From: IMRud@aol.com Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 1:46 PM To: Clark, Wes Subject: Re: on the chin << Hey, what was the name of that movie we saw that had a sort of genie > > on a rug? It was a fantasy of some kind. Do you recall?>> > > The obvious film that comes to mind is Thief of Baghdad, but could you > possible be thinking of the Saturday morning cartoon show Shazam? > No...not Saturday morning. A movie. I wonder if it was this Italian version I'm thinking of? http://us.imdb.com/Title?0054013>> Checked it out. With Steve Reeves in it, this more than likely is the film you're thinking about. Do you remember a local show called, I think: Sons of Hercules? Or something like that. Each week this blond, greased up, muscle-bound guy (who I remember as being vaguely creepy) on a set with maybe a single Styrofoam column would introduce each week's movie from the Son's of Hercules series of films. These films even had a song, the repeating refrain of which went: There will always be, Son of Hercules! These films, more than likely, were just a bunch of unrelated Italian gladiator movies, but when they were dubbed into English, this connecting story line about them being Sons of Hercules was added. We're probably talking mid to late 65 here, when I lived at the house we called home for probably less than a year before moving to Hollywood. I also remember seeing a small black and white ad on the page of the TV guide with one of Hercules' sons going up against the Gorgon, shield held in front of his face, sword ready to chop off the head writhing with serpents. Actually, my description probably makes it sound better than it really looked, which I'm willing to bet was a little unconvincing and clunky. At any rate, I cut the picture out and glued it to the wall of my room. I also did the same thing to Spider-man # 22 (I think it was). I thought it was so cool and I cut out all the panels I liked and pasted them all over the walls. About this same time, I think Mysterious Island premiered on Network TV, and I can still remember the ad with the different civil war soldiers battling the giant crab! You'd think there wouldn't be room in my brain for this kind of stuff, but I also remember thumbing through the TV guide at a supermarket with my mom and seeing the first ad for Batman in it. As I remember, Batman was a midseason replacement. Do you remember the Life magazine article that covered the Batman phenomenon? Adam West as Batman in some kind of screwy pose was jumping out at you from the cover. This image is literally locked in my memory. I'd kind of still like to have that issue of Life. My first thought is it might have ended up on the walls of my room like everything else, but now that I think about it, I remember cutting it up and putting it into a scrapbook -- which has long since been lost in one of my numerous moves. <> Yes, this does sound familiar. So that's what we were doing behind those bushes. I also remember the smell of beer and quite a few empty bottles. << Hey! Remember my Batman gloves? Finally got them framed>> This is one memory I'm not real sure of, mainly because it seems odd I'd be present when a lot of this kind of stuff happened. I remember being at your Burbank home over the Memorial Day weekend and your mother bid for the Batman gloves during the Jerry Louis Telethon (I'm assuming this would have been part of the local version they'd cut away to from time to time) and your mom being all excited about winning them. Then again, maybe I just remember this from you telling me. All I know is that I was very envious! Batman's gloves. That's hard to beat. Jim