Rondo and Bob, the Parallel Lives of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE’s Art Director and a 1940s Monster Movie Star w/ Joe O’Connell - a podcast by J.G.

On this spooky season edition of Parallax Views, documentarian Joe O'Connell joins us to discuss his latest feature, RONDO AND BOB, about the parallel lives of Robert A. Burns, the behind-the-scenes art force behind such cult classic horror movies as Tober Hooper's THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, Stuart Gordon's RE-ANIMATOR, Joe Dante's THE HOWLING, and Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and Rondo Hatton, an acromelgaly-afflicted journalist of the early 20th century who made his way to Hollywood to become Tinsel Town's 1940s equivalent to monster movie icon Boris Karloff.

Before getting into RONDO AND BOB, however, Joe and I discuss his previous documentary DANGER MAN. Said film focused on the life and times of stuntman Gary Kent, who was involved with a plethora of B-movie and independent films in the 1960s and 1970s. Kent also is one of the stuntmen upon which Brad Pitt's character in Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON TIME IN HOLLYWOOD was based. Specifically, the fact that Gary Kent had an encounter with Charles Manson while filming a movie on Spahn Ranch (where the Manson Family were living before the Tate/LaBianca murders) became a plot point in the aforementioned Tarantino feature.

We then delve into the stories of Bob Burns and Rondo Hatton, including the similarities and differences in their lives. Burns was someone who appeared normal on the outside but was an eccentric in life and also felt unlovable. Rondo, most known for his appearances as "The Creeper" in films like the Sherlock Holmes caper PEARL OF DEATH, HOUSE OF HORRORS, and THE BRUTE MAN, appeared odd on the outside but was a normal, affable, and much loved man in his every day life. What can we learn from the lives of these two creative individuals who lived life on their on terms? That's the question in this fascinating edition of Parallax Views.

Among the topics discussed:

- The career of Gary Kent, who went to Hollywood with no experience but grew to become a long-running stuntman in Hollywood who often worked on the independent/grindhouse/drive-in movie circuit productions of Sam Sherman, Al Adamson, Don Jones, and Ray Dennis Steckler; his credits include movies like Schoolgirls in Chains, Bubba Ho-Tep, Psych-Out, Hell's Bloody Devils, Satan's Sadists, the Bruce Willis vehicle Color of Night, and Monte Hellman's Ride in the Whirlwind; how the documentary Danger God came together; the challenges of stunt work; Gary Kent's role in Rondo and Bob

- The strange and fantastic lives of Bob Burns and Rondo Hatton; Rondo's early life, involvement with WWI, and his career in Hollywood; Bob's eccentric personality and loneliness; the continued fandom around Bob's work; Bob's acting as serial killing drifter Henry Lee Lucas in Confessions of a Serial Killer; Bob's movies Mongrel (with Hollywood star Aldo Ray) and his unreleased comedy Scream Test; Bob's home-made pinball machined based on the adult movie comedy Deep Throat with Linda Lovelace; the ways in which Rondo and Bob's lives mirror each other and the tragedies in their lives; Bob Burns, Tobe Hooper, and the University of Texas tower shooting

- The influence of the George Lazenby/James Bond 007 documentary Becoming Bond on Rondo and Bob; the half-documentary/half-documentary approach of Rondo and Bob

And much, much more!

Further episodes of Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

Further podcasts by J.G.

Website of J.G.