RetroFan #11 Preview

November 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

an erm p u of S s e r u vent d A TV’s

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

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

Dark Shadows © Dan Curtis Productions. Superman and Jimmy Olsen © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

CONTENTS 27

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Columns and Special Features

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Retro Interview Dark Shadows’ David Selby

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Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

Quisp and Quake’s cereal war

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Retro Heroes Kolchak: The Night Stalker

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Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria TV’s Adventures of Superman

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

Departments

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Retrotorial

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RetroFad The Pet Rock

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Oddball World of Scott Shaw! EXTRA “My Hero Was Rat Fink’s Big Daddy!”

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Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen

Too Much TV Quiz

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Celebrity Crushes

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon Who Created Casper the Friendly Ghost?

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Retro Television Rod Serling, In and Out of The Twilight Zone

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Issue #11 November 2020

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Retro Interview Julie Ann Ream, the Niece of Frankenstein (Glenn Strange)

RetroFan™ #11, November 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.

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Super Collector Retrofitting Your Collectibles

by Wesley Voyles

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RetroFanmail

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ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover

by Scott Saavedra

Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office.

Dark Shadows © Dan Curtis Productions. Superman and Jimmy Olsen © DC Comics.

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

RETRO INTERVIEW

David Selby Beyond the Shadows by Rod Labbe

In this world that we know now, Life is here, then gone But somewhere in the afterglow, Love lives on and on…

“Quentin’s Theme” (a.k.a.

“Shadows of the Night”) Words and music by Robert Cobert (1968)

g g g Meeting and getting to know a celebrity, especially one who affected you profoundly during your formative years, is an almost indescribable experience.

Take actor David Selby, for example. We were introduced, in a manner of speaking, on December 16th, 1968, his first episode of Dark Shadows, ABC-TV’s gothic-flavored

Rehearsal shot from Night of Dark Shadows, with Selby as “Charles Collins,” a flashback role, and Lara Parker as Angelique. Night of Dark Shadows © 1971 MGM. Photo courtesy of Jim Pierson and Dan Curtis Productions.

afternoon “spook” opera. My weekday passion, DS entranced me totally—except when pre-empted by news reports of assassinations or the Vietnam War. There were vampires and a werewolf, ghostly weeping widows, witches, gypsies, warlocks, and religious fanatics, séances galore, ceaseless thunder, and one very David Selby today. Photo by Eric Wallace.

gloomy mansion situated atop a rocky, ocean-swept cliff in Collinsport, Maine.

Really, what more could a starving horror fan want?

David played Quentin Collins, introduced as a brooding specter possessing young David (David Henesy) Collins. Similarities between Peter Quint and Henry James’ Turn of the Screw could not be dismissed. Notwithstanding, it RETROFAN

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didn’t take long for Quentin to establish his own personality. From 1968 until the show’s premature demise three years later (on April 2, 1971), he dominated plotlines and viewers’ romantic fantasies, and transformed the handsome Mr. Selby into an icon.

Cursed by a vengeful gypsy (Grayson Hall, unforgettable as Magda Rakosi), Quentin became a vicious werewolf under the full moon. Plot machinations provided a cure, of sorts… Charles Delaware Tate (Roger Davis) painted Quentin’s portrait, which absorbed the curse and bestowed an interesting side effect: immortality.

Coinciding with all this on-screen madness, circa 1969, Dark Shadows’

an article about Dark Shadows comic books in issue #128, and one year from now in these very pages (RetroFan #17) you’ll read an article about Dark Shadows merchandising!]

Beyond the Shadows, David has built a thriving film career, supplementing it with theater and all-too-infrequent television appearances. He had a long run as scoundrel Richard Channing on CBS’ primetime soap, Falcon Crest, and his costars read like a “who’s who in Hollywood”: Barbra Streisand, Jason Robards, Johnny Depp, Jeff Bridges, Patty Duke, and Ben Affleck, among them.

The new millennium sees him busier than ever. Between work on screens small

Headliner David Selby is also depicted in artist John Solie’s illustration on this poster for the theatrical release Night of Dark Shadows. Night of Dark Shadows © 1971 MGM. Courtesy of Heritage.

ratings soared. No soap before or since has been marketed so thoroughly: paperback books, collectible gum cards, record albums, 45 RPM singles, fan clubs, board games, model kits, toys, comics (newspaper strips and a color monthly comic book from Gold Key), Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine (sharing teen idol space with the likes of David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, and Barry Cowsill), posters, and even fake vampire teeth were snatched up by an insatiable public. [Editor’s note: Our sister publication, Back Issue, will feature 4

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(NBC’s Chicago Fire and CBS’ CSI: New Orleans) and big (The Social Network, Loon Lake), David’s penned two novels, Lincoln’s Better Angel and The Blue Door (another is in the planning stages), as well as career retrospectives, My Shadowed Past, A Better Place, and In and Out of the Shadows.

All things considered, it’s David Selby’s memorable run on Dark Shadows that cemented his lasting fame. To us, the original Dark Shadows kids and generations afterward, he’ll forever be

Quentin Collins, rake, scoundrel, and wandering soul.

This interview was conducted in late Winter 2020.

RetroFan: Reflecting upon your youth in West Virginia, David, was it an Our Town kind of existence?

David Selby: I enjoyed a safe, happy life; I grew up in Morgantown and still have good friends back there, people I’ve known since grade school. West Virginia’s a fantastic place to raise kids.

The environment’s nurturing and positive.

Not as innocent as Our Town, mind you, but pleasant, nonetheless.

RF: You were an athlete who also participated in college theatrics. What drew you to the stage, initially?

DS: Acting intrigues me as art. College provided an opportunity to explore my creative side; I knew the Stage was something I could pursue with lifelong satisfaction. I started with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible—not exactly lighthearted fare—and I also liked the character of Will Parker, from Oklahoma, and Ensign Pulver, in Mr. Roberts.

Let me clarify the athletics thing: I was an athlete mostly in my dreams [laughs]! I played baseball and basketball and have remained an avid sports enthusiast, but just for fun.

RF: The early Sixties was an exciting period, bordering on tumultuous. How’d it feel to be a part of that?

DS: Tumultuous doesn’t even describe it.

Vietnam, inner-city riots, sit-ins, hippies, peaceniks, and social turmoil. The new decade began idyllically, like an extension of the late Fifties. A number of cataclysmic events occurred rapidly: political upheaval and assassinations, escalation of war, The Beatles, desegregation, and the women’s movement. Retrospectively, I think it helped bring our country together. We learned important lessons in the process.

RF: Your college discipline was Marketing… it must’ve taken some soulsearching to put that aside and pursue acting as an avocation.

DS: You know what, Rod? The moment I stepped on stage, I knew. This is it! By the time I left West Virginia for good, I was already married to a wonderful girl

retro interview

named Chip, who’s still by my side. She’s encouraged me to go forward and test myself. Don’t know what I’d do without her. We make a great team.

David Selby as Quentin Collins and Nancy Barrett as the prim and proper Charity Trask, in the Collinwood foyer, in the 1897 flashback scene from Dark Shadows (1969).

Courtesy of and © Dan Curtis Productions.

RF: And against this dramatic real-life backdrop, you found yourself cast as a ghost from the 19th Century? Connect the dots!

DS: Strange, isn’t it? An agent saw me perform in Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke, and wheels started turning.

A call came in, and I was soon on my way across Manhattan to meet a casting director named Marion Dougherty. We chatted, she made another call, and off we went to Dan Curtis’ office, where I auditioned. I’d never heard of Dark Shadows; it was just another acting job.

RF: You didn’t mind soap work?

DS: Of course not. A job is a job, and no actor in his right mind turns down a long-

and glared menacingly from shadowy corners and secret hidden rooms!

RF: You’d just finished a national tour of The Impossible Years prior to Dark Shadows. Any trepidation about giving up the stage, albeit temporarily? Or were you ready for anything?

DS: I never gave up the stage. Dark Shadows was another facet, and how fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. As I said, Dark Shadows changed my life and the trajectory of my career, but the love I have for theater will never die.

From Night of Dark Shadows: Nancy Barrett as Claire Jennings, David Selby as Quentin Collins, and Kate Jackson as Tracy Collins during a seance at Collinwood. Night of Dark Shadows © 1971 MGM. Photo courtesy of Jim Pierson and Dan Curtis Productions.

term acting gig [laughs]! I’d no idea that one single audition would change my life in such a profound way.

Dan, the show’s creator and producer, studied me on camera, an offer was made, and contracts signed. For the next several weeks, I donned mutton-chop sideburns

RF: The Quentin storyline took inspiration from Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. Did you know you were basically playing Peter Quint?

DS: No, Quint didn’t occur to me, at first. I was aware of Quint only in the sense that I’d heard of the novel. I didn’t connect any dots until much later. Quentin and Quint were actually worlds apart. Quentin’s personality had several layers; he didn’t just raise havoc, like Quint.

RF: True. Though at the beginning, Quentin’s evil, too.

DS: Until the 1897 flashback redeemed him in our eyes. That’s what I loved about RETROFAN

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THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Q u isp & Quake’s Sugar-Fu e l e d Feud Fig ht!

by Scott Shaw!

Take sides… Quisp or Quake? You’ll be (sugar-) shocked to learn the secret they share! (Trust us, it’s a lot to swallow!) Quisp and Quake © The Quaker Oats Company. Animation cel courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

What’s more nostalgic than eating cold breakfast cereal while watching animated cartoons on TV? Well, how about eating cold breakfast cereal while watching animated cartoons about the cold breakfast cereal you were eating—so tasty that you kept shoveling it down, despite the fact that the cereal was shredding the tissue on the roof of your mouth (like the Shredded Wheat you definitely weren’t eating?).

A lot of vintage cereals still stock the shelves of your favorite supermarket. But, most likely, you will not find America’s most beloved cereal in your local grocery store. And no, the nation’s favorite isn’t Corn Flakes. According to the “Mr. Breakfast” website, cereal enthusiasts ranked Quaker Oats’ Quisp as the “greatest breakfast cereal of all time.” It even edged out Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, 5,551 votes to 5,517! Not bad for a bright pink propeller-headed Jerry Lewis impressionist from another planet who wears a scrooch gun on his hip, eh?

Let’s Go WABAC, Shall We?

But first, let’s all hop into Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine to revisit the history of the studio responsible for creating the subjects of this article. Jay Ward Productions’ first cartoon production was Crusader Rabbit (1950–1952), serialized funny animal adventures starring a feisty bunny rabbit his best friend, a goofy tiger. This pioneering TV show provided the template for Hanna-Barbera’s The Ruff and Reddy Show (1957–1962) and Ward’s Rocky and his Friends (1959–1960), starring a feisty flying squirrel and a goofy bull moose, both characters repurposed from a unsold cartoon show pitch, The Frostbite Falls Review. Two-

chapters-per-episode serialized storylines starring “Rocky and Bullwinkle” were joined by segments featuring “Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” “Fractured Fairy Tales,” and “Aesop and Son,” plus lots of funny intros, transitions, and fillers. Not a mediocre cartoon in the bunch, although most of the show was animated in Mexico to decidedly variable results. The Bullwinkle Show (1961) was a full-color primetime extension of Rocky and his Friends that added the well-meaning but inept Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right to the mix. Fractured Flickers (1963) was a departure from cartoons, although its opening titles are some of the studio’s most outstanding footage. The series itself was dubbed silent movies, cleverly written by Ward’s usual funnymen and hosted by Hans Conried. The Dudley Do-Right Show (1969–1971) repackaged two “Dudley” cartoons from The Bullwinkle Show with a “The World of Commander McBragg” short from Total Television’s Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. (Don’t ask for an explanation; that’s an entire article in itself.) Not much of a series, Hoppity Hooper (1964–1967) had spectacular opening titles by Gerard Baldwin, but with only one new lead feature leading a line-up of segments from previous series, even from Total Television and Gamma Productions.

Even the new segment starring a naive frog, a dimwit bear, and a conman fox seemed to lack the sharp and over-kids'-heads references that made their earlier productions so memorable.

Fortunately, Jay Ward Productions sprang back with George of the Jungle (1967). This was Jay Ward’s final cartoon series but it was, in many ways, his finest production. The dimwitted jungle king was joined by two more satiric heroic characters, swashbuckling dogooder “Super Chicken” and racecar driver “Tom Slick.” All three RETROFAN

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the oddball world of scott shaw!

[LEFT] Animation legend Jay Ward, and voice actors June Foray (voice of Rocky) and Bill Scott (voice of Bullwinkle), in 1985. This photograph hails from Ms. Foray’s personal collection and was used in her memoir, Did You Grow Up With Me Too? – The Autobiography of June Foray (BearManor Media, 2009).

Courtesy of Heritage.

[BELOW] Moose and squirrel sell milk and cereal! Jay Ward Productions' partnership with General Mills included comic-book ads like this one promoting Cheerios. Rocky and Bullwinkle © Jay Ward Productions and Classic Media, Inc. Cheerios™ © General Mills.

were based on adventure stories characters that Jay Ward, Bill Scott, and the gang all read about back when they were kids. The results were well-animated, hilariously hip stories that still hold their own when matched against the quality of any modern-day cartoon shows.

A Quaker to the Rescue

But their income depended on selling more TV series, and by this time, SatAM cartoons were smothered by the edicts of censors, educators, and humor-assassins. What was a funny cartoon studio to do? Fortunately, five years earlier, job insurance arrived in the form of the Quaker on the front of those oatmeal “drums.”

The Quaker Oats Company began its 22-year association with Jay Ward Productions one weekend late in 1962. In an interview, Ward’s creative partner Bill Scott described Ward’s avoidance of involvement in cereal advertising: “The studio was pretty much closed up; we were in summer-vacation mode. One day the advertising people for Quaker phoned, and our secretary told them Jay would be delighted to submit a proposal on a character they had in mind: a character called ‘Captain Crunch.’ ‘Why, certainly,’ she told them, ‘Jay would be glad to.’ Of course, Jay hated commercials! He never wanted to do them.” But that really wasn’t the case. Jay didn’t have any problems with clients. What he truly despised were the idiots overseeing things at advertising agencies. (And having worked as a Senior Art Director at a big ad agency myself, I’d say that was an accurate assessment.) What he demanded was total creative freedom if he were to make commercials for television, a wish that was granted to him by General Mills in 1959. Bullwinkle starred in a number of Cheerios commercials produced by Jay Ward. They and a few others from the studio’s growing cast of characters also appeared on many of General Mills’ cereal boxes, including Dudley Do-Right, Boris and Natasha, and briefly, Mr. Peabody and Sherman. So it wasn’t surprising when their competition, Quaker Oats, also came 12

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a-callin’ to Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, the home of Jay Ward Productions.

As Bill Scott recalled, “This Cap’n Crunch project was actually a brilliant notion; a clever fellow from Compton Advertising (Ken Mason) came up with a wonderful concept for selling a kids’ cereal. It had never been done before: that was, to research and find out the thing that kids liked most in a cereal, then to make that the name of the cereal and the name of the eventual character. That is, tie the whole thing together and then totally aim it to animated TV commercials.”

RETRO HEROES

Creatures & Conspiracies The Truth-Seeking Hero of Kolchak: The Night Stalker

by Bill Spangler In the summer of 1978, I was part of a group of science-fiction fans that were putting on a convention in State College, Pennsylvania, the home of Penn State University. As part of that committee, one of my tasks was to come up with a costume to wear at the planned costume party. (This was back in those prehistoric days before “cosplay” became a word.) Now, I had no discernable costuming skills. However, I managed to come up with an outfit that caused moments at later conventions where someone would look at me and say, “Oh, yeah, you’re the one who came as Kolchak.”

Carl Kolchak was introduced to the world in The Night Stalker, a 1972 made-for-TV movie on ABC that set ratings records. [Editor’s note: The Night Stalker scored a 33.2 rating and 54 share in the Nielsens during its original airdate of January 11, 1972.] The Night Stalker was followed by a second movie, and that was followed by a TV series that lasted just shy of one season.

In many circumstances, that would be the end of the story. But Kolchak, like the menaces he faces, has proven to be remarkably hard to kill.

Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, has told interviewers that the TV show—Kolchak: The Night Stalker—was a major influence on his thinking. In one such interview, he said, “I had an opportunity to create a show for Fox. And they said, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, you know, The Night Stalker was this fantastic show and I was scared out of my pants. I said, there’s nothing scary on television anymore. Let’s do a scary show.”

The show that scared Chris Carter out of his pants ran in 1974 and 1975. An attempt to reboot the series in 2005 lasted only six episodes in its original run, although ten were produced and all ten were shown when the show migrated to Syfy. Still, Carl Kolchak’s encounters with creatures and conspiracies continue to attract fans, thanks to the availability of the original adventures and an ambitious publishing program by Moonstone Books.

Never-Say-Die Journalist

Like the Thin Man, the title The Night Stalker did not refer to Kolchak at first. It referred to the monster in the first movie, a vampire named Janos Skorzeny, who was on a killing spree in modern Las Vegas. Kolchak was a reporter for the Las Vegas Daily

[ABOVE] Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, the seersuckered supernatural sleuth of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. © Universal Television. Kolchak © Jeff Rice Estate. [RIGHT INSET] Kolchak creator

Jeff Rice (1944–2015).

News, searching for the big story that would land him a job in New York City. Discovering the truth behind Skorzeny proves to be an even bigger story than he imagines. He stops Skorzeny, but he can’t fight the Powers-That-Be in Vegas, who suppress the truth because it’s “bad for business.”

This story started life as a novel by Jeff Rice, a Las Vegas journalist and actor. According to The Night Stalker Companion

by Mark Dawidziak, generally considered to be the definitive reference on Kolchak’s adventures, Rice submitted his manuscript to an agent, looking for representation. This individual also turned out to be the agent for prominent fantasy author Richard Matheson, who wrote I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and “Duel,” among other stories. Matheson expressed interest in the book, and that led to a deal for a made-for-TV movie, produced by Dan Curtis, the force behind Dark Shadows, and John Llewellyn Moxey was tapped as director. A major piece of the project arrived when Darren McGavin was cast as Kolchak.

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McGavin is probably best known these days as Ralphie’s Old Man in the classic holiday movie A Christmas Story. However, McGavin, who died in 2006, had a decades-long career in both movies and television. His other credits include The Martian Chronicles, Tribes, and Murphy Brown.

McGavin gave Kolchak a mixture of flamboyance and determination that was very appealing. He knew when he was physically outmatched and was perfectly willing to exercise the better part of valor. When it came to uncovering the truth, however, he never stopped, even when he knew his efforts would be blocked. As McGavin’s wife, Kathie Browne McGavin, put it, “The people who really love The Night Stalker love Kolchak because he never gives up. He’s fighting, always fighting. You can take the monsters and take them to be anything you want—the government, big business, corrupt officials. Their hero comes at the end, beaten up but ready to fight another day,” Mark Dawidziak, who is also a professional journalist, describes Kolchak as “the embodiment of what a journalist should be.”

Montage of press photos from the ���� telemovie, The Night Stalker. © Universal Television. Courtesy of Heritage.

Kolchak arrived at roughly the same time that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were breaking the Watergate scandal, Dawidziak said. However, he offered a radically different image of what journalists looked like. The movies cast Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, but Kolchak was “scruffy, badly dressed, and had a European surname. It was a much more practical role model for a journalist.”

McGavin also created Kolchak’s visual signature, his seersucker suit, battered hat, and sneakers. “I got this image of a New York newspaperman who had been fired in the summer of 1962,” he said, “when he was wearing a seersucker suit, his straw hat, 22

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button-down Brooks Brothers shirt, and reporter’s tie and he hasn’t bought any clothes since.”

While the romantic lead in the first movie was played by Carol Lynley, you could say that Kolchak’s co-star, throughout McGavin’s association with the character, was editor Tony Vincenzo, played

by Simon Oakland. Although there are points in their stormy relationship where Vincenzo seems to be an obstacle arbitrarily placed in Kolchak’s way, his feelings are explained clearly in this movie. Vincenzo admires Kolchak as a reporter, but he also has to appease the newspaper’s owners and local authorities.

The title character in The Night Stalker was played by Barry Atwater. Unlike Bela Lugosi’s Dracula or Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas Collins, Atwater played Skorzeny as speechless and animalistic.

Primal Fears in Primetime

The combination of setting, theme, and acting produced a major hit. Ratings on The Night Stalker beat the highest rated madefor-TV at that point, 1971’s Brian’s Song. Rice’s original novel was published, and it wasn’t long before work began on a sequel.

The sequel, The Night Strangler, relocated Kolchak and Vincenzo to Seattle, where Kolchak discovered an alchemist (Richard Anderson) who killed women in order to produce a serum that would maintain his immortality. This story did not come from Rice, although he did write a novelization. It was developed

by Matheson and Curtis, who also directed.

The Night Strangler premiered in 1973. It did well in both ratings and critical reception, although not as well as the original. A third script was written, but never produced as ABC executives became more interested in producing a weekly series starring Kolchak.

The third script, The Night Killers, took Kolchak and Vincenzo to Hawaii and is described as being more science-fictional in nature, with UFOs and politicians being replaced by android duplicates. This screenplay was written by Matheson and William F. Nolan, the co-author of Logan’s Run. A prose adaptation of The Night Killers is available from Moonstone Books and a limited edition of all three scripts is still available.

The TV series—which came to be titled Kolchak: The Night Stalker—debuted in the fall of 1974. It wasn’t an easy birth, and the show was plagued with problems. According to The Night Stalker Companion, there was a constant tug of war between McGavin and producer Cy Chermak on how to convert Kolchak’s adventures to a weekly format. This was aggravated by budgetary problems.

This time, Kolchak and Vincenzo were in Chicago, working for the Independent News Service. Regulars in the newsroom now included prissy Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage), aging but youngat-heart Emily Cowles (Ruth McDevitt), and intern Monique Marmelstein (Carol Ann Susi). In addition, Kolchak had regular dealings with morgue attendant Gordy “The Ghoul” Spangler (John Fiedler), who I like to think of as Uncle Gordy.

Despite the story problems, there are several episodes of the show worth talking about.

Many fans consider “Horror in the Heights” the best of the weekly episodes. Written by Jimmy Sangster, who scripted some

retro heroes

“I said I would submit four or five concepts, and if there’s one of the classic as Hammer horror films, this story boasts several clever plot twists, some political commentary, and a strong we all agree on, I’ll do it,” he says. One of those concepts was performance by Ruth McDevitt as Miss Emily.

Grave Secrets, about the deaths surrounding a proposed landLike most TV shows at the time, episodes of Kolchak: The Night development project. Grave Secrets, along with Dawidziak’s other Stalker were designed to be self-contained, and to be watched books, are available at his website, www.markdawidziak.com. At this in any order. One result of this was that Kolchak treated every writing, his most recent book is The Shawshank Redemption Revealed, encounter with the paranormal as if it were his first. The one based in part during his time on the set during the filming. exception to this approach was “The Vampire,” written by David The X-Files acknowledged its connection with Kolchak: The Chase and Bill Stratton. Although it never Night Stalker at roughly the same time, with directly refers to the original movie, Kolchak two episodes featuring Darren McGavin, knows that this vampire was created by “Travelers” and “Aqua Mala.” The creative Janos Skorzeny and he knows what he has staff on X-Files had made two previous to do is stop it. attempts to bring McGavin onto the show, “Mr. R.I.N.G,” by L. Ford Neale and John once as Kolchak himself and once as Huff, may be the episode that bears the Mulder’s father. Ultimately, though, they closest resemblance to The X-Files. Kolchak cast McGavin as Arthur Dales, one of the uncovers a secret government project to first FBI agents assigned to the X-Files. build a robot soldier, and his “interrogation” In “Travelers,” Fox Mulder contacts Dales by government agents leaves him injured and for help with a case from the McCarthy era disoriented from drugs. that involved Mulder’s father. Naturally, a In “The Spanish Moss Murders,” by Al dif ferent actor (Fredric Lehne) plays Dales Friedman and David Chase, a legendary during the Fif ties scenes, but McGavin swamp creature terrifies the Cajun narrates the flashbacks, a nice salute community in Chicago. The writers find to the format of The Night Stalker. The a unique way to transport a swamp framing sequence for this story seems creature to the big city, and the monster’s to take place before Mulder meets Dana appearances are well-staged.

Scully, and Dales is living in a lower-class “Legacy of Terror,” by Arthur Rowe, relies neighborhood in Washington D.C. more on strange contrasts than special effects to In “Aqua Mala,” Dales has moved to establish the mood. Kolchak discovers that a Florida. He lives in a mobile home but has string of luxury hotels is actually a front for an elaborate set-up of radios and police a religious cult that wants to bring an Aztec monitors. Dales calls on Mulder and demon back to Earth.

Scully for help to fight a creature that has “Chopper,” which turns the Headless been pulled up from the ocean depths Horseman into a headless motorcyclist, by a storm. This is a stand-alone episode, started as a proposal from Robert with no new information about Dales’ Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the creators of the background or the continuing subplots on Back to the Future movies. Even the weaker X-Files. On one level, the episode resembles episodes have good points, however. One some of the stories from the Night Stalker TV Screen captures from the ���� such point is that the victims of the various telemovie, The Night Stalker. © Universal series. creatures are almost always given some “Travelers” was co-written by Frank Television. Courtesy of Heritage. humanizing detail, like they collect plush Spotnitz, one of the main writers on The animals, or they’re six credits away from their X-Files. He would go on to develop the 2005 master's degree. reboot of Night Stalker, which also ran on ABC. In this version, Kolchak: The Night Stalker lasted 20 episodes, but reruns of the Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) is young, dark, and brooding. He’s show went into a late-night spot on CBS. This spot attracted new obsessed with unraveling the conspiracy behind the death of fans, viewers who may have been more receptive to the show’s his wife and their unborn child. He even spent some time in a style and subject matter than the primetime audience. mental hospital, recovering from the event. He’s still working for Tony Vincenzo (Cotter Smith) on the Los Angeles Beacon, but Grave-digging he’s spending most of his time with Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), In 1994, a new adventure was added to Kolchak’s resume when the senior crime reporter on the Beacon. Reed, unsurprisingly, Dawidziak’s novel Grave Secrets was published. A new publisher is skeptical of Kolchak’s claims. An F.B.I. agent named Fain had printed an omnibus volume of The Night Stalker and The (Jon Pyper-Ferguson) is trying to prove that Kolchak killed his Night Strangler, Dawidziak tells RetroFan, and wanted Rice to wife. But is he motivated by the evidence, or is he part of the write a new book. Rice wasn’t interested, but he recommended conspiracy?

Dawidziak because they had developed a friendship while the Frankly, it’s tempting to dismiss the reboot with one or two latter was writing Nightstalking, the first edition of The Night withering comments. Replacing the older, more world-weary Stalker Companion.

Kolchak with a younger, more romantic version seems entirely RETROFAN

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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

That was my reaction to my parents gently breaking the news to me that George Reeves, the actor who played Superman/ Clark Kent in the TV series Adventures of Superman, had died from a gunshot wound. He died on June 16, 1959, and the news broke the next day on June 17—my birthday. I turned seven years old.

Kids of that age are generally not secure in understanding the nature of death and dying anyway, so to wrestle with this notion regarding “The Man of Steel” was too much to deal with.

Of course, it was true. And perhaps that reality gradually helped me start to understand such weighty life issues. But for the moment, I was content to live in the world of Metropolis, The Daily Planet, and “a strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.”

The backstory is well known, so we’ll include just a brief refresher course here. Jerry Siegel (the writer) joined his high school friend Joe Shuster (the artist) in the Thirties to come up with a new comic-strip character. Based on Siegel’s concept, Shuster designed Superman’s costume based on heavyweight boxing champions of the day, adding elements such as the cape.

Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and was an instant hit, but, not anticipating continued success, Siegel sold their rights to Action Comics’ National Allied Publications (later DC Comics) for—wait for it—$130 (about $2,400 today).

For all intents and purposes, Siegel and Shuster were soon left behind by the success of their high-flying hero, and other creative personnel stepped in. Notably, the animator Max Fleischer’s studios (creators of the famous Popeye cartoons of the Forties) produced a series of 17 Superman cartoons in Technicolor from 1941 to 1943. In 1948 Columbia Pictures produced the first liveaction appearance of Superman on film: a 15-chapter B&W serial, Superman, starring Kirk Alyn as Superman and Noel Neill as Lois Lane and directed by Thomas Carr, who later directed many early episodes of the Adventures of Superman television series, also starring Neill. According to Jim Harmon and Donald F. Glut in their book The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury, the serial was a “tremendous financial success” and played in “first-run theatres that had never before booked a serial.” A sequel, Atom Man vs. Superman, directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, was released in 1950.

In 1976 Warner Bros. decided to make a Superman movie. Siegel contacted the studio, and some parties at Warner Bros. and DC Comics were surprised to discover that Siegel and Shuster were still alive. As Arlen Schumer wrote in Pete Von Sholly’s anthology of essays Fantastic Fictioneers (PS Publishing, 2019), “renowned comic book artist and firebrand Neal Adams, who, with grassroots support from many of the giants in the comic art fields,

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet! by Ernest Farino

Superman TM & © DC Comics.

“That can’t be true. I don’t believe it. He’s Superman!”

George Reeves, with signature.

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ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

lobbied and publicly pressured DC’s corporate owners Warner Bros. to right the moral and ethical wrongs wrought on Siegel and Shuster.

In short time, Warners conceded and promised modest annual stipends for the two for the rest The Mole Men were played by (alphabetically): of their lives—Shuster John T. Bambury’s only other major credit was the died in 1992, Siegel in all-dwarf Western The Terror of Tiny Town (1938), one of 1996—but perhaps more the films included in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time by importantly for posterity, Harry Medved and Randy Lowell (1978), winning the DC agreed to affix the PT Barnum Award for “Worst Cinematic Exploitation credit ‘Created by Jerry of a Physical Deformity” in The Golden Turkey Awards by Siegel and Joe Shuster’ Harry and Michael Medved (1980). to every Superman story Billy Curtis appeared as a Munchkin in The Wizard (and credit crawl in of Oz (1939), as the cowboy hero of The Terror of Tiny Town, movies and television) in as one of the friends of The Incredible Shrinking Man perpetuity.”

(1957), and in the Clint Eastwood Western High Plains Superman: The Movie was Drifter (1973). He also appeared as a smaller version of released in 1978—Superman’s the alien during its disintegration in The Thing from 40th anniversary—and starred Another World (1951).

Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Jerry Maren appeared in The Wizard of Oz as the and Margot Kidder and was directed Munchkin who hands Dorothy a welcoming lollipop.

by Richard Donner (interviewed Johnny Roventini’s voice was heard on thousands of at length by Glenn Greenberg in radio programs sponsored by Phillip Morris cigarettes, RetroFan #3). The film became the and seen on television in his bright red bellboy uniform second-highest-grossing film of 1978 paging, “Call for Phillip Morris!” after Grease.

Interested RetroFan readers are encouraged to seek out any of the numerous books on Superman were combined and distributed as [including, if you’ll forgive the plug, theatrical features overseas and in ye ed’s own The Krypton Companion, Mexico, adding new scenes to tie the from TwoMorrows—ed.], as well as episodes together. Unfortunately, this the many blogs and Facebook groups newly added transitional material has devoted to the Man of Steel. In the not been seen in decades. meantime, we’ll back up to a time Superman in-between the Kirk Alyn serials and and the Mole the Christopher Reeve movie, 1951 to Men is what got be exact, when 37-year-old George me (that sevenReeves first portrayed Superman in year-old kid) the feature film Superman and the Mole hooked, and I Men. (The on-screen main title hyphenates “Mole-Men,” but all faithfully watched of the posters and advertising omit the hyphen. So we’ll drop the the show every day hyphen here for clarity.) This was later re-edited into a two-part after school, hoping episode for television, retitled The Unknown People (Parts 1 and that story with 2), and kicked off the Adventures of Superman television series those little guys in first-run syndication across America on September 19, 1952. from inside the Sponsored by Kellogg’s cereals, the series was filmed in California Earth would show on the RKO-Pathé stages and the RKO “Forty Acres” backlot. The up again. first two seasons (52 episodes) were filmed in black and white, As told by and while seasons three through six (51 episodes) were filmed Doug Sederberg in color, they were originally telecast in black and white, only [TOP] This “strange visitor from another planet” could bend steel in his bare hands. [RIGHT] George Reeves as to be shown in color in 1965 the Man of Steel. Superman TM & © DC Comics. in local syndication. Episodes

MEET THE MOLE MEN

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA'S SECRET SANCTUM

by Scott Saavedra Do you believe a bit of good news is like taking a hallucinogenic drug? Have you ever been an island king? A werewolf wearing a bowtie? A turtle giant? Stretchy?

A police officer of the opposite sex on another planet? Are you willing to put nearly any darn thing into your mouth?

Then you just might be Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Pal and total trouble magnet.

Over the decades there have been many different creative interpretations of Jimmy Olsen, a comic-book character originally seen in the background and even occasionally rescued in various Superman comics. It’s the sort of thing that happens to popular-culture creations that manage to endure, and Jimmy has been around a long, long time. The version of Jimmy Olsen that captured my attention and, well, maybe not my heart but some other lesser organ (pancreas?) got into quite a bit of mischief during the last half of the Fifties through the Sixties.

What kind of mischief? You’re going to want to sit down.

Weirdo Wedding

Special wedding events have long been a staple of popular entertainment. In comic books, Dick Briefer’s Pirate Prince

was one of the first featured adventure characters to have wedding-themed woes with a two-parter in Daredevil Comics #18 and 19 in 1943. Reed Richards and Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four got married in the rambunctious “Bedlam at the Baxter Building!” (Fantastic Four Annual #3, Oct. 1965). Battles with villains were waged, wedding vows exchanged, and Fantastic Four creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were turned away at the door due to a lack of invitations.

Jimmy Olsen got a big wedding story just a couple of years later in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #100 (Mar. 1967), “The Weirdo Wedding of Jimmy Olsen!” The tale goes something like this (deep breath): Perry White gives Jimmy tickets to see the Beatles at Metropolis Stadium; Jimmy drinks “Super-Physique Formula” (a product of the 7th dimension) from his trophy case, gets in a fight with Lucy Lane’s date, loses, asks Lucy (Lois Lane’s sister) to marry him, she says yes; Jimmy gets rid of his snapshots of old girlfriends; he travels to the future via a time globe he keeps in an enormous vault in his apartment to let past girlfriends Saturn Girl, Duo Damsel, and Light Lass know that he is marrying Lucy since he had plans

Look closely at the wedding guests gathered under the awning, where it appears that Jimmy's boss Perry White wasn't invited but Clark Kent was (a mystery unexamined in the story). [TOP] Jimmy reacts to Lucy Lane's expression of everlasting love in the least normal way possible. From Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #100 (Mar. 1967). TM & © DC Comics.

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Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

to go to the future anyway (and there’s more to that whole multi-relationship if you can believe it); Superman builds Jimmy and Lucy a gigantic island mansion (cub reporters must be millionaires in Metropolis); a feature of the house is a private theater stocked (stocked!) with films of Jimmy’s many adventures; Lucy gets robots that look like Lucy to use for shopping and household chores (this is creepy, right?); VIPs from everywhere arrive for the wedding; and common people think that this special day should be a national holiday. Great Caesar’s Ghost! I am not even close to getting to the part where Lois Lane tries to make the day about her failure to bag Superman and, hey, speaking of Superman… he turns into a mole (“one of the world’s ugliest creatures!”—thank you, judgmental bystander) whose frantic digging saves

largely because actor Jack Larson made him so likable. Even Reeves’ death (as well as the death of John Hamilton, who played Perry White) didn’t immediately put an end to Adventures of Superman or Jimmy’s own adventures. A suggestion that the show become Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen with Superman body doubles and other tricks was rejected by Larson.

The Rise of Jimmy

The boy who would be Jimmy. Superman #13 (Nov.–Dec. 1941). TM & © DC Comics.

The Road to Jimmy

Jimmy's love life was the stuff of nightmares. Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #98 (Dec. 1966). TM & © DC Comics.

Metropolis half a billion dollars on its subway project. There’s more—lots more—but we’ll be here all day just to get through this one adventure.

So, was this fable an outlier? Oh, no. It’s not even his first wedding story. But at least the bride this time was human. Plenty of Jimmy’s adventures have thrown a freckled fist into logic’s face. That wasn’t always the case for the Daily Planet’s cub reporter/ photographer. He began his comic-book life as a pretty unremarkable guy.

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Jimmy Olsen got his name on the radio program The Adventures of Superman early on following its debut in 1940. A year later, a newspaper copyboy—basically a young errand runner—named Jimmy appeared in Superman #13 (Nov. 1941). More than just a background character, Jimmy was an important part of the adventure along with his boss, Perry White (editor of the Daily Planet, a great metropolitan newspaper), feisty reporter Lois Lane, and mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent, who, in the guise of Superman, fights to free dimes from the tiny fists of young readers. It’s true that three years earlier, an unnamed blond copyboy of similar build made a brief appearance in Action Comics #6 (Nov. 1938), but other than his fine bowtie there was really nothing much to connect him the modern Jimmy Olsen.

For the most part, Jimmy was a background player with a line of dialogue here and there. This early evolving version of Jimmy was as grounded in reality as a character in a fantastical comic book could be. He was a minor element of Superman’s adventures. A television show would change that.

The popular syndicated television program Adventures of Superman [see Ernest Farino’s column this issue for more] may have made a star of George Reeves in the title role but it also helped put Jimmy Olsen on the pop-culture map. Jimmy was a much-loved character on the show,

The Daily Planet’s favorite cub reporter/ photographer/guy-who-needs-to-getrescued became the star of his own comic book in 1954. Jimmy Olsen’s popularity on television was mentioned on the first page of the first issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (how about just SPJO from here on out?) and influenced the decision to publish the comic.

Still, a whole comic book devoted to a low-level newspaper employee— friend of a super-hero or not—had to be pretty risky. The comic-book business was in a state of upheaval at the time.

The popularity of super-heroes had plunged after the end of World War II and gruesome horror and crime comics helped fill the sales void. It was those types of comics that alarmed parents, politicians, and meddlesome fools. A newly setup self-regulatory group, the Comics Code Authority, managed to calm the

This 1956 promotional postcard features Jack Larson, who played (and helped popularize) Jimmy Olsen in the Adventures of Superman television series. © Warner Bros.

Courtesy of Heritage.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

Who Created Casper the Friendly Ghost? by Will Murray

Like many Baby Boomers, my childhood was filled with familiar faces. Some of those faces I kept seeing over and over, but I didn’t realize until I was an adult that I was looking at the same features worn by completely different characters.

Confused? Let me relate the strange saga of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

I first encountered Casper in the early Sixties on an ABC program called Matty’s Funday Funnies, sponsored by Mattel Toys. Casper was the nominal star, but the show also included Baby Huey and Little Audrey––all cartoon characters available in comic books put out by Harvey Comics.

In those days, I watched TV cartoons and never thought about the people who created © Classic Media, LLC. them. What seven-year-old would? You turned on the TV at the appropriate hour, the cartoon magically appeared, and that was all you needed to know.

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Naturally, I also read the comics, which included satellite characters like Wendy the Good Little Witch, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, and others. Although I preferred Superman and Batman in those days, the Harvey comics were pleasant fun. And since my sister bought them, I could read them for free!

Although I long ago ceased following Casper and his ghostly associates, as an adult researcher into popular culture, I naturally became interested in how the little phantom came to be.

The Friendly Ghost Rises

The character didn’t start on TV or in comic books, but originated in short theatrical cartoons during the period when movie theaters showed short subjects with the main feature. Amazingly for such a ubiquitous presence during my childhood––surveys showed that in the early Sixties he enjoyed a 98% recognition [TOP] C’mon, you easily terrified toons—how could you not love this pintsized poltergeist? Casper the Friendly Ghost, as rendered by Warren Kremer for a Sixties-era 45rpm record cover. Casper the Friendly Ghost © Classic Media, LLC. Original art courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

RETRO TELEVISION

Rod Serling In and Out of

The Twilight Zone

by Nicolas Parisi

Rod Serling was a visionary. This would likely seem obvious to anyone who has watched even a few episodes of Serling’s landmark television series, The Twilight Zone. For five seasons between 1959 and 1964, Serling opened the door to a “wondrous land of imagination” unlike any that had been seen on television. At a time when more than 20 Western series were on the air and the rest of the schedule was dominated by detective dramas, The Twilight Zone presented an unclassifiable combination of surrealism, noir, science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with some social commentary often in the mix. During its initial run, members of the World Science Fiction Convention awarded The Twilight Zone three consecutive Hugo awards for Best Dramatic Presentation. But long before Serling had proven himself a visionary of televised science fiction, he was a pioneer of the television medium itself.

Rodman Edward Serling was a Christmas baby, born December 25, 1924. During his childhood in Binghamton, New York, he listened to radio dramas, read the pulps and comic books, and fell in love with the original King Kong. He would come to remember his childhood as idyllic, particularly because of what came afterward. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. And on January 16, 1942, one day after graduating from high school, Serling volunteered to serve in the United States Army. He was five feet, four inches tall, weighed 118 pounds, and was barely 18 years old.

He wanted to be a paratrooper. His short stature was an obstacle, but after three months of basic training, Serling completed a month of jump training, made 37 practice jumps as part of his advanced training, and earned his wings. The accomplishment would become a stark example of the warning: be careful for what you wish. Assigned to the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne

Submitted for your approval: Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination (University Press of Mississippi, 2018), author Nicholas Parisi’s superb, in-depth biography of one of television’s most influential and enduring visionaries. © 2018 Nicholas Parisi. Photo credit: Bettmann / Getty Images.

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RETRO INTERVIEW

Strange Relations Julie Ann Ream, the Niece of

Frankenstein

If you are a fan of classic film and television, then no doubt the name Glenn Strange is well known to you.

Glenn wore many hats before he got into acting. He worked as a stuntman, musician, and cowboy before getting into the film business. Most actors are lucky if they can count one iconic role to their name, but Strange is best remembered for at least three.

To Western fans, he was the Lone Ranger’s first nemesis, Butch Cavendish, and he was Sam the Bartender on Gunsmoke. To fans of classic horror, he was the last actor to play the Frankenstein Monster during Universal’s Golden Age of Horror.

Recently I had the honor of interviewing Julie Ann Ream for RetroFan. Ms. Ream spent ten years as an investigative agent on the TV series Unsolved Mysteries and has worked for NBC, CBS, and Lifetime. She is also a producer of live events and Western award shows, most notably the Western Legends and Silver Spur Awards. She also co-produces the Roy Rogers Festival.

by Dan Johnson

Julie also comes from a very famous Hollywood family, and Glenn Strange was her “uncle.” “Glenn was my grandfather, Taylor Curtis ‘Cactus Mack’ McPeters,’ first cousin,” says Ream. “They were closer than any two brothers could be. They were born one week apart to sisters in Weed, New Mexico, in 1899. They lived together from birth, moved back to Texas where they were raised, and then worked side-by-side all of their careers.

“After I was born, I was brought home from the hospital to my grandfather’s little ranch house,” Ream recalls. “It was in North Hollywood, and sat behind the infamous Palomino Club, and was near Republic Pictures. By this time my grandfather and Glenn had a good deal of their careers under their belts, but Glenn was [TOP] Glenn Strange’s first turn as the Monster in 1944’s House of Frankenstein, also starring the original Frankie, Boris Karloff, as the mad scientist Dr. Niemann and Lon Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot (the Wolf Man). © 1944 Universal Pictures. Lobby card courtesy of Heritage.

[INSET] Julie Ann Ream. Facebook.

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retro interview

a huge part of my life. I remember my life with them both quite vividly. They were also cousins to Rex Allen, ‘The Arizona Cowboy,’ and both he and Glenn were ‘Uncle Glenn’ and ‘Uncle Rex’ to me always.”

SINGING COWBOY

Strange was always known for cutting a huge figure on the big screen and he did no less so in real life, according to Ream.

“I remember as a child his towering height; at six, six and one-half feet tall, he made quite a presence.” Despite his imposing height, Ream recalls Strange as a kind man who was nothing like the bad guys he played on the silver screen.

“He had a deep love of the outdoors, for fishing, cooking, and he loved children.

He also loved making miniature furniture, and I have a couple of pieces, donated by Glenn’s dear friend, actor Dan White, in our museum in Los Angeles [see sidebar]. He made them for Dan’s children. He was their godfather.

“My memories of Glenn are big and vast… he loved, and could tell, a good joke. He was a part of my life from its beginning. My wedding in June of 1972 was among the last times Glenn was seen in public, before his death from lung cancer in September of 1973.”

When I sat down to talk with Julie about Glenn, I was most eager to find out as much as I could about his background. Unlike a lot of the actors who worked in the Universal Horror films, not as much is known about him as fellow monsters Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney. What might surprise most people is that before acting, his career was on a much different path. “My family were

all musicians before they were Strange and his Western family. actors, and Glenn was no Courtesy of Julie Ann Ream. exception,” reveals Ream.

“He played a mean fiddle, wrote music beautifully (often pairing with Eddie Dean), and was a pretty good singer. He was listed as ‘Pee Wee’ Strange in many of Cactus’ bands. And music was the main impetus to their beginning film work. They performed in many films with many Western bands. It was music, their beautiful Western drawls, and their prowess at stunt work that got them jobs.”

Remember what I said about Strange wearing many hats? In the early days of Western movies, a man of many talents could always find work and Strange was oh, so talented. According to Ream, “These men were pioneers; they did everything that needed doing to get an episode filmed.

Glenn could also drive a stage and could handle a ‘six up’ team (that is, where six horses pull the stage), which led to his playing a stagecoach driver in many of his movies and TV roles. The actual beginning of their film careers came when Glenn, who had previously traveled with Cactus as a musician, joined Cactus in the new venture of becoming a part of the Hoot Gibson Rodeo in 1930. They both had lengthy Those fidgety villagers would douse their torches if they knew what a sweetheart Glenn Strange was behind that Monster make-up. With Boris Karloff, from The House of Frankenstein. © 1944 Universal Pictures. Still courtesy of Julie Ann Ream/Valley Relics Museum.

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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Saturday Morning Preview Specials by Andy Mangels

Part Three: 1984–1985 Promo for CBS’ 1985 All-Star Rock ’n’ Wrestling Saturday Spectacular. © CBS.

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 cross-legged 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 issue #9, continuing in #10, and concluding this issue, 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: “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 offered 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!

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AndY MAnGELS’ rEtro SAturdAY MornInG

1984 ABC – the ABC Saturday Morning Preview Park Airdate: Friday, September 7, 1984, 8pm, 30 minutes Written by Ken Shapiro Directed by Barry Glazer Produced by Larry Klein, Dick Clark

Although he was a hit on the Dr. Demento Show on radio and stage, and had one album out, “Weird Al” Yankovic was still relatively early in his career when he hosted this IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, special.

His second album, “Weird Al” CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS Yankovic in 3-D, had come out in February 1984, with a monster ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! hit in his Michael Jackson parody, “Eat It.” Considered hot enough with kids to be chosen as the host of the ABC special during the fall, Yankovic shared the screen with costumed versions of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (voiced by Don Messick) as they taped at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.

First up, Al and the Doos played bumper cars before showing a scene from Turbo Teen. Arguing about going into a cave marked Dragon’s Lair, the trio introduced a clip from arcade game spinoff Dragon’s Lair. Next up, the trio met Missy Gold (Benson) at the arcade, where her robot friend Orbie introduced a segment from Mighty Orbots. Following a brief look down at The Littles, while Al enjoyed a parachute ride, Scrappy introduced newcomer Firestorm in scenes#11 from SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers RETROFAN HALLOWEEN ISSUE! Interviews DARKto SHADOWS’ Quen-discothèque of somnambulant Show.

Next up, with a visit a half-full tin Collins, DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein preteens brought Al to meet howling DJ Wolfman Jack and his GLENN STRANGE, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE bird, and a preview of the breakdancing new series Wolf Rock TV, FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures of Superman, Superman’s pal JIMMY OLSEN, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the DRAK PAK which combined music videos and animation. Finally, a preview AND THE MONSTER SQUAD, scratch model customs, and Bandstand’s 33rd season and The New Scooby-Doo more fun,for fab American features!

(84-page FULL-COLOR $9.95 fall recap, and a cute motorcycle gag Mysteries led intomagazine) a complete (Digital Edition) $4.99 to end the show. Oddly, for a special hosted by a comedy singer, guest-starring a DJ, and produced by a music producer… there wasn’t a single song to be heard!

Weird Al Yankovic greets his co-stars. © ABC.

https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_152&products_id=1546

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Saturday shows with friends old and new. © the respective copyright holders.