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Old 12-13-2012, 09:59 PM   #1
Talon87
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Crazy Christmas Cards from 1955

Someone shared this blogpost with me and I figured I'd share it with you guys. There are some real gems in here, like ...

(read only AFTER you've read the blogpost yourself!)

Spoiler: show
"My grandfather had to travel all the way to Grantville, Georgia to use a 'colored' lawyer, due to the fact that the Irish were considered 'colored' in Georgia until 1963."

"The story of my grandfather’s failed card company was pretty well known in my family. My grandfather always insisted that it ruined his life and was the cause of his 'whiskey fits.' Not only did he blame Haruo for the fiasco, but all of Japan for his financial ruin. He even went as far as to contact the Irish Press in 1956 with a completely fictitious tale about being swindled out of his money while trying to stop a Japanese murder plot against the Pope."




This is just one incredible story. And it only gets better in Part 2!
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Old 12-13-2012, 10:01 PM   #2
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Mr. McGinty leads off in this follow-up piece a year later:
Quote:
Remember last year when a holiday miracle uncovered my grandfather’s long lost Christmas cards? [...] Much to my surprise, they were pretty popular and made their way all over the world and the internet, thanks to mentions from the nice folks at sites like i09, Laughing Squid, and rebelflagiphonecases.biz. When it was all said and done, I’d sent out over 11,000 cards to people who wanted to horrify and confuse their friends and loved ones.

One of these confused fellows was a Japanese film collector named Ichiro Tanaka, who contacted me shortly after receiving the card as a holiday greeting from his niece. Ichiro was curious to know if there was any connection between the American Christmas Devil and an incredibility rare Japanese monster movie from 1966, which was originally titled USA Holiday Devil Battles Jewish Lamp.
Oh no. Say it isn't so.

(READ THE BLOG ARTICLE FIRST! )

Spoiler: show

IT BE SO! XFD

UN.BE.LIEVABLE.

And yes, the Japanese was accurately translated in all cases I spotted (in both blog posts) into English. It really does say in Japanese writing what it also says in English writing.
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Old 12-14-2012, 12:13 AM   #3
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There's nothing more American than turning shitty cards and movie posters you don't own into cash.
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Old 12-14-2012, 12:18 AM   #4
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Well that's certainly not what I took away from this story but whatever. (I assume you're referring to the blogger himself, who sold his grandfather's cards at $5 a pop x 11,000 cards + who may be merchandizing other things relating to those film posters? But perhaps you were instead referring to any of the Irishmen or Japanese people mentioned in this story? ) I was far more distracted by the Mars Attacks!-esque face on that Santa Claus followed up by that terrrrrrrrrrrrible Godzilla-style film between pitting the Abominable Santaclaus against an animated menorah. To say nothing of this guy's grandfather's craziness in thinking that a man he shot in the face in the war would help him to make good holiday cards. But your take on the blog is valid too!
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Old 12-14-2012, 12:20 AM   #5
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I was referring to the blogger himself, but I also found the whole "shoot a man in the face" thing quite strange and amusing.

I also love how much arson that guy gets away with... a different time to be sure.
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Old 12-14-2012, 12:26 AM   #6
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That too! If the story is to be believed (I mean, it is just a weblog, after all, but still! Benefit of the doubt! ), then that's crazy. That guy set fire to or stole so much!

The whole time I was reading that though, I was hoping that the dude was going to be revealed to be either his grandfather (somehow , using an alias or something) or else an acquaintance of his grandfather's from the war (like his C.O. or something.)
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Old 12-14-2012, 01:06 AM   #7
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The line I was most intrigued by was "My father was never allowed to go with him, because he was half woman (on his mother’s side)." What does that even mean? ^^;
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Old 12-14-2012, 11:18 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
The whole time I was reading that though, I was hoping that the dude was going to be revealed to be either his grandfather (somehow , using an alias or something) or else an acquaintance of his grandfather's from the war (like his C.O. or something.)
I got the impression it was a hoax. Too much felt dissonant...the stories were too sensational, the guy looked too much like his freaking grandfather, and the Christmas Card's back had a primitive anime-style art that was only just starting to get popular with Osamu Tezuka rising to prominence. What's more, the author has a work a few months later that resembles the card.

I still believe the story, but it's hard to believe. And if it's completely true and not a cleverly crafted mock story, that's one hell of a lineage that guy's got.
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Old 12-14-2012, 11:47 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I still believe the story, but it's hard to believe. And if it's completely true and not a cleverly crafted mock story, that's one hell of a lineage that guy's got.
This is exactly where I was last night on the story, and still am. 100%. A lot of the comments lent me doubts too. People were all like "Good one, McGinty!" and commenting on his career as a comic artist / comedian. So like, I can definitely see that what he might've done was posed as his alleged "grandfather" and pulled a Forrest Gump Robert Zemeckis on us by photoshopping his likeness into old newspaper clippings and trying to make it look like they're the genuine article. But at the same time, a) I want to believe and b) nothing I saw in the cards struck me as too anachronistic. The Christmas card design does bear some similarities to modern art ... but it's also something I'd be willing to believe that someone back in 1950, 1955 could've conceivably come up with.

As for the follow-up story with the Otoh Film, that seems like it's the real deal. If it's not, then holy fuck at this guy's ability to create convincing evidence. Crazy thing is, if you do a Google search for USA Holiday Devil vs Jewish Lamp, the only / the top hits you get are all to do with Brad McGinty. So like, I dunno. He did say in the article that the film lacked an IMDB page and everything, but like, that could also just be part of his meta-blogging and the reality is that he totally made this all up.

Will be crushed if it's fake. For now, I want to believe.
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Old 12-14-2012, 12:18 PM   #10
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The first story is much more believable than the second, the obscure film.

Evidence against the obscure film

-the director was also an Irish potato farmer
-the Santa monster looks like something out of a Rankin/Bass special (which was not common for Japanese movie monsters)
-the hilarious seven-headed "Menorah" seems like a play on Godzilla's archnemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah
-the exaggerated bad film quality of the video he posted (where it gets interrupted by some random cartoon)

I bet if someone runs that "Somewhere, in the Arctic" opening narration against a library of sound bytes or transcripts, they'll find a match for it. It's one thing to have an epically bad, 1960's style film. But as Pixar showed us with the fake Japanese Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear video, one has to be really careful with dissonance or anachronistic imagery.
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Old 12-14-2012, 12:38 PM   #11
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Well, I just figured that the obviously bad parody of Ghidorah as Menorah was part of the company's schtick. It reminds one of the porn industry, with how they'll parody things in really cheesy ways. You see it here at every level. Even the company name, "Otoh", is an obvious pun of the actual company name, Toho. This could easily be Mr. McGinty's doing, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was an actual knock-off company's name too. (To be honest though, I'd expect the Japanese to call theirs Hoto, not Otoh. So there is that as +1 point to IT'S A FAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE! )

It should be pretty easy to prove the story is not authentic though. He claims the film was shown in Florida for years, so like, either there should be some people who post saying they remember this from their childhoods and haven't seen it since the '60s/'70s/'80s, or else there should not be.
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Old 12-14-2012, 03:19 PM   #12
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Evidence of false-hood?

Card back. You can clearly see a "bradmcginty.com" on the live card. I can imagine him putting the watermark on the card later and after printing it (as demonstrated in the scan) but he's purporting to be showing us the original, 1955 copy.

This isn't definitive proof, but I've now moved away from "benefit of the doubt" to "curiously skeptical".
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Old 12-14-2012, 03:21 PM   #13
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Ah poo. Oh well. Was good for a laugh last night at least.
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Old 12-21-2012, 07:17 PM   #14
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Was skeptical from the start, but it was so hilarious to read.
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