Best Pinup | Vanguard Gallery Home Page

Just as the title says, this is a gallery site filled with pinups your dad probably enjoyed, way back when. There's some nudity here, so if you're bashful, you might want to keep your eyes closed while visiting. You've been warned.

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made.

Can you guess which one it was? Think it was Steamboat Willie? Wrong, it was Plane Crazy, released back in May 15, 1928. It was another six months before Steamboat Willie was released.



At this site you can read about, and see stills of Mickeys' short films, from 1928 through 2002.

More info on Mickey Mouse.

Lux Radio Theaters' Pinnochio

"The Lux Radio Theater and Producer Cecil B. DeMille present a special Premier of Walt Disney's new Movie Pinnochio to be released in Theaters in February (1940)."

"This Program was released to the Lux Radio Theater and Mr. DeMille (for broadcast) by Walt Disny as a part of the Introductory Hype for Disney's soon to be released animated feature length movie."

"This is truly a Rare Masterpiece rarely heard for over 60 years!"

"Sit back, relax, and we will play it for you!"

A treat for the young, and young at heart. This is an audio production you can stream or download.

Welcome to Silent-Movies.Org:

If you like silent movie stars, you might want to visit this site. Tons of photos, bios, articles, and even a few video clips.

I've got a good sized collection of video tapes of silent films I've collected over the years. The movies themselves interest me more than the stars, which is the way I am about the current ones. Some of my favorites are Nosferatu, M, Metropolis, and my most favored The Thief of Baghdad with Douglas Fairbanks.

In this fast-paced world with so much noise vying for your attention, I find silent films somewhat calming, because you have to slow yourself down, sit quietly, and pay attention to what's happening or you'll miss vital parts, since you hear no dialog. Even with almost comical dramatic acting and flimsy special effects, they still hold a lot of charm.

Cold War Policies 1945-1991

"The Yalta conference is often cited as the beginning of the Cold War. This meeting of the "Big Three" at the former palace of Czar Nicholas on the Crimean southern shore of the Black Sea took place February 4-11, 1945."

"The most important cause of the end of the Cold War was not Ronald Reagan or George Bush or Gorbachev or the Pope. It was the grass-roots resistance to communism by the people of Eastern Europe. Movements like Solidarity were the real reason that communist governments found themselves undermined and vulnerable and it was the mass of working men and women in Europe that made possible the free elections, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and the disappearance of the Iron Curtain that signified the end of the Cold War."

A nice site to roam around. Photos, short articles, external links, and even a few QT movies if you can find them, links to them are not labeled. Not a "scholarly" overview, but one easy to read, to get an idea of what it was like during that period if you missed living it, or will bring back a few memories if you're old enough.

Elvis Presleys' Birthday

"Elvis Presley is widely credited with bringing rock and roll into mainstream culture. According to Rolling Stone magazine "it was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop." A PBS documentary once described Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who singlehandedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s.". His recordings, dance moves, attitude and clothing came to be seen as embodiments of rock and roll. Presley sang both hard driving rockabilly and rock and roll dance songs and ballads, laying a commercial foundation upon which other rock and roll musicians would build. African-American performers like Little Richard and Chuck Berry came to national prominence after Presley's acceptance among mass audiences of white teenagers. Singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and others immediately followed in his wake, leading John Lennon to later observe, "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

It's that time again. The day I'm sure many of his followers are celebrating. I'm not a fanatical fan, though I did like a lot of his music. As a kid I grew up watching all of his movies. His memory is fading in the media consciousness, so I thought I'd make note of his day, here.