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Film & Television Series

Frightening Flickers: MoMI Halloween Event

museum of the moving image

The Museum of the Moving Image recently celebrated the essence of the Halloween season with a gala costume party held on the premises. Located in Astoria Queens, New York – a neighborhood linked to the filmmaking industry for over 100 years – the museum offers visitors a detailed look at the historical and technological gestation of the art of cinema.

Hosted in partnership with YELP, museum members and invitees enjoyed a Mexican themed buffet and refreshments by QSNY Cocktails before partaking in the seasonally themed tours and competitions. Throughout the night DJ AI spun a solid block of dance floor classics, from “Electric Slide” to Michael Jackson hits, ensuring a good time for the costumed party go-ers.

museum of the moving image

Head Spinning Highlights…

Highlighting the event were flashlight illuminated tours of the scariest parts of the museum’s collection. Escorted by a masked guide, guests saw production sketches and set miniatures from Silence of the Lambs, outsize physical FX props from the A Nightmare On Elm Street series, and sculpts for the make-up appliances from The Elephant Man.

The most unique exhibit was a collection of artifacts documenting the production of The Exorcist (1973,) still considering of of the most chilling cinema excursions of all time.

The life-size model of actress Linda Blair as Regan, the movie’s possessed youngster, sat menacingly in a show case. This is the prop used for the 360 degree head-spinning scene. It is quite a bizarre piece of film history and holds a creep factor that was accentuated by the dimly lit surroundings.

The Exorcist exhibit also includes examples of make-up artist Dick Smith’s ingenuity. Of special interest was the apparatus that was fitted to stand-in Eileen Dietz to achieve the famous pea soup projectile vomiting scene.

museum of the moving image

Projections of the Past…

To conclude the tour we were treated to a live Magic Lantern show. Magic Lanterns were the progenitors of film projectors. A beautifully restored 1890s era lantern was operated by Joel Schlemowitz, a collector and conservator of vintage audio-visual inventions. He featured an appropriately spooky selection of glass slides, that included burial scenes and hordes of skeletal apparitions. Schelmowitz explained the workings of the machine and how its dual lens system allowed for seamless slide changes and effective collaging of images. For a truly old school effect, the presentation was accompanied by a recording played on a vintage Gramophone.

museum of the moving image

During the heart of the evening revelers participated in several competitions. Drag performance personality Avant Garbage MC’d a multi-round costume contest.

Avant Garbage is noted for a found item, trash aesthetic, fashion sense. For example, a rag-mop wig is one of the clever hallmarks of the performer’s look. In addition to hosting duties Avant Garbage took center stage with a scary lyrical rap while transforming into Freddy Krueger.

museum of the moving image

Terrifying Trivia…

Later in the evening Mike Drake, author of Contemporary Krampus: A Modern Look At An Ancient Legend, posed a batch of brain busting questions on horror movie minutiae. Guests had an impressive knowledge of some pretty obscure facts about scary cinema. Winners received an assortment of prizes contributed by sponsors Factory Entertainment, Paragon FX Group, Universal FilmsExorcist: Believer, Eric Pigor’s Toxic Toons, Trick or Treat Studios, Warner Bros.’ IT and the TerrorVision Haunted House.

The Museum of the Moving Image can be visited throughout the year. It offers a rotating schedule of film screenings in addition to the onsite exhibits. On-going exhibits include a career spanning look at the work of Jim Henson (The Muppet Show, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal) and the aforementioned space dedicated to production of The Exorcist.

Please check MoMI’s website (linked above) for upcoming presentations and information on membership opportunities.

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Film & Television Series Toys & Collectibles

Wednesday Friday, I’m in Love: Goth Princess in Toyland

Wednesday Addams, toy Tokyo, phony, toy fair 2023, thing
Wednesday Addams and sidekick Thing as Toy Tokyo Plush Phunny Dolls.

It’s Wednesday Wednesday…

Wednesday Friday Addams, the pig-tailed, oval faced, little girl with a deadpan demeanor and a predilection for beheading her dolls, has come a long way since her creation at the imaginative pen of cartoonist Charles Addams

Originally published in The New Yorker Magazine, the characters of Addams’ droll one pagers became household familiars when, in 1964, ABC television launched The Addams Family series based on the clan’s outre exploits. Composer Vic Mizzy’s finger-snapping earworm of a theme song helped the show burrow its way into the American psyche and pop culture history.

Wednesday Addams, Super impulse, Poptator, toy fair 2023
Wednesday is no small fry as a Poptator from Super Impulse

Elevated to main character in the 2022 Netflix series Wednesday the impish Goth fledgling has once again proliferated the spirit of the times. The Netflix series spins Wednesday as a High School sleuth. A Nancy Drew for the end-of-days. Her protective compadre, Thing, is always nearby to – well – lend a hand.

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Captured mid-dance, Royal Bobblehead’s Wednesday is an FYE Exclusive

Big Beat from Badsville…

Boomer aged Addams fans will remember Wednesday being portrayed by the late Lisa Loring. In season 2, her quirky dance “The Droop” (meant to lend Butler Lurch a groovy charm and impress his inamorata) gave the young actress a chance to show off some impressive James Brown moves. The well performed shuffle, remembered by fans and rediscovered by vintage TV enthusiasts and YouTube spelunkers, was ripe for reinvention in Netflix’ Wednesday reimagining. 

Current Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega interprets the dance (performed to The Cramps forever awesome “Goo-Goo Muck”) as an angular set of moves. She intertwines flamenco with austere 80’s new wave and beatnik hand jive. Think Carmen Amaya watching Who Killed Teddy Bear? on the Kraftwerk tour bus, with Robert Fraser driving.

Wednesday Addams, thing, chia pet, toy fair 2023,
Get a helping hand harvesting your micro greens with JE’s Thing inspired Chia Pet

Head Scratching History…

Why a seemingly staid, still mid-Century minded, general public took to the surrealistic scenarios of the show (and its competitor The Munsters) is worthy of a sociological dissertation.

I’m tempted, but for now we’re simply going to offer up a glimpse of the latest Wednesday related items available for your collecting enjoyment that we saw at The Toy Association’s 2023 New York Toy Fair. These include several Royal Bobbleheads statues, NECA’s Toony Terrors, a Super Impulse Poptator, Toy Tokyo Phunny Plush, and even a Thing Chia Pet from JE.

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Film & Television Series Toys & Collectibles

Two Inches of Terror: Diamond Select’s “What If…” Zombie Mini-Mates

diamond select toys minimates
Uh-Oh, Cap is looking hangry and you’re on the menu!
(All photos are courtesy of Diamond Select Toys)

Diamond Select Toys celebrates the 20th anniversary of their Mini-Mates action figure line with a box set that pays tribute to the Marvel animated series What If… as seen on the Disney Plus streaming service.

Mini-Mates are two inch tall, articulated figures that have been designed under a multitude of licenses, from Universal Monsters and Nightmare Before Christmas to Kill Bill characters. I’m always astounded at how the simple body form can be transformed to so accurately convey a character.

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Film & Television Series Photography Toys & Collectibles

Better Run Through the Jungle: Noble Collection Meets Universal Monsters

It’s Monster Monday Again!

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The Noble Collection’s Creature From the Black Lagoon Bendy Fig captured in
a paper craft jungle.

“A sleepy lagoon, a tropical moon, and two on an island” is how the lyrics of the 1940 Number 1 hit song imagines a jungle paradise. That’s certainly not what Julie Adams and Richard Carlson encountered when their archeological team traveled down the Amazon in the now classic 1954 monster movie The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It was way more of a creepy lagoon and prehistoric goon experience.  

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Film & Television Series Toys & Collectibles

A Grander Grand Moff: Gentle Giant’s Cushing Kenner Counterpart

It’s Sci-Fi Friday !

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Peter Cushing’s Star Wars character gets a belated but super-sized facsimile.
(All images courtesy of Diamond Select Toys/Gentle Giant Ltd.)