Blast from the Past -- Photos of Ron Pellar as Dr. Dante

Just stumbled across the Hal Morris Museum at http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/frontcover.html

Their description:

They've got quite a collection of photos and clippings for Dr. Ronald Dante, a.k.a. Ronald Pellar:

http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/where.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_1.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_2.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_2a.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_3.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_4.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_6.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_7.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_8.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_9.html
http://www.sharpeworld.com/hal_morris_museum/pages/dante_10.html

These all have a link to read a companion article -- but that article is apparently not yet online.

 

At least Dr. Dante used to work for a living until he found out how lucrative faux-education was.

John

 

Thanks for posting that, Kristin. It really is a blast from the past.

I had never heard of 'Dr. Dante' until I started reading John Bear's posts on AED. But from the looks of this stuff, he was a pretty big deal at one time.

It really goes to show how much entertainment has changed. Things change so slowly and gradually that we aren't really aware of it until we compare the present with how things were a few decades ago. Then the sudden dissonance is kind of a shock.

Now things like stage hypnotists seem faintly 19th century. Ventriloquists? Do they even exist any longer? There used to be variety shows on TV where those kind of acts would perform. Today a few block-buster magic acts play places like Vegas, but where do the rest of them find gigs? It's like the tail end of vaudville.

 

Of course, Ron Pellar/Dr. Dante was once married to Lana Turner. Considering what happened to another of Ms. Turner's squeezes (Johnny Stompanato), Federal prison might not look all that bad.


Bruce

 

I wonder if Bill gained his remarkable intellect by studying in school like a regular person, instead of reading tons of comic books like I did.

Dr. Dante was frequently seen advertising in the comics during the 1970's, hawking his hypnotism course right along side the ads for exploding gum and x-ray glasses.