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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 6, 2007 16:20:35 GMT
In 1965, artist Richard Merkin (#10 on Sgt Pepper, top row, red hat) painted "Bulldog Drummond and the Great Coca-Cola Mystery." (see below). In the song Come Together, Lennon sings: "He shoot Coca-Cola." In the song "Hey Bulldog," Lennon sings "Big man walking in the park," and in the Merkin painting there is an area called "THE PARK." Just below THE PARK is painted "24X" and Paul would have been 24 at the time he died in 1966. The Merkin painting has a circle in the middle that to me is suggestive of the Sgt Pepper drumskin. Sticking out of the top of the circle is a brown line at an angle with an X on top. This line is at roughly the same angle and position as the cor anglais the McCartney is holding on Sgt Pepper. If you look at the Pepper cover you can see that the cor anglais points right to Richard Merkin! (As well as revealing another CLUE). Here is a link to that thread and a picture of the other CLUE. 60if.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=60ifclues&action=display&thread=1180907862I wonder if this Merkin poster was used as an archetype for certain elements of the layout of the Sgt Pepper cover? We all know about "I ONE I X HE ^ DIE" hidden on the Pepper drumskin, but if you reflect the bottom half of "LONELY HEARTS" back onto itself instead of the top half, you get "COKECI HEXK13." Is this hidden reference to COKE a tie-in to the title of the Merkin painting? (As for the rest of the hidden text, K13 was a British submarine that in 1917 took water and sank for almost 60 hours before they fixed it and nearly half the crew died. I'd say that counts as a HEXK13. Any speculations about a tie-in to Yellow Submarine anybody?) (The poster also says HELP in the upper right corner. 1965 was the year Lennon recorded and released the song "Help." I can't say if there is a connection there but the timing is interesting. Who influenced who?)
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 6, 2007 18:22:10 GMT
Here is a rough attempt to show the reflected bottom half of LONELY HEARTS. I did it with a crappy graphics program. It looks a lot better when you do it in person with a real mirror. On the Pepper cover, the drum is rotated at a slight angle counterclockwise, so I coudn't get a straight line of reflection with my crappy graphics program; it is at a little bit of an angle but you can still see COKECI HEXK13. After K13 was brought back up to the surface, it was repaired and GIVEN A NEW IDENTITY. (K22)
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 6, 2007 19:33:22 GMT
Another thing I just noticed about the Merkin painting is the area called THE LAKE, where something that looks like a yellow submarine is sticking half out of the water!
-j
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 7, 2007 4:53:45 GMT
After K13 was brought back up to the surface, it was repaired and GIVEN A NEW IDENTITY. (K22) K22 minus K13 equals number nine, number nine, number nine. Heh.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 7, 2007 5:36:45 GMT
At the top of the poster, at the bottom of the black area, is a scene of an auto accident with a meat wagon cleaning it up. The meatwagon is the leftmost vehicle - a long purplish van. The red car right behind the meat wagon is on its side. There is another car further to the right still upright. The upright car is red with a black top.
On the opposite side of the black area in the top right corner of the poster is a crowd of people standing and staring at the scene.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 7, 2007 5:47:49 GMT
In the lower left corner of the poster, the beige colored area is in the shape of a bust, with a bloody stump at the neck where the head should be attached. The head area is filled with question marks instead of a head.
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Post by plastic paul on Jun 7, 2007 11:22:55 GMT
"Trap"
"Mystery Enigma Dilemma Problem"
"WHO THE HELL KNOWS
Most intriguing and a fantastic find.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 7, 2007 14:36:33 GMT
In the lower right corner, under the words CLUE CLUE CLUE is a decapitated head, which is facing the headless bust on the left. This head looks to me like it has a Beatle haircut.
Now I am not saying this is Paul - far from it. I am assuming that Merkin created this work independently of any connection to or influence by The Beatles. But I could certainly conceive of John and Paul together at an art gallery, in 1966, looking at this painting, and John saying, "Hey Paul that looks like you."
And then Paul says to John, "Look out! That gives me a rather crafty idea. You know what we should do?"
Then, as Paul starts whispering into John's ear, a big ass wicked grin appears on John's face.
Just a thought...
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Post by ccinri on Jun 7, 2007 22:12:32 GMT
in 1939, Salvador Dali used Shirley Temple's likeness in his collage called "Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time". Apparently it was first shown in New York, but the exhibition catalog does not mention the painting (it had been noted in the New York Times). It features a newspaper clipped image of Shirley Temple's face on the body of a red lioness (sphinxish) complete with breasts and white claws. There is a bat on the top of her head. She is lying upon a bed of clean singular bones (Mark Lawson of the Guardian uses the term 'maneater') with a human skull between her paws. At the botton of the painting is a label that reads "Shirley! at last in Technicolor" Graham Greene, in reviewing Shirley Temple's work, stated that while she was advertised as an innocent, the actress had a "more secret and adult appeal" and that for the male population, 'the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire'. She starred in a number of films and from 1935 to 1938 she was the biggest box office draw in Hollywood making Fox Studios a major player in the process. Her first Technicolor movie, "The Little Princess" was in 1939. She also stars in "Susannah of the Mounties" in 1939. She portrays an orphan who is rescued by a Mountie and his girlfriend!
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 8, 2007 2:55:54 GMT
Does it look like this little dude might have inspired those long-faced Blue Meanies? This Merkin piece just keeps on delivering the goods.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 8, 2007 7:45:11 GMT
in 1939, Salvador Dali used Shirley Temple's likeness in his collage called "Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time". <snip> Her first Technicolor movie, "The Little Princess" was in 1939. She also stars in "Susannah of the Mounties" in 1939. She portrays an orphan who is rescued by a Mountie and his girlfriend! Below is a small image of that Dali piece. Interesting that Shirley Temple's first film was in 1939. That was also the year Disney acquired the rights to "Peter Pan." In Merkin's Bulldog Drummond and the Coca-Cola Mystery, the word "NEVERLAND" is near "1939."
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Post by ccinri on Jun 8, 2007 12:56:05 GMT
1939 was her first color film. I just found out that Merkin was a prof at RISD for 40 years which is 30 minutes from where I live in RI...Salvador Dali also did a painting of Mae West called "Face of Mae West Which Can Be Used as an Apartment" which features a pair of lips that were actually made into a sofa. According to scholar Jill Watts, Mae West was African American. While she was able to hide this fact it didn't stop her from pushing the envelope regarding race, gender and class issues. She put on a play called "The Drag" which presented homosexulaity in 1926.
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Post by Sun King™ on Jun 8, 2007 17:35:33 GMT
in 1939, Salvador Dali used Shirley Temple's likeness in his collage called "Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time". <snip> Her first Technicolor movie, "The Little Princess" was in 1939. She also stars in "Susannah of the Mounties" in 1939. She portrays an orphan who is rescued by a Mountie and his girlfriend! Below is a small image of that Dali piece. Interesting that Shirley Temple's first film was in 1939. That was also the year Disney acquired the rights to "Peter Pan." In Merkin's Bulldog Drummond and the Coca-Cola Mystery, the word "NEVERLAND" is near "1939." That remembers me STRONGLY "Bowie" Diamond Dogs LP cover. Diamond ... Dogs ... Lucy ... Sky Space Oddity See: 60if.proboards21.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=CelebRepl&thread=1171424006&page=1
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Post by ccinri on Jun 8, 2007 18:44:41 GMT
1939 Walt Disney won an Honorary Oscar award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There was one statuette and seven smaller ones. George Bernard Shaw won an Oscar in 1939 for Best Screenplay for Pygmalion.
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Post by ccinri on Jun 8, 2007 18:52:45 GMT
Prof. Henry Higgins teaches refinement in speech and manner to Eliza Doolittle (cockney accent) My Fair Lady is the musical. Like the Ashers?
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 8, 2007 19:33:43 GMT
1939 Walt Disney won an Honorary Oscar award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There was one statuette and seven smaller ones. George Bernard Shaw won an Oscar in 1939 for Best Screenplay for Pygmalion. And poof! there is Snow White (and Shirley Temple and Shirley Temple and Shirley Temple) on Sgt Pepper. Now, which Beatle's name starts with the same first letter as Pygmalion? What a great metaphor! 1939 was an auspicious year indeed.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 8, 2007 19:34:52 GMT
Prof. Henry Higgins teaches refinement in speech and manner to Eliza Doolittle (cockney accent) My Fair Lady is the musical. Like the Ashers? (For those who don't already know, My Fair Lady is an adaptation of Pygmalion).
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Post by Sun King™ on Jun 8, 2007 19:38:14 GMT
in 1939, Salvador Dali used Shirley Temple's likeness in his collage called "Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time". <snip> Her first Technicolor movie, "The Little Princess" was in 1939. She also stars in "Susannah of the Mounties" in 1939. She portrays an orphan who is rescued by a Mountie and his girlfriend! Below is a small image of that Dali piece. Interesting that Shirley Temple's first film was in 1939. That was also the year Disney acquired the rights to "Peter Pan." In Merkin's Bulldog Drummond and the Coca-Cola Mystery, the word "NEVERLAND" is near "1939." You can see Dali caricature (the first starting from the right) on the Marvellous Lunch on Magical Mystery Tour Booklet Comics
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Post by ccinri on Jun 8, 2007 22:20:22 GMT
McNeile who wrote Bulldog McDrummond wrote a short story called Mystery Tour. Bulldog was a English gumshoe ala crude James Bond. McNeilie died in 1938, but his friend Gerald Fairlie took his place and continued to write Bulldog books....in 1939.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 8, 2007 23:15:34 GMT
Merkin's "Bulldog Drummond" work is for sale. I have been in contact with the gallery and they want $7,500. Jay Caldwell (Caldwell Gallery) says he is unaware of any connection between Merkin, Blake, or Sgt Pepper, other than Merkin appearing on the cover.
The work premiered at Merkin's 1965 "One Man Show" at Obelisk Gallery in Boston. From there it went to the Finch College Museum Collection in New York, where it stayed until they disbanded the collection. After that it was in the hands of an unnamed dealer/collector until Caldwell acquired it in 1994.
Apparently, this work has never been owned by a private collector.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 9, 2007 3:31:31 GMT
McNeile who wrote Bulldog McDrummond wrote a short story called Mystery Tour. Bulldog was a English gumshoe ala crude James Bond. McNeilie died in 1938, but his friend Gerald Fairlie took his place and continued to write Bulldog books....in 1939. That is too cool! Bulldog Drummond and Mystery Tour by the same author. Ahhh the connections. In 1962, The Beatles recorded a song called Searchin', written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The recording was finally released on Anthology 1 in 1995. Here is an excerpt from the lyrics of that song: NO MATTER WHERE SHE'S A-HIDIN' SHE'S GONNA SEE ME A-COMIN', GONNA WALK RIGHT DOWN THAT STREET LIKE A BULLDOG DRUMMOND. So The Beatles were clearly down with Bulldog Drummond at least five years before Sgt Pepper.
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 11, 2007 20:00:20 GMT
Another obvious connection here is the fact the main guitar riff in the song Hey Bulldog has that "secret agent" sound.
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Post by plastic paul on Jun 12, 2007 12:16:49 GMT
Good point jarv, it is pretty much the famous James Bond theme that we all know.
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Post by ccinri on Jun 12, 2007 12:53:56 GMT
The Great Desert...T.E. Lawrence...I've read that he was involved in Muslim Freemasons...a lot of these guys were in the Freemasons, Tyrone Power, Tony Curtis played Harry Houdini (who was a freemason), Tom Mix, Oliver Hardy, WC Fields, Oscar Wilde, HG Wells and the obvious ones. I just read that Salvador Dali worked for Disney in 1946 (they were friends)
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Post by jarvitronics on Jun 13, 2007 17:23:02 GMT
Prof. Henry Higgins teaches refinement in speech and manner to Eliza Doolittle (cockney accent) My Fair Lady is the musical. Like the Ashers? Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl, was played in 1964 by Audrey Hepburn. Ms. Hepburn portrayed a real-life nurse (Sister Luke) in 1959's The Nun's Story, and was herself a volunteer nurse at age 16, during WWII, at a Dutch hospital, where she tended Allied soldiers. (One of whom was future director Terence Young, who directed her in 1967's Wait Until Dark). Julie Andrews played Eliza Doolittle on Broadway during the fifties, but was snubbed for the 1964 film role in favor of Hepburn. Instead, that same year, Andrews starred in, and won an Oscar for, Mary Poppins. Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray And though she feels as if she's in a play She is anyway
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