If Adventure Has A Phone Number It Must Be Indiana Jones!

It was pretty big news in my Family back in May of 1989 when thanks to Entertainment Tonight we learned that a new Indiana Jones film was about to debut. Especially since five years earlier the release of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had divided my families love of the franchise as cleanly as Indy cutting the rope bridge spanning that river of crocodiles. It actually took my Father and myself two attempts to watch the Temple of Doom as I became ill halfway through the film – although I want to point out it didn’t have anything to do with the dinner scene in the movie, which is exactly what my Grandmother blamed my illness on when we took her to see it the second time. But even though my Father and Grandmother didn’t care for the 1984 film – on Sunday May the 28th after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opened at the Razorback Theater, our whole Family was in attendance. We had an absolute blast and it became a film that thanks to VHS was frequently viewed – this is of course the time when a VHS tape was around $30 bucks to buy at the local Walmart. Did you know though that before the film opened there was a 900 number you could call to experience six new Indiana Jones adventures? Which considering that the tagline for the Temple of Doom was “If adventure has a name… it must be Indiana Jones.” – that would mean that if adventure has a phone number… well… the same thing applies.

I actually shared a comic book advertisement for this 900 phone number adventure the other day on the Pop Culture Retrorama Facebook page – which led me to that vintage commercial. My Father has always been exceptionally thrifty when it comes to money so I knew better than to even ask if it would okay to call that 900 number – I wonder if somehow a recording exists – like with the Star Wars 800 number for The Empire Strikes Back? Obviously if you recall calling this 900 phone number to experience an adventure worthy of Indiana Jones, I sincerely hope you will talk about it in the comments sections of this article.

I have a personal story to share about seeing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade… but I think I will hold off on that until I tackle the franchise on a future Pop Culture Retrorama podcast. However I think I should add that my Father and myself returned to the Razorback Theater a couple of times during the Summer to enjoy what appeared to be the last cinematic journey of Dr. Jones and his own Friends and Family. I believe that it was the number one film of 1989 by the way – that is saying something considering that Batman would come out a month later!