Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Mental Hygiene Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970 by Ken Smith Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970 by Ken Smith. An often effective but critically oversold low-budget shocker that’s mostly hypnotic. and frequently gimcrack goofy. The Criterion Collection has released on Blu-ray , the 1962 indie supernatural ghost story originally released by Herts-Lion International Corp., directed by Herk Harvey, written by John Clifford, and starring , Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison Stan Levitt, Tom McGinnis, Bill De Jarnette, Pamela Ballard, and uncredited Herk Harvey as “The Man.” Conceived by Centron industrial shorts producers Harvey and Clifford as exploitation horror with a hoped-for art house sheen, CARNIVAL OF SOULS was buried on a third-rate drive-in double bill in ‘62, where it promptly disappeared. However, a devoted cult following grew (due to public domain showings on late-night TV), and in 1989, it was “rediscovered”. It’s spookily evocative on the whole, and a definite must-see for fans interested in the evolution of the ghost/zombie horror subgenre. Criterion has upped the game for this Blu release with a new, scintillating 4K transfer (although an on-screen blurb in one of the tab descriptions states it’s 2K—maybe a leftover menu detail from their previous release?), a new interview with Dana Gould (fun) and a new “video essay” by David Cairns, along with all the ported-over extras from the previous Criterion edition. except for the longer director’s cut. Pretty blonde Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss, THE CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE) goes for a joy ride with a couple of her female friends when some punks challenge them to a drag race. Speeding across a lonely, rickety, rural bridge, the girls get bumped off, both literally and figuratively, as their car smashes through the guard rail and sinks into the muddy waters below. Three hours later, Mary miraculously appears on the bank, covered in mud (with dry hair. ), and with no knowledge of how she survived her ordeal. Deciding the time is right for a move, Mary, an organist, accepts a job playing the pipes for an Episcopal church in , Utah—a secular-only decision that worries her friend, the owner (Tom McGinnis) of the organ factory where she practiced. Telling him flatly that she’ll never return, Mary embarks on her lonely drive to Utah. Speeding over the flats at night, she can’t get anything on the car radio except organ music. She also sees the ghostly apparition of “The Man,” (Herk Harvey), a pasty white, ring-eyed zombie that appears outside her passenger window and in front of her car. Mary also sees, far off near the Great Salt Lake, a massive abandoned dance hall pavilion—a desolate, eerie place that will become an obsession for Mary. Arriving at old hoot Mrs. Thomas’ (Frances Feist) boarding house, Mary can’t decide what’s more frightening: the apparition of “The Man” at the bottom of her stairs, or the introduction of fellow boarder John Linden (Sidney Berger), an oily, full-bore horndog who spots Mary as potential easy pickins. Mary’s first day with her new boss, the Very Reverend minister (Art Ellison), doesn’t go much better, when she blithely spurns that most holy of Protestant traditions: a “Welcome Wagon” pot luck with the ladies of the church. A trip out to the pavilion with the minister doesn’t assuage his trepidations about Mary’s spiritual commitment to her job (she asks him to break the rules and escort her into the fenced-off dance hall). Soon, Mary is roaming the streets of Salt Lake City, increasingly spaced-out because, apparently, she has moments where she’s invisible to everyone else. Back at the church to practice, Mary goes into another fugue state, where she has ominous, frightening visions of zombie ghouls at the pavilion —a state that translates into her hands playing ominous, sacrilegious music on the organ, a blasphemy that gets her sh*tcanned with the Episcopalians. We know Mary’s losing it completely when she’d rather hang out with Linden than chance seeing “The Man” again, but nothing can stop the onslaught of terrifying visions that either might be “real,” or merely representations of Mary’s altered state(s). I was in “film school” back in 1989 when the re-introduced CARNIVAL OF SOULS was all the rage for a couple of months. I saw it on a big screen with some friends, and while we enjoyed it for what it was—an atmospheric, often unsettling little tone poem with more than a few hinky moments—we sure didn’t think it was some kind of unjustly neglected masterpiece, a Rosetta Stone talisman that set into motion the modern horror/zombie movie. And to writer John Clifford’s and director Herk Harvey’s great credit. they didn’t think so, either, even when critics and rabid fans were shining them on like they wrangled Albert Camus’ Second Coming with their chintzy little production. In Harvey’s and Clifford’s scene-select commentary track for this disc, Clifford suddenly blurts out to Harvey, “Do you ever get tired of trying to explain all these things in CARNIVAL OF SOULS?” after laying out that a lot of the movie’s choices were done quickly on the fly (Clifford flatly refuses to explain his work, before admitting he has no idea what he was thinking about when writing the movie all those years ago). Later, Harvey is even more specific, stating once and for all: “The film critics added dimensions to the film that John and I didn’t intend.” Case closed, over-zealous tea leaves readers. Post-modernist “film criticism” gets around this kind of plain-spoken honesty by slyly stating an artist’s planned intent isn’t required for her or him to produce a work of art—it’s up to the critic to discover what’s really been achieved. Of course this is narcissistic sophistry; it’s just a way for a critic, who produces nothing of any real value next to the actual object being described, to take possession of a work of art for themselves: art to them only becomes art when they define it as such. That shouldn’t lead you to dismiss CARNIVAL OF SOULS out of hand (after all, I’m one of those critics: what do I know?). CARNIVAL OF SOULS works best when you don’t look for meaning in every corner of its mise-en-scene , and when you shut off those annoying squawks of "the School of Resentment" criticisms that seem to have multiplied and mutated over the years and decades, such as seeing eons of complex male oppression in CARNIVAL OF SOULS’s campy, clichéd 1960s sexual banter (if scripter Clifford was deliberately trying to comment on Mary’s journey through a world of predatory or paternalistic men, which I doubt since he denied doing so—judgmental labeling I question, anyway, when discussing the organ factory owner and the minister—he only succeeded in showing us that letch Linden probably read one too many issues of Argosy ). Watching CARNIVAL OF SOULS the way you’d read or listen to a poem—with an emphasis on experiencing, visually and aurally, the tone and emotion and sensation, and less as an intellectual or linear experience—frankly yields more satisfying results. since so much of its grounding dramatics are shaky. When CARNIVAL OF SOULS opens with that verkakte drag race straight out of the Highway Safety Films catalogue, you wouldn’t be chastised for thinking the movie was more in the “Goofus” than the “Gallant” column. However, when Harvey cuts to this remarkably inscrutable shot of Mary staring at her companion driver (is it fear? Incredulity? An acknowledgement of fate?), you’re brought up short. That’s not a narrative shot. That’s pure poesy. Later, a decidedly unsettling overhead shot of Mary climbing out onto a mudbar gives us more to think about and feel than any verbal explanation Clifford could have possibly summoned up for the character. CARNIVAL OF SOULS’ straight exposition scenes, such as the concerned organ owner cautioning Mary, or the minister wondering why she’s so distant, or Mrs. Thomas’ fluttering ministrations, or greasy Linden’s hilariously inept seductions, are all rather hokey and square—they’d be right at home in one of Clifford’s or Harvey’s Centron industrial/social engineering shorts. You don’t have to have read Bierce to know what the big final twist is here (they’re not exactly subtle or sly about telegraphing what ultimate plane she occupies), while the horror stuff comes off as unintentionally comical, not terrifying. And no, that assessment isn’t out of context. Compare that stand-out shot everyone loves of Harvey’s silly face staring at Mary through her car window (that effect wouldn’t have held water in a fourth-rate Bowery Boys spookums), with Hitchcock’s iconic shot of Norman Bates in drag silhouette, with a raised knife and only his eyes barely lit as he rips open a shower curtain, to see the difference between true horror and truly “nice try” (every time “The Man” showed up, I worried more about the corn starch getting on his collar and black suit, rather than for Mary). CARNIVAL OF SOULS’s real unease comes whenever the startlingly strange Candace Hilligoss—part gorgeous, neurasthenic Hitchcock blonde, part gangly Vanessa Redgrave-as-Creepella Gruesome—is on the screen. Whether driving across the flats, mirroring Marion Crane’s fateful journey, or staring wide-eyed out the window as she lays in bed, the rain tapping at the glass as her mind camera-zooms back to the pavilion, or shopping in a department store and becoming. nothing to people in the streets who can’t see or hear her, Hilligoss is the magnet that keeps drawing us into these seductive, beautifully-lit fullscreen LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD frames. Had CARNIVAL OF SOULS been nothing more than Hilligoss walking around those locales, particularly those stunningly lonely, barren shots at the pavilion and amusement park, it would have been enough for us to just groove along with, unexplained: visual poetry that shouldn’t be too tightly, too specifically defined, least it’s crushed like gossamer. You can run CARNIVAL OF SOULS over and over again and try to explain its possible themes and time lines and parallel worlds, but you certainly don’t need to. and you might like it more if you don’t. The MPEG-4 AVC Video 1080p 1.37:1 black and white 4K Blu transfer of CARNIVAL OF SOULS looks remarkable. Except for some damage during the opening and closing titles, the image is flawless. As stated by Criterion, extensive digital restoration was performed on the original 35mm camera negative, zapping away dirt, scratches, splices and warps, and correcting flicker and juddering. Criterion made the decision not to include the longer “director’s cut,” since the additional footage’s original source material was one inch analog video tape, which would have jarred next to the pristine restoration. Fine image detail is remarkable (you can see the varying sheen and reflective levels of the backlighting on individual strands of Hilligoss’ hair). Grain structure is super-smooth and the black/white/gray levels impossibly creamy. One of the most impressive black and white Blu transfers I’ve ever seen. The original mono soundtrack was cleaned up, as well, with all hiss and crackle completely removed. Purists who, ironically, hear in their heads that “original” (to them) sound of all that static when they think of this movie, are in for a surprise when they hear the ghostly background silence. It’s an entirely new way of hearing CARNIVAL OF SOULS. English subtitles are available. New bonus material includes "Final Destination" (22:40), an interview with comedian Dana “Fragile Frankie Merman” Gould, who makes clear his passion for CARNIVAL OF SOULS (a quick note, though: PSYCHO came out in 1960, not 1962). "Regards from Nowhere" (23:33), a “video essay” from David Cairns and other voices, is just the kind of smarmy mug’s game “connect the dots” critics do with movies like CARNIVAL OF SOULS. until the very last sentence where Cairns finally admits any interpretation of the movie is valid—and by implied logic, then, none are (someone named Anne Billson states at one point she remembered needing a man by her at night to stave off the spooks. Okay.). Kier-La Janisse provides some well-written—if again, a bit stretched—opinions on CARNIVAL OF SOULS for a fancy 18.5 x 12.75 in folded flyer that also gives tech specs and credits for this restoration disc. Finally, Dana Gould returns (voice only) to read an essay on Centron films that appeared in Ken Smith’s "Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films" 1945-1970. Everything else looks to be ported over from Criterion’s previous release. The selected-scene commentary from Herk Harvey and John Clifford is spotty, but solid information as well as insight into the production, is provided (I know everyone calls the production “zero budget,” but in today’s money, adjusted just for inflation and not actual buying power, that $33K equals over a quarter of a million dollars—not Hollywood money, certainly. but not someone’s basement, either). My favorite bonus are the outtakes (27:02), which are silent save for composer Gene Moore’s weirdo organ music—just watching former dancer Hilligoss move around, pulling strange, enigmatic faces, is bonus enough. Three small deleted scenes are included (their run times compromised by head and tail footage for context). If you’re used to the longer director’s cut, you’ll find that important exchange between the organ factor owner and worker here (“If she’s got a problem, it’ll go right along with her,”). "The Movie That Wouldn’t Die!" (32:12), a public television documentary from KTWU/Topeka, Kansas, hosted by Bill Shaffer, looks at the movie’s production, and features footage of a cast/crew reunion in 1989 when CARNIVAL OF SOULS was rediscovered (Harvey actually showed up in his zombie makeup!). Segueing immediately after this feature is "The Carnival Tour", again from Bill Shaffer, that looks at how the movie’s locales have changed (up to 2000). Next up is "History of the Saltair Resort" (25:57), a 1966 documentary from KCPX-TV in Salt Lake City, with host Art Teece giving an interesting rundown of the storied (and unlucky) resort. Excerpts from Centron shorts include "Star 34" (12:36), "Rebound", with Harvey going blind (21:11), "Case History of a Sales Meeting" (5:32), "To Touch a Child" (11:55), "Signals: Read’Em or Weep" (5:24), and a Centrol commercial (2:13). A trailer for CARNIVAL OF SOULS, along with new cover art by Edward Kinsella for the snap case, round out the extras. (Paul Mavis) Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970. Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Recently I began reading an outstanding book about a forgotten era of American cinema, Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films, 1945-1970 by Ken Smith. So-called "mental hygiene" films were born indirectly from Nazi propaganda films when the originators of the genre realized how powerful of a mind-melding medium movies could be. Like their Nazi counterparts, mental hygiene films attempted to shape young minds and convince them that what they were seeing on screen was an accurate replication of real life. Unlike the Nazi films, though, mental hygiene films generally had good intentions. Most mental hygiene films dealt with one of four topics: sex/dating, drugs, health/hygiene, and driver safety. The sex and dating films were usually among the most entertaining, as they featured near-perfect teens demonstrating how to be attractive to the opposite sex. Paradoxically, while they instructed women that they shouldn't be "loose," they encouraged young men to not limit themselves to a single girl. According to Ken Smith's book, some the better dating titles are "Dating Do's and Don'ts," "Are You Popular?," "Junior Prom," and "What to Do on a Date." A famous that got his start in dating films: Bewitched's Dick York. The drug films used a lot of scare tactics and poorly constructed logic to convince kids to avoid the dangers of marijuana and such. In these movies, even one toke of a joint can send an unsuspecting teen into a world of weird hallucinations and spiral his social life out of control. Recommended films: "Don't Smoke Pot," "H: The Story of a Teen-Age Drug Addict," "Keep Off the Grass," and "Narcotics: Pit of Despair." Famous person that used to tell kids that there's "no hope in dope": Sonny Bono (against a psychedelic backdrop, no less). The sex/health films were the ones teachers showed in split classrooms -- you know, guys, when they took the girls into a separate room to watch, um, girl movies. These movies had everything from crude drawings to Wonder Years-like gym teachers to show children what sex was like. From the looks of it, these films left a little too much to the imagination. Among the better titles: "The Innocent Party" and "Summer of '63." Lastly are the infamous "bloody highway" driver safety films. The makers of these films often used real footage from car wrecks on state highways to hammer the point home to viewers. Unfortunately, most of these films blamed irresponsible teenaged drivers for most of the wrecks in the country without bothering to mention the extremely unsafe nature of cars in the middle part of the centry (Ralph Nader was right when he said "unsafe at any speed"). Among the most well-known films are "Last Prom," "Mechanized Death," and the bizzare "Tomorrow's Drivers" which used kindergartners in mini-cars in a mini-town to teach driver safety. Ken Smith's book is a fascinating read, as he doesn't approach these films from a "so cheesy they're good" standpoint (though, often, they are), but rather as a sociological look at the directors who made these films, the schools who bought these films, and the kids that were forced to watch these films for over twenty years. The first half of the book covers the history of mental hygiene films, the genres, and the studios that cranked them out. The second half is packed with capsule reviews of dozens of mental hygiene films, complete with pictures and dialogue samples. The one I most want to see after reading the reviews: "Boys Beware," where the narrator warns about a man named Ralph: "What [the boy] Jimmy didn't know was that Ralph was sick. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. You see, Ralph was a homosexual." While I don't remember any of these specific films (I think they stopped showing them by the time I was in school), I do remember some similar films shot in the 1980's (sometimes as made-for-TV movies or "Afterschool Specials"). The one that sticks out most in my mind was one we saw at least twice in health class starred Scott Baio as a diver got into trouble drinking and driving. It's a pretty obscure film (it isn't listed in the IMDB) titled All the Kids Do It. You can read a bit about it here. The Future of Character Education. Character education can be defined as an effort by schools, communities, and families to assist children in understanding, caring about, and acting upon a core of ethical values (Character Education Partnership, 1997). While the 1990s saw a renewed interest, character education is not new. In fact, character education has been around since at least the 1920s (Muscott & O'Brien, 1999). The recent trend to incorporate character education into the curriculum can be traced to the writings of former Secretary of Education William Bennett (1993), two national groups (the Character Counts Coalition and the Character Education Partnership), as well as to President Clinton's 1996 State of the Union message, in which he urged schools to teach citizenship, values, and character education (Muscott & O'Brien, 1999). The seven articles on character education reviewed in this column represent a wide range of viewpoints and issues related to the school's role in developing character. The first article is a message from Secretary of Education Richard Riley about the importance of civic and character education. The next three pieces discuss the ways character education is being taught in schools. The fifth and sixth articles describe character development as it relates to other issues, including religion and teaching character education to children with disabilities. The final article reviewed returns to the political nature of character education. CHAMPIONS OF A CAUSE. Riley, R. Teaching PreK-8, 2000, 30(5), 6. According to Secretary of Education Riley, character education "means teaching our children the values that virtually all Americans cherish" (p.6). Riley states that one of the important character traits schools should develop is citizenship, which, he argues, is a natural part of civic education. Riley introduces readers to the Character Education Partnership (CEP), a nonsectarian, nonpartisan group with the purpose of developing civic and character education. CEP designed the National Schools of Character program, which selects outstanding school initiatives that promote character and civic education. The 1999 National Schools of Character can be found on the CEP Web site (www.character.org). Riley applauds one school system in particular--the Wake County Public Schools of North Carolina. Since they began their character education program in 1993, the Wake County Schools can point to a higher percentage of students who graduate from high school and better conduct from students in every grade. This article, however, does not explain what measures were used to determine such behavior. SEEKING CONNECTION THROUGH CHARACTER. Lewis, A. Phi Delta Kappan, 1998, 80(2), 99-100. In describing public disenchantment with schools, Anne Lewis highlights such factors as large, impersonal schools, large class sizes, and, especially, the loss of character. Lewis reports that schools have packaged "character education into kits or curricula" (p. 100), which, she acknowledges, were developed out of necessity. Still, the author questions why such character education programs are so fragmented, and why they are not a part of the regular curriculum. The author closes with a provocative plea: "Students need to see character demonstrated all around them, not merely to find it on a list of electives" (p. 100). MAKE MASS MEDIA MAXIMS WORK FOR KIDS. Parke, E. The Education Digest, 2000, 65(6), 23-26. Parke takes a marketing approach to character development, operating from the belief that careful use of the media can make a difference in character education. "The reason media can change behaviors and attitudes is that, when appropriate media principles are applied, the messages are consistent, repetitive, and relentless" (p. 24). The author goes on to describe a two-year, media-based character education program at Aliquippa Middle School in Pennsylvania, which promoted a "habit of the month." While Parke reports impressive results from the media-based character development program, readers of this column are directed to notice the difference in beliefs between Elaine Parke and Anne Lewis (the author of the previous article reviewed). It would be interesting to hear a dialogue between these two about what constitutes the best ways to implement character education in schools. MORALITY PLAY--Ken Smith Takes a Serious Look at Funny Old Classroom Films. Teacher, March 2000, 16. When Ken Smith was an editor for the Comedy Channel, he rediscovered the mental hygiene films of the mid-20th century. These guidance films covered many areas of social rituals and courtesies, from staying off the grass to how to behave on a date. Teacher magazine interviewed Smith about the book these films inspired him to write, Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films From 1945-1970. The interesting part of this article is Smith's view on character education today. While many today find the mental hygiene films of the 1950s to be unintentionally humorous, Smith believes that not much has changed since then. Specifically teachers used to show these films while grading papers or taking a break. They did not do much to prepare students before they saw the films, nor did they have a follow-up discussion. The media used today in character education may be more sophisticated and realistic, but the problems remain. Smith notes, "Technology being used as this cure- all for social problems--we do that in America. We've always done that in America. We want technology to solve our complex problems" (p. 16). RELIGION AND CHARACTER EDUCATION. Lickona, T. Phi Delta Kappan, 1999, 81(1), 21-26. Lickona explores the role of religion in character education, which the author defines as "the deliberate effort to cultivate virtue" (p. 22). According to Lickona, character education must be comprehensive in order to make a difference; as such, religion may play a role. The author provides seven examples of ways public schools can legitimately and legally integrate religion into character education. For example, schools can use the teachings of various faiths to explore such issues as how to help those in poverty. While the author makes a good point, it remains to be seen if a teacher could plausibly implement these suggestions in the classroom. Religion, of course, often is a highly emotional topic. A teacher would need exceptional management abilities and teaching skills to incorporate religious discussions into character education. TEACHING CHARACTER EDUCATION TO STUDENTS WITH BEHAVIORAL AND LEARNING DISABILITIES THROUGH MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS. Muscott, H., & O'Brien, S. Education and Treatment of Children, 1999, 22 (3), 373-390. Muscott and O'Brien describe the results of an ethnographic study involving elementary students with behavioral and learning disabilities in an inclusive after- school program designed to teach specific character traits, such as responsibility, cooperation, and respect. High school and college mentors implemented the curriculum with the children. As a result, the younger students began taking responsibility for their actions, working as team members, making new friends, and appreciating diversity. This article may be helpful to regular and special education teachers who work in inclusive settings. This article is one of the few in the literature that studies character education in terms of children with disabilities. C IS FOR CHARACTER. Leo, J. U.S. News and World Report, 1999, 127(19), 20. This article explains how a Gallup poll showed that most people want schools to teach such values as caring, acceptance, honesty, democracy, patriotism, and moral courage. In this article, Leo implies that character education will be a part of the political rallies during the 2000 national elections. He describes one of George W. Bush's speeches in New Hampshire, in which Bush defended schools that explicitly teach morals by saying that schools already are in the morality business. The author concludes that, in reality, not much is being accomplished beyond hanging some posters or pushing a virtue of the month. Character education is a "promising movement with many enemies and some fuzzy supporters. If parents and communities are willing to back it, it will mean creating a new school culture based on limits, a sense of belonging, and shared values" (p. 20). Bennett, W.J. (1993). The book of virtues: A treasury of great moral stories. New York: Simon & Shuster. Muscott, H., & O'Brien, J. (1999). Teaching character education to students with behavioral and learning disabilities through mentoring relationships. Education and Treatment of Children, 22(3), 373-390. Smith, K. (1999). Mental hygiene: Classroom films from 1945 to 1970. New York: Blast Books. Sid Davis -- educational filmmaker in 1950s. Sid Davis, an educational filmmaker in the 1950s and '60s who specialized in dark cautionary tales crafted to frighten captive classroom audiences away from even thinking about misbehaving, has died. He was 90. Mr. Davis died of lung cancer Oct. 16 at his residence in Palm Desert (Riverside County), said his daughter, Jill. Before John Wayne loaned him seed money to start his production company, Mr. Davis was best known as Wayne's stand-in on movie sets. He became a prime producer of safety and social-guidance films that school boards across the United States screened as a form of social engineering. The hope was that children would watch the films and adopt their toe-the-line message, according to experts. "He wore his opinion on his sleeve and put it into his films," Ken Smith, author of "Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945- 1970," told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. "He meant well. . He was a straightforward man." Many of Mr. Davis' films were made for $1,000 -- a bargain even in the 1950s -- and often starred friends and relatives, Smith said. Mr. Davis was born April 1, 1916, in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles in 1920. A casting-director neighbor quickly got him and his mother jobs as extras, he told the Times in 1979. In 1941, Mr. Davis met another extra, Norma Henkins, and married her six weeks later; she died in 1996. In addition to his daughter, Mr. Davis is survived by a grandson. Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970 by Ken Smith. by Gretchen Worden. "Superb . Mütter Museum teaches you indelibly how strange life can be, how unpredictable and various. The [photographs], sometimes ghastly, sometimes heartbreaking, are mysteriously mesmerizing [and] will revise and enlarge your idea of what it is to be human." — Newsweek. "The images have an almost classical quality . gorgeous and repulsive at once." — The New Yorker. Photography • hardcover • 9 x 11" • 192 pages • 135 full-color images • $50.00 • ISBN:0-922233-24-1. Drew Friedman's Sideshow Freaks. by Drew Friedman. "Drew Friedman has created the greatest sideshow lineup ever. His astounding portraits of the strange, the unusual, the bizarre, and the unconventionally beautiful truly capture the spirit of these extraordinary characters. This is a must-have book for anyone who is a fan of the joyously twisted world of the sideshow." — Todd Robbins, Purveyor of Amazement, co-author (with Teller) and star of Play Dead. Featured at. Nonfiction • hardcover • 8 x 8" • 112 pages • Color illustrations throughout • $19.95 • ISBN:0-922233-36-6. The Drug User: Documents 1840-1960. Edited by John Strausbaugh and Donald Blaise Foreword by William S. Burroughs. "This book belongs on the shelf of every Johnson in America." — William S. Burroughs. No down-and-out apologies of reformed junkies, no hyperbolic heroics of crime-busting drug czars, these neglected records of drug use are thoughtful excursions by the likes of Charles Baudelaire, Jean Cocteau, Anais Nin, Albert Hofmann, Sigmund Freud, and Aldous Huxley. Nonfiction • trade paperback original • $10.95 • 5.25 x 8.25" • 272 pages • ISBN: 0-922233-05-5. E: Reflections on the Birth of the Elvis Faith. by John Strausbaugh. In the first serious exploration of Elvis Presley worship, John Strausbaugh draws on the words of Elvis's true believers and an array of other sources—film, anthropology, folklore, and his own field research at Graceland—to unveil the deification of Elvis Presley, better known as "E" to his friends. Nonfiction • trade paperback original • 6 x 9" • 224 pages • $12.95 • ISBN:0-922233-15-2. Guillotine: Its Legend and Lore. by Daniel Gerould. At the peak of the French Revolution, as noble aspirations began to give way to the bloodthirsty chaos of the Reign of Terror, Doctor Guillotin submitted to the National Assembly a plan for a "humanitarian" method of execution. Over the next two hundred years, until its abolition in 1981, countless numbers fell victim to the guillotine, from kings to criminals and aristocrats to anarchists. This lavishly illustrated volume explores the impact of this instrument of death on the creative imagination of some of history's most outstanding figures, including writings from Dumas, Hugo, Tolstoy, and others who saw the device in action. Nonfiction • trade paperback original • 6 x 9" • 336 pages • Black-and-white illustrations throughout • $14.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-02-0. Junk English. "The more you read and hear, the less you know. Junk English is terrific . lively, funny, and impeccably right-minded . takes mighty whacks in all the right places. " — The Washington Post. ". idiosyncratic harrumphing . Smith has no time for persiflage . the sword of righteousness smites with a fearsome blade in Junk English . " — The Boston Globe. "If Orwell's Politics and the English Language were updated . it might look like Junk English . Quirky . will delight language purists. " — Publishers Weekly. "Compact . reasonably priced . highly recommended for all libraries and could be considered essential reading in English classes." — Library Journal. ". a new Strunk & White . written in such a humorous, nonthreatening way that it might actually be of some use. " — NY Press. "An admirably cranky little book . refreshingly judgmental . will make you laugh, and you'll never use effort as a verb again." — Forbes FYI. ". small and streamlined, almost a thesaurus of sloppy usage . deserves a place on the desk of any writer or editor." — Minneapolis Star & Tribune. Ken Smith is also author of Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970; Raw Deal: Horrible and Ironic Stories of Forgotten Americans; Ken's Guide to the Bible; and co-author of The New Roadside America . Nonfiction • trade paperback original • 5 x 7.25" • 144 pages • $12.95 • ISBN:0-922233-23-3. Junk English 2. Junk English 2 combines basic advice—peppered with contemporary examples of alarmingly common verbal atrocities—with entertaining invective. Based on the author's uncounted hours of exposure to infomercials, ads, and other dubious cultural forms, the book covers topics such as "parasitic intensifiers," "-ize verbs," and the dreaded "weasel words." Frequently abused words such as "focus," "factor," and "process" are examined as are the seemingly unstoppable impulses toward vagueness and euphemisms. Written so that the ordinary writer and speaker of English can readily see the manipulations of language, especially in the post-9/11 era, Junk English 2 is useful as a quick reference, a source for further exploration, and a fun read. Ken Smith is also author of Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970; Raw Deal: Horrible and Ironic Stories of Forgotten Americans; Ken's Guide to the Bible; and co-author of The New Roadside America . Nonfiction • trade paperback original • 5 x 7.25" • 176 pages • $12.95 • ISBN: 978-0922233274. Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970. Weenie roasts are swell! "Smith's informative and often hilarious short essays on classroom film genres like 'Girls Only,' 'Dating,' 'Sex Education,' and 'Fitting In' illuminate the social indoctrination of American teenagers." — Publishers Weekly. Many films featured in Mental Hygiene can be seen at the Internet Archive; for example: 1 | 2 | 3. Nonfiction, popular culture, film • trade paperback original • 7 x 10" • 240 pages • black-and-white illustrations throughout • $24.95 • ISBN 0- 922233-21-7. Ken's Guide to the Bible. In Ken's Guide to the Bible Ken Smith merrily brings to light the strangest, most embarrassing, and most flabberghastingly bizarre stories within the world's best-known book—the Bible. Ken's Guide to the Bible takes literalists to task by pointing out everything in the Good Book that is totally weird. Ken's Guide to the Bible is written for people who don't have the time to read the Good Book but who suspect that it shelters a lot of absurdity between its covers. Ken's Guide to the Bible spotlights all the naughty, cool, fun parts of Bible, free from the indulgent interpretations of the faithful. Nonfiction • trade paperback original • 5.5 x 8.25" • 144 pages • $7.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-17-9. Prisoners. by Arne Svenson. "Svenson's book is a memorial to lost pieces of our national character." — L.A. Weekly. Seventy portraits reprinted from their original glass-plate negatives of turn-of-the-20th-century prisoners are accompanied by the salty, subjective contemporary newspaper stories describing the crimes of which they were accused and convicted. These powerful photographs capture the character and pathos of the men of the post-Gold Rush West charged with desperate crimes: the theft of a pair of shoes, of a can of oysters, of a dog named "Booze"; and as cold-blooded as murder. Photography, history, true crime • trade paperback original • 10 x 9" • 160 pages • $24.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-18-7. Raw Deal: Horrible and Ironic Stories of Forgotten Americans. Raw Deal is the perfect antidote to all of the self-affirming, ego-inflating, think-positive-and-you-can-win hogwash that pervades our society. The stories of twenty-two of America's most ironic, undeserving victims are told in Raw Deal from Ota Benga, the African Pygmy put on display in a New York zoo, to Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber, who died peniless. With hand-illustrated portraits by artist Mack White, Raw Deal proves what we all know deep down: good vibes and a positive attitude aren't worth squat when you're in the way of someone with power and money. Nonfiction • trade paperback original • 5 x 7.75" • 304 pages • Black-and-white illustrations throughout • $12.95 • ISBN:0-922233-20-9. Up River: Man-Made Sites of Interest on the Hudson from the Battery to Troy. by Matthew Coolidge and The Center for Land Use Interpretation (www.clui.org) With fascinating full-color aerial photographs that reveal man-made sites rarely seen by those who travel along the river's banks, Up River tells the story of the Hudson River's crucial role in the development of industry and modern America. To view John Strausbaugh's video tour tour with Matthew Coolidge for The New York Times , click here. "Graphically illustrates the impact of civilization on the [Hudson] River." — The New York Times. Millions of people in New York and New Jersey consider the Hudson River as familiar as their own backyard yet only have a superficial knowledge of the landscape and land use of this river's waterfront. This revealing book deepens readers' understanding with an aerial portrait of the river's shores from the Battery, at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, to the river's origin near Albany. Focusing on man-made sites rarely seen by those who travel along the river's banksâ€"some of which can only be seen from the airâ€"the book showcases the shore area's vanishing (or vanished) avenues, prisons, power plants, quarries, parks, condos, and redevelopments. Up River 's photos and accompanying succinct text tell the story of how this river was used in developing industry and modern America from Revolutionary times through 19th-century exploitation of the waterfront to the beginnings of environmental activism that protects famous vistas from the quarriers of the Palisades. Nonfiction • hardcover • 9 x 6" • 176 pages • 86 full-color aerial photographs and a fold-out map • $19.95 • ISBN: 978-0-922233-29-8. Venus in Furs. by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch with selected letters of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Emilie Mataja foreword by Sylvère Lotringer. "A pioneering masterpiece." — James Cleugh, The First Masochist. The legendary novel Venus in Furs earned its author entry into psychology books all over the world after the German psychologist Krafft-Ebing coined the term "masochism" from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's name. Illuminating his darkest obsessions, Sacher-Masoch created the archetypal Severin and Wanda—a "suprasensual" man who craves abuse and domination, and an idealized cruel, icy Venus come to life—literary reflections of Sacher-Masoch's own life. As Sylvère Lotringer writes in his foreword, "In Venus in Furs reality and fantasy aren't just intertwined, they're indistinguishable." A fascinating account of the pathology of submission and control, Venus in Furs bears the unmistakable mark of a literary classic. Fiction • trade paperback • 5.125 x 8 .25" • 224 pages • $9.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-01-2. Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show. by Suehiro Maruo. "Exquisite . adult comic art of high visual sophistication." — New York Press. One of the most extraordinarily talented graphic novel artists in Japan today, Suehiro Maruo has created a riveting masterpiece with Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show . Maruo's retelling of this classic Japanese tale, his childhood favorite, is like the grimmest of Grimm's fairy tales. Manga (Graphic Novel) • trade paperback original • 7 x 10" • 160 pages • $10.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-06-3. Comics Underground Japan. edited by Kevin Quigley. "Blast Books once again provides a glorious selection of Japan's underground masters. My personal favorite is Kazuichi Hanawa's rich historical grotesque 'Mercy Flesh.'" — Joe Coleman. Comics Underground Japan presents the wild, subversive world of Japan's most accomplished underground comics artists. Some of the dozen artists included in this anthology will be familiar to followers of manga; others make their American debut in these pages. The richly imaginative stories in this volume show a great range of graphic style, from painstakingly detailed draftsmanship to exuberant, maniacal renderings. At the heart of each work in this anthology is a unique personal vision and a fierce artistic compulsion—these manga artists are the misfits of the art form, and they are its visionaries. Manga (Graphic Short Stories) • trade paperback original • 7 x 10" • 240 pages • $14.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-16-0. Hell Baby. by Hideshi Hino. "A mix of beautiful and spare imagery." — The Comics Journal. This graphic novel by one of Japan's most accomplished artists tells the unsettling saga of twin sisters born on a dark and stormy night in Tokyo: one normal, and one a demon baby with a taste for blood—a Hell Baby. Tossed into a garbage dump, Hell Baby dies in the plastic bag but is brought back to life by an unworldly bolt of lightning. Replete with Hino's trademark black humor and unflinching imagery, Hell Baby is a classic horror tour de force. Manga (Graphic Novel) • trade paperback original • 6 x 9" • 200 pages • $10.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-12-8. Panorama of Hell. by Hideshi Hino. "With Panorama of Hell , Americans have a real chance to attempt to understand the depth of nuclear horror." — L. A. Weekly. Panorama of Hell is a shocking, tortuous journey into the depths of one man's post-nuclear Hell. Through the confessions of a fiendish Hell painter born in the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima, Hideshi Hino tells a nightmarish story, creating a manga masterpiece of black humor, stunning vision, and unflinching imagery. Manga (Graphic Novel) • trade paperback original • 6 x 9" • 200 pages • $9.95 • ISBN: 0-922233-00-4.