Ask Mr. Knowitall......

If it's Wednesday, it must be time for ask Mr. Knowitall....

A Mr. Ed Magoo from Hollywood California asks...
Dear Mr. Knowitall, Other than the "House of Wax", What Horror 3-D movies would you recommend?

Greetings oh myopic one...Thats an easy question!..."The Creature From the Black Lagoon".
Here's a bit of Hollywood Trivia...The star of this 3-D epic, the scaly creature that became the symbol of all 50's cheap monsters, was actually modeled after the Oscar statue given away at the Academy Awards..
More Trivia...Two different actors appeared inside that latex costume. On land it was a big strapping actor named Ben Chapman. In water, it was champion swimmer Ricou Browning, whose main claim to fame was that he later created and trained TV's most famous aquatic hero... Flipper!!!

A Mr. Adam Ant of Hasbeen Connecticut asks...
Dear Mr. Knowitall...Has anyone ever became famous because of Ants?

Yes Adam, (certainly not you though)..In 1954, the movie "Them"!!!
The first of the 'giant mutated insect" movies, the movie starts out by a little girl wandering in the desert, and all she can say is "Them" over and over..It was about Giant Killer Ants!!
But one of the actors that made this movie watchable was a young Fess Parker. In 1954 Walt Disney was planning a feature about Davy Crockett. The studio just couldn't find the right guy for the part, until they saw the movie "Them". They immediately hired Parker for the part, and his coon skin cap started a craze that swept the nation, and made him a star.. He later became TV's Daniel Boone. Also featured in this film was James Arness ( TV's Matt Dillon), and Spock..
Leonard Nimoy..

....OK, speaking of Matt Dillon, he actually became famous for portraying a Vegetable!!

In 1951, Howard Hawks of John Wayne epic Westerns fame, directed a movie named "The Thing". This was a movie about an alien discovered near an Arctic research station. This movie was notable for 2 reasons: First, it kicked off a whole generation of "It Came From Outer Space" flicks. And second, The 'monster' that was actually a giant vegetable, was played by James Arness. TV's Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke. Arness, who was 6ft 5...wore 4 inch lifts on the set.
He was on screen for all of 3 minutes...

......And, Arness's real life brother was Peter Graves, who starred in TV's Mission Impossible.
Remember....? He was the guy that started every episode by playing a tape recorder that had his orders on it...."Good Evening Mr Phelps".........

Mr Knowitall grows weary....... This post will self-destruct in 10 seconds!!!!! Peace!