A Clown Named Jack Thum

I watched "Leave 'em Laughing" recently. It's a 1980s Mickey  Rooney TV movie and it's pretty good.

It's the true story of a man who worked as a children's clown for 22 years. The movie was like Patch Adams, but it didn't suck as much.

Whenever I see any movie, I always hit Google afterwards in an odd attempt to find out as much as I possibly can about the film in question. Always. It doesn't even matter if I liked the movie.

This time, I found out more about this wonderful man.

Image from eBay

Jack was an orphan as a child and said he spent "...17 years alone. No one came to visit. No one made me laugh."

Jack decided to make laughter his life's work.

Jack worked as a clown, entertaining kids at hospitals and at home. He and his wife took in 36 children from broken homes and had one daughter together.

The movie starts with Jack working as a clown and coughing... a sure sign that bad things were on the way. No one ever gets cough in a movie and lives to see the closing credits.

Sure enough, Jack had cancer and eventually succumbed to it in 1980 at age 54. A few months before he died, he worked the clown make up one last time (with his grand daughter) to entertain 400 kids at a Halloween party. Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne designated Halloween as Jack Thum Day.

Image from eBay

It's a nice movie and a better story. I like clowns. I never found them scary or creepy. In fact as a kid I wanted to be one.

I also wanted to be a Transformer.

I was a kid and kids are stupid. But thankfully there are nice people like Jack there to entertain them.

Here Come The Tigers

I recently watched a late 1970s Bad News Bears rip off entitled "Here Come the Tigers".

There were two scenes that really stood out to me- from a nostalgic point of view:

 #1 The Star Wars scene:

About halfway through the film we see the kids leaving a theater where they had just seen Star Wars.
They talk about "the force" and it actually plays into the ending of the film.

Regardless, it was really great to see the old lobby cards on display in the case outside an wonderful brick theater.

#2 The arcade:

Shortly after the Star Wars scene we get a scene in an arcade. In addition to some great pre-Pac Man cabinets we get a wacky over sized picture of Robert Redford.

We get a shot of a kid playing Foosball and a 1976 Bi Plane cabinet.

Here we see the kids at a pool table. In the background we see a shuffle bowling game and a Brunswick Air Handball game (which is basically a smaller air hockey game that can be placed against a wall.)

I like the really cool glass with the markings on it. My aunt had a mirror topped coffee table with a similar look. I remember staring at it and trying to find things in the shapes. I was often bored at my aunt's house.
I like seeing the reflections of the pinball machines and it's cool to see the old Sprite can!

It'm not sure if I can recommend the actual film.

It was silly and fun and I sure enjoyed it... but I suppose you'd be better off just seeing Bad News Bears.

Still, Wes Craven was a gaffer on this. That's worth something.

Guy Hutchinson

The Titanic for kids!

Sure adults can enjoy the story of the tragedy at sea, but can kids? Some people decided to find out... or make books and movies.... maybe they weren't really interested in finding out.

First up is White Star! The story of a dog aboard the Titanic. Look at him as he swims to safety! I don't see anyone else in the water... what is going on here?

I also find it interesting that the dog is named White Star and so was the cruise line that launched Titanic. BTW: There were dogs on the Titanic, and a few did survive.

This is Titanicat... 

I hope it's about a giant cat the size of Titanic.

Cats and dogs... how about a Polar Bear:

Alright, I actually read the back cover on this one so I am an expert about it.

This is a story of a teddy bear that a little boy brought on Titanic and took onto the lifeboat with him and brought the bear back to NY.

Now, I know what you are thinking... "this sounds great, but I hate reading. Stupid books!"

I can't agree more. Wanna see a feature length cartoon from Italy about the disaster that features talking mice?

There are 2:

Yes, there are TWO different animated tales of Titanic! I have it on good authority (a YouTube commenter) that one of these films also features a rapping dog.

A RAPPING DOG! I have no idea why I haven't seen these yet. Time to fix that!

Guy Hutchinson

Wrestlemania weekend 2012

I attended Wrestlemania this year in Miami. Like the past several Wrestlemania's there is a whole weekend of stuff to do. My weekend started with the Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the arena where the Miami Heat play:

It was a fun show with some very funny and/or deeply moving speeches. They had at sign outside the door warning the wrestling fans not to act like wrestling fans. 

 Sadly it didn't work.

The inductees this year were Mil Mascaras, Mike Tyson, Edge, The Four Horsemen, Yokozuna and Ron Simmons.

I got a nice shirt with every hall of famer listed on the back:

 I also got some amazing arena junk food:

First stop on day two was the Jackie Gleason theater. There was actually a WWE event nearby, but I would have driven an hour away to see the building where Jackie and Art Carney revived The Honeymooners (in color, no less!)

Out front is a clever stick figure of Jackie. Sadly the building was closed and the doors were locked. I have heard the place may be knocked down soon. I'm glad I got to see it for myself.

Next stop was Wrestlemania Axxess! This is a big event that is essentially a convention for WWE fans.

I got to meet a bunch of WWE stars including Jinder Mahal. Jinder is a stone faced, dull character on TV, but he was really funny in person!

Here is a legend, the great Handsome Harley Race:

Alright, these were just costumed goofballs that Mattel had on hand. But, the funny thing was, the actual Jimmy Hart was on hand as well!

Ricky The Dragon Steamboat:

The Usos:

Macho Man Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth:

 Just kidding, that was Derrick Bateman and Maxine. I barely heard of them either.

Here is former tag champ Heath Slater... greatest WWE name ever:

This guy isn't a wrestler at all, but he does have massive arms. This guy is a WWE superfan of epic proportions. I have seen him in camera shots at live events for as long as I can remember. I spotted him in line for Heath Slater and talked to him for a bit. Super nice guy.

You can see shots of him at old events here.


They have lots of crazy things you can do and see there.

I pretended to be in the Money in the Bank match:

I auditioned to be in a WWE movie:

I saw the limo that blew up on RAW:

and I stood next to a cardboard cutout:

After Axxess I had some sightseeing time and I went to see the Fountainblau hotel. Here are some videos I made:





Then it was time for Wrestlemania! It was held at the open air stadium that the Dolphins play at:

The next day I went to Monkey Jungle:

Here is a painting done by a gorilla:

I also made a Mold-A-Rama figure! Check out this video:

He stands in my basement now:

Then I had some wings over at Rickey's (as seen in the movie The King of Kong) and headed home.

It was a delightful weekend!

Weird laptop thing...

I picked this up weird thing at a thrift shop recently:

It has a working keyboard and an actual mouse (not pictured... the fake mouse on the computer does nothing... ignore the rotate and start buttons.)

The graphics on the screen are ripped off from the internet.
Hey look:

Notice anything?

It came with a cartridge with 48 games:

 The games run on the Nintendo Famicom system (which was the Japanese version of the NES.) Most of the games seem to be ports of old Windows 3.1 programs.

You can type as Mario runs below you.

Not sure how much I will use this silly thing, but I am glad to have it.

Guy Hutchinson

Duck Hunt TV

Here is a neat little project I did this weekend.I was very pleased with the results and it was incredibly easy.

To start out I had an old TV. It was a square TV, but it had a nice flat screen with a bright clear image.

I bought a mount for it on eBay and put it up in my basement:

Look at that TV with it's sweet built in VCR!

I then took an old foam mounted poster I had. A sturdy piece of cardboard would have worked too.

I printed out a bunch of Duck Hunt images:

I included the "laughing dog". I love him. I am surprised to find how many people on the net hated him. It's like 50/50 between "I hate that dog" and "I'd hit dat".

Then I cut the foam board to match the size and shape of the TV leaving a spot for the remote control sensor:

Then I painted it blue and glued on the images on:

Then I just used a staple gun to staple it to the TV:

Not too shabby! Sure hanging the heavy TV was a bit back breaking... and yes, I did get some glares from the cashier at Kinkos after printing the images... but wow. Looks really good!

There is something kind of disorienting about playing Duck Hunt on a TV with a Duck Hunt graphics around the screen.

So I just use it to watch Cheers.

Guy Hutchinson