Revenge Of The Creature In 3-D

During the 44 years I have spent on this planet, I have chased, collected and hoarded what I consider a pretty amazing pile of stuff. Even more amazing(to myself at least)are the stories that lie behind these treasures, so it's time to share. In the late 1970's, 1976 I believe, the local television wars started to heat up in the area, and this led to the showing of a couple classic 1950's 3-d films on WWLP Channel 22 in Springfield Ma. I cannot tell you how excited I when I first saw this poster hanging in the window of the local Stop and Shop supermarket. This posted measures roughly 3' x 5' and the Creature seemed to stare right through you.

So I pleaded with my mother for the $.99 to buy the glasses, and to also use the Color TV in the living room. This eventualy led to a fight with my sister, so we had to get another few pairs of glasses so everyone in the family could watch. We lived in East Granby Ct at the time, a good 40 Miles from Springfield, but my Father had the forsight to install a rotary antenna a couple years earlier. So with this new window on the world, we were able to view exotic stations from Sprngfield all the way to New Haven, with the occassional Albany show if the weather was just right or more likely wrong. I had asked the manager of the Stop and Shop to save the poster for me, but in the ensuing weeks, the poster was pulled down and discarded with no one having notice my name and phone number pencilled on the back. A year ago a friend was helping clean out a mutual friends house, and came accross 2 of these posters that I ended up with. Sometimes life works out well. Finally the night had come, and the movie was just thrilling, and the 3-D came across very well. The 3-D effect was the polarized and not the red and green lenses, but I was so thrilled. About a month later WWLP had a showing of 1954's Gorlilla On The Loose, (the rest of my family didn't watch this, I ended up at a friend's house) and after that, this new 3-D craze dried up again.

I would be remiss if I didn't at least in passing mention Hal Stanton, Channel 22's resident film guru. I remeber first seeing Stanton in 1975 or so,showing a series of older films on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. He started out showing the classic Laurel and Hardy shorts and features and eventually worked his way into the films of Abbott and Costello. Now this was pre-cable 1970's in New England, so I have no idea where he got these films, but I was able to see every Abbott and Costello Universal feature on his show. Week after week he was also a wealth of knowledge. I recall the commercial breaks being every 25 minutes or so range, and then he would come back and spend 3 or 4 minutes filling in some details of the film and trivia on the players. Eventually this show became sponsored by a local storm window company, and then Hal Stanton stopped hosting. I wish I had kept closer tabs as to whether he retired or was just shelved, but these movie moments were some of the favorites of my young life.