Super 8 Apes

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I was really happy to run into this Planet of the Apes Super 8 short recently, I have a small but growing collection of these titles but Apes is a biggie for me.

Super 8 films will always remind me of my local library and birthday parties, I always perked up when you saw a projector at your friend's house.

The store had more than one but cash is limited, so I chose Beneath because it gave me nightmares as a kid!



I hope to track down the rest soon, maybe even some of them fancy color ones. A boy can dream!For more Fashion Mockery and 70's toy love visit us at Plaid Stallions.com


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[DavidCoppola]

I was a budding projectionist as a kid in the 70s. I had all of these. Pity they only ran 8 minutes each though, sound speed at 24 fps.

[HardyGirl]

I remember my sis-in-law's cousin renting a projector and films for the neighborhood kids for my nephew's 1st birthday party in '79. As I recall one of the films was "The Three Robbers".

[acrovader]

-edit-

[acrovader]

Eight minutes, huh? It hardly does a film justice. It seems like it was almost not the worth the money and effort back in the day for something like this. But if these were geared towards the kiddies, an 8 minute film would be just right for their short attention span.

[DavidCoppola]

In the early 70s, $24.95 was a LOT of money, especially for an 8 minute film. BUT, it was essentially the only way to relive your favorite films. Kmart was actually a big vendor for these.
Ken Films and Universal 8 would soon come out with 400' versions of popular films, running 17-18 minutes. these were over $40! Sometimes 2 parters running just over 30 minutes.
Star Wars was one of the biggest Super 8 releases. It actually came out the same summer as the theatrical version. I had the 400' version and was king of my neighborhood!
1980 ushered in VHS and Super 8mm essentially went into a serious collectors mindset and a company called Derann in England took over the "specialty" market well into the 90s/00s. Super 8 is STILL out there, but is kinda hard to come by.

[Klosterheim]

I wonder what eight minutes they showed, a movie summary perhaps.

[DavidCoppola]

They were HIGHLY condensed. Before I got the 400' of Star Wars, I had the 200' one. It essentially showed only two, semi complete, scenes. But still, it was great to watch with friends on a big screen in your living room in the mid 70s.

[palitoy]

Oh yeah, one of my happiest memories was seeing that Star Wars silent film at a birthday party when I was 8. I had yet to see at the movies and didn't see a VCR for another two years.

[Mikey]

Just sold my old 70's silent Bell and Howell projector a few months ago.

Got 60 bucks for it - perfect working condition including working lantern bulb.

[HardyGirl]

I wonder what eight minutes they showed, a movie summary perhaps.

Here it is. But this guy added the sound from the color version. Reading the captions is sorta funny b/c it really condensed what was said:

[SKotK]

But what I really want to know is this: who was Ken, and why was he so willing to share his Films with the world?

I do remember very vividly the 8mm film section at Kmart, especially the Star Wars films they had. We had a projector, a camera, and 2-3 commercial films along with 9 reels of 8mm family footage. Why we didn't buy any Star Wars on 8mm I will never know. It would have been perfect: we could see it in the comfort of our own home, and wouldn't have to go out to the theater (which is what my mom had a problem with - seeing the trailer for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre during a Bambi intermission killed going to the movies for us for the rest of my growing-up years, so I never got to see Star Wars in the theater. Some projectionist had a sick sense of humor!).

Of course, I would have loved seeing the Apes 8mm films as well.

--SKot