RetroFan #24

January 2023 No. 24 $10.95

There’s no need to fear!

UNDERDOG IS HERE!

Look who we found!

Lost in Space’s

Angela Cartwr ight & Bil l Mumy Rankin-Bass’ Christmas classic

The Little Drummer Boy

THE CRAZY CREATIONS OF CARTOONIST MIKE DORMER!

Land of the Lost’s Wesley Eure • X-Mas Gifts You Didn’t Want • Cabbage Patch Kids & more!

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Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury

Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. Underdog © Classic Media. Lost in Space © Space Productions. Leave It to Beaver © NBCUniversal Television. Little Drummer Boy © Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. All Rights Reserved.

In RetroFan #25

(should you decide to accept it...)

NEXT ISSUE! In #25, meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! And celebrate RAMBO’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN CARTOONS, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY. SHIPS FEBRUARY 2023!

RETROFAN #26

The saga of Saturday morning’s Super Friends, Part One! Plus: A history of MR. T, TV’s AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs. Peel), Daktari’s CHERYL MILLER, Mexican movie monsters, John and Yoko’s nation of Nutopia, ELIZABETH SHEPHERD (the actress who almost played Emma Peel), and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, & MICHAEL EURY. SHIPS APRIL 2023!

(84-page magazines) $10.95 • (Digital Editions) $4.99

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #20

RETROFAN #21

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #23

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, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! 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.

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features!

Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

RETROFAN #15

RETROFAN #16

RETROFAN #17

RETROFAN #18

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.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

Issue #24 January 2023

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Columns and Special Features

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon Who Created Underdog?

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Retro Animation Rankin/Bass’ The Little Drummer Boy

Retro Television Lost in Space’s Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy

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Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties ‘Beaver’ Fever

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Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum RetroFan Gift Guide

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Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

Michael Dormer, Hot Curl, and Shrimpenstein

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Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Comic Book Ads for Animated Cartoon Shows

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Retro Interview Land of the Lost’s Wesley Eure

Departments

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Retrotorial

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Too Much TV Quiz Bill Mumy TV roles

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RetroFad Cabbage Patch Kids

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RetroFanmail

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ReJECTED

RetroFan™ issue 24, January 2023 (ISSN 2576-7224) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RetroFan, c/o TwoMorrows, 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: $73 Economy US, $111 International, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Lost in Space © Space Productions. Underdog © Classic Media, LLC. Leave It to Beaver © NBC Universal Television. Little Drummer Boy © Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. 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.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

BY MICHAEL EURY

PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Mike Clark Michael Eury Rick Goldschmidt Ernie Magnotta Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw!

Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Classic Media, LLC Jim Cornelius Mark Evanier Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions Mary McLaren Brian K. Morris NBC Universal Television Next Chapter Publishing Sid & Marty Krofft Productions Bruce Simon Bryan D. Stroud VERY SPECIAL THANKS Angela Cartwright Ted Eccles Wesley Eure Jerry Mathers Bill Mumy Beverly Washburn IN MEMORIAM Tony Dow (1945–2022)

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Lost in Space. Land of the Lost. Three of the actors interviewed this issue—Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy, and Wesley Eure—appeared in many joyful hours of childhood television viewing for most of us, even though their characters—Penny and Will Robinson, and Will Marshall—faced no end of dangers from the hostile environments into which they were marooned.

But another familiar face from television that’s also in this issue—Jerry Mathers, as “The Beaver”—was, one might argue, more “lost” than the others. Penny, Will, and Will relied upon their wits, weapons, and families to fend off each episode’s space monsters or prehistoric beasts. Poor Beaver, however, was besieged by threats that seemed insurmountable to a kid: peer pressure, confusing adult expectations, and that creep, Eddie Haskell.

As this edition of RetroFan was winding down production in late July, another former child actor whose recollections are shared in the forthcoming pages, Tony Dow—best known as Beaver Cleaver’s sporty older brother, Wally—passed away, on July 27, 2022, at the age of 77. This sad news followed the May 7, 2022 announcement from his wife, Lauren Shulkind, of Tony’s battle with an unspecified type of cancer. RetroFan offers its condolences to the Dow family during this difficult time.

This issue is respectfully dedicated to his memory.

This magazine is a safe haven from the harsh realities of the real world, a magical place where we can revisit, and learn more about, the things we loved during Tony Dow (1945–2022). our youth. But Mr. Dow’s death reminds us that the Courtesy of Mark Voger. beloved actors—and animators, musicians, cartoonists, toy manufacturers, fad inventors, and other wizards— who helped shape our childhoods are, like each and every one of us, not invincible, despite the seeming immortality of the gifts they shared. Their creative legacies may be forever with us, but they themselves will not. It is our great privilege as journalists to capture their stories and present them NEXT ISSUE to you.

In addition to our Lost in Space, Land of the Lost, and Leave It to Beaver features, in this issue you’ll discover the origins of Underdog; hang ten with surfer cartoonist Mike Dormer; time-travel to the days when the new Saturday morning cartoon line-ups were teased in comic books; and get into the holiday spirit by going behind the scenes of the time-honored Rankin/Bass TV special, The Little Drummer Boy. If you’re reading this while taking a break from Christmas shopping, our wacky gift guide might offer some ideas (for that mildly deranged person on your list), and this issue’s “RetroFad” flashes back to the stormiest shopping season ever—the year the must-have Cabbage Patch Kids premiered!

So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

January 2023

LosT (aN (a Nd Fou ouN Nd) iN SpacE RETRO TELEVISION

Blast Off into the Expanded Edition

Angela

Cartwright and Bill Mumy share

a half-century of Lost in Space memories

BY MIKE CLARK Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy’s Lost (and Found) in Space book that includes a new bounty of unseen photos and memorabilia: Lost was issued in 2015 on the 50th anniversary of Lost in Space. It was (and Found) in Space 2: Blast Off into the Expanded Edition. a delightful romp through the pair’s personal history of work and In an interview conducted for RetroFan through Zoom, Cartfriendship that resulted from the series that ran from 1965 to 1968 wright and Mumy discuss the bounties available in the updated (and forever in reruns). Along with rare photos and behind-theedition. “This book is more than twice as long as the first,” explains scenes tidbits, the book was an archive of memories small and large that made an impression on the young actors.

(ABOVE) This issue’s cover stars Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy, and their After the book went out of print and on new book, the crowd-pleasing Lost (and Found) in Space 2: Blast Off into the the recommendation of producer Kevin Expanded Edition. “I feel like this book is a very fitting look into everything we’ve Burns, their friend who kept Lost in Space experienced so far in the last 57 years,” Bill Mumy tells RetroFan. Lost (and Found) in Space in the public eye, Mumy and Cartwright 2: Blast Off into the Expanded Edition. Published by Next Chapter Publishing, a division of Next Chapter Entertainment LLC. Licensed by Synthesis Entertainment. © 2021 Synthesis Entertainment. commenced work on an expanded edition RETROFAN

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Bill, known as “Billy” during his childhood. “It’s 352 pages with 925 photographs. And a lot of the photographs were never seen before because Kevin Burns acquired a cache of unpublished CBS photos.”

Cartwright was equally excited and challenged by the new book. “Kevin said, ‘Oh, my God, you definitely have to update your book because there’s so much that people haven’t seen.’ We had his blessing to use any pictures that we wanted. I think a picture does tell a thousand words or even ten thousand words. They trigger many memories to me. There were piles and piles of proof sheets, and we poured over them and tried to find things that hadn’t been released. There’s also items that my parents had collected, and they’re both passed now, so it took me a couple of years to actually get through a lot of it. My dad took photos when he came to the set. Bill’s mom took Polaroids. Those kinds of things have not been seen and shared. This new book really delves into what was going on when we were shooting and then our lives afterwards.”

Thumbing through the expanded edition is a revelation for fans of Lost in Space. The candid photos, studio memos, scripts, and promotional materials take the reader right onto the set.

Angela, Bill, and their castmates led extraordinary lives that the home viewers could never imagine. For Bill, it was an uplifting experience.

“There’s quite a lot of detail and remembrances in the new book where we discuss what was happening in front of, behind, and to the sides of those photos. And for the most part, it’s been a very positive and emotional experience to go back there because [20th Century] Fox was our home for ten months a year for three years.”

BEHIND (AND UNDER) THE MAGIC

In just one example of the unique nature of filming a TV series, the actors all had stand-ins, with exact replicas of their colorful wardrobes. The duplicates, whose heights had to match the featured players, saved wear and tear on them while the crew was setting up the camera and lighting the scene. The director used that time to block the stand-ins and coordinate his camera placement, while special effects men planted their explosives or positioned pull-

(TOP) Angela and Bill in their studio classroom, October 1965. © 2021 Synthesis Entertainment. (RIGHT AND INSET) Angela Cartwright’s Penny Robinson parka, from Lost in Space Season One and shown in the photo on the following page, sold for an astounding $10,625 on a Heritage auction on November 7, 2021!

Courtesy of Heritage.

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wires to guide the Robot’s motion. Because of their young ages, Bill and Angela were required by law to spend a certain amount of time at the studio’s school, so stand-ins provided them the time to learn their lessons. For scenes that included explosions or violent action, stunt doubles were brought in… even though Mumy really wanted to do it all himself. “Jonathan [Harris, Lost in Space’s Dr. Smith] once told me, ‘Never deny a stunt person a paycheck, Billy-Person.’ He was right, and I’ve always remembered that.”

After nearly going out of business due to the cost overruns of Elizabeth Taylor’s 1963 epic Cleopatra, 20th Century Fox had rebounded and was going full-steam by the mid-Sixties. The studio’s renaissance was due to the mega-successful The Sound of Music (co-starring Lost in Space’s Angela Cartwright) and soon-to-be released feature hits Our Man Flint, Fantastic Voyage,

retro television

and Planet of the Apes. The programs of visionary Irwin Allen [see RetroFan #3—ed.] led Fox’s television division’s strong showing.

For Bill, it was like being part of Alice in Wonderland. “The lot was just packed with fantastic, interesting, bigger-than-life shows at the time. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Batman, The Green Hornet, Peyton Place, and 12 O’Clock High. It was a magical place in that the whole studio was so much larger than it’s been for the last 50 years after the backlot was bulldozed and sold for real estate. In 1965, only the brand new Century Plaza Hotel and two high-rise apartment towers were on the property. Otherwise, the studio and its stages were on one side of Olympic Boulevard, with the backlot across Olympic having a moat and rock face, scene docks, set construction in what was called ‘the mill,’ fields with trailers and some standing sets. We cover all of that in the new book, and we go into our relationships with the other projects that were filming at the time, like Daniel Boone, which starred Angela’s sister Veronica. Darby Hinton, who was a little younger than Angela and me, played ‘Israel’ on Daniel Boone, and he was a frequent classmate.”

Bill lived close enough to 20th Century Fox to ride his Schwinn bicycle to the studio for class on non-production days. Angela had a longer commute with her mother, from the San Fernando Valley to 20th Century Fox’s West L.A. studios. “I lived in the Valley, so I made that trip many, many times over Coldwater Canyon with my mom driving,” she says. “In those days, it took 20 or 25 minutes. Today it takes more like 45 minutes!”

While the show’s young viewers across the country spent long, somewhat tedious days in schoolrooms getting their “three Rs,” Bill and Angela had a universe all to themselves at the Fox studios. “I felt like the prince of 20th Century Fox lot,” explains Bill, “because there was nowhere that I wasn’t really welcome. And I was quite the adventurer in terms of discovering cool little sets that and places Angie and I could go explore.”

Mumy found out that his TV sister was game to be an accomplice. “Angela was quite mischievous and adventurous, too,” he reveals. “She just wore the disguise better than I did. But there is a whole labyrinth of tunnels that run underneath the entire Fox lot where the electricity and the power for the entire lot are managed.

I used to check those security doors on Stage 11, and they were locked. And then one day I checked the door, and it was unlocked!

And I, being the Mr. Little James Bond/Hardy Boys–reader guy, took a matchbox and put it in the door so that it would not be locked behind me. I ventured down there and turned on the lights. And it really was like going down into the Batcave in a sense. It’s huge… like the Fortress of Solitude. It was really hot and there was hissing and just had a tonality of power running through it. There were generators down there, and it was really creepy. You would turn on a light and it would illuminate this entire tunnel, and you could climb up a little ladder and then walk through that tunnel. And then you’d be at another soundstage junction where it would widen out into a big foyer again. And I A sample of one of the many never got caught!” behind-the-scenes photos Bill’s co-conspirator from the book, this one Angela recalls their vivid of Angela Cartwright, in exploits off the Lost in Space her Penny Robinson gear, set.

“It was like being Indiana with her (quite relaxed) Jones!

A great adventure stunt dummy. © Legend Pictures, for a kid. So, there were not LLC. only our showbiz adventures filming Lost in Space, but also our adventures during the lunch hour. Of course, we were also in school during production under Mrs. Klampt, who had a long history at Fox all the way back to the Shirley Temple days.”

SCHOOL DAZE

It’s hard enough for young people to pay attention in public school, so just imagine what actors like Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright faced in getting an education while an anxious crew waited for their return to the set.

For Angela, the process was taken in stride. “It takes a certain amount of discipline to be able to handle that kind of a schedule,” she admits. “I never had a problem with it, even though I don’t have a photographic memory like Bill does. I was able to do my math and then go on the set and film four pages of lines. Then they’d RETROFAN

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say, ‘Okay, cut! Back to school.’ The crew would be setting up the next shot, and I’d go back to the classroom and just instantly be able to tune into it. I could still do that to this day. I think it is something that you can discipline yourself to do, but not a lot of people can do that right off the bat. But I am a double Virgo.”

Bill’s photographic memory had served him well.

During filming breaks on the 1965 feature film Dear Brigitte, he spent his down time running lines with co-star Jimmy Stewart. But a TV series is much more compressed for time than a feature film, and the revolving door between classroom and stage was not always easy for young Will Robinson. “I could memorize the entire script, 60 pages, whatever they were, in about an hour and maintain it for a week.

But what I always hated was that we’d cut and print a master or close-up coverage, and then it’s ‘20 minutes for Billy to study,’ and I’d be pushed back into that classroom or trailer. Doug Morrison, our second assistant director, would be sitting there for exactly 20 minutes to make sure it counted and then told me to come back out. I always hated having to leave the cast, leave Jonathan or whoever it was, and

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have to study geography and then go back to the stage.”

LAUNCHING THEIR CAREERS

Angela and Bill were show biz veterans by the time they were hired for the pilot of Lost in Space, which began filming on January 6th, 1965.

Born in England and raised in California, Angela Cartwright and her older sister Veronica both started their careers early.

At the age of four, Angela joined the cast of The Danny Thomas Show (a.k.a. Make Room for Daddy) playing Linda Williams, Thomas’ sassy daughter.

During breaks from the Thomas sitcom, Angela appeared on the syndicated adventure series Whirlybirds, two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, a Red Skelton episode, and on Shirley Temple’s Storybook in a version of “Babes in Toyland.” The popular (ABOVE) Young Billy Danny Thomas Show ran until Mumy, as Zorro. © 2021 1964, with Angela transitioning Synthesis Entertainment. (LEFT) to her role as Brigitta von Trapp His Space Family in the big-screen version of The Robinson dad, actor Sound of Music. Thomas allowed Guy Williams, as Zorro from the classic Disney TV Angela to miss the final filming series. Photo cover to Gold of his show so she could begin Key Comics’ Zorro #6 (June The Sound of Music. [Editor’s note: See RetroFan #15 for an exclusive 1967). Zorro TM & © ZPI. Television interview with Dan Truhitte, Zorro © Walt Disney Productions. who played Rolf in The Sound of Music.] At the conclusion of Music, Angela was cast for Irwin Allen’s new CBS pilot, Space Family Robinson, soon retitled Lost in Space.

There’s an old actor’s expression of luck, “Break a leg.” Bill Mumy’s start in acting began by doing just that. Imitating his TV hero, Zorro (played on TV by future Space co-star Guy Williams), Bill leapt across his bed and crash-landed on a toy Winchester rifle. Laid up for weeks in a cast, Bill watched a lot of television and decided that he wanted to be one of those people he saw on the screen. Bill first appeared on local TV then began a very busy period with feature films and network television.

Bill’s first movie was 1960’s The Wizard of Baghdad, where he played a very young Aladdin in a short scene with the film’s star, Dick Shawn. Palm Springs Weekend, A Child Is Waiting (with Judy Garland), and Tammy Tell Me True followed. Bill gave Brigitte Bardot her first movie kiss from an American in Dear Brigitte. If that wasn’t enough, Bill chalked up guest appearances on TV’s Wagon Train, The Virginian, The Munsters, Bewitched (two appearances), I Dream of Jeannie, and Perry Mason. For Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,

retro television

Bill co-starred twice with his lifelong friend Michael McGreevy, in Danny smoked a cigar in his show. And he didn’t quite know how Sammy, the Way-Out Seal and For the Love of Willadean. old I would appear to be. So I think that was kind of a relief because Bill’s most prominent pre–Lost in Space television roles included originally Penny and Will were supposed to be twins.” an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode directed by the master of In addition to Guy Williams as John Robinson, TV and movie suspense himself. “Bang, You’re Dead” was the suspenseful tale veteran June Lockhart, fresh off seven seasons of Lassie, played of a boy who unknowingly takes a loaded gun into the public. the Robinson matriarch, Maureen. Beautiful Marta Kristen was Bill appeared in three classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, one of the older sister, Judy, who brought a warmth and heart to the which is on everyone’s “Top 5” Zone favorites: “It’s a Good Life.” As character not always obvious in the script. Mark Goddard, another six-year-old super-menace Anthony Fremont, young Bill has taken experienced and talented actor, became the Jupiter 2’s pilot, Major total control of his small town and holds the populace in a state Don West (or “Crash” West, as referred to by the cast). [Editor’s note: of fear that if he is displeased, Anthony will “wish them into the See RetroFan #8 for our June Lockhart interview, and issue #13 for cornfield.” [Editor’s note: This our interviews with Mark issue’s “Too Much TV Quiz” Goddard and Marta Kristen.] challenges you to identify Allen and his team some of Bill’s TV characters realized that the series by name. Test your Mumy would need a house villain to Memory by taking the quiz, generate stories that could found on page 12.] be filmed on a reasonable Comic books, sci-fi, budget. The hiring of Jonaand adventure were Bill’s than Harris for the series (he favorite genres, so it was did not appear in the pilot) only natural that he was to portray the nefarious Dr. excited when asked to Smith was inspired. Harris’ join the cast of Lost in dramatic range and comedic Space in late 1964. Even background (he’d just come with the amazing news off The Bill Dana Show as the that the former Zorro fussy hotel manager) proved would be playing his dad, to be one of the series’ most Bill was jazzed, but not successful attributes, even if overwhelmed. “I worked the Smith character became over half of my life before too buffoonish in the second I started Lost in Space. I had season and literally became worked with some of the the show’s star. most iconic talents of early SAVING THE PAST television and the Golden Three years of intensive Age classic feature films. series production was a So I wasn’t intimidated by blur for the cast. Scenes the series’ cast, aside from A personal note from Lost in Space producer Irwin Allen to were shot out of order being a huge fan of Guy Angela Cartwright written during the shooting of the series and episodes were often Williams’ Zorro, and we pilot. © 2021 Synthesis Entertainment. completed on one day, and bonded like family.” Surpristhen a new one started the ingly normal are the book’s next day. Retakes or additional scenes were shot days or weeks photos of the cast playing games between takes, birthdays being after an episode was completed. Dozens of personal appearances celebrated, and mixing it up with cast members from Batman. across the country promoting Lost in Space were made, with THE PERFECT BLEND interviews and press junkets a constant distraction. Thousands of Part of Irwin Allen’s genius was his flawless casting. “Irwin was very publicity stills were shot, and quite a few of them appear in the new much aware of the jobs that we had all done,” says Angela. “I know book for the first time. A lot of the setups involved the Robot, who that he certainly was with me because he referred to The Danny is seen dancing with cast members, blowing bubble-gum bubbles Thomas Show when I went in for the interview. And I think for Bill with Bill, and carrying Angela in his arms. Perhaps the most “out also because he was a known kids performer from The Twilight Zone there” still shows Bill and Angela in their Sunday finest holding and other network TV shows. And then Guy, of course, who was Bibles.

Zorro. So I think Irwin kind of had it all together in his mind and Fortunately, Bill and Angela had the foresight to keep would call those people in because we didn’t really go on an audimementos of their busy time on Lost in Space. “Angela and I have tion… just an interview. When I walked into Irwin’s office, he looked pretty much been pack rats,” says Bill, who was presented with up with a surprised expression and said, ‘Thank God… I thought numerous Lost in Space promotional items, scripts, and toys. you’d be 40 and smoking a cigar!’ What he was referring to was how Many of their gems are presented in the updated book, such as a RETROFAN

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personal note to Angela from Irwin Allen on the first day of shooting the pilot.

Bumper stickers and promotional pins made only for television publicists are shared along with something extremely personal to Bill, his name imprinted on the fabric backrest of a director’s chair.

Of particular interest to fans are call sheets attached to scripts, behind-thescenes photos of Irwin Allen and his associates making magic, and rare press releases from the network run. Angela’s collection predates Lost in Space with several issues of the Linda Williams doll from The Danny Thomas Show. She also has collectible dolls in the image of her characters from The Sound of Music and Lost in Space.

The updated book features original costume drawings by the Irwin Allen’s wardrobe designer, Paul Zastupnevich.

“Paul was great,” says Bill. “He was like the [The Simpsons’] ‘Smithers’ to ‘Mr. Burns’ in terms of his relationship with Irwin.” Zastupnevich was a showman himself when it came to designing the costumes of Lost in Space. Angela’s thirdseason outfit was especially wild. “Paul came up with that whole pop look and the combination of those colors, which worked so well,” she recalls to RetroFan. “Bill and I were both growing because we were young kids, and they had to keep extending the pant legs. That’s why I think Paul eventually ended up putting me in a skirt because I just kept growing and growing. I changed quite a bit from that first season to the third season.”

The Robinson kids meet the Boy Wonder! Batman co-star Burt Ward in a studio encounter with Mumy and Cartwright. © Legend Pictures, LLC.

END OF AN ERA

By the end of Season Three, ratings were holding up well enough for Lost in Space, with an average of 15 million viewers a week. NBC’s The Virginian was more popular in the time slot, but considered a much different demographic to the CBS bean-counters. In the days of only three networks (no cable or satellite channels), 15 million sets of eyeballs was good, but nevertheless, Lost in Space’s potential renewal was on the bubble. Adding to the woes was economic inflation eating into the show’s profits. Actor’s raises and the increased costs of sets had already taken its toll on the show’s production quality. Despite that, Lost in Space pulled off some stunning episodes such as “The Anti-Matter Man,” set in a strange mirror world of living rocks and trans-dimensional walkways. On top of that, CBS had asked Fox for a lower budget if the show would be renewed for another year.

It all came to a head after the wrap party for Season Three as the cast headed out for a few weeks of relaxation before resuming production in the fall of 1968.

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“We had been verbally assured that there would be a fourth season,” recalls Bill. “As you know, that suddenly changed, and there was no fourth season. I was shocked. I even cried. Angie and I didn’t have anywhere to go to school for the balance of semester, so we stayed there on the lot for quite a while. Our attachment to the lot and our perspective of experiencing all that entailed between the ages of ten and 16, by the time we wrapped things up, was a very wide spectrum of experiences and memories.”

Lost in Space ended its CBS run in the summer of 1968, and immediately went into syndication for local televisions station to schedule as they wished. Many channels wisely put reruns of the show on five days a week between the end of school hours and prior to the six o’clock news, gaining a whole new generation of fans. Lost in Space was a hit in syndication and ran in many markets for over a decade.

retro television

INTO THE FUTURE

In the updated edition of their book, we see Angela, Bill, and the cast members move on to other series and projects.

Bill grew his hair long, sometimes sported a beard, and developed his musicianship to a professional level. He appeared in the feature films Bless the Beasts and Children (1971) and Papillon (1973). His TV series included Sunshine and Babylon 5. The Netflix Lost in Space series (2018–2021) featured Bill as the “real” Dr. Smith. Bill’s musical duo, Barnes and Barnes, had a cult hit in “Fish Heads.” Over the years, Bill has released multiple albums of his music and performed live on many occasions. He became a narrator for documentaries produced by Kevin Burns’ company, and later a co-producer on Ancient Aliens. Bill married in the Eighties and has two grown children Angela matured from an adorable teenager into a beautiful young woman and continued working on film through the Seventies. Danny Thomas asked Angela back for a short-lived sequel to his CBS show, retitled Make Room for Grandaddy. Angela resumed

her role of Danny’s daughter Linda… who was now a mother! She appeared on various networks shows including Logan’s Run, The Love Boat, and Airwolf. Irwin Allen called for her to appear in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure in 1979. Angela built a career of professional photography and opened her own boutique. She played a reporter in the 1998 Lost in Space feature film, and appeared as Parker Posey’s mother in the Netflix Lost in Space series. Angela is married and has two children.

By the early Eighties, Lost in Space was starting to fade in the public’s mind when home video came about and a whole new life began for the show. But only the studio benefited from the success, as pre-home-video actor contracts did not have any residuals for VHS sales. As sci-fi conventions ramped up in popularity and the nostalgia markets boomed with cable TV channels devoted to Sixties programs, the cast began to make appearances and were featured regularly in the media. The person most responsible for keeping the flame alive was producer Kevin Burns, a Fox executive who grew up loving Lost in Space. His expert direction of the show’s assets resulted in new TV specials, toy licenses, comic books and a Blu-ray collection of the series issued on the show’s 50th anniversary in 2015.

“TV shows get lost, too,” says Angela. “They get lost on shelves and you never see them again. People say, ‘Why can’t I see that movie again?’

Kevin made [Lost in Space] come back and kept it alive. And we were brought together by Kevin, and from then we celebrated many occasions and anniversaries together. We cover a lot of that in the new book, like going to NASA and attending Comic-Con on the show’s 50th

Angela and Bill, in the Seventies. The youngest Lost in Space cast members have remained close throughout the decades, as friends and as performers. © 2021 Synthesis Entertainment.

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retro television

AND HERE’S TO YOU, PENNY ROBINSON

Since Bill Mumy’s early roles are the subject of this issue’s “Too Much TV Quiz,” we don’t want to ignore the incredible career of Angela Cartwright. Here’s a look at some of her non–Lost in Space roles from the RetroFan era.

(ABOVE AND RIGHT) Angela played daughter Linda Williams to entertainer Danny Williams in the long-running TV sitcom The Danny Thomas Show, a.k.a.

Make Room for Daddy. Dell Comics published these two issues of a Danny Thomas Show comic book in 1961 in issues #1160 and 1249 of its Four Color series, featuring these photo covers.

Their interior art was by two comic masters: Alex Toth (#1160) and Russ Manning (#1249)! © 1961 Marterto Enterprises, Inc.

(FAR RIGHT) Funny, we used to have curtains with the same pattern as those playsuits… Angela Cartwright (FOURTH FROM RIGHT) as Brigitta von Trapp in the infinitely re-watchable The Sound of Music (1965). © 1965 20th Century Studios.

Lobby card courtesy of Heritage.

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(RIGHT) Young Ms. Cartwright, playing “Angela,” hugs the title star of the 1962 family film, Lad: A Dog. © 1962 Warner Bros. Lobby card courtesy of imdb.com.

(LEFT) Angela (SECOND FROM RIGHT) worked once again with Lost in Space’s Irwin Allen—as well as with an all-star cast!—on the sequel to The Poseidon Adventure, 1979’s Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. © 1979 Warner Bros. Lobby card courtesy of Heritage.

anniversary in 2015. And we talk about how Bill and I were both in the Netflix Lost in Space series.”

Kevin Burns tragically passed away in 2020 at the age of 65. It was a gut punch to the surviving cast members from Lost in Space.

“I miss him terribly,” says Angela. Bill agrees, adding, “Kevin’s talents were boundless. He could have had an incredible career just doing voiceovers for animation. His impression of Jonathan Harris was flawless. Kevin played Dr. Smith in ‘The Epilogue,’ which I wrote, which brought the Robinsons home. It’s on the Lost in Space Blu-ray’s bonus materials. Kevin was truly a multitalented, one-ofa-kind guy.”

One of Bill Mumy’s favorite expressions, “Time is a bizarre river,” comes to mind now that almost six decades have elapsed since Lost in Space came into being, allowing room for perspective. “Every time I drive through Century City,” says Bill, “I see it in my mind the way it used to be. There’s a whole condominium development that’s been there for decades where the moat was with its water and rock face.

I can’t help but think of all the crazy times we had filming on the backlot, and yes, Mark and I did sink at least one Fox golf cart out there!”

MIKE CLARK wrote for Starlog Magazine, specializing in Irwin Allen and Gerry Anderson topics. Mike is a videographer/ editor who has produced several Lost in Space–related documentaries. Since 1985, Mike served as moderator for numerous Irwin Allen panels. He worked as a writer and camera operator on Kevin Burns’ syndicated TV specials The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen and Lost in Space Forever. In 2015, he joined surviving cast members for commentaries and interviews on the Lost in Space 50th Anniversary Blu-ray.

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Too Much TV COLUMN ONE

1) Darrin the boy 2) Jackie Chester 3) Irwin Bruckner 4) David Taft 5) Billy Bayles 6) Googie Miller 7) Nick Butler 8) Miles Jefferson 9) Willy 10) Custer Jamison 12

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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 character played by young Bill Mumy in Column One corresponds to an episode title and TV series in Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate!

RetroFan Ratings

You’re a very bad man if you don’t guess them all!

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) “Junior Executive,” Bewitched B) “Long Distance Call,” The Twilight Zone C) “Backlash of the Hunter,” The Rockford Files D) “Home Is the Hunted,” The Fugitive E) “The Case of the Shifty Shoebox,” Perry Mason F) “Bang! You’re Dead!,” Alfred Hitchcock Presents G) “Old Cowboy,” The Virginian H) “Come Back, Little [Character’s Name],” The Munsters I) “Whatever Happened to Baby [Character’s Name]?,” I Dream of Jeannie J) “The Genius,” Matlock Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Munsters, The Rockford Files, The Virginian © NBC Universal Television. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. The Fugitive © United Artists Television. Matlock, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone © CBS Television Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

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

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‘Beaver’ Fever

VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

BY MARK VOGER Ah, Mayfield. Quintessential suburbia. You can almost smell the flowers in the town square. You can almost see the gentlemen tipping their hats to the ladies.

And you can almost hear the rustle of the newspaper as neighborhood dad Ward Cleaver turns the page, relaxing on the couch after a hard day at the office while his wife June knits by his side, wearing her omnipresent pearl choker.

Mayfield is a real place—at least, as real as Mayberry, Gotham City, or Bugtussle.

It is the hometown of Theodore Cleaver, a.k.a. “the Beaver,” an inquisitive, baseball cap-wearing, freckle-faced everykid played by Jerry Mathers on the sitcom classic Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). Also starring were Barbara Billingsley as protective mom June; Hugh Beaumont as sage dad Ward; and Tony Dow as Beaver’s good egg of a big brother, Wally.

Leave It to Beaver was one of several comedies from the period built around family life, such as Father Knows Best, Make Room for Daddy, The Donna Reed Show, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. But Beaver was different.

More true-to-life. Funnier, even.

How so? There’s an outmoded expression that encapsulates much of the parenting style of the Fifties and Sixties: “Children should be seen, not heard.” TV fathers from the era weren’t what you’d call demonstrative. They generally wore suits, and left the messier aspects of childrearing to the missus. So Leave It to Beaver was, for its time, a trailblazer.

Though the show has a reputation for being about a dopey kid with a knack for getting into hot water—the famous soup-bowl-billboard episode of 1961 is a handy metaphor for this view—Beaver was really about parents having thoughtful conversations to decide how to discipline their children without trampling their feelings.

Ward often reminisced about growing up on a farm under a father who was quick to dish out corporal punishment. June was always there to remind Ward not to allow history to repeat itself. Their boys were a study in contrasts. Wally was a top athlete, a good student, and popular with boys and girls. Theodore was a klutzy dreamer who hated “yucky” girls and had few ambitions beyond reading comic books or skipping stones.

Beaver wasn’t a bad kid so much as a gullible one. When he messed up, his ne’er-

Gee, Wally! Stars of Leave It to Beaver recall the making of a sitcom classic

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, and (IN FRONT) Jerry Mathers as the Beaver in Leave It to Beaver. © NBC Universal Television.

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Some goofy stuff Beav got talked into: (LEFT) A police officer (William Kendis) addresses Larry (Rusty Stevens) and Beaver (Jerry Mathers) in “The State Versus Beaver” episode of Leave It to Beaver. (RIGHT) Beaver precariously negotiates a threedimensional billboard in the “In the Soup” episode. © NBC Universal Television. do-well pals were usually near the crime scene. It was Larry (Rusty Stevens) who insisted Beaver take the go-cart for a spin; it was Gilbert (Stephen Talbot) who convinced him to fly the ornate kite before the glue was dry; it was Whitey (Stanley Fafara) who goaded him into climbing that billboard.

That’s another difference between Wally and Beaver. Wally usually knew better than to listen to his pals, two-faced Eddie (Ken Osmond) and sad sack Lumpy (Frank Bank).

Mathers and Dow created believable chemistry despite their vastly different backgrounds in the acting field. Mathers was, at age eight, a show-biz veteran when Leave It to Beaver began, while Dow was a TV tenderfoot.

‘HELLO, MR. MATHERS’

While shooting Leave It to Beaver, Mathers was occasionally greeted by a formidable filmmaker: Alfred Hitchcock. Prior to Beaver, Mathers had a role in Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry (1955) as Shirley MacLaine’s pint-sized son who finds a body in the woods.

“When I was doing Leave It to Beaver on the Universal lot, Hitchcock was doing [the series] Alfred Hitchcock Presents at the same time,” Mathers once told me. (I interviewed the actor in 1993 and 1998.)

“He would always come by in his chauffeur-driven Rolls, and he’d roll down the window and say, ‘Oh, hello, Mr. Mathers.’ It was kind of interesting to have somebody like that—who was a very imposing figure—call me Mr. Mathers. I was about eight or nine at the time.”

According to Mathers, the Leave It to Beaver scripts were often based on experiences in the families of the producer-writer team (INSET) Director Alfred Hitchcock cast Jerry Mathers in The Trouble With Harry (1955).

(RIGHT) Mathers in a scene from the film (and, hey, how about that swell toy raygun?). © Paramount Pictures.

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that created the series. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who cut their teeth in radio, had nine kids between them—plenty of comic fodder for plotlines.

“All of the stories from the original Leave It to Beaver were from real life,” Mathers said. “They may be a combination of 50 things that happened to 50 different kids in just one episode, but the main storylines in most of the truly funny episodes are real.

“I think that’s what makes them so timeless. You know, things that really happened to kids in the Fifties—you can still relate to them.”

A lot of Mathers’ funniest lines derive from irony; Beaver didn’t always realize what he was saying.

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

Did young Mathers comprehend everything that came out of Beaver’s mouth?

“I think I did,” the actor said. “The reason I say that is, everything was scripted. People ask me, ‘Did you just say a lot of that stuff?’

No. None of it was off the top of my head. And because it’s comedy, everything has to play.

“We also had two days of rehearsals. We would go in Monday and read the script over several times—sometimes nine or 10 times—just sitting in a big room like they do with a stage play.

Everybody would sit around, and the writers would listen for what people would laugh at. Not just the cast, but they had other people in the room who were professionals.”

How is it that Mathers escaped the former-child-star-introuble-with-the-law syndrome that plagued, for instance, Danny Bonaduce, Dana Plato, and Todd Bridges?

held some national records in those age groups. So I spent a lot of time in the pool.”

Still, Dow took note of the entertainment world. His mother, Muriel Montrose, was a former stuntwoman who once doubled for silent-movie siren Clara Bow. Young Dow was a TV fan as well.

“Those were the good old days, when you would take your TV tray at 6 or 7 [p.m.], and the whole family would watch Ed Sullivan,” Dow reminisced. “I liked Westerns a lot. You only had three [network] choices back then. Local TV hadn’t really grown up yet. I’d watch two or three hours a night. But then, when I was on the show, I had a lot of other stuff to do. I had my homework; I had to learn lines; and I still wanted to pal around with my friends.”

Dow’s introduction to the acting field was unintentional on his part.

(LEFT) Brothers on television, friends in real life: Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow. (RIGHT) Jerry Mathers doing regular kid stuff as Beaver Cleaver, part of the appeal of Leave It to Beaver. © NBC Universal Television.

“I was really, really lucky,” he said. “At the time I was doing the show, my father [Norman Mathers] was principal of the largest high school in the Los Angeles city school system. He was graduating about 3,000 kids [per year]. He knew exactly what to look for when you were a little out of line, and just needed to be yanked right back in.”

NATURAL ATHLETE

Meanwhile, Mathers’ TV brother had never planned to become an actor. He was plenty busy with other pursuits.

“California was a cool place to grow up,” Dow told me in 2017. “I was a beach guy. I played a lot of volleyball; I played in four national championships. I loved playing volleyball on the beach and indoor, six-man. I was a swimmer and a diver, so when I started, it was in groups of ages seven and eight; and nine and 10; and 11 and 12. I

“What happened was, a friend of mine who was an actor asked me if I’d go along on an audition for [the pilot] Johnny Wildlife,” Dow recalled. “So I went and I ended up lucking out. I don’t know how or why. Things mushroomed from there, and I ended up in Leave It to Beaver.”

Dow believed his athleticism was written into the character of Wally after he was cast in the role.

“Those guys, Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, were really smart,” Dow said. “They were terrific writers. They played to our strengths.

Especially me because I was a novice. Jerry had been acting since he was two years old or something ridiculous like that.

“I guess if they had cast a bookworm as Wally, he’d be on the debating team instead of the basketball team. In fact, they had another Wally [Paul Sullivan] in the pilot. He was not an athletic Wally. If he’d have stayed in the show, it would have been a RETROFAN

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

different show. So the writing was not to help the roles, but more to play to our strengths. They tried to write to who we were.”

The crux of the show was the relationship between Wally and Beaver. Though Wally was a straight arrow, there was no judgment on his part when Beaver (frequently) screwed up. Wally always wanted to help Theodore.

“Originally, the show was going to be called Wally and the Beaver,” Dow pointed out. “The original idea was to show the craziness of the adult world from the children’s point of view—Beaver being a little kid and Wally being a little more grown up.”

The brothers shared a bedroom, which everyone—parents and friends alike—barged into without knocking. The scenes of Wally and Beaver discussing the latest catastrophe in their room were remarkably naturalistic. Could Dow feel himself growing as an actor?

© NBC Universal Television.

Mary Sue Trent as Beaver’s classmate Penny.

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12 MUST-SEE ‘BEAVER’ EPISODES f “Beaver’s Short Pants” (Season 1, Episode 11): June’s ancient Aunt Martha is so last-century, she’s unaware that the Buster Brown-style short-pants ensemble she buys for Beaver will make him the laughing stock of Grant Avenue Grammar School. f “Lumpy Rutherford” (S1, E16): That big kid Clarence, a.k.a. “Lumpy,” has been bullying Wally and the Beaver every day after school. In commiseration, Ward tells his boys how he once fixed a bully with some wellplaced barrel hoops. He will regret his candor. f “The State Versus Beaver” (S1, E24): When, against Ward’s orders, Beaver drives the boys’ new go-cart into the street, a cop writes him a ticket. Beaver then appears in court with Wally as his “guardian.” f “Beaver’s Old Friend” (S1, E32): While cleaning out the garage with his father and brother, Beaver finds his old teddy bear, now stinking of turpentine. Not wanting to seem like a baby, Beaver tosses the tattered doll, which was his only friend when he had the measles. f “Wally’s Pug Nose” (S2, E19): The pretty new girl at school comments on Wally’s “pug nose,” and he sends away for a nose-straightener. Turns out, the girl liked Wally’s nose all along. f “Wally’s Haircomb” (S2, E34): Ward is perturbed when Wally comes home with a hairstyle that Edd “Kooky” Byrnes would laugh at. Whenever Wally is onscreen wearing the outlandish ’do, a rock ’n’ roll riff is heard. f “Most Interesting Character” (S2, E39): Beaver decides to make his father the subject of an essay assignment. Alas, Ward’s life can’t compete with that of Judy’s dad, who she claims shot 50 elephants in Africa. f “June’s Birthday” (S3, E13): Beaver buys his mother a gaudy “French” blouse on which is printed suggestively placed Eiffel Towers and the phrase “Ooh, la la.” June promises to wear it to a meeting of school moms. As a surprise, Miss Landers brings Beaver’s class to the meeting to sing for the mothers. Uh-oh… June broke her promise. f “In the Soup” (S4, E32): A billboard advertising Zesto Soups shows a housewife holding a giant cup from which actual steam rises. Whitey convinces Beaver to climb up the billboard to see if there’s really soup in the cup. The rest is TV history. f “Kite Day” (S4, E37): For the upcoming father-son bonding event Kite Day, Ward and Beaver painstakingly construct a complicated box kite. While Ward is away, Gilbert insists that Beaver take it for a test f light. What could go wrong? f “Farewell to Penny” (S5, E15): Beaver wants to skip Penny’s farewell party because she’s a “zombie” with a “creepy face.” Or maybe it’s because he likes her. f “Wally’s Dinner Date” (S6, E1): When Wally offers to take Julie to the restaurant of her choice, she picks the White Fox, the ritziest (and most expensive) place in Mayfield. A bowl of soup alone costs 80 cents!

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

“Absolutely, I think I grew,” he said. “The first season, they had a dialogue coach who would help me an awful lot. I learned the lines, and she would work with me.

“But then, the people I was interested in as an audience member kind of influenced me. I loved Marlon Brando and James Dean and Montgomery Clift. Those guys always interested me in the way they would underplay in their acting. It was the style of the day. But on TV at the time, things were played broader. Kids were less realistic.

“That’s one thing we lucked out in. We were fairly realistic. Those scenes in the bedroom, those were moments that everybody had in real life. All the shows were written from real life,” Dow added, echoing Mathers’ sentiment.

“Especially the first 100.”

Post-Beaver, Dow and Mathers still saw a lot of each other professionally. They co-starred in stage productions, participated in the Eighties TV revivals, and appeared side by side at autograph shows.

“It’s interesting because our relationship is a lot like brothers,” Dow said. “I was a big brother; he tagged along a lot, wanting to hang out with the bigger guys. Just like on the show.”

I told Dow that I’ve always wished I was as kind and supportive to my siblings as Wally was to Theodore.

“Thanks. A lot of people say they wish their family had been as close as the Cleavers,” Dow said. “That’s why people love to watch the show. It makes them feel good.”

Ken Osmond as obnoxious Eddie Haskell in Leave It to Beaver. © NBC Universal Television.

Wally (Tony Dow) and Jill (Beverly Washburn) have a soda after the school dance in the “Blind Date Committee” episode. © NBC Universal Television.

WISE-GUY EXTERIOR

Wally’s buddy Eddie Haskell was a master “code switcher”—a sarcastic troublemaker who posed as a “choirboy” in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver, not that they were fooled.

“I sometimes wonder what Wally sees in him,” June once said of Eddie while sipping coffee with her husband.

“Well, I suppose boys can size up other boys better than adults,” came Ward’s reply. “Who knows? Maybe Wally sees beneath the brash, noisy, wise-guy exterior a rather likeable, insecure kid underneath.”

Eddie was played with uncanny authenticity by Osmond, who struck a chord with viewers because, well, wasn’t there an Eddie in every neighborhood?

“Oh, I hear that all the time,” Osmond said with a laugh when we spoke in 2000. “There was one on every block. I think that’s probably one of the major contributing factors to the character’s popularity today.”

Actors often relish the opportunity to play an unsympathetic character, but that plus was lost on the young Osmond.

“Today, I can appreciate it,” he said. “But at that time, I had been in the industry since my first childhood memories. It wasn’t good; it wasn’t bad; it was just a way of life. I thought, ‘Doesn’t everybody do this?’”

Osmond debuted as Eddie in Season One. He recalled: “It was the third show made, and it was called ‘New Neighbors.’

It was, as far as I knew at that time, a one-shot deal, just like I’d done in so many other episodic-type television shows in the Fifties. Apparently, the character was popular and they brought him back.”

Was Eddie’s obnoxiousness apparent from that first show? “Not at all,” Osmond RETROFAN

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With friends like these... Beaver's pals: (TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT) Rusty Stevens as Larry Mondello, Stanley Fafara as Whitey, and Stephen Talbot as Gilbert. (BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT) Frank Bank as Wally's friend Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford; Jeri Weil as Judy Hensler, Beaver’s nemesis; and Pamela Baird as Mary Ellen Rogers. © NBC Universal Television. said. “If you watch the shows in chronological order, you’ll find the character developing as the years went on.”

That metamorphosis is something Osmond doesn’t recall noticing.

“Probably not consciously at the time,” he said. “I can now. I watch them now, and I can definitely see the difference. I can tell instantly first season from third season, you know, as the character developed.”

Osmond was asked if the public ever confused him with his character—if, for instance, a granny ever spotted him in a supermarket and wagged her finger at him.

“Not that literally, no,” he said. “And I know exactly what you’re talking about. Ken and Eddie are two different people. I’ve realized that since the get-go. Eddie is a character.”

DENIZENS OF MAYFIELD

Leave It to Beaver is notable for its adherence to continuity. You play baseball at Metzger’s Field. You picnic at Friend’s Lake. Beaver 20

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attends Grant Avenue Grammar School. Wally attends Mayfield High. Ward hailed from rural Shaker Heights, and served with the Seabees during World War II. He carries a briefcase to work, though what he does for a living is a mystery. [See Scott Saavedra’s investigation of same in RetroFan #17— ed.] Even the shops in downtown Mayfield have a comforting consistency. But the lifeblood of Mayfield is its denizens.

Roly-poly Larry Mondello can reliably pull an apple or candy bar from his pockets. He always gives his flustered mama (Madge Blake) “nervous headaches.” Whitey is a little schemer who sends Beaver into that giant soup bowl on purpose. Ditto Gilbert, who goads Beaver into making a goofy face in their class portrait.

Richard Rickover (Richard Correll) is another pal, even if he unfairly fingers Beaver for window-breaking.

Wally’s buddy Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford is a schlub whose bark is worse than his bite, and who crumples like an accordion in the presence of his father, Fred Rutherford (Richard Deacon), himself a blowhard colleague of Ward’s. Rounding out Wally’s

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

Adults and stuff: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Madge Kennedy as old-fashioned Aunt Martha, Sue Randall as teacher Miss Landers, Edgar Buchanan as tall-tale-teller Uncle Billy. © NBC Universal Television. gang are myopic Tooey (Tiger Farara, older brother of Stanley) and jock-y Chester (Buddy Joe Hooker, later an accomplished stuntman).

Wally’s love interests include Mary Ellen Rogers (Pamela Baird), Gloria Cusick/Julie Foster (Cheryl Holdridge in two roles), and Alma Hanson (Cindy Carol).

At school, Miss Canfield (Diane Brewster) was Beaver’s first teacher… and first crush. Miss Landers (Sue Randall) actually comes to the Cleavers’ house for dinner, and you can see her actual toes through her shoes! [Ernest Farino covered All Things Sue Randall in RetroFan #16—ed.] Mrs. Rayburn (Doris Packer) is Grant Avenue School’s principal who tempers her adherence to rules with understanding. Trusty old Gus the fireman (Burt Mustin) dispenses wisdom— that is, when he’s not napping.

Pig-tailed sourpuss Judy Hensler (Jeri Weil) is quick to squeal on classmates to score points with teachers—but boy, can she hit a baseball. Violet Rutherford (Veronica Cartwright) gives Beaver his first kiss. Penny Woods (Karen Sue Trent) and Beaver don’t like each other… or do they?

Let’s not forget the Cleaver boys’ favorite relatives. June’s old-fashioned Aunt Martha (Madge Kennedy) thinks Beaver looks like a perfect little gentleman in short pants. Ward’s Uncle Billy (Edgar Buchanan) enthralls the boys with tales of his wild adventures, some of which are even true.

Memorable one-shot roles were filled by familiar faces, such as Ryan O’Neal (as an older friend of Wally’s), James Gleason (as a hobo), William Schallert (as a harried teacher), Marta Kristen (as a party hostess), Howard McNear (typecast as a barber), and baseball great Don Drysdale (as himself).

In the 1959 episode “Blind Date Committee,” Wally is put in charge of finding escorts for dateless girls for an upcoming school dance. Introverted transfer student Jill Bartlett (Beverly Washburn) proves to be a challenge—Eddie Haskell calls her a “gofer”—and no one will agree to escort her. Finally, Wally offers to accompany Jill to the dance himself. Though he anticipates much ribbing from his friends, he and Jill end up having a swell time together.

Washburn, then 16, was an “old pro” who was once directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and acted alongside Jimmy Stewart, Jane Wyman, RETROFAN

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Bing Crosby, and Lou Costello. Her Beaver role was a reunion; Washburn earlier played Billingsley’s daughter in the short-lived series Professional Father (1955).

“I had stayed in touch with Barbara,” Washburn told me in 2003.

“I was so fond of her—one of the nicest, sweetest ladies in the world. After that, she got Leave It to Beaver.

“So when I went on the audition to read for that part, I really wanted it for two reasons. One was because I wanted to work with Barbara again. And two, because I always had a crush on Tony Dow. He’s darling. He and I have remained friends all these years.”

In a subtle way, Washburn’s role as a teenage girl in an unfamiliar environment who is ostracized was ahead of its time.

“It really was,” the actress agreed. “It’s certainly different from the shows that are on TV now. They were all so innocent then. The storylines were just so simple. I mean, the father would always come in with his suit and tie on. Today, it wouldn’t really work. It’s a different era.”

CURTAIN CALL

Most of the surviving cast members reunited for the TV movie Still the Beaver (1983) and its spin-off, the syndicated series The New Leave It to Beaver (1984–1989). Mathers, Dow, Billingsley, Osmond, and Bank effortlessly slide back into their roles as series regulars.

The TV movie was dedicated to Beaumont (who died in 1982), and contained a flashback to Ward’s 1977 funeral, which ended with a close-up of his gravestone marked: “Beloved Father and Husband.”

Casting directors for the Eighties shows were diligent in digging up old Beaver players for cameos: Stevens as Larry Mondello (now a religious convert in a turban who calls himself Ivishnu); Brewster as Miss Canfield (now the school principal); Deacon as Fred Rutherford (smarmy as ever); Cornell as Richard; Tiger Fafara as Tooey; even George O. Petrie (a mainstay on The Honeymooners) as Eddie’s dad.

In an episode set at Wally’s high school reunion, Holdridge returned as Julie Foster, now trying to seduce her (happily married) old flame. Baird returned for a cameo in the same episode, laying a smacker on the suddenly popular Wally.

Best of all—Weil who hadn’t been on TV since the original series—returned in 1987 to cameo as Beaver’s old nemesis Judy Hensler, for a hilarious scene in which she and Mathers traded insults once again. When Judy brags that she married a doctor known as “Mr. Proctology,” Beaver comments, “Then I’m sure you make a perfect couple.” Nice one!

Noticeably absent from the Eighties shows was Stanley Fafara as Whitey. (The role was filled by Ed Begley, Jr.) Sadly, Fafara drifted into heroin addiction after Beaver, though he was clean for the last eight years of his life. Fafara died in 2003 at age 54.

Billingsley, Osmond, and Bank made cameos in the 1997 movie adaptation, also titled Leave It to Beaver. (Dow, who later became a director, had thrown his hat in the ring to direct the movie, to no avail.) Cast reunions continue on talk shows and at fan conventions. Billingsley died in 2010; Bank in 2013; Osmond in 2020; and Dow in 2022.

Children’s book author Beverly Cleary wrote three Leave It to Beaver paperbacks for Berkley Medallion, including (RIGHT) Leave It to Beaver (1960) and Beaver and Wally, interior pages seen here (BELOW). © NBC Universal Television.

(ABOVE) At least three board games based on Leave It to Beaver were marketed by Hasbro, including the “Money Maker” game and the “Ambush Game.” © NBC Universal Television.

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(ABOVE LEFT) The Little Golden Book Leave It to Beaver (1959).

(ABOVE RIGHT) The Golden Record release presents “The Toy Parade,” which is the Leave It to Beaver theme song with winceinducing lyrics like “fiddledee-dee” and “rum-tee-tum.”

Leave it to Beaver © NBC Universal Television.

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

WHEN BEAVER ‘DIED’ Five years after Leave It to Beaver went off the air, two trusted news services reported that Jerry Mathers had been killed in Vietnam. The news shocked Mathers’ fans—and especially Mathers himself.

“That went out on both wire services (United Press International and Associated Press) in 1968,” Mathers recalled.

“What they’ve told me was that their bureau chiefs were scanning casualty lists in cities all across the United States for people of prominence who may have died. Somebody saw either my same name or a similar name. I had presented an Emmy to Gene Kelly that year for Best Children’s Program (for Jack and the Beanstalk). I did that in uniform, because I was in the Air Force at the time. So people had seen me on the Emmy Awards in uniform.

“So this bureau chief—UPI and AP both say the other one did it, and they just picked up the story from the other wire—saw a similar name and said, ‘Oh, I remember him from the Emmys. He’s in the Air Force. He’s dead.’ And they just ran the story across the United States.”

In a time before the immediacy of social media, it took a while for Mathers to debunk the story. In the meantime, Mathers’ Beaver costar Tony Dow sent flowers to Mathers’ parents.

Speaking of debunked Beaver myths, Ken Osmond did not later become shock rocker Alice Cooper, nor porn star John Holmes.

Dell Publishing put out six comic books based on Leave It to Beaver.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) The covers of #1191 (1961) and #1285 (1962) and the final issue (1962), with the odd issue numbering #01428-207.

(BELOW) A panel from issue #999 (1959). © NBC Universal Television.

(LEFT) Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box featuring Mathers and Dow (1984). © NBC Universal Television; © Kellogg’s.

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FAST FACTS

(TOP) Opening credit from the Eighties' series The New Leave It to Beaver. (RIGHT) Advertisement for the 1983 TV movie Still the Beaver. © Universal Television.

© NBC Universal Television.

TIME CAPSULE

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER f No. of seasons: Six f No. of episodes: 234 f Original run: October 4, 1957–June 20, 1963 f Primary cast: Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers f Networks: CBS (Season One), ABC (Seasons Two–Six) f Created by: Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher f Theme song composers: David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard, and Mort Greene

SPIN-OFFS AND REMAKES: f Still the Beaver (two-hour reunion movie directed

by Steven Hillard Stern originally airing on CBS on March 18, 1983) f The New Leave It to Beaver (spin-off of Still the Beaver and airing for four seasons, from March 19, 1983–June 4, 1989; Season One was shown on the Disney Channel, while Seasons Two–Four were aired on Superstation TBS) f Leave It to Beaver (1997 Universal Pictures movie remake directed by Andy Cadiff; starring Cameron Finley as Beaver, Erik von Detten as Wally, Christopher McDonald as Ward, and Janine Turner as June) 24

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The original Leave It to Beaver aired during an anxious time in modern American history. The Army-McCarthy hearings had convened in 1954, but rest assured, the Red Scare was still a thing.

Though Beaver rarely referenced current events, the shows couldn’t help reflecting the times in cryptic ways. When June once told Beaver that doing wrong “hurts” God, Beaver replied: “I wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt God. He’s got enough trouble with the Russians and all.”

The final episode aired on June 20, 1963; President Kennedy was assassinated the following November 22. So, even though Beaver concerned itself with baseball games, school dances, and ice cream sodas, Mayfield remains a time capsule of American attitudes during the Cold War and the “Camelot” era.

One more urban legend about Leave It to Beaver needs to be dispelled—that as Mathers got taller and his voice deepened, he was still playing Beaver as a little squirt.

Not true. All of the boys of Mayfield matured appropriately.

Wally got a car and chose a college. Beaver tried to teach himself how to dance for a boy-girl party. As painful as that episode is to watch—few among us didn’t have an awkward stage between ages ten and 20, and Beaver had a doozy—Leave It to Beaver was still in there pitching, still trying to be relevant and real.

This is why the show is still beloved. Back then, most family sitcoms were peddling a squeaky-clean ideal of suburban life in Fifties America. But Leave It to Beaver wasn’t selling anything. It just plain rang true.

MARK VOGER is the author and designer of six books for TwoMorrows Publishing, including Monster Mash (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy, Holly Jolly, and Britmania.

His favorite Funny Face character (and flavor) is Goofy Grape. Please visit him at MarkVoger.com

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

X-Mas Gifts You Didn’t Want

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA Gift-giving is one of humanity’s oldest activities. Not as important as finding food, shelter, and avoiding predators, but we’ve been doing it a long while, that’s all I’m trying to say. Fast-forward many thousands of years, and we’ve evolved so much as a species that not only do we give gifts to others, but to ourselves as well.

The opportunity to gift ourselves is, in part, due to the abundance of inexpensive goods and the ease with which we can make our purchases. This easy access came from the rise of shopping through the mail as exemplified by the thick Sears Roebuck catalogs (not the first, but the most important) and at brick-andmortar five-and-dime stores like the once mighty Woolworth chain.

Mail order was a very attractive option for hard-working entrepreneurs. It didn’t require the start-up costs a large retail business did, and if you could find your niche market you didn’t need to compete head-on with the giants of the business.

(TOP LEFT) The 1969 Hanover House catalog and (BOTTOM LEFT) the 1967 Sunset House catalog. Both Christmas-time catalogs were full of many of the same types of inexpensive (some would say unnecessary) merchandise. (INSET) A 1965 mail-order ad touting an easy entry into the mail-order business.

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Lilli Menasche, as Lillian Vernon, began a mail-order business out of her kitchen, ultimately becoming the first female-led company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Originally, she placed ads in Seventeen magazine for personalized items, her specialty. She soon issued a regular catalog full of goods waiting to have your name or initials placed on them.

Other notable mail-order retailers include Harriet Carter Gifts (another business originally based in the kitchen), Walter Drake, Spencer Gifts, Miles Kimball, Hanover House, Carol Wright Gifts, and Sunset House.

These retailers presented merchandise of modest value squarely aimed at everyday Americans of modest means. They reached their potential customers through catalogs and small ads placed in popular mid-level magazines like Family Circle, Coronet, Better Homes & Gardens, etc.

The really fun mail-order companies sold gleefully dopey stuff that was probably more entertaining to read about than own (I’m looking at you, X-Ray Specs). Johnson Smith and Honor House had ads in cheap magazines and comic books. The busy Johnson

A helpful booklet for shoppers, It’s Fun to Shop Mail Order, from Spiegel (date unknown). Collection of the author.

Smith ads were iconic and just packed with the smallest type and illustrations. Johnson Smith used to produce the “Sears Roebuck catalog” of novelties, which you could even get in hardback for a time. Hundreds of pages of the strangest, most wonderful things (and, to be fair, many cringers, too).

As a kid, I often sent away for catalogs for things I couldn’t afford to buy, but the “window shopping” aspect was fun. I think I got at least as much enjoyment from going over the Captain Company ads in Famous Monsters of Filmland for monster masks, posters, and Super 8 films as I did from the editorial material.

What follows is a beauty pageant of sorts for items you might see for sale in the catalogs and small ads from our youth. The focus is on the more offbeat stuff, because that’s the most fun. [And “offbeat” is RetroFan’s middle name!—ed.]

JOHNNY CLOCK (1957)

This Johnny Clock was in use for years in the author's office. The faux diamonds make this model clearly superior to the one seen in the ad detail (RIGHT) from a 1957 issue of House Beautiful.

“Folks will be clock-eyed when they see this on your bathroom wall.”

It’s a reminder that “time’s a-wasting, it helps get you to the office, train or school on the dot!” Like a clock. COST: $6.60 and maybe your standing in the community.

The Johnny Clock was probably my introduction to the wonderful world of screwy mail-order items. It was a gift from my late motherin-law and fellow novelty shopper, Virginia. She was a devoted thriftstore diver, and I benefited greatly since she loved to find homes for her treasures. Not every item was a winner, but the Johnny Clock is one of my prized pieces. The top seat was indifferently outlined in a classy gold tone, and the numbers were decorated by equally classy plastic “diamonds.” It was on the wall of every home office I’ve had until it finally stopped working.

Johnny Clock was pretty popular as toilet-lid novelties go, making its way up the mail-order ladder to be included in the 1981 Montgomery Ward catalog. By then it was available in four different colors (such as Rust and Brown) for only $15.99 each.

COLOR TV GLASSES (1967) These modest glasses allow you to watch black-and-white television programming in, and I quote, “livid color.” I’m pretty sure this is a typo, but I admit to being intrigued by the notion of watching angry color TV. Red, green, and orange stripes are supposed to create a “fantastically life-like optical illusion.”

I’m pretty sure that’s a typo, too. COST: $1.49

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BLINKI-TRON (1964)

TOOTH PAINT (1965)

A small box with six lights. “Who knows what those 6 tiny light bulbs mean when they blink… blink…” The Blinkitron is “completely automatic” and “entirely beyond control.” “Perhaps it has a message for you?” “Fascinating.”

COST: $4.98 and your sanity (I want this).

Wyten is a “Dental Cosmetic” that covers stains and fillings.

Now, not only can your teeth be “radiant white,” but covered with brush strokes as well. Offers no improvement for missing teeth or recessed gums. Possibly also good for making typing corrections. COST: $1.98

ANTS IN YOUR PANTS (1969)

PATRIOTIC PIE PAN (1969)

This is about as honest a product as they come: underwear festooned with cartoons of ants. For the mister, the material is 100% cotton. For M’lady, the briefs are made from acetate tricot, which sounds very space age (and not very comfortable). COST: $1.98 for the men-folk, $1.29 for the women-folk.

A pie pan in the shape of the continental United States. “It makes every dessert a ‘national dish’!”

There is no earthly way that a pie of this shape can be attractively cut into similarly sized pieces. COST: For only $2.79, you’ll know that you are the best American ever (that makes ugly pies).

COFFIN CIGARETTE DISPENSER (1979) Inscription on top of the coffin reads, “One more cigarette, one more nail.”

“Hilarious.” Which is true enough if by hilarious you mean a grim reminder of the root of your own self-inflicted early demise. COST: $1.95

BAND AID (1978)

MAGIC FUN WIGS (1969) “Molded plastic wigs” in exciting early Sixties style for when your child is pretending to be Mom or a “glamorous movie star.” Satisfies the “urge to act out a character.”

“Sanitary.” COST: Set of three for $1.98

It’s “the perfect CB (Citizen’s Band radio) gift for your ‘Good Buddy.’” At first glance it appears to be a trophy, but actually serves as a fancy note (in “goldtone”) with which to permanently mark down your “Handle” or CB nickname and your Call Letters, which used to be assigned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but are no longer. Beyond that, it has no function except as a pricey Post-It® note or paperweight (if you still use paper).

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TALK-BACK PHONE (1967) “The voice on the line repeats every spoken word clearly and distinctly… to give little chatterboxes… the thrilling fun of an actual phone call… the delayed echo of the youngster’s own words is like a mystery playmate talking.” A playmate that can only say what you say, you know, like in a nightmare. “Safe.” COST: $1

MOOD CAP (1969) A sleep cap that “not only protects your hairdo while you sleep, but also reveals your mood without a word.”

I’m speechless. The Yes side features two bunny rabbits (wink, wink), and the No side has a howling dog and dog house. COST: $1.49

ELECTRIC HAND FOR THE BACK (1964) “Talk about jet-age wonders.” Well, we could talk about jet-age wonders, but instead we are discussing back scratchers. Comes with a “little plastic hand” that “really works.” Sounds creepy. And if the illustration is any indication, the lady here likes creepy. COST: $2.98

WHISKEY SANDWICH (1967)

INSTANT FACIAL HAIR (1969) Now “any man” (with brown or gray hair) can look “conservatively groomed all day then emerge at night as a continental, debonair man-about-town!” You may use the fake hair to look “distinguished… wicked… cool.” COST: Mustache, sideburns, or Van Dyke beard are $3.00 each. The self-delusion is free!

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You may have a drinking problem if you need to hide your booze inside a fake sandwich made of foam. “A super spoof for lunch breaks, picnics, or stadium snacks.”

Comes wrapped in wax paper (for freshness) and is placed inside of a brown paper bag with the words “whiskey sandwich” printed on it. Seek help, my friend. Your family loves you. COST: a mere $1 and, eventually, everything you hold dear.

LITTLE BLACK BOX (1964) “There it sits, quiet, sinister, waiting.” Turn it on and there is a grinding sound as the lid slowly opens and a hand emerges. The hand turns the switch off and then disappears. “It does absolutely nothing but switch itself off” (emphasis theirs). The real benefit of the Little Black Box? “Fantastic psychological impact.”

That is fantastic. COST: $4.98

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

PROTEST DOLL (1967) “Express yourself!” by mocking “fuss-makers” (hippies, one assumes, who are expressing themselves) with the “biggest laugh-getter” of the year.

A “squelch for every occasion.” Also great for “friendly get-togethers” where your squelching will be appreciated. 18 pre-printed “witty” signs plus blanks.

COST: $1.39

SQUIRREL MONKEY (1962)

OIL PORTRAIT (1964) Custom paint-by-number kits are not a bad idea, really. My main question is, did circus clowns ever get this product? COST: $9.95, for somebody’s future “ironic” yard sale/thrift store purchase.

ILLEGAL LONG DISTANCE CALL BLOCKER (1983) No more “costly long distance calls made without your permission.” Was strangers sneaking into homes to make “illegal” long-distance calls a thing in the Eighties? Probably not.

To be fair, charges for such calls were considerable. In New York, the cost of the first minute of a long-distance phone call in 1977 was 50 cents (according to an AT&T ad of the period).

Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $2.35 today. It would add up quick. COST: $49.95 for rotary phones and $69.95 for Touch-Tone® phones.

“A human-like pet to caress and play with” to bring “companionship” and “very lovable eyes.” This actual living creature “eats what you eat” and otherwise only needs “understanding and affection.” Here’s the bad news. I had a neighborhood friend who got one of these little guys (and it was a guy).

He was only interested in one thing: furiously giving himself “affection.”

And he would do this while staring you directly in the eye with his own “very lovable eyes.” The good news: “guaranteed live delivery.” So, that’s something. COST: $19.95 (dresses and clean-up are your responsibility).

Enjoy the monkey!

POCKET TELEVISION (1983) LET THEM KNOW WHO’S BOSS! (1967) Oh, boy… “delightful… super gag gifts for families (in what way?), brides-to-be… parties, sports, and just plain fun!” My mom sure would not put up with this stuff even in her early “sweet wifey-poo” (her words) years. COST: To your relationship?

Buddy, you have no idea. $3.98 per “delightful” top.

WOOL NOSE WARMER (1964) “Kooky but practical… sized to fit any nose… the perky tassel bobs up and down as you move.” COST: $1 and, frankly, your dignity.

A scientific miracle in your pocket!

Imagine watching any television program you want when you want to, so long as you’re in range of a signal, and the program you want to see is broadcasting. And all without the distraction of color! Extra special feature: listen to your favorite shows without the picture! Use at “the beach… on the road… out on the patio… at sporting events” Embrace the future. COST: $299.95 RETROFAN

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LIQUOR LOLLIPOPS (1967)

CHICKEN LEGS (1967) “Looks like fowl play!” (Not my joke.) “When you frisk a departing guest and find him absconding with a startling facsimile of scrawny Chicken Feet in his coat pocket… the party fun is about to escalate.” Wait, if you frisk a departing guest, isn’t the party over? Ad copy possibly written by the guy who brought a WHISKEY SANDWICH to work. COST: $1

“They look just like the old fashioned candy shop treats you spent your pennies for, long ago.” Okay, but they only taste like Scotch, Bourbon, and Gin. They may not have any alcoholic content, but they do have “sophisticated taste appeal!” That’s not nothing.

Wait, that is nothing. COST: Pack of six in a “smart” gift box is $1.

SASSY SHRUNKEN HEAD (1967) Shrunken heads are typically used as a battle trophy, for sacred ritualistic purposes, or even for trade. Typically, the shrinking of heads, while associated with headhunting (a rare tradition), only occurs in a specific area of the Amazon rainforest. It's worth noting that the actual process does require the violent removal of flesh from bone. Anyway, squeeze the Sassy Shrunken Head and its tongue pops out. “Devilish fun.”

COST: 98¢

PRIVATE EARS (1967) Allows you to privately listen in on another’s phone call “without lifting the receiver” of an extension phone.

“Ideal” for transcribing calls (what now?). COST: $3.98 plus professional therapy to repair loss of trust with loved ones.

CAR WATER HEATER (1964) You can heat water for “coffee, tea, or a 5 o’clock shave” simply by plugging it in to your car or boat’s 12-volt cigarette lighter. Probably ideal for police stakeouts. That cup resting on the dashboard is making me nervous. Kids, this is what we had to do before Starbucks. COST: $2.95 for the privilege of possibly spilling hot liquid on your lap.

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SEX SPRAY (1964) It’s just an air freshener. COST: $1 (a can of Glade air freshener cost less than half that at the time, just FYI).

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

(ABOVE) The detail from an ad for eye ball cuff links and tie tack is pulled from the December, 1963 issue of American Legion magazine. (LEFT) Author with eye ball cuff links, in a tuxedo, driving a car in 2018. Fancy.

MIGHTY TINY RECORD PLAYER (1967) “So small it fits in the palm of your hand.” Unless you are a child, in which case it does not. What kind of music brings such powerful joy to the little youngster seen here? How ’bout: “Andy Wilson plays the Hot Beach Guitar,” “Arab Desert Dance”

by Sheik Alabe and his Nomads, and “Start to Hula” by Hula Jet Jive Five.

There is more, but it doesn’t appear that there is a lot more. Small, one-sided records with music from otherwise unknown performers.

Groovy. COST: Tiny Phonograph $5.98, Tiny Record Stand 79¢, Tiny Records pack $1.19

EYE BALLS CUFF LINKS AND TIE TACK (1963)

JOHN JOKE (1967)

Many of the mail-order companies mentioned here are still around in one way or another. Walter Drake and Miles Kimball are under the same corporate umbrella and still offer catalogs, as does Carol Wright and Lillian Vernon. Today they also have online stores, but the days of $1.98 novelties for the home are long past.

The Johnson Smith catalog changed its name in 1979 to Things You Never Knew Existed and opened an e-commerce website in 1997. Johnson Smith ended in 2019. Honor House stopped selling novelties around the Seventies or so and then became Biospecifics Technologies Corp. I kid you not. They are early developers of injectable collagenase (or so I’m told), and they are still at the building that used to house all those cardboard submarines and six-foot-tall Frankenstein monster posters.

Some of these items are still around and turn up in the usual places, thrift stores, flea markets, eBay, and the like. For me, I will not rest until I have my very own Blinki-tron.

“Modern conveniences are great… but this is the limit!” What it is is a fake, lightweight plastic urinal, and you can “put it up anywhere… in the home bar, the den, or wherever you’d least expect to see one.” All it will take is that one really, really drunk friend who really, really needs to go, and this little ha-ha loses its luster quick. COST: $2.98 and maybe some carpet cleaning and a new television console.

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/

Imagine having these cuff links “peek out from beneath your coat sleeve or from your tie. It’s enough to give your friends a complex!”

Yes, let’s do that. “Handsomely boxed.” Well, that’s something.

COST: Pair of cuff links $2.20, tie tack $1.10, or the set $2.98 If you watched the Emmy Awards earlier this year, you may have seen Ukrainian singer Mika Newton perform during a tribute to Ukraine with John Legend.

She’s married to my nephew Chris, and I wore my set of eyeball cuff links to their wedding because that’s just the type of chap I am.

SLIDE RULE TIE CLIP (1964) “Accurately calibrated.” COST: $1.10 in “golden-tone” metal, $3.30 in sterling silver, cuff links (they are merely decorative) are $1.10 in “golden-tone” metal, $3.30 in sterling silver. Fun fact: These appear to be fairly common on eBay.

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Now shipping at www.twomorrows.com!

BRITMANIA

by RetroFan’s MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy? BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music!

Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas!

(192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • NOW SHIPPING!

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THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

MICHAEL DORMER How a Potbellied Surfer and a Jellybean Monster Took a San Diego Beatnik to Hollywood and Back!

BY SCOTT SHAW! I was very lucky to be born in 1951 and to have grown up in San Diego, California. Beyond being a tourist town (and a great place to throw a convention about funnybooks), it was a surfing community long before surf culture achieved national attention. I loved listening to the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. I read Surfer magazine because it featured Rick Griffin’s “Murphy the Surfer” comic strip, which taught me how to draw surfers for both my classmates and my junior high newspaper. I even got in trouble with my parents for using the local thumbs-up surf-term “bitchen” too often. (Yeah, elsewhere it’s spelled “bitchin’,” but in San Diego, it was definitely “bitchen.”)

The only time I ever actually surfed was when I was a scholarship student at Point Loma’s Cal Western University and lived in a dorm that was located less than 100 yards from a surfing beach. I waded in with a friend’s surfboard and was about to mount when a wave hit me, and I lost the board, as well as my swim trunks. At least we found the board—if not my trunks—which was also lucky because I needed it to cover myself while doing the Walk of Shame to my dorm room.

A bit farther up the coast from where my embarrassment occurred was where—a few years earlier—one of my favorite elements of surf culture was created by a local cartoonist named Michael Dormer. In fact, Mike was much more that that, creativitywise, but in 1963, I didn’t know his name.

But “Hot Curl the Surfer”?

Bitchen!

(ABOVE) Cartoonist Michael Dormer. Photo by Louise King.

(INSET) Cover to the book, Michael Dormer and the Legend of Hot Curl (2017, Fantagraphics Books), edited by Michael Powers and Eric Reynolds and still available. Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

A ‘BITCHEN’ BIO

Being born in 1951 also allowed me to be in the front row for the popularity of monsters in entertainment, publications, and merchandise from the mid-Fifties to the mid-Sixties. The first time RETROFAN

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I ever saw Mike’s name was on a hilariously weird afternoon kids’ show hosted by a cute li’l monster and his kookie mad scientist creator who aired The Marvel Super Heroes cartoons. The show’s name?

Shrimpenstein!

Sooo, who was this Michael Dormer guy, anyway? Whoever he was, he was a very big deal to me.

Born in Hollywood in 1935, Michael Henry Dashwood Dormer was welcomed into a family of writers and musicians. Apparently, they needed an artist because li’l Mike was learning how to draw at the age when most children are learning how to walk. When he reached the age of five, his folks enrolled Mike in a Del Mar school in San Diego County to take art classes focusing on sculpture and ceramics. He was also mentored by a then-popular fine artist, Louis Geddes.

At 12, Mike took first prize in a National Fire Prevention poster contest. By the time he was 15, his interests shifted from art to music. While attending San Diego’s Mission Bay and San Dieguito High Schools, Mike was a guitarist with an experimental jazz band, performing music that he also wrote and arranged. Once he reached age 18, he refocused on art, juggling a number of different clients and assignments.

By this time, Mike had honed his graphic skills to the point that he was working as a pro illustrator and cartoonist across the spectrum of his profession.

He contributed to men’s magazines ranging from Esquire to nudie magazines and drew editorial cartoons for San Diego’s Independent, a longtime weekly newspaper. Michael’s first illustration for San Diego Magazine, the first of hundreds over the next 50 years, was created in 1954.

But as many teens approaching the age of 20 do, young Mr. Dormer decided to hit the road to see America, financing his journey by painting murals or playing piano in saloons and barrooms around the United States.

Mike’s attempts at “fine art” in 1955 have been described as “beatnik-style canvases, replete with splashes of paint, expressionist figures and bendy, twisty tropes.” Soon, by concentrating on commercial art, he got much better. In the mid-Fifties, Michael relocated to Los Angeles, where he attended the legendary Chouinard Art Institute thanks to a scholarship. While in L.A., he co-founded a small business that his family has described only as an “off-beat novelty product featuring his cartoons.” (I’d sure like to know what that was!)

When sales began to ebb, Mike moved north to San Francisco.

He considered the city’s art scene to be more enlightened than that of the Showbiz Capitol of the World. As a San Franciscan, he hung out with noted Fifties outsider writers such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac. It’s also where Mike sold his first fine art paintings.

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(BOTTOM) Dormer, circa early Sixties, and with some of his non-surfer work. (TOP) An untitled Dormer painting from the Masterman Gallery. Facebook.

Around this time, Mike and his new bride moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he won painting contests and exhibited and sold his paintings. Dormer signed a publishing contract that enabled him to write and illustrate a half-dozen humor books.

But after 18 months, his marriage dissolved, and he moved back to SoCal. A few years later in 1957, Mike returned to San Diego County to set up his own painting studio, but this time he settled in La Jolla, the seaside town where Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. “Dr. Seuss,” and his wife resided. The Pour House, a hip coffeehouse in La Jolla’s neighborhood of Bird Rock, became a second home to Mike, who was hired by its owner Lee Teacher to be his unique part-time nightclub comic and jazz poet. Lee and Mike hit it off, and eventually co-created an art gallery in the Pour House that featured early works by avant-garde artists of the time. Dormer also published The Scavenger (1959), an innovative art and poetry zine that premiered a

The oddball world of scott shaw!

hand-drawn character that would soon gain national fame. Based Using the Scavenger surfer as a model—as well as cement, iron on his self-credit in a Scavenger issue, Mike seemed to already be re-bars, one mop, one light bulb, and one beer can—Mike and Lee convinced of that kind of built a 400-pound, seven-footattention: “Some fearless tall statue of the longhaired, “I remember, back around the mid-Sixties, a friend cartoons by that purveyor of beer-bellied, surf bum with showing me a picture of this weird, six-foot-tall, caustic wit, Michael Dormer.” a prodigious schnoz. They 400-pound reinforced concrete statue of a potbelMike’s work also appeared dubbed him “Hot Curl.” Then lied surfer, with a rope belt holding up his baggies in UC Berkeley’s humor they installed their creation on magazine, The Pelican (which La Jolla’s Windandsea Beach. and a rather large nose protruding from a mop of also printed work by underThe Hot Curl statue gripped shoulder-length hair, somewhere in San Diego. ground-cartoonists-to-be Joel a beer can in one hand while This just was strange enough for me to learn more Beck and John Thompson), gazing out over the ocean in and discover that there were comic strips about and Escapade magazine. search of the perfect wave. this character and seek them out.”

But it was Scavenger that It didn’t take long for La MICHAEL SWANIGAN changed Mike Dormer’s Jolla’s city officials to demand career forever. Drawing the removal of Hot Curl from animation producer, director, storyboard in a loose style that was their beach, claiming it was artist, and historian influenced by cartoonist Jules a safety hazard if it toppled Feiffer’s work, Mike drew a comic strip that featured—but didn’t over and fell on someone. The town’s surf community stood up star—a nameless, potbellied surfer holding a beer can. against the decision. A reinstatement issue was taken to the La Jolla City Council, which voted unanimously to restore Hot Curl to Windandsea and securely anchor him… so he wouldn’t fall over HANG TEN WITH HOT CURL on anyone. A few months after he was reinstated, Hot Curl was The 1959 film Gidget—starring James Darren, Cliff Robertson, and destroyed by vandals who removed and stole Sandra Dee in the title role—sparked a national interest in his head and bent his limbs and torso surfing. Next came John Severson’s Surfer magazine, to the point that his concrete body which debuted in 1960. Then, the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’” cracked and shattered. At the time, was released in November 1961. And so on… rumors circulated that the crime La Jolla already had a long history of surf was committed by rivals of culture. In the summer of 1963, Chuck Halsey reformed La Jolla’s legendary Windandsea the Windandsea Surf Club, Surf Club. Thanks to Surfer magazine and but it was later determined surfing documentaries, many of the that the damage was done club’s members would become iconic by two drunken sailors on representatives of the… well, “sport” leave. Hot Curl’s head was isn’t exactly the right word. How about found in Arizona. “aquatic obsession”?

In 1963, Mike had a project in the works that he called The Hot Curl Book. Described as “Hot Curl and the Surfers: 64 Pages of Wild and Whacky Beach Humor for Surfing Nuts of All Ages,” it was clearly intended to be a comic book. Unfortunately, it was never finished, probably due to the destruction of Hot Curl.

Although Michael Dormer was more of a beatnik than a hippie, it’s surprising that he never drew underground comix. His cartooning style, full of subtle patterns and dabs of ink, has always possessed a

(ABOVE) The bitchen, potbellied surfer icon, still “as free as the sea” in this 2007 illo.

Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. (LEFT) The legendary, and ill-fated, Hot Curl statue, at Windandsea Beach. © Ron Church Estate.

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California “Kustom Kulture” or “Lowbrow Art.” Mike may have mentioned the offer to one of his clients at San Diego Magazine because, soon after, one of the publication’s articles noted, “A humor book tailored to the Beach Party © 1964 Alta Vista beach and surfing set and Productions. featuring our hero is scheduled to hit national newsstands about the time Muscle Beach opens in the theaters.” Hmmm…

The movie opens with a sequence of four of Dormer’s handdrawn sequential cartoons showing Hot Curl chatting with a nerdy kid who accidentally gets clobbered by Hot Curl’s surfboard.

This leads into the actors’ credits, which are superimposed over sections of a huge mural-like illustration, also created by Mike, of a wild and wacky beach party. Throughout the film, kids are shown wearing Hot Curl T-shirts. The walls of its setting, “Cappy’s Place,” feature Hot Curl paintings by Mike. Muscle Beach Party also includes cast members wearing Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s “Hillybilly” hats adorned with the image of Hot Curl, as well as a custom dune buggy designed by Roth. Dormer himself doubled as a talent scout for this and other surfing films, recruiting actual surfers of both sexes off the beaches of La Jolla to get paid to appear in Hollywood entertainment. With Beach Party movie staples Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, Muscle Beach Party is not all that different than the other AIP surf movies that preceded and followed it… except for the genuine material contributed by Mike and his friends.

Title card, intro graphic, and scene from the American International Pictures release Muscle Beach Party (1964), using Dormer artwork. Muscle

vibe that practically yells, “Keep your freak flag flyin’!” long before “comix” came to exist. (At least they had another SoCal surf-artist, Rick Griffin.)

Shortly after Hot Curl was disgustingly vandalized, Mike relocated south to another surfing community, Ocean Beach, one of San Diego’s most countercultural towns. And it was full of actual surfers, not the fabricated kind that kids were seeing on movie screens at the time. From 1963 to 1966, American International Pictures (AIP) ground out nine feature films set in a mythical era when every teenager in the country seemed to have access to a beach with tasty waves—movies such as Beach Party (1963), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966).

[RetroFan’s own Mark Voger wrote about the Beach Party craze back in issue #22—ed.]

In late 1963, Mike Dormer was contacted by AIP to use images of Hot Curl in its upcoming movie Muscle Beach Party (which was released on March 25, 1964), a film that featured a number of faddish elements that, decades later, would be referred to as

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth helped Mike Dormer secure a license from manufacturer MPC for model kits based upon Hot Curl. Shown are built-up Hot Curl and Curl’s Girl models from Worthpoint auctions. Hot Curl and Curl’s Girl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Hot Curl makes his first appearance in SURFtoons, by Mike Dormer. Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. SURFtoons © Petersen Publications. Scan courtesy of Scott Shaw!

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Hot Curl in SURFtoons, by Mike Dormer. Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. SURFtoons © Petersen Publications.

Scan courtesy of Scott Shaw!

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(OPPOSITE) Official Shrimpenstein Monster Fan Club card and screen capture with Shrimpenstein and Dr. Rudolf Von Schtick (Gene Moss). Shrimpenstein © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

The oddball world of scott shaw!

The potbellied surf-god “When I was 14, I loved Shrimpenstein! I had a suddenly became a national Pavlovian reaction to the show’s cheerfully masensation after Ed “Big cabre theme song, slavering in anticipation of Daddy” Roth helped Dormer another dollop of SoCal adolescent loser cullicense Hot Curl to the plastic model kit company ture. Shrimpenstein!’s audience was young people MPC. In 1964, “Hot Curl” was who appreciated and identified with the humor the first of four different of Stan Freberg and Tom Lehrer, to name just two Mike Dormer–related model of the gently subversive, hip social satirists of the kits—which introduced new era. Shrimpenstein! was squarely in that camp, but Dormer characters “Curl’s for kids.

Gurl” (a.k.a. “Dot Gurl”), “Hot Shot” (Hot Curl’s kid “Commercial scribes Gene Moss and Jim Thurbrother), and “Hot Dog”— man wrote and performed the show with cynical, sold alongside Big Daddy’s juvenile glee, insulting the sponsors, mocking the “Finks” on the shelves cartoons they showed, and constantly breaking the of hobby shops across fourth wall. They had a fan club; my friend John America. In 1966, MPC issued Dorman and I joined it and went to meet our hethe fourth kit, “The Wild Ones,” a 1/25 scale model roes at the Ice House in Glendale. It was exciting to of a 1929 Ford pick-up truck sit and talk with two honest-to-God showbiz perthat could be customized sonalities in whom we were so personally invested. into a “woodie” surf wagon.

They signed autographs and told us backstage It also included wood-grain gossip. We felt like insiders.” panel stickers, a surfboard, – JIM WOODRING a Stingray bicycle—and best of all, a new, smaller Hot Curl cartoonist, fine artist, writer, and toy designer (who figure! still carries his original Shrimpenstein Monster Fan There were Hot Curl Club card in his wallet) decals, a Hot Curl comic strip in the La Jolla Light newspaper, and Hot Curl stories by Mike and Lee in SURFtoons magazine.

THE WALKING JELLYBEAN MAKES THE SCENE

Meanwhile, the mid-Sixties teen scene was generating a lot of cash for all aspects of Hollywood: music, of course, but also television, movies, fashion, and more. The monster craze initiated

by TV’s Shock Theater, and its TV airings of Universal Studios’ old monster and suspense films popularized the television “horror host” [a recurring topic in RetroFan, dating back to issue #2!—ed.]. From mags like Famous Monsters of Filmland to Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s Top 40 hit “The Monster Mash” to monster model kits and sitcoms, the monster culture was gaining attention. And then there was the popularity of “Big Daddy” Roth and his wild custom cars and cast of monstrous, bug-eyed “finks.”

Therefore, the studios and stations were out monster-hunting. And one of those hunters came a-callin’ to Michael Dormer’s door, prompting his creation of a creepy little

Shrimpenstein logo © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

guy named Shrimpenstein, a.k.a. “Shrimpy.”

According to Mike: “I, Mike Dormer, being of semi-sound mind, dreamed up the little squirt while seated at my stylish plastic kitchen table in the mid-Sixties in Ocean Beach, California. Lee Teacher, my creative cohort at the time, and I have the copyright as proof.

“Our pal at Capitol Records, producer/packager Fred Rice, suggested that we cook up some cute monster characters for merchandising, and when he saw Shrimpy, the fuse was lit. Fred, Lee, and I honed him visually, then we took the idea to KHJ and pitched the ‘suits’ there on a TV show.

“Teacher and I had been doing rock radio promo stuff at the station with a guy named Don Berrigan, so we had an ‘in.’ KHJ bought the idea and we started to knit the show together. Fred had worked with Moss and Thurman before on record albums, so they were plugged in as actors. Teacher and I became instant TV writers.”

Fred Rice used his experiences at Capitol Records to bolster his pitch for Mike and Lee’s Shrimpenstein! show, pointing to the Beatles’ effect on the music industry in general and his employer in particular. He also mentioned the rising importance of surfing and hot rod cultures, as well as cartoon shows such as Jay Ward’s Rocky and Bullwinkle, ones that were hip enough for teenagers and adults to enjoy.

Next, Rice approached Gene Moss and Jim Thurman to write and star in the show. The team had recently finished writing all 156 five-minute episodes of Ken Snyder’s Roger Ramjet, animated by Fred Crippen’s Pantomime Pictures, a Sixties toon described by the Los Angeles Times as “notable for its puns, Hollywood in-jokes, and cultural references.” (Ironically, Roger Ramjet would become Shrimpenstein!’s competition over at Channel 11 in the same L.A. time slot.) Rice had already worked with Gene Moss on a 1964 comedy LP called Dracula’s Greatest Hits. With songs like “I Want To Bite Your Hand,” “Surf Monster,” and “The King Kong RETROFAN

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Stomp,” Dracula’s Greatest Hits was one of my favorite things to listen to while reading the latest Marvel mags. It also featured some of the best monster-related artwork ever done by Jack Davis on both sides of its sleeve as well as a perforated sheet of original Davis-drawn monster trading cards, now highly desired, especially if intact.

Gene Moss (1926–2002) was a voice actor and writer born in Cleveland, Ohio. He not only co-owned an ad agency with Jim Thurman, he was the creative director for Ken Snyder Enterprises, producer of some of the animated inserts for the first season of Sesame Street. Gene provided the voice of fire safety advocate Smokey the Bear in a series of television commercials. Some of his other TV writing credits: The Bob Hope Christmas Special; The Dean Martin Show; The Carol Burnett Show; and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.

In animation, he did voiceovers for The Fantastic Four (1978) and Plastic Man (1979).

James Frederick Thurman (1935–2007), born in Dallas, Texas, was an actor, writer, director, cartoonist, and producer. His career began as a copywriter for Los Angeles ad agencies. After Shrimpenstein!, he juggled working for network television and Sesame Street.

After that, much of his work was for young audiences, including material by Dr. Seuss. His credits include: The Dean Martin Show; The Carol Burnett Show; Sesame Street; The Electric Company; Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids; The Bob Newhart Show; and The Muppet Show.

KHJ’s Shrimpenstein! debuted in September 1966, airing live every weekday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Formatted similarly to the 1959–1961 Soupy Sales Show, Shrimpenstein! was an afternoon TV show for kids… at least, that’s what it started out to be.

The star’s show was a puppet designed by Dormer, but built by a noted Hollywood artist, as Mike himself explained. “The Shrimpenstein puppet was cleverly crafted by noted sculptor 40

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(TOP LEFT) The 1964 comedy LP Dracula’s Greatest Hits, featuring Jack Davis artwork. (ABOVE) Gene Moss provided the voice for Doodles on Roger Ramjet.

(LEFT) Jim Thurman interviewed by Kermit the Frog. Kermit the Frog © Muppets Studio LLC. Shrimpenstein © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. Roger Ramjet © Snyder-Koren Productions.

and puppetmeister, Wah Chang. I designed the Shrimpy set and all the goofy machines used on the show, and our crackerjack stage crew built everything in record time. Teacher and I wrote the Shrimpenstein! theme song lyrics.” Wah-Ming Chang was a Chinese-American designer, sculptor, and artist whose credits included figural character designs for Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi; special effects for Tarantula; Elizabeth Taylor’s headdress design for Cleopatra; and props for Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.

Due to a small budget—most of the moola was already spent on the small puppet and the small set—the show’s on-screen cast consisted of two humans in multiple roles: f Shrimpenstein – Voiced by Jim Thurman, Shrimpy was an intelligent kid who liked to give his creator a hard time. He still had the wonderment of a child and wasn’t irritatingly snarky or creepy, just cute. His nose—located high, between his eyes—was a tribute to Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein comics of the Forties. f Dr. Rudolf Von Schtick – Voiced by Gene Moss doing an imitation of Boris Karloff, Von Schtick was the central character of the show, a professional mad scientist reduced to temping as a horror-host for a kiddie show. He nervously laughed at his own jokes a lot, probably because he was surrounded by neurotic monsters—who were all played by Jim Thurman! Jim especially loved to break up or confound Gene with comedic setups that could get the show thrown off the air if responded to with anything suggestive. (Fortunately, a lot of it did get past Standards

The oddball world of scott shaw!

& Practices.) No wonder the doctor always had that deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. f Klaus –Thurman played this obvious swipe from The Soupy Sales Show’s “White Fang,” a hairy white glove with a sleeve long enough to cover the arm. Klaus was an enthusiastic, hilarious, utterly stupid monster who like to repeat things a lot, stalling so Jim could concoct what he was gonna do next. f The Tijuana Bats – These stiff, felt-made puppets had no individual names nor personalities; their only routine was bopping to the beat while being waved around on a stick. They were reminiscent of Chipmunks Alvin, Simon, and Theodore’s sped-up performances—using then-current Top 40 hits—and appeared as “filler” for the youngsters. f Wilfred the Wiener Wolf – Wilfred was created as a mid-series add-on character when the show got a new sponsor, Hormel Wieners. All we ever saw of Wilfred was Jim Thurman’s hand inside a werewolf glove (probably purchased at Hollywood Toys and Costumes) doing The Addams Family’s “Thing” bit, but with improv dialogue added. After one of Jim’s ad-libs went too far, the show lost its sponsor, but Wilfred abided, providing improvisational narration for black-and-

white educational wildlife films from the Fifties. (When one of them was about seagulls, Wilfred griped, “Yeah, they’re the ones who left white spots on my car.”) Thanks to Jim, Wilfred was certainly one of the funniest and least censored characters on the show. f The Unnamed Guy in the Raincoat with Squishy Boots – This tall fellow (played

by Jim) never said a word as he slowly schlepped across the set, while everyone stopped to watch and listen to his boots. f The Crew – The viewers never got a look at the crew behind the camera, but we certainly heard them. Their reactions reassured us that we weren’t just imagining how funny the show was—especially when things went awry!

Initially, Gene Moss operated the Shrimpenstein puppet and attempted to do his voice. That lasted for about a week, then Jim Thurman took over, setting up gags for his partner to react to.

This was what made the show so great. Moss and Thurman would write an outline and a few bits, but winged the rest. Watching Moss onscreen, mentally writhing while trying to come up with TV-friendly responses to Thurman’s often-outrageous setups, was one of the show’s most entertaining aspects.

Shrimpenstein © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

‘SHRIMPENSTEIN!’ MERCHANDISE For a one-season, low-budget regional show, it’s surprising that there were a few pieces of Shrimpenstein! merchandise: f A 45RPM record on the Startime Records label featured an extended version of the show’s theme, “The Shrimpenstein Song,” on the A-side, with “Karate Man” on the B-side. Both were performed by Gene Moss.

The records were sold in Southern California music stores. f A rubber doll of Shrimpy was available through the mail. A few still exist, but the material they were made from is turning back into petroleum. f The show also had its own “Shrimpenstein Monster Fan Club,” whose members received a Shrimpenstein newsletter, a sheet of Shrimpenstein trading stamps (including some reused Jack Davis monsters from Moss’ Dracula’s Greatest Hits LP), and an autographed photo of Shrimpy and Von Shtick. f There were Shrimpenstein! ads in TV Guide, newspapers, and the entertainment trades. The much-loathed post–Moss and Thurman “Uncle Carbunkle” was also advertised as a hired personality to liven up parties.

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The other aspect was that Shrimpenstein! was live, so when things when wrong, the viewers received more entertainment than they planned.

“We had a script for the first two or three shows,” Jim Thurman once told the Los Angeles Times. “They were kind of dopey little kid things, and we kind of ad-libbed around it, and [due to that] the show became hip and wasn’t for kids any more.”

Gene Moss admitted to the Times, “I didn’t think the show would last a week since it was a put-on. The networks hardly ever accept a kids’ show that’s funny.

The meatballs behind the network desks, usually guys who don’t understand children, won’t buy anything they don’t like. But Channel 9 is different from networks; they’ve been great with us—no restrictions, and they have promoted the show.”

My favorite moment-gone-wrong is when Gene as Von Schtick had to enter the set while riding a mini-cycle. The “walls” of the set were just strung-up butcher paper decorated with paint and markers. Von Schtick had no control of his mini-cycle, which suddenly sped up and plowed right through the paper wall, with the doctor still hanging on! After it crashed against a real wall, Gene checked himself over to make sure he wasn’t hurt. The crew was going wild and laughing like crazy as things cut to a commercial. At age 15, I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen on television. It’s still up there.

Shrimpenstein! had a huge following among high school and college students all over Southern California. There were also older fans, such as The

“I remember the time Channel 9 was literally off the air for many hours due to problems with their transmitter. Shrimpenstein! didn’t air that day, and on the next show, Dr. Von Schtick tried to explain how it was not one of his experiments that caused the outage. To prove it, he replicated the experiment… and the station went off the air again, this time for 20 seconds or so. And I remember Wilfred the Wiener Wolf—a puppet, but you only saw his paw the way you only saw White Fang’s paw on Soupy Sales’ show. He was there to sell Hormel Wieners, which was a major sponsor, and one time he explained that they were made by throwing kitty cats into the vat. I think that was the end of that sponsorship.”

MARK EVANIER editor, writer, panel moderator, and cheese-dipper 42

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‘SHRIMPENSTEIN!’ THEME SONG Lyrics written by Mike Dormer and Lee Teacher.

What a sight In the laboratory Late one night There began the story Lightning flashed And something missed A poor old crazy scientist Had dropped his bag of jellybeans Into his Frankenstein machine And SHRIMPENSTEIN Was created In just half the time That takes to make a Frankenstein Because, you see, He’s half the size of you and me, And just because he isn’t mean He’s just a tiny walking jellybean.

(ABOVE) Dr. Rudolf Von Schtick on Shrimpenstein!’s literally paperthin set. (RIGHT) Shrimpy, voiced

by Jim Thurman, frequently confounded Von Schtick.

Shrimpenstein © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

The oddball world of scott shaw!

Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling, Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery, and “the Disney people,” according to Gene Moss. The rock band Kaleidoscope even scheduled its rehearsals around Shrimpenstein!’s 5:00 P.M. timeslot and performed on KHJ’s Groovy, the show after Shrimpy’s. Then the was the time when the inebriated Frank Sinatra and equally pickled Sammy Davis, Jr. called the studio to let Gene, Jim, and the crew know that they were bringing the entire Rat Pack—“who never missed a single episode of Shrimpenstein!”— down to the set! Fortunately, the soused celebs were too bombed to even get behind the wheel.

KHJ-TV finally got weary of putting up with the show’s antics, and Moss and Thurman were let go. They were replaced by someone from Channel 9’s news crew who dressed up like W. C. Fields and performed as the show’s annoying new host, “Uncle Carbunkle.” The absence of Gene and Jim was definitely noticed

by Shrimpenstein!’s loyal following. In late 1967, there was a rally held for fans of the show in L.A.’s Griffith Park, but it didn’t halt the show’s end. Mike Dormer’s family explains it like this: “Contractual disputes brought an untimely demise to the venture, and Dormer returned to San Diego to rest and reevaluate.” Sadly, Shrimpenstein! was gone before 1968 began [although some Shrimpenstein! scenes have been salvaged for YouTube viewing—ed.].

SHRIMPENSTEIN, A TRUE BELIEVER Marvel Comics’ first foray into television entertainment was Grantray-Lawrence’s syndicated Marvel Super Heroes cartoon program of 1966. It featured animated shorts starring five different Marvel characters [see RetroFan #16—ed.]. Despite its tiny budget, the show had outstanding scripts and kinetic visuals, 90% taken directly from the Marvel comic books themselves. The Marvel cartoons are known for their visual limitations… but as someone who’s produced animated TV series, I prefer to appreciate its cost-cutting cleverness.

Thanks to an early version of cable television in San Diego, I eagerly watched it as regular segments on Shrimpenstein! that were broadcast on L.A.’s KHJ Channel 9. Gene Moss, as Dr. Von Schtick, once introduced one of the limited-animation Marvel shorts with a bit of funny “history”:

© Marvel.

DR. RUDOLPH VON SCHTICK: “And now, kids, here’s another one of those cartoons that set back animation by one hundred years…!”

“One of the funniest things I can remember, or at least I think I remember (we’re going on 55 years now), is when one of the Tijuana Bats, who were really only little toy bats on the end of thin sticks and shaken to make it looked like they were flying about, broke off his stick and fell to the studio floor. The next few minutes were a close shot of the fallen bat while Von Schtick made cracks about his fallen friend and what a cheap show he was on as the crew cracked up audibly. What a show!”

BRUCE SIMON underground cartoonist and comic-strip historian AND WHAT OF MICHAEL DORMER?

Petersen Publications’ line of black-and-white MAD-style magazines that—very much like American International Pictures— targeted teenagers and the forms of physical recreation that appealed to them. [See issue #22’s “Oddball World” for more about drag cartoon comics—ed.] From 1965 to 1968, Mike Dormer and Lee Teacher contributed to Petersen’s CARtoons, CYCLEtoons, and all 15 issues of Mike’s by-far favorite of the three titles, SURFtoons.

In 1968, Mike created a colorful cover for yet another comic book of his that was never published, Monster Cartoons. Of course, the cover featured Shrimpenstein.

Michael Dormer was also a muralist. There were a number of SoCal bars, taverns, and saloons that boasted unique murals by Mike, including Bird Rock’s the Pour House and Sip ’n’ Surf Saloon, and Pacific Beach’s Dive Bar (a.k.a. the Green Door) and Billy Bones, among quite a few others.

During the ensuing three years, Dormer stopped painting.

It may have been a case of burnout, artistic reassessment, or something else. Dormer attributed part of it to the Pop Art movement that was sweeping the United States, for which he had little enthusiasm. During that time, he concentrated on magazine illustrations, cartooning, and feature work.

In 1968, Mike developed a unique and complex process to paint on aluminum foil. In 1970, he resumed his work with the process with the encouragement of aluminum manufacturer Alcoa.

In the early Seventies, Dormer and his wife Flicka lived in Venice, Italy. While there, Mike experimented with holographic photography. The city later used his methods as an aid in restoring artworks by using this new three-dimensional imaging technology.

The Dormers returned to Venice in 1972 so that Flicka could work with an Italian scientific group on an early storm-warning system designed to protect the battered city from rampaging winter storms off the Adriatic Sea. Mike acted as the team’s historical researcher.

Upon returning to the U.S., Michael broke into the travel-writing business with light-hearted articles in San Diego Magazine. He illustrated many of them; the images were reproduced in the advertising brochures of hotels and services he had visited.

Over the next 20 years, he continued to explore the limits of the medium, creating sculptural paintings that draw the viewer into a magical looking-glass landscape. In the Nineties, Mike also demonstrated an interest in reviving Shrimpenstein!, posting new, RETROFAN

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Mike Dormer tells the “soggy saga” of his life in the May, 1968 issue of SURFtoons. © Michael Dormer estate.

snappy images of the character online, making it clear that he was open to licensing.

As for the blond guy with the beer belly, in 2017, Fantagraphics published Michael Dormer and the Legend of Hot Curl, a 200-page collection of Mike’s strips, illustrations, photos, and fine art, edited

by Michael Powers and Eric Reynolds. It was very useful while writing this article.

Michael Dormer’s vast body of work—far beyond surf cartoons and kids’ show horror-hosts—includes his mid-century Crankshaft series, an extensive collection of nudes, oils, watercolors, sculpture, intricate pencil drawings, charcoals, and murals.

Even though we were both living in San Diego at the same time, I never realized that I lived near Michael Dormer. Sadly, I never did

‘ONE HELL OF A NICE DUDE’ “As a teen growing up in the Sixties’ beach community of Pacific Beach in San Diego, I walked home from the beach on the main drag, Garnet Avenue, and to my surprise, saw just inside the door of the Dive Bar, a.k.a. the Green Door. Three and a half feet up from the floor to the ceiling were cartoons—and I mean wonderful cartoons—painted on panels. I walked in to see them, and of course they threw me out, being much too young to be inside a bar. They did that again on several occasions, until one day when the only person in the bar was the bartender. He relented and let me in. The wall’s cartoons extended further inside, turned the corner, and went around the pool tables, all the way to the back door. I had never seen anything like them before. They were signed by a ‘Michael Dormer.’ Later, at my one of my favorite bodysurfing beaches, Windandsea, a statue appeared one night next 44

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meet him. To my knowledge, he never attended San Diego Comic-Con. When asked to sum up the final 50-plus years of his professional life, Mike Dormer responded: “I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m feeling calm and integrated. I was a restless guy in the past and always felt as if I were being pulled in a lot of different directions. There were many creative things that I wanted to do, and I succeeded in doing most of them pretty well. It took a lot of energy. Sometimes I was doing four things at once… painting, writing, cartooning, music, frantically traveling around, and just plain looking at things. At this stage, experimenting in painting looks like the way I’m going to spend the rest of my life.

“Professional artists are very hard workers. There’s an attitude among people who don’t make art that we have it made… sitting around in our comfy houses all day, fiddling around with a blob of clay, paper, paint, and brushes. They’re dead wrong. We work with all of our senses. Art takes great concentration, touch, coordination, timing, imagination really ‘seeing’ things, and a very esoteric sense of mathematics. You’ve got to have discipline and compulsion to do

to the famous ‘Shack’ of a surf hero named ‘Hot Curl,’ who I eventually found out was made by Dormer. After the vandalism of the statue and the memorial car-procession from Pacific Beach to La Jolla to celebrate the ‘Life and Times of Hot Curl,’ I was all in as a fan of Michael’s work.

“Many years later, at my own studio, I met Michael when he called me to work for him on some production art for a book he was doing about ‘Do It Yourself Auto Repair’ [The Auto Compendium, 1984].

His illustrations were still what I always enjoyed since I walked into that bar those many years before. Until then, I never got to meet their maker in person, and he didn’t disappoint me. Michael was a great guy, one hell of a nice dude, a California legend, a world-class illustrator, and one I was lucky in this life to know.”

– JIM CORNELIUS San Diego cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic artist

The oddball world of scott shaw!

it right. What I do is invention. It is all experiment because I, myself, am an experiment. Whether I am a successful experiment or not is strictly up to future historians.”

This career retrospective amply demonstrates that Michael Dormer was an extremely successful “experiment,” with multiple noteworthy contributions to pop culture. He died as such on September 10, 2012, in San Diego.

Mike’s creativity certainly made a considerable impression on many people. He certainly left a deep divot in my brain. If it becomes a problem, don’t worry. I’ve still got Von Schtick’s phone number…

Long after the Sixties surfer craze, Dormer commanded an audience as an in-demand cartoonist. He produced this Time magazine cover spoof for MAD #352 (Dec. 1996). Art © Michael Dormer estate. MAD © EC Publications, Inc.

For 50 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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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

TV Comic Ads

BY ANDY MANGELS

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, and prepare for a visual feast! Saturday morning television was appointment viewing for anyone growing up from the Sixties to the Nineties. From 8am 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, Ruby-Spears, DIC, Film Roman, and others. But how could the networks best reach kids to let them know when the new

shows would be airing? Enter the television ads that ran in comic books, touting new and exciting Fall seasons! It made sense, since many shows were adapted from comic books! For most kids, those two-page spreads were their first looks at future TV favorites. In the first of a semi-regular series, we’re offering you a rare look at every Saturday ad we can find!

The first comic-book ads for Saturday animation appeared in Harvey comics cover-dated May 1962, showcasing Casper and other Harvey stars on ABC. Here is that first ad (LEFT), and two later ads from 1966. Characters © Classic Media, LLC.

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(LEFT) The first double-page ad from CBS appeared in both DC and Marvel comics cover-dated November 1966 (books were dated three months early for newsstands).

It illuminated the super-hero-heavy line-up beginning on September 10th.

(ABOVE) This rare DC ad only appeared in color in one book (Superman #187), though it was printed in black-and-white in several other DC comics cover-dated June 1966. It promised the never-to-materialize cartoons for Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and Metamorpho! © DC Comics.

Foretelling the future when both ABC and Marvel would be owned by Disney, ABC debuted its first Fall ad only in Marvel comic books cover-dated November and December 1967.

CBS double-downed on super-heroes in 1967, even calling their ad in DC books coverdated November 1967 “Saturday’s Super Heroes.”

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(LEFT) Along with the “Saturday’s Super Heroes” double-page ad, DC Comics wanted to be certain that viewers knew about its TV shows, so it also ran a house ad for them in the same DC books cover-dated November 1967. © DC Comics.

(RIGHT) CBS got more comedic and musical in 1968 in this ad, which ran in DC and Archie comic books cover-dated November 1968.

ABC blew out its budget with the first-ever three-page ad in DC, Marvel, Archie, Gold Key, and Harvey comics coverdated November 1969, touting its “Super Saturday Club”!

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(LEFT) Super-heroes were gone, but a familiar Great Dane made his debut in this 1969 ad from CBS. Scooby-Doo’s word balloons missed out on his distinctive speech pattern, though!

(BELOW) Most readers don’t even know that NBC’s first-ever Saturday morning ad even exists… because it only saw print in November 1969 coverdated Harvey and Gold Key comic books!

(LEFT) Rounding out 1969’s ads are these two house ads from DC comics, from books cover-dated February and November 1969, reminding readers that their heroes were on not only CBS, but also making cameo appearances on Sesame Street!

Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels.

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 has written six Fractured Fairy Tales graphic novels for Junior High audiences, released by Abdo Books in 2021. He is currently working on a book about the stage productions of Stephen King 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 RETROFAN

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MAC GEORGE ART PRINTS About the Artist Mac George has received credits that include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Chicken Little, Tangled and Wreck It Ralph. He designed the stained glass prologue for Beauty and the Beast, has been nominated for two Annie awards and in 2010 won a prime time Emmy award for his work on Prep and Landing.

macartprints.com

RETRO INTERVIEW

Living in the

BY ERNIE MAGNOTTA “Marshall, Will, and Holly… on a routine expedition…”

Any child of the Seventies recognizes those opening lyrics. They were written

by Linda Laurie (“Ambrose (Part 5)”) and belong to the memorable theme song of the Sid and Marty Krofft live-action, Saturday morning television classic, Land of the Lost, a children’s sci-fi/adventure series in which the Marshall family—teenage Will (Wesley Eure, TV’s Days of Our Lives), younger sister Holly (Kathy Coleman, TV’s Adam-12), and their father, Rick (Spencer Milligan, TV’s General Hospital)—are transported to an alternate universe after their raft plunges down a waterfall and they are sucked through a time doorway.

The Marshalls awaken in the primitive Land of the Lost, a place inhabited by dinosaurs, ape-like bipeds called Pakuni, and the

“Marshall, Will, and Holly, on a routine expedition, met the greatest earthquake ever known”… and look where it got them! Title card for Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost, starring the dino-fighting Marshalls: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Wesley Eure as Will, Kathy Coleman as Holly, and Spencer Milligan as Rick. © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions.

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retro interview

© Wesley Eure.

terrifying, lizard-like Sleestak. The resourceful family quickly makes a nearby cave their home base. Will and Holly befriend the youngest Paku named Cha-Ka (Phillip Paley, Beach Balls) while their father seeks out the only civilized Sleestak, the intelligent Enik (Walker Edmiston, H. R. Pufnstuf ). The kids give nicknames to many of the dinosaurs they encounter, most notably an angry T. rex named “Grumpy” and a baby Brontosaurus named “Dopey.” Each week, the Marshalls, who are later joined by their Uncle Jack (Ron Harper, TV’s Planet of the Apes), do everything in their power to escape the Land of the Lost while simultaneously dodging deadly dinosaurs, hostile Sleestak attacks, and many other fantastic threats.

Created by Sid and Marty Krofft (Sigmund and the Sea Monsters), David Gerrold (TV’s Star Trek), and Allan Foshko (April in the Wind), Land of the Lost aired every Saturday morning on NBC between 1974 and 1976. The entertaining show, which is made up of 43 half-hour episodes and lasted for three seasons, benefitted greatly from scripts written by very well-known science-fiction writers such as Larry Niven (Ringworld), Theodore Sturgeon (More Than Human), and Star Trek veterans D. C. Fontana and Walter Koenig.

The well-loved and influential show has spawned a remake series that aired in the early Nineties and lasted for two seasons, and a 2009 theatrical film starring Will Ferrell. As of 2018, the Kroffts have been hard at work preparing a new television version that they hope to produce as an hour-long series.

Recently, I was lucky enough to interview Will Marshall himself, Wesley Eure. In addition to being a talented actor, former teen idol, and an extremely nice guy, Wesley has written several books for both kids and adults, including the classic children’s tale The Red Wings of Christmas.

He has also raised funds for important charities; co-created the Emmynominated, educational TV 52

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Wesley as Land of the Lost’s Will Marshall was a teen heartthrob, profiled in teen mags like Tiger Beat and 16. © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions.

just needed attention. I started by doing school plays and community theater. Then we moved to Las Vegas because my mom was heading a drug abuse program for the state of Nevada. I was supposed to go to college, but I decided to go on auditions instead, and I eventually got a role on Days of Our Lives, which was amazing to me.

show Dragon Tales; and is a gifted singer. The multi-talented Wesley took time out of his hectic schedule to chat with me about his adventures in Saturday morning television, happily speaking about a variety of subjects such as working with fellow cast members, performing the show’s iconic theme song, and the dynamic duo: Sid and Marty Krofft.

RetroFan: Tell me about how you got into acting. Was that always a dream of yours?

Wesley Eure: Oh, yeah. I grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and when I was five years old, I stood up and said, “I want to be an actor.” My family were all educators. None of them were in the entertainment industry, so they all looked at me like I was from another planet. [laughs] My dad left when I was two and never came back, so I think I

RF: When did you first hear about Land of the Lost?

WE: I met Sid Krofft at a party, and he asked me to audition, which I did. Not long after, I got a phone call saying that I got the part. I was 20, I think, and I was going to be playing a 15-year-old. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that, but thank God I said yes because it’s been a wonderful journey with Land of the Lost.

Sid’s 92 now. He calls me all the time, and he recently told me that they never saw anyone else for the part of Will. He said they knew they wanted me and they cast the rest of the show around me. First, they had to find a guy who looked like my dad. And then I auditioned with Kathy and some other actresses. But he said I was the only choice they ever had for Will. I never knew this. Sid just told me like, two weeks ago. It was very flattering.

RF: You also sang the show’s theme song.

How did that come about?

WE: They actually came to me and asked me to do it. I was in a band with a guy named Michael Lloyd, who is now one of the top music producers in the business.

We went to his studio, and I recorded it.

And then when we got to the third season and Uncle Jack joined the cast, there were new lyrics to the opening song, so we went back and recorded that. I also did the end credits theme, which is my favorite.

RF: I like that one, too. Cool song.

WE: Yeah, and a lot of big bands do covers of both the theme song and the end

retro interview

credits. Jack Black did it. It’s fabulous. And Jake Gyllenhaal sang it in Bubble Boy. He pretended he was me, and he rocked out with the end song. It’s bizarre how many people love it. And now there’s a whole new generation watching the show too. Who knew 48 years ago that we’d still be talking about Land of the Lost?

RF: Do you still keep in touch with anyone from the show?

WE: Kathy Coleman and Phil Paley. We usually do Land of the Lost reunion conventions together. We bring our yellow raft to the shows and people jump into the raft and take pictures, which is fun. We love doing the conventions, and we try to make them a fun and unique experience for the fans.

could handle the physical stuff and wear the costume. And he also turned out to be a wonderful actor and learned to speak Pakuni, which is a real language.

RF: That must have been difficult for him at that age.

WE: Yes, but I watched an episode recently and he spoke Pakuni throughout the entire thing. And he didn’t make it up. This was all actually written. It was a combination of four or five different languages.

RF: Amazing… How about Kathy Coleman?

WE: Kathy and I are like brother and sister.

We talk all the time. We’re like family. And the Holly character was a great role model for girls. She was the most powerful of the

The reason Spencer left the show was because he wanted all of us to get residuals for the merchandise that was being sold using our likenesses. We didn’t know that at the time, though. And it’s funny because last week I saw a Seventies item with my face on it that I had never seen before. It projected Land of the Lost images onto the walls.

RF: And after Spencer left, Ron Harper joined the cast for Season Three…

WE: Yes. Ron was wonderful. His wife was on Days of Our Lives with me, so I knew him, and he had a big following from Planet of the Apes.

Ron was terrific as Uncle Jack, but it wasn’t Spencer as my dad. That just

RF: How did you like working with Phil?

WE: I loved working with him. Phil was a martial artist, which is how he got the job on the show. He was the youngest black belt in the United States. Chuck Norris taught him. They were both guests on The Tonight Show, and Phil was like three feet tall with his little karate outfit on, and he flipped Johnny Carson. Well, the Kroffts had this monkey-type character, and they weren’t sure if they were gonna use a little person for it or what, but when they saw Phil on The Tonight Show they knew he

(LEFT) Wesley Eure today. (ABOVE) The original Land of the Lost cast, in 1974: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Eure as Will, Coleman as Holly, Phillip Paley as Cha-Ka, and Milligan as Rick. © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions. family dynamic. She would rescue us and figure things out. It wasn’t the typical littlegirl-in-peril role. It was a real step forward, and I think that’s one of the reasons the show worked so well. Kathy nailed that character.

RF: Let’s talk a little bit about Spencer Milligan and why he left after Season Two. WE: Spencer was great. He was so much fun. And we were really sad when he wasn’t around for the third season. We reunited with him recently, and he’s doing fine. He lives on a beautiful estate in Milwaukee.

He’s hilarious. He’ll call me and say, “Hey, Wesley. This is your papa calling.” [laughs] And he and Kathy and Phil talk all the time.

The four of us really are like a family.

worked perfectly. And in Season Three, the science fiction wasn’t as good. Suddenly there were all these guest-stars each week like Medusa. Plus, Cha-Ka was suddenly speaking English. It was a different animal.

And in the third season, we had to move to the Lost City as our home because our cave set at Goldwyn Studio had burned up in a fire which was accidentally started by Sigmund from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

We were sharing the cave with Sigmund, and an electrical fire burned down the entire place. It was bad, but at least no one was hurt.

RF: Thank goodness for that! Speaking of Sigmund, I have to ask you about Sid and Marty Krofft.

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retro interview

WE: Sid’s the creative one, and Marty’s the business guy. As a boy, Sid started as a puppeteer, and he became famous. Then he needed help, and he brought on Marty who, at the time, was a successful used car salesman. Marty helped with the puppets, and that’s how they started working together.

But they’re totally different personalities. I thanked them because Kathy and Spencer and I are so close. I told them that they not only cast my TV family, but my real-life family as well. And that’s unusual.

do 60 seconds of dinosaur movement. And sometimes, for close-ups of the dinosaurs’ heads, they used hand puppets.

RF: The Land of the Lost was a huge place. I’m guessing it was all built on a soundstage.

technical problems were enormous, but by the second episode they figured it all out.

They’d get us on the blue screen—chroma key blue was the color—and shrink us down to the right size and they’d say, “Look at the light up there. That’s Grumpy’s head!

Now, run to the right and scream!”

RF: Now, the show had some amazing science-fiction writers.

WE: I know! David Gerrold was our head writer, and he wrote the Star Trek episode, “The Trouble With Tribbles.” Walter Koenig, who played Chekov on Star Trek, created the character of Enik. David created the bible for the show, but Walter created Enik. By the way, our show is like the baby brother of Star Trek because of the writers and because of Mike Westmore, who also did Trek, doing our costumes and make-up and everything. Star Trek allows us to do conventions with them, so every time I see Walter at a convention, he comes over to my table wearing his little hat and he says, “Those damn Kroffts. I should have gotten residuals for Enik.” And we just laugh. He’s a great guy.

RF: I think that’s why the show was so strong, though. It wasn’t just thrown together. Instead, you had so many talented people writing and creating that universe, and it completely worked.

WE: That’s right. And if you look at it now, the special effects look hokey, even though it was state of the art in the Seventies. But the scripts talk about doppelgangers and time doorways and antecedents and all this heavy-duty sci-fi stuff. It never talked down to kids. It made kids learn. And it was really complicated science fiction. David brought in all those other great writers who worked on the show. And Land of the Lost was originally supposed to only be about a father and son and some tribes. It wasn’t so much sci-fi. Thank goodness it morphed into that because it wouldn’t have lasted.

RF: Tell me a little about the stop-motion animated dinosaurs.

WE: We didn’t see any of that. They did all of the dinosaur footage before we shot anything. It took them eight hours just to 54

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Concurrently with Land of the Lost, Eure acted in the daytime soap Days of Our Lives, playing Michael Horton, from 1974–1981. Days of Our Lives © Corday Productions.

WE: We had two Hollywood soundstages, and they were humongous. One soundstage was the jungle, our lagoon, and the exterior of our cave. The other soundstage had the interior of the cave, and the rest was painted blue so that they could superimpose us in the scenes with the dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs were shot on film, and we were shot on videotape. Melding the two had never been done before, and the

RF: [laughs] How did you approach the role of Will?

WE: The credit goes mostly to the writers because the Will character was very well written. I was shooting Land of the Lost and Days of Our Lives at the same time. NBC made a deal that I could shoot all my scenes for Days early in the morning. I’m sure the cast hated me. [laughs] So, in the morning I’m crying about my girlfriend leaving me

retro interview

Don’t run, Holly, don’t run—’cause it’s your turn to roll the dice! A Milton-Bradley board game was among the numerous Land of the Lost merchandise produced during the Seventies. © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions.

FAST FACTS LAND OF THE LOST

and in the afternoon I’m yelling, “Run, Holly, run! It’s a dinosaur!”

Most of their shows lasted only one season.

Ours ran three.

RF: How long did it take to shoot one episode?

WE: Two and a half days. We shot two episodes a week, which was unheard of.

Incredibly fast.

RF: Why didn’t it go to a fourth season?

WE: Actually, I don’t know because the ratings were high. We all just got a call saying there wouldn’t be a fourth season, which was sad.

RF: Tell me about filming the opening raft sequence.

WE: It was on the chroma key set. We had a big yellow raft, and it was on giant springs painted blue. There were also blue ropes and the crew guys would rock the raft back and forth. It looks like we’re part of a Tidy Bowl commercial. [laughs] But that was the budget. We had no money. But we still became NBC’s number one show. It was a huge phenomenon for the network.

RF: Were you asked to appear in the Nineties television version?

WE: They never asked me, but Kathy was supposed to come on as a regular. For whatever reason, that never wound up happening, though.

RF: For a children’s show, I always felt that Land of the Lost was unique. It wasn’t like the usual Saturday morning TV fare.

WE: You’re right. It was deep compared to the other shows that were on at the time.

And it was the longest-running Krofft show.

RF: What did you think of the Will Ferrell remake movie?

WE: Phil and I went to the Hollywood premiere. It wasn’t Land of the Lost. It was mostly about Will Ferrell’s comedy. We went to the after party, and I looked around at the ice sculptures and food and everything else, and I said to Phil, “Do you realize that this party cost more than all three seasons of our show?” Like the Nineties version, Land of the Lost had lost its magic.

The Kroffts have apologized profusely for the movie.

f No. of seasons: Three f No. of episodes: 43 f Original run: September 7, 1974–December 4, 1976 f Primary cast: Spencer Milligan (Seasons One and Two), Wesley Eure, Kathy Coleman, Phillip Paley; Ron Harper (Season Three) f Network: NBC f Producers: Sid & Marty Krofft Productions f Theme song composer: Jimmie Haskell

SPIN-OFFS AND REMAKES: f Land of the Lost (TV reboot running on ABC for two seasons and 26 episodes from September 7, 1991–December 5, 1992; this version featured the imperiled Porter family and starred Timothy Bottoms, Jennifer Drugan, Robert Gavin, and Shannon Day) f Land of the Lost (2009 Universal Pictures movie remake directed

by Brad Silberling; starring Will Ferrell as Rick Marshall, Danny McBride as Will Stanton, and Anna Friel as Holly Cantrell) RETROFAN

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retro interview

Wesley is a popular and frequent guest of nostalgia, sci-fi, and monster conventions. Look for him under this colorful banner!

RF: What was it like to be a teen idol and to star in such a popular show at so young an age?

WE: It was fun. I did personal appearances.

I got to be on the cover of Tiger Beat and so many other magazines. And back then, a lot of the teen idols like Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy used to come to my house to go swimming. We all knew each other.

It was fun.

RF: Do you have a favorite episode and season?

WE: I like the one called “Circle” (Season One/ Episode 17, original airdate December 28, 1974). It ended Season One, which is my favorite season.

Everybody asks me if we ever got home. Well, in that episode, we do.

Kind of, anyway. It’s like an endless cycle sort of thing. We leave through the time doorway and our A new patriarch stepped in for Land of the Lost’s third and final season: Uncle Jack, played

by Ron Harper, also known by RetroFans for his roles on TV’s Garrison’s Gorillas (1967–1968) and Planet of the Apes (1974). © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions.

Photo courtesy of wesleyeure.com.

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doppelgangers come through. But I love Season One the most because we had some of the best writers. Things got thinner as the show went on.

RF: Did you keep any props?

WE: Yes. I still have my red backpack that I had in all three seasons. It’s signed by the Kroffts, David Gerrold, the cast, and some of the Sleestaks. I kept my knife, too.

RF: Any final thoughts or memories about Land of the Lost?

WE: I have to tell you about the time we were filming this lagoon scene, and Spencer and I were topless. Spencer had the make-up people paint a Las Vegas slot machine on his chest. So, when he removed his shirt and everybody saw this, the cast and crew were laughing hysterically. Unfortunately, Marty Krofft suddenly appeared on set with some industry executives. They saw this insanity, and Marty was so angry. [laughs] But we had a lot of fun like that on the show. Wonderful memories.

To learn more about Wesley Eure and Land of the Lost, visit his fun website at www.wesleyeure.com.

This article is dedicated to the memories of Walker Edmiston, D. C. Fontana, Theodore Sturgeon, and Linda Laurie. R.I.P. ERNIE MAGNOTTA is a writer/ filmmaker from New York who has written many articles and reviews, and has done interviews for the magazines The Dark Side, Scream, Cinema Retro, and Infinity. He is best known for his “Big E’s ‘Bad’ Movies That Hurt So Good” reviews, in which he lovingly and humorously points out the worth of schlocky B-movies from the Fifties through the Eighties. His first book, Halloween: The Changing Shape of an Iconic Series, was released in October 2018 and has received glowing reviews.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

Who Created

? g o d r e Und

BY WILL MURRAY

In October 1964, I was 11 years old and a huge fan of Marvel Comics, having graduated from being a DC Comics reader just a few months before. In those days, super-heroes were hard to find outside of comic books. On TV, reruns of the Adventures of Superman TV show and occasional showings of the 1940s Max Fleischer Superman theatrical cartoons dominated. Batman creator Bob Kane’s Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse was in reruns. Mighty Mouse was a familiar face, but not a television original. That was it.

But the Saturday morning network television block was undergoing renovations. New cartoons were being commissioned to satisfy growing

Baby Boomers, of which I was one. The networks had yet to discover the ratings potential of serious super-heroes, but they would soon tap that golden geyser.

An early effort in that direction was Total TeleVision productions’ [those aren’t typos—it’s a capital “V” and lowercase “p”—ed.] Underdog, which debuted on Saturday, October 3, 1964.

With its stirring theme song and clever writing, it became an instant hit, running for three years on two networks and jumping into syndication seemingly forever.

While Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse [see RetroFan #19] were a gentle takeoff on Batman

(ABOVE) There’s no need to fear! From Shoeshine Boy to Underdog, in a 2000 limited edition print signed by Underdog cartoonist Joe Harris. © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Heritage. (LEFT) The men behind Underdog: co-creators Buck Biggers and Chet Stover, from their Seventiesvintage TV Tinderbox letterhead, and cartoonist Joe Harris. Courtesy of Mark Arnold.

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and Robin, Underdog was nothing less than an off-center satire of Superman. If I had still been reading the Man of Steel, I might have been mildly offended. But I had moved beyond that cardboard character.

Underdog was an anthropomorphic dog that possessed all of Superman’s signature powers: super-strength, super-speed, flight, invulnerability, X-ray vision, and others.

To these were added an amazing array of super-duper powers, including cosmic vision, atomic breath, and atomizing vision. Underdog obtained these by taking a Super Energy pill, which not only transformed his true mutt self, but demolished the phone booth into which he ducked to conceal the explosive change.

Eventually, I outgrew TV cartoons, and all but forgot about the Pup of Steel, except for that rousing theme song, which latter-day bands covered with enthusiasm.

FROM ADVERTISING TO ANIMATION

In 2006, Disney announced a live-action Underdog film. When my Starlog editor asked me to interview the character’s creators, I pounced on the opportunity. A planned set visit to the nearby Providence, Rhode Island, filming location never materialized, but that didn’t matter. I boned up by reading a recently released book, How Underdog Was Born; rang up its authors, Underdog’s still-living creators; and got the backstory in detail.

Before they concocted the indefatigable cartoon canine, W. Watts “Buck” Biggers and Chester “Chet” Stover were working at an advertising agency called Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (DFS).

Biggers was Vice President of Account Supervisors. Stover was Creative Director and had a tobacco account, which he felt guilty about.

“In advertising in those days almost everyone that I knew was doing something to get out,” Buck Biggers admitted. “When you went to lunch—and those were the days of three-martini lunches—what you talked about was this guy’s working on a movie, this guy’s working on a book, another guy’s starting a hardware business. Everybody was doing something. And they were going to get out. Now, most of those people never did get out. But it was something to talk about. Because the business was in those days extraordinarily pressure-driven. You could be fired overnight. And I wanted to get out. And so did Chet.”

“I didn’t want to get out as badly as Buck did,” Chet Stover said.

“I always sort of liked the advertising business. Advertising was exciting. There was no such thing as seniority. You went ahead on your own, as far as competition was concerned, for jobs. I got paid very, very well. It was stimulating.”

In 1960, DFS agency head Gordon Johnson challenged Biggers to create an original cartoon series to promote General Mills cereals for Saturday morning TV. “I leaped at the chance,” Biggers recalled. “Of course, I had to beat Chet over the head, but I finally got him to join me.”

Biggers and Stover formed Total TeleVision to produce King Leonardo and His Short Subjects. Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales followed in 1961. Both were modest successes, but they sold tons of Cheerios, which was the bottom line.

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(LEFT) Who better to portray Shoeshine Boy and Underdog than the humble and loveable Wally Cox? Photograph by Philippe Halsman, from the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College. (BELOW) Barney

Fife himself, Don Knotts, was briefly considered for the role. Knotts, of course, was immortalized as a Sixties toon in the wonderful family film, The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

© Warner Bros.

Working from their respective Cape Cod and Connecticut homes, the collaborators rendezvoused for weekly conferences every Thursday at a motel in Framingham, Massachusetts. Their long, tedious days in the pressure-cooker world of advertising were over.

“There was no pressure at all,” Biggers remembered with pleasure. “We met one day a week in our inn, then we would go our separate ways and write our scripts that we had outlined together. Then the following week we would look those over and plot new ones. I can’t tell you how great it was. Chet and I just laughed our way through every meeting we had. We just enjoyed it tremendously. We ate a lot of shrimp and drank a lot of martinis. We have said many times—and we meant it—all things considered, we should have paid them to let us do it.”

“We just had a lot of fun doing it,” agreed Stover. “It was just fun.

It wasn’t like a nine-to-five job.”

‘NOT PLANE, NOR BIRD, NOR EVEN FROG’…

Underdog came about when two Saturday morning time slots opened up.

“I had a meeting with Gordon Johnson,” Biggers explained, “and he said that the agency had purchased for General Mills two new time slots, one on ABC and one on NBC, for the coming year. For those, they needed two new series. And Jay Ward and Bill Scott— who we knew very well and had done Rocky and Bullwinkle—had been asked to create one series. Assuming that the agency and General Mills liked both series, the one they preferred would go on NBC, and the other would be relegated to ABC. The only two things

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

he said in the course of that meeting were, ‘I can tell you right now, Buck, if you want to win this game, you’ve got to have a super-series.

And stay away from frogs.’”

Why the weird taboo? Ward and Scott’s new show was The Adventures of Hoppity Hooper, starring… a frog!

Biggers and Stover jumped into the new project with unrestrained enthusiasm. They also understood that to win the best time slot, they would have to create something as appealing as the satirical Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

“We were so happy with the fact that we weren’t given any direction,” stated Biggers. “‘Here, the world is your oyster. You can place it in any land. In the future. In the past. Use animals, but do whatever you want.’ We thought that was great.”

They didn’t quite start with a blank sheet of paper. But it was close to that. First, they had to come up with a workable concept.

“We had no word, except ‘super,’” Biggers revealed. “That word kept bouncing around in our heads when we’d talk. So we said: ‘Okay, we’ll do a super-hero. We’ve never done one.’”

Fortunately, Biggers had read comic books in childhood. And his memories were still fresh.

“It’s a funny thing,” he remembered. “You kind of took it personally if you didn’t like one. I can remember thinking for example that Captain Marvel was stealing from Superman. I was annoyed. I would not read Captain Marvel because of that. Batman I felt was unique. The reason I liked Batman was because supposedly you could do it yourself. You didn’t have to be a superman. You could be an ordinary person and develop the right skills, the right strengths, the right talents, and have the right weapons, and you could be a Batman. Zorro was like that, too. That was one of the things that we held onto when we got to doing our super-series. We didn’t want, ‘You gotta be six-feet-three, weigh 280 pounds, and lift barbells.’”

“I grew up in a more literary family than Buck did,” added Stover. “And I read a lot more than he had.

That not Super-Snoopy—it’s Joe Harris’ original design for Underdog! © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Mark Arnold.

Early conceptual illustrations from 1963 by Joe Harris of (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) Polly Purebread, Underdog, and main villain Simon Bar Sinister. © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Heritage.

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He was a political science major and I was an English (ABOVE) From Total TeleVision’s archives, a gaggle of Joe Harris major. I never read comic books. Actually, I wasn’t production drawings of the Underdog cast (with a couple of Go Go allowed to read comic books.”

Gophers tossed in for good measure). (BELOW) Screen capture of They studied the few animated super-heroes that had Underdog giving ol’ Riff Raff the what-for. © Classic Media, LLC. Sketches come before, giving special attention to Mighty Mouse courtesy of Heritage. and Courageous Cat, analyzing their strengths and deficiencies. Brainstorming specific concepts was not a joint venture. Once the core “We saw it,” Biggers said, “and in it direction was agreed upon, they was this creature who spoke slowly separated, working individually and almost in poetry. And that was on a key question, namely: Who Wally Cox. The only other person would their new super-hero be? who we really thought about “We came back with was Don Knotts, who was tied everything from Super-sheep to up with The Andy Griffith Show, the Masked Raccoon,” Biggers and we felt also there was a recalled. “We had a lot of slight similarity in looks to Don animals. In the meantime, we Adams. So we didn’t want to go had decided that we wanted in that direction.” our super-hero to be the guy on Total TeleVision’s executive the beach that got sand kicked in producer, Treadwell Covington, his face. The 98-pound weakling. approached Wally Cox about We weren’t having too much luck the still-developing project. The marrying that idea to Super-sheep actor asked to see some scripts. or the Masked Raccoon.”

Even though the spec scripts they had Previously, they had resolved that issue generated did not specify the name or any in a novel way. Modeling their character on an existing actor, the description of their nascent super-hero, they did the trick. duo then hired him to voice the part. This was how tuxedoed come“[Cox] loved it!” Biggers remembered. “He did it for kids. He dian Don Adams became a cartoon penguin named Tennessee didn’t have kids. But for kids that were around him. Other people’s kids. We were all excited Wally Cox was going to be the voice, and Tuxedo. the countenance. We wanted him to look like Wally Cox.” Coincidentally, a 1963 film called Spencer’s Mountain hit theaters.

“We just knew that Wally Cox was right for it,” agreed Stover.

This later led to the hit TV show, The Waltons. But at the time “The voice was beautiful,” noted Biggers. “In some meeting, Chet Biggers and Stover saw the movie, both men noticed one actor quoted poetry from the Statue of Liberty, and I got all excited by whose meek personality and mild voice suggested possibilities.

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that. I thought that would be just great. So we decided to have him speak in poetry.”

…‘JUST LITTLE OLD ME—UNDERDOG’

With the former star of the television show Mr. Peepers on board to voice the yet-unrealized character, one last problem remained. For neither creator had yet finalized what species of cartoon creature they were bringing to animated life.

“We were looking for an animal,” Biggers noted. “We had nothing at the end of a meeting. We were getting very tight on time. And that’s when one of us said, ‘We’re going to be the underdogs of this meeting.’ And that was it!”

Decades later, neither man could clearly remember which of them first uttered the perfect name for the antithesis of Superman.

“We’ve been asked that before,” Stover allowed. “We don’t know.

I think I did it, but he thinks he did. We just don’t know.”

“We were looking for topspin, a name with topspin,” added Biggers, evoking an old advertising term for instant brand recognition.

Visualizing the imaginary Pup of Steel was the next hurdle.

“Chet sometimes did preliminary drawings,” Biggers suggested tentatively.

“Yes and no,” hedged Stover. “We created the characters. We thought we knew what they would look like. Joe Harris, who I brought into the group as an art director, did the storyboards. At that point, we were fairly far along. I talked to Joe on the phone and told him what we had in mind.”

“We asked him to draw a character who looked like Wally Cox,” Biggers recalled. “He came back looking like Wally Cox.” “I can remember the initial drawings,” Stover added. “And I didn’t like any of them. But Buck and I were meeting. What we did was tape some of Joe’s drawings to the window in our motel room, and redid them. We traced over what he did and changed a lot of things. It was a company thing. We just did what we thought was right.”

Underdog’s costume, like the character’s name, was a reversal of the Man of Steel’s classic colors.

“It’s pretty much a rip-off of Superman’s costume,” admitted Biggers. “The U on his chest gives it away.”

“We were taking off on Superman, with the cape and the whole thing,” added Stover. “By that time, Superman was an icon.”

Using Wally Cox as a model, they conceived Underdog’s true self, a hound named Shoeshine Boy. Adding a love interest for Underdog was a TV reporter voiced by Norma MacMillan, who had been Casper the Friendly Ghost and Gumby.

“I don’t know where Sweet Polly Purebread came from, except we had to have a foil for Underdog,” Stover said. “Buck at that point had a poodle named Sweet Petunia.”

“Polly Purebread was a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Sweet Petunia,” Biggers explained. “We thought about calling her Sweet Petunia, but it didn’t sound strong enough. She’s a pretty strong woman. So we called her Polly. ‘Purebread’ obviously just came.”

Continuing the canine theme, whenever Polly was menaced— and she was in virtually every episode—she would sing plaintively, “Oh where, oh where, has my Underdog gone?” mimicking the old nursery rhyme, “Where Has My Little Dog Gone?”

Underdog is here—on the toy shelves, at least!

(BOTTOM) Original art for an Underdog puzzle. © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Hake’s Auctions and Heritage Auctions.

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In response, Underdog would cry out a rhyming couplet like, “When Polly’s in trouble, I am not slow. It’s hip-hip-hip and away I go!”

The memorable theme song was Buck Biggers’ work, aided and abetted by Stover, Treadwell Covington, and Harris. Biggers incorporated a whimsical mention of a frog in his send-up of Superman’s classic “Look! Up in the Sky!” TV opening. This was a sly wink of the direction of competitor Jay Ward’s forthcoming frog cartoon.

“It was a competition,” Stover said, “and we won the competition, and it got on the air. All these shows had to be sold to adults first. And they were probably adults that had had three or four martinis for lunch. So you wrote part of it meant for the adults, who were going to okay it or not okay it. And part of it was for the kids.

Were they going to like it or not like it? And that was always on our minds.”

The actual animation was produced by Gamma Studio in Mexico. Character actor George S. Irving provided the perfect, slightly cracked narration.

THE FIRST SUPER-HERO SPOOF TV CARTOON

Lampooning super-heroes had never before been done in television animation. Underdog was played for laughs. Once Shoeshine Boy took his Super Energy pill, becoming Underdog, collateral damage resulted. Bystanders had to duck and dodge the slugs ricocheting off his mighty chest. Often, he would crash into buildings by accident, demolishing them into rubble.

In un-heroic fashion, Underdog blew off all civic responsibility by reciting, “I am a hero who never fails; I cannot be bothered with such details.”

“That was the part that gave us pleasure,” Biggers admitted.

“We knew that we could not write a straight super-hero series. We’d go crazy. We had to have something that would make us laugh and have fun with it. And that turn did that. It was absolutely great to do that kind of thing!”

Villains included alien invaders and the inevitable Overcat. But two were returning foes in the grand comic-book tradition of Lex Luthor and the Joker.

“We had three kinds of episodes,” Biggers noted. “We did that because this was our third series and we’d learned that if you get to your meeting and say, ‘Okay, what are we going to do today,’ that’s not a good way to start. With a totally blank sheet of paper.

So we had a Simon Bar Sinister episode. He was the villainous inventor.

Then we had Riff Raff, who was a hoodlum, and ran a gang of thieves.

Then we had outer space or inner space episodes.

So there were three categories.

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The Pup of Steel didn’t get his own comic book until 1970, when Charlton Comics released Underdog #1 (ABOVE).

(OPPOSITE) In the mid-Seventies, Western Publishing took over the license, releasing an Underdog Kite Fun Book giveaway in 1974 and rebooting the Underdog comic in 1975 with a new #1 under its Gold Key Comics imprint. © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Heritage.

UNDERDOG IN COMIC BOOKS Underdog was one of the many TV toon tie-in comic books explored in the August 2021 edition of our sister magazine, Back Issue, #129. The issue also contains articles about comics based on Hanna-Barbera cartoons, plus Rocky and Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, Mighty Mouse, The Hardy Boys, Smokey Bear, Battle of the Planets, and other faves of RetroFans everywhere. If you’re lucky, you can still snag a copy at www.twomorrows.com!

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

“Of those,” he continued, “I liked the Simon Bar Sinister ones best. I don’t know why. I thought coming up with wild and crazy inventions was the most fun of all.

And one of his very early ones was the Snow Gun.” Deepening his voice, Biggers imitated voice actor Allen Swift: “‘Simon says, Go snow!’ And he’d fire the pistol, and you’d turn into a snowman.”

Stover echoed, “Simon Bar Sinister is my favorite because I named him. In heraldry, a bar sinister on your shield went from upper right to lower left.

If it did that, that would be a sign of illegitimacy. So that meant ‘Simon Bar Sinister, a real bastard’!”

Riff Raff, the tough-talking mobster wolf, was the second recurring foe.

“That was [gangster actor] George Raft,” Stover revealed. “It was one of those fortunate names.”

Riff Raff was supposed to be called Riff Raft, but almost everyone involved in the production mispronounced Raft as “Raff.”

Biggers and Stover decided to go with the flow rather than fight it.

UNDERDOG’S ENDURANCE TEST

Although the Total TeleVision team went on to produce other successful series, such as Tooter Turtle and Go Go Gophers, Underdog outperformed and outlasted them all.

“Actually, we fell into it,” confessed Stover. “We had no idea what we were doing was going to be as big as it got. I mean, it was just another series. And we cranked it out. I think we lucked out. I don’t know how it happened, but we just lucked out on that one. I have much more interest in Tennessee Tuxedo than Underdog, simply because it was more fun to do.”

In 1969, after General Mills withdrew its sponsorship, Total TeleVision was dissolved. But that was not the end of Underdog.

Syndication reruns of the 62 original episodes ensured a long electronic afterlife. Underdog comic books pop up periodically. From 1965 to 1984, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade flew an Underdog balloon, retiring it after it became no longer suitable for flying.

In 1999, Biggers scripted an Underdog radio episode promoting a fundraiser benefitting battered women, Victory Over Violence, which he organized with Boston TV personality Nancy Purbeck; Biggers voiced the late Wally Cox’s role himself. Later performed as a stage play, it received considerable publicity. In it, Simon Bar Sinister returned in a mad scheme to become King of Boston.

That might have been the end if it. Then Disney decided to make an Underdog film. Biggers and Stover started receiving suggestions to take advantage of all the free publicity and collaborate on a book about Underdog’s origins. The greatest pressure came from Biggers’ companion, Nancy Purbeck.

“The subject of the book came up,” recalls Biggers. “But I was not interested, and neither was Chet. Even less interested than I was. But Nancy kept after us. Every time we’d bump into someone who was an Underdog fan, she’d elbow me. ‘See there?

People will love it.’”

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Biggers and Stover still lived within driving distance of one another, so they restarted their long-abandoned weekly motel meetings in order to collaborate on a memoir, How Underdog Was Born, for BearManor Media. After more than 40 years, it might have been an insurmountable challenge, but both men had kept records of those historic brainstorming sessions.

“I have two sons,” Stover related. “When the book came out, I sent them each a copy. They wanted to know, how did you guys drink so many martinis? That was the whole thing that came out of the book! I just finished one, as a matter of fact.”

Until Total TeleVision was dissolved, theirs was successful and harmonious collaboration. Neither man could quite account for the ease with which they steered so many classic cartoon characters from conception to realization.

“It’s hard to say,” Biggers reflected. “First of all, we had worked together at the agency. I was account executive. He was creative director. One of my accounts was O-Cell-O Sponges, which was a General Mills product. He and I worked together on Cheerios. We knew that we did not have an ego problem. That to me was one of the key things in collaboration. The other guy has to be able to say, ‘Naw, I don’t like that,’ without it putting you out of joint. And we’d already found out that we could do that. Our egos did not get in the way.”

“Strangely enough, we’re very different people,” observed Stover. “And yet, we hit it off right from the get-go. We got so we could anticipate the other person’s thoughts. That’s the way it worked. One of us wasn’t dominating or recessive. I don’t know even now how that happened.”

After Total TeleVision folded, Biggers moved on to NBC, while Stover went back to the familiar advertising world. They jointly held the rights to the Pup of Steel, but eventually disposed of them.

Biggers explained, “We had sold our rights, first to Broadway Video, who then sold them to Classic Media, and they are the ones who did the movie with Disney.”

Strangely, both Underdog co-creators kept their distance from the big-budget project.

While hardcore RetroFans may be reluctant to accept the reimagining of Underdog in this 2007 Disney film, the movie introduced the character to a new generation. © Disney. Underdog © Classic Media, LLC.

FAST FACTS UNDERDOG f No. of seasons: Three f No. of episodes: 62 (124 segments) f Original run: October 3, 1964–March 4, 1967 f Primary voice cast: Wally Cox, Norma MacMillan, Allen Swift, George S. Irving (narrator) f Network: NBC, then ABC f Production companies: Total TeleVision productions f Created by: Chester “Chet” Stover and W. Watts “Buck” Biggers

SPIN-OFFS AND REMAKES: f Underdog (live-action 2007 Walt Disney Pictures movie remake directed by Frank Du Chau; starring Jason Lee as the voice of Underdog and Amy Adams as the voice of Polly Purebread; with Peter Dinklage as Simon Bar Sinister, Patrick Warburton as Cad, and Brad Garrett as Riff Raff) 64

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“It’s very flattering,” Biggers admitted. “My wife has visited the set, and so has my daughter, and they were very gracious. I didn’t go, and the reason is, as I understand it, it’s totally different from the series. That’s fine, and certainly their privilege. But I don’t want to get in the middle of that. My wife has said that she thinks the dog—who is a real dog—is lovely. We hope the movie is a success.”

“I have no feelings about that whatsoever,” Stover said frankly.

“I can’t believe how they’re going to do it. I can’t imagine how it’s done technically. You’re going to have a cartoon character where live characters are. I’m looking forward to seeing it just because I’m curious about it. But other than that, I have no interest in it.”

The enduring appeal of Underdog has now stretched beyond the half-century mark. Not surprisingly, Biggers and Stover hold diametrically opposing views on the reasons for his multi-generational popularity.

“I really don’t know,” Stover conceded. “It is kind of a phenomenon in my life. You mention Underdog to anyone, and

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use old movie and TV actors’ voices. It was something they LOOKING FOR MORE TOTAL would connect with. So we had TELEVISION? to appeal to mothers, we had If this article’s piqued your interest about Underto appeal to older kids, and we dog—and his Total TeleVision pals like Tennessee had to appeal to the younger Tuxedo, and King Leonardo & Odie—we highly kids for General Mills. In doing recommend pop-culture historian Mark Arnold’s that, we developed a series that book, Created and Produced by Total TeleVision was on at least two levels. One productions (2009, BearManor Media). Mark digs where the little kids could actudeep into TTV’s history and vault for a treasure ally believe this could happen, trove of data and images. A companion volume, and the others would believe The TTV Scrapbook (2021, BearManor Media), by it’s camp and tongue-in-cheek.

Mark Arnold and Victoria Biggers (the daughter of I believe it’s that and the satire TTV co-founder Buck Biggers), is also a valuable that’s kept it alive.” resource for the animation enthusiast.

Buck Biggers passed away on February 10, 2013, and everybody knows writing partner Chet Stover died three years later on January 12, who Underdog 2016. Somewhere, if not everywhere on the planet Earth, Underdog is still popping his Super Energy pills, proclaiming his signature was. They loved couplet, “Have no fear! Underdog is here!” it. I belong to a ski patrol. And they have adopted Underdog as a mascot. And I find that everywhere I WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild go. It always amazes me how far Underdog has penetrated into the Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze. psyche of America. I don’t understand it.” com) series of novels, which stars Doc Biggers pointed out everything stemmed from the commercial Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, realities of 1964. “Remember that this was a one-set time. Homes and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the had only one TV set. So you had to design series so the mothers Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary would at least tolerate it. That was one reason why we liked to artist Steve Ditko.

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RETROFAD

Cabbage Patch Kids

BY MICHAEL EURY The Christmas riots of 1983. Do you remember them?

Those of us who survived this mass hysteria don’t much talk about it anymore, weighted down by the shame of the season the world went mad. The media was there, broadcasting the carnage, its cameras trained on the scowling faces of the obscenity-spewing rioters. Some of us sat safely on the sidelines, transfixed by the images flickering on our television sets. And some cheered on the dissidents and their frantic fits of pushing, shoving, and eye (and price) gouging. These rebels were moms and dads, formerly docile, civilized providers, now teetering on the brink of barbarism. They fought not for a compelling social or political cause… but for a doll.

In a simpler time, before parents felt their children were prepared to handle the truth about the facts of life (human reproduction, not the Eighties TV show), the question “Where do babies come from?” was answered by either “The stork drops them off on the doorstep” or “They’re plucked from a cabbage patch.”

This issue’s RetroFad borrowed from the latter to coin its name, “Cabbage Patch Kids,” which is arguably a better brand than “Stork Droppings” would have been.

The original Cabbage Patch Kids® are 16-inch dolls made of fabric bodies. Their plastic heads have hair woven from yarn, in many different hairstyles, with some being babybald. Cabbage Patch Kids’ cherubic faces have lovable, wide-open eyes that beg you to be their “mommy.”

They’re all a bit chubby (it’s baby fat!), engendering irresistible huggability.

Cabbage Patch Kids are undeniably adorable.

The marketing of the dolls is a twofold stroke of genius. Each Cabbage Patch Kid is said to be unique, with no two dolls possessing the exact same facial features, eye colors, and hair. And Cabbage Patch Kids aren’t sold (although money does 66

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Hand-drawn original model sheets for Cabbage Patch Kids faces, produced in 1982 by Coleco’s Research & Development Department. Courtesy of Heritage. Cabbage Patch Kids® is TM & © Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc.

change hands), they’re “adopted,” with a birth certificate/adoption papers issued with each doll.

Coleco Industries, a Hartford, Connecticut–headquartered toy company, began manufacturing Cabbage Patch Kids in 1982.

But it was the adoption angle that propelled Cabbage Patch Kids beyond the toy sensations of the previous few years (Star Wars action figures, the electronic memory game Simon, and Atari’s Video Computer System, among them) into becoming the third bestselling toy of all time (after Hot Wheels and the Rubik’s Cube). Coleco tugged at heartstrings (as well as Daddy’s credit card) by sponsoring a Cabbage Patch Kids “adoption event” at the Children’s Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, in June 1983. A fairy tale–like origin story printed onto each Cabbage Patch Kids’ box revealed that the dolls’ creator was a “ten-year-old boy” named Xavier Roberts. A “BunnyBee” lured Roberts to a cabbage patch secreted behind a waterfall. There he found the birthplace of the Cabbage Patch Kids, and dedicated himself to helping adopt out these cute li’l darlings to new homes.

Who could resist a backstory like that? The media sure couldn’t, providing Coleco’s new product no end of publicity, including a Newsweek cover feature and network television

This charming cover photo for the December 12, 1983 edition of Newsweek belied the violence going on at department stores selling the in-demand doll. © Newsweek.

reports. Every little girl in America had to adopt her own Cabbage Patch Kid for Christmas in 1983. The problem was, there were more hopeful little girls than there were Cabbage Patch Kids to go around. Despite shipping some three million Cabbage Patch Dolls that year, Coleco could not match the demand.

What’s a parent to do when demand outweighs supply? Engage in a teaching moment by explaining to their child that sometimes in life, we can’t get what we want? What, are you kidding me? That type of parenting went out of style with… well, telling your kids they were plucked from a cabbage patch.

The response at the time was that parents became department-store commandos. They camped overnight outside of stores, to be first in line when the doors opened the next morning. Inside, they trampled the feeble and scratched their way through a mob of shoppers to grab the hottest toy around. Noses were bloodied, and bones were broken. Such incivility was not relegated to the U.S.A. (although we do it with such panache here!), as the contagion infected Canada, England, Japan, New Zealand, and other countries.

(Director Brian Levant’s 1996 movie comedy, Jingle All the Way, drew inspiration from this hysteria, pitting Arnold Schwarzenegger against Sinbad as harried fathers (RIGHT) It’s battling to snag the “in” enough to blow a toy—a Turbo-Man action guy’s top! Cabbage figure—for their sons.)

Patch Kids’ Xavier As is a common thread in Roberts sued the our RetroFad fables, whenever Topps Company a craze takes hold, someone over their popular is laughing all the way to the Garbage Pail Kids bank. That someone was parody. © Topps. artist Xavier Roberts (who was Courtesy of Heritage. age 28, not ten, in 1983), whose “signature” could be found stenciled onto the posterior of each Cabbage Patch Kids doll. Selling for between $35 and $45 (U.S.) each, Cabbage Patch Kids netted a fortune for Coleco and made Roberts extraordinarily wealthy.

Christmas ’83 was just the start. In 1984, Cabbage Patch Kids generated $20 million in domestic U.S. sales. Auxiliary products including Cabbage Patch Kids–branded clothing, gaming cartridges, bedspreads, lunch boxes, PVCs, books, and patterns for sewing your own doll dresses were huge sellers. The mania led a Ford dealership in New York State to offer up to a $500 trade-in allowance for a Cabbage Patch Kid (adoption papers required). Cash registers chimed across the globe. That’s a whole lotta hugging!

According to Martha Nelson Thomas, a Kentucky craftswoman, Roberts’ dolls were harvested from someplace other than a cabbage

patch. In the early Seventies, Thomas started making by hand what she called her one-of-a-kind “Doll Babies,” for which she created birth certificates and adoption papers. Doll Babies were marketed at craft shows and gift shops. According to Thomas, in the mid-Seventies, Roberts began buying up her Doll Babies and marking them up for a profit. When she objected, Roberts and a fellow artist then modified the Doll Babies’ look for what became Roberts’ “Little People,” which he copyrighted in 1978. Thomas sued Roberts in 1980, but as she owned no copyright on her creation she instead accepted a settlement and Roberts proceeded with his Little People. Roberts evolved his Little People into Coleco’s Cabbage Patch Kids… and then they took off!

After the record-setting year of 1984, Cabbage Patch Kids mania continued strong for a few years, even spawning trading-card giant Topps Chewing Gum Inc.’s “Garbage Pail Kids” stickers (LEFT) Among parody—over which Xavier Cabbage Patch Roberts sued Topps, settling Kids’ myriad out of court there as well. permutations was an “All-Stars” Coleco shut its doors in the subgenre of Major late Eighties and Hasbro produced Cabbage Patch League Baseball– Kids from 1989–1994, with outfitted dolls, Mattel picking up the license which have since from 1994–2001. become sports Following Cabbage Patch collectibles. Courtesy Kids’ explosive debut and of Heritage. TM & © Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. early years, new contenders arose as the “must have” toy of subsequent Christmas seasons, among them Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Beanie Babies, Tickle Me Elmo, Furby, and Pokemón.

While Cabbage Patch Kids’ sales shrank as a result, the adoptable, lovable dolls had become a perennial favorite.

Today, Cabbage Patch Kids are marketed through Xavier Roberts’ BabyLand General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia, touted as the birthplace of the legendary dolls. Part gift shop/part amusement attraction, BabyLand mimics the appearance of a maternity hospital, and there you can actually witness the “birth” of Cabbage Patch Kids—in a cabbage patch, of course!

How ironic that the cute, cuddly Cabbage Patch Kids inspired two lawsuits and created a pattern of churlish shopping behavior that continues each Black Friday (and let’s not forget the toilet paper– buying panic of the 2020 pandemic). One wonders if our culture would have stumbled down this undisciplined path if these pudgy playthings had instead been named “Stork Droppings”…

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The Future of Pop History.

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THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW

In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions

by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. SHIPS SUMMER 2023!

(256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER

In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! SHIPS SPRING 2023!

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

(128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2

By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! SHIPS SPRING 2023!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

CLIFFHANGER!

CINEMATIC SUPERHEROES OF THE SERIALS: 1941–1952 by CHRISTOPHER IRVING

Hold on tight as historian CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the origins of the first on-screen superheroes and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life. CLIFFHANGER! touches on the early days of the film serial, to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and ‘40s. See how the creation of characters like SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, SPY SMASHER, and CAPTAIN MARVEL dovetailed with the early film adaptations. Along the way, you’ll meet the stuntmen, directors (SPENCER BENNETT, WILLIAM WITNEY, producer SAM KATZMAN), comic book creators (SIEGEL & SHUSTER, SIMON & KIRBY, BOB KANE, C.C. BECK, FRANK FRAZETTA, WILL EISNER), and actors (BUSTER CRABBE, GEORGE REEVES, LORNA GRAY, KANE RICHMOND, KIRK ALYN, DAVE O’BRIEN) who brought them to the silver screen—and how that resonates with today’s cinematic superhero universe. SHIPS SUMMER 2023!

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

RETRO ANIMATION

The Animagic of Rankin/Bass’

BY RICK GOLDSCHMIDT In 1968, Rankin/Bass Productions’ landmark TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer [see RetroFan #12—ed.] was appearing on NBC’s The General Electric Fantasy Hour for the fifth time! Rudolph’s unusually high annual ratings had given producers Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass some clout at the NBC television network.

In 1966, on Thanksgiving Day, Rankin/ Bass followed up their original hit with The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, which, like Rudolph, was filmed in their trademark “Animagic” stop motion. Smokey, too, appeared on the NBC General Electric Fantasy Hour.

During 1965–1968, Rankin/Bass Productions released five feature films! Three were in Animagic: Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (1965), The Daydreamer (1966), and Mad Monster Party? (1967) [see RetroFan #17]; while The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1966) was filmed in cel animation, and King Kong Escapes (1968) in live-action.

This was the busiest Rankin/Bass had ever been! They were also developing, for ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, a pilot called The Charlie McCarthy Show (which would not see the light of day) and off-Broadway musicals A Month of Sundays (1968) and Huck (which would ultimately be handled by another production team). Jules Bass and music composer Maury Laws were even on the set of Jerry Lewis’ 1967 film comedy, The

(LEFT) Miscellaneous scenes from Rankin/Bass Productions’ Animagic classic The Little Drummer Boy, first seen on NBC-TV in 1968. The title’s illustration of Aaron, the drummer boy, is by MAD cartoonist Paul Coker, Jr., who passed away on July 23, 2022. Unless otherwise noted, all images accompanying this article are courtesy of Rick Goldschmidt. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

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Big Mouth, discussing and working on preliminary elements of Hey, Bellhop!, a proposed Animagic version of the comedian’s Bellhop movie character. (Shortly after my book The Making of the Rankin/ Bass Holiday Classic: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer pictured the Jerry Lewis figure made for this unproduced project, Lewis wanted to resurrect Hey, Bellhop! I connected Jerry with Arthur Rankin, but nothing came of it.)

In 1967, Rankin/Bass produced another NBC special, based on Charles Dickens’ Cricket on the Hearth, in cel animation, at Toei studios, which aired as part of The Danny Thomas Show. Thomas hosted it in live-action, and it also starred his daughter Marlo Thomas, as the voice of Bertha. This led to another cel-animated production, Thanksgiving 1968’s The Mouse on the Mayflower, starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (Rankin/Bass originally planned for Bing Crosby to narrate the special, but the deal fell through). This special would not be sponsored by General Electric, but instead by Your Gas Company (a.k.a. American Gas Association).

THE BEAT GOES ON

“After we made the deal with our sponsors, [Your] Gas Company, I had another meeting with the NBC executives in early 1968,” said producer Arthur Rankin, Jr., who died in 2014. “This was on a Friday, and I told them we had another Christmas special, which could be filmed in Animagic like Rudolph, based on The Little Drummer Boy, which of course was another big Christmas song.

“At the time, I actually had nothing,” Rankin confessed. “I needed to keep our Animagic studio in Japan, MOM, working, so I had hoped to rush another Christmas special into production. They said, ‘Get us a script by Monday, and maybe we could fit it into our holiday schedule.’ I went back to the office with my secretary and rang up our writer, Romeo Muller, in High Falls, New York!”

According to Romeo Muller’s brother, Gene Muller, “I remember this very clearly. Romeo got a phone call from Arthur Rankin, and I was there. He needed a story about The Little Drummer Boy right away. Romeo actually came up with the story over the phone conversation and dictated it to Arthur’s secretary. This is how fast it all came together, and I was amazed at the talent of my brother!”

“I went back with the script on Monday,” said Rankin. “We got the green light, so instead of having just one TV special on NBC sponsored by [Your] Gas Company, we had two. It was essential that I keep our studios in Japan working, and now we were working with several. Toei worked with us on the Saturday morning TV series in 1966, the King Kong [animated cartoon] show, so we did Cricket and Mouse with them; but eventually we would work with Mushi Studios, too, on Frosty [the Snowman, which we’ll cover in next year’s Christmas edition of RetroFan—ed.], etc. Since the stopmotion Animagic became our trademark, we had to keep MOM going, and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town would follow Drummer Boy in short order.”

The quality of these productions during this period is amazing.

Even though The Little Drummer Boy was rushed, it is one of Rankin/ Bass’ finest moments, and should have been nominated for and received an Emmy! Actually, its 1976 sequel, The Little Drummer Boy, Book II, is the only Rankin/Bass production to be nominated for an Emmy. (More on the sequel later.)

The production designer of the Little Drummer Boy special is listed as Charles Frazier, not Rankin/Bass regulars Paul Coker, Jr. or Jack Davis. Strangely enough, no one seems to know anything about Charles, and this is his only credit as a designer. I am 70

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This early promo for the 1968 Thanksgiving special The Mouse on the Mayflower—featuring art by Jack Davis— reveals Rankin/Bass’ original choice for the special’s narration and songs. Instead, Tennessee Ernie Ford provided those roles. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. wondering if this was a made-up name for this production. (Jules Bass used the phony name Julian P. Gardner as writer for many of the productions. According to Maury Laws, the P stood for “Phony.”

Gardner is the first name of Arthur’s second son.)

By this time, Tad Mochinaga, the father of stop motion in Japan and the person in charge of that country’s MOM studios, was handing over the reins to animator Hiroshi Tabata (seen in the production photos pictured here). Hiroshi felt that The Little Drummer Boy’s Animagic didn’t live up to Tad’s animation in Rudolph

retro Animation

the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but it certainly was consistent and still excellent.

Like all other Rankin/Bass specials, the music of Maury Laws and Jules Bass played a big role in The Little Drummer Boy. I had earlier thought the special’s song “One Star in the Night” was an old traditional classic, so I asked Maury about this. “That song actually came from a melody that Jules came up with on the piano a few years earlier,” Laws told me. “When we were working on this special, I said to Jules, ‘What about that song you used to play?,’ and it developed from that. We got the Vienna Boys choir to sing it, and they didn’t speak English, so everything they sang was sung phonetically.”

The sheet music for “One Star in the Night” was never published. Maury Laws allowed me to publish his original sheet music for it and a few other classic Laws/Bass songs in the 20th anniversary update to my Miser Bros Press book The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio.

Narrating The Little Drummer Boy was the noted actress Greer Garson, whose long string of movie classics included Mrs. Miniver (1942), Julius Caesar (1953), and The Happiest Millionaire (1967).

Autographed photograph courtesy of Heritage.

WISE MEN AND WOMEN

For The Little Drummer Boy, Rankin/Bass secured the distinguished box office star, actress Greer Garson, to be the narrator, giving the production an element of class. She has a beautiful speaking voice, although some of her dialogue has been lost in recent releases.

Veteran animation voice actor Paul Frees, who played Aaron’s father and the three kings in the special, provided a scratch track [an unpolished play-through] for Greer. There is a line toward the end of the special where Paul’s voice is heard during the narration instead of Greer’s.

Joining Greer Garson and Paul Frees in the cast was my close friend June Foray Donovan, who provided the voice for the mother of Aaron, the drummer boy. “Working for Rankin/Bass

Will the real Aaron please stand up? Child actor Ted “Teddy” Eccles (LEFT) provided the drummer boy’s speaking voice, but Dick Beals (ABOVE) did the character’s singing.

was wonderful,” said Foray. “I provided voice work, with Paul, for both The Mouse on the Mayflower and The Little Drummer Boy in 1968, and then we both worked on Frosty the Snowman in 1969. It was a great treat!”

For the voice of drummer boy Aaron, Rankin/Bass Productions hired the busy child actor, Ted “Teddy” Eccles. Ted made his debut

(OPPOSITE PAGE AND LEFT) The making of The Little Drummer Boy: Hiroshi Tabata masterfully prepares figures and scenes for shooting, from Japan’s MOM studio in 1968. (RIGHT) Promotional art featuring the animated characters in action. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

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on television in 1960 as Christopher Robin in an adaptation of “Winnie the Pooh” on Shirley Temple’s Storybook.

Ted went on to appear in so many of my favorite shows: The Munsters, The Lucy Show, Mister Ed, The Beverly Hillbillies (as the hilarious Milby Drysdale), and The Farmer’s Daughter, to name a few.

“I had a well known agent named Lola Moore,” says Ted Eccles. “There were only a few big child actor agents in Hollywood, Lola and Dorothy Day Otis, and you needed one [of them] to get work. Lola handled the actors in My Three Sons, Leave It to Beaver, etc. Prior to getting hired by Rankin/Bass for The Little Drummer Boy, I did voiceover work at Hanna-Barbera for The Three Musketeers as Tooly, and in The Herculoids as Dorno.”

Eccles explains the process behind the voice recording for Rankin/Bass: “When I went to work on The Little Drummer Boy, I went to a sound studio… I believe it was at Melrose and Seward in Hollywood. I was put in a booth for isolation, but the other actors were there too, in their own booths. We spent about two hours in the studio, and there were two microphones set up.

One for me, and the other for producer Arthur Rankin. For these sessions, I remember Arthur read the lines of all of the other actors, and I read my lines back to him.”

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

The vocals in the song “Why Can’t the Animals Smile?” posed a problem for the child actor. According to Eccles, “I knew I had a terrible singing voice. In fact, when I appeared in The Lucy Show Christmas episode, ‘The Choir Master,’ Lucy asked me not to sing and just move my mouth. Arthur Rankin gave me a reel-to-reel tape of the song to practice singing the song, and off I went. I told Lola, ‘There is no way I can pull this off… What do we do?’ She landed me a role in the movie In Cold Blood and told Arthur that I was unavailable to do the song, and that is how we got out of it!”

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Enter my late friend, Dick Beals.

Besides being the voice (LEFT) One of Eccles’ most of Speedy Alka-Seltzer of TV fondly remembered roles: commercial fame, Dick did the 1969 family drama, My many voices for Hanna-Barbera, Side of the Mountain. such as Buzz Conroy in Frank© 1969 Paramount Pictures. Lobby card esntein, Jr. and the Impossibles and courtesy of Heritage. (BELOW) voices on The Flintstones, The Ted Eccles today, with Jetsons, and more. his wife and daughter.

Beals was also the go-to To catch up with his guy when a child actor couldn’t latest endeavors, visit sing.

He did the singing for Ted’s website, www. child actor Bobby Rhea in quarkerentertainment.com.

Photo courtesy of Ted Eccles. the Gene Kelly–starring Jack and the Beanstalk, which was live-action and animation, just like The Adventures of Huck Finn. “I remember when I did the singing for Bobby, I was told not to publicly mention that I did so,” Beals once told me. “Somehow the word got out, and I remember Bobby’s mother being very angry at me.”

Dick was originally hired to do the voice of Charlie Brown, but when Peanuts creator Charles Schulz learned he was an adult, he decided against Beals. Dick was later hired to coach the child actors for a few Peanuts TV specials.

As I formed a friendship with Dick, he never mentioned to me that he worked on any Rankin/Bass productions. I had sent him my Rankin/Bass book, and I read his book, Think Big!, and still there was no mention of him doing Rankin/Bass work. Later, I realized that the voice on The Little Drummer Boy’s “Why Can’t the Animals Smile?” was probably his, so I asked him. “Oh, yeah, I did do that! It was one of those things I forgot about,” he laughed.

Few watching Drummer Boy realized that the voice actor behind Aaron was not also doing his own singing. “Dick Beals was a master at dubbing child singing,” says Ted Eccles.

“He nailed my voice, and you really could not tell that it wasn’t me singing. I was very happy with the way he pulled that off!”

Front cover to the hard-tofind soundtrack album for both The Mouse on the Mayflower and The Little Drummer Boy. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

retro Animation

The 1968 premiere of the Christmas special received heavy promotion in television markets across the U.S.A.

I asked Ted Eccles, “Of all the things you did in your career, what are you most known for?”

“Well, there are three things I get autograph requests for all of the time,” he says. “The feature film I did, My Side of the Mountain. The book was required reading for many years in schools, and the film was shown in schools for years. I also appeared in M*A*S*H, and their fan base is very interested in collecting everyone’s autographs who appeared in that series. And The Little Drummer Boy rounds out the three most requested.”

More recently, Ted has been an executive producer on TV shows like Flip My Food with Chef Jeff, and he has been an editor with his own business. He splits his time between San Antonio, Texas, and North Hollywood. He is currently going through ten million feet of footage from 40 years of Fox archives history, footage that Disney did not acquire in a recent transaction. It includes fascinating film of red-carpet premieres from 1948–1973.

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(LEFT) Rankin/Bass Productions’ hopeful appeal for an Emmy nomination for The Little Drummer Boy, from the March 12, 1969 edition of Variety. (RIGHT) A winning line-up! By popular demand, these Rankin/Bass programs were renewed for re-airing in 1969. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

The Little Drummer Boy crossed his path again around 1992 or so.

“I was working on producing and editing for a company called LIVE Entertainment,” Eccles recalls. “LIVE was owned by Jose Menendez, who you may remember from the famous murders and trials for his two sons. LIVE got the distribution rights for some of the Rankin/Bass TV specials, and I ended up producing the promos for the VHS combo of The Little Drummer Boy and Frosty the Snowman.

I thought it was ironic, how I came to be involved with the special again years later.”

In 1976, Rankin/Bass Productions produced The Little Drummer Boy, Book II for NBC. Greer Garson returned to narrate, and Arthur Rankin’s pal Zero Mostel voiced Brutus. Ted Eccles was too old to return as Aaron, so in that role was an actor named David Jay. As noted earlier, this special was nominated for an Emmy Award.

While I think it is a successful production, it isn’t the classic that the original The Little Drummer Boy is. A while back, it was airing more than the original special on cable via the Family Channel, Freeform, and other networks.

‘LITTLE DRUMMER BOY’ TRIVIA

Here is an interesting fact about The Little Drummer Boy: its original 35mm print is lost at this juncture. As the official Rankin/Bass historian, I have been looking for it for well over 30 years now. I was told by Golden Books that the only print they had of the special was a 16mm “B Roll.” All of the Rankin/Bass Productions films were stored at Magno Sound in New York. Magno was owned by Ralph Friedman, who was given credit for the sound on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; he didn’t actually do the sound, it was just his

NBC-TV publicity photos of Aaron (LEFT) having his face painted and (RIGHT) with wise man Melchior, from the 1976 sequel, The Little Drummer Boy, Book II. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

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facility. Ralph eventually hired Larry Roemer, after he parted ways with Rankin/Bass Productions. (I go into this a little deeper in my Miser Bros Press book, The Arthur Rankin, Jr. Scrapbook: The Birth of Animagic.)

The result is, when you see The Little Drummer Boy on television, DVD, or Blu-ray, it looks dark and unclear. The audio is pretty good, although it is missing some of the sound effects. During the song “Why Can’t the Animals Smile?,” you should be hearing Aaron, the drummer boy, hitting his drum. But you don’t... instead there is dead silence. The special’s most recent Blu-ray release by Universal is the absolute worst yet. Besides all of the technical problems with the film print, it fades to black in the middle of scenes, which makes it nearly unwatchable.

In 1968, an NBC/Your Gas Company vinyl LP combo of both The Mouse on the Mayflower and The Little Drummer Boy was released.

Today this is a very scarce album. Some of the original audio elements missing from the aforementioned versions of The Little Drummer Boy appear here, including dialogue missing from recent releases, plus the bumpers that Greer Garson narrates for the opening and closing of the special. Also, in the early Seventies, Rankin/Bass Productions issued a Christmas Card LP for friends and associates that features an unedited version of the special’s song “One Star in the Night.” These would be helpful in producing a future full restoration of the special, which I hope to be involved with.

Did you know that there’s a connection between The Little Drummer Boy and actor Steve McQueen? Romeo Muller’s name for the sheep in the special, Baa Baa, was inspired by a very funny third-season episode, titled “Baa Baa,” of the TV Western Wanted: Dead or Alive, starring Steve McQueen.

When The Little Drummer Boy was in production, Sawyer, the makers of View-Master, sent a photographer to Japan to take 3-D photos. A Little Drummer Boy View-Master set was released both in standard and talking formats. This is the only Rankin/Bass TV special production to be featured in a “true” View-Master format.

Years later, Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer would be featured in a re-processed 3-D format for reels, but wasn’t actually photographed in 3-D, as The Little Drummer Boy was.

Much later, some Little Drummer Boy merchandise was released.

There was a gift set with an Aaron ornament packaged together with a DVD of the special. Then a nativity set was created with plastic figures of all of the characters. The manger for baby Jesus was fold-out cardboard, to set up the complete scene. The Madame Alexander Doll Company produced a set of dolls, which included Aaron and his three animal friends. Today, these are highly soughtafter because the license was for one year only.

I did some merchandising designs of The Little Drummer Boy for the Enesco Corporation, but they never got around to producing anything. Today, I am working with Super7, a large toy company, to plan some future figure releases of The Little Drummer Boy.

(LEFT) Amid some of Rick Goldschmidt’s cool collectibles are these Little Drummer Boy figures from the Madame Alexander Doll Company—plus a postcard signed to Rick by Arthur Rankin, Jr. (ABOVE) A Ted Eccles–signed storybook insert from The Little Drummer Boy View-Master set.

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(ABOVE) Sheet music for Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, another Christmas special that still airs as part of AMC’s Rankin/ Bass marathons. (RIGHT) Shall I play for you? The birth of baby Jesus, as portrayed in The Little Drummer Boy. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

THE REAL STORY OF CHRISTMAS

I have always felt that The Little Drummer Boy was one of the very best of the Rankin/Bass TV specials, and the most representative of the religious celebration of the Christmas holiday! I remember my Sunday school teachers reminding us to watch the special, and they gave us snow globes with the nativity scene in them. The special was a big deal, an event for many families.

The Little Drummer Boy hasn’t seen on network television in many years. It has occasionally been shown on cable channels like Freeform and AMC, and some years back, MeTV aired it early in the morning hours, along with Cricket on the Hearth.

I find it odd that The Little Drummer Boy has become so rare on television. The television landscape has changed dramatically since the Sixties and Seventies. While there is a dramatic scene in The Little Drummer Boy, when Aaron’s parents are murdered by desert bandits, it’s no more dramatic than most of the stuff seen on 76

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modern television and in the movies. In an effort to avoid offending a secular audience, networks and stations generally relegate religious programming to the early morning hours. Christmas is still a huge holiday, and this magical special spotlights what for many Christmas is all about. And Christmas would not be Christmas without Rankin/Bass Productions!

RICK GOLDSCHMIDT is the official historian/biographer for Rankin/Bass Productions and the author of popular books about the company’s animated holiday television specials, including The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio and The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Visit miserbros.com for more information.

Perhaps this is something that has been seen many times before online, so forgive me if you’re already aware. In the event that you hadn’t, I thought it was worth sharing.

FRED JANSSEN

On June 18, 2022, our pal Bryan Stroud, a frequent contributor to our sister magazine, Back Issue, sent us the two photos below from a journey he and his wife made through Morgantown, West Virginia. Morgantown’s

most famous son, Don Knotts—as in Mayberry Deputy Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show, and from no end of much-loved Sixties and Seventies film comedies including ye ed’s personal fave, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (“Attaboy, Luther!”)—is immortalized in the city by a sidewalk “star” and a statue. In the two-shot below, in case you can’t tell them apart, the figure on the right is Bryan Stroud.

If you’re in that part of the U.S.A. and would like to visit the Don Knotts statue, it’s at 371 High Street in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Thank you, Bryan, for these photos and for this unofficial “Retro Travel” segment!

This photo is hilarious, Fred. Thank you for sharing! (And for your kind words about Hero-A-Go-Go.) Neal Adams’ passing deeply affected everyone here at TwoMorrows, too. Back Issue is devoting its June 2023 edition (on sale in May), issue #143, to Mr. Adams’ late-Sixties/ Seventies DC Comics work, which helped transform the comics medium and enrich the lives of many.

Congratulations!

I saw the announcement that you landed Mark Voger as a regular columnist.

That’s great news and a big win for RetroFan! I know Mark’s work not only from his three books from TwoMorrows—Monster Mash, Groovy, and Holly Jolly—but also from his feature pieces in the New Jersey newspapers, which I have greatly enjoyed.

Mark is what they used to call a “newspaper man.” (What do they call them now? Do they still exist?) Voger does original research and interviews, writes up his story, and even does his own graphic design. He’s the total package and I know his contributions to the magazine will bring it to even greater heights.

I’m looking forward to your next issue even more eagerly than usual.

Hello, Michael Eury!

I was born in 1958, so your book Hero-AGo-Go really hit the sweet spot for me. That period of comic books was a great time to grow up in, and the one that followed probably had even more significance for me as it seemed like comics were getting more serious and growing up along with us readers. (It was surprising how much Neal Adams’ recent passing really affected me. But that’s another conversation.)

Anyway, I was looking at a copy of RetroFan and got to thinking that the attached photo [below] might be of interest to you and your readers. I took it several years ago when my wife and I visited Amsterdam, which has a surprising number of signs in English. The name of the city is abbreviated to “A’dam” on official signage, which caused me to do a double take when I saw this directional sign.

DAVID BURD

Mark Voger’s grinning ear-to-ear after reading your message, David. And so is ye ed for being fortunate enough to snag him to join our pool of ultra-talented columnists.

Now that you’ve had a chance to read a few of Mark’s columns, hopefully you’ll write with your comments. As you’re about to read, the first Voger column was a crowd-pleaser!

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can be to own the copyright of a character. Groo, unlike so many corporate-owned titles, can’t be taken in an inappropriate direction or be undercut by others. That’s why it’s still around and under his control, as desired, some 40 years later.

Suggestions for future TV-oriented interviews: Burt Ward, Lee Meriwether, James Darrin, Robert Colbert, Tina Louise, and Gary Conway.

JOE FRANK

Joe, hopefully we’ll be able to make some of those TV celebrity interviews happen.

Love your magazine… the things you come up with!

Like the song title, “these are a few of my fav-o-rite things”: f Space-food sticks f Jello One-Two-Three (especially limeflavored) f Universal horror movies f Candyland board game f Kool-Pops f Ginger beer f Necco wafers f Sunset Boulevard (movie) f Bette Davis horror films f Cashew nuts f Pringles chips (original red can is still the best!) f Screaming Yellow Zonkers f Mr. Misty (Dairy Queen) Regrettably, some of these goodies no longer exist, but the memory lingers on!

JACK GOURLAY

Actually, Jack, somebody else came up with those things you read about in RetroFan—we just report on them! But luckily, this magazine’s trusty and talented band of contributors is renowned for our largely wasted brains cluttered with obsessive devotion to ridiculous old stuff unmatchable knowledge of popular culture history.

Mr. Misty © American Dairy Queen Corporation. Dennis the Menace © North America Syndicate.

So funny! If you told me, as a kid, I’d be reading more about Moe Howard in the 21st Century [in RetroFan #20], I’d have dismissed that immediately. Yet, he and the other Stooges have endured: movies and television, last century, and video and online now. I thought he was terrific; such great facial expressions and slow burns. He was the clueless leader of a team that never quite fit in, but could expose high society for their pomposity. Sort of like kids who never grew up. Enjoyed The Three Stooges, then and now, and it’s still fun to catch a stray episode.

That said, I would have loved to see him, as your author did, in a personal appearance. Just so long as he didn’t poke me in the eye, stick my hand in a drawer, or iron my pants while I was wearing them.

Though I remember the toy and was of the right age, I never played with G.I. Joe as a kid. However, I really enjoyed the article—to my surprise—as it also covered the topic of people isolating only their contributions as essential in a collaborative effort that became a hit. Retroactively, it’s suddenly portrayed as a solo achievement. Bad feelings and skepticism needlessly generated.

Route 66 was before my time. Even in syndication, I’m sure it would have been too serious for a kid. Now, however, it might be fun to see it for the mid-century national backdrops and, like most old shows, the surprise guests who pop up.

Plus, the writing, like Naked City, was said to be very good. I do recognize Martin Milner, but as Officer Malloy from the later Adam-12 series.

“Contests You Wanted to Win… But Didn’t” got me curious about the 100 old comics.

Without seeing the roster and the condition, who knows? It could have been 100 mint collectors’ items, or… some remaindered dog-eared inventory from a barbershop. Did anyone ever find out the precise prize contents? I’d have been disqualified, as no way would I have bought two packs of cigarettes to enter. The various contests were illegible at that small size, so, if you could, might you just print the comic-book square so we can see it? [See inset.]

Particularly appreciated the in-depth (20+ pages) look at Sergio Aragonés.

Lots of early stories and aspects I didn’t know. Plenty of welcome art, sketches, and photographs, too. What I came away with is he excels in a lot of areas, and his career has a lot of variety. Someone could know him from MAD, Groo, or something else entirely. He was an early achiever and never stopped. There’s fondness for him across many generations, and that’s quite impressive.

What’s also admirable and interesting is that he has shown, by example, how important it

A few of your favorite things would make good RetroFan articles. For example, ye ed could easily see our own Scott “Sweet Tooth” Saavedra explore the history behind Mr. Misty and other frozen drinks (Slurpee, Icee); Scott, whattaya think? We’ll see what we can bring to these pages, Jack. Thanks for your affection for the mag!

Hi, Michael! Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed RetroFan #20, especially Mark Voger’s fascinating and insightful article about the final years of the Three Stooges.

In 2015, I had the privilege of interviewing Moe Howard’s son, Paul, for VideoScope Magazine. Paul was working on a documentary about his father, titled Hey Moe! Hey Dad!, and we talked at length about their personal relationship. Paul revealed that for many years, he had difficulty coming to terms with having a famous father, not to mention a member of the Three Stooges, and would even tell people his father was a meter reader with Pacific Gas & Electric!

He finally took an important step forward when he was around 40 years old and in a therapy group to deal with his recent divorce. During a group conversation about relationships, Paul had an epiphany and realized it was time to embrace his father’s legacy and reveal his “dark secret” to the world. When called upon, Paul stood and told the group that he was the son of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. Then others started to share similar secrets, including one man who revealed that his father was New Jersey’s largest porno kingpin! “I guess I opened the door,” Paul said to me with a chuckle.

Loved the rest of the issue as well, especially Scott Shaw!’s profile of Sergio Aragonés and John Michlig’s revealing history of G.I. Joe. I was never into Joe—just not my thing—but I found his history fascinating.

Thanks for another great issue.

DON VAUGHAN

I received the latest RetroFan magazine at my LCS today. Great magazine, as always. There’s always something that draws my attention and makes me smile.

Heh… speaking of great memories, I enjoyed Scott Saavedra’s article on “Contests You Wanted to Win… But Didn’t.” I chuckled when I read about the ones related to the first two Superman films, particularly the second one.

The reason for my amusement is that among the 21 entries that got 100% of the 25 questions correct (I had to look up the number, but I knew it was low), I happened to be three of them… but I wasn’t.

Yeah, I wanted that cape with all my heart.

And it turned out that the winners would be announced fairly close to my birthday. So, I

BRIAN K. MORRIS

The measures our nanas take to get us kids to visit, eh?

Brian, that is a hilarious story! Glad you were able to rescue that Swan/Chiaramonte original art from Grandma Helen’s Crayolas!

Here’s the published version of the splash page to DC Comics’ Action #496 (June 1979).

Colors are by Adrienne Roy, not Grandma Helen.

is much more than his Marginal Thinking drawings.

Once again, RetroFan plucked a memory from my brain I didn’t even remember having with Scott Saavedra’s “Contests You Wanted to Win” article. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the Benson & Hedges sweepstakes ad. I always thought that was not only a clever sweepstakes idea, but a terrific two-page display advertisement; it took several minutes just to read every prize item. What other ad could make you look at it for that long?

I also enjoyed Andy Mangels’ look at The Lone Ranger. Whenever I think of 1981’s Legend of the Lone Ranger film, one unusual name pops up in my head: Klinton Spilsbury, the guy who played the masked man and whose career never recovered from it. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can remember the name Klinton Spilsbury. Maybe I’m just the kind of guy you’re aiming for in your readership!

MICHAL JACOT

TM & © DC Comics.

pulled out every Superman comic I owned, which was considerable. That included guest appearances and any books on Superman I could find, especially the Michael Fleisher reference work.

I read every comic I could find and when I located an answer, I dutifully wrote the letter on a clipboard-ed sheet of paper. I recall it took three weeks of constant research, but I felt good about 90% of the answers. I was living at home, so I told my mother that I completed my task, and I’d mail my postcard after work the next day.

The contest rules stated everyone could only enter once. No hanky-panky! So, I filled out my postcard as neatly as I could because penmanship was not one of my strongest points. I signed it with my usual “Brian K. Morris.”

Unbeknownst to me, my mother snuck into my room and copied down the answers, and sent it in as “B. Morris” (her name was Beverly).

Then she called her mother, my grandmother, and asked her to send in a postcard as well. That was “Helen Barnett.”

Well, I got the letter from DC, stating I won a two-year subscription to the comic book of my choice (I selected Superman, naturally). Mom then revealed she got a letter too and picked Warlord because she knew I enjoyed it. This was before the winners’ list appeared in the comics, of course.

A couple of weeks passed and I received a late-night phone call from my grandmother Helen. She said she just got a really nice poster of Superman in a secure mailing tube. “That’s nice,” I said. That seemed odd, so I asked her where she got it.

She said, “DC sent it to me.”

“Why would they do that?” I asked. Then a little bell went off in my head. “Grandma, is it on really nice paper? And about how large would you say this is?”

Grandma Helen said, “It’s probably a foot and a half by two feet. Would you like me to color it for you?”

“NOOOOO!!!” I recall crying out. “I’ll be right there!” I drove across town to Grandma’s apartment, and she had the original artwork for the splash page to Action Comics #496. Yeah, the one by Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte.

I swear upon what little honor I have that I knew nothing about the subterfuge until my mother got the letter from DC, and until I heard from Grandma Helen, I assumed she tossed a subscription letter into the trash, not knowing what it was for.

Regular RetroFan readers may recall Brian’s “Retro Travel” article to the Popeye Picnic that appeared back in issue #8. And if you’re not already aware of Brian’s excellent novels like The Original Skyman Battles the Master of Steam and Santastein: Or the Post-Holiday Prometheus, do yourself a favor and check out his titles on Amazon.

RetroFan continues to be entertaining with each issue, and #20 was no exception.

Mark Voger’s piece on Moe Howard was great. The Stooge leader was the first celebrity I remember seeing in his golden years; in fact, the photos from The Mike Douglas Show that led off the article was from the exact same program I remember watching. Upon being introduced by Mike, the snowy-haired Moe shuffled out onto the stage; I recall being shocked at the sight.

After all, this wasn’t the Moe I watched every day in those Three Stooges shorts. It gave me a sense of passing time, knowing that everyone, even celebrities, eventually gets old. But I was delighted with Moe’s candid, jovial chat with Mike, and I loved it when he demonstrated the Moe Bowl Haircut Technique!

I am now in awe of Sergio Aragonés (as if I wasn’t already). To me, he was the guy who tested my eyesight with those tiny cartoons in MAD Magazine. Thanks to Scott Shaw! for the in-depth look at a very talented man who

I have been hooked on RetroFan ever since I got my hands on the first issue, and issue #20 is no exception.

The article on Route 66 was interesting to read. Now I know why George Maharis was missing from some episodes, leaving Martin Milner to ride solo in the Corvette.

Great job on the interview with George Maharis as well.

The Lone Ranger 1966 cartoon was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, and I am glad some of the episodes are available on YouTube. Michael Rye’s voice was perfect for the Lone Ranger, as well as Shepherd Mencken as Tonto. One of the things I liked about the program was the bizarre villains the crimefighters faced, and although I had not read it, I figured The Wild, Wild West had to have been an influence.

Another great issue filled with such fun and interesting pieces. Keep up the good work and keep the fun going!

MARCUS CARTER

Marcus, we’ll hopefully continue to release RetroFan for years to come, and appreciate the support of loyal readers like you!

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

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January 2023

New from TwoMorrows!

ALTER EGO #182

BACK ISSUE #142

BACK ISSUE #143

BACK ISSUE #144

An FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) special, behind a breathtaking JERRY ORDWAY cover! Features on Uncle Marvel and the Fawcett Family by P.C. HAMERLINCK, ACG artist KENNETH LANDAU (Commander Battle and The Atomic Sub), and writer LEE GOLDSMITH (Golden Age Green Lantern, Flash, and others). Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more!

SUPER ISSUE! Superboy’s Bronze Age adventures, and interviews with GERARD CHRISTOPHER and STACY HAIDUK of the Superboy live-action TV series. Plus: Super Goof, Super Richie (Rich), Super-Dagwood, Super Mario Bros., Frank Thorne’s Far Out Green Super Cool, NICK MEGLIN and JACK DAVIS’ Superfan, and more! Featuring a Superboy and Krypto cover by DAVE COCKRUM! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #30

KIRBY COLLECTOR #86

RETROFAN #27

BRICKJOURNAL #79

Canadian comic book artist, illustrator, and graphic novelist MICHAEL CHO in a career-spanning interview and art gallery, a 1974 look at JACK ADLER and the DC Comics production department’s process of reprinting Golden Age material, color newspaper tabloid THE FUNNY PAGES examined in depth by its editor RON BARRETT, plus CBC’s usual columns and features, including HEMBECK! Edited by JON B. COOKE.

VISUAL COMPARISONS! Analysis of unused vs. known Kirby covers and art, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH on his stylizations in Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, Kirby’s incorporation of real-life images in his work, WILL MURRAY’s conversations with top pros just after Jack’s passing, unused Mister Miracle cover inked

by WALTER SIMONSON, and more! Edited

by JOHN MORROW.

Interview with Captain Kangaroo BOB KEESHAN, The ROCKFORD FILES, teen monster movies, the Kung Fu and BRUCE LEE crazes, JACK KIRBY’s comedy comics, DON DRYSDALE’s TV drop-ins, outrageous toys, Challenge of the Super Friends, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

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Create Brick Art with builders ANDREAS LELANDER and JACK ENGLAND! Learn how to build mosaics and sculptures with DEEP SHEN and some of the best Lego builders around the world! Plus: AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

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ALTER EGO #181

Special NEAL ADAMS ISSUE, featuring in-depth interviews with Neal by HOWARD CHAYKIN, BRYAN STROUD, and RICHARD ARNDT. Also: a “lost” ADAMS BRAVE & THE BOLD COVER with Batman and Green Arrow, and unseen Adams art and artifacts.

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