Nude on her moon? Yes please..
Yesterday’s band practice was cancelled (of course). It didn’t bother me. I was a bit tired anyway. I managed to get some video editing done which I will post henceforth on Youtube, some of it today. I could stay in the house for the next five years and I wouldn’t run out of things to do, and that doesn’t even include fixing what’s broken or in need of repair. I’m talking about the thousands of hours of videos and sound recordings that I have stashed away. I’ve got a couple of hundred VHS cassettes with all manner of things on them. One day I’ll get around to it. This brings me to what I was alluding to the other day, involving Florida, the Coral Castle and the movie Nude on the Moon.
Fuck those space tourists, this is the real deal
If you ask the internet what was Nude on the Moon, this is what you get…Nude on the Moon is a 1961 American science-fantasy nudist film co-written and co-directed by Doris Wishman and Raymond Phelan under the pseudonyms “O. O. Miller” and “Anthony Brooks”. Often categorized as a “nudie cutie,” the film blends low-budget sci-fi with playful eroticism and camp aesthetics. It follows the journey of Dr. Jeff Huntley, a scientist who inherits $3 million and uses it to build a rocket to the Moon, accompanied by his mentor, Professor Nichols.” ($3 million might buy you a mediocre house on the space coast today)
Is that an anti gravity device or an ejaculator?
The Plot goes something like this.. “Upon landing on the Moon, the astronauts discover a lush, Earth-like paradise inhabited by telepathic, topless extraterrestrials led by a Moon Queen—who bears a striking resemblance to Jeff’s secretary, Cathy. The Moon Queen, enamored with Jeff, allows the men to observe and photograph the lunar inhabitants. However, as their oxygen runs low, they are forced to return to Earth, only to realize they’ve left their camera behind and thus have no proof of their discovery. Back home, Jeff finds solace in the resemblance between the Moon Queen and Cathy, culminating in a romantic embrace.”
Ah, I can’t believe they made a movie here.
Fair enough. I’ve watched this film and it’s fairly tame by today’s standards. The fact that it was filmed at the Coral Gardens in Florida was intriguing, given that I’m about to take a trip down there soon. It’s also on the way to where I’m going down at the Keys, so I was thinking it would be cool to check it out.
Spending 27 bucks to get in would be a stretch. Ok, I’m a cheapskate!
The Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida is a weird construction created by a Latvian immigrant, Edward Leedskalnin between 1923 and 1951. He built as a tribute to his lost love, Agnes Scuffs, whom he was set to marry at age 26 but who left him the day before their wedding. It’s a monument to an unrequited love, so to speak.
Leedskalnin, was 5 feet tall, weighed 100 pounds and somehow single-handedly quarried and sculpted more than 1,100 tons of oölitic limestone into intricate carvings, and it still stands today, relatively the same as when he built it. Unfortunately the entrance fee of $27 seems a tad high to me for what it is, so I might just not go there.
Ray Phelan’s Times Square blockbuster. I have about 12 copies on 35 mm film
The more interesting fact in this whole saga is that I have a strange connection to one of the two people who co-wrote and directed the movie, Nude on the Moon, which was filmed at the Coral Castle in 1961. In 2018 I bought house full of stuff on a large piece of land in Vermont. I didn’t know it who’s house it was, all I knew was that there were lot of cans of movie film in there. All in all there were 800 after I finished counting them. The previous owner obviously had a lot to do with the movie business. The house I bought turned out to be Raymond Phelan’s last earthly abode.
Ray Phelan also produced, wrote and directed this 1966 production. No doubt there’s a copy in the house somewhere.
Then there was the vintage film equipment, projectors and all the other assorted junk that Ray left when he passed away in that same house in 2014. He was an interesting man. Ray has the distinction of being the author and creator the first X Rated movie to be continuously be screened for a record period in Times Square in the mid sixties. “Too Young Too Immoral” was filmed on location in New York City between 1957 and 1959 under the original title Rebels Die Young. There’s a lot more to the story, but I don’t have time for it today. You can watch Nude on the Moon for free on Youtube but it’s age-restricted so it won’t allow me to post a link here.
Happy Friday.