Lana Turner (as ‘Samarra’) stands before a decidedly masculine rendition of the goddess Astarte in MGM’s opulent production of The Prodigal (1955).
Having changed hands several times over the decades, the dilapidated statue now resides in a neighborhood backyard in Lumberton, New Jersey.
14 comments:
Fascinating. I hope they have that missing snake head stored somewhere safe.
I believe that's actually supposed to Baal. He was pretty butch. =)
That's what I thought, Nebris, but, unless I'm mistaken, Lana refers to the statue as Astarte. Of course I could go back and check, which would be like revisiting an acid trip. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
During my whole childhood this statue was in the back of some kind of business (junk business? i remember they had old lawnmowers laying around) in Ogletown, DE. Then at some point it was sold to a travel agency near Dover, DE where it sat out front of the business along Route 13. Somehow it made its way to NJ I guess.
Also, it appears on the cover of Live Skull's "Snuffer" album. The pic was taken in front of the travel agency.
The guys on 'The Big Bang Theory' bought the time machine from the movie of the same title. I'm guessing they'd have bid some serious coinage on this baby.
Snuffer came out in 1988, so it's been missing the snake head (and the spiked club) for quite some time.
Here's the cover: http://www.musicobsession.com/Pictures/l/i/liveskull424969.jpg
I wonder how it got from Hollywood to Delaware...?
I wonder how it got from Hollywood to Delaware...?
Show business is an even crueler deity than Astarte or Baal. Once it realized its career was done (how much call is there for a ten foot tall squatting gargoyle?), the statue made its way as far from Tinseltown as possible.
Seemed like nobody cares to the statue now. Doesn't it items like this are put to museums? You can do a truckload shipment when it's heavy for transfer.
New Jersey, being near the drain of the universe, sees most flotsam at one time or another. In the end, most of us will pass through New Jersey.
Must be kind of intimidating for the neighbors
Not to mention their many, many children.
In case you were wondering what its back looked like:
http://rarepunk.blogspot.com/2008/05/live-skull-snuffer.html
Another Baal/Astarte sighting! This time in George Pal's impoverished Atlantis: The Lost Continent.
http://www.trailersfromhell.com/trailers/780
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