KINGDOM OF THE CICADAS

Just like a bad b-movie from the 1970s. The cicadas have invaded again.


Buzzing. Constant buzzing. Brain melting buzzing! The sound is like a thousand Star Trek phasers with the triggers stuck on stun. The source of the buzzing comes from Brood XIX Magicicada, better known as the 13 year cicadas. Thirteen or more states in the Midwest and the South have been invaded by the little buggers. My home state of Missouri is one of these states. I gotta say I’ve been kinda fascinated with ‘em. Fascinated enough to take photos & video and share them here.

Like clockwork, these creatures crawl out of the ground zombie style.


Once they've crawled out of the ground, they usually crawl up a tree to shed their shell. Just like the one below. This shot makes him look so alien, like a skull with bug legs.


Here’s a bunch under a tree leaf, leaving their shells.


I was lucky to see this acrobatic cicada pull himself free from his shell. Just press play and you can watch it too!

This one is hoping to grow up and become a Christmas ornament. Look, he's almost free!


After they shed their shell and inflate their wings, they stay in this ghostly white color for a few hours before they turn black.


I snapped some of these photos when I was bug hunting at night with my nephews and big bro. We were running around with flashlights watching ‘em come out of the ground and leave their shells. The kids loved it and us big kids did too.


Here’s a normal adult. Well, maybe not a normal one. This poor guy’s wings were all jacked up and he wasn’t able to fly. He probably became a snack for a bird. Man, somedays you just crawl out of the ground on the wrong side.


Now here's a true normal cicada right here. He's probably thinking, "I wonder what that big round thing that's super close to me is? I hope it doesn't eat me." Speaking of eating. There's a lot of crazy people actually eating cicadas. There's been reports of cicada ice cream served in Columbia, Missouri.



If you're going to take a hike through the woods, be sure to bring some earplugs. Boy, I wish I had! Go ahead and listen.

Here's an example of one cicada making noise. I don't think they like to be picked up. (The clip starts at regular speed and then changes into Slow-Mo-O-Vision and then finishes out in Annoy-O-Vision

In the next photo we see a female oviposting. Yep, she's slicing grooves into the tree, so she can lay her eggs inside. Click on the photo for a closer look. Notice the little triangle pieces of bark hanging down. That's where she's cutting. (Or at least I think so.)


The cicada below has a name. Say hi to Bob Cicada! Why is Bob Cicada named Bob Cicada? I don't know. I didn't ask him.


Once you're done groaning at my lame cicada joke, you can visit some of these fine cicada links and learn more about 'em. For all things cicada visit Cicada Mania. Learn all about the Magicicada at Cicada Central. For a good cicada blog, check out Cicada Invasion. Here's probably the best video about cicadas. Watch Sir David Attenborough play with 17 year cicadas here.

I just uploaded a blurry photo to flickr that I snapped of the mammas & the papas of this year's cicadas from 1998. I was introduced to these noisy bugs back when I was 14 in 1985. I remember how fun it was during the last couple of weeks of school sneaking cicadas inside to gross out girls and to annoy teachers. We had one crazy kid who put a cicada in his mouth and each time he stuck his tongue out, the cicada would make a buzzing sound. Ah, junior high memories.

Also, back in '85, I remember watching an episode of The New Twilight Zone that adapted Ray Bradbury's short story, The Burning Man. It has a creepy cicada twist.

Whew, this post is kinda getting out of hand and I better wrap things up. For fun, here's a photo I call Green Army Men vs. The Cicadas - in glorious black and white. I guess it kinda defeats the purpose to call them green since the photo is b/w. I'm sure the radio operator doesn't care if he's green or in b/w. He's just hoping that the giant flying bug doesn't eat his face off!


You gotta watch out for 'em flying through the air. Really, they're not the best pilots. Sometimes they crash into the side of your head or into your Fisher-Price Adventure Person while you're trying to take a photo for a cicada blog post.


See you in 2024 for part two of Kingdom of the Cicadas!

THE ROZELL SHOW ON WRBL-TV

When I bought these photographs from an ebay seller a few years ago, I wasn’t familiar with the Rozell Show, but these photos were too neato to pass up. I’ve always had an interest in television history and it’s always exciting to learn about different local stations and their various local programming.


At Home with Rozell or later, The Rozell Show hosted by Rozell Fabiani first aired September 22, 1954 and ended in 1988. Reading the comments on Rozell’s obituary, she was a well loved TV personality for WRBL’s viewing audience in and around Columbus, Georgia. The photo above shows Rozell holding a WRBL channel identification card, back when stations used clever artwork to let the viewer know what channel they were tuned into. I cropped it from the photo below where she's standing in front of a Camels Cigarettes display. This was taken during the first year of her show.

Enjoy the photos and if you remember the Rozell Show please feel free to share some of your memories of the show in the comments section.

BLASTING OFF WITH AN AC FIRE RING SPARK PLUG

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #56



Set your jets for the coolest Spark Plug box ever made!



Yep, I'm a sucker for packaging that has any sort of rocket or spaced out graphics and this AC box was a steal for two dollars! AC jumped on board the space race wagon of the 1960's and had a successful ad campaign for their Fire Ring Spark Plugs.

I imagine this is the type of spark plug you would find on any space cadet's rocket ship!

HILLBILLY BREAD "FER SUPER SANDWICHES"

Mmm...mmm...mmm...mmm! Oh how I remember that Hillbilly Old Fashion Bread!


How’s all the Neato Readers gettin‘ along today? I can rightly say I’m pleased as PB&J, ‘cause I get to talk about a beloved bread from my childhood.

For years I’ve been searching for a vintage Hillbilly Bread bag, but for some reason it kept evading me. Finally, just the other day (thanks to my pal Waffle Whiffer for the heads-up), one showed up on ebay and I won the auction! So here’s an item that’s been high on my vintage packaging want list for a long time.


Back when I was a kid, you could probably find a loaf of one of these four brands in our kitchen pantry - Roman Meal, Wonder Bread, Ozark Mill or Hillbilly Bread. For a kid (that’s me) growing up in an Ozark tourist town with every sign sporting a hillbilly, Hillbilly Bread was a perfect fit for our local grocery store. The bag has always had that happy image of a hillbilly enjoying a sandwich. I wonder if the carefree hillbilly has a name? Also, I would love to know who the artist was who designed the hillbilly. Hillbilly Bread is still available, but is regional and I haven't found any yet.

I’ve been trying to do some fast research on the origins of Hillbilly Bread, but there doesn’t seem to be much online. For now we'll just enjoy some Hillbilly Bread artifacts starting with these nifty commercials from the 1950's. (Video uploaded to YouTube by jacky9br.)

The next item is a fun 1960's(?) photograph from The Rozell Show hosted by Rozell Fabiani on WRBL in Columbus, Georgia. Two unidentified hillbillies and Rozell are doing their best to promote Hillbilly Bread.


Click on the photo and you'll notice the hillbillies are wearing oversized buttons that says, “It’s Colossal." I have on of those buttons, but I can't find it. I do have one of the felt blocks that’s sewed to the guys overalls. It's hard to see in the photograph since they're covering it with the bread loaves.


According to this website, an innovative man by the name of William Busse, the owner of Kreamo Bread, had a brilliant promotional idea during a Notre Dame football game. He parachuted miniature loaves of bread from an airplane. Here’s the blurb from the website where Hillbilly Bread is mentioned - “During the depression he ran continuous ads announcing a Hobo Convention was coming to town soon. It caused quite a stir. When the appointed day arrived all his Kreamo drivers appeared at grocery stores dressed like Hobos. Their trucks had banners announcing “Hillbilly Bread” a new bread Kreamo was introducing.” Apparently he continued this advertising practice for many years after. I wonder if this is the same Hillbilly Bread as the one we’re talking about today. If so, here’s a miniature bread bag of Hillbilly Bread.


This bag is probably from the 1960’s and who knows, maybe it was parachuted from a plane.

Next up is this stylish Hillbilly Bread vest.


My guess it was worn by a grocery store clerk or bag boy. For some odd reason, the first lady won’t let me wear this around town. Hmm... I wonder why?


Here’s two print ads. The first one is from 1978 and the second one is from 1983.



I don't remember ever seeing Hillbilly Tater Bread. But here's an old unused bag. We finally get to see Granny! Her old fashion bread mix is what Hillbilly Bread is made from.


Ok, now that I'm done with my Hillbilly Bread blog post, I'm off to frame my bread bag and hang it over the the dinning room table. Shh... don't tell the first lady.

THE VINCENTACULAR VINCENTENNIAL

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Vincent Price’s birth! May has been Vincent Price month in St. Louis, Missouri, the birth place of the master of macabre. I was fortunate to attend a few events of the aptly named Vincentennial.

But first, I want to ramble about why I’m a Vincent Price fan.

I’m not sure when or how I discovered Vincent Price, but it was most certainly from television in the 1970’s. Vincent seemed to show up everywhere on the tube and I quickly fell under his spell of funnies and frights. I’ve always liked my horror mixed with humor and he was tops in that department. From his appearances on Hollywood Squares, surprise cameos on variety shows, the creepy guy on Brady Bunch, to one of my favorite guests on The Muppet Show. I didn’t see too many of his films until the late 70’s or early 80’s when we got cable TV. That’s when my appreciation really kicked into high gear. He was such an amazing actor and it’s hard to pick a favorite VP film. For me, it’s probably House on Haunted Hill. It was a sad day when the world lost Vincent in 1993 just a few days before Halloween. He continues to live on through his films, his art books, cookbooks and especially through events like Vincentennial.

Even though, I only had a small sampling of Vincentennial in St. Louis this past weekend. I can say the first lady and I had a most excellent time!

The Vincentennial is the brainchild of St. Louis native Tom Stockman and big props to Tom and his crew for putting on such a memorable event. The Vincentennial is one part film festival, one part art gallery, one part museum and one part horror convention. We jumped in with a showing of the classic William Castle flick, The Tingler, at the historic Hi-Pointe Theatre.

It was fun seeing this movie with an audience complete with “scare the audience” gimmicks that tried to recapture Castle’s Percepto. Yes, for a moment the Tingler was loose in the theater!

The next day we visited Star Clipper Comics to view Vincent Price Presents, an art gallery featuring many talented artists from St. Louis paying tribute to Vincent. I neglected to take photos, but you can see a sampling at We Are Movie Geeks.

Afterwards, we spent some time at the Sheldon Art Galleries to view an amazing collection of Vincent Price artifacts and memorabilia. On display is his baby book, personal letters (one to Evie Karloff in condolences to the passing of Boris on Holiday Inn stationary), photographs, toys & models, movie posters and even two life-size Price characters. Check out The Sounds of Vincent Price Blog for an excellent tour video of this museum display.


Dr. Phibes looks too life like and kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies. The Prof. Jarrod figure from House of Wax is wearing the original screen used costume from the 1953 film!

Later that night we returned to the Hi-Pointe for a viewing of The Tomb of Ligeia.


This was Roger Corman’s last Edgar Allen Poe film with Vincent Price and it was really a treat to see. Especially since I had never seen the whole film. Back when I was a kid, I could never sit through it. The gothic romance thing just wasn’t exciting to a ten year old. Before the film, Roger Corman showed up in-person and talked about his films with Vincent Price.


It was an excellent interview by Rondo award winning Tim Lucas, editor of Video Watchdog. DownRightCreepy.com posted the entire interview in eight parts. Watch the first part here and follow the links on YouTube for the rest of the interview. I now have a new fondness for The Tomb of Ligeia and now I want a pair of those cool sun glasses Vincent wears. Did he steal those from the Invisible Man?

(Oops, sorry to interrupt this post, but I just took a break and walked outside. The neighbors cat was staring at me and showing his best impression of the movie poster.)

After the movie, there was a nice video greeting from Elizabeth Shepherd who plays Lady Rowena. She was scheduled to be at the showing, but had a conflict with a stage play she is starring in. It was a perfect ending to the evening.

Today, I scribbled Vincent as Vernon Fell for a simple tribute.

He kinda looks more like Willy Wonka, but I wanted to draw something for today's festivities.

Here’s some more photos of the Hi-Pointe.






We had a neato cool weekend celebrating Vincent’s 100th. Hey, I even caught up with some blogger pals like Karswell, and Max the Drunken Severed Head.

If you’re in St. Louis today, be sure to catch The Vincent Price Legacy: Reflections From a Daughter with Victoria Price tonight at 7:00. Tomorrow night at 8:30 is an outdoor screening of Edward Scissorhands. The display at the Sheldon Art Galleries goes on until Aug. 6.

One last thing. I found this 1954 St. Louis Studio ad from an old St. Louis Magazine called Prom. It advertises Portraits by Vincent Price. Maybe some of the VP experts will know about this. Did this studio have a gallery of some of VP's photographs?


Now I'm off to watch some Vincent Price movies. See you at the next Vincentennial in a hundred years!

JOPLIN MISSOURI NEEDS YOUR HELP

My heart goes out to the folks of Joplin in my home state of Missouri. If you can, please donate to the Red Cross or other helping organizations. Visit the Red Cross Greater Ozarks Regional Chapter or visit KY3, a local TV station for more info on how to help.

CHRYSLER'S MR. TECH

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #55

A few days ago I found these swell trouble shooting questionnaires put out by Chrysler in 1948. They feature Chrysler's classic ad character Mr. Tech.

HAPPY NATIONAL MINIATURE GOLF DAY!

Today is National Miniature Golf Day! Forget regular golf, the miniature version is always a much better choice and the goofier the better. The best way to celebrate today's festivities, is to get out there and play a couple of fun filled rounds.