RetroFan #18 Preview

January 2022 No. 18 $9.95

You’re in for a reel treat!

We’ll always dream of Jeannie...

8mm MOVIES

EXCLUSIVE BARBAR A EDEN interview The Battle of the Sexes

with event organizer

TOMMY ...COOK

HannaBarbera’s TV Super-Heroes of the Sixties

The Invaders • Monster Times • ‘How to Draw’ Books • Cartoon Xmas Cards & more!

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WITH: Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

Barbara Eden photo: Getty Images/Hansom & Schwam Public Relations. The Impossibles © Hanna-Barbera Productions. All Rights Reserved.

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

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CONTENTS Columns and Special Features

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Retro Interview Barbara Eden

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Celebrity Crushes

Retro Fanzines The Monster Times

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Departments Retrotorial

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Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning More Christmas cards from animation companies

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Invaders

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria 8mm Movies

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Issue #18 January 2022

Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

Hanna-Barbera Super-Heroes of the Sixties

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Retro Interview Tommy Cook Remembers ‘The Battle of the Sexes’

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Too Much TV Quiz Cartoon super-hero theme song lyrics

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RetroFad Leg Warmers

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RetroFanmail

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ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover

by Scott Saavedra

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum How to Draw Books RetroFan™ #18, January 2022. 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: $68 Economy US, $103 International, $27 Digital.

Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Barbara Eden cover photo by Michael Caulfield; courtesy of Getty Images/Hansom & Schwam Public Relations. The Impossibles © Hanna-Barbera Productions. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224

RETRO INTERVIEW

Twenty Minutes with Barbara Eden BY MICHAEL EURY …Twenty-five minutes, max. That’s what her agency told me I’d have for my telephone interview with Barbara Eden.

Barbara Eden, the immensely talented actress and singer who, in her definitive role as television’s prettiest pixie, was liberated from a purple bottle and enchanted both a hapless astronaut and generations of viewers. Whose earlier TV series had her stepping into the shoes of one of Hollywood’s most sensational bombshells. Who was Elvis Presley’s leading lady in the movie Flaming Star. Who socked it to the Harper Valley P.T.A. on the big and small screens.

Whose guest roles on television series became unforgettable episodes, whose sparkling presence in over two dozen theatrical movies outshined elaborate sets and special effects, whose made-for-television films scored huge ratings, whose likeable personality and sultry voice commanded stage audiences from Atlantic City to Las Vegas. Whose star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found within eyeshot of the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

That Barbara Eden.

Twenty minutes. (Twenty-five, max.)

It would have taken a magical Jeannie “blink” to cram into such a narrow window of time all the questions I had, a few of which were suggested by RetroFan readers and fellow columnists through our Facebook page. Many of the roles of Barbara Eden, dubbed by People Magazine as “One of America’s 200 Greatest Pop Icons of the 20th Century,” are of tremendous interest to RetroFans, including fantasy films like Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and George Pal’s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. And then, of course, there’s one of TV’s most beloved sitcoms, I Dream of Jeannie, starring the petite, blonde Ms. Eden in a pink harem costume—with her navel very famously hidden, to appease puritanical program censors. Appearing alongside Eden were Larry Hagman as Major (originally Captain) Anthony “Tony” Nelson, the astronaut whose attempts to hide his genie’s magic led to no end of NASA nuttiness; Bill Daily as the skirt-chasing Major (originally Captain) Roger Healy, Tony’s pal and eventual confidant; and Hayden Rorke as

Jeannie Out of the Bottle (2011),

by Barbara Eden with Wendy Leigh. © Barbara Eden. Cover photo: NBC/Photofest.

(ABOVE) The magical Barbara Eden, as captured by photographer Michael Caulfield. Courtesy of Joseph Trainor/Hansom & Schwam Public Relations.

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retro interview

Air Force psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Bellows, whose suspicions about Major Nelson’s bizarre behavior (in response to Jeannie’s magical mayhem) left him routinely befuddled. Created by Sidney Sheldon, the screenwriter/producer-turned-bestselling novelist who also brought us the TV faves The Patty Duke Show and Hart to Hart, I Dream of Jeannie’s 139 episodes originally ran from 1965–1970… but never went away.

Twenty minutes to talk, so much to talk about…

But Ms. Eden has done the heavy lifting for me in her magical, intimate memoir, Jeannie Out of the Bottle, written with Wendy Leigh. When it was first published in 2011 the book debuted at number 14 on the New York Times bestseller list! It’s a fascinating read, and is still available from major and online booksellers.

Since her life and career story were told in detail in her book, that enabled me to sit back and simply enjoy my telephone chat with her, which took place on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. What follows is an edited transcription of our conversation.

RetroFan: Hello, this is Michael Eury.

Barbara Eden: Hello, Michael Eury. This is Barbara Eden.

RF: Good morning! Thank you for calling me today and spending a few minutes with me. I know we’re on the clock, so let’s get started.

BE: Well, it’s my pleasure. Where are you?

RF: I’m in New Bern, North Carolina.

BE: I’ve been to North Carolina, but I don’t think I’ve ever been there.

I Dream of Jeannie title card, and (RIGHT) a cel of dancing Jeannie and her bottle from the show’s animated intro.

I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. Title card courtesy of Ernest Farino. Cel courtesy of Heritage.

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Welcome to Mayberry! Publicity shot of Don Knotts (Barney Fife), guest star Barbara Eden (Ellen Brown), and Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), from “The Manicurist,” The Andy Griffith Show Season Two/Episode 16, originally aired January 22, 1962. © Mayberry Enterprises.

RF: It’s a coastal city and the colonial capital of North Carolina, so there’s a lot of history here, as well as beauty. It’s a nice place to live, and I work from my home office.

BE: You’re lucky.

RF: I agree. And I get to speak with wonderful people like you for my magazine, RetroFan. We dig up stories behind the stories of the TV we watched, the toys we played with, the crazy foods

we ate, and all the fads from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties.

BE: I love it!

RF: I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your career before you appeared on I Dream of Jeannie. You were in one of my favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, “The Manicurist.”

BE: Isn’t that interesting? I’m so glad you liked it.

RF: But before that, you got your start on the Johnny Carson Show, early in Johnny’s career, did you not?

BE: Oh, yes. That was way at the beginning of his career. He had this big break as Red Skelton’s summer replacement and my agent sent me down there. I was taking anything. I was trying to make a living.

[My agent] said, “Barbara, wear the dress.”

He meant, I had one sexy dress. It was one of those spaghetti-strap, cotton, kind-oftight dresses. I said, “All right.”

I wore the dress and had a white fuzzy coat because it was really cold. I parked in the parking lot and it was freezing. I left the coat on and went inside. CBS, on Fairfax, was freezing cold at that time. It was colder inside than outside, so I left the coat on. I went to the sixth floor and walked in and they took me right away [for the audition].

I felt like a fool to just take my coat off…

“Ta-da!” So I left it on through the whole interview and didn’t get the job, of course.

My agent called and said, “What happened?” I said, “I didn’t get the job; I know I didn’t get it.” He said, “Tell me exactly what you did.” I told him and he said, “Barbara, next week they have another audition. Take… the… coat… off!” So I did. I wore the same dress and left the coat off. At that time, when you auditioned, they asked you your background, where you studied, what you did, blah, blah, blah, and I told them. I was a member of Actor’s Equity and worked at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and so after that, I was walking down the hall and there were some men at the water fountain and one of them detached himself. He came over and put his arm through mine and said, “You don’t mind, do you?” I said, “No.” He said, “They said I wouldn’t do this.” We walked to the elevator and he said, “Were you in [for the Carson interview]?” I said, “Yes, I was.” He said, “Did you get the job?” I said, “Nope.” I was sure I didn’t. He said as the doors were closing, he put his foot in and said, “We’ll see you later.”

Well, that was the producer of the show.

I didn’t know that, but I did get the job.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Bill Daily, Wayne Rogers, Barbara Eden, and Hayden Rorke, in a publicity photo for the 1985 reunion telefilm I Dream of Jeannie…

Fifteen Years Later. © Sony Pictures Television.

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Consequently, after doing that job, I did six more shows with the same director.

He apologized to me. He said, “I fell into that trap. We all think if you’re not stupid and you can’t sing off-key, you can’t do it. I forget people train to do this, you know?” I felt really good about it, but bad about it at the same time. Gee whiz. It wasn’t my talent that got me the part—it was a walk down the hall! [chuckles] He was a lovely man, and I was lucky.

Yes, that started me doing comedy sketches with Johnny.

RF: Our readers might not know that this was before Johnny Carson became the king of late-night TV, predating him succeeding Jack Parr on the Tonight Show.

[See sidebar.]

BE: Yes. He was filling in for Red Skelton and it was more comedy sketches and musical numbers—things like that. I think he had a very small [radio] show in the L.A. area, but this was a step up for him.

RF: Let’s talk about how you segued into I Dream of Jeannie, which started in 1965.

How were you cast in that show?

BE: I don’t have a clue! You know, I really don’t! I had been reading about it, and by the time that came along I was very experienced in show biz. I had cut my teeth in film. When I came to L.A., I’d done a lot of stage work and was a member of Actor’s Equity, but I did not know camera work until I was under contract to Fox, but when I left Fox and was reading about this in Variety and their casting all these gorgeous beauty-contest winners [for the

© CBS Television.

retro interview

HEEEEERE’S JOHNNY (AND BARBARA, TOO)

Early in Barbara Eden’s career she had bit parts in The Johnny Carson Show—not to be confused with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the late-night program for which the comedian/talk show host became an entertainment icon.

Carson landed in Hollywood in 1951 after launching his broadcasting career in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1948. He began to build an audience in L.A. by hosting the radio show Carson’s Cellar. Carson soon began writing monologues for The Red Skelton Show, which but him on the radar of Skelton’s network, CBS. The Johnny Carson Show, a halfhour comedy-variety show airing on CBS on Thursday evenings at 10:00 p.m., debuted June 30, 1955.

Despite the burgeoning talent of its star, as well as Eden, the program floundered and was last telecast on March 29, 1956.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

BY WILL MURRAY I’m not often offered the opportunity to interview the star of a favorite childhood TV program. But one came my way back when I was writing for Starlog magazine. My editor asked if I wanted to talk with Roy Thinnes, of Quinn Martin’s The Invaders.

Would I? I loved that TV show!

I got the assignment. But I never got the interview. Thinnes would consent only if the profile was written by the head of his fan club.

This was not acceptable to my editor, who preferred writers he knew. He passed. Thinnes declined. I was disappointed.

Happily, years later, a Starlog interview was done. But not by me. C’est la vie.

But I still love that show. I had an interest in UFO reports, and I used to fantasize about crossovers with top TV shows at that time.

What if the Green Hornet uncovered an Invaders operation? The similarity between the aliens’ green utility togs and THRUSH’s gray coveralls made me wonder how agents Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin would tackle them. Pitting U.N.C.L.E. against the Invaders would have been interesting, but their tones were diametrically opposed. The Invaders was deadly serious.

A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION

The origins of The Invaders are complex. Producer Quinn Martin wanted to replicate his long-running success, The Fugitive, which revolved around a falsely accused man fleeing justice. The Invaders reversed that idea. Unlike Doctor Richard Kimble, architect David Vincent wasn’t on the run. He was on the attack.

Series originator Larry Cohen claimed the show was based on a favorite Fifties movie. “It was inspired by The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I’d seen when it came out as a B-movie,” Cohen said. “The idea of aliens on Earth in human form I thought would be a good format for a television program. Using aliens who had infiltrated society was a way of dramatizing the preoccupation with Communist infiltration of the United States and the paranoia that was spreading over the country. The hunt for subversives became the hunt for aliens.”

Cohen’s conception was more Alfred Hitchcock than Quinn Martin. “I always liked the Hitchcock movie where the hero is in a situation where he’s the only one that knows the spies are operating, and no one will believe him. And when he takes the police back to the locale where he saw their operation, everything has been removed, there’s no more evidence, everybody lies and says that he was never there before.”

Martin and Cohen quickly came to a parting of the ways. Cohen left behind 22 story outlines, none of which were filmed because they were designed for the half-hour cliffhanger format ABC borrowed for Batman. “The Invaders’ original format would have had continuing alien characters and been more like a serial,” he explained.

The storyline was ripped from the headlines of 1965–1967. The nation was engulfed in a prolonged flying saucer sightings “flap.”

Waves of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) were constantly being reported. Witnesses claimed to have seen non-human pilots.

Fascination and ridicule resulted.

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Roy Thinnes caught Martin’s eye for the role of David Vincent, who Cohen had named after horror legend Vincent Price. Thinnes had a recurring role in ABC’s Long Hot Summer and didn’t want to do science fiction.

“I was negative about the whole thing,” he recalled.

But Quinn Martin was one of the biggest producers in television, a man one didn’t turn down. Thinnes’ agent practically ordered the actor to take a meeting.

As the actor later reminisced, “Quinn said, ‘This is not just science fiction. It was a study in paranoia. One man against many others––or maybe the whole world. As David Janssen kept trying to prove his innocence, this is going to be a study of a man who knew something and couldn’t convince the rest of the world that we are in danger.’ By the time he finished, I was absolutely convinced that I should do The Invaders.”

TRUST NO ONE

The Invaders pilot was shot in March 1966. The episode “Beachhead” opens with Vincent pulling over one night because he can’t stay awake––only to witness an alien spacecraft land. He rushes to warn the local authorities, who don’t believe him. After his business partner is murdered by aliens, Vincent embarks on a one-man crusade to warn the world.

In the middle of filming, ABC picked up The Invaders as a series.

On April 17, something strangely synchronistic happened that inspired Thinnes’ portrayal of Vincent. Ohio Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur found himself chasing a UFO for more than 80 miles. As a result of his report, he lost his job, his wife divorced him, and his life was never the same.

“This is the way it is with David Vincent,” Thinnes said at the time. “Although the circumstances are different, his life is wrecked and he is considered a crackpot when he tries to warn people.”

Director Robert Butler considered Thinnes an excellent choice.

“Roy’s a strong actor and he conveyed a kind of heroism. Vincent’s character motivation wasn’t to destroy the aliens, even though he knew they were the enemy. It was to reveal them to the world at large. His obsession, his single purpose, that resolve, made for a clarity for the character and for the audience. To get proof of their existence, he had to involve himself with the aliens. That made for good storytelling.”

In that debut episode, the first alien-in-humanform Vincent battled was played by actor Skip Ward.

Ironically, Ward had been Quinn Martin’s back-up selection if Thinnes had declined the starring role.

It was a challenging part. Martin was known for doing adult crime dramas. The Invaders was science fiction––or was it? A fine line between UFO headlines and speculation had to be walked.

“We talked at great length about the show and about the subject of UFOs and we decided the people should slowly be exposed,” Thinnes recounted. “Otherwise the character could be thought to be obsessed.”

“The approach we have taken is realism,” asserted producer Allen Armer, “believing that the incredible, treated in down-to-earth, recognizable terms, can be made twice as terrifying, twice as chilling. And we tailored our stories to dramatize one point of view: It could be happening now!”

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Quinn Martin, executive producer of The Invaders.

In The Invaders, the aliens had already infiltrated human society, thanks to their ability to artificially mimic the human form. This was straight out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Aliens seemed to be everywhere. They were cops, scientists, politicians, and average people.

Increasingly, Vincent learns he can trust no one. It made for tense, dramatic situations. Just about any time Vincent made an ally, the aliens eliminated them. Any time he managed to kill an alien, they simply incinerated in a red glow, leaving no trace.

Aliens could be identified in one of several ways. They had no pulse or heartbeats, no circulatory system or skeletons, and they were entirely emotionless. Also, their little finger stuck out at an awkward angle.

“Except for the mutation of the little finger and the glowing business,” Thinnes revealed, “we stay away from all the outer-space gimmicks. Our only concession is an alien weapon, a small disc that fits in the palm of the hand. When used by the enemy on a human’s neck, it will cause a heart attack.”

This was revised to a cerebral hemorrhage.

Scripter Robert Sherman complained, “The silliest thing for me about The Invaders were the crooked pinky fingers to show they’re aliens. That struck me as idiocy. They could have done something else: a slightly different flesh tone or that they never blink or that they don’t have tongues. But a crooked pinky? Come on, that’s silly!”

The Invaders’ Roy Thinnes as alien-chaser David Vincent. (INSET) Writer Larry Cohen named the Vincent character after horror legend Vincent Price. The Invaders © Paramount Home Entertainment.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

The actor may have been referring to the need to introduce more special effects elements than originally planned. The aliens were given ray guns and other weird weapons. Contrary to Quinn Martin’s original directive against showing them, additional flying saucers landed in several episodes.

Over time, Vincent became increasingly paranoid, single-minded, and willing to take risks. He sometimes posed as other people in order to infiltrate businesses he suspected were alien fronts. He did not make many friends. Enemies, he accumulated tons. And not all of them were from a distant galaxy.

The aliens hatched numerous outrageous plots from attempting to take over the United States defense industry to destroying Earth’s atmospheric oxygen, and breeding carnivorous insects to ravage civilization.

Even though he was an architect, Vincent somehow managed to thwart most of these plots without achieving a decisive victory.

The aliens, who are almost always portrayed as remote and unfeeling creatures, were seldom differentiated. Glimpses of their true form were rare. In one episode, The Day the Earth Stood Still’s Michael Rennie played Magnus, an alien leader who tries to convince Vincent that the Invaders are really benevolent. It doesn’t fly. Vincent has seen too much death and destruction at their hands.

Branded a kook, David Vincent rarely cracked the skeptical barrier.

Occasionally, he made a tentative ally in the U.S. military establishment, who promised official investigations.

This slow progress blew wide open in the second season. A new associate producer came in who veered the focus away from the fantastic toward more relevant storylines. Racial themes were addressed. Ratings suffered.

Scripter John W. Bloch recalled, “The second year was frantic.

They panicked too early and worked out of desperation. The ratings were low and it was just it was a case of ‘What can we do to boost the ratings?’ But in doing something that fast, you begin to cut away at the edges of your solid premise. There was a kind of hysteria in finding new approaches for the show.”

Various ideas were floated. Consideration was given to casting a younger partner for Vincent, perhaps a teenager to capture that demographic.

Thinnes suggested introducing some good aliens to counter the bad to make the aliens seem less like emotionless robots. “I don’t really disagree with the concept,” he observed, “but the idea of friendly creatures from another planet seems reasonable, and I think it would widen the vista and stimulate the writers.”

That idea was introduced in “The Life Seekers,” and explored further in the next episode, “The Pursued,” wherein Suzanne Pleshette returned as a sympathetic yet psychotic alien who cooperates to help expose the invasion plan.

Previously, she had portrayed a similar character in Thinnes’ favorite episode, “The Mutation.” “It was a love story with an alien, played by Suzanne Pleshette,” Thinnes reminisced. “The aliens considered her to be deficient because she had human emotions, and she actually fell in love with David Vincent, and vice versa. She was my favorite. I loved working with her.”

(AT LEFT) Invaders screenshots showing the aliens’ telltale pinky, Kent Smith as Edgar Scoville, Carol Lynley with Thinnes in “The Believers,” and the red glow. The Invaders © Paramount Home Entertainment.

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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

Hollywood Epics

in Your Own Home! (in 8mm)

WRITTEN AND CAPTIONED BY ERNEST FARINO

Boy, are we spoiled.

Let’s pop in a DVD or fire up Netflix and revisit Casablanca or travel to the Forbidden Planet or check out the latest episode of Downton Abbey. Or, for that matter, just about any movie or TV series covered in any given issue of RetroFan magazine. Disney+, HBOMax, Amazon, Hulu, Peacock, Turner Classic Movies, Nickelodeon, MeTV, The Game Show Network, ESPN, CNN, The Golf Channel—it’s hard to believe that we once had to settle for three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), PBS, and UHF (show of hands: who remembers UHF…?). And don’t forget to wrap the tips of your rabbit-ears antenna with tin foil.

And, of course, we had to wait months (sometimes years) for a movie to show up on Saturday Night at the Movies. Otherwise, gotta catch it at the theater or drive-in.

Yet there was an alternative. Not great like the DVDs and streaming we have today, but any port in a storm: 8mm home movies.

Actually, 16mm was the original format, film that was half the width of theatrical 35mm. The Bell & Howell 2709 camera was used in early silent films, and cameras such as the Filmo, Eyemo, Autoload EE, and the N-6A military 16mm “gun” camera were commonly used by newsreel cameramen and combat photographers during WWII. B&H Filmosound projectors dominated the market for many years, and I still have a 16mm Filmosound projector, originally built in the Fifties.

Eugene Castle formed Castle Films in 1924 to distribute 16mm newsreels and sports highlights by mail order and in photo stores. His films were also rented for non-theatrical exhibition in schools or non-profit community venues. His primary products were “soundies,” the music videos of the day. For a dime in a machine you could view a “soundie” of Glenn Miller’s orchestra. Around 1947, Castle sold his company to United World Films. The new owners made a deal with Universal Studios to release scenes from Universal movies, most notably Abbott and Costello films, monster movies, and Walter Lantz cartoons.

Bell & Howell introduced their first amateur 8mm movie projector in 1934, the Filmo Straight Eight camera in 1935, and the Double-Run Filmo 8 in 1936. In 1940, the Filmo Auto-8 camera took a 25-foot reel of Kodak Double-Eight film.

The new “home movie” market had arrived. Amateurs were making their own RETROFAN

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Ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

ADVERTISING

The ads were almost as much fun as the films themselves. I used to become mesmerized by the film listings in the back pages of Famous Monsters magazine, imagining a whole line-up of screenings in my garage-based neighborhood “theater.” Which, of course, never came about (the idle dreams of youth…). The ”Cliff Monster” was advertised in the rival magazine Fantastic Monsters of the Films and was made up of clips of monsters created by Paul Blaisdell, including It Conquered the World, The Day the World Ended, and other films he worked on for American International.

BEASTS AND BEHEMOTHS

MonsterKid Heaven: Everything from stop-motion animation to guys in rubber suits, from giant spiders to giant behemoths. Great monster stuff without all those— yuck—mushy romantic subplots.

King Kong © The Merian C. Cooper Estate. Godzilla and Rodan © Toho Co., Ltd.

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RETRO FANZINES

BY DON VAUGHAN Like many RetroFan readers, I was a MonsterKid in my youth. And not just a weekend dabbler—I was hardcore. I watched every classic horror/SF movie I could find on television, as well as new releases at the theater. The first comic book I ever purchased was Where Monsters Dwell #5, a 1970 Marvel reprint title that snagged my 15 cents with a kick-ass, action-filled Jack Kirby cover. I read Shelley’s Frankenstein, Stoker’s Dracula, Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and numerous other monsterific literary classics because they were the foundation of pretty much everything I loved in popular culture. Science fiction and horror were my personal passions, regardless of form, and if a work contained monsters, all the better.

As a card-carrying MonsterKid, Forest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland was my pop-culture bible. I occasionally read the competition, such as Castle of Frankenstein and, later, Cinefan-

tastique, but Famous Monsters was my favorite. Sure, Uncle Forry could go overboard with the bad puns, but the amazing photos contained in each issue were a visual treat, and I dreamed of seeing my name in “You Axed For It.” A dream unfulfilled, though not for a lack of trying.

In early January 1972, a new publication hit the stands—The Monster Times. Similar in theme to Famous Monsters of Filmland, The Monster Times was different in two very significant ways: it was published in tabloid newspaper format, and came out every two weeks (as opposed to Famous Monsters’ bimonthly publication).

That’s a LOT of monsters.

The publishers of The Monster Times were Larry Brill and Les Waldstein, veteran art directors who worked on such esteemed publications as Al Goldstein’s tawdry sex rag, Screw, and—wait for it—Famous Monsters of Filmland. In the late Sixties, Brill and

Creepy! Kooky! And cool! From 1972, The Monster Times #1 and 2. © The Monster Times Publishing Company. Courtesy of Heritage.

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retro FANZINES

(FAR LEFT) Ten times as big as a man! Or a woman!

King Kong original cover art produced by the extraordinary Gray Morrow for The Monster Times #1.

(LEFT) Cover to The Monster Times #18.

King Kong © The Merian C. Cooper Estate. Courtesy of Heritage.

Waldstein were hired by publisher James Warren to compose covers for Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie, and a number of one-shot publications. It was a great gig until the duo got in a fight with Warren over a commission deal and were fired.

Shortly after leaving Warren Publications, Brill and Waldstein began talking in earnest about publishing a competitor to Famous Monsters of Filmland. “We chose the tabloid style because… newspaper was cheap—glossy covers were expensive,” Brill told writer Richard Klemensen in Little Shoppe of Horrors #43. “That’s why we folded it down to that size of a magazine to get on newsstands.”

From the start, The Monster Times tried to be all things to all MonsterKids. It covered monster movies, both vintage and new, from a variety of perspectives; featured interviews with prominent actors and others; published illustrations by established and up-and-coming artists; listed upcoming conventions; and more— all for just 50 cents an issue.

When The Monster Times debuted, the Mafia still had its fingers in national magazine distribution—including the company that carried The Monster Times. But according to Brill, the relationship was anything but problematic. “The Mafia gave us a fair count,” he said in Little Shoppe of Horrors. “They weren’t lying to us about… how many we were printing and how many they sold… They paid their bills exactly on time; they would give us Christmas presents.”

The first issue, dated January 26, 1972, immediately set the tone with a King Kong cover drawn by Gray Morrow and a feature about the super-sized cinema simian by film researcher Steve Vertlieb; a slightly revised version of which was later published in the book The Girl in the Hairy Paw (Avon), edited by Ronald Gotteman and Harry Geduld. Other feature articles examined movie vampires, the Golem, Buck Rogers, movie monsters created by atomic bombs, and H. G. Wells’ Things to Come.

Monsters were well represented in the premiere issue, but there also was a special treat for comic-book fans—a centerfold illustrating the creation of Frankenstein’s monster, and a two-page Nosferatu comic strip, both drawn by Bernie (then Berni) 30

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Wrightson. The artist was just approaching the height of his popularity, with the first issue of DC Comics’ Swamp Thing only a few months away. Wrightson would go on to do additional work for The Monster Times, including the cover of issue #6.

The centerfold poster was a selling point from the very start, and indicative of the artistic influence Brill and Waldstein held over the publication. While specific editors made assignments and handled other editorial duties, Brill and Waldstein designed each cover and worked closely with the editor-in-chief regarding the content and layout of each issue.

“There’s no question that The Monster Times was Les and Larry’s publication,” writer Joe Brancatelli told Richard Klemensen in Little Shoppe of Horrors. “They drove the book and that drove the content.

To say Les and Larry ‘handled the physical layout’ totally underplays the reality. They WERE The Monster Times.”

The magazine had several editors over its 48-issue run. Chuck R. McNaughton held the position for the first seven issues, followed

by Allan Asherman (issues #8–10) and Joe Kane (#11–48). Working with them was an eclectic array of writers, some newbies at the time, others magazine veterans. Gary Gerani fell under the first category, a recent graduate of the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan with no publishing credits to his name.

“I had never been published before, and was still uncertain if I was going to pursue journalism for my career or continue to develop as a professional illustrator,” Gerani tells RetroFan. “Selling my first piece to The Monster Times kind of made up my mind, and a writer’s career was launched. Being a huge fan of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films, I was excited to see a new publication come into being, and became more excited when I began to write for it.”

Gerani wrote numerous articles for The Monster Times and came to specialize in monster “autobiographies,” which shared factual information about a monster or series in a light and fanciful way.

“The Creature from the Black Lagoon one was so successful, they had me doing those kinds of humorous-but-informative articles for a while,” Gerani tells RetroFan. “That actually led to me landing

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Hanna-Barbera’s

Super-Heroes of the

Sixties!

BY SCOTT SHAW! When it came to animated cartoons, as a little kid I always loved the funny stuff. That’s probably because all of the cartoons were funny stuff: Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse, Baby Huey, and most of the rest of the classic characters. Their syndicated shorts were sold in cartoon “packages” culled from all of the great animation studios of the past, except Disney (it had the Mickey Mouse Club TV series to run its cartoon shorts). Fortunately, most of the old cartoons were great, and some of them were incredible. Max Fleischer’s 1936 animated featurette Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was a standout, about as close to a super-hero clobberfest as anything I’d ever seen on film.

One day, I was watching “Uncle Russ” Plummer, the host of The Johnny Jet Show on San Diego’s XETV Channel 6, broadcasting from south of the Mexican border. I didn’t care much for him—I’d met him at a local event and he was drunk—but I often entered (and won) the drawing contests he held on his show, named after his pet parakeet Johnny Jet, the series’ host. Every weekday, that poor

little bird had to endure the unasked-for routine of perching on a miniature rocketship “propelled” by a spark-emitting “sparkler” only about two inches away from the bird. I was always so focused on Johnny Jet’s predicament, I don’t even recall any of the cartoons that Uncle Russ aired… except one.

EARLY SUPER-TOONS

It was the Fleischer Studios’ second-to-last Superman cartoon [coming in a future RetroFan—ed.], “The Underground World” (1943), about a race of birdmen living in a huge, isolate cavern. I knew who Superman was because George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman TV show [see RetroFan #11] was concurrently airing during the days of The Johnny Jet Show and also because I’d received my first-ever super-hero comic book, Superboy #57, in 1957 when I was stuck in the hospital to have my tonsils removed. I’d never seen anything like it. I tuned in the next day, but there were no more Superman cartoons to follow on Uncle Russ’ low-budget budgieshow, that day or ever. I was as mystified as I was when, a year

(ABOVE) Spaaaace Ghooost! Biiiiirdmaaaan! Hanna-Barbera’s Sixties super-heroes did a lot of yelling! Title cels from six Sixties super-faves. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

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The Oddball world of scott shaw!

or two later, I saw a Commander Cody serial episode during a kids’ matinee at the Navy base on San Diego’s Coronado Island. In both cases, their very existence raised questions in me that came fast and urgent:

What the heck had I just seen?

Where did it come from?

And where could I find MORE? The entertainment that came the closest was a feature-length cartoon called Alakazam the Great (1960), a Disneyesque feature film starring a monkey with super-powers fighting a weird bullcreature, giant scorpion, and other monsters. My hero, comedian Jonathan Winters, had a voiceover role in the film, too. It wasn’t super-heroes, exactly, but the action scenes and overall gravitas was pretty close to that Superman cartoon. Again, more of the same questions, although Kimba the White Lion would come along soon—the term “anime” didn’t even exist until the Seventies—and verify my hunch that Japanese cartoons had a specific style and pace much different from the cartoons by the Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward stuff I usually studied. And even H-B was changing.

Although I was unaware of fandom, between the newspaper and TV Guide, I discovered a revolutionary new cartoon show that would soon air at nighttime on ABC. The Adventures of Jonny Quest [see RetroFan #7] only lasted for a single season (1964–1965), but it made a huge impression on the animation industry and its viewers. Although originally based on a radio show called Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, Jonny— voiced by Tim Matheson—was very similar to “Victor Appleton II’s” Tom Swift, Jr., a series of kids’ books from Grossett and Dunlap.

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Jonny was a smart, brave pre-teen with a respected scientist for a dad. The show’s style and tone mimicked the look of hand-inked comic strips or comic books. It was very experimental and quite expensive for Hanna-Barbera, therefore Jonny Quest was never picked up for more seasons until decades later. It was endlessly rerun on all three networks after the show left ABC. There were no super-heroes in the Doug Wildey-created sci-fi adventure series, but Quest arch-foe Dr. Zin certainly could pass as a super-villain, and there were plenty of monsters, robots, and gravitas, too. Jonny Quest was very effective and got the attention of every boy I knew; and a few girls, too, who dug Race Bannon. Jonny even appeared in an animated commercial for P. F. Flyers tennis shoes!

Created in 1960 by the notorious Sam Singer—Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse’s “Ed Wood of Animation”—Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt was about a pre-teen boy who gained the strength of 50 men when he tightened his belt… a super-power! His sidekick was Salty the parrot. Even though a few episodes of Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt were made for the Trans-Arts Company, early on, the deal collapsed. After an agreement with American International Pictures—which had recently released a fantasy movie from Japan, The Magic Voyage of Sindbad—Hanna-Barbera took over and finished the rest of the 102 five-minute cartoons. The series was syndicated and appeared on TV in 1965. I’m sure it had fans, but it wasn’t particularly successful and very few of the animated shorts have survived.

Character model cel from Jonny Quest, featuring the cast designed by Doug Wildey—who was profiled in RetroFan #7. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

RETRO INTERVIEW

Tommy Cook Remembers

BY SHAUN CLANCY You may recognize Tommy Cook (b. 1930) as a child actor—he was barely ten when he became famous as Little Beaver in the 1940 Adventures of Red Ryder movie serial.

He was also a veteran of radio plays and other films, growing up behind the radio mic (Red Ryder, Blondie, The Life of Riley, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) or in front of the camera, appearing in movies including Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946), Teenage Crime Wave (1955), Send Me No Flowers (1964), and the cult horror classic, The Thing with Two Heads (1972). In the late Sixties through the Seventies, he was a voice actor in numerous Saturday morning cartoons, including The Funky Phantom, Jeannie, Jabberjaw, and CB Bears (he was even Kid Flash in the “Flash” and “Teen Titans” segments of the Superman/ Aquaman Hour of Adventure!).

(ABOVE) TV Guide clips from 1973, promoting ABC’s airing of the soon-to-belegendary “Battle of the Sexes.” © ABC. Courtesy of Shaun Clancy.

Being a devotee of old-time radio, I arranged a telephone interview, conducted January 11, 2020, with Mr. Cook to discuss his radio days. But during our conversation I discovered—as you will, too, in the interview transcription that follows—that Tommy, as a Southern California junior

tennis player, had a wild career on and off the court that led to his involvement with creating one of the most significant sporting—and pop culture—events of the Seventies, “The Battle of the Sexes,” a his-versus-hers tennis match between Bobby Riggs, age 55, and Billie Jean King, RETROFAN

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retro interview

age 29. And thanks to RetroFan, you’ve got a courtside seat to the match that made history on September 20, 1973!

RetroFan: You you had some involvement with the Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match held back in 1973. Tell me about your tennis background and what your participation was with that historical event.

Tommy Cook: When I was in my junior years, barely five-feet, seven inches, I patterned my tennis game after Bobby Riggs, and would defensively outsmart and outfight [opponents]. Bobby was sort of my tennis hero. And now, the top tennis tournament in the western part of the United States would take place at the L.A. Tennis Club. I had played in the junior tennis tournaments, near West Hollywood, and was also a ball boy when I was very young.

I was there for the Women’s Tournament Finals that Billie Jean King was participating in.

At this event, there was a big dispute going on with Billie Jean King when she was playing her friend, Rosemary Casals. One of the people sitting to call lines had fallen asleep and didn’t call a shot, which created a big uproar. Jack Kramer was the director of the tournament at the time and a good friend of mine. They brought Jack Kramer out on the court, and the guy who missed the call was now well awake. Jack said, “Just continue.” But both women said, “Well, if you don’t get rid of this guy, we’re not going to continue.” To which Jack replied, “If you don’t continue, you’ll be defaulted and you won’t receive your checks.” And so they continued.

During that confrontation, I saw what was happening between Jack Kramer and Billie Jean King, and that put a thought in my head: “What would it be like if there was a match between a man and a woman? A young woman at the top of her game and a middle-aged guy, retired, and no longer playing the big tournaments, to make it even?” Knowing Bobby [Riggs], I went to him and sold him on the idea. He loved it.

I knew that he had the kind of personality that would stir up a crowd because he was a great showman and a former great world champion. He was the only player to win Wimbledon—Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles—in the same year. Nobody’s ever done that.

Unbeknownst to Bobby, I also signed Jack Kramer to play Billie Jean King. Kramer 52

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Cook’s roles over the years include The Adventures of Red Ryder (1940), Teenage Crime Wave (1955), and lots of Saturday morning cartoons including Filmation’s Kid Flash!!

Red Ryder © Republic Pictures.

Teenage Crime Wave © Columbia Pictures. Flash and Kid Flash © DC Comics. Posters and cel courtesy of Heritage. Cook photo: IMDb.com.

and Riggs didn’t know about each other being signed, but Billie did. I did this because Bobby had all the personality for this, but Jack Kramer was better known.

Although they were both retired, Jack Kramer was much more current in the trades, as well as a friend of mine. As far as putting the match together, I’d let the network and sponsors decide.

Well, my option ran out—I had a 90-day option contract with Jack Kramer, a 90-day option contract with Billie Jean King, and a 90-day option contract with Bobby Riggs, to put on “The Battle of the Sexes.” I got some sponsor interest, but when I went to the networks, they said, “See the door? Use it.”

RF: So what happened next?

TC: I just couldn’t come up with a deal in the 90 days to put the project together. Bobby still loved the idea, so with me out of it, he went to the press and challenged the best women in the world to play the match.

Margaret Court of Australia took him up on it for $10,000. She had beaten Billie Jean King and was currently the #1 woman player in the world. ABC took it on. They

retro interview

televised it, and Jackie Barnett was the producer.

But ABC made a terrible faux pas—it was for only one deal. They played at the San Diego Country Estates, and I went down there with Bobby and took my wife. It was on Mother’s Day, and Bobby had a bouquet of roses he presented to Margaret before the match. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Please, I’m an old guy—don’t make me look like a fool. Let me win a game or two.” It blew her mind, and then Bobby went right through her! He beat her easily.

When that match was over with, the press went crazy! Several of my friends like Gene Mako—former world champion—could not believe what happened. I remember Bobby standing by the tennis fence and publicists asking him about being the man of the hour. Jerry Perenchio—who started out as an agent at William Morris and became a partner with Norman Lear, and eventually became a billionaire—saw the match on ABC-TV, along with 40 million others, and sent a plane to pick up Bobby Riggs in Palm Springs, and soon Jerry and Bobby became partners and made a lot of money with sponsors like Sugar Daddy.

Jerry put together “The Battle of the Sexes” at the Houston Astrodome.

The people at ABC went bananas because they lost out. We got close to standing-room-only, which could seat about 50,000 people. Jerry and I were great friends, and Billie Jean King almost blew the match before it started. Two or three weeks before the match was scheduled to

go on, she decided she wouldn’t play the match if Jack Kramer was going to do the color commentary. So Jack was nice enough to bow out, but was paid, and we brought in somebody else. We lost about 5,000 to 10,000 spectators because of that switch.

We could’ve really filled out the stadium, but we did have close to over 40,000 people there.

The match went on, and Billie legitimately beat Bobby. A lot of people thought he purposely blew the match. He was bleeding at the time and years later, came down with prostate cancer, which he eventually died from in 1995. He and Billie Jean King did patch things up and were good friends towards the end of his life. That’s how “The Battle of the Sexes” happened.

RF: Bobby Riggs showed up in a Sugar Daddy costume. Were you aware of that beforehand?

TC: Oh, yeah! Bobby had a ball with it and was wonderful! He played that to the hilt!

RF: Didn’t Billie Jean King give him a live pig, as in male chauvinist pig, at the beginning?

TC: No, I don’t think so, but it was something like that.

(ABOVE) Bobby Riggs, Tommy Cook’s wife Elisabeth, and Tommy Cook (in background). (LEFT) Signed agreement between promoter Tommy Cook and tennis star Billie Jean King, from 1971.

Courtesy of Tommy Cook.

RF: What happened after the Riggs-King match?

TC: I tried later to put Chris Evert together with Pancho Segura—“The Two-Fisted Battle of the Ages”—because they both used two hands on their backhand. I signed Pancho Segura personally to a contract. I went to Florida to see Chris Evert and her father—he was her manager at the time until she signed on with big-time sports management company, International Management Group [IMG]—and made the proposal.

I said, “Under the table, we’ll pay a lot more.” She said, “No way I’ll play Pancho Segura—he’ll beat the heck out of me.” And he would have, too. We had the deal all set to play in Las Vegas—all the arrangements—but she wouldn’t play the match.

RF: Did you stay in touch with Bobby Riggs?

TC: Bobby became a great friend, and after he lost the match with Billie Jean King, I would bring him with me to participate in my charity tennis tournaments. He would get up at six in the morning and go on the air and television, publicizing the event.

Then he would gamble with Vinnie Van Patten. His father, Dickie [actor Dick] Van Patten, was a big gambler, and Vinnie used to put on a fake moustache when he was 15, fly to Vegas, and play the crap tables like he was an adult!

I kept up that relationship with Bobby, and I went to his funeral in Palm Springs.

Those were glory days.

RF: I had a friend, Ed Silverman, who was once the Director of News and Public Affairs for WABC-TV, the network’s New York flagship station. During World War II, Ed was stationed in Hawaii with Bobby Riggs.

He told me, “One of the guys who was in our Navy unit in Hawaii was the tennis player Bobby Riggs—the great hustler.

Riggs was an absolute fantastic player and he was a con man. At the Chief Petty Officer’s Club, they used to have this big ping-pong table and they used to play table tennis for money. Riggs, in addition to being a great tennis player, was also a great table-tennis player. So, he’d hustle these guys and he’d say, ‘I’ll play you lefthanded,’ but, of course, Riggs was ambidextrous. That didn’t convince anyone, so he said, ‘All right, I’ll play you with my left hand tied behind my back and play you RETROFAN

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA Draw me. You can do it. First make an oval. Then add the details. Easy, right?

I’ve been drawing me ever since I developed interesting facial features, which, sadly, happened at an early age. And by interesting I mean a nose that points left, ears that appear to be peeling off of my head, and—long ago—a rough shock of poorly behaved mammal hair on top of my scalp (that’s called “painting a word picture”).

My little self-caricature was the first successful thing that I ever drew because I was able to capture something that existed in the real world. Notice that I didn’t say that I drew well, just that the art produced an honest positive response. I enjoyed that.

Where Monsters Dwell #5 (Marvel, Sept. 1970) was one of my first purchased comics. The lead story was about a giant mud monster named Taboo “from out of the black nowhere.” It was actually a reprint from an earlier comic, but I knew nothing about that sort of thing then. It was also a sequel to “Taboo, the Thing From the Murky Swamp!”

So Taboo is from the “black nowhere” and the “murky swamp.” He is also “unstoppable.” That is, until his fellow beings arrive from outer space in a muddy space ship (which is analogous to the space shuttle being made of skin, right?), indicating that Taboo is from nowhere, the swamp, and outer space. I loved that story and the entire comic book for that matter and thought it’d be simply swell to be able to make something like that. But I clearly didn’t have the ability and that needed to change. But how? How?! © Marvel.

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED

Pencil.

Eraser.

Any brand paper.

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Scott Saavedra’s secret sanctum

So I realized decisively pretty early on that what I wanted to draw was comic books. Or work for MAD. Or maybe do something for Disney (design rides, that could be fun). Stuff along those lines.

Or perhaps become an F.B.I. agent (I lacked a certain focus). But you needed talent and skill. You also needed to be an adult, and I was ten. Clearly, my dreams weren’t going to come true overnight (not that that wouldn’t be nice). Since I wanted to expand my artistic répertoire beyond my own face, I did what millions of Americans did back then when they wanted something, I turned my attention to the Sears catalog. Specifically, the holiday Wish Book edition.

The arrival of the Sears Wish Book, full as it was with thin page after thin page of toys and other items of interest, was an event equal in importance to the annual TV broadcast of The Wizard of Oz. There was always a bit of a tumble as three or more of us wanted to look at the thing Right Now, but eventually one could spend some serious personal time with it and make mental notes of dozens of must-have playthings or, for me, one of the art kits.

Realizing my interest in drawing, Sears—via my parents—came through for me one Christmas (or birthday) with a Jon Gnagy “Learn to Draw” Outfit. The contents were actually fairly modest, but I was

delighted. Then, as now, I love art supplies (also office supplies and woodworking tools, though I have never been a woodworker). The “Learn to Draw” Outfit included four pencils (one charcoal, three lead), three small pieces of chalk (white, gray, and black), a sand pad pencil sharpener, a shading stump, a kneaded eraser (one of the more fun art supplies because you can pull it apart like taffy and mold it into rough shapes), paper, a small drawing board, and a 64-page Learn to Draw with Jon Gnagy instruction book.

Learn to Draw has been with me my entire life. Gnagy filled the book with lessons on drawing objects like a covered bridge, a snowy Midwestern home, and a locomotive. All very nice, basic illustrations. The single fully fleshed-out drawing of a human person was called “Good Neighbor,” and the portrait of a lad in a sombrero looked like a puppet more than a living being.

There is a silhouette of another person in the background of this “Mexican scene.” He’s taking a siesta. Gnagy’s tip on how to cut a piece of folded paper to create a guide to creating an oval to use in rendering a sombrero is very nifty (ovals are hard). In fact, the whole book is full of neat tips and was completely worthwhile to this kid even though I have never liked drawing buildings or sombreros (seriously, ovals are hard).

Back then I had no idea who Jon Gnagy was. He was just a guy whose name and face appeared on the front of the box of some art kits and was, apparently, “America’s television art instructor.” I thought then that Gnagy looked like a beatnik, which was pretty old-fashioned circa 1970, and if he was on television I never saw it. So, who was this Jon Gnagy guy and why did he draw so many buildings?

Well, for starters, he wasn’t a beatnik.

BALL, CUBE, CYLINDER, CONE

(ABOVE) Jon Gnagy was a television, art instruction and marketing pioneer.

His “Learn to Draw” Outfit (the most basic of his art kits and still available) was featured in both Sears and Montgomery Ward (seen here) catalogs and came with this 64-page How to Draw book. This copy was the author’s introduction to properly learning to draw. (RIGHT) Gnagy’s Learn to Draw book was included with some of his art outfits. © Respective owners.

Jon Gnagy is a registered trademark.

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By the time I got the Learn to Draw kit, Jon Gnagy’s syndicated show, Learn to Draw, had long stopped producing new episodes.

Gnagy was a true pioneer, first appearing on television in 1946, when television programming was extremely primordial. With only some 6,000 sets in America, the novelty of the thing was nearly enough to entertain viewers. That year’s programs included I Love to Eat, Let’s Rhumba, and Campus Hoopla. These riveting examples of Won’t See TV were joined by You Are an Artist (debut: November 1, 1946), hosted by the soft-spoken Midwestern artist.

In the era before organized audience measurement, Gulf Oil, the sponsor of Gnagy’s show, offered a free pencil to everyone who sent in a drawing. A whopping 887 responses were received, most of them from adults. I know it doesn’t really sound like it, but in 1947 this meant that You Are an Artist was a bit of a hit.

Gnagy was born in 1907 to a strict Mennonite family. His parents encouraged Gnagy’s drawing talent, but only up to a point. Drawing people was not approved by the Mennonite culture. Even his beatnik look was actually a respectful nod to Mennonite traditions. Though self-taught, Gnagy was able to make a career for himself as a working artist. He was a little too successful, working himself to the point of illness. He pulled back on work, took up teaching art, which he enjoyed, and this ultimately led to You Are an Artist (1946–1955), a 15-minute how-to-draw show.

That was followed by an early syndicated program,

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Saturday Morning Back in RetroFan #12 (was it a year ago already?) we brought you the first installment of this fun pack of holiday-themed greetings, and it was popular enough for a sequel!

Saturday morning television was appointment viewing for anyone growing up between the Sixties and the Nineties.

From 8 a.m. to Noon, while their parents slept in from the workweek, kids could sit in front of the television and enjoy a time just for them. Cartoons—and later, live-action series—were produced by studios like Filmation Associates, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Total Television, Jay Ward Productions, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Sid and Marty Krofft, D’Angelo Productions, Marvel Productions, Sunbow Productions, RubySpears, DIC, Film Roman, and others. Mirroring Saturday

SECTION ONE – WARNER BROS. With the WB Television Network at its cartoon heyday, the very busy Warner Bros. Animation gangs sent out this card in 1999, showcasing many of their popular characters. (TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT) Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, the diminutive Shareena Wickett and imposing Eugenia Kisskillya from Detention, Superman, and Taz. (BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT) Babs Bunny and Buster Bunny, Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner, network mascot Michigan J. Frog, Batman from Batman Beyond, Pinky and the Brain, Sylvester and Tweety, Wile E. Coyote, and Father Time and Big Fat Baby from Histeria! © Warner Bros.

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mornings for primetime was Rankin-Bass, which became famous for its stop-motion holiday-themed specials.

Unlike most television studios and networks, purveyors of the world of Saturday mornings were relatively closeknit. Animators, writers, voice actors, and other crew would migrate from show to show, one season working on comedy, the next season a super-hero series. Sometimes they would work for multiple companies, though that was largely frowned upon.

But the producers of content for Saturday morning were more of a “family” than those who worked on primetime content. Many of the studios would produce Christmas and/or non-denominational holiday cards, calendars, or advertisements in December, often featuring a wide range of projects and characters from their output.

This issue for Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, I’m sharing another look at some of those studios’ holiday wishes… with a wish that you have a great year to come in 2022 and beyond!

Background image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay.

BY ANDY MANGELS

Holiday Cards

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!

(LEFT) In 1991, Warner was hot on Tiny Toons Adventures—then airing on CBS—and their holiday card reflected it. Pictured in the festive scene are (LEFT TO RIGHT) Dizzy Devil, Plucky Duck, Hamilton J. Pig, Furrball, Babs Bunny, and Buster Bunny. © Warner Bros.

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Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNA-BARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY. (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_152&products_id=1640

(ABOVE) Warner’s most popular series on the Fox Network in 1992 was Batman: The Animated Series, so they had producer Bruce Timm draw up this mirthful holiday card, featuring a surprised Batman and a different kind of silhouetted image in the night sky. © DC Comics.

(RIGHT) We don’t think that Pinky and the Brain had this in mind in their quest to take over the world, as they seem to have been foiled by a Christmas tree. Singing in front of it are Tweety and Sylvester; Bugs Bunny; the title star of Freakazoid; Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner; and Granny Emma Webster, all stars of the Kids WB offerings! © Warner Bros.

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