Retro French Girl Fabric

Beat Books

Tormented - Bert I. Gordon - 1960 - Unexpected Hipster #6

This one isn't a very good one either but the character of Nick The Blackmailer is actually the guy who reminded me of the rebop scene in The Wild One which led me to come up with this idea of unexpected hipsters. After watching Tormented I started actively looking for these guys in all kinds of movies and found many many better examples than this one, but I thought I should give old Nick his due for being the catalyst. Nick doesn't give any long jive talking speeches, he sticks to mild understandable slang like calling everyone "dad", remarking on "dad's cool pad" and things like that, but he is very capably played by Joe Turkel who is probably the most believable actor in this film.

Tormented is a perfect example of 50's drive-in horror films and one that I would recommend at that. The story of a man whose ex lover falls to her death and then comes back to haunt him as he is about to get married. Directed by Bert I. Gordon, you can expect all kinds of special effects which many call cheesy but I think they work quite well, given the restrictions of budget and time, I think Gordon always did remarkably well with his effects and even blazed a trail for effects artists to come.

"This is a swell pad, dad."

"Say, dad, what did you say was the handle of the cat that's gettin' spliced ?"

The Photos Of Nick DeWolf

The amazing photo's by Nick DeWolf can be seen on Flickr, here. Here's a cool one of a girl at a costume party in Boston 1958, dressed as a beatnik. Check them out, one great shot after another.

Thank you, anonymous commenter.

Beats On TV - Peter Gun - Season 1, Episode 4 - The Blind Pianist

Peter Gunn - private detective, is a true denizen of the night. Alternately solving crimes that concern the dwellers of the city at night and hanging out at Mothers, a pizza jazz joint, where his girlfriend sings and he himself sometimes wails on the axe.

A private dick quite often is able to cultivate friendships that a cop cannot. This gives them a leg up on the local law enforcement quite frequently. One of these friendships for Mr. Gunn is Wilbur, a really cool cat who runs a private beat club for those in the know.

Me typing out this dialog is just not going to do it justice so I've ripped the whole scene, which you can listen to below. Wilbur is just too cool for words.

"Makes you wonder what ever happened to the good old iambic pentameter."

"Oh, man, like, that's strictly for squares. Like, todays poets are free from all those rigid rules and restrictions. Like, man, they don't even know what he's sayin' but, you know, like, they make the scene."

"Do you ever paint anything but yourself ?"

"I mean, like, why should I ? I'm so infinitely complex."

"Oh man, you ain't been by for a while. You should fall in. Shirley Blaze is our new, intellectual, ecdysiast. "

Noa Noa - A Journal Of The South Seas - Paul Gauguin

In 1891 Paul Gauguin left France on his first trip to Tahiti. This is the journal he kept of that trip. Gauguin fell in love with the people and the way of life and eventually packed it all in and moved there to live. Eventually he returned to France but "going native" and living a bohemian lifestyle in the south pacific influenced his life and art forever. Gauguin was the original nature boy.

A New Skipper Bartlett Blog

Ok western fans, I've started another new themed blog to deal with more of my obsessions. This one is called Vengeance Trail and it deals with the old west in pop culture. It will primarily feature posts about spaghetti westerns, western pulp covers etc., the same kind of stuff you see here and at The Control Room only with a western bent to it. There's not much over there yet, but come on by and check it out.