Get Smart and my radio

Watched Get Smart last night. It has a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, but it is not a great film and I probably will not watch it again.

However, it does have a ham radio moment. In the chase scene near the end of the film, there is a two-way radio in one of the automobiles: a Yaesu FT-1802, the same model of radio that serves as my APRS home digipeater transmitter. The displayed frequency of the radio in the film was 143.910 MHz.

I had a choice of accompanying this post with a photo of the FT-1802 or a photo of Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell appearing in the film. I think I made the right decision.

Forrest J Ackerman, R.I.P.

Forrest J. Ackerman died on Thursday.

Mr. Ackerman is noted for coining the term "sci-fi" and amassing a vast collection of science fiction and fantasy memorabilia, but I will remember him as being the brains behind the operation known as Famous Monsters of Filmland, which was one of my favorite periodicals when I was a kid.

Famous Monsters of Filmland was 50 cents per issue at a time when my periodical budget was in the 10-cent comic book and 25-cent Mad magazine range. So, I hesitated splurging on the magazine, although I admired its covers whenever I visited the newsstand.

I built the Aurora model kits of the Universal Studios' monsters and one time, while opening the box of a new kit, I found a coupon for a free sample issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. I immediately filled out the coupon and walked it to the mailbox at the corner of Baldwin and Piedmont Streets, then waited patiently for my free issue to arrive.

The free issue finally arrived, but it was not the current issue. Rather, it was a back issue, but it was the mother of all back issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland: the October 1963 special King Kong issue! King Kong was my favorite film and I read that magazine from cover-to-cover so many times that the cover came loose and the pages were dog-eared.

That issue hooked me on Mr. Ackerman's magazine and I started buying it from the newsstand regularly. However, in my opinion, that special King Kong issue represented the peak of the run of Famous Monsters of Filmland. I did enjoy the subsequent issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland, but none were as good as the special King Kong issue and after a few years, I lost interest and stopped buying it.

Anyway, thank you, Forrest J. Ackerman, for providing a lot of fun for a 12-year-old kid and helping to inspire him to become a writer.

Amateur Radio When You Least Expect It Redux

This morning, I read a couple of e-mails about this week's Surfin' and it occurred to me that the very comprehensive "Morse Goes to the Movies" Web site that disappeared off the face of the net many years ago might be available on archive.org.

Sure enough; I went to archive.org and found the "Morse Goes to the Movies" Web site archived on March 9, 2001 here.

Surfin': Amateur Radio When You Least Expect It

This week, Surfin’ finds Amateur Radio in motion pictures and other unexpected places.

By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.

The Bank Job and ham radio

I watched an excellent movies on DVD last night, The Bank Job, a true story about a bank "heist gone wrong... in all the right ways." I was surprised watching the film when ham radio showed up and became a key element in the story.

I don't want to ruin the story if you have not seen the film, so I will say no more except that I highly recommend it.

Surfin': You Too on YouTube and Star Wars

In this week’s Surfin’, visit a Web site that provides a tool for finding a location for your next hilltop radio operation. After you read it, come back here to post your comments, if any.

By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.

All You Need Is Cash

After a busy day, I wanted to relax and watch something amusing. Nothing on the dish interested me, so I looked through my collection of DVDs and decided to watch The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash.

I have not seen this film since it came out in 1978 and it was almost like watching it for the first time. I laughed a lot and enjoyed the music. I had forgotten that it was a Lorne Michaels' production, so there were cameos by the prime "not ready for prime time" Saturday Night Live crew: Aykroyd, Belushi, Murray, Radner, Franken, Davis, and Michaels, himself.

For those who have no idea what I am talking about, The Rutles, "a living legend that will live long after other living legends have died" is a spoof of the Beatles career following their rise from Liverpool to their breakup in 1970. George Harrison appears in the film as an interviewer.

The music is dead-on Beatles. I like it so much that I have the soundtrack on my iPod.

If you are a Beatles fan, buy or rent the DVD; I think you will have a laugh or two.

The World, the Flesh and the Devil

I am a fan of films depicting doomsday. Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove are my favorites and I have both on DVD to watch whenever I feel like it.

The World, the Flesh and the Devil is another doomsday film that I liked a lot, but have seldom seen. I saw it at a local drive-in theater when it was first released and I was 8-years-old way back in 1959. I saw it on television once, maybe twice, but that is all. As far as I can tell, the movie was never released on VHS or DVD.

I'd love to see The World, the Flesh and the Devil again (and again)*. If anyone is aware of where I can get a copy of this film, I would appreciate it.

* Being a techie even at age 8, I was fascinated with how they filmed this movie. Most of the film takes place on the deserted streets of Manhattan. This was long before special effects could sweep clean the streets of people, so I imagine it must have been a logistic nightmare accomplishing the same effect without special effects.

beware the stare

Back in 1960, the commercials for Village of the Damned were so scary even on a black and white television set that I had no desire to see the movie! Why pay a quarter to go see the film at a theater when I was already having nightmares from the commercials for free?

mummy's the word

Mummy movies always scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid, but this 1959 version out of the UK really did it. I think it had something to do with the fact that I saw it at a drive-in theatre.

My Mom and Dad always sat up front and my sister and I sat in the back, which had one advantage: when the movie got really scary, we could always duck behind our parents and/or the front seat to shelter our eyes from the action up on the big screen.

However, sitting in the back also had one big disadvantage: the side windows. At any time, a monster could sneak around and peek inside the car to see what was inside. You knew that monster was always going to choose the side window next to you. The only solution was to crouch down low on the car floor with your head buried under your crossed arms and that would assure missing the monsters on the big screen and the ones lurking in the drive-in parking lot.

No wonder most of the drive-ins are out of business... darn drive-in trolls!

the original X-men X-man

The Man From Planet X is another filme that scared/scarred the crap out of me when I was a kid.

Mind you, I only saw this film on television, never in a movie theater, so, in my humble opinion, the scary parts had to be really scary in order to be as effective viewing it on a 10-inch television screen in the comfort and safety of my parent's living room vs. the big screen in a dark movie theater.

The real scary elements of this film:

• Lots of fog just like a gothic monster flick.

• Lots of suspense waiting for The Man to show up.

• The Man finally shows up in spectacular fashion.

Recently, I viewed this film again and it still holds up. I recommend it.

scared & scarred by the silver screen

My daughter bought me some postcards for my collection. The stash included some depicting posters of 1950's science fiction films including the original Godzilla film titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters.

IMDB says that the film was released in 1954. Amazon says 1956. I'm guessing that 1954 was the release date in Japan and 1956 was the release date stateside because I saw that movie at the State Theater when it came out and I was 3 years old in 1954 and 5 years old in 1956, so 1956 is more like it.

I remember asking my Mom to take me to see that movie. She was a fan of horror flicks, so she agreed and took my sister and I downtown to see the film one afternoon.

I remember the long line in front of theater to buy tickets. The line was so long that it went up East Main Street and turned the corner down Brown Street. Mom thought the line was too long and so she decided that we would return to see the film on another day.

Eventually, we did see the film and it scared the crap out of me! I had Godzilla nightmares for years.

Remember that scene when a procession of people are walking up the side of a hill? Godzilla pops up on the other side and everyone in a panic runs back down the side of the hill. Well, many a time, I relived that scene in my nightmares with my family and I in that procession of people going up and down the side of the hill.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters was the first of the many "monster movies" that scared and scarred me in theaters when I was a kid. I will write about the others in the future.