Hey Folks! It's Intermission Time, Vol. 1 (Something Weird). [Category: Commercial]

Drive-in movie snack bar promos––I love 'em. They're some of the cheesiest and most ephemeral of all film ephemera. I even loved them as a kid going to the drive-in for real––I often found them to be more interesting than the movie and would be disappointed when my parents would turn off the speaker during intermission. I love the "Intermissions" that Sinister Cinema puts on its Drive-In Movie Double Feature tapes and always wished I could find a whole tape of this stuff. Imagine my delight when I found this tape in the Movies Unlimited catalog! 90 minutes of nothing but drive-in ephemera, and it's only Volume 1! There are five other volumes in the series! I thought I had died and gone to film ephemera heaven! The tape does not disappoint––it's chock full of all kinds of drive-in paraphernalia: snack bar promos, public service announcements ("Go to church Sunday", "Show an interest in local Boy Scout activities"), timers, holiday greetings, announcements of special shows and promotions, cheesy ads for local businesses, and the highlight of the tape––a bunch of promos for live spook shows that are extremely campy! Highly recommended.

Highlights:

• We are reminded to get regular check-ups and to be x-rayed frequently by title cards with backgrounds that look like fresh meat. Uh-huh...
  
• Disembodied heads are big fans of ice-cream bars!
  
• Back in the 60's, when Honda was best known for making cute little motor bikes, they decided to market their cute little bikes to farmers and ranchers by means of a drive-in commercial. So we are treated to scenes farmers and ranchers buzzing around their acreages and herding livestock on cute little Honda motor bikes. Thanks, Honda!
  
• It doesn't get any more 60's than a snack bar promo done in the style of Yellow Submarine. Groovy!
  
• Santa and the following merchants wish you a happy holiday season: Denison Redi-Mixed Concrete, Farmer's Elevator Mill, Cronk's Cafe, John Rattenborg Produce, B & M Motors, Schlitz Standard Service, Johnson Drug––Veterinary Dept. (only the Veterinary Dept.), and Witt Hardware.
  
• Denison Readi-Mixed Concrete is "so easy to work with, leaving no muss about the place when the job is done." I never knew that about concrete.
  
• Believe me, the spook show promos on this tape are great! It's good that this obscure slice of pop culture has been preserved. These promos make the Godzilla trailer look tame! Here's just a small sample of the outrageous claims made by these live shows (I swear neither I nor Dave Barry are making these up!): "See a Man Buried Alive!" (volunteers are solicited for this), "We Will Not Be Responsible for: Your Hair Turning Grey, Broken Suspenders, Frantic Wives, or Lost Sweethearts!", "A Human Being MURDERED before your eyes!", "Beautiful Girls Sacrificed to the Blood Lust of Inhuman Monsters!", "Maybe Your Tongue and Eyes Will Be Ripped Out!", "All Undertakers and Grave-Diggers Admitted Free!" "Humans Turned Into Zombies!", "Monsters Grab Girls Out of the Audience!", "Invisible Man Terrorizes You!", "Slave Maidens at the Mercy of Hideous Beats!" "The Devil, in His Wildest Flights of Fancy, Cooked Up These Fantastic Tricks to Baffle You and Frighten You!", "Don't Be Chicken! Show That Gal Friend You Got What It Takes!", "This Theatre Reserves the Right to Stop the Show Anytime It Becomes too S-C-A-R-Y!", "You'll See Human Sacrifices!", "Monsters Cut Off Girls' Heads!", the most incoherent: "You'll See a Blood-Curdling Space Monster Who Died, Yet Alive, Will Come to Seek the Warm Blood He Needs to Keep Himself Alive!", and the most unbelievable: "Even Scarier than Advertised!!" Two different shows make this exact same word-for-word claim: "Positively Never Here Before! Brand New!"
  
• Msties, take note: Dr. Macabre's Frightmare of Movie Monsters features the Colossal Beast (as in War of...) alive! In Person!
  

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.