A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
The Kingsmen
The Kingsmen are a garage/frat rock group from Portland, Oregon. The band first got together in 1959. The original line-up was Jacky Ely (guitar/lead vocals), Lynn Easton (drums), Mike Mitchell (lead guitar), Bob Nordby (bass) and Don Galucci (piano). The Kingsmen started out by performing at high school parties, teen dances, supermarket openings and fashion shows. They soon became one of the most popular local bands in the Portland area. The Kingsmen recorded their debut single "Louie Louie" in 1963 for the paltry sum of only $36 at Portland's Northwest Recorders studio. The song went all the way to #2 on the Billboard pop charts in 1964. Because Ely's lead vocal was extremely muffled and the lyrics subsequently borderline incomprehensible, rumors began to circulate that said lyrics were obscene. This only added to the song's growing popularity and eventual legendary cult status. "Louie Louie" was not only banned by the governor of Indiana, but also investigated by the FCC and FBI to determine if it was indeed obscene. Alas, the monumental success of "Louie Louie" caused friction amongst the group. Ely and Easton formed two different versions of the band. Easton's group went on to record a steady string of follow-up hits that include covers of both "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Little Latin Lupe Lu," "The Jolly Green Giant" (this particular song was the band's second biggest smash; it reached #4 on the Billboard charts in 1965), "Death of An Angel," "The Climb," and "Annie Fanny." The Kingsmen appear as themselves and perform the tune "Give Her Lovin'" in the silly "Beach Party" romp How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). Moreover, the group made guest appearances on the TV shows American Bandstand (1952), Shindig! (1964), Hullabaloo (1965) and Where the Action Is (1965). A wonderfully raucous frat rock party classic, "Louie Louie" has graced the soundtracks to such movies as National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Quadrophenia (1979), Coupe de Ville (1990), Passed Away (1992), Jennifer 8 (1992), Man of the House (1995), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), _Say It Isn't So (1991)_ and _Guy X (1992)_. In addition, the band's definitive rendition of "Louie Louie" was cited by "Rolling Stone" magazine as both the fourth most influential recording of all time and one of the 50 most important rock recordings of the 20th century. The Kingsmen still continue to perform today, although only Mike Mitchell remains from the original line-up.
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.