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March 21: #countdown to #NationalCountdownDay

Peace, little girl [Daisy aka Daisy Girl] (Sidney Myers, 1964)

One… two… three… four… five… seven… six… six… eight… nine… nine…

It was the #PoliticalAd campaign to end all political ad campaigns. Peace, little girl opens innocently enough with a little blonde girl, picking the petals of an ox-eye #daisy while counting. When the final petal's gone, the tone changes completely.

This deceptively simple propaganda film was made in support of Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign by ad agency #DBB and media consultant Tony Schwartz. It was so effective and bleak in is insinuations that the Johnson campaign was forced to pull it after only one screening.

What fascinates me is the similarity with one particular scene from James Whale's #Frankenstein (1931). The Monster (#Karloff) meets a little girl who sits on the shore of a lake, picking daisies. He approaches her, and the girl, knowing the creature is a good man at heart, invites him to play a game with her involving them tossing the daisies into the lake.

The Monster (Boris Karloff) and little Maria (Marilyn Harris) playing with daisies on a beautiful day at the lake. DPs: Arthur Edeson & Paul Ivano.

Spoiler warning

When they run out of daisies, the Monster picks up the girl who to him is as pretty and innocent as a flower, and tosses her into the water.

This scene was cut and considered lost until the 1980s. Could Tony Schwartz have been aware of that scene? He was at the right age to have seen the pre-code, pre-cut version.

#Bales2023FilmChallenge #SidneyMyers #LyndonBJohnson #ChrisSchenkel #MoniqueCorzilius #MoniqueCozy #RobertDryden #DrummondDrury #ShortFilm #war #peace #scaresploitation #flowers #propaganda #ColdWar #election #politics #USA #1960s ★★★★☆

#todo