I enjoy watching the old Super 8 home movies people post on YouTube. They are like secret windows onto past lives, mini theaters where the actors performed for the smiling face behind the camera, never thinking their actions would ever be seen by any audience beyond their families and friends.

Watching, I wonder what happened to the people in the films? Those children opening presents, the parents preparing meals, hanging decorations, what happened in their lives? What did they do? It’s like the opening questions for “Creative Writing Class 101.” Looking at the clothes they wore, their hairstyles, the background furnishings and decorations. These films are often better than watching hours of crafted television programs, where there’s no real interaction, other than what’s been scripted.

The first film from Christmas 1963 was discovered in a thrift store, and shows a small family gathering, early morning, opening presents. The second is a Christmas in Wilmette, IL, opening with a snowy scene large, suburban homes. Unlike today, where everyone films on their smart ‘phones, these reflect the more affluent side of family life at Christmas. Worth turning down the volume on some clips to avoid the added seasonal music.
 

‘Home movie of Christmas 1963. I have no clue who these people are, this footage was found at a Thrift Store.’
 

‘Christmas 1940: Dad receives a brand-new Lionel 149W set, a bunch of Tootsietoy cars and a Tootsietoy garage with operating auto elevator. His older brothers help him play with it all. The operating crossing gate came from their long-departed American Flyer standard gauge train set. Dad was 13. Grandpa was 48.’
 
More seasonal home movies, after the jump…
 

 
Roddy McDowall’s behind-the-scenes look at the making of the classic film Planet of the Apes in 1968. The quality is incredible as we watch McDowall slowly made-up to look like Cornelius, and then join his co-stars, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans and Charlton Heston, on the beach at Malibu for the film’s shock ending. I can still recall the playground buzz over this film, months before its arrival in the U.K. The bubble gum trading cards came first, only one grocery store stocked them, its owner, a thin, waxen-faced man in his late 50s, couldn’t fathom the film’s attraction. “Talking apes? What utter nonsense…tsk..tsk…tsk. Whatever next?” But it was believable to our fertile minds, and revolutionary.

This was the film that inspired my admiration for Roddy McDowall - how could he wear all that make-up? What was it like to act with it on? McDowall later said:

“A year before production, [the producer] Arthur Jacobs talked to me about the project. I was one of the few people he explained the whole thing to, including the ending. He talked with me about playing Cornelius, and I thought it was all intriguing. About a year later, I signed to do the film, and to have my face molded for the makeup. The first film was very difficult because it was made in the summertime, at the Malibu Ranch. In August, with all those quartz lights, it hits like 140*, and it’s just unbearable. Although it was a wonderful experience, because I like [director] Frank Schaffner very much, I thought I would never do one again….”

“The heat made us perspire, which in turn worked on the spirit gum which in turn forces the reapplication of the adhesive - which in its turn works on the skin….”

“Planet of the Apes is a very hard film for me to judge because it was such a physical agony doing it. I’d begin to sweat remembering the heat. I think it’s a fabulous movie, up until I come into the film, and then it’s just purely a subjective reaction.”

The difficulties of wearing his make-up didn’t stop McDowall returning to the role of Cornelius in Escape from Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), and a Planet of the Apes TV series, all which I followed through the books, the comics, the cards and the films.
 

 
John and Richard Ramsey win the Internet! I haven’t laughed this hard since… I don’t know? Do yourself a favor and watch ALL THREE of these hilariously brilliant home videos. You won’t regret it, I promise.
 

 
One more after the jump…

 
Home Movies of Man Ray and Ady Fidelin from 1938, present a simple and intimate portrait of the man behind the artist.
 

 
With thanks to Angie Lane