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TV Guide Fall Previews • Life & Legend of the Frito Bandito • Nehru Jackets & more! 1
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Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury Super Friends © DC Comics. The Mighty Hercules © Adventure Cartoons for Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
New from TwoMorrows!
KIRBY COLLECTOR #88
ALTER EGO #183
ALTER EGO #184
ALTER EGO #185
BRICKJOURNAL #82
Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist IRV NOVICK (Shield, Steel Sterling, Batman, The Flash, and DC war stories) is immortalized by JOHN COATES and DEWEY CASSELL. Interviews with Irv and family members, tributes by DENNY O’NEIL, MARK EVANIER, and PAUL LEVITZ, Irv’s involvement with painter ROY LICHTENSTEIN (who used Novick’s work in his paintings), Mr. Monster, FCA, and more!
Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
Presenting MARK CARLSON-GHOST’s stupendous study of the 1940s NOVELTY COMICS GROUP—with heroes like Blue Bolt, Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, Spacehawk, etc., produced by such Golden Age super-stars as JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, BASIL WOLVERTON, et al. Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds by JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, instructions to build characters, plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!
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THE COLLECTORS! Fans’ quest for and purchase of Jack’s original art and comics, MARV WOLFMAN shares his (and LEN WEIN’s) interactions with Jack as fans and pros, unseen Kirby memorabilia, an extensive Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER moderating the 2023 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con International, plus a deluxe wrap-around Kirby cover with foldout back cover flap, inked by MIKE ROYER!
BACK ISSUE #146
BACK ISSUE #147
BACK ISSUE #148
COMIC BOOK CREATOR #31 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32
MEN WITHOUT FEAR, featuring Daredevil’s swinging ’70s adventures! Plus: Challengers of the Unknown in the Bronze Age, JEPH LOEB interview about his Challs and DD projects with TIM SALE, Sinestro and Mr. Fear histories, superheroes with disabilities, and... Who Is Hal Jordan? Featuring CONWAY, ENGLEHART, McKENZIE, ROZAKIS, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, & more! GENE COLAN cover!
Great Hera, it’s the 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF BACK ISSUE, featuring a tribute to the late, great GEORGE PÉREZ! Wonder Woman: The George Pérez Years, Pérez’s 20 Greatest Hits of the Bronze Age, Pérez’s fanzine days, a Pérez remembrance by MARV WOLFMAN, a Wonder Woman interview with MINDY NEWELL, and more! With a stunning Wonder Woman cover by Pérez!
DC SUPER-STARS OF SPACE! Adam Strange in the Bronze Age (with RICHARD BRUNING & ANDY KUBERT), From Beyond the Unknown, the Fabulous World of Krypton, Vartox, a Mongul history, the Omega Men, and more! Featuring CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, DAN JURGENS, CURT SWAN, PETER J. TOMASI, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO & MURPHY ANDERSON!
Career-spanning interview with Bane’s co-creator GRAHAM NOLAN! Plus, STAN LEE’s Carnegie Hall debacle of 1972, the Golden Age Quality Comics’ work of FRANK BORTH (Phantom Lady, Spider Widow), and GREG BIGA talks with ex-DC Comics co-publisher DAN DIDIO on his current career as writer/creator on the FRANK MILLER PRESENTS comics line, as well as that new comics line’s publisher!
WILLIAM STOUT is interviewed about his illustration and comics work, as well as his association with DINOSAURS publisher BYRON PREISS, the visionary packager/ publisher who is also celebrated in this double-header issue. Included is the only comprehensive interview ever conducted with PREISS, plus a huge biographical essay. Also MIKE DEODATO on his early years and FRANK BORTH on Treasure Chest!
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12 51
The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With
Issue #28 September 2023
65
43
Columns and Special Features
Departments
3
Retrotorial
Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties The British Invasion of the Sixties
27
17
Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Mighty Hercules
37
37
17
Retro Interview Diamonds Are Forever’s Trina Parks
43
Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum The Life and Legend of the Frito Bandito
51
Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning World’s Greatest Super Friends
65
3
Oddball World of Scott Shaw! Horror hostess Moona Lisa
2
12
Retro Music Beatles bootleg and knock-off LPs
27
Retro Television TV Guide Fall Previews
34
Too Much TV Quiz Allan Melvin TV roles
63
RetroFad Nehru jackets
73
Super Collector Popeye and Me
76
RetroFanmail
80
ReJECTED
73 RetroFan™ issue 28, September 2023 (ISSN 2576-7224) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RetroFan, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $73 Economy US, $111 International, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Wonder Twins TM & © DC Comics. The Mighty Hercules © Adventure Cartoons for Television, Inc./Classic Media. Trina Parks photograph courtesy of Trina Parks. 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 Fred Grandinetti Michal Jacot Bob Koenig Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Anthony Taylor Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS Ernest Farino James M. Fetters Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions King Features Syndicate, Inc. Marvel Comics Randy Milholland Terence Stanford VERY SPECIAL THANKS Trina Parks
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I made Ringo bald. Well, not entirely bald. He looked more like a Beatle whose mop top was cropped. It was late 1964, maybe early 1965, and I was a second grader who—like everyone else with a television set or radio—couldn’t escape the Beatles. I owned a Ringo Starr figurine manufactured by Remco, from the line of four Beatles dolls with “real” hair. Whether this was a gift or something I bugged my parents for has been lost to time. What I do recall is snatching my mom’s pinking shears from her Singer sewing machine and giving the Beatles’ mop-topped drummer the crew cut my flat-topped dad and equally flat-topped uncles insisted those “longhairs” deserve.* Ringo’s shearing earned a lot of belly laughs from my family. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dad had also joked about it to Cecil the barber, another flat-topped guy. It didn’t take long before the Chipmunks Sing the Beatles LP, the Saturday morning Beatles cartoon show, and my Playtape cassette of songs from the Help! soundtrack cured me of my desire to cut long hair (including my own) and tuned me into the Beatlemania that dominated the music Clearly not ye ed’s butchered version, and zeitgeist of the Sixties. As it all came crashing to a halt, but instead a pristine Remco Ringo Starr the Beatles’ 1970 film Let It Be was the first movie my pardoll. Courtesy of Heritage. ents allowed me to see by myself at a theater. I was 12, and this was one of life’s many rites of passage. I grew up with the Beatles. Didn’t we all? you might say. Yeah (yeah, yeah), the Beatles have remained a part of our culture long after their breakup. This issue you’ll read about the Fab Four’s foray into global omnipresence, and how Beatlemania spawned Britmania and changed the world—including the record bins, which were glutted with knock-off records, and the fashion world, including the trendy Nehru jackets, which in part owed their popularity to the lads from Liverpool. You don’t have to be a Beatlemaniac to dig this ish, though. Our contents are as diverse as—well, the Beatles’ music library. In the pages that follow, you’ll meet Trina Parks, the dancer/actress who, as the agile Thumper, threw 007 for a loop. You’ll read about TV Guide’s beloved Fall Previews, the keepsake editions whose annual arrival was second only to the tome of toy dreams, the Sears’ Christmas Wishbook. You’ll learn about the Frito Bandito, an advertising icon that made numerous appearances despite criticisms of cultural insensitivity. You’ll discover the bewitching Moona Lisa, SoCal’s happenin’ horror hostess. Cartoon lovers will appreciate our looks at The Mighty Hercules and World’s Greatest Super Friends. And if you’ve ever noticed a similarity between The Brady Bunch’s Sam the Butcher and Archie Bunker’s Place’s Barney Hefner, then you’ll have a blast with our Too Much TV Quiz. So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with! *My wife, Rose, is a fellow doll disfigurer! When she and her older sister Robin were children, the girls decided that their Barbie was too fat (!) and shaved some “flesh” off her thighs. Liposuction wasn’t an option, I guess.
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September 2023
VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES
The British
IT ’ S
! C I T S FA B T A
Invasion of the Sixties— and the guitars heard ’round the world
BY MARK VOGER Wait. Didn’t our U.S. history textbooks tell us that the British were the bad guys? Let’s see: There was the Stamp Act (“Taxation without representation is tyranny!”)… the “shot heard ’round the world” at Lexington and Concord… the Declaration of Independence. And yet, 200 years after King George did all of his “taxating without representating,” the Brits finally “conquered” us, this time using guitars instead of muskets.
Owing to the musical movement known as the “British Invasion,” we Yanks greeted the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, the Yardbirds, et al., with open wallets. It all began early in the heady year 1964, when Americans were still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the previous November. On February 7, the “four lads from Liverpool”— John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr (as if you needed reminding)— stepped onto the tarmac at JFK Airport in New York City to the screams Paul, smoking? Naughty, naughty. From left: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon—collectively the Beatles—in an iconic publicity photo from 1963. © Apple Corps.
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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties
(TOP LEFT) Another freaky moment from one of the freakiest comic books of the Sixties: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Wearing an orange Beatle wig, Jimmy frugs to the Beatles on TV in issue #79 (Sept. 1964), in art by George Papp. © DC Comics. (TOP RIGHT) Artist Joe Sinnott captured the look of the Beatles in an “official” Dell Giant. © Apple Corps. (LEFT) Dorrie and Alicia — the girlfriends of Fantastic Four members Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, respectively — meet the Beatles in Strange Tales #130. Art by Bob Powell and Chic Stone. © Marvel. (RIGHT) An Ann-Margret lookalike obsesses over the Beatles on the cover of Girls’ Romance #109 (June 1965), in art by Gene Colan. © DC Comics.
group they are very talented, haven’t changed with their terrific popularity and acclaim, have an impish philosophy, and are very articulate.” Before long, the Beatles became part of the illustrated stories—“cast members,” if you like. Charlton shamelessly played the Beatles card in its romance titles. In stories like “The Beatles Were My Downfall” (from Summer Love #46, Oct. 1965) and “The Beatles Saved My Romance” (from Summer Love #47, Oct. 1966), the heroines learn not to put their unattainable idols ahead of the actual flesh-and-blood fellows who are right in front of them. Ain’t that sweet? In the Archie Comics line, Betty and Veronica went gaga over the quartet. In Betty and Veronica #105 (Sept. 1964), they attend a Beatle wig sale. Meanwhile, in another Archie Comics title, Josie #28 (Aug. 1967), Josie’s well-decorated bedroom is a tribute to Herman’s Hermits, equipped with a bust of Noone. Even odder than the romance comic-book appearances were the Beatles’ crossovers and tie-ins with superheroes. In DC Comics’ Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #79 (Sept. 1964), Jimmy is hijacked to the distant past, where he manufactures and sells Beatle wigs to peasants. When Superman sees Jimmy in his red wig playing a ram’s horn and drum, he exclaims, “You’ve really started a ‘Beatle’ fad here, Jimmy! You seem to be as popular as Ringo, the 6
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Beatle drummer!” (You could always count on Superman editor Mort Weisinger to spell it out for you.) Jimmy’s second Beatles-related—or, at least, Beatles-adjacent—adventure happened in Jimmy Olsen #88 (Oct. 1965). Despite the promise of a Beatles connection on the cover, there are no Beatles—just Rick Rock and His Rolling Romeos, which Olsen challenges with his own combo, Jimmy Olsen and His Carrot-Top Cut-Ups. Jimmy arranges a front-page story about his group in The Daily Planet. So journalistic ethics did not exist in Sixties Metropolis. In Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales #130 (Mar. 1965), the girlfriends of Johnny (the Human Torch) and Ben (the Thing)—Dorrie and Alicia, respectively—have a chance encounter with the Beatles. Characteristically gruff Ben professes to be a fan of the quartet; dons a Beatle wig; and gushes, “It’s them! My ever-lovin’ idols! Be still, my patterin’ heart!” The Torch and the Thing then pursue a trio of thieves who abscond to Coney Island with the Beatles’ payroll—wearing Beatle wigs. The truest depiction was found in Dell’s “official” 35-cent giant comic book The Beatles (1964). Dell—and Beatles fans—hit the jackpot with artist Joe Sinnott (1926–2020), a prolific inker for Marvel Comics who delineated more than 200 issues of Fantastic Four, and who irrefutably captured the likenesses of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.
Voger’s vault of vintage varieties
KID FRIENDLY
Beatles manager Brian Epstein (1934–1967) was said to have been, shall we say, overly liberal in approving licensing deals on behalf of his young charges. In America, where the dollar is king, manufacturers seemed willing to plaster the Beatles’ names and faces on just about anything. There were Authentic Beatle Wigs from Lowell; Beatles Shampoo (“for all the family”) and Beatles Hair Spray (“brushes out instantly”) from Bronson; Beatles magnetic toys from Merit; and Beatles stockings, pens, lariat ties, tie pins, and (note careful spelling) “Beetle” boots.
Also sold were Milton Bradley’s “The Beatles Flip Your Wig” board game, Aladdin’s Beatles lunchbox, and World Candies’ Beatles candy sticks. Remco’s darling, wiry-haired Beatle dolls were hot sellers, but their likenesses ran hot and cold. John and Ringo were spot-on. But George had King Charles teeth, and Paul resembled a Zanti Misfit. When Ben Cooper—purveyors of chintzy (but enchanting) Halloween costumes—did the Beatles, they did ’em right. The boys were represented in good likenesses on BC’s crackly, rigid, nostrilblocking, sweat-trapping masks. [Editor’s note: Check out RetroFan #2 for our look at Ben Cooper Halloween masks and costumes.] CONTINUED ON PAGE 10.
(LEFT) Ben Cooper’s crinkly, sweat-trapping mask of John Lennon (1964). © Ben Cooper; courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
(BELOW) Elmer Lehnhardt’s artwork graced Aladdin’s Beatles lunch box (1965). © Apple Corps.; © Aladdin Industries Inc.
(ABOVE) The playing board for Milton Bradley’s “The Beatles Flip Your Wig Game” (1964). (BELOW) Remco’s wiry-haired figures of John, Paul, George, and Ringo (1964). © Apple Corps.; Board game © Milton Bradley. Figures © Remco.
A Ringo Starr (TOP) and a Paul McCartney (BOTTOM) Soaky bubble-bath toy from Colgate (1964). © Apple Corps.; © Colgate.
(LEFT) Candy with packaging art based on the animated Beatles series. © World Candies Inc., © Apple Corps. (CENTER) Wrapper for Topps’ Beatles bubble-gum trading cards (1964). © Apple Corps.; © The Topps Company. (RIGHT) Hasbro’s “Show Biz Babies” figure of Peter Noone (1967). © Hasbro. RETROFAN
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retro Music
and get the real voices.) Our favorite cheapo labels chimed in in this vein also with The Grasshoppers Sing the Beatles Hits (Diplomat D2337) and A Hard Days Night and Others (Wyncote SW 9037). The Wyncote cover features four Chipmunks, but the record does not give them any title at all! I’d also add a dishonorable mention to the major labels cashing in with their own titles. United Artists issued instrumental albums by the Beatles’ record producer, George Martin, using Beatles photos for the cover. Capitol Records shamelessly promoted The Beatles Songbook by the Hollyridge Strings (Capitol ST 2116) on the back cover of their Beatles albums. In response, Somerset quickly produced The Beatles Songbook by the Mustang (Somerset P-23000). This album’s cover looks exactly like the Capitol version, only in a different color shade. A big boo to the major record labels that exploit anything to the extreme. It’s a Beatle World by Al Fisher and Lou Marks (Swan LP 514) clearly was a comedic album vying for the trend, but when Santo and Johnny issued The Beatles Greatest Hits (Canadian American CALP 1017) with the title in colorful bold print, even including the Fabs’ photos on the back, the dirty trick went way too far! Sing a Song with the Beatles (Tower SKAO 5000) and Sing and Play Along Beatles Kit (London LL 3403) further deceived those who might have thought the Beatles had something to do with the records. One record which has the distinction of being the first Beatles pirated record is The Original Greatest Hits (Greatest Records GRC 1001). Adorned with Beatle wigs down the left side of the cover, this album actually features the true recordings of the Beatles, and was briefly found in record bins before Capitol sued for libel. It is amazing they didn’t go to court over some of the others, although none were quite as blatant as this. Discount records that hit the bins to cash in like Beat-A-Mania (Spectrum SDLP 172), The Liverpool Beats (Rondo R-2026), and The Liverpool Beat by the Weasels (Mercury Wing MGW 12282) get a mention for adding to the Beatle clutter, if not trying to deceive 100%. While some of these records can be quite awful, some can be quite good. I can easily see the Buggs, the Manchesters, and even the Liverpools making a home in your Beatle collection. Collectors may keep those strictly for the novelty. Marketing-wise, these records were more than likely purchased by parents or grandparents of kids wanting the real thing. Picture a mom waiting in line at a grocery checkout, observing mop-tops on the LP cover and “She Loves You” in the title. She buys it and takes it home, tossing it to her daughter, Here you go! After being 16
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bombarded by her daughter’s complaints, she tells her she should be glad she has the record at all! My first copy of the B. Brock and the Sultans album had real Beatle pictures pasted over it, likely by a disappointed youngster. She must have kept it in the hopes that it might magically become the album that she wanted. What teen would buy The Beatle Buddies? It seems likely obvious it was marketed to a father instead. In an overview, the hastily recorded versions of the Beatles hits were laughable carbon copies. Picture a group of older musicians assembled in the studio, trying to sound like a Beatles record but not understanding the beat, rhythm, and harmony of the Beatles’ true sound. While the purchaser (or listener) remained disgusted, the record company’s job was done. You bought the bogus product! Today, these albums stand the test of time as souvenirs of the Beatlemania of 1964. The mania surrounding the Fabs at the time was unprecedented and incredible, to say the least. (A side note: Bands like the Rolling Stones never received a budget “tribute,” but by the late Sixties, the Monkees had two!) The year 1964 brought about an enormous wave of records, official or not, of Merseybeat music [so named after publisher Bill Harry’s Liverpool-based music newspaper Mersey Beat—ed.]. Between the battle over rights between Capitol and VeeJay Records and the small labels fighting for space in the bins by appropriating familiar songs and titles, a huge body of Merseybeat-ish music was released in one incredible year, highlighting the popularity of the Beatles… which continues today. BOB KOENIG has a BA in Pop Culture Studies, and has presented lectures in libraries and historical societies on topics from suburban history to cereal boxes, and drive-in theaters to Howard Johnson’s restaurants. His research on religions led to a chapter in a book on the Greek goddess Hera. A ChromeOrange Music artist, Bob has appeared with his band on both national television and in a comic book! Find Bob on Facebook.
WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON
The Mighty, Mighty
HERCULES BY WILL MURRAY
Although I later became a film journalist covering sci-fi and horror movies for Starlog and Fangoria, as a kid I rarely went to the movie theater. Partly because the long-demolished Rialto was so far away, but also because I preferred to spend my allowance on comic books. However, I do remember going with friends to see the odd film, beginning with Gorgo in 1961 and various other Saturday matinee fare, including some of the beach blanket movies [see RetroFan #22—ed.]. I distinctly remember seeing The Three Stooges Meet Hercules in 1962, and I think I saw one of Steve Reeves’ Hercules epics on the big screen as well. I certainly saw them on TV when they came around to the small screen.
FLEXING HIS BOXOFFICE MUSCLE
(ABOVE) Behold, RetroFans, as the Mighty Hercules defends Newton and Tewt from a sea serpent (Cecil’s disagreeable cousin, perhaps?). Detail from the cover of Gold Key Comics’ The Mighty Hercules #1 (July 1963). Artist unknown. The Mighty Hercules © Classic Media.
Hercules was a big deal back in those days. He was as popular as monster movies, which were also huge, in all senses of the word. But Hollywood monsters did not have the box-office success of the first Hercules films, which launched a new film genre that was sometimes called “peplum films” because its muscle-bound heroes wore the Greek toga known as a peplos. “Sword-and-sandal movies” is the term by which they are remembered today. The sword-and-sandal craze had its genesis in a script written in the mid-Fifties by Italian director Pietro Francisci. Francisci had filmed Attila, Scourge of God and was becoming known as the Cecil B. DeMille of Italy, specializing in historical epics. RETROFAN
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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon
Plucking Hercules out of Greco-Roman mythology, Francisci penned a script with that storied Roman demigod as the protagonist of the classic story, The Argonauts. But he couldn’t find a suitable Italian actor to play the lead role. The tall ones lacked the necessary imposing physique, and the strong ones were too short. Yet, he persisted for five years until his teenaged daughter saw Steve Reeves in a 1954 film called Athena. Reeves was a bodybuilder from Montana who had won the Mr. America contest in 1947 and went on to become Mr. World the following year and Mr. Universe in 1950. Drifting into acting, Reeves got bit parts on television and was cast but then lost the lead in Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah. “DeMille thought I was too inconsistent a performer,” Reeves related, “so he paid me off for my contract and I went on my way.” Five years later, the bodybuilder landed a supporting role in the physical-culture musical, Athena, where most of the characters had names borrowed from Greek mythology. Francisci’s daughter told the director that she had found the perfect Hercules. After watching the film, he agreed. He telegrammed Reeves in the U.S., but Reeves didn’t take the offer seriously. The telegram was followed by a letter that included a $5,000 advance and plane tickets to Rome. Deciding to take a 18
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(LEFT) The chiseled pecs of movie Hercules Steve Reeves (who’ll appear in these pages in RetroFan #35) made the sandaled superman a Sixties media sensation. © Warner Bros. (RIGHT) The aptly named Samson Burke played the hero in 1962’s The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. © Columbia Pictures. Both, courtesy of Heritage.
chance, Reeves started growing a full beard, which along with his hair had to be dyed black for the role, and flew to Rome. The production cast Sylva Koscina as Hercules’ love interest, Princess Iole, and Gabriele Antonini as his young companion, Ulysses, of Homer’s Odyssey and Trojan War fame. The three spearheaded the quest for the Golden Fleece, along with Jason and the other Argonauts of the original tale—which originally had nothing to do with Hercules. More authentic elements taken from the Hercules myths are sprinkled in, although watered down. To a student of classic Greek literature, it would be like having General George Washington leading the charge at Gettysburg. After working in Hollywood, Reeves experienced culture shock filming in Italy. “Filmmaking in Europe was a little different from working in the United States,” he related. “There’s a scene
Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon
in Hercules where I am in chains—they looked like steel, but they were actually made of wood—and I had to swing these chains at my supposed enemies who were advancing towards me. Well, I didn’t want to really strike someone, so I kind of held back with my motions. The director yelled, ‘Swing those chains! Swing them hard!’ I said, ‘I don’t want to hurt someone.’ And the director yelled back, ‘If they don’t get hurt, they don’t get paid!’” Hercules was a smash hit throughout Europe and the world, playing several times a day, but not in the U.S. That would soon change, thanks to a promoter named Joseph E. Levine, who had earlier brought Godzilla to America. “Joe Levine owned a theater in Boston,” explained Reeves. “Through a friend of his, he used to buy films from Europe. I think the biggest one he bought before Hercules was Attila the Hun with Anthony Quinn. They were making pretty good money over here compared to what he paid for them. So his friend told him that Hercules was outselling every other picture, and that the people who made it had sold it to every country in the world except America, and that in Bombay it had played four times a day for two years. Knowing it was a winner in other countries, he bought it for the States, then put money behind it and did a great job promoting it.” “When I was told about Hercules, which was made in Italy,” reminisced Levine, “I flew over to look at it. The picture broke down
when we were showing it, the titles were bad, it was in Italian, and I couldn’t understand it, but there was something about it that made me realize there was a potential fortune tied up in it.” Levine spent a ton of money rehabbing and redubbing the film. Explaining the real reason behind his investment, he stated, “I saw in Steve Reeves, who plays Hercules, a man whose physical attributes, ability, and enormous strength appealed to the women.” Shot in Eastmancolor and dubbed into English by radio actors hired for the job, Hercules was released in the United States in the summer of 1959 and electrified American audiences, grossing $5,000,000. And so began the great beefcake gold rush of muscleman movies. Francisci set to work on a sequel. Hercules Unchained came out the following year. Now married and accompanied by new wife Iole and Ulysses— both played by their original actors—Hercules becomes embroiled with a power struggle between two brothers over who will ultimately rule the city of Thebes. During this adventure, Hercules drinks from a magic spring and loses his memory, becoming the slave of Queen Omphale of Lydia. Ulysses helps Hercules regain his memory by getting him to demonstrate his superhuman strength, just in time to save Iole from three tigers set upon devouring her in the Theban king’s arena. This sequel is widely considered superior to the first film. Francisci abstracted the storyline from two classical Greek works, Seven Against Thebes and Oedipus at Colonus. The Queen Omphale interlude is another borrowing from Hercules’ mythic story cycle.
Two 1961 promos from television trade journals promoting the then-forthcoming Mighty Hercules cartoon. The Mighty Hercules © Classic Media. Both, courtesy of Will Murray. RETROFAN
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TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com
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. NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9
All characters TM & © their respective owners.
DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION
by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER
In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2
ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS
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! NOW SHIPPING! (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. NOW SHIPPING! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6
RETRO TELEVISION
The
Fall Guy A Retro-Spective on TV Guide’s Fall Previews BY MICHAL JACOT
AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS
Television was a huge part of my childhood. I watched its programs as well as its history. I watched as genres peaked, faded, and sometimes returned. I watched the gimmick sitcoms, comedies with a twist: a family of Universal monsters, a man married to a witch, a beautiful genie in a bottle (who I had/still have a tremendous crush on). Yes, I even watched a couple of episodes of a guy whose mother was reincarnated as an automobile. I watched Westerns dominate the airwaves. I watched the saga of the Cartwright family and thrilled to Marshall Dillon’s escapades. And boy-oh-boy, did I watch those Irwin Allen sci-fi dramas! Hapless people adrift in space, tossed through time, stranded among giants… I didn’t watch that stuff, I absorbed it. These shows captured my imagination and held it hostage. I kept track of it all because my parents subscribed to TV Guide. This digest-sized booklet had great articles on my favorite shows. And, as a kid, there was an added bonus. When the week ended, I got to confiscate the magazine, where I would gleefully blacken out teeth and add stitches and devil horns to the photos of those glamorous television stars. (Ha! How about that, Marlo Thomas? Not so cute with crossed eyes and an Alfred E. Neuman smile, are you?) But there was always one issue I never defaced. That was the one that arrived around the first week of September. The TV Guide Fall Preview. As a TV addict, I was obsessed with the Fall Preview. It was a peek into the future, what to expect in the next few weeks. The spotlight on each new show detailed the plot, the characters, the stars, and a cool photograph of the cast. The fun of Fall Previews is seeing the progression of television history. Keeping RetroFan in mind, this article will mainly focus on those issues from the beginning to the early Eighties. You know—those years with all the good TV.
WHO LOVES YA, BABY?
The first Fall Preview (1953) was a huge hit with fans, and it didn’t take TV Guide long to plan this as an annual affair. That inaugural edition clocked in at a mere 32 pages. Stations generally began broadcasting at around 7:00 a.m.; some didn’t begin their day until 9:00. Most closed up shop around midnight or 1:00 a.m. Because of the sparse schedules, that first Fall Preview looked a lot different (LEFT) A TV Guide Fall Preview sampler. All scans accompanying this article are courtesy of Michal Jacot. © TV Guide. RETROFAN
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than current offerings; new shows were briefly mentioned in short articles that covered several similar programs.
WELL, ISN’T THAT SPECIAL?
Now that television was established, it branched out to more creative programming. Specials lured viewers in, but there was one mother lode yet to be mined. Showing movies on television was unexplored territory. Some studios refused to sell their film broadcasting rights to this upstart medium, thinking it would cheapen the movie experience. And there were some TV executives who didn’t think movies belonged on the small screen and, in fact, considered them a step down from their own television programming. Said one exec, “Surprisingly, many people consider old movies to be on a par with the best entertainment on the air.” Who knew movies would become a staple of TV programming? In those early days, TV Guide could have benefitted from a crystal ball to get a glimpse of how television would morph into something they could never have imagined. In the 1954 Fall Preview, they talked about the perils of confusing programming schedules: “The season will be a confusing one for viewers. [Milton] Berle will still be a Tuesday attraction. But not every Tuesday. There will
be boxing on Wednesday nights. But not every Wednesday. Berle will appear every other week. The fights will be absent every fourth week.” At a time when there were only three networks, this must have been “confusing.” Today, with hundreds of channels broadcasting 24/7, seasons that take months-long breaks in the middle, and shows that bounce from network to network… I don’t think they had any idea back then of how confusing it could all get.
IT KEEPS GOING AND GOING AND GOING…
The 1964–1965 Fall Preview predicted a programming format that would become a standard of television: the serial. Producer Herbert Brodkin belittled the 30-, 60-, and 90-minute time limits imposed on televised dramas, calling them “artificial barriers blocking the creation of good drama.” His solution was a program called The Quest, an hour-long series where episodes “won’t necessarily end when the hour is up. It will be carried over from week to week until it reaches its natural conclusion.” This concept was nothing new—serialized radio dramas and soap operas had been around for years. But it was radical thinking back then; these concepts represented state of the art, innovative broadcasting.
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET
Vintage Fall Previews are a great place to chart the progress of television technology. The biggest advancement of the era was the development of color programming. 1956’s edition happily announced that “color TV sets dip below the $500 mark.” That was
(LEFT) The first Fall Preview was a rather skimpy affair at only 32 pages; there simply wasn’t much happening on the airwaves. (ABOVE) Since there weren’t enough new shows to highlight individually, Fall Previews just covered the programming by genre, as they did with this section on kiddie shows. © TV Guide. 28
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a lot to pay just to see what shade of red Lucy’s hair was; adjusting for inflation, $500 in 1956 equates to $5,314 in today’s world. Still, 100,000 U.S. homes had a color TV that year. In its infancy, programming relied heavily on stage plays, operas, and ballet. The arts were a good source of material for this nascent medium. The 1957–1958 season listed a plethora of fairy-tale based spectaculars such as Pinocchio, Hans Brinker, and Beauty and the Beast, but barely a mention of The Wizard of Oz. Oddly enough, the perennial favorite made its TV debut the year before, and the 1956 Fall Preview didn’t say a word about it!
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE
Trends in programming peaked and dipped through TV history, reflecting American tastes and culture. From cops to country cornpone, from defective detectives to weird families, just about every genre has had its moment (some more briefly than others). Westerns were the next big thing in 1957, and cowboys ruled the airwaves for years. The 1959–1960 Fall Preview showcased 29 oaters that season, with ten of them premiering that season (with Bonanza being the most notable)—and eight of them ran an hour in length. Those are staggering numbers considering the limited broadcasting time.
HEH-HEH-HEH
My TV viewing kicked into high gear in the Sixties with the advent of oddball comedies, overshadowing the cowpokes that ruled the video roost. And the Fall Preview was there to foresee it all. In the 1964–1965 season, comedy was king. 22 of the 35 new shows were comedies. Classics like Gilligan’s Island, The Munsters, Bewitched (whose beautiful witch was named Cassandra instead of Samantha in the first draft of the pilot script), The Addams
(ABOVE) By 1959, the Fall Previews included group shots of new casts. If you liked Westerns, you were a happy viewer. (BELOW) You can occasionally get a glimpse into history beyond television. The week’s listings in the 1960–1961 edition featured the televised Nixon-Kennedy debate. © TV Guide. Family, and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. all debuted in that single season. [Editor’s note: Just in time for Bewitched’s 60th anniversary, its star, Elizabeth Montgomery, will be profiled in our pages in RetroFan #31!] This was when I was young enough to laugh at the antics on these shows but old enough to be a smart-alecky kid and get curious about details. Like everyone else, I wondered how a group of castaways could create a radio from coconut shells but couldn’t wrap their heads around fixing a hole in their boat. In an interview on The Rosie O’Donnell Show decades later, Gilligan himself, Bob Denver, answered that burning question: “There weren’t any nails on the island.”
WE’RE MOVIN’ ON UP
A fun aspect of Fall Previews is seeing the rise of your favorite stars. The 1962–1963 issue previewed a sitcom called I’m Dickens… He’s Fenster, featuring John Astin, before he grew a mustache and became crazy-eyed Gomez Addams two years later. [Editor’s note: Join us for a John Astin profile in RetroFan #35.] 1965’s “As We See It” editorial column was less than amused about the trend to light comedies (including I Dream of Jeannie, Green Acres, Hogan’s Heroes), and hoped that high end programming such as documentaries and plays might offset the overload of sitcoms. The editors dismissed Get Smart by saying “some of the plots… are preposterous.” Well, yeah, but wasn’t that the point? In spite of TV Guide’s brush-off of these shows, they are iconic today and still entertain in reruns. RETROFAN
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THE
PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION
by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE
Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. SHIPS NOVEMBER 2023!
WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS
WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! SHIPS OCTOBER 2023!
Star Guider TM & © Jack C. Harris.
Shade TM & © DC Comics.
(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9
(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6
THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF
MATT FOX
by ROGER HILL
MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2023! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2
RETRO INTERVIEW
Getting the Best of Bond
s k r a P a n i Tr ! r e v Fore
BY ANTHONY TAYLOR
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) marked a return to form and the end of an era for the James Bond franchise; after producers refused to meet leading man Sean Connery’s salary demands following You Only Live Twice, he was replaced by Australian model George Lazenby for 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. While the 1969 film is one of the best in the series, audiences just didn’t take to the new guy onscreen. When Lazenby went rogue and announced he wouldn’t return to the part of the world’s most famous secret agent, producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman found themselves over a barrel; they needed a Bond, and quickly—a Bond who could right the franchise’s sinking prospects as the Sixties spy craze waned and drew its final breaths. The duo lured a visibly aging Connery back for one last hurrah as MI6 agent 007, and sent him stateside to get to the bottom of a diamond smuggling ring that smacked of old nemeses SPECTRE [Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion; herewith Spectre—ed.]. Along the way, Bond gets pulled into their bid to use the assets and influence of reclusive billionaire Willard Whyte to hold the world hostage with a killer laser weapon satellite made with the diamonds. Kidnapped by Spectre commander Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who has been impersonating him), Whyte has been imprisoned in a fabulous modern home in the Nevada desert, watched over by a pair of lovely but deadly jailers, Bambi and Thumper. The pair are ultimately subdued after throwing Bond into the pool, but before that they savagely—and stylishly—beat him to within an inch of his life. Gymnast Lola Larson acquits herself well as Bambi, but the real standout in the scene is Thumper, as portrayed by dancer and actress Trina Parks, who became the first Bond girl of color in this movie.
Watch out, 007, here comes Thumper! Signed Trina Parks publicity photo from the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever. © Eon Productions. Unless otherwise noted, all images accompanying this article are courtesy of Anthony Taylor and/or Trina Parks.
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DANCING QUEEN
Trina Parks was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 26th, 1947. The daughter of renowned Jazz saxophonist Charles Henry “Charlie” Frazier, it was inevitable that she would eventually pursue a career in the arts. Frazier was a Cotton Club regular, and played for and with such luminaries as Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and many more. From a very young age, Trina loved to dance. “My father started taking me to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to start ballet classes when I was about six,” she says. “He was out of town a lot [performing], but when he was home, he always made sure to take me there himself. I’ve been dancing ever since.” Continuing with her studies, she moved into Jazz and African dance classes, eventually auditioning for the High School for the Performing Arts (of Fame fame), to which she was admitted enthusiastically. As she matriculated there, she also began taking classes several afternoons a week at the Katherine Dunham school a few blocks away, where her talents bloomed. Dunham was one of the most popular dancers, choreographers, and dance teachers of the time. She originated the role of Georgia Brown in the Broadway production of Cabin in the Sky. She and her dance troupe performed in many theatrical shows and reviews both in New York and across the country, and in motion pictures such as Star Spangled Rhythm, Pardon My Sarong (with Abbott and Costello), and Stormy Weather. Dunham became Trina’s mentor. “You always wish to be younger, but if I had been younger I would never have had the opportunity to study with Ms. Dunham,” she muses. “I feel so lucky that I was able to learn from her.” After graduating high school, Trina joined the final iteration of the Dunham dance troupe, performing all across the country and eventually spending a year in Paris. Parks has been engaged as choreographer for the upcoming film Eartha Kitt C’est Si Bon, a biopic of Kitt who was another of Dunham’s protégés. Ashlee Olivia Jones will portray Kitt, with Robert Beltran set to play Orson Welles. As a dance instructor herself, Trina has taught the Dunham technique since 1970, honoring the legacy of Katherine Dunham who passed away in 2006. A part as a dancer in Martin Ritt’s film The Great White Hope brought Parks to California in 1970, under the supervision of choreograParks (RIGHT) with David Carradine and David McCallum in a screen capture from “The Phantom Farmhouse,” Season 2, Episode 5 of television’s Night Gallery. Original airdate: October 20, 1971. © Universal. 38
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pher Donald McKayle, in whose company she had danced following the return of the Dunham troupe from Europe. “That was the first time I’d gone to Los Angeles, and I loved it!,” she says. “I loved the weather, never liked the cold, so I stayed and created my own act at the Ulysses Club in Beverly Hills, and that’s how I got an agent in Hollywood.” First up for Trina was a background part dancing in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Soon, she landed a co-starring part alongside David Carradine and David McCallum, in an episode of Night Gallery called “The Phantom Farmhouse,” directed by Jeannot Szwarc. “I didn’t have too much interaction with David Carradine except for the scene of all of us in the trees, but I really enjoyed working with both of them,” Parks reveals. Then came Bond. Trina got a call from her agent, Marty Klein, saying the producers of Diamonds Are Forever were casting the character of Thumper, and he felt she might be right for it. “He knew I had dance experience but he didn’t know if I knew karate,” she recalls. “So I said, ‘Yeah! I know Haitian karate,’ which I had learned from Ms. Dunham.” Klein forwarded her bio, and she was interviewed, screentested, and producers Broccoli and Salesman were sold. They offered her the role that would be her signature performance. “I had so much fun doing that part. And it was the first time I had been on a set where there was more than just a few people—there were a lot of people on this set!” Trina has high praise for producer Cubby Broccoli, director Guy Hamilton, and especially stunt coordinator Bob Simmons. “[Simmons] said, ‘I’m not a dancer, so show me what you have, show me what you can do’, and that was for the shots where I was on the floor stalking Sir Sean,” she remembers. The pair tried several
retro interview
Parks poses in character as Thumper. © Eon Productions.
Bond gains the upper hand. © Eon Productions.
(COLUMN ABOVE) Sean Connery’s reluctant turn at Bond, 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, pitted the superspy against the fancy footwork of Trina Parks as Thumper and Lola Larson as Bambi. © Eon Productions. Poster courtesy of Heritage.
different combinations of moves and actions, and Broccoli and Hamilton picked what they liked for the scene. The company then took the better part of two days to block all the movement and camera coverage and shoot the bulk of the scene before breaking for the weekend, to return Monday for the final day of shooting in the swimming pool. “Lola did all of her own stunts because she was a gymnast, my stunt lady had to do the dive into the pool because I was SAG (Screen Actors Guild, the actors union) and Lola wasn’t at the time, so she was performing ‘Taft-Hartley’ (a SAG permit that producers file for non-union performers with special skills) and she was just wonderful. Richard E. Butler was Sir Sean’s stunt
double and he really looked like him on camera!” Butler took all the punishment dished out by the ladies, including several wicked kicks and judo tosses. The Elrod House in Palm Springs, California, was used for the location, and the modernist masterpiece home kept cast and crew entranced… and on their toes. “Those were all real rocks in the scene, the house was built on them. If anyone took a tumble the wrong way, it could have been really dangerous,” Trina recalls. The circular, vault-like living space is as unforgettable as the action that takes place within it in the film. The house was designed in 1968 by John Lautner, a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, and commissioned RETROFAN
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enjoyed working with the cast, which included Magnum P.I.’s Roger Mosley, Stan Shaw, Dwayne Jesse (Otis Day from Animal House), and the great Dick Miller. Produced by Gene Corman and released through his brother Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, the film was a box office disappointment despite being ahead of its time in its treatment of adult subject matter including reproductive rights and race relations. The following year, Trina set sail for the Philippines to co-star with Jayne Kennedy, Jeannie Bell, and Rosanne Katon in The Muthers from prolific Filipino exploitation filmmaker Cirio H. Santiago, a regular Roger Corman collaborator on films such as The Hot Box, Savage!, and Ebony, Ivory & Jade. Once again the actress found herself behind bars, being exploited as a worker and inmate on a female prison farm. Caught up in a breakout, Trina’s character Marcie sees a lot of action. “Cirio was fabulous!” she recalls. “And he was very well known in his country. We shot mostly on location in Manila and Batangas, and it was so hot there! I did all the stunts and fight scenes myself. They were not as difficult as Diamonds—no diving over rocks.” The foursome of ladies all became good friends and comrades in arms during shooting, and the film opened to decent reviews and did well at the box office. In 2019, director Quentin Tarantino called it one of his favorite movies. He arranged a special screening of it at his Los Angeles theater, the New Beverly, and had Trina, Jeannie Bell, and Jayne Kennedy in attendance for a question-and-answer session with the audience. “That was the first time either of us had seen it on a big screen,” remembers Trina.
The Muthers was Trina’s last film until 2012’s Immortal Kiss: Queen of the Night, in which she played Amina, the queen of the vampires. In between, she stayed busy on television, Broadway, and stages all around the world. These days she spends time with her grandchildren, she works when she feels like it, and enjoys meeting fans at conventions and events. Though dance is her first love, her connection with the James Bond franchise will always be what she is known for most. It continues to resonate and have impact on her life 50 years later. “It has been so amazing to my life, my experience! I had no idea what kind of impact we made at the time. I had no idea who Sean Connery was… I had never seen a James Bond film before. I didn’t know what an iconic movie series it was,” she says. “I had no idea I was the first black Bond girl until a friend called and told me when the film opened. All ages and cultures and creeds come to me at events and tell me how much they loved Thumper. It’s so humbling and I love meeting all of them.” Trina Parks was dynamite with James Bond… and beyond! ANTHONY TAYLOR is a writer and film historian. His retro film on high-definition media-review column “Apes on Film” appears at ATLRetro.com and NerdaltertNews.net. He is the author of Arctic Adventure!, an Official Thunderbirds novel based on the iconic television series by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson; The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim; and articles and features for a host of television and film magazines and publications.
SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM
The Life and Legend of the Frito Bandito
Corn chip background: Mx. Granger/Wikimedia.
BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA The story of the Frito Bandito (a one-time cartoon mascot for Fritos corn chips), my father’s short stint as a Keystone Cop, and me meeting the widow of Pancho Villa all happened within the space of a few years. The events, disconnected though they may seem, are related by forces beyond my control. Actor Ricardo “Khaaaaaan!” Montalbán makes an appearance, as do a couple of extremely honked–off bulls and Mae West’s apartment (but not all at the same time, I mean, be real). Also, there is a hairbreadth escape from jail and a futile hunt for a bandit. I will not be making any of this up. Here at the Secret Sanctum, a lot of time is spent thinking about the past. Most memories make me smile or make me shake my head, dumbfounded. The Frito Bandito story manages both. Smiles because the Frito Bandito’s commercials had a catchy jingle [see RetroFan #25 for more catchy commercial jingles—ed.], and I shake my head because, boy, the minds behind this cartoon mascot really weren’t reading the room (the room being the Sixties). The fact that his appearance made the pages of A Short Course in International Marketing Blunders: Learn from the Mistakes of Others by Charles
Mitchell (World Trade Press, 2001) should give you a hint of the Frito Bandito’s final fate. He may not have been an active mascot for long, but he refused to leave the party for longer than anyone expected.
THE COMING OF THE BANDITO
The Frito-Lay company, makers of yummy Fritos corn chips and other salty snacks, had hit a bad patch of publicity in the Sixties that they wanted to put in the memory hole. There were claims against the company for overcharging smaller business partners, indictments for extortion, and a grubby little episode involving peanut oil (it was an attempt to corner Frito-Lay’s Frito Bandito quickly the market—what became a large headache for the were you thinking popular snack company. Production of?). Management cel from an animated commercial, felt that the compacirca 1969. © Frito-Lay North America, Inc., a ny’s reputation Division of PespiCo (herewith Frito-Lay). Courtesy of needed a spit-shine, Heritage. RETROFAN
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The slightly unnerving Frito Kid, the mascot that preceded the Frito Bandito. © Frito-Lay. Courtesy Spacemountainmike/wikimedia.
target market. The Fritos Company was an early investor in Disneyland, and opened the Casa de Fritos restaurant only a month after the park itself opened in 1955. The Casa served “Mexican-style” food: Charles Elmer Doolin’s canned Mexican-style food. And, no surprise, Fritos corn chips. There you could buy the corn chips from a Frito Kid audio-animatronic figure standing at a small mining operation. If you put a nickel in the appropriate slot, the Kid moved its eyes back and forth and licked its lips, which I’m very certain had to look weird as heck. Then the Kid would call out to a miner named Klondike who, we are to believe, was busy mining “golden” corn chips deep in the earth. From these depths he shot a bag down a ramp to the delighted purchaser (imagine having a fun experience at Disneyland for only a nickel). The Casa de Fritos was next door to Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House. Where were we? Oh, yeah, stereotypes. The Frito Kid was retired and headed off into the sunset (or down into the mines with Klondike). Enter the Frito Bandito.
THE BANDITO ARRIVES
The pedigree of the minds behind the Frito Bandito was top-notch. The advertising campaign was the creation of advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB); other FCB clients during this era included Coors Brewing Company, AT&T, and Mattel. The Bandito was visualized by Tex Avery, an influential animation director who was the king of high-energy Warner Bros. and MGM theatrical cartoon shorts where old-timey car horn “arroogah” sounds can be heard. At the time he was working on commercials for Cascade Studios, which animated the ads. Voice actor Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Barney of The Flintstones, etc. to infinity) spoke for the Bandito, sounding much like the Warner Bros. cartoon character Speedy Gonzales, whom he also vocalized. More about good ol’ Speedy in a bit. In an early move in the campaign to introduce the kids to their new mascot, a Frito Bandito Club was created. Members were known as “Little Banditos.” The membership kit came with a cardboard mustache. The groups with concerns about the Frito Bandito, like Involvement of MexicanAmericans in Gainful Endeavors (IMAGE) 46
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and National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee (NMAADC), wanted better and more varied media representation because they found it demeaning to be seen as only sleepy peasants, bandits, and sexy señoritas. Frito-Lay did not directly engage the groups or admit that they had done anything wrong. However… Frito-Lay gave the Frito Bandito a bit of a low-key remodel. Gone was the gold tooth. He became friendlier, clean-shaven, his accent less extreme. His guns disappeared. It’s been claimed that the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in 1968 was responsible for that adjustment. And the Bandito straight-up stopped trying to steal Fritos corn chips. He would now use guile and trickery. A 1969 commercial featured the kinder, gentler Bandito as a “parking attendant” on the Moon (you heard me), requesting that the Apollo astronauts pay him with corn chips. At the time it was considered risky to use the upcoming Moon landing in ads in case something went wrong. Another commercial had the Bandito as a magician, using stage magic to turn the audience’s Fritos into his Fritos (that’s still stealing, right?). We RetroFans may not have noticed it at the time, but parts of our childhood were quietly being put away. Buck-toothed Joe Jitsu and sombrero-wearing Go Go Gomez—both with exaggerated accents—from The Dick Tracy Show (1961–1962) vanished as the cartoon was slowly pulled from syndication beginning in the mid-Seventies for reasons similar to Disney keeping the movie Song of the South out of active circulation. Looney Tunes’ Speedy Gonzalez
Promotional items: (RIGHT) Frito Bandito pencil topper. Similar promotional toppers exist for W. C. Fritos and the Muncha Bunch. (BELOW) A seed packet from 1969, featuring the Bandito. © Frito-Lay. Topper and seed packet ourtesy of Worthpoint.
scott saavedra’s secret sanctum
cartoon character was also seen as potentially offensive and his appearances were scaled back. As it happens, there are many Mexican-Americans who love Speedy Gonzales. I love Speedy Gonzales. Do you? (Yeah, c’mon, you know you do.) In theatrical cartoons—his last was in 1968—this small village mouse (albeit a hyper-fast one) always bested the larger, stronger cat, Sylvester. Sure, Speedy appears in a cliché Mexican village outfit complete with sombrero, but it works because he’s portrayed as a capable hero. It’s not that nobody notices his stereotypical appearance or his accent, but mainly he’s a positive, winning character. He’s not that dissimilar from Bugs Bunny, who, I believe, is from Brooklyn. And not everybody from Brooklyn talks like the rabbit (they want us to believe). But Bugs, while being a rascally rabbit, is still the good guy and a little stinker simultaneously. Wit and brains and some cartoon magic makes for a fantastic character. Speedy may not be a primary Warner Bros. cartoon property, but he’s still around. As the Frito Bandito continued to not go away, the groups pushing for more positive and fairer representation like IMAGE and NMAADC tried to keep up the pressure. A member of Congress weighed in on the issue. Here’s a quote from the June 17, 1969 Congressional Record, part of a (really long!) statement by U.S. Senator Joseph M. Montoya of New Mexico: “This past year we have seen the Spanish-speaking American thrust upon us in nationally televised advertising as a ‘mañanatype’ revolutionary advertising L&M cigarettes; again as a Frito-bandito [sic]; and as an ignorant peon who calls the Yellow Pages ‘Jello Pages.’ The Spanish-speaking American appears in commercials, true, but never with dignity.” So now the Frito Bandito as a bad character was forever part of America’s Permanent Record.
My father noticed the demands for change as he and a partner attempted to start a magazine about this Mexican-American community, his community even if he had previously not paid much attention to it. The publication was called New Chicano magazine, “Chicano” being a term that was once derogatory to Mexican-Americans but later reclaimed. My dad was born in America of Mexican parents. Spanish wasn’t spoken in our home when I was growing up except by my California-born mom whose Irish-Scottish parents came from the Midwest. The less said about her Spanish, the better (love you, Mother). But the Sixties… boy, that shook things up. And I’m not exactly sure what changed for my dad—I was too busy watching television—but something stirred within him that allowed him to see that the country of his birth and the country of his parents had a joined value. The process of starting a magazine, what little I saw of it, enthralled me. I was able to see paste-ups of spreads in progress back when preparing a magazine for print was a very hands-on experience. What investors there were bailed and that was that for New Chicano. But there was real value in the effort. The magazine doesn’t exist today beyond some photographs and inter(ABOVE) Speedy Gonzales is alive and well in this Mexican comic book from 1987. (LEFT) A Speedy Gonzales model sheet from 1960. (BELOW) Speedy Gonzales stars in Dell’s Four Color #1084 (Mar.–May 1960). © Warner Bros.
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and dining area. LeVeque’s wife Florence painted them. So cool. The LeVeque book never came out, and the notes from the interview were passed on to another writer who wrote a chapter about LeVeque for a book about old Hollywood, possibly You Must Remember This by Walter Wagner (Putnam, 1975). One of my brothers thinks he has the original interview tapes, so maybe someday the Secret Sanctum will be able to share more about the story of the Last Keystone Cop.
RIDING OFF INTO THE SUNSET
in Beverly Hills), whose career began in 1923. “He’s so big on screen and so small in person!” was my mom’s observation. And I got to meet Doña Luz Corral de Villa, the last surviving Pancho Villa wife (he had four and wasn’t fussy about exclusivity) at a fundraiser. The least explicable fundraising event that my dad was involved in was an attempt to bring Spanishstyle bullfighting to America. In a regular bullfight, the bull usually doesn’t go home at the end of the exhibition (if you take my meaning). That’s illegal in America. So, the notion was to have a bloodless bullfight. In a bloodless bullfight, the bulls get angrier and angrier over the course of the event until it looks like the bullfighters won’t be going home at the end of the exhibition. Basically, the day went from interesting to completely terrifying, and I still live with the sound and sight of a large bull slamming a medium-sized bullfighter into a wall (he survived, and the bull got a stern talking-to). So was the whole Frito Bandito hoo-hah worth it for Frito-Lay? As one company executive put it to Advertising and Sales Promotion magazine in 1969 as criticism was growing, sales were not what “Frito has hoped.” The Frito Bandito has not been forgotten. Essentially an abandoned trademark, he appears in reproductions on buttons and T-shirts, and vintage Frito-Lay promotional merchandise can be found on eBay and the like. You might even be able to uncover a mint Frito Bandito Club kit and get yourself a cardboard mustache. My dad passed in 2001. At his funeral, a mariachi band played traditional music under a tree on a hill.
The reign of the Frito Bandito was formally, if quietly, ended in early 1971 after stations in Washington, Oregon, and California banned the commercials and the NMAADC lawsuit was announced. The most generous defense of the Frito Bandito was that it was a misreading of shifting cultural currents. I don’t believe that anybody was being evil. In his autobiography That’s Not All Folks (Warner Books, 1988), Mel Blanc explained why he chose the accent he used for the Bandito. Long ago he was enchanted by the accent of a man, part of the crew building his home, who spoke with a broad accent. And sure, that’s fine. But he used that basic voice each time he needed a Mexican character. There is no one Mexican voice any more than there is only one American voice. (TOP) Cover to Accidental Ambassador Gordo by Blanc said he was hurt by the R. C. Harvey and Gus Arriola (University Press of reaction to the Frito Bandito, and Mississippi, 2000). Arriola’s long-running comic that “had it been another time” strip Gordo celebrated Mexico and its culture as few there’d be less “extreme sensitivity” other cartoons have. © EW Scripps. (ABOVE) In Season to the character. Well, yeah. I guess Two, Episode 4 of Arrested Development, the family’s people didn’t complain about Aunt patriarch, George Bluth, created the Cornballer, Jemima in “another time,” either. a device so dangerous it was banned in America. That said, he was literally the “voice” But George kept selling the Cornballer in Mexico, of my generation growing up. My where he earned the nickname “Frito Bandito.” fondness for his cartoon work is © 20th Century Netflix. undiminished. I got to meet interesting Latinos SCOTT SAAVEDRA is a Retro Explorer operand Mexican-American creatives during the Seventies. We went to ating from his Southern California–based Monterey, California, to meet Gus Arriola, who created the comic Secret Sanctum. He is a writer (more or less), strip Gordo (it’s the Spanish word for fat), a positive look at Mexican artist (occasionally), and graphic designer culture, very rare during most of its run (1941–1985). We went (you’re soaking in it). Check out his Instagram to Hollywood to see Bill Melendez at his eponymous animation thing, won’t you, at instagram/scottsaav/ production studio that worked on the Peanuts animated specials of our youth. I met film star Gilbert Roland (born in Mexico and died 50
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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING
PART 3
BY ANDY MANGELS Having debuted in 1973 on ABC Saturday mornings, the Super Friends series had already gone through four iterations of the show—and one brief cancellation—by 1979. And although DC’s pantheon of Justice League members were well represented by Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman— and aided by the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, with their space monkey, Gleek—every new Fall season seemed to bring another title change and another tonal switch for the heroes. From 1979 to 1983, though, the SuperFriends series—now with a single-word name—would not only undergo four different titles, but also saw syndication expand their market, the network cancel them again, and an animation studio committed to not let the ending be “the end.” In the last two issues, we examined the first two versions of Super Friends, ABC’s 13-year Saturday morning hit, and now we’ll look at the middle seasons. And watch for the next issue of RetroFan as Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning wraps up your guide to the longest-running animated super-hero series ever!
THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERFRIENDS
The blaring orchestra and William Woodson’s narration opened the new series on September 22, 1979: “It’s The World’s Greatest SuperFriends! Batman and Robin… Superman… Wonder Woman and Aquaman… the Wonder Twins… banded together to protect the universe from the forces of evil. The SuperFriends! Dedicated to Truth, Justice, and Peace for all mankind! The World’s Greatest SuperFriends!” The World’s Greatest SuperFriends series was one hour long, with the first half consisting of reruns from previous seasons (mostly the half-hour episodes from the 1977–1979 seasons), and the second half of it being a new 22-minute show. Scheduled early in the morning, World’s Greatest SuperFriends led into another show based
Second revised title card for The World’s Greatest SuperFriends. (TOP LEFT TO RIGHT) Apache Chief, the Atom, El Dorado, Black Vulcan, Samurai, and (BOTTOM LEFT TO RIGHT) Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Aquaman. © DC Comics. RETROFAN
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(LEFT) The Wonder Twins, Jayna and Zan, with Gleek are aghast. (RIGHT) Gleek dresses for Drag Monkey Story Time. © DC Comics.
(ABOVE) Super Enemies Wonder Woman and Aquaman in “Universe of Evil.” (BELOW) SuperFriends in the land of Oz: Superman is the Tin Man, Wonder Woman is the Cowardly Lion, and Aquaman is the Scarecrow. © DC Comics.
In a season in which nearly every episode had duplicates of the heroes or transformations into trolls or monsters, two stories took the plot to the extreme. In “Universe of Evil,” Superman accidentally switches to a parallel universe in which the SuperFriends are the rotten-to-the-core “Super Enemies!” You can tell they’re evil because Aquaman has an eye-patch, Robin has a moustache, Wonder Woman has wrinkles, and all the costumes are dingy colors. The final show for the season, “The Planet of Oz,” found Mr. Mxyzptlk casting three heroes into the otherworldly realm of L. Frank Baum’s fictional creation, and turning Wonder Woman into the Lion, Superman into the Tin Man, and Aquaman into the Scarecrow! In addition to the other Justice League members being missing—and the Hanna-Barbera diverse super-heroes out—one peculiarity for this season was that almost every show had a reason for characters to be absent. The Wonder Twins went on a visit to their home planet of Exxor, Superman and Wonder Woman went on a space mission for one show, and Aquaman visited Atlantis in another. The World’s Greatest SuperFriends ran through September 27, 1980, when it was transitioned into the next version of the show. One key element of the series did make a later appearance though: Hoyt Curtin’s main title theme was repurposed when Fisher-Price’s Imaginext toy line wanted an animated short film to go on a DVD with one of their toys. The result was 2010’s direct-to-video animated short titled DC Super Friends: The Joker’s Playhouse.
THE SUPERFRIENDS HOUR
For Fall 1980, the ABC series’ title was switched to The SuperFriends Hour, although it was mostly referred to that only internally, occasionally in the press, or by the show’s announcer in episode previews. On the television screens though, fans only saw the title of SuperFriends. The new narration, over a brighter-and shorter 30-second version of 1977’s The All-New Super Friends Hour, showed that the diverse heroes were back in the game: “Superman… Wonder Woman… Batman and Robin… Aquaman… 54
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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning
(ABOVE) Yet another weird transformation for Wonder Woman and Superman. (LEFT) Madam, you are attired in naught but your patriotic corset! General Washington meets Wonder Woman. © DC Comics.
FAST FACTS
© DC Comics.
Black Vulcan… Samurai… Apache Chief! Together they form the world’s greatest force of good ever assembled, dedicated to truth, peace, and justice for all mankind! These are… the SuperFriends!” Eight new half-hour shows were produced by Hanna-Barbera; each was split into a trio of seven-minute short stories, similar to The All-New Super Friends Hour. Each of the stories generally featured only three to four heroes, generally someone from the core group and guest heroes from the Justice League. In addition to the return of Hanna-Barbera–created Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief, viewers also saw the return of Flash, Atom, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Rima (the Jungle Girl), and Green Lantern. A few episodes featured a first for any DC media adaptation: Batman without Robin! Familiar villains included Riddler, Bizarro, and Mr. Mxyzptlk, while other elements from DC lore appeared, including Wonder Woman’s mother, Queen Hippolyta; the Batcave (complete with Bat-Computer and giant dinosaur); and the returning Supermobile and Fortress of Solitude. Other menaces included an alien tribe of Bigfoots, motorcycle gang Highway Angels, trance-inducing Rock and Roll Space Bandits, Vampiress the Voodoo Vampire, the Termites from Venus, the Incredible Crude Oil Monster, and the IBN-created evil super-computer named Romac. One story guest-starred both General George Washington and Blackbeard the pirate! With its first half full of reruns—the new shows aired in the second half-hour—The SuperFriends Hour a.k.a. SuperFriends ran from October 4, 1980 to September 19, 1981. At that point, ABC would have ordered another eight new episodes for another season, except the real world intruded. A 13-week strike of the Writers Guild of America—from April 11 to July 12, 1981—disrupted all scripted
HANNA-BARBERA’S THE SUPERFRIENDS HOUR f No. of seasons: Three f Original run: October 4, 1980–September 3, 1983 f No. of episodes: 14 f Studio: Hanna-Barbera Productions f Network: ABC
PRIMARY VOICE PERFORMER CAST f Bill Woodson: Narrator f Danny Dark: Superman f Olan Soule: Batman f Casey Kasem: Robin f Bill Callaway: Aquaman, Bizarro f Shannon Farnon: Wonder Woman, Lois Lane f Louise Williams: Jayna f Michael Bell: Zan, Gleek, Riddler f Stanley Jones: Lex Luthor f Frank Welker: Mr. Mxyzptlk f Janet Waldo: Hawkgirl f Mike Rye: Apache Chief, Green Lantern f Jack Angel: Flash, Samurai, Hawkman f Buster Jones: Black Vulcan f Fernando Escandon: El Dorado f Wally Burr: The Atom f Also featuring Michael Ambrosini, Norman Alden, Marlene Aragon, Lewis Bailey, Jared Barclay, Greg Burson, Kathy Carver, Ted Cassidy, Melanie Chartoff, Henry Corden, Regis Cordic, Peter Cullen, Takayo Doran, Patty Dworkin, Richard Erdman, Al Fann, Aileen Fitzpatrick, Ruth Forman, Pat Fraley, Peggy Frees, Phil Hartman, Bob Hastings, Bob Holt, Jane James, Joyce Jameson, Morgan Lofting, Allan Lurie, Joyce Mancini, Larry D. Mann, Ken Mars, Ross Martin, Amanda McBroom, Chuck McCann, Chuck McClennan, Julie McWhirter, Don Messick, Richard Paul, Vic Perrin, Barney Phillips, James Reynolds, Andy Rivas, Mike Road, Renny Roker, Paul Ross, Stanley Ralph Ross, Dick Ryal, Rick Segall, Michael Sheeham, Andre Stojka, Lee Thomas, Vernee Watson, Jimmy Weldon, Lynnanne Zager, and Marian Zajac. RETROFAN
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BRITMANIA
by 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
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JON B. COOKE’s all-new history of the notorious all-in-one comics company, from the 1940s to the ’70s, with GIORDANO, DITKO, STATON, BYRNE and more!
MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!
Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!
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Documents the life and career of the master Golden Age artist of Captain Marvel Jr. and other classic characters! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8
History of Crandall’s life and career, from Golden Age Quality Comics, to Warren war and horror, Flash Gordon, and beyond!
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THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!
H a l l y u p cinations... Honeys!’ p a ‘H
Moona Lisa , SoCa l ’s
s s e t s o H r o r r o H BY SCOTT SHAW!
Lisa Clark as Moona Lisa. Digitally enhanced image. All images accompanying this article are courtesy of Scott Shaw!
When I was a kid, I wanted to have one of four professions when I grew up: a paleontologist, a cartoonist, a kids’ show host who aired cartoons on TV, or a weirdo who would introduce and make fun of monster movies on TV as a horror host. Of course, I never grew up. Ask my family! At least one of those goals worked out for me. So, what was it like to be a 12-year-old monster-boy when an attractive horror hostess from the Moon provided the finest cheese of low-budget sci-fi entertainment every Saturday afternoon? I should know. It was the same year that I read my first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland (specifically, the 22nd issue, coverdated Apr. 1963) when, in March 1963, Science Fiction Theater premiered on Saturday afternoons at 4:00 P.M. on KOGO-TV, Channel 10 in San Diego, California. The show ran Fifties-vintage monster/horror/sci-fi RETROFAN RETROFAN
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movies. Moona Lisa was its female horror hostess. And if you ever watched her host Science Fiction Theater, it’s very likely that you never forgot her. In case you missed RetroFan #2 (cover-featuring Elvira) and #6 (with Svengoolie), here’s a bit of history that should explain what horror hosts are and how they were spawned. The first TV horror host was actually a horror hostess, Los Angeles’ Vampira, portrayed by Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi, a.k.a. Maila Nurmi. Vampira hosted The Vampira Show (KABC-TV, 1954–1955), in which she introduced scary, suspenseful movies and appeared in commercial breaks. She also was seen in the films The Beat Generation and Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space. Her make-up and costume were closely based on cartoonist Charles Addams’ gaunt beauty Morticia, a decade before the 1964 debut of ABC’s The Addams Family. In October 1957, Universal Studios released 52 pre-1948 monster/horror/ suspense films through Screen Gems for syndication on television. Local stations that bought the package aired the movies in two-hour slots (with commercials) on weekends, usually late at night, under the blanket title Shock Theatre. In 1958, 20 more films from those genres were released to television as Son of Shock. Teenage monsters, atomic mutants, and sky-high kaiju had been the stars of a popular wave of new and profitable low-budget movies since the early Fifties [see last issue’s Teenage Monsters article for more info—ed.]. There was one problem. Most of the movies in both releases were far less than two hours in length, and a few were barely an hour long. Even after the time consumed by multiple TV commercials, there was still a significant amount of time to fill. And that’s when someone thought that a having a spooky “host” to introduce and joke about whatever movie was scheduled. A New York City actor named John Zacherle was hired to be Roland, the horror host of WCAU’s Shock Theater, which first aired on October 7, 1957. Dressed like an unhealthy undertaker, Roland lived in a 66
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crypt with his departed wife “My Dear” and his lab assistant Igor. In 1958, thanks to his college pal and American Bandstand creator Dick Clark—who christened Zacherle (also spelled “Zacherley”) as “The Cool Ghoul”—with the assistance and backing of Clark in 1958, he recorded a 45rpm record, “Dinner With Drak,” which broke the Top Ten nationally. The monster craze began to accelerate. Before long, most of America’s major cities had at least one local horror host to call their very own. But the lucrative (ha!) horror-host industry was occupied almost entirely by men, even though a woman created the concept. Horror hosts were primarily men who already worked for a local television station—announcers, weathermen, and kids’ show hosts were often approached—who were offered the job because they were naturally funny guys who were open to putting on a costume and telling corny monster jokes on Saturday nights in exchange for a few more bucks—very few!—added to their pay envelope. Some horror hosts, like Ernie Anderson and Gene Moss, went on to very legitimate careers doing voiceover announcing for major TV networks. But that was many years ago. Now, for the Moona Lisa with Famous most part, local stations Monsters of Filmland editor barely have the funds for Forest J Ackerman. competent news shows, let alone horror hosts. Fortunately, we still have MeTV’s Svengoolie, a beloved Chicago horror host portrayed by Rich Koz, who’s enjoyed fame and rubber-chicken pelting after over 40 years of playing Svengoolie. There are a lot of other new horror hosts out there, all on the Internet.
WHO WAS THE MYSTERIOUS COSMOSINA?
The horror-host craze included the San Diego television market, with a lovely lady named Moona Lisa who lived on the Moon. She had long, straight, black hair with bangs and wore stiletto heels and a mod, black catsuit that showed a bit of cleavage, accessorized with a live python wrapped around her lithe body. Moona Lisa hosted her program from her Moon Base, with the Earth seen in
The oddball world of scott shaw!
the lunar sky through a circular window. With a soft, seductive voice, she introduced and commented on sci-fi, horror, and monster movies while sitting on a set resembling the crater-pocked surface of the Moon, with dry ice “smoke” curling around her feet. That’s why she preferred to be described as a “heavenly host.” There is no recorded information regarding when or where the actress who played Moona Lisa—Jeanne Romer, later known as Lisa Clark—was born, or anything about her youth. Thanks to Terence Stanford, who interviewed Lisa Clark in 1993, we do have her own words that describe her experiences in entertainment. “My twin sister, Laura Elliot, and I were always in drama school, acting, or dance class,” she told Stanford. “Our encouragement to go Moona Lisa into films, stage, and on her set at TV was precisely the KOGO-TV in San opposite. A heady dose Diego. (INSET of discouragement BELOW) The from older members sisters (no, we of the family. All in the don’t know professions— ‘respectwho’s who in able.’ Show business? this photo; do ‘Never heard of it.’ you?) in the “Besides, what could 1942 shocker two skinny twins have Saboteur. Saboteur to offer anyway? Well, a © Universal Pictures. meaty part as Siamese twins in a Hitchcock film, Saboteur (1942), for their introduction into show business. And all of this from a chance meeting in Del Mar at the races with a major Hollywood agent, Lou Irwin, who was sure we were absolutely right for the part. Fortunately, Alfred Hitchcock agreed.” Hitchcock’s Saboteur is about a man (played by Robert Cummings) who’s been framed for setting fire to a Los Angeles munitions factory and killing his best friend in the process. He’s on the run to escape police custody and at one point in the story, winds up hiding with a traveling circus. Among others he meets there are conjoined twins in the circus’ freak show; one twin wants to help the guy, but her sister wants to expose him. I’m sure that playing a conjoined twin for Alfred Hitchcock was good training to become a horror host! Fortunately, it led to more roles for Jeanne in motion pictures, including Swing Out the Blues (1943), Easter Parade (1948), The Great Gatsby (1949), The Big Heat (1953), and The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954). Ironically, in 1947, Jeanne and Laura Romer and Maila “Vampira” Nurmi were all showgirls in “Ken Murray’s Blackouts” live stage show. Later on, Jeanne and Laura had a
stint performing as the Doublemint Twins to promote the sale of chewing gum. Oh, the glamour of entertainment! In 1953, Jeanne Romer and her sister Laura also appeared in the “One Plus One” episode of Fireside Theater anthology TV series. Laura also appeared in a number of films and TV shows without Jeanne. By 1958, Jeanne/Lisa came down to San Diego along with her announcer-husband Jeff Clark to work at KOGO-TV, Channel 10. The two did an afternoon show together called News and Previews, along with a Sunday talk show and various commercials. Science Fiction Theater aired on Saturday afternoons at 4:00 on Channel 10 from March 2 to May 1963... but Moona Lisa was nowhere to be seen. The show’s first horror hostess was a lady named Cosmosina. And here’s another Moona-mystery: No one seems to know who portrayed Cosmosina! The promotional photo for the show definitely wasn’t Lisa Clark, but the shtick was the same: a body-hugging space costume, references that she was living in outer space, appearances in all of the commercial breaks, an opening that synched with the end segment, and an announcement of Science Fiction Theater’s next week’s movie. Whoever it was who portrayed Cosmosina, Lisa Clark’s husband Jeff recalled that Cosmosina, a young and beautiful lady, had worked at a resort spa in Tecate, California, and was spotted by a KOGO executive. He asked her if she would like to be on TV, but when the show quickly became a hit, she asked for a substantial raise and was denied. Moona Lisa was immediately brought in to replace Cosmosina, although the character occasionally appeared on further episodes of Science Fiction Theater. Now she was Moona Lisa’s cousin, portrayed by Lisa Clark’s twin sister Laura Elliot.
MOONA LISA, MEN ADORE YOU
But let’s get back to Jeanne Romer, who by this time had a new name, Lisa Clark, and a new job offer that came with a rather shocking surprise. As she told Terence Stanford, “In 1963, the station bought a package of science fiction and horror movies. RETROFAN RETROFAN
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so overwhelmed anything they had in L.A. … The people at Channel 9 were bored and disinterested until we got Jaime Shandera, who directed the show in San Diego. Then all of a sudden it was, ‘Look at what little San Diego can do!’”
In her later years, Lisa once said, “It was a wonderful experience, and in some ways I would enjoy still doing it. I gave my best to it. I feel I had class. I’m ready to go any time they call me back.” She still owned her original Moona Lisa wig and dress, too.
DANCING IN THE MOONALIGHT
Many thanks to Terence Sanford and James M. Fetters for their essential quotes and information.
Although she was no longer performing as Moona Lisa, Lisa Clark remained working for KOGO-TV for 15 more years. “I left the station in 1985 and still occasionally work with a company every now and then in L.A., but then just as producer, writer and also voiceovers. But my career as Moonling, although it’s in my heart and soul, ended there.” At some point after 1985, Lisa and Jeff Clark moved to Northern California to raise horses. She had a son and two grandchildren. She and her husband enjoyed travel and tennis at the Kona Kai Club. She was constantly recognized and was happy to share the memories with her adoring fans. Lisa Clark died on December 13, 2012. Looking back on her days as Moona Lisa, Lisa described what was behind the appeal of horror hosts. “I think people liked to be scared. Not deadly scared with guns and killing. I think people like mystery. I loved Nancy Drew mysteries as a child. The mystery of walking into a haunted house. I think there’s an element of loving to be scared by lightning or thunder. We respond to it. We know it’s an innocent horror, people are compelled to follow it. “The host brings an immediacy to it and takes us on our tour to something wonderful. It can be funny, it can be spooky. It’s the child in all of us that still loves Halloween.”
For 50 years (and counting), SCOTT SHAW! has written and drawn underground comix, mainstream comic books, comic strips, graphic novels, TV cartoons, toys, advertising, and video games. He has worked on such characters as Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew (which he co-created with Roy Thomas), Sonic the Hedgehog, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the Simpsons, the Futurama gang, the Muppet Babies, Garfield, the Garbage Pail Kids, and yes, even Annoying Orange. His career has garnered him four Emmy Awards, an Eisner Award, and a Humanities Award. Scott is also known for his “Oddball Comics Live!” visual presentation of “the craziest comic books ever published” and for his regular participation in “Quick Draw!” with Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés. He was also one of the teenagers who co-created what is currently known as Comic-Con International: San Diego, America’s biggest annual fan event. He can be reached at shawcartoons.com.
SUPER COLLECTOR
Popeye and Me Popeye preservationist Fred Grandinetti and his spinach-powered hero, in a 2022 illustration by Randy Milholland, current artist of the Sunday Popeye newspaper strip. Popeye © King Features Syndicate, Inc. All images accompanying this article are courtesy of Fred Grandinetti.
BY FRED GRANDINETTI I can recall in 1964 sitting with my father when we lived in Newton, Massachusetts. I was trying to draw Popeye’s face by making circular shapes. My father suggested I put the circles together, adding a sailor’s cap and pipe. This was one of my earliest attempts at doodling Popeye. I was the first one to grab the Record Advertiser newspaper in the evening, looking for the comic strips. I avidly followed Popeye’s newspaper adventures by Bud Sagendorf. Relatives always kept my passion for Popeye alive. My Aunt Rose Rizzo worked for Red Cross Pharmacy, located in Waltham, Massachusetts. She would bring me home Popeye toys usually sold on the spin racks. When I was three years old, I needed my tonsils taken out, and my Aunt Kaye DeMeo bought me an Olive Oyl doll while I was recovering. I recall some of my earliest Popeye items being Popeye’s Playbook by Whitman (1961) and the colorful Popeye Trace and Erase Slate Book by Mego (1966). When we moved to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1966, our new home was closer to nearby big department stores. My parents let me roam the toy departments, and I yelled “Popeye!” whenever I saw him on the shelf. Zayres, located in Waltham, and Child World, in Natick, were big suppliers of Popeye merchandise. I fondly remember my father bringing me home the Talking Popeye hand puppet by Mattel in 1967. Unintentionally, he proved to me who was the real Santa Claus. In 1968, while in bed on Christmas Eve, I heard my father huffing and puffing. The next morning my brother and
Fred Grandinetti in 1967, holding the Mattel Talking Popeye doll given to him by his father, Dominic.
I headed for our gifts and I walked right past a Popeye bop bag by Coleco. I had to explain to my bewildered father that I heard him blow it up the night before. On Saturday mornings, my brother Dominic (Dom) and I always watched Rex Trailer’s [kids’ television show] Boomtown, which aired several different cartoons. When I was a Cub Scout, our troop was on an episode of the long-running series. The director told the scouts to watch the children playing a game. My back was turned around watching the cartoon “Popeye and the Pirates” on a small black-and-white television set. Oddly enough, the morning this episode was broadcast, Boomtown aired all-color Popeye theatricals from Famous Studios. My mother said they did it because I was on the show.
MY HERO!
Going through the Watertown public school system was difficult. I was brutally bullied for being involved in art and theater. I was tossed against lockers, tripped in the halls, pushed down flights of stairs, and had gum thrown in my hair. I would come home very depressed, but thankfully a Popeye theatrical cartoon was always waiting for me to watch on WMUR-TV’s The Uncle Gus Show. I would put a sketchpad on my lap and attempt to draw what I was watching. At an early age I recognized what the word “animator” meant, and it was this person, or persons, who decided what Popeye looked like in a particular film. When I discovered the book Popeye the Sailor by Nostalgia Press (1971) and the work of the sailor’s creator E. C. Segar, a new Popeye universe had opened up for me. From Segar I read the works of Bela Zaboly, Tom Sims, and Ralph Stein. Each of these talented individuals put their own spin on Popeye’s comic strip adventures. Near the holidays in 1984, I came across a publication that listed the names of people RETROFAN
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2 3 1 selling old toys. One had several Popeye coloring books published by LOWE. That began my tradition, which continues to this day, of buying old Popeye items, wrapping each up, and opening them Christmas morning. Unique items from my collection include:
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1. A series of small books published by Euro Kids from 2012. The images were pulled from the cartoons produced by King Features Syndicate during 1960 and 1961. The titles are County Fair, Strange Happenings, Gem Jam, Aladdin’s Lamp, Voo-Doo to You Too, and Track Meet Cheat. 2. Popeye #7, a comic book published in 1959 by L. Miller & Sons from the United Kingdom. The issue featured a storyline beginning in December of 1954 through early 1955 written by Ralph Stein with artwork from Bill Zaboly. This team’s run of the comic strip has yet to be reprinted in the United States. 3. A Popeye merchandise catalog from 1962, which was produced by King Features Syndicate. It featured 70 different products that were available to retailers. 4. A series of small Popeye paperback books from Japan’s 21st Century Publishing House. These books printed in English Bud Sagendorf’s Sunday pages, beginning from the early Sixties, in black and white. The series, printed in 2009, concluded with the first year of Sunday pages by Sagendorf’s successor, Hy Eisman. Eisman’s artwork was featured on each cover. 5. Toys For All Seasons produced a rack toy called Brutus Construction Company, where the bearded brute was the star! 6. H-G Toys’ Popeye’s Pop Gun, from the Sixties, consisting of a red plastic gun and cork which could shoot up to 20 feet. 7. Also from the Sixties: M. Schimmel Son’s Popeye Stuff and Lace Dolls, depicting the swab in a blue sailor’s uniform. 8. The same toy company produced a Popeye Printing Set in 1957. The stamps were images of Popeye, Rough House, J. Wellington Wimpy, Swee’pea, Olive Oyl, and the “Mean Man”! This item was produced during the time the name Bluto could no longer be used. The moniker Brutus had not yet been decided upon. 9. In 2015 my brother Dom visited Popeye’s Emporium in Anchorage, Alaska. He brought back a Popeye doll constructed entirely of colored wires.
HE YAM POPEYE’S HISTORIAN
My writing career began after reading Popeye was featured in 454 animated cartoons. This was an amazing achievement not mentioned in the mainstream press. I began writing about 74
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Popeye’s film career, emphasizing this historic achievement. Eventually I had articles published in Animato!, Hollywood Then & Now, and Filmfax magazines. Soon my articles on the sailor man were appearing in different periodicals and newspapers. In 1993, when the sailor celebrated his 60th anniversary in film, the Associated Press interviewed me and took photographs of my memorabilia. A photo of myself surrounded by Popeye merchandise was published in hundreds of newspapers. While researching Popeye’s animated career I wrote to Jackson Beck, who was the voice of both Bluto and Brutus. I asked him the reason for the change in name. The information he provided led to solving this often-asked question. It was due to Paramount Pictures believing that the character of Bluto was created for the Fleischer cartoons, when actually he first appeared in the comic strip by King Features Syndicate. When King Features began producing Popeye cartoons for television, to be safe, they renamed the character Brutus. My first publication on the sailor man was called Popeye: The Collectible (1950 to 1990), from Krause Publications. This was followed by Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History (McFarland, 1993); Popeye Le Marin (Dreamland, 1996); an updated version of Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History, also by McFarland, in 2004; He Am What He Am: Jack Mercer, the Voice of Popeye (BearManor Media, 2007); and Popeye the 1960s TV Cartoons (BearManor Media, 2022). Over the years, my articles on Popeye and his crew have been seen on numerous websites including Boomer Magazine, The Film Detective, Animation Scoop, Skwigly Animation Magazine, i-Italy, Cartoon Research, Bleeding Cool, Entertainment Magazine, CBR.com, and Searchmytrash. In 1992, I began hosting and producing a cable-access series called Drawing With Fred. The award-winning program features
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drawing lessons, original water safety and fitness tips, and then-president animated cartoons. of King Features For several years I dressed up as Popeye for Watertown’s discovered I was the Memorial Day Parade. I often doodle the sailor and his crew to raise one asking people money for veterans and animal shelters. My Popeye activism began to help, I was hardly when animation historian and author Jerry Beck informed me that his best friend. the Cartoon Network was planning on airing restored versions of Eventually, in 2007, the Fleischer Popeye theatricals were the sailor’s black-and-white films. However, the network was not released on DVD, followed by the films produced by Famous going to provide the funding needed for this project. I was asked to Studios. A press release announcing the first DVD release stated: do so, and the series went into production. The Popeye Show not only “Popeye is the only major theatrical franchise in film history that featured classic cartoons but provided background information never received a legitimate home video release. For years Warner on each film aired. Unfortunately, because the network made no Bros. had been inundated by consumer letters demanding the licensing revenue from Popeye, they began airing the program release of Popeye, an underdog, a hero, a character who always Monday mornings at 1:30 a.m. I quickly took out advertisements represents good, and WHV is proud to bring this illustrious collecin several film-related magazines asking viewers to contact the tion to DVD.” The current personnel at King Features Syndicate Cartoon Network’s public relations department, asking for an have worked with Warner Bros. and released future editions. earlier time period. Cartoon Network received hundreds of emails, My most gratifying experience with Popeye happened by acciand the series moved to 9:30 p.m. and later 7:30 p.m. on Sunday dent. I donated a Popeye doll that was a duplicate in my collection evenings. What the network originally planned as a 13-week series to a local children’s hospice. The woman who received it called me led to a three-year run airing 135 cartoons. and said the terminally ill children hug the doll for strength. That Unfortunately, the black-and-white Popeye cartoons produced remark gave me pause, but then I remembered in the comic strips by the Fleischer Studios never received an official home video and animated cartoons the sailor was always doing things without release. Although Warner Bros. owned the films, the studio expecting a reward. Since then, I have donated a number of Popeye believed they had to strike a deal with King Features Syndicate, items to children’s hospitals and hospices. I cannot picture Bugs copyright holder of the Bunny or Mickey Mouse Popeye characters. For having the same effect. unknown reasons King Because of the was dragging their feet, intense bullying I while more and more received growing up cartoon characters were and into my early adult having their library of years, I was not a happy films released to the young man. However, home viewer. Leonard whether it was reading Maltin wrote in Animato! the sailor in the funnies magazine that it was or watching his antics King Features Syndicate on television, Popeye who was blocking the brought me much release of these classic needed comfort. I owe the (LEFT) One of several ads paid for by the cartoons. I was getting one-eyed sailor man a lot! author to have The Popeye Show moved early-morning phone When asked why I to an earlier time period on the Cartoon calls from fans wanting spend so much time, Network. (RIGHT) Article spotlighting to know what the holdup was. As with my work on The money, and effort on Grandinetti’s efforts to have the Fleischer Popeye Show, I wrote articles on this subject and asked keeping Popeye out there, Popeye cartoons released on DVD. From the people to contact the public relations departments my response is, “I Am Star Gazette’s January 13, 2006 edition. Popeye at both Warner Bros. and King Features. When the What I Am.” © King Features Syndicate, Inc. RETROFAN
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