The other day, I rented a classic Western movie: (John Ford’s)THE SEARCHERS, which incidently is rated number 2 or 3 on my list of classic Westerns. (The reason it’s rated 2 or 3 is because my top two are either tied for first place, or they’re rated 1 & 2, I can’t decide.)

The following video is the original Trailer for THE SEARCHERS:

I had been thinking about this movie for a while, as I usually do for a part of each year; probably have since 1956. One time, while watching John Wayne utter the phrase “That’l Be The Day” about a half-dozen times, I thought to myself: “UMMMM! 1956! - That’l Be The Day!” “I’ll bet Buddy Holly was watching that movie back in Lubback, Texas in 1956 and that phrase got stuck in his head, so he picked up his Fender [guitar] and wrote the song (That’l Be The Day.)

Well I finally found an internet article that mentions this idea: “That’l Be the Day.” The title and lyrical phrase, lifted from a line that John Wayne was always quoting in the John Ford movie The Searchers. Click the link and scroll down…Here is another link that mentions it; and another!

Other articles state that the British group: THE SEARCHERS (Needles and Pins & Love Potion Number 9, just to name two of their mega-hit songs.) took their name from the movie. This information is from The Searchers’ [band] website…

The COASTERS 1957 R&R hit: SEARCHIN’, by Leiber and Stoller on Atco Records - I’m betting - is also somewhere in the mix. I can’t confirm this hypothetical yet. If I can, I’ll post it here.

My Top Two Westerns? In alphabetical order: HIGH NOON , starring: Gary Cooper, Lloyd Bridges, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado and Ian MacDonald, released 7 July 1952 and SHANE, starring: Allan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, Jack Palance and Ben Johnson, released September 24, 1953…

A bit of irony exsists in the juxtaposition of two of the movies which are mentioned in this post: John Wayne had big problems with the politics of High Noon; he felt that there was a strong, leftist, message in the film. Some refer to the movie as an “anti-McCarthyism western.”
“Although he complained that High Noon (1952) was “un-American”, when he collected Gary Cooper’s Oscar on his behalf, he also complained that he wasn’t offered the part himself.”

Here are just a few reasons why these films are rated so highly in my book:

The following clip includes the final gunfight in SHANE:
Alan Ladd’s character SHANE “calls out” hired gunfighter Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) in the saloon, after a long, emotion-building-ride into town. With one of cinema’s most memorable, provocative lines, Shane responds to Wilson’s query: “What have you heard Shane (about me)?”
“I’ve heard that you’re a low-down Yankee liar.”

This is a clip from HIGH NOON. It is the slow-paced, methodic, (opening) Title Sequence: The Miller Gang assembles to ride into town to meet the High Noon Train carrying “Boss *Frank Miller” (Ian MacDonald,) just released from prison and seeking revenge from the sheriff (Gary Cooper) who put him there. Underscoring the entire clip and most of the movie is the brilliant, haunting song, “High Noon,” sung by Tex Ritter (the late John Ritter’s father.) The music is by Dimitri Tiomkin and the lyrics are by Ned Washington.

NATALIE WOOD’S younger sister, LANA WOOD played the young Debbie Edwards in THE SEARCHERS. The searchers were searching - all the while - for Debbie Edwards…
The Cinematographer for HIGH NOON was Floyd Crosby, who was the father of Rock and Roll’r David Crosby.
From the movie SHANE: “YOU SPEAKING TO ME” says SHANE to provacateur Chris Calloway (Ben Johnson) before the gunfight in the saloon (see video clip.)
“YOU TALKING TO ME” says Robert De Niro, talking to the mirror, in the movie TAXI DRIVER ( 1976.) Here’s a bit of conjecture: The line originated from 1) The Twilight Zone 2) Shane 3) De Niro…

*[The Ian MacDonald character, Frank Miller scared the heck out of me the first time I saw the movie - still does! Three faces in cinema that have that effect on me are: Ian Macdonald’s, Frank Miller - High Noon, Jack Palance’s , Jack Wilson - Shane and Vincent Price’s, Prof. Henry Jarrod in 1953’s THE HOUSE OF WAX - all three are pure evil, like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man.]

Click this link to access a site that may or may not have Buddy Holly Home Recordings from November-December, 1956 [at] 1926, 19th Street, Lubbock, Texas: Buddy Holly: vocal, guitar; Jerry Allison: drums and vocals; (Poss.) Don Guess: bass.

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LOS ANGELES — Larry Levine, the recording engineer who helped Phil Spector re-invent rock ‘n’ roll music with his “Wall of Sound” technique and won a Grammy for his work with Herb Alpert, died on his 80th birthday, his family said Tuesday read more from: LINDA DEUTSCH , AP Special Correspondent

Listen to: Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” from 1966 - Phil Spector & Larry Levine’s Wall of Sound.

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During a time in which I was making posters, I happened to take a digital (camcorder) photo of a Full Moon. This was in the mid 90s in Las Vegas, Nevada. The clip was shot from the CALIFORNIA HOTEL’S RV Park, in downtown Las Vegas, around midnight.
Many times, over the years, I’ve had the occasion to process the image with a Photoshop-type program. At some point I saw a face of “THE MAN IN THE MOON” - maybe the face I’d heard about since I was a little kid. I never quite knew exactly what the face looked like, although I thought I did. I always thought that I vaguely saw something that looked like a face. It had two big O’s for eyes (Mares Serenitatis and Tranquillitatis) and a big O (Mare Nubium) for a mouth…It seems as though everyone sees a different face - or a rabbit, dog or lion.

Seeing the moon up close and personal via the photographic image, several faces presented themselves for perusal. The following is my take on those faces in the Moon:

Turns out that, at least, one imaginative glance reveals a small chinned (or chinless) figure wearing “shades.” It sort of reminds me of Phil Spector wearing sunglasses…Actually, there are several faces depending on the quality/resolution of the image…The ears, noses, eyes and other features of these “faces” are the darker patches (flat surfaces) of the moon or “seas” (Mare - Maria.)

The aforementioned photo is represented by a reproduction (left) of that clip, pretty much as it looked that night in Las Vegas. Although is has been minimally processed the image is a good representaion of how the full moon appears on any (Full Moon) night with slight magnification.
……….……….The image (on the right) is offered with exaggerated graphics to help define the first face: The figure’s right sunglass lens (the circle on the upper left) is Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity,) the circle on the upper right (figure’s left lens) is Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of tranquillity) and Mare Vaporum (Sea of Vapours) is the figure’s nose (no graphic.)

Doing a mind/sight shift, there also seems to be an image (below left) of a face that looks very much like Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse - looking down toward 8 o’clock. In this view the sunglass lenses (Mares Tranquillitatis & Serenitatis) become Mickey’s ears and Mare Vaporum is Mickey’s left eye (exagerated graphics show ears, eye and nose.)
……….……….BBC image on the right is of a 14th Century fresco from Austria - click to read more…

This is an image from Walt Disneys’ 1928 film: “Steamboat Willie” - MoMA’s website.
Watch “Steamboat Willie” on YouTube.Full Moon from SEDS’ website.
Click this to access: SEDS” website…

Next is an image of the

“LOOKS LIKE PHIL OR MICKEY TO ME.”…NOAO image credits…
There’s another image of a face just under Mickey’s eye (facing left with a protruding tongue, two eyes, a nose and a well defined chin.)

“Thus, in a very real sense, Iwerks can be called true the creator [sic] of Mickey Mouse because Iwerks, and not Disney, originated the character?” read entire story… (This fact is not necessarily relevant to the main point:) All of the faces are interesting. The Mickey Mouse face begs questioning. My question is: Did Walt Disney / UB Iwerks get their inspiration for the Mickey Mouse character from an image on the Moon?

Walt Disney Helped Wernher von Braun Sell Americans on Space…
(Another) Article on Von Braun and Walt Disney…

(If you know anything about the Mickey Mouse/Moon connection, please e-mail: www.lasvegasbuffetclub@msn.com)

“Moon names”

image is from Wikipedia

“This is not a scientific page. It’s an artist’s page.”

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