I remember watching the three Omen movies after they came out on video. People died in grisly ways. I thought those movies were scarier than the gorier movies that came later. At some point you lose the shocking effect.

I don't really remember much of Omen III. I did read the novelization before seeing the movie. The funny thing is I read it in my high school English class. We read whatever we wanted. I read the "Alien" novel and "The Guns of Navarone - all kinds of stuff - but we had to write a book report for each one. They were just happy we were reading.

Yeah, the Devil tried to kill every single potential Christ child in the hospitals, but in the novel, the Christ child was born in a rural village where the Devil didn't look. Ha ha.

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:
How can you forget The Omen III? He made a fine grown-up Damien. The scene where he has the hunting dogs kill dude was the stand-out scene for me.

Actor, Ben Jones passed away August 9 at the age of 84. He played Cooter, the local mechanic and friend of the Duke family, on "The Dukes of Hazzard" across its seven season run from 1979 to 1985. He was elected to Congress in 1988 (House Democrat) and served for four years.

Here's a card from The Dukes of Hazzard set (Donruss, 1980).

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
I remember watching the three Omen movies after they came out on video. People died in grisly ways. I thought those movies were scarier than the gorier movies that came later. At some point you lose the shocking effect.

I don't really remember much of Omen III. I did read the novelization before seeing the movie. The funny thing is I read it in my high school English class. We read whatever we wanted. I read the "Alien" novel and "The Guns of Navarone - all kinds of stuff - but we had to write a book report for each one. They were just happy we were reading.

Yeah, the Devil tried to kill every single potential Christ child in the hospitals, but in the novel, the Christ child was born in a rural village where the Devil didn't look. Ha ha.

quote:

Originally posted by pcetodd:
How can you forget The Omen III? He made a fine grown-up Damien. The scene where he has the hunting dogs kill dude was the stand-out scene for me.

I read the Final Conflict novelization, too. Oddly, there was a fourth novel in the series, published in 1982, from Omen III author Gordon McGill that continued the tale, even though there was no accompanying film. Those books must've been pretty good sellers, because there was a 5th and final book, also by McGill, called The Abomination published in 1985, which I don't have. Here's my copies of III and IV.:

I haven't seen my copy of Omen III in years - might've given it away - and I don't recall even seeing the later books but vaguely remember hearing about the fourth one.

Similarly, there is at least one novel-only sequel to "Six Days of the Condor" (movie was "Three Days of the Condor").

There was also a novel-only sequel to "The Falcon and the Snowman." I read that when it was new but don't see it in the boxes.

I still have a couple of boxes of paperbacks from the 80's - books I bought while working at a bookstore that became a Waldenbooks while I was there. Bantam Books used to send its stuff in thick cardboard boxes with lift-off lids. They packed four stacks of same-size paperbacks inside. They were good solid boxes so I took some home and they're still great for storage (paperbacks in two of them; records in another; old calendars in another).

I was a sucker for those movie novelizations, especially since our small town would get the books often months before our lone single screen cinema got the movies (if they got the movie at all). I remember reading the "Conan The Barbarian" novelization and then waiting well over a month to actually see the story play on screen. (It lived up to the book.) Later in the 90's, I'd pick up any interesting ones I saw at thrift shops, so I ended up with a couple of big boxes of them. The color movie stills in most of them were a definite highlight.

Back to the sad business this thread is known for, rest in peace to Hayden Panettiere. Here's one of her many cards from "Heroes" which I'm sure are flying out of Ebay stores and the like today.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Back to the sad business this thread is known for, rest in peace to Hayden Panettiere. Here's one of her many cards from "Heroes" which I'm sure are flying out of Ebay stores and the like today.

Yep, people are dusting off their 500 count boxes looking for her signed cards. There really isn't a shortage that would make them rare, she has been signing in various products since at least 2010. So the supply was fine until the demand of the death bounce cropped up. It may be good economics, but as an autograph collector I never do it. I can't shake the soul sucking feeling.

I do have 2 of her Leaf cards from back when, but I didn't watch Heroes or Nashville. I may have pulled them from packs.

This reminds me of the death of Brittany Murphy, which happened in 2009 and has a lot of holes in it to this day. Murphy was even younger at 32, and she also acted from a teenager on up. The main cause was ruled pneumonia, but there were other things going on with her husband and mother. Lots of questions never answered because the husband died a year later. There was a documentary done on it in 2021 and its worth looking the case up, if you never heard about it. There are no answers though and it makes no difference to anyone now. "Lost in time, like tears in the rain". One of my favorite movie lines.

What I would like to know about Panettiere, besides the actual cause of death, is where is her on-again off-again boyfriend who lives in the place she died? He doesn't seem to be saying anything, anywhere. It's a shame that some people have so much bad luck and make so many bad choices that nobody can stop until it's too late.

Yeah, it hurts to hear of someone dying so young. It won't be too long before 36 is half my life ago. She won't get that.

I don't do that either - buy autographs of the recently-departed. I guess some people might do it as a reflex if they had thought about buying it before. I might buy a Frank Gorshin autograph card, though. I met him once at San Diego Comic-Con and bought a signed 8 x 10 from him for my stepdad who always spoke highly of him (had seen him peform in clubs back in the late 60's-70's). He was a great talent: comedian, impressionist, actor. He seemed like a regular guy too, amused and truly appreciative of the attention he still got years after he was more active.

Just to finish my comments on movie novelizations, though it's more of a tangent, I was looking for books for my mom at a local used bookstore, when I noticed a stack and a half of various James Bond-related books: reprint editions from the 2000's, a few of John Gardner's 80's novels (I liked the first two or three), and a couple of 60's paperbacks commenting on the character. I still have the Gardner novels so I bought one of the character studies, "The James Bond Dossier" by Kingsley Amis (Signet/The New American Library, 1966).

By the way, you can't find Fleming novels at Barnes & Noble. Too old for the kids.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
By the way, you can't find Fleming novels at Barnes & Noble. Too old for the kids.

It's not easy to find older books, period. Today everything is on Kindle or there is an audio version. Whatever can be downloaded. You can still order just released or recently published books, but the print runs are not that large and very few make it to a second or third edition. Books that don't make the bestseller list often disappear fast.

Just the other week I read a book written in 2009. I actually bought it because it had been hand signed by the author, but then I read it and liked it. It had a 2010 sequel and a later 3rd book in the series. So I went to buy them new and there was nothing. I picked up a used library book for the 2nd one from Thrift Books. Probably won't be in good shape. The 3rd one is on Kindle, but no mention of any published book.

I know we are in the wrong thread, just to agree with you while its written here. Finding printed books is now its own hobby. I also still have several of those oversized photo books that they used to make for films. I have one from 1979 for Alien where it's like you are watching the movie through stills as you go from page to page. They don't make those types of screen books at all anymore. Sorry for the interruption, back to the obits.

As noted in the Obituaries thread, Frank Beard, the original drummer for ZZ Top passed away August 17. His name was Beard but he was the only one who didn't grow one. That's him on the left.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

It's not easy to find older books, period.. . So I went to buy them new and there was nothing.

Search for it at Anna's Archive.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
Search for it at Anna's Archive.

You certainly know your way around, shall I say, non-commercial distribution of commercial properties. Did you ever get to see "Above Suspicion" and "Chasing Shadows"?

I had not heard of Anna's Archive but it was interesting reading on Wiki. Thanks for the tip, but I was looking for an actual book to go along with the reading. Also, my computer skills are barely functional, so I don't even attempt to go outside the box for the more expert sources.

I did get that used book from Thrift's Books and it was intact, but it looked like there was some water damage, so not really in the good condition they posted. Of course that's what you get for 6 bucks. I'm just going to try another eBay seller for that one and keep looking for a physical copy of the 3rd one for now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Raven,

Also try addall.com which a friend suggested several years ago when I was looking for a particular issue of an old German geology magazine - talk about obscure.

abebooks is another one.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

You certainly know your way around, shall I say, non-commercial distribution of commercial properties.

I suppose I do. Those of us here at chez Mullins pay legitimately for a lot of books, movies, TV shows, magazines, etc. But there's a great deal of IP that is out there that you can't easily get a legit copy of, and in that case, I'm not above availing myself of some of the darker corners of the internet.

Sad to note Shelley Fabares has passed away at 82.
Condolences to her family which includes husband of 42 years, Mike Farrell who played DR. B.J. Hunnicut on "MASH".

Here she is from towards the end of her "Donna Reed Show" era on a Twilight Zone autograph card.



Shelley starred on the long-running 1990's ABC sitcom "Coach", but other than a little voiceover work, pretty much completely retired when that series ended in 1997.

Rest in peace, Len Brown, the co-creator of Mars Attacks! who also played in a role in many other iconic non-sport titles over his four decades at Topps including Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages. Brown was 84.

I remember her on a show, "The Little People," in the early 70's with Brian Keith. It was unusual to me because it was set in Hawaii.

I didn't know actress Nanette Fabray was her aunt. Both always seemed like nice people. I'd see them on game shows.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Sad to note Shelley Fabares has passed away at 82.
Condolences to her family which includes husband of 42 years, Mike Farrell who played DR. B.J. Hunnicut on "MASH".

Here she is from towards the end of her "Donna Reed Show" era on a Twilight Zone autograph card.



Shelley starred on the long-running 1990's ABC sitcom "Coach", but other than a little voiceover work, pretty much completely retired when that series ended in 1997.

Dolly Parton at age 80.



She appears on some earlier foreign issues, odd-sized items, stickers and the like, but the Playboy covers card from 1995 looks to be her first standard sized card. It's available in regular chrome and a refractor version.