Free Republic

Larry Buchanan, the filmmaker who has died aged 81, specialised in the niche market for what he called "guerrilla filmmaking" - truly dreadful B-movies with such names as Zontar, the Thing from Venus; Curse of the Swamp Creature; Naughty Dallas and Mars Needs Women, a film which reputedly features in every list of the worst movies ever made. But even this last title found a market, and reached its widest audiences in a version dubbed into Yiddish. Buchanan combined the roles of producer, director, screenwriter, editor and, where appropriate, voice-over narrator. He was unashamed, even proud, of tacky production values,...

Murdered at 10:55pm eastern on 12/8/80. At 11:15pm Howard Cosell interrupted the Monday Night Football game between Miami and New England, as it was going into overtime, to announce: "One of the great figures of the entire world, one of the great artists, was shot to death horribly at the Dakota Apartments, 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City. John Lennon is dead. He was the most important member of the Beatles, and the Beatles, lead by John Lennon, created music that touched the whole of civilization. Not just people in Liverpool, where the group was born,...

APRIL 24--The parents of Jim Morrison yesterday sued two of their son's former Doors bandmates, claiming that the musicians, now touring in a reformed version of the famous group, have "maliciously misappropriated" the name and logo of The Doors and are using Morrison's poetry and photos without permission. In a Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, octogenarians George and Clara Morrison allege that Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger have stolen "these valuable property rights" in a bid to promote and market "a new band that they recently organized with two other individuals that have never been associated with the original Doors...