IN THIS ISSUE!

MALCOLM MCDOWELL, starred in major controversial and banned movies like Lindsay Anderson’ IF…, Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and the X rated CALIGULA. He’s played villains, comic rock stars and romantic leads and is currently busier than ever acting all over the world and doing voiceover work for documentaries and cartoons. Last year a McDowell film festival was held in Manhattan. The British star was interviewed in South Africa by MJ Simpson of Leicester, England.

DON STROUD was an Hawaiian surfing champ who was excellent starring in movies like BLOODY MAMA (billed above Robert DeNiro) and HOUSE BY THE LAKE and costarring in COOGANS BLUFF and THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY. The lucky to be alive star tells jaw dropping real life stories of drugs, booze, sex, guns, bikers, hookers and rock and roll bands – and he has saved several lives over the years. He was interviewed by Bruce Earl Bowell (in California) and by Nicanor Loreti (in Argentina).

(stolen from Mr. Stroud’s web site @ http://www.donstroud.com)

JAN SHEPARD, from PA, was a busy TV actress (often on ZIV Studio series) who landed roles in two Elvis movies (KING CREOLE and PARADISE HAWAIIAN STYLE) and was in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES! Frequent PV contributor Professor Fred Hopkins interviewed the long retired star.

I congratulated Forry Ackerman here before for winning his lawsuit over Ray Ferry (the weasel who hijacked Famous Monsters magazine) but Ferry declared bankruptcy to avoid paying. The hollow victory cost FJA
$200,000 in legal fees and he had to sell his famous 18-room Hollywood Ackermansion/museum (which I, like countless others visited for free). In Sept. he had a yard sale, autographing items as he sold them at bargain prices, then moved into a rented “bungalo.” For decades Ackerman tried to get Hollywood studios, producers and the city of L.A. to provide a permanent home for his vast and priceless sci- fi and horror movie memorabilia collection (including 50,000 books). Ackerman coined the term sci-fi and created F.M. in the ’50s. Think of him when you watch censored and cut movies and TV shows squeezed in-between commercials on the pay SCI –FI Channel. The 85 year old widower is still recovering from pneumonia and brain surgery. He’ll be selling off most of the rest of his collection at three auctions.

Dale Ashmun’s Spare Parts column will be back next time. This issue is late so our Never To Be Forgotten obit section is even more overcrowded than usual. Three very different men who died recently didn’t receive that much press attention considering how influential they werewere, so I had their write ups moved here.

WALTER H. ANNENBERG (94), from Milwaukee, WI, was the only son of the 10 children of publisher Moses Annenberg, who served a jail sentence (40-42) for tax evasion (before dying of a brain tumor). Walter inherited The Philadelphia Inquirer and two racing publications and went on to build Triangle Publications to include newspapers, magazines, and radio and TV stations in NYC, PA, CT and CA. He created Seventeen (edited by his sister, Enid Haupt) in ’44 and the weekly TV Guide, long America’s largestcirculation magazine, in ’53. Annenberg was a friend of and major campaign contributor to Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, Nixon appointed him Ambassador to England in ’69 and his speechwriter Pat Buchanan had a column in TV Guide. President Reagan and Nancy visited the Annenbergs at their Rancho Mirage, CA, estate every holiday season. He sold off his newspapers and stations in the early 70s, and sold Triangle (including TV Guide) to Australian Rupert Murdoch in ‘88 for $3 billion. Forbes estimated his net worth at $4 billion (much of which was donated to the state of Israel). President Reagan awarded him the Medal of Freedom in ’86.

GEORGE MITCHELL (85), from Falkirk, Scotland, presided over the BBC’s weekly BLACK AND WHITE MINSTREL SHOW for 20 years from 1958 to ‘78. The conductor host was like the Mitch Miller of England but his popularity lasted much longer – and his all male singers were in blackface. The Television Toppers female dance troupe remained white. Mitchell kept minstrel traditions created in America’s pre Civil War era alive for years after Hollywood had finally stopped using blackface (early 50s). Mitchell and his minstrels had #1 hit LPs every year from 1960 to ’63 and the show reached its highest British ratings in ’64 during the height of Beatlemania. When it switched to color in ‘67 there were organized protests. BBC shows air all over the former British Empire, including South Africa. Mitchell (whose show was a fave of the royals) was made OBE in ‘75 and continued to have chart LPs every year until ’77 (during the height of punk rock). Near the end an actual black person (comedian Lenny Henry) became a regular. The hit Black And White Minstrel Show stage version ran at the Victoria Palace, London, for another 10 years then toured Australia and New Zealand.

WILLIAM PIERCE (68), from Atlanta, GA, was a physics professor at Oregon State U. who became the publicist for George Lincoln Rockwell’s American Nazi party. When Rockwell was murdered (in ‘67), Pierce took over, then formed his own W. Virginia based National Alliance in ‘74. In ‘78 the reclusive Pierce self published the best selling Turner Diaries, which he wrote (as Andrew Macdonald). It led to the creation of new white power groups (including The Order), influenced OK City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and is still considered a bible and a blueprint for a race war to many Americans. Pierce successfully targeted alienated teenagers with his National Youth Alliance, Resistance Records (punk rock, speed metal…), and video games (one is Ethnic Cleansing). He published the National Vanguard newspaper and ran Vanguard Books, and as soon as the internet was created had multiple websites to spread his beliefs worldwide. He has many followers in Europe, England and South Africa. Pierce had cancer.

The late Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geissel) was a brilliant satirist who did political cartoons before writing his classic children’s books – which meant a lot to me as a little kid. I read my faves (Bartholmew and The Oobleck, The 5000 Hats of Bartholmew Cubbins, and Yertle The Turtle) over and over at a library (now a perfectly legal place to view extreme internet porn). I had graduated to more mature reading (DC superheroes, Mad, Famous Monsters) by the time of The Cat And The Hat and The Grinch,
but those characters meant a lot to even more kids. Now we have movies starring shameless, obnoxious, lowest common denominator in your face multi millionaire Canadians – HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (Jim Carey) and THE CAT IN THE HAT (Mike Myers). Both were produced by Ron “Opie” Howard. Could that brilliant Canadian comedian Tom Green be far off as Bartholmew Cubbins? The sky IS falling.

Some people have been complaining about pop songs being used as commercials since the 70s. I always loved The Beach Boys’ “Fun Fun Fun,” especially for the brilliant falsetto harmony ending and Sly And The Family Stone’s “Hot Fun In the Summertime.” And the intro of Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life” (featuring the drumming of Soupy Sales son) has become the new “Thus Spake Zarathustra” (or the 2001, Elvis intro theme) of TV ads. Key parts of all three are now being used for cruise ship TV spots. Music from an LSD casualty, a coke casualty, and a long time heroin addict to attract mostly retired couples to take overpriced vacations on ocean polluting ships that a record number of people have been puking their guts out on. Brilliant!

I didn’t really care when The Beatles’ “Revolution” was used by Nike but I really hate hearing Creedence Clearwater’s “Fortunate Son” (#14 when I was classified 4A) subverted to sell whatever the hell they’re using it to sell. Could advertisers get any lower!? Let’s see. Duff guzzling perfect fool TV zombie nuke plant worker Homer Simpson is now the Burger King spokesman – and here are the lyrics to a recent TV ad selling microwavable Chips Ahoy cookies (with faces). The music copies “Going To A Go-Go” mixed with now supposedly trendy “garage rock”) – “We’re running out of time now. We’re having a meltdown.”

!?*%@wwwDVDwwwrealityTVwwwDVDwwwBushDVDwwwD VD9-11wwwEnronDVDwwwanthraxDVDwwweapons of mass destruction – DOH!

And that’s the REAL story (as Paul Harvey says).

Some good news: McDonald’s has started to close some restaurants overseas and in America.

I saw my first abandoned McDonalds (in Salisbury, Maryland) recently. I hope to see many more.