#i would have love to have seen Gene dancing at his son’s club with all those kids

[mostlydaydreaming]

One of the few interviews with Gene Kelly’s son, Tim

Like other young kids who grew up in America, young Tim Kelly managed a few lemonade stands in his time. “And they did very well,” he says now. “But I didn’t really understand why.” Probably it was his location: the sidewalk in front of the Beverly Hills house that belonged to his dad, Gene Kelly.

Tim is still offering value for money received and his name still doesn’t hurt, but he has recently moved up from lemonade stands to dance halls. He and a partner ran the Nairobi Room, which overnight became LA’s hottest after hours club and which charged only $5 to get in the door. “If we upped the admission,” said Tim, 22, “we wouldn’t get the type of kids that make it happen.” The club’s mix of models, yuppies, street kids from Watts or East LA, stars, and anyone else who could crowd in, gave the Nairobi a special electricity.

All this has been done with little help from home. Once, after several months as proprietor and host of this genial oddity, Tim invited his dad down for a visit. “It was a big surprise to him,” he recalls. “He went off dancing. When he came back he said, ‘Gosh, this is a great time, but some of these kids need dancing lessons.’”

The relationship between father and son seems a close one, and it has been tested by tragedy and near tragedy. Tim’s mother, Jeanne, died of leukemia when he was 11 and his sister, Bridget, was 9 (now 19 and a student in Paris). Gene “quit working to stay home with those children,” a family friend recalls. “For years he was home at 6 to have dinner with his kids every night.” Says Tim, “He became both father and mother.” Last Christmas Tim saved his father’s life in a fire that razed the Beverly Hills house his father had lived in for nearly 40 years by guiding him out through the smoke.

Although Gene pays Tim’s tuition at USC’s film school and lets him use the garage apartment at a big house they’ve rented since the fire. Tim also worked regularly as a production assistant while raking it in at the Nairobi. “I work twice as hard as anyone else,” he says. “It’s best if someone doesn’t know who I am. When they do, they expect the worst from me, thinking ‘Oh, daddy got him the job.’”

That’s hardly a problem given Tim’s natural reticence. “As a child, anytime a camera came out, I disappeared,” he says. “Few people realize that Gene Kelly has a son.” Although the house was frequented by such friends of his father as Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood, Tim looked at them as “just regular people.” Later he spurned fashionable Beverly Hills High in favor of Loyola, a Jesuit school noted for its acedemic excellence, located in a largely Hispanic LA neighborhood. That doesn’t mean he is snooty about performers. Last August he worked as a DJ at Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton’s joint birthday party. “It felt odd,” he said, “because I knew so many of the people there. But it was fine. I really like working.”

“He is a perfectionist,” Tim says. “When he watches his movies, the only thing he won’t criticize is the ballet scene in An American in Paris. But he’s also very down to earth. Late one night I was photographing a New York graffiti artist in the basement. I had music cranked up on this blaster, and my dad wondered down into the kitchen. Now this artist said, ‘Wow, a real legend,’ and he wanted to meet him but he felt my dad would be a blown-away conservative thinking, ‘Who’s this nut with dreadlocks in my house?’ but then he went up to the kitchen and found my dad just drinking beer, scatting around to the music. ‘Wow,’ he said, ‘a real regular guy.’”

(People, (6/18/1984)

[kachuwritings]

Seventeen as dads

This is going to be my 200 follower special requested by a lovely anon, thank you!~

I made it with bullet points, I hope you’ll enjoy!^-^

S.Coups:

The born dad, I tell you

Searching for the perfect dad?

Here he his

Choi Seungcheol aka daddy af ;)

Is already a dad of 11, so he's experienced

He'll always know what to do, like in every situation

Has a solution for literally everything

Will care so much about your kids

He always has everything ready that your son or daughter might need when going out

Literally so protective over you and the kids

Like a momma lion, if someone steps too close to you he'll attacc

But so fluffy~ towards you and the lil ones

He loves you and the kids to no end

Will teach your son to be manly and strong

Like him

Cuz he's manly and strong (but also so fluffy and he knows he can't hide it)

Is such a happy dad overall

Jeonghan:

Prettiest dad ever

Like have you seen him???

Your kids are gonna be pretty af

Them genes gurl

He'll definitely teach them being smug

But also lazy

And you're like: “Hannie noooo! Be a better role model"

But he'll just keep lying down and munching chips with the kids

They'll love him so much for this

But honestly, he'll be a great dad

Will always take care of the kids

Will teach them useful things

Like cheating their way to success *cough*

But seriously tho!! He'll be such a good dad and he'll love it

Always ready to braid or comb his daughter’s hair

Adores her hair and thinks back to the time when his hair was long

You and him will have the prettiest kids with the most beautiful hair

Joshua:

Dorkiest dad ever

Always gentle and nice tho

But can be low-key a lil bitch

Your kids will love him

Always sings them to sleep with his sweet voice while playing guitar

And you're sitting next to him, adoring him and asking yourself how you've become so lucky

Such a good dad

Like for real

He's like one of these role model dads

Going on bike rides with the kids

And teaching them how to swim

Playing games

Just being a dad

It's like his new fav thing to do

And you're glad he's around so much even tho he has such a busy schedule

Will force your kids to go to church with him (ok this is joke chill guys)

You couldn't wish for a better dad

Like Really.

Jun:

The duality of this dude will even confuse his children

One time he'll be a shy lil muffin dad

And another one he'll be an overconfident daddy-o

Don’t get fooled by this one

He'll always keep it interesting

Your kids will never be bored with him

Is a talented beb and will probably teach your kids everything they want to

He can act so he’ll probably teach your children how to act

They’ll be asking him to do improvisations and watch him act out different roles

It’s so entertaining and you realize once again how amazing your man Wen Junhui is

Like….so so soooo amazing

Is SOFT

Like so soft for you and the kids

Also low-key emotional

Don't let him cry in front of the kids or they'll get worried lmao

But you'll be such a happy family

He'll teach you and the kids everything about Chinese culture

And of course your kids will grow up being able to speak mandarin

Even if you don't stan Wen Junhui, believe me you'd want kids with him

Hoshi:

FunNieSt DaD eVer

Like Hoshi is such a cinnamon roll

He'll adore your kids to no end

Always makes them laugh and is able to cheer them up when they're sad

Probably teaches them how to dance

Like gurl, you're married to a choreographer or course your children are going to love dancing with their dad

BeCauSE

Look at this good-looking, talented, lil bun

Such a proud dad

Your children are equally as proud of him

BuTttt

Hoshi is a cinnamon roll...most of the time

There's these rare occasions when he'll get angry because he's overworked and stressed and loses his temper

Can be reallll scary when angry

Your children will be low-key shocked about his sudden change of demeanor

But he'll notice and be like: Omg I cAnT posSibLy scAre mY oWn cHildRen

And he'll immediately calm down and comfort your kids

He's a loving dad and would feel really guilty to have scared them momentarily

Wonwoo:

Ayyyyy I see him as such a cute and nerdy dad

Like, always wears his glasses and looking fluffy af

You and the kids gotta deal with his occasional dad jokes

Thinks is funny, but really isn't

He even isn't funny to a point where it becomes funny again

Buys cute lil glasses for your children to match him

You get one too, believe me

You'll be the perfect nerd family

He'll always sit with the children in the evening and reads them stories from books to fall asleep to

Since Wonwoo loves books, your children will come to love them as well

Already at a young age

Probably eager to teach your children how to read before they even enter school

I see him as this typical, cute, fluffy, nerdy dad

+SOFT AF

Woozi:

Oh oh, don't get me started with this one

Your children are going to LOVE music

He’ll teach them how to play instruments

he'll play the sweetest of melodies on the piano

Will also sing to your children when they can't fall asleep

He might look cold and unemotional

Or kinda hard on the outside

But the love he holds inside his heart for you and the kids is infinite

He might not show his affection a lot

And also is kind of a workaholic kinda dad

Because he loves his job and music and he's so dedicated

But

If he does show his affection and become clingy and cuddly

You'll feel how much your family means to him

Probably writes a song about you and the kids

You guys are his inspiration and motivation

You help him keep going

In total

Just a cute lil dad who wants to love and be loved

Also kinda manly at times tho

But overall a really caring dad

DK:

Damn...he's such a loud dad

Like sooooo loud

Probably screams louder than all your children combined

Will always play with them

They probably gonna have a screaming contest

Y'all be playing some game and he'll randomly start screaming and entertaining y’all

He's such a fun dad seriously

Always knows what your children want

And always ready to spoil them

Is also soFT

And emotional

Is sensitive and gets hurt easily

Will then sulk and pout at your kids (in a joking manner) until they feel guilty and shower him with hugs

ALWAYS TAKES YOUR KIDS ON PIGGY-BACK RIDES 1.0

And he's definitely also one of these dads who'll sing your children to sleep

Maybe you'll even join him and you'll sing together

But you also just want to listen to his beautiful voice

Is probably the most excited dad ever

Mingyu:

This tall bean lmao

Such a clumsy dad I tell you

He's a literal puppy

He's also such a big baby and he always seems to trip over his own feet

Your children will probably laugh at him tbh

But he won't be mad since he's happy he can entertain them

Even if he makes a fool out of himself

ALWAYS TAKES YOUR KIDS ON PIGGY-BACK RIDES 2.0

Like they'll love to have such a great view over the world from such a high spot

Cuz Mingyu is as tall ad a mountain

Yup

He's a fluffy bean and will make sure his children are always happy

He loves cooking for y'all

He'll cook so many delicious foods

Your children get excited and want to help him

So he'll teach them how to cook

It's such a sweet sight seeing your man cooking with your children in the kitchen

He's the kind of Disney prince dad

Like the perfect and most handsome dad ever

You couldn't wish for anything better

Minghao:

A smug dad tbh

He's a savage but also a lil bean

Such an innocent dad help

He's emotional and so caring

He'll give you and your children the whole freaking world

Always makes sure you’re all happy

Hates to see any of you unhappy

But sometimes...sometimes...

When thughao gets through to him

Your kids will be like what??just??happened???with???dad???

He'll have the most savage things to say and y'all are just lmao u for real?

Probably teaches your kids to be swaggy and savage

Also wants to teach them how to b-boy

The other half of chinaline, so your kids will grow up to know how to speak mandarin as well

Also loves to read to them like Wonwoo

Discusses books with you and the children like in a small book club

Also goes to art museums with y'all and teach you about art

You'll all draw and paint together

Your children will love to throw paint at the canvas, lemme tell you

IT'LL CREATE A MESS

But it's a happy mess, so it's okay

Coolest dad ever!!!

Fite me on this one

Seungkwan:

OVERDRAMATIC DAD OH LORD

If one of your children trips and scratches his knee

He'll act as if they're about to die

Rushes towards them and makes sure they're okay

“OMG MY BABY IS HURT"

he's so caring istg

Even if he's overreacting and overdramatic

It only shows how much he cares for all of you

Loves you and the kids to no end

Sweetest father ever

(Whenever he's not in diva!boo mode)

Also has a beautiful voice

Of course I won't forget about this

I've mentioned it a lot

BuTtttt

Will also sing your children to sleep

Will always sing

Like 24/7

Will sing when preparing breakfast for y'all

Will sing in the shower

Will sing when picking your children up from kindergarden

Will probably even sing while taking a nap istg this boi

But you and the kids love his voice

(Even if it's sometimes a lil much)

But they'll definitely want to sing along with him so he'll teach them how to sing the songs they like

So proud of you and the kids

Vernon:

Oh no this dork

He's soooooft

But also chill and relaxed

Your life will be so comfortable with him

Your kids will really take after him

Y'all are going to have lazy family movie evenings

But

Like I said

He's a dork

Probably tries to sell his mixtape to your children

And they'll be like

Dadd????

What is this???

We don't have any money???

He'll make them listen to the mixtape along with you

And they're so surprised like

Omg I didn't know my dad was so cool

He can rap??? My dad can rap???

Your kids will be so amazed

Want him to teach them how to rap

Probably writes funny little rhymes about your family life or other stuff that he'll rap to your kids

They'll have so much fun

He even tries to teach them how to write lyrics

But they'll just stare at him with big eyes

Like

Dad...how do you even write? What is the alphabet?

And you'll just look at them and giggle to yourself

Your life will be all around great with Vernon and the kids

You have such a chill family life

Y'all harmonize so well with each other

Chillest dad ever

Like your kids will never get in trouble because he's so chill

But still cares about teaching your children proper manners

Dino:

Aaaaah the baby himself has babies what

Ok i'm sorry

Chan is an adult now

He's a hard-working one

Very passionate

Very thoughtful dad

He'll know how to treat you and the children right

Your children look up to him tbh

Entertains you all with Michael Jackson impersonations

DaNcE GoD

Will probably teach your children how to dance like Hoshi

But they'll also be so eager about it

Every time they see him dance they're like

OMG DAD!!! TEACH US!!

DAD I WANNA KNOW HOW TI DANCE

And he'll be so proud

Will definitely teach them

It's gonna be so much fun and you're watching them trying to get the moves right and copying his movements

He's an active and motivated dad

Y'all are probably be the next new dancing family in town

[chrysaliseuro2018]

BOSS OF THE BUS

As we were making our way down the west coast on our 5 day trip, Genevieve was investigating trips from Side to Capadocia in the centre of Turkey. Correspondence went back and forth about a €40-50 (about $75-80) 3 day trip. Comparing what we were paying for our 5 days this was so cheap I feared we would be camping. But no this was the price. Of course the sting came a bit later.

So we were up for it and the 4 of us booked to start the tour on 12th June with pick up time 6.45am. Antique Side is closed to cars other than those of residents so the tour bus couldn’t come down the hill to collect all our luggage. Booking ‘agents’ advised the town electric cart would collect us but alas no. Meanwhile Chris was in negotiations with the police manning the gate but it was a firm No. With minutes ticking by Doug quickly got Penny’s car, luggage was loaded into that and driven to the bus.

Now about 30 minutes had elapsed so understandably got some stink-eye from the passengers who’d been kept waiting.

The bus was designed for 12 passengers but fitted out for 17 so it was a close and intimate affair. In the front 2 seats were Doug and Gene who it has to be said got lucky with some extra leg room. Behind them 2 elderly Danes who grabbed a bottle of wine and or beers at every possible opportunity. Behind the Danes were 10 year old Russian lad with his mousy mute mother. Then Chris and me wedged in (Russian lad had his seat reclined the entire 2 days), and behind us the very friendly and chatty Aunty Margaret and Tina from Essex. Along the back were sweet young newly weds Soyah & Maurice from Holland, a spare seat, then Holly, Tina’s stepsister who judging by her size would have been grateful for the spare seat. Could have knocked us over with a feather when she told us she had been to the 7 continents by age 24, had emigrated to Melbourne several years ago (lives in Chelsea)and works as a sound engineer. You just wouldn’t have picked it!

Then heading back along the bus in single seats was a surly young lad who turned out to be part of the tour operation, a woman of unknown origins who disappeared after day 1, then Mr Russia who seemed to have supplanted both his wife’s and his son’s ego into his own.

Bus driver slipped under the radar but the same can’t be said for the guide Nahjo. In fact it was a battle of egos between Nahjo and Mr Russia. He didn’t just like the sound of his own voice. He was addicted to it! Along the way amongst other chit chat and information we got his life story, some group marriage guidance, how small lies can be forgiven and how this works in a religious context too. Every monologue went for a minimum of 10 minutes and woe betide you should you chat amongst yourselves during one of his diatribes. In the gaps the gregarious, party-loving-club-going-40-something Tina would try to share with me her life history. Nahjo seemed to get wind of it and standing facing the back of the bus would either clear his throat or announce it was his turn. Chris and I were left thinking our polite and humble Gallipoli guide must have been absent for the Tour Guide Arrogance 101 unit of the qualification.

So we were off and despite the late get away we stopped not 20 minutes down the road for a tea/ coffee break, followed by a breakfast stop 40 minutes later at a petrol station/ roadside stop. (It has to be noted that Cappadocia is some 470 kilometres from Side so it was going to be long day if the stops came so frequently). Breakfast option 1 was a vast modern complex selling everything you don’t want to eat. Gene who has an eye for local food spotted hidden in a corner behind some trees an outfit selling gözleme so we headed there. Great decision. Shoes off and into the tent where the local lady sat crossed leg with her dough, tubs of filling and the black dome for cooking the gözleme. Spinach and cheese one was a bit dry but the potato one was outstanding.

All wedged ourselves back in the bus which climbed up the mountains through some magical scenery. Unfortunately Nahjo kept reassuring us on the wrong side of the bus that we would see it ‘on the back journey’. However our arrangements meant we weren’t doing ‘the back journey’ so at one particular stop he was a little annoyed when we headed off 200 metres down the road to photograph the nomads herding their goats. I suggested it would be better for all if the bus pulled over so we could all see anything of interest on the way to Cappadocia. Suggestion was not welcomed.

Another stop for coffee and the sting of the extra €’s. It had to happen of course. You can’t run a tour for €50 per person providing transport, 2 nights accommodation no matter how basic, 2 dinners and two breakfasts. So lunch which we though was fend for oneself turned out to be a set payment (we only paid for one and opted to take our chances on day 2), and extra for Whirling dervishes, museums (charge €25/ $39.20 versus ticket face value less than $9) etc totalling an extra €120 between us. Even taking that into consideration €220/$350 for both of us was pretty cheap and the overcharging on extras balanced the undercharging on initial outlay.

Next stop, lost count if it was 4 or 5, was at the Mevlâna museum Konya, the birth place of the Sufi religion and Dervishes. The site is a holy place for Muslims with over 1.5 million visiting it yearly. The Mosque contains the tomb of Rumi (unfortunately hidden due to renovations) later known as Mevlâna who devised the idea of whirling and the tombs of other eminent dervishes. Also on display were Mervlana’s coat, a box apparently containing his beard and any number of exquisitely decorated Qurans, one so tiny that the author went blind writing it.

Alongside the Mosque was a complex giving information about the dervish culture. Included was a lodge displaying mannequins dressed as they would have been in Mevlâna’s day and the dervish cells displaying various items. I for one would have enjoyed more than our tightly scheduled allotted time there. But we were rounded up like errant school children and headed back for the bus. Chris managed to ruffle Nahjo’s feathers by needing a toilet stop when we were warned the next section of the drive would be 2.5 hours. By this stage as it was 1pm we were wondering about the elusive lunch if the drive was for 2.5 hours. There was some grumbling from Tina and Aunty Margaret and it wasn’t from their stomachs.

Eventually we rolled into another vile modern roadside stop - our lunch venue. Behind the counter were some aggrieved (probably because of the lateness of the hour) gorillas of men slopping out an assortment of runny casseroles, reluctant to identify any ingredients. It tasted as bad as it looked. We were immediately pleased with the earlier decision not to commit to day two lunch.

A short drive and then time for another stop. This time it was to visit a preserved home dug under ground, a primitive more simple Coober Pedy affair. Apparently tunnel complexes formed entire cities but this was a small example taking only 10 minutes for everyone to get through. I opted out and instead waited near the entrance/ exit where a dozen or so middle aged women had set up a market. Trouble was they were all selling the same little local cloth dolls so competition to get any one walking by was frenetic. Females in particular were the target for the spruiking with a good natured but frantic cacophony of calls of “Mother, Mother”. The closer anyone ventured to the stall the louder the screeching got. I hope everyone managed to sell something but with another 5 weeks on the road, it wasn’t something I could buy.

Everyone back on the bus and off to Dervish show scheduled to start at 6pm. Clearly we were up against it as the previously cautious bus drive planted his foot. Arrived shortly after 6pm with another bus arriving after us. Having been so enchanted with the beautiful ceremony we saw at Hodjapasha in Istanbul Chris and I we were looking forward to a similar experience. Dougal and Gene had never seen them and had their expectations built up by us.

Oh dear!!! The pipe/flute player struggled to find a note, the dervishes all looked like novices (part time uni job perhaps), they wore slippers that made a noise that was distracting, one was losing his pants, also very distracting. There was a non dancing head honcho roaming around amongst them dressed in black once again distracting, they didn’t vary their speed and were for the best part out of sync. Yes they could spin but it lacked all the beauty, rhythm and charm of our previous experience. We left feeling glad to have seen a more authentic experience and Doug and Gene left feeling they were yet to see one.

Short drive to our delightfully self rated ‘Special Class’ hotel in Göreme, rooms allocated and orders that we had 15 minutes to get to dinner. Dinner a simple affair with lentil soup, the not-so-traditional-Turkish chicken schnitzel and melon. Danish couple of course knocked off another bottle of wine.

Gene, Chris and I headed for a stroll to town wandering through the streets. Highlight was at a hotel where I poked my head in and elderly Mehmet the owner insisted we come and look at his accommodation. Beautiful rooms that were huge with the bathrooms built into the rock giving a sense of a modern and upmarket Flinstone bathroom. With Mehmet’s limited English we spent a special half hour in the hotel’s courtyard trying and making a reasonable hash of having a meaningful conversation.

A long day and time for to return to our ‘Special Class’ Hotel Karl for bed, especially for Gene with a 4.30 am start for her hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia.

[wwfwrestler-blog]

10 Early 90's WWF Wrestlers

A Professional Wrestler - Hulk Hogan

The Wrestler is a heart wrenching tale of many a wrestler by means of the world of the professional wrestling circuit, it tells the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a Wrestler who was one time on the top of his game, but now battling on the small time circuit to make ends meet, along along with his weekday job at a grocery store.

A few of the wrestling scenes concerned in this circuit are not for the faint hearted, a few of it includes being stapled quite a few occasions, (the scene the place the staples had been being eliminated was extraordinarily discomfiting) , a fork used on the forehead, and being dropped on to a table stuffed with glass, to call a number of.

I heard Mickey Rourke resulting from his extremely practical performance is to be invited to one of many key invents from WWE the place he'll wrestle, and I must say the performance is mesmerizing, you immediately imagine from his visage alone he has led a life where the world has pounded non-cease on his body, from the steroid injections to take care of his efficiency, to making an attempt to make amends together with his daughter Stephanie played superbly by Evan Rachel Wood, and making an attempt his luck with a local stripper, who only sees him as a customer at first, however his lovable heart makes her understand he is one delicate-hearted ram. Marisa Tomei performs the love curiosity, and I'm not alone questioning how she has the physique of a young person even though she is approaching center age.

Hulk Hogan is a ring name for Terry Gene Bollea. He's knowledgeable wrestler born in 11th August 1953. He's the son of a construction foreman, Peter Bollea and his mother is a housewife and dance instructor. He started his wrestling profession at 16 years old. He's presently signed to the "Total Nonstop Motion Wrestling".

Hulk Hogan's biography includes a prolonged hierarchy of his involvement within the wrestling trade. He first showed interest when he was finding out at Hillsborough Group Faculty and University of South Florida. He didn't graduate with a degree; instead devoted more of his time in an area fitness center. He acquired encouragement from the health club's two house owners and hung out wrestling on small circuits.

His talent was seen by Vincent McMahon in 1979 and he gave Bollea the golden probability to join WWF. His nickname Hulk Hogan was urged by McMahon as he has bodily resemblance to Unbelievable Hulk. He received a match towards Andre the Big in 1980 and that made Sylvester Stallone casted him in his movie "Rocky III".

Bollea was then awarded the WWF championship belt in 1984 as a consequence of his outstanding defeat of Iron Sheik.

He earned the nickname "Hulkamania" from his fans and in 1985 he started taking lead roles in a few movies included "No Holds Barred" in 1989, "Mr. Nanny" in 1983 and "Santa with Muscles" in 1996. When WWF was accused of giving steroids to its wrestlers, he had to terminate his movie and wrestling professions.

Hulk Hogan's biography continued with him making a return look a while later with the image of "Hollywood Hogan". From there he slowly gained his previous success. He printed an autobiography in 2002 and revealed his family life in the collection "Hogan Is aware of Greatest". The present exposed a lot of his life including parenting challenges and allowing his daughter to go on dates. He faced the best adversity when his son obtained concerned in a automobile crash and at that very same month his wife filed for a divorce, ending their 24-year marriage. His intention to reconcile was not responded by his wife.

Nevertheless, Bollea continued his working profession. He co-hosted the "American Gladiators" with Laila Ali in January 2008. He then turned the manager producer and host of "Hulk Hogan's Celeb Championship Wrestling". Currently, he is staying together with his daughter in Clearwater, Florida. His daughter is now starring in her own series, "Brooke Is aware of Finest".

In the course of the World Wrestling Federations heyday that they had many various product automobiles. You would purchase buying and selling cards, lunch bins, video games, attire, tickets, VHS tapes; you identify it and you might pretty much assure that the WWF had a product for it. Back in the eighty's you would find many overt promos for all of those merchandise. Fifteen second spots would air selling the products, the announcers would have them, followers with the product could be shown on TELEVISION and even the wrestlers themselves would carry the product or "gimmicks" to the ring.

Whereas many of those merchandise still exist, the best sellers for the company are T-shirts, video games, & wrestling figures. And the promoting of those merchandise is more tongue and cheek than prior to now, as regular mentions are led to in a comical manner.

Taping Format

Lately on Monday nights the WWE tapes a one hour internet and foreign market present named Heat, adopted by the two hour stay version of Monday Night Raw. On tuesdays ECW is taped and is instantly adopted by a taping of Friday Night time Smackdown. As you may see, every taping contains one week of TV for two different reveals.

The previous format was drastically completely different. Utilizing lengthy blocks, the WWF would run TV tapings for four+ hours. Sometimes they might tape 4 one hour episodes back to back, every episode representing every week's worth of TV. Many wrestlers would seem three or four times per present. Obviously this may become slightly tedious for the followers in attendance. As was the norm, the vast majority of the tapings included the aforementioned "jobber" matches. On prime of this they would also often tape one or two matches that have been exclusive to the WWF's home video tape library, Colosseum Video.

Goals of TELEVISION

The structure for the enterprise was completely different back then than it is right this moment. For instance, at present's WWE tv is geared towards scores & PPV buy charges. Up to now, 90's WWF wrestlers Where Are They Now while necessary, scores weren't as large of a concern. The primary revenue sources for the WWF got here via house present (off TV exhibits held in local towns) and in PPV revenue.

The standard for immediately features no less than two large matches per TV. In the mid 80's there would usually be a group of jobber matches, matches through which large name stars have been positioned against no-name expertise, with the stars set to get "put over" or to destroy these no-identify wrestlers on a weekly foundation. This method would sometimes change, in most situations during the WWF's late saturday night time NBC hit dubbed Saturday's Night time Essential Occasion.

Prior to Inoki's rise to fame, wrestling in Japan was little known outdoors of Japan. Inoki showcased his skills all over the world for a lot of many years, and in doing so he made audiences in America, as well as many other nations world wide, take notice of wrestling in Japan. Upon retiring as a supeurstar, Inoki has remained in the wrestling business, as a wrestling promotor, and Inoki has proven himself to be a man that has made a huge distinction to skilled wrestling.

Inoki's first sport was actually not wrestling, and instead he started his sporting career as a basketball player. This was short lived, and by the age of 17, Inoki had a place in the Japan Wrestling Affiliation, where he would learn the commerce from which he would go onto create a legacy. At the time he was the protege of Rikidozan, who died on account of stabbing whilst in America. This left Inoki alone, and up until 1966, he fought in the shadow of the larger, stronger superstar, Big Baba.

DO YOU KNOW? Antonio Inoki gained the regional Brazilian championships in Discus and Javelin, and then the All Brazilian championships in both Shot Put and Discus?

Inoki then went on to create Tokyo Pro Wrestling, and this was Inoki's first taste at being the face of an organization. Throughout this period of time he gained a lot of his expertise. Although this firm wasn't transferring ahead, different firms now grew to become conscious of exactly what Antonio Inoki could offer to their corporations, and due to the monetary problems in TPW, the company folded solely a year after Inoki had began to steer them. From right here he returned to the Japan Wrestling Association, where he had begun his wrestling profession seven years earlier.

It was during his second stint within the JWA that Inoki first faced a superstar who was held with high regard by followers in America, in the form of a true wrestling legend, Bruno Sammartino. He was now tagging with Big Baba, and during a tag match wherein Bruno Sammartino was concerned, Sammartino claims that Inoki tried to "shoot" on him during a match, which means that Inoki was touchdown real hits on Sammartino. Sammartino responded by pounding Inoki, resulting in Inoki walking out on the match, clearly unhappy with the response from the then world champion. However, at this level in his career, Inoki was still learning quite a bit in regards to the enterprise, and he would start to grow to be recognised by wrestling fans in 1972, when after being fired by JWA, he went onto create New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Whilst in NJPW, Inoki ended Bob Backlund's reign as WWF Champion, although this reign shouldn't be recognised. Beneath controversial circumstances, Backlund regained the title the next day. The championship belt was provided again to Inoki, however he refused the title and the report books show Backlund's reign lasted from 1978-83, even if he lost the championship to Inoki, and the championship was vacant for twelve days. Inoki was now a name being talked about all all over the world, and his martial arts profession was taking off simultaneous to the same taking off of his wrestling career.

DO YOU KNOW? Antonio Inoki and Ric Aptitude fought in North Korea in entrance of an attendance of one hundred seventy,000 fans, with Inoki being victorious over the "Nature Boy".

Inoki began his martial arts profession by squaring off in opposition to Willem Ruska, the Olympic judo champion from the Netherlands. On this event, Inoki was put by means of physical torture all through this match, nearly falling victim to a submission defeat on many occasions, as Ruska persistently locked on armbars and sleeper hold, but it surely was Inoki's resilience that won the "World's High Martial Artist Deciding Match", as a consequence of TKO following three consecutive again suplexes.

It was then time for the largest and most anticipated match within the historical past of blended martial arts, as Antonio Inoki went head-to-head in opposition to world champion boxer of the time, Muhammad Ali.

The match turned out to be an anti-climax, as Ali's camp enforced so many rules on Inoki, that the Japanese wrestler was restricted to performing sliding kicks for the whole match, and spent nearly your entire battle on his again, as he knew that the foundations enforced on this match meant that Ali couldn't throw a punch to Inoki while Inoki was down. Inoki was three factors up on the last bell, but had all three eliminated on account of being penalised. Ali was hospitalized after the struggle, and Inoki was left in a multi-million yen debt, and so was pressured to continue fighting mixed martial arts matches to repay it.

DID YOU KNOW? Muhammad Ali reportedly saw Inoki coaching for his or her match, and asked "OK, so when will we do the rehearsal?" and after Inoki responded "No, no. This is not an exhibition. It's a real combat!" Ali then went on to implement guidelines saying that Inoki could not deal with or throw Ali, and could only kick him if one in all Inoki's knees was involved with the mat.

Inoki fought twenty MMA fights in total, in opposition to top opponents in all forms of combating. He fought the Olympic judo champion, the boxing world champion, as well as the man that took the title from Ali, being Leon Spinks. He also took on Andre the Giant, who claimed that Inoki didn't represent wrestling well throughout MMA fights.

Inoki responded by preventing Andre, and even again suplexing the behemoth earlier than successful by TKO. Inoki only had one loss on the finish of his MMA profession, to Shota Chochishvili, and Inoki set the record straight a month later by defeating Shota by submission. Antonio Inoki's MMA file on the finish of his career is 16 wins (9 KO, 5 submissions, 2 pins), 1 loss (1 KO), 3 attracts.

Inoki has since offered his fifty one.5% share in NJPW to Yuke's, and has launched his third wrestling firm of his career (Inoki Genome Federation). Inoki began trading expertise with TNA, with superstars reminiscent of Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar holding the principle championship belt of the brand, the IWGP title. Inoki was additionally included within the WWE Corridor Of Fame Class Of 2010, making him the primary Japanese wrestler to be inducted.

[travelworldnetwork]

By Christopher P Baker

6 February 2019

A commonly repeated belief says that Cuba’s indigenous Taíno people were extirpated shortly after the Spanish conquest in 1511. Yet signs of living Taíno culture appear as my car bounces down the track to El Güirito, a remote hamlet at Cuba’s easternmost extreme that’s sandwiched between the azure Atlantic Ocean and surging mountain ranges smothered in throttling green.

It’s easy to see how pockets of indigenous people could survive in this wild, rugged place, passing down their genes through the centuries.

I’m as close as I’ll ever come to seeing the idyll Columbus saw on his first voyage to the New World

Arriving at El Güirito, I’m greeted by indios campesinos, humble farmers proud of their Indian heritage. Their coppery complexions, square jaws and prominent cheekbones – so distinct from elsewhere in Cuba – remind me of Amerindian faces I’ve seen in the Amazon.

Many rural Cuban families live in simple bohíos (thatched huts) with palm-plank walls. Yet nowhere else in Cuba have I seen graves topped by thatch and surrounded by guamo (conch) shells, preserving a Taíno superstition meant to thwart evil spirits. Nor still-smouldering plots of boniato (sweet potato), yucca and maize, newly cleared by slash-and-burn and heaped in earthen mounds, Taíno-style. Nor weathered campesinos prodding at the soil with coas, long, sharpened hoes that pre-date Columbus’ arrival in Cuba on 27 October 1492.

I’m as close as I’ll ever come to seeing the idyll Columbus saw on his first voyage to the New World.

View image of Cuba’s indigenous Taíno people were extirpated shortly after the Spanish conquest in 1511 (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

“[The indigenous people] show the most singular loving behaviour… and are gentle and always laughing,” Columbus recorded. Conquistador Diego Velázquez’s arrival in 1511 would change that forever. Those Taíno not put to the sword or worked to death fell victim to smallpox, influenza and measles, against which they had no defence. Within 100 years of Columbus’ landfall, virtually the entire indigenous population – heavily concentrated in the fertile lowlands of eastern Cuba – had perished.

Yet contrary to popular claims, Taíno bloodlines, identity and customs were never completely extinguished.

You may also be interested in: • The shipwreck that created a culture • The US islands of slave descendants • The islands with a ‘third gender’

Many survivors mixed with Spanish colonists or fled the flatlands to endure in palenques (hidden redoubts) in the rugged, densely forested mountains inland of Baracoa ­– an ancient Taíno village that, in 1511, became Cuba’s first Spanish colony. Encircled by a mountain meniscus unfurling like an abanico fan around the Bahía de Miel (Bay of Honey), this insular enclave wasn’t connected by road to the rest of Cuba until 1964.

Throughout the colonial period, Spanish authorities refused to acknowledge the existence of Taíno people. Yet 19th-Century records are full of references to caseríos (Indian kinship communities) in the mountains of eastern Oriente province. Even José Martí, revolutionary apostle of Cuban independence, recorded (in the days preceding his death in a Spanish ambush in May 1895) how he was tracked by the ‘indios de Garrido’ – Indian scouts from Yateras under the command of Spanish Lieutenant Pedro Garrido Romero.

As recently as the 1940s, Cuba’s preeminent geographer and anthropologist Antonio Nuñez Jiménez – who would later hold top positions in the Castro government – had documented dozens of caseríos scattered throughout the Sierra del Cristal and Macizo Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountains. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, however, the communist government vehemently promoted the notion of the Taíno’s extinction. It dissuaded distinct racial identification and instilled a singular mind set of ‘Cubanness’, intended to equalise everyone. “The government was drastic about it for years and didn’t want it to come up,” says José Barreiro, Cuban-American former director of the Office for Latin America at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, in a 2016 article for Smithsonian Magazine.

View image of Christopher P Baker: “It’s easy to see how pockets of indigenous people could survive in this wild, rugged place” (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

Not even Baracoa and its remote, rugged hinterland was spared the government’s gauche promotion of a singular ‘New Man’ mindset. “We families knew we were Indian, but as children we were told not to discuss it with other people,” said Rafael Cobas Romero, a member of El Gūirito’s Grupo Kiribá-Nengón, a cultural ensemble that keeps alive 19th-Century kiribá and nengón country music and dance forms that are rustic precursors to son, Cuba’s iconic traditional music (of Buena Vista Social Club fame).

Today the living Taíno identity is acknowledged, and no longer viewed as a challenge to cubanidad (Cuban identity). Instead, it’s promoted (albeit somewhat begrudgingly) as a touristic asset. Appropriately, I’ve brought my US motorcycle group to El Gūirito for a cultural ‘people-to-people’ encounter during our ride across Cuba (US embargo law states that US citizens traveling to Cuba for group travel may legally do so only for ‘people-to-people educational exchange’).

We families knew we were Indian, but as children we were told not to discuss it

The ensemble strikes up, interpreting their traditional sounds with age-old Cuban instruments – the tambor (African drum), tres (Cuban guitar), claves (hardwood percussion sticks), güiro (gourd scraper), maracas, marimbula (plucked box), and a güayo scraper inherited from the Taíno serrated stone grating board used to shred yucca. Indios campesinos take our hands, kiss our cheeks and invite us to dance, showing us how to glide our feet across the floor like fish moving through water.

“Kiribá and nengón are rooted in our traditional guajiro (peasant) lifestyle. But our culinary traditions date back to the pre-Columbian era,” Teresa Roché Lore, the group’s director, explained.

Spread out before us is a buffet of uniquely baracoense dishes – distinctive from Cuba’s predictable pork, rice and beans – served Taíno-style in coconut shells and jícaras (hollowed gourds) or laid out on bateas (wooden trays). I savour spinach-like calalú simmered in leche de coco (coconut milk), and bacán, a steamed corn dough stuffed with plantain and pork, wrapped in blanched banana leaves. There’s lechita, shrimp in a well-seasoned coconut sauce, and a tiny opaque fish called tetí, fried then simmered in coconut milk with slivers of sweet peppers and onions. We end with delicious desserts, including yemitas, sweet balls of grated coconut and chocolate, and a chocolate drink called chorote made from coconut milk and cacao thickened with corn starch.

View image of The communist government promoted the notion of the Taíno’s extinction to instill a mind set of ‘Cubanness’ (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

While many residents of El Gūirito display Amerindian features, Cuba’s Taíno descendants can’t always be identified by physical traits.

“You can be looking at a very Afro-Cuban or Iberian-looking person, but the DNA tells a different story,” Barreiro says in the article.

DNA tells a different story

The government’s volte face echoes studies carried out in 2013 showing that Cuban blood is spiced with Taíno DNA, like ajiaco (a hearty Cuban stew of various meats, vegetables and tubers). The average proportion of Native American ancestry in the veins – 8% nationwide – climbs to 15% in eastern provinces (and far more in some individuals). It’s almost exclusively derived from maternal lineage, likely from the conquistadors brutal rape of Taíno women.

“There are no more pure-bloods, but I know many extended families of Indian heritage that still live in their aboriginal areas," said Baracoa’s historian, Alejandro Hartmann Matos, who has spent the past decade dedicated to rewriting the tale of the Taíno's demise. He estimates there are at least 4,000 Indo-Cubans who are biologically more Taíno than not.

“Many people in other communities have Taíno blood but won’t admit it. We don’t live exactly like our ancestors, but we’re proud of our heritage,” said Isolino Cobas Romero, a sun-beaten guajiro who leads the El Gūirito dance troupe.

View image of According to historian Alejandro Hartmann Matos, there are at least 4,000 Indo-Cubans who are biologically more Taíno than not (Credit: Credit: Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images)

Taíno culture is most fully preserved in La Caridad de los Indios, a constellation of small caseríos of some 1,600 kin, nestled high in the lush Sierra del Cristal mountains overlooking Guantánamo. La Caridad de los Indios was the most remote palenque where Indian families settled after being ousted from their last lowland territory in 1850.

“There are Indians all over these mountains,” says 82-year-old Francisco ‘Panchito’ Ramírez Rojas, cacique (chief) of the Rojas-Ramírez clan, Cuba’s main Taíno extended family. Even Granma, Cuba’s official Communist Party newspaper, recently acknowledged the extended clan as living proof that the dictum of Taíno extinction is myth in an article titled Panchito, el último cacique (Panchito, the last chief).

The government’s acknowledgement of living Taíno culture owes much to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Cuba was suddenly critically short on food and medicine. In desperation, it turned to indigenous knowledge of traditional farming and natural medicines, shining a spotlight on a culture it had long denied.

“There are medicines all around us,” Panchito said, sweeping his arm in an arc. “The forest, this yard. They’re an entire pharmacy.”

View image of Baracoense cuisine is distinctive from Cuba's well-known staples of pork, rice and beans (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

The discovery that Cuba’s indigenous healers use scorpion stings to treat arthritis led Cuban scientists to ground-breaking cancer treatments. “We found that scorpion venom acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. It also stimulates the immune system and shrinks tumours,” explained Dr José Rodríguez Alonso, an Oxford-trained Cuban physician at Guantánamo’s Universidad de Ciencias Médicas.

Since the Cuban Revolution, most caseríos now have a clinic and school, and residential bungalows (many with solar panels) built by the State. But the community’s ways of life are infused with Taíno ceremonies, traditions and spiritual values common to many Native American cultures.

Our race is disintegrating

They fish tetí by the luna menquante (waning moon), and plant and harvest by the four lunar phases. They still pray to the sun, moon and Mother Earth. And they ask permission or forgiveness before harvesting or taking bark and leaves for cocimientos (healing remedies).

"The Spaniards killed most of us, but they left our roots,” Panchito said. “We mustn’t let this beautiful way that we have die.” He’s been passing on his knowledge to his children and grandchildren. But younger indios are leaving the mountains for a modern life in the cities. "Our race is disintegrating," he lamented wistfully.

View image of Francisco ‘Panchito’ Ramírez Rojas: “We mustn’t let this beautiful way that we have die” (Credit: Credit: Christopher P Baker)

But experiencing the ancestral rhythms and indigenous cuisine at El Gūirito – just 17km east of Baracoa – gives me hope. Watching Roché Lore and her kin guiding my group on the dance floor, I grasp how respectful visitation can be a viable way of helping keep alive traditional lifestyles by providing an income. Of investing indios campesinos in a future by giving touristic value to their past.

Burdened with the myth of extinction, most communities of Taíno descendants are still far off travellers’ radar. I’m inspired to take my next group into the mountains.

Our Unique World is a BBC Travel series that celebrates what makes us different and distinctive by exploring offbeat subcultures and obscure communities around the globe.

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[pwylldavydd]

All the Realms

The Gods

I was fortunate to be present for the reunion. Or reconciliation, as it was intended. While a recent arrival in Toronto – and only twenty-three years old – I’d ingratiated myself in its society of booksellers, writers, and scholars; although the events I experienced, or persons I met, often found me out of my depth. Not unlike my first exposure to Buddy Ebsen, as Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies. I was only twelve years old then and didn’t know he’d been a song-and-dance man in the movies and vaudeville. (He was going to be Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz no less, but he couldn’t tolerate the makeup.) Barker Fairley, one of the two desired to be reconciled, was himself less famous than his depth might recommend. A poet and painter, he’d written a landmark study of Goethe, and was friends with members of the Group of Seven and other distinguished persons in the Arts and Letters Club circle. He’d painted A.Y. Jackson in 1939, and Fred Varley had painted him in 1922, when he was thirty-five. By the time the launch for his book of poems was being refashioned for rectification in 1977 he was ninety. Everyone thought the two had better patch things up, because they weren’t going to live forever and people ought not go to the grave with things unresolved. In fact, he didn’t die until 1986, at the advanced age of ninety-nine. Thoreau MacDonald, the one from whom Barker was estranged, also had many years still to live, passing away in 1989 at the age of eighty-eight. He was and is among Canada’s most distinguished artists. His preferred medium was woodcut illustration, and he’d decorated and lettered poems of Barker Fairley’s in the 1920s. But they’d had a falling out and hadn’t spoken for forty years. It was Thoreau who got up from his chair that evening at the party. He walked over to where Barker was sitting and leaned forward slightly on his walking stick. “Hello, Barker,” he said. “Hello, Thoreau,” Barker replied. Then Thoreau turned and walked back to his seat.

Demigods

You could spot the men and women who travelled with the company, as opposed to the local hires. They were deeply tanned. Seasoned. Vaguely dangerous. They had their own train! Which you could see parked on a railway siding beside the fairground while the show was on. At its peak Royal American Shows was the largest carnival company in North America, which after the War included a number of city fairs in western Canada where I lived. You’d often read in the newspaper back then how people wanted the midway cleaned up, or modernized. Little was changed or updated over the years, and by the late 60s the Royal American train was a rolling anachronism, loaded with the artefacts of an already-bygone era. Today, exhibition midways are mostly amusement rides and games of chance offering plush toys for their hapless winners. In that earlier era, carnival operators had those things, but they also had sideshows, announced by hand-painted banners, hung in rows like huge lettered sails. There was Leon Miller’s Club Lido, a burlesque tent that travelled with Royal American. Blaze Fury! The Human Heat Wave the banner announced, famous for twirling flaming tassels. The company was also renown for its girl-to-gorilla illusion, a must-see, portrayed on one of these colourful flags. Next to that, a banner for Serpentina, the Reptile Queen! in the Museum of Mystery. At bottom, it was this everyone wanted “cleaned up.” The freak show. The circus tradition of parading shocking medical anomalies and persons of peculiar talents (such as contortionists and sword swallowers) in a sideshow tent came to trouble public conscience. Not so for the Wall of Death, though, where daring motorcyclists rode stunts on the inside wall of a carnival motordrome, like a giant wooden barrel 16 feet high and 30 feet across. We watched from the spectator platform around the top edge above as they entered the arena floor below, waving up at us as they started their stripped-down Indians and Harley-Davidsons, the roar of the engines engulfing our applause.

Humankind

1930 was not a good year to be born in Tibet. In your late twenties, as you reached your prime, your home and culture and country would be smashed by foreign military forces. You would likely be imprisoned and tortured, and your mother and father would be brutally murdered in front of your eyes. On the other hand, 1930 was the best year ever to be born in the west, especially in Canada or the United States. Too young to serve in World War II, you enjoyed the buoyancy of its patriotic mood in safety as a child; then had many veterans’ benefits available to you when it was over. A time of terrific waste and excess, you suddenly and relentlessly mowed down vast forests, raped the great oceans, and burned huge quantities of petroleum. With these assets, you enjoyed stunning economic and technological prosperity, never before imaginable. And jazz. You had jazz music. Especially swing. Swing was a big band sound for dancing, full of primal rhythms. The best of swing were the bands of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. For me, their finest moment was Sing Sing Sing, written by Louis Prima and made famous by Benny Goodman. Born in 1954, I was too late for the original passage of all this, although enjoyed the tidewater of its prosperity later. But as a teenager I scorned the jazz singers, like Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, and Ella. And scorned my dad for loving them. Which, when I got to my forties, suddenly flipped to a powerful lesson of just how wrong you can be. My dad was gone so I couldn’t tell him I’d come to this realization. Although opera was my first love then, not jazz, and I woke up to CJRT radio at 6 am for the classical program. One day in a mood of mischief, the announcer played Sing Sing Sing at 6 am for his still-sleepy classical listeners. While I lay there in bed listening to the huge chorus of brass, and Gene Krupa pounding his drums, this seemed to me the very essence of the entire possibility of living.

Animal Kingdom

My supervisor explained that people noticed I was always staring at the shapely young women who came in the shop. I replied I wasn’t looking at all of them; and besides, I wasn’t staring, I was just trying to comprehend them. Besides that, he wasn’t really my supervisor. I was supposed to be working in the back, doing cutting and collating and other bindery jobs for the document printing and copying the others did out front. But I always seemed to drift out to the retail counter, where the supervisor was, where the men and women were, and where I thought I could be more useful. Although, there was the guy who came in one day and grabbed my shirt, saying he’d have killed me if I’d been there in the meeting when he handed out the misfed photocopies I’d done for him the day before. I explained it was really up to him to inspect the work, that the machines weren’t completely reliable. What machine could be! The accounting girl wasn’t my supervisor either, but she caused some trouble when she shooed me out to breakfast one day. There was a restaurant next door where I often had an omelette in the morning, but I was kinda late that day and my boss said “no,” that working hours had started; but a little later the accounting girl said “go ahead,” and I did. But my boss came into the restaurant for his coffee and saw me there and took me back to the shop by the throat, which I thought was excessive. When the new shop expansion opened there was no counter to stand behind, but my boss was still never happy with me, although I was there working even when he wasn’t. It was not unlike how one day a customer came in with a short story to copy. Behind the counter we stood about nine inches higher than the customers down in front, which gave me a sense of superiority to them, but not to this man. I was reading his story and it was moving to me. Like my boss, the character in the story was not happy. He’d become traumatized after he’d seen a bumper sticker that said Jesus loves you, but everyone else thinks you’re an asshole.

Hungry Ghosts

The soles of my shoes were squeaky on the mat my office chair rode over at work, which kept its wheels from grinding the carpet. She said they must be sticky with muck from the raisins I’d mashed. Well, I ate lots of raisins, but I hadn’t mashed any on the plastic mat. But then, only about ten minutes later, what do you think? I mashed a raisin on the mat! Under my shoe. I hadn’t said anything, but I think she knew I couldn’t imagine myself mashing a raisin under my shoe, but then I’d just gone and done it! As though some part of my subconscious brain just had to go and prove I might indeed do the raisin squashing. I remembered how once when I was working at University of Toronto Library I noticed I’d never goofed up my lunch break, going at 12.00 instead of 1.00, say, if I’d been scheduled at 1.00 that day. (When later I first started at the record company my boss said he wanted me to start at 1.30, but he meant $130 dollars a week, not 1.30 in the afternoon, which confusion was awkwardly resolved.) Anyway, the very next day I went for the wrong lunch! Nobody was mad at me because I was usually so reliable and they knew it was just a mistake. But it was as though my mind sought the experience I believed I’d never have, even though when I missed the lunch I’d already forgotten the thought I had the day before. But when I realized my mind would do this, I started thinking, Oh, I’d never see that girl naked! when I went by a beautiful woman on the street, or Wow! An Austin Healey 3000! I could never, ever own a car like that! Everywhere I went I was thinking about the things I’d be so unlikely to have happen. There was no lottery then, or I’d surely have considered that the most unlikely thing of all. But, hey, if I rescued the son of an oil sheik in front of the Ritz Hotel in London, he’d certainly reward me, although it was so improbable I’d be on the spot right at the crucial moment, and would be modest even though I’d have been injured.

The Hells

The air changes when it falls below -40 degrees. Too cold to hold moisture, it becomes dry and still. The air was cold and dry and still every winter in Alberta before the 1970s, when the warming began. A young child then, I didn’t realize there were places elsewhere in the world where winters were mild. I’d seen photographs of tropical islands in Life magazine, abundant with hibiscus flowers and pretty young girls, but I didn’t know they had mild winters, or no winters at all. That they’d never seen sun dogs, or knew the air could be as cold as that. That they didn’t know the sun only shone six or seven hours in a midwinter day, and had never once seen the northern lights. I took our winters in graceful stride, knowing no other life. I knew how to protect myself outside, and how to warm up coming in. How to avoid swollen hands and ears and cracked lips. I don’t know how we could possibly have had jackets and gloves and hats and boots warm enough, but I do remember being upset with my dad for bringing home a new jacket for me, a faux-furry jacket, which I thought was effeminate and I was embarrassed to wear. My friend Grant Hagen didn’t have to wear a girls’ jacket. Grant and I were school patrols on December 15 1964, in Grade 6 at Crestwood Elementary School, the day it was colder than it’d ever been before. The radio announcer didn’t say ‘Crestwood’ reading his list of school closures, so we went on our way, fulfilling our charge at the 96th Avenue crosswalk along the way, unaware that thousands of beef cattle were that moment freezing solid in their shelters. The blizzard raged with heavy snow, high winds, and bitter cold. I saw on the front page of the Edmonton Journal that evening, delivered by another boy indifferent to the crisis, a chart showing the windchill temperature of -92 degrees F. Back then the transit bench by the crosswalk on 96th Avenue was painted with the slogan Rest and Read the Journal, but there was no one relaxing there with the newspaper that day.

[wendymevans15]

First glimpse at GlamourOZ dolls - the new fashion dolls by Jozef Szekeres

I first discovered Jozef Szekeres way back in my early days as a fashion doll collector. I was then fascinated by larger scale dolls only (Barbie was too playline for me even then) and somewhere on-line I got my first glimpse of Elisabet Bizelle and her sister Kotalin in their incredibly glamorous style and poise. They were nothing like all the other fashion dolls I was familiar with - the beautiful but rigid Gene, the just-got-articulated Tyler and so on. These were glamazons, looked like the 90s models I loved and had the body to prove it. Mind you not as articulated as I wanted, but they'd do. But they were limited editions and not easy to get a hold of... so I never managed to get one. The line ended at some point and I was left wanting. No other large scale fashion doll looked like these, even after I became familiar with more exotic beauties of the realm. I got to meet Jozef through social media and chat frequently about our common passion with him. And now I have the pleasure to feature in this blog, through the kind permission of Tommydoll (who did the interview and first published it here) and with a nod to Roger Corbeau of Dutch Fashion Doll World (who posted it here), Jozef's first interview and preview of his new line of large scale fashion dolls, GlamourOz!

Szekeres is a 2-D artist and sculptor – he has a pronounced experience in Australia as a Disney animator, primarily the Disney Princesses (so what’s there not to like?). Read the full interview with Jozef Szekeres by an Australian colleague – click here). In the late 90s/early 2000, he designed, sculpted and produced the Elizabet Bizelle fixed-pose fashion dolls of haunting and unique beauty. This was just at the dawn of the articulation movement, which made for some lovely posing – however, with every joint you add, you remove an element of beauty to the lines of the human form. His dolls were true to that, making them display perfect…and ripe for photography. They sold well, but were highly limited. For all the dolls in the 16” movement following Gene Marshall in 1996, and before the rise of Tyler Wentworth in 1999 – Szekeres’ Elizabet (and sister, Kotalin) Bizelle were the most unique looking and styled fashion doll – featuring a body sculpt that was mesmerising in its idealised beauty. The Bizelle Sisters beckoned to be re-fashioned into poseable ladies of exaggerated style and sumptuousness. Raising his own money over a decade would usher him closer to his dream – cash everything out, and make the sacrifice to make the molds.

Tommydoll (TD): I love how you draw inspiration from Indigenous Australian themes and marry that with your own family – it’s reminiscent of Robert Tonner, but also very unique. How did Australia inspire you in characters, sculpts, and those wonderful 60s-inspired (yet very up-to-date) fashions from Stephen Moor – more specifically, how did you piece it all together into the exotic, glamorous and dangerous world of the Bizelle Sisters?

Jozef Szekeres (JS): Thank you Tommy, I appreciate you taking this time to interview me, and introduce my new line of GlamourOz Dolls to the Fashion Doll Collectors around the world. Now to your first question (I hope they’re not all this complex, well then again… bring it on!), I’d like to begin by paying my respects to all the Indigenous Australians, the traditional custodians of my homeland. Launching a new line of Australian Fashion Dolls born from Oz could only be complete with its inclusion of the very first Indigenous Australian Fashion Doll character (that I know of). My father, an accomplished artist in his life with his day job as a house painter, was an avid art collector, and on occasion would do his trade literally for the trade of art. As a child, I remember one hallway of my parents’ home had the most amazing Indigenous Australian artwork hanging on both sides that my father acquired in this way, and it’s still there today. So he instilled early in me a great respect for all art, whether tribal, western, and even sculptural.

I had the opportunity in my early adult years to visit the Thankakali Broken Hill Indigenous Community, and do a comic book workshop for and with the children and adults there. The elders were excited to show their own art, and describe that beyond the visual aesthetics, all the art elements had great symbolic meaning, and showed how it can be read sequentially… A visual arts language, their own ancient “comic book” language. I’ve seen Indigenous Australian dolls before, but only as baby, child, or adult souvenir dolls from my youth. I even have an Australian Barbie Club convention souvenir doll using an African-American Shani doll as an Indigenous Australian stand in. But to my memory, I’ve not yet seen a sculpt created specifically to be an Indigenous Australian Fashion Doll, as we understand Fashion Dolls to be. So when creating the head-sculpts in preparation for my new doll line, with intention I created one to be an Indigenous Australian, looking to the Australian supermodel scene as my inspiration to respectfully capture their distinct features and beauty. Being Australian, I wanted all of my characters from my first release of my new line to be of and from Australia. From inspirations of Elle “The Body” Macpherson, to the gorgeousness of proportions and beauty of Olivia Newton John’s Sandy (from “Grease”) and that of our beloved songbird Kylie Minogue (a favourite of my father’s). However growing up in Australia, media focused primarily on Western-looking personalities. Thankfully that is changing and Asian-Australians are rightfully represented in media today too, and therefore my line would not be complete without its own Asian Australian Catwalk Model.

Three of my character head-sculpts have their names taken from my family members. My sister is Elizabet Kotalin, and our mother is Lucille. Bindi is a traditional name from the Sydney Darug Tribe, meaning “beautiful butterfly” or “beautiful girl“, depending on which tribe’s dialect is used. Also, Bindi Irwin has recently brought that name to international prominence, and as a nation, we’re all very proud of our “Dancing With The Stars” winning girl. Stephen Moor’s artwork entered my life when my sister married his son. I was in my mid teens, and I guess he saw I had some artistic aptitude and leanings, and he took me under his artistic wing. I knew of his fashion sketches rather early, but only later realised that though he was a nationally successful Who’s Who of Australian artists, he had never published or seen his fashion works from the 60s – 70s realised. When he gave me his folder of fashion sketches, he urged me to look into entering fashion, saying he hoped his fashions could help me or inspire me, and that I could use them if I wanted or needed to. At the time, I had already established my own artistic career path as a young Disney 2D animator, so though deeply touched, his fashions sketches were only shared within the family. However, I knew on an instinctive level that this 80 strong fashion sketch collection needed to be kept whole and complete, and was significant to Australian fashion history.

I’ve always visualised that I’d do my own line of dolls, even when at school and told one of the teachers, who sarcastically said “As if” and “Dream on“… and I took that backhanded advice, and did dream on. I at first thought I had fulfilled that dream wish when I did my first Elizabet Bizelle line in 2003. But my passion for dolls has only grown stronger over time, and somehow, everything in my artistic experience seemed to funnel down and compress into this singularity that has become my new GlamourOz Dolls line. It’s my own personal Big Bang!

Elizabet Bizelle Woman In Red doll, 2006

TD: It’s interesting that many of the world’s countries have their own spin on ‘era fashion’ – such as the 1960s – what is Australia’s take on the colors, clothes and textures then?

JS: Australian fashion was built on (or maybe from) the backs of Merino Sheep. Wool, and earthy colours are quintessentially Australian. Though the Mod fashions were emulated in Australia, the Aussie take focused on geometric yet deceptively simple classic shapes. That’s why I think Stephen Moor’s fashions are so iconically 60s Australian, yet also look ever so modern today.

Stephen Moor fashion

TD: Describe the relationship between the sisters – do we have Elsa and Anna, or do we have Cinderella and Drizella?

JS: Ahh, Disney either way! You can’t go wrong with either choice. However, with edition titles like “Double-Cross Cover-Up”, “Secret Garden-Path”, and “Ribbon Reveal”, you know there’s “something” going down!

TD: How do we see the characters in Moor’s clothing designs…I get the fashions are for all the dolls, but who is more likely to wear what…and why?

JS: Elizabet is my lead girl, so I see her comfortably in anything. She wears Double-Cross Cover-Up, because it’s cheeky, sexy and fun, the 60s mini skirt of the line. I created the jacket design to go with the mini dress, originally as a value add, but now they are inseparable to me. She’s a blonde that has “more fun” in the mainline of this garment set. In the limited variant, she’s a fiery redhead, not to be toyed with lest you get burned. Secret Garden-Path Elizabet – softly glamorous in a statement 60s young-green evening spiral path gown. Her copper red hairstyle revisits her signature hair design originally worn in her 2003 release, “Dangerous Discovery“!

Ribbon Reveal Kotalin – high class all the way. Sexy high in its reveal-through panel detailing, married to a classy silhouette. For some reason I get Marilyn Monroe in “Niagara” when I see her in this garment, especially from behind… for that full minute walk. Blonde for the mainline, and long and Ginger with a 60s bump for the limited variant edition. For this garment, the bridal white sketch has been transformed into a beautiful warm salmon pink.

Glittering Gala Kotalin – silvery in a gun metal sequence gown, once again emphasises her high glamour. Her brownette hair design inspired by Stephen Moors fashion sketches, with length added at the back for fun hair play (I’m thinking of you, Darko!).

Bjeran Bindi (Cool Begins) – from the Nyoongar Indigenous Australian calendar, describes the beginning of Winter. With beautiful lines, shapes and textures that embody the bush edged Australian outback, this jacket keeps her warm in the desert cool beginning nights of winter.

Yawkyawk Billabong Bindi (Mermaid Pool) – Yawkyawk is a word from the Aboriginal Kunwinjku/Kunwok language, meaning ‘young woman’ and ‘young woman spirit being’. Sometimes compared to the European notion of mermaids, Yawkyawks are usually depicted with the tails of fish. They have long hair, associated with trailing blooms of algae, typically found in Arnhem Land streams and rock pools.

Lucille wears Yum Cha Cha-Cha – which embodies her classy sophisticated lady, and “Anything Goes” toe tapping nature, ready to star in a musical opening number… Think Willie Scott, from Temple of Doom.

Executive Day to Night Lucille, is power play in the boardroom, and power player of the night.

TD: Do the Bizelle sisters actually live in Australia…or are they children of the world at large like James Bond?

JS: Australian born, but children of the world at large. For their character’s histories and behind the Catwalk Supermodel scenes, I definitely see a blend of Bond for the classy international intrigue and suspense, Indiana Jones for the arcane mystic mysteries, and Charlie’s Angels in their hair flippery fun, and for their fashion forward fraternal sisterhood, this Supermodel band of “Pussycat Dolls” call themselves GODs (GlamourOz Dolls)! So… why not bring part of Australian culture back to your home with our GODs.

TD: How many Elizabet and Kotalin dolls were originally made? How was the decision made to not continue with them…money, saturation…both?

JS: 840 dolls in total were made, spread out in 3 main editions, and 2 IDEX editions of 20 each. The rise of articulation in the 16″ fashion doll world changed them from display dolls into play dolls for adults. My initial production was created within the means I could muster at that time, and also when articulation in 16″ dolls was established as limited, going full articulation was well beyond what I could afford. Just getting to my first and only USA IDEX (with my wonderfully supportive mother in tow) was a huge cost and big deal for me, and this is where I met you for the first time. It was heartbreaking to see my doll passed over because her articulation was limited. Collectors kindly complimented the sculpt, but saying on the boards, “I’d buy her if she was articulated” further depressed the issue. I wanted to say… If only you’d support her now, then in the future, full articulation would be possible, like Gene and Tyler’s eventual and (in Tyler’s case), gradual articulation. But once articulation took hold of the collectors’ focus, anything other than full articulation was seen as less-than. As a consequence, sales dropped, and that basically ended the line there.

Original 16″ Elizabet next to 22″prototype sculpt wearing lingerie by Doug James – The prototype was Sculpted in a larger scale for 3-D scanning and printing to preserve detail. TD: Has it been difficult compromising body beauty for articulation? How did you resolve the marriage of the two?

JS: Once I saw the new articulation movement in both Resin and Hard Plastic dolls, I could see where it worked and where it didn’t. My engineer side of my brain took over and guided the sculpt. Having 13 years of 2D Disney animation behind me focusing on the Disney Princesses, gave me an appreciation and understanding of the flow of form and pose, which I brought into my sculpting. I wanted every body part to have grace not just in and of itself, but also in how it connected to each other… to ensure this sculpt was also sinuously tall, and elegantly graceful from head to toe, so the finished articulated sculpt would look whole, rather then an assembly of parts. I returned to my own 2003 established aesthetic and in 2006 started a sculpt of a new doll at 22″ so as not to be influenced by any other dolls or trends (which I brought with me to the 2007 New York Comic Con, and while there I got to show Madame Alexander in New York, but they already had their Alex doll, so weren’t interested, then I took the sculpt to Philadelphia showing Ed Ferry of “Happily Ever After” when attending his in-store doll club gathering). I shelved the unfinished sculpt (like Edward Scissorhands, she lacked hands), till I could afford to continue. Once I was ready to self finance, I revived and completed the sculpt in 2015. The factory got involved in early 2016 and the doll was resized down to fit into the 16″ world, where I got to see her for the first time at her final height size.

Kotalin Bizelle, Dangerous Discovery, 2003

TD: Was it a decision to expand the diversity and story to add the two new characters – or was it necessary to break even on development/production costs?

JS: With the initial 22″ inch sculpt in SuperSculpy, Elizabet was the first head-sculpt in 2006, then in 2015, I retooled the Elizabet head-sculpt, and added Bindi, Lucille, with Kotalin as the last completed, thus rounding out this first line up. So I started with just the one head-sculpt, but once I started to seriously see that this could be realised, I expanded the head-sculpt range knowing that the minimum run would be 3000 units. As a collector myself, I knew 3000 of just one character would not be as interesting as four.

TD: You are using every resource in your savings and personal worth for these – isn’t it scary?

JS: Indeed it is. I know it’s a risk, but it’s not a fatuous one. As a career artist, I need to trust in what I create is to the best of my own ability and standards and the needs and standards of the paying client, and that hopefully will resonate with those people it’s targeted to reach. If I couldn’t do this, I wouldn’t have a job. This time around, my own collector self is that client. I feel if I can appeal to my own needs and wants with this new doll that I’m not currently finding in the 16″ Fashion Doll market, then I’m being true to my art, vision and voice, and hopefully that will resonate with the Fashion Doll collectors need and want, too.

TD: What are you eating now you are factory development poor? JS: Hopefully, not my words. TD: In all your sacrifices, is there something you miss more than others?

JS: Prior to the factory involvement, the body sculpt and additional heads took about 6-8 months to complete till I felt it was ready, for I knew it had to be as right as I understand that to be, because of the financial investment it would entail. In 2016 working with the factory has been full time on this, earning not a cent while shelling out more money that I’ve ever seen move through my hands. Spread over the year working with the factory, I’ll have spent more then 6 months working directly on premises with the factory in China, so I have missed my partner Todd, my family, and close friends… who have all been so very supportive. I’m currently in China working with the factory, and will even miss Christmas 2016 and the 2017 New Year at home. But I’ve a new baby on board right now, and I’m heavy with that pregnancy and responsibility that this new life to be born must take first priority.

I’m working to complete the production samples, which will be followed by the official photography of the line, then the official launch! Estimated production times will mean release dates will fall in the 4th quarter of 2017.

TD: Few people understand what it’s like to put your life saving on the line for something of which you have tremendous passion. How would you explain this level of commitment to one of your collectors that may take plastic/vinyl for granted.

JS: I’d only ask them, if you like what an artist does, be that patron of the arts and the artist who’s work you want to see more of, and support their releases, so they can do more and create more for you to enjoy. My commitment and passion for dolls and the creation of them drives me to want to do more. My hope with sales is that I can remove the financial burden over my home that I’m using as collateral to create these dolls, and have enough left over to live, eat and cover my bills and expenses, and hopefully earn enough to do it all again next year. I’d love this to be my job and career path from herein.

I’ve certainly not taken the creation of these dolls in plastic for granted, their expense to create them has driven that home. As a child looking at Barbie and the shameful knockoffs, I could see back then that a budget $10 plastic doll has the similar mold value as a collectable, but it’s usually the sculpt and engineering quality that separates whether one is cheap and the other is of value. I thought then… if only they had gotten a better sculptor…, and that fuelled my young mind with interest and the possibilities, to want to know more about how toys were made before they appeared magically finished at the toy store. I remember the Jem dolls of the 80’s, and never asked my mum to buy me one, because they just didn’t look as beautifully realised as their box art, even though the dolls themselves were well engineered. So Barbie remained my Fashion Doll of choice (thanks to my mother who would buy them for me, with Beauty Secrets Barbie being my favourite, as she had more mobility and poseability over her sister contemporaries). To me, for a Fashion Doll, I’ve always felt that what was of greater value was the quality of the sculptural art coupled with top quality engineering, and not the medium that should be valued.

TD: Your original Bizelle sisters were in resin, making you a pioneer of resin casting in fashion dolls of our genre. How would you communicate your desire to see your art translated in a material that many see as ‘cheap’ or inferior to the wide-spread perceived value of resin?

JS: The original 2003 Bizelle sisters were in resin, only because that’s what I could afford, with not even a thought of pioneering anything. When on occasion the doll fell down the stairs or some other similar mishap occurred, my heart would jump in my throat till I saw what damage had been sustained. If I’d see that the doll had a broken finger or some other part. I’d glue it back, but it forever felt broken, no longer whole. It literally felt like damaged goods, almost repulsive, I’d then be reticent of touching it, fearing it’s structural integrity was compromised and it would break again. I want to enjoy my dolls, with quality sculpts, engineering and durability. I want my dolls to be beautiful on display, and resilient in play, and then stuff them in my backpack if I want her as a travel doll, and know that when I take her out.. with a flip of her hair, she’ll still be beautiful and whole. Plastic for me is the perfect medium to realise all of that.

From left to right: Integrity Toys FR16, GlamourOz, Tonner Doll Tyler body

TD: Why not begin them in 12”, instead…it’s a much larger market. Was this a personal passion for the scale – or a need to fill a huge gap in the 16” plastic/vinyl fashion doll world (compared to the rise of Gene and Tyler – who thought we would ever be asking this question?)?

JS: My passion has been with the 16″ dolls since Mel Odom introduced his glorious Gene Marshall doll in 1995. My thanks always goes out to Mel, for without his brave vision, there’d be no 16″ dolls in the wake of Gene’s creation for us to enjoy. I do collect 12″ dolls, and love them, and maybe one day I’ll explore that scale as well. Though it’s a much larger market to explore and appeal to, I also think it’s saturated with product, by companies and producers with deep financial pockets to back them, and therefore a harder market to enter as a solo doll artist/producer. Moving forward beyond this first year’s mainline release focusing on Stephen Moor’s designs, and then releasing a new GODs line with these sculpts, using my own fashion designs for the next year, I’d like to explore a new sculpt variant of the female GODs body, releasing that with its own range of new character head-sculpts. Beyond that, I’d like to start the new sculpt of my own male doll companion to my female GODs, as she’s as tall or taller then most of the 17″ male dolls already in the Fashion Doll market. My goal has always been to have a companion set of female and male fully articulated body sculpts that fit into the 16″ scale Fashion Doll world, that work together stylistically and aesthetically.

TD: The clothing is amazingly detailed…how are the prototypes varying from production samples – what can the collector expect?

JS: The history of the garment factory I’m working with is… impressive, as is their internal quality control. I will also be overseeing aspects of this production, and do my own quality control. The collector can expect to see garments created at the very best of market quality. Now having established this fantastic working relationship with this garment factory, and seeing how beautifully they are realising Stephen Moor’s designs… I can see that they’ll be more then able to realise my own designs that will be the focus of the next future mainline release.

Elizabet and Kotalin wearing FR16 outfits by Integrity Toys

TD: Your price points are much higher than the perceived standard of Tonner and Integrity hard plastic (and given how widely discounted they are, even more so) – but more on range in price, quality and appearance of Superdoll. How does price factor into your collection?

JS: As a start up, all the expenses are my own: the time I devoted to the Super Sculpy original 22″ sculpt and its eventual factory scanning, the 3D work to resize to 16″ scale, the physical 3D prototyping, the mold making, the face stencil mold making, the hair fibre purchases in various c.g, the flights to and from China, the accommodation and personal travel insurance. The cost to produce the entire run… Everything, the production costs included are way higher then I thought they would be. And add to that, its eventual shipping. All these things add up, and I don’t have corporate financial backing. I think for a start up solo creator of a line of vinyl/hard plastic new Fashion Dolls, and the quality delivered, USD$300 for a complete boxed 16″ doll is a pretty good deal, especially when I currently see this similar price point for 12″ dolls by independent Fashion Doll producers. So if collectors like what they see, and want to see more, then please do show your support in buying the products I’ve made.

TD: Staining from dyes onto vinyl is a reality – how are you addressing the issue? JS: With plastic wraps where needed, protecting the vinyl. TD: You’re including a certificate of authenticity…really? It’s an added cost…why not just let the markings on the doll suffice? Is there more to the certificate that a critic like me is missing?

JS: I personally have never cared for certificates to identify a dolls’ authenticity, nor taken much notice of the actual numbering of the dolls I’ve collected, because I’ve never intended to resell them once they’ve become mine. Some certificates I keep because they’re nicely designed, most get trashed with the box as space is limited these days. But I do know that some collectors do like them, and it is good to have on it information for clarity about the total number produced in the limited edition run. 

TD: Tell us more about your sales rollout – will it be pre-orders…dolls ready to ship…combo of both?

JS: It’ll probably be a combo of both, as their pre-sales will go straight to the factory to help offset some of the production costs. Last time around, I took no pre-orders, just notes of interest. And I’ve learned collectors can be fickle (as we all can be), and easily distracted unless they’ve made a financial commitment. There are commitments on both sides that need to be in place, respected and valued, for what they bring to each other.

TD: What is your plan to offset the high cost of shipping to places outside Australia?

JS: As a collector of mostly American Fashion Dolls, added shipping per doll is usually about USD$50 to $70 for each doll I purchase. So I understand that shipping will factor in price for some collectors. I will be looking into having a choice of delivery suppliers that may offer different delivery options and price points.

TD: Are you currently talking to any retailers with whom you may come to an exclusive distribution arrangement outside Australia?

JS: I’ve had discussions with a few retailers, but nothing conclusive about exclusive distribution arrangements. With the economy climate as it is, most retailers have said they’d want to see a demonstrated demand, before committing to a new doll line, which is a catch 22, and then only with orders in the low to mid 2 digit numbers. So my start up focus will be to sell direct from my online store.

Wearing Nigel Chia

TD: Tell us your concept of the ‘Basic Doll’…will there be one…or only dressed dolls and clothing?

JS: For the mainline of 8 dolls and 2 limited variants, all of them will be released as dressed dolls. I imagine a basic doll would be in either a swimsuit, lingerie or simple outfit, however there will be no basics or separate clothing this time around, that’ll have to wait to follow in the future. The gravy that comes after securing survival. Thankfully, the GlamourOz dolls wear most of the competitor garments with ease and comfort, even elevating them to a catwalk presentation. Catalogue models are beautiful, but do we remember their names? Supermodels are known by name! I like to see my girls as Catwalk Supermodels. I could see as an extension of the mainline if there’s popular demand, releasing garment sets inspired by the fashion designs of Stephen Moor, or even future dressed dolls too… some of which will appear on the box art to celebrate his 60s fashions. They are all such amazing fashion designs, I’d love to honour his incredible work and see each of them realised eventually.

Stephen Moor fashion

TD: What has been your biggest business challenge in developing a marketing plan with social media being the hungriest attention whores out there?

JS: Thankfully, I was accepted into the Australian government funded MTC NEIS program nearing the end of 2015, where I did a fully funded business course over a 6 week period, where I got the grounding information I’d need to launch and sustain my startup business and marketing strategies. The greatest asset of the NEIS program’s commitment to the startup businesses is to have a business mentor available for them for 12 months. It has been good to have someone with business knowledge to bounce off and share some of the hardships with, who can also offer real guidance. I think the biggest marketing challenge thus far has been deciding when is the best time to release information, as I know new news gets stale quickly on the net these days, especially when the reader isn’t privy to the reasons why there may be delays or time slips. But now I feel is the right time, and with your extensive industry history and experience, and with the respect and wisdom that comes with that, you and your blog is the right person and place… Including your blog flow on partners.

TD: Are you going to have a ‘club’ (please say, ‘no’)?

JS: I’m a member of a couple company toy clubs, and I do love the ease of assuring certain releases, without having to chase them down. This helps greatly being an international member. And it’s also a place where brand loyal collectors can congregate and share their mutual love. So, knowing how company collector clubs have helped me,… I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not yet ready to set up one of my own just now.

Wearing Superdoll of London

TD: Hopes/Plans/Expectations for your first doll event?

JS: There’s a strong, but small Fashion Doll collector base in Australia, with me being one of these collectors. Most of the Fashion Dolls we collect seem to come from America, and we often feel our island country’s isolation, or distance from the main doll events. I hope to launch my dolls first to the Australian Fashion doll collector base, and grow it from there to an international audience. I’d love to see a yearly GODs Fashion Doll convention based in Australia to be added to the international must -attend events. In 2017, I’d like to attend the main Fashion Doll conventions in America, Europe, and other international locations, to introduce my new doll line, and meet the collectors.

TD: Collectors like to meet and greet the creator…think Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Will you Howard Hughes it…or go on a world-wide Rainbow Tour? I think we’d be happy to Crowd Fund your tour.

JS: I’d love to meet and greet with collectors all over the world. So I’ll definitely make myself available to do so. Certainly it would be an honour to be the recipient of a funded convention or tour visit.

TD: Seriously, though…you must be scared – doll collectors are so fickle – you’re placing a great deal of risk in their confidence. I hope you also market to the Action Figure folks because of the ‘Spy’ storyline.

JS: I’m a Fashion Doll collector, so I know I can be fickle at times, too – a pretty new thing can certainly get my attention over an equally pretty older item, causing me to miss out on the older item and then have to seek it out as a more expensive grail item. But I’m also very brand loyal and supportive of those brands I love and collect. My hope is that my dolls and brand will attract its own loyal collectors, that will want what I do now and in the future. Most action figure products are licensed pop culture, rather then original fare – like He-Man, She-Ra, Jem and Transformers – the toys are released concurrently with their own pop culture vehicle (in these cases, animated TV series) to anchor their products to. Most action figure collectors will buy an action figure, even a bad one, with a character they already recognise or have a pop culture connection with, over a well made action figure of a character they don’t yet know. What’s different about fashion dolls, that I love, is they can survive entirely on their own merits without an established pop culture reference. And the Fashion Doll collector thrives on discovering something new… A new story, new fashion, new face, new body, new characters. I’m sure there is some crossover, but they seem to come from different ends of the spectrum.

Birthday Bash Kotalin Bizelle, 2006

My two 2006 releases, “Woman in Red” Elizabet Bizelle, and “Birthday Bash” Kotalin Bizelle, were inspired by The Matrix film. Describing it thus to a fashion doll collector, they got the concept straight up… “Inspired by fashions”, and if they liked it, they bought it. But when these same dolls were placed in action figure stores, the action figure collectors there would ask “Who are they?” I’d say they’re fashion dolls inspired by The Matrix, and the collector’s response would be, “Nicely made, but if it’s not Trinity or a character or exact fashion I recognise from the film… then I’m not interested”. Lessons learnt.

TD: Plans for accessory sets…where will you go with this? Will there be guns?

JS: No plans as yet for accessory sets of this nature. But who knows what the future will bring.

TD: What is your direct message to the people who would just look at the doll and say, ‘It’s not my thing.’ Knowing it’s because it’s plastic, a fashion doll, 16”, or otherwise competes with one of their faves like Ellowyne, Gene, Superdoll, et al?

JS: I’ve never been a fan of big headed dolls, so I’ve never collected Ellowyne, but I have and still collect Tonner Fashion Dolls that I love that speak to my aesthetic. Gene is a Fashion Doll icon, in all her incarnations, and she holds a special place in my heart and collection. The Superdoll Sybarites are incomparably the Fashion Doll Divas, and always will be in the Fashion Doll world at large and within my own collection. The Fashion Royalty 16″ (FR16) dolls by Integrity Toys are my favourite body sculpt currently on the market. Some of my favourite and loved dolls that I own aren’t 16″ fashion dolls, but their aesthetic and fashion sense and quality of sculpt resonates with me, like the beautiful dolls by New Zealand doll creator Jan MacLean. And there are other dolls that I love and have yet purchased, but intend to in the future, like “First Love” male Fashion Dolls by Joey Versaw. I won’t stop collecting the dolls out there by other brands and creators I love and support just because I’ve created my own doll, and I don’t expect other collectors to do that either if they start collecting mine. There is room in the Fashion Doll world to love many brands. What I’m offering is a new doll and brand to love amongst your other established Fashion Doll loves.

As to the nay-sayers, and the haters of plastic, 16″, or Fashion Dolls… I’ve had friends tell me I’m wasting my time and talent, and that my dolls look no different from the pack. I’ve had these same friends tell me that my doll’s body is offensive to them, and that they’re just not even interested to know more…. A simple “good luck” from these friends would have sufficed. But I understand each persons’ personal path informs them of what is of value to them, and these friends are not my target audience, and will never see what I see or am trying to achieve. If I can take this from friends, I’m well prepared to take similar from strangers. I’d rather invest my energy into impressing the supporting friends and collectors who love my dolls. As RuPaul has said, “I’m too busy loving the people who love me“. I’ve created what I’ve wanted and needed in the Fashion Doll world that I felt was not there for me already as a collector. My hope is that others will resonate with that same want and need, whether it’s been there for a while, or newly discovered when they see my GlamourOz dolls for the first time.

...I added one more question for Jozef, after seeing reactions from a couple of people online... Stratos Bacalis: There have been a couple of collectors that have commented that your doll body resembles another company's 16" doll vinyl body. How do you respond to that?

JS:  I don’t follow trends, I like to think, I create them. I create what I like to see in a doll, and hope that collectors will like it. I actually hand sculpted my original Sculpy GlamourOz doll sculpt at 22″, starting that sculpt in 2006, so as not to be influenced at all by any other 16″ doll trends, whether resin or hard plastic/vinyl. The GlamourOz Dolls 22" Sculpy doll sculpt was only resized to her current height of 17" after scanning the 22" parts. When you compare my previous Elizabet Bizelle doll release from 2003 to my current GlamourOz Dolls, you’ll see that the details and aesthetic I’ve followed and developed on... and applied to my GlamourOz Dolls' body, is my own.

The reason I originally sculpted and created my original 2003 Elizabet Bizelle doll was to create a doll sculpt that embodied the elongated grace of my own art and sculptural aesthetics, with the illusion of movement sculptural pose, at a time when the contemporary dolls had a static and robotic stance. My first Elizabet doll's body from 2003, which incommensurately stands apart from its then contemporaries because of these differences, has providence in the torso and elongated look: the neck, shoulders, bosom, ribs, tummy and hip detailing and elongated grace from head to toe, and even through to its fingertips, that predates by about seven years the aesthetics other doll companies (which I'm sure these collectors are referring to) are now similarly exploring for their own lines. Granted 2003 is a while ago now, some collectors may not have seen nor heard of my first Elizabet Bizelle doll, as only a few hundred were produced. Though the timeline is there (check out a photo album here).

I'm flattered that my earlier doll work and sculptural details and aesthetic have made an impact, to some later released dolls within the Fashion Doll world, both within 12" and 16". Though however lovely they have been with some of these shared aesthetics, they still have not captured nor satisfied the wants and needs I still craved as a collector, or as a doll sculptor/creator. My GlamourOz Dolls are at least, that answer for me that satisfies my needs and wants in an articulated Fashion Doll. My hope is that collectors will resonate with the differences I bring to my GODs with my own sculptural aesthetics, and share that same want and need, too.

New and Original 2003 Comparisons

If you’d like to know more, or be added to Jozef's mailing list, please contact him via his website: www.glamourozdolls.com

Note: all photos and art © Jozef Szekeres. Original interview by permission of Tommydoll. GlamourOz dolls are prototypes only