Marvel Does Dallas

I'm on the lookout for folks you remember these 80s comics and are willing to talk to me about them!

Risky River

 Previously:

 Jobe to the Future  - -  Pee-Wee Visits the Alamo

The streets of San Antonio are no stranger to the presence of Hollywood camera crews.  From Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to Miss Congeniality, the historic city has been a backdrop for several cinematic soirees.  One classic 80s film that took advantage of the city's scenery was 1984's Cloak & Dagger.  Not only does it take place in San Antonio but it stars Texas natives Henry Thomas and Dabney Coleman.

But it's not just iconic scenery like the Alamo and the business district that serves as the setting for the spy thriller, there's an elaborate chase scene between Henry Thomas, the movie's young star, and the goons of the film on the famous San Antonio Riverwalk.  Movies like these are a great time capsule that preserve the way certain places or attractions looked like in the past...

 ...not that it really changed that much...at least, not the architecture.  But there's always one thing that changes over time: price.  There's a quick shot in the movie were you can see posted prices.  They go by so fast in the shot that I can't imagine they were put there by the filmmakers so I assume these were the legit mid-80s prices:

 $1.25 for adults and 50 cents for kids.  Not too shabby, right?  By comparison here are some ticket stubs from my grandparents' trip out there about 2-3 years later:

 50 cents inflation isn't too bad but these days tickets will cost you about (as of this writing $13.30 for an adult and $7.50 for kids.  Still not too bad for a tourist town.  Plus, you most likely won't be chased by assassins like young Henry Thomas was.  

Keep in mind, that's not the approved way of exiting the boat.  But it's a great way to end a low-speed chase through a world famous tourist attraction.  The next time you you feel like checking out retro San Antonio, just pop Cloak & Dagger into the ol' movie playing machine (or however people watch movies these days) and take in the sights in all their 1980s glory.

Jobe to the Future

Previously:

Top 5 at the Alamo Gift Shop  - -  Pee-Wee Visits the Alamo

"Amazing Stories" was an ambitious mid-80s attempt to capture a little Twilight Zone lighting in a prime time bottle.  As with any anthology, there were hits and misses but it's widely regarded as a show that was "pretty good."

The third episode of the series caught the attention of a young "me" since it featured a world famous landmark I had recently visited...the Alamo!  The legendary Texas battle site was having a bit of a Hollywood renaissance with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Cloak & Dagger making use of the location and now it was time for a small screen adventure.

The elevator pitch for the episode is: a fifteen year old volunteer from the Battle of the Alamo is transported to present day (A.K.A. 1985).  And that's also pretty much a summary of the episode too.  It's not what you would call a very plot heavy entry into the time travel genre.

The story begins during the battle (and uses footage from the John Wayne Alamo movie from 1960) and our hero Jobe (Kelly Reno from the Black Stallion movies) name checks fellow Alamo heroes William Travis and Davey Crockett and is given instructions to take a note to "General Lefferts" on "Shuttlecock Road."

While this is going on, Jobe keeps seeing 1985 tourists pop up in the mission, seemingly unaware of the carnage surrounding them.  He even hears some unfortunate news about the ultimate fate of the Alamo defenders from a tour guide (who probably hasn't gotten to the part about adobe or corn yet).

Sure that's a freaky thing to see but Jobe's a total pro and is determined to deliver the note.  But now it's his turn to time travel on his way out of the Alamo.  After a quick visit to the 1985 gift shop he's kicked out by one of the staff.

If I were to ask you, does that door look familiar?  You'd probably say, "Yeah, that's the door to the Alamo."  But you'd be wrong.  And I'd really stick it in your face in the smuggest way possible.  And then you would walk away from me and I'd be left alone once again with my useless trivial knowledge.

That being said, the Alamo doesn't allow people to film there.  So any time you've seen a movie or TV show at the Alamo, you've seen a sound stage.  This particular faux Alamo door was built for the film "Cloak & Dagger":

And at this point, just as Jobe must come to the realization that he's in another time (which he never really seems to do), we must realize that this episode is passing off Los Angeles as San Antonio.  But at least they make an effort to hide it.  Check out this matte shot:

Well now it's time for some fish-out-of-water shenanigans as Jobe hijinks his way across pseudo-San Antonio in the 80s, while encountering tons of sights and sounds that should freak him out but never really do.    It wasn't too long before it was time for a a classic trope:

Yep, out-of-towner guy meets hip guy.  In this instance the "hip guy" is a break dancer who tells Jobe that he digs his "funky cap."  Just as Jobe seems mildly curious yet mostly uninterested in the future things he see, the people he meets seem to feel relatively the same way.

I guess seeing somebody walking around San Antonio dressed in buckskins is like seeing someone dressed as a Disney princess in Anaheim.  After awhile it just becomes a fairly common part of your work week.

After some additional fun involving bus rides, pay phones, a stolen horse and a police chase, our hero finally gets to his destination.  There was no "General Lefferts" involved with the real Alamo and the real San Antonio doesn't seem to have a "Shuttlecock Road" so don't feel obligated to go on your own Jobe-esque quest the next time you're in town.

The fictional Leffert had a fictional descendant who runs a fictional antique shop where Jobe finally ends up to deliver the note.  Mission Accomplished!  With that done he returns to the Alamo and presumably his own time.  But before he gets there he gets directions from this helpful citizen:

So does this mean that Jobe survived the Battle of the Alamo and had kids?  It's not really clear and I'm not anticipating a follow-up any time soon so we'll all just have to write our own Amazing Stories fan fiction...as usual.

So once again our beloved Alamo has made its presence felt in popular culture and we all plan our next family road trips to the real San Antonio.

Top 5 Things For Sale at Corpus Christi in the 80s

Previously:

Sam Houston Statue Gift Shop

Texas Treasures Store  - -  Alamo Gift Shop

The Legend of Billie Jean was a teenage rebel movie that was smack dab in the 80s.  It was released in 1985 and takes place (and was filmed in) in the Corpus Christi/Padre Island area.  Helen Slater stars as a well meaning teen who (after an unfortunate chain of events) has taken just about as much crap as she's gonna take and goes on the run from the law with her friends and kid brother.

According to IMDb, the entire film was shot on existing practical locations so you get a good look at that area of Texas in the 80s.  And since the kids always need provisions, you also get a good look at some of the old products that were on the shelves at the time.

So instead of the usual gift shop browsing I thought I'd take a look at what I thought were the Top Five Things For Sale in the movie...or rather the Top 5 Things For Sale Corpus Christi in the 80s.

5.  Gasoline

Any rebellious road trip requires frequent fuel stops.  Movies like these can be snapshots into the culture of the time and one of the things I always keep an eye out for is gas prices.  In the movie gas clocks in at $1.05 per gallon, which seems a little high for '85 but South Padre is a tourist spot so things can get a little pricey.

4.  Almost Home Cookies

Like a lot of discontinued food items, Almost Home Cookies have a bit of an online following.  They were billed as a "homemade" style cookies and were one of the first "soft baked" cookies on the market.  A lot of people forget about the stranglehold that crispy cookies used to have on the market and these were meant to push back against that crunchy agenda.

3.  G.I. Joe Solid State Deluxe Walkie Talkies

This must have been product placement because these babies get a nice close up.  The gang needed to communicate with each other and in 1985 you needed a wheelbarrow to carry around what passed for a cell phone so walkies were the next best thing.  Like most kids of that era, they came in handy when outwitting authority figures.  Another great character touch in the film is the I.O.Us the gang left behind when they needed to "acquire" supplies...so, ya know...they mean well.
 
 2.  LaserDisc Players

The Lasers Disc format came and went in what seemed like a hurry.  People will swear that they were only around for a year or two but they actually hung on for several years and made an appearance in the movie.  Billie Jean and friends essentially invent social media by recording messages on a "Betamovie" camera and sending them to the media, thereby gaining "followers" of their exploits.  So maybe Laser Discs and Beta tapes weren't particularly prophetic but people's reactions and the cultural influence of self-created media definitely was. 

1.  Matchbox City Garage  

I guess Matchbox didn't have deep pockets like Hasbro because these things were stuck in the background.  For a young boy in the mid 80s there was nothing better than rolling your toy cars around a beauty like this.  Hot Wheels had a similar model but the City Garage has a little more charm if you ask me.

Honorable Mention:  These Wig Holders

These things caught my eye and while they're not technically for sale (the wigs are though) I thought I'd give them a participation trophy.  Mainly because they reminded my of the neck work done by stretchy superheroes like Plastic Man and Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four.  I've seen plastic heads that hold wigs before but never the stretchy neck variety.  And now you've seen them too.

So that's a lot of nice finds for a movie I had never heard of until a few months ago.  Surprises are nice but surprises involving laser discs, G.I. Joe and cheap gas are the best.