Call of the Wild

Hey it's a new post! It's a new post for the Call of the Wild Museum in Gaylord, Michigan...

If you look closely at the bottom of the cover of this 1974 brochure you'll notice it's "'Pokey's' nap time." I'll let you in on a little secret if you haven't guessed - it's always "Pokey's" nap time because "Pokey" is stuffed.



The Call of the Wild is a museum of stuffed animal displays, and when you really think about it seeing stuffed animals in a museum display are just as good as seeing live animals at the zoo. Right? I mean whenever I go to the zoo a lot of the animals just sorta lay there and do nothing, so that they might as well be stuffed.


An entire side of the brochure is devoted to a map of the state of Michigan. You won't have an excuse if you should ever get lost in the Great Lake State if you have this brochure in you possession.

I'm happy to report that the Call of the Wild is still in business, and you can visit their site if you click here.

Chicks & Gators

There was a "Moment of Zen" on an episode of The Daily Show years ago that featured a smiling young couple at a zoo (which appeared to be somewhere in Asia) tossing live chicks into the mouths of hungry crocodiles. The next day the producer of The Daily Show gave an apology (a sorta funny apology) to all the horrified viewers who complained.

Well I don't have any video of chicks being fed to crocodiles (hope you're not too disappointed), but I do happen to have two brochures inspired by this event...

According to Google, there is no information on the Internets about the now defunct Chicken Little Museum in Sterling, MI. I don't know what happened, maybe the sky fell down on it, but it looked like "a fun place to stop."

And who could resist that clip-art of the crazy clown, or that cheeky eye-catching text, "A PEEP show of Chicks" on the front of the brochure?


The inside of this brochure is full of text describing the museum. The final paragraph says the admission was only $1.00 (50¢ for ages 3 to 12). Wow that's CHEAP, cheap, cheap (get it? I don't know why I'm not working on Madison Ave.).

On the back of the brochure are testimonials from people who visited the Chicken Little Museum. I like how the first testimonial states it was "kept very clean." That's good to know those baby chicks weren't being kept in squalor.

And now on to the gators at the Everglades Alligator Farm in Homestead, FL...

I find it interesting how the juxtaposition of the speeding air boat and the group of gators makes it look like the boat is going to clobber the gators.

Well I guess if you're going to visit an alligator farm you might as well visit one were you can take a fun air boat ride thru the Everglades too. Also I'm very happy to report the Everglades Alligator Farm is still in business.

Check out their video...

Monster Love

Because Valentine's Day was less than a week ago, I thought I'd try some sort of romantically themed post. So how about something romantic, but with monsters, or what passes as romance with monsters. Monsters usually aren't the candlelit dinners and walks on the beach types.

Check out this fun page from National Lampoon Presents Peekers and Other True Facts (1982) called Carried Away by Bill Moseley which featured 10 photos of movie monsters carrying off woman.

Click image to MONSTER-SIZE it!

Movie monsters today don't seem to be carrying off the ladies like they use too. Maybe modern monsters have to go through some sort of sensitively training.

Anyway there are a ton of these "monster carrying woman" shots as you might have guessed, and after quickly leafing through my personal collection of horror movie books I've come up with a few more...

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920

As you can see this monster carrying off a woman goes way back to the silent era with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Man Made Monster 1941

I love old horror movie trailers, and to make this post more exciting (thanks all you busy YouTubers) I've included a few trailers. Now you can see the monster carrying a woman action if you watch the trailer for The Atomic Monster, aka Man Made Monster...

Robot Monster 1953

From Hell It Came 1953

Here's a trailer for From Hell It Came ...

The Alligator People 1959

I know this picture above doesn't show a woman being carried away. It's only a struggle now, but I assume it's a moment before the alligator man carries the woman away. Maybe I should watch The Alligator People sometime to find out.

Beach Girls and the Monster 1965

The above picture seems to only be a publicity photo. Judging from the trailer below the monster in the Beach Girls and the Monster only attacks the girls...

It! (aka Curse of the Golem ) 1967

The Horror of Frankenstein 1970

The Horror of Frankenstein 1970

Yeah "Frankie" is no longer carrying the woman, but I had to include this second shot from The Horror of Frankenstein for obvious reasons.

You're welcome fellas. (FUN FACT: That's David "Darth Vader" Prowse as the Creature.)

Now that you've seen those pictures, and if you watch the trailer below, maybe you'll be like me and wonder why they didn't feature this actress and her gravity defying breasts more prominently in the trailer (look fast at the 1:36 mark). It could only have helped ticket sales.

 Dracula vs. Frankenstein 1971

This mush faced creature has to be the ugliest Frankenstein monster ever, and Dracula is kinda unconventional looking too if you view the trailer below...

Movie posters also prominently feature this iconic image...

Captive Wild Woman 1943

This movie is confusing. Is it a about a mad scientist who turns a girl into a ape, or is it about girl who has a psychic bond with animals? Whatever it's about, it doesn't look like any gorillas are carrying away women from what's in the trailer below...

Invasion of the Saucer Men 1957

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster 1965

"See the kidnapping of the Earth maidens for the love starved slaves of a sterile planet!" shouts the announcer in the trailer below. (FUN FACT: Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster is also known as Mars Attacks Puerto Rico. Which is a damn good title too if you ask me.)

Robots also got in on the carrying away women act too (the "Ro-Man" from Robot Monster doesn't really count as a robot because I think he's more monster than machine)

The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951

Gort does carry Patrica Neal in The Day The Earth Stood Still, but that isn't Patrica depicted on the poster. If you check out the trailer you'll see a quick shot of Gort carrying Patricia...

Forbidden Planet 1956

Robby the Robot never carries anyone in Forbidden Planet, but it still makes for a cool looking poster.

Demon Seed 1977

Just for the edification those budding movie buffs out there, with all these robots walking away with hot women in their arms, the first time a machine actually impregnates a woman is in the Demon Seed.

Giant insects (or arachnids if you're gonna get technical) get the ladies too (well, at least on the posters).

Tarantula! 1955

Missile to the Moon 1958

The giant moon spider in Missile to the Moon is twice the playa his earthbound cousin is.

The Wasp Woman 1959

Since turnabout is fair play here's one poster where the guy is getting carried away. But this scene only happens on the poster, and the poster artist takes great liberties on what the "wasp woman" actually looks like as you can see from the trailer below...

Valentine's Day in 2012

Here we go again with a blast from my past.

It's another Channel 12 holiday promo (you can check out my Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter promos if you'd like to see more)...



Looking beyond the shaky video quality, I think it's still pretty entertaining. Maybe you noticed how the areas on the left and bottom edge of the set were visible, but back in the day because of the bezels that surrounded old television picture tubes that was never visible like it is now.

Stars Hall of Fame: Brochure #3

Here's one last Stars Hall of Fame brochure...

Stars Hall of Fame: Brochure #2

Hey folks, we're back at the Stars Hall of Fame in Orlando, FL with with another retro-brochure. "Where Dreams Come True" is the big theme of this brochure along with photographs depicting "wacky" tourists reacting (or lusting) over the attraction's wax figures.


YUL!!! Mr. Brynner is featured so prominently it makes me wonder if this was because of some sort of marketing research. "Gentleman, our exhaustive cross-generational surveys tell us that people are 73.6% more likely to visit your wax museum if the brochure prominently features Yul Brynner dressed as his famous role from the King And I."

Super gigantic fold-out with the Fonz right in the center.

This time they don't list the admission prices, but do mention the parking is free.

Stars Hall of Fame

The Stars Hall of Fame in Orlando, FL was owned and operated by the Six Flags company which also ran the famous Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, CA.

On the cover of this retro-brochure is a gold Rolls-Royce, and I was informed by a reader that the Movieland in California also had a gold Rolls-Royce. This is interesting because the Movieland Wax Museum in Niagara Falls, Ontario (which a recently blogged about) also featured a gold Rolls-Royce. I guess if you run a wax museum devoted to movie stars you're required to have a gold Rolls on hand.



The Stars Hall of Fame rolled up its red carpet for good in 1984, and Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, CA closed in 2005.