31 Day Film Challenge: Day 8

Day 8 of the 31 Day Film Challenge: A film you can quote a line from. There are many films that Eric and I quote lines from like "9 to 5", "Evil Under the Sun", and "Clue", but the one we quote probably more than any other is "Murder by Death".

After Dark May 1978 (Next to the last part)

That's right, I'm almost finished with this issue. It's been a long road to get everything I wanted to feature from the issue. Stars from early Hollywood and new Hollywood, to people yet to become stars, and finally to those that should have been stars, but just never had the luck to be famous. I say luck, because recently I was watching some Dick Cavett interviews with Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis. Each talked about their discipline and the work they were able to accomplish, but each also mentioned "luck". It seems that even they realized that sometimes the most talented person could not be famous without a little luck on their side. Speaking of Miss Davis, there were some other recent (as of 1978) movies that were featured in this issue. Bette Davis and David Niven were two of the many stars in the film version of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.

Also in the cast playing the unfortunate victim was the future Bond girl Lois Chiles.

The surfing movie Big Wednesday starred William Katt and Jan-Michael Vincent.

The film Looking for Mr. Goodbar featured Tom Berenger. In Praise of Older Women would pair him with Karen Black.

The film version of Broadway's A Little Night Music is one of my favorite films. Why? Well, it starred Diana Rigg and Elizabeth Taylor. Where else could you see Elizabeth Taylor sing "Send in the Clowns"? The other leading ladies were Hermione Gingold and Lesley Ann Down. Lesley had recently also gotten noticed for her role in The Betsy.

A Jackie playing a Jackie. The Greek Tycoon uses fictitious names, but the parallels between the lives Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy and the characters in the film are hard to ignore. In the Jackie-like role is the beautiful Jacqueline Bissett.

While hot pants are the rule of the day in 1978,

There was a time when a well-placed scarf was all you needed whether you were a woman...

...or a man.

Vegas showgirl Barbara Beverly knows a thing about well-placed articles of clothing. she was appearing at the Stardust Hotel in the 12th edition of Lido de Paris.

Out in New Jersey at the Paper Mill Playhouse you would find Rip Torn and Sandy Dennis in a production of Little Foxes, but playing the evil Regina Giddens was Geraldine Page.

While in London at the Globe Theatre, Jeremy Irons and Simon Ward were starring in Simon Gray's The Rear Column.

Before closing out this post, I wanted to show the way photos are often reused. Of course, only the best photos are reused, like this one of Randy Jones from the Village People. It was used in a previous issue for a fashion layout. The reused the photo for an ad to businesses to have them advertise in their magazine to reach a certain demographic. That demographic was the After Dark reader. I am surprised that 85.2% of the readers were single. I would have thought it would have been higher, like 99.44%.

After Dark December 1978 Part 2

As you can see by the photo cover, this issue had two items to explore just from the costumes. We've already looked at them, The Wizard of Oz and Superheroes. Now it's time to move on to the next item. What could it be? I mean, we looked at Wonder Woman and Superman...we've seen photos of Dorothy, Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman...how about the Wicked Witch of the West? Well, it's not the one you've probably got pictured in your mind. According to Christina Crawford's new (as of 1978) book Mommie Dearest, Joan Crawford could probably fit the bill.

Radie Harris, of The Hollywood Reporter, interviewed Christina on her new book. It seems Radie also was knew Joan quite well and the interview gives a new and different insight into the book and the behind the scenes stories we later saw portrayed in the film version. Here are some more of the photos of mother and daughter that appeared in the book.


The debate on how much of the Joan Crawford tale is true will continue, but for new fantasy, here is an example of Frank Frazetta's art that appeared in this issue titled Swords of Mars:

Sadly, Frank Frazetta just recently passed away on May 10, 2010.

Another fantasy artist represented by this issue is Boris Vallejo with A Guide to Barsoom:

and another of his works titled In the Underworld:

The New St. Marks Baths must have been paying attention to this type of art when it created it's new ad poster:

Some of the people featured in a small tidbits throughout the issue were:

Mikhail Baryshnikov who was rehearsing for La Dame de Pique;

CHiPs star Erik Estrada;

Two contestants in the Flamingo's First Annual Tetas Contest, Peter Kennaro on the left who came in third and Fred Harris who walked off with first place;

Ann-Margret rehearsing for her special Rockettes: A Tribute to the Radio City Music Hall Starring Ann-Margret;

Ladies in Waiting TV special starring Susan Tyrrell, Sally Kirkland and Ronee Blakely;

David Niven and Angela Lansbury in a scene from Death on the Nile;

and last but most certainly not least, one of my favorite After Dark photos of all time (taken by Kenn Duncan, of course), Katherine Helmond with her husband David Christian:

The Soap star married her gorgeous hunk of a husband in 1962 and are still together today. You go, Katherine...you are a funny and talented lady who obviously has great taste.

I know I promised Christmas Pin-up Boys, but this issue is just filled to the brim of great things to feature. Sadly, even with all that I am featuring, there is still more in the issue that I won't be covering. If you want to buy a back issue, this is one of the ones you should try to find. Part 3 will be a little later.