Valentine's Day On the Planet of the Apes

Have a Happy Valentine's Day with the one you go ape over!

1974 Battle For The Planet Of The Apes article

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes was the last in the film series, and the lowest in quality, before the TV series began, which seemed to take place not too far in the future from what we saw in this movie. This article on it is scanned from issue # 108 of Famous Monsters, which was published in July of 1974. This is about where I came into my awareness of the Apes phenomenon, having somehow missed it up til then; don't ask me how. But I made up for in rabid interest what I lacked in prior awareness, and my fervor for it burned in intensity second only to my love for Star Trek.

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Below, as a bonus, is an ad page featuring the model kits for the Apes, as well as other interesting items.

Planet Of The Apes Revisited

Another entry on the apes, this time from Starlog issue #105, published April 1986. The cover blurb read "Untold Tales of Planet Of The Apes: The sequels you didn't see - and why!" It is indeed interesting to read about some of the ideas presented for the next movie, and one wonders if some of them might have turned out better than the one that was filmed.

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Since the movie was successful enough to warrent another sequel, the producers found that they had painted themselves into a corner with the destruction of the world. Having the trio of chimps go back in time to then-present day Earth was a great idea, but it would have been better if they had anticipated another film while writing the second, and set up the third one all through it. It would have been great seeing the efforts of Milo, Cornelius and Zira as they try to retrieve and repair the original ship, and the tension of their escape as the world is about to end. Just my way of thinking, and it would have made people even more excited for the next movie when the start of it was teased after the ape planet was blown up; and made the ending less depressing.

COF #23 Apes Article

When I was 15 years old in 1974, I was living near Macon, GA at the time, and one weekend as usual I was spending the night at my Grandma's house. These trips were like a taste of freedom given to a prisoner, in that I was allowed to be myself there, and buy what I wanted. I made my trip to Chi-Chesters Pharmacy on Vineville Ave, to see what magazines, comics or paperback I could find... and this time I hit the goldmine: the following issue, #23, of the awesome magazine "Castle of Frankenstein." The issue was electrifying to me as I snatched it from the magazine rack in an instant and feasted my eyes on the Apes cover art! I was a rabid Apes fan by then (an interest that was second only to my fever for Star Trek), and this was just before the first issue of the Marvel Apes magazine had come out. Below is the art for the wraparound cover, and the main Apes article inside. I still remember reading the article as I walked back home to Grandma's house, and how excited I was.

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Zaius: "I'm tickling her underarm! Tickle, tickle, tickle!"

Bonus: the cover art without the text! Found online.

"Go Ape!" Marathon Ads

(Note: This entry was originally posted over on my Newspaper Movie Ad blog titled "Held Over!" but since creating this blog I thought it might fit here also.)

Falling out of the Scrapbook this time are:

The "Go Ape" Marathon ads

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The ads asks, "Can you take it...will you really Go Ape," but the real question is "Can your butt take it?"

How well I remember the excitement I felt that summer in 1973 when these ads came out. At 15 years old, I was a little late getting into the Apes thing, it was only after "Battle" that I started becoming aware of them very much and was getting interested, even though I had never seen any of them. When they were all played back-t0-back in these Ape-o-thons, I was wishing I could go, but didn't bother to ask my parents. It gave my stepdad too much pleasure to say no, and I'd just get ridiculed for it.

That couldn't stop me from wishing, however, or clipping the newspaper ads, and soaking up everything I could about them through "The Monster Times." Finally, I was able to see the original when it showed on TV while I was at my Grandma's house, and I was in heaven. Yes, I was officially an Apes fan, and would always remain so. And beautiful Zira stirred a crush I have never gotten over! Then when the Apes TV series began in 1974 I really got into it, collecting with feverish thrill all of the Marvel POTA magazines that came out.

Below is a little article I clipped from the Macon Herald (GA), like all of the ads above, about the marathon showings. In some future posts I'll revisit the Apes from time to time, including the ads about the series from TV Guide.

And here is the Go Ape! poster in all it's colorful glory.

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Planet of the Apes Timeline Article

"And my timeline paper beats his, thanks to my superior firepower!"

The chronological timeline of the Apes movies and TV show is quite convoluted, with seeming contradictions scattered throughout. Indeed, many have tried to reconcile the various dates given throughout the series, and their efforts can be found on various sites, such as this one, this one, this one, and this one, among many others (One site that seems to offer an authoritative outline is HassleinBooks.com. I have not bought the book to examine it, but it looks to be the definitive effort so far) . This article from issue #11 of Marvel's 1975 POTA magazine seems to be the first published attempt to track the various dates and events given, in order to try to make sense of it (although it muddies the water somewhat by interjecting the Marvel comics storylines into it). I subscribe to the theory that once Zira and Cornelius come back in time to 1973, they created another timeline that differs from the original, where they did not go back. Their presence (and DNA) cause the ape mutation and uprising to occur much earlier than their history recorded, and I hold that the subsequent film and TV series events are a direct result of this new timeline. In that film the scientific advisor Hasslein thought that the future could be changed, and I think it was, just not in the direction he wanted. (Update: as you can see from the discussion with a knowledgable fan in the comments, there are different views on this.)

The author further submits the possibility, and I tend to agree, that the Zira and Cornelius of the third film may not even be from the same timeline as the first and second film; since it seems so unlikely that they could have located the sunken spaceship, retreived it, repaired it and launched it into space, even with Milo's help. Their technology just wasn't that advanced. The many attempts to catalog the timeline testify to the inconsistencies found in the movies; the carelessness of the writers force us fans into some strange contortions to justify the timeline of the films, indeed! Continuity was not a strong point of the franchise's producers. One thing is certain; we fans have given it much, much more thought than they ever did when creating it. Maybe we should set our brains in "nuetral" and just pop some popcorn and enjoy the films for the light entertainment they were intended to be...

Speaking of timelines, here is one that tracks various events in the real world relative to the production of the Apes franchise and various items associated with it. It's exhaustive, and informative, but ultimately depressing to me, to see how many people that contributed in some way to the Apes story have passed away.

1973 Mad Spoof On Apes Movies

The collection cabinets open this time to bring forth issue #157 of Mad magazine, published in March of 1973. By this time there were four films in the Apes series, with another in the works to be released the following year, with a TV series soon after that. Enjoy this Mort Drucker-drawn overview of the films titled "The Milking Of The Planet That Went Ape."

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Bonus: Below, an ad I clipped from a newspaper sometime around 1974.

Bonus: below, a unique photo of McDowell as Cornelius in a rare good mood; most likely thinking of his fiancee, Zira.

Below is one of my pencil drawings of Galen from the TV series, drawn in 1974 sometime, probably while in homeroom. I was big into Apes that year!

Charlon Heston Talks About Sci-Fi

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From the February 1980 edition of "Fantastic Films" magazine, comes this interview with Heston about his science fiction film roles and the genre in general. I've mined this issue for several other articles on my other blog "My Star Trek Scrapbook" since it partially focused on that movie, and I thought this article would be a treat for readers of "Fantastic Flashbacks."