"Monkey Time!" at Oddball Films July 2, 2010

Event: “Monkey Time!” Apes, Chimps and Gorillas Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present a program featuring pseudo human activities, animal antics and anthropological histories. Shorts include a rare episode of the TV series “Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp”, “Chimp the Cowboy”, “Zippy the Chimp”, “Planet of the Apes” movie trailers, “Snow Monkeys of Japan”, “Chimps in Training and Show Business”(!), "My Children" with the famous “talking” Tiffany Chimps and “Monkeys, Apes and Man: Exploring The Chasm”, with Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas, Jane Goodall with chimpanzees, and Wisconsin scientists studying rhesus monkeys. Plus! Free bananas, monkey-themed door prizes and more monkey surprises. Half price admission to anyone in a full monkey/gorilla suit!
Date: Friday, July 2, 2010 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Web: http://www.oddballfilm.com/oddballftp/Monkey_Time2_PR.pdf

“Monkey Time!”
Apes, Chimps and Gorillas
Screens at Oddball Films

On Friday, July 2 Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present “Monkey Time: Apes, Chimps and Gorillas”, a program examining the pseudo human activities of apes, monkeys and gorillas and their anthropological history.
The screening takes place at 275 Capp St in San Francisco. Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is required. RSVPs to: [email protected] or 415.558.8117.

While similar in physical appearance to humans, monkeys are very far removed from so-called thinking beings. Still, humans insist on dressing up monkeys for their own amusement. While these animals certainly have a better fate than cows, pigs or chickens they nonetheless suffer for our entertainment. In this program we examine and explore the hilarious and sublime lengths humans go to entertain us via these proxy mammals.
Before the heyday of television and the domination of cinema, vaudeville, theater, circus acts, magic shows, impossible and death-defying stunts were all that amused thrill-seeking audiences across the US. Animal acts were a big hit and monkeys basked in their glory.
Tonight you’ll see “Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp”, a TV detective in an all-monkey spy spoof, “Chimps in Training and Show Business”(!), a behind the scenes look at animal training and the popular 1930s shorts re-released by Castle Films “Chimp the Cowboy” and “Chimp the Fireman”. For context and contrast we’ll also screen several anthropological shorts including “Monkeys, Apes and Man: The Chasm”, featuring world renowned anthropologists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey as well as “Snow Monkeys of Japan”, a revealing look at these rare mammals.
We hope you’ll be delighted and even enlightened at this quirky yet revealing look at apes, chimps and gorillas.
Note: If you like monkeys or if you’re a monkey yourself you’ll love this program!

Featuring:

Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (Color, 1971) in “To Tell the Tooth”. Get Smart meets James Bond in this TV spy spoof as the top agent of APE (Agency to Prevent Evil) detective Lance Link discovers a dentist working for C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan) has been inserting secret radio transmitters into the teeth of military officials.

Chimps in Training and Show Business (1950s)
Watch them get trained for the circus and onstage action!

Chimp the Cowboy (B+W, 1937) + Chimp the Fireman (B+W, 1936) Mischievous chimp comedies feature a trained chimp donning various costumes playing multiple “career” roles.

My Children (B+W, 1931)
Featuring the famous Tiffany Chimps in an early chimpsploitation comedy short. An all-monkey, all talking picture!

Movie Trailers for the “Planet of the Apes” films (1970s)
Watch half men, half apes battle it out in these 3 classic trailers!

Snow Monkeys of Japan (Color, 1975) Visual appreciation of the Japanese Snow Monkey as an intelligent, beautiful animal. They are the only known monkeys who will enter and play in water, and have adopted the hot springs of the Yokoyu Kawa River.

Monkeys, Apes and Man: Exploring The Chasm (Color, 1971)
An overview of the monkey-man link, this film follows Dian Fossey into the Central African rain forest to study mountain gorillas, Jane Goodall into Tanzania to study Chimpanzees, Japanese scientists to Koshima Island where they are studying the macaque and Wisconsin scientists to their laboratories where they study rhesus monkeys.

Plus! Free bananas, door prizes and more Monkey surprises!!

About “Lancelot Link Secret Chimp”
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp aired on ABC from September 12, 1970, to September 2, 1972. The Saturday morning live-action film series featured a cast of chimpanzees given apparent speaking roles by overdubbing with human voices. The network episodes added a laugh track; later syndicated and video versions do not.

The plot, always played for laughs, featured Lancelot Link and his female colleague Mata Hairi in secret agent and spy satires. Link worked for APE (Agency to Prevent Evil), engaged in an ongoing conflict with the evil organization CHUMP (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan). CHUMP's monocled chief, Baron von Butcher, inevitably hatched the latest plan to endanger the world. The Baron's network of international fiends included his shifty chauffeur Creto, mad scientist Dr. Strangemind (with an exaggerated Bela Lugosi dialect) and racist stereotypes imperious Dragon Woman, drowsy Wang Fu, singing sheik Ali Assa Seen and the cultured Duchess. One or more would appear in each episode.

A regular weekly feature was chimp TV host "Ed Simian" introducing a musical number by an all-chimp band, "The Evolution Revolution." An album of these songs was released on the ABC/Dunhill record label. There were also Lancelot Link comic books and other merchandise, including Halloween costumes.

Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp was the most expensive Saturday morning children's' show of the time, with location filming, props and costumes, and the laborious staging and training of the animals. The filmmakers made the most of the budget, staging multiple episodes with the same settings and wardrobe, occasionally reusing the more elaborate chase footage that sometimes included BMWs. The show later appeared on the Nickelodeon cable television channel during the 1980s as well as infrequent syndication.
NOTE: The show did extremely well when it ran in Central Africa, and in 1987 became the number one show in Zaire!

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.  
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.