Plus Our Regular Features

Budco-MidtownThree features — a BARGAIN! I doubt if Windows had anything to do with operating systems on personal computers. I wonder if Wanda the Wicked Warden was as good as it’s alliterative title.

DSCN0854When I am rooting through my flat file cabinets looking for a sketch or a piece of bristol board or something else for a project, it often happens that I come across something that I forgot about. The original search is usually abandoned as I peruse the new-found treasure. Such is the case with this notorious copy of the Philadelphia Daily News that my brother purchased for 15¢ back when the paper had reporters, a readership and advertising revenue. It’s the Saturday March 22nd, 1980 edition of the paper living up to the old adage of if it bleeds, it leads. Our parents usually read the staid pages of The Philadelphia Bulletin and wouldn’t sully the house with a tabloid rag like the Daily News. With a cover like the one pictured, it’s no wonder as to why. My brother and I couldn’t believe that a newspaper would publish such a ghoulish and sensational photo particularly on it’s front page! We were young and unfamiliar with the fact that tabloid papers had a long history of chasing down gangland slaying photos. Characters such as Weegee and his legion of imitators and like-minded photographers made their daily bread with shots like these. Corpses sold and still sell papers. My brother bought it. I’ll bet the publisher was eating his heart out that the paper didn’t print color at the time.

I guess I’ve hung onto it in case my brother ever asked for it back. It’s been 33 years. I wonder if he wants it back.

As I mentioned, the paper had advertising revenue, and there were businesses that depended on patrons seeing those ads such as the many movie theaters that were concentrated in center city at the time. Such is the case with this ad for the Budco Midtown which was a sneak preview of what was sure to be the cinematic triumph of 1980.

gongshow-movieLate winter has always been a low point for film releases. It’s a dumping ground. I doubt if the studio had much faith in this. I can’t believe how crudely the word balloon is drawn. It looks like somebody did it freehand with graphic tape. Badly.

Letraset Letraline Tape

Video tape transferred to 35mm film and projected onto a big screen looks like crap. The print of Wanda the Wicked Warden probably looked like Lawrence of Arabia when compared to The Gong Show Movie.

Strangely enough, The Budco Midtown still operates as a theater unlike most all of the other theaters that were in the immediate neighborhood.

Prince-music-theaterIt’s now The Prince Music Theater and has been since 1999. It has been completely refurbished and puts on live shows as well as showing films. It’s certainly upscale now since the days of projecting grindhouse double bills in the 1980s. I remember seeing The Howling and Wolfen on the same program back in 1981 which were high art compared to Windows, Wanda The Wicked Warden and The Gong Show Movie.

Chuck-B-closeupToday’s post is dedicated to and blamed on Ken Morgan who was having a sort of Gong Show mania recently on Facebook. He was the first person I thought of when I was flipping through this ancient pile of newsprint and saw the ad.

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2 Responses to Plus Our Regular Features

  1. Ken Morgan says:

    You Rock Joe!, Thanks for the shout out…I think 😉

  2. Joe_Williams says:

    It was March of 1980. There wasn’t much at the box office. “The Empire Strikes Back” won’t be out for months! May as well take a chance on “The Gong Show Movie.”

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