More From The Toy Store In The Mall

Black Friday Circular
KayBee Toys (1990)
This advertisement for a sale that began on the day after Thanksgiving 35 years ago was shared on Twitter by Dinosaur Dracula.  Check out the early draft of box art from Super Mario Bros 3.

Santa Shops At The Mall Toy Store

Kay-Bee Dear Santa Sale
KayBee Toys (1989)
This advertisement for a sale that ended on this day in 1989 was shared on Instagram by Dinosaur Dracula.  I was nine years old when this flier was publishes so I was into pretty much all of this stuff except Cabbage Patch Kids.

The Only Important Thing These Days Is Rhythm And Melody

Prisencolinensinainciusol
Adriano Celentano (1972)
On this day in 1972, a song that was written by composer Adriano Celentano and performed by he and his wife, Claudia Mori, was released in Italy.  It would go on to chart in their native country, as well as Belgium, West Germany, and The Netherlands.

If you're having a difficult time understanding the lyrics, there's a pretty good reason for that.  He's not singing in English or in Italian.  The entire song is gibberish sung with an American accent.

ps: if you caught the Big Audio Dynamite reference in the title, you're my kind of people.

Spooky Season At Zayre

October Sales Circular
Zayre (1987)
This page from a Zayre sales circular was shared by Dinosaur Dracula last month.

The highlight for me is the ad at the bottom left corner for Friday The 13th, Deadly Friend, Fright Night, The Believer, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, and Halloween on VHS for $16.99.

This is the candy that we all wanted to find in our bag after we were finished trick or treating... except maybe for the Smarties, which had about the same flavor as the packets of sugar on the table at the Blue Comet.  Also, I still say that Reese's Peanut Butter Cups tasted better when they came in a paper wrapper.

The Count Dracula Chocolate Flavored Candy at the top left of this part of the ad is the kind of thing that savvy kids would trade to their friends for their old boring Hershey and Snickers bars.  The package may be awesome, but they didn't usually taste very good.

Once in a while, there would be a seasonal goodie that you didn't want to give up, like these Alma Skull Crushers which oozed strawberry blood when you bit into them.  I don't think these are still sold in stores in the United States, but I was able to find them for sale on UK eBay and other online retailers under the name Hannah's Skull Crushers.

I was more of a rubber mask kid when it came to Halloween, but makeup was always a solid option.

These cardboard wall hangings sold for a buck and a half back in the 80's,  My grandmother used to wait and buy things like this when they went on sale after the holiday to put away for next year.  These old decorations are considerably more expensive when you can find them on eBay, especially if they're in good condition.

The last thing that caught my eye were these Halloween pinatas.  I can't say I ever remember seeing pinatas out for a Halloween party when I was a kid.  The witch in the center is giving off Viola Swamp vibes.

When The World Is Running Down...

Zenyatta Mondatta
The Police (1980)
The third studio album from The Police is turning forty five years old today.  Practically every song on this record was a hit, including Don't Stand So Close To Me, Driven To Tears, Canary In A Coal Mine, and Man In A Suitcase.

My favorite one of all, and probably my favorite song that the band ever put out, is the third song on the album.  When I listened to this song in my 20's and 30's, it reminded me of Roland describing Mid-World in The Dark Tower by saying that "the world has moved on".  When the pandemic began, and the effects of global climate change became harder to ignore in the years after the pandemic, it started to remind me of our world because all we can really do is make the best of what's still around.

When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around

The Police (1980)

Turn on my VCR

Same one I've had for years

James Brown on the Tami show

Same tape I've had for years

I sit in my old car

Same one I've had for years

Old battery's running down

It ran for years and years

Turn on the radio

The static hurts my ears

Tell me, where would I go?

I ain't been out in years

Turn on the stereo

It's played for years and years

An Otis Redding song

It's all I own

When the world is running down

You make the best of what's still around

When the world is running down

You make the best of what's still around

Plug in my MCI

To exercise my brain

Make records on my own

Can't go out in the rain

Pick up the telephone

I've listened here for years

No one to talk to me

I've listened here for years

When the world is running down

You make the best of what's still around

When the world is running down

You make the best of what's still around

When I feel lonely here

Don't waste my time with tears

I run Deep Throat again

It ran for years and years

Don't like the food I eat

The cans are running out

Same food for years and years

I hate the food I eat

When the world is running down

You make the best of what's still around

When the world is running down

You make the best of what's still around

Where The Sun Light Don't Shine

I'm not really sure where this Halloween witch came from.  It's possible that we picked it up form a flea market, but I don't remember buying it.  It's more likely that my grandmother made it when I was a kid, but I don't remember seeing it.  Maybe she manifested in our attic all by herself.  Who knows.

Wherever she came from, she's a pretty groovy decoration and we try to find a place to put her this time of the year.  It's made pretty well, with fabric for the hat and the dress and doll hair on her head.  She's also surprisingly heavy.

The witch's body is a bottle of Sun Light dish soap that's filled with sand.  The copywrite on the bottle is from 1992.  Whether this was made by my grandmother or by a flea market vendor, this little witch has been haunting people's homes at Halloween for 33 years.

28 Days, 6 Hours, 42 Minutes, 12 Seconds...

Donnie Darko
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Last night's feature was one of my favorite movies of all time; the 2001 Richard Kelly film Donnie Darko.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

I rented this movie from Hollywood Video sometime in my early 20's.  It didn't make much sense to me at the time, but I fell in love with it over the years.  Watching it with the director's commentary track when it was released on DVD was a huge help.  This was my first time seeing it on the big screen, and it was an incredible experience.

Just Like In The Movies; We'll Pretend To Be Someone Else

The Wild World Of David Lynch
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

This is third time that the Mahoning Drive-In Theater has hosted The Wild World Of David Lynch weekend. but it's my first time attending the event.  While I enjoyed the first season of Twin Peaks very much, I wouldn't describe myself as an especially big fan of the works of David Lynch.  In fairness, I haven't seen very many of his movies, but with the exception of The Straight Story which I just saw for the first time earlier this week, the films that he's made that I've seen prior to this weekend weren't a particularly enjoyable experience for me.  I saw The Elephant Man when I was a teenager and found it to be kind of boring.  Maybe I'd think differently if I saw it again as an adult, but I'm not interested enough to want to see it a second time.  I also saw his adaptation of Dune when I was a teenager, and to say that I strongly disliked it would be an understatement.  The only other one of his films that I've seen was Eraserhead when it was a Thursday Thread-Up screening at the Mahoning last May, and while I found it to be intriguing, I really just don't get it.  I'm told that it's supposed to be about a man's fears of becoming a father, and... I guess... maybe?  I don't know.  All I see is black and white scenes filled with artsy fartsy symbolism that don't advance the plot, assuming there's a plot to advance.

David Lynch once said that "I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense".  I wouldn't say that I expect life or art to make sense.  Here's the problem: I don't like when life doesn't make sense, so I don't usually enjoy art that doesn't make sense.  I'm kind of jealous of the people who enjoy the movies that I just mentioned above because they're seeing something that I'm not seeing.

Both nights of The Wild World Of David Lynch were sold out with fans coming to the Mahoning from as far away as the UK and Japan, so I spent most of the daylight hours parking cars on the lot crew.  I did get a little bit of time to hang out with Ben and to meet his mom who was up from North Carolina.

I was very psyched to have had the opportunity to meet Ray Wise.  He's best known for his role as Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks, but he's has a long and distinguished career and has appeared in quite a few movies and television shows that I've seen, including a starring role in Swamp Thing, and roles in Robocop, The Chase, X-Men: First Class, Big Ass Spider (which is much better than the name might lead you to believe), and a recurring role as The Devil in the 2007-2009 series Reaper.

Actor Richard Green who appeared in Saturday night's first film Mulholland Drive was also in attendance to meet fans.  Time got away from me and I didn't end up getting a photo with him, but I did get to spend quite a bit of time talking with him.  More on that later.

F*** You Tammy performed an incredible concert on Friday night in the daylight hours prior to the start of the films.  I don't know very much about them, but they have an ethereal sound that I can't really compare to anything else. 

This is their latest album, Sycamore Tree, which was released last November.  You can stream it for free, download it for $5, or buy their record for $20.

After the concert, we celebrated the 40th birthday of the woman who made The Wild World Of David Lynch weekend possible, Faye Murman Dorsey.  Dave and I carried this incredible birthday cake out to her as a surprise, and let me tell you, that was a mildly nerve wracking experience.  I spent the ninety seconds that it took to carry the thing out thinking "please don't drop the cake, please don't drop the cake" and sang Happy Birthday with a mental chorus of "thank god we didn't drop the cake".

Our friend Ash was also celebrating a birthday on the lot.  We all got together in the concession building after it closed to the public to have cake and wish her a happy birthday.

And now, onto the films...

The first film on Friday night was the 1992 feature film that serves as a prequel to Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me.  I've been meaning to watch this for quite a long time now, but hadn't gotten around to it.  I think that I wanted to re-watch the television series first before I dove into the movie, but I'm really not great when it comes to binging tv series these days.  They're too long, and as soon as they get a little bit dull or repetitive, I'll allow myself to get distracted and lose the plot entirely.  I've tried several times to watch the second season of Twin Peaks, and every time, I've gotten to around the third or fourth episode before I lose interest altogether.  I understand that there was a third season that was released in 2017 and I haven't watched any of it.

Fire Walk With Me is very good and I'm glad that I got to see it on 35mm on the big screen.  The only critique that I have is that Kyle MacLachlan and Miguel Ferrer feel like they were kind of shoehorned into the plot.  There's no sensible reason that either of these characters would be involved in any way with the town of Twin Peaks prior to the murder of Laura Palmer.  They're both incredible actors and they play two of the most interesting characters in the series, so I can see why they did it, but it felt pretty obvious that they were jumping through hoops to try to make their inclusion make sense.

The second film of Friday night was a digital presentation of a fascinating documentary on the life of actress Catherine E. Coulson who played The Log Lady on Twin Peaks.  Ms. Coulson passed away from cancer in September 2015, very shortly after her final on-screen appearance in the third season of Twin Peaks, and her story is both very interesting and inspiring.

Richard Green produced, edited, and directed this documentary.  I have a pretty cool story to share about him, but I'd like to talk about his most famous role in a feature film which we watched on Saturday night.

Saturday night kicked off with a 35mm presentation of the 2001 film Mulholland Drive.  This has been on my watchlist for many years and I was looking forward to seeing it for the first time.  It did not disappoint.  It was definitely a bizarre story that was told in a strange way.  However, in contrast to Eraserhead, I found the story that it told to be very interesting and I was invested in the outcome.  I won't pretend that I understood it completely, but it wasn't so drenched in symbolism that I found myself staring at the credits thinking "what the hell was that".  So, my personal David Lynch scorecard is now at two movies that I loved, one movie that I liked very much, one movie I didn't get, and one movie that I just flat out dislike.  I guess I'm a Lynch fan after all... just not quite as die hard as most of the other folks who joined us on the lot this weekend.

 

The second film shown on Saturday night was Blue Velvet.  I wasn't able to stay on the lot to see it, but it was for a very good reason.  During the intermission after Mulholland Drive, I was approached with a request.  I mentioned earlier that actor Richard Green was on the lot to meet fans, sign autographs, and to introduce his documentary I Know Catherine The Log Lady.  In addition to his directorial work, he appeared in Mulholland Drive as the magician at Club Silencio in the pivotal scene at the middle of the film.  Mark told me that Mr. Green's travel plans had fallen through and he asked if I'd be available and willing to drive him to the airport this morning.

It's not often that you get to see an iconic film that's nearly 25 years old for the first time on 35mm at a drive-in theater, and then get to spend a few hours with one of the films stars just a few hours later.  It did mean that I had to head home during intermission to get a decent night's sleep so that I could be well rested to drive to Philadelphia this morning, but it was absolutely worth it.  He was a very nice man and we spent the entire drive talking about all sorts of different things.  He's working on a project now called The History Of Cool that sounds pretty awesome.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.  My only regret is that I didn't take a picture with him when he was on the lot.  I was going to ask when I dropped him off at the airport, but there didn't feel like a right time to ask, and I didn't want to bug the dude when he was trying to get home.

And that's a wrap on The Wild World Of David Lynch III, and while I wouldn't classify myself as a superfan of his work, I can say that I've grown to appreciate his movies quite a bit more over the past few days.

Gangster Kids

Bugsy Malone

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA

Eh... I wasn't in love with this one.  The gimmick here is that it's an old timey mobster movie set in the prohibition era, but all of the roles are played by very young children.  It kind of reminded me of those Monkey-ed Movies segments that they used to play during commercial breaks on TBS in the late 90's where they'd reenact famous scenes from films with monkeys playing all of the roles.  That can be fun for a skit that's a couple of minutes long, but the gag wears pretty think when it's an hour and a half long feature film.

Drink A Carbonated Ring Ding

Ice Cream Sundae
A&W (2025)
This isn't the kind of thing that I could drink every day, but damn is it good!  I think it tastes more like a Ring Ding than an ice cream sundae, but it works!

Celebrating The Projectionist

Our friend and Mahoning projectionist Rob had a second birthday party at the drive-in for friends and family who weren't able to make it down to Ambler last week.

When the sun went down, there was an unofficial start of David Lynch weekend with a surprise screening of his 1999 film The Straight Story.  I hadn't heard of this movie before tonight, but it is now my favorite Lynch film out of the ones that I've seen, and by a wide margin.

The Ultimate Slasher Celebration

Camp Blood XI
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
Exhumed Films' annual celebration of slasher films is in its eleventh year, and this year's lineup was absolutely stacked with classics.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

Show poster designed by Justin Miller

Last year, the Camp Blood lineup was a four day marathon of the entire Friday The 13th franchise.  This year's lineup included the first film of that iconic series, but the rest of the films were an eclectic mix of 80's horror classics, with one Mario Bava giallo from the 60's that kicked off the event.

 

I worked on the lot crew this weekend to keep cars in tight rows on Friday and Saturday.

This is one of those roles that I didn't fully understand the importance of until I became a member of the lot crew.  I was always polite to the people who were parking cars on busy nights, but I found it to be mildly annoying.  I thought "yeah buddy, I know how to park... I'm here practically every night the place is open".  Once I started working here, I quickly realized that everybody thinks that they know how to park at a drive-in, and at least a third of them really don't. I also realized that it only takes one car parking wonky to cause a problem.

There are two reasons why we park cars on busy or sold-out nights.  The first is obvious; there is limited space on the lot, and we want to make sure everyone will fit and that everyone will have a clear view of the screen.  The second, and more important, is that cars parked off kilter can become a safety issue.  Once one car parks slightly askew, every car that parks in that row after them will do the same because they're instinctively lining up with the car that's next to them.

So, you may be thinking "who cares if the cars aren't in perfect rows".  Here's the problem:  The idea is that we want to leave a wide road between each row so that cars can pull forward when they leave.  Those road areas aren't super obvious, especially toward the middle and back of the lot, and if parked cars drift out of the line, they are now blocking the exit for every car to their left.  You may now be thinking "so what, they can just back out and drive down the road behind them, can't they?"  Sure they can... if everyone in the row behind them is parked in a perfect row and no one is blocking that road.  If we don't keep the cars in tight rows, people who leave during the first or second intermission are put in a position where they have to zig zag in the dark around parked cars, people walking (sometimes with their dogs and/or children), people in lawn chairs or on blankets, tables, radios, and other cars that are also trying to exit.  Trust me... it is not easy.  I'm usually on the lot four nights a week and can walk through the place blindfolded, and I sometimes have trouble pulling off of the lot on a busy night.  It may be a mild annoyance to have a goofball like me telling you how to park your car, but trust me, it's worth it.

 

There was still plenty of time to hang out with friends and take photos with folks who showed up in costume.  My favorite was the dude who came dressed as Jason from the Friday The 13th NES game from 1989.

I got to meet the director of My Bloody Valentine, George Mihalka.  He was an incredibly nice man who signed my VHS copy of his 1981 horror classic.

This is instantly one of the coolest tapes in my collection.

I also got to meet Lauren-Marie Taylor who played Vickie Perry in Friday The 13th: Part II, who answered the question of her favorite sport when given the choice between football and hockey as "the one with the puck".  She was also incredibly cool and signed one of the most interesting pieces of memorabilia that I've ever gotten at the Mahoning.

She had three hockey pucks at her table that she was signing for fans.  I'm not sure who got the third one, but Tom and I got the first two.

Onto the films...

Night One - Thursday, August 28

Blood And Black Lace

 

The first film of Camp Blood XI was Mario Bava's giallo classic from 1964: Blood And Black Lace.  The title card for the 35mm print that we got to see had the film's alternate title: Six Women For The Murderer.  It's a pretty great murder mystery story that I enjoyed.

There was a second 80's Italian slasher flick that was shown as a secret feature.  I took the day off on Friday so that I could stay late, and I'm glad that I did.  I liked the second movie even more than the first.

Night Two - Thursday, August 29

Friday The 13th / My Bloody Valentine / Humungous

Friday night began with the 1980 slasher classic that kicked off an iconic franchise in horror cinema: Friday The 13th.  They played the entire franchise last year at Camp Blood X, so this was my second time getting to see it on 35mm at the Mahoning.

Next up was the 1981 slasher classic My Bloody Valentine.  I saw this for the first time when I was a teenager and loved it.  Getting to meet the director and see it on 35mm at the drive-in was an absolute pleasure.

The final film of Friday night was another Canadian horror flick, the 1982 slasher Humongous.  It's the story of a mutated man who was raised in seclusion by his mother on an otherwise deserted island.  He was driven mad by the solitude after his mother died and spends the film hunting and killing a group who find themselves shipwrecked on the island.

Night Three - Saturday, August 30

Terror Train / April Fools Day / Curtains

The first film of Saturday night was the third Canadian horror film of the weekend, the 1981 slasher Terror Train.  It stars Jamie Lee Curtis as a member of a sorority who is having a New Years Eve costume party on a train with her sorority sisters and a fraternity.  They played a prank on another student three years earlier that resulted in him being institutionalized, and that student has come back to kill each of them one at a time.  It's not a bad movie, but it could have been a lot better.  Still worth watching though.

The second movie was one of the most creative horror movies of the 80's; the slasher with a twist that you won't see coming even though you probably should, April Fool's Day.  This is another one that I saw for the first time when I was a teenager, and it's right up there with My Bloody Valentine as a must-see 80's horror flick.

 

Next up was the fourth Canadian film of Camp Blood XI, the 1983 giallo-inspired film Curtains.  This one started strong, but it was kind of all over the place.  I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't recommend it either.  I would, however, strongly recommend the movie that played as a secret feature afterwards.  It's the same movie that played as a secret feature on the first night of Weekend Of Terror IX and it's a gem.

Night Four - Sunday, August 31

He Knows You're Alone / Body Double / Don't Go In The Woods

The first film of the final night of Camp Blood XI was the 1980 slasher He Knows You're Alone.  This movie is probably best remembered for having the motion picture debut of Tom Hanks in a minor role, but it's a hell of a good horror flick about a killer who attacks women just before their wedding day.

Sunday night's second film was probably the strangest inclusion in the Camp Blood lineup, the 1984 Brian De Palma neo-noir erotic thriller Body Double.  I say that it's strange not because of the film itself, but the fact that it's really not a slasher and kind of stands out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the movies.  This was my first time seeing it, and despite it being an odd inclusion for the theme of the event, it was my favorite film of the weekend.

The final film of Camp Blood XI was the 1981 slasher Don't Go In The Woods Alone.  This is one of about a thousand movies from the 80's in which young campers are slaughtered by a psychopath.  This was my first time seeing it, and it's not bad, but it's one of those movies that I'm probably going to forget that I've seen.

And that's a wrap on Camp Blood XI.