The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope

History

The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope started as a newsletter in 1993, and after 14 issues became a glossy-cover magazine. The publication was founded and is edited by Joe Kane (not the author and National Geographic journalist Joe Kane). It has spawned a reference book entitled The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope: The Ultimate Guide to the Latest, Greatest, and Weirdest Genre Videos.

As the librarian service magazine Library Tech Files described the magazine:

Issues have included interviews with such genre and exploitation-film directors as John Waters, James Gunn, Roger Corman, George A. Romero, Walter Hill and Brian Yuzna and such cult actors as Crispin Glover, Adrienne Barbeau, L. Q. Jones, Tobin Bell, and Clint Howard. In addition to Kane, the magazine's writers included Max Allan Collins, Dan Cziraky, Terry and Tiffany DuFoe, Robert Freese, Tim Ferrante, Don Kaye, Dwight Kemper, Nancy Naglin, Debbie Rochon, Kevin G. Shinnick, Calum Waddell, and Tom Weaver.

The magazine was based in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The website remains active as of November 2021.

Legacy

Joe Kane and The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope have been cited in books including Universal Terrors, 1951-1955, Horror Noir, Character Kings 2, and * Claws & Saucers: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film 1902-1982*.

Entertainment Weekly said the book The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope "aims to separate the wheat from the chaff. A noble endeavor, to be sure — after all, filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, and Ron Howard all got their start in this Hollywood basement — but Kane's wildly inconsistent critical eye (both Schwarzenegger's The Running Man and the out-of-place Apocalypse Now get 3 1/2 stars) makes the book more entertaining than useful."

Kane appears in the 2015 Moe Howard documentary Hey Moe! Hey Dad!. As an exploitation-film authority, he has been quotes in The New York Times. In 2021, Kane was inducted posthumously into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope Collection within the University of Pittsburgh Horror Studies Collection comprises the complete run of the magazine that has been digitized and made available online.

Joe Kane

Joe Kane started writing professionally while attending Queens College in New York City:

After college, living in New York City's East Village, he wrote humorous pornographic stories for the periodicals Luv and Bang, and worked for three months as a file clerk at an insurance company. He began doing work for Screw X, a spin-off of Screw. The art directors, Larry Brill and Les Waldstein, left to found The Monster Times, which Kane called "sort of a Famous Monsters of Filmland filtered through an NYC underground attitude in an East Village Other vein."

Kane joined the original editorial staff in 1972, and later than year became its editor in chief through its cancelation in 1976. He then became an editor at Screw. In 1984, at the suggestion of a New York Daily News editor, Susan Toepfer, Kane began reviewing genre movies for that newspaper, using the pen name, later his registered trademark, The Phantom of the Movies, with many reviews followed with a memorably laughable movie quote, under the subhead "Wish I'd Said That." He also wrote a companion column reviewing home video, "Mondo Video." In 1993, he began publishing the genre-film magazine The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope. During a time of uncertainty over the future of the Daily News, Kane launched a spin-off newsletter. A mention of it in his column brought in some subscribers and "seed money to launch the newsletter, with the invaluable assistance of my wife (writer Nancy Naglin) and my writer friend Tim Ferrante, in early 1993. After 14 issues, we expanded to a magazine format."

His work also appeared in magazines and newspapers including The National Lampoon, Maxim, The Washington Times, The Village Voice, and High Times, which serialized his series "Dope in the Cinema."Kane, Joe. "Dope in the Cinema" in High Times

• "Part I," March 1, 1977
• "Part II," April 1, 1977
• "Part III," June 1, 1977
• "Part IV," January 1978
• "Dope In the Cinema, '78," April 1, 1979 Kane also published a satiric science-fiction short story called “Death After Death” in Penthouse.

Kane died November 1, 2020. He was survived by wife Naglin and his sister, Joan Nichols. In 2021, he was posthumously inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

Works

Books

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References

References

1. (5 February 2007). "Phantom of the Movies' VideoScope Magazine enters 15th Year". Cinema Treasures.
2. Ward, Steven. (14 July 2009). "The Phantom Speaks! An Interview with Cult Movie Critic Joe Kane". Pop Matters.
3. Johnson, James. (November 30, 2020). "At the Circulation Desk: Reader's Advisory: serious about serials, a periodical in peril".
4. [[Max Allan Collins. (February 16, 2021). "In This Exciting Issue!". Max Allan Collins official site.
5. The address appears on the bottom of each page of the ''Videoscope'' website.
6. (2017). "Universal Terrors, 1951-1955: Eight Classic Horror and Science Fiction Films". [[McFarland & Company]].
7. Meehan, Paul. (2011). "Horror Noir: Where Cinema's Dark Sisters Meet". McFarland.
8. Voisin, Scott. (2014). "Character Kings 2: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting". BearManor Media.
9. Goldweber, David Elroy. (2015). "Claws & Saucers: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film 1902-1982: A Complete Guide". Lulu.com.
10. Bernardin, Marc. (March 17, 2020). "Book Review: 'The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope'".
11. "''Hey Moe! Hey Dad!''".
12. Nichols, Peter M.. (August 24, 2001). "Making Room for DVD and VHS". [[The New York Times]].
13. (March 7, 2021). "Rondo 19 Results Are Here". [[Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards]].
14. "VIDEOSCOPE Magazine".
15. Kane, Joe. (February 26, 2012). "I Got My Gig Through the East Village". The Local East Village.
16. Groves, Adam. "Joe Kane: 1947-2020". On & Off Productions.
17. "About Us". The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope.
18. Millican, Josh. (November 1, 2020). "RIP Joe Kane AKA 'The Phantom of the Movies': Editor/Publisher of 'Videoscope' Magazine Has Passed Away". [[Dread Central]].
19. (November 8, 2020). "Joe Kane [Paid Death Notice]". [[The New York Times]].
20. Colton, David. (March 7, 2021). "Rondo 19 Results Are Here".