Some Days Will Never End
“Every child should be allowed to enjoy his own precious days of thrills and adventure while those fleeting days of youthful escapism are still available.”
Alan G. Barbour - on the American sound serial.
“Nostalgia I feel is ruinous to film criticism. It has absolutely no place in film history.”
Jon Tuska - on guys like Alan G. Barbour.
From out of the past, two books come my way – Days of Thrills and Adventure, a fanzine of serial ads and poster material published by Alan G. Barbour in 1969; and The Filming of the West by Jon Tuska, a massive 500-page history of the American Western film published in 1975. As you might gather from the quotes above, they share the bookshelf somewhat uneasily.
I value them both.
I love Jon Tuska’s writing. He’s opinionated, high-falutin’ (try a Jungian interpretation of the 1934 serial Mystery Mountain on for size!), and a terrific story teller who spent face time with a lot of the actors and directors who made the movies and made history. But on the subject of nostalgia, Tuska’s just plain got it wrong.
Days of Thrills and Adventure has no text. Zip, nada. Just page after page of glorious ads and posters for serials. It was pure nostalgia, assembled for those who remember their own “Days”, watching serials in the 30s and 40s. Or is it. There’s history and insight aplenty in these pages too for those who seek it. You’ve just gotta dig…
An ad for Republic Studio’s Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) reveals the studios serials were marketed as a brand, built on each new release: “The exciting exploits of Captain Marvel – brought to you by REPUBLIC, whose serial adventures of Dick Tracy, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, Dr. Fu Manchu, Zorro, Doctor Satan and King of the Royal Mounted you’ll never forget.”
Columbia’s ads for the Buster Crabbe vehicle Pirates of the High Seas (1950) proudly proclaim that this is serial excitement “from the company that gave you SUPERMAN.” A full two years after the Superman serial and they’re still trying to milk its success. Superman truly was the last hurrah of the sound serial.
Most important of all, on page after page, ad after ad, you see the fusion of pulp magazine art, comic strips, and movies, the synthesis of three vibrant, young American art forms feeding off each other’s strengths, driving each other forward. Which is why Days of Thrills and Adventure doesn’t just have a place in film history, it IS film history alive on every page.
Alan G. Barbour - on the American sound serial.
“Nostalgia I feel is ruinous to film criticism. It has absolutely no place in film history.”
Jon Tuska - on guys like Alan G. Barbour.
From out of the past, two books come my way – Days of Thrills and Adventure, a fanzine of serial ads and poster material published by Alan G. Barbour in 1969; and The Filming of the West by Jon Tuska, a massive 500-page history of the American Western film published in 1975. As you might gather from the quotes above, they share the bookshelf somewhat uneasily.
I value them both.
I love Jon Tuska’s writing. He’s opinionated, high-falutin’ (try a Jungian interpretation of the 1934 serial Mystery Mountain on for size!), and a terrific story teller who spent face time with a lot of the actors and directors who made the movies and made history. But on the subject of nostalgia, Tuska’s just plain got it wrong.
Days of Thrills and Adventure has no text. Zip, nada. Just page after page of glorious ads and posters for serials. It was pure nostalgia, assembled for those who remember their own “Days”, watching serials in the 30s and 40s. Or is it. There’s history and insight aplenty in these pages too for those who seek it. You’ve just gotta dig…
An ad for Republic Studio’s Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) reveals the studios serials were marketed as a brand, built on each new release: “The exciting exploits of Captain Marvel – brought to you by REPUBLIC, whose serial adventures of Dick Tracy, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, Dr. Fu Manchu, Zorro, Doctor Satan and King of the Royal Mounted you’ll never forget.”
Columbia’s ads for the Buster Crabbe vehicle Pirates of the High Seas (1950) proudly proclaim that this is serial excitement “from the company that gave you SUPERMAN.” A full two years after the Superman serial and they’re still trying to milk its success. Superman truly was the last hurrah of the sound serial.
Most important of all, on page after page, ad after ad, you see the fusion of pulp magazine art, comic strips, and movies, the synthesis of three vibrant, young American art forms feeding off each other’s strengths, driving each other forward. Which is why Days of Thrills and Adventure doesn’t just have a place in film history, it IS film history alive on every page.
posted by brainsheavy @ 7:50 PM
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