Every year at this time I watch several versions of A Christmas Carol. It is my favorite show during the holidays. The period in which the story takes place has forever fascinated me. If you are like me the most glaringly obvious sign that a story is taking place in this period is the clothing. Waistcoats, triple breasted vests, high collars and of course the top hat were staples of the day.

The first silk top hat, made from silk shag (a form of plush), was made in 1793. It is not without some measure of controversy that this is credited to one hatter by the name of George Dunnage of Middlesex County in England. The style was never referred to as top hat back then. They were referred to as beaver hats, and Dunnage’s hat made of silk was called ”an imitation of beaver”. Thus the silk top hat came into being. Usage of the actual term top hat did not become popular until later in the 19th century. Dunnage’s father Benjamin was in the ribbon trade, which put George in the place to be knowledgeable of the silk trade. Dunnage and a business partner, Thomas Larkin, went into business together under the name Dunnage & Larkin and patented the manufacturing of silk hats until they disbanded the company and went their separate ways in 1818.

Men wore top hats for business, pleasure and formal occasions. A pearl gray color was worn in the daytime, black colors were used for day or night. They were popular primarily due to making the wearer feel taller, handsomer and suave. If men did not don a top hat you can bet they had some style of hat on. It was a demanded fashion. Men, rich or poor, would not be caught dead without a hat on.

Today, top hats are used for all sorts of special occasions. From weddings to racing events, men can be seen wearing these statuesque hats. Around 1980 the making of silk plush top hats ceased, due to the expense of the materials and the making of new looms. For this reason the antique top hat market has seen a rise in recent years. There are also several companies who craft top of the line top hats of newer materials. While still maintaining the grand look of old, the originals will always remain as a symbol of nobility, status, and sophistication.

I personally will always see Ebenezer Scrooge wearing his top hat along with the Mad Hatter, Uncle Sam, Abe Lincoln, Fred Astaire and of course Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat. Yes that’s right they are all sitting in a room playing poker and eating peanuts and cookies. Seriously!

Happy Holidays!

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Evel Knievel Cycle Toy

In 1973, New York based Ideal Toys created toys based on Butte Montana’s daredevil son, Robert “Evel” Knievel and history was made! Many thanks to Rob Chatlin for the terrific scans. My brother and I wer elucky enough to get one of these each.  I LOVED this toy. You hooked the bike up to a crank stand, cranked a bit and it revved up the friction motor in the toy bike so that the wheels spun.  You slapped a release and OFF IT WENT!  endless hours of annoying crank noise, but once again no batteries required. I think it was about 75 when we actually got one of these.

Shogun Warriors Godzilla

The shogun warriors toys were some of the coolest robots on the planet already but then in 1977 they released the BEAST.  One Christmas morning I woke to unwrap this one of the coolest toys I ever got.  His claws fire off with enough force to knock things down. His tongue flashed a fake flame stream, he rolled on wheels, and he didn’t need batteries. My brother and I spent endless hours roaring and having fun with these toys. I think it was in the early eighties when i got one these.

Stretch Armstrong

Stretch Armstrong was a large stretchable, gel filled, toy figure invented by Kenner that was made from 1976 through about 1980.  You could pull the dolls extremities from its original 15 inch size out to about 3 to 4 feet.  I spent many a fun filled day playing with this toy.  Its simplicity belies a really fun toy you can do a LOT with.  I wrapped this guy around everything.  My brother got the green monster which I was insanely jealous of.  Love ya bro!

Merlin Game

One of the very first hand held electrinic games.  It was not just one game but SIX.  Don’t let the seemingly simple buttons fool you. THis game was fun.  It was invented by a guy that went to Harvard and worked with NASA.  While it was invented and marketed in 1978, it was in the eighties when I got my hands on one.  I spent hours playing this thing. It is so additctive and memorable that I recently received the updated, rereleased version from a friend.  Thanks Jimbo.

Sectaurs

The concept was simple: good humanoid bug people and evil, less-humanoid bug people do battle atop giant insect mounts. But what set this line apart was the fact that many of the ride-on bugs were actually puppets. I had this creepy, hairy spider puppet with a plastic head and a snapping, finger-controlled mandible that I would have enjoyed the hell out of, even if there wasn’t a creepy spider-headed guy riding on his friggin’ back. In the ’80s we got these guys, we got a dragon-head puppet that came with Hordak’s hide-out in MotU. Nowadays, puppets and action figures are kept segregated. Who among us is brave enough to bring them back together?

Magical Musical  Thing

One of the earliest electronic toys I can recall. Sometime after 1978 Mattel created what I consider the precursor to the 80s music staple the keytar. It played surreal, reedy phone-like tones on a plastic membrane pad fretboard, laid out like a piano scale.

Read-a-long books with cassettes

In the days before computers, DVD and VHS, this was the next best thing for reliving a movie or a TV show. From Goonies to A-Team, Star Wars to Mary Poppins, they made them all!

So there you have it.  Toys from my childhood xmas memories.  Enjoy!

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2. Xmas poem by Paul Gilmartin

I know that many do generally because they always have and don’t want to change. Some even say that it should be replaced by a more inclusive, general holiday. Part of me feels that all such holidays should be ignored by atheists altogether.  A more humane holiday should be global and universal, equally relevant to all humans, regardless of their cultural heritage or where they live.

The idea that xmas is a purely christian holiday is actually a myth perpetuated by the majority that happen to actually be christians. (link to post on this here) Many atheists don’t believe that Jesus existed, and those who do don’t regard him as having been anyone special. No atheists are christians, so why bother participating in such a holiday? It’s arguable that participating makes christianity seem more popular than it really is, not to mention giving christians an unjustified ego boost.

                I feel that atheists celebrating xmas can often cause more harm than good by arming conservative evangelical christians with the perceived argument that America is essentially a christian nation. The more popular and important christian holidays are in America, the easier it is to claim that there is something about christianity which is fundamental to America’s culture. It’s not a very good argument and this isn’t very good support for it, but why offer them even this bit of help?

Long ago I lost the struggle being an atheist parent who celebrates xmas, weather or not to perpetuate the Santa Claus myth. This required me to lie to my kids. Yes, it is a lie. There’s not a nicer way of describing what one does when telling small children that Santa Claus visits every house on the planet delivering presents to children via a flying sleigh pulled by “magic” ruminants.  If I had it to do it over I would have left this out of my children’s lives Aside from the joy of engrossing oneself in pure fantasy I find no value in it. In fact in many ways I feel it may even be a mild form of indoctrination.  There are always very strong incentives to do what other parents are doing. Not celebrating xmas and not telling kids about Santa could have caused my children to be ostracized from others above and beyond what simply being an atheist tends to do already.  At the same time, though, the numbers of religious minorities who also don’t participate are increasing, thus increasing the numbers of kids who are “different.” Being different isn’t easy, but who wants to be a hypocrite just to fit in?

One possible reason for atheists to celebrate xmas is that it has become increasingly secularized over time and there is little sign of the process stopping soon. Arguments against xmas remain, but atheist participation in xmas actually helps serve the cause of removing it from its various christian and pagan roots. There are good reasons why many christians are upset over the current state of christmas, and those may be good reasons for atheists to keep the changes in motion.

Some folks will read this and think it is an attack on a cherished holiday. Others may take away that I am a hard-line non- conformist that wants to openly besmirch christianity in general.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  I enjoy all the pagan, secular aspects of the holiday.  I just don’t like the feeling of being under fire that comes along with its observance.

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This eerie quote from Halloween 3: Season of the witch made me wonder what wattles and clay and turf might be.  It’s always good to learn new things.  Keep reading to be enlightened.

Turf is an old Celtic word for compressed peat used as fuel. This is fitting since modern Halloween is based on the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain. Peat forms when plant material, usually in marshy areas, is inhibited from decaying fully by acidic and anaerobic conditions. It is composed mainly of marshland vegetation: trees, grasses, fungi, as well as other types of organic remains, such as insects, and animal remains. Peat is soft and easily compressed. Under pressure, water in the peat is forced out. Upon drying, peat can be used as a fuel.  Ireland and Scotland suffer from a scarcity of trees so peat is traditionally used for cooking and domestic heating. Stacks of drying peat dug from the bogs can still be seen in some rural areas.

Wattles and clay or daub are the terms used to describe an ancient building process. Walls are constructed using a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle. These walls are then daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6,000 years, and is still an important construction material in many parts of the world.

Now go watch Halloween 3.

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I was lucky enough to have been of trick or treating age in the late seventies through the eighties. Costumes at this time, at least for budget conscious parents like mine, were usually found in cardboard boxes with a cellophane window revealing the day glow goodness inside.

They usually came with a plastic jumpsuit having the consistency of a trash bag, a thin, brightly colored, vacuformed plastic mask with eye-holes, and a rubber band that was notorious for snagging your hair to hold the mask in place. I still remember to this day the wafting smell of strong plastic as my brother and I would open our boxed delights to try them on.

Ben Cooper Inc. was one of the three largest Halloween costume manufacturers in the U.S. from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. Halloween was synonymous with Ben Cooper products for many children. The variety and simplicity of the little synthetic outfits, paired with the company’s savvy licensing division, made them staples of the season, until an early ’80s damper that brought on a decade of financial woes and eventually bankrupted the company.

Ben Cooper costumes are still highly collectible and very retro cool.  The fact that this company shares my name is pretty cool too.

I miss the good old days.

Happy Halloween!

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In honor of Halloween I have for you my list of the best FX artists in Horror.

Lon Chaney

Due to his ability to portray an endless variety of characters, Lon became known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces.” Chaney was famous for both his commitment to his roles and his artistry applying makeup. He professed that his stock in trade as “was in makeup and the art of pantomime.”

Most famous for:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, Mr. Wu, London After Midnight

Jack Pierce

The Universal Studios Master who’s diminutive stature may be the reason he turned to effects work in the first place.  Jack gave us many of the movie beasts we have come to love.

Most famous for:

Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolfman, White Zombie

Robert Kurtzman/Gregory Nicotero/Howard Berger (KNB Studios)

These fine fellows founded KNB Studios in the 1980′s and have been involved in so many films off and on since that its tough to separate out the individuals achievements of each.  Rest assured they have had their collective hands in hundreds of your favorite horror flicks.

Most famous for: 

Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Nightmare on Elm Street 5, Scream, In the Mouth of Madness

Giannetto De Rossi

Lucio Fulci’s gore master from the late seventies and early eighties made the walking dead amusing and disturbing in ways never seen on-screen.  Fans of zombie flicks should be familiar with his grotesquely-realized gags such as pierced eyeballs and flesh-eating spiders.

Most famous for:

Zombi, Dune, High Tension, Conan the Destroyer

Carlo Rambaldi

Rambaldi has the distinction of being the first special effects artist to be required to prove that his work on a film was not ‘real’. Dog-mutilation scenes in the 1971 film A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin were so convincingly visceral that its director, Lucio Fulci, was prosecuted for offences relating to animal cruelty. Fulci would have served a two-year prison sentence had Rambaldi not exhibited the film’s array of props to a courtroom, proving that the scene was not filmed using real animals.

Most famous for:

E.T., Alien, Dune, King Kong, Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Tom Savini

You know Savini’s work if you have watched movies in the last 30 years.  He is a true master in every sense of the word.  His effects brought us some of the most realistic zombies around. Savini’s artistry was actually born from real-life experiences following a stint as a combat photographer in Vietnam in the late ’60s. As a result he came to understand the non-Hollywood-ized details of real death.

Most famous for:

Dawn of the Dead, The Burning,  Friday the 13th, Creepshow

Dick Smith

Smith Smith pioneered the method of applying prosthetics made from foam latex in small pieces as opposed to the standard of applying a latex mask as one solid piece.Smith’s technique allowed the actor to have a wide range of facial expressions, making the makeup appear more natural. Despite initial criticism from many professional makeup artists at the time, Smith’s makeup techniques proved to be superior. Today, the standard of applying prosthetics are those that Smith invented.

Most Famous for:

Scanners, Taxi Driver, Altered States, The Godfather, Amadeus, The Exorcist

Rob Bottin

A protege of another famous FX artist in this list at the tender age of 14, founder of his own studio at 18 and Oscar winner. Bottin is without question one of the best. Few can boast the résumé Bottin has crafted.  If his only credit had been John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi/horror classic – on which he worked for 57 grueling weeks straight – Rob Bottin would still be hailed as one of the greatest special effects artists in the history of cinema.

Most Famous for:

The Howling, The Thing, The Fog, Cantina Scene in Star Wars, Legend, Mimic, Fight Club

Rick Baker

As a teen, Baker began creating artificial body parts in his own kitchen.  His first job was assisting another great FX artist on the set of the Exorcist. He has gone on to teach multitudes of other artists the trade and win more academy awards than any other in his field to date.  He is responsible, in my opinion, for the greatest werewolf transformation ever captured on film.  he is particular noted for his ability to recreate realistic animals, especially great apes.

Most Famous for:

Its alive, American Werewolf in London, King Kong, Star Wars, Videodrome, Thriller music video, Harry and the Hendersons, Hellboy, the list goes on and on.

Stan Winston

When picking from the two grand old masters of FX, Winston wins over Baker in my book, but its a super close call.  Winston passed away in 2008 but in his nearly 60 years in the field he gave us pure unadulterated magic.  From killer robots to giant dinosaurs, cursed monsters to evil Aliens.  Winston was the first to truly break FX ground when computers began to take over the world.

Most Famous for:

The Wiz, Terminator parts 1 and 2, Aliens, Monster Squad, Pumpkinhead, Edward Scissor hands, Jurassic Park, Wrong turn, Constantine, the list goes on and on and REALLY on.

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