He’s a goddamn door-to-door maniac! He’s a milky faced, baby-faced cruel psychopath of a guitar-strumming KILLER. It’s our favorite warbler–Johnny Cash, in the late noir thriller Five Minutes to Live, directed by Ludlow Flower, Jr., who cast his wife Cay Forrester in the role of imperiled housewife Nancy Wilson. Definitely late noir: it came out… Continue reading Johnny Cash Has Five Minutes to Live!
Author: Lee Wallender
Deception, influence, fakes, illusions, themed environments, simulations, secret places, secret infrastructure, imagined places, dreamscapes, movie sets and props, evasions, camouflage, studio backlots, miniatures.
Twilight Zone: “We All Know What Became of Bonnie Beecher”
And I chose Bonnie Beecher, and we all know what became of Bonnie Beecher. William Froug, in The Twilight Zone Companion, by Marc Scott Zicree These are the curious words uttered by Twilight Zone producer William Froug, in reference to a May 22, 1964 episode titled “Come Wander With Me.” What Froug was so upset… Continue reading Twilight Zone: “We All Know What Became of Bonnie Beecher”
BZhRK Barguzin Russian Rail Missile Had Precedent with Peacekeeper Rail System, 1986
Over at Popular Mechanics, Kyle Mizokami reports that Russia is developing a rail-mounted system of mobile ICBMs that will constantly rove the country, making “the country’s nuclear arsenal more mobile and thus more difficult to locate in wartime.” Fantastic idea. But it’s hardly a new idea. The Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Car Program was developed by… Continue reading BZhRK Barguzin Russian Rail Missile Had Precedent with Peacekeeper Rail System, 1986
“Forever” Mid-Century Homes of Steel and Concrete: Invisible, Forgotten Whittier Hugheston Meadows
Honeysuckle Lane. It sounds too good to be true, too mid-century-modern-suburban, like Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane or a David Lynch dream. But it did exist in the imagination of two Southern California brother developers, two famous MCM architects, and it still does exist today. And it promised a new kind of building that would never… Continue reading “Forever” Mid-Century Homes of Steel and Concrete: Invisible, Forgotten Whittier Hugheston Meadows
Fake Nazi Training “Village” at Camp Hood, Texas (1940s)
In the 1940s, Camp Hood in Killeen, TX built a fake Nazi training village for hand to hand combat. These stills from a Santa Fe Railroad promotional film show a few key areas around the village, including Gestapo headquarters–conveniently identified with the “Gestapo” sign at top. Remember, if this looks like an Old West town,… Continue reading Fake Nazi Training “Village” at Camp Hood, Texas (1940s)