In the old Marigold Arena on Chicago’s North Side, the crowd knew him before he even stepped through the ropes. “Moooose! Moooose!” the chants rolled across the arena, low and steady, like a drumbeat announcing a coming storm. And then Edward Cholak would appear—a tower of a man, 6-foot-4 and nearly 400 pounds, sometimes with … Read More “Edward “Moose” Cholak: Wrestling’s Gentle Giant of the Midwest” »
Career Opportunities (1991) is like watching someone try to sell you a dream through a paper cup. John Hughes wrote it, Bryan Gordon directed it, and somewhere in the back, a drunk copywriter was shaking his head. The plot’s a glimmer: boy meets rich girl, they’re trapped in a Target overnight, hijinks ensue—but it’s all … Read More “Career Opportunities (1991) – Target Practice as Jennifer Connelly Outshines a Bland Hero” »
Sean Patrick Flanery’s Frank and Penelope wants desperately to be a midnight movie classic, the kind of pulpy cult fare whispered about in late-night dorm rooms after a few too many beers. Instead, it settles into a halfway zone: too bizarre to be taken seriously, too clumsy to be a grindhouse gem, and too earnest … Read More “Frank and Penelope (2022): A Road Trip to Nowhere, With Occasional Eye Candy” »
There are bad comedies, and then there are Fanboys, a film that manages to take the boundless enthusiasm of Star Wars fandom—a passion capable of launching multi-billion-dollar franchises, conventions, and tattoos on very regrettable body parts—and grind it into a humorless road trip movie where the jokes land with the grace of Jar Jar Binks … Read More “Fanboys (2009) – A Galactic Dud with One Redeeming Leia” »
If 1970s exploitation cinema had a patron saint, she might well be a soft-spoken Swede with a stoic gaze and an eyepatch that launched a thousand homages. Christina Lindberg didn’t shout her way into cult history; she glided in—wide-eyed, seemingly fragile, and then suddenly vengeful—embodying an entire decade’s volley between sexual liberation and cinematic sadism. … Read More “Christina Lindberg: Europe’s Quietest Scream—and the Crown Princess of Exploitation” »
In pro wrestling, nicknames usually live larger than the men who wear them. But for William Jones, better known as Chilly Willy, the name was only part of the story. Born September 24, 1969, in North Carolina, Jones carved a life that straddled the madness of Extreme Championship Wrestling and the unforgiving heat of war … Read More “Chilly Willy: From the ECW Arena to the Front Lines” »
She wasn’t Bettie Page, and she sure as hell wasn’t Marilyn. Candy Earle was something else entirely—one of those bruised cherries of mid-century Americana that never made it into the sundae but stuck to the counter, melting in the neon light. She went by more names than a cheap grifter—Candy, Candee, Candice, Emily Carter, Tasha … Read More “Candy Earle: A Postwar Dream in Heels” »
Angela Aames (born Lois Marie Tlustos on February 27, 1956) came from humble Midwestern roots before finding her way to the glitz of Hollywood. She grew up in Pierre, South Dakota, a town of around 12,000 people about 200 miles south of Bismarck. She had developed an interest in acting after watching a play in … Read More “Angela Aames: 1980s Bombshell of Hollywood and a Tragic Early Exit” »
By the mid-’70s, Claudia Jennings was everywhere—on the screens at piss-stained drive-ins, in sticky magazines men hid under their mattresses, her smile as crooked as a bent neon sign. She wasn’t famous, not the way your schoolteachers knew famous, but if you liked fast cars, faster women, and exploitation flicks, she was royalty. She came … Read More “Claudia Jennings: From Centerfold to Queen of B-Movies – And a Tragic Final Act” »
A Feathered Hero from Ohio Wrestling has always thrived on myths—heroes with painted faces, villains with sneers, and men who seemed larger than life under the hot lights of a VFW hall or Madison Square Garden. For Ohio, one of those myths walked into the ring wearing a headdress, stomping the mat in rhythm, and … Read More “Chief White Owl: The Rise, Fall, and Complicated Legacy of George Dahmer” »
