In Praise Of Lennie Powell

Lennie Powell was never much of a movie fan, but he did produce two movies.

Lenny Powell owned a bean bag company, appropriately named Powell’s Bean Bags.  

The bean bag business was thriving during the latter sixties and picking up steam, like a runaway locomotive, into the seventies.  It seemed as though there was a bean bag in every house.  Lennie Powell found himself at the forefront of this great bean bag revolution.  He ran a high-volume business, and he was being rewarded handsomely for it.  From humble beginnings in 1971, with one small store in Oxnard, CA., his bean bag empire had grown into owning forty-five stores by 1975 - All located in Oxnard, CA.  Rather quickly, Powell’s Bean Bags expanded into other states.  

But it wasn’t just bean bags that he was selling.  It was what was inside some of the bags that led him to finance his two movie productions.  In addition to being the top seller of bean bags and bean bag accessories in North America, Powell was also the nation’s largest supplier of black-market Peeps.

 

Once classified government records that were made available to the general public after the “Freedom of Confectioneries Act”, circa 1993- Showed that in the United States for the fiscal years; 1972, 1973 and 1975, that Powell was top dog (or bunny) in the illegal Peeps trade.  In 1974 he came in second place after a playoff loss to the Marcellino crime family, who had just entered the shady world of counterfeit Peeps to complement their bogus black market Necco Wafer distribution ring.

Laboratory tests conducted by overweight scientists in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes found that Powell's black-market Peeps contained additional harmful ingredients to that of the real McCoy.

Prior to getting busted, Powell needed a way to launder the money coming in from tremendous sales of the illegal Peeps, which was more than he was pulling in on Bean bag sales.  So, someone suggested that he put the cash into various above-board businesses.

Powell took the advice and opened up The E-Z SudZ-It car wash and The Ottoman Empire, a store that sold ottomans exclusively.  Last but not least, he moved into movie production.

Powell then formed a film company which he called Black Rook Productions, and his first release was in the best film genre ever . . . THE CHEERLEADER FILM.

Powell assembled a crew from a local television station that made his commercials, hired local actors from a casting call and filming commenced over the summer break in July 1975 at Hannibal Hamlin High School, located in the Moreno Valley of California over a two-week period.  

PLOT:  The girls at Whiplash U have to fight off rival cheerleaders, bumbling cops and the local blue noses during the week leading up to the big game. Their goal is to have the ultimate party for their team . . . win or lose.  

HERE COME THE CHEERLEADERS! (sometimes without the "!") delivers the prerequisite tits, ass, comedic hijinks and bean bags, along with an enthusiastic abundance of Rah Rah Sis-Boom-Bah! (Always with the "!")

The cheerleaders are all cute as buttons and their cheerleading is choreographed well enough to come off like an authentic cheer squad.

The only actor that was a professional was character actor Beasley Monroe, who made a living playing cantankerous old coots, even when he was just starting his career in his mid-twenties.  Monroe had appeared in THE GUNSLINGER AND THE SALOON GIRL (1955), THE STRANGER WITH THE GOLDEN SPURS (1956), SHAKE, RATTLE AND CALYPSO (1958) and HANG TEN AND ROCK (1963).  Beasley plays Principal Maxwell, a stern, square jawed disciplinarian, who wants to shut down the cheerleader’s party.  But in the end, he realizes that having fun is not a bad thing and ends up dancing with the cheerleaders and falling into a pool as the end credits roll.

Black Rook’s second production was 1976’s BIG MAMMA MEANS BUSINESS, aka BIG MAMA’S BOYS, an outlaw biker comedy starring the stackuesque Dixie Morgan as Big Mamma, the leader of a not-so-rough and not-so tough outlaw biker gang called Big Mamma’s Boys.  

Big Mama’s boys are a hapless bunch of would-be outlaw bikers.  They don’t like to fight.  They complain if they ride in cold weather, heck, they can barely ride their motorcycles to begin with, always crashing into one another, parked cars, driving into lakes, and if there is a pile of dog shit left on the side of the road, you can bet your bottom dollar, that they’ll make an unintended face-first bullseye for that also.

Dixie Morgan, in her only film role, makes for a strong gang leader and she plays the comedic elements very well.  A tall, well built, stacked blonde, who wields a chain with great skill.  The film needs more of her, as the scenes with the perpetual whiney biker boys does get old pretty quickly.

Directed in “lock down” style with all of the subtlety of a 12,000 lbs. swinging wrecking ball by Tex Martin.  Martin mainly plied his trade in television where he directed dozens of episodes of STREETS OF ABILENE (1953-1956), TALES OF THE CHEYANNE KID (1957-1959) and FILES FROM THE NARCO SQUAD (1961-1964), with a few movies sprinkled in, MUDER ON THE CHEAP (1962) and THE SALINAS RIP-OFF (1966).  His last directorial effort was the 1974 blaxploitation cockeyed classic HOW CAN A BROTHER STRIKE IT RICH IN A LILLY WHITE WORLD?.

HERE COME THE CHEERLEADERS! and BIG MAMMA MEANS BUSINESS failed to reap interest from distributors and only garnered minimal playdates.  These were primarily in drive ins located in California and Southwestern States.  

The good times for Powell soon came an end, as in 1977 he was busted.  Powell had a big mouth.  Largemouth bass size.  One night while at a bar and indulging in his fifth Long Island Iced Tea, Powell started to boast about his business to anyone that would listen.  Unluckily for Powell, that someone listening to his braggadocios at the corner table were two FBI Investigators.  

Everything that he owned was seized by the federal government when he was arrested.  Powell lost his Bean bag company, the car wash, Black Rook Productions and a cherished, signed 8x10 glossy of Merlin Olsen.  Powell spent three years in a federal prison, where he captained the polo teams - both horse and water, founded a fine wine and cheese club and was involved in an improvisation group dubbed the Prison Players.

Currently it is unknown if the negatives or even prints still exist of either film.  The only viewing options available are scratchy Venezuelan VHS releases.

In Praise Of Robert Cornthwaite and Underwood Deviled Ham

 

Slight change a pace for this update.  IPOE praises all exploitation in the entertainment world, not just those that appear on movie and television screens. . . In this update we hit the boards.  In particular, off-Broadway theater, circa 1973. . .

Dick Wilmarth won the Iditarod, the Carribean Community and Common Market was inaugurated, and producer Robert Cornthwaite came up with an idea that he thought would set the Broadway world on fire.

Originally intended as a starring vehicle for funny man Jackie Mason, for a one man play called MASON ON MANSIONS, which would have had the comedian taking on the personas of famous American mansions.

JACKIE MASON:

William Randolph Hearst, a very rich man. . . started to construct me on his ranchland overlooking the village of San Simeon in 1919.  He called the estate "La Cuesta Encantada" - Spanish for The Enchanted Hill.   An Enchanted Hill for us Jews, would have a chopped liver road, lined by giant pickles, leading up to a free all u can eat delicatessen at the top.

In the midst of intense rehearsals, Mason was fired by producer Robert Cornthwaite over an argument about the proper place setting of a salad fork for a dinner party- it turned out that they were both wrong, but it was way too late to mend the fractured relationship, as nasty things had been said about wives, mothers and anal rape.  So, MASON ON MANSIONS ended almost as soon as it started.  Cornthwaite then tried to get the esteemed actor James Mason to take over, but he never could get through Mason's handlers.  Cornthwaite knew that a new direction was needed.  Being the savvy producer that he was, with dozens of other successful projects behind him, including the building of a Folly Gazebo at his New Rochelle home, Cornthwaite was undaunted.  He soon found his savior as he was watching television one day, in the form of an eight-year-old boy, who through his cute television commercials, was fast becoming America's new darling.  Sure, America has had a long line of darlings including Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and Fran Lebowitz to name a few, but Mason Reese, Cornthwaite felt, could surpass them all, leave them behind and make them eat his "darling dust."  Cornthwaite also conceived of an entirely different one man play.  A topic that he felt, would have a wider appeal to the general public than Mansions.  Cornthwaite made some calls, and he was soon meeting with Reese's agent, Izzie "30%" Kogan.  He explained the project:  A one man show that would have Mason Reese starring as the infamous cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson. 

Izzy then presented the idea to Reese after his afternoon nap, and then after some contemplation over milk and homemade raison cookies, Reese accepted the role.

Reese was intrigued for the chance to play such a notorious person.

Izzy Kogan was charmed by the money that he saw coming his way.  After five minutes of intense negotiating, terms were agreed upon.  Cornthwaite gave Mason the revised playscript to read over and study.

The play would be presented in five acts, broken down thusly:

Act one:  Manson's childhood

Act two:  Manson early Jail years

Act three: A Family Affair (the creation of the family)

Act four: The Murders

Act five:  The trial

This was a lot of lines to memorize for an eight-year-old child whose acting career thus far had been in one-minute tv spots, luckily many of the words in the playscript were repeated multiple times, so Reese was able to get the job done.

When all was said and done, Mason on Manson had a four month run at the Elgin Theater but went no further.  

In Praise Of Toad Dickerson

 

Rafe and Rory Calhern, who had great success in producing THE BOOTLEGGER'S BROOD (1970) for TIP, had none of that film's success with their 1978 feature HAMMERDOWN! THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF TOAD DICKERSON.  

Toad is a man amongst men.  He is the best looking, strongest and most interesting person in any group . . .  and if you don't believe it. . . Just ask him.

PLOT:  Toad has just walked off of his job as a semi-truck driver, due to his boss leaning on him for no good reason.  It turns out that Toad has just wrecked his third semi and his boss is none too happy about that.  Toad doesn't think that it is a big deal, a heated argument ensues, ending with Toad shoving his boss off a loading dock into a trash container.  Toad doesn't give a care about losing his job, as it will provide him more free time to explore his dreams. . . which mainly consists of drinking longnecks at his favorite country and western watering hole, the Saddle Tramp Bar & Grill, till last call and picking up any broad that falls under the "spell of the Toad"   He also likes to dirt bike, hang glide, wind surf and strum an out of tune guitar.

The main downfall is the character of Toad.  He is such an obnoxious narcissist that the audience can't relate to him.  It is not easy to spend ninety minutes with this guy and watch his shirtless exploits.  He is smug, condescending, treats women like trash and all others like dirt.  In fact, the character of Toad Dickerson may be the most unlikable protagonist concocted for the movie screen. . . Well Toad and George Bailey.

The Calherns envisioned a series of films featuring Toad Dickerson, but with less than a dozen playdates, they tossed those ideas in the nearest trashcan.

The film was released, albeit briefly, in 1980, under the title ANY WHICH WAY THERE IS, to try to take advantage of the Clint Eastwood hit ANY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978) and its sequel ANY WHCH WAY YOU CAN (1980).

Playing Toad is David Manners, who by all accounts was not like his character at all.  This would be his only acting credit, as Manners joined the Peace Corps soon after the film wrapped.  He then traveled to Gabon to help dig water wells and introduce Fruit Stripe gum to the natives.

As the theme song says:

"Live your life with gusto, don't give a damn what the other man says."