While much could be learned about Hollywood in the 1940's from biographies of Rufus Farnsworth III and Stan "Scraps" Barkonowitz, sadly, neither of their lives will ever be set to paper. Using different aliases on every project they created, their body of work varied on whom was asking. A producer from a major distributor may hear of the hundreds of movies they wrote, directed, and starred in, while a reporter from Variety may be told that they "have the wrong man."

One fact cannot be disputed, however. In 1968, after spending nearly 30 years making films, Rufus and Scraps vanished from the industry. Once in a while, an avid viewer may recognize a subtle use of light, or a strange combination of music and sound effects that seems oddly familiar, but nothing concrete.

Some say that they, and their entire cast and crew, perished while filming an underwater musical. Others believe that they went underground, reviewing the work of others, distanced from the pats on the back and the stabs in the back of Hollywood.

One night, in September 2004, a small Catholic high school alumni website transformed into an ecletic mix of reviews and interviews from the entertainment industry. Oddly, the logo of the site featured some disturbingly familiar icons...two aged and disheveled characters that were very similar to police mockups of what Rufus and Scraps would look like today.

The creators of the website said very little of the origins of the images and the reviews that started appearing under the names Rufus and Scraps. The IRS, very interested in locating Rufus and Scraps for their own reasons, even had the two followed, in hopes of revealing the whereabouts of the missing movie moguls, but being very sedimentary creatures, the often didn't move for days, infuriating all involved in the stakeouts.

Is BumsCorner.com secretly run by Rufus and Scraps? Is it all an elaborate hoax? Did Rufus and Scraps actually ever exist? As the site matures, these questions may be answered, but for now, is it really that hard to imagine two shifty-eyed homeless men slowly and deliberately leaving their mark on the face of entertainment?

Is it?

Easy enough! We accept reviews from "guest Bums"! On the left side of the page is a link to "Add a Review". Give it a click, fill in the boxes, submit, and BAMMO!

Reviews are normally added to the site within 24 hours. Your name will appear with "guest Bum" in front of it, but will be viewable by all.

If you're consistently providing good, quality reviews we may ask you to join the ranks of the official Review Bums.

If you've written a few good reviews, or you're recruited off the street, or you ask nicely, you can join the ranks of the Review Bums.

Review Bums are people just like you an me, (somewhat) honest citizens who love entertainment. There are a couple of perks to becoming an official reviewer:

-Your reviews won't be posted as "guest Bum" anymore
-We'll create your personalized yourname@bumscorner.com email address (ooh, won't your friends be jealous!) if you want one
-As the volume of screeners/demos/free passes increases and Rufus and Scraps can't keep up, we'll send you free media to review
-Access to additional Forums for Review Bums only
-A custom Bum avatar for the Forums designed by Rufus (who does all the artwork for the site)

Okay, maybe a few.

First off, a question for you though. Are you Prince? If you answered no to this question, there are a few guidelines that must be followed in the body of your review. The word "You" is spelled "You" and not "U". There are several versions of "your", and "ur" is not one of them. If you want to write txt, stick to AOL.

As we begin to send out media to review, we ask that you post hardware that you have access to in the Review Bums Forums. This way, if we get in a PAL DVD or Gamecube game, we'll know who to send it to.

Any media we send you MUST be reviewed within a reasonable amount of time. If you say yes when we ask if you want it, make sure you will be able to review it. Don't post in every thread asking for freebies if either you're not going to do anything with it, or you're leaving for a month in the Bahamas.

Different vendors have different rules for promotional copies of their work. If they request it be returned once the evaluation is complete, that's your responsibility. I'll post any rules mandated by the provider in the forums. This is a one strike rule. Screw it up, no more swag for you!

Promotional copies are provided for review purposes only. DO NOT COPY, SELL OR DISTRIBUTE THEM! Don't take a stack of screeners to Blockbuster to trade in! At times, BumsCorner.com may duplicate media in an attempt to garner several opinions of the work...but the copy sent to you is for reviewing only.

This is solely a voluntary website. We're not making any dough off of it, therefore we cannot pay anyone to provide content. We try and throw the Review Bums a bone once in a while, but please don't expect this to turn into a 9-5 job any time soon. Maybe someday, but don't hold your breath.

Can you post reviews that you wrote elsewhere? You bet! They're your property. All that we ask is that you reference the site somewhere (like 'originally posted on BumsCorner.com 4/22/05' or something).

Darned good question!

For the answer, I had to contact one of the two original Bums, Tom Arnholt. The real Bums Corner is an actual place located in Columbus, Ohio founded about 20 years ago. I used to hang out there, and thought it was a cool name for the site (since it was located behind and old movie theater, and sort of a place to hang out and talk about anything on your mind).

Here's Tom's version of how it came to be:


The origin of Bums Corner...hmmmm...
If I recall correctly, I think it was the Spring of 1986 and since we were only Sophomores, not allowed to park in the Student lot at Watterson, Banks and I would park behind the school next to the old movie theater (what was it before it turned into Drexel North?) Well, one day while waiting for rehearsal (spring musical...Annie Get Your Gun, I think) to start we just sat down on concrete stoop in the back of one of the shops and were just
chillin out, shootin' the breeze and smoking. As we sat a few friends wandered over and we all just kinda hung out for a while. As time progressed it just evolved into the group's usual meeting spot before and after school. People began drawing and writing poems/thoughts on the wall. It just kinda became 'our' little piece of the world where there were no judges and everyone was your friend. Even people that wouldn't normally
hang out during the school day would sit together, talk and smoke, and just BE. It was a communial meeting point for after-hours activities and more often than not, you could always find a friend at Bums- anytime of the day or night.

Just send me an email (esh@bumscorner.com) with some details, and we'll work something out. Currently the only entertainment we don't cover is adult oriented stuff, other than that, anything goes!

Oh, and that 'adult oriented' stipulation is more of a guideline, and not a steadfast rule. You can still email me if you want! :)

Shoot me an email HERE about what you'd like us to review. I'll reply with information on how to get it to us. We currently accept DVD or Blu-Ray media.

Please understand, while some of you are friends of the site, and we love you all like a close neighbor or drinking buddy, we do have some (not much, but some) integrity. The reviews will be as un-biased as possible. If there's a conflict of interest, I'll send it to a Review Bum. Just please don't expect that because we're pals that if you send me a dog I'll call it a lion.