F H card letter b

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Why Those of Us Who Were There Don't Remember the `60s

You think you know how weird the `6os were? You have no idea, bucko, unless you were there. By 1968, the hippie movement had so infiltrated mass culture that Hollywood was creating things like the jaw-droppingly awful Skidoo, the trailer of which I present below for your edification.



Yes, that is Timothy Leary, somewhere after the period when he was the Guru of "Turn On..." and had become a parody of himself (not a hard thing to believe if you ever met Leary), but before his Fugitive from Justice period where he was eventually placed under "house arrest" by the Black Panthers.

See? I told you the `60s were weird. And yes, that's Sammy Davis, Jr. with what appears to be a haddock around his neck. And yes, that's Jackie Gleason, and yes, and yes, that's Groucho Marx, who plays God, and yes, that's Frank Gorshin, and yes, that's Carol Channing, who Mark Evanier claims has, "the most restrained, believable performance [in the film]." And yes, there are more faces you'll recognize.

If any film ever deserved an official DVD, it's this one. As Mark says, Skidoo, its time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hmmm...i don't remember that..


(apropos of your upper right V quote:
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution" - Emma Goldman)