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ER EISN RD AWAINEE! M NO
43 The crazy cool culture we
grew up with
CONTENTS Issue #8 April 2020
18
Columns and Special Features
Departments
3
25
2
Retro Music Meet the Cowsills
Retrotorial
18
Too Much TV Quiz
16
Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon Honey West, the Private Eyeful
34
Celebrity Crushes
25
18
35
51
Retro Television June Lockhart interview
74
41
Oddball World of Scott Shaw! The Bedrock Chronicles
69
43
Super Collector Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman Collectibles by Terry Haney
51
Retro Travel The Popeye Picnic – Chester, Illinois
Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria Mars Attacks
3
RetroFad The Smiley Face
74
Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Getting MAD in the Seventies
79
RetroFanmail
59
80
Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Mornings ElectraWoman and DynaGirl
35
69
59
Bonus Interview Bionic Woman writer Kenneth Johnson
ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover by Scott Saavedra
69
RetroFan™ #8, April 2020. Published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $67 Economy US, $101 International, $27 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cowsills “now” photograph by Charles Bush. Six Million Dollar Man © Universal Television. ElectraWoman and DynaGirl © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions. Mars Attacks ® & © The Topps Company, Inc. MAD magazine © EC Publications. The Flintstones © Hanna-Barbera Productions. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2020 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Shaun Clancy Michael Eury Ernest Farino Terry Haney Rod Labbe Andy Mangels Brian K. Morris Will Murray Scott Saavedra Jerry Smith Scott Shaw! DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Debbie Brooks Charles Bush EC Publications, Inc. DC Comics Mark Evanier Hake’s Auctions Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. Heritage Auctions Mark Thomas McGee Bill Mumy Matthew Rettenmund Rose Rummel-Eury Squire Rushnell The Topps Company, Inc. Pete Von Sholly VERY SPECIAL THANKS Sergio Aragonés Bob Cowsill Paul Cowsill Susan Cowsill Kenneth Johnson June Lockhart Judy Strangis
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2
RetroFan
April 2020
I never met a flower girl, much less love one, but man, did I love the Cowsills’ music when I was a kid! I still do! The Sixties’ most outasite family band, the Cowsills, from Newport, Rhode Island, became a sensation with their 1967 single, “The Rain, the Park and Other Things.” They were clean cut and wholesome, looking like the family next door—why, their first album’s jacket even opened up to reveal a super-sized photo of the Cowsill brood at the kitchen table! For the next few years, the Cowsills were everywhere: on stage, on the charts (“We Can Fly,” “Indian Lake,” “Hair,” and more), on Ed Sullivan and other variety shows, in teen zines, and hawking milk and other products. At times you could even hear them without seeing them, thanks to their vocals on the themes for the movie The Impossible Years and the TV series Love, American Style. These real-life singing siblings—with their mom and little sis as part of the group—even inspired TV’s The Partridge Family (whose studio-created sound also appropriated the Cowsills’ cheerful harmonies), and under other circumstances might’ve actually starred in that musical sitcom themselves. But it turns out that behind the scenes, the home life of my favorite family band wasn’t always as happy as their music… and as quickly as they became superstars, the Cowsills seemed to disappear. In his “Meet the Cowsills” interviews leading off this issue, Rod Labbe—who first appeared in our pages with RetroFan #5’s TV dinners article—gets comfy with Bob, Paul, and Susan Cowsill as they open up about their fame, music, home life, and legacy, which continues to this day with concert tours and amazing new music. And while we’re in the family spirit, this ish we welcome one of TV’s most beloved mothers, June Lockhart, the delightful Lassie and Lost in Space matriarch extraordinaire, in an interview. A few other celebs also drop by in other articles: DynaGirl herself, Judy Strangis; Six Million Dollar Man creator Kenneth Johnson; and MAD’s maddest artist, Sergio Aragonés! Between our regular columnists firing on all cylinders to our guest contributors swinging by with bonus features, this issue might be our best yet! What could be better? How about two more issues of RetroFan a year? That’s right, with this issue we are now published bimonthly (that’s every other month for the calendar-impaired)! Your enthusiastic support of our first seven issues has encouraged our fearless leader, publisher John Morrow, to increase our frequency. So whether you subscribe or pick us up online, at Barnes & Noble, or at your friendly neighborhood comic shop, thank you! And tell your friends. We can never have too many fellow RetroFans. So kick off your sandals, plop down on your beanbag chair, and get ready for another groovy grab bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with.
RETRO MUSIC
Cowsills Meet the
Bob, Paul, and Susan! by Rod Labbe
It’s early August, 1968, and mom is driving us to our local shopping center, the Elm Plaza. My younger sister’s lost in 16 Magazine. “Must be a groovy article,” I comment from the front seat. “You’re hardly blinking.” She looks up. “I’m reading about the Cowsills. Gonna buy their single today, at Grant’s.” “What’s a Cowsill? And what single?” I wanted to know, since I’d more than likely be hearing it day in and day out. “‘Indian Lake.’ They had an outasite record last year, too, called ‘The Rain, the Park and Other Things.’ Paula played it for us at my slumber party.” “They’re some new rock group?” “Yeah. A family of boys. Their mother, Barbara, and kid sister, Susan, are in the band, too. Ugh. I hate Susan’s guts.” Now this intrigued me. “Really! Why the hate?” “Because she’s my age and gets to sing with all these hunky guys, and that’s what I wanna do. How does she rate? I can shake a
tambourine just as good, and my dancin’ ain’t bad, neither.” “Either. The proper word is either.” “Pfft! Leave me alone.” “Wellll,” I drawled, playing devil’s advocate, “Susan’s in 16, so she’s already famous, right up there with Bobby Sherman and Davy Jones. You’re unknown. As for her brothers…”
(ABOVE) Paul, Susan, and Bob Cowsill in a 2019 promotional photo. Photo by Danny Clinch. Courtesy of Bob Cowsill. (ABOVE INSET) Louise Palanker’s documentary Family Band, released in 2011 and originally aired on Showtime, revealed the Cowsills’ bright moments and dark secrets. © 2011 Thinking Bee Productions. (LEFT) “You take a bus marked ‘Lakewood Drive,’ and you keep on riding till you’re out of the city”… but the Cowsills’ popular single “Indian Lake” could be found in various pressings, with photo sleeves. © MGM.
RetroFan
April 2020
3
RETRO music
“Okay, our label just dropped us, and our record bombed, so I’m gonna lay low and not make any predictions about this one.” At Mercury, we were assigned to Artie Kornfeld, staff producer. Artie was 22, maybe 23, and not too jazzed about working with a family group. Once he got to know us, however, Artie realized our commitment. He became our George Martin! RF: He taught you the fundamentals? BC: Yes, and what an excellent teacher! His kindness and support were invaluable. With Artie, we put out three records. Two flopped, but one, “Most of All,” went to #112 on Billboard, before stalling and dying. That we had even made the charts was impressive! Even with increased airplay and chart activity, Mercury dropped us… but that was okay, because Artie had faith in our talent. So strongly, in fact, he quit Mercury, too! RF: Artie wrote your first hit, “The Rain, the Park and Other Things.” BC: Otherwise known as the “Flower Girl” song. Artie composed it with his partner, Steve Duboff. They took us into the studio again, we made this great track, and applied the vocals. RF: You had a record label interested? BC: Nope! No record deal. After we’d finished, the powers that be—my dad, for sure—thought Mom would be just what the group needed to set it apart. Bill and I were like, “This is the kiss of death.” A typical teenager’s response. Even Artie was against it. Singing and playing with your mom? Oh, God. Back into the studio we went, to do her vocals. She’s so afraid, her knees are knocking. Finally I had to stand behind her, and we sang the part together. That’s me and Mom doubling the high melody, “I love the flower girl” part. RF: You were signed to a long-term contract with MGM soon afterwards. The pendulum was swinging! BC: MGM bought us lock, stock, and barrel. Meanwhile, I graduated that
6
RetroFan
April 2020
As far as 16 Magazine readers were concerned, the Cowsills were America’s First Family of the late Sixties. 16 © Primedia.
June [1967], and “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” takes off the following autumn. Our band was evolving, growing from four to include Mom and seven year-old Sue, who was just a bundle of energy. Paul joined the group, too, as “Mr. Soul Man.” In those early days, if we wanted to take audiences up a notch, Paul would come out wearing a white suit. We’d introduce him as our “soul brother,” and he’d lead the audience in singing “Mickey’s Monkey”! A great performer. RF: Signing with a major, and you’re barely out of high school. Awesome! BC: Unbelievable. Although we’d been dropped by two labels previously and had three flops in a row, this seemed like something special. MGM put us on a promotional tour, with dates at MGM conventions across the country. That’s when things started moving. Our song jumped on Billboard and Cashbox at #89, with a red bullet. Time to ride that bullet right up to Number One! We heard it while touring. What a thrill! The Cowsills had a smash record! RF: It propelled you right up to #1 in Cashbox and #2 on Billboard. BC: A million-selling hit record, and we’re suddenly the #1 family band in America. We’re doing TV variety hours, like Kraft Music Hall, The Johnny Cash Show, and Hollywood Palace—you name it, and we’re there. NBC gave us our own special, gueststarring Buddy Ebsen, and the teen mags loved us! RF: 16 Magazine was my first introduction to the Cowsills. Summer of ’68. BC: Tiger Beat and 16 embraced us because of Barry and John, just so cute and innocent. Those magazines were the go-to place for information about our family,
what the band was doing, the whole nine yards. Gloria Stavers ruled as gatekeeper at 16, and we hit it off with her instantly. All of that helped market our image, for better or for worse. We were right there in Gloria’s wheelhouse, on covers and in issue after issue. We rode that bullet, man! RF: Tell us about The Ed Sullivan Show. BC: CBS broadcast The Ed Sullivan Show live Sunday nights at 8 o’clock. Everyone—and I mean everyone—had dreams of gueststarring on Ed’s show. In those days, there were only four stations: ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. We were signed to a one-million
THE PIED PIPER OF WOODSTOCK Musician-turned-record producer Artie Kornfeld produced some of the Cowsills’ earliest records, including “The Rain, the Park and Other Things,” which he also co-wrote. He is best known as the man behind 1969’s epic Woodstock concerts, and shares his story in his book, The Pied Piper of Woodstock, available at www.artiekornfeld-woodstock.com.
RETRO music
dollar, ten-show deal. Biggest ever, bigger than the Beatles. Ed just loved us. RF: So why’d you make only two appearances? BC: During one performance, Bill’s microphone went dead. This was live television. Dad freaked out and got in to an intense argument with Ed’s son-in-law, the show’s producer Bob Precht, and Ed took the other eight back. RF: I’ve seen clips, and you all had such a professional manner. John rocked it hardcore on the drums. No butterflies? BC: By that time, we’d been performing for eight years. I was ten when I did our
The Cowsills helped make Ed Sullivan a “really big show.” The Ed Sullivan Show ©
CBS/Sullivan Productions.
first gig! So, no, I didn’t have butterflies, not during the first episode. I was nervous during the Ed Sullivan Christmas show, though! We’re singing Christmas carols, and I had “Sleigh Ride.” Except I was having trouble remembering the bridge—the part about Currier and Ives. God, I was panicking, and if you look closely, you can see cold terror in my eyes. RF: I never would’ve suspected. You looked like you’re having a ball. BC: It been years, but I’ve never forgotten that cold feeling of approaching doom. Remember, we were singing live— nobody lip-synched. The kids all did well, considering that pressure. Susan, bless her heart, was a natural.
RF: 1969 was the height of your career as MGM hated the song because it didn’t a group? fit the Cowsills’ accepted template. One BC: Yes, 1969. We had our biggest of those radio stations held a hit with “Hair” and also little contest. If listeners recorded the theme song to guessed the group ABC’s Love, American Style singing “Hair,” they’d for a season. Whatever win a mug and a T-shirt. my father got involved Nobody could, and with withered on the vine, demand grew and grew. and Love, American Style MGM decided to release was no exception. Even our it, after all, and it shot up © ABC. milk commercials lasted only a the charts. Our biggest seller! year. People just did not want to deal with him. We were going to be a summer RF: Not long afterward, Bill was forced replacement for The Carol Burnett Show, out of the group, and your direction and Dad demanded 30,000 bucks up front, floundered. for an old Navy buddy. They wouldn’t give BC: It went like this: We were getting it to him, and he walked out. That was the ready for a big tour, and Dad had found end of our summer replacement series. pot remnants in Bill’s car. “Okay, into the living room!” he barked, and we all RF: According to Family Band, “Hair” went. In a military family, you didn’t almost fell into your lap! talk back, you obeyed. So, we’re sitting BC: You wouldn’t believe how we came to around, and Dad tells us what he record that song. Carl Reiner, the famous found. “When people don’t follow the writer and comic—he’d created The Dick rules, there are consequences.” Bill was Van Dyke Show [which you read about in officially out of the group and out of our pages last issue—ed.]—was putting our family, too. together a TV special for NBC called The Thinking back, that decision Wonderful World of Pizzazz [broadcast ended the Cowsills. Bill and I had been March 18, 1969], starring Michele Lee. We together since we were boys, so to have were asked to do a bit involving wigs. Just that jarring, horrible disruption… well, a funny little comedy segment, where the there was no fixing it. kids and Mom would model wigs while lipsynching to “Hair.” RF: Was there any time for fine-tuning before the tour? RF: From the Broadway musical Hair. BC: None. We boarded a plane, and Odd choice for a family band tagged as now we’re six, not seven. Our leader’s lightweight. missing. I took over Bill’s parts and BC: Exactly why it appealed to us. pulled it off with some DNA help. Listening to the cast album, Bill and Paul took over my parts, and so on I agreed the song had strong vocal down. We were scrambling! Wherever possibilities. We took it into the studio, we performed after that, I felt Bill’s just the guys—without Mom or Susan absence. You can’t cut out the heart and to start, and nobody from our record expect the body to live. Our chemistry company—and laid down the basic track. had been messed with by Dad. He Other than our first release on Joda, we’d fired Artie Kornfeld, too, followed by never played our own instruments, but this [producer] Wes Ferrell. time, we did the entire thing ourselves. At that stage of our careers, we’d had a few RF: Wow. A genuine derailment. hits, but nothing out of our comfort zone. BC: You said it. Derailed and headed for Your mindset is different as a younger disaster. person; you want to be creative because you can. That’s how we were. RF: Jumping ahead, your newer music While on tour, we carted the acetate of is just beautifully done. “Some Good “Hair” from radio station to radio station.
RetroFan
April 2020
7
WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON
TV’s Private Eyeful
by Will Murray Years ago, a small publisher asked me to revive the famous female private eye, Honey West. As someone who loved the 1965– 1966 TV show of that name, I naturally jumped at the opportunity. One of the first things I did was to watch a bunch of the episodes and for the first time read some of G. G. Fickling’s original novels. Although the opportunity soon fizzled, I always cherished it. Honey was a fun character to write. For this column, I delve into Honey West and how she became one of the most famous TV characters of the Sixties—even though she lasted only one season.
Burke’s Law Spin-off
It all started with the husband-and-wife team of Forrest (“Skip”) and Gloria Fickling. They knew Richard Prather, whose Shell Scott private-eye novels were selling fabulously in the era of Mike Hammer. Skip wondered why Prather didn’t take a stab at a female private eye. Overcommitted, Prather countered with, “Why don’t you try it?” The Ficklings huddled and they came up with sexy L.A. P.I. Honey West, which Skip wrote as “G. G. Fickling” with Gloria pitching in as “sounding board and technical advisor.” (G. G. was Gloria’s maiden-name initials.) 18
RetroFan
April 2020
“I first thought of Marilyn Monroe,” Skip explained, “and then I thought of Mike Hammer and decided to put the two together. We thought the mostused name for someone you really like is Honey. And she lives in the West, so there was her name.” In the 1957 debut novel, This Girl for Hire, Honey took over her father’s investigative practice after he was murdered. It was a solid setup, and This Girl for Hire led to several semi-salacious sequels, for busty Honey had a tendency to lose her clothes at lot. By 1965, Honey fever had cooled, but she was still in print. Enter Four Star Productions’ Aaron Spelling. While visiting Great Britain, he caught an episode of The Avengers, which starred Patrick Macnee as British secret agent John Steed and Honor Blackman as his associate, Dr. Cathy Gale. Blackman was adept (ABOVE) Live and in living black and white, Anne Francis as Sixties sexy sleuth Honey West and images from the show’s title sequence. Courtesy of Ernest Farino. Honey West © 2020 Gloria Fickling.
Anne Francis flanked by “G. G. Fickling,” Honey West creators Skip and Gloria Fickling. In 2017, the documentary Honey West: The Gloria Fickling Story, produced by Nick Jerge, was screened in Southern California, an event which also honored the then-91-year-old visionary. © Gloria Fickling.
at judo and liked to do her crimefighting dressed in a black leather catsuit. Spelling thought such a bold character would be a hit with American audiences. Returning to the States, he acquired rights to Honey West. Then he proceeded to reimagine Honey in the vein of Cathy Gale. “We met with ABC to tell them our idea about this sexy female private detective,” he recalled, “and I had Nolan Miller draw sketches of this slinky, beautiful Honey for them. In one she carried a whip and the other she was sitting with a tiger. ‘And that,’ I said, ‘is the show.’ Like James Bond, it was based on a series of books, and ABC bought it immediately.” Spelling tried to lure Honor Blackman stateside, but she had gone on to greater glory as Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. So, he settled for Anne Francis—if you call that settling. The 34-year-old veteran actress had recently appeared on an episode of Burke’s Law, which starred Gene Barry as a wealthy playboy police detective. It was smart and stylish, virtually an updating of Barry’s turn as Bat Masterson. Playing the killer on an episode was a coveted gig, much the way being a Batman villain would soon become. “I enjoyed the experience,” Francis said at the time. “I suspect there is a wicked streak in all of us. Most actresses lead quiet, normal, humdrum lives. The chance to be a wanton hussy killer in the bargain was something I found impossible to resist.” In her career, Francis had avoided starring in a TV series. She had done a sitcom pilot called Claudia, but realized that comedy wasn’t her strength. Also, she had seen too many actresses sink into neuroses under the relentless TV grind. “I wanted an offbeat role,” Francis reminisced, “something different that I could sink my teeth into, and which would make the risk of becoming a neurotic worthwhile. And then an idea came to me when I saw the Amos Burke [Burke’s Law] series. Why not have a female counterpart? As much as I liked it, I never mentioned the idea to anyone. Then, Aaron Spelling, who created Burke, called me and told me about the character of Honey, which was exactly what I had in mind. I guess we had both been on the same psychic wavelength. This character Honey West is sophisticated and a swinging-type gal. I like her.” Spelling decided to test Honey on an episode of Burke’s Law titled “Who Killed the Jackpot?” [Season 2/Episode 30, original
Originally, Honey West paperbacks featured the same type of gritty, illustrated covers you’d find on other gumshoe novels, but after the TV show’s premiere photo covers featuring Anne Francis were common. © Gloria Fickling.
airdate 4-21-65]. When one of Honey’s clients is murdered, she runs afoul of Captain Burke, and sparks fly. Throughout, the wary rivals are constantly colliding and trading witty repartee as they pursue their parallel investigations. Honey is supported by Sam Bolt, who works for her agency and operates sophisticated surveillance equipment out of a disguised TV repair van. John Ericson, who had co-starred with Francis in the 1955 film Bad Day at Black Rock, played Bolt. Burke and Honey have a superficially flirtatious but professionally competitive relationship, which perfectly establishes her independent character. Burke is chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce, while Honey drives a Jaguar convertible. Both characters reeked of glamour and sophistication— two Aaron Spelling trademarks.
The Girl (with an Ocelot) Next Door
Audience response was positive, but Spelling and ABC proceeded cautiously. Burke’s Law was an hour show. They shot a half-hour black-and-white Honey West pilot. Prior to 1965, no detective drama had ever starred a woman. RetroFan
April 2020
19
THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!
The Bedrock
Chronicles by Scott Shaw!
While growing up in the Fifties, I was a kid with five primary interests in life: drawing, paleontology, comic books, animated cartoons, and monster movies. I was considered a “weirdo” by my supposedly normal classmates. (Fortunately, I also had a lot of weirdo pals, a junior support group.) But one day in 1960, a cultural phenomenon came along that changed my life and even gave me legitimacy and even a sliver of hipness with the “normals”… probably because it embraced four of my five favorite things in the world. Felix the Cat was the first image ever transmitted on commercial television, and as American households began to embrace the tube, it wasn’t difficult to have the opportunity to view Terrytoons’ “Farmer Alfalfa” cartoons in the morning, Max Fleischer’s “Superman” cartoons at lunch, MGM’s “Tom and Jerry” and Disney’s “Donald Duck” cartoons after school, and UPA’s “Gerald McBoing-Boing” in the evening—all in the same day. It offered an entertaining and informative introduction to the history of animation to those of us who were observant, but there came a point where I realized I’d watched every one of them enough times that I was beginning to experience allergic reactions. Despite no access to books on the subject (if there were any at the time), I managed to mentally cobble together a rough history of animated cartoons, primarily from information I pried from my parents and grandmother. But repeated viewings of the surprisingly diverse array of cartoons available on TV and at marathon cartoon matinees had saturated my brain. Fortunately, the cartoon cavalry had arrived in the (ABOVE) Fred helps show off our esteemed columnist with a hand-drawn poster he drew in the sixth grade for a school election. “This was the year after The Flintstones premiered,” Scott says, “and the show was a big deal, the equivalent of the buzz that The Simpsons generated.” The young candidate also handed out shipping tags to his “potential constituency” with a hand-drawn Flintstones character on each and his slogan, “You really ought to vote for Scott!” And they did! Scott won the election. © Hanna-Barbera Productions.
form of Hanna-Barbera Productions and Jay Ward Productions, remnants of MGM and UPA with new, hip, and smart cartoon shows. Upon their first airings, I was an immediate fan of H-B’s Ruff and Reddy and Jay Ward’s Rocky and His Friends, both serialized adventures of funny animals. Ward’s cartoons were funnier, but Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon series—which soon included Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw—had better production values and were more plentiful. I loved ’em all, but none would hold a firefly to what was about to come. H-B’s publicists promised TV Guide and other publications that their new cartoon series would appear at night, partially because it was supposedly aimed at adults—and that it was a prehistoric version of The Honeymooners starring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, a very popular live-action television series. My eight-year-old self was ecstatic. I already loved a prehistoric story arc of H-B’s Ruff and Reddy that introduced a lost world inhabited by dinosaurs and the elusive Chickasaurus. And being a fat kid, I dug Jackie Gleason a lot, too. Plus, Hanna-Barbera Productions was my favorite cartoon studio. So this new animated primetime show was sounding better by the minute. But a half-hour-long RetroFan
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The oddball world of scott shaw!
cartoon solely devoted to prehistory, dinosaurs, and a caveman who looked like my dad? And it’s called The Flintstones?!? I immediately became obsessed with the show, even before I’d ever seen it. As it loomed closer every day, I gathered more information about the show, including the depressing news that it would be airing on the same day and time as my latest waste of time, music lessons, either for the accordion or the violin. (I suffered through both.) Therefore, I launched a campaign to convince my culture-conscious parents that The Flintstones was not only gonna be the greatest cartoon show of all time (although I’d only seen a few pieces of publicity art in the San Diego Evening Tribune), it was gonna be absolutely life-changing in a way that music could never provide. I was considered a child prodigy by my teachers (“gifted” became the worst word in the English language), as well as being an entitled (and probably obnoxious) only child, so my parents eventually relented, I got my way, and yeah, The Flintstones changed my life, just like that. Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones premiered on ABC on Friday, September 30, 1960. (MeTV recently replicated that event by premiering The Flintstones on September 30, 2019.) And I was there. (No, not at Hanna-Barbera; that happened in 1978.) I was sitting six inches away from the black-andwhite TV screen, prepared with an arsenal of drawing implements and sketchpad paper. The episode, “The Flintstone Flyer,” is one of those “boys’ night out” stories that were standard fare in The Honeymooners, so even as a child, I realized that Hanna-Barbera had no qualms about appropriating the intellectual property of others. Years later, after editing the first episode of a show I produced for H-B, Bill Hanna actually advised me, “Kid, don’t create anything if you can steal it!” But I loved the whole thing, especially the bowling sequence and the sight gags with the prehistoric animals. Toward the end of the show, I distinctly recall leaning even closer to our TV set’s screen and quietly telling myself, “That’s what YOU’RE gonna do!!!” Halloween was right around the corner, and since Ben Cooper Fred Flintstone costumes were a year or two in the future, I made my own. In those days, marketing wasn’t so pervasively aggressive and licensees waited to sign up properties after 26
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they’d proven their popularity, so the first Flintstones products out there were the most easily produced: printed material such as comic books, coloring books, and card games. That was fine with me; the more print versions of the Flintstones, the more research images I had to teach myself how to draw cartoons— especially the Flintstones—then sell cartoons commissioned by my classmate for pennies, so I could afford to buy more funnybooks. It was like The Lion King’s Circle of Life for ten-year-old boy cartoonists. As the public popularity of The Flintstones grew, so did my collection of Flintstones merchandise, including the best “toy” I ever received, Lakeside’s “Draw the Flintstones TV Show Electric Drawing Set,” complete with a light board and model sheets. I felt like a pro. And when I write “the best toy I ever received,” I’m not joking. It helped me learn the process of cartooning, albeit in the simplest possible way. Only 15 years later, thanks to writer/editor/ quizmaster Mark Evanier, who had offices at H-B’s nearby studio, I was inking funnybook stories, including ones starring the Flintstones, for Marvel’s line of Hanna-Barbera comics. I worked for former Western Publishing editor Chase Craig, and later, for Mark. That led to writing and drawing stories starring a wide range of H-B characters. This gig directly led to a staff position at Hanna-Barbera Productions, first in their Layout and Model Design Departments. Eventually, I was drawing storyboards, then writing scripts, then doing presentations of new show concepts, then publicity art, then directing, then producing, all at H-B. And I often worked closely with Bill and/or Joe. My nine-year-old head would have exploded if I’d known that fact of the future! Mark once claimed that “Scott Shaw! is the man who was born to draw The Flintstones.” I guess he wasn’t wrong. Not only did I work on their comic books and cartoon shows, I also designed Flintstones toys and art-directed the TV commercials and drew the box art and designed the premiums for Post Pebbles Cereals for over two decades. And now I’m the one who’s diabetic. In 1988, my friends John Cawley and Jim Korkis, both knowledgeable cartoon historians, decided to launch a new magazine about animation, Cartoon Quarterly (Gladstone, Winter 1988). They asked me to write an article about the history of The Flintstones for their first-and-only issue, one I also illustrated and even lettered. Here it is; I’ll catch up with you after the slabs.
The oddball world of scott shaw!
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CELEBRITY CRUSHES
Jeannie or Samantha? by Jerry Smith
Jeannie the Genie. Bubbly, smoking hot, a barely hidden belly button in the middle of an adolescent boy’s costume dream. Samantha the Witch. A cultured beauty who can host your dinner party, make your martini, and rock your world. Both have superpowers that can make you a king. Or at least feel like one. Which one? Which one? Both easily fall under the realm of celebrity crush. Barbara Eden was the fun girl, born Barbara Jean Morehead from Tucson, Arizona. She can sing, she can dance, she can do comedy like nobody’s business. But on I Dream of Jeannie she was so beautiful it was hard to get it through your head that she was a talented actress with perfect comic timing. Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery, a Los Angeles native, was the serious one, giving Charles Bronson a run for his money in one of the darkest Twilight Zone episodes ever made. Or naked and scaring viewers to death as Lizzie Borden, dispatching her father and stepmother with abandoned glee (and, of course, an ax). Elizabeth was the serious thespian, ready to commit to any role. She wanted to stretch, while Barbara liked to have fun and make people laugh. And considering co-star Larry Hagman’s reported unhappy antics on the I Dream of Jeannie set, apparently Eden is also a saint for tolerating such behavior. In their most famous TV sitcom roles, Sam from Bewitched is selfless, giving up her powers (a-hem) for the man she loved. Jeannie, from I Dream of Jeannie, is the opposite, selfishly using her powers to gain the man she loves. The plans worked for both women, but they approached things from opposite ends, each using their magic (or not) to the best of
their abilities. And boy, did they make it sexy and fun to watch. Not to mention funny. So, who’s the winning celebrity crush? No losers here, but gun to my head I’d have to go with Samantha. It boils down to one word: sophistication. Sam was the perfect wife, mate, and lover. She was always unflappable, letting the stress of the latest disastrous advertising campaign or the nosey neighbor or her pushy mother wash over her until she found the perfect (sometimes magical) solution. Jeannie was a bull in a china shop, crossing her arms and nodding Major Healy to the Arctic or the bottom of the ocean. Viewers, do not get between Jeannie and Tony Nelson. You will find yourself on the dark side of the Moon. Without oxygen. It’s nice to have someone love you like that. Sadly, the world lost Elizabeth Montgomery from cancer far too early in 1995. However, Ms. Barbara Eden, Jeannie the Genie, is going strong and remains the oldest woman on Earth I would ask on a date. Are the times too modern to get at least one, “How may I serve you, master?” Hmmm. Probably, especially after I chose Samantha. After all these years—and reruns—my celebrity crushes on Jeannie and Samantha remain ironclad. I suppose nothing bonds to an adolescent boy like a gorgeous woman who can wiggle her nose and whip up a pot roast or blink and make one an Arab sheik. Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery both brought real magic to my tiny, boyhood TV screen over 50 years ago. It’s still going strong. JERRY SMITH is a sales rep and freelance writer living in northern Kentucky. Follow his blog about comics and pop culture at https://jerryshumbleopinions.blogspot.com.
Hey, lovelorn, quit sobbing into your pillow and writing diary entries—instead, share your Sixties/Seventies/ Eighties Celebrity Crushes with RetroFan readers! You can become famous, get three free copies of the magazine, and earn a whopping $10 as well. Submit your 600-word-maximum Celebrity Crushes column to the editor for consideration at euryman@gmail.com. 34
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RETRO TELEVISION
June Lockhart An Interview with One of TV’s Most Beloved Moms
by Shaun Clancy
Gene (1891–1951) and Kathleen (1894–1978) Lockhart were a famous Hollywood couple back in the Thirties and Forties who met in 1923 while performing together on a Thomas Edison-sponsored cross-country train that promoted inventions. They married a year later and continued their acting careers in plays, movies, and radio. Their daughter June Lockhart was born June 25, 1925, and the whole family up and moved to California to work at MGM. June’s first-ever acting performance was at the age of nine in the play Peter Ibbetson. Her first movie role was at the age of 13 with her parents in the 1938 classic A Christmas Carol. Other films she worked on early in her career were Sgt. York, All This and Heaven Too, and Meet Me in St. Louis. An often-overlooked area of the Lockhart family’s career is their extensive amount of radio appearances in the Thirties and Forties. Radio during those times was treated the way we treat TV today. Every home had a radio, around which the entire family would sit and
June Lockhart as Lassie’s Ruth Martin, and the show’s canine star. Autographed to the author’s mother, Sandy. Lassie © Classic Media. Unless
otherwise noted, all photos accompanying this article are courtesy of Shaun Clancy.
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RETRO television
(LEFT) Four members of the Lost in Space cast: (SEATED) Marta Kristen as eldest daughter Judy Robinson, (STANDING) Mark Goddard as Major Don West, June Lockhart as space mom Maureen Robinson, and Guy Williams as space dad Professor John Robinson. Signed by Ms. Lockhart to Shaun Clancy’s father Phil. © Space Productions. (ABOVE) The Petticoat Junction cast, late in the series’ run. (FRONT, LEFT TO RIGHT) Edgar Buchanan (Uncle Joe Carson), Higgins (Dog), June Lockhart (Dr. Janet Craig), Meredith MacRae (Billie Jo Bradley). (BACK, LEFT TO RIGHT) Rufe Davis (Floyd Smoot), Lori Saunders (Bobbie Jo Bradley), Linda Henning (Betty Jo Bradley Elliott), Mike Minor (Steve Elliott), and Frank Cady (Sam Drucker). Petticoat Junction © Paramount Television.
leading up to the climaxes. Does that make sense to you? RF: Yes, That’s pretty common to regurgitate the pilot. JL: They are rehabbed. RF: Lost in Space was a movie in 1998… JL: Yes, I played the schoolteacher in that and I have a scene with the then-new mother and said, “Why do you want to take him? He should remain in school.” We went to England to do that. That was that, and the movie was terrible. I remember going to the ArcLight Theater with a couple of friends of mine, and I turned to this man and said, “This is awful!” The characters were all so angry with each other!
RF: They appeared to just want to cash in on the name recognition and added a bunch of special effects. JL: It was funny, because one thing you would feel with us and our family was an affection we had with each other.
note: Bea Benaderet, who starred as Petticoat Junction’s Kate Bradley beginning with the show’s 1963 launch, died in 1968, with June Lockhart stepping in to lead the cast as Dr. Janet Craig during the show’s final two seasons.]
RF: With Jonathan Harris’ Dr. Smith, he would eventually stick by the family when it got really rough. JL: That’s the way it was written. I tolerated him [Harris], but he was a very difficult man to work with. He was very greedy.
RF: I recall watching that show quite a bit and I know a lot of fans love it. Everybody grew up watching you being the dream mom everybody wanted. In your personal life, did you lose a lot of privacy? I would imagine fans would recognize you immediately. JL: That was very nice to say, but we had no paparazzi in those days. The work I did, I considered myself a character actress since the age of eight. I was never swamped like that.
RF: For scenes or for lines? JL: Everything. He wrote all his own dialogue and they let him do it because he had caught the imagination of the audience. So anyway, it didn’t matter. I knew that professionally, I would simply finish out the contract and move on to something else, which I did immediately with Petticoat Junction. RF: I had forgotten that you had been on that show until I did the research before I called you. That must have been fun. JL: Oh, yes, it was lovely, and [producer] Paul Henning was such a pro! [Editor’s
Among the merchandising bearing June’s likeness: this Lost in Space trading card (shown front and back). © Space Productions. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. 40
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This interview was conducted by telephone on March 15, 2015. Special thanks to Rose Rummel-Eury for transcribing the interview for RetroFan. SHAUN CLANCY started collecting comic books in 1975 at the age of eight, and today collects original comic art and interviews many of the industry’s creators. A devotee of old-time radio, he currently owns a heating and air-conditioning company in the Seattle area and interviews many radio and screen personalities.
RETRO FAD
The Smiley Face by Michael Eury
You might be surprised to discover that the Smiley Face, that arcgrinned, button-eyed avatar of elation, has become a catalyst for conflict. As a child of the Sixties and teen of the Seventies, I never saw that coming. Back then, the Smiley Face was yet another muchneeded diversion from an ugly world whose invasive headlines of war, inequality, violent protests, and political assassinations tried their damnedest to rob us of a peaceful childhood. The Smiley Face’s reassuring smirk never wavered, reliably reminding us, as did our sing-along radio hits, bumbling TV deputies and first mates, and beep-beeping roadrunners of cartoons and comic books, to C’mon, get happy! Most sources cite Harvey Ball (1921–2001), a Massachusetts commercial artist, as the father of the feel-good icon also known as “Smiley” (although in an alternate reality, the slow-witted but fleet-footed Forrest Gump created the image). While rapidly jotted, encircled smiles had occasionally punctuated handwritten notes for as long as anyone could remember, Ball popularized the Smiley Face in its traditional yellow and black form in 1963. He was commissioned by State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worchester, Massachusetts, to create a mark that would improve employee morale, which had taken a beating after a recent merger. Ball’s simplistic design, which he reportedly whipped up in a matter of minutes, did the trick. State Mutual Life cranked out 100 Smiley buttons for its staff, turning many sourpusses’ frowns upside down. Ball himself wasn’t happy for long, however. After receiving a mere $45 for the design, which he did not trademark or copyright, Ball soon witnessed bootleg Smiley Face buttons flooding the market and selling millions of units. In less than a decade his cutesy design had been appropriated into a cash cow. Murray and Bernard Spain, two brothers operating greeting card stores in Philadelphia, observed the popularity of Smiley Face buttons and saw an opportunity. In the early Seventies, they took Smiley and tagged it with the phrase “Have a happy day” (soon to be changed to “Have a nice day”), copyrighting the concept and merchandising it. On the other side of the world, Franklin Loufrani, a French journalist, trademarked the Smiley Face (sans “nice day” slogan) for commercial use in 1972, originally using it to spotlight positive news reports in his newspaper, the France Soir. Soon he was marketing iron-on Smiley decals for T-shirts. Before long, the apparels market was beaming ear-to-ear over brisk business for shirts, patches, and buttons bearing both Loufrani’s Smiley and the Spains’ uplifting message, and beyond personal wear, stickers, mugs, posters, pillows, and other items featuring the Smiley Face were wildly popular. Whereas the Peace Sign exemplified America’s growing antiwar sentiment of the Sixties, the Smiley Face became the de facto political symbol of the Seventies. American soldiers
plastered Smiley Face stickers on their helmets during the final years of the Vietnam War. Back home, Smiley Face creator Smiley came to represent the egocentric Harvey Ball. Smiley Face culture of the decade’s Me Generation © The Smiley Company. (hey, when shrugging off a presidential resignation, energy crisis, and inflation, a lot of Baby Boomers needed this little helper to “Have a nice day”). By the time the Big Eighties rolled around, Pac-Man—itself a yellow-faced circular icon—gobbled up ol’ Smiley’s popularity for the new decade. But unlike other flashes in the pan, the Smiley Face refused to pull up a rocking chair alongside the Pet Rock and Mr. Microphone in the Retirement Home for Fads. In the decades since its debut it has become a recognizable mark epitomizing Americana, dotting everything from rave posters to ecstasy tablets, boxer shorts to smartphone cases, socks to vinyl handbags, and designer sweaters to contact lenses, even pointing the way (without hands, mind you!) to the emoticons that now “speak” for us today in social media. As such, altering the Smiley Face has become a tool for making a political statement. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal, dystopian super-hero opus, Watchmen, published by DC Comics beginning in 1986, bloodied a Smiley Face on its iconic first issue cover. Grunge band Nirvana x-ed out Smiley’s eyes and crinkled his smile in the Nineties. These and other Smiley subversions have allowed creative artists to criticize American culture in a much less offensive manner than, say, flag burning. Since 1996, the Smiley Company, a London-headquartered firm fronted by Nicholas Loufrani, son of Franklin Loufrani, has held the trademark on the traditional yellow-and-black Smiley Face in over 100 countries and has licensed the image for clothing and other uses. According to the Wall Street Journal, this lucrative mark has generated global sales of over $400 million, no doubt engendering cheerfulness for its licensor. The Smiley Company’s lawyers have frowned upon unlicensed uses of the icon, aggressively protecting the mark with cease-and-desist notices, the confiscation and destruction of unlicensed products, and litigation. The Smiley Company’s most famous court case involving the mark was a decade-long battle with Walmart over its Smiley icon that was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in 2007. Many would consider it ironic that a symbol of happiness has triggered such courtroom drama and has become synonymous with the dollar sign. Charlie Ball, son of Smiley’s creator, Harvey Ball, certainly did. In 2001, the year his father passed away, the junior Ball launched the World Smile Foundation, a nonprofit that contributes to grassroots charities. Somewhere, his father, who regretted not having obtained the copyright or trademark for pop culture’s most famous grin (sorry, Mona Lisa), is no doubt smiling. RetroFan
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MONSTER MASH
The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957-1972 Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American mainstream! Once Frankenstein and fiends infiltrated TV in 1957, an avalanche of monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books crashed upon an unsuspecting public. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky Monster Craze through features on FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (SHOCK THEATRE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, and DARK SHADOWS), “MARS ATTACKS” trading cards, EERIE PUBLICATIONS, PLANET OF THE APES, and more! It features interviews with JAMES WARREN (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines), FORREST J ACKERMAN (Famous Monsters of Filmland), JOHN ASTIN (The Addams Family), AL LEWIS (The Munsters), JONATHAN FRID (Dark Shadows), GEORGE BARRIS (monster car customizer), ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of “The Dark Age”). (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 9781605490649 Diamond Order Code: MAR151564
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LEGO FIGURE BUILDING! JAE WON LEE’s historical and legendary characters, EERO OKKONEN’s stunning mythic figures, ANDREA (“Norton74”) LATTANZIO’s new ultra-realistic builds (including classic food stands and gas stations), “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!
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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA
Mars Attacks by Ernest Farino
or… Martian Mayhem on Mankind Creates Catastrophic Chaos! (at 5¢ a pop…)
“The end of our existence represents the likeliest outcome of an extraterrestrial encounter. In short, if they’re out there, we better hope they never find us.” – Rick Yancey, American author of suspense and science fiction According to the U.S. government, UFOs don’t exist. According to Ray Bradbury, Ed Wood, and Ray Harryhausen, they do. Who you gonna believe…?
Mars Attacks ® & © 2018 The Topps Company, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Topps is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.
Don’t Believe Everything You Read…
In 1897, Pearson’s magazine in the U.K. paid English author H. G. Wells £200 (about $6,500 today) to serialize his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds. Cosmopolitan magazine serialized the novel in the U.S. and it was later published in hardcover by William Heinemann of London (and has been in print ever since). Written from 1895 and 1897, the battle with an extraterrestrial race commences when southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel established several concepts that have become staples of science fiction: Mars (or any other planet) is an ancient world nearing the end of its life inhabited by superior beings capable possessing advanced science and engineering who are keen to conquer the Earth. The term “Martian” has also entered into the lexicon as a generic term for alien life. Ripe for dramatization, future Hollywood wunderkind Orson Welles adapted the story as a radio play in 1938 and, formatted as a “live” newscast that interrupted regular programming, the vivid descriptions of invading Martians laying waste to New
Jersey frightened naïve listeners, some of whom fled their homes in panic. Probably the first example of what we know today as “fake news.” Ray Harryhausen, who would later (TOP LEFT) Author H. G. Wells. (TOP RIGHT) create visual effects for the science Orson Welles performfiction-themed films Earth vs. the Flying ing his radio broadcast Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth (an of War of the Worlds, 1938. (ABOVE) War of alien creature coming to Earth from the Worlds (1938), in pulp Venus this time), and H. G. Wells’ own magazine-like format. First Men “In” the Moon, was drawn to Wells’ Martian story soon after he finished work on Mighty Joe Young in 1949. In 1994, he told author Mike Hankin, “I always thought that War of the Worlds had great potential. I made several drawings and some continuity sketches based on the Wells book. I did a step outline, keeping it in the Victorian period, because once you bring it into the present you run into the problem of the atomic bomb and other modern weapons, which had started to become cliché. I wanted to keep Wells’ vision, with the huge walking machines and the cylinder that opened to reveal the octopus-like creature. I shot a brief test in 16mm color, which I had blown up to 35mm.” Ray told Mike Hankin and animator Steve Archer in 1985 that he had taken the package to various studios: “Jessie Lasky, Sr. became very interested in it, but he was working on another film at the time. I also showed it to George Pal and several other people, but no one else seemed interested. One reason, I believe, was the cost of mounting a period picture. The need for costumes RetroFan
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ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria
and sets of the Victorian era was always an expensive proposition. Paramount Studios owned the rights to the property, bought originally for Cecil B. DeMille [in 1925, along with When Worlds Collide], and, of course, George [Pal] made his updated version for that studio a few years later, which was wonderful, but not as I would have done it. A little while later, I offered my Martian model to Howard Hawks to use in The Thing, but he had in mind something quite different.”
“Do you wish to report a UFO? Over.”
– Air Traffic Controller (David Anderson), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) On July 16, 1945, seven days after establishing White Sands Proving Ground, the first nuclear weapon, codenamed Trinity, was detonated by the United States Army 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico. Two years later, on June 25, 1947, an Oregon newspaper published the first story to mention flying saucers. Kenneth Arnold, a Boise, Idaho, pilot flying his CallAir Model-A single-engine, fixedwing aircraft at 10,000 feet above the snowy peaks of Mt. Rainier reported “nine saucerlike objects flying at 1,200 miles an hour at 10,000 feet. The objects were flying over Mount Rainier in Washington State and appeared to weave in and out of formation.” Arnold later said, “These objects are aircraft of a strange design and material Kenneth Arnold, who first report- unknown to the civilization of ed “flying saucers” in 1947. this earth.” As of June 26, 1947, newspapers began using the term “flying saucer” to describe the objects. The modern age of “flying saucers” had begun. Two years later, the July 8, 1947 edition of the Roswell Daily Record led with the headline, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” Army intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel reportedly recovered the “disc” and flew it to headquarters, but it was never seen again. The Air Force later stated that the “saucer” was a weather balloon. However, Marcel’s son, Jesse Marcel, Jr., later told HuffPost reporter Lee Speigel that he was shown pieces of the UFO by his father, describing them as “I-beams about 12 to 18 inches long [with] symbols or writing on the inner surface. I thought, at first, it was like Egyptian hieroglyphics, but when I looked closer, it seemed more like geometric symbols of some kind—it was very strange.” Roswell crash conspiracies persist to this day. George Adamski wrote Flying Saucers Have Landed. When preparing the special effects for his film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers in 1965, Ray Harryhausen sought out Adamski and met him twice in California. In 1989, Ray said that “when I first met him, he was most convincing, describing everything about sighting and meeting aliens in minute detail. I later saw him again, doing 44
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what I thought was a rather mundane task for a supposed space traveler—building a brick wall at his home. He started talking about Jupiterians or Jovians or something and I began having my doubts.” Ray also went into the desert where UFO sightings had been reported but nothing ever happened, of course. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers was specifically suggested by the book Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), a former rocket scientist, aviator, and fiction writer. Over a period of more than 20 years, Keyhoe published four studies of UFO phenomena and was eventually appointed director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). On January 26, 1953, Albert M. Chop, Air Force Press Desk, Department of Defense, wrote to Henry Holt & Co., the firm planning to publish Keyhoe’s book. Chop wrote: “We in the Air Force recognize Major Keyhole [for his] responsible, accurate reports. His long association and cooperation with the Air Force, in our study of unidentified flying objects, qualifies him as a leading civilian authority on this investigation. The Air Force, and its investigating agency, ‘Project Bluebook,’ are aware of Major Keyhoe’s conclusion that the ‘Flying Saucers’ are from another planet. The Air Force has never denied that Flying Saucers from Outer Space this possibility exists. Some by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, U.S. of the personnel believe that Marine Corps (Ret.), the “inspirathere may be some strange tion” for Ray Harryhausen’s film natural phenomena completely Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. unknown to us, but that if the apparently controlled maneuvers reported by many competent observers are correct, then the only remaining explanation is the interplanetary answer.” And that was enough to kick off Keyhoe’s book, and then Harryhausen’s movie. However, Keyhoe was appalled by Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and said that he wished he could stand outside every theater to denounce it.
More Incredible Than the Mind Can Imagine!
Of course, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers was not the first (nor would it be the last) film to thrill audiences with an invasion of aliens and flying saucers. Specific “Mars” movies including Flying Disc Man from Mars (1950), Flight to Mars (1951), Red Planet Mars (1952), Invaders from Mars (1953), The Angry Red Planet (1959), and Battle in Outer Space (1959). One the most famous (or infamous) flying saucer films was Plan 9 from Outer Space, written and directed by the unflappable Edward D. Wood, Jr., released in 1959. Always entertaining in a perverse, head-scratching kind of way, Plan 9 utilized plastic model kits of flying saucers (not the automobile hubcaps as has been reported). In November 1956, Wood went to Reginald
ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria
Denny’s hobby shop and bought three commercially available plastic kits by Lindberg models, the Flying Saucer, which had originally come out in 1952. One of the better movies was Devil Girl from Mars (1954). Mark Thomas McGee wrote in his recent book You Won’t Believe Your Eyes!—A Front Row Look at the Science Fiction and Horror Films of the 1950s (BearManor Media, 2018), “A flying saucer lands in a field behind an isolated Scottish inn. The pilot, a woman named Nyah (Patricia Laffan), uses her robot and an invisible shield to hold the people at the inn captive, while she decides which of the men she wants to take home with her. It seems that a war between the men and women of Mars left the men sterile. “What makes the film so delightful is Laffan’s performance in the title role. She looks and talks like she hasn’t had a bowel movement for twenty years, strutting disdainfully about the room in her dominatrix outfit. If she is an example of the other women on Mars, no wonder the men are sterile. ‘I laugh when I think about it,’ said co-star Hazel Court, ‘but I still get fan mail, and I’m even told Steven Spielberg got some ideas from it. Nearly fifty years later, I wonder if women in leather still rule Mars.’”
“This is amazing… !”
— Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), War of the Worlds (1953)
But the granddaddy of them all was George Pal’s Technicolor production of War of the Worlds, based on the original H. G. Wells novel (although modernized from Victorian England to 1953 Los Angeles). Pal’s film remains the high-water mark for alien-invasion movies, and it leaves an indelible mark to anyone who sees it, from the everyday movie fan to superstar actors. Two-time Oscar®-winning actress Sally Field directed an episode of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. I was the Visual Effects (ABOVE) Poster, War of the Worlds (1953). Supervisor and after a (RIGHT) Producer George Pal shows a Martian war machine model used in his take on the blue screen film of War of the Worlds to Tony Curtis stage I impulsively and Janet Leigh, then starring in anothsaid, “This is amazing!” er Pal film, Houdini (1953). © Paramount in my best Gene Barry Pictures.
(LEFT TO RIGHT) Before Mars attacked: Poster, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). © Columbia Pictures Corporation. Poster, Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). © Reynolds Pictures. Patricia Laffan as Nyah in Devil Girl from Mars (1954). © Danziger Productions Ltd.
basso profondo voice. Sally turned to me, thinking I was making fun of the shot, but I said, “That’s from War of the Worlds when Gene Barry sees the Martian ships—” and that’s as far as I got. Sally lit up and carried on the story: “Yes! When they rise up out of the gully and start firing their heat rays and those green plasma bolts with the ships in those protective glass shields—” and so on. It was great fun to see someone you might not expect immediately kick into an enthusiastic account like that. Sally ended with, “My mother was in a science-fiction movie, you know!” I said, “I do know that.” (Margaret Field was the female lead in Edgar Ulmer’s low-budget cult classic The Man From Planet X in 1951). So Pal’s film set the bar, and set it pretty high. In dignified yet foreboding tones, Sir Cedric Hardwicke’s narration opens of the film, immediately establishing a feeling of dread and impending doom (condensed a little here): “No one would have believed in the middle of the 20th Century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by
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ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria (LEFT AND CENTER) Mars Attacks counter display box and wax paper wrapper containing five cards and a stick of gum. (RIGHT) The Martians (CGI animation) from director Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! film (1996).
© Warner Bros. Mars Attacks © The Topps Company, Inc.
a scene that was on the card, which was called “Burning Cattle” [card #22], where the cows had been set on fire by Martian ray guns. I remember thinking, ‘Wow! This is gonna be great!’ “But then, it just got to be, to me, a comedy. It didn’t take itself that seriously, and obviously that’s what Tim Burton wanted. I had written him a letter, a note, saying I was the co-creator of Mars Attacks. [I think] I asked him in that letter if I could appear in a scene if I came down, thinking it would be really neat. He never did answer it. I called his office, I spoke to his secretary, and she remembered my letter coming in and she said Tim didn’t get it. He never responded in any way to anyone at Topps.” Although Burton’s approach alienated purists like myself, one can appreciate the problem: in the mid-Eighties Bob and Denny Skotak, Oscar®-winning visual effects creators who would work on The Abyss, Terminator 2, and others, and I discussed the notion of a Mars Attacks movie. The problem, previously of little concern to our 12-year-old selves of two-plus
decades earlier, was the lack of a definable storyline. We weren’t in much of a position to do anything about making a movie anyway, but it sure was fun to consider. Unfortunately, of course, my own bias skewed my opinion of the Burton film, which, for other reasons as well, I consider to be something of a misfire (if wellintentioned). So, as we “Blast Off for Mars” (card #46), remember that warning from another great science-fiction film: Keep watching the skies…! Special thanks to Mark Thomas McGee and Pete Von Sholly. All pictorial material reproduced herein derives from the voluntary, non-compensated contributions of pictorial or other memorabilia from the private collections of the author, and from the select private archives of individual contributors.
(INSET) Storyboard drawings for the Mars Attacks! movie by Pete Von Sholly. (RIGHT) The fleet of Martian spaceships leaves Mars, headed for Earth. Saucer design influenced by and a tribute to Ray Harryhausen’s film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. © Warner Bros. Mars
Attacks © 2018 The Topps Company, Inc.
ERNEST FARINO recently directed an episode of the SyFy/Netflix series Superstition starring Mario Van Peebles, as well as serving as Visual Ef fects Consultant. Previously Farino directed Steel and Lace starring Bruce Davison, episodes of Monsters starring Lydia Cornell and Marc McClure, ABC’s Land of the Lost starring Timothy Bottoms, and extensive 2nd Unit for the miniseries Dune starring William Hurt, Noah’s Ark starring Jon Voight, and Supernova starring Luke Perry. A two-time Emmy®-winning Visual Ef fects Supervisor for SyFy’s Dune and Children of Dune miniseries, Farino supervised the Emmy-nominated visual ef fects for the Tom Hanks/HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon; James Cameron’s The Terminator, The Abyss, and T2; as well as Starship Troopers, Snow White–A Tale of Terror, Creepshow, and many others. His publishing enterprise, Archive Editions, has published Mike Hankin’s elaborate three-volume book set Ray Harryhausen – Master of the Majicks, The FXRH Collection, and more. 50
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SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM DEPARTMENT
A SECRET SANCTUM Look At
Getting MAD in the Seventies by Scott Saavedra
“Friends, roaming paperbacks… Lend MAD your jeers! It comes to bury humor… Not to raise it!” Such was the typically self-deprecating promise on the back cover of The Ides of MAD, a mass-market paperback reprinting material from Fifties-era MAD magazines. Included was a parody of one of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes, Marc Antony’s funeral oration. Not that I made the connection when I first read the back cover. My idea of literature then—I was around ten—was limited pretty much to a burgeoning interest in comic books and whatever printed words I had to consume in school. Ides was my first MAD purchase—a gift from my dad—made at a newsstand one night in Los Angeles. I got it because I had looked over a friend’s copy and had my mind boggled by the thing. Dad and I had just come from seeing Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey—more boggling of the mind—and the MAD paperback was an extra treat. That was one of my more formative nights to be sure. As I read, re-read, examined every letter, absorbed every line, and simply stared at my beautiful copy of Ides of MAD for long periods of time, I found that I had so many questions. Mainly, what I wanted to know was… what… is… this… thing?
Son of Harvey
I suspected that MAD wasn’t always a magazine when I came across paperback reprints of comic-book style material making fun of comic characters I had never read (or heard of). And it’s true, MAD began life as a ten-cent comic book in 1952. These modest but colorful publications were at the bottom of the popular-culture pile at the time, a position nurtured by cheap,
(LEFT) The author’s introduction to a world he didn’t know existed appeared in the pages of Ides of MAD. The first few years of MAD paperbacks were reprinted multiple times; this is the 13th printing, ca. 1969. It has been read nearly into oblivion (not to worry, a backup copy is on hand). (ABOVE) The covers to the author’s earliest copies of MAD could not withstand multiple re-readings. Photos by the author unless otherwise indicated. TM & ©
EC Publications, Inc.
short-sighted decisions regarding pay, working conditions, and quality of the product, a sad legacy of the earliest days of the medium’s debut in the Thirties. Many people in the business were embarrassed to toil in that field. Harvey Kurtzman was one such man. Unfortunately for him, he had an uncommon knack for the work. Not only was he a gifted visual storyteller, but despite his meticulous, difficult reputation as an editor, his charismatic skills became legendary. He swept up into his circle some of the finest cartoonists then working in the field, people like the versatile Wally Wood, the animated Jack Davis, and my forever favorite, the Lon Chaney, Sr. of comics, Will Elder (he could mimic anyone’s style). MAD has one of those origins that is somewhat tainted by the quirks of memory, time, and bad water under the publishing bridge. I think that it’s fair to say this: Kurtzman worked for William M. Gaines, the eccentric son of a pioneering comic-book figure and publisher, who intended to be a teacher until his (LEFT TO RIGHT) Harvey by Harvey, a self-caricature from The Illustrated Harvey Kurtzman Index (Glenn Bray, 1976). Al Feldstein and William Gaines, as drawn by Angelo Torres (MAD #143, June 1971). Kurtzman
© Harvey Kurtzman estate. MAD art TM & © EC Publications, Inc.
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A 25 Year Celebration! th
THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS
In 1994, amidst the boom-&-bust of comic book speculators, THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #1 was published for true fans of the medium. That modest labor of love spawned TwoMorrows Publishing, today’s premier purveyor of publications about comics and pop culture. Celebrate our 25th anniversary with this special retrospective look at the company that changed fandom forever! Co-edited by and featuring publisher JOHN MORROW and COMIC BOOK ARTIST/COMIC BOOK CREATOR magazine’s JON B. COOKE, it gives the inside story and behind-the-scenes details of a quarter-century of looking at the past in a whole new way. Also included are BACK ISSUE magazine’s MICHAEL EURY, ALTER EGO’s ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY (author of KIMOTA!, EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE, and other books), MIKE MANLEY (DRAW! magazine), ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON (MODERN MASTERS), and a host of other comics luminaries who’ve contributed to TwoMorrows’ output over the years. From their first Eisner Award-winning book STREETWISE, through their BRICKJOURNAL LEGO® magazine, up to today’s RETROFAN magazine, every major TwoMorrows publication and contributor is covered with the same detail and affection the company gives to its books and magazines. With an Introduction by MARK EVANIER, Foreword by ALEX ROSS, Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ, and a new cover by TOM McWEENEY! NOW SHIPPING! (256-page FULL-COLOR Trade Paperback) $37.95 (Digital Edition) $15.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-092-2 (272-page ULTRA-LIMITED HARDCOVER) $75 Only 125 copies available for sale, with a 16-page bonus Memory Album! HARDCOVER NOT AVAILABLE THROUGH DIAMOND—ONLY FROM TWOMORROWS! GET YOURS NOW!
AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1940-44
ve owners.
OR -COL FULLDCOVER HAR RIES SE nting me f docu ecade o d y! each s histor ic com
All characte
rs TM & ©
their respecti
In the latest volume, KURT MITCHELL and ROY THOMAS document the 1940-44 “Golden Age” of comics, a period that featured the earliest adventures of BATMAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, 1980s back in print! Look for SUPERMAN, and WONDER WOMAN. It was a time when America’s entry into World War II the 1945-49 volume in 2020! was presaged by the arrival of such patriotic do-gooders as WILL EISNER’s Uncle Sam, HARRY SHORTEN and IRV NOVICK’s The Shield, and JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY’s Captain America— and teenage culture found expression in a fumbling red-haired high school student named Archie Andrews. But most of all, it was the age of “packagers” like HARRY A CHESLER, and EISNER and JERRY IGER, who churned out material for the entire gamut of genres, from funny animal stories and crime tales, to jungle sagas and science-fiction adventures. Watch the history of comics begin! NOW SHIPPING! (288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $45.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-089-2
MAC RABOY Master of the Comics
Beginning with his WPA etchings during the 1930s, MAC RABOY struggled to survive the Great Depression and eventually found his way into the comic book sweatshops of America. In that world of four-color panels, he perfected his art style on such creations as DR. VOODOO, ZORO the MYSTERY MAN, BULLETMAN, SPY SMASHER, GREEN LAMA, and his crowning achievement, CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. Raboy went on to illustrate the FLASH GORDON Sunday newspaper strip, and left behind a legacy of meticulous perfection. Through extensive research and interviews with son DAVID RABOY, and assistants who worked with the artist during the Golden Age of Comics, author ROGER HILL brings Mac Raboy, the man and the artist, into focus for historians to savor and enjoy. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER includes never-before-seen photos, a wealth of rare and unpublished artwork, and the first definitive biography of a true Master of the Comics! Introduction by ROY THOMAS! NOW SHIPPING!
2020
(160-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8 SUBSCRIPTION RATES ECONOMY US Alter Ego (Six issues) $67 Back Issue (Eight issues) $89 BrickJournal (Six issues) $67 Comic Book Creator (Four issues) $45 Jack Kirby Collector (Four issues) $48 RetroFan (Six issues) $67
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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING
Judy Strangis (LEFT) as DynaGirl and Deidre Hall (RIGHT) as ElectraWoman. © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.
by Andy Mangels
anthology series The Krofft Supershow they decided to debut a pair of lovely live-action female crimefighters who put would zap evil-doers with an amazing array of electra-gadgets. ElectraWoman and DynaGirl dazzled the airwaves for only one brief season, but its campy, glittery essence has stayed popular for over four decades!
Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning. Since 1989, I have been writing columns for magazines in the U.S. and foreign countries, all examining the intersection of comic books and Hollywood, whether animation or live-action. Andy Mangels Backstage, The Rise of the Kroffts Andy Mangels’ Reel Marvel, Andy Mangels’ The world of Saturday morning television Hollywood Heroes, Andy Mangels Behind The was in its heyday in the mid-Seventies, Sid and Marty Kroft, 1976. Camera… three decades of reporting on and only a few companies ruled the animation and live-action—in addition roosts on the three networks: Hannato writing many books and producing around 40 DVD sets—and Barbera Productions, Filmation Associates, DePatie-Freleng I’m still enthusiastic. In this RetroFan column, I will examine shows Enterprises, and Sid and Marty Krofft. Though Filmation had that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and been dabbling with live-action among its animated offerings, the capturing our memories. Grab some milk and cereal, sit crossKroffts had almost singlehandedly kept live-action on Saturday legged leaning against the couch, and dig in to Retro Saturday mornings since the Sixties, first designing The Banana Splits for Morning! Hanna-Barbera in 1968, then creating their hallucinatory (some would say hallucinogenic) hit H. R. Pufnstuf in 1969. In 1976, the United States was smack in the middle of its The Montreal-born brothers Sid and Marty Krofft were Bicentennial and the Women’s Lib movement, and television the sons of a watchmaker, and Sid worked in vaudeville as a was awash with super-heroines. puppeteer, eventually being featured in the Ringling Bros. and Filmation’s The Secrets of Isis had Barnum & Bailey Circus shows. His one-man puppet show, “The led the pack in 1975, followed Unusual Artistry of Sid Krofft,” toured the world in 1940, where he closely by Lynda Carter in Wonder worked with his father. Younger brother Marty eventually learned Woman, and Lindsay Wagner in the the puppet trade on stage, and began working with Sid. In 1957, Six Million Dollar Man spin-off, The they even produced a risqué puppet touring production called Les Bionic Woman. Pulling the strings Poupées de Paris. of every Saturday morning puppet The Kroffts created the costumes and world of The Banana Splits for Hanna-Barbera in 1968, working for the first time with on the air were producers Sid and Marty Krofft, and for their fall 1976 a respectable budget and national audience. They decided to RetroFan
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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning
Deidre Hall and Judy Strangis reunited in 2011. Photo by
Matthew Rettenmund.
make fun of it. It was what it was and a fun show to do and I never took it seriously.” One of her fans was somebody who had costarred with her in the pilot episode of Room 222, and then became a super-hero himself, at the same time as Strangis was playing DynaGirl: Michael Gray, who played Billy Batson on Filmation’s Shazam! [see RetroFan #4]. “Years ago, somebody was sending me flowers and there was Michael at the door,” Strangis recalls. “He was delivering the flowers. He just had to see me. He was so cute. I was in shock. He told me he owned the shop, but I remember thinking, ‘Oh, my God! Is he delivering them?’ Then he explained it to me. You don’t know how to react to something like that. He’s such a sweetheart.” Gray had seen Strangis’ name on the delivery order for his flower shop and told his wife that he had to make this delivery in person. Although she continued to work regularly in Hollywood in front of the camera, Strangis also did a lot of cartoon voices, including for the series Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Donkey King on Saturday Supercade, and even an episode of Batman: The Animated Series. Even today, she “loops” dialogue as a voice actress, including on shows such as CSI, on which her brother Sam was a producer. Post-1984, though, Strangis all but disappeared from view in live-action roles. The reason was not a lack of offers, but something far more sinister: a stalker. “I quit,” Strangis says somberly. “I had a stalker and kind of quit after that. I had to change my house and phone numbers. I don’t really like talking about it now because he’s still around I don’t want to revive it. But that’s why. I was really scared. He’s looking for where I live and what I do. That’s why I’m nervous. 68
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They want me to do an autograph show for Love, American Style, in three or four weeks and they’ve been asking me and calling me, and I get nervous because I don’t know who that person is. The police went to that person; they lived out of town and did approach them, but in today’s world, I’m just nervous.” Her voice quavering, Strangis says quietly. “They ruined it, unfortunately.” Looking back on ElectraWoman and Dyna Girl, Strangis is pleased, overall. “At the time, we were given a script and shot two shows a day. I didn’t have time to think! [chuckles] Now that I look back, I do get embarrassed. I’m not going to lie. I did a lot of episodic shows—serious shows—and I think that’s where Deidre’s coming from, too… but, it is what it is. You have to accept things for what they are. We were surrounded by wonderful people, wonderful, creative people. I look back and go, ‘Oh, my God, what did I do?’ For myself, I’m embarrassed, but not for the show.” The fan reaction from boys and girls who are now grown enthuses Strangis. “I think because of that, I have grown to like the show more than I did. They look at it differently. I looked at it as an actor saying, ‘Oh, my.’ Actors all get embarrassed at their performances, I don’t care what it is. We look at it differently from how you look at it. But now, I thank them, I think it’s very sweet. When Chris [Hardwick] or Rosie O’Donnell talk about how they like it, I laugh. I think it’s terrific. I’m not going to put it down at all.” Looking at the legacy of ElectraWoman and Dyna Girl, the first super-heroine team-up show in history, Strangis says, “I think it’s fun. The world is so serious now, sometimes you have to forget everything and just have fun. That’s what it was—fun. It wasn’t serious or any big Shakespeare kind of acting. I thank everybody who are still fans, and I hope we get a new audience… Maybe they’ll pass it to their children.” And what does one call passing on the energy from ElectraWoman and Dyna Girl? ElectraTransmission! The quotes from Judy Strangis are from an interview conducted in September 2019 by Andy Mangels, with transcription by Rose RummelEury. Quotes from Squire Rushnell are from an October 2019 email interview. Thanks also to Joe Ruby and Marty Krofft for factual clarifications in October 2019. Many thanks for help to the fantastic Mark Evanier! Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels, unless otherwise credited. ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and is currently working on a book about the stage productions of Stephen King. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www. WonderWomanMuseum.com
BONUS SUPER COLLECTOR
An Interview with
Kenneth Johnson By Terry Haney
A Collection of Bionic Proportion By Terry Haney Anything Can Be A Collectible
Collecting is one of the hottest games in town. From pop culture to historical memorabilia—nothing is off limits. Disney collectibles are known as Disneyana, while gas station items are Petroliana. Every collectible has its own moniker and a loyal following. Years ago, I read a collectibles magazine ad requesting firecracker wrappers. At that moment, I realized there’s a collector for anything! I’m no exception, so I’d like to share with you one of my hobbies.
Larger Than Life
Growing up in the Seventies and Eighties, I spent a considerable amount of time watching TV. While I had many favorites, I had an affinity for the mystery solvers, crimefighters, and larger-than-life characters—the ones swooping in and saving the day. I must say that after all these years and with the incredible strides that have been made with production and special effects, I’m still a huge fan of these classics. The Seventies offered a veritable smorgasbord of both animated and live-action shows from which to choose—Wonder Woman, Superman, Super Friends, The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, The Man from Atlantis, Shazam!, Isis, and Batman, to name a few. Many of these, particularly Superman and Wonder Woman, are focal points of my collection, but two other classic shows—The Six Million Dollar Man (1973–1978) and The Bionic Woman (1976–1978)—also caught my attention for several reasons.
The Hottest Shows in Town
The Six Million Dollar Man, based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, hit the airwaves first and became a hugely successful series for Lee Majors and company. Near the end of Season Two, Lindsay Wagner was introduced as Steve Austin’s love interest, Jaime Sommers, who becomes bionic and tragically dies at the end of the classic two-part story. Fans revolted and wrote thousands of letters, insisting that the character be brought back. With the creative genius of writer, Kenneth Johnson (check out the sidebar interview that Kenny graciously granted) and the revolutionary science of cryogenics, Jaime Somers was brought back to life and quickly became the star of The Bionic Woman.
Broadcast News
Every week, I would plant myself in front of the TV for the bionic escapades. Because information was not so readily accessible as it is now, I depended heavily on TV Guide to
Writer, director, and producer—Kenneth Johnson is a triple threat in TV and film. While he has worked on numerous projects and won multiple awards, readers will likely be most familiar with his work on The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, V, and Alien Nation. RetroFan: Kenny, please tell RetroFan readers how the opportunity came to you to work with The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. KENNETH JOHNSON: My classmate and dear pal from the Drama Department at Carnegie-Mellon University, Steven Bochco, had gotten his foot in the door as a writer for Universal TV. After I’d had success in New York as a TV producerdirector and Exec Producer of The Mike Douglas Show, I came West and Steve introduced me to his Universal pal Steve Cannell, who became a life-long friend. I had always been focused solely on directing and producing. Writing only came about because the Steves badgered me into it. I never had much confidence in my abilities as a writer, but I kept at it. Steve B showed one of my spec features to Harve Bennett, who was producing Six Million Dollar Man. Harve liked it and asked me to bring him episode ideas for his show. I suggested The Bride of Frankenstein—which became The Bionic Woman. RF: Did you do additional work on the SMDM after the BW became a spin-off series? If so, in what capacity? RetroFan
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RETRO TRAVEL
Sweethaven on the Mississippi Visiting Chester, Illinois, for the Popeye Picnic
by Brian K. Morris At the water’s edge of Sweethaven, a one-eyed sailor studies the passing boats as they make their way north and south along the mighty river. In front of him stretches the only bridge between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau that connects Illinois to Missouri. Behind him, far from the shoreline, his friends, his sweetie, and his enemies are immortalized in stone. Of course, that isn’t a scene from Robert Altman’s 1980 film, Popeye. In our world, the real-life equivalent rests on the banks of the Mississippi River, a town with its own cast of fascinating characters as well as a celebration of the Sailor Man’s life. It’s also a town with an important identity of its own. It’s literally the birthplace of Popeye the Sailor and his creator.
Grist for the Mills
The town of Chester is the county seat of Randolph County, Illinois. Slightly over an hour’s drive from St. Louis, the land was initially purchased from the federal government by Judge John McFerren in 1816 after filing a claim on the 47-acre parcel on September 30th. McFerren would later become one of the first State Senators once the territory became the official State of Illinois in 1818. Initially, the community was known as Smith’s Landing. After establishing the first housing in the summer of 1829, Samuel Smith christened the area “Chester” in honor of his wife Jane’s birthplace, Chester, England. 74
RetroFan
April 2020
Early local industries included a castor oil press, established circa 1830, whose product found itself delivered as far as England. The company’s owner, R. B. Servant, not only supplied local farmers with seeds for planting beans, he also bought back some of their crops to extract their oil. In 1937, Nathan Cole opened a sawmill with an attachment that ground corn. The Cole Milling Company soon built a flour mill, which also encouraged further agriculture in the region. The mill still exists, although it’s now owned by Ardent Mills, the leading flour supplier in North America. Cole also purchased an early power generator for his mill. The excess energy went to power the town’s streetlights, decades before Chicago itself had them. That generator is now on display at the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The International Shoe Company and the Prim Hosiery Mill were major employers from 1916 and 1925 respectively, until the Sixties. In their places, the Glister Mary Lee Corporation’s massive complex exists, producing over 8,000 food items for over 500 different private label brands. During the era of steamboat transport, Chester’s many fine hostelries proved a frequent He yam what he yam—and he yam a sculpture! Erected beside the Visitors Center near the Chester Bridge that connects the town to Missouri, the Popeye Statue is the town’s only Popeye Family statue not made of stone. Note its inscription’s tribute to Popeye’s creator, cartoonist E. C. Segar. Photo by Cookie Morris.
(LEFT TO RIGHT, FROM PREVIOUS PAGE) Whether you enter Chester, Illinois, on State Route 150 or Rt. 3, you’ll be greeted by the town’s favorite (fictional) son on welcome signs. In fact, you don’t have to look far to find Popeye all over town! Popeye and related characters TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Photos by Cookie Morris.
stop for travelers. Charles Dickens visited the town with his wife on April 11, 1842. Mark Twain made frequent stops in Chester, as chronicled in his book, Life on the Mississippi. In fact, numerous scenes from the 1967 motion picture In the Heat of the Night and 1993’s The Fugitive were filmed here. However, they weren’t the only celebrities to travel through the town. Some were born here.
“Ja’ think I’m a cowboy?”
Born December 8, 1894 in Chester, Elsie Crisler Segar got a job at 12 years of age, painting the Chester Opera House, built in 1875. Eventually, Segar moved up to being a film projectionist as well as a performer, often as a drummer. Inspired by the acts and films he saw, and enjoying drawing as much as he did, Segar took a correspondence course on cartooning when he was 18, working well past closing time to hone his illustrative skills. Moving to Chicago, he met Richard F. Outcault, who’d gained fame with his Buster Brown and Yellow Kid newspaper strips. Impressed with the young man’s talent, Outcault referred Segar to the Chicago Herald, where E. C. wrote and drew a strip featuring Charlie Chaplin. From there, Segar moved to the Charles Randolph Hearst-owned Chicago Evening American, working as the second-string theater critic as well as a cartoonist. Segar’s editor referred him to King Features Syndicate, where he sold a couple of strips, the most successful being Thimble Theatre. Segar based some members of his cast of characters on certain prominent personalities of Chester. For instance, Segar’s manager at the theater, J. William Schuchert, became J. Wellington Wimpy, while slender, dark-haired businesswoman Dora Pascal was the model for Olive Oyl. And a squinting muscle man, Frank “Rocky” Fiegel, who used to carry beer barrels across town on his back, was immortalized as Popeye, originally a guest-starring character in Thimble Theatre until readers demanded his return. Legend has it that Segar visited Chester many times and handed the strong man checks as thanks for making him a cartooning celebrity. “Don’t ask why,” he’d tell Rocky, “just cash the check.” Now, knowing the history of Chester, seeing the name of “Oyl,” along with family members “Castor” and “Cole,” makes perfect sense.
Today, the former Opera House hosts not only the Popeye Museum and Spinach Can Collectibles, but the headquarters of the International Popeye Fan Club as well (along with an attached resale store, Opera House Antiques). But that’s not the only place where you’ll see the likeness of the world’s most famous sailor. The image of Popeye appears on the signs that greet you as you enter town, as well as the sides of the city’s fire trucks and the patches sewn onto the sleeves of the local police.
A Picnic for Popeye
On the first weekend following Labor Day, Chester celebrates its most famous citizens, both real and fictional, during the three days of the Popeye Picnic. The event features many free family activities such as carnival rides, Wimpy’s Wiener Dog races, trivia contests, balloon play sets and petting zoos for the kids, a 5K run, live music, a flea market, and a varied assortment of food trucks offering the usual assortment of deep-fried goodies, ice cream, smoothies, kettle corn, and other culinary delights to stimulate the palate and expand the waistline. Every year, the Picnic offers a theme. During my visit in 2018, the event celebrated Illinois’ 200th year as an official State. Other themes include 2016’s Popeye Rides Again (or “Ja’ think I’m a cowboy?”), Popeye for President (2015), and Popeye Gets an Edjumacation (2014). But one of the more peculiar reasons to celebrate the Sailor Man came in 2007. In April of 1978, Official UFO Magazine, a periodical devoted to what we now call “fake news” about extraterrestrial visitations, reported the town being totally destroyed by aliens. The verymuch-alive-and-well-thank-you town commemorated the “event” with an old satellite dish and a smoke machine stuck inside the upstairs window of a downtown business, demonstrating what happened to one poorly driven spacecraft that evidently ran afoul of the world’s most famous spinach eater. The weather usually cooperates with the Popeye Picnic. All three days are often sunny and comfortably warm. In 2018, however, after the food vendors and balloon play area set up on Friday afternoon, a powerful storm front moved into the area, dropping several inches of rain overnight, accompanied by strong winds. Thus, the overall attendance for Friday and Saturday found itself affected negatively. RetroFan
April 2020
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