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March/April 2023 No. 25 $10.95

Great Krypton!

EARLY SUPERMAN CARTOONS

GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’S

LYNDA DAY GEORGE

RAMBO IN AN

WKRP in Cincinnati • Jerry Lewis & Bob Hope comic books • Commercial jingles & more! 1

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ALTER EGO #182

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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.

A special tribute issue to NEAL ADAMS (1941–2022), celebrating his Bronze Age DC Comics contributions! In-depth Batman and Superman interviews, ‘Green Lantern/Green Arrow’—Fifty Years Later, Neal Adams—Under the Radar, Continuity Associates, a ‘Rough Stuff’ pencil art gallery, Power Records, and more! Re-presenting Adams’ iconic cover art to BATMAN #227. (Plus: See ALTER EGO #181!)

BRONZE AGE SAVAGE LANDS, starring Ka-Zar in the 1970s! Plus: Turok—Dinosaur Hunter, DON GLUT’s Dagar and Tragg, Annihilus and the Negative Zone, Planet of Vampires, Pat Mills’s Flesh (from 2000AD), and WALTER SIMONSON and MIKE MIGNOLA’s Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure. With CONWAY, GULACY, HAMA, NICIEZA, SEARS, THOMAS, and more! JOHN BUSCEMA cover!

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

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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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. Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (Plus: See BACK ISSUE #143!)

The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

Issue #25 March/April 2023

3 41 13

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! WKRP in Cincinnati

Retro Heroes Rambo at Fifty with First Blood author David Morrell

23 Columns and Special Features

Interview Mission: Impossible’s Lynda Day George

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon Max Fleischer’s Superman

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Filmation Studios’ Superman

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comic books

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum TV Commercial Jingles

Retro Sci-Fi Space: 1999

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Too Much TV Quiz Instrumental TV theme composers

RetroFad Telephone Booth Stuffing

Celebrity Crushes Andy Gibb

Super Collector Why I Love The Monkees

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RetroFan™ issue 25, March/April 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 Only. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Superman TM & © DC Comics. Space: 1999 © ITC. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2023 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BY MICHAEL EURY

Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Michael Eury Kit Frascella Robert Greenberger Lucy Hall Shaqui LeVesconte Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Don Vaughan Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions Mary McLaren Ray Pointer VERY SPECIAL THANKS Lynda Day George David Morrell

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RETROFAN

The oldest thing you’ll usually find in an issue of RetroFan is me. Well, that’s not entirely true. Two of our columnists have a few years on me. But what I actually meant to write was, the oldest thing you’ll usually find in an issue of RetroFan is Sixties nostalgia. When we launched RetroFan back in mid-2018, we elected to focus on the pop culture of the Sixties through the Eighties. From this mag’s point of view, those decades are “the RetroFan Era.” Back then, in the days before cable, most regions’ TV markets had only three broadcast-over-the-air stations, one for each of the major networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC). Four, if you were lucky enough pick up the signal of a PBS station (or its forerunner, NET). And maybe five or six, if an independent station was in your neck of the woods. When now-classics like The Beverly Hillbillies and Star Trek were first-run series in active production, the “backlist” of programming was limited. Stations needed filler for the hours where the networks didn’t provide content. So kids who grew up back then were fed a steady diet of old movies, classic cartoons and theatrical shorts, and programs from the Golden Age of Television, airing in early or mid-morning, afternoon, weekend matinee, and late night programming blocks. Joining our “modern” TV favorite characters like Napoleon Solo and J. J. “Dy-no-mite!” Evans were crowd-pleasers from previous generations, like Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster, the Three Stooges, and I Love Lucy. Television syndication is how RetroFan writer Will Murray (one of our two columnists older than me) discovered the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons of the Forties—the subject of Will’s article this issue. Even though those toons predate the RetroFan Era, their reruns during our childhood—plus Will’s penchant for digging up vintage interview quotes—make this now-iconic interpretation of the Man of Steel a good fit for our pages. Older programming would often find a new audience on television in regionally produced shows starring a local celebrity character. Many TV markets had their own kooky clowns, crooning cowboys, neighborhood super-heroes, or late night horror hosts, fronting locally produced shows that rebroadcast syndicated shorts as well as classic horror movies. My childhood TV market—Charlotte, North Carolina—was home to several such programs with local stars, my favorite being singing cowboy Fred Kirby (see inset). Kirby was a Country Western performer and recording artist and the resident celebrity of western North Carolina’s tourist attraction Tweetsie Railroad. But Charlotte-area kids remember his WBTV Sunday-broadcast show where he strummed his guitar and belted out his prairie hits (“Give Me My Boots and My Saddle” was his signature tune), cut up with cohorts (like WBTV’s on-air personality Jim Patterson as “Uncle Jim”), and hosted Our Gang (a.k.a. The Little Rascals) black-and-white comedy shorts that our parents had watched when they were children. Kirby even sang a theme song about Hollywood’s Depression-era imps: “How we love the Little Rascals, Little Rascals, Little Rascals. How we love the Little Rascals, little rascals are they…” RetroFan columnist Mark Voger (who’s younger than me, but not by much) recently recommended that we should occasionally spotlight those homegrown TV personalities in our magazine. I’m fascinated by these stories, and a few regional celebs have already been profiled in our pages, such as Shrimpentstein! in our last issue and SoCal horror hostess Moona Lisa coming up in issue #28. And so I ask you, RetroFan reader, would you like to read about Sally Starr, Joey the Clown, and other such homegrown hosts in occasional articles? Or is that too narrow a subject for our broader, international audience? Write me at euryman@gmail.com to let me know. Back to this issue’s content: joining our look at the Forties Superman cartoons Superman created by is an examination of the Sixties Superman animated series, plus Lynda Day Jerry Siegel and George, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comic books, TV commercial jingles (forgive Joe Shuster. By special arrangement the resulting earworms), Rambo’s 50th anniversary with First Blood author David with the Morrell, histories of TV series Space: 1999 and WKRP in Cincinnati, and lots more. Jerry Siegel family. So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

March/April 2023

RETRO INTERVIEW

Lynda

Day George Her Missions Were Possible BY ROBERT GREENBERGER

There is a serenity that surrounds Lynda Day George, the 77-year-old actress who is hopeful of a return to performing after a long hiatus. Best known as Casey on Mission: Impossible, the attractive actress has a long résumé of television and film credits, but her beginnings were far more modest ones. Born Linda Louise Day on December 11, 1944, she was raised in San Marcos, Texas, by her mother Betty and father Claude, an Air Force officer. Soon after her brother Richard was born, Claude was transferred to Joplin, Missouri, bringing the family with him. At one point, her mother remarried Del Whitehead, and in 1957 the entire family relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. There, she found herself amidst budding talents who would intersect with her later career. Her mother, Betty Louise Avey Day-Whitehead, taught poise and charm at a modeling school, which proved influential on the young child. Initially, Lynda was thinking about becoming a surgeon, but her good looks and mother’s influence had her thinking in new directions. When she was 12, Lynda began entering beauty contests, and was handing out flyers for the modeling school where she also met Lynda Carter (yes, that Lynda Carter). One day, as they handed out flyers, Wayne Newton and his brother Jerry came across the street from a guitar store and introduced

Your mission, RetroFan reader, should you choose to accept it—and who wouldn’t??—is to enjoy this profile of the fabulous Lynda Day George. (ABOVE) One of our favorites of her roles is as Casey, from television’s coolest, smartest espionage show, Mission: Impossible. Her castmates were Peter Graves, Greg Morris, and Peter Lupus. © Paramount Pictures Television.

themselves. Wayne eventually asked her to an eighth-grade dance. She attended West High School, while Wayne and Jerry were across town at North High School; they kept up their friendship and she was present when Wayne debuted in Las Vegas, becoming an iconic mainstay. While in high school, she represented her school in the Maid of Cotton competition, the first of many such accolades. From a friend’s ranch in Montana, George wistfully looked back on those days. She explained that her mother’s influence got her to model, and it was not long after, at 15, that she was scouted to work for the famous Eileen Ford Modeling Agency in New York City. A former Ford model had opened her own agency in Phoenix and spotted RETROFAN

March/April 2023

retro interview

(LEFT) Promotional photo for the short-lived, M:I-like The Silent Force (1970–1971). (FRONT) Lynda Day as Amelia Cole. (BACK, LEFT TO RIGHT) Ed Nelson as Ward Fuller and Percy Rodriguez as Jason Hart. © CBS Studios, Inc.

Mexico, it had a large cast including Wayne, Forrest Tucker (coming off F-Troop), Ben Johnson, and Christopher George. Day was reunited with her friend and this time their romance heated up. As 1970 dawned, Lynda Day divorced Pantano, who she has little to say about, and on May 15, married Christopher George. Their film opened to rave reviews just a month later. Later, they petitioned the courts to have Nicky recognized as his natural son. Over the course of her career, she shot a total of nine pilots, starting with the only one to go to series, The Silent Force. Others of note included Cannon and The Barbary Coast. She laughs at the notion she was either a good luck charm for studios or a curse given her one-for-nine record. Still, the half-season Silent Force proved providential on several fronts. First, it was shot on the Paramount lot in 1970, where Christopher was shooting his ABC series The Immortal. This allowed them to travel together and visit whenever they weren’t needed on set. 6

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

(RIGHT) Lynda Day George as part of the Mission: Impossible cast, on the January 22–28, 1972 cover of TV Guide. Mission: Impossible © Paramount Pictures Television. TV Guide © TV Guide. (INSET) What a handsome couple! Lynda Day George and Christopher George. The series was about three U.S. Government agents who went undercover to fight organized crime. Lynda was partnered with Percy Rodriguez and Ed Nelson. If the premise sounds familiar, it should; it was clearly patterned after the success of CBS’ juggernaut, Mission: Impossible. Silent Force was created by Luther Davis, a prolific award-winning playwright and screenwriter; this was his sole foray into television. An Aaron Spelling production, it was critically panned and was cancelled in January 1971, airing a mere 15 episodes. The half-hour drama could never match the draw of NBC’s Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In or CBS’s Here’s Lucy. George is dismissive of it, given its short running time, and feels, to her, it was filler prior to Monday Night Football. Still, Lynda loved having a regular role at long last. She grew to bond with her costars and really enjoyed getting to know the crew. She didn’t have much to say about her character, Amelia Cole, who wasn’t given much personality or background.

retro interview

REVITALIZING ‘MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’

its serious tenor and direct approach to the issues. She saw her predecessor Warren as more of a flower child, someone who didn’t fit in that world and chafed against it. The cast and crew gushed about her to White, clearly appreciating the humanity she brought to the somewhat sterile cadre of government agents. While waiting for her calls to the set, she would doodle on her scripts, including some poetry. She retained these scripts and has posted images on her Facebook and Instagram pages. Her Mission: Impossible filming began in spring 1971, and she was delighted to be working, stretching as an actress playing a lock-pick agent or drug-addled mark. Her first episode had her working with William Shatner, who she would appear opposite in the Barbary Coast pilot a few years later. Her debut merely had her present for the briefing, with no introduction or explanation of where characters Paris (Nimoy) or Dana (Warren) had gone. The cast changes and new focus, along with a Saturday night at 10 p.m. slot, injected fresh interest in the series, with improved ratings. Lynda was thrilled at being welcomed and respected. Better yet, for the episode “Nerves,” she got to work with guest star Christopher George. This seemed to be a return favor after Lynda guested on the “Man on a Punched Card” episode of George’s Immortal series a year earlier. Her best first-season performance, though, was probably “Committed,” where she had to play a psychotic well enough to be placed in isolation, not the general ward. The season’s final episode was “Trapped,” where Lynda got to sing “A Gentle Rain,” the title track to the 1966 film she made with her now-husband.

Across the lot, producer Bruce Gellar was getting the sense that his Mission: Impossible show was in need of fresh energy. Unintentionally borrowing from its imitator, he shifted the narrative from international drama to the IM Force tackling America’s organized crime, dubbed for convenience “The Syndicate.” After five seasons, ratings were a little soft and Emmy Award recognition was dwindling. Leonard Nimoy, who transitioned from Star Trek to the show, replacing Martin Landau, was leaving. Replacing Landau’s wife, Barbara Bain, had been ingénue Lesley Ann Warren, who looked uncomfortable making the series. The show had also added young Sam Elliot as the heartthrob figure, Danny Ryan, but he wasn’t working out either. Gellar decided to combine the Landau and Bain parts into one: Casey, master of disguise and the team’s regular female. His producing partner Doug Cramer had known the Georges and thought Lynda had warmth from which the series would benefit. He cast Lynda, now billing herself as Lynda Day George, before departing the series and Paramount for Screen Gems. “There was no real discussion about [Casey’s] background,” Lynda says. “She just was, and I was fine with that after so many guest roles.” She had previously told reporters that when she settled into Hollywood, she most wanted to guest on Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, never dreaming she’d be a regular on the latter. She remembers being welcomed with open arms by M:I veterans Peter Graves, Greg Morris, and Peter Lupus. Her first episode was also Elliot’s last, and she now laughs at how far that gravelly voiced actor has come. “I knew he had star quality, but wow!” (LEFT) Day George Dossier author Patrick J. White noted that as Fausta, “The Nazi Lynda played her parts straight making her “the Wonder Woman.” most underrated and underappreciated of the (RIGHT) Will the Mission ladies, an unfair tag considering the real Wonder Woman disparate parts she would play…” please stand up? © Warner Bros. Television/DC Lynda always saw the series as one created Comics. from a conservative Republican point of view,

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

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WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

Max Fleischer’s

Superman BY WILL MURRAY I still remember the first time I laid eyes on the Man of Steel. I was very, very young. I don’t remember where I lived, but I remember that the scenes came from the Adventures of Superman TV series starring George Reeves. “The Clown Who Cried” was the name of the episode. I don’t know why I retained fragmentary memories of that episode. It’s the only Superman experience I could remember having before I purchased my first Superman comic book late in

Sibling animators Max Fleischer (LEFT) and Dave Fleischer. Dave Fleischer photo courtesy of Popeye the Sailorpedia.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… a cartoon series! Title and sample images from the Fleischer Studios Superman animated shorts from the Forties. Superman TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Heritage.

1961. It was probably a rerun, since the original episode first aired when I was approximately three years old. After my comic-collecting career began, I caught Superman on TV again. This wasn’t George Reeves in the flesh, but an even older, animated incarnation. One Saturday morning cartoon show—probably the local Bozo the Clown—in the very early Sixties included in the line-up a wartime episode of the Forties Max Fleischer Technicolor Superman cartoons. Destruction, Inc. was the title. It involved the Man of Steel battling saboteurs at the defense plant. I don’t think we had a color TV set then, although we might have. My family was the first in our neighborhood to purchase one. But that episode was mesmerizing. I was especially enthralled because this version of Superman had to work at being the Man of Steel. He could shrug off bullets like his DC Comics descendent, all right. But in one memorable scene where he’s buried in a massive pile of steel girders, he had to struggle. It didn’t take him long to shrug them off. But just those few moments of suspense really grabbed me. I don’t think I saw another episode until the Seventies, when the larger comic-book conventions began showing them in 16-millimeter projection. They were as much a thrill then as they are now, a half a century later. RETROFAN

March/April 2023

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Eventually, the Fleischer Superman cartoons were released on video and then posted on YouTube, so anyone could watch them, at any time. If you’ve never seen one, they are an absolute joy. So I thought for this column I would look into the circumstances behind which Superman first appeared on the silver screen, way back in 1940.

SLOWER (DEVELOPMENT) THAN A SPEEDING BULLET

The Man of Steel took America by storm in 1938–1939. A newspaper comic strip and radio program appeared before the character was much more than a year old. Hollywood noticed. Republic Pictures envisioned producing a 15-chapter Superman live-action serial in 1939, and acquired an option to do so. But the project was slow to get off the ground. According to DC Comics publisher Harry Donenfeld, a Republic contract arrived on a Monday. Donenfeld was superstitious about signing contracts on the first day of the business week. So he put it aside. The next day, a better offer came from Paramount Pictures, for a series of Superman animated cartoons. Donenfeld made that deal, leaving Republic to make do with Captain Marvel. At the time, Donenfeld boasted, “Because I always thought Superman was too fantastic a character to be played by a real man, I jumped at the chance. We expect to gross about ten times as much money on the cartoons.” 14

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

(TOP) This pressbook was presented to movie theaters in 1941 to help promote the Fleischer Studios’ new Superman cartoon shorts. Superman TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Heritage.

(LEFT) Move over, Jor-El and Pa Kent! Superman’s real fathers were his co-creators, writer Jerry Siegel (STANDING) and artist Joe Shuster. That was the story Harry Donenfeld told the press in 1940. However, as Ray Pointer revealed in his book, The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer, that was a publicity yarn. The truth was that Fleischer Studios made the cartoon offer, not Paramount, which was only the distributor. Republic later unsuccessfully sued Donenfeld for breach of contract. The Fleischer Studios’ plan called for a series of Superman cartoons, which would be released by Paramount. For a hero who could vault skyscrapers and outrace locomotives, animation made perfect sense. Fleischer was a self-contained operation located in Miami, Florida, owned by two brothers, Max and Dave. Max, the older brother, was the driving force. He had long wanted to produce more realistic cartoons, and the science fiction

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

premise of Superman especially appealed to him. Dave was more comfortable with traditional cartoony subjects. Fearing the technical complications of animating realistic characters, he was against the project. “I didn’t want to make Superman,” Dave Fleischer confessed. “Paramount wanted it. They called me over and asked why I didn’t want to make it. I told them because it was too expensive, they wouldn’t make any money back on it. The average short cost nine or $10,000, some ran up to 15: they varied. I couldn’t figure how to make Superman look right without spending a lot of money. I told them they’d have to spend $90,000 on each one… They spent the $90,000. But they were great.” Actually, the cost was $50,000 for the first episode, and $30,000 after that, but it was still tremendously expensive. When the deal was announced in the summer of 1940, Paramount promised a Christmas release. But they were overconfident. Technical issues stalled the project, pushing the release deep into the following year. The first entry took seven months to produce—twice as long as the usual cartoon short. Approximately 90 artists—most uncredited and many of them women—produced an estimated 1,000,000 illustrations in order to bring the acclaimed character to life. “Superman,” promised Dave Fleischer in 1941, “will be the first animated short to tell a straight dramatic story, using humor only

where it would normally occur; the first cartoon short employing quick emotional close-ups of the human head, and the first cartoon short to utilize ‘quick cut-backs,’ which are flash shots of extreme brevity used for their cumulative affect to show the reaction of groups of people to a single decisive event.” Superman pitted the Man of Steel against the depredations of a mad scientist and his destructive Electrothanasia-ray. It premiered in September 1941 and set the tone for most of what followed, with only necessary variations in the formula. Typically, Lois Lane would follow a news story into peril, which required Clark Kent to dramatically doff his blue business suit for his trademark blue tights, rescue Lois, and defeat the cartoon’s menace. Superman’s cartoon debut was nominated for an Academy Award, and is today considered one of the greatest examples of theatrical animation ever produced.

FINESSED BY FLEISCHER

Much of the modern Superman mythos was pioneered in the Fleischer Studio. In the comics, the Man of Steel could only leap long distances, but the Fleischer animators realized this made him look like a blue grasshopper, so they gave him the power of true flight. The comics adopted this innovation in 1943. The trope of Clark Kent ducking into a phone booth in order to change into the Man of Steel originated with these cartoons.

Fleischer Studios’ interpretation of the Man of Steel streamlined the hypermuscular comic-book version rendered by Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. Shown here are a Superman color model sheet and head model sheet, plus a Lois Lane model sheet. Superman TM &© DC Comics. Courtesy of Heritage.

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

consent long before the full projected numbers of cartoons had been made.” Yet early reports stated that 12 episodes were envisioned. Apparently, a second dozen would have followed, but it was not to be. Unused scripts were reportedly salvaged for the Superman radio program. Jay Morton claimed to have created the Atom Man for radio, a villain who was reimagined for the 1950 serial, Atom Man vs. Superman. Decades later, he consulted on the Christopher Reeve Superman films. Secret Agent was the final episode. It was released to theaters on July 30, 1943. Omitted for the first time, Lois Lane was replaced by a blonde federal agent whom Nazi spies are trying to prevent from reaching Washington with her secret report. Clark Kent is held captive for most of the story and there are an awful lot of car chases for a Superman story. But the Man of Steel swoops in at the climax to rescue this new damsel in distress, patriotically saluting the American flag before vanishing forever. Fleischer Superman cartoons later became a staple of various local TV shows during the Fifties, but their impact was diminished by black-and-white transmission. Strangely, the Fleischer Superman returned 20 years later, after the demise of the original series, but in a roundabout way. In 1966, a fledgling animation studio called Filmation wanted to break out of the pack and license a major property. Filmation president Lou Scheimer set his sights on Superman. But when DC Comics wanted to see his operation first, Scheimer was in a fix. His staff was tiny.

“I called everybody I knew,” he later revealed, “and we filled the place up with people doing fake drawings.” The risky gamble worked. DC granted Filmation the option. Out of this came The New Adventures of Superman, which was produced for CBS’ Saturday morning cartoon line-up in 1966. While it ran for only a single season, the show returned in 1969 for another one-year run. During that hiatus, the Man of Steel popped up in Filmation’s Superman-Aquaman Hour of Adventure and The Batman-Superman Hour of Adventure. Radio’s original Superman and Lois Lane, Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, reprised their roles for the new series. And that’s how the Fleischer incarnation of the character came back for a television reprise. [Editor’s note: Columnist Andy Mangels goes behind the scenes of the Filmation Superman series in the article following!] The simplified TV animation, of course, did not compare to the originals, which remain unsurpassed to this day. Which is why when I want a solid Superman fix, I watch a bunch of Max Fleischer cartoons. I will accept no substitutes. WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze. com) series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve Ditko.

Get yours today at NCPBooks.com Autographed Copies Available Too!

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March/April 2023

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman BY ANDY MANGELS (RIGHT) Superman faces off against “The Force Phantom” in the first The New Adventures of Superman show. (INSET) Clark Kent from a Filmation model sheet used to aid animators. TM & © DC Comics.

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, your constant guide to the shows that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and capturing our memories. This issue, you get a double-dip into two parts of the Man of Steel’s animated history: look elsewhere for the spotlight on the tremendous Fleischer theatrical shorts, but stay tuned for a look at TV’s exciting The New Adventures of Superman!

STRANGE VISITATIONS

Following his debut in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the Kryptonian super-hero shone brighter than all other comic characters, and media of the time soon followed. A Superman newspaper strip came first, in January 1939, and actor Ray Middleton portrayed Superman at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Beyond the printed page, the first adaptation of Superman was a radio show titled The Adventures of Superman. The syndicated show began on February 12, 1940 as a 15-minute serialized story, airing from three to five times per week. The series was sponsored by Kellogg’s Pep cereal. Announcer and narrator Jackson Beck gave the opening of the series, which thrilled young viewers: Up in the sky, look! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! Yes, it’s Superman— strange visitor from the planet Krypton who came to Earth with powers and

abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, race a speeding bullet to its target, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice! Although uncredited initially to maintain secret-identity mystique, Bud Collyer played both Clark Kent and Superman (except for some final-year shows that featured Michael Fitzmaurice), while Rolly Bester, Helen Choate, and Joan Alexander portrayed Lois Lane. The series introduced not only the concept of kryptonite to the mythos, but also the characters of Daily Planet editor Perry White (voiced by Julian Noa), copyboy Jimmy Olsen (voiced by Jackie Kelk and Jack Grimes), and Police Inspector Bill Henderson (voiced by Matt Crowley and Earl George). All of these characters quickly transitioned into the comics as well. With no repeats aired, The Adventures of Superman lasted for an amazing 2,088 original episodes, finally ending its 11-year run on March 1, 1951. By that time,

The Adventures of Superman radio show voice actors: (LEFT TO RIGHT) announcer and narrator Jackson Beck, Lois Lane Joan Alexander, and Superman Bud Collyer. RETROFAN

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

The stalwart staff of the Daily Planet, a great metropolitan newspaper: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Perry White, editor-in-chief; Lois Lane, top reporter; Jimmy Olsen, copyboy/photographer; Clark Kent, reporter and, unknown to his friends, the mighty Man of Steel. TM & © DC Comics.

studio, but they run a tight ship.” Liebowitz trusted Ellsworth’s opinion and signed a deal with Filmation, without even a completion bond for insurance! Norm Prescott flew to New York to meet with Jack Liebowitz. “Norm told me that Liebowitz pulled a gun out of his desk drawer,” said Scheimer. “Norm thought he was threatening to kill him if we did anything wrong! But Liebowitz said, ‘You know, Norm, if anything happens and you guys don’t deliver on this thing right… I’m going to have to shoot myself.’ Well, nothing went wrong, and we ended up with a relationship that lasted for years.” Filmation now had their first network show, with a budget of $36,000 per episode! Now, Scheimer could actually afford to hire some of the same people who had been his fake staff for the Ellsworth tour, and move to a larger building, across the street from rival studio Hanna-Barbera. And in November 1965, work on the new show for Superman began!

IT’S SUPER, SUPER SUPERMAN!

The format for The New Adventures of Superman, as the series was to be called, was three seven-minute stories per half-hour. The format was two Superman adventures, bookending a tale with Superboy and his dog Krypto in the middle. “The network liked the seven-minute format for the show because the stories weren’t interrupted by the commercial breaks,” said Scheimer. “Also, National Periodicals didn’t have the writers who really were used to working for half-hours.” National provided the writers and scripts, to retain control over the stories; many of them had previously written for the radio show. The two writers used most were Oscar Bensol and George Kashdan, the latter of whom was actually a writer and editor up at DC. Working for National as their press agent was Allen

“Duke” Ducovny, who had been the developer on the radio version of Superman back in 1940. Ducovny became Filmation’s main point of contact, and with Scheimer, went over every script and storyboard. The vocal tracks for the first season were recorded in New York, at the same radio studio in which they had recorded the Superman radio show. Clayton “Bud” Collyer was again the voice of Clark Kent and Superman, lending his deep voice for Superman and a higher tone for the mild-mannered persona of Clark Kent. Radio star Joan Alexander was Lois Lane, and Jackson Beck returned as the announcer and the voice of Perry White. Jack Grimes, who was one of the radio Jimmy Olsen voices, reprised that role. The Superboy voices were, however, recorded in Burbank, with Bob Hastings as Superboy, Janet Waldo as Lana Lang… and Ted “There’s trouble at the lab” Knight as the announcer! Norm Prescott directed the voice actors in Burbank, then expanded his role in later seasons as all vocal recording moved to California. The Superman intro was a truncated version of the TV series: Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! “Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman!” Superman, the Man of Steel, Superman! Superman, rocketed to Earth as an infant when the distant planet Krypton exploded, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and freedom, with super-powers far beyond those of ordinary mortals! It’s Superman, Super, Super, Superman! Superboy got his own intro: The Adventures of Superboy! Exciting stories of Superman when he was a boy, who, even as an infant, demonstrated powers and abilities

Iconic scenes from the opening to Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman. TM & © DC Comics. 26

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Title card for The Adventures of Superboy segment, Superboy flies to the rescue with his super-pet Krypto, and Clark Kent with his adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent. TM & © DC Comics. far beyond the capabilities of Earthlings. Superboy, who as Clark Kent, mild-mannered foster son of Martha and Jonathan Kent, preserves the secret of his true identity, and devotes his super-powers to the prevention of crime, the preservation of peace, and the pursuit of truth! It was on Superman that Filmation began to develop what would be known as a “stock system,” wherein sequences that occurred regularly would be reused, whether it was characters running, Clark changing into Superman, or Superman flying, lifting, or punching. One reason it worked on Superman was practicality; if an episode needed a few more seconds added or subtracted, extra or shorter scenes of Superman in flight could be added or taken away. Another reason was that young viewers like repetitive sequences. Thirdly, it was cheaper to reuse good animation of a scene than to create new versions of the same scene. “We also began to document and chart the scenes and do storyboards that utilized the previous material,” Scheimer said. “The storyboard artists would literally break a script down and create a comic-book sort of version of the script, with scene numbers and background numbers, and they would ask for various previously viewed scenes. That all started with Superman, and, when we started doing a lot of other stuff, it became a very organized system. It really saved us all kinds of time and money. “Nobody in the business could really afford to put full animation into characters for television because of the budgets and the delivery speed, but I think we really solved the problem first,” said Scheimer. “After a while, over the years, we got to the place where

we did stock material for almost everything we did. Eventually, we even began to create the stock material before we even wrote the stories: close-ups, long shots, running, walking, talking, flying, swimming…. Aquaman [see RetroFan #3—ed.] had a lot of stock material added too. No one had ever done that before, but it was a matter of necessity, and, actually, we ended up with a better show because we could afford to do that stuff extraordinarily well. I’ve read people who critique our shows and complain about the stock material, but the audience really grew to enjoy it because they knew what the characters acted like and moved like. And our stock stuff looked great! We didn’t hide it from anybody. It worked.” It certainly worked better than some of their competitor’s television animation, which could veer into stilted movement and off-model characters. Superman offered one particular problem for stock. It was common in animation that when repeating something, an image might be flopped, so a character running left would instead run right. This is why most characters are designed symmetrically. Superman, however, had an “S” emblem on both his chest and cape, meaning that all right-facing stock had to be done a second time as left-facing stock! “A lot of fans are pretty happy with how close the Superman animation was to the comic books at the time,” said Scheimer. “We took our models directly from the comics. I think eventually that we may have even gotten some Curt Swan model sheets to work from. Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel, came out to the studio once to meet everyone. It

The show featured some of Superman’s best-known foes: (LEFT TO RIGHT) The Toyman, Brainiac, and Lex Luthor. TM & © DC Comics.

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March/April 2023

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!

GROOVY also by MARK VOGER

From Woodstock, “The Banana Splits,” and “Sgt. Pepper” to “H.R. Pufnstuf,” Altamont, and “The Partridge Family,” GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated hardcover book, in psychedelic color, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like “The Monkees,” “Laugh-In” and “The Brady Bunch.” Revisit the era’s rock festivals, movies, art, comics and cartoons in this color-saturated pop-culture history! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

Since 2000, FROM THE TOMB has terrified readers worldwide. This second “Best of” collection of the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics uncovers Atomic Comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more! Edited by PETER NORMANTON. (192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490816 (Digital Edition) $10.99

HERO-A-GO-GO!

HERO-A-GO-GO! celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. RETROFAN magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and more! (272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 ISBN: 9781605490731 (Digital Edition) $13.99

AMERICAN TV COMIC BOOKS (1940s-1980s) From The Small Screen To The Printed Page

A fascinating and detailed year-by-year history of over 300 television shows and their 2000+ comic book adaptations across five decades. Author PETER BOSCH has spent years researching and documenting this amazing area of comics history, tracking down the well-known series (STAR TREK, THE MUNSTERS) and the lesser-known shows (CAPTAIN GALLANT, PINKY LEE) to present the finest look ever taken at this unique genre of comic books. Included are hundreds of full-color covers and images, plus profiles of the artists who drew TV comics: GENE COLAN, ALEX TOTH, DAN SPIEGLE, RUSS MANNING, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH, and many more giants of the comic book world. If you loved watching The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, The Andy Griffith Show, The Monkees, The Mod Squad, Adam-12, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, Alf, Fraggle Rock, and “V”—there’s something here for fans of TV and comics alike. (192-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605491073 (Digital Edition) $15.99

THE BEST OF FROM THE TOMB This first collection compiles features from its ten years of terror, along with new material meant for the NEVER-PUBLISHED #29 • (192-page Digital Edition) $10.99

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which created the first DC cartoons with Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, ruled the song charts with The Archies, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning Star Trek: The Animated Series, taught morals with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and swung into high adventure with Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, live-action shows Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Written by LOU SCHEIMER, with RetroFan’s ANDY MANGELS. (288-page Digital Edition) $14.99

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VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

SEND

IN THE

S N W CLO is w e L y r r e J d n a Bob Hope rse e v i n U C D e h t in

BY MARK VOGER How does one become a comic-book hero? Offhand, I can think of at least three ways: be born on Krypton; get bitten by a radioactive spider; or become a funnyman in the movies. At least, that’s how it was in the olden days. When you’re a little squirt, you just accept things. Like, if you were a kid in the Sixties who bought DC comic books at the corner drugstore, you didn’t question your options: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, The Adventures of Bob Hope, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis… Wait, what? Can you imagine a child in the Sixties who’d want to read a comic book about Bob Hope? The movie comedian’s onscreen persona was the opposite of kid-friendly: a balding flimflammer in a suit who broke the fourth wall referencing show-biz pals—Hope’s constant name-dropping of Bing Crosby could be a drinking game—and who, when in the presence of pretty ladies, acted all flustered. (Cant’cha just hear Hope doing his trademark guttural snarl?) Jerry Lewis, at least, did slapstick—always a hit with the kiddies—and his movie persona had a six-year-old mentality. But as the Sixties got their groove on, Lewis’ onscreen antics began to sour (in lackluster films like Hook, Line & Sinker and Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River). Meanwhile, his comic-book counterpart was still making like the vital, Brylcreemed Jerry of the early days. Time warp! Still, we urchins bought, read, and dug the Hope and Lewis books. The creative teams’ secret sauce for holding our interest? Cram the books with lots of hip, or at least faux hip, supporting characters. This distracted us from the woeful un-hipness of the titular comedians. What we pre-teen punks didn’t realize was that in the previous decade, Hope and Lewis were “hired” by DC to help sustain the comics industry at a time when super-heroes were out of fashion—temporarily, it turned out. I once broached the subject of the Hope and Lewis books being an odd cultural fit with writer Arnold Drake, who scripted many issues of both titles for DC. The urbane, introspective Drake (1924–2007) told me something I’d never heard before—not in comics history books, the comics press, or anecdotally: that in the middle-Sixties, there had been a plan afoot, a slow-moving coup, RETROFAN

It remains a mystery from the olden days of the medium how DC Comics published books “starring” movie comedians Bob Hope (LEFT) and Jerry Lewis (RIGHT), that were bought and read by children. Both the Hope and the Lewis books exceeded 100 issues, something that will never happen again. © DC Comics.

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

against Hope. (Cue needle-scratch on 33-RPM record.) DC was plotting to remove Bob Hope from his own comic book. Et tu, DC? But before we get into the “Bag Bob” conspiracy, as I’ll call it, a bit of contextualization is in order.

BRINGING THE FUNNY

Screen comedians were depicted in comics from the early days of both the “moving pictures” and the “funny papers.” It seems safe to say that the first such instance was Charlie Chaplin’s Comic Capers, a syndicated strip that debuted in 1915 from the Chicago-based J. Keeley Syndicate. Chaplin was depicted as the “Little Tramp” character—bowler, cane, Hitler mustache—from his Essanay films of the era, such as The Champion, His New Job, and In the Park (all from 1915). But many early depictions of movie comedians in the comics were largely unseen in America. Amalgamated Press of London published Film Fun between 1920 and 1962. Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and an upstart comedy team called Martin and Lewis (more on them later) were graphically depicted alongside British comedians virtually unknown here. From the Thirties through the Fifties, the so-called “Tijuana bibles”—unauthorized pornographic comics illustrated by pros, but not publicly sold—depicted W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, and Joe E. Brown in compromising situations. (Trust me on this: It’s even skeevier than it sounds.) In 1945, Rural House brought Red Skelton to the comics in their teen-genre title Patches, in issue #11. (A cartoon Skelton is seen uttering his catchphrase “I dood it!” on the cover.) In 1947, Fiction House featured Skelton in Movie Comics #4, with their adaptation of “Merton of the Movies.” Film Fun ran Skelton comics in its 1957 annual. (For the following, I leaned heavily on Robert M. Overstreet’s Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, as any fellow comic-book freak should have no trouble recognizing.) In the late Forties, St. John rolled the dice on comic books featuring three comedy teams. In 1948, St. John launched its Abbott and Costello series, which ran for 40 issues through 1956, often with artwork by MAD caricaturist Mort Drucker. (The publisher also depicted A&C in Giant Comics Edition #16 in 1950.) St. John brought out its Laurel and Hardy series in 1949, which ran for six issues through 1956, albeit with an erratic publishing schedule. That same year, St. John’s Jubilee imprint kicked off its

(LEFT) Charlie Chaplin’s Comic Capers (1915) is likely the first instance of a movie comedian depicted in the comics. © J. Keeley Syndicate. (TOP) Cartoon versions of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Joe E. Brown, and British comedians Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane, and Frank Randle frolic on the cover of Film Fun’s 1950 annual. © Amalgamated Press. (RIGHT) Bob drives the jeep on the cover of True Comics #59 (1947). © Parents Magazine Press

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six-issue series The Three Stooges, illustrated by Norman Maurer and Joe Kubert. We should also note appearances by movie comedians in K.K. Publications’ long-running March of Comics (1946–1982). These weren’t comic books per se, but commercially sponsored giveaways. Characters depicted include Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, and the Stooges. Owing to the TV popularity of the Our Gang shorts, Dell’s long-running anthology title Four Color brought Spanky, Alfalfa, and friends to the funnybooks with 12 issues of The Little Rascals beginning with Four Color #674 in 1956. A TV resurgence was also behind Dell/Gold Key’s later 55-issue revival of The Three Stooges (1959–1966); Charlton’s 22-issue revival of Abbott and Costello (1968–1971); and Dell/Gold Key’s six-issue revival of Laurel and Hardy (1962–1967). No one was safe. Woody Allen met the fictional rockers the Maniaks in DC’s Showcase #71 (1967), illustrated by Mike Sekowsky. For the life of me, I can’t determine whether this was an authorized use of Allen’s name and likeness. Somehow, I doubt it.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

If being a movie comedian is a way to become a comic-book hero, how does one become a movie comedian? Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in London in 1903, and lived to be 100. Well, he was an inveterate golfer, a ladies man (to put it politely), and a proponent of the health benefits of daily massage. Hope made his film debut in the 1934 short Going Spanish, and finished his career in a 1997 K-Mart commercial that also featured Martha Stewart and Big Bird. Anyone over 70 can tell you four things about Hope: His theme song was “Thanks for

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

(LEFT) The Little Rascals were another movie comedy team adapted to the comics. Shown is their debut in Four Color #674. © Dell Publishing. (CENTER) Woody Allen meets the Maniaks in Showcase #71 (1967). Cover art by Mike Sekowsky and Mike Esposito. (RIGHT) A photo cover reinforced the movie angle for The Adventures of Bob Hope #1 (1950). © DC Comics. the Memories.” He entertained U.S. troops through six wars. He hosted the Oscars 19 times. And he made seven “Road” pictures with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope’s appeal is undeniably dated, so it takes a nostalgic person (like myself) to get through movies like I’ll Take Sweden; Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!; and How to Commit Marriage. Jerry Lewis was born Jerome Levitch in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey, and entered the show-biz field by pantomiming records. (You can see Lewis recreate the bit to Count Basie’s bouncy jazz instrumental “Cute” in his 1960 film Cinderfella.) He initially won fame as the dimwitted sidekick of suave singer Dean Martin. The duo made their debut in Atlantic City on July 25, 1946. (The exact date is often noted because they broke up ten years later, to the day.) Their first film appearance was in My Friend Irma (1949)

starring Marie Wilson. For those ten years, Martin and Lewis were kings of the entertainment world in broadcasting, movies, and on the nightclub stage. They dissolved the union, not amicably, in 1956 (though Frank Sinatra brokered a live TV reunion 20 years later). Lewis hosted marathons on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 through 2010, and died at age 91. Not everyone loved Lewis’ onscreen persona. Depending on your viewpoint, the comedian portrayed a hilarious and endearing, or unfunny and obnoxious, buffoon in dozens of films. Me? I’d call Lewis a comic genius that sometimes needed to be reeled in. That rarely happened, and his films would suffer. But when he was funny—boy, was this guy funny.

TROUBLE AT THE NEWSSTAND

When DC launched The Adventures of Bob Hope and The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (as the Lewis book was titled for its first 40 issues), the comics industry was going through an anxious time. By the late Forties, super-hero characters waned in popularity, as Western, war, crime, horror, romance, teen, and “funny animal” comic books dominated newsstands. Increasingly, publishers turned to movies

(LEFT) Rascally Bob is smothered in kisses in a panel from Bob Hope #26 (1954). © DC Comics. (RIGHT) Prior to their DC run, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appeared in Movie Love #12 (1951). © Famous Funnies.

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

RETROFAD

Telephone Booth Stuffing

BY MICHAEL EURY

Our RetroFad topics generally spotlight the product, fashion, or dance crazes that drove us wild during the halcyon days of our youth, in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. This issue, we stretch back to the Fifties to prove that our elders—who tsk-tsked the streaking and Valley Girls of later generations—could succumb to mass hysteria just like their kids would one day. When the Russians zipped ahead of the Americans in the Space Race by becoming the first nation to launch an artificial satellite—the legendary Sputnik, rocketed into orbit on October 4, 1957— one of the ways the U.S. responded was to pump up our egghead population. Incentives were offered to encourage our youth to study science in college. Some heeded the call. Others did what many college students do—something stupid. And thus the fad of telephone booth stuffing was born. Covid-19 and other pandemics have primed modern culture to keep our distance from each other. And so it might be hard to fathom a time when young people willingly became human sardines, cramming themselves into a glass-enclosed steel box until there was no more room to fit in anyone else. How much flesh was chafed against razor-sharp metal edges during this madness? How many ribs were cracked amid this crush of writhing bodies? How many obscene odors were inhaled? This was a fad you can’t blame on the U.S.A. It started in Durban, South Africa, in 1959. There, 25 students shoehorned their bodies into a phone booth and submitted a photograph of their “achievement” to the Guinness Book of World Records, that great 40

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keeper of esoteric and idiotic lore (which would make a good tagline for this magazine, don’tcha think?). This might have been just a one-time harmless college prank had a challenge not been issued. Nyah nyah nyah, betcha can’t beat that! And thus a global competition sprang forth. According to Ripley’s.com, British students called it the “phone booth squash.” Canadian students soon piled on, with one group bragging that they crammed 40 people into a phone booth! (It turns out it was a frat house’s telephone room they’d filled, those hosers!) The fad rapidly spread to the States, starting with Southern California universities then sweeping east. Students skipped class to deposit not ten cents, but themselves into the nearest phone booth. College girls dieted to squeeze their bobbysoxed bodies into booths. Two formerly ostracized college types, freshmen and brainiacs, became Big Men on Campus, as smaller first-year students were recruited for phone booth jam-ins while math whizzes calculated geometric formulas in an effort to insert more bodies. The problem was, without a central operator dialing up consistent rules for these competitions, the totals were disputed. Some students had the nerve to count a shoved-in foot as an entire person—sorry, wrong number!—and the competition quickly ended. By 1960, the phone booth stuffing fad was passé, with a variation involving heaping students into Volkswagen Beetles being a quick, and equally short-lived, successor. Outside of nostalgic 50th anniversary recreations in 2009, phone booth stuffing is a fad that is unlikely to make a comeback. The first strike against it: When was the last time you actually saw a phone booth? Even director Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie—released way back in 1978—portended the demise of the phone booth in a delightful scene where Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve), searching for a place to switch clothes to the Man of Steel, rolled his eyes upon spying that era’s evolution of the phone booth, the public phone kiosk. The second strike: The average American has become, well, super-sized since 1959, and fewer of us can now be packed into such a confined space. However, from our current addiction to our smartphones to no end of social media “challenges,” the spirit of the phone booth stuffing fad is far from out of order.

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

Commercial Jingles BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener That is what I’d truly like to be ’Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener Everyone would be in love with me. Richard Trentlage is likely the first person to write a tune I couldn’t get out of my head. Most people don’t know his name, but when he died in 2016 at the age of 87, his obituary appeared in places as diverse as the New York Times, National Public Radio, AdWeek, the Hollywood Reporter, and Rolling Stone magazine. Trentlage wrote commercial jingles professionally and the big one, the one most of us Retronauts can still recall word for word, is “The Oscar Mayer Wiener Song.” Popular culture origin stories often have multiple versions in the historical record, but the creation of this particular little ditty is pretty consistent. The Wiener Song came about thanks to a jingle contest organized by Oscar Mayer’s ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, and open only to advertising professionals. At the time Oscar Mayer & Co. was a family-owned business and not yet national. It was the final day of the contest when Trentlage heard about it and decided to take a shot. He wrote the jingle in an hour after coming up with the “Oh, I wish…” line (based on a wistful statement from his son who wanted to be a “dirt-bike hot dog”). Recording his son and daughter (she had a cold and it was felt that this would appeal to the moms) singing the tune took about 20 minutes. He composed the music on a ukulele and banjo. His wife played the standup bass. And then… it took a year before the public heard—and then was unable to forget—“The Oscar Mayer Wiener Song,” which debuted

in an animated commercial. Once more, Trentlage’s son and daughter (with a cold again) recorded the song in a studio presumably more advanced than the one in the family’s living room. Former Oscar Mayer V.P. of Marketing Jerry Ringlien was quoted in Rolling Stone as admitting, “It was the commercial that carried Oscar Mayer to national distribution.” The Wiener Song was finally retired in 2010. Jerry Ringlien would himself create the “My Bologna Has a First Name” campaign. The commercial with little four-year-old Andy Lambros fishing and eating a bologna sandwich appeared in 1974 and was also a hit for the company. My bologna has a first name It’s O-S-C-A-R My bologna has a second name It’s M-A-Y-E-R Oh, I love to eat it every day And if you ask me why I’ll say ’Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!!!! Ringlien would admit that selling bologna was a lot harder than selling hot dogs, but at least the tune pushed the brand name.

March/April 2023

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

did not have meat on that day. Actually, I wasn’t a good Catholic so much as I was good boy who did what his mother told him to do. So I had to get the Filet-O-Fish sandwich, which a McDonald’s franchisee had developed because he noticed that sales of burgers dipped on Fridays during Lent. The Big Mac jingle was more of a lilting ingredient list than song: “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” The fun of it was not the tune so much as the challenge to say it as fast as you could. The all-time monster, huge, giant, super-duper jingle hit for McDonald’s was “You Deserve a Break Today,” a slogan the company would use for decades. The commercial that introduced the slogan had a real musical theatre flair with plenty of show-biz smiles, big stage gestures, and much tuneful marching around and over the McDonald’s restaurant set.

The crew in this commercial all look like adult managers rather than the then more common young folks behind the counter, but what a cast. So many familiar faces: Robert Ridgely (voice artist and the hangman in Robin Hood: Men in Tights), Johnny Haymer (M*A*S*H), John Amos (Good Times, Die Hard 2, etc., etc.), and Anson Williams (Happy Days, and at this writing he’s running for the mayor of Ojai, California, home of MAD’s Sergio Aragonés). The industry publication Advertising Age in 1999 named it the Jingle of the Century. Contrary to popular belief, the jingle was not written by Barry Manilow, but was the product of Keith Reinhard, an advertising creative director, and Sid Woloshin, a music producer. Manilow did sing in at least one of the commercials for that campaign and sings it live (it gives me the chills, actually) in a playful medley of his jingles which can be found on Barry Manilow Live. (I feel like I should also mention that Manilow didn’t write “I Write the Songs,” Bruce Johnston did.)

WE NOW END OUR BROADCAST DAY

Commercial jingles are largely gone these days, with advertisers preferring a musical “signature,” sonic brand, or audio logo (all pretty much the same thing, I imagine). The example that comes most quickly to my mind of an effective musical signature is United Airlines’ use of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” In 1987, it was initially licensed to the airline for $300,000 for one year. United 46

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(ABOVE) At the time, “You Deserve a Break Today” (1971) was the most over-thetop and arguably best ever McDonald’s commercial. (LEFT) A pre–Happy Days Anson Williams has a blinkor-you’ll-miss-it close-up in the commercial. © McDonald’s. All Rights Reserved.

continues to use the music even though Gershwin’s composition entered the public domain in 2020, meaning any old airline can use it. I should add that as far as earworms go, you could do a lot worse than some Gershwin. Speaking of the dreaded earworm… How do you get rid of the beastly irritant? The Harvard Medical School Health Blog recommends a couple of things. One, don’t fight it. Listen to the tune in its entirety, or try “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club. Also, weirdly, chew gum. Any brand or type will do. Doublemint, for example, will work just fine. Double your pleasure, double your fun with Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint Gum! You’re welcome.

Grab a bucket and mop, Scrub the bottom and top. There is nothing so clean As my burger machine! With a broom—and a brush Clean it up for the rush Before you open the door, Put a shine on that floor! When we’ve finished, what then? Start all over again! Tell me, what does it mean? At McDonald’s it’s clean! You deserve a break today! So get up and get away! To McDonald’s! McDonald’s! McDonald’s!

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/

RETRO SCI-FI

Space: 1999 BY SHAQUI LE VESCONTE

(ABOVE) The cover and cast introduction from the 1975 pressbook touting the release of Space: 1999. © Incorporated Television Company (ITC). Courtesy of Heritage. (INSET) Sci-fi hardware was also a “star” of Space: 1999. Noted model builder Martin Bower constructed this hand-painted miniature replica of the series’ transport vehicle, the Eagle. Space: 1999 © ITC. Courtesy of Heritage. Moon photo: NASA.

September thirteenth, nineteen ninety-nine. A massive nuclear explosion… cause—human error! The Moon is torn out of Earth orbit and hurled into outer space—doomed to travel forever through hostile galaxies. And for the beings on Moonbase Alpha, one over-riding purpose—survival. – Original Space: 1999 opening narration, from early Year Two scripts In hindsight, Space: 1999 seems like an exercise in how not to create a series, let alone a science-fiction one. Star Trek was several years in its gestation, which Space: 1999 was and still is compared to. Gene Roddenberry’s vision was a future where space travel was commonplace, on a realistically sized starship akin to modern navy vessels. A large crew, headed by a smaller cast of regulars in command, gave rise to numerous spin-offs set in that same universe. The genesis of Space: 1999 goes back with its producers, husband-and-wife team Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. They were behind the popular Supermarionation puppet series such as Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds [see RetroFan #4—ed.], and Captain Scarlet, which dominated the British airwaves through the Sixties. Each had an easy-to-understand format and, backed and distributed by Lew Grade’s ITC (Incorporated Television Company),

they spearheaded a wave of marketing and merchandise the likes of which had never been achieved in the U.K. before. By the end of the Sixties, the Andersons had effectively shot themselves in the foot by saturating the British television market with their series, with local channels opting out of latter productions Joe 90 and The Secret Service. They had made a break into live-action with the feature film Doppelgänger (a.k.a. Journey to the Far Side of the Sun) in 1968, which laid the foundations for doing so with a television series. The result was UFO, first airing in the U.K. in 1970, and following suit stateside in late 1972. The show was a ratings hit in New York, and interest in a second season was shown. Pre-production art and documents were commissioned. With the original cast and crew disbanded with the closure of the Andersons’ Century 21 Productions the previous year, ITC’s American president Abe Mandell mooted updating the format to 1999. New characters would operate from an expanded “Moon City,” as those episodes of UFO not set on Earth had been more popular with viewers. But fate can be fickle, and as surprising as the high ratings had been, they RETROFAN

March/April 2023

retro Sci-Fi

(LEFT) Publicity photo of Martin Landau as Space: 1999’s Commander John Koenig. © ITC. Courtesy of Heritage. (BELOW LEFT) A change of pace role for screen Dracula and villain Christopher Lee, from the Space: 1999 episode “Earthbound.” © ITC. “Mission of the Darians” holds up a mirror to the Alphans’ own plight. A distress signal from an alien cityship leads Koenig and Bergman to a small group of survivors striving to keep their genetic legacy pure until they reach their planetary destination. The larger populace of the ship were irradiated nine centuries prior, leading to mutations. It is a sobering story, part-inspired by a 1972 air crash in the Andes which forced survivors to resort to cannibalism until rescued. It asks, who would do the same, in their position? Despite its uneven quality at first, with stronger stories coming to the fore later, Gerry Anderson (in Fanderson’s The Space: 1999 Documentary, 1996) said, “We completed the first season. I was very happy with it. The Landaus were very happy with it. But the New York office weren’t happy with it.”

TV’S NEWEST SCI-FI TREK

to it. “Dragon’s Domain” riffs off the myth of “St. George and the Dragon,” with the sole survivor of a previous space mission finally confronting the hideous tentacled creature that killed his crew years earlier. The realization of the “octopoid,” sucking its victims into a fiery orifice and spitting out their steaming mummified corpses, is genuinely the stuff of nightmares. “Earthbound” is an early classic, reversing the belief that the aliens are the bad guys. Marooned politician Simmonds sees a crashed alien ship programmed to reach Earth as his opportunity to escape Alpha. He holds the base to ransom, forcing the alien captain—the usually villainous Christopher Lee, breaking typecasting—to take him along. It delivers a twist ending with considerable panache. 50

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As the series launched in America, the press was all over it and, as has been proven already, comparisons to Star Trek were inevitable. “It Will Turn On Trekkies,” wrote Stephen Earll in the San Antonio Express. “If the first episode of the new Space: 1999 series is an overall indication of quality, devoted Star Trek followers will probably make an enthusiastic switch.” Dick Kleiner, in the Union Town Morning Herald, told readers, “A new series called Space 1999 is zapping our way, and it seems to be the stuff for old Star Trekkers. There’s a lot of Star Trek in it, as well as a touch of Lost in Space and some other sci-fi attempts.” Likewise, Jay Sharbutt, reporting from the Associated Press in New York, related, “Okay, Trekkies, the relief crew for the Enterprise is checking in, but they’re on Moonbase Alpha now… a new British-made science-fiction series called ‘Space: 1999’ is afoot. Its makers hope it’ll capture the rapture viewers have shown for the old ‘Star Trek’ series.” But other more knowing minds were not convinced. None other than science-fiction author and luminary Isaac Asimov quite famously shot down the series in a two-part article in the New York Times and Cue magazine. “Is Space 1999 More Fi Than Sci?” he asked. “There are three possible sources of scientific errors in a television show — errors made out of dramatic necessity, which one can be lenient with; errors made out of commercial necessity, which one can sigh over; and errors made out of ignorance, which are intolerable.” While heaping praise on some aspects, such as the special

retro Sci-Fi

effects and his remarks “I have never seen so precise a simulation of low gravity; I marvelled and enjoyed the sight,” Asimov tore into two episodes, the opener “Breakaway” and “Black Sun.” “The plots and characterization on Space: 1999 have been primitive,” he wrote. “All the events that take place are science-fiction clichés. Most of all there was a consistent streak of humor in Star Trek and an obvious affection of the characters for each other. Neither humor, affection, nor any other human characteristic has so far been visible on Space: 1999.” Award-winning author Mike Jahn, who was adapting The Six Million Dollar Man into tie-in novelizations, also weighed in. His research is applaudable, getting figures and a wide range of quotes, including Star Trek story editor Dorothy C. Fontana. “According to [Fontana],” Jahn related, “1999 suffers from the same problem its makers had with UFO. The technical effects are excellent, but they don’t create people you care about. They got caught up in what Gene Roddenberry is fond of calling ‘The Wonder of It All Syndrome.’ That is, all special effects and no story.” But even Jahn had to admit that the viewers were caught up, too. “Space: 1999 is lavish, fanciful, and popular. It too is winning for the independent stations on which it runs more than double the ratings to which they have become accustomed.”

YEAR TWO TROUBLES

Even with respectable American ratings amidst its international performance in over 100 countries, it was in the balance whether Space: 1999 would continue for a second year. If it did, then Mandell and the American division of ITC wanted input again. This had been the intention from the beginning, with American writers providing scripts, but this had not worked out. Christopher Penfold took on the role from departing story editor Edward di Lorenzo, and, with Johnny Byrne, they wrote over half of the episodes. “We had a great deal of pressure to have an American head writer,” Gerry Anderson recalled, “and then Fred Freiberger came along.” With growing professional and personal tensions between the Andersons resulting in a separation, announced as production wrapped on Year One, Gerry listened to Freiberger’s ideas for Year Two of the series but decided the American should be the producer, as he was “…not going to put my name to a format that you’re going to bend round.” Freiberger had been producer on the third and final season of Star Trek, but his tenure was contentious. Fans consider him to have downplayed the intelligent tone of the series. For Space: 1999 fans, his contributions to the second, and also final, year were equally divisive. Freiberger wanted the Alphans to be more human, unknowingly agreeing with Fontana that viewers did not care for the main characters. He ignored that Alpha was a closed isolated community, unlike Star Trek, where starbases and other ships could mean fresh faces. With an eye on keeping the budget and filming schedule under control, Freiberger chose not to rehire most of the cast beyond stars Landau and Bain. Those who returned were hired on an episode-by-episode basis, as opposed to series contracts previously. This made the actors uncertain about their futures. Anton Phillips left after two episodes, and Zienia Merton after three. She returned mid-season at the request of Barbara Bain, but opted out of the final episodes. Nick Tate fared slightly better. Freiberger had wanted to replace him with a new pilot named Mark Macinlock until

(TOP) Critics couldn’t resist comparing Space: 1999 to its television predecessor, Star Trek, including this late 1975 cover-featured article in Cue magazine. Space: 1999 © ITC. Star Trek © CBS Studios. (ABOVE) Catherine Schell, as Maya (beside Captain Koenig in this illustration), joined the Space: 1999 cast in Season Two. Cover to the pressbook for the second season, from the Landau collection. © ITC. Courtesy of Heritage.

RETROFAN

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

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

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

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

The Story of WKRP in Cincinnati Turkeys, Band-Aids, and Executroids

BY SCOTT SHAW! WKRP in Cincinnati was promoted as “America’s Favorite Radio Station”… and in many ways, it was and still is. It’s certainly my favorite primetime sitcom, primarily because of one of its breakout characters. Every once in a while, a new character pops up in a television series that makes you think, “I’ve known people exactly like this character, but it’s the first time I’ve seen her/him in entertainment.” And that’s how some of TV’s most unique and oddly appealing characters—such as Leave It to Beaver’s insincere wiseass Eddie Haskell, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis’ devotedly unemployed beatnik Maynard G. Krebs, The Andy Griffith Show’s incompetent authoritarian Deputy Barney Fife, Taxi’s spaced-out burnout Reverend Jim Ignatowski, Happy Days’ tough-little-guy-with-a-lot-of-heart Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, The A-Team’s outrageous adventurer B. A. Baracus, and The Big Bang Theory’s obsessive self-absorbed genius Sheldon Cooper—have all become timeless icons of the tube. Here’s another... I’ve often thought of myself as “the Dr. Johnny Fever of cartoonists” (and not just because we’re both survivors of Sixties/Seventies counterculture). He was the seasoned (by time, place, and substances) morning deejay of multiple air-names on WKRP in Cincinnati, as well as the character who attracted me—and many viewers—to the series. Johnny Caravella/Johnny Duke/Johnny Style/Johnny Cool/ Johnny Sunshine/Heavy Early/Rip Tide/Dr. Johnny Fever worked for all types of radio stations around the country… for a lo-o-ong time. I worked for all types of comic-book publishers around the country and animation studios around Hollywood… for a lo-o-ong time. Also, deejays and cartoonists have similar professions: We sit in a room by ourselves, making something entertaining out of almost nothing. I also understand how a career that makes you resilient, crafty, and thick-skinned is hard to leave. Why? Because we cartoonists love our job—and we’re mostly suckers to let the money-people know how to control us. But I digress…

SITCOMS GET ‘WITH IT’

A number of similarly unique characters were core cast members of WKRP in Cincinnati, a sitcom that subtly changed sitcoms forever. Among those were two standouts, Howard Hesseman’s seasoned-and-stoned deejay Dr. Johnny Fever, and Loni Anderson’s stunning-and-smart receptionist Jennifer Marlowe. But they weren’t the only ones—the show’s cast represented a number of characters with that “I’ve known people exactly like this character” vibe. Although the creatively progressive mindset of WKRP in Cincinnati wasn’t obvious, it had a huge influence on a

The cast of WKRP in Cincinnati—“America’s Favorite Radio Station.” (FRONT ROW) Loni Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, Howard Hesseman as Dr. Johnny Fever, and Jan Smithers as Bailey Quarters. (CENTER ROW) Frank Bonner as Herb Tartek and Gary Sandy as Andy Travis. (BACK ROW) Richard Sanders as Les Nessman, Gordon Jump as Arthur Carlson, and Tim Reid as Venus Flytrap. WKRP in Cincinnati © MTM Enterprises.

number of classic TV series that followed. But let’s look at the landscape of network-aired, primetime, live-action situation comedies that preceded WKRP in Cincinnati. In the mid-to-late Sixties, standard TV sitcoms primarily featured hillbillies and rural communities (The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres), fantasy (The Addams Family, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, etc.), and domestic family shows that had flogged the same old plots for years. Their ratings were based on the total number of people who were watching a specific show. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, the ratings system changed, evaluating shows by using demographics. Ratings were broken down into age, gender, and social groupings, so that advertisers could learn what sort of people were watching what sort of shows. Bob Wood, who became the president of CBS in 1970, advocated RETROFAN

March/April 2023

The oddball world of scott shaw!

Therefore, many of those who auditioned for the part of Andy Travis read lines with Gordon. And the one who Jump thought had the right vibe was a nice-looking young everyman with good hair (as Mama Carlson would note) named Gary Sandy. Unfortunately, of the seven finalists for the role, Hugh Wilson, Grant Tinker, Mary Tyler Moore and four CBS casting executives each picked a different actor. f Gary Sandy was born and raised in Kettering, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, on December 25, 1945. In high school, he excelled in debate and harbored the hope of getting a scholarship to become a sportscaster. When that didn’t happen, his speech teacher entered Gary in a drama competition in which he earned a championship in drama and was named “All-State Actor.” He enrolled in Wilmington College to study theater for three years. After moving to NYC, Gary attended the city’s Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, he went without a single gig in the world of entertainment for an entire year. Then suddenly, this handsome fellow began getting hired for unsavory roles as drug dealers, rapists, and psychopathic killers in such daytime series as As the World Turns and The Secret Storm, and primetime series such as Medical Center, Starsky and Hutch, and Barnaby Jones. While working on Norman Lear’s short-lived syndicated sitcom All That Glitters, Gary was noticed by CBS casting executroid Mike Olten, who suggested him to Hugh Wilson as a possible Andy Travis—“the main driver of the car, who has to be likable and sane, with all of the nuts hanging off of the fender.” Mary Tyler Moore was the person who decided, “It’s no contest. Gary Sandy’s the fellow we’ve been looking for.” Two days later, he was one of the cast and started filming the pilot episode.

f Loni Anderson was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota on August 5, 1945. She had a full head of naturally black hair. Growing up in Roseville, she was voted the Valentine Queen of the Valentine’s Day Winter Formal of 1963. She won numerous beauty contests and held titles such as “Miss Thermo-Jac Clothing,” “Miss Country Style Ford,” “Miss Tom McCann Shoes,” “Miss No-Frost Eskimo,” and “Queen of the Hole-In-One.” After a very short teenage marriage, Loni found herself a divorced mother. Determined to make it in show business, Loni donned a blonde wig and performed in Midwestern repertory productions, road companies, and theater groups. During a production of Play It Again, Sam, she met and fell in love with another actor, but their marriage in 1974 lasted a mere six months. While working in a play with actor Pat O’Brien—who later appeared with her on an episode of WKRP—he gave Loni some solid advice: “I think you should go to Hollywood.” That she did, and as a “real” blonde too, one who refused to accept roles as a “dumb blonde.” Loni had roles in the movie Nevada Smith (with Steve McQueen) and many TV series such as S.W.A.T., Phyllis, Police Woman, Harry O, Three’s Company (she auditioned for the role of Chrissy, but guest-starred on two episodes), and The Bob Newhart Show. Supposedly, Loni was contacted after the producers saw a poster of her in a red swimsuit similar to that worn by Farrah Fawcett in her famous 1976 poster. While working on an episode of The Incredible Hulk, she auditioned with Tinker and Wilson on a Saturday for the role of WKRP’s extremely competent and extremely attractive receptionist. According to Loni, she complained to them that the character of Jennifer Marlowe struck her as a stereotypical dumb blonde and suggested that she play her more like Lana Turner would have. But according to Wilson, the character was always intended to be smart and beautiful. A third source reported that Hugh later said that Loni got the role because her body resembled Jayne Mansfield’s and she possessed the innocent sexuality of Marilyn Monroe. Whatever the truth is, Hugh Wilson certainly praised the results. “Loni… God, she was good, I mean, she was good… If you wrote the joke, sometimes the actor couldn’t do it… you’d have to throw it out or rewrite the joke or figure out another way to do it. Man, you gave Loni something, and she’d just—you pitch it, and she’d hit it… way out in the field somewhere. Home run.”

Don’t quit your day job! Playfulness on the set between takes as Anderson tries her hand at camerawork. From the Loni Anderson collection. © MTM Enterprises. Courtesy of Heritage.

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

The oddball world of scott shaw!

f Tim Reid was born on December 19, 1944 in Norfolk, Virginia, and was raised in Chesapeake, Baltimore, and Nashville. While in high school, he was on the track team, the student council, and the yearbook, which he edited. Tim attended Norfolk State College and received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1968. It led to him getting hired by the Dupont Corporation, where he worked for three years. That same year, while at a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting, he befriended Tom Dreesen. While working together on their humorous anti-drug program created for local grade schools, they decided to form the first biracial comedy team, “Tim and Tom.” Within six months, Tim and Tom started getting gigs on TV shows hosted by Merv Griffin, David Frost, and others. Eventually, while Tom remained in standup comedy, Tim struck out for Hollywood, soon appearing on Rhoda, Lou Grant, Maude, Fernwood 2-Night, What’s Happening!!, and a recurring role on The Richard Pryor Show. When he auditioned for the role of WKRP’s hip and colorful Venus Flytrap, he wasn’t the only one who showed up, but he may have been the only actor who wasn’t eager to portray “another stereotypical black character.” In fact, he told Hugh Wilson exactly that, who appreciated and valued Tim’s honest input. “I wanted to have a black DJ, and he hardly appears in the pilot, he just comes in at the end… I use him really as a stage device to scare the hell out of [Momma] Carlson,” said Hugh. “Then Timmy and I sat down and really talked the thing over, and he decided that he would rather play away from the street black. I immediately agreed with him on that. So his character—he shows up in a wild outfit—began to change quite rapidly.”

(LEFT) A young Jan Smithers represented the American teenager on the March 21, 1966 cover of Newsweek. © Newsweek. (RIGHT) A Smithers publicity photo during her WKRP stardom.

f Jan Smithers, born on July 3, 1949, and grew up in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, not far from the movie and television studios a few miles east. While attending William Howard Taft High School, she was photographed for the cover of the March 2, 1966 issue of Newsweek magazine; its theme was “The Teenagers: A Newsweek Survey of What They’re Really Like.” As Jan remembered, “One had long hair and cameras around his neck. They walked right up to me and said, ‘We’re doing an article on teens across the country, and we’re looking for a girl from California. We’re wondering if you’d be interested in doing the article.” One of the photographers, Julian Wasser, recalled seeing young Ms. Smithers for the first time. “How can I forget? I was walking on the beach looking for someone and there was this incredibly beautiful girl. She was nobody then, just a high school kid. She thought [the article] was a big fake. She was a typical California raving beauty who didn’t know it.” Two weeks before the Newsweek issue hit the racks,

her parents got divorced. Racing home to show the magazine to her mom, Jan had a traffic accident that sent her to the hospital with a broken jaw. Then, not long after its publication, both her brother and her mother died unexpectedly, understandably leaving Jan feeling adrift and alone. To counter those feelings, she decided to accept some of the TV commercials she’d been offered as a result of the recent Newsweek cover. She also began studying at the California Institute of the Arts. At 19, Jan chose to become a professional actor. She achieved small roles in the films Where the Lilies Bloom, When the North Wind Blows, and Our Winning Season, as well as in the Love Story and Starsky and Hutch TV series. When Jan auditioned for the part of WKRP’s shy and smart advertisement scheduler Bailey Quarters, she matched many of the aspects of Hugh Wilson’s wife, the original inspiration of the character, who he felt was “very shy, but very smart— the sort of person people tend to dismiss as a jerk until they find out she’s got so much to offer.” Touched by her personality, he immediately gave Jan the role. “Other actresses read better for the part, but they were playing shy. Jan was shy.” f Richard Sanders was born on August 23, 1940 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he dreamed about becoming an actor. Richard was always the class RETROFAN

March/April 2023

RETRO HEROES

David Morrell’s

Rambo at 50 BY DON VAUGHAN

“His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky.” So begins First Blood, David Morrell’s 1972 debut novel. Morrell’s story of troubled Vietnam veteran John Rambo and his bloody, violent battle with hippiehating police chief (and Korean War vet) Wilfred Teasle would go on to become one of the most influential novels of the latter 20th Century, literally reinventing the action story and introducing a character destined to become as recognizable as Tarzan, Superman, or Sherlock Holmes. It didn’t take long for popular culture to make Rambo an iconic figure. Since his introduction, Rambo has appeared in an eclectic array of forms, media, and formats, including motion pictures, novelizations, action figures, toys, comic books, an animated television series, trading cards, and much, much more. Five decades out, Rambo remains as popular as ever.

THE BIRTH OF RAMBO

Morrell was a graduate student at Penn State from 1966 to 1970 as the Vietnam War escalated. The events of that period struck the Canadian transplant, causing him to fear that the United States was headed for a civil war. “What I thought I would do was bring the Vietnam War to the United States and show the polar opposites that were happening in the country with all the riots and the police reaction, someone representing the establishment and someone representing the disaffected,” Morrell explained to this writer in a 2015 interview for Videoscope Magazine. “In this case, it would be someone who had been in the war and came back hating what it had done to him. So that was basically the concept of the novel. It took me three years to write the book because I was still learning how to write a novel, and because it took me a little while to figure out that the chapters would bounce back and 68

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

(LEFT) Author David Morrell introduced the world to Vietnam vet/ ultimate survivalist John Rambo in this 1972 novel, First Blood. © David Morrell. Courtesy of Heritage. (BELOW) David Morrell. © Jennifer Esperanza.

forth between Rambo and the police chief. Their alternating viewpoints represent the way the country was alternating back and forth, the contrast of the two points of view.” Morrell attended Penn State to study with Hemingway scholar Philip Young, and wrote his Master’s thesis on Hemingway’s style. “What I noticed was the way Hemingway wrote about action as if no one had ever written about it before,” Morrell continued. “My goal in writing First Blood was two-fold. One was to dramatize the polar opposites that were dividing the country in the late Sixties, and also to write an action book that didn’t feel like a genre book. To try to write it so it felt like a real novel and not something out of the pulp pages. My agent and I felt that because I was writing action in a different way, we might have some resistance from publishers who might think it was too realistic. But the novel was sold to a publisher within six weeks of being submitted to various places.” The story of how First Blood became a motion picture is a long tale of false starts, sudden stops,

A montage of scenes from 1982’s Rambo-introducing First Blood, as illustrated by “The Irreverent” Billy Graham, the artist who helped popularize Marvel Comics’ Luke Cage and Black Panther in the early to mid-Seventies. © Anabasis Investments, N.V. Courtesy of Heritage.

RETROFAN

March/April 2023

RetroFan #25