Monthly Archives: June 2013

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True Life Secrets: Short Story

I don’t know if it was intentional but these two separate covers for True Life Secrets tells a story of wanton betrayal, jealousy and revenge. Neither book contains a story with a scene resembling the cover action. The first is a pretty iconic cover, having been used on a few books and as examples of the genre.

True Life Secrets #23 (November-December 1954) is a recycled cover, initially published in My Desire Intimate Confessions #4 (April 1950).  The second cover, with the angry gent wanting to know just what the lady did to get the pricey necklace is from True Life Secrets #25 (March 1955). So while the story presented by the covers is coincidental it is pretty neat to have turned out that way.

If I saw issue #25 on the rack back in the 1950s I would have picked it up based on my memory of cover #23. I would have been disappointed but cover disconnect was the way the comic book  game was played back then. The budget, deadlines, disposable nature of comic books back then and people not giving a darn about the craft contributed to the practice. Covers were uncomplicated sales gimmicks and rarely represented the contents.

The art for the issue #23 is credited to Leon Winink and Ray Osrin. The second book is uncredited.

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The Monroe Doctrine As A Memory-Restorer

The Monroe Doctrine As A Memory-Restorer

A short article from the science section of The Literary Digest (January 5, 1907) on psychological therapy and the effectiveness of the reading of a 1823 U.S. Government policy declaration as a remedy for alcohol-induced amnesia may be a parody but it’s hard to tell. I’d definitely declare it is for laughs except it is in a section of the periodical devoted to otherwise serious medicine and science. The British Medical Journal definitely did not take the study very seriously.

I don’t know enough about medicine to determine if the “experimental distraction method” will restore memories. It appears to be, if not quaint junk science, then the testing of hypotheses during an age of discovery and scientific expansion to find out what is effective and what is not. From reading the article it occurs to me that several factors contributed to any successes from the experiment, the primary of which may be an alcoholic patient who suffered a blackout sitting in a dark room drying out, relaxing and recovering from over his hangover. 

Pull quote on the Distraction Method: “With a scientific candor which transcends patriotism he admits that it is less stimulative than the ticking of a stop-watch.”

Science marches on.
 

 
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Monday with Hayley Mills: Camp Inch insignia

 Here is my recreation of the Camp Inch summer camp uniform insignia featured in the 1961 magnum effing opus The Parent Trap starring Hayley Effing Mills. The closest leaf I could find that represented the camp logo was the Red Maple. Close but not exact. I may re-do it later to make it more faithful to the film like a high quality Star Wars prop. As it stands it is as faithful as the off-model Space Enforcer Wars prop you find for sale in a dollar store. Don’t be surprised if it gets updated.

The camp insignia was presumably created by or under legendary costume designer Bill Thomas. I’d kill for a peek at some original sketches from the Disney vault. I would. I really would. The transformation of the twin’s mother Margaret via fashion throughout the movie is often a point of discussion about The Parent Trap (though why you’d not discuss only Hayley is anyone’s guess). You’d think with all the Parent Trap-mania over the last 5 decades someone else would have made this insignia by now.  

You’d think.

Many shirts, hats, underwears will soon have this embroidered onto my wardrobe.

A bit more on the real world Camp Inch. One of the places that was the basis for Camp Inch is the religious stronghold Camp Crestridge for Girls. Wikipedia deleted the page about the camp for being “not notable” which is stupid because of the very notable eternal connection to Parent Trap. I blame the diseased abomination which is the remake poisoning the Parent Trap legacy.

 Yes, I do own this and by extension, you.