RetroFan #18

January 2022 No. 18 $9.95

You’re in for a reel treat!

We’ll always dream of Jeannie...

8mm MOVIES

EXCLUSIVE BARBAR A EDEN interview The Battle of the Sexes

with event organizer

TOMMY ...COOK

HannaBarbera’s TV Super-Heroes of the Sixties

The Invaders • Monster Times • ‘How to Draw’ Books • Cartoon Xmas Cards & more!

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WITH: Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

Barbara Eden photo: Getty Images/Hansom & Schwam Public Relations. The Impossibles © Hanna-Barbera Productions. All Rights Reserved.

AMERICAN TV (1940sCOMIC BOOKS 1980s) Hot on the heels of Back Issue #128, AMERICAN TV COMIC BOOKS (1940s-1980s) takes you from the small screen to the printed page, offering a fascinating and detailed year-by-year history of over 300 television shows and their 2000+ comic book adaptations across five decades. Author PETER BOSCH has spent years researching and documenting this amazing area of comics history, tracking down the well-known series (Star Trek, The Munsters) and the lesser-known shows (Captain Gallant, Pinky Lee) to present the finest look ever taken at this unique genre of comic books. Included are hundreds of full-color covers and images, plus profiles of the artists who drew TV comics: GENE COLAN, ALEX TOTH, DAN SPIEGLE, RUSS MANNING, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH, and many more giants of the comic book world. Whether you loved watching The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, and Zorro from the 1950s—The Andy Griffith Show, The Monkees, and The Mod Squad in the 1960s—Adam-12, Battlestar Galactica, and The Bionic Woman in the 1970s—or Alf, Fraggle Rock, and “V” in the 1980s—there’s something here for fans of TV and comics alike!

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by NEAL ADAMS, RICHARD CORBEN, JOHN BYRNE, RUSS HEATH, WALTER SIMONSON, and many others. By GREG BIGA and JON B. COOKE. (160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-106-6 • NOW SHIPPING!

OUR ARTISTS AT WAR The first book ever published in the US that solely examines War Comics published in America! It covers the talented writers and artists who supplied the finest, most compelling stories in the War Comics genre, which has long been neglected in the annals of comics history.

Through the critical analysis of authors RICHARD J. ARNDT and STEVEN FEARS, this overlooked treasure trove is explored in-depth, finally giving it the respect it deserves! Included are pivotal series from EC COMICS (Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat), DC COMICS (Enemy Ace and the Big Five war books: All American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Fighting Forces, Our Army at War, and StarSpangled War Stories), WARREN PUBLISHING (Blazing Combat), CHARLTON (Willy Schultz and the Iron Corporal) and more!

Featuring the work of HARVEY KURTZMAN, JOHN SEVERIN, JACK DAVIS, WALLACE WOOD, JOE KUBERT, SAM GLANZMAN, JACK KIRBY, WILL ELDER, GENE COLAN, RUSS HEATH, ALEX TOTH, MORT DRUCKER, and many others. Introduction by ROY THOMAS, Foreword by WILLI FRANZ. Cover by JOE KUBERT. (160-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-108-0 • NOW SHIPPING!

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

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CONTENTS Issue #18 January 2022 Columns and Special Features

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Retro Interview Barbara Eden

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Celebrity Crushes

Retro Fanzines The Monster Times

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Retrotorial

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Departments

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Invaders

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria 8mm Movies

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Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning More Christmas cards from animation companies

Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

Hanna-Barbera Super-Heroes of the Sixties

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Retro Interview Tommy Cook Remembers ‘The Battle of the Sexes’

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Too Much TV Quiz Cartoon super-hero theme song lyrics

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RetroFad Leg Warmers

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RetroFanmail

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ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover

by Scott Saavedra

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum How to Draw Books RetroFan™ #18, January 2022. Published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 Economy US, $103 International, $27 Digital.

Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Barbara Eden cover photo by Michael Caulfield; courtesy of Getty Images/Hansom & Schwam Public Relations. The Impossibles © Hanna-Barbera Productions. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224

BY MICHAEL EURY

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER

CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Anderson Shaun Clancy Michael Eury Ernest Farino Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw!

Don Vaughan DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Wayne Brooks Martin Grams Fred Grandinetti Hansom & Schwam Public Relations Heritage Auctions Dan Johnson Mike Lefebvre Rose Rummel-Eury Joseph Trainor VERY SPECIAL THANKS Tommy Cook Barbara Eden

It’s early August 2021 as I write this, and since I’m scratching an itchy mosquito bite on my arm and prepping for another summer scorcher, Christmas would not be on my mind were I not this magazine’s editor. But it will be the most wonderful time of the year by the time this issue reaches you. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas you will not be able to escape it, from holiday parties to ubiquitous Christmas music to the endless bounty of Christmas-themed telemovies offered by the Hallmark Channel (which have been in 24/7 rotation on the network since… well, August). The unbridled exhilaration I once felt in anticipation of Christmas is, like my knee cartilage, a thing of the distant past. Yet if I feel the pressures of being a grown-up in a world often besieged with woes is too much to endure, remembering the joys of Christmases past, when the Sears Wish Book was the magical tome that brought photos of the latest hot items from Santa’s North Pole workshop, is sure to bring a smile to my face.

So is “The Voice of Christmas,” episode 12 of Season One of TV’s The Brady Bunch, which was originally aired December 19, 1969, back when all I had to worry about was which Saturday morning cartoon to watch (choosing between those three networks was a chore!). That’s the one where mom Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) develops a case of laryngitis right before she’s scheduled to sing a solo at church on Christmas morning. “I don’t want toys,” says her youngest daughter, Cindy Brady (Susan Olsen), to a department store Santa (cheerfully played by Hal Smith, recently sobered up from his role as Otis Campbell the town drunk on The Andy Griffith Show). All Cindy wants for Christmas is for her mommy’s voice to return so she can sing. And by the miracle of television—and the wonderful direction of Oscar Rudolph (an aptly named director for the Christmas episode)—Carol’s voice returns on Christmas morning! Gee, I’m welling up just thinking about that.

The holiday season is a time of introspection, starting with Thanksgiving. Please indulge me as I count my blessings. Editing and writing for RetroFan is a true joy for me. And I am frequently told by so many of you RetroFan readers how much this magazine means to you. So thank you, readers, for being with us for another year. I hope this issue, like your favorite Christmas TV episode or special, brings a smile to your face.

And what an issue we have in store for you, starting on the next page with the magical Barbara Eden.

Plus, there’s The Invaders, 8mm movies, The Monster Times, Hanna-Barbera super-hero cartoons, Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, How to Draw books, and leg warmers to keep you in a delirious coma of nostalgia—and RetroFan’s resident jolly old soul with bushy facial hair, columnist Andy Mangels, has delivered NEXT ISSUE another collection of Christmas cards from animation companies to add a little yuletide to our eclectic contents.

There’s something for everyone here, so get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with! Happy Holidays to you all, and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year!

March 2022 No. 19 $9.95

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RETROFAN

January 2022

Department of Corrections: Regarding his Marvel Super Heroes feature in RetroFan #16, columnist Will Murray informs us, “Stan Lee’s video presentation for the 1966 Marvel cartoon show has since surfaced on YouTube and it refutes the long-held belief I put forth in my column that Sub-Mariner replaced Spider-Man in the line-up.

Iron Man was the replacement!” RetroFan regrets the error.

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CAROLINE MUNRO INTERVIEW

Wacky Packages!

Bob Kane’s other dynamic duo...

COURAGEOUS CAT and MINUTE MOUSE!

Will the real Ghostbusters please stand up?

Go-Go Dancing • Pauline Peril • Rare Pro Wrestler Erasers • Red Skelton Museum & more!

FEATURING Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury Caroline Munro photo: Dutch National Archives. Wacky Packages © Topps. Nixon illustration © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

© Paramount Television.

John Morrow

RETRO INTERVIEW

Twenty Minutes with Barbara Eden BY MICHAEL EURY …Twenty-five minutes, max. That’s what her agency told me I’d have for my telephone interview with Barbara Eden.

Barbara Eden, the immensely talented actress and singer who, in her definitive role as television’s prettiest pixie, was liberated from a purple bottle and enchanted both a hapless astronaut and generations of viewers. Whose earlier TV series had her stepping into the shoes of one of Hollywood’s most sensational bombshells. Who was Elvis Presley’s leading lady in the movie Flaming Star. Who socked it to the Harper Valley P.T.A. on the big and small screens.

Whose guest roles on television series became unforgettable episodes, whose sparkling presence in over two dozen theatrical movies outshined elaborate sets and special effects, whose made-for-television films scored huge ratings, whose likeable personality and sultry voice commanded stage audiences from Atlantic City to Las Vegas. Whose star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found within eyeshot of the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

That Barbara Eden.

Twenty minutes. (Twenty-five, max.)

It would have taken a magical Jeannie “blink” to cram into such a narrow window of time all the questions I had, a few of which were suggested by RetroFan readers and fellow columnists through our Facebook page. Many of the roles of Barbara Eden, dubbed by People Magazine as “One of America’s 200 Greatest Pop Icons of the 20th Century,” are of tremendous interest to RetroFans, including fantasy films like Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and George Pal’s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. And then, of course, there’s one of TV’s most beloved sitcoms, I Dream of Jeannie, starring the petite, blonde Ms. Eden in a pink harem costume—with her navel very famously hidden, to appease puritanical program censors. Appearing alongside Eden were Larry Hagman as Major (originally Captain) Anthony “Tony” Nelson, the astronaut whose attempts to hide his genie’s magic led to no end of NASA nuttiness; Bill Daily as the skirt-chasing Major (originally Captain) Roger Healy, Tony’s pal and eventual confidant; and Hayden Rorke as

Jeannie Out of the Bottle (2011),

by Barbara Eden with Wendy Leigh. © Barbara Eden. Cover photo: NBC/Photofest.

(ABOVE) The magical Barbara Eden, as captured by photographer Michael Caulfield. Courtesy of Joseph Trainor/Hansom & Schwam Public Relations.

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retro interview

Air Force psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Bellows, whose suspicions about Major Nelson’s bizarre behavior (in response to Jeannie’s magical mayhem) left him routinely befuddled. Created by Sidney Sheldon, the screenwriter/producer-turned-bestselling novelist who also brought us the TV faves The Patty Duke Show and Hart to Hart, I Dream of Jeannie’s 139 episodes originally ran from 1965–1970… but never went away.

Twenty minutes to talk, so much to talk about…

But Ms. Eden has done the heavy lifting for me in her magical, intimate memoir, Jeannie Out of the Bottle, written with Wendy Leigh. When it was first published in 2011 the book debuted at number 14 on the New York Times bestseller list! It’s a fascinating read, and is still available from major and online booksellers.

Since her life and career story were told in detail in her book, that enabled me to sit back and simply enjoy my telephone chat with her, which took place on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. What follows is an edited transcription of our conversation.

RetroFan: Hello, this is Michael Eury.

Barbara Eden: Hello, Michael Eury. This is Barbara Eden.

RF: Good morning! Thank you for calling me today and spending a few minutes with me. I know we’re on the clock, so let’s get started.

BE: Well, it’s my pleasure. Where are you?

RF: I’m in New Bern, North Carolina.

BE: I’ve been to North Carolina, but I don’t think I’ve ever been there.

I Dream of Jeannie title card, and (RIGHT) a cel of dancing Jeannie and her bottle from the show’s animated intro.

I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. Title card courtesy of Ernest Farino. Cel courtesy of Heritage.

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Welcome to Mayberry! Publicity shot of Don Knotts (Barney Fife), guest star Barbara Eden (Ellen Brown), and Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), from “The Manicurist,” The Andy Griffith Show Season Two/Episode 16, originally aired January 22, 1962. © Mayberry Enterprises.

RF: It’s a coastal city and the colonial capital of North Carolina, so there’s a lot of history here, as well as beauty. It’s a nice place to live, and I work from my home office.

BE: You’re lucky.

RF: I agree. And I get to speak with wonderful people like you for my magazine, RetroFan. We dig up stories behind the stories of the TV we watched, the toys we played with, the crazy foods

we ate, and all the fads from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties.

BE: I love it!

RF: I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your career before you appeared on I Dream of Jeannie. You were in one of my favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, “The Manicurist.”

BE: Isn’t that interesting? I’m so glad you liked it.

retro interview

RF: Any particular memories or anecdotes about that show?

BE: It was like walking into a men’s club. [chuckles] Most of them were the cutest little old men—although Don Knotts wasn’t old.

I adored working with him. Andy Griffith was fabulous. He was actually the anchor of that show in all ways, and a wonderful actor.

I don’t have to say that because everyone knows it. I loved working on that show with them. They were all so good at what they were doing. They were all so professional.

RF: You affected an authentic Southern accent in that episode. Not everyone can pull off a Southern accent. Being a Southerner myself, I have an ear for that, and you sold me: I believed Ellen Brown was just a sweet little Carolina girl in that show.

BE: Thank you! Thank you! I received a wonderful letter from a person from the South who wrote many wonderful songs.

Actually, that was from another show I did.

I did a Dr. Kildare and played a Southern nurse. She just talked, talked, talked, talked, talked through the whole thing! I got a little note from him saying how much he enjoyed it and he said, “I was raised with those women and I know them real well!” [chuckles] RF: You were in an episode of Perry Mason as well.

BE: I think that was almost my first show, yes.

RF: Yes, that episode was very early in your career. I haven’t seen it in a while, so refresh my memory… Were you the killer, or did you get killed? What happened in that episode? [See sidebar.]

BE: I wasn’t the killer—I was the daughter.

I don’t remember the plotline at all, to tell you the truth. I’m sorry; I wish I could help you with that.

RF: That was in 1957, during Perry Mason’s first season. Around that time, you landed a part in your first regular television series, How to Marry a Millionaire, which was

© CBS Television.

RF: Your character, Ellen Brown, charmed the men of Mayberry—and angered their wives. There’s one line Andy’s character said to you, [in a Sheriff Taylor voice] “Nature’s been reeeeeal good to you. I can’t remember when nature’s spent so much time on one person.”

BE: [chuckles] Yes.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Barbara Eden played Carla Adrian in “The Case of the Angry Mourner,” Perry Mason Season One/ Episode 7, which originally aired November 2, 1957. According to Brian Kelleher and Diana Merrill’s The Perry Mason TV Show Book (1987), the episode is set in Bear Valley, California, where America’s favorite lawyer is on holiday. Eden’s character, Carla, is accosted by a cad who soon turns up dead, and Carla’s mother, Belle, played by Sylvia Field (known to RetroFans as Mrs. Wilson on TV’s Dennis the Menace), faces trial for the murder.

That same year, Eden played ditzy Loco Jones in TV’s How to Marry a Millionaire. Based upon the 1953 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable, the TV version, with Eden, Merry Anders, and Lori Nelson (who was later replaced by Lisa Gaye), concerned a trio of lovely young women in pursuit of rich husbands.

The syndicated comedy produced 52 episodes over two seasons.

(ABOVE) I Dream of Jeannie publicity still of Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and his secret houseguest, autographed by both stars.

(BELOW) Trade magazine from 1971 announcing the show’s syndication.

According to pop-culture historian Fred Grandinetti, NBC’s bouncing of Jeannie’s night and time each season kept it from finding a huge audience during its original run, but the show became a hit in daily syndication starting in 1971. I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. Photo courtesy of Heritage.

Magazine scan courtesy of Fred Grandinetti.

inspired by the 1953 movie of the same name…

BE: I was under contract to Fox, and they put me in movies one part of the year and in the other part, they put me in this television show they were starting on a new network—the Fox Network [a network of channels that syndicated Fox-produced programs—ed.]. Now it’s on, but then it was not. I did How to Marry a Millionaire, with the same actor who was also on Perry Mason as a guest, Merry Anders, that wonderful actor. We would giggle and laugh a lot about the fact that I would play this little girl on that show, when I was actually much older. I was 15 or 16 years old in How to Marry a Millionaire—it was very different!

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RF: But before that, you got your start on the Johnny Carson Show, early in Johnny’s career, did you not?

BE: Oh, yes. That was way at the beginning of his career. He had this big break as Red Skelton’s summer replacement and my agent sent me down there. I was taking anything. I was trying to make a living.

[My agent] said, “Barbara, wear the dress.”

He meant, I had one sexy dress. It was one of those spaghetti-strap, cotton, kind-oftight dresses. I said, “All right.”

I wore the dress and had a white fuzzy coat because it was really cold. I parked in the parking lot and it was freezing. I left the coat on and went inside. CBS, on Fairfax, was freezing cold at that time. It was colder inside than outside, so I left the coat on. I went to the sixth floor and walked in and they took me right away [for the audition].

I felt like a fool to just take my coat off…

“Ta-da!” So I left it on through the whole interview and didn’t get the job, of course.

My agent called and said, “What happened?” I said, “I didn’t get the job; I know I didn’t get it.” He said, “Tell me exactly what you did.” I told him and he said, “Barbara, next week they have another audition. Take… the… coat… off!” So I did. I wore the same dress and left the coat off. At that time, when you auditioned, they asked you your background, where you studied, what you did, blah, blah, blah, and I told them. I was a member of Actor’s Equity and worked at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and so after that, I was walking down the hall and there were some men at the water fountain and one of them detached himself. He came over and put his arm through mine and said, “You don’t mind, do you?” I said, “No.” He said, “They said I wouldn’t do this.” We walked to the elevator and he said, “Were you in [for the Carson interview]?” I said, “Yes, I was.” He said, “Did you get the job?” I said, “Nope.” I was sure I didn’t. He said as the doors were closing, he put his foot in and said, “We’ll see you later.”

Well, that was the producer of the show.

I didn’t know that, but I did get the job.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Bill Daily, Wayne Rogers, Barbara Eden, and Hayden Rorke, in a publicity photo for the 1985 reunion telefilm I Dream of Jeannie…

Fifteen Years Later. © Sony Pictures Television.

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Consequently, after doing that job, I did six more shows with the same director.

He apologized to me. He said, “I fell into that trap. We all think if you’re not stupid and you can’t sing off-key, you can’t do it. I forget people train to do this, you know?” I felt really good about it, but bad about it at the same time. Gee whiz. It wasn’t my talent that got me the part—it was a walk down the hall! [chuckles] He was a lovely man, and I was lucky.

Yes, that started me doing comedy sketches with Johnny.

RF: Our readers might not know that this was before Johnny Carson became the king of late-night TV, predating him succeeding Jack Parr on the Tonight Show.

[See sidebar.]

BE: Yes. He was filling in for Red Skelton and it was more comedy sketches and musical numbers—things like that. I think he had a very small [radio] show in the L.A. area, but this was a step up for him.

RF: Let’s talk about how you segued into I Dream of Jeannie, which started in 1965.

How were you cast in that show?

BE: I don’t have a clue! You know, I really don’t! I had been reading about it, and by the time that came along I was very experienced in show biz. I had cut my teeth in film. When I came to L.A., I’d done a lot of stage work and was a member of Actor’s Equity, but I did not know camera work until I was under contract to Fox, but when I left Fox and was reading about this in Variety and their casting all these gorgeous beauty-contest winners [for the

© CBS Television.

retro interview

HEEEEERE’S JOHNNY (AND BARBARA, TOO)

Early in Barbara Eden’s career she had bit parts in The Johnny Carson Show—not to be confused with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the late-night program for which the comedian/talk show host became an entertainment icon.

Carson landed in Hollywood in 1951 after launching his broadcasting career in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1948. He began to build an audience in L.A. by hosting the radio show Carson’s Cellar. Carson soon began writing monologues for The Red Skelton Show, which but him on the radar of Skelton’s network, CBS. The Johnny Carson Show, a halfhour comedy-variety show airing on CBS on Thursday evenings at 10:00 p.m., debuted June 30, 1955.

Despite the burgeoning talent of its star, as well as Eden, the program floundered and was last telecast on March 29, 1956.

retro interview

© Hanna-Barbera Productions. Cel courtesy of Heritage.

part of Jeannie] who were six-feet-tall, or five-eight at least, and brunette, all dark, all Middle-Eastern: Miss Greece, Miss Turkey, Miss Italy, Miss Lebanon, all those beautiful brunettes. I said, “Well, this isn’t for me,” so I went through Variety looking for other work. My agent sent me a script, and I read it, and I thought I knew exactly what it was. He called me and said, “Barbara, do you like the script?” I said, “I do, but are you

SATURDAY MORNING MAGIC

I Dream of Jeannie’s rival magic sitcom Bewitched may have snagged a guest-star appearance on HannaBarbera’s The Flintstones, but TV’s favorite genie (sorry, Shazzan!) got her own Saturday morning cartoon!

Hanna-Barbera, in conjunction with Screen Gems, introduced the animated comedy Jeannie on CBS’s Saturday morning line-up on September 8, 1973. This version, however, was geared toward kids, placing the famous bottle (and its genie inside) in the hands of high school student Corey Anders and adding buffoonish apprentice genie Babu to the cast. Barbara Eden did not reprise her Jeannie role, with the character instead being voiced by Julie McWhirter.

One-time Stooge Joe Besser voiced Babu, and future Luke Skywalker Mark Hamill voiced Corey.

Only 16 episodes of Jeannie were produced, with the last new installment airing on December 22, 1973. The show continued to air through 1975 and was later absorbed into other Hanna-Barbera programming blocks for further repeats.

sure they know what I look like?” He said, “I guess they do, because they’ve made us an offer.” I said, “Oh, that’s wonderful because I love the part.” He said, “They would like it very much if you would go meet [I Dream of Jeannie creator] Sidney Sheldon at the Beverly Hills Hotel and have tea with him.

I went down and had tea with Sidney and that’s how I was cast.

RF: So you didn’t have to test opposite Larry Hagman?

BE: I tested with many men and later, I tested with Larry.

RF: You wrote in your book that behind the scenes, Hagman had a mercurial temper that might be more along the lines of the character he’d later play on Dallas, J. R. Ewing, and that he was often combative with directors and some guest-stars.

But we viewers didn’t have a clue when watching I Dream of Jeannie. You and Larry Hagman had a wonderful chemistry.

BE: Fabulous! It was heaven working with Larry.

RF: You worked together a couple of times afterwards in a telemovie and also on Dallas. You were there for several episodes.

BE: Oh, yes. That was odd for both of us. We were laughing about that one. Afterward, Larry and I would tour in Love Letters.

RF: You did have a long working history together. How did you react when they redid I Dream of Jeannie [in the 1985 TV reunion movie I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later] and Larry was unavailable and they recast the part of Tony Nelson?

BE: I was sad about that. But Wayne Rogers did a wonderful job.

RF: He did. There was a familiarity there with Bill Daily back.

BE: …and Hayden Rorke.

RF: Yes. I wonder how Wayne felt, stepping into this role that was, for five years and beyond, in syndication, so identified with Larry Hagman?

BE: I wonder. He didn’t talk about it. We had worked together on stage, Wayne and I, on Same Time, Next Year.

RF: That’s a great show!

BE: I had such a good time on that show and we toured with it.

FAST FACTS I DREAM OF JEANNIE

No. of seasons: Five No. of episodes: 139 Original run: September 18, 1965–May 26, 1970 Primary cast: Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Bill Daily, Hayden Rorke, Emmaline Henry, Barton MacLane Created by: Sidney Sheldon Network: NBC

SPIN-OFFS AND SEQUELS

Jeannie (1973 animated spin-off; see sidebar) I Dream of Jeannie… Fif teen Years Later (TV movie aired October 20, 1985; starring Barbara Eden, Bill Daily, and Hayden Rorke reprising original roles, with Wayne Rogers as Tony Nelson) I Still Dream of Jeannie (TV movie aired October 20, 1991; starring Barbara Eden, Bill Daily, and Christopher Bolton as Tony Nelson, Jr. (T. J.), who inherited his mother’s genie powers; Tony Nelson did not appear in the telefilm)

RF: Who created the head nod and the blink? Jeannie’s famous gesture?

BE: Gene Nelson [director of the I Dream of Jeannie pilot and the show’s earliest episodes].

RF: You did it very well, like it was instinctive.

Jeannie’s first season was black and white, and then the show went into color.

It was one of the last shows shot in black and white. Any idea why they didn’t just start the show in color?

BE: You bet! I was pregnant! I think they thought I was going to die or something and didn’t want to invest the money in color film.

RF: [laughs] When you went to color in season two, did they have to change anything in the costuming or sets? I know in some series, like The Adventures of Superman—when George Reeves started that show, his costume was in shades of tan and brown to create the proper contrast on the black-and-white screen.

Was it business as usual with Jeannie?

Same props; same colors?

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BE: Business as usual. Pink outfit, and of, course, the men in uniform.

BE: Yes, but the genie was actually Burl Ives! [chuckles]

RF: You wore a green outfit as “evil Jeannie.”

BE: [says evilly] Yeeeeees.

RF: I think it was probably the stereotypical version of a genie up until then, a genie as a man. You did reinvent the concept!

BE: A lot of people think because of the movie, that’s why we did the series, but it’s not true—the two were very different.

RF: There’s something sinister about a dark wig with you, because in Harper Valley P.T.A., you had the Stella and Della roles as well.

BE: Yeah, and also I did a film with George Pal, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, and played the schoolteacher in that and had the dark wig on.

RF: Oh, thank you, for bringing that up.

That was a wild and imaginative film.

It’s sort of forgotten or unknown by the mainstream. George Pal was a wonderful director of fantasy films.

BE: He was a wonderful man with a wonderful imagination. He was adorable, and I loved working with him.

RF: Tony Randall was the man with seven faces in that movie. You also worked with Tony Randall elsewhere.

BE: Yes, I did. From there, I worked with Tony on another film at Universal called The Brass Bottle.

RF: Wasn’t that a movie about a genie in a bottle?

(OPPOSITE PAGE) Posters from four of Barbara Eden’s most memorable movies. (TOP) She played Elvis’ love interest in Flaming Star (1960) and a schoolteacher in George Pal’s imaginative and bizarre Tony Randall vehicle, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964). (BOTTOM LEFT) Before she was Jeannie, Eden was in the film comedy The Brass Bottle, with Burl Ives as the mage. (BOTTOM RIGHT) Her role in the 1978 film comedy Harper Valley P.T.A., inspired by the hit country song, earned Barbara a spin-off TV series. This poster features art by MAD Magazine cartoonists Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. Flaming Star © 20th Century Studios.

7 Faces of Dr. Lao © Turner Entertainment. The Brass Bottle © Universal Sutdios. Harper Valley P.T.A © April Fools Distributing. Posters courtesy of Heritage.

RF: Jeannie was really sort of a feminist icon. She did call Tony “Master,” but she was a strong-willed character. Back in the day, when the Women’s Lib movement was happening, did the show and you face any criticism over the “Master” line?

BE: Not really. But every once in a while the line would come up, and I have to point out to people—it’s really foolish for them to even bring it up—it’s a classic scene.

It’s been around for 100 years, “genie and bottle and Master.” [But with Jeannie,] number 1, it’s her job, and number 2, she’s not human. You’re not dealing with a housewife here—you’re dealing with an entity. [chuckles] Of course, “Master” means nothing to her; it’s just a word. Her job is to make him happy and of course, that’s her version of happiness.

RF: In the fifth and final season, Tony and Jeannie got married. How did that change the dynamic of the show?

BE: I think it was a very wrong move on whoever chose that. It was just totally wrong—the concept of marrying. The show was based on the concept that she thought she was human; she thought she could marry him, he knew she wasn’t. There was the joke! The two of them—nose to nose.

No matter what she looked like, she was not a human girl.

RF: I’m glad you said it. I felt that way, too.

The show remained charming, but it lost some of its magic. I liken it to Moonlighting, with Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd. They had this great chemistry… “Will they get together?” When they finally did, something was missing in the later episodes.

BE: Yes, yes. The chemistry—you have ground rules with a magic show [like I Dream of Jeannie], especially. You can’t marry an entity to a human—you can’t do it. She couldn’t be seen by the officers at NASA. It was not right.

RF: I’m curious about the pilot for The Barbara Eden Show. I haven’t seen it.

BE: Well, I don’t remember much, either.

[Editor’s note: According to the Internet Movie Database, The Barbara Eden Show was a 1973 pilot with Eden playing Barbara Norris, the chief writer for a soap opera who had comical soap opera-like personal dramas with the show’s cast. IMDB.com says that it was aired on May 21, 1973, but other sources state it was unaired.]

RF: I promised that I would stick to the time and it’s been almost 25 minutes, so I’d better say goodbye.

BE: Well, I’m not going to let you go—I’m enjoying our conversation!

RF: [laughs] Okay, executive order… Jeannie has blinked, and I’m under your thrall.

When was the last time you wore the Jeannie costume? I saw a picture of you in costume with President Clinton.

BE: Yes, that was in Indiana for the Life Ball [in 2013]. That was a mistake. I wasn’t supposed to be wearing that costume.

RF: A mistake?

BE: I had said I wouldn’t wear the costume—that they had to make one for me that was “age appropriate.” It was five times too big for me. It was horrible; it was so large.

A girlfriend of mine helped me pack.

She said, “Do you still have the costume?”

I said, “Yes, I do.” She said, “Put it in.” She’s Armenian. I said, “Shakia, I can’t do that. I’ll look like an idiot.”

Anyway, we put it in my luggage; we got to New York; I saw this costume and couldn’t keep the pants up. They couldn’t alter it overnight. I put the pink one on and said, “What do you think? Should I cover something up?” They said to wear it because… that’s the costume. I had to kind of rise above it, as my mother would say, when ugly things happen like that. I felt really foolish, but pretended like it wasn’t there, and it was fine. It was wonderful. It was a wonderful event and I’m sorry they took photos.

RF: I’m sure a lot of the fans loved that you were in costume, though.

BE: A lot of them had it on!

RF: Have you had any unusual fan encounters?

BE: I’ve had some lovely ones and some sad ones, where the only safe place they RETROFAN

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retro interview

Various I Dream of Jeannie collectibles. Note that Miss Eden’s record album even co-opted her highly visible TV character. I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions and Hake’s Auctions.

had was in their mind to go into their bottle.

working week after week. I did Love Letters with Barry Bostwick, Then The Magic Carpet in Palm Springs, in the rain, and then a documentary on CNN. Then I was honored at the end of February at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco.

RF: Aww. BE: Many, many people tell me that. It makes me feel like at least I did something.

RF: That’s sad for people to admit that their imaginary bottle was a place to escape their home life. The miracle of television and any entertainment medium is that it is an escape for the viewer. You did help create a show that created that for so many of us.

BE: That’s lovely. So many grown women tell me, “My bedroom was my bottle. My mother designed it for me just like your bottle.”

RF: Congratulations on that honor.

BE: It was wonderful; it made me feel so good.

RF: Am I wearing out my welcome? We’re at 32 minutes and I was told, “Don’t go past 25 minutes.”

BE: Yeah, I think I have another call I have to make.

RF: Then I’ll conclude with one final question: Is this the first time you’ve been interviewed about I Dream of Jeannie and haven’t been asked about your navel?

BE: [bursts out laughing] Yes, it is!

RF: With a lot of pillows on the floor.

BE: A lot of pinks and purples.

RF: Was it fun going to work?

BE: I loved it; I love it. I like my work no matter what I’m doing. I think we who are doing a job we enjoy are so lucky. So many people going to work every day hating it and having to do it to make a living. If you’re lucky enough to have work you enjoy, and you feel productive doing, it’s a wonderful thing!

RF: I couldn’t agree more. You’re still active. You were on stage with Love Letters last year. Do you have plans to retire?

BE: I’d rather not, but COVID may make me. The first part of this year [2020], I was 10

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Barbara Eden’s original five-piece, screen-worn Jeannie costume, designed by costumer Gwen Wakeling. I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Special thanks to Martin Grams of the MidAtlantic Nostalgia Convention for providing contact information; Joseph Trainor of Hansom & Schwam Public Relations for helping arrange the interview with Miss Eden; Rose RummelEury for transcribing the recorded interview; Fred Grandinetti for valuable I Dream of Jeannie background information; and Jim Alexander, Wayne Brooks, Ernest Farino, Dan Johnson, Dan Kirk, John Trumbull, and Doug Wagner for their magical support.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

BY WILL MURRAY I’m not often offered the opportunity to interview the star of a favorite childhood TV program. But one came my way back when I was writing for Starlog magazine. My editor asked if I wanted to talk with Roy Thinnes, of Quinn Martin’s The Invaders.

Would I? I loved that TV show!

I got the assignment. But I never got the interview. Thinnes would consent only if the profile was written by the head of his fan club.

This was not acceptable to my editor, who preferred writers he knew. He passed. Thinnes declined. I was disappointed.

Happily, years later, a Starlog interview was done. But not by me. C’est la vie.

But I still love that show. I had an interest in UFO reports, and I used to fantasize about crossovers with top TV shows at that time.

What if the Green Hornet uncovered an Invaders operation? The similarity between the aliens’ green utility togs and THRUSH’s gray coveralls made me wonder how agents Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin would tackle them. Pitting U.N.C.L.E. against the Invaders would have been interesting, but their tones were diametrically opposed. The Invaders was deadly serious.

A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION

The origins of The Invaders are complex. Producer Quinn Martin wanted to replicate his long-running success, The Fugitive, which revolved around a falsely accused man fleeing justice. The Invaders reversed that idea. Unlike Doctor Richard Kimble, architect David Vincent wasn’t on the run. He was on the attack.

Series originator Larry Cohen claimed the show was based on a favorite Fifties movie. “It was inspired by The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I’d seen when it came out as a B-movie,” Cohen said. “The idea of aliens on Earth in human form I thought would be a good format for a television program. Using aliens who had infiltrated society was a way of dramatizing the preoccupation with Communist infiltration of the United States and the paranoia that was spreading over the country. The hunt for subversives became the hunt for aliens.”

Cohen’s conception was more Alfred Hitchcock than Quinn Martin. “I always liked the Hitchcock movie where the hero is in a situation where he’s the only one that knows the spies are operating, and no one will believe him. And when he takes the police back to the locale where he saw their operation, everything has been removed, there’s no more evidence, everybody lies and says that he was never there before.”

Martin and Cohen quickly came to a parting of the ways. Cohen left behind 22 story outlines, none of which were filmed because they were designed for the half-hour cliffhanger format ABC borrowed for Batman. “The Invaders’ original format would have had continuing alien characters and been more like a serial,” he explained.

The storyline was ripped from the headlines of 1965–1967. The nation was engulfed in a prolonged flying saucer sightings “flap.”

Waves of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) were constantly being reported. Witnesses claimed to have seen non-human pilots.

Fascination and ridicule resulted.

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Roy Thinnes caught Martin’s eye for the role of David Vincent, who Cohen had named after horror legend Vincent Price. Thinnes had a recurring role in ABC’s Long Hot Summer and didn’t want to do science fiction.

“I was negative about the whole thing,” he recalled.

But Quinn Martin was one of the biggest producers in television, a man one didn’t turn down. Thinnes’ agent practically ordered the actor to take a meeting.

As the actor later reminisced, “Quinn said, ‘This is not just science fiction. It was a study in paranoia. One man against many others––or maybe the whole world. As David Janssen kept trying to prove his innocence, this is going to be a study of a man who knew something and couldn’t convince the rest of the world that we are in danger.’ By the time he finished, I was absolutely convinced that I should do The Invaders.”

TRUST NO ONE

The Invaders pilot was shot in March 1966. The episode “Beachhead” opens with Vincent pulling over one night because he can’t stay awake––only to witness an alien spacecraft land. He rushes to warn the local authorities, who don’t believe him. After his business partner is murdered by aliens, Vincent embarks on a one-man crusade to warn the world.

In the middle of filming, ABC picked up The Invaders as a series.

On April 17, something strangely synchronistic happened that inspired Thinnes’ portrayal of Vincent. Ohio Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur found himself chasing a UFO for more than 80 miles. As a result of his report, he lost his job, his wife divorced him, and his life was never the same.

“This is the way it is with David Vincent,” Thinnes said at the time. “Although the circumstances are different, his life is wrecked and he is considered a crackpot when he tries to warn people.”

Director Robert Butler considered Thinnes an excellent choice.

“Roy’s a strong actor and he conveyed a kind of heroism. Vincent’s character motivation wasn’t to destroy the aliens, even though he knew they were the enemy. It was to reveal them to the world at large. His obsession, his single purpose, that resolve, made for a clarity for the character and for the audience. To get proof of their existence, he had to involve himself with the aliens. That made for good storytelling.”

In that debut episode, the first alien-in-humanform Vincent battled was played by actor Skip Ward.

Ironically, Ward had been Quinn Martin’s back-up selection if Thinnes had declined the starring role.

It was a challenging part. Martin was known for doing adult crime dramas. The Invaders was science fiction––or was it? A fine line between UFO headlines and speculation had to be walked.

“We talked at great length about the show and about the subject of UFOs and we decided the people should slowly be exposed,” Thinnes recounted. “Otherwise the character could be thought to be obsessed.”

“The approach we have taken is realism,” asserted producer Allen Armer, “believing that the incredible, treated in down-to-earth, recognizable terms, can be made twice as terrifying, twice as chilling. And we tailored our stories to dramatize one point of view: It could be happening now!”

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Quinn Martin, executive producer of The Invaders.

In The Invaders, the aliens had already infiltrated human society, thanks to their ability to artificially mimic the human form. This was straight out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Aliens seemed to be everywhere. They were cops, scientists, politicians, and average people.

Increasingly, Vincent learns he can trust no one. It made for tense, dramatic situations. Just about any time Vincent made an ally, the aliens eliminated them. Any time he managed to kill an alien, they simply incinerated in a red glow, leaving no trace.

Aliens could be identified in one of several ways. They had no pulse or heartbeats, no circulatory system or skeletons, and they were entirely emotionless. Also, their little finger stuck out at an awkward angle.

“Except for the mutation of the little finger and the glowing business,” Thinnes revealed, “we stay away from all the outer-space gimmicks. Our only concession is an alien weapon, a small disc that fits in the palm of the hand. When used by the enemy on a human’s neck, it will cause a heart attack.”

This was revised to a cerebral hemorrhage.

Scripter Robert Sherman complained, “The silliest thing for me about The Invaders were the crooked pinky fingers to show they’re aliens. That struck me as idiocy. They could have done something else: a slightly different flesh tone or that they never blink or that they don’t have tongues. But a crooked pinky? Come on, that’s silly!”

The Invaders’ Roy Thinnes as alien-chaser David Vincent. (INSET) Writer Larry Cohen named the Vincent character after horror legend Vincent Price. The Invaders © Paramount Home Entertainment.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

can’t be nuts, and there have been so many reports of sightings that you have to be a believer of sorts.”

On another occasion, the actor went further. “I fear we may be a curiosity. They may be sending excursions down to look at us like we were so many pests.”

This change in attitude was noticed by scripter Anthony Spinner, who said, “I thought he was putting me on, but he was absolutely genuine. I think Roy ended up believing in aliens. Whether the role took him over, I don’t know. He thought that what we were doing on The Invaders was pretty real.”

Alan Armer confirmed this. “I remember going down to the stage and talking to Paul Wendkos, who is a superb director, because Paul was making jokes TV Guides and other show-related materials. In October 2007, Heritage Auctions about the concept of flying saucers and sold this amazing lot for $3,583! aliens being on the [Earth], and I asked him please not to do that, that the lead in our series took the role very seriously. It was upsetting to Roy that “That was to let Vincent know who was an Invader,” explained writer John W. Bloch. “We had to give him an edge against them, or members of the crew [were] kind of putting down the concept of the show and the idea of aliens being here.” else he wouldn’t have lasted long.”

Whatever the actor’s core beliefs, he was committed to treating This detail was Larry Cohen’s idea, inspired by the spymaster The Invaders seriously. “We analyze all the real headlines about with the missing finger in Hitchcock’s 39 Steps.

UFOs and pretty much try to follow fact––or what we believe to be fact,” he revealed.

THEY WALK AMONG US Over the years, almost everyone involved in the show has Despite constant UFO headlines, Roy Thinnes was not familiar been interviewed. And it’s fascinating to read the challenges they with the phenomenon when he started The Invaders. “I came to faced—challenges to which audience members were blissfully the show as a skeptic,” he admitted. “I never thought much about oblivious.

UFOs.” After Larry Cohen left The Invaders, Spinner, who wrote the Then the actor had a compelling experience driving toward the foreboding title narration explaining that the aliens came from Pacific Coast. a dying planet to make the Earth “their world,” was brought in as “I saw an UFO object for the first time last week when sightings head writer because “It was in trouble right after the pilot. Nobody were reported in Los Angeles,” Thinnes said in January 1967, the knew what to do with it.” month the show premiered. “I was not one of those who reported George Eckstein, who polished Anthony Wilson’s pilot the incident to the police. Either they would have thought I did it script, said, “I do recall that all of the writers of the show, myself for the show, or, like David Vincent in the series, they might have included, were forced to tap dance around the essential flaw in thought I was a crackpot. There was this blob of light over the the basic concept. If the aliens were so powerful and constituted ocean that changed from white and green to purple. It dipped such a serious threat to mankind, how was it that they could not toward the horizon and we were trying to tell ourselves that it could be a meteor. Then it suddenly swooped upward into view and somehow eliminate David Vincent, who does pose a threat to them?” was soon out of sight. Meteors don’t do that.”

“That was one of our biggest challenges,” echoed Spinner. “We Cinematographer Andrew McIntyre, a former World War II had endless debates on how to keep our hero alive every week.” bomber pilot who had witnessed unexplained sightings during Writer Robert Sherman offered a different take. “As I undercombat, educated Thinnes on the reality of the subject matter. stood it, the aliens did have a reason as to why they wouldn’t zero McIntyre also schooled the occasional director. in on Vincent. If they killed him after he made all this fuss, it would As Thinnes explained, “Occasionally, a director would come in with the attitude that the show was a comic strip, and Andy would give his story credibility.” put a stop to it immediately. In a very gentlemanly fashion, he would explain to them that it was a very serious subject, and if we CHANGE IN DIRECTION made light of it, it was going to show on film. So there was a pretty Over the course of the first season, David Vincent crisscrosses the serious attitude; we had good times and laughs and all that, but we country, single-handedly investigating any unusual phenomenon didn’t ever criticize the material.” that might be linked to the clandestine invasion.

As the series continued, Thinnes started sounding like a less “We’ve had a slight change in concept since the first show, but obsessed version of David Vincent. “I prefer to stay among the it’s hardly noticeable,” Thinnes explained, “There is a wealth of cautious curious,” he admitted. “But I believe it’s possible. Everyone areas in which we can go—physically alone—all over the world.”

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

The actor may have been referring to the need to introduce more special effects elements than originally planned. The aliens were given ray guns and other weird weapons. Contrary to Quinn Martin’s original directive against showing them, additional flying saucers landed in several episodes.

Over time, Vincent became increasingly paranoid, single-minded, and willing to take risks. He sometimes posed as other people in order to infiltrate businesses he suspected were alien fronts. He did not make many friends. Enemies, he accumulated tons. And not all of them were from a distant galaxy.

The aliens hatched numerous outrageous plots from attempting to take over the United States defense industry to destroying Earth’s atmospheric oxygen, and breeding carnivorous insects to ravage civilization.

Even though he was an architect, Vincent somehow managed to thwart most of these plots without achieving a decisive victory.

The aliens, who are almost always portrayed as remote and unfeeling creatures, were seldom differentiated. Glimpses of their true form were rare. In one episode, The Day the Earth Stood Still’s Michael Rennie played Magnus, an alien leader who tries to convince Vincent that the Invaders are really benevolent. It doesn’t fly. Vincent has seen too much death and destruction at their hands.

Branded a kook, David Vincent rarely cracked the skeptical barrier.

Occasionally, he made a tentative ally in the U.S. military establishment, who promised official investigations.

This slow progress blew wide open in the second season. A new associate producer came in who veered the focus away from the fantastic toward more relevant storylines. Racial themes were addressed. Ratings suffered.

Scripter John W. Bloch recalled, “The second year was frantic.

They panicked too early and worked out of desperation. The ratings were low and it was just it was a case of ‘What can we do to boost the ratings?’ But in doing something that fast, you begin to cut away at the edges of your solid premise. There was a kind of hysteria in finding new approaches for the show.”

Various ideas were floated. Consideration was given to casting a younger partner for Vincent, perhaps a teenager to capture that demographic.

Thinnes suggested introducing some good aliens to counter the bad to make the aliens seem less like emotionless robots. “I don’t really disagree with the concept,” he observed, “but the idea of friendly creatures from another planet seems reasonable, and I think it would widen the vista and stimulate the writers.”

That idea was introduced in “The Life Seekers,” and explored further in the next episode, “The Pursued,” wherein Suzanne Pleshette returned as a sympathetic yet psychotic alien who cooperates to help expose the invasion plan.

Previously, she had portrayed a similar character in Thinnes’ favorite episode, “The Mutation.” “It was a love story with an alien, played by Suzanne Pleshette,” Thinnes reminisced. “The aliens considered her to be deficient because she had human emotions, and she actually fell in love with David Vincent, and vice versa. She was my favorite. I loved working with her.”

(AT LEFT) Invaders screenshots showing the aliens’ telltale pinky, Kent Smith as Edgar Scoville, Carol Lynley with Thinnes in “The Believers,” and the red glow. The Invaders © Paramount Home Entertainment.

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

The Invaders invade the comics! (RIGHT) Gold Key Comics published four issues of the series, starting with issue #1 (Oct. 1967). Each issue featured a photo montage cover. (FAR RIGHT) Lou Silverstone and Jack Davis spoofed the show in MAD #119 (June 1968). MAD © EC Publications, Inc. The Invaders © Paramount Home Entertainment.

humans who felt a pity, skepticism or scorn for him. We had to work hard to keep this from becoming a series cliché.”

Barry Oringer wrote “The Believers” and the season finale, “Inquisition.”

“I don’t think anyone thought of me in terms of saving the show,” Oringer reflected. “The series had gotten into a bit of a rut and this looked like a promising direction. It gave me a chance to add something to the series as a whole. It turned out pretty well. Kent Smith brought a solidity and stability to the character. Scoville was ENTER: THE BELIEVERS a person you could trust. He wasn’t given to easy beliefs, and that ABC asked Quinn Martin to modify the show’s format and portray made him more credible when he did believe.” his protagonist as winning more often. Consequently, Vincent Carol Lynley as psychologist Elyse Reynolds was introduced as suddenly acquired a circle of seven fellow travelers dedicated to a potential regular girlfriend, but the idea was nixed in favor of a exposing the alien threat in “The Believers.” This group was led by variety of romantic interests. She never returned. wealthy industrialist Edgar Scoville, played by Kent Smith.

The other Believers fared little better. Only two were recurring.

Allen Armer explained, “We made the change because David Former Hawaiian Eye star Anthony Eisley as Vincent’s fight seemed such a hopeless one.

Bob Torin was slain by aliens in his second His task was so huge that we felt the viewer appearance, “The Ransom.” Lin McCarthy, was becoming frustrated and despairing of FAST FACTS who played Colonel Archie Harmon, his success. The Believers will occasionally appeared in two subsequent episodes take the bull by the horns and push the THE INVADERS before the aliens got him, too. Others were action themselves, rather than wait for the No. of seasons: Two merely guest-stars, such as Professor Elliot Invaders to initiate each encounter.”

No. of episodes: 43 Kramer, who engineered a major victory “It can only help my character,” allowed Original run: January 10, 1967–March when he devised a method of jamming the Thinnes. “A man shouldn’t spend a year 26, 1968 saucers’ navigation, causing one to crash, in spreading the gospel without gaining a Primary cast: Roy Thinnes, Kent Smith “Counter-Attack.” following. He would also become a bloody Created by: Larry Cohen Many were unhappy with his new bore in his one-man mission. Now, the charNetwork: ABC direction. acter gains credence, and we have a way to Anthony Spinner remembered, “It was, pay for all those trips around the country, SEQUEL ‘Let’s get some people to believe him for something an architect could hardly do on The Invaders (TV miniseries aired a change.’

This way Vincent didn’t have his own.”

November 12 and 14, 1995; starring to keep on with a solitary quest. But the Armer cited another reason: “In the Scott Bakula, Elizabeth Peña, Richard changes made it diffuse. They needed to past it was hard for Thinnes to play scenes Thomas, Richard Belzer, Roy Thinnes) with ‘people’ who had no emotions, or with Recurring alien characters were absent until Season Two, when the writers began exploring these emotionally sterile extraterrestrials. Alfred Ryder played Mr. Nexus in the first-season episode, “Vikor.” For the second season, he had a recurring role as an alien leader whom Vincent kidnaps in “The Ransom,” and who returns for “The Peacemaker,” in which an attempt to negotiate a human-alien truce backfires.

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An undated acrylic portrait of Invaders star Roy Thinnes as David Vincent, painted by the actor himself.

A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION

Quinn Martin (QM) Productions, the company behind some of the most popular TV dramas of the Sixties and Seventies, was known for its “A Quinn Martin Production” and “Tonight’s Episode…” narrations over its series opening titles. QM’s series included: The Fugitive (1963–1967) Twelve O’Clock High (1964–1967) The F.B.I. (1965–1974) The Invaders (1971–1976) Cannon (1963–1976) The Streets of San Francisco (1972– 1976) Barnaby Jones (1973–1980)

The Invaders © Paramount Home Enter-tainment.

Courtesy of Heritage.

work on David Vincent, not invent 10 other characters who sat around like a support team.”

“The Believers [characters] complicated the series,” observed writer Don Brinkley. “The original concept is easier and simpler to understand. When you start adding a character here and there, it waters down the concept considerably.”

So an executive decision was made to eliminate them.

“Well into the second season,” recalled Thinnes, “they had organized this, but it just didn’t work out for story, so in one episode, they were all murdered by the aliens.”

Episode by episode, the Believers were killed off, often incinerated by alien ray guns. Finally, Kent Smith was gunned down in “Inquisition.” Audiences were reassured that Edgar Scoville would recover to continue the struggle.

In “Inquisition,” a new Believer was introduced, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Hatcher, played by Mark Richman. His character would probably have figured prominently in the third season–– except there wasn’t one.

“I was eager to see how the Edgar Scoville character would develop, but before it did, the show was cancelled,” lamented Thinnes.

The final episode ended on a note that the reconnaissance phase had ended. The Invaders retreated from Earth to gear up to launch an all-out invasion. Scoville estimated Earth had one year before military action commenced. Viewers never got to see that development. Unlike The Fugitive, no definitive resolution was aired.

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THE INVASION IS OVER

The cancellation came as a shock to Thinnes. “There were eight episodes in the works,” he recalled, “and then one day I read in Variety that the show and several others things Quinn had on the air were cancelled. I think something political happened.”

In real life, the wave of saucer sightings died down in 1968.

The Monday morning quarterbacking was fierce. Everyone had an opinion why The Invaders failed to become another Quinn Martin hit.

Anthony Spinner observed, “One of the problems is that Vincent kept trying to convince people of the aliens’ presence and he was rarely believed. It was a dead end.”

Scripter Art Wallace concurred, “The Invaders was a hell of a good idea, but it was ultimately self-defeating. How long could it go on?

It was too limiting. It would have been great as a mini-series, but it couldn’t continue as a weekly show. You run out of things to do and you start to repeat yourself. But there was no other way you could handle that premise.”

Roy Thinness blamed the Believers rebooting.

“When they brought in a team to work with Vincent,” he noted, “there was no longer the Quinn Martin vision of a study in paranoia.

We lost a sense of Vincent, the characters he encountered, and the drama that was inherent in the previous storylines. It became more of an action-oriented series void of ethics and science, replaced with fear and violence.”

“The problem with a show like The Invaders is that there are only so many ways you can bend the concept,” scripter Don Brinkley

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

declared. “A series may be good for a couple of years, but after a third year, well… that’s when the clowns and wolfmen come in!”

Thankfully, viewers were spared alien clowns. But the fundamental reason The Invaders floundered went back to its core unresolvable issue, according to writer Robert Sherman.

“How can one man give these incredible aliens such problems?

The only way to handle that is to take it segment by segment. The aliens have a new plot, David comes along and screws them up.

They have to to counter him by knocking off the people around him. He endures that, and he stops their plan in that particular show. At the end of each story, we know the aliens are still out there. On a weekly basis, that’s the best you can do.”

Even during the Believers phase, that fixed formula did not vary.

Roy Thinnes caught flak for playing David Vincent so driven and uptight.

“Roy was blamed by everyone, from day one, for not properly developing the character,” recalled assistant director Bob Rubin. “It would have been different if he had phoned-in the part, but rather, he arrived early and left late. He lived the part of David Vincent 24 hours a day. The bottom line is, he worked his ass off to make the series work, but several people chose to throw him under the proverbial bus.”

“Roy’s rigidness helped the character maintain a believability,” insisted John Bloch. “A flamboyant, screaming, table-pounding character wouldn’t have worked.”

As Don Brinkley saw it, the truth may have been above the star.

“Quinn was a little uneasy with The Invaders. It was a little out of his

range and he was never really comfortable with it. He was used to more reality-based shows.”

Anthony Spinner agreed. “Quinn’s real world was cop shows.

He did them better than anyone else. But he got burned by The Invaders’ cancellation. He really wanted it to succeed. He never did a science-fiction series again.”

Attempts to revive the franchise in later years misfired.

Thinnes tried to enlist Larry Cohen for an Eighties remake. “He wasn’t available when I sold it to ABC, so I had Sam Rolfe write a screenplay from my story. ABC committed to a three-hour pilot and six episodes, and then Capital Cities bought ABC, and they decided not to honor the contract.”

A 1995 miniseries revival starring Scott Bakula as new lead character Nolan Wood included a Thinnes cameo as escaped convict David Vincent proved disappointing. Had it gone to series, Thinnes would have played a greater role.

Fifty years later, UFOs are big news once more. Now they are called UAPs—Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Military leaders are hinting at Disclosure. Will David Vincent come out of retirement to reveal all? One can only wait, and worry….

WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze.com) series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve Ditko.

WANTED MATTEL BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TOYS! Buying Prototypes, Unreleased items, Artwork, Store Displays, Catalogs, Toys, Paperwork, Anything!

Call or Email John 631-223-8753

Galacticafan78@aol.com RETROFAN

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

OLD GODS & NEW

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REED CRANDALL

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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

Hollywood Epics

in Your Own Home! (in 8mm)

WRITTEN AND CAPTIONED BY ERNEST FARINO

Boy, are we spoiled.

Let’s pop in a DVD or fire up Netflix and revisit Casablanca or travel to the Forbidden Planet or check out the latest episode of Downton Abbey. Or, for that matter, just about any movie or TV series covered in any given issue of RetroFan magazine. Disney+, HBOMax, Amazon, Hulu, Peacock, Turner Classic Movies, Nickelodeon, MeTV, The Game Show Network, ESPN, CNN, The Golf Channel—it’s hard to believe that we once had to settle for three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), PBS, and UHF (show of hands: who remembers UHF…?). And don’t forget to wrap the tips of your rabbit-ears antenna with tin foil.

And, of course, we had to wait months (sometimes years) for a movie to show up on Saturday Night at the Movies. Otherwise, gotta catch it at the theater or drive-in.

Yet there was an alternative. Not great like the DVDs and streaming we have today, but any port in a storm: 8mm home movies.

Actually, 16mm was the original format, film that was half the width of theatrical 35mm. The Bell & Howell 2709 camera was used in early silent films, and cameras such as the Filmo, Eyemo, Autoload EE, and the N-6A military 16mm “gun” camera were commonly used by newsreel cameramen and combat photographers during WWII. B&H Filmosound projectors dominated the market for many years, and I still have a 16mm Filmosound projector, originally built in the Fifties.

Eugene Castle formed Castle Films in 1924 to distribute 16mm newsreels and sports highlights by mail order and in photo stores. His films were also rented for non-theatrical exhibition in schools or non-profit community venues. His primary products were “soundies,” the music videos of the day. For a dime in a machine you could view a “soundie” of Glenn Miller’s orchestra. Around 1947, Castle sold his company to United World Films. The new owners made a deal with Universal Studios to release scenes from Universal movies, most notably Abbott and Costello films, monster movies, and Walter Lantz cartoons.

Bell & Howell introduced their first amateur 8mm movie projector in 1934, the Filmo Straight Eight camera in 1935, and the Double-Run Filmo 8 in 1936. In 1940, the Filmo Auto-8 camera took a 25-foot reel of Kodak Double-Eight film.

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home movies and fans were buying up the commercially available titles. Most of these films came in a 50-foot reel (three to four minutes) and/or a 200-foot reel (about 12 minutes). An editor condensed the story by selecting action with a minimum of dialogue, intercutting title cards as needed.

As a “home movie” format, 16mm died out in the mid-Sixties, but 8mm sales hit their peak. Universal Studios renamed Castle Films “Universal-8.” Almost every other major studio also tried establishing an 8mm division, but the 8mm market steadily declined. The format was rejuvenated for a while in the late-Seventies with the release of an edited version of Star Wars in 8mm, the condensed version edited by George Lucas himself. But most 8mm film companies soon went defunct, and Castle Films put out its last titles in 1981.

Aside from Castle Films, a few companies stand out. Bob Lane’s Ken Films, based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, released 159 titles in Super 8 from 1968 until 1982. They handled films from Republic Pictures, United Artists, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and American International. Towards the end of their run they took over Warner Bros. Home Movie Entertainment and MGM Super 8.

Walton Films in England carried many of the same titles, but they only held rights for the U.K. market. Another British company, Derann, came about in 1973 when they took over the entire 16mm entertainment section of Golden Films and E.V.A. Film Distributors, Ltd. By mid-1975, the 16mm occupied a room of its own and was managed by Steve Wellings, who did all his own bookings, packing, and dispatching, and checking returned prints.

One of my favorite companies was Americom-8. They were primarily a flexi-disc record company located in midtown Manhattan that made pocket flexi-disc single records as well as the discs that came with magazines. For the few years that they engaged in the home-movie market, they released several titles, each of which came with a flexi-disc plastic soundtrack record. There was a sync “pop” on the record that signaled starting the projector at a specific point in the leader, but the films rarely stayed in sync with the soundtrack.

Fortunately, I had a Japanese Sanyo Super 8 projector that had a rheostat-style speed control, so I could speed up or slow down the projector to manually keep the picture and sound together. The great thing was that they had licensed several Hammer Films, and it was a genuine thrill to be able to run even the condensed version of Horror of Dracula. Over and over and over…

RetroFan reader Mike Lefebvre was heavily into the 8mm scene back in the day, distributing many titles from all the companies through his L/C Films based in Garden Grove, California. Mike also published Private Screenings magazine from 1975 for three years.

Mike tells me that Jimmy Maddin was an early distributor of 8mm home movies, starting in 1964. Maddin owned and operated several nightclubs in Los Angeles, notably the Capri Lounge in Glendale. He also appeared as “Tongue Tied” in the film The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow and performed a song of the same name. He previously co-wrote the song “I Love the Dodgers” when the baseball team relocated to Los Angeles in 1958. Other prominent figures in the field included Eddie DeRoo, who ran Hollywood Cine Labs in 20

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Glendale, California (near Rockaway Records), and Thunderbird Films, which was literally operated out of the owners’ house. Mike had trouble with Atlas Films, whose product was terrible quality.

Blackhawk Films of Davenport, Iowa, was a major distributor but didn’t much interface with others as they wouldn’t offer their titles at wholesale. Prompted by mentions in Famous Monsters, one of the very first films I bought through the mail was the 1912 one-reel (12-minute) version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring James Cruze. The film itself was crude (it was, after all, made in 1912), but it was quite a thrill to be able to run it many times over in the darkened garage.

But technology, like rust, never sleeps, as the saying goes, and soon videotape was upon us. Betamax offered superior image quality, but was overrun by VHS because Sony (Betamax) wouldn’t budge on their higher prices. So schools, libraries, and the average consumer veered heavily towards VHS, which finally won over the home-video market. It was still a bite; my first VCR in 1979 cost $1,200.00 (about $4,400 today—yikes!). VHS tapes ran between $79.95 and $99.95 until the studios finally realized they could make more money on a sell-through rate as well as on rentals. It was worth it, though. My first movie on VHS was one of my all-time favorites, Goldfinger, and that became a mildly OCD tradition: with every new technology (laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray) as well as any upgrade to a new machine, the first movie I run is Goldfinger.

There was also the “gray market” for full-length 16mm prints—gray market because technically, one shouldn’t be able to own a 16mm feature. It was later proven that owning a print was no more of a copyright violation than owning a paperback copy of a novel—it’s only when you start making your own copies, reselling, or charging admission that you start to run into trouble. Actor Roddy McDowall famously got in trouble over his extensive collection of 16mm prints, and numerous actions were taken against bootleggers. This was before the advent of the home-videotape market, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was clamping down on what it perceived to be a drain on potential box office revenue. That all changed, of course, with the coming of home-video when legitimate sales and rentals could be integrated into the cash flow of film distribution.

A friend of mine in Dallas discovered a novel way to acquire 16mm prints: dumpster-diving behind the offices of 16mm rental houses like Films Inc. and Swank. The only problem was that when those companies discarded a worn-out print they would buzz-saw the reels in half. My friend—amazingly—managed to meticulously splice the films back together (which sounds all too close to reassembling a document that’s gone through a shredder). The result was that as the film got closer to the center of the reel, the strips of film were shorter and shorter, and the splices came quicker and quicker (skip… skip… skipskip… skipskipskip). The relentless drip of water torture would have been preferable, I think.

But for now we’ll concentrate on the 8mm format (although I was strictly a Super 8 guy), and browse the many subjects and titles that livened up a darkened living room with only the soft chatter of a projector in the background.

Ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

ADVERTISING

The ads were almost as much fun as the films themselves. I used to become mesmerized by the film listings in the back pages of Famous Monsters magazine, imagining a whole line-up of screenings in my garage-based neighborhood “theater.” Which, of course, never came about (the idle dreams of youth…). The ”Cliff Monster” was advertised in the rival magazine Fantastic Monsters of the Films and was made up of clips of monsters created by Paul Blaisdell, including It Conquered the World, The Day the World Ended, and other films he worked on for American International.

BEASTS AND BEHEMOTHS

MonsterKid Heaven: Everything from stop-motion animation to guys in rubber suits, from giant spiders to giant behemoths. Great monster stuff without all those— yuck—mushy romantic subplots.

King Kong © The Merian C. Cooper Estate. Godzilla and Rodan © Toho Co., Ltd.

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CARTOONS

Cartoons were always popular and ran the gamut from Mighty Mouse to Mr. Magoo. Some interesting oddities came out, too: Alice in Wonderland was Lou Bunin’s stopmotion version integrated with a live-action Alice played

by Carol Marsh (who would later appear as “Lucy” in Hammer’s Horror of Dracula).

Alice in Wonderland © Lou Bunin Productions. Mighty Mouse © CBS. Mr. Magoo © UPA. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck © Disney.

CATALOGS

All the major companies issued profusely illustrated catalogs, some in full color. It was enough to make your mouth water.

Mike Lefebvre’s L/C Films catalogs were so extensive as to simultaneously provide a basic reference index to virtually all of the titles available across the board.

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COMEDIES

One wonders if the “comedy” was effectively conveyed without the benefit of sound; e.g., the wisecracks of Groucho Marx or the wordplay of Abbott and Costello.

Speaking of Abbott and Costello, Mark Evanier related an interesting side story in his November 29, 2003 blog on Castle Films (slightly condensed here): “Around 1949, Castle Films figured into a notable Hollywood ‘first.’ Abbott and Costello’s manager, Eddie Sherman, had secured for them a contract that paid them a percentage of the profits from their films. [But] Universal maintained that there were no profits to share. Sherman could not get a look at

the accounting unless he sued the studio, but he couldn’t find a basis on which to sue. One day, while walking down Vine Street in Hollywood, he passed a camera shop with a window display for the 8mm Castle Films of Abbott and Costello. That was the excuse he needed. He sued Universal on behalf of his clients and gained access to the books, which displayed all manner of financial irregularity. They wound up settling out of court for a very large sum of cash, starting a tradition that continues to this day and now involves DVDs.”

HITCHCOCK

DOCUMENTARIES

Like theatrical newsreels, and in an age of limited TV news, documentaries were quite popular. Those covering the U.S.A.’s space race were of great interest to me, and “uncovering” Jayne Mansfield started to open the door to X-rated 8mm “loops” popular in the Seventies.

The “Master of Suspense” Alfred Hitchcock was represented considerably, but the absence of Bernard Herrmann’s screech-screechscreech music score for Psycho in the silent 8mm version pointedly demonstrates the importance of an effective music score.

Psycho © Paramount Pictures. Frenzy ©

Walt Disney World © Disney. Gemini 4 Space Walk © Columbia Pictures.

Universal Pictures.

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HORROR

Horror titles were enormously popular, partly, I suppose, because they were, by nature, very visual. Exciting sequences with little dialogue could be culled from most of these films. An odd exception was the otherwise terrific Horror of Dracula, which included the entirety of the blood transfusion scene, a rather dull scene to begin with. As mentioned previously, this film was released

by Americom-8, complete with flex-plastic soundtrack record. One day I set it up to watch again, placing the projector on a table in the kitchen to project onto a screen in the living room. I set the record aside, on the edge of the stove—not realizing the stove had been used recently and was still warm. You guessed it: a few minutes later I turned to get the record and the thin plastic record had melted from the heat, drooling down the side of the stove like some kind of Salvador Dali abstract. So much for my “soundtrack”…

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon © Universal Pictures.

HOLLYWOOD EPICS

“Mainstream” Hollywood films—dramas, epics, and more—made it to 8mm. I never owned any of these and wonder how the parting of the Red Sea looked on the (very) small screen. The Matt Helm and Our Man Flint spy series were adapted, but not—to my knowledge—the James Bond films.

The Ten Commandments © Paramount Pictures. The Boston Strangler, Flight of the Phoenix, Our Man Flint © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. The Silencers © Columbia Pictures.

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PRIVATE SHOWINGS

Around 1973, my brothers and I put on a “Super Kiddie Carnival” in support of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy campaign. This was the perfect excuse to set up a mini-theater in our family’s two-car garage in Irving (a suburb of Dallas, Texas) and show a rented 16mm print of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. I had at least one of the four-part 8mm edition and had studied that frame-by-frame for many hours, but remarkably this was the first time I had ever seen the complete movie.

Needless to say, I practically wore out that print with repeated viewings that weekend.

During his senior year at the University of Dallas, my friend Sam Calvin created a very elaborate 150-minute multimedia show inspired by Carlos Clarens’ book, An Illustrated History of the Horror Film, consisting of slides projected in triptych form, film clips, music, and Sam’s prerecorded narration. It took three people to run the show: Sam (slideshow), our friend Ryan (the Super 8 projector), and me (the 16mm projector), manually synchronizing the visuals to the audio.

Proceeds from the first two shows went to charity, but Sam, an employee at Six Flags Over Texas, suggested to management that we put on a free show for the employees. Then Six Flags wanted us to show it during the Halloween season—for very good money— and The Illustrated History financed the publication of issue #4 of our Ray Harryhausen fanzine, FXRH.

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PROJECTORS

Projectors and viewing devices for 8mm films came in a variety of forms for many different manufacturers, and many are collectibles today. Accessories such as an editor/viewer were essential to the budding filmmaker, and, already interested in animation, I would study the Ray Harryhausen 8mm editions frame-byframe, diagramming the progression of the tail movements of his creatures and timing and movement in general.

Preserving one’s collection was important, especially the 16mm prints, and a coating called Vitafilm was carefully applied by drawing the film through a saturated cloth between rewinds. Most of these solutions were based on furniture polish and would “fill in” scratches while adding a microscopic lamination-like protective layer, lubricating the print for smoother running through the projector. Vitafilm can still be obtained at https://stewartmps.com/

RAY HARRYHAUSEN

Ray Harryhausen’s films were very popular, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad were each released in four parts—practically the entirety of the features.

One oddity was First Men “In” the Moon—filmed in Panavision 2.35:1 widescreen, the 8mm version was released “squeezed,” and the only way to simulate a “letterbox” frame was to angle the projector against the screen at about 45º, “stretching” the image horizontally.

Anamorphic projection lenses were available for some projectors, but those were beyond my means.

I ordered Earth vs. the Flying Saucers from Blackhawk but was disappointed to see that the print was flawed: the frame line had been printed right through the middle of the picture and no amount of adjustment of the framing knob could correct it. Annoyed, I sent it back, politely requesting a replacement.

They came through, much to my delight, but I noticed there was something wrong with the replacement print as well. It finally dawned on me: there were no superimposed subtitles at the bottom of the frame telling the story. Annoyed again, I was about to send that print back when I realized, Wait a minute! I don’t want those dumb subtitles! So this time the “flaw” was a good thing… © Columbia Pictures.

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SCI-FI

Like horror, science-fiction titles were very popular, especially to those of us weaned on Famous Monsters and Shock Theater. As mentioned above, filmmaker George Lucas personally edited the 8mm edition of Star Wars, and the popularity of that title jump-started what had become a somewhat dormant market.

For a period of time in the Seventies in Dallas, I took on the duties of running the Nostalgia Film Society, a popular monthly screening venue for about 35–40 friends and families. On one occasion we ran an 8mm print of The Lost World (1925) which was, of course, silent. After about five minutes, with the light clatter of the projector as the only sound in the room, we heard the tiny voice of a five-year-old girl in a terrified panic saying, “Mommy, I can’t hear it...!!!” Probably the only time The Lost World ever got that big a laugh from an audience.

Incredible Shrinking Man © Universal Pictures. Fireball XL5 © ITC. Star Wars © Lucasfilm.

SPORTS

Sports films were also very popular, though I never really got into that subject. Like the “game films” we see today on the NFL Network and ESPN, these highlights captured the best of key games and teams. Even those comedic “Magicians of Basketball,” the Harlem Globetrotters, had their own home movie edition. © Harlem Globetrotters.

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3D

I must come clean—I have never been a fan of 3D. I’ve seen the best 3D in reissue venues (House of Wax, Dial “M” for Murder, The Creature from the Black Lagoon) and modern films such as Avatar, but the novelty wears off pretty quick. For me the effect doesn’t simulate real life but creates an exaggerated multi-plane look that actually distorts reality. In any case, the 8mm market was not about to skip over the popularity of 3D, and sure enough, everything from the Three Stooges to features such as The Mad Magician came complete with red-and-green plastic glasses.

WORST BOX ART

As seen in this article, box cover art was most often lively, colorful, and faithful to the film. A few fell short—way short—and I present for you here two of the most hilariously awful pieces of art that don’t even rise to the level of a thirdgrader doodling in a coloring book.

If that’s Raquel Welch on the cover of Bandolero! (a terrific movie), then I will someday be mistaken for George Clooney.

And it somehow seems fitting that Plan 9 from Outer Space—often cited as the worst film ever made (it isn’t)—has the worst box cover art ever made (it is).

Thanks to Sam Calvin and Mike Lefebvre.

ERNEST FARINO directed an episode of the SyFy/Netflix series Superstition starring Mario Van Peebles, Steel and Lace starring Bruce Davison, episodes of Monsters starring Lydia Cornell and Marc McClure, ABC’s Land of the Lost starring Timothy Bottoms, and extensive 2nd Unit for the miniseries Dune starring William Hurt, Noah’s Ark starring Jon Voight, and Supernova starring Luke Perry. A two-time Emmy®-winning Visual Effects Supervisor for SyFy’s Dune and Children of Dune miniseries, Farino supervised the visual effects for the Tom Hanks/HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and James Cameron’s The Terminator, The Abyss, and T2. His Archive Editions published Mike Hankin’s Ray Harryhausen–Master of the Majicks.

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RETRO FANZINES

BY DON VAUGHAN Like many RetroFan readers, I was a MonsterKid in my youth. And not just a weekend dabbler—I was hardcore. I watched every classic horror/SF movie I could find on television, as well as new releases at the theater. The first comic book I ever purchased was Where Monsters Dwell #5, a 1970 Marvel reprint title that snagged my 15 cents with a kick-ass, action-filled Jack Kirby cover. I read Shelley’s Frankenstein, Stoker’s Dracula, Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and numerous other monsterific literary classics because they were the foundation of pretty much everything I loved in popular culture. Science fiction and horror were my personal passions, regardless of form, and if a work contained monsters, all the better.

As a card-carrying MonsterKid, Forest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland was my pop-culture bible. I occasionally read the competition, such as Castle of Frankenstein and, later, Cinefan-

tastique, but Famous Monsters was my favorite. Sure, Uncle Forry could go overboard with the bad puns, but the amazing photos contained in each issue were a visual treat, and I dreamed of seeing my name in “You Axed For It.” A dream unfulfilled, though not for a lack of trying.

In early January 1972, a new publication hit the stands—The Monster Times. Similar in theme to Famous Monsters of Filmland, The Monster Times was different in two very significant ways: it was published in tabloid newspaper format, and came out every two weeks (as opposed to Famous Monsters’ bimonthly publication).

That’s a LOT of monsters.

The publishers of The Monster Times were Larry Brill and Les Waldstein, veteran art directors who worked on such esteemed publications as Al Goldstein’s tawdry sex rag, Screw, and—wait for it—Famous Monsters of Filmland. In the late Sixties, Brill and

Creepy! Kooky! And cool! From 1972, The Monster Times #1 and 2. © The Monster Times Publishing Company. Courtesy of Heritage.

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retro FANZINES

(FAR LEFT) Ten times as big as a man! Or a woman!

King Kong original cover art produced by the extraordinary Gray Morrow for The Monster Times #1.

(LEFT) Cover to The Monster Times #18.

King Kong © The Merian C. Cooper Estate. Courtesy of Heritage.

Waldstein were hired by publisher James Warren to compose covers for Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie, and a number of one-shot publications. It was a great gig until the duo got in a fight with Warren over a commission deal and were fired.

Shortly after leaving Warren Publications, Brill and Waldstein began talking in earnest about publishing a competitor to Famous Monsters of Filmland. “We chose the tabloid style because… newspaper was cheap—glossy covers were expensive,” Brill told writer Richard Klemensen in Little Shoppe of Horrors #43. “That’s why we folded it down to that size of a magazine to get on newsstands.”

From the start, The Monster Times tried to be all things to all MonsterKids. It covered monster movies, both vintage and new, from a variety of perspectives; featured interviews with prominent actors and others; published illustrations by established and up-and-coming artists; listed upcoming conventions; and more— all for just 50 cents an issue.

When The Monster Times debuted, the Mafia still had its fingers in national magazine distribution—including the company that carried The Monster Times. But according to Brill, the relationship was anything but problematic. “The Mafia gave us a fair count,” he said in Little Shoppe of Horrors. “They weren’t lying to us about… how many we were printing and how many they sold… They paid their bills exactly on time; they would give us Christmas presents.”

The first issue, dated January 26, 1972, immediately set the tone with a King Kong cover drawn by Gray Morrow and a feature about the super-sized cinema simian by film researcher Steve Vertlieb; a slightly revised version of which was later published in the book The Girl in the Hairy Paw (Avon), edited by Ronald Gotteman and Harry Geduld. Other feature articles examined movie vampires, the Golem, Buck Rogers, movie monsters created by atomic bombs, and H. G. Wells’ Things to Come.

Monsters were well represented in the premiere issue, but there also was a special treat for comic-book fans—a centerfold illustrating the creation of Frankenstein’s monster, and a two-page Nosferatu comic strip, both drawn by Bernie (then Berni) 30

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Wrightson. The artist was just approaching the height of his popularity, with the first issue of DC Comics’ Swamp Thing only a few months away. Wrightson would go on to do additional work for The Monster Times, including the cover of issue #6.

The centerfold poster was a selling point from the very start, and indicative of the artistic influence Brill and Waldstein held over the publication. While specific editors made assignments and handled other editorial duties, Brill and Waldstein designed each cover and worked closely with the editor-in-chief regarding the content and layout of each issue.

“There’s no question that The Monster Times was Les and Larry’s publication,” writer Joe Brancatelli told Richard Klemensen in Little Shoppe of Horrors. “They drove the book and that drove the content.

To say Les and Larry ‘handled the physical layout’ totally underplays the reality. They WERE The Monster Times.”

The magazine had several editors over its 48-issue run. Chuck R. McNaughton held the position for the first seven issues, followed

by Allan Asherman (issues #8–10) and Joe Kane (#11–48). Working with them was an eclectic array of writers, some newbies at the time, others magazine veterans. Gary Gerani fell under the first category, a recent graduate of the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan with no publishing credits to his name.

“I had never been published before, and was still uncertain if I was going to pursue journalism for my career or continue to develop as a professional illustrator,” Gerani tells RetroFan. “Selling my first piece to The Monster Times kind of made up my mind, and a writer’s career was launched. Being a huge fan of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films, I was excited to see a new publication come into being, and became more excited when I began to write for it.”

Gerani wrote numerous articles for The Monster Times and came to specialize in monster “autobiographies,” which shared factual information about a monster or series in a light and fanciful way.

“The Creature from the Black Lagoon one was so successful, they had me doing those kinds of humorous-but-informative articles for a while,” Gerani tells RetroFan. “That actually led to me landing

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a full-time position at Topps, where I created and wrote kids’ products for nearly half a century.”

A glance at the bylines that graced the pages of The Monster Times reveals a Who’s Who of early-Seventies wordsmiths, such as Dean Latimer, who had articles in the majority of issues, plus R. Allen Leider, Gary Levinson, Ed Naha, Gary Svehla, Bjo Trimble, Michael Uslan, and Jim Wynorski, among many others.

This being the early-to-mid-Seventies, when comic fandom was running hot, The Monster Times enthusiastically covered the current comic-book scene, and brought in some of the best to provide the words. Brancatelli, for example, wrote about everything from EC Comics to Russell Myers’ Broomhilda, while Michael Uslan, who would later go on to become an influential film producer, wrote about Conan the Barbarian and the class on comic-book history he taught at Indiana University. Joining them were such esteemed writers as Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway, Mark Evanier, Tony Isabella, Doug Moench, Doug Murray, and Don Thompson.

As a result, the comic-book coverage in The Monster Times was top-notch, spotlighting the latest releases as well as explorations of the medium’s Golden Age. The first issue of The Monster Times I ever bought was #10, the special EC Comics issue. I was relatively new to comic collecting at the time, but well aware of the importance and influence of EC, so this issue really spoke to me. It included an interview with EC publisher Bill Gaines and editor Al Feldstein, articles about EC comics and the recent Tales from the Crypt movie from Amicus Productions, and a centerfold reproduction of the cover of Tales from the Crypt #38. I was hooked, and started buying The Monster Times regularly, though it took me a few years—and eBay—to acquire a complete collection.

To capitalize further on the mid-Seventies comic-book boom, Brill and Waldstein tapped Brancatelli to birth a new magazine titled Inside Comics. Published quarterly through 1974, the magazine featured comic-book news and interviews with popular creators such as Robert Crumb and Harvey Kurtzman. Unfortunately, the magazine failed to find a readership and was cancelled with its fourth issue.

The Monster Times was created to compete with Famous Monsters of Filmland, which was in its 14th year of publication when The Monster Times debuted, as well as the other monster mags that were filling the racks. Some of the competition attempted a more academic approach to their coverage of fantastic films, but Brill and Waldstein understood that a touch of whimsy would better attract readers to their unique product.

Your Five Minute Mission is to ooh and ahh over the original art by Gray Morrow featuring the Star Trek cast.

From The Monster Times #2. Star Trek © CBS. Courtesy of Heritage.

“The Monster Times was all about fun and having a good time,” Gerani observed in The Little Shoppe of Horrors. “Sure, you could jam all kinds of fascinating trivia about the movie you were covering, but the prime directive was to keep things light. And creatively imaginative, whenever possible.” As a result, Acker-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

THE TEN COOLEST FEATURES IN THE MONSTER TIMES (ACCORDING TO ME) “The Men Who Saved King Kong,” issue #1. Much of the first issue was devoted to the mighty Kong, with this Steve Vertlieb-penned article spotlighting the film’s creators and production. Great stuff if you love big monkeys—and who doesn’t?

“Confessions from the Black Lagoon: The Memoirs of Gilbert ‘Gill’ Gillman,” issue #5. Gary Gerani pitched a feature on The Creature from the Black Lagoon, but had difficulty figuring out how to tell his story. Editor Chuck McNaughton suggested Gerani approach it from the Gill-Man’s perspective, and a RETROFAN

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unique approach to monster journalism was born. Gerani did a number of similar “biographies” for the magazine, as well as a recurring column featuring Godzilla. This issue also features a terrific interview with comic-book artist Joe Kubert regarding DC’s acquisition of Tarzan and other Edgar Rice Burroughs properties, highlighted by a full-page reproduction of the cover of Tarzan of the Apes #207, DC’s first issue.

in which he asks to be called God, and notes that he is not Japanese, having been born in “the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, just two blocks north of Bay Parkway.” The centerfold poster features Godzilla holding the American flag, with an official endorsement from The Monster Times.

Other issue highlights include an “interview” with Mighty Joe Young, and a feature on The Return of Count Yorga.

“EC Comics Overview,” issue #10. The Monster Times was quick to jump on the EC bandwagon, fueled by Amicus Productions’ 1972 film adaptation of Tales from the Crypt.

This issue looks at EC from a variety of perspectives, including a history of the company; an “interview” with the Vault-Keeper, the Crypt-Keeper, and the Old Witch, conducted by Mark Evanier; a feature on Seduction of the Innocent psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and his attacks on EC; a report on the 1972 EC Fan-Addict Convention; and much more. As noted earlier, this issue of The Monster Times was my first, and it greatly informed my knowledge of the seminal comic-book company. It also made me realize that The Monster Times was a great complement to Famous Monsters of Filmland in that it covered topics that Famous Monsters tended to ignore.

“Spider-Man’s Fiendish Foes,” issue #13. By this point in its run, The Monster Times was reporting on comic books old and new almost as extensively as it was covering monsters. This feature by Gary Brown offers a rundown of Spidey’s most impressive bad guys, with illos by Steve Ditko and others, and is complemented by interviews with Spider-Man artist John Romita, Sr. and writer Gerry Conway. But wait, there’s more! The whipped cream on this delicious newsprint parfait is an article by M. C. Richard, with artwork by Sergio Aragonés, titled “A Fan’s Trek Through Comic Book Conventions,” which offers some insightful history into the then-burgeoning national comic-con phenomenon.

“Godzilla for President!,” issue #16. The Monster Times took a whimsical approach to many of its articles, culminating in a 1972 presidential run for Godzilla, who by that point had become the magazine’s de facto mascot. The article features a faux Time magazine interview with Godzilla 32

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© EC Publications, Inc.

“Interview with Christopher Lee,” issue #8. The Monster Times went all in on Hammer Horror in this issue, which included an interview with one of the studio’s most respected thespians, Christopher Lee. The issue also contains a feature on the history of Hammer Films, a company filmography, and a piece on Hammer beauties.

Pretty much everything you need to know about Hammer Films.

“Frankenstein: The Man Who Made a Monster,” issue #21. It took a while for The Monster Times to get around to covering perhaps the most famous monster of all—Dr. Frankenstein’s horrific creation—but when they finally did, they did it right. This issue highlights all things Frankenstein, including a photo-packed Filmbook by Allan Asherman of the 1931 movie, a look at Frankenstein in the comics, an interview with House of Frankenstein star Glenn Strange, a feature on Thomas Edison’s 1910 silent film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s literary classic, and a somewhat sad feature on Frankenstein’s decline into cinematic mediocrity. While much about Frankenstein had already been reported in early issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland, The Monster Times managed to bring it back to (reanimated) life for a new generation in a fun and informative way.

“Godzilla: The King of the Monsters!,” issue #23. This issue is an oddity in that it’s the only one to be printed in magazine format, with a stapled spine rather than the usual folded tabloid format. It’s also a special all-Godzilla issue and kicks off with an interview with the Big G by Gary Gerani, in which Godzilla discusses how he became the Heavyweight Champ of the World. The issue is packed with related photos, as well as a Godzilla filmlist and a Godzilla quiz for hardcore fans. If you dig Godzilla, this issue is a must-have.

“Ray Bradbury: A Man for All Eons,” issue #31. Of course, an all-Martian issue wouldn’t be complete without an interview with Ray Bradbury, the Red Planet’s most notable literary advocate. It’s the highlight of an issue that also includes a filmbook of the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds, an exploration of Martians in comics, a look at the 1953 film Invaders from Mars, and a great centerfold poster of a Martian and its death-spewing ship from The War of the Worlds.

“12 Giant Monster Posters Inside!,” issue #39. The centerfold poster included in every issue of The Monster Times was tremendously popular with readers, so a special “poster” issue was pretty much inevitable. Twelve popular monsters are profiled in full-page posters, including the Mummy, King Kong, Frankenstein’s monster, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla (of course!), and Planet of the Apes. But most impressive of all is the centerfold, which unfolds to reveal a huge poster of the 1968 kaiju free-for-all Destroy All Monsters. Younger readers with empty wall space in their bedrooms grokked this issue big-time. I know, because I was one of them.

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Okay, so the same pic of Godzilla was used on the covers of The Monster Times #7 and 23.

But who’s gonna complain to the King of Monsters?

The Monster Times © The Monster Times Publishing Company. Godzilla © Toho Co., Ltd.

man-worthy puns were in abundance, as were wacky headlines and more.

Monster mags tend to live or die based on the photos they feature. Famous Monsters of Filmland was able to tap Forrest J Ackerman’s massive personal collection of film stills, but The Monster Times had to look elsewhere. “They came from just about everywhere,” Gerani tells RetroFan. “Collectors would lend them stuff, and you could buy stills from horror movies from a number of shops in New York and Los Angeles. When a movie studio was launching a new effort, they would provide magazines and periodicals with stills and slides.”

The mag reported on a broad array of topics, both new and vintage, during its brief run, but quickly fell in love with two subjects extremely popular at the time: Star Trek and Godzilla.

(Captain Kirk vs. Godzilla? Never happened, but wouldn’t that have been awesome?!)

Star Trek was the cover feature in the second issue, which also included a great Star Trek centerfold poster by Gray Morrow. The issue must have struck a nerve with readers, because Brill and Waldstein went on to blurb the show on ten additional covers, in addition to publishing two Star Trek-themed special issues in 1973 and 1974.

“We were selling stuff that we created for Star Trek,” noted Brill in Little Shoppe of Horrors. “We started making our own Star Trek materials—emblems and stamps and money. And at some point, Paramount calls up and says you can’t do all that stuff. But we knew we could as officially for the first six months of the series, there was no copyright on the TV show. Somebody really screwed up badly and you could do anything you wanted.”

(This was just one example of Brill’s and Waldstein’s willingness to take full advantage of every unique opportunity that came their way. In The Little Shoppe of Horrors, Waldstein related another stunt in which he hired an acrobat, put him in a gorilla suit and a Monster Times T-shirt, and had him crash a parade featuring a Planet of the Apes float. Waldstein didn’t give specifics in the Little Shoppe of Horrors article, but it’s likely that this occurred during the 1975

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which featured a Planet of the Apes float created by the Mego toy company to promote its Planet of the Apes toy line.)

Godzilla also received the superstar treatment. The King of the Monsters’ first cover was #7, and he went on to appear in nine additional issues. Issue #23 even featured an “interview” with Godzilla, credited to Gerani, in which the Big G talked about his life and career.

The Monster Times was published biweekly for its first 14 issues, then transitioned to monthly through 1975, and bimonthly for the remainder of its run. The final issue was #48, dated July 1976 and themed around The Six Million Dollar Man. A variety of factors killed the publication, most notably a drop in readership and increasing production costs. Because it was printed on newsprint, the mag also was difficult to preserve if you were a collector. By the end, The Monster Times was making almost no money for its publishers, kept afloat primarily through income from the Old Abandoned Warehouse, a mail-order company similar to Warren Publishing’s Captain Company, which sold a variety of books and other products to eager MonsterKids.

“We weren’t making any money at all on The Monster Times— that is really all it was,” observed Waldstein in The Little Shoppe of Horrors.

But Brill and Waldstein weren’t quite done. In 1993, the duo published another tabloid—The Dinosaur Times. Aimed at dino fans young and old, the publication lasted just three issues (a fourth was designed, but never printed). Though its theme was decidedly different from The Monster Times, the first issue of The Dinosaur Times featured a natural crossover—a feature about Godzilla.

DON VAUGHAN is a Raleigh, NC-based comic-book collector and writer whose work has appeared in Writer’s Digest, Filmfax, Videoscope, Back Issue, Military Officer Magazine, Encyclopedia Britannica, and elsewhere. He is the founder of Triangle Association of Freelancers (tafnc.com).

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CELEBRITY CRUSHES

The “Itt” Girl Celebrity Crushes, by me, a silly girl who got named “Bitsy” by her older brother.

So I called him “Sleeve” instead of Steve.

Overall, first, I loved my brother and drew him lots of monster pictures, always hoping each drawing would meet his approval.

But let’s begin going through the list of Celebrity Crushes. There is a long list—I have had a variety of loves in my life.

An early recollection is of sitting astride my mom’s rocket-shaped Electrolux vacuum cleaner in front of the big, blond, boxed Zenith TV. I was watching the Indian test pattern on the screen waiting for the Bozo Show to come on. Yes, Bozo was the first love of my life.

Next, I fell head over heels in love with the Banana Man! He was part of the Captain Kangaroo gang. Yup, the Banana Man had my heart tucked in one of his seemingly endless supply of pockets with all of that cool stuff he had.

I think Cousin Itt from The Addams Family was my next flame! He looked so handsome in his derby and sunglasses.

But then when The Beatles came to America, I was willingly sucked into that hurricane. I loved George. My weekly allowance went to purchases of those wax packs of Beatles bubble gum trading cards. (Don’t tell anyone, but I liked and chewed those crappy hard pink sticks that were supposed to be bubble gum.) I would trade my Beatles cards with my other crazy Beatles fan friends to get all the George cards I could. We would read all the neat fun facts printed on the backs of

the cards. Then, I guess, tired of love, but still listening to Beatles music. Of course, I took some time off to build popsicle-stick houses for my cool little Rat Finks that I now used my allowance to get out of those gumball machines at the Piggly Wiggly. Some of my Rat Finks had moustaches!

By then there was a color TV in the living room that fueled an infatuation for Batman. I had the Life magazine with Batman on the cover. And then there was that great MAD magazine that had Batman with Alfred E. Neuman as Robin on the cover. Being on the cover of MAD magazine was about as good as it gets, I thought, and still do.

Then, when I wasn’t looking for love, Barnabas Collins comes and bites me in the neck! Yes, he had put his spell on me. Now I had to buy Dark Shadows wax pack bubble gum trading cards. (And I still liked that terrible “bubble gum,” and it was just as hard and nasty as I remembered it to be.) And I had Dark Shadows comics with Barnabas on the cover. They were great reads.

Not long after my love for Barnabas, I discovered boys, or did they discover me?

And many of them were bozos. (All apologies to Bozo.)

Looking back, I have to say that Cousin Itt was the most sensible love of my life. He always knew what to say.

These days, my current goal is to become the neighborhood crazy cat lady. Maybe, if you ask around, they might say I have achieved my goal.

My love now is for four very hairy cats. Like Cousin Itt, they always know what to say.

ELIZABETH ANDERSON lives in Ham Lake, Minnesota.

Hey, lovelorn, quit sobbing into your pillow and writing diary entries—instead, share your Sixties/Seventies/ Eighties Celebrity Crush with RetroFan readers! You can become famous, get three free copies of the magazine, and earn a whopping $10 as well. Submit your 600-word-maximum Celebrity Crush column to the editor for consideration at euryman@gmail.com.

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Bozo © Larry Harmon Pictures. Captain Kangaroo © CBS. Addams Family © Filmways Presentations. Beatles © Apple Corps. Batman © DC Comics.

MAD © EC Publications, Inc. Dark Shadows © Dan Curtis Productions.

BY ELIZABETH ANDERSON

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Hanna-Barbera’s

Super-Heroes of the Sixties!

BY SCOTT SHAW! When it came to animated cartoons, as a little kid I always loved the funny stuff. That’s probably because all of the cartoons were funny stuff: Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse, Baby Huey, and most of the rest of the classic characters. Their syndicated shorts were sold in cartoon “packages” culled from all of the great animation studios of the past, except Disney (it had the Mickey Mouse Club TV series to run its cartoon shorts). Fortunately, most of the old cartoons were great, and some of them were incredible. Max Fleischer’s 1936 animated featurette Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was a standout, about as close to a super-hero clobberfest as anything I’d ever seen on film.

One day, I was watching “Uncle Russ” Plummer, the host of The Johnny Jet Show on San Diego’s XETV Channel 6, broadcasting from south of the Mexican border. I didn’t care much for him—I’d met him at a local event and he was drunk—but I often entered (and won) the drawing contests he held on his show, named after his pet parakeet Johnny Jet, the series’ host. Every weekday, that poor

little bird had to endure the unasked-for routine of perching on a miniature rocketship “propelled” by a spark-emitting “sparkler” only about two inches away from the bird. I was always so focused on Johnny Jet’s predicament, I don’t even recall any of the cartoons that Uncle Russ aired… except one.

EARLY SUPER-TOONS

It was the Fleischer Studios’ second-to-last Superman cartoon [coming in a future RetroFan—ed.], “The Underground World” (1943), about a race of birdmen living in a huge, isolate cavern. I knew who Superman was because George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman TV show [see RetroFan #11] was concurrently airing during the days of The Johnny Jet Show and also because I’d received my first-ever super-hero comic book, Superboy #57, in 1957 when I was stuck in the hospital to have my tonsils removed. I’d never seen anything like it. I tuned in the next day, but there were no more Superman cartoons to follow on Uncle Russ’ low-budget budgieshow, that day or ever. I was as mystified as I was when, a year

(ABOVE) Spaaaace Ghooost! Biiiiirdmaaaan! Hanna-Barbera’s Sixties super-heroes did a lot of yelling! Title cels from six Sixties super-faves. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

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or two later, I saw a Commander Cody serial episode during a kids’ matinee at the Navy base on San Diego’s Coronado Island. In both cases, their very existence raised questions in me that came fast and urgent:

What the heck had I just seen?

Where did it come from?

And where could I find MORE? The entertainment that came the closest was a feature-length cartoon called Alakazam the Great (1960), a Disneyesque feature film starring a monkey with super-powers fighting a weird bullcreature, giant scorpion, and other monsters. My hero, comedian Jonathan Winters, had a voiceover role in the film, too. It wasn’t super-heroes, exactly, but the action scenes and overall gravitas was pretty close to that Superman cartoon. Again, more of the same questions, although Kimba the White Lion would come along soon—the term “anime” didn’t even exist until the Seventies—and verify my hunch that Japanese cartoons had a specific style and pace much different from the cartoons by the Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward stuff I usually studied. And even H-B was changing.

Although I was unaware of fandom, between the newspaper and TV Guide, I discovered a revolutionary new cartoon show that would soon air at nighttime on ABC. The Adventures of Jonny Quest [see RetroFan #7] only lasted for a single season (1964–1965), but it made a huge impression on the animation industry and its viewers. Although originally based on a radio show called Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, Jonny— voiced by Tim Matheson—was very similar to “Victor Appleton II’s” Tom Swift, Jr., a series of kids’ books from Grossett and Dunlap.

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Jonny was a smart, brave pre-teen with a respected scientist for a dad. The show’s style and tone mimicked the look of hand-inked comic strips or comic books. It was very experimental and quite expensive for Hanna-Barbera, therefore Jonny Quest was never picked up for more seasons until decades later. It was endlessly rerun on all three networks after the show left ABC. There were no super-heroes in the Doug Wildey-created sci-fi adventure series, but Quest arch-foe Dr. Zin certainly could pass as a super-villain, and there were plenty of monsters, robots, and gravitas, too. Jonny Quest was very effective and got the attention of every boy I knew; and a few girls, too, who dug Race Bannon. Jonny even appeared in an animated commercial for P. F. Flyers tennis shoes!

Created in 1960 by the notorious Sam Singer—Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse’s “Ed Wood of Animation”—Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt was about a pre-teen boy who gained the strength of 50 men when he tightened his belt… a super-power! His sidekick was Salty the parrot. Even though a few episodes of Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt were made for the Trans-Arts Company, early on, the deal collapsed. After an agreement with American International Pictures—which had recently released a fantasy movie from Japan, The Magic Voyage of Sindbad—Hanna-Barbera took over and finished the rest of the 102 five-minute cartoons. The series was syndicated and appeared on TV in 1965. I’m sure it had fans, but it wasn’t particularly successful and very few of the animated shorts have survived.

Character model cel from Jonny Quest, featuring the cast designed by Doug Wildey—who was profiled in RetroFan #7. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

The Oddball world of scott shaw!

Hanna-Barbera’s first actual super-hero series, 1965’s Atom Ant, was, to me, a disappointment. The cute/tiny/powerful concept was very similar to Mighty Mouse, and by this time, the H-B studio was on autopilot, grinding out cartoons like a factory. I thought that Atom Ant wasn’t funny and neither were the “Precious Pup” nor “The Hillbilly Bears” segments he shared his show with. If nothing else, Atom Ant was ahead of the avalanche of super-heroes about to blanket the schedules of Saturday morning TV, because in 1966, the kids’ cartoons landscape changed with a big ZAP! POW! BADDA-BOOM!, as depicted in the Ron Goulart’s classic “display” lettering-style known as “Circus Explosive No. 2.”

On January 12, 1966, the first episode of ABC’s live-action Batman was broadcast. I was in tenth grade, so I appreciated the campy aspect. The show reminded me of the Silver Age Batman, Detective Comics, and World’s Finest Comics that I read as a kid (and still collect).

I especially loved the show’s “Dutch” camera angles, colorful backgrounds, and Burgess Meredith as the Penguin. Some of my high school fanboy buddies disagreed, claiming that the Batman show was insulting to the characters Batman and Robin and to comic books in general. We squabbled about it, but like the show itself, no blood was spilled. There hadn’t been anything like Batman on TV since George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman in 1952. Adam West’s super-straight, corny portrayal of the World’s Greatest Detective was spot-on casting. Burt Ward’s nasal approach to Robin the Boy Wonder was suitably irritating, too. But our evaluation of the unique new TV series was almost rational when compared to the public’s reaction to Batman, a comic-book super-hero who most people were aware of but not familiar with. The show’s immediate popularity was the source of a fad that would sweep the nation, “Batmania,” a play on the then-recent Beatlemania craze.

‘BATMAN IN SPACE’

Super-heroes were suddenly a big deal, and the people at the animation studios and television networks wanted to take full advantage of that pop-culture development. The CBS network’s Head of Children’s Programming, Fred Silverman, was eventually known as “The Man with the Golden Gut” for his entertainment instincts. He grabbed onto the super-hero trend as quickly as he could, adding to CBS’ 1966 SatAM line-up the dramatic super-hero series The New Adventures of Superman from upstart Filmation Studios, and The Lone Ranger from Format Films.

Silverman had a special relationship with Hanna-Barbera Productions. The studio’s Jonny Quest had recently broken the mold for TV cartoons. Unfortunately, that show’s process to achieve “realness” made it too prohibitively expensive to produce at the prices that the networks were willing to pay. But if anyone was capable of making inexpensive-but-entertaining cartoons, it was Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

William Hanna (previously at Harman-Ising) and Joseph Barbera (previously at Terrytoons) first met while working at facing desks while at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a.k.a. MGM, in 1937. After Puss Gets the Boot—their 1940 cat-and-mouse cartoon short —won (LEFT) Early H-B super-hero Sinbad Jr. belted out three comic appearances in the mid-Sixties, while (RIGHT) you may be bugged to learn that Atom Ant only got one issue.

Sinbad Jr. © American International Pictures/Hanna-Barbera Productions. Atom Ant © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

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an Oscar®, Bill and Joe got the assignment of creating Tom and Jerry and directing a half-dozen of their shorts every year until the late Fifties. When MGM announced that it was shutting down its animation unit in 1957, Bill and Joe formed Hanna-Barbera Productions.

They hit the ground running, with Ruff and Reddy on TV later that year, followed by Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, and many more cartoons that adults enjoyed as much as their children.

Hanna-Barbera was soon Hollywood’s most successful and prolific studio that specialized in making cartoons for television. By 1966, the duo had perfected their method by splitting the two principle aspects of cartoon production. In short, Joe’s team of writers’ and development artists’ job was to create new shows and sell them to a sponsor or a network.

Bill’s team’s job was to make the damn things and deliver them on time and on or under budget. Quality wasn’t the #1 goal, but at the time, the studio practically owned SatAM. When it became clear that their funny-animal characters were starting to seem somewhat shopworn, and super-heroes were gaining allure in pop culture, Joe Barbera and his handpicked arsenal of talent were certainly up to the task.

Joe and his team were coming up with stacks of colorfully illustrated 22” x 28” presentation boards, loaded for bear (and I’m not talkin’ about Yogi). Fred Silverman was shopping for shows and was very receptive to his friend Joe’s pitches. First picked by Silverman for CBS were two 1966 premieres, Space Ghost—which Joe sold to Fred with presentation art by Alex Toth and the phrase, “Batman in space”—and Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles. When Silverman was looking for more animated super-hero series for the 1967 season, Joe sold Fred The Herculoids, also with presentation art by Alex Toth, pitched with the phrase, “Tarzan in space.” And so on it went, until Silverman eventually green-lit a total of five H-B series for CBS featuring well over a dozen new characters. “Mr. B” (as Barbera liked to be called) often mentioned that his method of guaranteeing the sale of a show to a network was to “get the hell outta there before they realize what they’ve bought.”

Fred Silverman H-B’S REAL SUPER-HEROES in 1977.

The sudden shift from funny animals to super-heroes had ramifications at HannaBarbera. Many of the cartoonists there—especially storyboard artists and animators—had never read or drawn a super-hero funnybook in their long careers. Therefore, if drawing or writing funny stuff was their specialty, they were assigned to the new super-hero shows that had a “cartoonier” vibe.

The other big problem caused by Joe’s super-successful pitch was that the studio suddenly had five half-hour shows to be produced in a style that, as Jonny Quest proved, was very difficult to draw by artists who’d worked on cute, funny-animal characters for 50 years. To share the load, some of the East Coast’s mainstream 38

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(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Iwao Takamoto, Alex Toth, Willie Ito, Jerry Eisenberg. Photos: Norman Rockwell Museum. comic-book artists were hired long-distance to draw super-hero layouts. One of those cartoonists was Frank Springer of National Lampoon fame.

These were the cartoonists who developed the next phase of Hanna-Barbera’s entertainment: Iwao Takamoto was a survivor of a WWII internment camp who began working at Disney in 1945. H-B hired him in 1961 to work as a layout man and designer. He worked on shows like Magilla Gorilla and Space Kidettes until the industry embraced super-heroes. Later, Iwao designed Scooby-Doo and eventually rose to the position of H-B’s Creative Director, overseeing the production of development and pitch art to sell new shows. Iwao worked for the studio, even after it was purchased by Warner Bros., until his death in 2007.

The son of immigrants from Hungary, Alex Toth began working for National/DC Comics in 1947. He drew Golden and Silver age super-hero, horror, Western, and romance comics, as well as a number of adaptations of movies and TV series. In 1960, he began to expand his career to include animation, with designs and layouts for the mostly forgotten syndicated series Space Angel. In 1965, he was hired by Hanna-Barbera to do pitch art, draw turnaround models, and design the entire casts of many of the super-hero cartoons of the Sixties. Alex continued to take on occasional animation gigs as well as returning to print. He died in 2006.

Jerry Eisenberg is the son of Harvey Eisenberg, who worked on Tom and Jerry cartoons and Western Publishing’s (Dell Comics, Gold Key Comics) Hanna-Barbera comics well into the Sixties.

Jerry quit art school to work at MGM for Bill and Joe just before they shut down their animation unit. He went on to work as an assistant animator at Warner Bros. In 1961, he was hired at H-B to work with Iwao Takamoto on development, pitching, and designing new series. Jerry created Peter Potamus, among many other cartoon characters. He went on to produce Ruby-Spears’ Thundarr the Barbarian and do storyboards at Marvel Productions for his creation Meatballs and Spaghetti, plus Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies and Spider-Man. Jerry’s now comfortably retired.

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Willie Ito was also an internment camp survivor and has drawn children’s books based on his experiences. He was hired at Disney in 1954, working as Iwao Takamoto’s animation assistant on Lady and the Tramp. From there, Willie worked on Chuck Jones’ animation unit at Warner Bros., then at Bob Clampett’s Snowball Productions to work on ABC’s Beany and Cecil (1959). He finally landed at H-B in 1961 and worked with Iwao and Jerry in creating and designing new shows when he wasn’t doing layout and designs on the shows in production. He also drew Beany and Cecil comic books for Dell, “Unk and the Critters” for Petersen Publications’ CARtoons, and ghostdrew Walt Kelly’s Pogo comic strip after Kelly had died. In 1977, Willie returned to Disney, working between its Consumer Products division and Comic Strip department. Willie eventually became a director of Character Art International Creative, advising on the production of Disney animation all over the world. Willie officially retired in 1999, but since then has been busier than ever.

HANNA-BARBERA’S SATURDAY MORNING SUPER-HEROES, 1967–1968

Presented here is CBS’ September 1967 Saturday morning line-up of Hanna-Barbera’s super-hero shows, which included Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles and Space Ghost and Dino Boy, both returning for a second season:

CBS 9:00 A.M.: FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES

The first show in Fred Silverman’s schedule opened with a title sequence that was one of the most impressive 60 seconds to ever come out of Hanna-Barbera. As usual, that animation is superior to the animation in the show itself. Thanks to Bill Perez’s storyboards, Paul Frees’ narrations with Orson Welles-ish solemnity, and Hoyt Curtin’s genuinely urgent rock soundtrack, it’s the best thing in the show, which remains my favorite of the CBS line-up.

There’s also a mystery in the sequence. Its first scene reveals a huge door sliding open to reveal a giant robot, Frankenstein Jr., who bashes his fists together, emitting electrical flares. It’s FAST FACTS stock animation used in every FranFRANKENSTEIN JR. kenstein Jr. episode.

VOICE CAST For the rest of the Dick Beals: Buzz Conroy sequence, we see Ted Cassidy: Frankenstein Jr. one short close-up John Stephenson: Professor Conroy of Frankie opening his mouth, and the THE IMPOSSIBLES other 54 seconds VOICE CAST are all Impossibles.

Paul Frees: Fluid Man and Big D Frankenstein Jr. is a Don Messick: Multi Man kaiju-fighter, yet he Hal Smith: Coil Man doesn’t even leave his closet!

The format of each episode consists of two Impossibles shorts and only one of Frankenstein Jr., so shouldn’t they be billed first?

I have a hunch that an Impossibles series was already green-lit and in production when Joe showed Fred his Frankenstein Jr. pitch. It’s possible that Fred asked that Frankie be grafted onto The Impossibles because he was a stronger solo character with a familiar name.

(ABOVE) Willie Ito-drawn model sheets for the Impossibles in their rock band identities. (BELOW) Jerry Eisenberg’s concept art for the Impossibles in their super-identities. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

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(LEFT) Space Ghost’s executioner-hooded “Batman in space” look, and the looks of teen sidekicks Jace and Jan, had not yet been finalized when Tony Sgroi illustrated this 1966 presentation piece for what was called The Space Ghosts.

(RIGHT) Stunning Alex Toth presentation art for H-B’s “Tarzan in space,” The Herculoids. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

There’s another aspect to the creation of Frankenstein Jr. Frankie was “born” in a pitch concept drawn by Jerry Eisenberg called “Ubble Dugly” about a mad scientist and his goofy Frankenstein-like monster. The further development progressed, the more the concept mutated. It centered on the monster, still human-sized, then enlarged to match 1965’s kaiju classic, Frankenstein Conquers the World.

Speaking of Japan, in 1963, Gigantor, a cartoon series about a huge and heroic robot and a boy inventor, debuted. It didn’t air in America until 1968, but the studios likely tracked their rivals— even ones overseas—and what they were up to. There’s also a resemblance to Japan’s Johnny Socko and his Giant Robot TV series (1967). After all, Bill Hanna once told me, “Don’t create anything if you can steal it.” Hey, that’s show biz for you.

The Frankenstein Jr. episodes that were designed and laid out

by Iwao Takamoto are the ones to watch. Look for “The Menace from the Wax Museum,” “The Alien Brain From Outer Space,” and “The Shocking Electrical Monster” to see what I’m talking about.

Eddie Brandt’s campy scripts do a perfect job of tightrope-walking between ironic and bombastic, too.

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Due to the style, tone and intent of The Impossibles, it was definitely a concept suited for the “funny” cartoonists at Hanna-Barbera. The characters’ personalities were interchangable, but the designs, villains, and gags were appealing and clever. The two songs by the Impossibles—“Hey You (Hiddy Hiddy Hoo)” and “She Couldn’t Dance”—were both heard throughout the series.

In fact, there were plans for an Impossibles .45 record for the HBR label but it shut down before that happened.

I was 15 when these first aired, and Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles is still the most-recent H-B show that I dig.

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CBS 9:30 A.M.: THE HERCULOIDS

If it wasn’t brazen enough to sell The Herculoids as “Tarzan in space,” the family father, Zandor, was originally named “Zantar”—“Tarzan” spelled sideways, not subtle in the slightest.

Although The Herculoids’ cast of characters was designed by Alex Toth, the stories themselves were intentionally simple.

Ruby-Spears Production’s Ken Spears once told me that he and Joe Ruby were always scolded by Mr. B whenever FAST FACTS they’d submit story springboards for THE HERCULOIDS The Herculoids.

VOICE CAST No matter how Mike Road: Zandor, Zok, Igoo, Tundro simple the pitch, Virginia Gregg: Tara Joe would tell Ted Eccle: Dorno them to “dumb it Don Messick: Gloop and Gleep down.” Joe also wanted to keep his gagmen busy, so Mike Maltese and Warren Foster “wrote” a lot of Herculoids episodes in storyboard form.

The show concept was “jungle monsters versus alien invaders,” so The Herculoids came across like a sci-fi version of Tom and Jerry, with “gags” that weren’t ever intended to be funny.

Tara was voiced by Virginia Gregg, one of the most prolific and versatile TV character actors of the Fifties and Sixties, and a favorite of Dragnet’s Jack Webb.

CBS 10:00 A.M.: SHAZZAN!

Full of wizards, warlocks, and other magical foes, this twostories-per-episode series portrayed its gigantic genie star, Shazzan, as a mystical super-hero. He was the loyal defender of two rather ordinary American pre-teens who somehow got themselves lost in a Mid-Eastern desert.

The stories were full of mythical threats, but Shazzan, who was essentially omni-powerful, seemed to shrug off their attacks with ease. His constant chuckling was so overused on the soundtrack that it irritated me, although the designs by Iwao Takamoto and Alex Toth were a good distraction.

And yes, the FAST FACTS genie’s name was a veiled reference SHAZZAN! VOICE CAST to the Golden Age Barney Phillips: Shazzan wizard Shazam, Jerry Dexter: Chuck who transformed Janet Waldo: Nancy Billy Batson into Don Messick: Kaboobie Captain Marvel.

Cover-featured Barbara Eden isn’t the only genie in this issue! Shazzan model sheet by Alex Toth. © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Courtesy of Heritage.

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CBS 10:30 A.M.: SPACE GHOST AND DINO BOY

Although he was sold as “Batman in space,” as far as the Hanna-Barbera super-hero universe is concerned, Space Ghost remains its Superman, H-B’s Number One superhero. He protected the galaxy with his teen sidekicks Jan and Jace and space-monkey Blip as his aides.

Designed by Alex Toth (who also designed most of the rest of the series, including all of the alien villains), Space Ghost is by far the coolest super-hero ever to come out of Hanna-Barbera. The production values were some of H-B’s best. And you couldn’t find a voice for Space Ghost with more gravitas (with his heroic cry, “Spaaaaace Ghooooost!”) than Laugh-In’s great Gary Owens, who would absolutely love RetroFan magazine if he were still around. And please note that National Lampoon’s Animal House star Tim Matheson did a lot more voiceover work for H-B than Jonny Quest.

There’s a six-part Space Ghost story—“The Meeting” and “Clutches of

FAST FACTS SPACE GHOST VOICE CAST Gary Owens: Space Ghost Ginny Tyler: Jan Tim Matheson: Jace Don Messick: Blip Ginny Tyler: The Black Widow (a.k.a. the Spider Woman) Don Messick: Zorak and Sisto Keye Luke: Brak Ted Cassidy: Metallus, Moltar, and Tarko the Terrible Paul Frees: Brago and Zerod Don Messick: The Creature King

DINO BOY VOICE CAST Johnny Carson (a.k.a. John David Carson): Todd/Dino Boy Mike Road: Ugh the Caveman Don Messick: Bronty Gary Owens: The Narrator

the Creature King” (with Mightor), “The Deadly Trap” (with Moby Dick), “The Molten Monsters of Moltar” (with the Herculoids), “Two Faces of Doom” (with Dino Boy), and “The Final Encounter” (with Shazzan)—that established beyond doubt that the Hanna-Barbera super-heroes shared the same reality.

[Editor’s note: Space Ghost will eventually get his own article, and in-depth coverage, in a future RetroFan!] Also appearing on the Space Ghost show were Dino Boy in the Lost Valley segments.

These shorts were about a boy who parachutes into a prehistoric lost world and is adopted by a Neanderthal caveman.

The stories are what you expect, with a lot of creatures designed by Alex Toth and Iwao Takamoto. This was probably the most illustrative segment of all of the H-B super-hero shows.

CBS 11:00 A.M.: MOBY DICK AND THE MIGHTY MIGHTOR

This series, composed of two very different segments, matched a ridiculous concept

(LEFT) The Space Ghost “family’s” appearances were certainly honed, and familiar to viewers, when this painting by an unknown artist was produced for a 1967 frame tray puzzle. (RIGHT) The Moby Dick boys—and the original Scooby—are having a whale of a time on this painting for a 1967 Moby puzzle. Artist unknown. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

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ABC 9:30 A.M.: THE FANTASTIC FOUR

I think that H-B’s adaptation of The Fantastic Four is one of the two best-animated iterations of the property (the other being the 1995 season of New World’s Fantastic Four). Unfortunately, its production values can’t match that of The Herculoids on CBS, aired at the same time.

The show’s strengths include Gerald Mohr—a film, television, and radio actor—as the voice of Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards, exactly as you “heard” him in your head while reading the comic.

And speaking of comic books, other than the 12-foot-tall Galactus, who was smaller and less intimidating to his comics counterpart, H-B’s FF cartoon often looked very close to Marvel’s FF comics, especially the FAST FACTS backgrounds.

The show’s FANTASTIC FOUR director, Lew VOICE CAST Marshall, would Paul Frees: Ben Grimm/The Thing clip panels from Gerald Mohr: Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic Four Fantastic stories that H-B Jo Ann Pflug: Susan Storm/Invisible was adapting Girl to hand out to Jack Flounders: Johnny Storm/Human layout artists Torch and background painters to use as reference. The show’s instrumental theme music was cool jazz, kinda adult for a SatAM cartoon, but appropriate for Fantastic Four. Most episodes are full-length stories, but a few have two shorter segments. My favorite is “The Way It All Began,” a Doctor Doom story that combines Fantastic Four #1 and Fantastic Four Annual #2. When H-B adapted a story featuring Sub-Mariner, they created a completely new character, “Triton,” unrelated to the Inhuman of the same name, since Subby was already appearing as a segment of the syndicated Marvel Super Heroes series. [Editor’s note: See RetroFan #16 for Will Murray’s Marvel Super Heroes history.]

Then there was NBC, the bottom rung of Hanna-Barbera Productions’ super-hero show quality of 1967. Even as a kid, I felt that the concepts were half-baked and that the production

Ugh the Caveman and Todd astride Bronty. © Hanna-Barbera with a tried-and-true one. Even at the time, kids made fun of a cute version of Herman Melvile’s Moby Dick as a super-hero, but it clashed nicely against the raw look of the other half of the show, starring a cool-looking caveman super-hero.

Moby Dick was another series that was perfect fare for H-B’s longtime cartoonists, with characters that were traditionally designed to allow the old-time animators to keep their jobs. The title character looked like little brother of Pinnochio’s Monstro the whale. This segment also introduced Hanna-Barbera’s first “Scooby,” a cute and mischievous seal lion.

Bill and Joe were known for their cavemen, so why FAST FACTS not a prehistoric super-hero MOBY DICK VOICE CAST unofficially also Don Messick: Moby Dick based on the Barry Balkin: Tubb Golden Age Captain Bobby Resnik: Tom Marvel? When Tor, Don Messick: Scooby a teenage caveboy, lifts his club to MIGHTY MIGHTOR the sky, he and his VOICE CAST pet dinosaur Tog Paul Stewart: Mightor are dramatically Patsy Garrett: Sheera transformed into Bobby Diamond: Tor Mightor, an impresJohn Stephenson: Pondo, Tog, Ork, sive super-hero, and and Bollo his fire-breathing dragon. Designed

by Alex Toth, this show had a look that was a slightly raw, like Format Films’ The Lone Ranger [which our own Andy Mangels will be covering in RetroFan #20!—ed.]. And best of all, Mighty Mightor was loaded with dinosaurs (but alas, no Snorkasauruses...).

Meanwhile, over at ABC, Joe Barbera had far less luck, selling only one show to that network. Hanna-Barbera was already stressed by the huge order of shows from CBS, so it was actually a relief to have only sold one more. Fortunately for Marvel Comics fans, it was a fairly satisfying adaptation of “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine,” The Fantastic Four, created by “Smilin’” Stan Lee and Jack “King” Kirby.

Fantastic Four © Marvel.

Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

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Detail from the cover of Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes #1 (Gold Key, Apr. 1968). © Hanna-Barbera Productions. quality was shoddier than on the FF show on ABC and especially the shows on CBS. Therefore, due to the demand of pleasing Fred Silverman, as farmers used to say, ABC and NBC got “hind teat.”

NBC 10:30 A.M.: SAMSON AND GOLIATH (A.K.A. YOUNG SAMSON)

Samson was a teenage boy with the power to transform himself into a brawny young man and turn his pooch Goliath into a powerful giant lion under his control.

Every episode of Samson and Goliath consisted of a single fulllength story that felt padded and generic. Young Samson had no backstory, friends, nor setting, but he was available FAST FACTS for situations that called for a strong SAMSON AND GOLIATH kid and his giant VOICE CAST dog, er, cat, er, lion…

Tim Matheson: Young Samson awww, I give up.

Don Messick: Goliath

It was certainly weak competition against Hanna-Barbera’s other super-hero cartoons and remains the least-remembered H-B super-hero of the Sixties. With a title like that, maybe the show would have done better on Sunday mornings.

NBC 11:00 A.M.: BIRDMAN AND THE GALAXY TRIO

Birdman was not much different than its competition on CBS, H-B’s Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, except that its rival was actually entertaining. And although Alex Toth designed the secondary characters and creatures, the show’s secondary feature, “The Galaxy Trio,” looked and acted bland.

At least Birdman had an origin (thanks to Ra the Sun God), specific powers (solar rays, solar shields, flight), high-tech gear (metal wings), a specific weakness (darkness), a secret identity (Ray Randall), a pet (Avenger the eagle), a headquarters (within a volcano crater), a job (“Inter-Nation Security”), and a purpose (to battle an evil organization named F.E.A.R. run by a fiendish gent known as “Number One”). Midway into the series, he gained an occasional sidekick, Birdboy.

The Fantastic Four in their civilian clothes. Based on art by Alex Toth.

Fantastic Four © Marvel. courtesy of heritage.

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He’s Biiiiirdmaaaan! 1967 publicity cel. © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Courtesy of Heritage.

Birdman’s costume was by far the ugliest of any H-B super-hero and his adversaries were ridiculous (the Ant-Ape, anyone?). Birdman’s episodes have a cheesy quality, like Dean Martin’s Matt Helm spy movies, which could never match the Bond films.

The Galaxy Trio is about three aliens from different planets, each with a unique super-power. They work for the Galactic Patrol, cruising around outer space in their ship Condor One. Vapor Man can turn into gases, Meteor Man “can increase or decrease the size of any part of his body,” and Gravity Girl, who can bend and control the laws of gravity, is also a princess from the planet Gravitas.

THE LEGACY OF THE HANNA-BARBERA SIXTIES SUPER-HEROES

Surprisingly, there wasn’t as much merchandise based on the H-B super-heroes during the Sixties as you might expect. The licenses were mostly paper products from the various branches of Western Publishing Company, Inc., the same corporation behind Gold Key Comics. Therefore, these super TV heroes primarily appeared in or on coloring books and board games.

Western Publishing already had a long relationship with Hanna-Barbera that went back to the Fifties with Dell Comics’ “Ruff and Reddy” issues of Four Color. It was a handy situation— Western’s West Coast offices were only about ten minutes away from Hanna-Barbera’s studio. In fact, Jerry Eisenberg’s dad Harvey drew a lot of those funnybooks. The H-B super-hero comic books from Gold Key during the Sixties were: Jonny Quest #1 (Dec. 1964), Frankenstein Jr. #1 (Jan. 1967), Space Ghost #1 (Mar. 1967), and Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes, which consisted of seven issues (Apr. 1968 to Oct. 1969) featuring stories based on all of H-B’s original super-hero shows. [Editor’s note: In more recent decades, the Hanna-Barbera super-heroes have returned to comic books

from different publishers, most FAST FACTS recently DC Comics in a 2016 series BIRDMAN VOICE CAST titled Future Quest, Keith Andes: Birdman which combined Don Messick: Falcon 7, General Stone Jonny Quest Dick Beals: Birdboy with Birdman, John Stephenson: Number One Mightor, and other characters. Back THE GALAXY TRIO VOICE Issue #129 contains CAST detailed informaDon Messick: Vapor Man tion about these Ted Cassidy: Meteor Man appearances.]

Virginia Eller: Gravity Girl The vast majority of H-B super-hero toys, action figures, and collectibles didn’t materialize until the Nineties. Even Japan got in on the action, with very cool mini-figures of the Impossibles (plus Wacky Races vehicles). In fact, McFarlane Toys’ Larry Marder hired me to design a line of high-quality figures based on classic H-B characters. The first two waves were produced, and by the time marketing issues prevented McFarlane from releasing further figures, I had already designed Wave Five, all H-B super-heroes. If they had been produced, you might have toys of Mightor, the Impossibles, Blue Falcon, Super Stone, and Frankenstein Jr. cluttering up your storage space.

Hanna-Barbera’s Sixties super-heroes have continued to find a home on television. Originally airing from 1978 to 1979, Hanna-Barbera’s World of Super Adventure was an anthology show composed of H-B’s super-heroes of the Sixties. Some of the longer RETROFAN

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Sixties Hanna-Barbera super-hero merchandise is tough to find today and will cost a collector big bucks in higher grades. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions and Hake’s Auctions.

stories, such as The Fantastic Four and Samson and Goliath, were edited into three-parters.

I’m reasonably certain that H-B’s The Super Globetrotters (1979) was the result of Joe Barbera pitching relaunches of The Harlem Globetrotters (1970) and The Impossibles to NBC, and when the execs stalled, claiming that they couldn’t make up their minds, Joe probably calmly combined and sold them as a hybrid show, further proof that Joseph Barbera, a.k.a. “Mr. B,” was animation’s #1 Pitchmaster.

Space Stars (1980) was an hour-long sci-fi super-hero anthology series that did everything it possibly could to look like Star Wars without getting sued. It consisted of “Teen Force” (with three super-powered space-kids from another dimension), “Space Ace and the Space Mutts” (a Burt Reynolds clone with The Jetsons’ Astro, now speaking a bit more clearly), “Space Stars Finale” (mix-andmatch team-ups of the series’ various heroes), and new Space Ghost and Herculoids segments (who now live on a planet named Quasar in the land of Amzot), with secondary character designs

by Jack Kirby.

The New Adventures of Jonny Quest (1986) was part of the syndicated H-B package, The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.

The first new cartoons starring Jonny in over 20 years were big disappointments to most fans. Despite the poor reception, the series led to multiple made-for-television and direct-to-video Jonny Quest “films.”

There were two Space Ghost: Coast-to-Coast pilots made in 1993. In 1994, it became a snarky series on Cartoon Network that depicted Space Ghost, his grasshopper-ish foe Brak, and a few more of his enemies as the host, cast, and guests of a late-night talk 46

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show. In every episode, Space Ghost interviewed live-action guests, everyone from Bob Denver to Rob Zombie. That—and clever writing—ensured the show’s longevity, lasting for 12 seasons. It was followed by Space Ghost hosting Cartoon Planet (1995) and four SG appearances on The Brak Show (2000.)

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (2000), produced in the same tone as Sealab 2021 (also 2000) and Space Ghost: Coast-to-Coast, was an attempt to revive old H-B properties, now owned by Warner Bros. This show was funnier than the others because a number of vintage H-B characters turned up in court for a variety of offenses and interacted with the super-hero-turned-lawyer who wore a business suit over his Birdman costume.

1997’s The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest was both a production and creative disaster. (Even the title is uncomfortable, alluding that Doug Wildey’s original iteration was somehow illegitimate.)

Despite a massive marketing campaign, the relaunch’s creator and developer both wasted millions of dollars needlessly adding mediocre CGI effects to explain an inexplicable virtual reality called “Questworld.” This series in no way resembled the original Jonny Quest, other than the last few episodes by directors who were fans of Doug Wildey’s work.

Space Ghost teamed up with the Caped Crusader in the intro segment of Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s 2010 “Bold Beginnings” episode.

Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated (2010) was Warner Bros.’ atmospheric makeover of the Scooby gang and their world. With new designs, new relationships, and actual atmosphere, there were a number of “Easter egg” references to H-B cartoons of the past, including Frankenstein Jr.

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There’s still a speck of hope for Hanna-Barbera’s Sixties super-heroes. Warner Bros. Animation’s CG feature film Scoob! was released on May 15, 2020 to good reviews. Even I dug it, and the only time the goofy Great Dane (and I’m not referring to Victor Borge) has impressed me was when Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated was on the air. Even better, the film, which didn’t rely on the usual “you meddling kids” plot, was not a mystery at all, but the launch of a Scoobiverse that included Seventies H-B super-heroes Dynomutt, Blue Falcon, and Captain Caveman. Scoob! was a hit, so it’s possible we haven’t seen the last of H-B’s Sixties cartoon legends.

Nothing is impossible when it comes to our own Scott Shaw! Impossibles action figure concept sketch by Scott.

Courtesy of the artist. Art © Scott Shaw! The Impossibles © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

For 49 years (and counting), SCOTT SHAW! has written and drawn underground comix, mainstream comic books, comic strips, graphic novels, TV cartoons, toys, advertising, and video games. He has worked on such characters as Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew (which he co-created with Roy Thomas), Sonic the Hedgehog, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the Simpsons, the Futurama gang, the Muppet Babies, Garfield, the Garbage Pail Kids, and yes, even Annoying Orange. His career has garnered him four Emmy Awards, an Eisner Award, and a Humanities Award. Scott is also known for his “Oddball Comics Live!” visual presentation of “the craziest comic books ever published” and for his regular participation in “Quick Draw!” with Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés. He was also one of the teenagers who co-created what is currently known as Comic-Con International: San Diego, America’s biggest annual fan event. He can be reached at shawcartoons.com.

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Too Much TV COLUMN ONE

1) “The cry goes out both far and near for....”

2) “He won’t quit because you know there’s no such word as fail to...”

3) “If he’s led to a fight and a duel is due....”

4) “There is someone waiting who will hurry up and rescue you.”

5) “Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs.”

6) “Gonna help him put asunder, bad guys who like to loot and plunder.”

7) “When the going gets rough, he’s super tough.”

8) “And when the odds are against him and there’s dangerous work to do.”

9) “Rocket high, through the sky, what adventures you will face.”

10) “Ready to fight for right, against wrong.”

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If your old man used to gripe that you’d never learn anything with your nose glued to the boob tube, here’s your chance to prove him wrong.

(Father doesn’t always know best.)

Each theme song lyric in Column One corresponds to a cartoon superhero in Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate!

RetroFan Ratings

“I’m the Number One Super Guy!”

10 correct: Fine-Tuned RetroFan Sock it to me, baby! I bet you know theme song lyrics too!

7–9 correct: Rabbit-Eared RetroFan Dy-no-mite! You wasted your childhood with the rest of us!

4–6 correct: Fuzzy-Receptioned RetroFan Up your nose with a rubber hose ’til you spend more tube time!

0–3 correct: Tuned-Out RetroFan Ya big dummy! Put down that book and go watch some classic TV!

COLUMN TWO

A) Captain Planet and the Planeteers B) Astro Boy C) Super Chicken D) Speed Racer E) Tom Slick F) Hong Kong Phooey G) Gigantor H) Underdog I) Captain America (Marvel Super Heroes) J) The Mighty Hercules Astro Boy © Tezuka Productions. Captain America © Marvel. Captain Planet © Turner Entertainment.

Gigantor © Bryan Barber. Hong Kong Phooey © Hanna-Barbera Productions. The Mighty Hercules © Trans Lux. Speed Racer © Tatsunoko Production. Super Chicken, Tom Slick © Ward Productions, Inc. Underdog © Classic Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

RETROFAN

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ANSWERS: 1–H, 2–E, 3–I, 4–C, 5–J, 6–A, 7–F, 8–D, 9–B, 10–G

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RETRO INTERVIEW

Tommy Cook Remembers

BY SHAUN CLANCY You may recognize Tommy Cook (b. 1930) as a child actor—he was barely ten when he became famous as Little Beaver in the 1940 Adventures of Red Ryder movie serial.

He was also a veteran of radio plays and other films, growing up behind the radio mic (Red Ryder, Blondie, The Life of Riley, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) or in front of the camera, appearing in movies including Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946), Teenage Crime Wave (1955), Send Me No Flowers (1964), and the cult horror classic, The Thing with Two Heads (1972). In the late Sixties through the Seventies, he was a voice actor in numerous Saturday morning cartoons, including The Funky Phantom, Jeannie, Jabberjaw, and CB Bears (he was even Kid Flash in the “Flash” and “Teen Titans” segments of the Superman/ Aquaman Hour of Adventure!).

(ABOVE) TV Guide clips from 1973, promoting ABC’s airing of the soon-to-belegendary “Battle of the Sexes.” © ABC. Courtesy of Shaun Clancy.

Being a devotee of old-time radio, I arranged a telephone interview, conducted January 11, 2020, with Mr. Cook to discuss his radio days. But during our conversation I discovered—as you will, too, in the interview transcription that follows—that Tommy, as a Southern California junior

tennis player, had a wild career on and off the court that led to his involvement with creating one of the most significant sporting—and pop culture—events of the Seventies, “The Battle of the Sexes,” a his-versus-hers tennis match between Bobby Riggs, age 55, and Billie Jean King, RETROFAN

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age 29. And thanks to RetroFan, you’ve got a courtside seat to the match that made history on September 20, 1973!

RetroFan: You you had some involvement with the Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match held back in 1973. Tell me about your tennis background and what your participation was with that historical event.

Tommy Cook: When I was in my junior years, barely five-feet, seven inches, I patterned my tennis game after Bobby Riggs, and would defensively outsmart and outfight [opponents]. Bobby was sort of my tennis hero. And now, the top tennis tournament in the western part of the United States would take place at the L.A. Tennis Club. I had played in the junior tennis tournaments, near West Hollywood, and was also a ball boy when I was very young.

I was there for the Women’s Tournament Finals that Billie Jean King was participating in.

At this event, there was a big dispute going on with Billie Jean King when she was playing her friend, Rosemary Casals. One of the people sitting to call lines had fallen asleep and didn’t call a shot, which created a big uproar. Jack Kramer was the director of the tournament at the time and a good friend of mine. They brought Jack Kramer out on the court, and the guy who missed the call was now well awake. Jack said, “Just continue.” But both women said, “Well, if you don’t get rid of this guy, we’re not going to continue.” To which Jack replied, “If you don’t continue, you’ll be defaulted and you won’t receive your checks.” And so they continued.

During that confrontation, I saw what was happening between Jack Kramer and Billie Jean King, and that put a thought in my head: “What would it be like if there was a match between a man and a woman? A young woman at the top of her game and a middle-aged guy, retired, and no longer playing the big tournaments, to make it even?” Knowing Bobby [Riggs], I went to him and sold him on the idea. He loved it.

I knew that he had the kind of personality that would stir up a crowd because he was a great showman and a former great world champion. He was the only player to win Wimbledon—Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles—in the same year. Nobody’s ever done that.

Unbeknownst to Bobby, I also signed Jack Kramer to play Billie Jean King. Kramer 52

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January 2022

Cook’s roles over the years include The Adventures of Red Ryder (1940), Teenage Crime Wave (1955), and lots of Saturday morning cartoons including Filmation’s Kid Flash!!

Red Ryder © Republic Pictures.

Teenage Crime Wave © Columbia Pictures. Flash and Kid Flash © DC Comics. Posters and cel courtesy of Heritage. Cook photo: IMDb.com.

and Riggs didn’t know about each other being signed, but Billie did. I did this because Bobby had all the personality for this, but Jack Kramer was better known.

Although they were both retired, Jack Kramer was much more current in the trades, as well as a friend of mine. As far as putting the match together, I’d let the network and sponsors decide.

Well, my option ran out—I had a 90-day option contract with Jack Kramer, a 90-day option contract with Billie Jean King, and a 90-day option contract with Bobby Riggs, to put on “The Battle of the Sexes.” I got some sponsor interest, but when I went to the networks, they said, “See the door? Use it.”

RF: So what happened next?

TC: I just couldn’t come up with a deal in the 90 days to put the project together. Bobby still loved the idea, so with me out of it, he went to the press and challenged the best women in the world to play the match.

Margaret Court of Australia took him up on it for $10,000. She had beaten Billie Jean King and was currently the #1 woman player in the world. ABC took it on. They

retro interview

televised it, and Jackie Barnett was the producer.

But ABC made a terrible faux pas—it was for only one deal. They played at the San Diego Country Estates, and I went down there with Bobby and took my wife. It was on Mother’s Day, and Bobby had a bouquet of roses he presented to Margaret before the match. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Please, I’m an old guy—don’t make me look like a fool. Let me win a game or two.” It blew her mind, and then Bobby went right through her! He beat her easily.

When that match was over with, the press went crazy! Several of my friends like Gene Mako—former world champion—could not believe what happened. I remember Bobby standing by the tennis fence and publicists asking him about being the man of the hour. Jerry Perenchio—who started out as an agent at William Morris and became a partner with Norman Lear, and eventually became a billionaire—saw the match on ABC-TV, along with 40 million others, and sent a plane to pick up Bobby Riggs in Palm Springs, and soon Jerry and Bobby became partners and made a lot of money with sponsors like Sugar Daddy.

Jerry put together “The Battle of the Sexes” at the Houston Astrodome.

The people at ABC went bananas because they lost out. We got close to standing-room-only, which could seat about 50,000 people. Jerry and I were great friends, and Billie Jean King almost blew the match before it started. Two or three weeks before the match was scheduled to

go on, she decided she wouldn’t play the match if Jack Kramer was going to do the color commentary. So Jack was nice enough to bow out, but was paid, and we brought in somebody else. We lost about 5,000 to 10,000 spectators because of that switch.

We could’ve really filled out the stadium, but we did have close to over 40,000 people there.

The match went on, and Billie legitimately beat Bobby. A lot of people thought he purposely blew the match. He was bleeding at the time and years later, came down with prostate cancer, which he eventually died from in 1995. He and Billie Jean King did patch things up and were good friends towards the end of his life. That’s how “The Battle of the Sexes” happened.

RF: Bobby Riggs showed up in a Sugar Daddy costume. Were you aware of that beforehand?

TC: Oh, yeah! Bobby had a ball with it and was wonderful! He played that to the hilt!

RF: Didn’t Billie Jean King give him a live pig, as in male chauvinist pig, at the beginning?

TC: No, I don’t think so, but it was something like that.

(ABOVE) Bobby Riggs, Tommy Cook’s wife Elisabeth, and Tommy Cook (in background). (LEFT) Signed agreement between promoter Tommy Cook and tennis star Billie Jean King, from 1971.

Courtesy of Tommy Cook.

RF: What happened after the Riggs-King match?

TC: I tried later to put Chris Evert together with Pancho Segura—“The Two-Fisted Battle of the Ages”—because they both used two hands on their backhand. I signed Pancho Segura personally to a contract. I went to Florida to see Chris Evert and her father—he was her manager at the time until she signed on with big-time sports management company, International Management Group [IMG]—and made the proposal.

I said, “Under the table, we’ll pay a lot more.” She said, “No way I’ll play Pancho Segura—he’ll beat the heck out of me.” And he would have, too. We had the deal all set to play in Las Vegas—all the arrangements—but she wouldn’t play the match.

RF: Did you stay in touch with Bobby Riggs?

TC: Bobby became a great friend, and after he lost the match with Billie Jean King, I would bring him with me to participate in my charity tennis tournaments. He would get up at six in the morning and go on the air and television, publicizing the event.

Then he would gamble with Vinnie Van Patten. His father, Dickie [actor Dick] Van Patten, was a big gambler, and Vinnie used to put on a fake moustache when he was 15, fly to Vegas, and play the crap tables like he was an adult!

I kept up that relationship with Bobby, and I went to his funeral in Palm Springs.

Those were glory days.

RF: I had a friend, Ed Silverman, who was once the Director of News and Public Affairs for WABC-TV, the network’s New York flagship station. During World War II, Ed was stationed in Hawaii with Bobby Riggs.

He told me, “One of the guys who was in our Navy unit in Hawaii was the tennis player Bobby Riggs—the great hustler.

Riggs was an absolute fantastic player and he was a con man. At the Chief Petty Officer’s Club, they used to have this big ping-pong table and they used to play table tennis for money. Riggs, in addition to being a great tennis player, was also a great table-tennis player. So, he’d hustle these guys and he’d say, ‘I’ll play you lefthanded,’ but, of course, Riggs was ambidextrous. That didn’t convince anyone, so he said, ‘All right, I’ll play you with my left hand tied behind my back and play you RETROFAN

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right-handed.’ They’d play for $100 and sometimes $500 a game. One night they told Riggs, ‘We’re not playing with you anymore.’ And he said, ‘Screw you. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll spot you 20 points on a 21-point game.’ And he never lost.”

TC: [laughs]

Getting ready to watch the Battle! (LEFT TO RIGHT) Sandra Giles, Jerry Perenchio, Andy Williams, Claudine Longet, Merv Griffin, and Tommy Cook.

Courtesy of Tommy Cook.

RF: What kind of shape was Bobby in when he played Billie Jean?

TC: One of the problems with Bobby, when he went to Houston to play the King match, was his physical condition. When he played Margaret Court, in San Diego, he really trained legitimately. He was taking all the nutrients and stuff. Now, when he plays Billie Jean King, he thinks he’s going to win easily, so instead of getting his body—physically, really in shape—he’s playing these billionaires and millionaires in Houston and giving them games and points and doing his bit. He took Billie Jean King too lightly and lost legitimately.

RF: But I thought he was ahead in the beginning during the Houston match….

TC: With Billie Jean? First three or four games were sort of even, but it was a 3 out of 5 set match, and she won decisively. It was the first time a woman had played 3 out of 5—it had always been 2 out of 3 sets for women.

RF: Was it on grass or clay?

TC: It was on special hard court at the Houston Astrodome. She won in straight sets.

RF: I believe the contract said they were supposed to do a rematch?

TC: Yes, and I’m glad you brought that up.

The contract stated that if Bobby lost, he was entitled to a rematch. She refused to play it, and so Bobby and Jerry Perenchio discussed a lawsuit and they decided, “Look, we made a lot of money in this match and the ether has worn off. The rematch would never be the same.” They let her off.

But she did breach the contract by refusing to play a rematch.

RF: Did that upset Bobby?

TC: Well, they decided they had already made enough money and like I said, the ether wore off. The excitement of coming back for the second match probably would not work.

RF: I was a young kid—six years old— when this happened, and saw them on the news the entire time. Especially Bobby.

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TC: He made the match—his personality.

People don’t really remember how great a player he was. He had retired, he was in his fifties, he married a woman with money, moved to the Midwest, and he hardly played any tennis anymore. He and his wife came back and had a place down the coast and then he would come by the L.A. Tennis Club. That’s where all the big events of yesteryear—the biggest stars of Hollywood, from Charlie Chaplin on—would come there for the tournaments. It was called the Pacific Southwest Tournament.

Ah, such memories.

RF: Did you ever play Bobby at the tennis club?

TC: Yeah, I worked out with Bobby and we’d play for a few bucks… and I would gamble with him. Once, I think we were in New York and he was doing an event. There was a party, and we rented a room at a hotel; he invited several people, and we played cards.

He cheated, and I was down $400 or $500 and I made an excuse not to pay him—I would later. Then, a couple of weeks later, I met Bobby back at the L.A. Tennis Club, and I said, “Bobby, you know you cheated.” He

said, “Oh, yeah.” I said, “You know that’s why I’m not paying you?” He said, “No problem, Tommy… no problem.” [laughter] RF: What was his gambling game of choice? Horses? Cards?

TC: Betting on himself… playing millionaires. He would bet on golf, but he would lose a lot in golf. There were a lot of really good golfers, and they hustled Bobby. He didn’t win much money in golf. He won a lot on himself betting with these wealthy people. He would bet on everything—just a born gambler.

He was very good to me. He would go to my tournaments after the “Battle of the Sexes” match, and I’d have him play an exhibition against Vinnie Van Patten. That was great. Of course, Vinnie could beat him. Bobby would use the Doubles court and Vinnie would only use the Singles—the Singles line. That was fun, and Dickie was there at the tournaments. Then Bobby and Dickie would gamble. Lot of fun!

RF: Did you meet your wife at the tennis club?

TC: I met my wife while I was putting on a celebrity tournament. She was playing as a paid entrant—not as a pro—in the charity tournament and was giving me a rough time. When I sat next to her at the big show and dinner, I started to get to know her and took her back to her room and that became a courtship. She accompanied me to tournaments around the world from then on.

RF: In the Seventies there was also a TV show called Battle of the Network Stars.

Did you have any involvement with that?

retro interview

“The Battle of the Sexes” is on! Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome, September 20, 1973. (INSET) Program book for the great event. Courtesy of Tommy Cook.

TC: No. Well, the Challenge of the Sexes, the Battle of the Network Stars, and then as I said, with my partnership with IMG, we sold to CBS the Challenge of the Sexes with the top women in sports against the top men in sports, based on the skill rather than power.

RF: It just so happens that Ed Silverman, whom I mentioned earlier, had worked with Howard Cosell on Battle of the Network Stars. They were co-producers.

They probably came up with the idea from your events.

TC: To an extent, yeah.

The Challenge of the Sexes, I had on one of the matches, Bill Cosby playing against Farrah Fawcett at the height of their popularity and for a standing-room-only crowd and a tournament outside of Los Angeles that had a huge television audience. She was separated from Lee Majors at the time, but I don’t know whether they were divorced then. I had a very close relation-

ship with Farrah and she loved tennis and played in all my events.

Interestingly enough, when I wrote the tennis film Players (1979), my original working title was called Balls, and I wrote it for Farrah and Vinnie Van Patten. It was about a young tennis player who falls in love with an older woman, etc., etc. I sold it to Robert Evans, who was head of production and had just formed his own company at Paramount. It was set for Vinnie to play the lead, but Robert Evans saw a television show that Vinnie was in and thought maybe he might not be right. At this time, Vinnie was a top tennis player. He was tennis Rookie of the Year and he beat John McEnroe in the finals in a tournament in Japan. He was dynamic and adorable. It ended up that we tested Dean Paul Martin—I taught tennis to him when he was 12 or 13 at Dean Martin’s Court, 601 Mountain Drive, in Beverly Hills, where I practically lived teaching celebrities and business people. I would help and teach a lot of celebrities for fun. I once gave a

lesson to a young guy—a director no one ever heard of—Steven Spielberg! I ran into the co-president of DreamWorks, the film company he owns. Her name is Stacey Snider. She’s now co-president of Fox. Anyways, I then tried to arrange a meeting with Farrah to meet with Bob Evans, but he was tied up and cancelled a couple of meetings. When he finally had time and wanted to meet Farrah, she and her manager decided it was too late. She turned down the offer to meet.

Afterwards, [Robert] Evans wouldn’t let me have anything to do with the screenplay—he wanted Love Story on a tennis court. I still say my screenplay was more authentic and better. Anyway, Arnold Schulman, who wrote Hole in the Head for Broadway, wrote two or three drafts without being paid. The part kept getting older and older, so we tested little Dino at Bob’s [Evans] home around the pool with Ali McGraw, [Evans’] former wife, and they end up playing the roles. I don’t think Dickie Van Patten, who knew and worked RETROFAN

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with Evans back in New York, ever forgave Bob Evans.

It was embarrassing, but we did the film. I set us up to shoot at Wimbledon, the most prestigious Grand Slam event in the world, and we were the first company ever allowed to shoot on the hallowed center court there. We were allowed to shoot a scene 15 minutes—this is during the tournament!—15 minutes before Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova walked on the court at two o’clock to play the finals.

At Wimbledon, you don’t go out on that court 15 seconds before the tournament or 15 seconds after, but I’m given permission to shoot one scene 15 minutes before. There are 16,000 people there, waiting for the women’s finals, and I’m on the mike on the court saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. We’re shooting a tennis film here called Players, and we would appreciate your cooperation and will give you a signal to applaud when the two stars come out. First of all, I’d like to introduce to you a young tennis player, he’s a member of the Phoenix Racquets World Team Tennis; he’s the son of one of the great stars in show business; a wonderful player and he’s playing the lead—his first big role—Dean Paul Martin!” No applause.

Some boos! “What the heck is this kid doing on the center court at Wimbledon?!” Now I know I’m in trouble. I say, “Ladies and gentlemen, coming right out to rally with Dean Paul Martin is the current U.S. Open Champion from Argentina, Guillermo Vilas!

June 1974 magazine cover featuring “Battle” victor King. Courtesy of Shaun Clancy.

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FAST FACTS

HOLLYWOOD COURTS ‘THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES’

Holly Hunter played Billie Jean King and Ron Silver played Bobby Riggs in the television movie When Billie Beat Bobby, which aired on ABC on April 16, 2001. Also featured in the telefilm was RetroFan fave Fred Willard as Howard Cosell.

On September 28, 2017, Emma Stone and Steve Carell brought King and Riggs to life on the big screen in the movie Battle of the Sexes.

When Billie Beat Bobby © ABC. Battle of the Sexes © Fox Searchlight Pictures.

He walks out and the crowd is warming up.

“Ladies and gentleman, to play the coach to Dino, the one and only, the all-time great Pancho Gonzales!” He stands up and waves to the crowd. Now the crowd is going crazy and the real photographers on the court are taking pictures! The two of them start to rally like they’re playing the final match.

All of a sudden, I get the cue, “CUT!” We have eight cameras hidden in the stands and we get everybody off within minutes of Evert and Navratilova walking on the court to play the finals. Ali McGraw came over to me afterwards and said, “Tommy, I’ve been around a long time. That was exciting!”

You talk about memorable moments.

I’m the only civilian that ever worked out on the center court of Wimbledon. Right after the tournament, they reseeded so that nobody would play until the next year. At the Old England Racquet and Cricket Club, a

couple of old ladies would get out and hit a couple of balls, and that would be the start of people working out on the grass court again. I even worked out on that stadium grass court with Dino one morning, and what a thrill that was.

RF: A few years ago there was a movie made called Battle of the Sexes (2017), which was based on the tennis match we’ve been discussing. Did you see it, and if so, what was your reaction?

TC: I didn’t like the way they showed Jack Kramer [as portrayed by Bill Pullman]. I was very close to Jack. He was not only one of the great, great champions we’ve ever had, but he was a helluva nice guy and did an awful lot for tennis. He helped put together the Association of Tennis for men, and other things. I didn’t like the way they treated him in the film. But it was wonderful.

Emma Stone was wonderful and Steve Carrell—they were excellent, but it hurt me. But what are you going to do? The film was well done.

RF: I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about your tennis memories and the fascinating behind-the-scenes story on “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis match!

TC: This exchange with you has brought back some of the most cherished times in my life on the tennis courts with all the greats. I appreciated sharing these times with you. If only I could go back playing in the Juniors and going to the Junior National Championship in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

You brought me back to those wonderful days.

Special thanks to Rose Rummel-Eury for transcribing this interview.

Radio and comics fan SHAUN CLANCY owns a heating and air-conditioning business in the Seattle area and devotes much of his time to interviewing radio, screen, and comic-book personalities. His interview with Lost in Space star June Lockhart appeared in RetroFan #8.

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA Draw me. You can do it. First make an oval. Then add the details. Easy, right?

I’ve been drawing me ever since I developed interesting facial features, which, sadly, happened at an early age. And by interesting I mean a nose that points left, ears that appear to be peeling off of my head, and—long ago—a rough shock of poorly behaved mammal hair on top of my scalp (that’s called “painting a word picture”).

My little self-caricature was the first successful thing that I ever drew because I was able to capture something that existed in the real world. Notice that I didn’t say that I drew well, just that the art produced an honest positive response. I enjoyed that.

Where Monsters Dwell #5 (Marvel, Sept. 1970) was one of my first purchased comics. The lead story was about a giant mud monster named Taboo “from out of the black nowhere.” It was actually a reprint from an earlier comic, but I knew nothing about that sort of thing then. It was also a sequel to “Taboo, the Thing From the Murky Swamp!”

So Taboo is from the “black nowhere” and the “murky swamp.” He is also “unstoppable.” That is, until his fellow beings arrive from outer space in a muddy space ship (which is analogous to the space shuttle being made of skin, right?), indicating that Taboo is from nowhere, the swamp, and outer space. I loved that story and the entire comic book for that matter and thought it’d be simply swell to be able to make something like that. But I clearly didn’t have the ability and that needed to change. But how? How?! © Marvel.

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED

Pencil.

Eraser.

Any brand paper.

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Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

So I realized decisively pretty early on that what I wanted to draw was comic books. Or work for MAD. Or maybe do something for Disney (design rides, that could be fun). Stuff along those lines.

Or perhaps become an F.B.I. agent (I lacked a certain focus). But you needed talent and skill. You also needed to be an adult, and I was ten. Clearly, my dreams weren’t going to come true overnight (not that that wouldn’t be nice). Since I wanted to expand my artistic répertoire beyond my own face, I did what millions of Americans did back then when they wanted something, I turned my attention to the Sears catalog. Specifically, the holiday Wish Book edition.

The arrival of the Sears Wish Book, full as it was with thin page after thin page of toys and other items of interest, was an event equal in importance to the annual TV broadcast of The Wizard of Oz. There was always a bit of a tumble as three or more of us wanted to look at the thing Right Now, but eventually one could spend some serious personal time with it and make mental notes of dozens of must-have playthings or, for me, one of the art kits.

Realizing my interest in drawing, Sears—via my parents—came through for me one Christmas (or birthday) with a Jon Gnagy “Learn to Draw” Outfit. The contents were actually fairly modest, but I was

delighted. Then, as now, I love art supplies (also office supplies and woodworking tools, though I have never been a woodworker). The “Learn to Draw” Outfit included four pencils (one charcoal, three lead), three small pieces of chalk (white, gray, and black), a sand pad pencil sharpener, a shading stump, a kneaded eraser (one of the more fun art supplies because you can pull it apart like taffy and mold it into rough shapes), paper, a small drawing board, and a 64-page Learn to Draw with Jon Gnagy instruction book.

Learn to Draw has been with me my entire life. Gnagy filled the book with lessons on drawing objects like a covered bridge, a snowy Midwestern home, and a locomotive. All very nice, basic illustrations. The single fully fleshed-out drawing of a human person was called “Good Neighbor,” and the portrait of a lad in a sombrero looked like a puppet more than a living being.

There is a silhouette of another person in the background of this “Mexican scene.” He’s taking a siesta. Gnagy’s tip on how to cut a piece of folded paper to create a guide to creating an oval to use in rendering a sombrero is very nifty (ovals are hard). In fact, the whole book is full of neat tips and was completely worthwhile to this kid even though I have never liked drawing buildings or sombreros (seriously, ovals are hard).

Back then I had no idea who Jon Gnagy was. He was just a guy whose name and face appeared on the front of the box of some art kits and was, apparently, “America’s television art instructor.” I thought then that Gnagy looked like a beatnik, which was pretty old-fashioned circa 1970, and if he was on television I never saw it. So, who was this Jon Gnagy guy and why did he draw so many buildings?

Well, for starters, he wasn’t a beatnik.

BALL, CUBE, CYLINDER, CONE

(ABOVE) Jon Gnagy was a television, art instruction and marketing pioneer.

His “Learn to Draw” Outfit (the most basic of his art kits and still available) was featured in both Sears and Montgomery Ward (seen here) catalogs and came with this 64-page How to Draw book. This copy was the author’s introduction to properly learning to draw. (RIGHT) Gnagy’s Learn to Draw book was included with some of his art outfits. © Respective owners.

Jon Gnagy is a registered trademark.

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By the time I got the Learn to Draw kit, Jon Gnagy’s syndicated show, Learn to Draw, had long stopped producing new episodes.

Gnagy was a true pioneer, first appearing on television in 1946, when television programming was extremely primordial. With only some 6,000 sets in America, the novelty of the thing was nearly enough to entertain viewers. That year’s programs included I Love to Eat, Let’s Rhumba, and Campus Hoopla. These riveting examples of Won’t See TV were joined by You Are an Artist (debut: November 1, 1946), hosted by the soft-spoken Midwestern artist.

In the era before organized audience measurement, Gulf Oil, the sponsor of Gnagy’s show, offered a free pencil to everyone who sent in a drawing. A whopping 887 responses were received, most of them from adults. I know it doesn’t really sound like it, but in 1947 this meant that You Are an Artist was a bit of a hit.

Gnagy was born in 1907 to a strict Mennonite family. His parents encouraged Gnagy’s drawing talent, but only up to a point. Drawing people was not approved by the Mennonite culture. Even his beatnik look was actually a respectful nod to Mennonite traditions. Though self-taught, Gnagy was able to make a career for himself as a working artist. He was a little too successful, working himself to the point of illness. He pulled back on work, took up teaching art, which he enjoyed, and this ultimately led to You Are an Artist (1946–1955), a 15-minute how-to-draw show.

That was followed by an early syndicated program,

Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

(LEFT) Jon Gnagy was a famous enough artist to do this Famous Artist promotional film, Draw Your Way to Fame. (RIGHT) The “Learn to Draw” Outfit was just the tip of the iceberg. From a 1958 art supply catalog. (INSET) Inkwash illustration

by Scott’s father for a Bullocks Wilshire newspaper ad, circa 1965. © Respective owners. Jon Gnagy is a registered trademark.

Learn to Draw (originally titled Draw with Me), that stopped producing new episodes somewhere between 1955 and 1960 (accounts differ). It continued to air for years after.

Some episodes of You Are an Artist are available via YouTube, so I’ve finally been able to see examples of the show. The man was hypnotic. Truly. Genuinely. He would begin his program by saying, “Ball… cube… cylinder… cone. By using these four shapes, I can draw any picture I want. And so can you!” In his allotted 15 minutes, Gnagy would demonstrate how to create a drawing. He made it look so easy. I was completely pulled in. Gnagy was a patient, kindly teacher.

He would plug his art kits on the show like the “Learn to Draw” Outfit my parents got me. Turns out that there were more than the three kits I saw in the Wish Book. There were also Jon Gnagy paintby-numbers sets (called “Pre-Planned Paint a Picture”) and a Jon Gnagy Instant Cartooning & Lettering set, the latter being a very odd fish in that it contained mix-and-match rub-on cartoon body parts and letters for you to put together into some kind of creative Frankenstein monster. I have no idea what, beyond his name, Gnagy had to do with that one.

Jon Gnagy was to artists what Famous Monsters of Filmland was to genre creators like George Lucas, Stephen King, and Peter Jackson.

Talents as diverse as Andy Warhol and Berni Wrightson, whose fantastic Swamp Thing comic art has remained a favorite of mine, have said that they were influenced by his teaching.

LIFE. DRAWING.

My paternal grandmother, Mama Angela, had drawing talent. One-hundred-plus-years-ago, immigrant women of limited means with children generally didn’t pursue artistic careers. So she drew to amuse herself, possibly her children, and—I vaguely recall—her grandchildren like me.

She was a seamstress. Her youngest son, my dad, also had artistic talent and did do creative work over the years. Early on he went from being an elevator operator at the fancypants Bullocks Wilshire department store in Los Angeles,

California, to producing drawings for the store’s newspaper ads. Bullocks is also where my parents met, and I mention that only because my mom is reading these words.

All of my siblings are creative to different degrees and in different ways, but I was the one who most specifically wanted to be an Artist. By the time I was in high school I was pretty sure I going to be an Artist, but was less sure what I was going to draw. Comic books, maybe. They were still cultural pariahs at the time (it’s a bit weird to look back and remember that I was embarrassed to still be reading comics at the age of 15, 16). In high school, I took commercial art classes. There I was introduced to many of the hands-on ways to physically prepare material for print. My instructor noted my interest in cartooning and kept encouraging me to become a magazine illustrator, which, for reasons I don’t recall, I knew I didn’t want. I mean I was very certain of it. This annoyed him.

By the 11th grade I filled out a Student Career Planning questionnaire, answering questions on a computer card of some sort. I indicated that my number one occupational choice was to be a Commercial Artist, which seemed to best tie together my desire to continue to draw as well as a growing interest in print design. My answers to the various personality and personal-interest questions were all geared toward pointing out that I was very confident about my choice. Sometime later, I got back the results. The Career Profile helpfully gave me ten career suggestions based on my interests: suggestion number nine was

Comic books (and other cheap magazines) of the day were riddled with ads like this. In 1970, markets for cartooning were shrinking, and the comic-book business was on shaky ground.

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Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

seamstress. Credit manager was suggestion number ten, cartoonist was suggestion number three, and, according to the primitive computers brains of the day, my number one career option was florist. As if.

Following high school graduation, I took some lifedrawing classes at the local community college. If I wanted to draw, say, Batman comics, I needed to learn how to delineate the human body. I was very mature about sitting in front of actual nude models because I was seriously trying to learn. One night, a pair of tipsy (or perhaps merely pixilated) adult ladies—in clown suits and full clown make-up—posed unsteadily on the center platform. One of the clowns kept winking at me. I was unable to finish my drawing.

Art Instruction, Inc. advertised heavily, but cheaply focusing on matchbooks, pulps, and non-top tier magazines like the National Future Farmer (Nov.–Dec. 1963)— presumably to attract those little farmers who don’t want in on the family business.

‘WE’RE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO DRAW’

Learning to draw is a bit like trying to prospect during the California Gold Rush (with, of course, a lot less murder).

There is no guarantee of success and there is always someone ready to sell you a pickaxe, sluice box, or a how-to-draw correspondence course (send for your free no obligation talent kit today!).

Many of the less fancy magazines of the 20th Century carried ads for drawing and cartooning courses. They promised fame, fortune, and (it was implied) female companionship. As the years passed, the ads got smaller and smaller and the promises became more modest (“A great hobby!”).

Thumbing through the aging pages of my well-loved copy of Where Monsters Dwell #5 (that’s right, I’m not done with it yet), there are the usual full- and half-page ads for Grit, the Olympic Sales Club, and Joe Weider’s “Tired of Being Skinny” drink mix pushed as part of a “Crash-Weight Gaining Plan” to put on a pound a day (sounds healthy). There are also a couple of pages of narrow, one-column ads allowing you to buy inappropriate pets such as squirrel monkeys and—good Lord!—baby raccoons, various stamps, coins, comic books (Howard M. Rogofsky’s “New Low Prices” complete catalog, 25¢!), and one for learning to draw comics at home.

The “draw comics” ad was for a learn-by-mail outfit called the Art Directors’ Course. Their course consisted of six parts, each costing five dollars with lessons devoted to not just the basics of cartooning, but technical matters as well. Longtime Charlton Comics artist Pat Boyette appears to be one of the folks behind this effort. I never did send away for information about the lessons.

That would have cost me a quarter when comics were only 15¢, and I simply did not have the money.

Much better known and more successful was Art Instruction, Inc., an early learn-by-mail business that was most famous for its “Draw Me” ads that appeared in magazines, matchbook covers, and newspapers everywhere. It began in 1914 as the Federal School of Applied Cartooning and was an offshoot of the Bureau of

Beloved cartoonist Charles Schulz was not only a student of the Art Instruction Schools, but an instructor as well. From a promotional booklet, Your Future in Art, circa 1960. Peanuts © PEANUTS Worldwide LLC 2021. All Rights Reserved.

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Engraving, Inc., which was not a government agency, but a printing service.

Charles Schulz was a student of the school (the course cost an amazing $170 circa 1940, which his parents paid off with difficulty) and, after service in World War II, he became an instructor there before Peanuts took off. He later said that some of the strip’s characters were based on co-workers from Art Instruction. Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, etc., etc.) was also an instructor, and Morrie Turner, creator of Wee Pals, took the course as well.

Various versions of the “Draw Me” ads—one might ask you to draw Tippy (a turtle) or a pirate or Santa—would encourage you to turn your sketch in to be evaluated… by a salesman who would come to your home unannounced and give you a completely free sales pitch.

Art Instruction, Inc. had a long run, closing down in 2018. The Bureau of Engraving is still around (now known simply as “the Bureau”). They print environmental graphics and DiGiorno pizza boxes (and other stuff).

Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

An Art Instruction Schools book (one in a series) that is not, as expected, about how little illustrators and cartoonists are made.

Getting back to the aforementioned copy of Where Monsters Dwell #5 (isn’t that just one of the all-time great comic-book titles?—the answer is yes), there is one other notable fullpage advertisement that appeared in that issue and, in fact, many comic books of the day and it was for the legendary Famous Artists School. There were different variations of the ad over the years, but the one I saw most often featured Norman Rockwell sitting in his studio in front of a painting. These ads were very wordy. That’s how you knew it was a class outfit. The course was expensive, costing around $300 dollars (circa late Fifties, early Sixties), which would be about $2,700 today.

You’d have to be pretty serious about an art career to spend that kind of money. My mom was that serious. Not for herself. And not for me. But for my dad.

If my parents were supportive of my artistic efforts (and they were), my mom was an especially vigorous supporter of my dad’s talents. Dad did not complete the course (seven kids don’t support

themselves), but he did do some of the assignments. Fortunately for me he didn’t get rid of the books and after a few decades they, quite properly, came to me (I may have simply taken them, I don’t recall). Every once in awhile one of my siblings will ask, “Hey, whatever happened to Dad’s—?” “They’re mine.” “Wait. I’m talking about Dad’s three big art—” “Mine.” End of subject.

The three large binders—each a different color: red, yellow, blue—contained lessons devoted to a different aspect of commercial art. The first volume introduced students to some of the tools they would be using and how to set up a studio. I will say this about my dad, he had a magnificent drawing table—a large, sturdy combination of cast iron and wood topped with a massive steel two-tube fluorescent lamp that hovered over the table like an extremely illuminated vulture. I loved to sit at that table and poke through the pencil drawers and just sit in his swiveling, wheeled, generously stuffed, vinyl-upholstered wooden chair. I rarely used the space to draw because it was in our unfinished garage and often too hot during the day and too cold at night. Still, otherwise it was a top-notch set-up.

The Famous Artists course covers a lot of ground, moving from basic how-to-draw to creating storyboards toward the end. Later course sets went into detail about painting and cartooning. And I just can’t say this enough, the loose-leaf binders given to the students were beautiful and a parade of top-notch design and illustration work of the Fifties and Sixties. The lessons are clear and there is plenty of good advice. A real treasure trove.

The Famous Artists School was founded in 1948 by the then-president of the New York Society of Illustrators (SOI), Albert Dorne (a superb illustrator who influenced John Buscema, another of my favorite comic-book artists) and SOI member Norman Rockwell, plus other well-known illustrators of the day. It strikes me as odd that Dorne, who was self-taught, would come up with the idea of organized art instruction, but once up and running, Famous Artists was a success and for a time enjoyed a strong period of growth. And then it didn’t.

(LEFT) The famous Famous Artist School ads starring Norman Rockwell made frequent appearances in comic books of the Seventies. (RIGHT) The binders full of lessons and examples are impressive works in their own right.

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Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

(LEFT) A booklet designed to encourage employees in drab day-today jobs to put a little creativity into their dull little lives. This copy is for Pacific Telephone employees. General Motors gave out identical pamphlets as well. (CENTER) Cartooning the Head & Figure by Jack Hamm was first published in 1967 and is a fine book, but much of the drawing looked seriously dated way back then. It has been reprinted multiple times since. Hamm is also the author of Drawing the Head & Figure and Drawing & Cartooning for Laughs. (RIGHT) Walter T. Foster’s books have not only taught generations of creative folks, but they continue to appear in craft stores, art supply stores, and booksellers. Cartooning the Head and Figure © Jack Hamm. How to Draw © Walter Foster

The Famous Artist School had created a Famous Writers School that caught the eye of sharp-witted journalist Jessica Mitford (whose book about questionable practices of the funeral industry, The American Way of Death, was one of the inspirations for the dark comedy The Loved One), and she was not best pleased. She accused the Famous Writers School—Bennett Cerf and Max Shulman of Dobie Gillis fame were members of the Guiding Faculty—of overpromising and underdelivering. That and some unproductive business decisions led to the Famous Artist School declaring bankruptcy in 1972. A sale to Cortina Learning International followed in 1981. The school closed in 2016 promising to come back, but to date that hasn’t happened. The Famous Artist School archives now reside at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

‘WHY IS HE DRAWING ME?’

According to WorldCat.org, one of the earliest how-to-draw books has a very comprehensive title (deep breath): Albert Durer revived, or, A book of drawing, limning, washing, or colouring of maps and prints: and the art of painting, with the names and mixtures of colours used by the picture-drawers: with directions how to lay and paint pictures upon glass, or, The young-man’s time well spent: in which he hath the ground-work to make him fit for doing any thing by hand, when he is able to draw well: by the use of this work you may draw all parts of a man, legs, arms, hands, and feet, severally and together... this title goes on for dozens of words until finally... and also directions how to draw with Indian ink: wherein you have also Mr. Hollars receipt for etching, with instructions how to use it: very useful for all handicrafts, and ingenuous gentlemen and youths: by 62

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hammer and hand all arts do stand. By Albrecht Dürer and Wenceslaus Hollar. Published in 1698 by F. Collins for John Garrett at his shop as you go up the stairs of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill.

How-to-draw books with shorter titles were absolutely abundant as I was growing up, and they were frequently very similar to one another.

Typically, there would be a brief overview of supplies and then an instruction to draw arcs and circles and cross-hatched lines. Then you’d be shown the amazing four-step process to a complete drawing: a loose outline, then some circles, maybe an addition of a couple smaller circles or squares, and then, finally add all of the shadowing, perspective, details, and sophisticated technique to complete your easy-to-learn drawing.

I called B.S. on that type of art education at a very early age. Still, these books could be fun (and even educational) to look at if the art was good, and it wasn’t always.

One of the downsides of some of the drawing books I pored over in those years was that they were often decades out of date.

Not a problem as far as drawing basics were concerned. A cube is a cube, a sphere a sphere. But books about cartooning especially could feature incredibly old-timey illustrations. Learning to draw funny flappers or Teddy Roosevelt caricatures was not my goal then as now.

The line of Walter Foster How to Draw books are probably the most recognized group of art books I’ve ever encountered. These large, slender Life-magazine-sized publications covered a variety of subject matter including how to draw comics, animated cartoons, seascapes, perspective, and (eh) clowns. How to Draw (#2 of some 60 titles listed on the inside back cover) by Foster himself is a particularly odd fish. Immediately you’re shown how to draw a monkey (who says, and I’m not lying, “why is he drawing me?”). Next up are a couple of pears, then some grapes, a squirrel, a flower and then Foster discusses pencils and drawing practice lines. Two pages are devoted to drawing with a pen and brush. Some instruction on drawing birds, then some notes on perspective, and then some

Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

faces, and then some more animals, and then, suddenly, some lettering. Two photos of memorial garden statuary by Edmond Amateis appear, along with an invitation to see his work at the Grand Central Art Gallery. This edition is from the early Sixties. Older Foster books I’ve seen lack indicia or proper copyright information, so it’s quite hard to know what edition you may have.

Walter T. Foster began his small publishing company in 1922 (yeah, 100 years ago), where he enlisted the help of local artists he knew through his advertising agency in Laguna Beach, California.

A few years after his death in 1981, investors bought his company and then, in 1996, sold it to Quarto publishing. They still publish how-to-draw books including the classic Animation by Preston Blair, one of Walter Foster’s bestselling titles. The new version of How to Draw is The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Drawing, and is more conventional than Foster’s selfdrawn edition. I would recommend both.

‘YOU SHOULD DO THIS’

Getting back to Where Monsters Dwell #5 (and it’s about time), I have to admit it took me awhile to put names to artists even though “The Return of Taboo!” is signed by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers (with a script possibly by Larry Lieber, I should add). I loved those stupid big-monster comics, reprints from before Marvel’s glory days. I had the good fortune to meet Jack Kirby and show him my artwork when I was a teen. He looked over my stuff and didn’t really think that I had what it took to be a super-hero comic-book artist. He pointed to one of my funny drawings of my funny face. “You should do this,” said the King. I wasn’t yet ready to give up the dream so, a few years later, when I was 19, I took my samples to a portfolio review at the then-named San Diego Comic-Con. The late Len Wein, a long-time comic-book fan, writer, and editor who co-created Swamp Thing, was looking over portfolios for possible work at DC. So all of us artistic hopefuls stood in line clutching our inked hopes

(LEFT) Mort Walker’s Backstage at the Strips isn’t so much a how-to as a why-not? It’s full of anecdotes to make the business of cartooning sound both like hard work and great fun. (RIGHT) A photo of Scott with Mort Walker at his studio in 1989. Scott apologizes for both the quality of the photo and his sweater. It was very boss in the Eighties.

Mighty Marvel (and marvelous Marie Severin) has fun with How to Draw tropes.

From Not Brand Echh #12 (Feb. 1969). © Marvel. and two-ply dreams as we waited to meet with Mr. Wein, who was in fine performative form. My advice to you is this: never stand second in line to the one artist who makes Len Wein’s day. I cannot fully express just how much of my soul disappeared that instant when the praise for the work of the artist just ahead of me reached the kind of heights you dream about in your most foolishly optimistic idle moments. Standing there, breaking out into a sweat, I knew I’d made a big mistake. I could see now that everything I drew I drew badly and wrong (all of it). Jack Kirby was right. I stuck with cartooning after that and it all worked out fine.

MICKEY MOUSE OUTFIT

Jon Gnagy died in 1981, but his “Learn to Draw” Outfit, I’m amazed to say, is still available for sale. It remains valid and hasn’t really aged out. Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School (Rockport Publishers, 2017) is a collection of teaching material gleaned from the Famous Artists School books. It’s not complete, but it’s cheaper than trying to buy the vintage volumes, which can be very expensive, and I’m not selling my copies. A number of vintage how-to-draw books have either returned to print or have never really left, Fun with a Pencil by Andrew Loomis, originally published in 1939, being a prime example. Albert Durer revived, or, A book of drawing, limning, washing, or colouring of maps and prints: and the art of painting… (and so on and so on) is not currently in print. And Where Monsters Dwell #5 will never stop being a very awesome comic book.

One fine morning in 1989, I got a call from David Seidman, a fine man and a finer editor, who asked me if I wanted to join a Mickey Mouse outfit. I did, and I wrote comics for Disney Comics for its entire existence (which, sadly, wasn’t long). The editor-in-chief for the comics line was Len Wein, who had not been impressed with my art years earlier. I was hired only to write, but during that entire experience I was also drawing—yes, I’m going there—a tidy little income. And that, and my whole life (which I won’t go into here), would not have happened if I hadn’t picked up a pencil and tried to learn how to draw.

SCOTT SAAVEDRA is a Retro Explorer operating from his Southern California-based Secret Sanctum. He is a writer (more or less), artist (occasionally), and graphic designer (you’re soaking in it). Check out his Instagram thing, won’t you, at instagram/scottsaav/

Backstage at the Strips © Mort Walker. Photo courtesy Scott Saavedra.

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RETROFAD

Leg Warmers Full disclosure time: I’m a devotee of this issue’s RetroFad, wearing them to this very day.

No, wait… I’ve got on compression socks, not leg warmers.

Varicose veins and all. Given RetroFan’s graying demographic, I bet I’m not alone.

Our demo also suggests that back in the Eighties, some of you wore leg warmers, a fashion fad that was an offshoot of another fad—the fitness craze.

Beginning in the mid-Seventies, Americans tried to get into shape. Maybe it was the unforgiving nature of skintight polyester bellbottoms or that we were simply gonna fly now thanks to Bill Conti’s inspiring Rocky score, but soft-bellied people got off the couch and started jogging, pounding the pavement in crimson swede running shoes and velour running suits borrowed from the Six Million Dollar Man’s closet. We flocked to aerobics exercise classes, high-impact sweat-fests responsible for later knee- and hip-replacement surgeries, and signed up for modern dance classes. And that is where this issue’s RetroFad originated.

Leg warmers, essentially a lengthy, footless sock, had become a staple of ballet dancers’ and dance students’ gear, an added layer of comfort over leggings or tights that warded off cramping and, as their name suggests, kept the lower leg nice and toasty in chilly air-conditioned dance studios.

But a confluence of Hollywood and fitness quickly hiked up the leg warmer from an athletic accessory to a fashion necessity.

It started with the May 1980 release of director Alan Parker’s Glee-prototype Fame, a soap-opera teen movie about talented and troubled students auditioning for their moment in the spotlight at the prestigious New York High School of Performing Arts. Fame is remembered both for Irene Cara’s infectious theme (she really is gonna live forever) and for popularizing leg warmers, since they were worn by cast members in the film’s many dance numbers.

(Leg warmers were also seen in December 1979’s All That Jazz, director Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical adult drama, but that 64

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movie musical didn’t resonate with young audiences like Fame did.)

In August 1980, pop diva Olivia Newton-John, the wholesome, angelically voiced songstress who honestly loved you, wore leg-warmer roller skates as a bewitching, roller-discoing muse in the film flop, Xanadu. Livvy obviously didn’t blame the movie’s failure on her fashion accessory. In the fall of 1981, she raised eyebrows and blood pressures with her steamy fitness-riffing music video, Physical.

While Newton-John is best remembered in her Physical outfit’s terrycloth headband—helping the headband also enjoy a brief blip of popularity (even Supergirl donned one!)—in the video, she’s wearing short leg warmers over her tights. Also in 1981, Prince, while early in his career, showed his gender-fluid fearlessness by prancing about on stage in leg warmers.

Then came April 24, 1982, the day leg warmers went mainstream. On that date, Jane Fonda—Hollywood icon, daughter of Henry, sis of Peter, and political activist—adopted yet another persona: exercise guru. Her Jane Fonda’s Workout video was released— at a whopping 60 bucks each! Millions of units were sold, each depicting Jane’s smiling visage, big Eighties hair, and super-firm body striking a scissor-legged pose—accented by her thick burgundy, scrunched-up leg warmers that ran from just below the knees to her bare feet. (Look closely at the Workout cover, and you’ll spot a stray string from Jane’s left leg warmer that should have been clipped before the iconic photo was shot.)

When director Adrian Lyne’s Flashdance hit theaters in April 1983, steel-worker-by-day/exotic-dancer-by night Jennifer Beals’ wearing of leg warmers during an iconic dance scene made American girls maniacs,

Ambush Bug © DC Comics. Flashdance and Staying Alive © Paramount Pictures. Jane Fonda’s Workout © Jane Fonda.

BY MICHAEL EURY

maniacs on the floor of any shop that sold these accessories. A few months later, John Travolta, in the Stallone-directed Saturday Night Fever sequel, Staying Alive, wore leg warmers when reprising his role as he-should-bedancing Tony Manero. With the February 1984 theatrical release of Footloose, director Herbert Ross acknowledged the fad by including a leg warmer-adorned teen among the opening credits’ dancing feet shuffling to Kenny Loggins’ snappy title tune. During the summer of 1985, Jamie Lee Curtis flaunted her chiseled body—and a variety of leg warmers— as an in-demand fitness instructor being pursued by investigative reporter John Travolta in director James Bridges’ Perfect.

It wasn’t just the movies—in the early to mid-Eighties, leg warmers were everywhere: on sitcoms, TV commercials, modeled

by Heather Locklear and Christie Brinkley in print ads, even being lampooned by MAD Magazine (in its Staying Alive take-off “Staying Awake,” in issue #245) and DC Comics’ fourth-wallbreaking Ambush Bug. Be they crumpled or taut, solid or polkadotted, neon or earthtoned, or patterned with rainbow stripes or checkerboards, leg warmers flew off the shelves and onto shins. They were available in lighter synthetic fabrics or thicker cotton or wool. Leg warmers continued to be worn over leotards at the gym or in dance class, but also worn over jeans or with gym shorts to school and to the mall. Dancers and exercisers aside, they predominantly remained a fashion

statement for teenage girls (like those grody-to-the max nerdy boys could ever rock the look… as if!), although celebrity men from Sweatin’ to the Oldies aerobics instructor Richard Simmons to Van Halen’s jumping front man David Lee Roth wore them.

Once Madonna came along in the mid-Eighties and propagated lacy garments and fingerless gloves as fashion’s Next Big Thing, leg warmers’ appeal quickly drooped. By the time a leg warmers gag appeared on TV’s The Golden Girls in 1989, it was clear that the fad, now being mocked by retirees, was passé.

But leg warmers weren’t permanently banished to the back of the sock drawer. They didn’t go out of style with ballet dancers, who relied upon them for function, not funkiness. Like the aforementioned headbands and another Flashdance fashion statement, the one-shoulder-peek-a-boo sweater, leg warmers continue to pop up in Eighties homages, including episodes of ABC’s Eighties-set sitcom, The Goldbergs.

Douglas Carter Beane’s 2008 Tony Award-nominated stage musical spoof of Xanadu piled on the leg warmers thick. In recent years, leg warmers have not only made a bit of a comeback as a retro Eighties fashion item, they have become an accessory marketed for use by cold-natured consumers like babies, the elderly, and dogs and cats.

Maybe Richard Simmons was right—a quote attributed to him attests, “Leg warmers are like turtleneck sweaters for my calves.” Hmm… now that winter is here, I might just slip on a pair over my compression socks.

Wonder how I’d look in rainbow?

MAD © EC Publications, Inc. Perfect © Columbia Pictures. Xanadu © Universal Studios. Dog image © Kitipcoo®.

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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Saturday Morning Back in RetroFan #12 (was it a year ago already?) we brought you the first installment of this fun pack of holiday-themed greetings, and it was popular enough for a sequel!

Saturday morning television was appointment viewing for anyone growing up between the Sixties and the Nineties.

From 8 a.m. to Noon, while their parents slept in from the workweek, kids could sit in front of the television and enjoy a time just for them. Cartoons—and later, live-action series—were produced by studios like Filmation Associates, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Total Television, Jay Ward Productions, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Sid and Marty Krofft, D’Angelo Productions, Marvel Productions, Sunbow Productions, RubySpears, DIC, Film Roman, and others. Mirroring Saturday

SECTION ONE – WARNER BROS. With the WB Television Network at its cartoon heyday, the very busy Warner Bros. Animation gangs sent out this card in 1999, showcasing many of their popular characters. (TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT) Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, the diminutive Shareena Wickett and imposing Eugenia Kisskillya from Detention, Superman, and Taz. (BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT) Babs Bunny and Buster Bunny, Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner, network mascot Michigan J. Frog, Batman from Batman Beyond, Pinky and the Brain, Sylvester and Tweety, Wile E. Coyote, and Father Time and Big Fat Baby from Histeria! © Warner Bros.

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mornings for primetime was Rankin-Bass, which became famous for its stop-motion holiday-themed specials.

Unlike most television studios and networks, purveyors of the world of Saturday mornings were relatively closeknit. Animators, writers, voice actors, and other crew would migrate from show to show, one season working on comedy, the next season a super-hero series. Sometimes they would work for multiple companies, though that was largely frowned upon.

But the producers of content for Saturday morning were more of a “family” than those who worked on primetime content. Many of the studios would produce Christmas and/or non-denominational holiday cards, calendars, or advertisements in December, often featuring a wide range of projects and characters from their output.

This issue for Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, I’m sharing another look at some of those studios’ holiday wishes… with a wish that you have a great year to come in 2022 and beyond!

Background image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay.

BY ANDY MANGELS

Holiday Cards (LEFT) In 1991, Warner was hot on Tiny Toons Adventures—then airing on CBS—and their holiday card reflected it. Pictured in the festive scene are (LEFT TO RIGHT) Dizzy Devil, Plucky Duck, Hamilton J. Pig, Furrball, Babs Bunny, and Buster Bunny. © Warner Bros.

(ABOVE) Warner’s most popular series on the Fox Network in 1992 was Batman: The Animated Series, so they had producer Bruce Timm draw up this mirthful holiday card, featuring a surprised Batman and a different kind of silhouetted image in the night sky. © DC Comics.

(RIGHT) We don’t think that Pinky and the Brain had this in mind in their quest to take over the world, as they seem to have been foiled by a Christmas tree. Singing in front of it are Tweety and Sylvester; Bugs Bunny; the title star of Freakazoid; Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner; and Granny Emma Webster, all stars of the Kids WB offerings! © Warner Bros.

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SECTION TWO - FILMATION

Filmation didn’t do a traditional Holiday card in 1974, but they did produce an awesome present for everyone lucky enough to receive it. The 1975 calendar spotlighted their company line-up including Shazam! (see RetroFan #4), Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, The New Adventures of Gilligan, U.S. of Archie (see our other magazine, Back Issue #107), Star Trek (see RetroFan #1), and the feature film, Journey Back to Oz! Shazam! © DC Comics. Fat Albert and Star Trek © CBS. Archie © Archie Comics Publications, Inc. Journey Back to Oz © Filmation.

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SECTION THREE - HANNA-BARBERA

(ABOVE) We’re dipping into the past and the future with this New Year’s card sent out by Hanna-Barbera.

H-B’s primetime sitcom The Jetsons was set in the year 2062, 100 years past its airing date on ABC. This card cheekily welcomed in 2063, but in 1963, The Jetsons transitioned from Sunday nights to Saturday mornings for many years to come! © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

(RIGHT) In Part One of this article, we showed you Hanna-Barbera’s 1965 holiday card, but what the public didn’t get was this special “Holiday Cel” that was given to employees of the company! The hand-painted cel featured cast members from Jonny Quest, The Magilla Gorilla Show, The Flintstones, and The Yogi Bear Show. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

(LEFT) In this 1967 Christmas card, Santa gives the lash to a host of HannaBarbera characters, including the stars of The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, Top Cat, The Magilla Gorilla Show, The Peter Potamus Show, and The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show! Which ones are which? We’ll let you figure that one out! © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

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SECTION FOUR - KROFFT & WALTER LANTZ (LEFT) So, it’s a little bit modern, but we wanted to showcase something from Sid & Marty Krofft with this 2019 card that featured the star of their hit series H. R. Pufnstuf. If you’re looking for more about the Mayor of Living Island, check out our revelatory article about the psychedelic series in RetroFan #16! © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions.

(BELOW AND OPPOSITE) Walter Lantz’s cartoons were a perennial favorite on Saturday and Sunday morning, beginning in 1957 with The Woody Woodpecker Show, which showcased not only the laughing bird of its title but also such characters as Andy Panda (my grandfather’s nickname for me), Chilly Willy, Smedley the Dog, Buzz Buzzard, Gabby Gator, Wally Walrus, and Inspector Willoughby. Presented here are four of the cards—from 1963, 1965, 1967, and 1968—which Lantz sent out, signed by many of the animators in his studio! © Universal. Courtesy of Heritage.

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SECTION FIVE - JAY WARD & DISNEY

Jay Ward is one of the most beloved creators and producers of sophisticated and sly animation, and his characters such as Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, George of the Jungle, Boris and Natasha, Crusader Rabbit, Hoppity Hooper, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken (see RetroFan #17)—as well as cereal mascots Cap’n Crunch and Quisp (and RetroFan #11!)—have delighted television viewers from the Fifties to today. A tireless and quick-witted self-promoter, Ward allowed staff artists to create his holiday greeting card each year. Many designs not shown here are featured in The Art of Jay Ward Productions book by Darrell Van Citters, but here are some that were not used. The first two cards are by artist Sam Clayberger: one features Bullwinkle J. Moose, and the other is a caricature of Ward himself as a “Jay Bird.” © Jay Ward Productions.

(LEFT) This tree-shaped card by Shirley Silvey actually featured some characters and concepts for future Jay Ward Productions shows… that never came to be! © Jay Ward Productions.

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Although Walt Disney was known more for its theatrical animation that would air on The Wonderful World of Disney in primetime, or on The Mickey Mouse Club daily, there were Disney projects over the years on Saturday mornings, and Disney eventually smashed into the Saturday domain with full force!

As a holiday gift to you, here is one of my personal favorites of Disney’s cards, this one a fold-out from famed Disney artist Paul Wenzel. © Disney.

Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels, unless otherwise credited.

Next issue: Filmation’s Ghostbusters vs. the Real Ghostbusters!

ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently wrote the bestselling Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic

Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and wrote six Fractured Fairy Tales graphic novels for Junior High audiences, for Abdo Books in 2021. He is currently working on a book about the stage productions of Stephen King, The Complete Gay Comix/Comics from Fantagraphics, and other projects. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www.WonderWomanMuseum.com RETROFAN

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ALTER EGO #173

BLACK HEROES IN U.S. COMICS! Awesome overview by BARRY PEARL, from Voodah to Black Panther and beyond!

Interview with DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III (author of Looking for a Face Like Mine!), art/artifacts by BAKER, GRAHAM, McDUFFIE, COWAN, GREENE, HERRIMAN, JONES, ORMES, STELFREEZE, BARREAUX, STONER—plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS.

Thank you for the “How They Did It” article in issue #14. Mr. Ernest Farino is most certainly correct, as seeing such “behind the scenes” photos is a bit odd, as they tend to remove some of the mystique that the shows protest.

Yet seeing them as actors with the stage lights above, and not in character, makes one appreciate even more what these actors were able to project. While the experience was strange, it was a lot of fun. To see all of the favorites in a new way. So here’s hoping you will do it again soon.

A question: The article mentioned that Karl Silvera was the make-up artist for 70 of the 72 Munsters episodes. Yet as the credits roll, his name is never once listed, as it is always Bud Westmore that is credited for make-up. Was there a reason Mr. Silvera never received the credit that he is certainly due?

CHARLES CHAVARR Charles, I went straight to the source—no, not Herman Munster, but Ernest Farino himself. Here’s his reply: I don’t know that there was any specific reason, just that in those days it was routine policy for the department head to get the credit. In the world of make-up at that time, the Westmore

family was a mini-dynasty (“The House of Westmore”—Perc, Ern, Monte, Wally, Bud, and Frank), and studios competed fiercely to get “a Westmore” on their staff. One of the most prominent examples was The Creature from the Black Lagoon; it has come to light over the past few years that an artist named Milicent Patrick (see photo, ABOVE) actually designed the Creature (check out Mallory O’Meara’s excellent book on Milicent, The Lady from the Black Lagoon). Although Milicent even did an extensive studio-sponsored publicity tour around the country, Bud Westmore—who reportedly had a giant, competitive ego—went to extreme lengths not only to hide her from the limelight, but to take all the credit for the Creature himself. While not always as extreme as that, the heads of all departments (art department, visual effects, etc.) would automatically get the screen credit, even if they never had any actual hands-on involvement. Keep in mind, too, that screen credits were very limited in those days, unlike the 4–5 minute end-title rollups we see in films today.

Loved Will Murray’s article on Van Williams and The Green Hornet. I was a big fan of Van from not only The Green Hornet, but going

back to Bourbon Street Beat and especially Surfside 6. The photo of Van with the red shirt on the bottom of page 8, I believe, was taken at Chiller Theatre in New Jersey since I was there that day and spoke to him for a while, had several GH items (and a Surfside 6 paperback) signed by him, and had my picture taken sitting next to him.

He also mentioned to me something that was said in your interview that the producer, William Dozier, cancelled the show himself when ABC wouldn’t extend it to an hour. I believe that had the show been an hour, The Green Hornet would have been a massive hit for years. But a real problem also was the timeslot—there were three series on at the exact same time that were going after the same demographic: Hornet on ABC, Tarzan on NBC, and especially The Wild, Wild West on CBS. I loved The Wild, Wild West, which along with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. were my two favorite shows, so I was forced to wait for summer reruns to catch up with Hornet (and Time Tunnel after it). Sadly, there was no DVR or VCRs in those days. I find it hard to believe that Hornet was beating WWW in the ratings, though, since that series was always very popular. Both Green Hornet and Time Tunnel should have been moved to different timeslots. I loved Batman comics, but have always despised the Adam West series; but Green Hornet was done seriously and I still enjoy watching the (sadly) only 23 episodes produced. I was saddened to hear of Van Williams’ passing, it was a pleasure meeting and speaking to him.

GARY COHEN

I’ve been reading RetroFan almost cover-tocover since the beginning. You’re doing a great job!

I say “almost” because there are occasional articles that just don’t interest me, regardless of how well written and designed. It occurs to me that nostalgia is a fragile thing and a difference of just a year or two can mean a lot.

For instance, I was born in 1955, so I consider 1966 to be “my year.” Anything from the time I was 11 is fondly remembered. I read all the comic books, watched all the TV shows, and saw all the movies. I played with all the toys, ate all the breakfast cereals, and never missed Saturday morning cartoons.

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each other on competing networks. One in first-run and the other in reruns?)

But the further away from 1966 the articles get, the less they interest me. I always think of The Brady Bunch as a turning point. I realize it’s a favorite show for a lot of people, but I don’t think I saw more than one episode. Even though 1969 is just three years later, I was a full-grown teenager of 14 by then! I had other interests besides television, and some of the shows in that period slipped by me.

By 1972—forget it! I got my driver’s license and nothing could keep me home. I would drive everywhere or just nowhere, any reason to get out of the house.

Television and pop culture took a back seat to foreign film festivals, hanging out in the diner afterward, and chasing girls (albeit unsuccessfully). Although I lived through the Seventies and Eighties, I have much fewer cultural touchstones and a lot less affection for the stuff from those years. I’m sure I’m not alone. That’s just how nostalgia works.

All of this is my way of saying, keep up the good work! And keep providing a mix of material from the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies. That way, every issue is sure to have something from everyone’s favorite year.

DAVID BURD

Re “The Saint in the Sixties” by Dan Hagen [RetroFan #14]: I had read that there was going to be an article on the Saint TV series in an upcoming issue, and I was hoping that it would be mistake free. It was a pretty good article, but, unfortunately, mistakes did creep in…

This is the second time I’ve had to correct a TwoMorrows article that Lew Sayre Schwartz was not the actual first artist of The Saint comic strip. Schwartz may have been hired, but his work never saw the light of day. I quote from a letter Harold Straubing, comics editor of the NY Herald Tribune, wrote to Charteris. This letter was quoted in the Burl Barer book that Dan Hagen used as a source: “The suspense is over. Here is the story behind Lew Schwartz’s story. For almost ten months now, we have been working with Lew and trying to make something of his and have tried to help him in every conceivable way.

When he turned in his last drawings (four weeks late), it was quite obvious that while Lew is talented he just hasn’t the ability to take on a comic strip for syndication. He can’t interpret your script, which, as far as I’m concerned is written simply enough so that even I can understand it. His inability to draw the Saint twice the same way so he is recognizable, plus his ‘I don’t give a damn about your schedule’ attitude, all added up to one thing. If we are going to give every opportunity to the comic strip to become a success, we have to have an artist who is on par with the best of them. The reason I held off writing you was that I had hoped to have a replacement by this time and so would be able to break all the news to you, plus a fair-haired boy to take over… As soon as we think we have one with the ability to draw a hand like a hand and the Saint as he should be….”

The actual first Saint artist was Mike Roy, with Jack Davis assisting, followed by John Spranger, then Doug Wildey.

More an omission than a mistake, the Saint appeared first in DC’s Movie Comics #2 (a crude adaptation of The Saint Strikes Back

utilizing movie stills with artwork drawn over them), then Lev Gleason’s Silver Streak Comics #18–21 before getting his own series at Avon.

The photo of Shirley Eaton and Roger Moore on pg. 28 is from the first episode, “The Talented Husband,” not “Invitation to Danger.”

While Edwin “Ted” Astley composed the theme and soundtrack for the series, The Saint already had a theme, created by his creator. You can hear it in the radio show, RKO films, the last season of the Roger Moore series, and the beginning of the follow-up TV series Return of the Saint starring Ian Ogilvy.

In “The Fiction Makers,” Simon is mistaken for Amos Klein when he and the actual Amos Klein are kidnapped by “Warlock,” so she pretends to be his secretary.

Roger’s cameo in the Kilmer abortion was audio only. Charteris’ widow had his name removed from the credits of said film as it wasn’t the character he created.

“I Rode with the Green Hornet” was a refreshing tonic after the late Martin Pasko’s annoying column on the Green Hornet.

“Star Trek: The Lean Years”: One item that Scott Saavedra neglected to mention that fed Trek fans’ hunger during that period were the official Star Trek calendars that debuted in 1976 and continue to this day.

DELMO (THE SAINT) WALTERS, JR.

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read from cover to cover and I’m usually pleasantly surprised. The Cowsills story [RetroFan #8], which many folks commented on, was surprisingly interesting and poignant—nudged me to add one of their songs (“The Rain, the Park and Other Things”) to my 1500+ personal playlist, so thanks for that!

In the category of “Things My Mother Threw Away” (THAT brought back memories, made me laugh, and made me a bit sad…), I went into the Air Force in ’77, and when I next visited back home a few years later my mom had tossed out much of my stuff, including my beloved G.I. Joe Mercury Capsule that I’d gotten for Christmas back in the mid-Sixties. (I was a HUGE G.I. Joe fanatic—the original… not the later, smaller ones with beards and whatnot). Anyway, I dwelled on that for decades, and each time I watched That ’70s Show and saw the same G.I. Joe Mercury capsule on a shelf in Eric’s bedroom, I chafed that my mom had let mine go. Finally, I went a-hunting and found one on eBay for a large—but fair (to me)—price, and bought it. It is not only in perfect shape, it came with a G.I. Joe, the original box (Yay!) and the little 45 RPM record of “Real Astronaut Sounds.” I’m 62 years old and it stands on a shelf in my living room proudly beside my important souvenirs from Greece, Korea, Germany, Tunisia, my 13” Robby the Robot model, and the American flag from my retirement. Everything in its appropriate surroundings!

ROGAN “MAC” MCALLISTER You are one happy toy-boy in this photo…

Never thought I would see an article on pro-wrestling video games in an issue of RetroFan, but what a treat it was. I grew up watching all the big wrestlers and Hulk Hogan on Saturday mornings, and I lived at the arcade on weekends, so it was like reading my entire childhood wrapped up in one article. WWF WrestleFest was a dream come true for me and my friends as we must’ve spent hundreds of dollars on that game trying to either win the Royal Rumble or defeat the Legion of Doom for the tag-team belts! It really was the best wrestling video game ever. John Cimino did a wonderful job capturing the magic and history of it.

I’ve been reading since RetroFan #1, and this was by far one of the best articles to come along! I’m glad the magazine is bimonthly, so I don’t have to wait so long for the next issue.

JOHN FRENZE John Cimino returns in our very next issue with another retro wrestling article, this time about some of the toughest-to-find pro wrestling collectibles!

Recently started a subscription to RetroFan magazine and wanted to send you kudos for a job well done.

As a long-time journalist myself, I know it’s rare to be lauded for solid copyediting and the painstaking attention to detail. Just wanted to reach out and let you know how much I’m enjoying the content.

KEN KLAVON

That means a lot, Ken, especially to these aging eyes that spend way too many hours a day staring at a computer screen. Typos occasionally creep their way into print, but our brand-new proofreader, David Baldy, will hopefully keep them to a minimum!

Scott Shaw!’s second part of his San Diego Zoo article was even better than Part One, especially the Ken Allen stories. Ol’ Ken was about a year older than me, and I’ve always had a soft spot for orangutans, so I’ve never been able to get enough Ken Allen stories, especially escape ones. One thing Scott may not have known was that the brand-new enclosure Ken Allen escaped from three times in 1985 had been designed and installed by a company that assured the Zoo that it would be impossible for any of the orangutans to find a way out, even the famous Ken. I wanted to send a couple of small notes on the Zoorama section. First, the CBS affiliate in San Diego is and has always been KFMB, as seen on the TV cameras in the pictures. There wasn’t even a KCBS in Southern California until the networkowned station in Los Angeles changed its call letters to it in July 1984. Part of the mix-up might have come from the picture of the TV screen with the B&W picture of a lion, the Zoorama logo, and the WCBS call letters, which is the network-owned New York City station. The other thing is that original host, Doug Oliver, is identified in the photos, but the second host, the host of the national version of the show and San Diego icon, Bob Dale, isn’t. Bob is most clear in the picture with the camel and the Zoorama logo. His hand is covering his trademark bow tie. That is also him with the microphone between a keeper and a man in a sport coat, apparently discussing the giant tortoise, in the picture in the upper right-hand corner. Bob is just about only identifiable by the just visible bow tie.

It’s too bad Zoorama wasn’t a bigger show. If Dale had become a national figure like Marlin Perkins, he would have made a nice little article for you. Amusing, too.

Once he figured out that there were a dozen or so place names, that were named after people, that San Diegans and former San Diegans were pronouncing wrong, he made it his mission to teach people the correct way. What that turned into was 30 years of him using the “proper” pronunciaRETROFAN

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tions on TV and public appearances, while adding to his list as he uncovered new ones; and the public smiling fondly, saying, “Okay, Bob,” and pronouncing everything the way they had been for a hundred or more years.

DOUG ABRAMSON

Your editorial said the top-heavy coverage of classic TV was not planned, but it sure made this issue enjoyable! I was a TV addict growing up, and many of these articles were Retro Gold to me.

I was a fan of The Green Hornet, although as a kid I was confused about it. It had many similarities to Batman: a costumed hero and his junior partner, a cool car, a great theme song, and William Dozier’s distinctive voice as the announcer. And yet it wasn’t goofy.

I couldn’t figure out what exactly to make of it. A rule of television has always been, if a TV show is successful, flood the channels with imitations. This time they didn’t follow that rule. I suspect that’s what caused its early demise; those who wanted another Batman were disappointed.

Your editorial raises an interesting question, though. What if Green Hornet had been played for laughs, to piggyback on the Batman phenomenon? Considering the “camp” era burned itself out quickly, it probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer than it did. The flip side of that thought experiment is to consider: What if Batman was played straight? Would it have been the mega-hit that it became? Similarly, what if The Green Hornet had aired first—would Batman have followed its “straight action” cue? All fun questions for us TV junkies to think about as we sit at home during the pandemic!

I also enjoyed the article on “Star Trek: The Lean Years.” I knew exactly what you were talking about from the title alone, even before I started the article. I fondly remember that time when ST was off the air, but simply refused to die among its fans. Not too many television shows can be said to have that much of an impact.

As far as I’m concerned, you needn’t worry about “spoiling the fun” by showing behind-the-scenes photos (“How They Did It”). These photos, showing the actors in casual situations, only enhance my affection for these shows. A special thanks for page 44, which only proved my point that Elizabeth Montgomery was the 78

RETROFAN

January 2022

finest-looking woman on television in the Sixties.

MICHAL JACOT

Had plenty of fun with all your vintage TV coverage, this issue, even though some shows weren’t particular favorites or, in one case, explored a program I’d never even heard of.

That would be Bigfoot and Wildboy. Yet the article greatly amused me. Loved the sagely “life lessons” quotes; just in case kids missed the profound moral while watching the episodes. I totally cracked up at the candid recollections of Ted Cassidy noting how horrendously uncomfortable it was wearing a massive hair-suit during a heat wave.

Star Trek, during the original airings, was never a favorite with me. I think it was because Captain Kirk would be smooching with a different yeoman or alien beauty, each week; too much for my eight-year-old sensibilities. I did take to it, years later, when it was in syndication. Most episodes were entertaining, and some were terrific.

My only qualifier, there, was by then the praise was so elevated, all around, that some episodes didn’t live up to the hype.

I did note and enjoy that some of the guest-stars had also appeared on Lost in Space. Like CBS, that was a space show I far preferred.

The cool photo on page 16 has virtually all of the cast reunited for the rollout of the shuttle Enterprise. Does anyone know why William Shatner couldn’t attend?

Liked Will Murray’s Green Hornet article, especially his professed fondness and appreciation for Van Williams. There, the interview and later interaction became fun and meaningful for him. I watched the show, during the original run, but it was one of those that if we went to dinner and I missed it, not the end of the world.

All I remember now is the Black Beauty speeding out from behind a wall. Was it kissing mints or something?

The Saint? Though spy shows and movies were beloved in the Sixties, I rarely cared for them. Yes, nice cars and gadgets. But any lady you fell in love with was likely a double-agent and people were relentlessly trying to kill you. Not an appealing personal fantasy when you couldn’t trust anyone and were an ongoing target.

The big highlight for me, this issue, was behind-the-scenes glimpses of television

in the Sixties. No end of great shots there!

Tremendous fun to see cast members at ease or interacting with stars from other shows. The way you covered so many programs gave us a backstage look at such a variety of favorites. However, there were two drawbacks: the photos were often miniscule and some shows, with only one or two, seemed shortchanged.

Yet, that can be a learning opportunity for a vastly improved presentation in future issues. Do many more such photos exist? If so, why not cover one show per issue with larger photos over, say, four pages? Then it’s more than just a nice appetizer.

For my money, it could be a regular department in every issue.

I loved the mixing of cast members particularly on page 34. Likewise, hilarious to see Robin and the Robinson kids on 40.

Exceptionally fun and hopefully, with a chorus of applause, something you can expand on and incorporate more often. All these folks are beloved and fondly remembered. So, who wouldn’t want to see more of them, in and out of character and with others of that era? Such a winning concept.

JOE FRANK

I enjoy more than one of the magazines from TwoMorrows Publishing, but I especially like the wonderful issues you put together for RetroFan. Humbly, I suggest a topic for an article.

I’ve been trying to do my own research into this show, but I live a long way from any Hollywood archives and don’t have the contacts you and your great writers do, and after thinking, “I wish RetroFan had covered this,” it dawned on me that I should suggest it.

I’d love to read a story in RetroFan about the children’s game show Storybook Squares.

This ran on Saturday mornings in 1969 and then as part of various “theme weeks” on the daily Hollywood Squares shows in the late Seventies. The idea is pretty obvious—kids play Hollywood Squares, but they added the conceit that the show was part of a Storybook world (in the Seventies, they redressed the set to be like a castle), and the celebrities instead played characters.

Some were from history (JoAnne Worley as Martha Washington, Rose Marie as Pocahontas), others from legend (Stu Gilliam as Merlin), nursery rhymes (Anson Williams as Simple Simon), fairy tales (Paul Lynde

RETRO FANMAIL

as the Evil Queen from Snow White), or literature (Paul Winchell/Jerry Mahoney as Jekyll/Hyde, Roddy McDowall as Sherlock Holmes). They also had a few actors reprise roles from other series (including William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Carolyn Jones as Morticia Addams, and Jim Backus as both Thurston Howell and Mr. Magoo, in a rare cartoon-to-live-action switch). I don’t think I’m the only one for whom this hits the right nostalgic interest, and so I toss out this idea and hope it might appear in a future issue.

HUGH DAVIS Wow, Hugh, it’s been decades since I’ve thought about Storybook Squares. What a great suggestion! We’ll see if we can make it happen.

I recently received my copy of RetroFan #14 and found an article titled “Star Trek: The Lean Years” by Scott Saavedra. I found the article most interesting, but it seems Mr. Saavedra has a misconception about the number of episodes a series needed to be acceptable for syndication. While it is true that currently 100 episodes is the desired amount for syndication, that was not the case back in the Sixties when Star Trek first went into syndication. I remember reading that at the time Star Trek had been cancelled, it was fortunate that Star Trek had been given a third season because prior to that if it had been cancelled after its second season it would not have had the sufficient amount of episodes for syndication. I seem to recall that back in the Sixties the amount of episodes required for syndication was 65. A season at that time usually consisted of 26 episodes, and most programs would have had to have been on the air for at least three or four seasons in order to have the necessary number of episodes for syndication. Since most stations would air the programs on a daily basis, 65 episodes was considered the right amount of episodes to air before audiences would realize that an episode was being repeated. That is one of the reasons that a show like The Outer Limits, with its 49 episodes, would not be deemed desirable for syndication. (Also because it was produced in black and white, and most stations by the late Sixties and the Seventies preferred a full-color show such as Star Trek, with its 79 epiosdes.) I believe in the Seventies (or the Eighties), the number

went up to 75 or 85, then later to its current number of 100.

Still, the article was very interesting, especially as I own some of the items Mr. Saavedra highlighted.

ANGEL LUIS RIVERA

I really enjoyed the May 2021 issue of RetroFan magazine. Every issue gets better and better. While the Van Williams and the “Star Trek: The Lean Years” articles were a little melancholic in places (although both were highly informative), Dan Hagen’s article on “The Saint in the Sixties” has revived my interest in not only trying to find a way to watch the Roger Moore series again, but also inspired me to start making Sticky Note reminders to myself to look for Leslie Charteris’ novels in used bookstores whenever I get a chance (having never read any of these).

I’ve never been to the San Diego Zoo, but the always-reliable Scott Shaw! still managed to pique my interest with his article. I always felt like I was born ten to 15 years too late, because I would love to have visited this attraction back in the Sixties and Seventies, after reading Scott’s article.

I enjoyed this retro-recap a lot more than I ever thought I was going to, as my only thoughts about it were probably Joan Embry’s appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

But the crème de la crème article this month had to be “How They Did It!” by Ernest Farino. More of these, please! I love these behind-the-scenes and promotional photos of classic TV series (although, again, my weird aversion to color photos of B&W photos… but that’s just me being weird again, I guess). The photo of Daniel Boone, Rowdy Yates, Jed Clampett, James West, Artemis Gordon, and Ginger Grant together rocked my world! The late, great Felix Silla outside the Cousin Itt make-up! Jeannie on the oversized phone! And probably my favorite photo of all—Rob and Laura Petrie in front of the camera crew and the studio audience!!! I really appreciated that look behind the magic.

JEFF WOOTEN

My new favorite magazine is your RetroFan. I ordered four issues, and here are my thoughts…

RetroFan #11 was entertaining. I am not a fan of Dark Shadows, but your interview with David Selby was well done. He kept my interest through the whole article. In fact, every article from Jimmy Olsen to Rod Serling was worth reading. My favorite was Will Murray’s Casper the Friendly Ghost article.

RetroFan #12 was another winner. I never thought I would ever care about Three’s Company, but it was well done. Sheena was very insightful. I never knew anything about her TV history.

RetroFan #13, your Lost in Space issue, was fun. I have met the cast several times.

I think they are very nice people. Me and Mark Goddard are both from Lowell, Massachusetts. I did my internship at the hospital he was born in. I enjoy seeing him at local shows. I am probably the only fan that will ask him about his life outside of Lost in Space. I also enjoyed the Dynomutt article. Will Murray’s article on the creation of Archie left me with mixed emotions because several years ago I was at an event about Bob Montana in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The event was hosted by Shaun Clancy. I met and talked to one of Montana’s family members. What people at Archie did was not very nice or honest, in my opinion.

RetroFan #14 was excellent. Will Murray’s interview with Van Williams was the best.

I did not know he led such an interesting life. I wish I met him when he was alive.

By the way, did you know he was in one of the early episodes of The Munsters? I also learned more about The Saint and Bigfoot and Wildboy then I thought I ever would.

Klinger action figures and the Kojak mobile…? Didn’t every boy have that in their collection? I know it was next to my Star Wars collection (LOL).

I took the plunge and am now a subscriber to your magazine. I can’t wait for the next issue. I also ordered your book, Hero-a-Go-Go. PATRICK MOREAU Thanks for subscribing, Patrick! Hope you enjoyed Hero-a-Go-Go!

Tell your friends about us, and share your comments about this issue by writing me at euryman@gmail.com.

MICHAEL EURY Editor-in-Chief RETROFAN

January 2022

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If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!

SUBSCRIBE! SIX ISSUES: 68 Economy US (with free digital editions) $80 Expedited US • $87 Premium US $103 International • $27 Digital Only

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Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, catching up with singer B.J. THOMAS, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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RETROFAN #17

Exclusive interviews with Lost in Space’s MARK GODDARD and MARTA KRISTEN, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hogan’s Heroes’ BOB CRANE, a history of WhamO’s Frisbee, Twilight Zone and other TV sci-fi anthologies, Who Created Archie Andrews?, oddities from the San Diego Zoo, lava lamps, and more with FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY!

Holy backstage pass! See rare, behind-thescenes photos of many of your favorite Sixties TV shows! Plus: an unpublished interview with Green Hornet VAN WILLIAMS, Bigfoot on Saturday morning television, TV’s Zoorama and the San Diego Zoo, The Saint, the lean years of Star Trek fandom, the WrestleFest video game, TV tie-in toys no kid would want, and more fun, fab features!

Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remembered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes photos of Sixties movies, an interview with The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turnedbad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and more fun, fab features!

An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview.

Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

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RETROFAN #9

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RETROFAN #11

RETROFAN #12

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, Flintstones turn 60, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Picnic, the Smiley Face fad, & more!

With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with ’70s’ Captain America REB BROWN, and Captain Nice (and Knight Rider’s KITT) WILLIAM DANIELS with wife BONNIE BARTLETT! Plus: Coloring Books, Fall Previews for Saturday morning cartoons, The Cyclops movie, actors behind your favorite TV commercial characters, BENNY HILL, the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, 8-track tapes, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty years of SHAFT, interviews with FAMILY AFFAIR’s KATHY GARVER and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s GERI “FAKE JAN” REISCHL, ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH, rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti Westerns, Saturday morning cartoon preview specials, fake presidential candidates, Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, Stuckey’s, and more fun, fab features!

HALLOWEEN ISSUE! Interviews with DARK SHADOWS’ DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein GLENN STRANGE, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures of Superman, Superman’s pal JIMMY OLSEN, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the DRAK PAK AND THE MONSTER SQUAD, scratch model customs, and more!

CHRIS MANN goes behind the scenes of TV’s sexy sitcom THREE’S COMPANY— and NANCY MORGAN RITTER, first wife of JOHN RITTER, shares stories about the TV funnyman. Plus: RICK GOLDSCHMIDT’s making of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, RONNIE SCHELL interview, Sheena Queen of the TV Jungle, Dr. Seuss toys, Popeye cartoons, DOCTOR WHO’s 1960s U.S. invasion, and more!

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HOLLY JOLLY Celebrating Christmas Past In Pop Culture

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Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters infiltrated America in monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky craze through features on FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (SHOCK THEATRE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, and DARK SHADOWS), “Mars Attacks” trading cards, Eerie Publications, PLANET OF THE APES, and more! It features interviews with monster creators, publishers, and TV stars, with a Foreword by TV horror host Zacherley, the “Cool Ghoul.”

Written and designed by MARK VOGER!

From Woodstock, “The Banana Splits,” and “Sgt. Pepper” to “H.R. Pufnstuf,” Altamont, and “The Partridge Family,” GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated hardcover book, in psychedelic color, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the Jefferson Airplane, Cream, the Doors, the Cowsills and Vanilla Fudge; and cast members of groovy TV shows like “The Monkees,” “Laugh-In” and “The Brady Bunch.” Revisit the era’s rock festivals, movies, art, comics and cartoons in this color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER!

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HOLLY JOLLY is a colorful sleigh ride through the history of Christmas, from its religious origins to its emergence as a multimedia phenomenon. It explores movies (Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life), music (White Christmas, Little St. Nick), TV (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), books (Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol), decor (1950s silver aluminum trees), comics (super-heroes meet Santa), and more! Featuring interviews with CHARLES M. SCHULZ (A Charlie Brown Christmas), ANDY WILLIAMS (TV’s “Mr. Christmas”) and others, the story behind DARLENE LOVE’s perrennial hit song Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), and more holiday memories! By MARK VOGER, the profusely illustrated HOLLY JOLLY takes readers on a time-trip to Christmases past that you will cherish all year long! Written and designed by MARK VOGER! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • ISBN: 9781605490977 (Digital Edition) $15.99 • Diamond Order Code: AUG201697

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Interviews with MeTV’s crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning GHOST BUSTERS, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty NAUGAS! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIE-DOBIE GILLIS connection, Pinball Hall of Fame, Alien action figures, Rubik’s Cube & more!

With a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: interview with LARRY STORCH, The Lone Ranger in Hollywood, The Dick Van Dyke Show, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, and more!

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RETROFAN #1

RETROFAN #2

RETROFAN #3

RETROFAN #4

RETROFAN #5

LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s STAR TREK CARTOON, “How I Met LON CHANEY, JR.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare ELASTIC HULK toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and MR. MICROPHONE!

Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

Interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEAMONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman/Batman memorabilia, & more!

Interviews with SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

Interviews with MARK HAMILL & Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, MOON LANDING MANIA, SNUFFY SMITH AT 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features!

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(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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