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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 25
There is something to be said for pub-
crawling. Phil Murphy of West River,
Maryland was staring at his unfin-
ished double Shirley Temple with
extra cherry and picked it up to polish
it off when he suddenly focused on the
bar coaster underneath it. He saw
“SAAC” and signalled to the bartender
that he had had enough. But he was
not seeing things. The coaster was
from the Specialty Advertising Associ-
ation of Chicago. While Murphy was
wondering about what this meant,
Pardee, who had been sitting next to
him at the bar and slugging back
White Russians like they were free
(which they were because he had con-
vinced the bartender to put them on
the hapless Murphy’s tab), drunkenly
suggested that they had an actionable
misdeed and should tell SAAC to
begin immediate legal proceedings for
copyright infringement. Murphy
agreed but when he read his bill he ac-
tually fell off his bar stool. It was ten
times what he expected it to be. At
that point, of course, Pardee was
nowhere to be found.
In the Silent Film Era of the 1920s
there was a 15-part serial titled, “The
Master Mystery” starring Harry Hou-
dini. At the end of each chapter he gets
tied up or locked in some inescapable
situation. He is able to escape at the
beginning of the following week’s
episode. This title card from late in
Chapter 12 foretells the trap Harry is
headed for. The one thing Harry can-
not escape from is the wedding ring
that encircles the finger of his sweet-
heart at the end of the chapter. Steve
Sloan of Pasadena, Texas has a special
interest in silent films and it seems
there are a lot of references to cobras.
Cory Hitchcock of Granite Falls,Wash-
ington is another frequent contributor
here. He recently saw an article in the
Everett
(Washington)
Herald
about a
toddler who was named Isis because
her parents were interested in Egypt-
ian mythology. “Isis” was an Egyptian
princess. Fast-forward to today, where
ISIS has a totally different connota-
tion. The article highlighted her prob-
lems and touched on people asking if
her parents would change her name
(they won’t). The sociological aspects
were not what held Hitchcock’s inter-
est, however. It was the Cobra pedal
car in the picture’s background that
caught his eye.
Bill Fulk of Sacramento, California is
a self-admitted teeny-bopper/slasher
film freak. We’re ok with that – every-
one is entitled to their own little
quirks. He spotted the Cobra RV in
the “Friday the 13th” movie.
Here’s another one. It’s from the 1929
silent movie “The Magician.” The
premise is an evil magician/alchemist/
hypnotist finds a formula to create life
but one of the ingredients required is
the blood of a virgin. That might be a
tall order today but in 1929, not so
much. This scene takes place in the
snake charmer’s tent at a local carni-
val where he spots a potential victim,
although it is not evident how he de-
termined in advance her state of
chasteness. A minor detail.
We look forward to the winter auction
season for a lot of reasons, but one
good one is because it brings out some
really nice full-page advertisements.
Cobras and Shelbys are natural atten-
tion-getters and it seems a couple of
stunners show up every year.