How to be a Penniless Movie Mogul -- All in One Easy Lesson

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Originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I never remember getting drink with my friends, but this article would seem to suggest otherwise~!

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10/3/75

Four drunk aliens walking down the side of a super highway, thinking Earth people are cows! Can you imagine that? Well, if you can, you need help because you’re on the same wavelength as the people at EDWIN CONNELL Productions.

H----- H-----, T------ H-----, R---- A--, and J--- B--------, all of whom are charter members of ECP and make up the Board of Directors, are busily at work trying to make the above statement become a reality. . . At least. . . they were. The movie in which they were to accomplish this was originally scheduled to go into production on July 23, 1975. But here it is October 3rd and they still don’t have anything final to put on film.

What it really boils down to is a lack of money. As of this date, the movie fund has all of 25 cents. Lots of capital, huh. They can’t afford the film! Or the camera for that matter. Because of the nature of the movie, it may be necessary to film on location somewhere in northern Michigan. They can’t afford the gas to get there. The only thing they have enough for is a pencil! And that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. . . Ah, correction. They can’t afford a barrel!

“Money can wait,” they said. “All we want to do now is talk.” And talk they did, for 2 ½ months.

Actually, it wasn’t until September 14, 1975 that the movie idea really took shape. It was decided during a meeting of the Board of Directors that the movie would be a SF short. It was also decided that it would be called “Space 1998: A Visit to a Strange Planet.”

Although originally it was meant to be a serious movie, so far the format consists of a series of comical misadventures. It takes place in the year 1976, which, at the time of this writing is next year. A group of alien astronauts assigned to study the civilizations of the planet Earth discovers a malfunction in one of their main engines. After deciding that they can’t make it to their home planet because of the damaged unit, they land on Earth. After that point the story becomes a collection of zany incidents centered around the aliens and their search for some way to repair their ship.