Tales from the Semi-Annual Movie Show

Yessiree, time for me to opine on the movie collectibles show at the local bowling alley over the weekend. Really, I’ve started to attend purely to people watch – there is rarely anything to buy these days.

I must say, the funniest occurrence was seeing an older fellow reading the back of a porn DVD box (do they write plot descriptions on the back)? Anyhow, a minute later, he blurted out to the dealer rather loudly, “how much for Hardcore Somethingorother (I can't remember if it was neighbors or housewives, sorry).”

In all honesty, the shows have turned into bootleg DVD marts. Picking up a copy of “Ray Milland Volume 1,” I noticed that eight or so films are on DVD already (and eight movies on two DVDs . . . the quality must be awesome).  No clue on Vol. 2.  I was really looking for an awesome copy of Skylark – no luck.  If I could also add, apparently there’s no run on Robert Montgomery bootlegs – TV show or otherwise (darn).

The one purchase I seriously considered was a Bisquick recipe book with movie stars from the mid 30s. I think it was the photo of Dick Powell cooking that snagged me, but alas, I didn’t buy.  Joan was also featured, but they didn’t dare show her in an apron.

Seriously, good old memorabilia seems to be getting harder to find. Niches such as sci-fi and horror are the norm, not your low key MGM flick from 1932. I saw 30s stills going from $2 to $10, a lot more reasonable than the online auctions.