MOTHER OF A PROBLEM

Want to make a better life for your children? Try an endless string of robberies and murders.

Above is a poster for the action flick Big Bad Mama painted by John Solie, whose work we just looked at a few weeks ago for City on Fire. He was a top illustrator of his era, and it would be worth it to click his keywords below to see the eight or so other examples we’ve uploaded. As far as the movie goes, you’d think a Depression era period piece starring the incomparable Angie Dickinson would be an instant winner, but sadly it’s an absurd, episodic tale set to mouth harp and fiddle music about an amoral mother and two daughters becoming bank robbing outlaws, then kidnappers. Dickinson is radiantly sexy at forty-four, but nothing can disguise the fact that the movie is cheap, cheap, cheap. Everyone in it—even William Shatner—are decent-to-good actors under normal circumstances, but this fly-by-night production gave them no chance. Give it a watch, though, if you want to see Dickinson provide top notch fan service. Big Bad Mama premiered today in 1974.

New World Pictures, Big Bad Mama, Angie Dickinson, Tom Skerrit, William Shatner, Joan Prather, Susan Sennett, Robbie Lee, John Solie, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 18

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

February 17

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

February 17

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

February 16

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanideâ€”not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juiceâ€”resulting in his death in late 1937.

February 15

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.