A Tangled Web

Here is one reason for me to love Al Gore's Internet: I sat down to catch up on the day's news, and in the fashion of my father, I find myself continually drawn to the obituaries. I suppose any day that I'm reading them is a good one. Today I learned that Jack Valenti was a special assistant and confidant to President Lyndon Johnson. That is, he was before taking over as president of the Motion Picture Association of America in 1966. He's the guy that gave us the letter-based rating system. That was back when "X" really meant something. "Midnight Cowboy" was initially rated X. I did not know that he was in the Dallas motorcade when Kennedy was shot. Amazing how the history just bubbles up in these moments.
A few years before that tragic day, one of the all-time great one-hit wonders creeped onto the airwaves. Bobby "Boris" Pickett released his Halloween anthem, "Monster Mash" in 1962. It was on the chart when it debuted in 1962, reaching number one the week before Halloween, then again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. It was the song that would not die. And now, alas, Bobby is a graveyard smash.
How does this all come together? I remembered going to the Boulder Theater to see a movie called "Mad Monster Party" back in my pre-teen years. I remember us kids were allowed to go see it alone because it was rated "G" for General Audiences. It was a stop-motion animated film from the Rankin/Bass folks, who brought us the Rudolph TV specials. Perhaps it was intended as a way to corner the Halloween season as well. I went to hear the voice of Boris Karloff. What I saw was an homage to Bobby Pickett's classic, and the predecessor to one of our family favorite holiday films, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" rated (in 1993) PG - Parental Guidance Suggested.
If I spent more time here at the computer, I might be able to uncover or generate my very own conspiracy theory that links the death of these two men to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, but I've got TV to watch.