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Feb 15

Pog Panic

 

POG matches played on school playgrounds during the 90s often resembled gambling.

During the early 1990s a game emerged from Hawaii that would, like a Hurricane, take the nation’s youth by storm. From coast to coast, children of the 90s were playing “Pog”—a simple, bizarrely popular game that was traditionally played with milk bottle caps. The caps were originally made of cardboard and stapled shut onto the lids of the containers. Hawaiian children would collect these caps, stack them, and take turns throwing a heavier cap to slam on top of the stack. Overturned caps were counted as points, thus, the object of the game was to flip over as many caps as possible. When the stack was depleted, whoever retained the most caps was proclaimed the winner.

In 1993 Alan Rypinski turned the idea into a multi-million dollar business venture known as the World Pog Federation. Pogs were so common that the Federation’s lawyers compared the legal battle for the Pogs trademark similar to the ones endured by Coke, Kleen-ex, and Q-tip. With many imitators vieing for the “Milk Cap” market, World Pog reached marketing agreements with major companies like Warner Bros. to differentiate their product. According to the New York times, “A packet of caps cost a quarter and up, while collectibles could run as high as several dollars.” It was only a matter of time before this value system translated to the school playground, creating problems within grade schools across the nation.

More often than not, the game was played primarily for fun and all caps were returned to their rightful owners as the match came to an end. Though, to some, playing for fun was not enough to elicit the feeling of true excitement (or competition). When children discovered the exchange value for highly sought after Pogs, a moral panic struck a nerve in the elementary educational system across America. More and more children were playing for “keepsies” on the playground. Adding to the already violent motion of “slamming” plastic and metal objects onto concrete, children who did not adhere to the rules, or who were not accustomed to losing often, would duke it out to reclaim their prescious Pogs. Due to the violence and resemblance to gambling, parents and school administrators saw the game as a threat to the moral interests of their children. As a result, Pogs were banned indefinitely from schools and the trending game quickly died out shortly thereafter.  

 

Feb 15

La Belle Diaperina

In Glad Rags to Riches, Shirley Temple plays La Belle Diaperina. Diaperina is a showgirl in a night club that is stuck in a life she despises. The club owner wants Temple for himself, forcing her to perform until she marries him. She refuses and wishes that her sweetheart would save her. Her sweetheart, Elmer, just so happens to stumble into the poster for her act and realizes that he may have finally found his love. They find each other in the club during a very can-can like dance number, upsetting her boss. He kicks Elmer out of the club, but only until he comes crashing back in with police to arrest the horrible club owner. Diaperina and Elmer share a celebratory smooch and leave hand in hand to the Wedding March.

There are so many different things that toe the line “between innocence and flirtatiousness.” Temples character is burlesque dancer, in the first scene she is wearing a top hat and shiny black top/diaper. Immediately after her performance it pans to a boy clapping enthusiastically. Her boss is creepy, especially since he is played by a child, and in the final scenes is shown trying to force a kiss on Temple as she tries to get away.

I understand completely the idea behind the Baby Burlesks, it is funny to see kids imitate adults. This was something I still love in appropriate settings such as Little Rascalls. But Riches crosses the line, these are four year olds! Even if the child “goes through the motions of adult characters without…comprehending anything”(Kasson, 197), what does it say about the adults watching? Just because they don’t understand, we do.

Feb 15

Kiddin’ Hollywood

The “Baby Burlesk” I chose was called “Kiddin’ Hollywood”, which is a play on words meant to represent both the actuality of the film (kids acting in Hollywood) as well as the critique of Hollywood’s fickleness which is the short’s underlying theme. In the film, a beauty pageant winner named Morelegs Sweetrick is rejected during a casting call for a Hollywood movie. She instead finds work scrubbing the floors around the stage. Her big chance appears when the prissy, diva of a leading female in the film- Freta Snobbo- refuses to come on the set. Morelegs lands the role, and impresses her castmates and director with her performance. Fame gets to her head too quickly though, and after wrapping up filming she rejects the advances of her budding costar in search of a “Rolls Royce and a maid”. She went from being a humble floor cleaner to Freta Snobbo herself. The movie, however, is a complete bust, and Sweetrick finds her aspiring film career grounded prior to takeoff. While wallowing in her own failure, her previously rejected costar returns for her, confesses his enduring love, and takes her hand in marriage.

The film does not satirize a prior work, rather instead choosing to satirize individual prominent figures in Hollywood at the time. Freta Snobbo is meant to represent actress Greta Garbo, who was renown at the time as being an odd figure, who frequently caused problems on movie sets because of her disdain for crowds and preference for being constantly alone. This made her come off as “snobbish”, hence the joke. Morelegs Sweetrick is meant to satirize actress Marlene Dietrich, who was known to pursue roles with an unheard of ferocity. If there was a role she desired, she would do everything in her power to get it.

This particular burlesque is a prime example of what John Kasson mentions in his text “Behind Shirley Temple’s Smile”: 

“Shirley Temple’s early roles were perched ambiguously on the cusp between innocence and flirtatiousness.” (course packet, page 197).

The attire that Temple dons as “Morelegs Sweetrick” is meant to simulate that of a high class mistress. The name “Morelegs” is a reference to Temple’s legs, which is very inappropriate when used to refer to a child but would be much more common if used to refer to a woman of questionable morals in an adult film. The word “trick” is often used to describe sexual favors performed by a prostitute, and in combination with the word “sweet” the name as a whole was meant to be highly suggestive and an inside joke among adults. There is also the matter of the kiss; a long passionate kiss that, while appearing innocent between children, would be much considered much more risque among an older crowd. Finally, there is the matter of Sweetrick becoming a materialistic girl interested in the fancy things in life. This is evident when she flirts with her director after the closing of the film because in him she sees the possibility of a “Rolls Royce and a maid”. Love for money, a concept that is very adult.

 

Feb 15

The Death of Superman and the rise and fall of the comics marketplace in the 90s

Superman dies so that you may live!

 

 

Way back in the early nineties, DC Comics decided to jump-start sales of their Superman comics by killing the Man of Steel!  I was ten years old, and not too familiar with comics.  I knew Superman, of course, and Batman and Wonder Woman and Spiderman, etc., but mostly through cartoons and movies, not actual comics.  This time was also long after the moral panic Hadju describes in his book, long past Dr. Wertham and his Seduction.  In fact, because of those days of moral panic and the overall dismissal of comics as a valuable medium – the resulting lack of preservation of comics – that old comics were seen as valuable collector’s items.  That carried into the present and provoked collecting crazes across the comics landscape.  Superman 75, the Death of Superman – which to me was simply a comic displaying Superman falling in the line of battle, protecting his city from the hulkish Doomsday – was a prime collecting event for others (mostly adults).  They assumed such a historic comic would be very valuable later.  Lock it in a safe for thirty years, then make a fortune.  This did not take place, unfortunately for most collectors.

In both the moral panic of the fifties, and the collecting craze of the nineties, the adult world collided with the adolescent to transform the sales of comic books.  During the moral panic, sales slumped, especially of the highest selling crime and horror comics.  This allowed abysmal and silly “children’s” based superhero comics to rise to the fore and dominate the medium for the next several decades.  With the collecting craze, however, the entire medium exploded in sales.  This was mostly due to the perception that comics of any type would be valuable someday.  Most didn’t take into account the laws of supply and demand.  Simply, the comics of by gone eras were treated poorly and were rarely preserved in mint conditions, hence their value as commodities based on the relatively small supply of cherry comics.  Modern day collectors immediately bagged comics and put them away from harmful sunlight, hoping to preserve the form and content of the pages.  But because this practice was done en masse, the books still have little value today.  It would take another comic book death march perpetrated by parents, harping on their kids to get rid of the silly things, for comics of the nineties to rise in value.  This may still happen, but probably not.

Again, what was to me a seminal experience of idol destruction, was for others an opportunity to make a buck (the comics industry equally guilty in that conceit).  The comic that was mostly meant for kids again broke through into the adult world and caused sales to sky rocket.  The unfortunate result, however, similar to the moral panic of the bygone era, was a huge sales slump following shortly after.  Collectors eventually got wise to how inflated the comics market had become and left it overnight.  This caused many comic companies to go out of business, and seriously wounded the bigger companies.  I still love Superman 75, especially the final blows both Superman and Doomsday administer to one another, mortally wounding each.  Superman dies as the savior of Metropolis and the world.  But this one comic almost killed the industry, too.  Again, the creators allowed adult interest dictate the format of their industry, and sales plummeted eventually as they had during the moral panic of the 1940s and 50s.

Feb 15

Shirley Temple – The Kid’s Last Fight

The Baby Burlesk short film The Kid’s Last Fight featured Shirley Temple as the “girlfriend” of a boxer, Diaper Dempsey.  The opening scene encompasses a classic Baby Burlesk scene in which lots of babies are in a gym training.  Most of them are lifting weights and hitting punching bags.  Shirley enters the room and immediately the attention shifts to her.  She starts walking towards Diaper when, all of a sudden, Pop Skull McGee (the defending boxing champion and Diaper’s next opponent) grabs her by the arm, pulls her to him, and exclaims, “Hello cutie!”  Shirley responds by slapping him and, subsequently, Diaper walks over and shoves him.  Diaper then goes on to proclaim that he has never lost a fight when Shirley has been in attendance.  After hearing this, McGee devises a plan to kidnap Shirley so that she cannot go to the fight.  During the fight, McGee is putting a beating on Diaper.  Shirley escapes her kidnapper and shows up in the middle of the fight.  When Diaper sees her, he gathers the energy to knock McGee out.  This Burlesk is a satire of Jack Dempsey, a legend in the boxing world.

 

After watching the Burlesk War Babies in class, we discussed the inappropriate innocence in the children, but the grown-up actions that they take.  In The Kid’s Last Fight, there were not many overly inappropriate, sexually implicit actions taken.  One could think that the way McGee grabbed Shirley and yanked her towards him was inappropriate, but it was not something that stood out very much.  However, the more inappropriate or disturbing actions in this short film took the form of violence.  The entire short was about the babies in a boxing match, beating each other up.  While some people might be disturbed by that, it seemed like one of the more tame Baby Burlesk’s that I have seen.

Diaper Dempsey shoving Pop Skull McGee, Screenshot from Youtube

Feb 15

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Mario! and Super Mario Bros!

This short melody is very familiar with every body.

Yes! this is Super Mario Bros Theme Song  in acapella version.

When I was in elementary school, I ran to home right after school to play Super Mario Bros faster than my younger brother. I was humming this song when i was running to home.

Super Mario Bros are the one of the famous character in the world. Kid to grandfather, boys and girls, most of people know Super Mario Bros. Many people think that Super Mario Bros is the first Mario game from Nintendo, but  it was not the first game of Mario. In 1981, when Nintendo arcade game company is in bad economic situation, president of Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, create an arcade game to save the company. ‘Miyamoto came up with the idea of a game in which the playable character has to make his way through an obstacle course consisting of sloped platforms, ladders and rolling barrels. Miyamoto named the game Donkey Kong, and its main protagonist “Jumpman”. Donkey Kong was big hit in North america arcade game industry and then Miyamoto named ‘Jumpman’ to ‘Mario’ , name from Italian warehouse man who came to receive rent from Nintendo company. So the Mario was created. After Mario’s first appear, Mario has appeared over 200 games titles and also in many of movies and comics. Mario series are still available in the market.

At the time of my young age,around 9-10, Super Mario games were so popular, Price was about $120 in American currency but when we transfer this money to present currency, it is worth about value of $500. It was very expensive to have game system, therefore most of my friends’s dream were receiving game system. Since Mario was male character in the game, it might influence on the girl’s gender identity as statement from the  Elizabeth Segel “the girl reader ,no doubt, identified with these enviable heroes as she read, and, theoretically, she could have used them as role models in the dearth of fictional female alternatives to tamed tomboys and saintly sisters.”(177).  However I don’t agree with her because when children play roles as Mario’s characters, boy always wanted to play Mario brothers and girls always wanted to play princess Peach. Therefore, girl didn’t have many of influence on gender identity.

 

Feb 15

Temple in Distress

Shirley Temple truly plays her part as Nell in the “Glad Rags to Riches” (1932) Baby Burlesk short film. Interestingly enough, this film was actually not a spin-off of another film. Shirley Temple stars as a dancer at the Lullaby Lobster Palace, and the nightclub owner baby, later called the Diaper Viper, is very discouraging even though she was cute and the audience (of babies) was amused. The Diaper Viper ignores Nell who says she cannot go on dancing, but he will not let her leave because he wants to marry her. She mentions that she wishes her sweetheart would come and save her. We later find out his name is Elmer. He shows up and through a humorous series of events, wins Nell over the Diaper Viper.

 

You really have to consider how long it took to film with a cast of so many small children. They probably had to rehearse the lines right before the scene was shot. I disagree with the notion that kids are not exploited during acting because the point is that they do as they are told. They tilt their head in a certain way or stand up at a certain line. But taking it a step further, these are not children acting as children. “The children literally go through the motions of adult characters without presumably, comprehending anything about the drama they are enacting.” (Kasson 131) Shirley Temple played Nell, whose age is up for interpretation, but she is old enough to have a sweetheart and to have men fighting over her.

 

A different exploitation well worth noting – the exploitation of women – is very present in this film. It is more an emphasis on making the woman a victim than making her flirtatious. Nell is so tired of her job and can’t go on but the Diaper Viper won’t let her go until she marries him, perhaps inferring that if Elmer did not save her, she may have married the Diaper Viper. Shirley may have learned from this and many other characters she portrayed, that men have power over women. Theoretically, in real life she could have quit and walked out but that is not an option it seems in this film. Shirley’s character is less flirtatious than the typical one described in Kasson’s “Behind Shirley Temple’s Smile.” Elmer proclaims, “Alas that I should find you in a state of inequity,” reiterating the idea that she is not being treated fairly and she says “please save me,” vocalizing her damsel in distress role, needing to be saved by a man.

 

A significant aspect of the film is the use of a darker child as the helper in Nell’s dressing room, addressing the still racist environment of the time. Women are still playing the roles of damsels in distress and flirtatious, but casting a film set in today’s time of a nonwhite person serving a white person would be unacceptable. There is also the use of a dog! Some comic relief (Relief from what? Or maybe just more comedy?) in a classic form, where the dog eats the ice cream held behind the back of a child. I’ll admit the film was entertaining, but just as some rap songs are derogatory towards women but still sometimes enjoyable, the themes of the film were not uplifting towards women.

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