RetroFan #10 by TwoMorrows Publishing

September 2020 No. 10 $9.95

Can I come to your house and play?

RARE GODZILLA TOYS

FIFTY YEARS OF ? Can You Dig It

T h e Br a d

y Bu

Family Affair’s fabulous...

hH L o CH Funny, ur’s g roov y GERI R EIS freaky FAKE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Kathy Garver Ed “Big Daddy” Roth • Spaghetti Westerns • The Spider/Spider-Man & more! 1

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FEATURING <right> Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

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RETROFAN #12

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BRICKJOURNAL #65

Hollywood interviewer CHRIS MANN goes behind the scenes of TV’s sexy sitcom THREE’S COMPANY—and NANCY MORGAN RITTER, first wife of JOHN RITTER, shares stories about the TV funnyman. Plus: RICK GOLDSCHMIDT’s making of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, RONNIE SCHELL interview, Sheena Queen of the TV Jungle, Dr. Seuss toys, Popeye cartoons, DOCTOR WHO’s 1960s U.S. invasion, & more fun features!

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19 The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

CONTENTS Issue #10 September 2020 Columns and Special Features

Retro Heroes 50 Years of Shaft

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Running for Laughs: Fake Presidential Candidates

Retro Interview Family Affair’s Kathy Garver

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Secret Origin of Spider-Man

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Cartoon Preview Specials, Part Two

46 11

Retro Interview The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s Geri Reischl

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! Ed “Big Daddy” Roth

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria The Italian Westerns of Sergio Leone

Departments

Retrotorial

RetroFad The Twist

Too Much TV Quiz

Retro Toys Godzilla Merchandise in the U.S.A.

Retro Travel Stuckey’s

3 RetroFan™ #10, Sept. 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.

ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover by Scott Saavedra Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Shaft © Ernest Tidyman Estate. Shaft artwork by Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Ivan Nunes. Shaft art © Dynamite. Family Affair © Don Fedderson Productions. Godzilla © Toho Co., Ltd. Brady Bunch © Paramount Television. Howard the Duck © Marvel. 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

by Michael Eury

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Shaun Clancy Robert V. Conte Michael Eury Ernest Farino Tim Hollis Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! David F. Walker DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Nick Barrucci Gary Browning Dynamite Entertainment John S. Eury Mark Evanier Brian Heiler Heritage Auctions Sean Lickenback Alan Light Anthony Molchan Alexis Persson Rose Rummel-Eury Toho Company, Ltd. VERY SPECIAL THANKS Kathy Garver Geri Reischl Chris Clark Tidyman

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RetroFan

As this issue went into production in early February 2020, Americans were reeling from the Senate presidential impeachment trial, the partisan rancor after the State of the Union address, and the confusion clouding the voting tabulations at the Iowa Democratic caucus. Yikes! It doesn’t matter which political party you support, or if you’re non-partisan and trying to peacefully coexist in the middle—it’s a political madhouse out there! The Monster Times, the tabloid fanzine that thrilled fandom during its 1972–1976 history, might have had the right idea when endorsing Godzilla for President in 1974, in the wake of Watergate, another highly charged, politically polarizing event. Of course, with all due respect to that mag’s editorial staff, Godzilla, being born in Japan, was ineligible to run for the U.S.A.’s highest office. Still, no one can raze a battlefield like the King of the Monsters, so we can imagine what a blast a Ford/Carter/Godzilla 1976 presidential debate might have been. By the time you read this in the summer of 2020, the U.S. presidential campaign will be well underway—and so this issue our own Scott Saavedra revisits the days when both stand-up comics and characters from the comics alike took a stab at getting votes (as well as laughs). Fake presidential candidates have been around for a long time to spice up an otherwise sober process, and new ones tend to surface every four years, with J. R. Ewing, Bill the Cat, Cthulhu, and Stephen Colbert among the many additional “candidates” who have since vied to become POTUS in campaigns that never took themselves too seriously. (And if you’re still sore that King of the Monsters—featured in a special Godzilla merchandise article this issue—didn’t make it to the White House back in the Seventies, the good news is, eligibility aside, he’s running again in 2020.) John Shaft never ran for president, but he changed America in a major way. First appearing in the 1970 novel Shaft by author and The French Connection screenwriter Ernest Tidyman, John Shaft was the trailblazing black detective that inspired a generation of African Americans and proved a box-office and multicultural success. This issue, we welcome guest writer David F. Walker—author of Shaft novels and comic books—who has penned a scintillating Shaft history commemorating the character’s multimedia journey that now spans 50 years. Special thanks go Chris Clark Tidyman, widow of Shaft creator Ernest Tidyman, for kindly and enthusiastically approving RetroFan’s coverage of her husband’s famous creation. There’s lots more waiting for you this issue. Regular NEXT ISSUE: columnists Ernest Farino, Will Murray, and Scott Shaw! are in fine form, Tim Hollis is back with another RetroTour, and we welcome two multitalented celebrities to our pages, as Kathy Garver (beloved as Cissy from Family Affair and the voice of Firestar on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends) and Geri Reischl (known and loved as “Fake Jan” from the infamous Brady Bunch Variety Hour) are interviewed. And columnist Andy Mangels has dug up so much wild and wacky information about those fun but insane Saturday morning preview specials that we’re expanding what was to be this issue’s concluding Part Two of his serial into three parts, meaning more preview madness awaits next issue! There’s so much material in the pages that follow, we’ve had to bump this issue’s Celebrity Crush and RetroFanmail features to next issue. In the meantime, don’t forget to tell your friends about us, and share your comments with me about this issue at euryman@gmail.com.

August 2020

October 2020 No. 11 $9.95

Why can’t I get a date?

SUPERMAN’S FREAKY PAL, JIMMY OLSEN

Interview with

David Selby Dark Shadows’ Quentin Collins

Who is... The Niece of Frankenstein?

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

re entu Adv The TV’s

Su s of

perm

Casper • Rod Serling • Scratch models • Quisp and Quake & more!

FEATURING <right> Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

RETRO HEROES

Fifty Years of

(ABOVE) Cover artwork to Dynamite Entertainment’s comic book Shaft #1 (Dec. 2014). Art by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz, with colors by Ivan Nunes. Shaft © Ernest Tidyman Estate. Shaft art © Dynamite.

by David F. Walker It is difficult to fully understand the tremendous impact John Shaft had on the pop-culture landscape 50 years ago, but to say that he helped change that landscape forever wouldn’t exactly be hyperbole. When the black private detective stepped out of the pages of Ernest Tidyman’s 1970 novel Shaft and on to the big screen in the 1971 film of the same name, the world of pop culture was primed and ready for something new. And that something new, embodied by actor Richard Roundtree, strutted through the gritty streets of Times Square to the rhythm of a funky theme song written and performed by Isaac Hayes. Audiences went wild, and everyone from book publishers to film producers to toy manufacturers took notice as the popularity of Shaft and a handful of other films paved the way for the blaxploitation movement that dominated the first half of the Seventies. To be clear, Shaft was not the only character to bring about a seismic change in how black masculinity was portrayed in popular entertainment, nor was director Gordon Parks, Sr.’s film truly a blaxploitation movie in the truest sense of the word. But at the same time, any examination of the emergence of the black action hero in the Seventies, the explosion of films produced and marketed to an urban (black) audience, and the lasting legacy of badassery must shine a spotlight on the black private dick. John Shaft was to black action heroes in the Seventies what James Bond was to spies in the Sixties, the difference being that there had been plenty of spies before Agent 007, but only a very small number of black action heroes came before Shaft. Given the iconic legacy of John Shaft, it is hard to believe that he was the creation of a middle-aged white man trying to change careers. Ernest Tidyman, a crime reporter from Cleveland, was looking to transition from journalism to fiction, but had found little success with his first novel, 1968’s Flower Power. At the same time, Macmillan Press mystery editor Alan Rinzler was looking for something new to shake things up within the genre. Rinzler had already worked with author Claude Brown on his successful memoir Manchild in the Promised Land (1965). Set in the Forties and Fifties, Brown’s gritty comingRetroFan

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of-age account of his experiences in Harlem became a critically acclaimed and controversial bestseller. Rinzler hoped to capture the gritty realism of Manchild in the Promised Land, and give it a home in the mystery genre, leading him to reach out to literary agent Ronald Hobbs. One of the few black literary agents in the Sixties, Hobbs suggested Tidyman, who was still better known for his reporting than his fiction. Commissioned by Rinzler in 1968, Tidyman began to develop a mystery for Macmillan that would star a hardboiled black private detective named John Shaft. Tidyman’s creation began to take shape in late 1968, but John Shaft was not the first black private detective in crime fiction. Shaft had, in an artistic sense, several brothers—or perhaps cousins—who came before him, clearing some of the paths yet to be traversed in mainstream books or movies.

readers to Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs. On paper, Tibbs and Shaf t have very little in common other than their skin color and the fact that like Toussaint Moore, their creators were white men. But the importance of In the Heat of the Night and Virgil Tibbs is undisputed, as the character came to life on the big screen in Norman Jewison’s 1967 film adaptation starring Sidney Poitier. Winning the Oscar for Best Picture, In the Heat of the Night would go on to spawn six more novels by Ball, two more films starring Poitier (The Organization and They Call Me Mr. Tibbs), and a television series starring Howard Rollins as Tibbs. Ernest Tidyman went to work writing Shaft in late 1968 with a publishing deal in place. He finished the book in 1969, and began shopping it in Hollywood nearly a year before its publication. Even before Shaft came out, there was interest in turning it into a movie. In the Heat of the Night had been a turning point for the

Room to Swing’s Toussaint Moore and In the Heat of the Night’s Virgil Tibbs were among the trailblazing black detective works paving the way for Shaft. In the Heat of the

Night © United Artists. Courtesy of Heritage.

One of the most important of Shaf t’s older literary brothers was a character introduced more than 60 years ago, and largely forgotten today. Toussaint Moore is considered by historians to be the first black private detective to appear in fiction. Introduced in author Ed Lacy’s 1957 book Room to Swing, Toussaint Moore returned in 1964’s Moment of Untruth. The same year that Lacy’s Room to Swing was published, author Chester Himes published the first of his “Harlem Detective” novels, chronicling the exploits of Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, two tough-as-nails detectives in the New York Police Department. Himes wrote eight novels starring Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones between 1957 and 1968, and the characters would be crucial in clearing the way for Shaf t to take America by storm. Along with Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, another literary character was pivotal in laying the groundwork for Shaft. In 1965, author Joe Ball’s In the Heat of the Night introduced 4

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portrayal of black masculinity in film. In one of the film’s most revolutionary moments, Virgil Tibbs slaps a white man who seconds earlier had slapped him. And there was no retaliation. Tibbs was not made to pay for his ultimate sin of striking back against the racist power structure. Nothing like this had ever happened before in the history of cinema. Even football playerturned-actor Jim Brown had yet to do anything as incendiary in films like The Dirty Dozen and Ice Station Zebra. While Sidney Poitier had earned his place as one of Hollywood’s top leading men in the Sixties, Jim Brown was establishing himself as the first black action hero in mainstream film. Before Brown’s rise to stardom, the closest thing to a true black action hero in Hollywood had been Woody Strode, but his roles had been in films of a different era—made before Virgil Tibbs slapped a white man. Brown’s movies came after the slap heard around the world, and he soon found himself as the leading man in movies like The Split and 100 Rifles.

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The success of films like In the Heat of the Night and The market. Having cost less than a million dollars to produce, Split left Hollywood producers looking for something with a Sweetback was on its way to becoming one of the most financially hardboiled black protagonist, just as Tidyman’s soon-to-besuccessful independent films of the time, earning close to $15 published manuscript was making the rounds. Columbia Pictures million at the box office. Producers and studios sensed there was was interested in Shaft, thinking it would be a good vehicle for money to be made on this newly discovered “special market,” and actor Yaphet Kotto, who had a breakout performance in the 1970 the rush was on to find the next hit. As it turns out, the next hit film The Liberation of L. B. Jones. Largely forgotten by film critics or was already in production in New York, with Parks directing and scholars, The Liberation of L. B. Jones is one of the most important Roundtree starring. movies in the development and evolution of what would become Shaft debuted in the United States in June 1971. With a blaxploitation. In the movie, Kotto’s character kills a white police production cost of $500,000, it would go on the earn $14 million. officer, and escapes unpunished for his crime. This is the same The success of Shaft and Sweetback opened the floodgates to a thing done by the lead character in Melvin Van Peebles’s seminal wave of nearly 200 movies that would be released between 1972 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baaadasss Song, only Kotto’s Sonny Boy and 1979. Between the two films, the archetypes and conventions did his killing a year before Van Peebles’ Sweetback did his. of what would become blaxploitation were firmly solidified, but Columbia passed on Shaft, and the book landed at MGM of the two, Shaft was the more mainstream title. Sweetback made Studios. MGM was in bad financial a lot of money, but it was initially situation following a series of box-office X-rated, and not an easy sale to flops, and it was looking for inexpensive white audiences. By comparison, films that could potentially pull in the R-rated Shaft not only found decent profits. The studio had wrapped success with black audiences, production on Cotton Comes to Harlem, it also had crossover appeal. based on the novel by Chester Himes MGM successfully marketed and directed by Ossie Davis. Starring the film by comparing Shaft to Godfrey Cambridge as Gravedigger James Bond and Bullitt—the Jones and Raymond St. Jacques as iconic hero portrayed by Steve Coffin Ed Johnson, the film was released McQueen—and in doing so, John shortly after MGM bought the rights to Shaft became a name-brand Shaft. Cotton Comes to Harlem was a huge badass. financial hit for MGM, earning it a place Although the film is faithful as one of the better-grossing films of to Tidyman’s original novel— 1970, and laying the groundwork for the Shaft is hired by the Godfather coming blaxploitation movement. of Harlem to find his daughter Macmillan released the first who has been kidnapped by the hardcover edition of Shaft in April of Italian Mafia—the character 1970—one month before Cotton Comes was watered down. In the book, to Harlem opened in theaters. The book John Shaft had a backstory was a critical and commercial success, that involved life as a juvenile and the deal made between Tidyman delinquent and gang member, and MGM was for three films starring a tour of duty in Vietnam, and the Shaft character. a brief stint as a college student MGM offered Shaft to director with aspirations of being a Ossie Davis, who turned it down. lawyer. Having been orphaned at Gordon Parks, Sr., a highly respected an early age and bounced around Macmillan’s first edition of Ernest photographer who made his filmvarious foster homes, Shaft is a troubled boy Tidyman’s novel, Shaft (1970). Cover directing debut with The Learning Tree, grown up to become a troubled man, prone illustration by Mozelle Thompson. was brought on as director. After a long to bursts of violence and distrustful of nearly © Ernest Tidyman Estate. Courtesy of Heritage. search for a leading man that included everyone. Nearly all of the personal history James Earl Jones, Ron O’Neal, Jim of Shaft was lost when he made the leap to Brown, Bernie Casey, Billy Dee Williams, Raymond St. Jacques, film, making the cinematic iteration far less dimensional than the and Nathan George (who is rumored to have been cast in the film literary one from which he’d grown. But for all the elements of and then fired before production started), a little-known modelthe book missing from the film, John Shaft was still a memorable turned-actor named Richard Roundtree was cast as John Shaft. character. Filming of Shaft began on location in New York City in January Film audiences had never seen a character quite like private 1971. In April of that year, Van Peebles’ independently produced detective John Shaft before—tough, two-fisted, and black. It was Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song opened in theaters, becoming his blackness that differentiated Shaft from other hardboiled a huge financial hit. Gritty, raw, and unapologetic in its black private dicks like Mike Hammer and Sam Spade. These other militancy, Sweetback was unlike any movie ever made, and as it heroes existed in mostly white worlds where black people appealed to a predominantly black audience, it quickly became were few and far between, and never in positions of power or clear that it was serving a largely untapped (or unexploited) importance. In the mean streets of worlds populated by the RetroFan

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Hammers and Spades, there were petty criminals, and elevator operators, and shoeshine guys, all of whom might be black, but they did nothing to propel the story, let alone carry the narrative. John Shaft, as created by Tidyman, and as interpreted by Parks and Roundtree, was a fresh, new spin on a recognizable genre character. Writers like Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler had been writing down-and-dirty gumshoes for decades. Likewise, some of Hollywood’s top leading men had played such characters in a long list of films and even television shows. But there had never been a character like those who also happened to be black. Even Virgil Tibbs, for all of his affirmative action points, was not John Shaft. Much of the popularity and success of Shaft can be tied directly to the Oscar- and Grammy-winning soundtrack by musician Isaac Hayes, who auditioned for the part of John Shaft before successfully transitioning into acting with Truck Turner. Hayes’ double-album soundtrack became a chart-topping hit and went platinum within a month of its release. More importantly, Hayes’ score helped change the way music was used in film, bringing in a more contemporary, funk/soul-driven sound. It had an especially significant impact on the coming wave of black films, setting the standard for how R&B music would be used in films, and marketed alongside of individual movies. The influence of Hayes’ Shaft soundtrack could be heard in a long list of movie soundtracks that included Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly, Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man, James Brown’s Black Caesar, Barry White’s Together Brothers, Bobby Womack’s Across 110th Street, and Gene Page’s Blacula. The success of many blaxploitation films became tied directly to the soundtrack, which took on a new importance after Shaft. In many cases, like Super Fly, the soundtrack made more money than the film. Not only did a movie require a soundtrack that could propel the drama, action, and emotions on the screen, it had to have a killer theme song that could get radio play. Not since John Barry’s James Bond theme had the concept of a song (BELOW) This MGM lobby card’s movie still of leather-clad private dick John Shaft became famous from the first film’s poster and advertising. (RIGHT) The Australian release of Shaft featured an illustrated version of the iconic Roundtree image and traded upon the marquee value of white action heroes Bond and Bullitt. © MGM. Shaft © Ernest Tidyman Estate. Courtesy of Heritage.

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being directly tied to a character been so crucial. Shaft, however, upped the stakes. It wasn’t enough to have a recognizable instrumental track, there now had to be lyrics that spelled out everything people needed to know about a character. The result was audiences knew Shaft through the theme song before they saw the movie. The same was true for Super Fly and Foxy Brown, and a long list of movie characters. After the release of the novel in 1970, Tidyman was contracted to write two more John Shaft novels. As the film neared completion in 1971, MGM felt confident enough to begin developing a sequel, hoping that Shaft could be like Bond and grow into a lucrative franchise. Tidyman provided MGM with an outline for a sequel, but the studio passed. This initial outline would evolve into the second Shaft novel, the oddly titled Shaft Among the Jews. In his second novel, John Shaft finds himself caught up in the deadly world of diamond thieves, killers, and Israeli secret agents. If it’s possible for a hero to be tougher than tough-asnails, Tidyman takes Shaft there, upping the quota of violent confrontations and bodies piling up. Shaft Among the Jews would hit bookstores in 1972, right around the time the first film sequel, Shaft’s Big Score, was released in theaters. With Roundtree and Parks returning, and the blaxploitation craze now moving full steam ahead, Shaft’s Big Score delivered a more over-the-top version of private detective in much the same way Shaft Among the Jews had done. While the first movie had been marketed as being like a 007 film, it was in fact much

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(LEFT) A photo of Richard Roundtree was featured on this teaser poster for the first Shaft sequel, while (RIGHT) John Solie is attributed as the artist for the actual Shaft’s Big Score poster and its follow-up, Shaft in Africa. © MGM. Shaf t © Ernest Tidyman Estate. Posters courtesy of Heritage.

more like Mike Hammer or Philip Marlowe in its sensibilities. Both the film and book sequels to Shaft took steps to make the character more like James Bond. Shaft had one big-action climax that involved the detective jumping through a window and gunning down a group of mobsters. Shaft’s Big Score has a much bigger climax involving a high-speed car chase that moves to a speedboat, and involves a helicopter—that Shaft shoots out of the sky. Tidyman provided the screenplay for Shaft’s Big Score, which would also become his third novel, released shortly after the 1972 release of the film and Shaft Among the Jews. At a cost of nearly $2 million, the budget of Shaft’s Big Score was significantly higher, while its $10 million gross wasn’t quite as impressive as what the first film earned. Still, the success of the movie ensured that MGM would want another sequel, despite what Tidyman wanted. It was no secret that Tidyman was not pleased with aspects of the first film, and as MGM continued to exploit the character on the big screen (while the rest of Hollywood cranked out imitations), the author sought to take Shaft in a different direction elsewhere. Before the release of the film and book sequels to Shaft, Tidyman began to develop the character for a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip. Tidyman sought out an artist to help put together a sample of daily comic strips that could be shopped to different syndicates. The first artist to work with the author was David Russell, who drew several test strips and came up with two storylines. Tidyman and Russell could not come to a financial agreement, and the cartoonist walked away from the project. Several months later, Tidyman commissioned artist/writer Don Rico to produce 24 sample strips to be shopped for a deal. Despite the popularity of Shaft in books and movies, the private detective couldn’t seem to find a home as a newspaper strip. With the 1973 release of the third film, Shaft in Africa, rapidly

approaching, as well as two more books, Tidyman gave up on the idea of a comic strip. With no involvement in the new film, and a growing dissatisfaction with the live-action version of his character, the author focused his attention on more Shaft books, as well as other projects. Tidyman had won an Oscar in 1972 for his screenplay of The French Connection (a gig he’d gotten on the strength of the unpublished Shaft manuscript), and was looking for more work in Hollywood. In 1973 he wrote the screenplay for the Clint Eastwood Western High Plains Drifter. Tidyman would also publish two more Shaft books in 1973, Shaft Has a Ball (April) and Goodbye, Mr. Shaft (December). Part of the author’s prolific output with the Shaft books can be attributed to ghostwriters Robert Turner and Philip Rock, who helped in the writing process starting with the third and fourth books. When Shaft was released in 1971, it was one of the first of its kind. The term “blaxploitation” which was used to describe nearly all of the films made and marketed to black audiences hadn’t even been coined at the time. But by 1973, when Shaft in Africa was released, it was just one of many films flooding theaters on a weekly basis. Blaxploitation reached its peak in 1973 with a tremendous amount of films being quickly churned out to theaters. The level of output at this time was incredible. To put it in context, director Larry Cohen’s Black Caesar starring Fred Williamson was released in February 1973, while the sequel, Hell Up in Harlem (also directed by Cohen and starring Williamson), was shot, edited, and released eight months later in December. Williamson would star in two other movies in 1973, the James Bond rip-off That Man Bolt, and The Soul of N***er Charley, a sequel to a Western he had made the year before. And it wasn’t just Fred Williamson. Pam Grier starred in three films in 1973, including her breakout movie Coffy (directed by Jack Hill), which solidified her as one of the first true female action RetroFan

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Samples for the unpublished Shaft comic strip written by Shaft creator Ernest Tidyman and illustrated by Don Rico. © Ernest

Tidyman Estate. Courtesy of David F. Walker.

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stars. Jim Brown starred in three films that year as well, including Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off, a sequel to 1972’s Slaughter. Some of the best films of the blaxploitation movement came out in 1973, including The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Gordon’s War, The Mack, and Detroit 9000. This was also the year that James Bond would get in on the action with Live and Let Die, a film that co-starred a large cast of black actors including Yaphet Kotto, Gloria Hendry, and Julius Harris, all of whom could be found in the other black films of the time. One of the contributing factors to the success of blaxploitation was the mass exodus of white people moving from the cities into the suburbs starting in the Fifties and Sixties. Known as “the great white flight,” this happened at a time when most movie theaters were located in urban areas abandoned by middle-class whites, and now largely populated by African Americans. Suburban theaters and multiplexes were just starting to appear, but the vast majority of theaters were still in the inner city in the early Seventies, and empty because the target audience had moved out to the ’burbs. Blaxploitation films drew audiences that had not being going to the movies before into these urban theaters, which generated income for Hollywood that was desperately needed. With so many movies to compete against, Shaft in Africa wasn’t able to do the same kind of business as the first two films in the series. By his third cinematic outing, MGM went for broke in trying to shape John Shaft into a James Bond-like character, sending the private detective on an international case to break up of global slavery operation. The result was a film that was bigger in scope than the previous entries, but also seemed to remove the character from his core. The version of Shaft that went to Africa bore very little resemblance to the Shaft created by Tidyman. While Hollywood was quick to cash in on the audiences that had made Shaft and Sweetback a hit, the success of Tidyman’s book had not gone unnoticed. Paperback publishers known for churning out pulp-like potboilers began to get in on the black action craze. While Bantam was publishing the paperback editions of the Shaft books, Paperback Library quickly turned out the Superspade books by B. B. Johnson (a.k.a. Joe Greene)—a

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series of six books published in 1970 and 1971. Signet jumped on tried to do a spin-off of The Rockford Files entitled Gandy & Gabby, the bandwagon by reissuing Chester Himes’ “Harlem Detective” starring Isaac Hayes and Lou Gossett, Jr. as a pair of black private books, complete with new, blaxploitation movie-inspired covers. investigators. Signet also published Marc Olden’s popular Black Samurai series, The impact and influence of Shaft could be found everywhere which included eight books released in 1974 and 1975. in 1973 and going into 1974. But for the character himself, his The most prolific publisher of black pulp fiction in the days were numbered. CBS did not renew the series and the final Seventies was Holloway House, a company known for churning episode aired in February 1974. Meanwhile, more and more out exploitation potboilers in a variety of genres. Holloway House blaxploitation movies continued to be turned out. With hardhad begun to make a name for itself with its “black experience” hitting movies like Truck Turner and Foxy Brown in the theaters, novels—mostly crime fiction penned by authors like Iceberg there was little need for a watered-down version of Shaft on Slim (a.k.a. Robert Beck), Donald Goines (also writing as Al C. television. Clark), and Odie Hawkins. The publisher also released Roosevelt As the live-action version of John Shaft seemed to wither and Mallory’s Radcliff books, chronicling the exploits of a coldblooded die on the vine, Tidyman continued to work with ghostwriters hitman. Joseph Nazel wrote Turner and Rock to produce four more than 30 titles for Holloway more novels, including 1973’s Shaft House, ranging from biographies Has a Ball and Goodbye, Mr. Shaft, of notable black figures like Magic Shaft’s Carnival of Killers (1974), and Johnson and Paul Robeson to The Last Shaft (1975). Goodbye, Mr. horror titles like The Black Exorcist. Shaft would prove to be one of Nazel also wrote seven books in the best books in the series, while the Iceman series, as well as the Shaft’s Carnival of Killers would be Black Cop series (penned under the the weakest. Published only in name Dom Gober). England, The Last Shaft was literal Shaft in Africa had yet to be in its title, as Tidyman killed off his released in theaters when it was private detective in the final pages announced that John Shaft would of the book. be making the move from film to By the time Tidyman killed off television later in 1973. The Shaft John Shaft in 1975, the character TV series would consist of seven had already influenced film, episodes, each clocking in at 74 television, pop music, and pulp minutes, which were presented fiction. But the influences didn’t as part of the alternating line-up stop there. In 1975, Los Angelesof made-for-television movies based toy company Shindana that aired on The New CBS Tuesday released its Slade: Super Agent Night Movies. Roundtree returned action figure. With an uncanny as John Shaft, but aside from resemblance to Richard Roundtree, the name and the actor, there by way of Mattel’s Big Jim line was almost no resemblance to of action figures, there was no the character in the three films, mistaking the fact that Slade was in and even less in common with fact Shaft. Though Slade has been Tidyman’s original creation. In largely forgotten as a toy, it serves order to make the character as a very telling indication of the suitable for television, the heart popularity and familiarity of Shaft and soul of Shaft was cut out, within the black community. Even Poster for the third Shaft movie, Shaft making him just one of many without the name of Shaft, the action figure was in Africa. © MGM. Shaft © Ernest Tidyman private detectives that could be recognizable, and perhaps more important was one Estate. Courtesy of Heritage. found solving cases any given of the few black action figures on the market. In night on any given network. much the same way Tidyman recognized the need To make matters worse, the for a black hero in pop culture, and the way Shaft influence of blaxploitation on television was not limited to the and the films that followed fed a hungry audience, Shindana saw Shaft series. In what can only be seen as a move to compete with a customer base that other toy companies were ignoring. Shaft on CBS, NBC aired its show Tenafly, starring James McEachin With the book series having come to an end, and no more as black private investigator Harry Tenafly. Over at ABC, Teresa films or TV series in production, Shaft began to fade from the Graves starred in Get Christie Love, a series that sought to capitalize public eye just as the blaxploitation craze was starting to lose on the popularity of Pam Grier films like Coffy and Foxy Brown. steam. The quality of films peaked in 1974, and by 1975 the already The ABC series Starsky & Hutch featured the popular supporting low budgets of these films began to shrink, resulting in cheaper character Huggy Bear, played by actor Antonio Fargas. A secondversions of cheap movies that frequently cannibalized each season episode of Starsky & Hutch was actually a “backdoor pilot” other. So many blaxploitation films were released between 1972 for a Huggy Bear spin-off series. Likewise, NBC unsuccessfully and 1976 that the target audience had grown tired of the lowRetroFan

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rent, recycled plots and increasingly inferior production values. By the time the Shaft rip-off The Guy from Harlem was released in 1977, it was clear that blaxploitation as it existed was circling the drain. With diminishing box-office returns, Hollywood began to turn its attention to a new type of film—mega-blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars. By the Eighties it appeared that blaxploitation was dead, and characters like John Shaft had become more of a punchline to a larger joke about Seventies pop culture. But this wasn’t exactly the case, for though blaxploitation as it was known had largely gone away—the notable exception being the awful movies that Fred Williamson continued to make in the Eighties—in reality the black action film and its heroes merely evolved into something else. Richard Pryor transitioned from supporting actor in the early Seventies like The Mack to a leading man in the late Seventies and early Eighties in both comedies (The Toy) and dramas (Some Kind of Hero). This was during the time that blaxploitation was taking on a new appearance. The problem, of course, is that many people didn’t

Publicity still from the Shaft CBS TV show’s episode “The Killing,” with Ed Barth as Lt. Al Rossi and Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. (INSETS) On other networks, viewers could tune in to Tenafly and Get Christie Love. © MGM. Shaft © Ernest Tidyman Estate. Tenafly and Get Christie Love © NBC Universal Television.

make the connection between blaxploitation and hip-hop, or blaxploitation and the career of Eddie Murphy. But the reality is that hip-hop pioneers like RUN DMC embodied the swagger and machismo that grew out of Shaft, Sweetback, and all the films that followed. Likewise, Eddie Murphy’s star-making performance in Walter Hill’s 48 Hours is the love child of blaxploitation. And when Murphy strutted across the stage for his Delirious comedy concert, decked out in a red leather suit, he was following in footsteps first laid by Richard Roundtree in Shaft. For much of the Eighties and Nineties, John Shaft languished in obscurity, relegated to a mishmash of nostalgia and comedic 10

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parody. Films like Action Jackson starring Carl Weathers tried to revitalize the black action hero, while the comedy I’m Gonna Git You Sucka satirized the same heroes. Late-night reruns on television and home video kept Shaft from drifting into oblivion, though Tidyman’s books were out of print, and forgotten by most that remembered the films, but had never bothered to read the novels. That appears to be the case of everyone involved in the 2000 reimagining of Shaft, directed by John Singleton. With actor Samuel L. Jackson cast as the police detective nephew of John Shaft (Roundtree in a small supporting role), the new version of the film had nothing in common with Tidyman’s character and books, and only a tenuous connection to the original films. It was, by most measures, a bad film, which only seemed to get a little better with the 2019 release of yet another Shaft. The most recent film version of Shaft, directed by Tim Story, reinvented Singleton’s movie so that Jackson and Roundtree were now son and father, with a third generation of Shaft being played by Jesse T. Usher. The resulting film was a clumsy mix of comedy and action that not only had close to no connection to Tidyman’s original character, it died a horrible death at the box office, making it one of the lowest-performing films of 2019. Although the last two decades have not been particularly kind to the cinematic incarnation of John Shaft, he has fared slightly better in the world of print. In 2014, I had the opportunity to write the first of two Shaft graphic novels for Dynamite Entertainment (Shaft: A Complicated Man and Shaft: Imitation of Life), as well as the prose novel Shaft’s Revenge in 2015—the first new Shaft stories since 1975. Working with the blessing of Tidyman’s estate (he died in 1984), I stuck to the books as the only source for the character, leaning heavily into the backstory created by the original author in the first seven novels. For me, writing John Shaft was an incredible opportunity, and one I had thought about for many years, after having read Tidyman’s original book in the Nineties. There will no doubt be some other version of Shaft in the future—the character is too rich, iconic, and badass to fade away. Maybe there will be another graphic novel, or perhaps yet another film, which hopefully will go back to Tidyman’s books for inspiration. But no matter how the character makes his return, there’s no denying the lasting impact the private detective had on pop culture. As one of the first brand-name black action heroes to conquer multiple mediums, John Shaft helped break down the door that would lead to the action films of everyone from Wesley Snipes to Will Smith to Michael B. Jordan. Although the line from Shaft to Marvel’s Black Panther can be difficult for some people to trace, it is there all the same. DAVID F. WALKER is a journalist, filmmaker, and comic-book writer. He is the co-writer and co-creator of Bitter Root (Image Comics) and Naomi (DC Comics).

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

Running for Laughs: Pat Paulsen and Other Comic Candidates for President by Scott Saavedra If I could eat hot dogs every night for dinner and eat Cap’n Crunch sugar cereal every morning and sit around reading comic books and MAD magazine and watch reruns all day and watch my favorite shows at night and watch Warner Bros. cartoons on Saturday, then my life would be perfect. As a kid. That was my perfect kid life. I should have mentioned that straightaway. Also, I didn’t want to ever go to school. I wasn’t interested in the Math number-making or the English word writing-stuff (clearly). I was eight years old. It was 1968. Except for everything I didn’t want to be doing (school), I would end up having a pretty good year. That was me. America… well, she was having a tough go of it. Various sources peg 1968 as a uniquely turbulent time. “Turbulent” is very much the required adjective. The year began with North Korea capturing the crew of the U.S.S. Pueblo, claiming that the ship was in their territorial waters (the U.S. said, “Uh, no”). The war in Vietnam continued to be unpopular and the “national dialog” about it was more shouting match than conversation. The North Vietnamese “Tet Offensive” surprised U.S. and South Vietnamese forces, a negative turning point for the conflict. More than one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans were past done being treated as secondclass citizens and the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4th only made tensions worse. Oh, and it was an election year. A really rough one. President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to run for another term. Candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June, nearly five years after his older brother, President John F. (ABOVE) Pat Paulsen campaign poster detail, 1968. Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). (INSET) The President I Almost Was

by Jeanne Abel writing as Mrs. Yetta Bronstein. Reports of Yetta’s campaign may have doubted her chances of winning but didn’t dig deeper and uncover the hoax cooked up by her husband Alan.

Kennedy, was killed. That was soon followed by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that was a violent, chaotic mess. It was, in short, a welcome time for some laughs by way of amusing candidates for president.

She’s a Man, Baby!

Mrs. Yetta Bronstein was a write-in “The Best Party” candidate for president in both 1964 and 1968. Her slogan was “Vote for Yetta and things will get betta.” She was a no-nonsense but kindly mother of one (a young budding musician of limited skill). At least, that’s what people paying attention were supposed to think. The first anyone had ever heard of Mrs. Bronstein was on a radio program called Table Talk out of the Chicago Playboy Club. She felt it was time for a “housewife” (her words) to run for the highest office in the land. She promised National Bingo and to put a Suggestion Box in front of the White House. Clearly, Mrs. Bronstein wasn’t a serious contender. New York Times reporter Ben A. Franklin (who—and this is a true fun fact—stayed at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel when in Philadelphia) wrote at the time that not only was there no urgent desire for National Bingo but that this “housewife” (his words) might “fail to carry a single district.” Mr. Franklin was both correct and incorrect. It was true that Mrs. Yetta Bronstein had a zero-to-none chance at capturing the White House, but Franklin failed to realize that Yetta wasn’t a housewife. She wasn’t a person at all. She was three people: a hoaxer named Alan Abel and his wife Jeanne performed as Yetta for phone interviews (Mrs. Yetta Bronstein didn’t make any personal appearances), and a photo of Alan Abel’s mother provided the face on campaign posters. RetroFan

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The New York Times acknowledged its mistake in an article in its April 21, 2016 issue. Alan Abel would go on to unleash other hoaxes over the years. The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals was another of his pranks to net him media exposure: an appearance on the Mike Douglas Show, an afternoon talk program, with feature host Mike Douglas and his other guests looking on politely as Abel exhibited a drawing of a once-naked cow discretely dressed in a Muumuu. Abel died in 2018 but managed to fool the New York Times into printing his obituary years earlier, in 1980. The New York Times acknowledged its mistake in an article in its April 21, 2016 issue. Jeanne Abel, as Mrs. Yetta Bronstein, wrote a book about her 1964 campaign, The President I Almost Was (available in both hardcover and paperback).

The Other Dick in the Race

The Republican candidate for president in 1968 was Richard Nixon. He was also known as “Tricky Dick,” a nickname earned earlier in his political career and never shaken off. He had run for president in 1960 but lost to John F. Kennedy. Before that he was Vice President to the beloved two-term Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon may not have had the personal appeal of JFK or Ike but he was a dead-serious candidate and, you know, white, unlike someone we could mention. Let’s meet him now. Dick Gregory was a stand-up comedian and civil rights activist. Gregory had, earlier in the Sixties, been performing at segregated clubs when he was exposed to a national audience via television and

comedy albums. His material challenged the status quo in a way most mainstream comedians didn’t even attempt at the time. One routine performed before a largely white audience was about going into a restaurant in the South. The waitress told him that they didn’t serve “colored people” and he was fine with that because, said Gregory, “I don’t eat colored people.” Richard Claxton Gregory was born in 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri. As a child, Gregory recalled, in his campaign-promoting book Write Me In! (Bantam Books, 1968), that he wanted to grow up to be “a champion” and break through a “cruel and accepted system.” It was during a stint in the Army that a sergeant encouraged him to pursue his comedy. He used humor to express his social-reform goals. Gregory declared his 1968 write-in candidacy for president running under the Freedom and Peace Party banner (which is not to be confused with the Peace and Freedom Party—seriously). This was not his first political contest. In 1967 he ran for mayor of Chicago and lost to then-three-term incumbent Richard J. Daley (who was widely criticized for the handling of the protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention). Was Dick Gregory a serious candidate? Certainly, he had serious convictions, and he did register as a write-in candidate so that votes for him would count. But he was a comedian, after all, and likely knew that while he wouldn’t win the vote, he could make a point. And the way Gregory talked about the things that concerned him was through humor. He claimed his first order of business would be to paint the White House black and that Eartha Kitt would handle White House dinner invitations (Eartha Kitt for President would have been purrrfectly awesome, right, Bat-fans?). He had printed promotional fake one-dollar bills with his face on them. This got Gregory into some trouble because they worked in change machines (much like the $3 bill MAD magazine continued on pg. 14

(LEFT) Comedian Dick Gregory in 1963, a few years ahead of his first campaign. Photo: Herman Hiller. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, NYWT&S Collection. (ABOVE) Jokes and serious ideas mix a bit like oil and water in Write Me In! by Dick Gregory. (INSET) The front of Dick Gregory’s U.S. dollar bill-style promotional handout. It worked in change machines of the day, which got the attention of the Secret Service. His argument that a black man would never have his face on U.S. currency convinced a judge and got him out of trouble. 12

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CARTOON CHARACTERS FOR PRESIDENT

Betty Boop This Fleischer Studios’ animated superstar Betty Boop made her first cartoon appearance in Dizzy Dishes (1930). Her success must have gone quickly to her head because only two years later she ran for high office against the nightmarish Mr. Nobody (a headless body of rubbery limbs) in Betty Boop for President. Mr. Nobody’s campaign promised that nobody will tend to the nation’s ills. Betty, on the other hand, offered concrete, if whimsical, solutions (such as a giant umbrella to keep rain off the

city). Her stump speech/song had her transforming her face into that of the Republican Herbert Hoover (then president) and Democrat Al Smith, Hoover’s opponent in 1928. Betty Boop for President was also the name of a 1980 compilation film comprising badly traced and colored sequences from earlier, better black-and-white animated shorts. Fun fact: Tom Smothers did the voice of Pudgy the dog for this production.

Howdy Doody Howdy Doody was a before-my-time type thing, but I somehow managed to be aware of him and Buffalo Bob and Clarabell the Clown and the whole Peanut Gallery hoo-haw as I grew up. The beloved puppet star was the creation of Buffalo Bob Smith, © NBC. host of the longrunning (1947–1960) NBC show, Howdy Doody. Howdy ran for president twice, in 1948 and 1952. The first campaign required that Howdy get plastic surgery. “Beaten with an Ugly Stick, then run over with an Ugly Backhoe, and then kicked with an Ugly Boot” is the best way to describe the first version of Howdy Doody. Ten thousand “I’m for Howdy Doody” buttons were made and offered to viewers who wrote in. A quarter million buttons, by Buffalo Bob’s estimate, were requested. Toymakers took notice, and so did the builder of Howdy’s (yeech) puppet, Frank Paris. He wanted a piece of the action. NBC said, “Uh, no.” Paris left and took his handiwork with him. A fullhead-bandaged fill-in was used until a new puppet (made by Velma Dawson) could be completed and revealed. It would have the face so many remember so fondly. Best-ever fun fact: A young William “Khaaaaaaan!” Shatner filled in (at least once) for regular host Timber Tom as “Ranger Bob” for the Canadian Howdy Doody show called (you can see this coming, right?) The Canadian Howdy Doody Show.

TM & © EC Publications.

Betty Boop TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc./Fleischer Studios, Inc. TM Hearst Holdings, Inc/Fleischer Studios, Inc.

I believe very firmly that any cartoon character that runs for high office has not properly thought things through completely. As any professional politician will tell them (there’s a conversation I’d pay to see), no matter what you do or say, somebody will be very angry with or deeply disappointed in you. Maximal appeal is a cartoon character’s lifeblood. An un-beloved cartoon character is a forgotten cartoon character (I’m looking at you, Flip the Frog). You’d think that’d be sound advice, right? Here are some colorful fictional individuals who have run for president despite the possible downsides and survived.

Alfred E. Neuman MAD as magazine and comic book was not a stranger to political humor. Alfred E. Neuman, the magazine’s idiot boy mascot, entered the fray almost immediately. The impish fellow made his first full color appearance on the cover of MAD #30 (Dec. 1956). More importantly, it was also when Alfred announced his first run for president. In the years that followed, various covers would feature “Alfred E. Neuman for President” gags and various related novelties were produced. Howard the Duck With the desire to be transparent I have to admit to a political bias: I do not care that Howard the Duck ran for president. The appeal of Howard—all due respect to his creator, the late Steve Gerber— just failed to take hold of my heart (nor get past my meager comic-book budget). That said, the duck named Howard was a Marvel Comics character done in a “realistic” funny-animal style who existed “in a world he never made” (me, too). The comic was a satire of many things (Star Wars, super-heroes, and the like), and so it was perhaps inevitable © Marvel. that Howard ran for president, which he did in 1976. A swell button (“Get down America!”) and a poster, both with art by the great Bernie Wrightson, were offered to readers. Over the years, Howard the Duck has popped in and out of the Marvel Universe both in films and in the comic books, but his politicking days seem to be well behind him. To you fans of other cartoon candidates like Tintin, Zippy the Pinhead, and Lois Lane (who, it must be said, was only running for senator—against Superman), my heartfelt apologies for their absence. RetroFan

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scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

CELEBRITIES FOR PRESIDENT It’s probably fair to say that most celebrity candidates for president are comically inclined, if not just straight-up comedians. And it’s likely also true that publicity is the main goal. American humorist Will Rogers ran in 1928, in part as a circulation builder for the ailing Life magazine (then a humor publication until it sold its name to the owners of Time). Radio and television comic Gracie Allen (of Burns and Allen fame) ran in 1940 as a member of “The Surprise Party” (which I would join in a heartbeat). That same year, W. C. Fields wrote a book, Fields for President, with art by Otto Soglow (creator of the comic strip The Little King). I only read a small bit of it but do not follow any of his advice for interacting with wives, girlfriends, or any individual of the woman sort. I love W. C., but just… no. It has been reprinted in hardcover in 1971 and paperback in 1972 (without Otto) and again in 2016 (with Otto!). And then there’s Jayne Mansfield. Actress, model, and energetic seeker of publicity. Her run for high office appeared to be an opportunity for some pin-up photos and naughtyish jokes all neatly packaged into thin book form as Jayne Mansfield for President: The White House or Bust (Books, Inc. 1964). These are just tip-of-the-iceberg examples, of course. Morris the Cat (shill for 9Lives cat food) ran in 1988. Strangely, the original Morris died a decade earlier. It’s a mystery that I will look into and get back to you about, uh, someday (no breathholding, please).

(ABOVE) The cover to Jayne Mansfield for President (Books, Inc., 1964) and an interior page (LEFT) as some kids watch their dads (apparently) get friendly with not-their-mommy. Photo: David Attie. Scans by Darwin-Dregs. © Books, Inc.

published in 1967 which also got the attention of the Feds). Even more seriously, the Washington Post (August 22, 2017) reported that in 1968 then-F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover—America’s top police officer—wanted to “neutralize” Gregory with the help of the Mafia (who, as we know, are ideal for this type of law enforcement work). The “plan” did not appear to be carried out. Dick Gregory received over 47,000 write-in votes. 14

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“Not Another Pretty Face”

A fact of life, as a kid growing up, was that Pat Paulsen ran for president. I knew he never won and I don’t think that I had any idea what else he did, even though I’m sure I saw him turn up on television between elections. I also knew that he was funny. I watched so much TV back then and saw many, many actors that were forever nameless to me, but Pat Paulsen stuck in my brain. Kind of a weird thing considering I don’t recall watching him on the show that made him famous, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Patrick Layton Paulsen was born July 6, 1927 in South Bend, Washington. In an age when parents often told their kids that anyone could grow up to become president, young Patrick was among the many for which this “truism” would prove false. However, he would grow up to get a few laughs out of the election process. Pat Paulsen campaign window card (1968). But that would Courtesy of Heritage. come much later, after a stint in the Marines at the tail end of World War II, followed by a number of odd jobs including that of Fuller Brush salesman. By 1959 he was a guitar-playing solo comedy act. He met Tom and Dick Smothers, two folk musicians, while they were all performing in San Francisco. When the Smothers Brothers came to Hollywood to star in a second attempt at a television program (the first Smothers Brothers show was about an angel and a swinger, an article for another time, certainly), they brought Paulsen along to be part of it. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour debuted in 1967 and was intended to be moderately “with it”—but not too “with it”—entertainment. You know, so as to appeal to the youths. Pat Paulsen became the show’s editorialist, providing deadpan commentary on contemporary concerns. Fun topics like gun rights and the financial stability of Social Security. So, what prompted Paulsen to become a candidate? A political advertisement, appropriately enough. TV critic David Bianculli shares a well-informed version of Pat Paulsen’s rise from bit player and songwriter to editorialist to breakout star as a fake presidential candidate in Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Touchstone, 2009). Paulsen’s political career began with business types making a decision that stirred up creative types: CBS sold five minutes of airtime on Smothers Brothers for a political ad. The

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

(ABOVE) Ethel Kennedy was instrumental in getting her husband, eventual 1968 candidate Robert Kennedy, to meet with fake presidential candidate Pat Paulsen. Originally intended to be part of an upcoming special, the footage was not shown following Kennedy’s assassination. © CBS. (RIGHT) Pat Paulsen’s How to Wage a Successful Campaign for the Presidency (Nash, 1972) probably shouldn’t be followed by anybody.

show’s writers heard about the ad ahead of time and, upset about the loss of show time, prepared a tart disclaimer starring Pat Paulsen distancing the show from the ad by making a reference to it being unfair to Paulsen as a candidate (the candidate comment was just a one-off joke then). CBS refused to air the bit. Show writer Mason Williams (creator of the 1968 Grammy Award-winning instrumental hit, “Classical Gas”) had suggested satirizing elections and politicians by having the Mona Lisa or the Statue of Liberty run for president. As happens in collaborative arts, input was added by others and, well, Pat Paulsen found himself running for president of these here United States. In a fairly remarkable bit of preparation for what was—let’s be realistic—a joke, the show secured the services of an actual political consultant, one Don Bradley, who had assisted JFK’s presidential run. Bradley pointed out that a possible candidate could stay in the news by playing a “Will he or won’t he?” game. The show followed the consultant’s lead. Paulsen began his presidential run in January 1968 by denying that he would be a candidate, saying, “I will not run if nominated. And if elected, I will not serve.” Oddly, the actual president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, declared several weeks later in similar terms to “not seek, and… not accept” a nomination for another term. But this wasn’t a ploy—Johnson was shockingly out of the running. Before Johnson’s retreat, Tom Smothers, Pat Paulsen, and a camera crew filmed interviews with attendees of a charity function. Various celebrities were asked on camera for later use their opinions about Paulsen’s run. Bobby Kennedy, a fan of the show, agreed to participate, though possibly regretted the cooperation once Paulsen started to crack up the not-yetdeclared-but-soon-to-be candidate. The footage between Paulsen and Kennedy was never shown however (but can be found on YouTube, of course), as Kennedy’s cruel and pointless murder occurred before the material was to be aired.

The Pat Paulsen for President special episode of Smothers Brothers was shown just ahead of the 1968 election. It was packed with footage taken over many months of Paulsen campaigning in various states (promising in each locale to move there after the election to distance himself from “the phonies”). Bianculli called the documentary style program “stunningly ahead of its time.” Tommy Smothers, interviewed decades later by Rich Freedman of the Vallejo Times-Herald (and shared at patpaulsenforpresident.com) noted that if The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a painting, “[Paulsen] was the brightest color.” Pat Paulsen ran in each race for president from 1968 to 1996. He died in 1997 from complications from pneumonia, having been diagnosed with cancer in 1995. Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968 and again in 1972. In 1974 he became the first president to resign rather than face impeachment. During the previous year, a Nixon campaign “Opponents List” of 20 individuals determined to be “enemies” (or vocal critics, as a mentally healthy person would call them) of the president was revealed. Later, this list was found to be much larger and included a broad selection of American citizens including Dick Gregory as well as national treasure, voice actress, and animation legend June Foray (really, dude?). To the delight of few, 2020 is a presidential election year. There will, of course, be many jokes about the candidates (heck, I’m laughing already). This isn’t new. Neither are funny candidates (see sidebars). A straight-up comic presidential run in the manner of Pat Paulsen hasn’t emerged yet, but anything could happen. I can’t predict the future, but I can promise one thing during the waning weeks and days of the whole process and I’m dead certain of it. Comfort food will be the order of the day. I will be eating hot dogs. Lots and lots of hot dogs. Oh, and hey, U.S. friends, don’t forget to vote. Sure, the process can be crazy, but it’s better than the alternative (plus Yetta, Dick, and Pat would appreciate it). SCOTT SAAVEDRA is a graphic designer, writer, and artist who has voted in nearly every election for which he was eligible and thinks representative democracy is the bee’s knees. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the long-ago comic-book series It’s Science with Dr. Radium (SLG), and he wrote for the short-lived Disney Comics line, where he scripted stories featuring Chip ’n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and others. His fanzine, Comic Book Heaven, about crazy vintage comics, had a devoted but, sadly, tiny following. Check out his Instagram thing, won’t you? (instagram.com/scottsaav/) RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO FAD

No two words strike fear in the hearts of so many than “Let’s dance!” While some folks are quick to line up to Two-step or Shag or Conga, others recoil from the dance floor, that sadistic surface designed to expose self-consciousness, rhythmic awkwardness, and memorization weakness. That’s why the Twist became a sensation—it was the dance that almost everyone could do. You didn’t have to worry about two left feet with the Twist. With this dance your feet remained planted— not unlike my partner in my by college tennis class, Norman, Michael whom I’d call “The Tree” because he’d Eury only return a ball lobbed directly at him—pivoting slightly on the floor while your torso, hips, and legs rotated. Really! It was that simple! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Arthur Murray! The Twist evolved in the late Fifties and early Sixties as an outgrowth of rock ’n’ roll, that “provocative” (or so decried the killjoys) form of music that would, it was warned, lead a generation and perhaps society as a whole to ruin. It was, like so many other dances before and after it, a form of youthful expression and liberation, with some Twisters given to such wild abandon that Time magazine reported that the dancers’ arm movements possessed “the piston-like motions of baffled bird keepers 16

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August 2020

fighting off a flock of attack blue jays” (well, this was the era of Hitchcock’s The Birds, so maybe that skill would come in handy). While singer Chubby Checker became the poster child for the Twist, band frontman Hank Ballard was the first musician to elevate this burgeoning boogie to stardom. Ballard spied teens Twisting at a Tampa nightclub and in response wrote the tune “The Twist,” which became the B-side of the 45rpm single “Teardrops on Your Letter,” recorded by his R&B group Hank Ballard and the Midnighters in 1959. America’s Oldest Teenager, Dick Clark, host of the popular music-anddance television show American Bandstand, couldn’t help but notice how many kids were Twisting on his studio dance floor and realized that the Twist was The Next Big Thing. Clark recommended that Chubby Checker, whose cherubic image was more family-friendly than the harder-edged Midnighters’, do his own cover of Ballard’s song. Chubby Checker’s version of “The Twist” rocketed to Number One in 1960. Checker followed that up with “Let’s Twist Again” in 1961, and for a while it seemed as if every pop musician who could draw a breath wanted to get into the act as songs encouraging teens to Twist whisked onto the airwaves and record stores, among them: “Twistin’ U.S.A.” by Danny & the Juniors, “Twist and Shout” by the Isley Brothers, “The Peppermint Twist” (inspired by Manhattan’s popular Peppermint Lounge) by Joey Dee and the Starliters (the club’s house band), “Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke (which got a second boost of popularity in 1978 when appearing on the soundtrack of

National Lampoon’s Animal House), “Mama Don’t Allow No Twistin’” by Bo Diddley, “Dear Lady Twist” by Gary U.S. Bonds, and “Twistin’ Postman” by the Marvelettes. Outside of the U.S.A., Britain’s Beatles did their own cover of “Twist and Shout” while Bill Haley and the Comets scored in Mexico with “The Spanish Twist.” Back in the States, even Saturday morning’s singing Chipmunks got into the groove with “The Alvin Twist”—and in nighttime animation, Bedrock became “a town I know where the hipsters go” as The Flintstones spoofed the dance craze as “The Twitch.” The dance even twisted its way into comic books, most notably a 1962 one-shot from Dell Comics titled The Twist. Its story involved a competing nightclub (the “Marshmallow Club,” a take-off of the aforementioned Peppermint Lounge) and pizza joint both hungry for Twisting patrons. Hollywood took notice of the craze, and three different studios raced Twisting films into production, all of which were released in late 1961. Columbia Pictures distributed the hastily produced (in 28 days!) Twist Around the Clock, starring Twist-master Chubby Checker in a swinging fable about a record promoter who discovers a new dance in a small town and makes it a national sensation. If that plot sounds familiar (and it’s certainly been done to death), it was, like its title, recycled by the same screenwriter from the 1956 movie Rock Around the Clock, a swinging fable where

Images © the respective copyright holders.

a music promoter discovers a new sound in a small town and makes it a national sensation. Joey Dee’s “The Peppermint Twist” gave birth to the movie Hey, Let’s Twist, while jazzman Louis Prima—best known to RetroFans as the voice of King Louie of the Apes in Disney’s animated The Jungle Book (you’ll have “I Wanna Be Like You” stuck in your head all day now)— starred in Twist All Night (a.k.a. The Continental Twist), a movie which included (I’m not making this up) how-to Twist demonstrations for its audience. In the spring of 1962, Chubby Checker was back in bijous in another go-round from the same movie producers, Don’t Knock the Twist. (Useless but fun trivia: Both of Checker’s Twist movies were directed by Oscar Rudolph, known for many Sixties TV directing credits including episodes of Batman.) There was a whole lotta Twistin’ goin’ on in the early Sixties! Leave it to your old man to step in and spoil the fun for everyone. What started as a generation’s gyration soon lured their parents to start Twisting on America’s living room carpets, quickly rerouting the Twist to Squaresville. Even Rob and Laura Petrie—who often cut a rug on The Dick Van Dyke Show—spun their own TV spoof of the dance called “The Twizzle.” Enough was enough, and in 1962 teens were defecting the Twist for other dances (including Twist variations like the Swim, the Jerk, and the Frug). Those wanting to continue to milk the trend knelt to its patron saint for a miracle, and it occurred when Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” record was re-released in 1962, once again rising to Number One. But that was the Twist’s last gasp as a sensation. Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ “Do You Know How to Twist” barely mustered a Number 87 spot on the charts that year, and when Checker tried one more Twist platter, 1963’s “Twist It Up,” it peaked at Number 25. Soon the flower children and hippies would have the young crowd digging a whole new scene. But the Twist never really went away. Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to do. Or because it’s such a distinctive snapshot of the early years of rock ’n’ roll. Uma and Travolta made it cool again in Pulp Fiction (and they added a dash of the Batusi!), and Twist competitions remain fun events for Boomers and their kids, such as the one in Florida in 2012 when Chubby Checker—still Twistin’ in his early seventies!—sang his big hit before a record-setting group of 4,000 Twisters. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna see if my old buddy Norman is available to Twist the afternoon away. RetroFan

August 2020

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) $11.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-064-9 • Diamond Order Code: MAR151564

GROOVY

When Flower Power Bloomed In Pop Culture

GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like THE MONKEES, LAUGH-IN and THE BRADY BUNCH. By MARK VOGER. (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9 • Digital Edition: $13.99 Diamond Order Code: JUL172227

HOLLY JOLLY

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CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS PAST IN POP CULTURE Break out the candy canes! HOLLY JOLLY is a colorful sleigh ride through the history of Christmas, from

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its religious origins to its emergence as a multimedia phenomenon. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER explores movies (Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life), music (White Christmas, Little St. Nick), TV (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), books (Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol), decor (1950s silver aluminum trees), comics (super-heroes meet Santa), and more! Featuring interviews with CHARLES M. SCHULZ (A Charlie Brown Christmas), ANDY WILLIAMS (TV’s “Mr. Christmas”) and others, the story behind DARLENE LOVE’s perennial hit song Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), and even more holiday memories! Written and designed by MARK VOGER (author of the TwoMorrows’ books MONSTER MASH and GROOVY), the profusely illustrated HOLLY JOLLY takes readers on a time-trip to Christmases past that you will cherish all year long! SHIPS NOVEMBER 2020! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-097-7

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

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

From Family Affair, Firestar, and Beyond

An Interview with

Kathy Garver by Shaun Clancy As a kid growing up in the Seventies and Eighties, my exposure to Kathy Garver’s TV work was probably the same as many of you. I would occasionally see a rerun of the popular sitcom Family Affair (1966–1971) on various channels (although I would develop a deeper appreciation of the show later, as an adult). Family Affair was about an engineer, Bill Davis (Brian Keith), a bachelor with an active social life living in New York City who takes on the unexpected role of raising his orphaned nephew (Johnny Whitaker as Jody) and two nieces (Anissa Jones as Jody’s pigtailed twin Buffy, known for carrying her doll Mrs. Beasley, and Garver as teenaged Cissy) who showed up one day at his doorstep. With the help of his valet (Sebastian Cabot), “Uncle Bill” and his newly formed family had five seasons of warm-hearted adventures with lighthearted humor aimed at adults. During its first three seasons, Family Affair was nominated for three Emmys. The TV show featuring Kathy Garver that really grabbed my attention was the animated Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981–1983), which aired Saturday mornings on NBC. This cartoon introduced a female character that I wasn’t familiar with in my Marvel Comics collection

(although she was soon introduced into comics)—Firestar, voiced by Garver, who interacted very well with her co-stars Iceman and Spider-Man, which made for a nice balance. The viewers apparently agreed, as it ran three seasons! “SpiderFriends, go for it!,” Kathy reminisces. Kathy Garver started her long and versatile career as a child actress and has since amassed credits in radio, stage, television, films, cartoons, and voiceovers. Her early movie roles include The Ten Commandments and The Bad Seed, with more recent film appearances in Mom, Murder & Me and The Princess Diaries. Her voice characterizations have appeared in many cartoons, commercials, audio books, and film voiceovers. And for decades she’s been a familiar face on television, from her pre-Family Affair childhood and teenaged roles on Our Miss Brooks, The Millionaire, Dr. Kildare, and The Patty Duke Show to more recent TV roles including a guest spot on the 2002 remake of Family Affair on The WB to starring in the newly developed Travis Hunt production, the series Aunt Cissy, announced in the summer of 2019 as “a new family comedy that is not exactly a sequel to Family Affair… but it has elements of the premise of that classic TV series, plus a few surprises.” She’s also

(TOP) Kathy Garver on the set of Family Affair. (ABOVE) The actress’ memoir, Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood (2015). © Kathy Garver. Family Affair © Don Fedderson Productions.

an accomplished author, with several books to her credit including Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood (2015), X-Child Stars: Where Are They Now RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO INTERVIEW: KATHY GARVER

(co-written by Fred Ascher, 2015), and the cookbooks The Family Affair Cookbook (2009) and Holiday Recipes for a Family Affair (2019). What follows is a transcription of my telephone interview with Kathy Garver from May 2014, which was transcribed by Rose Rummel-Eury in late 2019 and updated in January 2020 for publication in RetroFan with Ms. Garver’s approval. RetroFan: You did some radio work in the Fifties on a show called Whispering Streets. Kathy Garver: This was with Bette Davis, and I was so excited to see Bette Davis and record Whispering Streets with her. My mom came to pick me up; I was a child. We went over to ABC, and we all got dressed up. We got there a little late and said, “Where’s Bette Davis?” “She’s not here.” “Is she late?” “Oh, no, she records her part in New York.” “Nooo!” …and I never did get to meet her. I was so disappointed. It was an anthology series, and I did maybe three of them. I also did Heartbeat Theater, which I still have the script for and I believe it was an episode with [legendary cartoon voice actress] June Foray. On the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon, I played Firestar, and June played Aunt May. I just had a little reunion with Dan Gilvezan. He played the part of SpiderMan, and the last time I was in L.A., he

FAST FACTS Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends ` No. of seasons: Three ` No. of episodes: 24 ` Original run: September 12, 1981–November 5, 1983 (although the episodes continued to be aired through 1986) ` Production companies: Marvel Productions Ltd. and Toei Animation ` Network: NBC Primary Cast: ` Dan Gilvezan: Peter Parker/ Spider-Man ` Frank Welker: Bobby Drake/ Iceman ` Kathy Garver: Angelica Jones/ Firestar

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August 2020

gave me this wonderful documentary about how it all began and the process of SpiderMan and His Amazing Friends. Stan Lee is the host of it all, and it’s very interesting. RF: Did you audition for the Firestar part, or were you selected? KG: We all auditioned. I had just moved to San Francisco, so I flew down and they were kind of stern in a way. They knew what they wanted. RF: Did you know you were auditioning for the Firestar role specifically or was it just a general audition? KG: No, I knew it was for Firestar. RF: In the audition, did you play opposite anybody, or just read it cold? KG: In the first audition, I just read and then they had us back and then I read with Frank and Dan. Then we found out we had the parts and Dan found out he didn’t have it, and then he did. RF: Who was the director? KG: Al Dinehart. Alan was an independent contractor, and Marvel was pretty much running it with Stan Lee. This was the first time that they had animated one of their comic books into a television series. RF: Did you work off of a storyboard? They usually like to animate to the recorded voices. KG: Well, they did the storyboards first, but we really just worked from script. We’d do a roundtable to get the feeling of how the show was going, and then we would record. RF: You did some other Spider-Man voice acting after Firestar… KG: I played Aruma of the Jungle and Miss America [in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, 1994–1998]… and I also played Storm [in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends], which was kind of cool. Brian Keith, who did my television series Family Affair, was also a character in Spider-Man [Uncle Ben on Spider-Man: The Animated Series].

Publicity image of Firestar autographed by the actress who gave her voice, Kathy Garver. Firestar TM & © Marvel.

RF: You’ve also done voice work for other cartoons. KG: I did a lot for Hanna-Barbera: Yogi Bear [The New Yogi Bear Show, 1998], Super Friends… I did Dixie on Dixie’s Diner (1989). I played an evil character, Enyah, in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures, and I also did Pepper in Chuck Norris’ Karate Kommandos. RF: Did you work opposite Chuck Norris, or did he work separately? KG: He worked separately, but I had met him before. He taught me how to break a piece of balsa wood! I was very impressed that A, he could do it and B, that he could teach me how to do it! RF: Did you have any interaction with Stan Lee when you were voicing Firestar? He was in the California studios at that time pushing to get things going. KG: Oh, totally! This was the first time [Marvel] had done it, so he worked with the scriptwriters to get it just right and was intimately involved with the casting, the storyboards, and actual animation. It was a very hands-on thing. He wanted it to be really, really well done because it was the first. He was a very sweet, energetic man. RF: When you do voiceover work in live-action movies or television, are you taking the voice of the main character and using your own voice [dubbing] over theirs?

RETRO INTERVIEW: KATHY GARVER

KG: For ADR [Automate Dialogue Replacement, formerly called “looping”]? Yes, I teach that as well. RF: Do you ever do any voice work for foreign films? KG: Yes. I did a whole series of Chinese films about 15 years ago, which were fun. I also voiced some Japanese anime—JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures. I do the dubbing for anime, cartoons, live action—the Chinese films were actually live action, and the ADR was with Ron Howard on his movies. RF: What was the beginning of your professional acting career? KG: They were trying to replace [radio’s] Baby Snooks and I remember my mom dressed me up in this little smock dress and we went on the interview, and I didn’t know why I was getting dressed up for radio. They decided they weren’t going to do the show. Then one of the first things I did was The Night of the Hunter, the movie (1955), followed by The Ten Commandments (1956). That was a great introduction to the entertainment field. RF: Was your mom trying to push you into this career, or was it something you wanted to do?

KG: Well, I started singing and dancing at the Meglin Studios in Hollywood, at three years old, as was Shirley Temple, who was also discovered there. I think my mom had the vision of her little daughter as Shirley Temple. My hair was in the little ringlets… “Well, Shirley Temple was discovered there…” But I actually wasn’t discovered until seven years later. RF: Discovered by whom? KG: Cecil B. DeMille, actually [director of The Ten Commandments]. I was supposed to be an extra, and we were in the Exodus scene and I was riding on a wagon and I heard this big voice say, “Don’t let the little girl’s face get in the camera!” I’m thinking, “What did I do? Was that God?” [laughter] This man came over to me and put this blanket around me. We did the scene and it wasn’t God, it was Cecil B. DeMille, doing an overview on the crane. He came down and talked to me and he wrote scenes that put me in the movie… with Charlton Heston. So I can say I was discovered by Cecil. RF: Do you watch your own performances? Do you enjoy them, or cringe? KG: It depends. I don’t usually cringe. “That’s interesting.” “Oh, that isn’t a very good angle; they could’ve gotten a better angle.” I was watching a little bit of the latest movie, but I don’t usually watch. I’ve been watching a few of the older things

because I’ve been putting together a reel for an appearance. I’m putting together a reel of my new things, so I’m forced to look at everything—what do I want here; what do I want there? RF: Have you done any local or national commercials? KG: Oh, yes. National. I did this one Sugar Jets commercial and it almost ruined my career. My brother and I were on this big papier-mâché mountain, we were hiking and wolves were baying below us. All of a sudden, we find Sugar Jets and fly off the mountain, getting away from the howling wolves because of the Sugar Jets we had just ingested. We were all rigged up to fly off the mountain when it was time to take a break, but I didn’t want to take the time to take off the harness. So, I stayed on the mountain and ended up slipping and almost falling off. The rigging handler saw me slipping and guided me back up to the top of the mountain! RF: I don’t remember Sugar Jets. Was it a candy, or a soft drink? KG: No, it was sugary cereal… before it was banned forever. RF: Was it a prerequisite that you had to eat the merchandise for these commercials? KG: Yes, and I would be in horror that I would have to do a pickle commercials because, at the time, I hated pickles. But God heard my plea and didn’t make me go on any commercials for pickles. RF: Did you go to public school? KG: Yes, public school, and that’s part of the reason I’m relatively sane today. My

Family Affair cast photos signed by Kathy and inscribed to interviewer Shaun Clancy’s parents. Family Affair © Don Fedderson Productions.

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RETRO INTERVIEW: KATHY GARVER

that the star of the show actually owned part of the show. The first one was I Love Lucy, and she kind of took over as producer and owned the show. But in order to get movie stars to do TV, well, Don Fedderson was the producer of the show and he had started this formula with Fred MacMurray and My Three Sons. In order to get these guys, he said, “You only have to work three months out of the year and you can go and do your movies, plus you get part of the proceeds of the show.” They tried to do this with Family Affair and they first put an offer out to Glenn Ford, and Brian, who had just finished Parent Trap, said, “Oh, it sounds fine to me.” Brian loved to work and he loved kids. This was right up his acting alley and he said, “Okay.”

Publicity photos from 1969. Courtesy of Kathy Garver.

mother said, “Don’t tell everybody you’re acting. Just go to school and say you were out.” RF: How did you get the part on Family Affair? KG: I had just started at UCLA and had been working since I was seven. They had this new series which my mom inquired about and said to me, “Oh, you have an audition. The only thing is, they want a blonde, blue-eyed girl.” That was fine, except I had brown eyes and brown hair. My ever-creative mom came over and sprayed my hair. It came out like something out of Goldfinger like it was a helmet. She took me down to CBS and I met with the producer, Ed Hartmann, and he said, “What’s wrong with your hair?” I said, “My hair?” He said, “Yes, it’s turning green.” I said, “Oh, no.” That got us chatting and I did a screen test for it. They put on a long, blonde, Alice-in-Wonderland wig, and I had a little blue-checkered dress—I was something out of Alice in Wonderland. My agent at the time was Hazel McMillan— who is Gloria McMillan’s mother [Gloria played Harriet Conklin on the Our Miss Brooks show]. My sister, who is just brilliant, was going to Mount St. Mary’s school, and that’s where Gloria was also going to school and put on a play called Everyman, and my sister rounded up my brother and myself for this play. My sister 22

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was 11 years old. Hazel was there because Gloria was in the play and my mother met Gloria and took down her number. A couple years later, she called Hazel, and Hazel took me on as a client. Hazel was one of the most successful theatrical children’s agents at the time. Actually, now that I think of it, the very first thing I did was a little part on the Ann Southern TV show, before I played in Family Affair. My mother took me and I played the part of a little Italian girl with my dark hair and dark eyes. They dyed my hair reddish blonde so I’d fit in better. RF: Do you remember who you auditioned against for the part of Cissy? KG: They already had someone for my part, and she hadn’t signed the contract. She went off to Europe and came back and had gained about 15 pounds. They thought, “Hmm, this might not be too good.” When I did the screen test, they were already shooting the pilot and they needed somebody immediately and there I was, Johnny on the spot! RF: Had the other Family Affair cast members done any scenes with the other Cissy? KG: She hadn’t acted in it at all. Johnny [Whitaker] and I didn’t come in until the end of the pilot. RF: Who had more authority on the show, Brian Keith or Sebastian Cabot? KG: Maybe Brian, and to a lesser extent, Sebastian. It was one of the first times

RF: Did he help cast the show? KG: I don’t know really. I first met the writer/creator/producer, who was Ed Hartmann. Then I did the screen test with the director. Then they showed footage to Don Fedderson, the executive producer along with Mr. Hartmann. I don’t know if they ever showed it to Brian. I know that Brian suggested Johnny Whitaker to them, because originally, it was supposed to be a six-year-old, a nineyear-old, and a 15-year-old [in the roles]. When Brian worked with Whitaker on The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, he thought he would be a good boy [for the role of Jody]. He suggested

FAST FACTS Family Affair ` No. of seasons: Five ` No. of episodes: 138 ` Original run: September 12, 1966–March 4, 1971 ` Primary cast: Brian Keith, Sebastian Cabot, Kathy Garver, Johnny Whitaker, Anissa Jones ` Created by: Edmund L. Hartmann and Don Fedderson ` Network: CBS Spin-offs: ` Family Affair (remake starring Gary Cole as Bill Davis and Tim Curry as Mr. French, 2002–2003, 15 episodes) ` Aunt Cissy (pilot and initial episodes shot in late 2019)

RETRO INTERVIEW: KATHY GARVER

Johnny. They had already cast Anissa and they looked so cute together they decided to change them to twins, “And we’ll cast Cissy as older.” RF: How old were they imagining you as in the show, because you were in college? KG: Fifteen! RF: So, you were playing a younger person. KG: Oh, yeah! I’ve always played younger, and if you look at a lot of the series, I’m like five-foot-one. [My Three Sons’] Barry Livingston and Stanley Livingston are shorter! [laughter] My very good friend John Stevens, who worked on the show, said, “When we were casting for a show, we always took a look at the parents. If the parents were short, that meant there was a very good chance that the kids wouldn’t outgrow their parts.” RF: Was the pilot picked up immediately? KG: Before we even did it, it was already sold. I know that’s an anomaly, but Fedderson already had a really good track record with CBS and he said, “Okay. Here’s the premise and here are the stars.” They said, “Go ahead.” RF: You worked with Brian Keith before the show? KG: Yes, when I was a child, he had a short-lived show called Crusader, and I played a waif in that. I also worked with Don Fedderson when he produced The Millionaire. I played Betty Murdock. It was a drama where a millionaire would give out a million dollars and see what people would do [with the money]. RF: Was Family Affair a hit right away or did it take some time to build? KG: Oh, it was a hit right away. It followed The Andy Griffith Show, which was a really good lead-in. The thing is, it was on at 9:30, because they had envisioned that the audience would be taken with the bachelor around town going to all these eateries. But we were so cute and so good that they liked the kids in the story more than Brian. RF: How was Sebastian Cabot to work with? KG: It was great, because Sebastian and Brian had totally different styles. Sebastian came from England and I

went to the RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, after UCLA. He was very analytical. He’d set the scene and his diction. It took him a long time to memorize his lines. He had to get every word right in every line and get his dialect perfect. Brian would come in and say, “What do we have today? Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, okay.” He came from a different acting style of moment to moment and Sebastian came from a totally different acting style, which I think together made for a very dynamic style and appeal. That’s how they were. The way I act is an amalgam of them. I analyze and figure out who the character is and where the person is going, on an intellectual level, and then forget all that and just focus, and go moment to moment. RF: I’m sure you hear this all the time, but what happened with Anissa Jones? KG: After the show, she was fed up with the show. She was nine when the show started but was playing a six-year-old. When the show ended, she was 14 and still carrying around the doll and wearing short dresses with her hair in pigtails. Any child that’s 12 to 15 years old is trying to find their own identity. So, when the show was done, she was done. She was considered for a part in The Exorcist but turned it down. She said, “I’m not doing this anymore,” and she didn’t. When she was 18, there was a birthday party at her mom’s house. Her mom took me aside and said, “I’d wish you’d spend some more time with Anissa, because she’s really with a bad group of kids.” I said, “I’d love to. I’m leaving tomorrow for six weeks to do My Fair Lady. As soon as I come back, absolutely.” While I was gone, she took the overdose. She was tiny; she was four-ten. I think that contributed to it. When you’re smaller and take a lot of drugs, you don’t know the effects. RF: Socially, did the Family Affair cast hang out after work? KG: No, not really. Especially for me, since I was over 18. The kids could work only eight hours a day and Brian had to get all his scenes [with them] done at the beginning, so we’d be shooting scenes for four different shows [episodes] all at once. Sebastian had some health problems, so there I was, the young, healthy workhorse, and I would be there from 6:30 [a.m.] to

6:30 [p.m.] every day. Some of my scenes wouldn’t tape until the end of the day. When you’re with somebody all the time, you don’t hang out. I was too old for the kids and too young for Sebastian and Brian. RF: Were there any mistakes or flubs that stand out from that show? KG: [chuckles] Greg Fedderson, who was the son of Don, he played my boyfriend in

Kathy Garver today. Courtesy of Kathy Garver.

the show and didn’t have much experience acting, and we started dating off the show. Don Fedderson didn’t really like that. I would just get tickled at Greg because he was a darling but very ingenuous. We had one scene where I started laughing at something he said because he’d forget his lines, and then I’d get myself under control and then he’d start laughing. We were up to like, 56 takes—“Hello, hello!”—and the assistant director came over and said, “What are you doing?!” I said, “Nothing, nothing.” It was a giggle fest. I think it was sexual repression! We would both giggle! I usually did everything in one take, but not with Greg! [laughter] To discover more about Kathy Garver or to book a personal appearance, please visit www. kathygarver.com. RetroFan

August 2020

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

The Secret Origin of

SPIDER-MAN by Will Murray In interview after interview, the late Stan Lee related how his publisher initially refused to print Spider-Man. Lee recalled: “My publisher said, in his ultimate wisdom–– ‘Stan, that is the worst idea I have ever heard. First of all, people hate spiders, so you can’t call a book Spider-Man. Secondly, he can’t be a teenager—teenagers can only be sidekicks. And third, he can’t have personal problems if he’s supposed to be a superhero—don’t you know what a super-hero is?’” Martin Goodman’s objections usually killed any Marvel project. But Lee had an ace––or should I say, an arachnid––up his sleeve:

Does whatever a… well, you know. (LEFT) The Master of Men debuts in The Spider vol. 1 #1 (Oct. 1933), a pulp magazine series that inspired young Stan Lee. Cover painting by Walter M. Baumhofer. (RIGHT) Spidey’s first appearance, in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Sept. 1962). Cover by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. The Spider TM & © Argosy Communications, Inc. SpiderMan © Marvel. Courtesy of Heritage.

RetroFan

August 2020

“When I was about 10 years old, I used to read a pulp magazine called The Spider and subtitled ‘Master of Men.’ Perhaps it was the Master of Men that got me, but to my impressionable, preteen way of thinking, The Spider was the most dramatic character I had ever encountered. He ranked right up there with Doc Savage and The Shadow. Even better, he wasn’t as well known as the others, which gave me the warm feeling that his fans belonged to an elite club.” Goodman should have known this. He once published a pulp magazine called Ka-Zar the Great. Lee pressed his case: “For my part I told him his logic was incontrovertible, but hear me out. Then I told him about The Spider. Verily, I bared my soul, mentioning how my childish heart would madly pound in breathless anticipation of each new issue. I zealously explained how I hoped that Spider-Man would be a trend-setter, a funky freaky feature in tune with the times.” The year was 1962 when Spider-Man was conceived. Officially, Lee claimed inspiration struck when he spied a housefly climbing his office wall. Another, more complicated version of Spider-Man’s origins had it that artist Jack Kirby brought in the rough concept. Lee planned to have Steve Ditko ink Kirby on the new property. But when Ditko saw the first pages, he recognized a strong resemblance to a superhero called the Fly, which Kirby originated with partner Joe Simon just three years before. In both cases, a young boy was transformed into an adult super-hero via a magic ring. Either way, you could say that a lowly fly inspired Spider-Man. Lee always said that Kirby’s muscular Spider-Man looked too heroic for a character requiring underdog appeal. That was the public explanation. Fearful of a lawsuit from Archie Comics, who published The Adventures of the Fly, Lee huddled with Steve Ditko. Together they formulated a reimagined version. It was published

in Amazing Fantasy #15, which Goodman promptly cancelled, orphaning a follow-up story. That might have been the end of it except for the fan mail. It poured in, demanding more Spider-Man. Reversing course, Goodman instructed Lee take that orphan story and add another, releasing the Amazing Spider-Man in his own magazine six months after he was cancelled. It’s an amazing story. No pun intended. And it parallels how Lee’s favorite pulp hero came into existence. Lee’s recollection of the wall-crawling fly that inspired SpiderMan is eerily similar to the account told by Popular Publications founder, Harry Steeger, who conceived The Spider in 1933. When Steeger saw that The Shadow Magazine was selling like crazy, he wanted to publish something like it: “The Spider (as a title) came about on a tennis court, of all places, where I was playing tennis and noted a large member of the species walking along the edge of the court.” But Steeger, too, feared a lawsuit. So, he huddled with his lawyer. Said lawyer came up with a scheme: Hire an established writer and have him transform an existing character into a rival to The Shadow. R.T.M. Scott owned a fictional wealthy detective named Aurelius Smith, who was aided by a Hindu assistant, Langa Doone. Overnight, he was renamed Richard Wentworth, and his Hindu assistant was given the name of Ram Singh. Thus, Secret Service Smith became the dreaded Spider. Scott wrote two Spider novels, then gave way to newspaperman Norvell Page to continue the series as Grant Stockbridge, a cockeyed tip of the slouch hat to Maxwell Grant, the nominal author of The Shadow. No suit was filed. Over time, The Spider morphed into more and more of an imitation of The Shadow, donning a black cloak, carrying twin .45 automatics, and laughing maniacally as he blazed away at armies of criminals. But armies of criminals do not sustain a monthly magazine. Very soon, The Spider was taking on super-criminals, terrorists, mad scientists, and other sundry forerunners of comic-book super-villains you could imagine. Here is where we start to see the parallels to what Stan Lee did with Spider-Man three decades later. While it’s true that’s The Spider and Spider-Man were very different characters, their paths intersected in ways that are amazing coincidences––if they are coincidences. First, The Spider is wanted by the law, which saw him as a vigilante criminal. But Wentworth believed himself to be a crusader, on a holy mission to eradicate rampant crime. By contrast, poor Peter Parker simply wanted to get by, and found himself hunted by the law, which also misunderstood him. Nothing particularly new here. This was the same formula Stan Lee had been milking with the Marvel Western comic Kid Colt Outlaw. Unlike the Kid, Peter Parker early on learned the burden of responsibility when he achieved his spider-powers. With The Spider, he was driven by duty to a higher calling:

“Richard Wentworth, secretly The Spider, was the champion of oppressed humanity, its shield and protector against the murderous outbreaks of the underworld; wherever crime struck terribly, that way he hastened, taking up the challenge. The police had offered rewards totaling thousands of dollars for his capture ‘dead or alive.’ And the underworld hated him, and plotted his destruction with a fierceness bred of abject terror.” In those days before the advent of Superman, The Spider had no spider-powers. Yet according to Norvell Page, he possessed a forerunner of Spider-Man’s spider-sense, which tingled in the same eerie way: “But through years of ceaseless struggle and hourly danger— not alone from the Underworld but also from the police who considered his brand-marked executions of criminals only murder––he had developed an uncanny feeling like the sixth

The Amazing Spider-Men: (LEFT) Norvell Page. (RIGHT) Stan “The Man” Lee as Spidey, by John Romita, Sr. Both, courtesy of Will Murray.

sense of bats. Flying in the dark, scarcely seeing, the convoluted facial feelers of a bat received, apparently, an impact of airwaves that forewarned the animal of obstacles in its path. So something—thought waves?—warned The Spider of danger.” Actually, this sounds a lot like Daredevil’s radar sense. Either way, you can see where Stan Lee got the idea. Another example: “Had The Spider been spotted? He couldn’t be sure, but there was a tingling along his spine that seemed to warn of danger.” The Spider liked to go around branding the criminals he slew with his red spider-seal. Stan Lee recalled: “He wore a slouch hat and a finger ring with the image of an arachnid—a ring which, when he punched a foe fearlessly in the face, would leave its mark, an impression of a spider. It was The Spider’s calling card, and it sent goose pimples up and down my ten-year-old spine.” Here, Lee was confusing The Spider with Lee Falk’s Phantom. Actually, Wentworth pressed the base of his cigarette lighter to the foreheads of his kills, which imprinted the scarlet seal the underworld dreaded. RetroFan

August 2020

will murray’s 20th century panopticon

In one story, The Spider got the idea to imprint the spidersymbol on the lens of a flashlight and then shine the light at cowering criminals. A frighteningly huge spider was thus created. The origin of Spider-Man spider-signal? Sure sounds like it! The Spider did not shoot out liquid webs, but he carried in his cloak a strong cord, which he called his Web. He used it to snag cornices and climb buildings and do other spidery acrobatics. Like Spider-Man, Wentworth was at home crawling across rooftops of New York City. To list all the parallels between The Spider and Spider-Man might take several installments of this column. But let’s look at the more interesting ones. There are some spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t written read the early issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, you might want to tread carefully. Early in the run, Lee and Ditko introduced a shifty reporter named Frederick Foswell. He was a running character who worked for newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, who is the equivalent of Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick in the Spider stories. Just as Peter Parker sold photographs to Jameson for cash, the very man that hunted Spider-Man, Richard Wentworth’s closest friend was Kirkpatrick, who vowed to bring The Spider to justice and plant him in the electric chair. After several issues, Foswell was unmasked as a master criminal. I won’t say which one, because Lee’s Spider-Man was as much of a crime comic as it was a super-hero one. Just like The Spider. In The Spider magazine, Norvell Page introduced a reporter who seemed to be nothing more than an extra cast member. So readers were understandably shocked when in the next issue, this reporter was unmasked as that novel’s master criminal. One early Spider novel was Slaves of the Crime Master. I imagine Lee got the name of the famous Spider-Man villain from that story. No such character appeared in that tale. Instead, two supercriminals named the Tempter and the Doctor teamed up for that yarn, which climaxed with a huge spider descending on Yankee

You light up my life! (LEFT) John Newton Howitt illustrated this Spider symbol, which The Spider applied to a flashlight to intimidate criminals. (RIGHT) Spidey takes a page from that playbook on Ditko’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man #22 (Mar. 1965). The Spider TM & © Argosy Communications, Inc. Spider-Man © Marvel.

RetroFan

August 2020

Stadium during the World Series. Wentworth fought back with giant poisoned spider-webs. Just as Spider-Man had its soap-opera qualities in the Sixties, the Spider stories were emotionally charged. They were very different, of course. Times had changed. But both characters struggled to cope with involving personal lives that their brethren usually never faced. In one Spider novel, The Flame Master, he was confronted by a strange creature who called himself Aronk Dong, the Lion Man from Mars. This character talked like just about every alien Stan Lee wrote back in the early Sixties. Here’s a sample: “Did you think you could master me, Spider?” Aronk Dong jeered. “Puny earth worm. Did you think you could outthink a man from Mars?” Now you know where the Incredible Hulk got the word “puny.” In one Spider novel, he battled a villain called the Iron Man, who resembled a robot but was actually a super-criminal in an armored battle suit. Was this the inspiration for Iron Man? We’ll never know…. Stan Lee had a fondness for story titles like “The Coming of Sub-Mariner,” which he used over the decades. I’m pretty sure he got that from the Spider novel entitled The Coming of the Terror. It was the first of a four-part series of novels in which the Master of Men battled his most dangerous fall, Tang Ahkmut, the Living Pharaoh. Sounds like a Stan Lee villain, doesn’t it? The first thing the Living Pharaoh did was to connive to bankrupt Richard Wentworth, forcing him on the run, penniless and hunted by the law. That set-up was used many times in various Marvel Comics. If it worked in the Thirties, it still worked in the Sixties. Recurring villains were a stable of The Spider. The first was the Fly, who twice vexed Wentworth even though he was killed at the climax of his debut story, Prince of the Red Looters. That was another thing Page pioneered in his stories that later became a comic-book staple: the ridiculous resurrection. Ever since Batman co-creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger first tried to kill off the Joker, were upbraided by their editor, and forced to bring him back to life, comic-book creators understood that a great villain was worth his weight in gold. You can make it seem as if he’s dead, but you always have to bring him back. The same with heroes. In the Spider novel The Pain Emperor, Wentworth’s trusted assistant, Ronald Jackson, sacrifices himself by donning the robes of The Spider, and confessing to his crimes before getting blown away, getting Richard Wentworth off the hook for all time. Readers must have howled in anguish. A few months later, Jackson shows up, pops a snappy salute, and reports back to duty

will murray’s 20th century panopticon

with a lame series of excuses that he had been secretly recuperating and didn’t want to be a bother…. Overlooked was the fact that Jackson was given a military burial at Arlington National Cemetery. He was deader than dead. In another novel, The Spider’s loyal Great Dane, Apollo, is poisoned. One of Page’s understudies didn’t get to read that issue, and Apollo was soon back barking and guarding Wentworth’s girlfriend, Nita Van Sloan. Eventually they stopped mentioning him, so it seems Apollo really was dead, after all. So how did the Fly come back from the dead? He didn’t. An upstart imposter took over his identity. How many heroes and villains has Marvel revived via a similar subterfuge? We can start with the Green Goblin…. Less easily explained was the fate of Munro, a quick-change artist reminiscent of Spider-Man’s Chameleon. Literally beheaded at the end of his first skirmish with The Spider, he returned for two additional outings. Well, the readers demanded it. The editors reasoned that they would swallow any lame excuse. And they did. I should mention that among The Spider’s greatest foes was a fiend called the Bat-Man, who flew around on artificial wings and controlled a cloud of vampire bats. Stan Lee wasn’t the only Golden Age creator who read The Spider…. Just as Peter Parker’s super-hero career was launched by his uncle Ben’s murder, Wentworth was similarly inspired: “It had been for Professor Brownlee’s sake that Wentworth first had taken the law into his own hands and deliberately shot to death a man who was driving Brownlee to prison in disgrace… [Brownlee was] the man whose misfortunes had first turned a younger and more buoyant Wentworth on the path that was to lead presently to the birth of The Spider. Since the day in college when Wentworth had saved Brownlee from disgrace, the older man had been his staunch ally, his unfailing friend, lending his expert chemical and mechanical knowledge to The Spider’s battles.” Three years in, Page killed off Ezra Brownlee. He stayed dead. Crossovers were not common in the pulp days. But in one issue of The Spider, his opposite, Jimmy Christopher, the star of Operator #5, cameoed. The Spider treated him with disdain, and we never saw Christopher in the pages of The Spider magazine again. Absurd continuity errors were a specialty of Norvell Page. In one story, he asserted that Wentworth’s father had been a lawyer assassinated by vengeful criminals. In another, both parents perished in an Alpine skiing accident. In yet another, they died when their car plunged of f a bridge. All of which contradicts what R.T.M. Scott established in the first novel.

What’s in a name? (LEFT) The Spider encountered the Crime Master in the April 1935 edition of his mag. Cover by John Newton Hewitt. (RIGHT) The Green Goblin cackles while Marvel’s Crime Master (also Crime-Master) blasts the Wall-Crawler in Amazing Spider-Man #26 (July 1965). Cover by Ditko. The Spider © Argosy Communications, Inc. Spider-Man and related characters © Marvel.

Wentworth’s father had died heroically in a World War I battle the son also fought in…. Believe it or not, there is even a Spider analog to the famous sequence in the Master Planner series in which Spider-Man was pinned under titanic machinery and had to muster all his strength to free himself in order to fight on. Spider-Man fans still talk about that episode the way Spider readers cheered the climax of The Spider and the Slaves from Hell in 1939. Picture this: The police have clamped balls and chains on The Spider’s ankles. This is supposed to prevent him from getting to the rooftop where the evil Butcher has planted a powerful bomb, with Nita and Kirkpatrick trapped nearby. Against all odds, The Spider crawls up the side of the building, dragging the dead weight of twin iron balls along with him, agonizingly but eventually reaching the top and defusing the bomb, saving the building and his friends. This, after Wentworth had been shot by the police, suffered a concussion, attendant amnesia, and a curative brain operation, forcing Nita Van Sloan to take up his disguise and carry on in his place as––wait for it––the Black Widow! At the end of all those intense heroics, The Spider escapes the police dragnet, still a wanted criminal…. It was deliciously nutty stuff, and as daring for its time as Spider-Man was a radical departure from the stuffy super-hero comics of his era. We must be fair when we talk about these parallels. By that point in the series artist Steve Ditko was plotting the stories and Stan Lee was merely dialoguing them. I once asked Ditko if he had read The Spider. He admitted to reading at least one of the RetroFan

August 2020

will murray’s 20th century panopticon

paperback reprints. And he remembered The Spider serials from the Thirties and Forties. I didn’t ask him if the celluloid Spider’s webbed cloak and full facemask had inspired Spider-Man’s unique costume in any way. But it certainly seems plausible that it could have. In the pulps, The Spider wore various masks and disguises, often making up his face to look sinister, with a hooked nose designed to mirror that of The Shadow’s trademark hawk-like proboscis. But in the Columbia serials, white web-lines patterned the Masked and manhunted! (LEFT) There’s a price on the Master of Men’s head in The full-face black mask and cloak. Spider’s April 1942 issue. Cover by Rafael DeSoto. (RIGHT) Throughout much of the I could go on and on. Although they Sixties, the cops—often fueled by J. Jonah Jameson’s anti-Spidey editorials—dogged the belonged to dif ferent generations, The Web-Slinger. Cover to Amazing Spider-Man #70 (Mar. 1969) by John Romita, Sr. The Spider © Argosy Communications, Inc. Spider-Man © Marvel. Spider and Spider-Man were riveting characters. They were also very dif ferent from one another. Richard Wentworth was a wealthy aristocratic fellow, driven, stubborn, and of ten like the Lone Ranger. If he had accidentally killed someone, Peter arrogant––not your typical cool-tempered pulp hero. Parker would probably burn his Spider-Man costume and quit. “There’s a madness that gets in me when The Spider walks….” That was one key difference between the two. But was also he once confessed. reflective of what was acceptable during the Great Depression And paranoid? At one time or another, Wentworth turned and what the Comics Code would permit in the Sixties. against virtually all of his inner circle, accusing them of betrayal Speaking of quitting, both arachnid-ian heroes did so multiple and vowing to punish them. times, yearning for a normal life. but never escaping their tragic“I’m suspicious of everyone,” he admitted, “even of myself heroic destinies. sometimes.” When super-hero comic books surged in the late Thirties, How’s that again? Spider magazine circulation suffered. Norvell Page and his editors A psychologist might easily diagnose Richard Wentworth struggled to fight back. This was the era when The Spider battled as an untreated manic-depressive verging upon paranoid cartoony criminals such as the Skull, the Fox, and the Snake, and a schizophrenia, coupled with untreated delusions of grandeur, gang garbed in blue chainmail just like the original Blue Beetle, as who was subject to violent mood swings. Climbing to unutterable well as the Faceless Cavalier, who looked exactly like Steve Ditko’s heights of exultation in one chapter, he invariably crashed into the Question. Ditko was not too young to have been reading The the blackest depths of despair in a later scene. When the SpiderSpider in the early Forties. Page and Ditko probably got the idea madness seized him, Wentworth would take up his prized from Dick Tracy’s the Blank, who dated back to 1937. Stradivarius violin and embark upon a night-long serenade But nothing could save The Spider magazine. It was cancelled of soul-searching. Or, he might transform his handsome in 1943. countenance into terrifying lines, don black floppy hat and ebon Here we come to an essential truth about creators who cape, then go out Spidering…. produce series characters. They find their inspiration everywhere By contrast, Peter Parker lived a life of comparative ease. His and anywhere. In doing so, they may borrow, they might steal, or problems ranged from a guilt complex over responsibility for his simply be inspired in the same way. uncle Ben’s death by neglect, to typical teenager issues, usually money and romance. And fighting hordes of bad guys, of course. I make no accusations in this survey of my favorite arachnid Without killing anyone. avengers. But they have fascinated me for years. Although these The Spider had no compunctions about slaughtering are very, very different characters and personalities. Having read criminals. He slew them by the score, making the Punisher seem most of The Spiders and collecting The Amazing Spider-Man during 28

RetroFan

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will murray’s 20th century panopticon

his first decade, I must confess I love them equally. These days, I find myself writing Richard Wentworth’s latest exploits in The Wild Adventures of The Spider novels. Stan Lee and I were not the only creators influenced by The Spider. Some unlikely names were also enthralled. John Stanley, who wrote and drew Little Lulu, produced periodic episodes where Tubby Thompkins donned the black cloak and hat of a sinister detective called “The Spider” to ineptly solve neighborhood mysteries. Usually, these “crimes” were the products of Tubby’s delusional imagination, with the chief suspect typically Lulu’s oblivious father. Fascination with the bloodthirsty Spider seems to have gripped cartoonists who specialized in the antics of little kids. Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame once confessed, “My greatest reading during those days was the Sports pulps and The Spider magazine. I could hardly stand to live from one month to another when the new Spider novel would come out. As I look back upon my days of reading The Spider, I imagine that it was the action that impressed me. I still remember how he used to leap into a room doing a somersault while his two heavy .45s jumped into his hands. They were great stories.” I concur. They were also deliciously nutty––operatic, overwrought, and overblown. For Norvell Page attempted something no one before Stan Lee and Steve Ditko dared. He wrote super-hero novels where the cast were mature, realistic human beings, and acted like it even when that month’s supervillain was pulverizing Manhattan’s highest skyscrapers around them.

In 1941, when The Spider was locked in a losing death struggle with the upstart new super-heroes for reader’s dimes, one fan of both wrote: Dear Mr. Stockbridge: It seems to me that you go to great length to devise logical ways in which The Spider can extricate himself from the various and dangerous difficulties in which you place him. Why not let him be more of the miraculous, or super-man type? I would like to have Dick Wentworth so strong he could heave automobiles around, break gun barrels and tear down buildings! Yours for a Super-Spider! (Signed) Ben Rayburn Harry Steeger considered publishing a Spider comic book set in the year 2042, starring Wentworth’s descendant, lawman Rick Worth. He decided against it. The Spider never graduated to super-hero status. But a year after Norvell Page’s 1961 death, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko gave the world the next best thing: the Amazing Spider-Man. WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze.com) series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve Ditko.

RetroFan

August 2020

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Saturday Morning Preview Specials Part Two: 1978–1983 by Andy Mangels 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, Andy Mangels’ Reel Marvel, Andy Mangels’ Hollywood Heroes, Andy Mangels Behind the Camera… three decades of reporting on animation and live-action—in addition to writing many books and producing around 40 DVD sets—and I’m still enthusiastic. In my RetroFan column, I will examine shows that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and capturing our memories. Grab some milk and cereal, sit crosslegged leaning against the couch, and dig in to Retro Saturday Morning! Normally in this column, I have spotlighted one series or set of series, giving you behind-the-scenes stories, cool factoids, and interviews. Starting in my last column and concluding in the next, I’ll instead be giving you the Retro Saturday Morning treatment of one of the most anticipated shows every fall from 1968 forward… the Saturday Morning Preview Special. In the September 26, 2008 issue of TIME magazine, Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane gave his own thoughts on the phenomena:

Celeb sibs Jimmy and Kristy McNichol, plus some of kids’ favorite stars of 1978, from an ad for that year’s ABC All-Star Saturday Preview Special.

“I was obsessed. Every year, the Friday before the new Saturdaymorning shows would premiere, the networks would do this big preview special, and I was always glued to the TV. As horrible as they were, they were entertaining at the time. There was a lot of showmanship from the networks based around the new lineup.” The problem with nostalgia for the Preview Specials is that they were only ever aired once. They were never rerun, never of fered in syndication, and never released on home video, DVD, or streaming. Because of the cross-platform licensing rights for clips and music, they never can be legally released. Some of them exist in parts and pieces on YouTube—a few of them exist completely there—but by and large, this set of shows is a missing part of television history. Very little has been written about them, and even Wikipedia has many of its crowd-sourced facts wrong. Until now. Now there’s RetroFan to the rescue. Utilizing this author’s amazing resources, here is as much information and material that could be dug up on the astonishing phenomenon of Saturday Morning Preview Specials! Beware, though… proceeding without caution can bring untold emotions, unfettered joy, and quite possibly, madness! RetroFan

August 2020

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

1978 ABC - Kristy and Jimmy McNichol Present The ABC AllStar Saturday Preview Special

Airdate: Friday, September 1, 1978, 8pm, 60 minutes Songs: “Love Will Find a Way” (Donny Osmond), “Here’s Some Love” (Donny Most), “He’s So Fine” (Kristy McNichol), “Girl You Really Got Me Goin’” (Jimmy McNichol), “Boogie Oogie Oogie” and “Last Dance” (Kristy and Jimmy McNichol) Written by Franelle Silver, Steven Adams, George Geiger, Lee Maddux, David Brown, Bruce Kirschbaum, Scott McGibbon Directed by Tim Kiley Produced by the Osmond Brothers, Toby Martin, Dennis Johnson, Bill McPhie Not a lot is known about this special, produced by the Osmonds, except that it was hosted by brothersister duo Kristy McNichol (an Emmy winner from Family) 32

RetroFan

August 2020

and Jimmy McNichol, and it featured appearances and performances by Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, Donny Osmond, Joey Travolta, Adam Rich (Eight is Enough), Donny Most (Happy Days), and Haywood Nelson and Danielle Spencer (What’s Happening!!). Also appearing were Benji and the Pink Panther. Promoted on the show in clips were Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, Fangface, Challenge of the Super Friends, Scooby’s AllStars, All New Pink Panther Show, and ABC Weekend Specials. Kids who didn’t want to watch that could view a rerun of Wonder Woman over on CBS instead. The special was taped in mid-August in Orem, Utah, at the Osmond Entertainment Center production complex. (ABOVE) Hosts Jimmy and Kristy McNichol. (INSET) Ad for the special. © ABC.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

1978 NBC - The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars

Airdate: Friday, September 8, 1978, 8pm, 60 minutes Songs: “Saturday Night,” “Money Honey” (Bay City Rollers), “Rock and Roll Love Letter” medley (Bay City Rollers with Erik Estrada, Scott Baio, Billy Barty, Sharon Baird), “And I Never Dreamed” (Kaptain Kool and the Kongs) Written by Mark Evanier, Lorne Froman, Rowby Goren Directed by Jack Regas Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, Bonny Dore, Craig Martin, Albert J. Tenzer A screaming horde of preteens greeted the limousine arrival of Scottish pop-rock band Bay City Rollers (Stuart Wood, Derek Longmuir, Alan Longmuir, Eric Faulkner, Leslie McKeown) as this special started, and the quintet sang a song, then introduced themselves and their special guests for the show: Erik Estrada (CHiPs), Scott Baio (Who’s Watching The Kids?), and Joe Namath (The Waverly Wonders)… though the latter is at first impersonated by little person Billy Barty. Baio tried to teach the Rollers how to talk to American women, starting with a Cher impersonator (Louise DuArt), but struck out. Good thing the Rollers had another song up their glitter sleeves. Nashville (also DuArt) and Turkey (Mickey McMeel) from Kroffts’ Kaptain Kool and the Kongs popped over to join the Rollers to read the reviews on the first half of their show, followed by a Kongs song. Next, Joe Namath was a guest at Witchiepoo’s (Billy Hayes) Horror Hotel—a segment with The Lost Island and the Bay City Rollers as part of the new Krofft Superstar Hour—incurring the wrath of Dracula (Jay Robinson). Other appearances at the hotel included Hoo Doo (Paul Gale), Stupid Bat (Sharon Baird, voiced by Lennie Weinrib), Dr. Blinky (Louise DuArt, voiced by Walker Edmiston), Seymour Spider (Billy Barty, voiced by Walker Edmiston), and other characters from various Krofft series. Clips were shown from The Godzilla Power Hour (with Jana of the Jungle) and The Fantastic Four (with H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot!). A Fifties rock-and-roll medley followed with song and dance from not only the Rollers, but also Estrada, Baio, and a song and dance with Barty and fellow little performer Patty Maloney, who often played Barty’s wife on other shows. As with many Krofft specials, the musical finale was capped with a stage-obscuring balloon drop. One of the oddest things about this special when compared with others of its kind is the amount of sex appeal

the show was selling. Many of the males had bare chests or revealing shirts and jackets, the female dancers wore tiny short shorts, and there was much caressing between characters and talk of getting “together with” female fans after the show… it may have been appropriate for the swinging Seventies, but it seems almost PG-13 rated for today’s television shows. Bernie Harrison, a TV listings writer for the Washington Star, stated of the as-yetunaired special, “See mommy and daddy throw up.” This was the first of five preview specials that would be written or co-written by Mark Evanier, a comic-book scribe for Walt Disney’s overseas publications and Gold Key Comics from 1972 to 1976. Beginning in 1974, Evanier would write for sitcoms and variety shows, story editing on Welcome Back, Kotter, running Hanna-Barbera’s comic-book line, and scripting animated fare such as Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Garfield and Friends/The Garfield Show. Today, he still scripts comics—notably Groo the Wanderer—and both live-action and animated television series, as well as chairing half-a-bajillion panels at Comic-Con International each year. Evanier notes that this job came from his first job with the Kroffts, writing for the new Krofft Superstar Hour. “At the end of the season, the producers called up and said, ‘Can you do one more episode for primetime?’ So we did. We were supposed to make 13 episodes and we made 14. Everybody who worked on the regular show—they extended everybody’s contract.” The cast members seen in the special were all regulars on the series, which had already finished taping its first season when this went into production. Regarding the Bay City Rollers, Evanier says, “The Bay City Rollers were terrific guys who came over to do the Krofft Superstar Hour after our first, second, and third choices couldn’t make a deal. The first choice was ABBA, believe it or not. The Bay City Rollers had technically disbanded by that time, so they reformed it to do this show because as with the Marx Brothers and Chico, they needed the money. They were in the process of going through legal problems. They were great guys, but there were legal problems and I tried to stay away from that. “We got them on the downside. I think Alan had actually left the group. He came back because we needed five. The guys who had been in the group at the end of it could not be in it, so he came back to his old position to play guitar. On the show, they were lip-syncing to a record they had done and occasionally Alan was lip-syncing to a song he had not done.” (ABOVE) Title card featuring the Bay City Rollers. And their hair. © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

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August 2020

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

day—he was filming Waverly Wonders on the same lot—he did not appear in the finale. As for the sexual overtones in the special, Evanier jokes, “That was because it was a Sid and Marty Kroff t production. They were all full of sexual overtones! I’ll tell you, one of the problems doing that show was, we had 15-year-old girls camped out around that studio all during the taping and rehearsals. When I lef t at night, they would be following me—hoping I’d take them to where the Rollers were staying. This was during the entire series, not just the special. They’d sneak onto the set occasionally and get onto the lot. It was an omnipresent issue for us. The whole show was taped at KTLA. We put up a sign that said ‘NBC’ someplace. When we taped the Rollers arriving, we actually had a problem getting them in. We put them in a limo and the limo drove around the block to come into the entrance again before we could tape them coming in and we had problems with the girls mobbing the car and almost getting run over. There was a problem with these girls trying to get near them. It was like being in A Hard Day’s Night, but with the Rollers.”

Evanier recalls that the problematic Scottish accents were a challenge for production. “We had enormous problems with their accents and most of them weren’t used to talking on camera—they were musicians. We had to simplify the scripts down. They worked with a dialogue coach named Jonathan Lucas, who is a very famous behind-the-scenes emergency director, who would come in and help people who had talent problems. Their talking wasn’t very good. They were humble about it—almost apologetic that they weren’t better talkers on camera. They were great guys. I got along great with them, even if they didn’t get along great with each other.” Only a portion of the special was taped live, and Evanier recalls that he “was on the set for the whole film taping. We did only the Bay City Rollers in front of the audience. I did the warmup for the taping, welcoming people and talking to them.” The music was all lip-synced. “They were miming to their records and we did some music enhancement on them so they’d sound a little different, but they were the same records. The conclusion— which was the Fifties medley—was recorded new for that show.” While Baio, Barty, and Maloney sang their own recordings for the finale, Estrada’s voice was provided by a different singer. “We taped the Fifties medley without an audience. As a matter of fact, [comic-book scribes] Len Wein and Marv Wolfman were ‘the audience,’ sitting with me at the time! [Evanier chuckles] One of the dancers was my girlfriend, Bridget Holloman. That’s where we met—doing that show.” As Joe Namath was only on set for one

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August 2020

(ABOVE) The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars ad. (LEFT) Patty Maloney and Billy Barty rock out. (BELOW) San Francisco artist Tom Crabtree did this promotional art showcasing NBC’s 1978 line-up. © NBC.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

1979 ABC – Plastic Man and ABC Saturday Morning Sneak Peek

shrinking super-hero Mighty Man and ugly dog Yukk, AfricanAmerican futuristic teen detectives in Rickety Rocket, and monster Airdate: Sunday, September 2, 1979, 7pm, 30 minutes dogs Fangface and Fangpuss sharing the spotlight). Interstitials Written by Mark Evanier announced for between shows included the returning Schoolhouse Directed by Charles A. Nichols, Bob Bowker Rock and advice from Alex & Annie. New episodes of the ABC Produced by Joe Ruby & Ken Spears, Jerry Eisenberg, Bob Bowker Weekend Specials (hosted by Young) were noted to include The Incredible Detectives (incidentally, Mark Evanier’s first animation “Out of the pages of DC Comics comes Plastic Man!” So began script ever), The Big Hex of Little Lulu, and The Girl with E.S.P., and ABC’s 1979 preview, which was co-hosted by the animated American Bandstand’s 27th season was announced. Also hyped was stretchable hero—watching a super-size TV with girlfriend Penny Young’s Sunday show, Kids Are People Too, with interviews with and Hawaiian sidekick Hula Christopher Reeve, Henry Hula—and live-action Kids Winkler, Dom DeLuise, Are People Too entertainer Marvin Hamlisch, Susan Michael Young. It remains Ford, Lenny and Squiggy, Erik the only preview special to Estrada, and Cindy Williams. include a fully animated ABC’s new Sunday night episode of a TV series—in angel-meets-orphans show this case, Plastic Man—which Out of the Blue was also given was never rerun! a quick promo with Jimmy Throughout the episode, Brogan making a cameo the all-new Plastic Man appearance—showcasing an episode, “Louse of Wax,” episode guest-starring Mork was presented in long from Ork—and new Sunday segments, in which the evil, series Animals, Animals, candle-headed Wick (voiced Animals was plugged. by Walker Edmiston) was Besides being the only angry at Plastic Man for Plastic Man never re-aired— stealing the spotlight from and Warner didn’t include it Wick’s Wax Museum. on the 2009 The Plastic Man Inside the museum were Comedy/Adventure Show: various monsters, including The Complete Collection Frankenstein’s monster, DVD set—“Louse of Dracula, a Yeti, a pineapple Wax” contains two other creature, and—seen from distinctions. First, Plas behind in one shot— made a reference to both Mickey Mouse in Fantasia’s Batman and the Super sorcerer robes! Later that Friends, establishing night, Plas was supposed himself firmly in the DC to meet and entertain the Universe. Secondly, the Maharajah of Rinjapur and opening sequence actually get a priceless pearl, but included a very brief Wick pitted him against the explanation of Plas’ origin, watery Creature, a Viking, including an animated a caveman, and a pirate, reproduction of the splash and the hero was captured. image of Jack Cole’s art Wick took Plas’ shape to from Police Comics #1 (Aug. steal the Maharajah’s pearl, 1941), the first appearance of and fooled Penny into Plastic Man! Although the going with him aboard the Ad and title card for Plastic Man and ABC Saturday Morning Sneak Peek. Plastic Man cartoon series PlastiJet. Luckily, Hula Hula would show a different helped free Plas, and the day was saved. Too bad that due to the comic book in the opening scenes, the special featured its own adventure, Penny and Hula Hula were the only ones that got to exclusive cover. watch the TV previews, but the Chief gave Plas a quick taste of the The other oddity for the Ruby-Spears Production special new fall line-up before the show closed. was that it was aired several weeks early—due to a cartoonists’ Between the adventures, Young introduced clips from strike scuttling premiere plans—as a supertext would spell out Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Spider-Woman, The World’s Greatest every time Young would mention the new Saturday mornings: Super Friends, and The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show (with “New season starts 2 weeks from Saturday.” Due to this, a second RetroFan

August 2020

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

special—the one-hour The Plastic Man Preview Hour— was run on Saturday, September 15, alongside The Best of Super Friends!, a rerun of the Out of the Blue premiere, and a Saturday version of Kids Are People Too. The official new season began the following week, on September 22nd! Writer Mark Evanier notes of the production and scheduling of the special, “I have no idea why the Plastic Man special aired the way it did. I know we put it together in record time—it was one of the fastest cartoon shows ever produced for television. I think from the time I wrote the script to the time it aired was about six weeks. We had finished production on Plastic Man for the time being. I got called in and I was told, ‘We need to write another episode of Plastic Man and you’re the fastest writer we’ve got.’ I had a bunch of outlines that I had written for the Plastic Man show and they hadn’t used them all. We looked over the leftover outlines and Joe Ruby said, ‘I like this one; let’s do this one.’ I described to Jerry Eisenberg, one of the producers, what the villain would look like— the guy with candle on his head. He designed the character literally before I wrote the script. I went home and wrote the script in one or maybe two nights. They recorded it the next day. It was the fastest show ever produced. We literally had no time and the animation was going on.” Unlike other specials, Evanier was not involved with anything past his animated segments; an uncredited writer wrote the live sections with Young and Brogan. “I turned in my script and I was done with it,” Evanier says. As for the comics-accurate opening, he notes, he rewrote the opening for the series—announced by Dick Tufeld—because the series opening wasn’t completed yet! “I just rewrote it for the special because the animation for the opening of the show wasn’t done yet. Somebody else animated that [series opening]. I just expanded it a little bit for no visible reason. The reason we did a lot of things on this show was because it occurred

to me to do them because I had a day to write this thing.” And was Evanier responsible for the Mickey Mouse cameo? He claims he wasn’t responsible, and only learned of it when the show was completed. “I didn’t see this thing until it aired on ABC the first time.” Plastic Man and ABC Saturday Morning Sneak Peek is the only special for which I was able to find ratings. It was 62nd for the week it aired… dead last among the three networks’ offerings. As Evanier wrote on his must-read website blog www.newsfromme. com, “Its Nielsen rating was close to a negative number and at the time, I felt like the only human being on the planet who’d seen it.” (ABOVE) Plastic Man’s first comic-book page re-imagined for his animated opening. Plastic Man © DC Comics.

1979 NBC – A Gary Coleman Saturday Morning Preview: The Thing Meets Casper and the Shmoo Airdate: Friday, September 7, 1979, 8pm — CANCELLED

This special was scheduled to air on September 7th, but due to a cartoonists’ strike that began on August 13th (regarding studios sending work overseas), the networks delayed many of their fall debuts. One casualty of the delay was this special, which was to have had Diff’rent Strokes star Gary Coleman cohosting with Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Introduced on the show would have been Casper and the Angels, Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (the weirdest Marvel series ever), Li’l Abner spin-off The New Shmoo, and Filmation’s Flash Gordon. From my research, this special may never have aired. (CLOCKWISE, LEFT TO RIGHT) Casper the Friendly Ghost, the Thing, the Shmoo, and Gary Coleman, from promotional materials for NBC’s 1979 A Gary Coleman Saturday Morning Preview. © NBC.

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August 2020

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

a scene for the audience. Winkler asked Welker to sing “Happy Preview Party to You” as the voice of 15 ducks, including Donald Duck, and Welker did so with aplomb. As Clark tried to next introduce a clip from the new Mork & Mindy animated series, the voice of Orson (Ralph James), ruler of Ork, interrupted. Clark welcomed live-action costumed versions of ScoobyDoo and Scrappy-Doo to the next sequence, showing a clip from The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. Clark next introduced ventriloquist Willie Tyler and puppet Lester (hosts of ABC’s Weekend Specials) to do a quick verbal rundown of the ABC fall schedule (poor Aquaman got left out of the Super Friends plug). Next up, Clark brought out a picnic basket full of live puppies to introduce a clip from The Puppy’s New Adventures, then segued into showing an entire 11-minute new animated adventure of The Little Rascals. After much teasing through the whole show, Clark finally let loose with the long-awaited (by the rambunctious audience, anyhow) Pac-Man clip. After that rolled, Dick Clark brought Marty Ingels (the voice of Pac-Man) into the crowd to show them all how to sound exactly like the little yellow chomper. As the show wrapped, the voice of Orson reminded viewers to also watch Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and an instrumental version of Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” helped the crowd dance through the end credits.

1982 ABC - Pac Preview Party

Airdate: Sunday, September 19, 1982, 7pm, 60 minutes Songs: “Happy Preview Party to You” (Frank Welker), “ABC Saturday Morning Fall Schedule” (Willie Tyler and Lester) Written by Ken Shapiro Directed by Barry Glazer Produced by Larry Klein The networks all took a break from preview specials from 1980–1981, then returned to the mix in 1982. The Pac Preview Party was hosted by Dick Clark, who interacted with a child audience that was far too hopped up on candy and punch. He first showed the audience how storyboards for Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/ Fonz Hour were created, then introduced Henry “Fonzie” Winkler (Happy Days) and Frank Welker (as sidekick Mr. Cool) to voice act

(ABOVE) Ad for ABC Pac Preview Party. (TOP RIGHT) Henry Winkler and Frank Welker not only share the process of providing voices for cartoons but sneak in duck voices as well. (RIGHT) Host Dick Clark interviews Scrappy-Doo as Scooby-Doo and an unknown child look on. The unknown child has reportedly been haunted by nightmares to this very day. © ABC.

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

1983 ABC - The ABC Saturday Preview Special Airdate: Tuesday, September 6, 1983, 30 minutes Song: “That Special Feeling” Written by Mark Evanier Directed by Bob Bowker Produced by Bob Bowker

This is the first and only preview special treated as an historical retrospective, as host Dick Clark discussed and showed clips from 30 years of Saturday morning shows on ABC. Presented in front of a live audience, on a set festooned with images from hundreds of ABC series past and present, this special packed a lot into its half-hour (including the voice of Frank Welker as the announcer). Clark started with clips from 1951’s Sky King, then 1954’s Space Patrol, 1961’s early kids’ game shows On Your Mark, 1953’s live-fromChicago Super Circus, and Cartoonies in 1963. Clark then introduced “Dr.” Emmanuel Lewis (from Webster), an expert in “Saturday A.M. Sciences,” to explain how dogs played a major role in Saturday mornings, including Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973), Hong Kong Phooey (1974), Lassie’s Rescue Rangers (1973), Mighty Man and Yukk (1979), Mumbly in The Mumbly Cartoon Show (1976), Marmaduke (1981), Mr. 38

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Peabody in Rocky and His Friends (1959), Dynomutt (1978), and Dollar in Richie Rich (1980), all leading to The New Scooby & Scrappy-Doo Show and Petey the Puppy in The Puppy’s Further Adventures. Next up was a preview of The Littles and the animated The Little Rascals, as well as new seasons of Richie Rich and Pac-Man. A look back at Disneyland (1954) and Mickey Mouse Club (1955) transitioned into a preview of The Monchhichis and retrospectives on Rocky and His Friends (1959), Beany and Cecil (1962), and Lunch with Soupy Sales (1963). Clark next introduced T. K. Carter, who played

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

“the world’s hippest genie Shabu” on the new primetime series Just Our Luck. Carter discussed magician Mark Wilson, rocker Rick Springfield on Mission: Magic! (1973), the heroes of Super Friends (1973), Plastic Man (1979, using footage of the origin clip from the 1979 special), and the new series Rubik the Amazing Cube. The next segment spotlighted Clark himself with American Bandstand scenes from 1958, 1964, and 1983, followed by The Osmonds (1972), Jackson 5ive (1971), The Beatles (1965), and the new Menudo live-action series (the first kids’ series broadcast in both English and Spanish). Next up were clips from The Jetsons (1962, also ABC’s first color series), Jonny Quest (1964), and Top Cat (1961). Clark ended with a quick rundown of the entire new Saturday morning schedule before telling parents that, “If you clean your room up and remember to take the trash out, maybe your kids will let you watch, too.” Prepping to write his third special, Mark Evanier recalls going to the studio where they taped American Bandstand at ABC, with director Bob Bowker, to pitch Dick Clark on the project. Evanier had worked with Clark previously on several variety specials. “We literally walked over to a taping of American Bandstand one day and took Dick Clark aside to go over a script with him on a break. He said, ‘I know you guys. I’ve worked with you. I’ll do whatever you say.’ And that was it! That was the meeting. Dick was absolutely a pro like you wouldn’t believe. We needed him on the set at 12 noon, and he walked in at one minute to 12 and we rolled tape and we did the whole segment in five minutes. He was so good and we taped a lot of stuff without a studio audience, then brought in a studio audience that was mostly kids, and then I brought in Frank Welker to be the announcer and to warm up the audience and be the host. When you have a live audience, you need somebody to take care of them. Frank did voices for the kids and told stories. He was just great. We had a terrible downtime— we suddenly had to pad 45 minutes for a technical glitch. He spent 45 minutes with the audience, just to keep the audience there and fine.” Part of Evanier’s responsibilities were finding clips that were “cleared” to air for the special, and that meant everyone who appeared or had a voice on the clip had to agree. One problem was the Soupy Sales clip. He went to the ABC film vault “and asked for a Soupy Sales clip. The lady got angry. She said, ‘We don’t have any clips of Soupy Sales here. Why do you people keep bothering me? Every day, people call and ask for a Soupy Sales clip, and we don’t have any.’ She was impatient with us. How were we to know she didn’t have

any clips of Soupy Sales? So, we went out and I turned to Bob and said, ‘We’ve gotta go back. I have a thought we have to try.’ He said, ‘That woman will take your head off.’ I said, ‘Nope, we gotta go back.’ We went back to her and I said, ‘Excuse me. I know you don’t have any copies of the Soupy Sales show, but could you look up and see if you have copies of Lunch with Soupy Sales?’ which was the name the show had when it originally came out in Los Angeles on Saturdays. It was a Saturday hour show. She said, ‘Yes, we have 105 hours of that.’” Another clip they wanted was from The Osmonds. “We called the company that owned it and they said, ‘We don’t own it.’ We said, ‘Yes, you do.’ We had to convince them. We had the clip, but didn’t have the clearance to run it. We got them to sign a release that said, ‘We do not guarantee that we own it, but if we do, you have permission to use it.’ We ran it and nobody ever complained!”

Evanier had a very personal element in the show; he drew the art for Emmanuel Lewis’ chalkboard dissertation on cartoon dogs. “He’s standing in front of a blackboard that has a drawing of Scooby-Doo on it. I did the drawing. I decorated the blackboard. You also see my arm in the show because we went to the L.A. Zoo and interviewed some people, asking what they favorite kids’ shows were, and that’s my arm holding the microphone.” (OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP) Ad for the ABC Saturday Preview Special. (OPPOSITE PAGE, BOTTOM) Show host Dick Clark. (ABOVE) Emmanuel Lewis talks about cartoon dogs with an uncredited artistic assist from the show’s writer Mark Evanier. (INSET) Mark Evanier in July 1982 in a photo by Alan Light. © ABC.

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August 2020

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

1983 CBS – The CBS Saturday Morning Preview Special

Airdate: Wednesday, September 14, 1983, 8pm, 30 minutes Song: “Some Girls” (Scott Baio) Written by Richard Laurens Directed by Art Fisher Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, Michael Stokes

Country met disco in this bizarre special. Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best) from The Dukes of Hazzard travelled to the city—still somehow a part of Hazzard County—to spy on Scott’s Place, a happening discothèque. Hogg wanted 50% of the profits, while Baio just wanted to show his adult disco dancer previews of Saturday morning shows. A sole cowboy-esque Krofft puppet (oddly listed as “Puppets” plural in the credits) popped up to comment on the action. Previewed first was Saturday Supercade (Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Pitfall, Frogger, and Q-Bert), while Coltrane interviewed a “Valley Girl” about modern music (“And U2, why they’re like far out to the max, you know?”). Scott Baio took to the stage to sing the inappropriate-for-children song “Some Girls” (a song he would

“release” in the next season on Happy Days), leading into clips from The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show and The CBS Film Festival’s “Benji, Zax & The Alien Prince.” Hogg and Coltrane mistook musical group names ELO and Asia for a plot to overthrow the government and tried to arrest everyone, but Baio smoothed it all out by sharing clips from Dungeons & Dragons and The Biskitts. Next time you’re pulled over, try that one on an officer… To wrap up this moonshine-inspired show, Coltrane was so tickled by his animated appearance in a preview of The Dukes that he took to disco dancing, and mercifully, the credits quickly rolled. Nowhere in the show were either returning hit The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show

or The New Fat Albert mentioned. If my synopsis wasn’t clear enough about the nonsensical mess this special was, let me just say that at one point, Coltrane puts a red panty/thong on his head to dance, and at another, Hogg said the clips made him “swimmy-headed.” I think anyone who watched this—sans liquor or drugs— probably got swimmy-headed as well. (ABOVE LEFT) Title card to the CBS Saturday Morning Preview Special. (ABOVE RIGHT) Ad featuring Snoopy, Scott Baio, and others. (ABOVE) A thong and song, with Sheriff Coltrane. (LEFT) The cast gathers. © CBS. 40

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

1983 NBC – The 1st Annual NBC Yummy Awards

Airdate: Friday, September 16, 1983, 8pm, 60 minutes Songs: “Everyone’s a Winner” (Lee Curreri), “My Buddy and I” (Fred and Barney), “I Go to Rio/Copacabana Medley” (The Chipmunks) Written by Rod Warren, Elizabeth Medway, George Beckerman, Ernest Chambers Directed by Jeff Margolis Produced by Ernest Chambers, Jeff Margolis, Joe Vinson Unknown children arrived by limousine to walk the red carpet at NBC’s 1st Annual Yummy Awards show. Dwight Schultz (The A-Team) was on the microphone outside with the cheering child throng, but he’s ignored by live-action costumed versions of Fred [Flintstone] and Barney [Rubble], Hulk, Spider-Man, and others. Inside, the faux awards show is about to start, with a golden ice cream cone as the coveted trophy. An announcer read off an endless list of guests and presenters before introducing the master of ceremonies, Ricky Schroder (Silver Spoons) to the live crowd. The award show format was the idea of producer Ernest Chambers, who promised to the S.F. Sunday Examiner that only

about six minutes of the hour-long show would be clips, unlike other previews. “We have an opening number, just like other award shows. In this, we kinda duplicate that old Gene Kelly movie (Invitation to the Dance, 1957), mixing live and animation with Lee Curreri with the animated Smurfs.” Indeed, Fame’s Lee Curreri kicked things off with a song about Saturday shows while animated Smurfs danced on his piano, followed by Kari Michaelsen (Gimme a Break) and Gumby presenting the award for “The Best Comedy Show Starring Three Singing Animal Brothers” to Alvin, Simon, and Theodore of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Next, Tina Yothers (Family Ties) and Bozo the Clown presented the award for “The Show With A Star Whose Name Is The Easiest To Spell” to Mr. T (the star appeared by video). Next up was ventriloquist Paul Winchell and dummy Jerry Mahoney to give the award for “The Best Comedy Show With Stone-Age Stars Who Have Rocks In Their Heads” to Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble of The Flintstones, who then performed a song and dance. Following was Kookla, Fran, and Ollie, who got the Life Achievement Award. Kim Fields (Facts of (ABOVE) Hosts Dwight Schultz and Ricky Schroder. © NBC.

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

(ABOVE LEFT) Spider-Man accepts his Yummy Award, flanked by his amazing friends Iceman and Firestar. (TOP RIGHT) Award-winning Hulk. (RIGHT) Ad for the 1st Annual NBC Yummy Awards. © NBC.

Life) next introduced a clip from The Smurfs, then gave Papa Smurf the award for “The Best Show Starring Little Blue Persons Three Apples Tall.” Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney guided viewers on a short retrospective of clips from kids’ shows through history, including The Howdy Doody Show, Mickey Mouse Club, Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, Tom & Jerry, Sky King, Zorro, Juvenile Jury (with an appearance by toddler Bernadette Peters, later a Broadway star), Gumby, and others. Afterwards, Foobie the Robot and Glenn Scarpelli (Jennifer Slept Here) gave the award for “Best Series About A Barbarian And An Evil Wizard” to the cast of Thundarr the Barbarian (Thundarr, Princess Ariel, and Ookla the Mok appeared live). Speaking of live heroes, Justine Bateman (Family Ties) and Pinky Lee then presented an award for “Outstanding Achievement By A Super-Hero Who Derived His Power From The Insect World” to a live-action Spider-Man and his amazing friends, Iceman and Firestar! Presenting next were Mindy Cohn (Facts of Life) and Lassie to give “Outstanding Achievement In A Show Starring Six Funny, Furry Friends” to the stars of Shirt Tales, then the Chipmunks took to the stage for an incomprehensible tropical medley. Dwight Schultz and Schroder gave out the final award for “Best Adventures Series With A Mean Green Super-Hero” to the Hulk, who smashed out part of the set to get his award. And with that, the first—and only—Yummy Awards wrapped. Next issue we’ll conclude our look at Saturday Morning Preview Specials, including appearances from “Weird Al” Yankovic, C-3PO and R2-D2, Pee-wee Herman, the Smurfs, Joyce DeWitt, Ted Knight, Bugs Bunny, Richard Pryor, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and Hervé Villechaize! The quotes from the fantastic Mark Evanier are from a March 2020 interview, with transcription by Rose Rummel-Eury. Many thanks also to the wonderful Gary Browning at LA’s Paley Center for research help! Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels. 42

RetroFan

August 2020

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 and a series of graphic novels for Junior High audiences. 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

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

ER EISN RD AWAINEE! M NO

MONSTER MASH

GROOVY

MARK VOGER’s time-trip back to 1957-1972, to explore the CREEPY, KOOKY MONSTER CRAZE, when monsters stomped into America’s mainstream!

A psychedelic look at when Flower Power bloomed in Pop Culture. Revisits ‘60s era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, TV, MOVIES, ART, COMICS & CARTOONS!

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-064-9

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

MIKE GRELL

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER Career-spanning tribute to a comics art legend! (160-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $27.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-088-5 (176-page LTD. ED. HARDCOVER) $37.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-087-8 (Digital Edition) $12.99

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

ED AND EXP COND SE ION! IT ED

ISBN: 978-1-60549-094-6

THE MLJ COMPANION

Documents the complete history of ARCHIE COMICS’ super-heroes known as the “Mighty Crusaders”, with in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ history: The GOLDEN AGE (beginning with the Shield, the first patriotic super-hero), the SILVER AGE (spotlighting the campy Mighty Comics issues, and The Fly and Jaguar), the BRONZE AGE (the Red Circle line, and the !mpact imprint published by DC Comics), up to the MODERN AGE, with its Dark Circle imprint! (288-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0

COMIC BOOK IMPLOSION

In 1978, DC Comics implemented its “DC Explosion” with many creative new titles, but just weeks after its launch, they pulled the plug, leaving stacks of completed comic book stories unpublished. This book marks the 40th Anniversary of “The DC Implosion”, one of the most notorious events in comics, with an exhaustive oral history from the creators involved (JENETTE KAHN, PAUL LEVITZ, LEN WEIN, MIKE GOLD, and others), plus detailed analysis of how it changed the landscape of comics forever!

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(136-page trade paperback with COLOR) $21.95 (Digital Edition) $10.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-085-4

(272-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB Digs up the best of FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent horror comics history magazine): Atomic comics lost to the Cold War, censored British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, Good Girls of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ ALIEN WORLDS, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and more!

EXPANDED SECOND EDITION—16 EXTRA PAGES! Looks back at the creators of the Marvel Universe’s own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and television interviews, to paint a picture of JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s complicated relationship! Includes recollections from STEVE DITKO, ROY THOMAS, WALLACE WOOD, JOHN ROMITA SR., and other Marvel Bullpenners! (176-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99

HERO-A-GO-GO!

MICHAEL EURY looks at comics’ CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV’s Batman shook a mean cape!

(192-page trade paperback) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $10.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6

ER EISN RD AWAINEE! NOM

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

The final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time, in cooperation with DC Comics! Two unused 1970s DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales, plus TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE and SOUL LOVE magazines! (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES:

8 Volumes Covering The 1940s-1990s

LOU SCHEIMER CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which for over 25 years brought the Archies, Shazam, Isis, He-Man, and others to TV and film! (288-page paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-044-1

AND THESE MAGAZINES ABOUT COMICS & POP CULTURE:

FOCUSING ON GOLDEN & SILVER AGE COMICS

OR -COL FULLDCOVER HAR RIES SE nting me f docu ecade o d y! c a e h s histor ic com

COMICS OF THE 1970s, ’80s and TODAY! THE NEW VOICE OF THE COMICS MEDIUM TM

C o l l e c t o r

CELEBRATING THE LIFE & CAREER OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

THE CRAZY COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

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

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

Too Much TV If your old man used to gripe that you’d never learn anything with your nose glued to the boob tube, here’s your chance to prove him wrong. (Father doesn’t always know best.) Each of the TV spin-offs in Column One corresponds to a parent series in Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate! COLUMN ONE

1) Fish 2) Mork & Mindy 3) Honey West 4) The Andy Griffith Show 5) The Ropers 6) Enos 7) The Jeffersons 8) Green Acres 9) The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo 10) Richie Brockelman, Private Eye 44

RetroFan

August 2020

Nanu Nanu!

RetroFan Ratings 10 correct: Fine-Tuned RetroFan Sock it to me, baby! I bet you know theme song lyrics too! 7–9 correct: Rabbit-Eared RetroFan Dy-no-mite! You wasted your childhood with the rest of us! 4–6 correct: Fuzzy-Receptioned RetroFan Up your nose with a rubber hose ’til you spend more tube time! 0–3 correct: Tuned-Out RetroFan Ya big dummy! Put down that book and go watch some classic TV!

COLUMN TWO

A) The Danny Thomas Show B) B.J. and the Bear C) Happy Days D) Petticoat Junction E) All in the Family F) Three’s Company G) Barney Miller H) The Rockford Files I) Burke’s Law J) The Dukes of Hazzard The Andy Griffith Show © Mayberry Enterprises. Enos © Warner Bros. Television. Fish and The Jeffersons © Columbia Pictures Television. Green Acres © Filmways Television. Honey West © Gloria Fickling. Mork & Mindy © Parmount Television. Richie Brockelman and Sheriff Lobo © Universal Television. The Ropers © The NRW Company. All rights reserved.

RetroFan

August 2020

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

Fake Jan Gets Real An Interview with The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s Geri Reischl

Brady Bunch Variety Hour promotional still, signed by Geri Reischl to RetroFan’s super-groovy editor, Michael Eury. Courtesy of Geri Reischl. © Paramount Television/Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

RetroFan

August 2020

by Michael Eury H. R. Pufnstuf is considered by many to be the trippiest TV show from kid-vid producers Sid and Marty Krofft. You sure about that? Have you seen the Kroffts’ singing and dancing Bradys? Sure, the musical Brady Kids kept on movin’ through their share of sunshine days during The Brady Bunch’s original run, and oldest bro Greg even went out on his own as Johnny Bravo. The Brady parents didn’t shun the spotlight, either, from mom Carol’s miraculous Christmas morning solo to dad Mike’s turn (in green leotards) as Prince Charming in a backyard production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But the Kroffts’ The Brady Bunch Hour—also known as The Brady Bunch Variety Hour—defied categorization during its nine-episode run that began on November 28, 1976. Those hoping to see more sitcom antics from America’s grooviest family instead got a lot of stageshow slapstick… and songs… and dance numbers… and sparkling bellbottoms. Plus the shakin’, quakin’ Krofftettes! The show’s set-up was, the Bradys were chosen to star in their own variety show, prompting architect Mike Brady to spend more time with open-collared ruffled shirts and choreographed vocalizations than his T-square and blueprints. Gone was the split-level Brady home (recently the star of HGTV’s A Very Brady Renovation), replaced by new beachfront digs. Also gone was Eve Plumb as Jan Brady, and that’s where our story begins… Enter Geri Reischl, now branded by many—especially herself—as “Fake Jan.” A veteran of numerous television commercials, Geri fit the part: lovely, with hair of gold (like her mother). Like previous TV cast changes (Darrin Stevens and Chris Partridge, anyone?), the new Jan replaced the old, and sure, diehard fans noticed. But they also noticed that… this girl could sing! Those who might have wanted to reject Geri as Fake Jan couldn’t help but be enticed by her fantastic voice. And it’s no wonder—she’s been singing since childhood, and over the years has performed on stage and screen with everyone from Red Skelton to Sammy Davis, Jr., from Marty Robbins to Donny and Marie. As a young actress,

she made guest appearances on TV series including Gunsmoke and The Bold Ones, and was featured in the horror movies The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) and I Dismember Mama (1972). She’s also known for two Hollywood near-misses: Geri was one of the final contenders for what became Linda Blair’s head-spinning role in The Exorcist, and was cast as Blair in the pilot for the Diff’rent Strokes spin-off Garrett’s Girls (soon retitled The Facts of Life) but had to forfeit that role for contractual reasons. But it’s the offbeat sitcom-variety show mash-up The Brady Bunch Hour for which she’s most adored by fans. I had the pleasure meeting Geri Reischl at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland, in mid-September 2019, when we recorded the interview that follows, and was instantly enchanted by just how darn friendly she is. Fake Jan is a real delight… one groovy chick! RetroFan: So, Geri, how old were you when started acting? Geri Reischl: I was six years old. RF: …and singing? GR: I started singing around the same time. My mother noticed I loved to sing, because I would stand up in the booths at restaurants and start singing to everybody when I was two years old. So, I started my whole career when I was six. RF: You were in a lot of commercials as a kid… GR: Yes, I did over 40. I did everything imaginable, from clothes to food to toys,

Mattel’s Heather, of its Rock Flowers doll line, was patterned after Geri Reischl. (INSET) Geri capped off her childhood career as the “Mattel toy girl” with this 1971 commercial for Rock Flowers. Each figure in this line of 6.5-inch bendable dolls, competitors to Topper Toys’ Dawn dolls, included a 45rpm single with music by the Rock Flowers, a girl band created by Partridge Family music producer Wes Farrell. © Mattel.

just about everything, but I was mainly known for my commercials for Mattel Toys. I would say I was their Mattel Toy girl. RF: What were some of the products you promoted? GR: For them, I did Barbie, I did Skediddle Kiddles, I did all kinds of their baby dolls. The very last commercial I did for then was called Rock Flowers. I was 12 and they said I was getting a little bit too old for the toys, so they gave me a going-away commercial, and one of the dolls was Heather. They made her in my likeness. If you see her— my hair was extremely long then—you’ll see the long, blonde hair on the doll. And there were three different dolls. One

had kind of auburn hair, one was African American, so they made Heather look like me. The other ones people remember, I was in commercials for Crispy Wheats ’n Raisins cereal. I did those for three or four years. We had different characters from the Wizard of Oz in our commercials. I was Dorothy for all of those. We had the Good Witch and the Bad Witch, we had the Munchkins, and we had the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. We had everybody there. RF: Did you work doing commercials with other actors and actresses that people would know outside of their commercials? GR: Um… I can’t really remember, but I do know we would always be up for the same commercials. Pamelyn Ferdin, Kathy Richards, who is now Kathy Hilton. I did go out with a lot of them. I don’t remember doing a lot of them with anyone who went on to do things other than commercials. RF: Let’s talk about Jan Brady. Given the era of RetroFan magazine, many of our readers are Brady-o-philes. As we discussed in a preliminary talk, you wear the moniker “Fake Jan” as a badge of honor, which you should. GR: Yes.

Geri Reischl as “Fake Jan.” Courtesy of Geri Reischl. © Paramount Television/Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

RF: Tell me how you got that role on the Brady Bunch variety show, and why wasn’t Eve Plumb returning as Jan? RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO INTERVIEW: GERI REISCHL

daughter—she seems to have exactly what we want.”

Lee, Farrah, Bradys, and more were promised in this TV Guide ad touting the new Brady Bunch Variety Hour. The Brady Bundy Hour © Paramount Television/ Sid and Marty Krofft Productions. TV Guide © CBS Interactive Inc.

GR: Okay, my mother got a call one day and my agent called and said they are “needing a girl to replace the middle child of the Brady Bunch, and I’d like Geri to go in and audition for that.” It was going to be a variety hour with a lot of singing and dancing, and that was right up my alley because I loved singing and dancing. So I went on these interviews with Sid and Marty Krofft, and they happened to like me. Every time I went on an interview, I’d have to sing and dance… cry… They gave me a script to read where I was doing a scene with Bobby Brady. There were only three interviews. They were interviewing kids from the east coast to the west coast and I would say there were close to 5,000 girls that were interviewed. I happened to have the look and the musical ability and that fit in very nicely for this show… I had the long, blonde hair. After the first interview, I remember my mom telling me that Marty [Krofft] went up to her and said, “We’re very interested in your 48

RetroFan

August 2020

RF: And you were how old? GR: I was 16. My mom was very happy with that. I will say there were three girls [in the running for Jan], the top three, and I was one. I don’t remember one of them, but the other one was Kathy Hilton—Kathy Richards at that time. So, I was the one chosen for the role. I was at school and my mom called my counselor and said, “Please let Geri know she got this role and you need to get her classroom stuff ready so she can do that on the set.” So, my counselor calls me in and I thought, “What did I do? I’m on the honor roll in school—I don’t get in trouble.” He called me in and told me what happened. I jumped up so high I thought my head was going to hit the ceiling. I was so happy I was going to get to do that. I have to say, I didn’t really watch The Brady Bunch growing up because I was doing quite a bit of work myself with movies, guest appearances on television series, commercials, my band—I had a band. I was quite busy and didn’t watch a lot of television. But I was thrilled. I knew about The Brady Bunch—who didn’t know about The Brady Bunch at that time?! I thought it was a really cool show. I didn’t watch it regularly, but flicking the channel or seeing it in magazines. So, I went there. Was I nervous? No, because I’m not a nervous type of person. They all introduced themselves and I met them and they seemed to really like me. Oh! I had worked with Susan [Olsen, a.k.a. Cindy Brady] on a Mattel Toy commercial when I was very young, so we had worked together. We clicked right away, Susan and I. We all clicked. They were all very nice to me. Barry Williams [Greg Brady] had nice things to say and everyone else did, so it made me feel very at ease. Robert Reed [Mike Brady] welcomed me to the family and said that it felt like I’d always been a part of it, so that made me feel really good. Susan, Mike [Lookinland, a.k.a. Bobby Brady], and I, we would always hang out, or Mike and I would cruise around in his new Toyota Corolla after work. Susan and I ditched school for a while, but our teacher

found us. We were hanging out with Chevy Chase and Paul Schaffer in their office, singing and goofing off. We’d watch our teacher in the parking lot looking for us and when our moms found out, we did kind of get in trouble. So we had to stop ditching our three hours of schooling on set. RF: It’s hard enough being 16 and going to school, but when you add to that work

FAST FACTS The Brady Bunch ` No. of seasons: Five ` No. of episodes: 117 ` Original run: September 26, 1969–March 8, 1974 ` Cast: Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Susan Olsen ` Network: ABC Spin-offs ` The Brady Kids (animated series, 1972–1973, 22 episodes) ` Kelly’s Kids (Season Five Brady Bunch episode starring Ken Berry, failed pilot for spin-off series) ` The Brady Bunch Hour (a.k.a. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour) (variety, 1976–1977, 9 episodes) ` The Brady Girls Get Married a.k.a. The Brady Brides (reunion series, 1981, 10 episodes) ` (1981) ` A Very Brady Christmas (TV movie, 1988) ` The Bradys (drama, 1990, 6 episodes) ` The Real, Live Brady Bunch (offBroadway show, 1991) ` The Brady Bunch Movie (movie, 1995) ` A Very Brady Sequel (movie, 1996) ` The Brady Bunch in the White House (made-for-TV movie, 2002) ` A Very Brady Renovation (reality show, 2019) ` Building Brady (digital-only companion series to A Very Brady Renovation, 2019)

RETRO INTERVIEW: GERI REISCHL

Brady Night Fever! The singing cast (sans Ann B. Davis as Alice) of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Those groovy Brady men were rocking these funky fashions a year before John Travolta boogied down in Saturday Night Fever. © Paramount Television/Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

on a television series, it must’ve been difficult. GR: For me, I was used to it because for any job I had, I had to have school, unless I was filming in the summertime. One of my movies filmed totally in the summertime, so I just had a social worker with me; I did not have to do any schooling, but I was always used to it. Even if I filmed a one-hour commercial, I still had to have three hours of school. I was quite used to it. I got all my subjects and everything I needed to do from the teachers. My mom would turn it in for me. Don’t ever take ceramics when you’re shooting on a show, because it was really tough. My mom had to go get the clay and all kinds of other stuf f. Luckily there was a sink and water in the room we were having our schooling in. So, my mom really helped me out with that. RF: Your mom passed away recently. GR: Two months ago. RF: I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve been there. GR: It’s terrible. She was 95. I don’t care how old they are, it’s horrible.

RF: Good luck with the holidays. The first year is really tough. GR: Oh, my, I know. I keep thinking, “Oh, I’ve got to call my mom. Oh, I can’t do that…” My mom, even at 95, lived on her own in that house and was still 100% with her mentality. I thought I knew everything about my mom until the last few days together, but I learned a whole lot more before she passed away and I have all that right here [pointing to her heart]. She told me one last thing before she passed. She said, “Geri, the proudest and most happiest moment I ever had in my life was the day I adopted you.” It’s in my heart forever, so rather than a tear, that brings me such happiness to know that I was the happiest thing ever—I know she loved my daddy—but the proudest moment was when she adopted me. She took me home at three days old. She told me when I was four or five years old… the biggest gif t ever she could ever given to me. When I was four or five years old, she wanted me to know I was adopted. She didn’t want me at 15, 16 years old to find out and think there was something wrong with being adopted. Every time she

brought it up—I never ever thought I was adopted—every time she brought it up, I would say, “Mom, you’re just saying that so I’ll feel extra special.” I had the best parents and upbringing. My mother was very strict and I’d think, “Wow, she’s very strict.” I think back and your parents kind of mold you—you can do your own things too, but I had a good family base. She instilled good things in me and I worked with them and am still working through them. I miss her so much. RF: Did she help you with your schooling when you were playing Jan Brady? GR: What she did was build my art project for me. She built me a really nice candy dish out of the clay and even sculpted a really nice bird on the top as a handle to take the lid off. My teacher had to know I didn’t do it because I was terrible in art! I got an A on it, though, and my mother did it for me! It was great working on the set. We had famous guest stars every week and they were wonderful, as well. I had the best time doing it. It was like going to Disneyland every day! I never thought of it as work. RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO INTERVIEW: GERI REISCHL

Guitar-strumming Geri, as seen in a Seventies teen magazine.

you okay?” I said, “I’m fine, I’m fine, but can you help me up?” And everybody started laughing once they knew I was okay. I had a great time with that episode because I got to use Milton Berle’s huge powder puff to hit Chris Knight—Peter Brady—with, and all the powder goes all over the place. One time, I hit him so hard I almost knocked him down, not realizing my strength. He just goes, “Whoa!” I have so many stories about all the fun we had. Working with a bunch of kids, we’d just goof off and we wouldn’t hear a cue or they’d want to change something here or there. So, one time we were doing the song [singing], “One, singular sensation!” We had sequins on dresses and brown derby hats. My mom and Susan’s mom said, “I just know Geri’s not going to do that; she’s not listening and she’ll do it wrong.” We were supposed to go “Boom,” with my hat up and I did it at the wrong time. They just left in all our bloopers. After the first show, if you watch it, you see all the bloopers. Barry Williams roller skating at a Roller Rama Rink and he falls and they just left it in and I’m saying, [in Jan Brady voice] “Oh, I could just D-Y-E die!” I’m wearing a poodle skirt and have a ribbon in the back of my hair in a ponytail and it just starts falling down. You’ll see it here, and then farther down here, and then all the way down. They never did anything— just left the bloopers in. They said, “Time is money, money is time—$10,000 each shot when we gotta remake it/reshoot it.” It was a fun time. RF: Did you meet H.R. Pufnstuf? GR: No, there were some Krofft people there—maybe the Keystone Cops?

RF: This show was interesting in its composition as a variety show and a sitcom. GR: Right. We were in California and lived in Malibu on the beach. [Mike Brady] was an architect and we still had our Alice with us! You never saw our bedrooms. You never saw a bathroom, but you’d see us coming out of what was the bedroom and seeing Lee Majors and Farah Fawcett-Majors sleeping on the couch. You only saw the living room and briefly, the kitchen. Usually we were on stage, singing, dancing, and wearing crazy costumes. I was a chicken! It was when Milton Berle was a guest. I wore a chicken suit with big, huge wings and big, huge feet! We all had the craziest costumes on! Robert Reed was wearing a Carmen Miranda costume with red sequins all the way down and coconuts for the chest, a hat full of fruit going up way high. We were dancing on pedestals three or four feet high. I was dancing and had to flap my wings a bunch. Well, I didn’t weigh anything then. I flapped my wings so hard that literally, I took off! RF: Like the Flying Nun! [laughter] GR: I flew off and landed right on my back almost in our pool we had for the Krofftette dancers. I landed on my back and my big, huge feet are sticking straight up and my wings are out to the side. Robert Reed in his long dress and white tennis shoes—he looked very elegant—came running down and said, “Geri, are 50

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August 2020

RF: One of the Lidsville people? GR: Yeah, they were there. There was a lady who had been part of H. R. Pufnstuf, a shorter person, and she was on there.

“One… singular sensation…” The Brady girls belt out a show tune from A Chorus Line. (LEFT TO RIGHT) Susan Olsen as Cindy, Geri Reischl as Jan, and Maureen McCormick as Marcia. © Paramount Television/Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

RETRO INTERVIEW: GERI REISCHL

RF: No shortage of fun costumes. GR: There were a ton of them! I was a scarecrow in one of them. I was Raggedy Ann in one. It was like Halloween every day, too. I loved it! They’d size you up real quick and put you in the costume. RF: Did they do any merchandising based on the Variety Hour? GR: They didn’t do any merch for that, but we were in every Teen Beat magazine, all those teen magazines. RF: After watching fan response to you here at this convention and on Facebook, I see that fans have embraced you as a member of the Bradys, but you were the first substitute. Was there any pressure taking on what had been someone else’s role? GR: For me, I never thought about that, I just started doing Jan. It was like doing a role in one of my movies, just figuring out the best way to do it. On The Brady Bunch Variety Hour pilot, they had me very whiny—a typical overthe-top Jan. [in Jan’s voice] “Why couldn’t I have been one of the Waltons?” “Greg, we don’t have a bathr…” Just really weird lines. I’m sure people thought that Jan was really weird, but after they saw such a great response to a new Jan, they didn’t have me be whiny or crying, “Oh!” One time, I had to stomp my feet at something Florence [Henderson, a.k.a. Carol Brady] said and went, “Oh, I am not!” I was going, “Oh, my God! I’m just going to be whining all the time.” The fans seemed to embrace me. I got just as much fan mail as everyone else. I got nice gifts and nice letters. Move forward many years later, 35, 40, now people are saying, “Oh, I wrote you a letter and you were so nice, you wrote me back.” I still have some of the jewelry and pencil-drawn sketches. Then, a gentleman—Ted Nicholson— started looking for me. He said, “I want to know what happened to Jan Brady—to Geri Reischl.” He found me and said, “You gotta get back out there. Your fans are looking for you. They want to know where you are and what you’re up to these days.” He did a website for me and said, “You gotta get on social media.” I got onto social media and thought it was mainly for kids. I didn’t know. I started doing Facebook and thought, “Oh, my gosh! There are

people older than me Facebooking.” It’s cool. I first started on MySpace and then he said do Facebook. Then, he said, “You gotta do Twitter for the 40th anniversary of the show. You’ll be asked questions there.” I’m really glad I did and have so many wonderful fans who are kind and caring. I give them a little bit of my world and I don’t have anything to hide. I’ll post anything and everything on Facebook. My page is just for anything fun; I don’t post anything negative. When fans come to see me, I know their names and when we talk, I know their personal lives. If I can help anybody in any way possible—if they have a family member with dementia, or they have a health problem, anything—relationship problem, I will give them a little bit of advice I think might help with them. RF: Let’s wind down with a discussion about what you’re doing now. Today you work with people with dementia. My mom, in her last years, had dementia. For her, it was a blessing. She was never belligerent, she was kind. She was in a happy space. It kept her from focusing on her body, which wasn’t doing what it should anymore. She would come up with stuff when we were talking, and I’d improvise and go along with her then steer her into a different direction. GR: You have to. I can be asked one thing 20 times within two minutes. So, what I do, I know they don’t know they’ve asked it before. I try to come up with a different answer, or I’ll answer the same way. Someone will say, “Oh, is dinner at five? Will I have it in the dining room?” “Yes, dinner is at five and you’ll have it in the dining room.” “Okay, thank you very much.” I’ll get asked again in two minutes, but I have an infinite amount of patience. We all have to remember that all the people with Alzheimer’s and dementia used to be just like us. They used to go out in the world and function perfectly and hold a job, and sometimes things change. If you become that person one day, you hope the kindness you give will come back to you later, if it happens down the road. I’m tearing up… I think of them as all my parents because my 95-year-old mother just passed away. So, I have a whole bunch of moms. A whole bunch of dads, but they’re all very special to me.

Fake Jan is the real deal! Geri Reischl at the Chiller Theater Expo on October 27, 2019. Photo by Xgdfalcon.

RF: That’s sweet. And you’re right about that memory thing. We’d come in to visit Mom and she’d have crumbs on her mouth and I’d ask, “What did you have for lunch, Mom?” “Oh, they haven’t fed us yet.” GR: That’s very typical. “I didn’t get my breakfast.” “Yes, you did.” I’d say, “You got your breakfast, but let me go double check.” There are all stages. You’ll have some that will remain very sweet. Some that get to Stage 4: Dementia turning to Alzheimer’s. You can be called the worst names and then the next day, that person will be so sweet and kind and love you to death! I was bitten one time on my arm and it turned purple, but didn’t break the skin. You can’t get mad… you can’t get upset. If they were in their right minds, they wouldn’t be doing stuff like that. Most of the time it’s, “Hi, Blondie! How are you doing?” Even in Alzheimer’s, they’ll call me Blondie. “I’m fine, how are you?” “Oh, I’m fine.” I have higher functioning [seniors] also that I work with. I see all levels, I call them my “senior star citizens.” RF: I’m glad to share with RetroFans readers how Fake Jan is an angel of kindness today. GR: I wanted to say something else about Fake Jan. I decided I needed to separate myself because I didn’t want people to think I was the original Jan. So, I decided to get my own little brand and it make it RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO INTERVIEW: GERI REISCHL

Leah Ayres

Rob DiCaterino.

e k a F dys Bra

Each of TV’s original Brady girls took a sabbatical from a spin-off and was substituted by these lovely ladies with hair of gold:

Geri Reischl

@Silver Age Television.

(Fake Marcia, The Bradys)

Rob DiCaterino.

(Fake Jan, The Brady Bunch Hour)

Jennifer Runyon (Fake Cindy, A Very Brady Christmas)

And let’s not forget Fake Sam the Butcher in A Very Brady Christmas, with Lewis Arquette subbing for Allan Melvin!

RetroFan

August 2020

my own fun and make it kind of quirky, because the show was kind of quirky. RF: You came up with it? GR: Somebody else had said it years ago. So, I said, “I’m going to go by Fake Jan,” and made the little buttons [with that slogan, as shown on our cover]. Then Susan Olsen made a holiday called “Fake Jan Day,” and it’s on January 2, because I’m the second Jan. RF: I’ll celebrate it! GR: People all over the world celebrate it and send me pictures. I was at Susan’s [Fake Jan Day] party… You have to celebrate with a cheeseball—the kind with the nuts on top. Susan had one at her party and I wanted it, but nobody had cut into it yet. I ate about half of it. I thought, “Oh, this is my favorite new food. Love the cheeseball.” Susan remembered it, so my Fake Jan’s favorite food is the cheeseball. She goes, “It’s cheesy.” The Fake Jan is cheesy, the variety show is cheesy. I just want to have fun with it and fun being Fake Jan! My Fake Jan super-groovy stickers! Everything is groovy, baby! Groovy. My kids say, “Mom, you going to use that word?” I say, “I don’t care if I’m 90—I’m still going to use my favorite word.” RetroFan editor MICHAEL EURY (here with Geri Reischl on the day this interview was recorded) so loves The Brady Bunch, he once had a Brady man-perm! Michael also edits the Eisner Award-winning BACK ISSUE magazine for TwoMorrows Publishing. Special thanks to Rose Rummel-Eury for transcribing this interview.

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Kustom Kulture King, Fink-Father, and Automotive Oddity

by Scott Shaw! Even if you’re a “nice kid” who keeps out of trouble and gets good grades, by the time you reach the age of nine or ten, you start to rebel against your parents in subtle ways… and eventually, in obvious ways, too. I was that “nice kid,” although one more interested in reading, drawing, and planning to grow up to be a paleontologist or a cartoonist rather than a cowboy or a policeman. The bullies called me a “weirdo,” an insult I chose to embrace. Then, late in 1957, everyone was suddenly interested in weirdos… in the form of Universal Studios’ classic monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, Invisible Man, Mummy, Wolf Man, and other ghoulish guys ’n’ gals. The Universal Monsters were collected in a late-night anthology slot usually known as Shock Theater in the schedules of dozens of TV stations. In its wake, outrageous monster-themed magazines, comic books, trading cards, decals, and other grisly-but-goofy goodies were sucking up schoolboys’ loose change. And those selfsame monsters also offered our first pre-teenage attempt to defy our folks. The monster craze persisted and thrived, like a lizard growing as big as a skyscraper after being exposed to radioactive waste. It was around the time Aurora Plastics launched its first three Universal monster model kits— Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolf Man— and Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “The Monster Mash” Top 40 radio hit for the first of many times (it really was a graveyard smash!) that my junior high school buddies and I started to attend car shows at downtown San Diego’s Community

Concourse, where we first encountered the man who would push the monster theme into weird new areas and with a new wild and wacky vibe, one that would irritate our parents to no end, especially our fathers. Why? Because although that man’s name was Ed Roth (1932–2001), to his fans he was, without a doubt, our “Big Daddy”! “The kids idolize me because I look like someone their parents wouldn’t like,” Ed once said. “…The first monsters I designed had a lot of shock value for kids who wanted to freak out their parents.”

A Weirdo is Born

Ed Roth was born in Beverly Hills, California, on March 4, 1942. His own big daddy, Henry, a strict cabinetmaker who moonlighted as the chauffeur of silent film star Mary Pickford, and his mother, Marie, were immigrants from Germany. Ed grew up in Bell, California, with his younger brother, Gordon, in a German-speaking household. Although he had to learn English in elementary school, Ed was a good student at Bell High School who (unsurprisingly) enjoyed his auto shop and art classes, and like most budding cartoonists, spent most of his free time drawing monsters, hot rods, and airplanes, which his mother encouraged. Henry taught both sons how to use the tools in his workshop; that’s where Ed learned how to make wooden molds to create fiberglass components for his custom show cars. At 14, Ed bought a 1933 Ford Coupe in 1946, his first car. After graduating high school in 1949, he attended East Los Angeles College with a major in engineering to further his understanding of automotive design. But Cover to 1964’s Big Daddy Roth Magazine #1. Cover art attributed to Pete Millar. TM © Ed

Roth, Inc. Rat Fink TM & © Ed Roth, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

The Monkees’ Monkeemobile, and his famous custom car, the Mantaray. But Miller stayed the course, making weirdo shirts weirder than ever. Along with T-shirts, a related monster fad that Ed would embrace was grisly decals featuring hip depictions of a wide variety of creatures. The top artist in this field was a young man named Don “Monte” Monteverde, a professional artist and pinstriper who left a job as a Disney in-betweener to Roth’s bubble-topped hot rod Beatnik Bandit, on display at the National Automobile draw outrageous images of creatures, fiends, Museum, Reno, Nevada. (INSET) Carded original Hot Wheels’ Beatnik Bandit, includand flaming skulls to affix to bicycle fenders. His ing a Roth sticker of authenticity. Beatnik Bandit TM & © Ed Roth, Inc. Photo by Nick Ares. Hot decals were very popular with kids, especially Wheels © Mattel. Hot Wheels scan courtesy of Hake’s Auctions. because they were so easily affordable. Monte’s style would also be a strong influence on Roth’s when Ed became frustrated with the lack of cars in his lessons, in approach to designing monsters. He also may have had a hand in 1951 he dropped out of school to join the U.S. Air Force. creating Ed’s most famous character. Honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1955 and back in Ed began to take his T-shirt business as seriously as his real the Golden State, Ed met Sally, who he soon married. To support love, custom cars. Still drawing and airbrushing them without his growing family—Sally eventually bore him five sons!— help, Roth began to advertise them in Petersen Publication’s Car Ed took a job at Sears-Roebuck in its display department. He Craft magazine as “Weirdo Shirts” selling for $4.50 each. These moonlighted with freelance gigs pinstriping (adding gracefully shirts, with the mass-produced images silk-screened onto them, flowing linework and patterns to accent a car’s body design) were sold through the mail, but Ed was also selling personally cars and motorcycles. Ed rented a garage for his late-night and airbrushed versions at the car shows he frequented. Those weekend business, pinstriping cars for $50 to $150 each. Ed began events also gave Ed a chance to bond with his eager adolescent to experiment with fiberglass, a new material that was essential acolytes—like me. in building custom cars. In 1955, he customized a 1930 Ford Model A Tudor, swapping out its engine for one with an Oldsmobile, and Maywood Madness called it Little Jewel, which won a number of car show trophies. He In 1959, Ed Roth moved his operation to Maywood, California. It also began to delve into a popular new fad, probably inspired by was a run-down neighborhood, but the price was right and the the wave of monster-driven movies airing on television—“weirdo new location had plenty of room for building cars and massT-shirts.” producing weirdo shirts. Ed proudly announced the move in a Car As his family grew, Ed needed more money coming into Craft ad, which immediately attracted a nutty mixture of visitors: the household, so he partnered with another well-known, gearheads, pre-teen fanboys, policemen, musicians, FBI agents… experienced, and eccentric pinstriper, Jesse E. Crozier, better and outlaw bikers. This last group, who shared Roth’s sense of known as “The Baron,” and Crozier’s grandson, Tom Kelly. outrageous rebellion, would have both positive and negative Ed also continued to work on his “Weerdo T-shirts” (note effects on Ed and his career. The first result was that they the misspelling, his branding), joining a thriving trend that other convinced him to buy his first motorcycle, a new Harley-Davidson automotive artists were mining. Those young Turks included Sportster. Many more would follow. drag-strip cartoonist Pete Millar, futuristic vehicular designer Roth’s sense of car design was surreal and futuristic. He loved Dean Jeffries, and Detroit cartoonist Stanley Miller, Jr., a.k.a. bubble-tops, asymmetrical configurations, and lots of chrome. “Mouse!” Their styles shared certain elements—bug-eyed Many of his creations looked more like rolling sculpture than creatures resembling mutated beatniks driving impossibly automobiles, trading practicality for the cool quotient. exaggerated torqued-out hot rods (usually drawn with Ed’s show cars were wildly surrealistic (and subtly subversive) remarkable accuracy) that belched fire and clouds of exhaust. The but they were also quite small. They weren’t created to be useful craze got its first national exposure in the August 1959 issue of Car passenger vehicles—they were built to impress car-show ticket Craft magazine. On June 2, 1962, ABC’s Leave It to Beaver featured buyers and fellow gearheads—although the majority of them an episode titled “Sweatshirt Monsters,” in which Beav and his were street legal and capable of being driven. Ed, however, was 6 foot, 4 inches tall, and it was impossible for him to fit inside most pals dare each other to wear their weirdo sweatshirts to school. of ’em. Millar went on to edit B&W comic magazines full of “inside” In 1958, Roth pinstriped and bought Tweedy Pie from its humor about car culture, while Jeffries’ career led him to design original owner, Bob Johnston. Ed displayed it at car shows to such famous custom vehicles as The Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, 54

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promote his skills as a pinstriper and indeed, it won a number of commissioned by the producers of ABC’s The Addams Family awards and got him the attention he sought. for use in the show’s third season, intended to vie against CBS’ Ed’s first true show car was Outlaw, a masterpiece built with The Munsters’ Munster Coach and Dragula. Unfortunately, The plaster and fiberglass, which made the scene in 1959. (It was Addams Family was cancelled after its second season, so the Druid originally named Excalibur, after his mother-in-law’s vintage Princess (named by Robert Williams) was only seen at car shows. Revolutionary War sword that Roth used as its gearshift, but not Its gas tank and battery are hidden inside a child-sized coffin many of his pals could pronounce “Excalibur.”) mounted in the rear. 1960’s Beatnik Bandit remains one of Roth’s two most 1967’s Wishbone was Ed Roth’s least-favorite show car recognizable custom cars. A 1950 Oldsmobile chassis was the creation. He spent a lot of time and effort to complete the foundation for this iconic hot rod; its engine is also an Olds. Its Wishbone, only to be told by Revell that the delicate front bubble-top was molded in a pizza oven! suspension and spindle wheels were too difficult and expensive Ed’s Mysterion (1963) is his other most famous show car, and to mass produce in scale for the model kit. Roth’s reaction was it’s no wonder why. The dual Ford engines, the hydraulic bubbleto cut the Wishbone into pieces and tossed them in the trash, top, and the asymmetrical searchlight all add up to a vehicle declaring he never wanted to see Wishbone again. that looks more like a spaceship than an automobile. The weight The body of Roth’s L.A. Zoom (1989) was made from Kevlar of the engines was a constant problem; surreal it may be, but fiberglass, which was powered by a computerized Acura engine Mysterion’s frame was always cracking and breaking due to the located in the trunk. Unfortunately, Ed never found a computer stress. The Mysterion is such a classic that there’s an entire book expert smart enough to get that !?!#$%&!?! engine to work! written on it. Beatnik Bandit 2 (1995) was Roth’s tribute to his own Beatnik Roth’s Surfite (1964) was cute and had a slot to carry a Bandit. It was sleeker, more compact, and more futuristic than surfboard… but not much good on the beach. At a photo shoot for the original, but the biggest difference was its muscular chromed the cover of an issue of Pete Millar’s Drag Cartoons, the Surfite got Chevy 350 engine. When asked about the horsepower he put into stuck in the sand! this car, Ed said he wanted something with which to enter all of A show car that was never the basis for a Revell model kit, Ed’s those “wild burnout contests.” Orbitron (1964), had a set of three colored headlights designed 1999’s Stealth 2000 was Ed Roth’s final completed show car. It to mimic the eye of the Martian in George Pal’s 1953 film War was powered by a Geo Metro engine, and the design was inspired of the Worlds. Over the years this show car disappeared, only to by stealth technology of the military. be discovered, decades later, as a flower planter in front of an Judged “America’s Most Beautiful Roadster of 1958,” AMT adult bookstore in Mexico! It’s since been restored to its original bought George Barris’ Ala Cart in 1961 and released the kit late condition. that year. It was a huge seller and 1965’s Road Agent was Roth’s is still re-issued from time to time. last car to become a Revell model kit. In response that same year, Revell It was powered by a Corvair engine signed a deal with Ed Roth to and its translucent bubble-top had a develop plastic model kits of both his yellow cast to it. custom cars and T-shirt monsters for Rotar (1965) was Ed’s stylish them. The custom car model kit race hovercraft, with two 650cc Triumph was on! twin engines mounted on their “Big Daddy” is Branded sides and high-pressure propellers Revell planned to use Ed’s name mounted to each one. They created and image each model kit’s box, a cushion of air that allowed Rotar to but the company’s new VP of Public propel itself on land and water! Relations, Henry Blankfort, felt Yellow Fang was designed and that Roth’s name wasn’t flashy built not by Ed Roth, but by his friend enough. Blankfort, who’d been an George “Bushmaster” Schreiber in ex-screenwriter and was blacklisted 1965. Ed helped out George with during the McCarthy era, asked construction funds as part of his Ed if he ever been known by any personal “sponsorship,” as well as nicknames. Roth said he had creating the artwork. Roth sprayed sometimes been called “Big Ed” in the entire car in bright yellow epoxy high school because of his height. (with white lettering) after its first Blankfort knew that Roth had five run, which came at Long Beach in children, so he suggested inserting May 1965. It was the only dragster Big Daddy made the scene on the boxes and “Big Daddy” into the middle of Ed with which Roth was ever involved. side panels of Revell’s model kits of his Custom Roth’s name. Roth agreed, and “Ed The Druid Princess (1966) was Monsters. Rat Fink, Mr. Gasser, Brother Rat Fink, Drag ‘Big Daddy’ Roth” was born. Roth an ornate coach that resembled Nut, Mother’s Worry, and Surfink TM & © Ed Roth, Inc. took Blankfort’s advice to heart. that of Cinderella. It was originally Images courtesy of Hake’s. RetroFan

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

He ditched his paint-stained overalls and began showing up at his personal appearances wearing a tux, top hat, and monocle. It transformed him into a recognizable character to anyone attending middle school. The process was fairly simple: Revell’s brass would select one of Roth’s cars or drawings, then that car would be sculpted, first in clay by Roth, then in wax by Revell’s Harry Plumber, then molded in plastic. In 1962, Revell issued its first Ed “Big Daddy” Roth plastic model kit, Outlaw, his first show car. It was followed the next year by Tweedy Pie and the original Beatnik Bandit. Then came Mysterion, with Road Agent and Surfite not far behind. Decades later, Revell issued two kits that ballyhooed Ed Roth pinstriping and paint jobs, a ’56 Ford F-100 and a ’57 Chevy Bel Air, as well as a Tweedy Pie 2.

Ed Roth’s Rat Fink very well might have strong ties to characters created by Stanley “Mouse!” Miller and Monte Monteverde, whose work was already being sold when Ed got into the “weirdo shirt” business. Rat Fink’s overall design is very similar to that of Mouse!’s Freddy Flypogger, and some of the details of Rat Fink are very similar to details in Monteverde’s decal art. (It’s even been suggested that Monte re-penciled and inked Roth’s artwork that would be used for the first Rat Fink decal.) In many of his magazine ads, Mouse! even drew a hairy, hulking, fly-infested rat with a “Roth” tattoo on an arm. Once Ed Roth began to dominate the weirdo-shirt business, their good-natured rivalry started to turn sour.

Model Citizens

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was a remarkable individual, but he could only create a limited number of cars and shirts. However, once he committed Rat Fink his concepts to paper, Ed could It’s surprising, but Ed “Big hand them over to other, Daddy” Roth’s best-known more talented artists to be character and one that’s re-penciled inked, colored, and recognized by a surprisingly turned into mass-produced wide variety of people, Rat decals, T-shirts, and other Fink, didn’t appear until 1963. merchandise that could be Based on sketches, he was sold throughout the world. Big conceived in 1962, but the Daddy was the first to admit design was still evolving. that his artwork was rather However, there’s no denying crude compared to the kids he hired. Roth wound up with a that the one and only Rat core staff of 25 artists, but he Fink made his first public was always looking for new appearance in the pages of talent. the July 1963 issue of Car Craft After leaving the Art magazine in its monthly “New Center College of Design, Products” feature in the form Matted and framed, a Rat Fink limited edition lithograph, Ed “Newt” Newton joined of a decal. However, his name produced in 1996 by Joe Copro/Nason One, signed and Ed Roth’s staff in the early wasn’t even mentioned. By numbered by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. TM & © Ed Roth, Inc. Courtesy Sixties, soon becoming the 1965, he not only had his full of Heritage. ever-growing group’s de facto name, Rat Fink also became Art Director. Newt designed part of the official Ed “Big Daddy” Roth logo. To the world of fink-fans, he had become the characters for Roth, and also created a series of wild magazine #1 Fink! and catalog advertisements for Roth’s products. Newt also So, what is a “fink”? The term is Yiddish, and is the equivalent helped Roth design of several of his custom cars, including the of “finch,” a bird that sings. Therefore, it’s a derogatory referring Orbitron, Surfite, and Wishbone. Besides cars, Newt did tons of to a tattletale, a snitch, or a spy. The term gained familiarity due Roth T-shirts. to a man named Albert Fink, who worked for the Louisville and Robert Williams had graduated from Los Angeles City Nashville Railroads from around 1860 to the late 1880s. Fink College, where he contributed artwork to the school’s newspaper. worked his way up from engineer to president of the company. He had trouble finding work—until the manager of the local His spies—the original “finks”—infiltrated the labor unions unemployment office hooked him up with a local business. to report on their meetings and plans for strikes. In the early “They told me that the freak that ran it was some guy called Big Sixties, comedian and talk-show host Steve Allen adopted the Daddy and I said, ‘Wait a minute, would that be Ed Roth?’ They term “Rat Fink,” and began using it on the air constantly. That’s said it was, and I said, ‘Let me at it. I was born for this job.’” Taking when non-Jewish America embraced the word “fink.” over for Ed Newton, Williams’ early work for Roth consisted of 56

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creating monthly advertising, graphic design, and elaborate hotHawk Plastics’ package illustrator, William Campbell, who’d rod projects. But as Robert found his own unique style, he began painted realistic front-panel masterpieces for the model-kit drawing nudes and violent scenes. Big Daddy repeatedly warned company for decades, pitched a successful series of automotive Williams that they were creating products for the mass market, abominations known as Weird-Ohs. and such themes were inappropriate. “Inappropriate” would It’s likely that the surfer theme for that last line may have become Robert’s stock-in-trade once he became an underground given Monogram (a.k.a. MPC) the idea to license Mike Dormer’s cartoonist and an outrageous “lowbrow” fine artist a few years character Hot Curl the Surfer, a long-haired, long-nosed fellow later. always clutching a can of beer in his hand. They gave Hot Curl a Robert’s wife Suzanne, also a fine artist, worked for Ed as the girlfriend, a little brother, a dog, and a “woody” station wagon to studio/garage’s receptionist/troubleshooter. pad the brand with three more kits. Steve Fiorilla was a staff artist who excelled at weird and Aurora was last to jump on the automotive monster funny drawings. He worked on a lot of Roth’s magazine ads, too. background; its line of Monstermobile kits featured the Universal Revell also had a line of monster models with an origin not Monsters (minus the Creature) driving some really ugly hot rod in the automotive world, but in the vein of the T-shirts Big Daddy designs. Finally, at trend’s end came Marx Toy’s line of Nutty sold by the thousands at car Mads, not kits but wellshows and through the mail. designed, cleverly sculpted, Rat Fink was first. It was and well-balanced solid plastic essentially a “shell” model figures. Only a few were kit sparely consisting of R.F.’s automotive-related, but since front side, back side, noseMarx already had a license bulb, feet, and platform. It from Hawk, the company wasn’t much of a challenge to produced six figures based on assemble, but it was perfect pre-existing Weird-Ohs behind for both first-timers and the wheel. experienced painters. Through mail order and at The next wave of kits car shows, Ed had an incredible consisted of Mr. Gasser, variety of merchandise for Mother’s Worry, and Drag Nut. sale. In addition to dozens Brother Rat Fink, Surf Fink, of illustrated T-shirts and Angel Fink, and Superfink sweatshirts, there were decals, were next. Then came Scuz “chrome” plastic “surfin’ Fink, Outlaw with Robbin’ helmets” (configured like WWII Hood Fink, Tweedy Pie with German helmets), hillbilly hats Boss Fink (a finky version of Ed bearing the initials “R.F.,” biker himself), and finally, possibly posters, buttons, and copies of Sixties’ kids flipped their lids over because Big Daddy wanted to his biker magazine, Choppers. krazy products like decals, Rat Fink wipe ’em out and begin again, Rat Fink rings, sold in rings, and a Rat Fink Halloween costume! Rat Fink and characters TM & © Ed Fink Eliminator. gumball machines and on Roth, Inc. Products courtesy of Hake’s. Revell even sold two Ed cards, were manufactured Roth slot car kits, Rat Fink in by GiGi Sales Company and Lotus Ford and Mr. Gasser in considered to be one of the BRM. Also, the model-glue magnate Testor’s sold its own brand most successful pocket-change kids’ products in America at the of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth Custom Paint—“Like Metal-Flake! Candy! time. Pearl! Super Gloss! Wild and Wonderful!”—in bottles and spray In 1965, Ed self-published the Ed “Big Daddy” Roth Coloring Book. canisters. The painted cover art was executed by Bud Moore. During 1963, Revell paid Roth a one-cent royalty for each Multimedia Big Daddy model kit sold. Ed brought in $32,000 that year in royalties. As the name “Big Daddy” gained recognition around the country, Eventually, the royalties increased to hundreds of thousands of Ed began to have a presence in unexpected areas. For example, dollars! from October 1964 to May 1965 automotive cartoonist Pete Millar Weird and Nutty Competitors published four bimonthly B&W issues of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth In 1968, Mattel introduced its new line of Hot Wheels toy magazine, edited by another cartoonist, Dennis Ellefson. Some automobiles. Roth’s Beatnik Bandit was one of the first 16 die-cast issues included stories written and drawn by Alex Toth and Russ mini-cars produced. Manning. Millar Publishing Company also produced Drag Cartoons Of course, once Revell’s competition noticed how successful and Wonder Wart-Hog magazines. their dual line of Roth custom show car kits and Roth fink figure Mr. Gasser & the Weirdos was a novelty music group led by kits were, they went the hot-rod monster route… and beyond! Roth as Mr. Gasser. Its musicians included Glen Campbell, Leon RetroFan

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Russell, and other members of Phil Spector’s legendary Wrecking Crew. The group’s three surf-rock LPs were Hot Rod Hootenanny (1963), Surfink! (1964), and Rods n’ Ratfinks (also 1964). Their label was Sundazed Records, distributed by Capitol Records. Beginning in 1964 and for decades since, different official Rat Fink Halloween masks, tails, and outfits have been produced by Collegeville Costumes. In 1966, toy company Wham-O manufactured a “WheelieBar” accessory for bicycles. Roth was enlisted to give a testimonial quote regarding the product, as well as design a unique Finkmonster to promote it and appear on its packaging. Roth’s Surfite appeared in two Hollywood films, Beach Blanket Bingo and Village of the Giants (both 1965). “They made all the beach movies at Sportsman’s Cove in Malibu,” Roth recalled. “I got wind of a new movie [Bingo] Annette Funicello was making and she’s my all-time heartthrob. So, I drove down and parked the Surfite next to Buster Keaton’s dressing room, pretending to be one of the cast.” Although Surfite does appear in the film, it’s only onscreen for the few seconds it takes for Annette to walk past the miniature surf-wagon. The title of Tom Wolfe’s 1965 best-selling collection of articles, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, is also the title of one of the articles within, entirely about Roth and custom car culture. Although Wolfe found Ed Roth to be “an intellectual” and “the Salvador Dali of the hot rod world,” before interviewing him Wolfe was worried: “I had been told that Roth was a surly guy who never bathed and was hard to get along with.”

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Two- and Three-Wheelers

In the mid-Sixties, Roth began customizing motorcycles and tricycles. It’s been estimated that he created over 40 different ones, but most of them were destroyed in one way or another. These are the ones that are known to have survived: ` Designed by Ed Newton for Roth’s California Choppers Magazine’s letters page, Mail Box (1967) was powered by a Crosley four-cylinder engine. ` Powered by a Buick V6 engine, 1967’s Mega Cycle was originally

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named Captain Pepi’s Motorcycle & Zeppelin Repair, but carshow promoters insisted that Roth change its name. Ed’s American Beetle (1968) was the first-ever Volkswagen tricycle. He used a 36-horsepower engine from a 1957 VW and a front fork from a Honda. Roth’s 1968 Candy Wagon was the same underpowered trike that Los Angeles meter maids used to drive. He used it to participate in parades, but the first time he used it, tossing candy to kids, the children’s excited reactions spooked the parade’s horses. So much for free candy! High Flyer (1969) was a trike damaged in an arson fire but completely restored to Ed’s satisfaction by cartoonist Ken Mitchroney. Ed said of 1970’s California Cruiser, “Would I have made any changes or do anything different if I had to do it all over again?!? …NO! To me, the California Cruiser turned out better than I could ever have imagined. And that is somptin else!” Secret Weapon (1976) was Ed Roth’s concept of what a modern U.S. Army Jeep should be, a motorized trike with a low center of gravity. Unfortunately, the driving position was so comfortable, Ed kept falling asleep at the wheel! With a VW Type 4 engine and an automatic transmission, Roth’s Great Speckled Bird (1976) was an easy tricycle to drive. He also added a five-gallon water tank and a windshieldwiper motor to keep the driver and passenger cool in hot weather. Its Buick V-6 engine got 1986’s Asphalt Angel from Los Angeles to St. Paul, Minnesota’s, Street Rod Nationals, but they turned Ed away because it wasn’t based on a car that was originally build before 1949. Roth’s American Cruiser tricycle (1987) was essentially a V8 engine connected between a Harley front fork and the rear end of a dragster. Designed to resemble a 1934 Ford Roadster, Roth’s Globe Hopper (1987) was named by Robert Williams after Ed drove it to Alaska. 1995’s Rubber Ducky had a Kevlar unibody that was designed as an oversize gas tank that held 26 gallons of fuel for its 600cc Honda engine. MPC issued a plastic model kit based on Ed Roth’s motortrike designs for the Mail Box Chopper in 1971. Mainstream automotive magazines that once built circulation with his name and image on their covers suddenly refused to run Roth’s motorcycle-related articles and advertisements due to his friendly relationship with the local outlaw biker gangs, so Ed started his own publication. California Choppers Magazine (eventually shortened to Choppers (LEFT) Big Daddy Roth Magazine #3 (Feb.–Mar. 1965) featured this photo cover unveiling the swingin’ Surfite. (RIGHT) Ed “Big Daddy” Roth Coloring Book (1965). Cover painting by Bud Moore. TM & © Ed Roth, Inc. Courtesy of Scott Shaw!

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Magazine) was a small B&W monthly that ran from 1967 to 1970, the first magazine exclusively devoted to custom motorcycles. Ed invested his life savings into the publication, insisting that it be packed with legitimate technical information that would be of value to bikers. In the early Seventies, Mexican company Lodela re-issued Roth model kits with new names. For example, Mr. Gasser became Mr. Smog!

Big Daddy’s Big Troubles

As the monster fad died down, many who worshipped Big Daddy Roth as kids were now old enough to be drafted to serve in Vietnam. Politically, Ed was conservative. He supported the Vietnam War, wanting to provide a product his war-torn fans would appreciate. Unfortunately, the outrageous Roth approach to T-shirt humor wasn’t a good fit for the war. Ed offered custom printing, so entire Army platoons could sport their brand of Roth shirts… except many of the orders were sent back from Nam to Maywood, because every member of those selfsame platoons had been killed in action. It was a painful time for the Finkfather, and things would only get worse. Due to being the publisher of Choppers Magazine, Ed’s relationship with the outlaw biker’s gang known as the Hell’s Angels got tighter. They even considered Roth to be an honorary member of their club. At the time, the public viewed the Angels as dangerous psychopathic criminals, but Ed saw them as misunderstood outcasts—at least initially. Since outlaw bikers were the targeted readership for Choppers, Ed often included articles and photos featuring the more dangerously outrageous aspects of motorcycle culture. In 1966, Time magazine convinced Ed to allow them do a story about him and his popularity with American youth, so when Time contacted him again, he was willing to accommodate them, assisting the magazine with an article on the Hell’s Angels. A writer and photographer visited his studio and asked Ed to pose on a Honda moped he used for errands. To add “color” to the photo, they put one of the plastic German helmets Ed sold on his head and hung a cheap plastic Maltese cross around his neck. When the article was published, the photo ran with the accompanying caption that described Roth as “the supply sergeant to the Hell’s Angels.” The big shots at Revell were very concerned about Ed’s controversial depiction. According to Ed, “Revell calls me in and politely informs me … they would have to cancel my contract if I didn’t straighten up.” The IRS also reacted to the Time article. Since motorcycle gangs were often connected with organized crime and Roth was connected with the Hell’s Angels, they sent FBI agents to breathe down Big Daddy’s neck. Neither the FBI nor the IRS was able to detect any wrongdoing on Ed’s part. Unfortunately, there was wrongdoing already brewing... but not by Ed. At first the gang enjoyed the attention and notoriety the famous “Big Daddy” brought them—but soon, gang members, unaware that Choppers Magazine was doing very poorly financially because national advertisers wanted no part of it, began complaining that Roth was getting rich off them. One day, seven armed gang members confronted Ed in his studio, griping that Big Daddy had been turning the biker photos

More model kits of Roth’s Custom Monsters. Brother

Rat Fink, Drag Nut TM & © Ed Roth, Inc. Images courtesy of Hake’s.

he took into posters and selling them at car shows. They wanted a cut of his profits. Roth agreed they deserved some compensation, and began giving the gang considerable sums of cash on a regular basis. But tempers flared again when Roth, ever the relentless entrepreneur, suggested selling the Hell’s Angels iconic logo on a T-shirt. The gang members went berserk. An enraged group of Angels chased down Big Daddy, surrounded his studio, and trapped him inside. When Ed refused to come out, several gunshots were reportedly fired into the building, thankfully missing Big Daddy. Roth decided to try and wait things out—but the gang refused to leave, and a standoff began. No one called the police. Some accounts of this story say the police knew exactly what was going on but had no desire to jump into a raging gang war, perhaps hoping that everyone involved would kill each other and do them a favor. Eventually, Big Daddy proposed to end the standoff by challenging the leader of the gang to a one-on-one fistfight, winner take all. The gang leader agreed—a big mistake. Roth was a huge man, and he also had a black belt in Karate. The fight took place right in the middle of Roth’s studio. Blows were traded, but Big Daddy gained the upper hand and, according to one account, “just started to beat the living crap out of the guy.” With their leader beaten fairly and decisively, humiliated in front of his entire entourage, the gang members dispersed, and the crisis seemed to be over. But very soon after this incident, Roth came to work and found his studio had been looted. Everything was gone—literally, the only thing left was the cement floor. So much for being an “honorary Hell’s Angel.” Then things got worse. After the news of Big Daddy’s faceoff against the bikers reached Revell, the model company allowed his ten-year contract with the company to expire in 1972, without any interest in renewing it. Revell had warned Ed repeatedly, but he had ignored them. By this time, most of Ed’s multimillion fortune was gone, with no studio left. Ed sold Choppers Magazine in 1969; its new publisher shut it down the next year. In 1970, Ed was forced to sell 15 of his custom show cars for the paltry figure of $5,500. RetroFan

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Then came the final blow. His wife, Sally, filed for divorce, moved to Cudahy, California, and took Ed’s sons with her. (Ed would marry three more times.)

Big Daddy is Somptin Else!

In recent years, there have been a number of licensed (and bootleg) toys, garage kits, and collectibles featuring Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Rat Fink and other monstrous characters. There was Spin-outs even a set of skateboarding Rat Finks Desperate for a stable income, in 1970 in a rainbow of colors for collectors in Roth took the first “normal” job of his Japan. life. For the next five years, Ed worked Roth was active in counterculture for Jim Brucker’s Cars of the Stars auto art and hot-rodding his entire adult museum in Buena Park, California, life. At the time of his death in 2001, spending much of his time driving a he was working on a hot-rod project large car carrier cross-country, picking involving a compact car planned as a up and delivering vintage autos for the departure from the dominant tuner collection. Ed’s boss, Jim Brucker, said performance modification style. Roth was loyal and a very hard worker, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth died of a heart even though he was not making much attack in his Manti, Utah, workshop Album cover for the Birthday Party’s 1982 at age 69 on April 4, 2001. Revell money. Roth’s Druid Princess and album Junkyard, penciled by Ed Roth and finished by Dave Christensen. Rat Fink TM & © Ed continues to reissue Roth’s finks and California Cruiser were two of the many Roth, Inc. Junkyard © 1982 Missing Link Records. custom car kits. unusual vehicles on display there. Tales of the Rat Fink, a documentary Big Daddy’s next job was working about “the life and times of famed hot as a designer and artist for Orange County’s “other” theme park, Knott’s Berry Farm. He worked there rod and custom car designer Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth” by Ron Mann, for about five years, until 1980. Ed’s hand-painted work on Knott’s starring John Goodman as the voice of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, was theatrically released in 2006. Berry Wagon was featured on the cover of the January 1979 issue of Hot Rodding magazine. There is no question that the legacy of Big Daddy permeates In December 1977, Robert and Suzanne Williams, with Skip Barrett, organized the first Rat Fink Reunion, an annual event to modern culture. People may not know the names “Ed Roth” or celebrate the legacy of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. There are small fink“Rat Fink,” but they certainly think “hot rod” the instant that they fan conventions with unique fun such as contests in pinstriping see any of his images… or for that matter, those of his imitators. toilets, beer kegs, and other unlikely objects. Rat Fink Reunions Roth once said, “I have always enjoyed working with my are still held to this day at the site of Roth’s final residence in hands. I have also had a great respect for the talent that I have Manti, Utah, and at the Moon Equipment Company (the home of been given and have tried to exercise it with at the greatest Mooneyes auto parts) in Santa Fe Springs, California. discernment possible. The finished machine has never turned me Ed penciled the cover art for Junkyard, a record album by the on as much as the process of getting it together. I love grinders, Australian post-punk band the Birthday Party, released in 1982 by lathes, drill presses, and the unlimited things that are possible to Missing Link Records. The art was finished by Dave Christensen. do with them. The limit is our minds.” In January 1986, Roth contributed a Santa Rat Fink cover to Fink—er, think that over, parents of America! The Rocket magazine. The image was taken from a T-shirt Roth For 48 years (and counting), SCOTT SHAW! has sent to the publishers, who combined drawings on the front and written and drawn underground comix, back of the shirt to create a Christmas-themed cover. mainstream comic books, comic strips, graphic In 1986, Ed Roth pitched the concept of an animated Rat Fink novels, TV cartoons, toys, advertising, and video cartoon TV series to Marvel Productions’ Stan Lee and Margaret games. He has worked on such characters as Loesch. Ed didn’t seem to appreciate or understand Hollywood’s Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew process of creative and financial development. There were no (which he co-created with Roy Thomas), Sonic further meetings. From 1987 to 1992, ten comic books starring Ed’s Rat Fink were the Hedgehog, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the Simpsons, the Futurama gang, the Muppet Babies, Garfield, the Garbage Pail Kids, published. and yes, even Annoying Orange. His career has garnered him four In 1993, a major exhibition was held at the Julie Rico Gallery Emmy Awards, an Eisner Award, and a Humanities Award. Scott is in Santa Monica shortly after the Laguna Museum show Kustom Kulture. It was at this time that the lowbrow art movement began also known for his “Oddball Comics Live!” visual presentation of “the to take on steam. Featured in the exhibition titled “Rat Fink Meets craziest comic books ever published” and for his regular participation in “Quick Draw!” with Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés. He was also Fred Flypogger Meets Cootchy Cooty” were Roth, Williams, and one of the teenagers who co-created what is currently known as Mouse! and their creations. The L.A. Times placed Roth’s Rat Fink Comic-Con International: San Diego, America’s biggest annual fan on the cover of the Culture section December 20, 1993, with an event. He can be reached at shawcartoons.com. article about the exhibition. 60

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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

A Fistful of Pasta The Italian Westerns of Sergio Leone

by Ernest Farino

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ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

Intermission. What—already? Not in-between features; this was back in 1968 when longer movies stopped in the middle for a break. And on one Saturday afternoon in 1968 at the Irving Theater in Irving, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), my friends Roger and Bill and I staggered out into the lobby after the first half of the movie. And we were speechless (and to those who know me, that’s really something). I wandered over to the water fountain and had a drink. That’s all I can remember. The movie was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And what we didn’t know—yet—was that, as stunned as we were by what we had just seen in the first half, the best was yet to come… Being primarily focused on monster movies and Ray Harryhausen and Toho’s Godzilla movies, we hadn’t paid much attention to “oaters” (as Variety called them) and had heard only vague rumors about these “Italian Westerns.” One of them, something with the word “Dollars” in the title, involved an old guy who was a coffin-maker, and… well, the information kind of dried up after that. Of course, the first two films in what later became known as “The Dollars Trilogy” were A Fistful of 62

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Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. And the man who made them was someone named Sergio Leone (pronounced Lee-O-nay, incidentally, not Lee-own). I soon learned more about Leone and his films. Prior to the Westerns, he had worked as an assistant director of some 50odd films, including William Wyler’s 1959 epic Ben-Hur, for which Leone was one of the assistant directors on the famous chariot race sequence. His first feature as a director was The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seemingly endless stream of “sword and sandal” epics of the early Sixties. That film demonstrated little of what would become Leone’s distinctive visual style, but was clearly a great opportunity (even though the film itself is rather dull). And then Leone convinced producer Alberto Grimaldi to back a Western, and in making A Fistful of Dollars, Leone reinvented an entire genre. He cast a tall, good-looking novice actor named Clint Eastwood after having seen him on the American TV series Rawhide. Leone later remarked that it was more about Eastwood’s presence than anything—he “moved like a cat”—which fit right into Leone’s concept of the laconic loner, a cowboy anti-hero who

(TOP) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly graphic. Images of (LEFT TO RIGHT) Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach taken from the main title of the movie itself. (LEFT) The U.S. three-sheet poster for A Fistful of Dollars. Since United Artists bought the first two films together, they knew what was coming, so they came up with the slogan “It’s the first motion picture of its kind. It won’t be the last!” (ABOVE) Sergio Leone directing Clint Eastwood and Margarita Lozano (as Consuelo Baxter) in a scene from A Fistful of Dollars (1964). © United Artists.

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

U.S. three-sheet poster of For a Few Dollars More. Continuing its advertising strategy, United Artists warns us that “The Man With No Name is Back!” In the original films, the Clint Eastwood character actually had several names: in A Fistful of Dollars it was “Joe,” in For a Few Dollars More, “Manco,” and in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, “Blondie.” Since restored for DVD, mention of the name “Manco” to Lee Van Cleef by a sheriff at the very end of a scene was physically trimmed from the original release prints in order to maintain the illusion of “The Man With No Name.” © United Artists. (RIGHT) In the studio during the filming of For a Few Dollars More, (LEFT TO RIGHT): Unidentified staffer, Sergio Leone, Lee Van Cleef, Clint Eastwood, unidentified woman.

spoke more clearly with his six-guns than with words. To that end, Eastwood himself trimmed a lot of dialog from the original, wordy script. Side note: It was United Artists’ publicity department that came up with the concept of “The Man With No Name.” They had picked up the first two films, based on the success of Fistful in Europe, and tooled their ad campaign to tease with “It’s the First Motion Picture of Its Kind… It Won’t Be the Last” and released the first two films eight or nine months apart. In the original versions, now restored on DVD, Eastwood’s character is named “Joe” in Fistful and “Manco” in For a Few Dollars More, but original prints often had visible splices and jumps where the names had been cut out in order to feed the “No Name” concept. Superb Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté played the villain in the first two films (though different characters). Volonté was reportedly not terribly enthused about the films, regarding them as common exploitation entertainment. He was more interested

Lee Van Cleef draws a bead on his bounty, “Guy Callaway,” in the opening sequence of For a Few Dollars More (1965). (RIGHT) Leone fine-tunes Van Cleef’s shooting stance for a scene in For a Few Dollars More. © United Artists.

in serious films and was very focused on projects with a political message. For a Few Dollars More also saw the first appearance of Lee Van Cleef as a “good guy” and rival bounty hunter to Eastwood’s “Manco.” Van Cleef had already appeared in many American films and TV episodes, often in Westerns. As one of Frank Miller’s (Ian MacDonald) gang, he has the distinction of being first on screen in Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952). Van Cleef was also sharpshooter Corporal Stone who fired the atomic isotope that killed Ray Harryhausen’s “Rhedosaurus” in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms in 1953 (when asked if he could handle the highpowered rifle, Van Cleef casually replies, “Pick my teeth with it…”). All excellent on-the-job training for one of the great stars of Italian Westerns in years to come (by the mid-Sixties Van Cleef’s career was on the wane and he had pretty much retired and was immersed in his hobby of oil painting when the call came from Leone and his career took off like never before). And then came The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, an epic Civil War-era adventure. This time Eastwood and Van Cleef (now playing bad guy “Angel Eyes”) are joined by Eli Wallach as the Mexican bandito “Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez” (“Known as the rat,” Eastwood smirks at one point). Wallach embraced the role with gusto, injecting much humor and nuance and creating a character that is most often first remembered by fans of these films. The “roots” of Tuco can be seen in previous Wallach performances such as “Calvera” in John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven (1960) RetroFan

August 2020

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

(also starring future Leone star Charles Bronson) and “Charlie Gant” in How the West Was Won (1962). In the early Seventies, in Dallas, a friend of mine, Mark, had a cousin whose family was friends with Lee Van Cleef. As it happened, Mark owned a real Colt .45 six-shooter with holster (collectively referred as a “rig”), strictly for target shooting and quick-draw practice. One day the cousin excitedly told Mark to come over to the house—Lee Van Cleef was visiting! “And bring your rig.” Van Cleef, perhaps travelling for a film, had his own rig with him, so they set up a quick-draw contest (checking each other’s guns first to make sure they weren’t loaded). Mark later told me that he never once got his gun even out of the holster before Van Cleef had “fired.” Mark complimented him as the fastest quick-draw he’d ever seen, but Van Cleef just shook his head. “Clint is the fastest. There are no camera tricks or fancy editing in these films—nobody is faster on the draw than Clint Eastwood.” One of the photos Ernest Farino selected from Leone’s book of contact sheets: With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone felt Tonino Delli Colli films Eli Wallach and Mario Brega (as “Wallace”) as they he had done what he came to do with regard to leap from the train. Westerns and wanted to move on to other things. Paramount Pictures agreed to finance his next project, but with one stipulation: it had to be a Western. So Leone in the grave of “Arch Stanton,” and the haunting “Jill’s America” rolled up his sleeves and, collaborating on the screenplay with in Once Upon a Time in the West. Both selections were performed notables like Bernardo Bertolucci (famous in years to come as by Edda Dell’Orso, a soprano with a three-octave range who director of important films such as The Conformist, 1900, Last Tango reportedly could take one look over the score and, in a very in Paris, and The Last Emperor) and horror-maestro Dario Argento job-like matter-of-fact fashion, perform the music in one take. (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o’ Nine Tails, and Suspiria), “Jill’s America” captures both the longing for the “Old West” and Leone fashioned one of the true epic masterpieces of modern a heartfelt optimism for a fresh future, and in this regard, has cinema: Once Upon a Time in the West (1969). since been played at many weddings. A wonderful modern (but Leone also collaborated again with music composer Ennio faithful) version of the theme was performed by German-born Morricone, who had himself used the Westerns as a springboard Slovak operatic soprano Patricia Janečková in the Miss Reneta to creating a whole new “sound,” often involving sound effects student competition, Czech Republic, March 30, 2012 (available on and choral accompaniment. Their collaboration was so thorough YouTube). that Morricone would compose and record several themes from Another important element to these films is the which Leone could choose, and then this temp music was played cinematography. Massimo Dellamano shot A Fistful of Dollars on the set during the filming of key sequences. and For a Few Dollars More and Tonino Delli Colli shot The Good, the Morricone’s music is also famous for its wordless female Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. Both infused vocals, notably the rousing “Ecstasy of Gold” that pushes Tuco the films with a sense of style and a mastery of widescreen along as he races through the immense graveyard at the finale composition, although I feel that the photography of For a Few of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly searching for the treasure buried Dollars More is the most refined and polished. I worked with renowned cinematographer Vittorio Storaro on the SyFy miniseries Frank Herbert’s Dune in 2000 and asked Vittorio about Tonino Delli Colli as I had heard they were friends. The one thing that stood out for Vittorio about Tonino had nothing to do with photography; rather, apparently Tonino Delli Colli was someone who was obsessed with figuring (legal) ways to get a better break on his taxes… For Once Upon a Time in the West Leone was able to recruit a roster of major stars: Claudia Cardinale, Can’t we all just get along…? Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef between scenes at the “Sad Hill Cemetery” location in Spain.

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August 2020

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

Says Ernest Farino: “In 1970, Clint Eastwood came to Dallas to promote Two Mules for Sister Sara. In an unlikely sequence of events, I was able to get up into the loft of the Majestic Theater downtown where Eastwood was ‘judging’ a miniskirt contest (as the song goes, ‘those were the days, my friend’). Equipped with my Super-8 camera on a tripod, I elbowed my way through the crowd on the street and bluffed my way upstairs as a member of the ‘Press’ (a pioneer of ‘fake news’ even back then). I had the foresight to grab this color still as I left for the event and Eastwood looked very amused when I presented it to him to sign. (I have no idea who won the miniskirt contest.)” (INSET) “For Three Men the Civil War Wasn’t Hell. It Was Practice!” The U.S. poster for The Good the Bad and the Ugly. © United Artists.

Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Gabrielle Ferzetti, Lionel Stander, Jack Elam, Frank Wolff, and Keenan Wynn. Like many, I was quite smitten with Claudia Cardinale. She appears as the first major female character in any of Leone’s films and Leone once said, “You can see that the whole film moves around her. If you take her out, there’s no more film. She’s the central motor of the entire happening.” Given her significance to the story, and my own unrequited crush, I brought this up when I interviewed Leone in his offices in 1971. But sometimes such “star-struck” impressions are brought down to earth by prosaic realities: I asked him, “Did you cast Claudia Cardinale because she was a talented, experienced actress, a world class beauty, a genuine movie star on the world stage?” Leone replied, “All of those things, certainly (“certo”), but also because she was an Italian national and, as such, we could get a tax break…” (These Italians and their taxes, I swear…) Henry Fonda was dubious. He couldn’t make heads or tails of the script so he called up his friend Eli Wallach since Wallach had just recently worked with Leone on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Wallach replied, “Forget the script. Just do it. You will have the best time you’ve ever had on any movie…”

So, Fonda took the job, and, since he was supposed to be the baddest villain in the history of the movies (a child-killer, no less), he had brown contact lenses made to cover his baby-blues and grew a handlebar mustache. When he showed up in Italy Leone was aghast: “No, no, no!” he exclaimed. “I don’t want a cliché villain! I want the audience to be shocked to see that the baddest of all bad guys is Henry Fonda! ‘Tom Joad,’ ‘Young Mr. Lincoln.’” So, they changed everything back, and af ter Frank and his gang massacre the family and the camera cranes around to first see his face, I can personally attest to observing numerous audiences gasp as one: “My God! It’s Henry Fonda!” Trivia break: In the opening sequence at Cattle Corner station, Jack Elam, Woody Strode, and Al Mullock wait for Charles Bronson to arrive on the train, and a fly lands on Jack Elam’s face. He proceeds to while away the time by playing with the fly, finally trapping it in the barrel of his pistol. The fly was a total accident, which they then expanded on to create an amusing, extended piece of business. (The wife of a friend of mine doesn’t care for the film for its deliberate pace and every time it’s mentioned she says, “Is that one with the fly…?!” All things considered, the fly probably should have gotten billing…)

(LEFT) Henry Fonda as “Frank” (no last name) in Leone’s epic masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in the West. (CENTER) Charles Bronson as “Harmonica” (no other name) in Once Upon a Time in the West. (RIGHT) Italian actress (actually, born in Tunisia) Claudia Cardinale as “Jill McBain” in Once Upon a Time in the West. Academy Award®-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall photographed Claudia a few years earlier in the Richard Brooks Western The Professionals and described her as “A cameraman’s dream—a perfect [element] of nature—there is not much you can do wrong in photographing her.” All © Paramount Pictures.

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August 2020

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

And to finally put to rest the “Dollars” trilogy, Leone originally wanted the three guys waiting to ambush Bronson to be played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach, and then kill ’em off in the first ten minutes. Wallach was game, but Van Cleef was unavailable and Eastwood was simply not interested. So much for that idea. Bronson: Did you bring a horse for me…? Elam (snickering): Looks like… looks like we’re shy one horse… Bronson (shaking his head): You brought two too many… Blamm! Blamm! Blamm! During this time, I started making my own 8mm movies: a James Bond film (of course), an epic college class project based on Dante’s Inferno, and my own “Italian Western,” Duel for a Dollar. In addition to writing, directing, and editing, I also stepped in front of the camera to play the Lee Van Cleef-inspired villain. One day in the midst of many weekends of filming, my silver long-barreled Colt .45 (a plastic toy gun) actually melted in the Texas sun. For the rest of the scenes I could only have the gun holstered, as the pearl handle was the only thing that survived. In 1971 I attended the University of Dallas, primarily to take advantage of their exchange program. A Catholic university, UD had a campus in Rome and sophomores could elect to attend there for a semester. It was a great adventure—“The Eternal City” was not lost on me and I thoroughly explored the city, attended a public audience with Pope Paul VI inside the Vatican, visited Florence twice to see Michelangelo’s David and other art treasures, went on a school-sponsored ten-day tour of Greece (ending up in Athens, where I caught a screening of Run Men Run, Sartana’s in Town—an Italian Western dubbed into English with Greek subtitles), and on spring break I took the train to London to meet Ray Harryhausen at his home. I even learned a little Italian. I was determined to try and interview Leone for a book had in mind (though that has yet to come about), and on that premise I contacted his office. His secretary, Mrs. Marotta, was very pleasant and accommodating, and she said that while Leone would be unavailable for a while, she would try and schedule something and would let me know. I had become friends with an American nun, Sister Gilda, who was assigned to the convent where the University had set up its campus. Sr. Gilda was quite taken with all my talk of movies, and we enjoyed many interesting conversations. She also spoke fluent Italian, which helped in many ways. Some time later I was surprised by a telephone call from Mrs. Marotta. She said that the interview with Leone

This is James Coburn in Duck, You Sucker. I was thrilled to meet Coburn when I was in Melbourne, Australia, as the Visual Effects Supervisor and 2nd Unit Director for the NBC miniseries Noah’s Ark starring Jon Voight. Coburn had a small cameo part and was there only for a few days, but we chatted for about 20 minutes on the set and he remembered working with Leone fondly. Regarding Leone’s penchant for shooting many takes from different master shot angles, he said that at one point during a tavern scene he and co-star Rod Steiger finally exclaimed, “Sergio! You got it! We’re done!” and they finally moved on to the next scene. Coburn’s handwriting here is a little shaky because at the time he was suffering from advanced arthritis. I was prepared to back off from the autograph, but he generously (and very genially) agreed. I left the photo in an envelope in his trailer, and I think his being able to sign it in private helped avoid embarrassment. I thanked him the next day as we passed each other on the set and he smiled that wonderful toothy grin and said, “My pleasure!”

would be delayed a bit longer as Leone’s new film Giu La Testa (in the U.S.: Duck, You Sucker, a.k.a. A Fistful of Dynamite) was set to premiere and that Leone was going to travel with it to premiere it in other cities. However, she added that there was going to be a special private preview screening that night and Leone had asked her to invite me! I was thrilled, and for the rest of the day the adrenaline never stopped flowing. The screening was at 9:30 and the location was on the exact opposite side of Rome! Sr. Gilda called a cab and told the cab driver about my 9:30 appointment and asked him to hurry. We arrived at 9:15 at a cost of 2000 lire (at that time, about $3.00). Upon entering the building, I immediately recognized the place as being a film studio with editing rooms and other facilities. I went up to a tall gentleman by the door, thinking he was the doorman. I awkwardly asked him where to go, and he took me to the stairs and told me the screening room was on the third floor down. Later I heard him being introduced to someone, and it turned out that he was Fulvio Morsella, producer of Leone’s last three films! And I thought he was the doorman... The room was a recording studio. At the back was a large white screen and two-thirds back from the screen was a huge mixing console. Microphone booms and other equipment lined the walls. About 30 chairs had been arranged in front of the The U.S. three-sheet poster for Once Upon a Time in the West with console but another 20 were art by famous Western artist Frank McCarthy. Among his many later added when it became movie posters, others from the Sixties with McCarthy artwork apparent that there was going include the classic James Bond films Thunderball and You Only Live Twice (both with Robert McGinnis). © Paramount Pictures. to be more of a crowd than expected.

RetroFan

August 2020

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

So, I went over and took a front-row seat, and no sooner did I sit down than in walked composer Ennio Morricone. He was dressed casually and was known by everyone and was having quite a good time. Soon there was a small commotion at the door—in walked Sergio Leone. He nodded greetings to everyone, shaking hands. Mr. Marotta decided to introduce him to everyone, and as I was sitting nearest to the front, they came up to me first. Not sure of how well Leone spoke English, I kept it simple. We shook hands and “Buon Giorno”–ed each other and he moved on. Leone was the center of my attention for the next few minutes, and before I knew it, somebody else was bringing Morricone around and the same thing occurred. The film soon started. Definitely “Sergio Leone,” yet not Leone. There is not, for example, the traditional climactic gundown scene, and the whole film is somewhat depressing. James Coburn plays the strong, laconic straight man whereas Rod Steiger is the livelier and comic “Tuco”- type of character. Regardless, I came away realizing I was one of the first 50 people in the world to see Sergio Leone’s new film. The day after the screening, Sr. Gilda and I headed down to Cinecittá film studios. She had been able to arrange a tour and we got in with no problem. On the wall of the general manager’s office, a large map of Cinecittá had thumbtacks indicating who was doing what and where: Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Franco Zeffirelli, and Sergio Leone all had studios, theaters, and other facilities reserved. I saw the deteriorating remains of “Verona” from Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, the under-construction Arch of Constantine for Fellini’s film, the now-vacant lot where they built the chariot stadium for Ben Hur, and the Western set, which is built in a curving “L,” one end being the old American West and the other end a Mexican town. About two weeks later, I got the call to come to Leone’s office for the interview. I arrived a little early and was asked to wait in Leone’s of fice. I noticed a large, finely crafted antique bookcase along one wall, extending floor to ceiling. It was completely full of books on the American Civil War. Leone arrived and was very gracious and forthcoming, and his producer (and brother-in-law), Fulvio Morsella, who spoke perfect English with no trace of an accent, was there to translate. Afterwards, Leone kindly signed

Innovative music composer (LEFT) Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone, c. 1972.

Wannabe Italian Western director Ernesto Farino (the name seems to fit somehow) on the Western street backlot at Cinecittá in 1972.

photos for me and on the spur of the moment pulled out another portrait of himself and signed that one to me as well. As he was leaving, Leone invited me to stay a little longer and go through his books of contact sheets to order any photos I might like. Not wanting to abuse the privilege, I only picked out a handful of behind-the-scenes shots from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West (several of which are seen in these pages of RetroFan). Once you’re a fan of these Westerns you’re in it for life, and I continue to enjoy them to this day. One of the best non-Leone Italian Westerns was The Big Gundown, directed by the “other Sergio,” Sergio Sollima, also starring Lee Van Cleef and with another terrific Morricone score. A drive-in theater on the far side of Fort Worth double-billed The Big Gundown and Once Upon a Time in the West. An hour’s drive from home? No problem… And speaking of drive-ins (talk about “once upon a time”), in the early Seventies a local drive-in booked Once Upon a Time in the West. I was working as an usher at an indoor theater that was part of the same chain, so I went to the booth to say hello to the projectionist and tell him to “give us a good show.” He said, “I hope you get to see it all.” What? He explained that on this first night of the run they had only received the first half of the movie and were frantically trying to locate the missing reels. So, my friends and I kept watching the “changeover dots” in the upperright corner of the frame at the end of each reel, exclaiming “Yesss!” in unison when we moved on to the next reel. After four or five reels we figured they had retrieved the rest of the print and we were good to the end. Whew! Talk about suspense… 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. RetroFan

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in the Good Ol’ U.S.A.

by Robert V. Conte In the fantastic genre of “movie monsters,” few iconic characters have reigned supreme at 65-years-young. Sure, Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and King Kong are considerably older, but few horrific characters can surpass the immense success of one of the most merchandised monsters in the world—GODZILLA! The King of the Monsters (KOTM) first appeared on screen in 1954’s Gojira in Japan (released two years later in the United States as an edited, repurposed version starring Raymond Burr). The fire-breathing, radioactive beast—reawakened from mankind’s nuclear testing to wreak havoc upon the world—would outperform other B-movie behemoths from the era. Films like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms quaked in comparison to the might of Godzilla’s box-office success worldwide. To date, 35 movies (including three animated features) have been made—the most films in motion-picture history to feature the same character!

There are two known variants of Ideal’s 1963 Godzilla Game. Some have play instructions printed on the inside box, while others include a separate printed sheet inside it. There is ongoing debate among collectors over which version was available first, but both are extremely hard-to-find in complete and good condition. © Toho Co., Ltd.

Godzilla is owned and licensed by Toho Company, Ltd. and, throughout the last six decades, thousands of toys, apparel, and other collectibles have been produced. Kaiju (meaning “Japanese monsters”) collectors are intimately familiar with the vast magnitude of products sold in Japan. To chronicle and discuss them at length would result in a book as mammoth as Godzilla himself! This article specifically focuses on Godzilla’s history in the United States, including the first official items in the early 68

RetroFan

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Sixties through the end of Toho’s arrangement with UPA in the mid-Nineties.

The Golden Age of Godzilla Licensing…

Godzilla did not have domestically licensed consumer products until 1963—nine years after the character’s debut. Arguably, there are two reasons: First, the original film was not intended to become a platform to sell tchotchkes to children; it was meant to be an allegory on the ravages of nuclear weapons (Japan suffered greatly from the real-life bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II). Second, the first sequel, 1955’s Godzilla Raids Again, was initially released in America as Gigantis, the Fire Monster in 1959. Its U.S. producers and distributor, Warner Bros., either was not permitted to—or elected not to—use the name “Godzilla,” instead opting for its own moniker. For over 25 years, Gigantis would be the least-known KOTM film until it appeared on cable television and released on home video in the Eighties. Ironically, the first-ever U.S. item featuring Godzilla— though not licensed from Toho—was a 1961 Horror Monsters trading card featuring a publicity still showing “Gigantis” and his first nemesis, “the Angurus Monster.” Godzilla’s first U.S. licensing agent was the Weston Merchandising Company, founded in 1960 by G.I. Joe co-creator Stanley Weston (1933–2017). Weston was a pioneer who saw the potential of teaming intellectual properties (IPs) owned by multiple companies, as he famously did in 1966 with Captain Action [see RetroFan #7], the super-hero action figure that could also change into myriad licensed characters (if only the Captain had a Godzilla outfit…!). He was encouraged to represent Godzilla after learning one of his key clients, Universal Pictures, would distribute 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla in the United States. Reportedly, Weston seized this opportunity under the condition he would also sell King Kong licenses on behalf of RKO Pictures. Godzilla’s first licensed product was a board game. Ideal Toys, one of the most iconic makers of family entertainment including Betsy Wetsy dolls, Mouse Trap, and Rubik’s Cube, produced the Godzilla Game in 1963. A companion to the company’s

Although Weston Merchandise Corp. had been instrumental in licensing Godzilla products domestically in the Sixties, it would eventually discontinue this role in favor of more lucrative opportunities. Reportedly, the last Weston-era official Godzilla item is a scarce bicycle license plate by Marx, circa 1967.

Calm Before the Storm…

The box art for the first issue of Aurora’s 1964 Godzilla model kit was illustrated by the legendary James Bama; its original plastic pieces were molded in the unusual color of fuchsia. Aurora re-released the model kit in 1972 with “glow-inthe-dark” parts (RIGHT); the body was now molded in green for model builders who did not wish to paint theirs. © Toho Co., Ltd.

simultaneously released King Kong Game (featuring the character’s original 1933 incarnation), this virtual tie-in utilized artwork based upon King Kong vs. Godzilla on the box and the playing board. The theatrical run of KOTM’s third movie—the first filmed in full-color and depicting both adversaries in a campy context—appealed to audiences of all ages and helped spark the next big product category: Monsters! With Toho and RKO’s separate blessings, Weston was able to co-package Godzilla and Kong—with the entire roster of Universal Monsters—for product licensing including Count Dracula, the Creature, and the Bride of Frankenstein. Aurora Plastics Company, widely known for its vast line of injectionmolded model kits, launched its “Monsters from the Movies” series introducing the first-ever Godzilla Model Kit in 1964. Loosely based on the design from King Kong vs. Godzilla, its sales soared when Godzilla vs. the Thing (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Mothra) hit movie theaters that same year. In 1969, Aurora reintroduced the kit with glowin-the-dark enhancements, and then rereleased it again in 1972. In 1966, a Godzilla Go-Cart model kit debuted as part of another Monster series. Unassembled, inside-the-box Go-Carts with original instructions are considered among the rarest American Godzilla collectibles today!

United Productions of America (better known as UPA) started as a movie-and-television animation studio known for its Academy Award®-winning cartoons featuring the Nearsighted Mister Magoo and Dr. Seuss’ Gerald McBoing Boing. Film producer Henry “Hank” G. Saperstein (1918–1998), who had previous experience licensing IPs (including Elvis Presley and the Lone Ranger), became the driving force that would eventually turn his company into a licensing juggernaut. His collaborations with Toho resulted in several of its Kaiju films becoming international successes including Monster Zero (1965/1970), Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965/1966), and War of the Gargantuas (1966/1970). [Editor’s note: Throughout this article, theatrical release dates are noted first by their debut date in Japan, followed by their U.S. openings where applicable.] To help increase worldwide appeal, these titles were released in the United States (sometimes years after their initial Japanese openings), with additional footage featuring American actors. As UPA’s relationship with Toho blossomed, Saperstein’s role excelled beyond co-producing and dubbing films for the studio. Soon he became Godzilla’s exclusive licensing agent in the Western hemisphere and, as the Seventies began, campaigned for an unprecedented explosion of KOTM success! After the theatrical release of Monster Zero (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) in 1970, Saperstein moved away from coproducing films for Toho. He focused upon the growing market of syndicated television. Before the days of home video and streaming services, one could only get a monster-movie fix by being in front of a TV on the designated day and time a program would air. Watching Godzilla films were special events not to be taken lightly! Saperstein increased Godzilla’s exposure in American homes by strategically airing films in multiple time slots on television. From the mid-Seventies through early Eighties, Godzilla led the pack of giant movie monsters over the airwaves, helping build a devout fanbase for Godzilla and company!

All-Out Attack!

Saperstein’s efforts to keep Godzilla in Americans’ public consciousness would also be realized by theatrical releases of films that had been only released in Japan. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973/1976), Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster, a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974/1977), and Godzilla on Monster Island, a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972/1977), were edited to be granted A Sixties publicity photo of the late Henry G. Saperstein, owner of UPA animation studios and Godzilla’s North American licensing agent for Toho Co., Ltd. Courtesy of Robert V. Conte.

RetroFan

August 2020

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Godzilla Stomps Everywhere!

Not to be undone by the record-setting licensing campaign of the 1976 King Kong remake, Saperstein was determined to surpass the success of Godzilla’s former cinema adversary. With the character’s strong presence at toy-and-licensing events, combined with trade ads teaming KOTM with Mr. Magoo, Saperstein aggressively secured various merchandising deals including: AURORA PLASTICS CO. – Shortly after the 10th anniversary of the consistently selling Godzilla Model Kit, the hobby company licensed two new additional monsters: Ghidrah, the ThreeHeaded Monster and Rodan. As Saperstein’s arrangement with Toho was specific to KOTM, he had to obtain the studio’s additional approval. Both kits were discontinued after the company was sold to Monogram in 1977. Fortunately, Godzilla’s glow-in-the-dark kit was reissued again, this time with a photograph on the box showing the completed model! BEN COOPER, INC. – As King Kong remained a consistent seller over decades, the iconic Halloween-themed company [see RetroFan #2] produced a Godzilla costume in 1978. The first release was sold in its own branded box featuring art from Marvel Comics’ Godzilla #8. It was later repackaged for inclusion in Cooper’s “Monster,” “Famous Faces,” and “Play Suit” lines (the latter allowed repackaged overstock to sell all year round). Although Godzilla’s mask remained the same, the vinyl smock’s chest area has two known variants—the first a yellow background and the second green so the outfit appeared more authentic. In 1980, Ben Cooper slightly modified its 1974 PreHistoric Dinosaur “Jiggler” (a rubber figure with small 70

RetroFan

August 2020

YOU KNOW THE NAME OF KING KONG…

“G” ratings from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). This move helped propel KOTM’s popularity to an all-time high—Godzilla was now a “good” movie monster that protected mankind! One of Saperstein’s biggest achievements took place in March 1977. As Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster ran in theaters, he scored a primetime spot on NBC-TV where Godzilla vs. Megalon aired for the first time. It was hosted by famed Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi, who wore an actual Godzilla costume throughout its presentation! Screen capture of NBC-TV’s 1977 airing of Godzilla vs. The gamble of taking Megalon—featuring SNL’s Godzilla into a family-friendly John Belushi in the KOTM direction paid off: multiplied suit! © Toho Co., Ltd./NBC. ticket sales at the box office and countless letters written by fans of all ages to TV stations demanded more Godzilla!

1933’s original King Kong inspired Godzilla’s creation some 20 years later. But how did the 1976 King Kong remake influence the wave of KOTM merchandising from the mid- to late Seventies? I often conversed with Henry G. Saperstein about all things Godzilla. Affectionately known as “Hank” by those who knew him (as I did while editing stories for Dark Horse Comics in the Nineties), we once discussed the Paramount Kong picture starring Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange: “Paramount [Studios] did some job in marketing their new movie long before it hit the screens,” Hank remarked to me. “I had been at some [film] industry event and saw a seven-foot standee of the new Kong atop the Twin Towers in New York City. His feet spread across both of them! The art was refined by the time it hit the public, but what had already been done was enough for companies to sign deals and open their checkbooks.” Hank was right. When King Kong was released at the end of 1976, a plethora of merchandise supported it including posters, drinking glasses and cups, Colorforms, puzzles, board games, View-Master reels, model kits, bop bags, peanut-butter cups, records, and trading cards. The new Kong definitely had an incredible impact on children like the then-six-year-old me! “The new Kong motivated me,” Hank continued. “The domestic distributor for Godzilla vs. Megalon and I wanted to make the most of the competition. We had an artist render Godzilla on one of the Twin Towers and Megalon on the other. Then we rushed it out and booked the film in theaters months before the remake [of Kong] hit. Paramount was angry, and Dino [DeLaurentis, King Kong producer] didn’t like what we did too much, either. And, of course, the actual movie had no such scene! [laughs] That’s real marketing, kid!”

(FAR LEFT) How many of you RetroFans went trick-or-treating as the King of Monsters? Ben Cooper, Inc.’s Godzilla costume and mask set was packaged in no less than four configurations from the company’s branded boxes. The actual costume has two known variants. (LEFT) Blue Öyster Cult’s single, “Godzilla.” © Toho Co.,

Ltd./Columbia Records.

RETRO TOYS

giant 100-piece puzzle were produced, all illustrated by fantasy artist Earl Norem. Norem, known for painting the cover (over a Jack Kirby sketch) for Marvel Comics’ first-ever original graphic novel, The Silver Surfer, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as well as for painted covers of various Marvel-produced black-and-white magazines of the Seventies, modeled his KOTM after Trimpe’s design. Monster on view! Among View-Master’s Godzilla products: a three-reel packet, Godzilla’s incluTitles include “Air Attack,” sion in the “Monster Gift Pak” set (side view of cannister), and V-M’s Show Beam projector. © Toho Co., Ltd. View-Master © Fisher-Price. “City Rampage,” and “Harbor Havoc.” In 1979, the company strap designed to dangle from automobile rear-view mirrors and released its Godzilla Battles the Tricephalon Monster Play Set. high surfaces) by removing a horn atop its head. Add some green This amazing item—pitting Godzilla against an adversary paint on the creature’s back fins and, voilà, Godzilla! (No, not resembling a “Mecha-ghidrah”—was ahead of its time. really!) Inadequate marketing and promotion led to its untimely demise CBS/COLUMBIA RECORDS – KOTM served as inspiration as it was overshadowed by Mattel’s Godzilla toys. The direct for his very own song! Known for memorable tracks “Don’t Fear competitor advertised its products heavily in mass print and the Reaper” and “Running for You,” hard rockers Blue Öyster on television, while HG Toys relied upon orders from its trade Cult recorded “Godzilla” for their 1977 album Spectres. Their label catalogs and consumers seeing its products in stores. As a issued a single for radio airplay, in seven-inch and 12-inch formats, result, unsold units were returned and destroyed. Many Godzilla with studio and live versions of the song. It features a picture collectors did not know this item actually existed until years later, sleeve featuring a promotional still from Godzilla vs. the Sea resulting in its high collectability today! Monster! KEN FILMS – Before Betamax video recorders and players GAF VIEW-MASTER – The 21-scene, three-reel packet were commercially available, many “Godzilla’s Rampage” was produced for the popular line of 3D American homes relied on film standard and Talking View-Master viewers in 1978. The Pictorial projectors. Scenes from Destroy Products company included a black-and-white activity booklet. All Monsters, Godzilla vs. the Thing, Although in-house artist Pete Dorsett was credited for the Ghidrah, and other Toho monsters illustrations, the fact is all depictions of Godzilla were actually were available via mail order and traced from Herb Trimpe’s artwork printed in the first two issues camera shops. Although these Super of the Marvel Comics Godzilla series! 8mm reels lasted only a few minutes, Joined by Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and Wolf Man, an watching Godzilla and gang at your edited version of the Godzilla story was included inside a sevenleisure was an appealing alternative to reel “Monster” expanded set, and again as a “Monster Gift Pak” missing them on TV. including a standard 3D viewer inside a branded canister! MARVEL COMICS – It was 1976 and, as Godzilla’s 20th In 1979, GAF released a Godzilla/Mr. Magoo cassette anniversary in the U.S. approached, Saperstein envisioned new compatible with its Double-Vue film viewer featuring clips from ways to increase profitability of Toho’s number-one monster— the Hanna-Barbera animated Godzilla show. Lastly, a “Godzillaincluding new adventures taking place in America instead of Godzooky” cartridge from the same program appeared in 1980 Japan! U.S. television and film studios balked at the idea; the (repackaged in 1982) for its Show Beam Projector. budget for 1976’s King Kong was considered astronomical and GLJ TOY COMPANY, LTD. – This Long Island-based company, the film did not meet financial expectations. Toho was unlikely granted a patent for Inflatable Action Toys, dabbled in IP licensing to support losing control over its IP, as well. Yet, four-color and utilized its technology to release the first-ever Godzilla Bop adventures of KOTM could be done inexpensively and quickly. Bag in 1978. Other products that year include the Godzilla Ball Enter Marvel Comics Group! A story was developed where Target Game and Godzilla Toy Wrist Watch. In the collector’s Godzilla, at first trapped in an iceberg that floated from Japan to world, GLJ’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters Bendy Figure remains Alaska, rampaged through the nation while battling super-heroes among the most collectible items today. including Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Mighty Thor along the HG TOYS – After lackluster sales of American Publishing’s way! Godzilla, King of the Creatures Puzzle in 1977 (reportedly, the From 1977–1979, 24 monthly issues of Godzilla, King of the image based on the original 1954 film was considered “too Monsters comic books were published. All but two issues were gruesome” for children), a new license for this category was penciled by Herb Trimpe (1939–2015), whom Saperstein approved granted to HG Toys. In 1978, three 150-piece puzzles and one as artist after seeing his stunning work on Marvel’s The Incredible RetroFan

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RETRO TOYS

WONDERLAND RECORDS – In 1977 one would find this item in the “Children’s Records” section at their local record store. Featuring Trimpe’s art from Marvel Comics’ Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1, the album includes two 15-minute stories: “Godzilla vs. the Alien Invasion” on Side A and “Godzilla vs. Co., Ltd./Marvel. Amphibion” on Side B. The disc plays like a radio drama and feels like a prelude to the Hanna-Barbera animated series that would debut the following year. Interestingly, Godzilla’s roar throughout the recording is the menacing original from the first 1954/1956 film, not the kid-friendly version of the time. Many consider American Godzilla product licensing of the Seventies to be the most inconsistent era of the character’s history, as Saperstein’s goal to make KOTM family friendly ultimately diluted the brand. (FAR LEFT) Before Godzilla vs. Megalon was released in America, giveaway four-page comics were provided to participating theaters promoting the film. These comics predate Marvel’s Godzilla comic series. (LEFT) Marvel’s Godzilla #1 (Aug. 1977). Cover art by Herb Trimpe. (INSET) Trimpe’s corner box art from the Marvel series was used by Toho in the Nineties on the “Stomp of Approval” for virtually every authorized Godzilla product. © Toho

Hulk! [Editor’s note: To discover more about Marvel’s Godzilla, see Back Issue #6 and 116, available via twomorrows.com.] MATTEL – The toy company that brought us Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Masters of the Universe, impressed by Saperstein’s stateside success with Godzilla, wanted to join Toho’s team of licensees. Considered by many to be the crème-de-la-crème of KOTM collecting, its 1978 Shogun Warriors Godzilla skyrocketed in sales and lifted popularity of the entire Shogun Warriors line. Collectors are known to spend precious time and money seeking specific variants of this figure. Some argue that the earliest known models, made in Japan for Mattel via Bandai, are the most desired. Others claim the later U.S.-made versions are preferred due to improved sculpting of Godzilla’s tail, shooting claw, and fire-breath lever! Other Mattel/Toho toys released include the 1978 Godzilla Game (not a reissue of the Ideal game—its original, all-plastic design features a “pop-up” Godzilla with “roaring sound”); the Godzilla’s Gang eight-figure series (that bizarrely includes Japanese monster characters outside of KOTM’s Monsterverse), and perhaps the scarcest Mattel/Toho toy of all—1979’s Rodan.

Return of the Original Titan of Terror…!

The advent of home video changed the entertainment industry forever. Saperstein realized selling uncut, commercial-free Godzilla films would be a powerful way to reintroduce the brand. He owned the rights to the original U.S. releases of Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Rodan (1956/1957). Granting a license to Vestron Video, both films were simultaneously released in all available formats (Beta, VHS, CED, and Laserdisc) in mid-1983. Backed by a huge advertising campaign including oversized doublesided posters and standees, sales topped Saperstein’s wildest imagination. Throughout the Eighties, many Godzilla films made through 1975 were released for home use.

You wanna piece of me? The HG Toys line of Godzilla Puzzles, illustrated by Earl Norem, are simply fantastic. The company’s Godzilla vs. the Tricephalon Play Set is, perhaps, the ultimate find for KOTM collectors. © Toho Co., Ltd.

RetroFan

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RETRO TOYS

Once Toho announced plans to remake the original Godzilla for a new generation, Saperstein believed he could re-invigorate the property to its former glory. Working with New World Pictures, rights were secured to bring The Return of Godzilla to U.S. audiences. With Raymond Burr returning as reporter Steve Martin, the film was marketed as Godzilla 1985—a direct sequel to the 1956 original! Imperial Toys, LLC was granted a “Master License” for the holiday season including a 48-inch Godzilla Bop Bag (with new commissioned art, reissued in 1992); a 6-foot Inflatable Godzilla, Bubble-Blowing Godzilla, Spark-E-Godzilla, Godzilla Action Stickers, and three sizes of its Articulated Godzilla PVC Figure. Other licensed products sold throughout the decade include a Godzilla Poster featuring an original illustration from Banning Entertainment; Godzilla Heads and Shreds Bubble Gum from Amurol; several black-and-white comics and two portfolios published by Dark Horse Comics; and a Petster Godzilla from Axlon. Petsters were a short-lived line of battery-operated, electronic plush figures that responded to clapping sounds. Godzilla was licensed to increase popularity and sales of the company’s entire line of robotic, furry animals. It did not work. Surprisingly, there are two variants—the second looking cuter and having brighter colors than the first. Perhaps the coolest KOTM item of this decade was 1989’s Godzilla, Monster of Monsters video game made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Although Epyx Games had released its computer game Movie Monsters featuring Godzilla for Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1986, the NES cartridge was the first time Toho permitted the use of Hedorah, Mechagodzilla, Gigan, King Ghidorah (formerly “Ghidrah”), and other Monsterverse characters in a domestic consumer product.

UPA’s Last Licensing Onslaught!

By the early Nineties, Godzilla’s heyday seemed over in the US. Godzilla 1985 was a commercial and critical failure, still remembered today for its overuse of product placement by sponsor Dr. Pepper and Raymond Burr’s stiff performance. Its sequel, Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), was not released theatrically in America; its distributor Miramax dropped out prompting a lawsuit filed by Toho that was eventually resolved.

SATURDAY MORNING GODZILLA Saperstein’s passion developing original Godzilla content for the North American market led to an agreement with Hanna-Barbera Productions for an animated cartoon. With Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey [see RetroFan #7] on board as producer, 26 episodes aired on NBC-TV from 1978–1981, sometimes packaged with other H-B characters including Quest, Hong Kong Phooey, and the Super [Harlem] Globetrotters! This series took inexplicable liberties including Godzilla’s newfound ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes, the inclusion of “nephew” Godzooky, and actor Jack Cassidy (Lurch from TV’s original Addams Family) “voicing” Godzilla. Merchandising of the cartoon series yielded few products: Godzilla Puffy Magnets, Stickers, and Key Chains featuring the entire cast from the show bombed at supermarkets and toy stores; Cinnamon House published several Godzilla Activity Books; and Knickerbocker Toys released bean dolls of Godzilla and Godzooky—now desired items among collectors. © Toho Co., Ltd./Hanna-Barbera.

Saperstein’s tie-in with White Castle for its Godzilla Monster Meal almost fell through. Fortunately, the fast-food chain made lemonade from lemons, completing its “Godzilla Devours White Castle” campaign distributing several KOTM premiums including Frisbees and drinking cups throughout the country. Promising licensees such as Dark Horse Comics continued to build a strong product line. The publisher released a Godzilla Color

From Mattel: Godzilla, from its Shogun Warriors series licensed from Japan, is the emerald gem of KOTM collecting. The Godzilla’s Gang figures are highly collectible because of Godzilla being teamed with characters from the Japanese TV show, Ultraman. 1978’s Godzilla Game pitted players as astronauts trying to land their spaceships on a platform before Godzilla catches them! © Toho Co., Ltd., except Godzilla’s Gang © Toho and Tsuburaya.

RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO TOYS

TRENDMASTERS – This “Master License” became a homerun hit due to the company having rights to use other Toho characters including Mothra, Rodan, Ghidorah, King-Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla. All-new lines of Godzilla Action Figures (available in four-inch, six-inch, and ten-inch sizes), Hatching Monsters, and Godzilla Bendies came with exclusive trading cards or mini comic books. Under its “King of the Monsters,” “Final Wars,” and scarce “Doom Island” series, Trendmasters produced over 100 different configurations of Godzilla-related products. After proving once more that Godzilla could defeat any challenge, Saperstein had one last dream to come true. Acting as a negotiator on Toho’s behalf, he worked out a multimillion-dollar deal for Columbia Tristar Pictures to produce and release an allnew Godzilla movie in Hollywood! Sadly, Saperstein died less than a month after the release of 1998’s Godzilla. In 1999, new Godzilla licensing agent Sony Signatures, Inc., gave classic KOTM new breath under its “Godzilla Origins” program and issued several of the domestically unreleased Godzilla films from the Nineties on home video. One thing was certain: Godzilla would not die!

Among the Godzilla merchandise of the Big Eighties: an action figure, bubble gum, a sparking figurine, and a video game. © Toho Co., Ltd.

Special written and drawn by Arthur Adams, an all-new, 17-issue Godzilla series, and various short stories and specials including a Godzilla vs. Barkley comic as a tie-in to a national promotion crossing KOTM with the superstar basketball player. While Toho moved forward to rebuild its star IP by producing several more films and licensing new products in Japan, the American market was in decline. With exception of Godzilla 2000, another ten KOTM films produced by Toho would not reach American theaters. Undeterred throughout his vast career, Saperstein’s drive to rebuild the IP he nurtured for over two decades remained stronger than ever. His agreement with Toho was revised; he would now act as the studio’s licensing consultant for the North American territory. Under this arrangement, all-new Godzilla licensees had to follow a strict style guide for product packaging. Some items produced during this time include: CRAFT HOUSE – Godzilla Crayon-By-Number Coloring Kits, Magic Rocks, and Super-Detailed-Snap Model Kits (1995) COLLEGEVILLE COSTUMES – Godzilla Character Mask (1994) JPP/AMADA – Godzilla Chromium Trading Card Set (1996) SIMITAR ENTERTAINMENT – Remastered and redesigned versions of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla’s Revenge, and Terror of Mechagodzilla for the first time on DVD and, for some titles, the last time released on VHS.

We Can’t Stop the Fire…

In the 2000s, Toho would open its own domestic office on the U.S. West Coast and start a new line of licensing with dozens of companies including Classic Media, Bandai USA, Diamond Comic Distribution, and NECA. Soon after, an agreement was reached with Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. for another incarnation of Godzilla. What Hank Saperstein always wanted— to produce top-notch KOTM films in America using Toho’s entire Monsterverse—did indeed happen with 2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Toho retains its IP to produce films in Japan, as well. 2016’s Shin Godzilla is considered one of the best films in the saga. With the forthcoming release of Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla vs. Kong (tentative title) later in 2020, hundreds of new products featuring both characters are under development for release this holiday season. Whether or not the mighty Kong may defeat Godzilla in this long-anticipated rematch, the lord of Skull Island is unlikely to ever beat the King’s place on the throne as a licensing phenomenon!

GODZILLA MERCH M.I.A.

` Godzilla AM Radio (Concept 2000, 1980) (ABOVE) ` Godzilla Gazette Fan Club Newsletters (Banning Entertainment, 1985) ` Sparking Mechagodzilla (Imperial Toys, 1985) ` Godzilla vs. KISS Graphic Novel (Dark Horse Comics, 1995)

RetroFan

August 2020

Eddie Day.

Sometimes, consumer products are licensed, developed, and solicited but ultimately do not reach the marketplace due to lack of retailer interest, low pre-sales, company insolvency, and creative impasses between the licensor and licensee. Anticipated Godzilla items that never came to market include:

Special thanks to fellow Kaiju expert Sean Lickenback for his feedback and photography (www.showcasedaikaiju.com); Brian Heiler and his awesome archive of Seventies memorabilia (www.plaidstallions. com); Henry G. Saperstein for being an important mentor to me; and my mother, Joan Walker Conte (1943–2019), who encouraged me to love monster movies as much as she did. ROBERT V. CONTE is a pop culture historian whose multiple contributions to Godzilla canon include comic books and graphic novels published by Dark Horse Comics, a tradingcard set from Comic Images, and limitededition lithographs through his company, Studio Chikara. Robert also co-hosted two Godzilla shows on Home Shopping Network (HSN), produced an unreleased documentary short about the original film, and is currently planning an auction of his entire Kaiju collection. Visit www.studiochikara.com for details!

ALTER EGO #165

ALTER EGO #166

ALTER EGO #167

WILL MURRAY showcases original Marvel publisher (from 1939-1971) MARTIN GOODMAN, with artifacts by LEE, KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, MANEELY, BUSCEMA, EVERETT, BURGOS, GUSTAVSON, SCHOMBURG, COLAN, ADAMS, STERANKO, and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt with more on PETE MORISI, JOHN BROOME, and a cover by DREW FRIEDMAN!

FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA) Special, with spotlights on KURT SCHAFFENBERGER (Captain Marvel, Ibis the Invincible, Marvel Family, Lois Lane), and ALEX ROSS on his awesome painting of the super-heroes influenced by the original Captain Marvel! Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” on Superman editor MORT WEISINGER, JOHN BROOME, and more! Cover by SCHAFFENBERGER!

Salute to Golden & Silver Age artist SYD SHORES as he’s remembered by daughter NANCY SHORES KARLEBACH, fellow artist ALLEN BELLMAN, DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO, and interviewer RICHARD ARNDT. Plus: mid-1940s “Green Turtle” artist/creator CHU HING profiled by ALEX JAY, JOHN BROOME, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster on MORT WEISINGER Part Two, and more!

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WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

BACK ISSUE #121

BACK ISSUE #122

KIRBY COLLECTOR #78

SILVER ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! How Kirby kickstarted the Silver Age and revamped Golden Age characters for the 1960s, the Silver Surfer’s influence, pivotal decisions (good and bad) Jack made throughout his comics career, Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER and our regular columnists, a classic 1950s story, KIRBY/STEVE RUDE cover (and deluxe silver sleeve) and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (DELUXE EDITION w/ silver sleeve) $12.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

BACK ISSUE #123

KIRBY COLLECTOR #79

See “THE BIG PICTURE” of how Kirby fits into the grand scheme of things! His creations’ lasting legacy, how his work fights illiteracy, a RARE KIRBY INTERVIEW, inconsistencies in his 1960s MARVEL WORK, editorial changes in his comics, big concepts in OMAC, best DOUBLE-PAGE SPREADS, MARK EVANIER’s 2019 Kirby Tribute Panel, PENCIL ART GALLERY, and a new cover based on OMAC #1! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Fall 2020

BACK ISSUE #124

Celebrate our 25th anniversary with this retrospective by publisher JOHN MORROW and Comic Book Creator magazine’s JON B. COOKE! Go behind-the-scenes with MICHAEL EURY, ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY, and a host of other TwoMorrows contributors! Introduction by MARK EVANIER, Foreword by ALEX ROSS, Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ, and a new cover by TOM McWEENEY!

CONAN AND THE BARBARIANS! Celebrating the 50th anniversary of ROY THOMAS and BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH’s Conan #1! The Bronze Age Barbarian Boom, Top 50 Marvel Conan stories, Marvel’s Not-Quite Conans (from Kull to Skull), Arak–Son of Thunder, Warlord action figures, GRAY MORROW’s Edge of Chaos, and Conan the Barbarian at Dark Horse Comics. With an unused WINDSOR-SMITH Conan #9 cover.

Celebrates the 40TH ANNIVERSARY of MARV WOLFMAN and GEORGE PÉREZ’s New Teen Titans, featuring a guest editorial by WOLFMAN and a PÉREZ tribute and art gallery! Plus: The New Teen Titans’ 40 GREATEST MOMENTS, the Titans in the media, hero histories of RAVEN, STARFIRE, and the PROTECTOR, and more! With a NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED PÉREZ TITANS COVER from 1981!

SUPERHERO ROMANCE ISSUE! Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark’s many loves, Star Sapphire history, Bronze Age weddings, DeFALCO/ STERN Johnny Storm/Alicia Pro2Pro interview, Elongated Man and Wife, May-December romances, Supergirl’s Secret Marriage, and… Aunt May and Doc Ock?? Featuring MIKE W. BARR, CARY BATES, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB LAYTON, DENNY O’NEIL, and many more! Cover by DAVE GIBBONS.

HORRIFIC HEROES! With Bronze Age histories of Man-Thing, the Demon, and the Creeper, Atlas/Seaboard’s horrifying heroes, and Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) rides again! Featuring the work of CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, ERNIE COLON, MICHAEL GOLDEN, JACK KIRBY, MIKE PLOOG, JAVIER SALTARES, MARK TEXIERA, and more. Man-Thing cover by RUDY NEBRES.

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #23

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BRICKJOURNAL #63

BRICKJOURNAL #64

WENDY PINI discusses her days as Red Sonja cosplayer, and 40+ years of ELFQUEST! Plus RICHARD PINI on their 48-year marriage and creative partnership! SCOTT SHAW! talks about early San Diego Comic-Cons and friendship with JACK KIRBY, Captain Carrot, and Flintstones work! GIL KANE’s business partner LARRY KOSTER about their adventures together! PABLO MARCOS on his Marvel horror work, HEMBECK, and more!

TIMOTHY TRUMAN discusses his start at the Kubert School, Grimjack with writer JOHN OSTRANDER, and current collaborations with son Benjamin. SCOTT SHAW! talks about early San Diego Comic-Cons and friendship with JACK KIRBY, Captain Carrot, and Flintstones work! Also PATRICK McDONNELL’s favorite MUTTS comic book pastiches, letterer JANICE CHIANG profiled, HEMBECK, and more! TIM TRUMAN cover.

UNDERSEA LEGO building! RYAN VAN DUZOR’s Coral Reef, the many creations of COLIN HEMMEN’s Brickiverse, plus a look at JOHN KLAPHEKE’s scenes from the Indiana Jones movies! Also: “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

Classic LEGO® themes re-imagined! PIET NIEDERHAUSEN’s creations based on the Classic Yellow Castle, CHRIS GIDDENS (originator of Neo-Classic Space theme), and tour the Masterpiece Gallery at Denmark’s LEGO House! Plus: “Bricks in the Middle” by HINKLE and KAY, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

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RETRO TRAVEL W. S. Stuckey’s original building was a simple roadside stand, but by the time of this color postcard, it had been replaced by a much larger complex on U.S. 341, on the outskirts of Eastman, Georgia. © Stuckey’s Corporation.

by Tim Hollis

If you grew up going on long family road trips during the Fifties, Sixties, or Seventies, most likely you remember pulling over at one of the more than 300 Stuckey’s stores that lined the major highways. Now, that is not to imply that those three decades were the beginning and the end, or that Stuckey’s is no longer around—on the contrary, those yummy treats and kitschy souvenirs can still be found. But those were the years when the chain was at its peak, and had its market practically all to itself. Oh, there were imitators, but even most of those had their roots in Stuckey’s own corporate structure. Especially in the days when the nation’s interstate highway system was in its infancy, travelers would have to drive for miles and miles before finding a business where they could “eat and get gas,” as the old gag put it. Stuckey’s was a pioneer of building on the interstates, and until bigger fish such as McDonald’s, Exxon, and Holiday Inn took the bait, often Stuckey’s was the only choice. A legend has circulated for so many years that even the Stuckey family is unsure how much of it is true. It claims that the way Williamson Sylvester Stuckey would pick out the spots for his stores was to set out from a major starting point such as Atlanta 76

RetroFan

August 2020

or Nashville. Stuckey would have his chauffeur drive until he felt the need for a restroom. The story goes that wherever that urge occurred, that is where the next Stuckey’s store would open. Whether the locations were chosen by Stuckey’s bladder or more scientific research, it proved to be a successful formula. (Lending credence to the more formal research idea, it is significant that many Stuckey’s that were located on older U.S. highways also happened to be where future interstates were going to form interchanges by crossing those routes. Obviously, someone was studying maps of things that did not yet exist.) From the scant research that was done while the major players were still alive, we can learn that W. S. Stuckey first went into business during the Great Depression, when he began buying and selling pecans in the region around his hometown of Eastman, Georgia. His profit was a grand one cent per pound, but it was a start. In one interview, Stuckey recalled, “We By the early Sixties, ads such as this one were appearing in a variety of national magazines. Stuckey’s was well on its way from being merely a chain of Southern roadside stands to becoming a tourism institution. © Stuckey’s Corporation.

would work so hard and so late loading cars, we’d just go to sleep on top of the bags.” Much information was already hazy when early attempts at documenting Stuckey’s history was being done, but it seems that by either 1935 or 1936, Stuckey was selling his pecans from a roadside stand. Apparently, the only photo of this stand was taken years later, when it was recreated for publicity photos. It was while running this stand that Stuckey had the idea of adding pecan candy to the nuts he was already selling, and he talked his wife Ethel into making goodies—even though she had never done anything similar before. The roadside stand was soon replaced by a more permanent store in Eastman, which grew into a chain of three stores spread across middle and southern Georgia before World War II. After the war, when tourists took to the highways in unprecedented numbers, a large percentage of them were headed for America’s concept of paradise: Florida and its beaches and palm trees. The first decade or more of the Stuckey’s success story is inextricably linked to Florida tourism, as those were the routes where most of the early promotion was found. In fact, just as with his later rumored method of picking locations, Stuckey had a philosophy when placing his stores along the old two-lane U.S. highways. His ideal spot was on the righthand side as the highway led north, or away from Florida. Why? He firmly believed that people were most likely to buy candy or souvenirs at the end of their vacation, rather than carrying such non-essentials around with them as they visited Silver Springs or Parrot Jungle. While most people considered Stuckey’s a Southern chain, and indeed that was where it was based, by the Fifties it had crossed the Mason-Dixon line and had at least one location only two miles south of the battlefield at Gettysburg. That must have been particularly delicious to Georgia-bred W. S. Stuckey, who was once quoted as observing, “Thank God the North won the war. It would have been awful if there hadn’t been any Yankees to sell to.” (Similar sentiments were expressed by a Georgia congressman who went on record saying, “A Yankee tourist is worth a bale of cotton, and they’re twice as easy to pick.”) Throughout most of the Fifties, a Stuckey’s could be readily identified by not only its bright yellow signage with red letters,

This impressive double-page magazine layout from the early Fifties demonstrates not only how rapidly Stuckey’s reputation was growing and spreading, but how many different styles the buildings could take in those pre-standardization days. The chain now numbered 16 stores, primarily located along main tourist routes in Georgia and Florida, but also beginning to creep further afield, into Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia. © Stuckey’s Corporation.

but by its pink buildings adorned with murals advertising its ice-cold Florida orange juice. If you are old enough to remember when most cars did not have air conditioning, you can well imagine what a welcome thought that was. Those on long trips were also glad to find a dependable source for that other great necessity, clean restrooms. Every Stuckey’s store was laid out in a pattern by which the restrooms were located at the farthest back corner, necessitating that visitors wend their way through all the merchandise on the counters to get there. Now, about those restrooms: their cleanliness was only one aspect in which the company takes justifiable pride today. In an era when segregated facilities were the norm, Stuckey’s restrooms were always open to everyone, regardless of where the stores were located. This admittedly might have caused problems in townships where racial segregation was, in fact, the law rather than mere local custom, but most Stuckey’s stores sat

Throughout the Fifties, most Stuckey’s locations were built in the style of this store on U.S. 301 at Statesboro, Georgia. Their target audience of Florida tourists was quite obvious in the tropical-themed murals that adorned the pink exterior walls. © Stuckey’s Corporation.

RetroFan

August 2020

RETRO travel

so far from population centers that they were beyond the reach of any such enforcement. All were welcome at Stuckey’s, and all were tempted by those various candies and kooky souvenirs regardless of the color of their skin. Everyone’s money was green. On the subject of color, it was in the early Sixties that Stuckey’s gained what would turn out to be its most readily identifiable feature: its bright aqua-colored roofs. The buildings had already evolved from their pink gas stationtype design to more expansive structures with peaked rooflines, and once the aquamarine color was applied to those, it made spotting a Stuckey’s from a distance a welcome game for bored youngsters. Perhaps even more common than the buildings were the omnipresent Stuckey’s billboards, which followed the tradition of counting down the miles to the next location. The Stuckey’s billboards became such a familiar part of the American roadside scene that they were immediately recognizable even when not referred to by name. For example, there is the 1955 episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel encounter 500 miles of signs advertising “Aunt Sally’s Pecans and Pralines.” When they finally arrive, they find the candy shop out of business. Fred wisecracks, “I thought Aunt Sally was spending too much money on all those signs.” Anyone who had gone for even a short drive would have recognized the true identity of Aunt Sally and her pecan candies. Earlier, we mentioned Stuckey’s competitors, quite apart from Aunt Sally. Just as various creative people who worked for Walt Disney decided they could do just as well on their own, so too did some former Stuckey’s franchisees choose to bite the hand that was feeding pecans to them. One of the first was Bob Horne, who began working for Stuckey’s during the lean World War II years, and in the Fifties struck out on his own. His Horne’s chain was a carbon copy of Stuckey’s, even to the steeply pitched roofs of his stores (which were bright yellow instead of aqua). A glance at a map of Horne’s locations from its early-Seventies peak shows that it was thickest along the East Coast routes to and from Florida. Meanwhile, out in Eldon, Missouri, I. J. Nickerson opened what is credited as the first Stuckey’s west of the Mississippi River. After a dispute over how elaborate to make his store’s dining area, Nickerson left the parent company and began Nickerson Farms, a chain that spread throughout the Midwest. Besides having more full-service restaurants as Kids who persuaded their parents to stop at Stuckey’s in the early Seventies could be treated to this board game. The goal was to start from home and end up at the “Last Resort,” avoiding pitfalls and making regular Stuckey’s stops along the way. By this time, the chain was at its peak in the number of locations, mostly located at exits along the growing U.S. interstate highway system. © Stuckey’s Corporation. 78

RetroFan

August 2020

In the early Sixties, Stuckey’s introduced a new building design that emphasized its new aqua-colored rooftops. Another feature was the zig-zag canopy over the gas pumps, which was known throughout the company as the “gull wing” style. Its aqua coloring matched that of the building’s roof. © Stuckey’s Corporation.

opposed to Stuckey’s snack bars—the main reason for the split—each Nickerson’s Farm location had a working beehive built into the wall, the product of which would then be bottled and sold in the gift shop. Of course, nothing remains the same forever, and Stuckey’s (not to mention Horne’s and Nickerson’s) was just beginning to figure out its eventual role in the new interstate highway system when W. S. got an offer from Pet Inc., the condensed milk company, to merge with them and make Stuckey’s an operating subsidiary. W. S. pocketed $15 million in Pet stock in exchange for his trademarks and marketing. One of the major changes during the Pet years was the introduction of a new building design. The aqua roofs remained, but the new buildings featured what was known as the “cathedral” design, which towered over the parking lot and gave a truly magnificent scale to the interiors too. Unfortunately, not long after the cathedral roof design was introduced, rising energy costs caused many of the stores to cover up their interior space with inexpensive drop-tile ceilings, the better to heat and cool the structures, my dear. Today very few can still be found with their original soaring interior space visible. It was during the first decade of the Pet ownership that Stuckey’s was truly at its peak (not even counting the peaked roofs). The chain was at its largest in the early Seventies, with some 350 locations spread out from coast to coast. Although it retained its Southern flavor, there were actually more Stuckey’s in Texas than anywhere else, owing mainly to that state’s vast geography and miles of otherwise barren interstate stretches. Unfortunately, the early Seventies were also a time when the entire tourism industry took its first hit in what would prove to be a decade of pummeling. In 1973, thanks to the always reliable (to concoct an emergency when desired, that

RETRO travel

is) U.S. government, there was a perceived “energy crisis” that By 1992, the Stuckey’s chain was at about a third of its peak convinced the public that the country was running out of fuel. size, with 95 stores in 23 states. Over the next several years, Gas prices soared, and family vacations became one of the the marketing focus began to change from full-size stores casualties, prompting President Richard “I Am Not a Crook” to having the Stuckey’s brand of candy and some assorted Nixon to reassure the public that no one would ever have to pay souvenir items placed on sale in various travel plazas along the a dollar for a gallon of gas. Yessiree Bob, when a politician tells highways. This served as a terrific way to keep the brand alive you something, you better believe it, Buster! Before the decade without the expense of maintaining the traditional stores, most was over, more genuine crises in the Middle East caused further of which were being allowed to close as their leases expired. headaches for travelers, and when gas prices reached 99 cents Today, the company states that there are only around 16 of the per gallon, some stations decided to close rather than charge traditional Stuckey’s “pecan shoppes” still operating; however, such extravagant prices. there are approximately 70 “Stuckey’s Express” locations (more For several years af ter the merger with Pet, W. S. Stuckey like 7-Eleven stores), and more than 300 travel plazas sell the still ran the division bearing his name, but as one biographer Stuckey brand of candy and souvenirs, so, in reality, there are phrased it, “It was hard for Stuckey to be a second lieutenant more Stuckey’s outlets than at the height of its popularity—just when he had been a general all his life.” Stuckey stuck it out, in a dif ferent form. And, of course, Stuckey’s retains its place though, and had just put in a full day of work in his Eastman in the public’s nostalgic consciousness, making cameo office when he died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage on the appearances in two recent feature films, evening of January 6, 1977. The Green Book and The Irishman. In the years following the founder’s death, With Bill Jr. aging into retirement, internal changes within Pet threatened to the company again fell victim to scuttle Stuckey’s. Obviously, no one mismanagement and appeared to could manage the chain as well be drif ting. In late 2019, Bill Jr.’s as the man who started it, and daughter Stephanie took things got even worse after Pet up the reins with ambitious was acquired by Illinois Central plans to bring Stuckey’s back Industries in 1978. IC, as it was to its former glory. Since her known, seemingly had no idea ascendancy to the leadership, what to do with the onceshe has worked tirelessly to powerful chain of candy and let people know the company gift shops. is still worth its pecans, and By 1982, the number of among the plans for the Stuckey’s stores had dropped future are some intentions of to 270, from a peak of 350 After reacquiring the company in 1985, one of Bill Stuckey’s first reopening some of the longacts was to have the roofs on the remaining stores repainted a dark closed locations. a decade earlier. Of the 32 royal blue, covering up the aqua color that had usually become faded states where Stuckey’s still to the point of being an eyesore. Look closely here and you can see So, that is how things stand had a presence, Texas still had the telltale aqua peeking out from the paint job along the roofline. now. For a more complete, the most stores; the fewest © Stuckey’s Corporation. full-color photographic history were in Maryland, Minnesota, of the company, we direct you Washington, and West Virginia, with one store each. to Arcadia Publishing’s volume titled simply Stuckey’s (by Yours It had become obvious that the only person who could Truly, coincidentally enough), published in 2017 and available through archadiapublishing.com and amazon.com. And, if reading ef fectively run Stuckey’s would be someone bearing that name. all of this history has given you an uncontrollable urge to jump W. S. Stuckey’s son, Bill Jr., had served five terms as a Georgia congressman from 1967 to 1976. With his political career behind in the car and head for the nearest Stuckey’s to get a pecan log or box of salt water taf fy, but there happens to not be one near him, Bill began to take notice of the deteriorating state of the you, the company is as close as your web browser. The whole company, and realized, “That was my family name on all those line of products is available through www.stuckeys.com, and just signs.” In 1985, he purchased what was lef t of Stuckey’s from Pet/IC Industries and immediately set about trying to right the as good as you remember them. sinking ship. All images accompanying this article are courtesy of Tim Hollis. After regaining control, one of Bill’s first projects was to have the roofs of the remaining stores repainted from their Sixties TIM HOLLIS has written 32 books on pop aqua color to a deep royal blue. With so many former Stuckey’s culture history, ranging from tourism to dotting the landscape, this was the easiest way of distinguishing cartoon merchandise to television and beyond. the operating ones. He also negotiated a profitable deal with He also operates his own museum of such Dairy Queen to operate the restaurants in the stores, replacing memorabilia near Birmingham, Alabama. He his dad’s now-outmoded lunch counters. And, while every box may be contacted at hollis1963@aol.com. of Stuckey’s candy during W. S.’s lifetime had displayed his signature, now Bill’s signature was added to their design as an assurance to customers that a Stuckey was in charge once again. RetroFan

August 2020

REJECTED!

Put yer But I hands up, hain’t got ya meaty no hands, varmint! sheriff!

SPAGHETTI WESTERNS

Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife

FOR PRESIDENT! His Plan to Fight Crime

His Plan to End Corruption

“NIP IT IN THE BUD!”

His Plan to Tackle Global Warming

His Plan to Improve Horticuture

“NIP IT IN THE BUD!”

SHAFT .C! B 0 ,00 0 1,00 The sights and sounds will astound you, sucka!

Godzilla demands more challenging roles: "A fun little Hallmark Channel romantic comedy would be nice." by Scott Saavedra

RetroFan

August 2020

RetroFan: The Pop Culture You Grew Up With! If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!

RETROFAN #11 (Now Bi-Monthly!)

Just in time for Halloween, RETROFAN #11 features interviews with Dark Shadows’ Quentin Collins, DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein Glenn Strange, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures of Superman, Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the Drak Pak and the Monster Squad, scratch model customs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW! Edited by MICHAEL EURY. (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 • (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships October 2020

RETROFAN #6

RETROFAN #7

RETROFAN #8

RETROFAN #9

RETROFAN #10

Interviews with MeTV’s crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning GHOST BUSTERS, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty NAUGAS! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIE-DOBIE GILLIS connection, Pinball Hall of Fame, Alien action figures, Rubik’s Cube & more!

With a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: interview with LARRY STORCH, The Lone Ranger in Hollywood, The Dick Van Dyke Show, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, Flintstones turn 60, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Picnic, the Smiley Face fad, & more! With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with ’70s’ Captain America REB BROWN, and Captain Nice (and Knight Rider’s KITT) WILLIAM DANIELS with wife BONNIE BARTLETT! Plus: Coloring Books, Fall Previews for Saturday morning cartoons, The Cyclops movie, actors behind your favorite TV commercial characters, BENNY HILL, the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, 8-track tapes, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty years of SHAFT, interviews with FAMILY AFFAIR’s KATHY GARVER and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s GERI “FAKE JAN” REISCHL, ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH, rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti Westerns, Saturday morning cartoon preview specials, fake presidential candidates, Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, Stuckey’s, and more fun, fab features!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

RETROFAN #1

RETROFAN #2

RETROFAN #3

RETROFAN #4

RETROFAN #5

LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s STAR TREK CARTOON, “How I Met LON CHANEY, JR.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare ELASTIC HULK toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and MR. MICROPHONE!

Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

Interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEAMONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman/Batman memorabilia, & more!

Interviews with SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

Interviews with MARK HAMILL & Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, MOON LANDING MANIA, SNUFFY SMITH AT 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99