User talk:The H-Man

The H-Man

Previous discussion was archived at User talk:The H-Man/Archive 1 on 2019-04-29.

I was just wondering if you had any information on what “Downtown Distribution Company, Inc.” was. I’ve noticed its name used on the Cinema Shares releases for Godzilla on Monster Island and Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster, though not Godzilla vs. Megalon. Was Downtown a subsidiary of Cinema Shares or just a separate company that provided distribution?

To add to this, someone uploaded the opening of Cosmic Monster onto YouTube where it featured Downtown Distribution with its own fanfare; the music gets muffled by some attendees. A bit jarring after familiarising this version of Mechagodzilla with the Cinema Shares logo.

I've never found much information about Downtown Distribution, except that it was HQ'd in New York: https://i.postimg.cc/cL7xCpff/Boxoffice-August-30-1976-p-13.png

I'd guess it was probably an unrelated (or largely so) company, but that's just a guess.

Fascinating.

Hi H-Man,

I need your assistance with information for few things on this site that are Godzilla related. I hope you can help me out.

1.     Over a year ago I added a video from Space Hunter M’s, YouTube channel on the Cinema Shares Godzilla triple bill. I cited in the article to the three films that they were shown together in theaters in 1978. Astounding had come in and added a concern that I didn’t have a source for the year so I did some looking online and found other sites where fans were stating they saw the three films together in theatres either in ’77 or 78. Is there a way you could help me find a source? I don’t think I found anything when I looked on Newspapers.org.

2.     Over a decade ago I recalled seeing online a lobby card that advertised something like “Come see Godzilla Triple Feature at your local drive in

Godzilla on Monster Island

And

Godzilla vs. Megalon

also

Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster"

The lobby card might have mentioned Toho and Cinema Shares on it. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it online. Do you by chance have access to this lobby card or could you help me locate it?

3.     I need reference material for my sandbox for when the four Alan Enterprise Godzilla films were shown on the Movie Channel in 1980 and for the Godzilla Marathon in San Fransico in 1987 on their local station KTSF26 that broadcasted three of those same films which were formerly distributed by Walter Reade and the three Cinema Shares releases. Do you have this information or can you guide me to sites that reference the two channels’ showings in further detail?  

4.     For educational purposes I am considering a YouTube account to make comparison videos of censored and unedited versions of dubbed Godzilla films. Do you think it would be more appropriate to use the Sci-Fi Channel airings as a source for comparison from the stand point that they both use the NTSC format or the UK PAL VHS tapes from the stand point that for the most part both are from VHS sources?

5.     And finally, I appreciate that you have helped me out a lot on this site. Is there something I could help you out with on here or in any research you might be doing on a Godzilla topic?

Thanks again and take care.

1 & 2) Sorry, I can't help you with these. I don't think I've seen any acceptable text source corroborating a 1978 (or any) date for the triple feature package. In fact, the TV spot is the only concrete evidence I can recall seeing for such a package. A newspaper search will give you a lot of dates those three films played on the same bill, although not necessarily as a program issued by Cinema Shares/Downtown Distribution. As for your second question, I've never seen any lobby card or poster combining any of the Cinema Shares Godzillas; are you sure that wasn't a clipping from a newspaper?

3) Your best bet is to collate results from Newspapers.com. The Movie Channel, August 25, 1984: Ghidrah (6:30 am & 5:30 pm), Godzilla v. Sea Monster (8 am / 10:15 pm / 4:15 am), King Kong '76 (9:30 am & 8 pm), Coming Soon! (12 noon), Gigantis (1 pm & 2:45 am), It Came from Hollywood (2:30 pm & 1:15 am) and Son of Godzilla (4 pm & 11:45 pm) on August 25, 1984. I have the schedule for the KTSF Godzilla Week 1987 on my YouTube video. Although please note that in both cases I'm only drawing information from my personal files; my subscription to Newspapers.com is presently inactive, so I can't verify my notes against the original newspaper sources. I'd recommend you put some money towards a subscription and research what you'd like for your projects on and off Wikizilla.

4) I guess that's ultimately your preference, but if you're going to be comparing content then I think you should keep all video at film speed (24 fps, or 23.98 if you have to deinterlace analog video sources). Personally I think the contrast between PAL & NTSC material would be more jarring than comparing VHS-resolution video and higher-res material, especially if your goal is to compare the audio-visual content of the same scene across different versions of a film.

The Cinema Shares Triple Bill thing I saw from back then might have been a newspaper clipping, I just kind of assumed it was a lobby card due to it's size and shape I'll be rechecking this. I'm using newspapers.com and it's a great help. Thanks for your suggestions in the film comparisons. Thanks for replying.

Hi H-Man,

I was thinking that maybe I should use the Power Multimedia DVDs for comparisons since they appear to be in the same aspect ratio as the edited versions. Do you by chance know the easiest place to get all five of those 70’s ones? I found all of them but Gigan on internet archive and I didn’t know if you by chance knew where a place to get them all at once would be at or not.

Thanks again.

I'm sorry, I don't. If you can't get the Power Multimedia Gigan then the New World/Anchor Bay master may be an alternative that's easier to obtain. Sorry.

Hey there, H-Man. I’ve recently made a sandbox for Frontier Enterprises, it’s still a work in progress, I just need some help finding some good citations for the page, so if you have any I’d be most grateful.

There’s also two questions I have about the company:

1. Frontier is stated to have been founded in 1964 on both the Wikipedia page for it and Wikizilla’s own page on William Ross, however their dub for The Last War is said to have been shown in cinemas around 1962. So how exactly can a company dub a film 2 years before it’s even been founded?

2. Wikipedia states that Frontier went defunct in 2000, though with no citation, can I find anything to prove this information?

By the way, here’s the link to the sandbox if you’re interested.

The Last War probably wasn’t dubbed by Frontier Enterprises but rather by another Tokyo company employing Ross or possibly an earlier iteration of what soon became Frontier. So yes, if we trust the founding date as sometime in 1964 (and I don’t see why we shouldn’t), then “Frontier” should be avoided when discussing the dubbed version of The Last War. That attribution just seems to be repeated out of convention.

I don’t know anything about the last years of Frontier, sorry.

That’s alright, pal. You’ve helped me enough just with your info on The Last War dub. I’ll just leave the 2000 date out of the page until I can find something to back it up with.

Hi H-Man,

I am working on a sandbox for TV listings regarding Godzilla and other Toho properties. Would you be able to assist with any sourcing for adding any TV channels not yet represented as well as links to any site sources?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

Hi H-Man,

I was wondering if you would check out my sandbox User:Gojo2022/sandbox/Television Stations that formerly aired Toho Films. I would appreciate any info you might be able to contribute.

Thanks

I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm and I sincerely hope I don’t, but in my opinion, I think such a page is too large and possibly even outside the scope of Wikizilla.

That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s not worth cataloging. Because I certainly think it is. I’ve been using Newspapers.com and other archival sources for several years now to record broadcast information for most tokusatsu movies scheduled on US basic cable stations through 2010 (just an arbitrary cutoff date), all for my own use. I can’t be certain that these are ALL the times these films were broadcast or even if the films as scheduled were broadcast — both of these of course are further difficulties in logging this information.

All that said, I’m not on the staff, so consider my opinion a suggestion at best. If it’s something you’re passionate about then I hope you’ll continue to dig into it. I just think it might be better suited for a personal website or blog.

Hi H-Man,

Thanks for your reply, it was very helpful. I have been looking at newspapers.com

Would you mind sharing any other online archival sources you use?

Thanks again.

Archive.org is another good resource.

Hi, H-Man

It's me again sorry to trouble you, but I need to ask you two questions real quick and I'm only asking because I think you might be the only one on here that knows the answers to these questions. So when you come back could you please help? Thanks again.

1. Does the original television version to Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster open with it's Toho logo music when the Walter Reade logo is there like with their release of Ghidrah or does it play it's own music like at the end of their release like it did for Son of Godzilla?
2. Do you know what home video release of Cosmic Monster has the Cinema Shares logo? I already know the answer to their releases of On Monster Island and Megalon but any idea on Cosmic?

1. I’ve never seen a version of Godzilla versus the Sea Monster with a Walter Reade logo so I couldn’t tell you. I think some prints may have opened or closed with a Sterling Educational Films logo.
2. The only one I’m aware of is “Godzilla Volume 3,” a DVD from Siren Visual. Hokushin’s UK (pre-cert) tape carries the Brit distributor’s logo but still retains the Downtown Distribution fanfare.

I'd like to know as it my favorite movie

I know someone who has a copy of the tape, maybe the only extant copy.

If possible could you please have them provide a photo of the title card & the VHS cover art? I ask this question as I'm a university student required to make a power point with pictures about our favorite novelist's works with us being required compare & contrast them to their movie versions. Personally I chose Sakyo Komatsu due to my massive interest in futurology.

The title card is in the gallery on the site. @Kodaigon72 might be able to hook you up with the video art.

Hello Mr. H-Man I found some new info for you to your list of known Toho Export Dubs.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/LgR5W0B

^The link up above includes 3 English & Chinese posters from Singapore but they are sadly watermarked making it hard to make out the English text.

P.S. If any are too hard to read you might be able to receive unwatermarked copies by using these links:https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/posters/record-details/31334ccd-115c-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/posters/record-details/3197919d-115c-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/posters/record-details/327a45a1-115c-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad

Please note the edit was made to fix up the grammar as I'm not a native English speaker

Thank you!

what change(s) did you make on the List Of Toho Export Dubs on January 29th 2024? I've read it over several times & can't find any changes other than the date.

I added video distributor info for Espy.

Hi H-Man,

I am currently working on a project which requires copies of the Sci-Fi Channel airings of the Godzilla films from 2002-2006. I have been able to acquire all of the films with the exception of Godzilla vs. Gigan.  Would you by chance have an idea of where I could go to locate a copy of this? In which I’d be willing to make a trade or negotiate to acquire this film. Thanks for letting me know if you have any ideas?

I have copies of all of those but no way at present of duplicating or sharing them. I'm sorry, I'll let you know if anything changes.

I have a copy that I can share. I am interested in exchanging materials if yours are of sufficient technical quality.

That's great! What format would you like to use to share and is there a specific film (s) you are looking for?

What are your source formats for the other Sci-Fi channel airings?

I've got DAM on a USB jump drive in a M4V file and I've got Hedorah, Megalon and Mechaogdzilla on DVD-R disc. My copy of Godzilla vs. Megalon has no commercials, but the other three do.

Do you know what the original sources for the three '70s films were? I would like to see screenshots. I have Gigan without commercials, DVD-R VIDEO_TS.

All three of mine are on Video_TS as well. I don't have screenshots. Is there one you would like screenshots over the others and I will get them?

I would like to see at least one screenshot from all three

Did the screenshots I provided work, or do you need more? Can you provide me a screenshot from Godzilla vs. Gigan?

Hi Space Hunter M,

I am needing a reply as to if you are willing or not to go forward with a trade. I am needing to move forward quickly on my project so could you please let me know if you are willing to trade or not? Thanks!

I want 1:1 VIDEO_TS folders of the DVDs. Screenshots: https://postimg.cc/gallery/fDGb6HM/b6bb8eb3

My upload is ready and waiting.

Hi, Space Hunter M

Any thoughts on how you would like to move forward with the trade? I would like to go ahead and move forward before the end of the week..

My file upload is ready. I want uploaded copies for the three as well. Contact me on my Twitter to exchange links: https://twitter.com/SpaceHunter_M

I'm a little new to Twitter. When I go to message you it won't allow it. My Twitter account is https://twitter.com/WXYZGojo2022 Can you tell me what I need to do next?

Check your DMs.

Did you want hard copies or upload them to you? If it's the latter, where should I send them to you from? Likewise, did you want to send me a hard copy of Gigan or upload it?

Hey thanks for waiting, all three are up in my uploads. Special:ListFiles/Gojo2022

Hi, I’m a new member of Wikizilla, I’ve been a longtime Godzilla fan and I also like to study the English dubs to each Godzilla film (that mainly concern having international\export dubbed versions). It appears that you probably know quite a bit about this subject matter, so I wanted to ask you a question concerning the original Ghidorah 1964 film. I’ve been looking for an uncut English dubbed version, were the origin of the story remains on Venus where Princess Salno came from, her name unchanged, no re-arranged scenes and the music score being retained. I believe a few years ago a couple of guys found some Turkish advertising material containing this information, as well as using possibly a different title card name Monster of Monsters: Ghidorah. They made it sound like it was a possibility and they said it wasn’t known if it existed, but found these advertising materials that state it does.

I have never heard of nor found myself any of the Turkish advertising materials you describe. The film was released in Turkey--possibly the only European release of the film before the home video era--but as far as I know, nothing has ever surfaced to indicate that that release was of a different and undocumented English dubbed version (i.e. different than the American version).

English-language print materials from Toho International do exist, including posters under the titles "Monster of Monsters Ghidorah" and "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster." But the existence of print materials alone is neither evidence nor proof of another English version of the film.

It's possible, however, that Toho commissioned its own English-dubbed version of the film, but to my knowledge there's no real evidence for such a version.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me on this. I appreciate it.

I’m a little late to this thread but Toho are releasing an “overseas trailer” for Ghidorah on the upcoming 4K UHD release of the film, I presume that this refers to an International/Export trailer. I must note however that just because an Export trailer for this film exists it doesn’t mean that a Toho commissioned dub was made, it is possible that the trailer could use Japanese audio accompanied by English subtitles (much like the Export trailer for Godzilla ‘54) or use the English audio from the US version of the film.

Though there is always a possibility for an unreleased International English dub for the film to exist. As stated by H-Man beforehand, Toho International does have print material for the film under either “Monster of Monsters, Ghidorah” or “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster” with an International poster with the latter title existing. If it does exist, I would be really interested with which dubbing company made it. Going by the International versions of Toho’s films at the time, the dub would most likely be produced by either Frontier Enterprises (Tokyo) or Atlas International (Hong Kong). Frontier (or at least it’s dubbers) presumably did dubbing for an unreleased International version of King Kong vs. Godzilla and also made the International dubs for Ebirah, Son and DAM as well as some other Toho films at the time. Atlas would mostly do other Toho movies but would eventually do the International English dubs for Hedorah, Gigan and Megalon. If I were to guess, Frontier would be the more likely dubbing company.

Thanks for sharing, I'd love to see if there really is an international\export dub to the film and if it surface. I figured Frontier would be the most likely of the two dubbing companies that would've produced it.

Ok, so it turns out that the Export trailer actually uses audio from the American English dub, it even uses the actual “Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster” title card, doesn’t seem like it’s a reconstruction. So Toho doesn’t seem to have made their own International version of the film, instead they would use the US cut for distribution, though for some reason they now don’t.

Hi, H-Man

I hope you're doing well, I haven't heard back from you in awhile so if you could when you return please answer the question I asked you about New World and Sony on what their stories for almost releasing the film and backing out of it were. I also had another question, there's this VHS I've been trying to identify for Megalon. If you don't find me asking do you know anything about the year, distributor and rather or not it's the uncut version? I've not ever heard anyone talk about it before.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285001804509?hash=item425b6e6add:g:p28AAOSwB51jSZ~F&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4ASQZfBBCIcr1hg%2BRQAxkb8%2Bvtqcwth7ohn7PtrO%2FwGqWX%2FrZqjMIL7tOTbuwHBqVbXaln7mZ0yND4WFIlLkXAenqQM4Sykwk1CtTpOcMgbPur2I4tnZCWaQUvzzXZpeJjCQzs%2BWlkzjidc5xrpmNHnpzp4z%2BFOQ9G9JSFHcC%2F%2BpbIPtw2qrqbFwSs6eNIv7Y0bvjWgDnyJ%2FdbKqRCB1fJKv9rvMskBYkle9p0MMJgriqVXx5Ueyu8J7skbeGwt1fuHWY0AxabhGWGWOPf%2BnSiMXzRw8M71Mbfj%2BdNuWyph3%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR97OmIrzYg

Thanks and take care!

I'm sorry to respond so late. I logged in a few times over the last couple of months to specifically edit a few pages, but to avoid potential Minus One spoilers, I haven't really looked at recent changes or read any my notifications.

1) I don't have any concrete information to help about New World or Sony at present; my recollection is that circa 2004 when Sony was acquiring Showa Godzilla movies for DVD, rights to Godzilla vs. Megalon were still held by GT Media/Gaia, Inc.. I seem to remember this coming up on the original Toho Kingdom or Monster Zero forums, revealed by Keith Aiken or another fan with legitimate knowledge along those lines. But that was 20 years ago and I can't offer evidence or a paper trail to back that up today; I'll keep an eye out for that though.

2) That's one of the 1998 UAV (United American Video) Entertainment releases. Without ever having watched that specific release, I can only guess that it's identical to the other UAV releases (most using the same catalog number, 4011). I have a copyright-1991 UAV tape which has the Cinema Shares logo, but otherwise it doesn't offer much more or less than other American tapes of that period. It's your standard 16mm telecine of the heavily-edited American version.

I know you asked in another thread but I'll answer here: Although I haven't watched anywhere near all of these tapes, I'm aware of some 40 unique U.S./Canadian VHS release of Megalon (and at least one on Betamax). As best I can tell, all of these offer only the ~78 minute version.

That's all very interesting and good to know, thanks for sharing that. Also I just wanted to ask.

Do you by chance have any other Godzilla related sites\forums you could be reached to ask Godzilla related questions? As I know you are not online here often. I am working on several personal projects and could sometimes use additional assistance with information. If not that is fine. Thanks!

Am I active on any other public forums? No, sorry.

Okay thanks, I appreciate it.

Hi, H-Man

I couldn't think of a better person to ask about this other than you, but as you know during the second season run of MST3K, Joel and his bot friends mocked the Cinema Shares edit of Godzilla vs. Megalon followed by Ebirah: Horror of the Deep's Titra dub entitled Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and those were the last two episodes of that season, but I know my mind's not lying to me when I've seen before on a couple of websites, a photo of the silhouettes of Joel and the Bots sitting down and on the screen was the Cinema Shares edit of Godzilla vs. Gigan which as you already know had it's title changed to Godzilla on Monster Island's title card appeared in front of them. The sites I remember seeing this on never confirmed if it was real or fake and I was I could show it to you, but unfortunately I can't find it anywhere on google and I've looked several times. I researched it online to try to see if an episode of them mocking it exists but can't find any info on it. So, is there a way you could confirm if this photo is a shot of some real long lost episode of the show or if someone just photoshopped it? I wouldn't be surprised either way since Megalon's the sequel to Gigan.

Thanks again.

No, there was definitely no such episode. Any purported screenshot of Godzilla on Monster Island with the MST3K Shadowrama is a fake. MST3K is a well-documented show (especially its cable run), so any comprehensive fan site (such as Tom's Temple of MST3K Stuff) would cover such a thing if it had ever existed.

However, during their years producing the show for cable, a Godzilla on Monster Island one-sheet hung in the writers' room (as seen during the "This is MST3K" special produced for Comedy Central).

Mike and the Bots (Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett) also poked fun at GoMI (and other Sci-Fi-licensed Godzilla movies) for a CBS News Saturday Morning segment on May 16, 1998.

While not officially affiliated with MST3K, GoMI was the featured "episode" of the MST3K Home Game on May 28, 1998. This was a fan effort that congregated in the Sci-Fi Channel chat rooms and text-riffed a movie they'd all agreed to tune into (not always broadcast by Sci-Fi). The riff transcripts were edited down and preserved on the Home Game page.

Thanks for clearing that up, while I never considered that film or the two they riffed to be bad films mind you, I admired their humor and think it's a shame that they didn't have an episode of them riffing it directly. I imagined it would've been hilarious if they had done it.