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Gene and cohost Tim Swartz feature Gary D. Rhodes. He is a renowned film historian and author with a passion for uncovering the forgotten stories of horror cinema. He's a world expert on Bela Lugosi and Dracula, and will reveal the secrets of the tragic life story of this world-famous horror film legend. He will also talk about his book, "Weirdumentary: Ancient Aliens, Fallacious Prophecies, and Mysterious Monsters From 1970s Documentaries." The book unlocks the secrets of the strangest cinematic phenomenon of the 1970s. It's the ultimate guide to the bizarre, the unexplained, and the wildly entertaining films and television programs that blurred the line between fact and fantasy. "Weirdumentary" examines dozens of movies and TV series, sold to the unsuspecting public as documentaries, beginning with "Chariots of the Gods" (1970) and ending with "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow" (1981). Leonard Nimoy's "In Search Of" makes an appearance, and so does Orson Wells in his late-career role of sinister yet skeptical narrator. Although listeners to The Paracast know about their factual basis, many of these shows and movies featured spurious experts, questionable evidence, and low-budget dramatization. Acclaimed comic book artist, writer, and historian Stephen R. Bissette, best known for his groundbreaking work on DC Comics' "Swamp Thing" alongside Alan Moore, provides the foreword.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-paracast-the-gold-standard-of-paranormal-radio--6203433/support.
EPISODE 58 - "CLASSIC CINEMA'S HORROR HEROES: BELA LUGOSI & BORIS KARLOFF" - 10/21/2024 When you think of the classic Universal Studios monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s, the two names that come to mind are always BORIS KARLOFF and BELA LUGOSI. These two titans of the horror film genre gave us endless hours of chills and thrills in their portrayal of such iconic movie monsters as Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and The Mummy. This week's Halloween episode pays tribute to the films and lives of these two incredible actors. SHOW NOTES: Sources: Karloff: The Life of Boris Karloff (1972), by Peter Underwood; The Films of Boris Karloff (1974), by Richard Bojarski; Lugosi: The Forgotten King (1986), Documentary; Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster (2011), by Stephen Jacobs; No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi (2916), by Gary D. Rhodes & Bill Kaffenberger; Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff (2017), by Gregory William Mank; Boris Karloff: A Gentleman's Life (2018), by Scott Allen Nollen; Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula (2023), by Koren Shami; “Actor Bela Lugosi, Dracula of Screen, Succumbs After Heart Attack at 73, August 17, 1956, Los Angeles Times; “Boris Karloff Dead: Horror-Movie Star,” February 4. 1969, New York Times; “Boris Karloff Dies In London Hospital at 81,” February 4, 1969, Los Angeles Times; “In ‘The Black Cat,' the Titans of Terror, Karloff and Lugosi, Face Off,” Oct. 26, 2018, New York Times; BelaLugosi.com RogerEbert.com TCM.com; IMDBPro.com; IBDB.com; Wikipedia.com; Movies Mentioned: BELA LUGOSI: The Silent Command (1923); The Thirteenth Chair (1929); Dracula (1931); Freaks (1932); Mark of the Vampire (1935); Murder In the Rue Morgue (1932); Island of Lost Souls (1932); The Black Cat (1934); The Raven (1935); Ninotchka (1939), starring Greta Garbo; Son of Frankenstein (1939), starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; Black Friday (1940); You'll Find Out (1940); The Devil Bat (1940); The Saint's Double Trouble (1940); The Wolf Man (1942); The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942); The Corpse Vanishes (1942); Bowery At Midnight (1942); Ghosts on the Loose (1943); Zombie's on Broadway (1945); The Body Snatcher (1945); Genius At Work (1946); Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948); Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957); BORIS KARLOFF: The Lightning Raider (1919); The Hope Diamond Mystery (1920); The Deadlier Sex (1920); The Hellion (1923); Omar The Tentmaker (1922); Dynamite Dan (1924); Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927); The Criminal Code (1930); Frankenstein (1931); Scarface (1932); The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932); The Mummy (1932); The Ghoul (1933); Gift of Gab (1934); The Invisible Ray (1935); The Raven (1935); The Bride of Frankenstein (1935); The Son of Frankenstein (1939); Mr. Wong, Detective (1938); Black Friday (1940); You'll Find Out (1940); House of Frankenstein (1944); The Body Snatcher (1945); Isle of the Dead (1945); Bedlam (1946); The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947); Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1948); The Strange Door (1951); The Black Castle (1952); The Island Monster (1954); The Raven (1963); The Terror (1963); Die, Monster, Die! (1965); Caldron of Blood (1968); How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966); Targets (1968); The Crimson Cult (1968); Fear Chamber (1968); House of Evil (1968); Isle of the Snake People (1971); The Incredible Invasion (1971); --------------------------------- http://www.airwavemedia.com Please contact sales@advertisecast.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author/film historian Gary D. Rhodes
On this spooky season edition of Parallax Views, film scholar Gary D. Rhodes, one of the foremost authorities on Bela Lugosi and classic horror cinema, and Robert Guffey return to the show to discuss their new edited volume Scripts from the Crypt No. 12: Tod Browning's Revolt of the Dead. Tod Browning is perhaps best known for director 1931's Dracula. Starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire count, a role which he'd become inextricably linked to for the rest of his career, Dracula was a massive success for Hollywood's depression era Universal Studios and launched that studios foray into making wildly popular creatures features for the next three decades. Before The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Mummy there was Tod Browning's Dracula. Browning, however, wasn't new to either Hollywood or weaving tales of the macabre for the silver screen. Born on July 12, 1880, Browning ran was fascinated from a young age by carnivals and eventually ran away from home to join a traveling circus. From there he'd transition to acting and, finally, becoming a director. In the silent film era, Browning became known for his collaborations with Lon Chaney, Sr., who became known as "The Man of a Thousand Faces" and whose credits include such classics as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. Together, Browning and Chaney told macabre tales involving themes like violence and mutilation in films like West of Zanzibar, The Unholy Three, The Unknown, and the infamously lost London After Midnight. Browning would then go on to direct Dracula before making other films such as the controversial Freaks (featuring real-life circus people) his London After Midnight talkie remake Mark of the Vampire. In this conversation Gary, Robert and I discuss: - An introduction to the Scripts from the Crypt series founded by film historian Tom Weaver - Biographical background on Tod Browning, who was often spoken of as the Edgar Allen Poe of filmmakers in his time and his influence on filmmakers and artists including Ray Bradbury, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Woody Allen - The critical beating Browning has taken over the years and why Gary argues that it's mistaken; the Spanish Dracula vs. Browning's Dracula; Browning's transition from the silent films to talking motion pictures; Browning's collaborations with Lon Chaney Sr. and the horror elements in them - Browning's light-hearted murder mystery Miracles for Sale; Browning's early talkie The Thirteenth Chair starring Bela Lugosi (before Dracula) and its taking on the subject of spiritualist conmen/frauds; Browning's silent films such as West of Zanzibar, The Unknown, and The Unholy Three - Tod Browning's thematic obsessions: trickery, fakery, deception, mutilation, sexual frustration, and more; the different kinds of trickery dealt with in Browning's films; harmless truths vs. dangerous lies and swindling; skepticism towards medium, seances, and the supernatural; women and how they are portrayed in Browning's movies (such as Carol Borland's Luna in Mark of the Vampire); the Scooby Doo-eqsue element of Browning's murder mysteries - Tod Browning's Freaks; a movie that used real-life circus people; the film's subversive quality by way of its making viewers sympathize with the circus people and treating the "normal" people as the villains; the question of Freaks success and its effect on Browning's career; mentioning how the pop punk band The Ramones were influenced by Freaks; the role of vaudeville, circuses, and sideshow life on Browning's work - The Browning script/treatment for the unmade movie Revolt of the Dead; the movie would've predated William Friedkin's The Exorcist and Night of the Living Dead in dealing with now common horror tropes like demonic possession and the zombie apocalypse; Revolt of the Dead would've even included human crucifixions; the story would've also included the phenomena of stigmata, the inexplicable appearance of wounds on the wrists like those of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion; the unique qualities of the script - Tod Browning's Londo After Midnight, the "Holy Grail" of lost films; the rumors, legends, hoaxes around the movie ever since it was destroyed in a fire at the MGM vault; the iconic image of Lon Chaney Sr;. in scar make-up for London After Midnight; other lost films including F.W. Murnau's Der Januskopf (aka The Head Janus; starring Conrad Veidt and Bela Lugosi) and the 1959 Bela Lugosi-headlining chiller Lock Up Your Daughters - Robert' novel Bela Lugosi's Dead, which deals with a man searching for the lost test footage of Lugosi as Frankentein's monster - The Revolt of the Dead in relationship to White Zombie, William Seabrook's Magic Island novel and its success, American military involvement in Haiti, and racist/xenophobic sentiments about Haiti in the early 20th century - Appreciating early 20th century cinema; getting past the "I can't watch Black-and-White movies" mentality; the rewarding aspect of watching classic movies - Tod Browning and the Grand Guignol, the theater tradition in France obsessed with the gruesome and grotesque And much, much more!
This special episode presents a great big round-up of all our fabulous guests from 2021 with me your host Paula Blair. It's been a fantastic year and we've got great things on the way in 2022. For now, join me in enjoying hearing from our 2021 guests again! 02:44 Justin McAleece 03:45 Mustafa Sherif 06:24 Shea Donovan 07:39 Clinton Kirkpatrick 09:03 Todd Zimmermann, Katrina Michaels and Debra Beardsley 14:14 Nisan Arikan and Lars Henriks 18:29 Derrik Jordan 19:53 Dan Hughes 22:01 Dr Gary D. Rhodes 28:55 Nathan Ragland 31:22 Chloe Gibson 33:44 Dr Rabya Mughal 38:04 Dr Troy Hall 40:16 Pam Munter 42:28 Dominic Sim 44:25 Daniel Hess 47:50 Beau L'Amour 50:16 Dr Fiona Noble 53:39 Mariae Smiarowska 55:34 Tom Jennings 56:09 Mackenzie Finklea 57:42 Brendon Connelly 58:33 Dave Lewis 01:00:01 Katie Chonacas Edited by Paula Blair with Audacity. Music: commonGround by airtone (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/58703 Audiovisual Cultures YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClfY05rl3tFNav-2ehQvHcA More info: https://audiovisualcultures.wordpress.com/ Early releases and bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/avcultures Tip jar: https://supporter.acast.com/audiovisual-cultures-podcast https://bio.link/peablair audiovisualcultures@gmail.com If you enjoyed this, please subscribe and give it a good rating in your app! Thank you for listening.
This special episode presents a great big round-up of all our fabulous guests from 2021 with me your host Paula Blair. It's been a fantastic year and we've got great things on the way in 2022. For now, join me in enjoying hearing from our 2021 guests again who are:02:44 Justin McAleece03:45 Mustafa Sherif06:24 Shea Donovan07:39 Clinton Kirkpatrick09:03 Todd Zimmermann, Katrina Michaels and Debra Beardsley14:14 Nisan Arikan and Lars Henriks18:29 Derrik Jordan19:53 Dan Hughes22:01 Dr Gary D. Rhodes28:55 Nathan Ragland31:22 Chloe Gibson33:44 Dr Rabya Mughal38:04 Dr Troy Hall40:16 Pam Munter42:28 Dominic Sim44:25 Daniel Hess47:50 Beau L'Amour50:16 Dr Fiona Noble53:39 Mariae Smiarowska55:34 Tom Jennings56:09 Mackenzie Finklea57:42 Brendon Connelly58:33 Dave Lewis01:00:01 Katie ChonacasEdited by Paula Blair with Audacity.Auto-captioned video.Automated transcript.Music: commonGround by airtone (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/58703 Audiovisual Cultures YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClfY05rl3tFNav-2ehQvHcA Sign up for our free monthly newsletter.More info: https://audiovisualcultures.wordpress.com/ Early releases and bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/avculturesTip jar: https://supporter.acast.com/audiovisual-cultures-podcasthttps://bio.link/peablairaudiovisualcultures@gmail.comIf you enjoyed this, please subscribe and give it a good rating in your app!Thank you for listening. Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/avcultures. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
We are kicking off Shocktober 2021 with a look at William Beaudine's Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) which stars Bela Lugosi (as you may have guessed) as well as comedy duo Sammy Petrillo and Duke Mitchell. They're a knock-off Martin & Lewis team and they're found on a little island in the Pacific that is populated by stock footage of African animals.Rich Whitley, Jamie Klein, and Fredde Duke join Mike to discuss the film as well as Fredde's documentary about her father, producer Maurice Duke, Fuck 'Em. Screenwriter Michael Barrie also stops by as well.Mike also speaks with writer Gary D. Rhodes about his work including his latest two-volume set, Becoming Dracula: The Early Years of Bela Lugosi.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We are kicking off Shocktober 2021 with a look at William Beaudine's Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) which stars Bela Lugosi (as you may have guessed) as well as comedy duo Sammy Petrillo and Duke Mitchell. They're a knock-off Martin & Lewis team and they're found on a little island in the Pacific that is populated by stock footage of African animals. Rich Whitley, Jamie Klein, and Fredde Duke join Mike to discuss the film as well as Fredde's documentary about her father, producer Maurice Duke, Fuck 'Em. Screenwriter Michael Barrie also stops by as well. Mike also speaks with writer Gary D. Rhodes about his work including his latest two-volume set, Becoming Dracula: The Early Years of Bela Lugosi.
Paula Blair catches up with Gary Rhodes. As well as reminiscing about their time at Queen’s University Belfast, Gary talks through his research in the areas of the history of American horror cinema, the life of Bela Lugosi, Irish cinema, and how cinema was impacted by the Great Influenza of 1918. This episode was recorded using Zoom on 19 April 2021. Edited by Paula Blair using Audacity. commonGround by airtone (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/58703 See the caption-enabled video at https://youtu.be/8jn8g_2aEqE Find out more about the podcast and sign up for our free monthly newsletter at https://audiovisualcultures.wordpress.com/ For early releases and bonus content, go to https://www.patreon.com/avcultures Please support AVC at https://supporter.acast.com/audiovisual-cultures-podcast
Paula Blair catches up with Gary Rhodes. As well as reminiscing about their time at Queen's University Belfast, Gary talks through his research in the areas of the history of American horror cinema, the life of Bela Lugosi, Irish cinema, and how cinema was impacted by the Great Influenza of 1918.This episode was recorded using Zoom on 19 April 2021.Edited by Paula Blair using Audacity.commonGround by airtone (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/airtone/58703See the auto-captioned video at https://youtu.be/8jn8g_2aEqEAutomated transcript.Find out more about the podcast and sign up to our free monthly newsletter at https://audiovisualcultures.wordpress.com/For early releases and bonus content, go to https://www.patreon.com/avculturesPlease support AVC at https://supporter.acast.com/audiovisual-cultures-podcast Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/avcultures. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dr. Gary D. Rhodes, Associate Professor of Film and Mass Media at UCF, and author of several books on early American horror films, joins the Shelf Centered team to discuss the history of horror in popular culture. Links to content mentioned: Virtual Event: The Birth of The American Horror Film https://attend.ocls.info/event/4552069 Curtis Earth Trivia Fundraiser https://oclsfriends.info/events/trivia-fundraiser/ Virtual Event: One Minute Film Festival https://attend.ocls.info/event/4501954 Orange County Library System's Jobseeker Resources https://www.ocls.info/job-seekers Staff Picks: www.ocls.info/staffpicks Social Media: OCLS Facebook: www.facebook.com/oclslib/ OCLS Twitter: twitter.com/oclslibrary OCLS YouTube: www.youtube.com/oclsvideos
The Parallax Views countdown to Halloween continues as we revisit the life and times of the actor most associated with Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi, w/ the world's foremost Bela Lugosi scholar Gary D. Rhodes. Previously joined us to discuss Lugosi's cinematic career from his runaway success and rise to superstardom courtesy the Universal Studios classic Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) to his later years appearing in the notorious films of the infamous Ed Wood such as Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and Bride of the Monster (1955). In this conversation we shift our focus to the political life of Bela Lugosi including his involvement in the Hungarian Revolution of 1919, Gary's research into Bela's support of working classes causes, Lugosi's anti-fascism, and how Lugosi's early life may have shaped his politics. And then we delve into the little known story of how Lugosi headed up an organization called the Hungarian-American Council for Democracy. This led to Lugosi being monitored by the early U.S. intelligence agency known as the OSS, whom referred to the HUACD as the "Dracula Council" and believed it to be a communist front organization. It turns out, however, that Lugosi was also informing the OSS on the activities of Hungarian fascists in the U.S. while those very same fascists reported on Lugosi to the same agency! It's a wild tale that Gary has dubbed a "Horror Noir" and it doesn't end with the OSS. In fact, Gary's scholarship, which involved digging through national archives and making Freedom of Information Act requests, shows that after WWII the FBI was monitoring Lugosi well into the 1950s when the horror icon's star had faded and he was close to death. It's a fascinating story and definitely one you won't want to miss this Halloween season as Gary D. Rhodes returns to Parallax Views!This Episode Brought to You By:The War State:The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963byMichael SwansonofThe Wall Street Window
On this Halloween bonus edition of Parallax Views, the Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi has become immortalized in pop culture since he starred as the title vampire in Tod Browning's 1931 Universal Studios monster movie classic Dracula. Additionally, Lugosi is also remembered for his collaborations with the notoriously inept filmmaker Ed Wood in the final years of his life. Together Wood and Lugosi made Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and, most infamously, "The Worst Movie Ever Made" Plan 9 from Outer Space. Lugosi's relationship with Wood went on to become the subject of a major motion picture, Tim Burton's Ed Wood, and garnered the late Martin Landau an Academy Award for his performance as the iconic thespian. Even after his passing 63 years ago, Lugosi's place in the pantheon of popular culture remains cemented into the collective imagination with the legendary actor being referenced in works by artists as varied as Andy Warhol and the goth rock band Bauhaus. In other words, the Lugosi legacy lives on all these years later. Joining us to discuss the life and times of Bela Lugosi, from Dracula to Plan 9 from Outer Space, is film historian Gary D. Rhodes. Having written multiple books on Lugosi, including Bela Lugosi, Dreams and Nightmares, Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays, and Bela Lugosi and the Monogram 9 (with previous Parallax Views guest Robert Guffey), Rhodes is without a doubt the foremost scholar of all things Bela Lugosi. In this previously unpublished conversation Rhodes takes us through the life and times of Lugosi, from his rise to stardom to his eventual struggles with addiction and infamous collaborations with Ed Wood. CHECK OUTBELA LUGOSIANDTHE MONOGRAM 9BYGARY D. RHODESANDROBERT GUFFEY SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! WHERE YOU CAN HEAR... PARALLAX VIEWSTHE WEEK THAT WASCURRENT EVENTSPROGRAM
This week we are joined by Gary D. Rhodes and Robert Guffey to talk about their fantastic book " Bela Lugosi And The MonoGram 9". We talk about Bela Lugosi's more avant garde films that he made during World War 2, Some of his early works leading up to his iconic role as Dracula, Why he was closely watched by the FBI, And then we close out the show with a in-depth conversation about why Roe has glitter herpes and does Yard Sale brawls for Turkey Deep fryers.. Closing Music - Bauhaus- Bela Lugosi's dead ( Like We Would Use Anything Else!)
In this week's programme I talk to film historian Gary D Rhodes about the birth of the American horror film. Gary's book is a fascinating exploration of the first two… Read More Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.