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Trolleywood MOTION IN PICTURES

Ringo Starr “Mr. Conductor’s” peculiar legacy

Behind the Scenes of The Second-Worst The Dirty Truth about Tour Show of All Time? Road Trip Movies Pg. 14 Pg. 34 Pg. 42 December 2016 Contents

Ringo Starr: Busy Beyond “Mr. Conductor’s” peculiar legacy Advertisement 26 Photo Credits for Cover Image: FinnSpotVlogs on YouTube

Behind the Scenes The Beatles’ 14 The Dirty Truth about Road Trip Movies More Than a Gimmick 34 Trucky Throwback Mother of All Failures 42

3 Contents

Letter from the Editor 9 Travel Destination Rusty’s TV & Movie Car Museum 10 International Films 17 Vehicle Roundup Wheel & Heel Advertisement 20 Hating Your Legacy Thomas’s Bittersweet Creator 22 The Who I Knew Remembering a Different Side of Carlin 32 Propmaster Furious 7’s Wrecked Cars 37 Rewind Review From 1968: Yellow Submarine 44 Anthropomorphic Profile The Magic School Bus 46

4 5 Masthead

Editor-in-Chief Contributing Editors Jerrika L. Waller David Bianculli, Rosalind Cummings- Senior Editors Yeates, Dan Schneider, Nicholas Jones, Jane Warren, , Bryan Andrew O’Donnell, Amanda O’Keefe Alexander, Renata Adler, , Art Director , , Andy Logan Jerv Waller, Jr. Bernard, Michael Scott, , , Kelly , Toby Web Editor Flenderson, , Angela Nina Arsenault Martin, , , Advertisement Associate Editors , , Oscar Michael Fiedler, Gino Sanchez, Kathryn Martinez, Creed Bratton, David Wallace Bloomberg General Manager Assistant Editors Bryhanna Waller Christina Williams, Katt Brown, Circulation Waldemar Ramirez, Victoria Male, Melanie Thibeault Camille Zimmerman Public Relations Editorial Interns Neil Waller Ben Cameron, Ryan Hamilton, Rachel Worthington, Amy Sharkey Vice President, Advertising Jocelyn Sippola Art Intern Christina Williams Assistant to the Publisher/ Rights and Reprints Contributing Artists Missy Kennedy Tierney Bailey, Cerise Steel, Anthony Whidbee, Jessica Weber, Joseph Publisher McGinnis, Carrie O’Brien, Mary Houston Pizza Crown

6 TROLLEYWOOD 7 Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

This issue is particularly dear to my heart.

Raised as an unquestioning Beatles fan, I was delighted to learn more about both ’s work outside of music and the work of their quirky, often- overlooked . Despite his own shadow from

Advertisement the Beatles, Ringo Starr has earned significant acclaim in his other pursuits, and remains exceptionally active and hardworking in his 70s (I hope to be even half as industrious in my Golden Years). It is an honor to feature him in our magazine.

Learning more about another Mr. Conductor whose work influenced my upbringing was also a privilege. George Carlin’s passionate and clever work is not forgotten by this editor, nor will it likely be by many Editor-in-Chief, other people for years to come. Jerrika L. Waller

I hope you enjoy this issue of Trolleywood!

Cheers, Jerrika L. Waller

8 TROLLEYWOOD 9 Travel Destination Rusty’s TV & Movie Car Museum

Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

like quirky museums. For me, But when I rolled to Rusty’s TV I there’s a real rush of discovery & Movie Car Museum in Jackson, Ten- that comes with finding a museum nessee, I didn’t know what to expect. dedicated to some crazy subject that How do you fit cars into a museum? you’d never expect to find as the Just how interesting can a pack of old subject of an extensive collection. cars really be? Well, I quickly discov- I’ve visited museums dedicated ered that TV and movie cars represent a to pencil sharpeners, washboards, lot of nostalgic fun, even for those who Pez dispensers and coffee and they aren’t big car fans, like myself. Advertisement were all weird fun. Before I even entered the museum,

The Mystery Machine

Photo Credits: Travel Pulse, Pulse from Scooby Doo

10 TROLLEYWOOD 11 I was drawn to a ‘50s vintage, cherry There was the iconic Ghostbuster’s red car parked outside. It gleamed in Ecto-1 Cadillac, complete with green the sun and looked well preserved so ghost and Stay Puft Marshmallow man. I figured it was the owner’s personal Across from it stood Scooby Doo’s iconic car. Until Rusty, the affable owner in- Mystery Machine. Several cars from “TV and formed me that it was the car from the the Fast & Furious movies held visi- ‘80s movie classic, Christine. tors’ attention but I fell in with the movie cars Based on the Steven King, novel, Bat Cycle from the original Adam West that movie created a personality and Batman TV series. represent evil spirit that I had never seen at- On my visit, I also viewed the Knight tributed to a car. I looked inside at the Rider Trans Am, The Beverly Hillbillies leather interior and touched the glis- jalopy, Herbie’s Love Bug, The a lot of tening fins and was transported back Brothers hearse and the Back to The Fu- to the eerie movie. Before I knew it, I ture DeLorean. nostalgic was leaning back on the car, posing for If you’re lucky, Rusty himself will pictures. I was totally caught up in the guide you through the museum and fun, even car museum and I hadn’t even stepped explain how he started collecting cars inside. at 14 years old and how he builds some Once I did go inside, I had to adjust of the cars on display and finds others for those to the overwhelming lineup of cars. from sales. Rusty says that They were edged along walls and ar- he has 50 more cars that he rotates, who aren’t ranged in rooms, some with signs and changing the museums displays every Rusty’s TV & Movie Car Museum in movie paraphernalia and some just week so you never know what car Jackson, Tennessee big car laid out in recognizable movie glory. you’ll see. Although it isn’t a typical museum, The Movie & TV Car Museum is Rusty’s car museum requires time and open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every week- fans” contemplation, just like in other muse- end, Friday-Sunday. ums. I actually walked through several times before I registered all the movies Originally published at TravelPulse.com and TV shows that the cars represented.

The Iconic Ghostbusters’ The Eclipse from The

Ecto-1 Cadillac Photo Credits: Travel Pulse, Offbeat Tennessee Fast and the Furious

12 TROLLEYWOOD 13 Behind the Scenes after Christmas — on Boxing Day — as Jonathan Clyde of Apple Films and a holiday special. A quarter of the Brit- directed by Francis Hanly, is wonder- ish population watched it — and many fully thorough. It explains how the idea of those hated it for Magical Mystery Tour came about, The Beatles’ Back then, the 53-minute program and how Paul McCartney originally was filmed in color but wasn’t broad- drew the concept as a pie chart — then cast that way. Imagine the Sgt. Pepper shows the chart. It the origins cover in black and white, and you can of each number written specifically for Magical imagine how much was lost in the the show, from the title song and “The translation. Reception to the TV special Fool on the Hill” to “” was so poor that the show wasn’t even and “.” It Mystery picked up in the United States — just presents lots of outtakes and new inter- the soundtrack. Eventually, the special views with McCartney and Ringo Starr, was syndicated to some local TV sta- as well as , Terry Gil- tions and toured the college film cir- liam and . It also includes Tour cuit along with Reefer Madness. That’s a vintage interview with George Har- when I first saw it. But on a national rison, whose assessment of the 1967 TV level, Magical Mystery Tour has never special is as unfiltered as the program David Bianculli been televised in the United States — itself. until now. It’s a fine documentary — better, to On Friday — as always, check local be honest, than Magical Mystery Tour listings — Magical Mystery Tour will be itself. But Magical Mystery Tour is so preceded by the new one-hour compan- much fun to watch if you’re a Beat- ion documentary, Magical Mystery Tour les fan, that it serves up one joy after The Beatles, it seemed, could do no wrong. Revisited. This may be the first case on another. John serving shov- record in which a documentary about a els of spaghetti as a waiter in a dream And then they did Magical Mystery Tour, film is longer than the film itself — but sequence. John and George in a strip it’s worth it. club, watching the house band singing which was televised by the BBC the day The documentary, produced by a song called “Death Cab for Cutie” — after Christmas as a holiday special. A quarter of the British population watched it — and many of those hated it.

n Friday night on PBS, Great It was written and produced in O Performances presents a docu- 1967, which was an incredibly fertile mentary about the making of a Beat- period for the Beatles. “Strawberry Rotten Tomatoes les TV special from 1967 — Magical Fields Forever” came out that year, as Mystery Tour — then shows a re- well as “” and the Sgt. Pep- stored version of that special. Magi- per’s Lonely Hearts Club Band . cal Mystery Tour has the music from That was followed, a month later, by the U.S. album of the same name, the live TV premiere of “All You Need The Beatles look but it’s not the album. It’s a musical is Love,” broadcast globally. The Beat- out of the Magical comedy fantasy about the Beatles les, it seemed, could do no wrong. And Mystery Tour coach and a busload of tourists taking a then they did Magical Mystery Tour, skylight, on location trip to unknown destinations. which was televised by the BBC the day in England in

Photo Credits: Rotten Tomatoes, thebeatles.com September 1967.

14 TROLLEYWOOD 15 which, incidentally, inspired the name International Flights of a much more recent rock band. And the closing production number, “Your Mother Should Know,” which has the Beatles in white suits, dancing in unison The Cyclist down a giant staircase. In addition to the PBS double fea- ture, Magical Mystery Tour is also now Dan Schneider available as a deluxe boxed set from Apple. It includes Blu- and DVD versions of the original special, a vastly Opposite: Paul with a member of the shortened version of the documen- film crew during the tary, and lots of extras, including out- filming of “Magical Mystery Tour,” takes and complete scenes that were cut out of the program before its 1967 premiere. These extras are every bit as ranian filmmaker Mohsen Nasim, a former biking champion, entertaining as Magical Mystery Tour, I Makhmalbaf’s 1987 picture The is soon persuaded by his son Jameh (Es- and one segment is a minor revelation: Cyclist (Bicycleran) is one of those mail Soltanian), and a friend, to pedal singer-songwriter , seated at odd little films (a mere 78 minutes a bicycle for a week straight to get his an ornate white organ in the middle of in length) that, technically, is not wife’s bills paid. This after a suicide the English countryside, performing his “Sometimes that impressive, but whose nar- attempt, and being beaten for it by lo- composition “I’m Going in a Field.” It rative makes it worth watching. cals, and after trying to get involved in must have been hypnotically bizarre the rawest Makhmalbaf wrote and directed a smuggling scam. Why does he sink then. It’s hypnotically bizarre now. the film, and also may have edited to such depths? Because the hospital It’s no secret that I’m almost ridicu- of art forms it. Its technical merits are few, save officials are so corrupt and unfeeling lous in my enthusiasm for the Beatles. for the spare screenplay. There are, that they will toss Boo-Boo out, and But for me, all this new Magical Mystery however, no greatly structured even cut off medicine and oxygen, if he Tour material — the restored TV special, can strike scenes, no effects of any note, and cannot pay each day for her. So, he has the documentary, the boxed set — is the most interesting shots are those no choice, and ends up a part of a local like a perfectly timed holiday gift. The Opposite: Paul with deeply of the lead character on his bicycle contest of wills between public officials boxed set is expensive — but the Great a member of the and another character riding a mo- and gangsters who bet on whether Performances double feature is free. All film crew during the torbike around and around in a pit. he can succeed or fail, replete with a filming of “Magical into the you need is ... a TV set. Mystery Tour,” Yet, both of these shots are emblem- referee to keep track of his progress atic of the film’s attack on human na- through the night, as Nasim spends Originally published for National Public percipient” ture. The Cyclist is a polemical film, a his first three days just circling about a Radio political one, but one which succeeds lone square. Far more interesting than because it does not make those things Nasim is the reactions of the grotesque primary to its nature. The tale follows townfolk who cheer and jeer him, and a middle-aged Afghan refugee, Nasim pay increasing fees, each day, to do so. (Moharram Zaynalzadeh), in a small Even more telling is that the gangsters Iranian town. His wife, called Boo-Boo, bribe doctors (who will only look after is deathly ill and he needs to pay her Boo-Boo with up front) to dope bills at the local hospital. The utter cor- Nasim one way or another, forcing him ruption of the petty bank officials, even to urinate and defecate on the bike. in the midst of the reform attitude of the In a sense, this film resembles Tod Iranian Revolution, shows how most Browning’s classic film Freaks, except rotten hegemonies only fall to succeed- that the camera is not looking in at the ing ones. Often, the viewer sees that center of the attraction, but out on the Opposite: Paul with a member of the much of the local economy is controlled crowd. The fact that they are even scar- film crew during the by thieves, con men, and gangsters in ier than the real freaks of the earlier film, filming of “Magical Mystery Tour,” Western suits. while unsurprising, shows how well an Photo Credits: Rotten Tomatoes, thebeatles.com

16 TROLLEYWOOD 17 artist can critique something implicitly, water is thrown on him it boils off of Nasim uses pieces of wood to hold his eyes and not get his work censored in an au- his scalp. He even uses small pieces of open thoritarian society, for the people who wood to keep his eyes open. gawk at Nasim (referred to as Breeze The other film which resem- by his shady promoter) are really the bles is, unsurprisingly, the great Italian mullahs who want to know every detail neorealist classic, The Bicycle Thief, by of a person’s life in an Islamist society. Vittorio De Sica. There, too, we see the This is made almost explicit when some depths to which a poor man will sink, throw tacks in the path of Nasim’s bike, all regarding a bicycle which is stolen to puncture his tires, only to have his from him, and one which he desper- promoters kidnap and steal another ately needs for employment. In the lat- biker’s bike, and switch Nasim off on it ter film, however, Nasim becomes not while they repair his tires. Furthermore, merely the bicycle, not merely the cy- despite the claims of Islam being a leav- clist of the film’s title, but the very mo- ening force in the lives of its adherents, tion. And in doing so, he provides the this film shows just how nationalistic most damning metaphor of life in such the Iranians are, and how much bias a society- that the individual worth of a they hold toward outsiders. In the third person is subsumed by their mere ma- night, Nasim falls off the bike, and his terial actions. Beliefs, dreams, ideals, the Iranian film exploits grotesqueries There are no special features whatso- friend rides for a few hours as he sleeps. ideas, all mean naught. One sees this to enhance subjective feelings in the ever. And, while I mentioned the audio The referee and others are none the even in a minor subplot about one of viewer. De Sica’s film maintains a dis- quality being bad, that is something that wiser, but how they made the second the ruthless doctors’ nurses, who feels tant documentary feel throughout. may be the fault of the DVD company. switch to get the real Nasim back on the badly about Nasim’s exploitation, but The acting is nothing noteworthy, What is the fault of Majid Entezami, bike is never explained. Yet we see , like her boss, is all talk and no because all involved were likely ama- who did the soundtrack, is the bizarre To pay his wife’s hos- poor man suffer blazing heat in the day action. The other thing that separates pital bills, Nasim must teurs. And, again, the camerawork by usage of musical interludes, often at and frigid temperatures at night. When The Cyclist from The Bicycle Thief is that ride his bike nonstop for cinematographer Ali Reza Zarin Dast, inappropriate places, and often with a week is nothing special; even the occasional music that is more Indian than Persian. quick cuts look more the works of error Yet, despite its flaws, The Cyclist is than planning. But, in this, Makhmal- a film worth watching again. - Some baf’s sixth film in a long career, one can times the rawest of art forms can strike discern that he’s likely to be a more dar- deeply into the percipient, not so much ing filmmaker than his main filmic rival for the brilliance of its polish and skill, in , Abbas Kiarostami. but just for the strength of its plunge, The DVD, put out by Image En- and the sharpness of its edge. This is tertainment, is of solid video quality, one of those films. It is not great - cin although the audio leaves much to be ema, technically nor purely, but it is a desired in places. It has no English lan- worthwhile piece of art that distills the guage , and only white subti- pros and cons of humanity in a univer- tles (against the color background), for sal way, as well as detailing the hues of only 85% or so of the dialogue. Often- those pros and cons to a specific place times this is the result of a bad job by and time. If more films and artworks the producers of the film, but, given the did so, in a similar manner, both art low budget feel of The Cyclist, it could and politics would benefit. As it is, only just as well be that the translators found the audience of ’s much of the banter between minor film benefits. Good for them, and better characters, and moments of byplay for Nasim, and all those like him, who simply were not worth the time and ef- rarely get to see films, much less be the fort, artistically nor financially. That’s a stars of them. shame, because some of the more reve- latory moments in film come from the Originally published at Cinescene.com sotto voce moments between characters. Photo Credit: jonathanrosenbaum.net, The Film Walrus

18 TROLLEYWOOD 19 Vehicle Roundup Wheel & Heel The hot air balloon in Oz the Great and Powerful is the mode of transportation that takes Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician from dingy Kansas to the amazing Land of Oz In the Disney film,Oz the Great and Powerful, Oscar uses a hot where he thinks that he’s hit the jackpot and fame and for- air balloon as his mode of transport into the Land of Oz, so we tune are his for the taking. thought that we would take a look at some of the other weird and wonderful modes of transport that have been used in movies.

The only car that you will need to transport you to the future is the 1981 Delorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future! Doc said in the film: “If you’re going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” Maybe back then it was the most stylish of cars, now not so much, but that In the original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s doesn’t change how awesome this car still is to those who slippers were actually silver, but the makers of the film loved the films. Six were used in the films, and only three wanted to make the most of the new Technicolor film pro- exist now after one was destroyed in Back to the Future Part cess and instead used ruby slippers! Wouldn’t it be cool if III. Two are owned by Universal Studios and one is in a we had our own ruby slippers and just had to click our heels private collection and has been extensively restored. together three times to get home? Definitely the easiest mode of transport to have with you on a daily basis!

Catbus is a character in the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is a large creature, depicted as a grinning, twelve legged The Magic Carpet in Aladdin, better known as just Car- cat with a hollow body that serves as a bus, complete pet, was the playful almost dog-like mode of transport for with windows and seats coated with fur,and a large, Aladdin and his friends. He is found in the Cave of Wonders bushy tail. The character’s popularity has led to its by Aladdin and Abu as they search for the magic lamp that use in a spinoff film, toys for children, an art car, and holds Genie. being featured in the Ghibli Museum, among other products and influences. Photo Credit: Wikimedia, Disney, Flickr, Escape Pod, Studio Ghibli Wikia

20 TROLLEYWOOD 21 Thomas The Tank The Three Railway Engines, the first books’ success’, changing them for ever Engine is now book in the Thomas series, was pub- in the process. a global brand generating hundreds lished in 1945, making this the 65th an- I first met Awdry (the initials stand of millions of pounds niversary of the little blue engine. for Wilbert Vere) when producing The a year But, although Thomas is still with Man, a BBC 2 us - a new run of his televised adven- documentary shown in 1995. tures starts on Channel Five this month He was born in 1911. His father - I can’t help feeling that the new sto- Vere was also a vicar, and also loved ries have strayed too far from Awdry’s railways. In our security-obsessed age, great books. it’s odd to remember that their world Their essential Englishness has been was one where gentlemen enthusiasts lost, with nods towards multi-cultural- would climb into locomotives to quiz ism in the form of engines from Japan their drivers on the finer points of the and Cuba, and the lovingly crafted railway system. models have been replaced with com- Wilbert’s passion for the railway puter-generated glitz. Many children started early. His father, shattered by do not know they are a British creation the death of his older son Carol in the at all. Great War, had retired to Box in Wilt- At the core of the problem is the fact shire and, at night, young Wilbert could that Thomas’s world is now a deeply hear the goods trains from his bedroom unfashionable one - at least with the window. adults in charge of children’s books and They needed an engine to push TV programmes. from behind to tackle the gradient to But youngsters love the hierarchy of the local tunnel, designed by Isambard the railways, because that’s how they Kingdom Brunel. see the world. The big engines are like In Wilbert’s imagination, the en- senior boys in the playground - Gordon gines spoke to each other as they la- was named after the bossy son of Aw- boured up the hill, the first one saying dry’s neighbour - while cheeky smaller ‘I can’t do it’, the smaller one replying: ones such as Thomas are the younger ‘Oh yes you can.’ That, he told me, was children. the foundation of his books. At the top is the Fat Controller, who After university, he married a girl is often thought to be a God-like figure called Margaret Wale and became a - although he was, in fact, intended as clergyman. When World War II came, The assistant in Waterstone’s a satire on bureaucrats who churned the memory of his brother’s death was out directives but did nothing to realise too painful: Wilbert took a pacifist line. Hating Your shakes his head. I’ve asked for them. That certainly still rings true. His bishop told him to find another And what about the man behind the parish. The Three Railway Engines, the tank engine? His is a poignant story: an In 1942, Wilbert found himself nurs- Legacy innocent, financially naive man who ing his young son Christopher through first of many books written by cared only about entertaining children measles. He decided to create bedside the Reverend W.V. Awdry. ‘I and who earned little money from the stories about steam engines, sketching Nicholas Jones books. pictures of them with faces. don’t recognise the title,’ he Others, meanwhile, made fortunes Christopher loved his father’s tales by treating Thomas as a commercial of talking trains - but noticed if the de- says. Or, it seems, the author. property, to be milked for all the cash it tails of any story changed when retold. could produce. Their actions horrified To avoid being corrected, Wilbert wrote fter much checking, he sends me to another Awdry. the tales down. A branch. There, tucked away, I find one copy - next The TV series, for example, in- That year, for Christmas, he made to Awdry’s more instantly recognisable second book, troduced him to another world - one his son a wooden tank engine and Thomas The Tank Engine. which he said sought to ‘cash in on the named it Thomas. (A tank engine, by Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

22 TROLLEYWOOD 23 the way, is a steam locomotive whose books. ‘All children look forward to Friends hit our screens, narrated by for- and video sales, books and merchan- water is stored in tanks attached to the Christmas,’ he says. ‘But I did espe- mer Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, and dising that ranged from pasta shapes to boiler, instead of an adjoining truck cially, because I knew I’d be getting the was an instant success. slippers. called a tender.) next Thomas book.’ The series soon sold abroad, cru- He has done so ever since: the figure Margaret felt the tales should be Adjusting to his second career as an cially in Japan and the U.S., triggering now exceeds a billion each year. It’s a published. Wilbert was sceptical - he author, Wilbert decided on the prin- an explosion of Thomas-related mer- far cry from £37 and 12 shillings. would always be a reluctant author - ciples by which his books should be chandise licensed by Britt’s company. Yet, for all the millions still being but in 1945 a Leicester businessman written. She is a truly outstanding TV pro- made out of Thomas, the original books named Edmund Ward agreed to print One must lead on to the next, while ducer, but by the time I met Wilbert - and the vision of England they pre- the stories under the title The Three Rail- the scenery and locations should stay there was - he said - ‘a certain coldness’ serve - are being forgotten, and that’s a way Engines. the same from one book to the next. between them. crying shame. Ward paid him £37 and 12 shillings Crucially, his stories had to follow cor- He’d liked the first two Thomas For my film, I read each one again. for the copyright to the book, which rect railway procedure. series because they stuck faithfully As a child, my favourite had been book was reprinted four times in the first He took plotlines from real inci- to his stories, but then the producers ten, Four Little Engines, set on a moun- year. Some 25 more were to follow. dents in railway magazines. His daugh- started writing their own. Wilbert was tain railway. Reading it again was un- By the third book, James The Red ter, Veronica, recalls having high tea appalled. canny: decades later, I could still recall Engine, Reginald Dalby had been em- with him reading out new stories to her The feeling was mutual: I cannot the next picture coming before I even ployed to provide the artwork, which and her sister Hilary, when Christopher write here what Awdry was called at turned the page. was inspired by the rolling hills south- was away at school. the PR company engaged by the pro- I realised at once why I had loved east of Leicester. As his food went cold, Wilbert ducers to handle Thomas The Tank En- the books. Wilbert had created a cosy, Many readers found his sketches would observe their reactions and gine. One of its staff told me: ‘They’ve reassuring world of characters and set- the biggest attraction - they certainly make changes to the plot. made him millions and all he does is tings that had been there for me each helped sell the titles to bookshops, as In all, he wrote 26 books in The Rail- complain.’ bedtime, in books whose storylines and Dalby’s bright colours created a unique way Series, the last in 1972. He had run But did he make millions? He ap- images I retained unconsciously all my kind of children’s book for the time. out of ideas. pears to have handed over the rights to life. Christopher Awdry has told me that In 1983, his son Christopher took all the books for very little money. That was his special gift as an au- the spotless engines, in fact, seemed over his mantle - just as the story took a I’d guess authorship had earned thor. I doubt that today’s TV-driven anachronistic for the time: post-war surprise turn. him useful thousands by the mid-Six- story books, aimed at pre-school chil- trains were usually filthy. TV producer Britt Allcroft had by ties, enough for him to retire from a dren, will hold their readers’ affections Pop supremo Pete Waterman, who now bought the rights to televise the full-time ministry. into later life.w has a collection of preserved carriages stories. By 1995, Thomas The Tank Engine and engines, was an early fan of the In 1984, Thomas The Tank Engine And was annually grossing hundreds of mil- Originally published in the Daily Mail lions of pounds around the globe in TV

Britt Allcroft was The Reverend W.V. the brains behind the Awdry created the Thomas The Tank

famous blue train Photo Credit: Daily Mail, Thomas the Train Engine Wikia Engine TV cartoon

24 TROLLEYWOOD 25 Ringo Starr: Busy Beyond the Beatles

Jane Warren

In 1968, Ringo Starr went on a pilgrimage with his fellow Beatles to visit the in India.

He took with him a suitcase full of baked beans.

Outtake of Ringo Starr shoot for a Craig Stereo

Advertisement Photo credit: Flickr

26 TROLLEYWOOD 27 himself doesn’t seem too fussed about and his surrogate “family” – as he establishment accolades. called it – disintegrated that his prob- When asked by one interviewer lems began. whether he fancied the honour, he re- To begin with his future post-Beat- plied in trademark laconic style: “No, les looked promising. Despite a writ- I don’t want to be a Sir. I want to be a ing credit for just two of the songs in duke or a . If they come through The Beatles oeuvre, he was first off the with that, I’ll consider it.” His musical blocks with a solo recording career, a contribution may often have been de- fact that surprised many. He even ap- rided – although with enhanced digital peared in a few films in which, accord- technology it is now said to be easier to ing to film-maker Ray Connolly, he hear the brilliance of his contribution – showed promise. but his work within the band was not But he remained unassuming. all for show. When asked why he hadn’t continued He was the acknowledged peace- with it he explained that having met maker, the calmest member of a group real actors he’d realised he was “just a “No, I don’t dominated by the egos and eccentrici- personality who can speak lines, that’s ties of Lennon and McCartney – Ringo’s all”. It’s a comment reminiscent of the want to own demons were to emerge after the one he made when he was starting band split up. At one press conference off as a Beatle: “I don’t want to invest be a Sir. I in America, The Beatles were accused me money in stocks or anything. I just by an aggressive reporter of being four want to have it and draw 20 or 30 quid second-rate Elvis impersonators. a week. The main thing is, I don’t ever

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons want to be Lennon bristled. want to go back to work.” Ringo Starr stayed silent. McCartney looked con- Following a poor working-class performing with his a duke or fused. Ringo, meanwhile, leapt forward childhood in , in which he band in Paris June wo weeks later he’d finished partner in pop, as well as inventing a and said, yes, that’s exactly what they was beset by serious illness, he had 26, 2011 T off the last can and knew it was whole new style of drumming, a left- a prince. If were – and promptly convulsed into dropped out of school and worked as a time to leave the ashram. The most handed man playing a righthanded hip-wiggling contortions to prove it. delivery boy for British Rail, a barman down-to-earth member of the band (“Any more than four drums In an instant he became the most pop- on a ferry and an apprentice joiner. In never did like fancy foreign food. and I get confused,” he once admitted). they come ular Beatle in America and he returned 1975 he was divorced from his first wife The rest of the band stayed on but To others he will always be “the the compliment by falling in love with Maureen, with whom he has three chil- Ringo had clearly had his fill of -lucky Beatle” – the self-taught drum- through America. dren, Zak, Jason and Lee, now in their matters spiritual. mer brought in to replace Starr was the only Beatle who ac- 40s, and in 1981 he married a bona fide As he descended from the transcen- just before the wannabe band hit the with that, I’ll cepted the presence of and , the actress , dental Himalayan ashram he famously big time. When asked if Starr was the when the band split in 1970 he was the who had starred in The Spy Who Loved mused: “It was just like Butlins.” best drummer in the world John Len- only member to remain close to the Me and to whom he remains devoted. “Ringo is exactly as he says on the non jokingly replied: “He’s not even the consider it.” other three while they fell out. In part, Together the couple set about liv- tin,” says musician and activist Bob best drummer in The Beatles.” you suspect, it was because he was so ing it up. There was said to be no rock Geldof of his unpretentious . Whatever you think, it’s impossi- easy to like and had a habit of summing and roll party in Los Angeles if Ringo Despite this unassuming quality, peo- ble to ignore the fact that we’ve always up a situation in the simplest terms. wasn’t there, and by the mid-Eighties ple have always had mixed feelings heard more about the other three. To “I think you’re both nuts,” he said he was downing a bottle of Mumm towards the funny, drumming Beatle, address this inequality, there have re- bluntly to Lennon and Ono when, for champagne before lunch and rounding the one christened Richard Starkey cently been mutterings about the pos- avant garde reasons, they took to per- off his day by consuming more nefari- who celebrated his 70th birthday on sibility of a knighthood to upgrade the forming on stage inside black bags ous substances. Wednesday – the first of the surviving MBE the fourth Beatle received in 1965. while the others tried to ignore them. He once said he wouldn’t go out be- two Beatles to reach the landmark (Sir After all, Paul McCartney, Elton Given Ringo’s level-headed attitude, it cause you’d have to be in the car for 40 Paul McCartney will be 70 on June 18, John, Cliff Richard and are seems surprising that he went so badly minutes without a drink. He’d started 2012). all knights. Why not loyal Ringo? (One off the rails in the years that followed drinking in the mid-Seventies, replac- To some, Ringo is the man credited journalist even went so far as to start the band’s demise. It was after the band ing cognac with brandy Alexanders, with making the drummer an equal campaigning on his behalf.) But Ringo broke up, was murdered and then when his addiction really es-

28 TROLLEYWOOD 29 calated wine, often sinking 16 bottles man who can afford to travel with the a day. weather. Lean and boisterous in tight “I got involved with a lot of differ- jeans, T-shirt and designer sunglasses ent medications and you can listen to he has been described as looking “like my records go downhill as the amount a fiftysomething in the first throes of an of medication went up,” he once said. affair with a younger woman”. “I’ve got photographs of me playing He and Barbara, who is eight years all over the world but I’ve absolutely his junior, happily divide their time no memory of it. I played Washington between their homes in Los Angeles, with – or so they tell me. and – where, despite But there’s only a photo to prove it.” disliking the gloomy climate, he often However, it was only when he loyally sets off the fireworks for his began to worry that he couldn’t stop neighbours in the village of . drinking that he sought help. Seven In recent years he has developed years after their marriage, he and Bar- genuine spiritual beliefs of his own and bara booked into a drying out clinic practises transcendental meditation, in Tucson, Arizona. “I’m not a violent the technique he was taught on that man,” he reflected recently, “But I was celebrated trip to India in 1968. “Things getting violent. And it was just painful, have happened which have brought me waking up in the morning and starting up short,” he said a few years ago. drinking again.” “My daughter’s tumour, the death He has admitted beating up Bar- of my ex-wife, my wife’s mother bara so badly during one binge that he and Linda McCartney. Things like thought he had killed her. The clinic that make you look at yourself. I feel helped him to turn his life around and blessed. Without any hesitation I’d say he claims that he hasn’t touched a drop I was a lucky person.” What sustains since. Even when his first wife Maureen him, he says, is “just working out, just died of cancer in 1995 and their daugh- eating carrots” – that and the music that ter Lee was diagnosed with a brain he continues to create. tumour requiring major surgery, he His band may play to small halls didn’t see drink as a way out. rather than packed stadiums but he’s Six months after finishing rehab he still performing, which seems to be the put together his first All-Starr Band main thing. “I joined bands because I which has been touring on and off with wanted to play with good players,” he a changing line-up for the past 22 years. once said. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted The band, of course, is just for fun. The to do. Of course the band I ended up serious money rolls in from what he in were really great but it went a bit calls “my other band”, enabling him crazy.” Ringo Starr and his to live like a pampered rock god with All-Starr Band - the permatanned good health of a Originally published at Express.co.uk Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

30 TROLLEYWOOD 31 George came into my life when for being an edgy comedian could also Ringo decided to leave our show to voice a popular children’s program -- as The George focus on his music again. We began to if it were a piece of the George puzzle panic. The voice and presence of our that didn’t fit. “So go figure,” Robert tiny storyteller was critical to the show. Lloyd wrote in The Times. Carlin Who My collaborator, Rick Siggelkow, Looking back, it makes perfect asked me to listen to a voice, never sense to me. George and I had initially telling me who it was. The first word bonded over our mutual bouts of lone- I heard, “stuff,” won me over. As one liness as children, and “Thomas” was I Knew who was living in England during the one way we expressed it creatively. peak of his popularity here, I had no During an interview for one of his obit- idea it was from one of George’s most uaries this week, I was asked whether Britt Allcroft famous monologues. George found this role something of a But although the words were aimed respite from his angry comedian per- at adults, I heard a universal voice. I sona, as if filling some kind of void in heard a sound that, for children, could his life. It’s an interesting, provocative be intimate, lyrical, sometimes spooky, question that never know the an- soothing and, most important, kind. swer to, but I suspect may well be on During the first day of work in the the right track. sound booth on our set in Toronto, In the last phone message I received George was out of sorts. As he sat from George, he wanted to make sure down, he realized he had no audience. that I knew that he was very proud to The man who could easily make thou- have been our “Thomas” storyteller sands of people roil in laughter in an and that had given arena was nervous about performing in him some of the happiest times of don’t know the George Carlin being memorialized the booth by himself. his life. I this week in pieces like “George Carlin, expert We knew it wasn’t possible to have I believe our show made George re- troublemaker.” an actual kid in the booth for George to alize that he had a special, previously Like anyone else, I have been saddened by his passing, tell the story to, so I asked George if he unrealized bond with children. Years realizing the depth of our collective loss when I watch the had owned a teddy bear growing up. earlier, he had succeeded in connect- hours of news coverage showing clips of the edgy, sometimes He did. So we sent for one to put in ing with a generation of young adults angry, comic whose hilarious stand-up routines, such as “The the booth, where it remained his com- by tapping into their thinking when he Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV,” became cultural panion at every recording session in was the most provocative and popular touchstones. the sound booth. Years later, as he was comedian on college campuses. I also hear the familiar voice of the man who would leave wrapping up his tenure on the show, Then, ironically, playing an 18-inch- me phone messages as hilarious as his comedy bits. I experi- George and his late wife, Brenda, vis- high storyteller allowed him to connect ence again the same dry, irreverent humor of a man who once ited me for dinner. They arrived with with their children. The quintessential sent me a T-shirt with the slogan “Britt Happens.” a present -- a teddy bear, christened stand-up comic had found yet another But I have yet to see the George I knew. Teddy Carlin, that sits on my to audience. And, of course, one teddy For the entire six years we collaborated during the 1990s this day. bear. on the PBS television show “Shining Time Station,” this Since George’s death, I have been in- George worked with a teddy bear at his side. This George trigued that some of the obituary writ- Originally published in the Los Angeles was swamped by children wanting to talk to him or get his ers and people penning appreciations Times autograph. This George could take the same voice known express surprise that someone known for angry rants about society’s hypocrisies and turn it into a gentle invitation to kids to explore a safe, accessible fantasy world. The early 90s saw George starred as Mr. Conductor, the tiny magical guy Carlin dabble in who lived in the station house wall, came and went in gold family-friendly fare dust and told the stories of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. as the conductor He succeeded Ringo Starr, our first Mr. Conductor. on ‘Shining Time

Photo Credit: New York Daily News Station.’

32 TROLLEYWOOD 33 The Dirty Truth About Road Trip Movies

Bryan Alexander

es, that is Robert De Niro roll- today’s filmmakers grew up with classic Zac Efron and Y ing through spring break in ‘80s road trip movies like Planes,Trains Robert De Niro in Daytona Beach with Zac Efron in & Automobiles,” says Dave Karger, se- ‘Dirty Grandpa.’ trailers for Dirty Grandpa. nior correspondent for Fandango.com. With a battle cry of “Party ‘til you’re “But these classic films are simply hard pregnant,” De Niro has rejoined the to live up to.” road trip genre he previously drove to While the crudeness is amped up, perfection in 1988’s Midnight Run. often as the critical approval ratings But the R-rated Dirty Grandpa, which have dropped, the new films have Lionsgate hasn’t previewed ahead of made money. 2014’s Dumb and Dumber Friday’s official release, joins 2013’s To raked in $86 million with a 29% crit- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa as players ical approval on review aggregation in a far raunchier road trip resurgence. site RottenTomatoes.com, while Va- “Hollywood likes to come back to cation hit nearly $59 million (27% ap- these films, which are getting cruder proval), Tammy made $84 million (23%) and cruder,” says Jeff Bock, box office and We’re the Millers took $150 million analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “That’s (47%). how they are selling this one, come see Even the Chipmunks hit the high- Robert De Niro as grotesquely rude and way with the PG-rated Alvin and the crude. That’s either a master stroke or Chipmunks: The Road Chip. ParentPre- desperate times.” views.com notes that “potty humor A look at the wild state of road trip aLind flatulence jokes are used.” Road films finds a few key trends: Chip has quietly rolled to $81 million Crude is king w(17%). A steady stream of major studio Some are critically acclaimed R-rated road trip comedies have flowed Film historian Leonard Maltin says into theaters, ranging from July’s Vaca- quality road adventures are out there, tion (a successor to 1983’s National Lam- they’re just harder to find. Jim Carrey, Rob poon’s Vacation) to 2014’s Tammy. The “There’s unlimited life in road trip Riggle and Jeff rebirth is partly strategic nostalgia. movies, even if it hasn’t yielded great Daniels in ‘Dumb “We’re seeing more of these because results of late,” Maltin says. “It’s a sta-

and Dumber To.’ Photo Credit: Lionsgate, Universal

34 TROLLEYWOOD 35 Propmaster ple of the storytelling process, because it’s all about what happens getting here to there.” Maltin points to Lily Tomlin’s Furious 7’s Grandma, as well as Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg in The End of the Tour, as “sturdy” independent examples in Wrecked 2015. Road trip movies are evolving Grandma writer/director Paul Weitz says the urge to get out and explore Cars America, the essence of many great road trip movies, has lessened in the modern age. Steve Knopper “People are having road trips on their iPads,” Weitz says. “Before, if you wanted to have these experiences, you had to get up and go somewhere.” Meanwhile, Weitz believes the genre is heading into bold new worlds, Filmmakers destroyed 230 cars for Furious like spaceships. “In a weird way, (the 7. A look at where they are now new) is a road trip movie with all that stuff happening in the Mil- lennium Falcon.” After 1983’s The future could get odder. ‘National Lampoon’s ot long after stuntpeople for chase exists somewhere in the world. “Once there are self-driving cars, Vacation,’ a grown- N Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodri- “It was kind of unusual, to see some that will take it to a whole new level,” up crew hit the road guez and the rest of the Furious 7 relatively late-model Mercedes-Benzes, Weitz says. Lily Tomlin and in 2015’s ‘Vacation.’ crew filmed their usual death-de- all crunched up and good for nothing,” Julia Garner in fying car chases on a twisty moun- Mr. Jansen says. ‘Grandma.’ Originally published in USA Today tain road west of Colorado Springs, How cars are built and prepped Colo., Richard Jansen received a for action movies has been well docu- call. Somebody from the movie mented: The process involves mechan- had seen his “we buy junk cars” ics, roll cages, drag tires and fuel cells. highway sign, and wondered if the But after the movie ends, what happens owner of Bonnie’s Car Crushers to the cars that parachute out of planes, could haul away 20 or 30 vehicles plunge off cliffs and get run over by smashed beyond repair, including tanks? several black Mercedes-Benzes, a “It’s pretty easy,” says Dennis Mc- Ford Crown Victoria and a Mitsub- Carthy, picture car coordinator for the ishi Montero. “Sure,” Mr. Jansen Fast and the Furious franchise, whose said. latest installment, Furious 7, premieres Then Mr. Jansen and his crew, in theaters this week. The film crew has based in nearby Penrose, spent several to follow a specific protocol, document- days loading the cars onto a semitrailer ing every step for both accounting and truck to haul them away. Filmmakers liability reasons, he says. “We have to insisted he shred or crush them all, to account for every single car destroyed prevent anyone from fixing one up and in each film.” getting hurt in a damaged movie car. So Fast and Furious filmmakers wreck today, a large, black, scrap-metal Benz hundreds of cars every movie—more cube once driven in a “Furious 7” car than 230 alone for Furious 7. For 2013’s Photo Credit: Universal, Sony Classics, and Warner Bros. Pictures

36 TROLLEYWOOD 37 Fast & Furious 6, when a tank bursts out Steve McQueen’s wrecked Mustang in of a military transport and flattens nu- 1968’s , according to the histori- merous cars on a highway in Tenerife cal car website MustangSpecs.com. (A Island, Spain, Mr. McCarthy’s people second Mustang, used mostly for the made deals with local junkyards and high-speed driving scenes, wound up used-car lots. “We’d wreck 25 cars a in the hands of collectors.) Of the 300 day, they’d come out at night, scoop highflying Dodge Chargers that rotated ‘em up and bring us 25 more,” he says. into production as the orange General “It was a round-the-clock process, with Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard TV show multiple tow trucks and car carriers.” in the early 1980s, many were recycled For 2011’s Fast Five, in which the “Fu- into set cars for the background of the rious” crew haul a massive bank vault show. Others went to the junkyard, through Puerto Rico, filmmakers struck sometimes not for long. “There were a deal with the government to transport people down in the South that would used cars inexpensively from San Juan’s actually go to the junkyards and try to wrecking yard to the set, destroy them, restore them,” recalls Craig R. Baxley, a then deliver them back to the yard. veteran stunt coordinator and director After filming the Furious 7 moun- who worked on the show. tain-highway chase on Colorado’s As car-chase movies have evolved Monarch Pass, the car crew stowed its from cult classics to multimillion-dollar crashed cars in the parking lot of the franchises, Hollywood car wranglers small nearby Monarch Ski Resort. Mr. have strengthened their policies for dis- The Furious 7 crew hired Bonnie’s Car Jansen had two days to remove them posing of smashed cars. Nobody wants Crushers to clean so the resort could prepare for its open- to be sued when a fan makes off with a up after smashing ing season. “We probably destroyed restored Mini Cooper from The Bourne cars while filming in 40-plus vehicles just shooting that se- Identity and drives it down a flight of Colorado. quence,” Mr. McCarthy says. stairs. “I don’t handle anything that In the early days of car-chase mov- has a roll cage in it, like a stunt car—we ies, producers arranged to haul the will automatically get rid of them,” says smashed cars to junkyards and forgot Ray Claridge, president of 39-year-old about them. This is what happened to Cinema Vehicles Services in Los Ange-

Ray Claridge, owner of Cinema Vehicles Services, poses next to an under-restoration Eleanor, the modified A view inside one 1967 Ford Mustang of the garages of piloted by Nicholas Cinema Vehicle Cage in Gone in 60

Services Photo Credit: Jeffy Curry, David Walter Banks for the Wall Street Journal Seconds.

38 TROLLEYWOOD 39 les, which recycles and junks cars de- says producer Richard Kobritz, who is stroyed or damaged in films. “I don’t today president of Columbia College like the liability issues.” Hollywood. “One ended up in Arizona Two years ago, Mr. Claridge and his at one of the car auctions and went for crew assembled 150 vehicles for Cap- about $164,000. Then somebody in Flor- tain America: The Winter Soldier. After ida bought it. He called me three weeks the movie finished filming in Cleve- ago to verify it.” land, they showed up to find them in Every now and then, a stuntperson varying stages of destruction at a ware- who drives a famous car finds a way to house. It took five 18-hour days to sort bring it home. Two of the 1970 Novas them into two categories: the no-hope that Kurt Russell’s character Stunt- vehicles, including a city bus, went to man Mike souped up and smashed in a local wrecking yard for crushing. The Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof were remaining 40 or so returned to Los An- destroyed, “straight to the junk pile,” geles for recycling. says Buddy Lee Hooker, stunt coordi- The stories of what happened to nator for that movie. But Mr. Hooker crashed vehicles in big-screen car kept a third version, used mostly for chases can be as dramatic as the mov- background shots. Mr. Hooker occa- ies themselves. After 1983’s Chris- sionally visits his friend, Mr. Tarantino. tine, about Stephen King’s demon car, The stuntman takes the Death Proof filmmakers sold and donated the two Nova and the director drives the Pussy Plymouth Fury cars that survived the Wagon from Kill Bill: Volume 1. “Every on-screen destruction: MTV auctioned once in a while, we’ll go for a little one of them, and a Santa Cruz, Calif., drive,” he says. public-radio station auctioned another. Advertisement “We bought and cannibalized 25 Plym- Originally published in the Wall Street ouths. We ended up smashing, beyond Journal recognition or repair, 15 of those,”

As car-chase movies evolved from cult classics to multimillion- dollar franchises, Hollywood car wranglers strengthened their policies for disposing of smashed cars. Photo Credit: David Walter Banks for the Wall Street Journal

40 TROLLEYWOOD 41 TV Throwback Dyke), the dutiful son, is that he was a trusting and dull dullard. His wife and kids were as generic and forgettable as Jerry Van Dyke they come. His arch nemesis, Captain Mother of All starred in the failed Manzini, would have been more at sitcom from 1965- home as a villain on Batman, but only 1966 on the weeks the writers decided he Failures should be. The 1928 Porter, as seen in the se- ries, did not exist. A 1924 Ford T-tub hot rod, built by Norman Grabowski, was modified to turn it into the car seen on the series. A second “effects car” was built by George Barris for the scenes re- quiring the car to seemingly drive itself, move its headlights, and the like. Despite a universal lambasting by the critics and lousy ratings, MMTC In 2002, TV Guide named My Mother the was kept on the air by NBC for a full Car second worst show of all time. It was season opposite Rawhide on CBS and Combat on ABC. It probably is remem- beaten only by The Jerry Springer Show. bered today thanks to , who made it a frequent punchline for years to come.

or almost fifty years, My Mother planted six feet under to possess (or re- Orginally published at TV.com F the Car has remained a punch- possess) a car. line, easily the most infamous of The premise, in a nutshell, is that all the “What idiot thought THIS Dave Crabtree is a lawyer whose was a good idea?” sitcoms to hit momma takes a break from pushing the air. Just how did a comedy up daisies to return and take over the about the spirit of a man’s dead body of a 1928 Porter. She talks to him mother inhabiting an old automo- through the radio speaker. His wife is bile get on TV? Barbara and his two young kids are In hindsight, it had to happen. Randy and Cindy. The wealthy, evil During the 1960s, the network sched- Captain Manzini is always trying to get ules were overrun with comedies his hands on Dave’s car to complete his based on completely unrealistic and automobile collection. usually lame-brained premises. There As with anything, it’s the execu- was a talking horse (Mr. Ed), a Martian tion of the idea that matters most. A being passed off as an uncle (My Favor- show such as Bewitched demonstrates ite Martian), a genie servant to an astro- how charm, a great cast, and the right naut (I Dream of Jeannie), a with “touch” can turn an unbelievable prem- a robot girlfriend (My Living Doll), an ise into an entertaining series. MMTC, average American family made up of on the other hand, was extremely pe- movie monsters (The Munsters), another destrian. Despite the lurid hook, it was Called a 1928 Porter family of creepy oddballs (The Addams a rather lame undertaking. None of the on the show, the Family), and the most unrealistic family characters on the series had any actual vehicle was actually of weirdos of them all, the Nelsons (The character or personality; they were just cobbled together from several cars. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet). In this “types.” The only thing that could be body was that of a context, it’s not such a leap for a woman said about Dave Crabtree (Jerry Van 1924 Ford Model T. Photo Credit: Sitcomsonline.com, Consumer Guide

42 TROLLEYWOOD 43 ideas: a fish with hands, which swims ie in the truest sense—something for Rewind Review breast stroke; a consumer creature the little kids who watch the same with a trumpet snout, who ingests the sort of punning stories, infinitely less whole world, decanting people out of nonviolent and refined, on television; From 1968: a glass ball, by means of a hole that has something for the older kids, whose been picked up from an op polka-dot musical contribution to the arts and field of right-side up and upside-down longings for love and gentleness and holes; a submarine that is convertible color could hardly present a better Yellow into a bravely smiling fish; a fort that case; something for parents, who disgorges a cavalry charge against can see the best of what being newly Indians, and a cigarette lighter. The young is all about. Hard Day’s Night Submarine Dantesque landscape of otherworldly and Help! were more serious, and types; the Alice in Wonderland snails; more truly Beatle saturated. But Yel- mushrooms; trains emerging from low Submarine, with its memories of Renata Adler under sinks; bleachings of color from Saturday morning at the movies, and hyperactive corridors; teeny weeny its lovely Oswald the Rabbit in Can- Meanies, and particularly the thistles dyland graphics, makes the hooking are drawn with such care and amiabil- up and otherwise commingling very ity by Heinz Edelmann. (He is not so possible. When invited to, the whole good on people or anthropomorphic audience picks up the “All together types: they tend to Popeye distortions now” refrain and sings. below the waist, and undistinguished ellow Submarine, which opened “That things are not as rosy as they faces above.) Not a great film, after all, Originally published in the New York Y yesterday at the Forum and Tow- appear to be underneath the surface?” but truly nice. Times er East, is the Beatles’s first feature “There’s a cyclops?”; “But he’s got Still from Yellow Yellow Submarine is a family mov- length cartoon, designed, for the most two eyes?” A bicyclops; “Black, Blue, Submarine part beautifully, by Heinz Edelmann, White, Red. Can I take my friend to in styles ranging through Steinberg, bed” (“Can I bring my friend to tea” Arshile Gorky, Bob Godfrey (of the is another refrain); “Tell us where short film The Do It Yourself Cartoon we’re at,” The Socratic question—the Kit), the Sgt. Pepper , and whole movie, alternately washed and day comic strip. The Phantom appears. hard edge, art nouveau, and full of So do many other pop art and com- flowering shrubs and thistles, is full ics characters. (’s inspired of enfolded meanings, jokes, puns— Moon Maid would not have been out some of them lemon-infantile, none of place.) of them aggressive, pretentious, or The story concerns the kingdom self-indulgent—that would delight a of Pepperland, invaded by the Blue child, or a head, or anybody who loves Meanies, the only antidote to whom and admires the Beatles, even though is music. There are twelve songs, this is a film in which they either redo most of them from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely old songs or appear once, in person, Hearts Club Band, and it becomes clear briefly, in one of their worst acted ap- throughout the film not only that the pearances ever. “Come on. The whole rhythm of movie direction (by George world is being attacked”; “Hook up, Dunning) and the rhythms of mu- and otherwise commingle”; “All to- sic are meant for each other, but also gether now”—these are the lines in that any human occasion demands— which the Beatles, with their special before pictures, before prose even— talent, life, and energy, launch their something in music. unfrenetic, unhardsell, upbeat mes- “Do you ever get the feeling...?” sage to the world.

“Yeah.” There are completely lovely visual Photo Credit: Invisible Work, Cinapse.co

44 TROLLEYWOOD 45 Anthropomorphic Profile The Magic School Bus

he bus is “very unusual” and sometimes T seems to have a mind of its own. It is capable of shrinking and expanding, as well as transforming itself into many kinds of items, most commonly as robotic animals in order to blend in with the environ- ment in safari-type field trips. When it shrinks, so do its passen- gers, and occasionally, when the bus Advertisement returns to its normal size when something was left behind, the other item is set back to normal too, like in “Gets Eaten”. It is usually completely under Ms. Friz- transforming into multiple objects, ranging from a zle’s or Liz’s control, although in certain episodes speck of pollen to a time machine to a small planet. the bus exhibits independent, even irrational, It is interesting to note that some of the bus’ tech- behavior: in “The Magic School Gets Ready, Set, nologies also have specific names. Dough,” the bus malfunctions with size despite For example, the device that allows the bus to Ms. Frizzle trying to fix it; in “The Magic School shapeshift is called the “Mesmerglober”, and the Bus Holiday Special”, the bus disassembles itself device that allows it to change size is called the into raw materials (while scowling), after having “Shrinkerscope”, (a portable version is called the done so to several other structures (though Wanda Porta-shrinker). In some transformations, the bus did angrily slam her fists in the bus’s hood before itself comes in different colours. The dew-dinger is it self-disassembled); and in “The Magic School the device used to indicate whether the Shrinker- Bus In The City”, the bus after becoming a bear scope is wet, in which case it won’t work. wanders off from the class into the city looking for Some episodes have featured the class having food. to deal with problems in the Bus itself, such as a Its abilities are due to unspecified, magical ad- field trip to a bakery being jeopardised when the ditions—the origins of which are never fully ex- bus shrank unexpectedly, and another trip requir- plained, although it would appear that the new ing the class to shrink down and travel through components are subtle enough to avoid attract- the bus itself after its engine was clogged by an ing much attention from outsiders as the bus is inspector’s peanut butter sandwich. often seen undergoing inspection without any- one commenting on them—the Bus is capable of Originally published on Wikidpedia Photo Credit: Michael Harris

46 TROLLEYWOOD