I simply refuse to watch the Academy Awards. I cannot seem to get my head around a bunch of overpaid actors dressing up and competing for who’s who and who is the best. We all have our opinions. What is best for some might be worse for others. So I have no desire to watch over-paid people compete for what some academy thinks is the best. In fact, when I found out Hurt Locker, a war movie portraying one of the most senseless wars of our time, I was more than glad to have missed this pointless award show. However, I got to talking with my friends about movies and realized Hollywood just doesn’t make movies like they used to, and it got me thinking…

 Indeed Hollywood really doesn’t make movies like they used to. Maybe it’s because it’s all about money and ego anymore. Who knows but looking back when the Academy Awards were about true talent and style and class it takes me right back to the 50s.

 In 1950 All About Eve got the best picture. Come on how good does it get? Bette Davis? It simply doesn’t get better than that! This was what Hollywood was meant to be!

 In 1951 Humphrey Bogart received best actor for the African Queen, Vivien Leigh
was awarded best actress for A Streetcar Named Desire, and An American in Paris got best picture. That is class!

 In 1954 Marlon Brando was the best actor for On the Waterfront. That was when movies were really movies and not Hollywood hype. In fact that year, On the Waterfront got best picture as well. There was no need to re-live a senseless war to get a best picture, just good writing and acting.

 In 1956 America was treated with creativity and charm as Yul Brynner got best actor for The King and I and Around the World in 80 Days got best picture. How wonderfully creative these movies were.  I am not leaving the women of Hollywood out, in 1957, Joanne Woodward received best actress for The Three Faces of Eve. Now that was a great movie!

 In the 50s movies were just incredible. You were allowed to use your imagination.  One of the funniest movies I watched as an adult was Harvey which was released in 1950 with James Stewart. He was a drunk who thought his best friend was an imaginary six-foot-tall rabbit. Now that is creativity for its time.

 As far as spooky movies, well, we did not need blood and gore back then, just creative writers. I believe one of the spookiest movies I have seen was the 1956 hit, The Bad Seed. This thriller showed us that even young innocent girls could become serial killers. I also loved Alfred Hitchcock for a good jolt. He was clearly beyond his time!

 Don’t get me wrong. I am glad for some of the movies that came out this year. I loved the creativity and the meaning behind Avatar. It took 3D to a new level. I thought UP was a great cartoon, and the Blind Side demonstrated something we Americans really need to see; compassion.

 I guess I will stick to the classics, avoid some of the violence and vow never to participate in the Hollywood games called award shows. I also suspect a good book beats half the stuff on the big screen anyhow, so I think I will pick up my book, sit outside for a few, breathe in the fresh air and read my next chapter. It is a lot cheaper, allows my imagination to go places, and I do not have to smell stale buttered popcorn and get candy on the soul of my shoes!

 In the meantime, what was your favorite movie? Is there a classic you liked?

I am getting ready to move, and as I am moving, I run across an old DVD I got for my mother a few years ago. I did it as a joke I must admit. Every since I was a child, my mother had a horrible fear of “pod people.” You know, the people from the movie The Body Snatchers?  It spooked her to the point that as children she would check under our beds to make sure there were no pods. God forbid we wake up as pod people. As an adult, I get a chuckle out of it. One year for Christmas I got her the movie thinking if she watched, it would dissipate her fears. Sadly my mother did not see the humor in it and I doubt if she watched it. Needless to say running into this old video got me thinking…

 I am unsure how anyone could be afraid of B rated horror movies. Though I do recall as a teen, I was pretty frightened by Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However the horror movies of the 50s and 60s to this day make me laugh. These B movies have made audiences laugh for decades. A B movie is a movie that is sleezy, cheesy and the budget that is so low, you almost had to pay people to watch it. Still what would life be without these campy movies?

Take the Wasp Woman. Please someone take her. It really stood out as a crack me up B movie. I mean come on folks, an aging cosmetics mogul injects herself wasp enzyme in order to restore her fading youth. This movie is pure cheesey, the acting is so awful it’s funny. Don’t take my word, here watch it. The Wasp Woman

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die was another one of those funny B horror films. It had your typical plot with a mad scientist. His girlfriend is in an accident and he manages to save her head. Of course he must find her a body since her head is severed he is pretty sure he can just sew it on another woman, but…well you can watch the humor here. The Brain That Wouldn’t  Die

I suppose things have really changed since the 50s. We would like to believe if there is life outside of this planet, they probably are far smarter than we are. They probably do not kill just to kill, they more than likely do not hate others just for the color of their skin or the religion they believe in, and surely if we had creatures from outer space, they probably all would have some form of medical insurance! However, in the 50’s if it came from outer space, it was more than likely after us. Killers from Space was just that and this one too just cracked me up when watching it. Killers From Space

Still to this day my favorite has to be Invasion of the Body Snatcher 1956 version. I honestly love to look at people and not blink and let them think I am some pod person. Though the movie never spooked me, in fact, it remains one of my favorite B classics to laugh at.

 We just don’t have the fun low budget B movies anymore. People ran out of ideas instead, we have to do Halloween  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and how about Saw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8? Of course there is Friday the 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and coming soon, 20! Many horror flick goers must have a difficult time looking past just a few titles.  As the sequels to these horror flicks are just as amazing as the people that must watch them. So hey folks think outside you typical horror flick box and visit some good old B rated movies from the past. At least they do not have a zillion versions to bore you with.

 What was your favorite B movies?

From out of the blue today I was on the internet and this song came on…We’re going We’re goin’ hoppin’, We’re goin’ hoppin’ today, Where things are poppin’ The philadelphia way, We’re gonna drop in , On all the music they play, On the bandstand –bandstand and it got me thinking…

 Bandstand aired from 1952-1989 and the host Dick Clark, never did turn grey in those 38 years of being on TV. For me that was only one reason this show was so magical. I simply cannot imagine what music would have been without American Bandstand. As A kid I sat eagerly waiting to see who was going to be on the show. After all American Bandstand made lip-synching became an art. It did not matter to me if they were lip-synching I still got to see the entertainers in action.

 A little history about bandstand for all of those who might not know is that Bandstand began as a local program in Philadelphia on October 7, 1952. Back then it was hosted by Bob Horn and was called Bob Horn’s Bandstand. History would change in July of 1956when the show got a new host 26 year old Dick Clark. Of course ABC picked the show up, it was renamed American Bandstand and the rest is history.

 This show was so popular that many people knew the names of the regular dancers on Bandstand and these regulars soon got the name “The Committee.” Hundreds of people lined up each day hoping to be one of the few lucky ones who got to dance the regulars. Me I could have cared less, I just wanted to hear the music!

 Young teens like my sister would imitate the dancing and the dress style of the people who were on Bandstand. You see American Bandstand just didn’t bring rock ‘n’ roll music into millions of households, it taught American teens how to dance, dress and even act.

 This was all because Dick Clark, AKA, “America’s Oldest Teenager” had a hit on his hands and he knew it. He created regular spots on the show such as the spotlight dance, rate a record and of course the top 10 countdown. Clark must have had a blast doing this. I used to imagine I was a host of a great rock and roll show.

 I have fond memories of Bandstand. I loved seeing such artists over the years such as Isley Brothers, Beach Boys, The Turtles, Sonny and Cher, Canned Heat, Ike And Tina, Tommy James & the Shondells, Don McLean, Helen Reddy, Aerosmith, Pat Benatar, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, James Brown, War, Talking Heads and more. Thee were all the people that Dick Clark invited into our living rooms week and week, year after year.

 I am not sure if I ever had a favorite moment watching Bandstand and as I got older, the art of lip-syncing did not have the same affect on me as a young adult as it did as a young teen and I soon would stop watching it before it even went off the air.

What I do know is that Bandstand really introduced Americans to Rock and Roll whether America was ready for it or not. For that I am grateful because I simply could not imagine a world without music, and even though Bandstand was pop and about top forty, the show did introduce a great deal of musicians, styles, dances and beats to a starving nation waiting to be introduced to music that made us boogie. Yes, We’re going We’re goin’ hoppin’, We’re goin’ hoppin’ today!