Haverhill’s: a weird stuff-emporium of the 1960s and 1970s, with goofy ads in big magazines like LIFE. Let’s start with the name, stylized as: haverhill’s. Why? Because this is post-apex America and it’s time to be humble. Fonts go Helvetica on us and upper-case bows meekly into lower-case. The ad copy, too, no longer is… Continue reading Haverhill’s and Its Whacked-Out Ads
Month: April 2020
Fake Americana With a Topping of Grit: 4 Aces Movie Ranch, Palmdale
4 Aces, located in Palmdale, California, is every Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford and B-Minus-film noir from 1949 to 1960 wrapped up into one, big, delightful fake. The Diner This is where you take the woman hitchhiking in heels with a suitcase and a shady story about her father, in Chicago, kicking her out of… Continue reading Fake Americana With a Topping of Grit: 4 Aces Movie Ranch, Palmdale
Joe Biden, Magnificent Trojan Horse of the Democratic Party
Few Presidential candidates have appeared to be faltering more than Joe Biden. The U.S. Presidential election is seven months away, and Biden’s prospects look dismal. His cognitive abilities have been up for question these last few months, with Biden losing his train of thoughts mid-speech several times. Biden has long had a reputation for being… Continue reading Joe Biden, Magnificent Trojan Horse of the Democratic Party
Death Behind Flagstone: Tom Neal, Palm Springs, and Studio City
Tom Neal was a middling movie actor from the late 1930s to the 1950s who was more known for his off-screen escapades than for his acting. Neal’s best role was in the curious film-noir, Detour. It’s non-copyrighted; check it out. As a young man, Neal was an amateur boxer with a good string of wins.… Continue reading Death Behind Flagstone: Tom Neal, Palm Springs, and Studio City
Farny: Mysterious Drop-Dead Death of Bette Davis’ Husband
An overactive imagination could come up with a scenario where Bette Davis kills her second husband, Arthur Farnsworth. After all, pick any Bette Davis movie at random, and she’s probably killing someone. Just the other night, I caught a very random Bette Davis movie: a weird 1964 late-late-film noir called Dead Ringer where Bette Davis… Continue reading Farny: Mysterious Drop-Dead Death of Bette Davis’ Husband