#popculture55: Atomic Supermen Love Ed Wood’s “Bride of the Monster;” Other Audiences, Not So Much

Schlockmeister director Ed Wood inflicted this turkey in 1955, one of the final films of a screen icon.

by Rich Watson 

This post is part of the So Bad It’s Good Blogathon, an event celebrating bad movies. At the end I’ll tell you where you can find more posts like this.

A lot of good movies came out in 1955: Oklahoma! Guys and Dolls. Rebel Without a Cause. Movies fondly remembered, and in some cases, cherished, to this day. Legendary directors like Hitchcock, Wilder, Preminger, and more were active that year, working with stars like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and James Dean.

And then there was Ed Wood. 

Who made a movie called Bride of the Monster.

Really.

#popculture55: Singer Marian Anderson Plays the Metropolitan Opera

This New York institution for musical performances saw its first from a black singer in 1955.

by Rich Watson 

Among the number of black musicians who have changed the sound of American popular music in the twentieth century, one name rarely mentioned is that of Marian Anderson. The classical music singer consorted with First Ladies, sang at the 1963 March on Washington, and was awarded, among her many honors, the first Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1955, she added to her achievements by being the first black singer to play New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

#popculture55: EC Comics’ “Mad” Becomes a Magazine

The sophisticated humor comic from the most diverse comics publisher of the 50s took off when they catered to the magazine industry.

by Rich Watson 

I didn’t buy Mad Magazine as often as I did regular comic books, but when I read it, I thought it was hilarious, of course. The fold-in pictures on the back cover (a second image made from the first by folding it in on itself) struck me as clever and inventive and I always wondered how they did it.

Mad was created during a time when comics were under great public scrutiny. They adopted a magazine format in 1955.

They never looked back.