Friday, August 26, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 40

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And remember, to catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Friday, August 19, 2011

ATTACK OF THE FLYING IGLOOS!!

By Rick Green
Hoverboy Historian


In my last posting I shared some behind the scenes dirt about inventor Burl Buckowski's home-built aircraft, the Hover Plane. The tiny craft never made it to film, but did have a big impact on the wall of a factory near the studios of Vigilance Pictures. The fact that Burl wore a Hoverboy helmet during his demonstration flight, despite being told it wouldn't be visible to the camera, may explain why he lost control of his aircraft.

The story has brought a number of great questions and one comment I won't even stoop to mention. But Nick from Kingston asks, "How did they create the effect of the giant Eskimo Flying Igloos in the serial, Hoverboy vs. Nanook?"

Great question Nick! I'm sure millions have asked the same question. 

Here's how it was done. Small igloos were made from paper maché, then hung from sticks and Vigilance Pictures staff 'flew' them in front of the camera dangling from sticks. The staff members stood a few feet away from the camera, which was low to the ground. Meanwhile, the actors stood about two hundred feet away and pointed up into the sky. They were tiny in the shot. The Igloos are huge. The effect, from the camera's point of view, was that gigantic floating igloos were moving ominouslyacross the sky. 

Here we see how it's done. 



This was in fact a test run. For the actual shot, long threads were used to suspend the igloos so the sticks were out of the shot. Despite this, one stick did make it into the edge of the frame, as did the front toe of the shoe of a crew member. 

The movie is seldom seen today because many Aboriginal groups say it is racist. Plus a lot of women say it's sexist. And pretty much everyone else thinks it's fascist.

Side note: The six Vigilance Studio employees in this shot, starting closest to camera, are the special-effects whiz Doug Kruschev, props master Sheldon Prorascki, studio accountant Martin Van Dutchy, unidentified (possibly a young Kirk Douglas), assistant cameraman Bub Cooper and Witold Kula, a vagrant who lived in a shed on the studio log in return for doing odd jobs and who later returned to his native Poland became a world renowned economic historian. 

Monday, August 15, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 39

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Stay tuned this week for a preview of the next Hoverboy comic strip reprint.


And remember, to catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

THE HOVER---JET?!

by Rick Green
Hoverboy Historian

They say 'birds of a feather, flock together, so perhaps it's not surprising that Vigilance Pictures, who made many Hoverboy movies and serials, would be draw a flock of Hollywood wannabes with visions of being part of movie magic. Or maybe it was the films were so bad, audience members were inclined to think, "Heck, I could make something better than this." For whatever reason, Vigilance Pictures became a haven for what in the good old days were known as 'eccentrics and characters,' and today would be clearly labelled as Borderline Personality Disorder.

But rather than turn these people away Vigilance put them to work. The introverts became crew members. The extroverts found themselves as actors. The difficult or foolish were turned into stunt performers, a job that had a higher casualty rate than the 101st Airborne in World War II. 

In fact, one of the members of that illustrious unit approached Vigilance Pictures with an offer to have his brand new, self-designed and self-built aircraft become 'The Hover Plane!'  It would be, "Like Batman's Batmobile. Only inventor Burl Buckowski couldn't get it through his head that as exciting as his plane was to watch, Hoverboy already had the power to fly. Well, to hover. Burl continued to pester the head of Vigilance Pictures to use his home-built plane in Hoverboy movies, "You get a great looking machine for your hero and I get a ton of free advertising. If even one out of ten Hoverboy Fans decides to buy one of these planes, I could sell dozens of them." 

Finally he convinced the movie crew to include his plane in a film. On the first take of the first shot of the first scene, Burt flew his plane into the side of a factory. 


Monday, May 30, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 38

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Stay tuned this week for a preview of the next Hoverboy comic strip reprint.


And remember, to catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Monday, May 23, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 37

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Stay tuned this week for a preview of the next Hoverboy comic strip reprint.


And remember, to catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

INVASION OF THE UNDERSEA ESKIMOS!!

This week in 1955: filming begins on the Vengeance Films Hoverboy action serial, "INVASION OF THE UNDERSEA ESKIMOS", directed by Lyle Ponce, the man who made the aquatic classics "THE THREE STOOGES MEET NEPTUNE" and "THE 60 FOOT MERMAID of PARTY BEACH".

The plot was admittedly a standard "Soviet-funded Eskimos sabotaging the Northern DEW Line radar stations and blowing up American submarines" kind of story, but this Hoverboy serial featured some of the most unusual underwater stunts ever attempted. The Eskimos traveled underwater with sleds pulled by trained stingrays, and used weapons made from live eels and piranha. The scene where Hoverboy fights the scuba bears is considered the finest underwear fighting bear footage ever filmed.

With so much of the budget tied up in expensive stunts and highly trained animals, costs were kept low by using sets and backdrops created for a Perry Como Christmas special, and interiors were shot in an Encino High School, primarily using their Olympic sized pool to double as the Arctic Ocean. At one point Hoverboy exclaims, "The rotten Snow-Commies have drawn black lines on the bottom of the sea to make it easy to infiltrate America's waters."

This week in 1955: filming ends on the ambitious "INVASION OF THE UNDERSEA ESKIMOS" movie serial. The relatively tight shooting schedule of only four days may explain the number of drownings among the stuntmen, actors, extras, caterers, production assistants, drivers, make-up artists, gaffers, grips, scriptwriters, lighting crew, cameramen, agents, innocent passers-by, and family members of the production team. The film claimed, truthfully, that no animals were injured during the filming of the movie, but it fails to mention the eight dogs and one hundred and thirty eight stingrays that were killed.

Eagle eyed viewers will notice the American Submarines have Swastikas in many shots, due to stock footage from 1947's "The Phantom Submarine" purchased for the submarine shots, and used carelessly.


FUN TRIVIA: All the Eskimos actors in the serial speak Chinese, and most of their dialogue translates into English as variations of the phrases, "What's going on?" , "Who are you people?", "Where is my family?", "Please let me leave…", etc.


Monday, March 7, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 36

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Stay tuned this week for a preview of the next Hoverboy comic strip reprint.


And remember, to catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Friday, March 4, 2011

COMICS- THE HOVERBOY BI-ANNUAL

When people who collect rare comics say ‘rare’ they are referring to a scarcity of copies.  Perhaps it’s an old comic and therefore most issues have been lost, tossed or damaged.  Or perhaps or the original print run was very limited. 

These ‘rare’ comics become more coveted and valuable because of their scarcity.  Sometimes irregardless of the quality of the story. 

But Hoverboy Biannual is a comic book that is rare because of it’s print schedule.  It was the only ‘Biannual’ in comic history.  It only came out every second year.



The idea of having 24 months between issues came from an editor at Vengeance comics who overheard a conversation at a party during the 1956 Olympics.  Several of the party-goers expressed the opinion that it was a shame the Olympics were only once every four years.  But others pointed out that it made it that much more valuable and exciting because it was so highly anticipated.

Thus was born Hoverboy Biannual.  Issues featured tag lines like, “Worth the Excruciating Wait!”  “The Waiting Is Over… For Another Two Years”   The issue shown here features, “It’s That Once Every Two Years Kind of Excitement” which was actually used by Hoverboy co-creator Charles Nutt in his application for divorce, in which he claimed his wife had withheld sex from him. 

Like Nutt’s marriage, Hoverboy Biannual was a failure.  Both in terms of marketing and sales.  And the stories weren’t that great, considering they had two years to work on it.  The artwork though was great. Definitely worth having.  And the good news is, if you have the money, you don’t have to wait two years!  (Which is also something Nutt said after his divorce when he was arrested for soliciting an undercover police woman.)

One upbeat note, though it only ran six issues, the print schedule meant that Hoverboy lasted a decade, making it far and away the longest running Hoverboy title.

Monday, February 28, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 35

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Hey All.  We're coming very near to the end of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST.  Worry not, though, faithful readers.  A brand new comic strip from the 1950's will be taking over immediately after.  We'll post a couple of preview frames in the next week to get your imaginations revving.


And remember, to catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 34

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To catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Monday, January 31, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 33

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To catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A TORRENT OF MERCHANDISE

by Rick Green


It was creative differences and a healthy mutual loathing between Hoverboy creators C.L. Nutt and Bob Stark that lead to their diverging careers, and later to adultery, blackmail, fraud, assault charges and murder.

But for us fans, there was a wonderful benefit, probably unintended when the Judge in the Nutt/Stark Ownership Rights Case made his fateful decision.  After calling both litigants the worst pair of liars he’d ever seen in 31 years on the bench, the Judge awarded them each equal right to to the use of the Hoverboy character, with the caveat of "Active Ownership".  Which is legal for Use It Or Lose It.  Each party, ie Bob Stark and Charlie Nutt, had to make at least one Hoverboy product, book, movie, business deal, or well, whatever- per year.  As long as they were creating new sources of income that stemmed from the bucket boy, they were legally entitled to 100% of that income and continued ownership.

Utah Courtroom where the future of Hoverboy was decided.


This is why there are so many Hoverboy products and projects.  Movie Serials.  Radio programs. Comics.  Toys.  Actions figures...

And commercial endorsements.

Scores and scores of commercial endorsements.

Hoverboy Coca-Cola Ad, 1951

Several Hoverboy fans, including Moi, are currently petitioning the Guiness Book of World Records to have Hoverboy declared the most widely used Trademark figure in advertising history.

HUAC ANTI-CANADIAN PSA, 1954


Among some of the products, services and businesses that have be promoted, hawked, pitched or championed by Hoverboy include:

Hoverboy Bucket’s N Fists Cereals
Hoverboy Mop Buckets
Hoverboy Mock Ham
Spokane Hand Car Wash
Fiat automobiles.
Ross Perot for President
Hoverboy Tampons ‘They feel like they’re floating’.
Hoverboy Gum 
The Wyoming Tourist Bureau
Save-A-Buck Pastries
Reel Rubber Truck Tyres
Nabisco Fudge Duds
The Foundation for the Promotion of Esperanto
Hoverboy Snap Cookies
Balloon Baron of Baltimore
Lil Bushwacker Slingshots
The Iowa Literacy Council
Belgian Boy Cleanser
Tiny Debbie’s Do-Nuts
The United States Coast Guard
Acme Ant Farms
The Saudi Royal Family
Save The Antelope Foundation
Former Freighter Cruise Lines
Triple AAA Security Systems
The St. Paul/Minneapolis Karate Klub
Louisiana Power and Telephone
Ride N Slide N Hide by Mattel
The National Wood & Lumber Association
Sammy’s Sump Pumps
Roy Reynolds Chev/Olds Dealership
Nevada Christian College (Vegas campus)
The El Paso Lizard Museum
Lamp Shades ‘N Such
The Greater Boston Anti-Drug Coalition
Buckeye Canned Tuna, Buckeye Canned Salmon, Buckeye Canned Carp
Laredo Wrench & Socket
The Rhode Island Tourette Clinic
Uraguay Airlines
Old Indiana Pail Ale
Spandex
House of Brisket
TinToy Lunch Pails

Monday, January 24, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 32

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To catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Monday, January 17, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 31

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To catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.

Monday, January 3, 2011

NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURES PAST - CHAPTER 30

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To catch up on all past chapters of NAZI ROBOTS OF FUTURE'S PAST, click HERE.