There's only one lesson taught there—conform or suffer.
Above is a promo for the juvenile delinquent scare flick High School Hellcats, one of only two films ever made by Indio Productions, along with Hot Rod Gang (click this link to see the poster for that). There's not much recommendable about this movie. Plotwise, Joyce, the new girl in school, gets hazed and bullied by Connie, ringleader of the Hellcats. If Joyce doesn't submit she'll find life rough. As Connie puts it, “You won't be invited to any parties and you'll have very few friends. And you'll never have any dates with boys. We'll see to that.” She's the type of chronic pain who thinks clever ridicule is repeating anything an adult says to her, but in a fake obsequious voice. “Connie, will you please be seated?” Connie: “Yes, sir, I'll please be seated.” She'll make you support youthanasia. Heh. While Joyce is lured by the dark side of high school, pulling her toward the light are her square guypal and her goody-good teacher. It's all pretty banal, neither accomplished enough to merit praise nor bad enough to elicit laughs unless you watch it with professional comedians, but in the ’50s even the most forgettable movies sometimes had unforgettable posters, and the above gem is an example of that phenomenon. The half sheet version below isn't bad either. High School Hellcats premiered in the U.S. this month in 1958.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1985—Theodore Sturgeon Dies
American science fiction and pulp writer Theodore Sturgeon, who pioneered a technique known as rhythmic prose, in which his text would drop into a standard poetic meter, dies from lung fibrosis, which may have been caused by his smoking, but also might have been caused by his exposure to asbestos during his years as a Merchant Marine. 1945—World War II Ends
At Reims, France, German General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms, thus ending Germany's participation in World War II. Jodl is then arrested and transferred to the German POW camp Flensburg, and later he is made to stand before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials. At the conclusion of the trial, Jodl is sentenced to death and hanged as a war criminal. 1954—French Are Defeated at Dien Bien Phu
In Vietnam, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which had begun two months earlier, ends in a French defeat. The United States, as per the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, gave material aid to the French, but were only minimally involved in the actual battle. By 1961, however, American troops would begin arriving in droves, and within several years the U.S. would be fully embroiled in war. 1937—The Hindenburg Explodes
In the U.S, at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the German zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg catches fire and is incinerated within a minute while attempting to dock in windy conditions after a trans-Atlantic crossing. The disaster, which kills thirty-six people, becomes the subject of spectacular newsreel coverage, photographs, and most famously, Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness report from the landing field. But for all the witnesses and speculation, the actual cause of the fire remains unknown.
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