sold.

There was a youth market before the '50s though. I just recently watched Too Many Girls with a very young Desi Arnaz (he would have been 22 when it was filmed/23 when it came out) playing a foreign exchange college student and the very-obviously-6-years-older Lucille Ball from 1940 (this is where they met). The movie is clearly a '40s teen flick B-movie. The main characters are college jock characters.

I've seen enough historical footage of college jocks (leather helmets!) from the '30s/'40s to know there were lettermen jackets. As far as Google is concerned, the 1940s turns up quite a few pictures of them.

In the 1920s, it was Rudolph Valentino the bored housewives were drooling over.

People seem to forget that there was a pop-culture before the 1950s. LOL.

 

Heh. Almost as good as Nazi Aliens. That looks amusing. The other movie I'm really looking forward to is Trick 'r' Treat. That has a really good vibe to it.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's just become iconic of the 50s.

Well, I watch a lot of 30s movies-- granted, mostly mystery and other genre pics-- but I mostly remember a kind of "preppy" or post-Roaring 20s look to the hep cats. I don't really remember ever seeing a letter jacket or sweater.

 

time line of the varsity letter
for the curious.

 

^^ Fascinating. Looks like it was even more popular in the 20s and 30s than the 50s.

Indeed. I haven't heard a bad thing about it.

 

[/QUOTE]Thanks for the pics, Cleaner, but please don't hotlink images from webspace that's not yours. Thanks, and welcome to the board. [/QUOTE]

Sorry Spiff, I'm a forum newbie (not just here - in general, I'm a caveman that just discovered this technology) and I clicked "insert image" and it asked for a web url, I thought it would just display. Teaches me to be too cocky and not "preview post"

 

Revived it?!? I've been getting the archive editions, but I didn't know they intended to revive it; okay, I've definitely got to go to the store today....

I saw a preview of Repo somewhere, but I haven't seen it yet; I miss having Blockbuster next door to me....

 

Creepy #1 was sold out. But they will try to get one for me, and I subscribed. The new Archive edition was in, though, and my pain was also ameliorated by the new issue of Alter Ego with coverage of all the Mad imitators of the 50s.

 

That's what I want to hear. Maybe it will be popular enough to start a trend.

 

That Drac is eerie in more ways than one.

I'm getting the feeling that the Wolfman in this movie is not Larry Talbot....

 

I'm getting a Blair Witch Project vibe from the 2nd pic; maybe the lighting?

 

The Drac close up? Looks like classic dramatic uplighting to me.

Maybe because of the stark lighting and he looks like he's outside....