Pop Culture History

Press the plastic clown head and it dispenses those 29-cent candies that a generation of children eagerly gulped down. Press the self-styled Pezhead and she dispenses all of the reasons baby boomers don't gulp at all over spending hundreds of dollars years later for that same Pez candy dispenser. "They remind you of your childhood," said Linda Adams, a 48-year-old San Jose software company administrator. "They're so cute and colorful and innocent.

Press the plastic clown head and it dispenses those 29-cent candies that a generation of children eagerly gulped down. Press the self-styled Pezhead and she dispenses all of the reasons baby boomers don't gulp at all over spending hundreds of dollars years later for that same Pez candy dispenser. "They remind you of your childhood," said Linda Adams, a 48-year-old San Jose software company administrator. "They're so cute and colorful and innocent.

As Robert Hilburn strains to find some mythic connection between the legacies of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon to justify their joint shows ("They Are a Rock," June 20), he completely sidesteps the obvious that these two boomer icons stand to sell more tickets touring together than separately. He also indulges in some loopy revisionist pop culture history along the way. For instance, I'd love to hear Joni Mitchell's response (or Van Morrison's, for that matter) to his assertion that of all Dylan's touring partners, only Simon's oeuvre is of equal stature.

The iconic musical number that serves as a prologue and epilogue to the 1963 musical comedy "Bye Bye Birdie" was something of an afterthought. Six months after principal photography ended on the musical, director George Sidney brought the film's young star Ann-Margret back to Columbia Pictures to shoot the new musical number, "Bye Bye Birdie. " And the rest is pop culture history. Placed on a treadmill with a fan hitting her red tresses, Ann-Margret was shot against a vibrant blue background.

Rock 'n' roll is in the air this weekend as the American Cinematheque screens a Frank Zappa double feature: 1971's "200 Motels " and 1979's " Baby Snakes" tonight at the Aero Theatre. And on Friday the Aero will show a new 35-millimeter print of director Michael Wadleigh's cut of his 1970 Oscar-winning "Woodstock ," with an introduction by Hal Lifson, pop culture historian and author of "1966! The Coolest Year in Pop Culture History." www.americancinematheque.com 'Night Flight' salute Meanwhile, the Don't Knock the Rock 2009 festival winds up tonight at the Silent Movie Theatre with a tribute to "Night Flight," the seminal late-night show from 1981 that included music videos, short films, cartoons, interviews, concerts and cult movies.

The fuzzy memories are all coming back for Phillip Paley, but sometimes it's still hard for him to talk about his days as America's favorite monkey-boy. "It just changes the way people look at you, once people find out that you were Cha-Ka," the 45-year-old said of his long-gone career as a child actor on the television show "Land of the Lost." "I don't tell too many people. But, well, I guess that's all changing now."

In Roger Catlin's "A Rock-Solid Case for 1966" (Aug. 3), he makes the assertion that this was the most influential and creatively dominant year in rock music history. I couldn't agree more, and would like to take this a step further, by proclaiming 1966 as the most significant and creative year in pop culture history! On TV, we were introduced to "Batman," "Star Trek" and "The Monkees," all of which became national phenomena, lasting in popularity more than 35 years now. (Let's not forget "The Green Hornet," which marked Bruce Lee's entrance to pop culture.

It's an ending that will live forever in movie — and pop culture — history. Thelma and Louise, played by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, cornered by the cops, decide that rather than surrender they will drive off a cliff in their teal-colored Thunderbird convertible. Homages to the final scene have shown up everywhere from "The Simpson" to a current Bing.com commercial. Callie Khouri, who won an Academy Award for her "Thelma & Louise" screenplay, notes that the ending "has really turned into a half-full, half-empty glass of water.

Actor Ron Palillo, who died early Tuesday morning of a heart attack at age 63, will be remembered by a generation of Americans as Arnold Horshack, the whiny-voiced lovable loser he played on the hit ABC sitcom, “Welcome Back, Kotter,”  from 1975 to 1979. Although Horshack was not a star student, he was undeniably a nerd. With his gawky frame, distinctive hyena-like laugh, and habit of exclaiming “oooh, ooooh, oooh” while insistently raising his hand in class, Horshack ranks alongside Screech, Urkel and Sheldon Cooper as one of the most beloved geeks in pop culture history.

Who's been the most lucrative creative force in Hollywood in this short century? You could make an argument for Stan Lee, the irrepressible P.T. Barnum of comic books who, in the 1960s, put pen to paper and came up with Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil and the Hulk -- a colorful parade of properties that in the last six years has grossed $1.6 billion at the box office.

They were made by Americans for Americans, and virtually anyone who was a child in this country during the era that spanned the Great Depression and the Vietnam War will have a memory of them: toy ray guns. And, as often happens with items that become icons of popular culture, they were created to promote something: in this case, the star of a comic strip and radio show (and later television and movies) called Buck Rogers and his subsequent competition, Flash Gordon.