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The Time Machine (1960) - Part 1

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:34 pm    Post subject: The Time Machine (1960) - Part 1 Reply with quote

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The Time Machine - part 1
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This post is in three parts so that the large number of pictures won't have to load all at once for you to enjoy it!

When you finish part 1, just click on the link at the botom to go directly to part 2!

Parts 1 and 2 are locked so that all replies will be posted under part 3. Very Happy

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Here's a special package deal for members of All Sci-Fi. To put yourself in the proper mood for this post, watch the wonderful fan-made trailer at the link below, skillfully edited and blended with familiar music from films like Dragonheart..

Its terrific!


_____ The Time Machine (1960) Trailer (Fan Made)


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And of course, this thread comes with a music soundtrack — an All Sci-Fi exclusive Special Feature!

Click on the links below and let YouTube play the original motion picture soundtrack for The Time Machine while you read the post.

A gentleman posted two YouTube videos on which we see and hear him playing the rare soundtrack album.

Of course, you won't be watching his video, just listening to it while you read this post. A low volume setting is recommended.

There are two separate videos to play the entire album because — naturally — he has to turn the album over to side B. Very Happy

This is an experiment in virtual time travel, so be prepared for goofy personal stories along the way. I think you'll be amused and entertained.

Enjoy!
Very Happy

___________The Time Machine 1960 MGM Score


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The year was 1960, the three boys were 12-years old, and one of them was lucky enough to have a mother who was a science fiction fan.

I was the lucky one. Very Happy

My mother had taken me to see numerous sci-fi movies throughout my adolescent years, despite my father's secret belief that such movies would cause me to turn out all weird and geeky and nerdy.

He was right, course. Dad was a wise man.

Thank God my mother didn't always give him his way. Very Happy

And so, when my two buddies (Jimmy and Chuck) and I saw the newspaper ad for The Time Machine in the summer of 1960, we begged and pleaded and promised our parents we'd make all A's on our first report cards in the 6th grade if they'd take us to see it.

I don't remember what grades we got that year, but I sure as shootin' remember that movie — and several late-night debates about time travel the three of us had at our respective houses whenever we had sleepovers so we could watch the late show on channel 5 — The Big Movie Shocker, with it's ka-razy host, Bestoink Dooley.

The three of us had become friends in 1959, when we found ourselves sentenced to nine agonizing months in Mrs. Hughes' 5th grade class. Confused

One day, earlier in the school year, Jimmy became the hero of the class by defying the Horrible Mrs. Hughes when she caught Jimmy humming during one of her silent "work periods", and she ordered him to stand in front of the entire class and sing a song for us!

Completely undaunted, Jimmy quietly asked the old battleaxe what song he should sing. Caught flat-footed by his cool attitude, she said, "You can pick any song you want!"

Jimmy walked over to the bookshelves, climbed up onto a chair, and found a song book on the top shelf. He spent the next ten minutes standing on that chair, calmly leafing through the book, looking for just the right song, while the class giggled at Mrs. Hughes' red and angry face. She continued to teach the class during Jimmy's display of Gandhi-style passive resistance, but she scolded Jimmy once for taking so long.

He just smiled and said, "I want to find a good one."

Did I mention that Jimmy's father was a lawyer? No surprise, huh? Never let the judge or the jury see you sweatin' . . . Very Happy

When he finally announced he was ready, Jimmy stood tall and proud at the front of the class and delivered a rendition of You Are My Sunshine in a voice so sweet and clear that all the young boys proposed to all the girls, and all the girls accepted.

Chuck and I vowed right then and there to follow the gallant Sir Jimmy to the gates of hell for standing up to that hideous dragon who tortured us for an entire school year.

And that, boys and girls, was how I met Jimmy.

Chuck and I had already been friends for a few months prior to this — and we still remain so to this day. Chuck was the inspiration for "Carl Ladinsky", one of the four main characters in my novel, The Hero Experience. (<— link)

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Jimmy, I'm sad to report, died in 1978 while shooting news footage for WXIA TV in Atlanta. He was setting up his camera to photograph a passenger train, the last one still running between Atlanta and Chattanooga. He was crouched down near the track to get a dramatic shot of the train as it went by, and he was struck by it.

If I had a time machine, I could go back and save him.

Chuck and I were pallbearers at Jimmy's funeral.

But twelve-year old boys think they'll live forever, and the three of us certainly did a fine piece of living on that warm September weekend when my mother took us to a downtown theater to see for The Time Machine.

I did a Google search to find out what theater showed The Time Machine in Atlanta in 1960, and I found this item at a site called Cinema Treasures, the second post by a user named Don K, about halfway down the page.

http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=3&theater_id=2468]


Don K. wrote:
October 18, 2006 at 3:56 pm

RODAN played at the Paramount Theatre, next door to the Loew’s Grand. During the 1950’s the Paramount booked a lot of “B” movies, particularly science fiction and horror films.

The Loew's Grand rarely booked sci-fi, fantasy films. Notable exceptions were . . . FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956), George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE (1960) & ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT (1961) . . .

Trust me, I attended both of these theaters often in the 1950's and 1960's!

Seeing the name "Don K" was kind of a shock. Shocked

By an odd coincidence, my two friends and I where close friends with a guy named Don Krarr in the 1960s who lived on the north side of town. Jimmy introduced us to him in 1963 when we rode the bus across Atlanta to see Jason and the Argonauts for the first time — another extremely memorable day in my life.

I haven't heard from Don in many years, but this guy just might be him!

It's even possible that Don was in the audience in 1960 when my mother took the three us to see THE TIME MACHINE at the Lowes's Grand! I mean, that's no less likely than the weird coincidence that occurred when I picked a picture of a local theater for my Mysterious Island post and just happened to use a shot of the same local theater Wayne (orzel-w) attended when he was a kid, right?

Wow. Small world . . .

The Loew's Grand was the site of Gone with the Wind's world premiere, so this historic theater was quite the movie palace, back in it's day.



Unfortunately it burned down in 1978 . . . the same year Jimmy died. But for several decades this was the kind of movie palace that's now . . . well . . . gone with the wind.

It was apparently a fun place to see a movie. Where else could you go to watch a Western and actually have to step over horse manure to buy your ticket! Very Happy



Gee, look at the muscular legs on those little fillies, eh? Wink

So back in 1960, three excited young boys and a kind-hearted mother with above average intelligence and a fertile imagination headed down the sidewalk towards the Loew's Grand, all a dither with excitement when they saw the title on the marquee (which you'll have to imagine while admiring this picture from 1953).



We bought our tickets, hit the snack bar for popcorn and sodas, and took our seats in that grand old theater — which was about the size of the Lockheed Aircraft assembly plant.

And from this picture taken in 1932, the Loew's Grand Theater used to be . . . even bigger . . . (Click on the photo and find out more.)



My mother and her trio of goggle-eyed space cadets managed not to get lost in this labyrinth and sit down at just the right distance from a screen so large that any closer than a quarter mile would make Leo the Lion look bigger than the Id monster.

The lights went down, and the previews lit up the gigantic screen. Then a cartoon started — and of course it was Woody Woodpecker, the brainchild of Mr. Walter Lantz, a close personal friend of George Pal.

And by God, here it is, folks! (Or one like it.) Enjoy this classic cartoon — compliments of George's friend, Walter, after you pause the YouTube video of the movie's soundtrack.

Very Happy ------------ Very Happy ------------ Very Happy ------------ Very Happy ------------ Very Happy



Very Happy ------------ Very Happy ------------ Very Happy ------------ Very Happy ------------ Very Happy

(After you watch the cartoon, don't forget to start the soundtrack again! Cool

Back at the Loew's Grand, the cartoon ended and a noisy lion told everybody to hush. My group was the first to oblige.



At long last, it was show time. Three twelve-year old boys and a young-at-heart adult wiggled down in their seats and got ready for their first look at a sci-fi classic.



The opening scenes in The Time Machine are amusing and cozy. The audience has no idea what's going on yet, but these fellows certainly look plump and prosperous. Everybody looks prosperous — but Sebastian Cabot looks especially plump.





The clocks up the whazoo on every shelf in the room certainly don't allow us to forget what this movie is about. From the theater seat next to me my mother nudged me and chuckled, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

My family actually had a "bell jar clock" very similar to this one —



— but it never kept time very well, despite the fact that my father was constantly tinkering with it . . . and he was as an aircraft mechanic with Delta Air Lines!



He used to take me to the maintenance hanger and let me play with the air hoses they used to inflate the aircraft tires. I could keep a medium-sized metal washer suspended twenty feet in the air for thirty seconds.

The secret was to use short blast of air each time the washer tried to come down and bounce off my head.

Good old Dad was a mechanic clean to the bone, a man who loved fixin' things. He serviced our cars, our lawnmower, the washer and dryer — everything mechanical we owned and everything structural about the house — not to mention his wayward son whose bad behavior needed fixin' with a good whipping from time to time.

Trust me, I had it comin'. Smile

Dad's basement workshop looked a lot like the one below, with two work benches, a large pegboard filled with tools, and a sanding wheel just like the one on which Rod adjusted his crystal-topped throttle lever.



I still have furniture in my home that Dad built in that workshop. Fine craftsmanship to remind me of my father's skills.

But skilled as he was, and try as he may, Dad never could get that damn bell jar clock to run right!

Anyway, back to the movie.

After a few tense moments between the impatient men in the parlor, caused by the fact that Rod was late for dinner, my mother walked right into the movie! Shocked



Okay, this is not really my mother — but that's always what I think about when I see this movie. I had no way of knowing it back in 1960, but in her senior years my very own sci-fi lovin' mom gradually mutated into Mrs. Watchett!

I'm not exaggerating! She didn't just look a little like Mrs. Watchett — she looked a lot like her!

_

That's my mother on the left. No, wait . . . on the right. (God, this is spooky! Shocked)

So, there I was back in 1960, sitting in a downtown theatre with a woman who would transform slowly into Mrs. Watchett over the next 50 years!

Sometimes life is weird when you don't even know it . . .

Up on the big screen, the gentlemen retired to the dinning room and sat down to eat, but Rod suddenly crashed his own party by showing up several minutes — (and one week) — late for dinner.







Rod gathers his strength and begins to spin a flashback for us — no easy task on an empty stomach — and we all end up right back in the living room, one week earlier, with all those clocks in the background.

Notice the clock behind Rod in the picture below. It doesn't seem to have hands and a face! I don't know why, but I think it's turned around backwards, and we're actually seeing the clockworks from the rear.



When I saw these scenes in the parlor back in 1960, I didn't really associate science fiction with a group of men sitting around smokin' and jokin' and drinkin'. But now I actually do.

Here's why.

Many years ago I coined the phrase Fireside Science Fiction to describe any sci-fi from the Verne and Wells era. I'm sure the term was inspired by this scene from The Time Machine — a group of distinguished men of wealth and education, sitting around a nineteenth century parlor with drinks and cigars, discussing how many dimensions there are.



Some of these guys think there's three dimensions, while Rod insists there's four, and Mr. Bridewell doesn't give a damn one way or the other because he isn't even counting the glasses of wine he's had.



But Rod has planned things so that everybody will sober up real quick just as soon as he opens his ornate wooden box and takes out that gorgeous model of the you-know-what.





We wide-eyed 12-year olds in the audience would have traded all the presents we got last Christmas to own that gorgeous little gizmo, even though we weren't entirely sure what it did yet.





Okay, that's a lie — the movie is called The Time Machine, so we certainly didn't think the gizmo was a mahogany humidor for cigars — even though Rod put one right on the model, bold as brass. Very Happy



Making the miniature prototype of the time machine a perfect replica of the full-sized one was, of course, a clever bit of nonsense on the part of Mr. Pal. He knew that everybody would later wonder why Rod went to all that trouble putting a tiny chair with red upholstery on the model (not to mention all the other details), but George Pal also knew just how extremely cool it looked — and everybody knows that extremely cool makes "nonsense" entirely forgivable.





With a slight assist from the chubby finger of Mr. French (a reference to the future, you might say), the cool little model made strange noises and became very animated (you might say) and it shook up the guests (you might say) before it went all fuzzy and departed for the future.



Notice how the decorations on the disk in the picture below are just painted arcs on the inside — not the real decorations — to simulate blurring from the spinning motion!



Since the spinning disk was done with stop-motion animation, the actual decorations seen in the pictures above would have been crystal clear, because each frame was actually a photograph of the motionless model.

So they painted the blurred decorations onto the disk!







Everybody in Rod's parlor was impressed, even though the men didn't really understand what had just happened.

All the folks in the Loew's Grand Theater were really stoked, too. Wink

The weird occurrence convinced Mr. Bridewell that he was one drink over his limit, and we three kids in the audience chuckled when the tipsy fellow sat his glass down and pushed it away.



Just to put things into perspective, it would be nine long years before any of us kids could legally partake of alcoholic beverages.

But I'm pretty sure the nine years between that day back in 1960 and the day I reached legal drinking age in 1969 was the last time I went nine years without a drink. Very Happy

My friends and I in the Loew's Grand Theater — along with the young "Mrs. Watchett" who had brought us here today — watched Rod desperately try to convince the men that "time changes space". But he didn't have much luck.



As a retired teacher I can say with authority that Rod did a fine job of explaining the concept, but his four middle-aged students just didn't get it, and Mr. French started urging him to take the whole idea to the War Office and see if he could make money with it.



The mind boggles at the thought of how different the world's history would be if Rod had taken a working time machine to the war office back in 1900! Shocked England would have played hell with a little runt named Hitler . . .


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Click on this link to go to:

The Time Machine — part 2

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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