Happy Birthday to #ToniBasil ! #VillageoftheGiants

120 years ago today, film producer #josephelevine was born. A distributor/financier/producer for film, he was instrumental in helping provide the funding that got #bertigordon ‘s #villageofthegiants made.

Returned to #sdcc for the first time in 25 years. Held out as long as possible. But seeing artist @billwalko.bsky.social ‘s wares had us hand over the money to see him render Merrie ( #joyharmon ) from #villageofthegisnts . He even added some blue to those big, iconic…eyes!

A major milestone occurred over 24 years ago today, when #MGM released #villageofthegiants as part of their Midnight Movies lineup. This was the second time the film had been released on VHS since it’s $60 first-release in the mid-80’s, and the first time it appeared in the DVD format!

37 years ago, actress #charladoherty passed away at the age of 41. #villageofthegiants

Did you know that a long time ago, we started making a fanpage for the film Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold? However, we soon grew bored and stopped working on it, but the bones of the page are still up. www.angelfire.com/weird2/villa...

Today marks 45 years since #villageofthegiants ‘ art director Franz Bachelin passed away at the age of 84.

It’s very rare to see some people do #villageofthegiants fanart, but we were surprised when Nightcore100 did this piece combining Merrie from VOTG, and an #MST3K segment featuring Glen Manning. www.deviantart.com/nightcore100...

Today marks 60 years since #villageofthegiants had its final filming day on Friday May 21st, 1965. The sixteenth day of filming took place on the Special Effects Stage, where footage of giant-sized animals and insects was filmed.

May 20th, 1965 continued #villageofthegiants ‘ filming on the Special Effects stage with the giant teenagers. This day’s shots were based around the giants arriving and dancing at the evening picnic, and a second night of dancing that was not in the final cut of the film.

With three days of filming left for #VillageoftheGiants, filming shifted to the special effects stage (note: we do not know where this was located). For May 19th, 1965, the giant teenagers would be the main filming focus, Process and projected footage would show them towering over the town.

Tuesday May 18, 1965, could probably be considered the start of the effects filming for #villageofthegiants . Filming took place on #ParamountPictures’ stage 7 on a miniature recreation of the theater stage, along with some of the scenes where the delinquent teenagers grow into giants.

On May 14, 1965, the cast and crew of #villageofthegiants spent their second day in a row working around soundstage 7 on the #paramountpictures backlot. The main focus was the basement set and Genius’ laboratory, but the filming did go outside the soundstage for an exterior shot too.

May 13th, 1965, saw the cast and crew of #villageofthegiants return to the theater interior setup on Stage 7 of the#paramountpictures backlot. All of the filming by the human-sized actors would take place on this day, along with process photography plates for upcoming effects shots.

#villageofthegiants ’ ninth filming day on May 12th, 1965, kept the production on the #paramountpictures backlot, but moved production to soundstage #5. Scenes such as the interior of the Barry house and the rear exterior where #tommykirk feeds goo to some ducks was filmed on the stage.

For #villageofthegiants ’ eighth day of filming on May 11th, 1965, the production returned to #paramountpictures ’ soundstage 7 to film in the basement set of Genius and Nancy’s house. #ronhoward as Genius would film a number of scenes, along with scenes of #timrooney stealing the goo.

After another weekend off, the cast and crew of #villageoftheGiants returned to the #ColumbiaRanch exterior sets on Monday, May 10th, 1965. Filmed scenes included the hot rods attempting to take down Fred ( #beaubridges ), the delinquents breaking into Nancy’s house, and some deleted scenes too.

Friday May 7th, 1965, found the cast and crew of #villageofthegiants filming on the #columbiaranch in Burbank, California. Filming for the day would be done on the ranch’s expansive park area, with scenes featuring a giant duck roast and the arrival of the giant teenagers being the main focus.

May 6th, 1965, marked the fifth day of filming for Village of the Giants. The production took place inside stage 7 on the Paramount Pictures lot, where our delinquent teens were filmed getting ready to go to the local Hainesville go-go club, and also daring each other to take the stolen goo.

It should be noted that out of every script and production material piece we could find on #villageofthegiants , none of them include any information on the ending in the film. We assume #bertigordon wrote the ending on his own as production began, and filmed it the same day he filmed the opening.

On May 5th, 1965, the production of #villageofthegiants relocated to the southwest area of #griffithpark in #losangeles for filming. A key scene that was shot on this day was the opening, showing the delinquent teenager’s car crashed into a landslide, leading to them dancing wildly in the rain.

Today would have been the 110th birthday of #villageofthegiants editor, John Bushelman. He did editorial work over four decades, with #villageofthegiants being one of four films he did editorial work on for #bertigordon .

After beginning filming on April 30th on the #UniversalStudios backlot, the cast and crew of #VillageoftheGiants next moved to the #WhiskyAGoGo on May 3rd and 4th. #thebeaubrummels would appear in these scenes, along with some large dancing ducks among #tommykirk and #beaubridges teenage groups.

Happy 85th Birthday to our favorite big blonde from #villageofthegiants : #joyharmon !

Today is a red-letter day for the #bertigordon film, #villageofthegiants ! It was on this day 60 years ago, that film production officially began (according to the shooting schedule)! The first day of filming took place on the #universalstudios Backlot, in the Courthouse Square area.

Happy Birthday to the late #johnnycrawford, who would have been 79 years old today. Special thanks to Johnny Crawford Legacy for providing us with this behind-the-scenes pic from #villageofthegiants, of Big Johnny spending time with Little Johnny before Little Johnny’s big dance scene.

Happy Birthday to musician Jack Nitzsche, who would have been 88 years old today. Jack’s tones from Village of the Giants have never left our heads, notably the heavy and sensual bass sounds of the film’s main theme, which is named “The Last Race.”

This casting sheet for #villageofthegiants is a bit different from the others on our site, in that it takes place in the afternoon, and is made up of younger actors. By the looks of it. This was moreso a session looking to test for the role of Genius.

Today is a very important day in the history of Village of the Giants’ production. It was on this day 60 years ago, that the final draft of the script was finished. Thanks to @taedis , you can read it in our Production Materials section on our website.

Happy Birthday to Robert R Benton, the set decorator for #villageofthegiants. He would have been 101 years old this day.

Another piece of behind-the-scenes material from Marvin Paige’s estate. Casting meeting information from 60 years ago. Bear in mind at this point, the final draft of the script has not happened yet, and the start of filming is just a few weeks away.

Happy Birthday to the late #declanmulligan of #thebeaubrummels . Today would have been his 87th birthday. Mr Mulligan was seen at the #whiskyagogo in the #bertigordon film #villageofthegiants . He also sings lead vocals on their song #woman , heard twice in the film.

21 yeas ago, sound recordist #charlesgrenzbach passed away at the age of 80. Along with doing sound work on #villageofthegiants. Charles did sound work on over 150 productions. He won an Oacar for his work on #platoon, which you can see him holding second from the right in the picture below.

Just like in December, we have two other #villageofthegiants cast members who share a Birthday today! #kevinoneal (who played Harry) would have turned 80 this year. #johnnycrawford (who played Horsey) would have turned 79.

A little #villageofthegiants history from our archives. 60 years ago today, talent coordinator Marvin Paige held one of several casting sessions for the film. First on his list? Ms #tishasterling.

Look what popped up on eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/30618791...

Two years ago, #villageofthegiants director #bertigordon passed at the age of 100.

Today marks a milestone for two of #villageofthegiants cast. It was on this day in 1938 that actor #jimbegg (aka Fatso in the film) was born. 11 years ago, #gailgerber (who played the character Elsa) passed away at the age of 76.

Happy Birthday to @therealronhoward.bsky.social ! From all of us fans of #villageofthegiants, we hope you have a great day!

Happy 82nd Birthday to a big man, Mr #robertrandom . We hope he is well and having a nice day. #villageofthegiants

A little late, but we wanted to call out the 31st anniversary of #villageofthegiants appearing on #mst3k on January 22, 1994.

Today marks the 78th anniversary of the birth of #timrooney on January 4th, 1947. Son of famed actor #mickeyrooney , Tim’s career would span 25 credits in television and film, including playing Pete in #bertigordon ‘s #villageofthegiants . Tim died on September 23rd, 2006 at the age of 59.

Was checking up on our photo album on Angelfire, only to find that all the still images are no longer displaying. Over the last few days, we created a new page to display the images. You can click into them to see a larger image on a new web browser. www.angelfire.com/weird2/villa...

Today marks 48 years since makeup and hair stylist #nelliemanley passed at the age of 82. Credited on over 173 productions, Nellie would work on two #bertigordon productions as hairstyle supervisor: #villageofthegiants (1965), and #picturemommydead (1966).

So, the rainstorm that caused the landslide at the beginning of the film #villageofthegiants? It was all just a guy with a big hose. When I made my way around where the landslide was in February 2020, I noticed a #firehydrant in the ground. I’m pretty sure the hose in that picture is attached to it.

“Oh, don’t make book on it!” For films from the past, there can be some sayings that don’t seem to make sense. The line said by Merrie ( #joyharmon ) and Fred ( #beaubridges ) in #villageofthegiants is one such saying. It is basically another way of saying, “don’t bet on it.”

Just saw a preview for a documentary on #caroldoda , and a familiar swinging tune filled our ears!

A rare #villageofthegiants record that would play in theater lobbies has found its way onto #ebay ! We heard one of these some time ago, and we hope some lucky fan is able to snap this up (if you can record the audio off it and pass it along to us, please do!). www.ebay.com/itm/28621829...

Today marks 13 years since the passing of #susangordon at age 62. The daughter of #bertigordon and #floramgordon , Susan had an uncredited role behind-the-scenes on #villageofthegiants . She was the one who made the edible goo that is consumed, out of #angelfoodcake and red food dye.

Two #villageofthegiants actors have birthdays today. #tishasterling turns 80, and the late #tommykirk would have turned 83.