OK Benji I've heard of but I'm surprised to see merchandising for Joe Camp's other funny animal film "Hawmps!" which I've never seen but probably should since it contains both Denver Pyle and Slim Pickens. That's an powerhouse combination of Southern Stereotypes for one movie.
4 comments:
I've never seen HAWMPS, either, but I do remember the plush toy in the JC Penny catalog (I think it was).
Don't feel bad, I've never seen HAWMPS myself, and I liked Denver Pyle a lot at the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s: He'd been on The Life and Times Grizzly Adams and The Dukes of Hazzard, and served as narrator of a Warner Brothers cartoon movie compiled from Bugs Bunny and Daffy cartoons called How Bugs Bunny Won the West. Definitely had a lot of kid-friendly projects, and lots of his earlier tv work would have showed up in reruns during the 70s, too, thereby entertaining us kids even more.
As for the camel...marginally cute, but I'm sure the badge would have come off fast, and the eyes are weird. But there were probably a few little kids who had him and slept with him at night---he definitely looks like the kind of animals you sleep with at night.
Very cool find!
Gordon Long
I saw HAWMPS in the theater and thought it was hilarious (I was 10). Later I discovered F-Troop, and thought there was some connection. I haven't seen the movie since, but when my kids are a little older, I'll try to remedy that.
Also thought HAWMPS was da bomb when I saw it in the theater in '76. Found this Trivia on IMDB:
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Loosely based on actual historical events. In the late 1850's, the U.S. Army experimented with the use of camels in the southwestern territories, the present states of Arizona and New Mexico. Hi Jolly (Hadji or Haci Ali, 1828 - 1902) was a Syrian camel expert and driver hired by the army to help with the experiment. Unfortunately, the project was deterred by the Civil War and never resumed afterward. Hi Jolly became something of a local legend, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen and living out his remaining days in Arizona.
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