1955 Anti-Comics tv show - "Confidential File: Horror Comic Books!"

[Yoc]

Ken Q posted this the other week and I'm betting many here will enjoy (or cringe at) this look back in time.
I hope he doesn't mind my quoting him.
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Some of you may have already seen this on Mark Evanier's site today, but if not, you can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI8IJA8kdkI&feature=player_embedded#at=1294

This is an interesting video. Unlike many, it's an entire program and not just a clip. It's from a 1955 show hosted by a local Los Angeles reporter and among his guests are Sen.Estes Kefauver and a comic book artists named Ellis Eringer. Needless to say, the show is unrelentingly biased against comic books and even has a staged episode of a bunch of kids reading comics and then torturing a smaller boy. You can catch a glimpse of a lot of comics from this era, including a few Timely/Atlas issues. There is also a segment in which the host "interviews" a few kids who relate some of the comic stories they've read. One of which is the infamous EC story, "Foul Play", from HAUNT OF FEAR #19 (about the baseball game played with parts of a human body).

While this is obviously ridiculous when viewed from our vantage point, you have to wonder how it was received by viewers in 1955 sitting at home and watching it on their TVs. What's curious is that the show is from 1955, after the adoption of the Comic Code (which is mentioned in passing). I guess the host was desperate for a subject and he figured comics were an easy target.

Ken Q

[darwination]

Thanks very much for posting this, Yoc.  I think the show is well done and seems like very effective propaganda.  I'd have to imagine parents would be horrified by some of the images and stories in here.  I particularly enjoyed the bit at the end where Coates interviews Eringer/ I'll have to see if I can't find some of Eringer's stories.  I loved the part where they are both looking at a romance comic, and Eringer points to a panel and says the editors had enlarged the bosoms on his girls, too much.  The music was on par with an episode of Dragnet, so dramatic.  It's great to see something like this complete and uncut and with a very decent image quality - a fantastic find!

[Yoc]

Glad you liked it Darwin.  Ken Q deserves the thanks for finding it.