Saturday, 31 March 2012
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Monday, 26 March 2012
Actor Patrick O'Neal looks quite a bit like a clean-shaven Vincent Price in this '66 chiller. The Boston Strangler murders were in the news so the publicity for this refers to the film's killer as The Baltimore Strangler.
Originally a TV pilot abouta pair of sleuths, Cesare Danova and Wilfrid Hyde-White, who also run a wax museum, this was deemed a tad too gruesome and given theatrical release instead. Even then the Wiilliam Castle type gimmicks of the Fear Flasher and the Horror Horn, introduced in voiceover by actor William Conrad prior to the opening credits, were added to incite some ballyhoo.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Here's the opening for a short-lived TV series I really enjoyed way back in that wonderful year of 1966, PISTOLS 'N' PETTICOATS. The ill-fated Western sitcom was meant to serve as a vehicle for former Warner Brothers "Oomph Girl," Ann Sheridan, but the actress failed to disclose just how ill she was with cancer and died before the end of the show's first and then only season.
The premise dealt with an Old West family known for being the best shots around--the Grandfather, the Grandmother, the Daughter (Sheridan) and the Granddaughter. The daughter was played by pretty but relatively generic Carole Wells but the grandparents offered my initial introduction to the great character actors Douglas V. Fowley (nowhere near as aged as he played here) and the delightful Ruth McDevitt. Charismatic McHALE'S NAVY alumnus Gary Vinson (later a real-life victim of suicide) rounded out the regular cast as the sheriff.
If you've never seen the series, a few rare episodes are online here: http://tv4u.com/
Originally posted at BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY
Originally posted at BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Quickly becoming the most popular comic book character of them all, 1966 was a seminal year for Marvel's Spider-Man. Included here, as usual, are the two 1966 issues actually on sale at the end of '65 as well as the two 1967 issues that rounded out '66.
The issue above features a classic cover and story by Steve Ditko that is still listed consistently as perhaps the best single issue comic of all time as far as Silver Age fans are concerned.
Ditko's final issue above. He didn't even bother to do a cover so one was pieced together in-house using panels from the story. In spite of all the behind the scenes contentiousness, it is still a good issue.
John Romita debuts as the new Spidey artist with a classic cover and a major two parter.
Other than a couple of Ditko reprints in MARVEL TALES, the issue above was my very first issue of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.
The first new post-Ditko villain, the Rhino would become one of Spidey's major opponents.
Above and below, two favorite issues from the early Romita period as our hero had to fight the Lizard with an injured arm.
Monday, 19 March 2012
It really was a different world that summer of 1966.
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Here's the opening to the 1966 TV comedy, THE HERO, starring future SOAP star Richard Mulligan as an actor who played a western hero on TV. His wife is played by Mariette Hartley who would finally find fame in a series of TV camera commercials with James Garner a decade later. Thanks to Kliph for the heads up.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
There really was no need for the word "radio" in the title of this long-running magazine by '66. Note the mention of Kathy Lennon of the Lennon Sisters at the top. She and all of Lawrence Welk's TV family would dominated the TV magazines for most of the sixties into the early seventies. All I can guess is that Welk was canny enough to give them great access and thus they knew they could always get a story there. Must have worked as the LAWRENCE WELK SHOW is still popular in reruns in 2012!
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Beginning in 1964, Bantam Books began reprinting the 1930's and '40's DOC SAVAGE pulps with surprising popularity. Actor Chuck Conners was reportedly scheduled to play the Man of Bronze in a movie in 1966, of which this sole issue of a God Key comic book from that year was meant to be a tie-in. The film was never made.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Monday, 12 March 2012
Friday, 9 March 2012
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Technically the first solo Beatles album and Paul's first film soundtrack as well. During the break before 1967's SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, John went to Spain and co-starred with Michael Crawford in Richard Lester's HOW I WON THE WAR. McCartney stayed closer to home and scored this slice of life British drama featuring Disney favorite Hayley Mills in an uncharacteristically adult performance...complete with a brief nude scene.
THE SPY WITH A COLD NOSE is a dog The human stars of the picture include Laurence Harvey, Daliah Lavi and the great Lionel Jeffries. Oddly enough, in a tiny role as a belly dancer you'll find Nai Bonet who, 13 years later, wrote and starred in NOCTURNA, a mob-funded horror/disco/comedy starring her as Dracula's daughter opposite John Carradine and Brother Theodore.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
The last SPIRIT stories had appeared more than a decade earlier by the time Harvey Comics, home of CASPER and RICHIE RICH, came out with this collection in '66. It followed on the heels of a few questionably legal reprints from IW/Super, a surprise appearance in Harvey Kurtzman's HELP, prominent exposure in Jules Feiffer's THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES and an all-new Eisner story in a 1965 New York newspaper. This, though, was the one the kids saw. This was the one that made Eisner and Spirit fans out of the baby Boomer kids and led to the dozen other revivals of this great, classic strip!
I first saw it at my friend Greg's house that summer and I didn't know what to make of it. It was unlike anything I'd seen before in comics in all my..what?...6 months?...of collecting. I wasn't sure I liked it. But it made an impression. And I remembered it when it was revived and have been a fan ever since. Today would have been Will Eisner's birthday. His SPIRIT, to use the obvious line, lives on.
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