RetroFan #6 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Are you too square to solve me?

Fall 2019 No. 6 $8.95

THE RUBIK’S CUBE CRAZE

Tune in to

The MUNSTERS’ BUTCH

SVENGOOLIE and the retro line-up of MeTV

PATRICK…

& HORRIFIC HOTRODS

Who ya gonna call? The ORIGINAL

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GHOST BUSTERS s? e Nauga h t r e b m Reme vered ot ’em co g e v ’ e W

“I Was a Teenage James Bond!” • The Dobie Gillis Dilemma • Pinball Wizardry & more! Featuring Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! Svengoolie © Weigel Broadcasting Co. Ghost Busters © Filmation. Naugas © Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC.

It’s GROOVY, baby! Follow-up to Mark Voger’s smash hit MONSTER MASH! All characters TM & © their respective owners.

From WOODSTOCK to THE BANANA SPLITS, from SGT. PEPPER to H.R. PUFNSTUF, from ALTAMONT to THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like THE MONKEES, LAUGH-IN and THE BRADY BUNCH. GROOVY revisits the era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, MOVIES, ART—even COMICS and CARTOONS, from the 1968 ‘mod’ WONDER WOMAN to R. CRUMB. A color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER (author of the acclaimed book MONSTER MASH), GROOVY is one trip that doesn’t require dangerous chemicals! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • Digital Edition: $13.95 • ISBN: 9781605490809 Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUL172227

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION Hailed as one of the fathers of Saturday morning television, LOU SCHEIMER was the co-founder of FILMATION STUDIOS, which for over 25 years provided animated excitement for TV and film. Always at the forefront, Scheimer’s company created the first DC cartoons with SUPERMAN, BATMAN, and AQUAMAN, ruled the song charts with THE ARCHIES, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES, taught morals with FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS, and swung into high adventure with TARZAN, THE LONE RANGER, ZORRO, HE-MAN, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, live-action shows SHAZAM!, THE SECRETS OF ISIS, JASON OF STAR COMMAND and others. Now, LOU SCHEIMER tells the entire story to best-selling author (and RETROFAN columnist) ANDY MANGELS, including how his father decked ADOLF HITLER, memories of the comics of the Golden Age, schooling with ANDY WARHOL, and what it meant to lead the last all-American animation company through nearly thirty years of innovation and fun! Profusely illustrated with PHOTOS, MODEL SHEETS, STORYBOARDS, PRESENTATION ART, looks at RARE AND UNPRODUCED SERIES, and more—plus stories from TOP ANIMATION INSIDERS about Scheimer and the story behind Filmation’s stories!

By RetroFan’s ANDY MANGELS!

(288-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.95 • ISBN: 9781605490441 Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUL121245

HERO-A-GO-GO!

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), & more! (272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1 Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JAN172100

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

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

By M EURY ICHAEL , edito r of

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

The crazy cool culture we

grew up with

CONTENTS Issue #6 | Fall 2019

Columns and Special Features

Departments

Retro Television Saturday Nights with Svengoolie

Retrotorial

RetroFad Rubik’s Cube

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Mornings The Original Ghost Busters

Retro Trivia Goldfinger

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! The Naugas

Too Much TV Quiz

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria I Was a Teenage James Bond

Retro Toys Kenner’s Alien

Celebrity Crushes

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Three Letters to Three Famous People

Retro Travel Pinball Hall of Fame – Las Vegas, Nevada

Retro Interview Growing Up Munster: Butch Patrick

RetroFanmail

ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover by Scott Saavedra

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Dobie Gillis Dilemma

75 11 RetroFan™ #6, Fall 2019. Published quarterly 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. Four-issue subscriptions: $41 Economy US, $65 International, $16 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Svengoolie © Weigel Broadcasting Co. Ghost Busters © Filmation. Naugas © Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2019 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224

by Michael Eury

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Tammy Brown Michael Eury Ernest Farino Richard J. Fowlks Dan Johnson Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Rob Smentek DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Tim Arnold Bob Burns Michael Chaudhuri Fayetteville ComiCon Brian Flynn Heritage Comics Auctions MeTV Leila Murray Martin Pasko Pinball Hall of Fame Jim Roche Jim Schelberg Larry Strothe Jim Swearingen Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC Renee Witterstaetter Philip Wlodarczyk VERY SPECIAL THANKS Rich Koz Butch Patrick

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

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& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one!

RetroFan

Fall 2019

Operation Kid Brother. How can I have existed for six decades without encountering this movie until now?! As you’ll read this issue in Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria, Operation Kid Brother is an obscure Sixties’ spy spoof starring Sean Connery’s brother, Neil, accompanied by 007 film veterans. Yet I’d never heard of it until Ernie’s trivia-drenched article, “I Was a Teenage James Bond.” Then there are the Naugas, those cute, cuddly, slightly creepy hug-a-beasts made of Naugahyde®. I had a vague recollection of magazine ads featuring the Naugas, but thanks to this issue’s Oddball World of Scott Shaw!, I was able to learn more about them. It just goes to show you, that old adage is right: You learn something every day. Or, you do when you pick up a new RetroFan. Not that my newfound discoveries of a Bond brother or little leather-like lovables will earn me a contestant’s spot on Jeopardy, but I can beam with pride that, as I’m inching toward an age when I could be pondering, “Where are my keys?” or “Do I take this pill in the morning or afternoon?”, I. Can. Still. Learn. And you can too! Discoveries are one of the things I love about editing (and researching and writing) RetroFan articles. I’m always amazed by what our talented columnists and guest contributors dig up. Really, could anyone other than our own Retro Saturday Morning columnist Andy Mangels have unearthed, as he reported back in issue #4, that TV’s Batman, the great Adam West, was the uncredited (and presumably voicemodulated) announcer of the live-action Shazam! TV series of the Seventies? There’s always something to learn from our columnists, and we’re lucky to have Ernie, Scott, and Andy, plus Marty Pasko, Scott Saavedra, and Will Murray, the brightest batch of know-it-alls to ever grace a pop-culture magazine. Our guest contributors always bring something new to the table as well. This issue, Dan Johnson— who pried open the tomb of TV horror hosts back in #2—chats with TV’s kookiest cryptkeeper, Svengoolie, and Eddie Munster himself, Butch Patrick. Rob Smentek is a name familiar to those of you who read our masthead as he’s RetroFan’s proofreader, mopping up the mistakes ye ed misses. This issue Rob reveals his writing chops with his chest-bursting Retro Toys article about one of the oddest What were they thinking?! merchandising moves of the late Seventies, products marketed to kids based upon an R-rated movie they were too young to see, Alien. Rich Fowlks, known as the designer of the other magazine I edit for TwoMorrows, Back Issue, proves he’s a decent reporter with his Retro Travel trip to the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame. (Rich is a devoted hubby and daddy, so the only thing during his visit that happened in Vegas that stayed in Vegas was the bucket of quarters he dumped into pinball machines.) And Tammy Brown, who has worked for several of the country’s biggest entertainment companies, shares a Celebrity Crushes revelation of her youthful fixation on several celebs, including a certain singer with the grooviest hair on Seventies TV (sorry, Farrah)! Two features planned for this issue unfortunately did not materialize. Martin Pasko’s “My Life in the Twilight Zone” has been rescheduled to next issue. David Mandel, showrunner of HBO’s Emmy-winning comedy Veep, was slated to share his comic art collection in our Super Collector feature, but at presstime was “deep in Veep.” David and I have agreed that he will produce that column when he has a chance and I’ll schedule it accordingly… but if you’re jonesing for a Super Collector feature, wait’ll you see Jack Condon’s Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection in issue #7. Joining our columnists and guest writers this issue are a couple of fun features from yours truly, making RetroFan #6 another groovy grab bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with.

RETRO TELEVISION

Saturday Nights with

by Dan Johnson In 2010, MeTV launched nationwide. The over-the-air digital channel, billed as “Memorable Entertainment Television,” has become the destination for fans of classic TV shows, offering reruns of such beloved series as Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show, Wonder Woman, and The Twilight Zone, to name just a few. MeTV is the must-see-TV channel for many readers of RetroFan. Shortly after the network launched, MeTV began airing a program that brought back one of the great staples of classic television: the horror host. [Editor’s note: See RetroFan #2 for the behind-the-scenes story of TV’s horror hosts.] Every Saturday night, MeTV presents Svengoolie, who under the make-up and costuming is actually Rich Koz, a veteran of Chicago television and a legend in the Windy City. MeTV took him national and has made Svengoolie America’s Horror Host. Svengoolie screens classic horror movies that many of us grew up with like Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Invisible Man, with the host introducing these films to a whole new generation of fans. But frightening his viewers is not the primary goal of Svengoolie. Between movie segments, Svengoolie entertains his audience with comedy bits including song parodies that would give Weird Al Yankovic a run for his money. As for the jokes and puns, they fly almost as fast as the set’s rubber chickens do. Svengoolie is also great about interviewing horror and comedy legends on his show. While most interviews are conducted at horror conventions, a good many take place right in the studio. Indeed, you never know who might pop up on Svengoolie. It could be Gilbert Gottfried, Trace Beaulieu and Frank

Conniff from Mystery Science Theater 3000, or even Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper from Mama’s Family. Recently, RetroFan got to sit down with Svengoolie for this exclusive interview. RetroFan: First of all, thank you for doing this interview with us. I consider it a high honor to have you in RetroFan. I used to work with Scary Monsters magazine, and its Dennis Druktenis introduced me to you back in 1996. He sent me a couple of your shows on video and I was hooked from that moment on. This was when you were starting out on U 26 (WCIU in Chicago), and looking back at the commercials for the classic sitcoms that ran on the channel (The Munsters and Gilligan’s Island), U 26 appeared to be a prototype for MeTV. Svengoolie: Yes, actually, it was. That is definitely so. When my boss, Neal Sabin, took over WCIU for the owners, he wanted to make it the kind of retro, independent station that we all grew up with. And that station was the first basis for what MeTV would become. RF: The channel looked great, and I remember wishing I had a station like this in my viewing area. Even though I couldn’t watch it, I still fell in love with U 26. Svengoolie: That’s very cool. I think that is exactly why MeTV has been so successful. A lot of people feel that way. RF: The shows on MeTV are comfort food for your mind. You can have a tough day at work or school, but then this channel just takes you back to a simpler time. If just for a little bit, you get to escape reality. RetroFan

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Svengoolie: Definitely so. Of course, MeTV stands for Memorable Entertainment. One of the things I think about our show is that I think almost everybody grew up some sort of horror host, and it’s kind of a kick to see that type of show being done again since most local horror hosts have fallen by the wayside. Today, most local stations devote most of their airtime to news, sports events, and public af fairs, and they don’t really do my type of entertainment show. [The horror host show] was one of the things Neal wanted to bring back when he started WCIU. I was his first talent acquisition, I believe. He asked me to do the Svengoolie character again. I told him, very honestly, that in whatever time I had been of f the air, a week would not go by that somebody didn’t recognize me and tell me, “You know, I really loved that show, are you ever going to do it again?” The show meant so much to people, and I would say, “Sure! I would be happy to do it.”

(TOP) Jerry G. Bishop, the original Svengoolie. (CENTER) Rich Koz as Son of Svengoolie, 1980. (BOTTOM) Koz in a 1995 WCUI-TV promotion.

RF: Our local host that I grew up on was Billy Bobb, a redneck who hosted horror films on Saturday afternoons and also did a kids cartoon show on weekday afternoons on WGGT 48 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Besides Billy Bobb’s show, WGGT 48 also showed the old Universal Studios horror movies on Saturday mornings, and that was where I discovered the classic films like Tarantula and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. One of the things I love about your show is that you bring the old Universal horror movies back to the air. Svengoolie: When we started airing the Universal horror movies again, a lot of the markets that we go into had not had them on broadcast TV for at 15 or 20 years. So in a way, we are re-educating a lot of people about these movies and presenting them for the for the first time to some other viewers. RF: I know of parents and grandparents who watch your show with their kids. They know the old Universal horror movies will thrill the kids a bit, and give them a fright, but they won’t traumatize them. Plus, having you as the host, you are a nice buffer for the scary stuff. You let them laugh a little before going back to the scary stuff.

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Svengoolie: It’s kind of like a safety valve, having the comedy relief to offset things that might be a little upsetting. And granted, there are movies, like the Universal horror movies certainly, that are a lot milder than what currently passes for horror movies today. They are a nice introduction for younger viewers who may have never seen a horror movie before. RF: I think one of the best movies to show younger viewers is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and I can tell you are always having fun when you show that movie. Svengoolie: Oh, definitely. Also good are the origin movies, like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and Dracula. They are just great movies that I really enjoy, but they offer a lot in the ways that we can have fun with them. RF: As a horror host, are the Universal horror movies your favorite movies, or are there any other movies you like better? Svengoolie: With Universal, the great thing about them is that they cover so many different decades. Even into the Fifties they were giving us Creature From the Black Lagoon, which I think is one of the classic monsters. In the Forties, there was such a wide variety of monsters. I also love American International’s stuff, that’s always fun. A lot of the modern stuff I like are the really original films, like Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. Those are really impressive films and I like those as well. RF: There are some fans out there that may not be aware that your legacy as a horror host extends well before MeTV. You’ve been at this for four decades now, correct? Svengoolie: Actually, this year in June marked 40 years since I first put the makeup on and started doing the show on TV. There were years when I was not on TV with a regular show, but I was still doing appearances and people would have me come on TV shows and radio shows as the character. Originally, Jerry G. Bishop was the original Svengoolie. In 1970, he happened to be the staf f announcer who was on duty at the WFLD station on Friday nights when they were running horror movies. He started goofing around during his announcements for them, doing, as he put it, a Transylvanian Yiddish accent,

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and created the Svengoolie character. Originally he just did voiceovers, then it went to voiceovers over still pictures of him, and then it became a full-fledged live show. I revered him and was a fan of his. Jerry did radio here [in Chicago] and I loved his sense of humor, which was very similar to mine. He would read jokes that people sent him, so I started sending in jokes. He found out I was a broadcasting student and he liked the stuf f I was sending him. Eventually, he started to ask me to write stuf f for him, like a parody of a specific song or a current commercial that was on TV, and that led to me working with him on his Svengoolie show, writing and doing voiceover work, a whole variety of things. RF: How was the Svengoolie torch passed from Jerry to you? Svengoolie: After Jerry was off the air, there was one summer where someone at one of the local stations asked him, “Have you ever thought about doing Svengoolie just as a summertime replacement show and just do it for fun?” Jerry didn’t feel like he wanted to put all the make-up back on, so he came to me and said, “You know, you could do this. You could be the Son of Svengoolie. You can write it and I’ll produce it and that would be a good idea.” I was all for it, and we had some callbacks on it, but it never really happened. Later on, when Jerry was getting ready to leave the Illinois area to go to San Diego,

because he had a big job waiting for him there, he asked me what I wanted to do. I was just freelancing then and I thought I would try pitching a show to one of the local stations. He told me, “If you want to try and do the Son of Svengoolie thing, I give you my blessing.” So, I shopped the idea around and brought it to WFLD, the station Jerry had done Svengoolie for, and there was interest, but they said, “We want to do this kind of show, but let’s let anyone who wants to audition!” I had just brought them a full concept and script and everything, but they were like, “Yes, but we want a bake-off!” The rest is history, though, and I did get the job and I began my career as the Son of Svengoolie in 1979.

(LEFT) You never know who’ll drop by Svengoolie’s show—like rock ’n’ roll songman Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, of “Palisades Park” fame. (RIGHT) Svengoolie’s duet with Freddy earned the horror host a contract— luckily, the hit man never showed up. (BELOW) Legendary wrestler Mick Foley gets comfortable.

RF: I love your sense of humor. It’s clean and loaded with puns and corny jokes and that appeal to me. It can also be very off the wall at times. Did you ever run into any problems at your original station regarding content? Svengoolie: For my part, no, but there were people at the station who didn’t understand it. They also didn’t understand why the show became so popular. They just saw the show as some filler type thing on Saturdays. When we did some of our very first promos, I did take-offs on other shows, like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Brady Bunch, which were running at the same time on WFLD. The woman who was in charge of promotions kept looking at them RetroFan

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and I thought, “This does belong [on a network]?” RF: Well, FOX was also trying to “class up” television with Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Women in Prison as well. Svengoolie: Exactly!

(ABOVE) Special guest Gilbert Gottfried and Svengoolie. No rubber chickens were harmed during the staging of this photo. (BELOW) Golly, MAD takes notice of Svengoolie in issue four. © E. C. Publica-

tions, Inc.

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and saying, “I don’t understand this.” Even though they didn’t get what I was doing, for the most part, they let me do it. RF: One of the most famous clips from that show is the Cancelled Song from your final episode. That whole segment was so meta, letting the audience know the show was coming to an end and still making fun of the situation. I was wondering if that might have raised some eyebrows at the station? Svengoolie: No. Quite honestly, they never paid attention to what I did a lot of the time. During the last year they were worried about how much production time we were taking. They cut back on time they gave us for segments on air. WFLD was preparing to become a FOX station. I remember when I was told that the show was going to end. The boss called me in and told me, “We just don’t feel your show is something that should be on a network.” Then they aired The Joan Rivers Late Night Show

RF: While hosting horror movies as Svengoolie in Chicago, your alter ego, Rich Koz, hosted Three Stooges shorts. Since humor is such a big part of your show, who were your comedic heroes? Svengoolie: Certainly a lot of the oldschool comedians, like the Marx Brothers, especially Groucho. I learned a lot by watching him. Also Laurel and Hardy—I always loved them—and the Three Stooges. And then there were people like Jack Benny and George Burns. Albert Brooks I always thought was really, really good. Also, George Carlin. Since I do a lot of voices, I like people like Rich Little. And then there are local people I admired. Again, Jerry G. Bishop. I was a big fan or his through his radio and TV work, and he had a comedic influence on me. But the old-school comedians, I just thought were fantastic, and there were stand-up guys I thought were really impressive. I learned a lot from watching all these guys. RF: I always love it when you are able to get a classic Marx Brothers movie or a Bob Hope movie on your show, but from what I understand, aren’t those the films viewers complain about? Svengoolie: Oh, yeah. We have the hardcore horror fans that if it isn’t a flatout horror movie, they reject it. They will even complain about Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which honestly is one of the movies we get the most requests for, or The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts, another one people ask for all the time. But yet the hardcore fans will be like, “That’s comedy. We don’t want to see that—we want to see monsters.” So, no matter what I do, I get some complaints from some sector. You just learn to live with it, and majority rules in regard to what people really want to see and that shows up in the ratings. RF: Well, speaking as a North Carolina native, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts are practically royalty here. I know a lot of folks who are always delighted to see

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[Knotts in] The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. You have a lot of fans in the Tar Heel State who love that movie and love you when you air it Svengoolie: That’s good to know. I love the monsters and I am happy to show them, and we have a good reaction to them, but there is always that sector that will say, “What is this? This isn’t a horror movie.” We recently ran the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, the Dr. Seuss movie, and boy, did we get some complaints about that. We had people that thought that was something that should not be aired on a horror-movie show. RF: I kind of liked that movie. It was a fun, weird fantasy film, the type you don’t see every day. I like the mixture of films you have where you can show a film like that, then a classic horror movie, and then maybe a science-fiction film. You’re starting to screen some of Vincent Price’s films and the Ray Harryhausen films, and I love seeing those in the mix, too. Svengoolie: We’re getting access to a few more films from other distributors besides Universal. The Universals, of course, are great and I always want to have them, but it’s nice to be able to mix it up a little bit and bring in some new things. This year, for the first time, we’re running [Vincent Price in] House of Wax, which I have never run in my entire career. It’s really great to have a film like that. We’re already working to get movies into 2020. That’s nice to hear from my bosses, because that means I’ll still have a job. RF: As a fan of your show, that makes me happy to know you have job security. From what I understand, your show is the highest-rated show on MeTV, or one of the highest rated. Svengoolie: It does really well every week. I wouldn’t say we’re the highest rated, but we do real well. We’re trending in the top ten nationally on Twitter and a few times we’ve hit number one. And yes, the ratings are always good. There’s other stuff on MeTV that does really well. The Westerns are really popular. And, of course, The Andy Griffith Show always gets the great ratings. There’s such a great variety on MeTV, from M*A*S*H to Perry Mason. Perry Mason is a real blockbuster. The ratings are also good on Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. I

personally will stay up late to watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents. RF: One of the things I love about your show is that you will let the viewers know if you have a new, better print of the film being screened. I love that MeTV is always trying to give the viewer the best TV-watching experience. I recently saw ads for M*A*S*H that mention how the station has acquired brand-new, better prints of the episodes, and you can tell that the quality is just so much better. And MeTV is running Buck Rogers in high definition for the first time. Svengoolie: Yes, it’s really cool. A lot of people are used to seeing prints that were poor dubs that were cycled around from station to station and then sent to the next person who had a contract for the shows. To have these brand-new, clear prints is great. One of the things I love about the Universal films was, the black-and-white film really creates an atmosphere, and to have this sharp picture is great. It’s great to have the picture look as good as it did when these movies first ran on the big screen in the Thirties or Forties.

(ABOVE) And you thought we were kidding when we said Mama Family’s Vicki Lawrence made a Svengoolie appearance! (BELOW) Attaboy, Luther! Yes, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is a horror movie, and we love it when Svengoolie dusts it off for a showing. ©

Universal Pictures. Poster courtesy of Heritage.

RF: I love the better prints, and I also loved the most recent version of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula you showed with the soundtrack from a later French version of the movie. I thought that was just amazing. I have friends on Facebook RetroFan

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Svengoolie occasionally makes convention appearances, like (TOP) this one in Chicago in 2018 and another (RIGHT) at the Batcave.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO… SVENGOOLIE! RetroFan congratulates Svengoolie on

winning the 2018 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Favorite Horror Host (his seventh win in a row)! The Rondos, named for Forties’ horror actor Rondo Hatton (shown in his “Creeper” role, from House of Horrors), are voted on by fans. We here at RetroFan agree that this award proves that Svengoolie is truly America’s Horror Host.

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that watch your show and everyone was buzzing about this version of the film. It just had everyone excited that night. It’s that kind of commitment to bringing something new to these movies that I think the fans love. Svengoolie: Even with that French soundtrack, people will say, “You have run that movie a lot,” but with these classics, I don’t think you can run them too much as long as you’re not running the same movie every week, more or less. There are always people who love to see them and always, for someone, this is the first time they have seen the movie. In some ways I wonder how could you not have seen these movies, but it’s a great experience for them to see them in such great shape. And with the movies we show, if you watch them every time, you’re going find something you didn’t notice before. And we always try to point out certain things that they might have missed or something that is really unusual. We hear from people all the time who are grateful and love when I fill the background in on the actors. They always comment on that, and I do that because I’m a fan of all this stuff. I’ll watch movies and think, “I know that guy, but I don’t know where I’ve seen him before!” We do the research so we can point it out, and it helps connect the dots for a lot of people.

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RF: That is one of my favorite segments of your show, when you spotlight the various actors and actresses in the movie you’re showing. So many of these folks had varied careers and played in so many genres, yet the general public doesn’t know who they are. Svengoolie: A lot of people say, “Man, you’re such an expert on this.” But you know, I am not an expert on these things. I have to do the research on all this stuff. I still have a bunch of old books at home that I use. I have learned this stuff along the way and I just have gained this vast knowledge of film. RF: It’s a great service you’re paying to all these actors and actresses, as well as the directors and producers and writers who made these movies. Every Saturday night, you bring them to life again, for a couple hours, and you introduce them to new fans. As a hardcore movie fan, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. Svengoolie: Well, thanks. That is nice to hear. RF: You were a Chicago institution for many years and you are always making personal appearances in your hometown. Now that you are nationally known, have you thought of going to other parts of the country for personal appearances? Svengoolie: Yes, we’re actually starting to get some feelers for stuff in other places. Quite honestly, we just need to figure out how to do it between the work I have to do here and being able to get all that done. Eventually we would like to go out to other cities. It’s just a matter of figuring out the logistics. RetroFan would like to thank Svengoolie’s Executive Producer, Jim Roche, for helping to arrange this interview and helping to make it happen. Thanks also to Jim for providing the Svengoolie set photos accompanying this article.

DAN JOHNSON is a comics writer whose work can be found in Cemetery Plots from Empire Comics Lab (empirecomicslab. com). His other notable comics work includes Herc and Thor for Antarctic Press and several books for Campfire Graphic Novels. He is also a gag writer for the Dennis the Menace comic strip.

(TOP) It’s a MST3K sandwich! Svengoolie is flanked by Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff of Mystery Science Theater 3000. (INSET) When horror hosts collide! Our cover star and the cover star of our previous Halloween edition, RetroFan #2, Elvira! (ABOVE) Regis Philbin!

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Rubik’s Cube

by Michael Eury The Rubik’s Cube was created to make me feel stupid. Well, I doubt that was the intention of Hungarian architecture professor Ernõ Rubik when he sculpted his first “Magic Cube” in 1974 as a tool to teach algebraic group theory at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts. But after Dr. Rubik licensed his three-dimensional puzzle to Ideal Toys in 1980 and it became a worldwide sensation, I just couldn’t get the hang of his rechristened “Rubik’s Cube,” that plastic block of brightly hued, pivoting rows of squares where the solution is the alignment of its like colors on each of its sides. In the early Eighties, I was a recent college graduate, dripping with hubris and ambition—nothing was going to hold me back now, I was gonna make my dreams come true, doing it my way. Then the Rubik’s Cube shattered my confidence, and I wanted to shatter it with a well-aimed mallet swing. I couldn’t, because this cube wasn’t mine… it belonged to my younger brother. Fiddle and shift and turn the cube as I might, the only skill I honed from it was my recitation of four-letter words. There’s a four-letter word that’s at the heart of the Rubik’s Cube, and the explanation for my inability to conquer it: m-a-t-h. There are Math people, and there are Word people. I’m the latter. Luckily, Wheel of Fortune was around to help me lick my wounds from the accursed cube—I can glance at a word puzzle and quickly “see” its possibilities, sometimes without having to buy a vowel. Not so with math. If your life depends upon my solving a Suduko puzzle, I hope your Last Will and Testament is in order. There are not enough Math people in the world to make a “toy” an international sensation, so I obviously wasn’t the only Word person fumbling with a Rubik’s Cube during its heyday. The New York Times reported that 25% of Ideal Toys’ sales of $216.8 million in 1981 was attributed to the Rubik’s Cube, not a bad haul for a novelty that retailed for five bucks or so. The sure sign of a successful product is a tsunami of profiteers, and by those standards, the Rubik’s Cube was a smash: knockoffs crowded the shelves, how-to books like The Simple Solution to Rubik’s Cube became bestsellers, and supplemental products like the unfortunately named “Cube Lube” lubricant were rushed onto the market. Saturday morning television added RubySpears Productions’ Rubik, the Amazing Cube to its line-up, a 10

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largely forgotten toon about a sentient, superpowered cube named Rubik (voiced by Welcome Back, Kotter’s own Arnold Horshack, actor Ron Palillo) that solved mysteries with a group of kids. In just a few short years, however, the Rubik’s Cube fad had peaked, and most of the millions of Rubik’s Cubes sold joined other former favorites like lava lamps and pet rocks as household dust collectors. Yet this was not the end of the Rubik’s Cube. While its sales had dropped precipitously by the midEighties, those aforementioned Math people helped make the Rubik’s Cube a perennial item, one touted by brainiacs as an intelligence gauge. Speedcubing quickly evolved as a “sport” among cube aficionados, with Math people plying their algorithms to out-solve their opponents. These competitions, which occur across the globe and have gained popularity during the 21st Century, include events where contestants race to solve the Rubik’s Cube while blindfolded. Or with one hand. Or with their feet! Rubik’s Cubes have been featured in numerous TV shows and movies, and have inspired sculptures in major metropolitan areas. You can watch YouTube videos of Math people wrestling with refrigerator-sized Rubik’s Cubes. While the fad has long faded, the Rubik’s Cube’s main contribution to our culture was its liberation of the slide-ruletoting, pocket-protected Math people who were once shoved into school lockers by jocks. Now they are the ones twisting and turning society with their creation of the hardware and software that define us and the codes and algorithms that run them. The ultimate revenge of the nerds.

(TOP) Rubik’s cube. © Rubik’s Brand Ltd. (LEFT) Rubik’s Cube creator Ernõ Rubik in 2014. Photo by Babak Mansouri/Wikimedia Commons. (RIGHT) Title card cel to the animated Rubik, the Amazing Cube. © Ruby-Spears Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING Ghost Busters stars Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, and Bob Burns, and the show logo. © Filmation.

by Andy Mangels Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning. Since 1989, I have been writing columns for magazines in the U.S. and foreign countries, all examining the intersection of comic books and Hollywood, whether animation or live-action. Andy Mangels Backstage, Andy Mangels’ Reel Marvel, Andy Mangels’ Hollywood Heroes, Andy Mangels Behind the Camera… three decades of reporting on animation and live-action—in addition to writing many books and producing around 40 DVD sets—and I’m still enthusiastic. In this new RetroFan column, I will examine shows that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and

capturing our memories. Grab some milk and cereal, sit crosslegged leaning against the couch, and dig in to Retro Saturday Morning! It’s 1975, and ghosts, werewolves, and mummies are creeping you out at the castle inexplicably placed on the southern California hill. In other words, there’s something strange in your neighborhood… Who you gonna call? The Ghost Busters, that’s who. But not Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, and Zeddemore, who wouldn’t strap on their proton packs for another eight years. RetroFan

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We’re talking the OG Ghost Busters, Spencer, Tracy, and Kong, stars of the live-action 1975 CBS show The Ghost Busters from Filmation Associates. The trio brought a slapstick humor to Saturday mornings for 15 demented episodes, and unintentionally launched a nameconfusing franchise that’s still ongoing today!

From a Scream to Laughter

The concept of paranormal investigators has been lurking around Hollywood since cinema began, though several of its earliest iterations were based on the 1909 Broadway play The Ghost Breaker. That story was adapted for a 1914 silent film by Cecil B. DeMille, a 1922 silent remake, the 1940 Bob Hope-starring The Ghost Breakers, and the 1953 Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin film Scared Stiff, all from Paramount. The Bowery Boys also investigated hauntings in the 1951 Monogram Pictures release Ghost Chasers. Television animation jumped onto the bandwagon in 1969 with the CBS and Hanna-Barbera series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! One element that most of the paranormal comedy-horror projects had in common was that the hauntings and horrors were almost never actually supernatural in origin, but often were elaborate hoaxes being played for greed, revenge, or other criminal acts. Very few of the features were about actual monsters, until Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948, which was followed up by Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). Ironically, none of the above were what initially inspired Filmation head Lou Scheimer to commission plans for the animation studio’s next live-action hit for CBS in 1974: the inspiration came from a combination of the true crime radio series Gang Busters (1936–1957) and the sitcom F Troop (1965–1967). Founded in the early Sixties by animators Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland, with ex-disc jockey Norm Prescott, Filmation Associates had been riding high on Saturday morning animation since the 1966 debut of their The New Adventures of Superman series. Although the majority of their shows were animated spin-offs based on live-action licensed properties—Fantastic Voyage, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Batman, The Brady Kids, Star Trek, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers, and The New Adventures of Gilligan, to name a few— Filmation eventually branched out to live-action original series. Their first such show was Shazam! in 1974 [see cover story in RetroFan #4], and in 1975, the studio produced the first live-action superheroine series with The Secrets of Isis, plus the bizarre anthology Uncle Croc’s Block… and the original The Ghost Busters. Part of the reason for the boom in live-action series on the traditionally cartoondominated Saturday mornings was that animation costs had risen so high that that a live-action budget on a show with a small cast and limited sets could be produced for almost the same amount, and with a much faster turnaround time. The networks also dangled the hopes above studios’ heads that a live show might transition to primetime evening fare if it was popular enough. And actors too were attracted to the new market; for Krofft shows such as H. R. Pufnstuf (1969), The Bugaloos (1970), Lidsville (1971), Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973–1975), and Land of the Lost (1974–1976), popular primetime comedy actors such as Jim Nabors, Bob Denver, and Ruth Buzzi were finding a lucrative second career. Actors working on kids’ shows could reach an audience of 35 million kids who would grow up already knowing who they were, enabling them to charge more for a multitude of personal appearance fees for car shows, boat shows, fairs, circuses, and shopping center openings. In the days before comic conventions were pop-culture heaven, this meant big bucks for TV actors who didn’t mind meeting their audiences. To develop what would become The Ghost Busters, Lou Scheimer went to one of his chief writers and idea men, Marc Richards, who had delivered The Brady Kids and other series for the studio. “I went to Marc and said, ‘Let’s try to do something that’s different, more adult than we normally do. Maybe we can work something out for Saturday morning that goes nighttime,’” said Scheimer in my interviews with him for the 2012 Precursors to Filmation’s Ghost Busters include the film comedies Ghost Breakers, Ghost Chasers, and Scared Stiff. Ghost Breakers and Scared Stiff © 1940

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TwoMorrows book, Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. “I think he said something like, ‘Well, what about something like Gang Busters, but we call them Ghost Busters?’ Marc was brilliant and fast. And I said, ‘Gee, that sounds fun. What can we do?’ ‘We’ll take all those monsters who’ve ever been in the movies, stick them in one place.’ Richards began development, and returned to Scheimer with a fuller premise. “He came back to me and said, ‘I’ve got the detective agency, and they’re ghost hunters, and we give them some stuff that kills ghosts, but it really doesn’t kill them, and we call the characters Spencer, Tracy, and Kong. Spencer [alternately “Spenser,” as painted on their office door] is one of the guys in this agency, and Kong is his partner. And they’ve got a gorilla who works with them.’ And I said, ‘The gorilla’s Kong!’ He said, ‘No, the gorilla’s Tracy.’ I said, ‘Why is he Tracy?’ ‘Because it’s funnier.’ I figured, ‘Okay, he’s right.’ Marc did strange things. So, it was Spencer, Tracy, and Kong.” After staff artists did some presentation drawings for the series, Scheimer met with CBS executive Fred Silverman in New York to pitch the show in February 1975. “I told him about this concept we had to do a spooky, laughable show. He liked the idea. He said, ‘You’ve got to get somebody the kids will know to do the lead characters. I mean, you’ve got two guys who are live, and you’ve got a gorilla.’ I said, ‘Well, it probably ought be easier to find the gorilla than the live guys.’” Filmation had worked with comedian Larry Storch [interviewed in these pages in our next issue!] on the studios’ earlier hit, Groovie Goolies [see story in RetroFan #2], and Storch’s agent also represented Forrest Tucker. The two had appeared in the ABC sitcom F Troop from 1965–1967, and the series was in constant reruns on syndicated television. F Troop also featured the same kind of slapstick and physical comedy, born of vaudevillian and burlesque stage acts, that Filmation intended for The Ghost Busters. And Storch and Tucker had camaraderie both off-screen and on-screen, making them perfect to team up again for character-based humor. “They were a comedy team like Abbott and Costello,” Scheimer said. “They were also crazy, crazy people. We had a meeting, and I told them what we wanted to do. Storch turns around and says, ‘What do you think, Sarge?’ just like his character from F Troop. They wanted to do it, and just like that we had our stars. Except for one… we still had to find a gorilla.”

Who’s the Guy in the Monkey Suit?

“On our budget we couldn’t afford both an actor and a gorilla suit, so we needed to try to find an actor who owned a gorilla suit,” said Scheimer. “We put a call out to all sorts of agents and the casting people working for us, and set up a time for me to meet the potential gorillas.” Enter Bob Burns, a man who worked at CBS, and in his spare time, collected science-fiction and horror movie props, including the armature for the original King Kong movie model. Burns had put together his own gorilla costume with his wife, Kathy, for fun, around 1963. The mask, feet, and hands had been made for Burns by Don Post, Sr. of the famous mask company Don Post Studios, and Burns called it Kogar. Burns was soon booked as the gorilla on an episode of Mickey, a 1964 Main cast and producer credits. © Filmation.

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Mickey Rooney show, and occasionally got other jobs in his suit. Feeling the Kogar mask was too angry looking, Burns asked future make-up star Rick Baker to sculpt him a new, friendlier head, which was completed in 1974, just before fate was about to drop a banana in Burns’ paws. “I worked in the film department there at CBS,” says Burns, “and a gal that was one of the assistant directors there was at a meeting one night, a production type school thing, and Lou Scheimer was one of the guest speakers. And during a break, he was sitting there saying, ‘Oh, man, this is the worst day I’ve ever had in my life.’ She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ He said, ‘We’ve got this show to do, it’s called The Ghost Busters, about three detectives, one is Forrest Tucker, and Larry Storch, and other is a gorilla! But we gone through all the gorilla people, we’ve seen the suits, they’re terrible, and we may even have to cancel the show if we can’t find a gorilla.’ She said, ‘Well, wait a minute, I work with a guy at CBS, he has his own gorilla suit, and he works and does stuff all the time.’ And Lou says, ‘Well, why haven’t I heard of him?’ She says, ‘Well, he doesn’t really go out looking for jobs, they just kind of come to him.’ And he says, ‘Any way you can get hold of him first thing in the morning? I mean, we’re desperate now.’” The next morning, at the behest of the girl, Burns asked his wife to take a long lunch hour to help him. “She’s the gorilla wrangler, of course. So anyway, she puts me in the suit, we go 14

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Tracy and his “trainer,” Bob Burns, the man inside the very hot gorilla suit. © Filmation.

into Lou’s office. Norman Abbott, the director was there, Marc Richards, who wrote the script, they’re all there. I go walking in, and I could see they liked the look of the suit when I walked in. Marc says, ‘All right, let me tell you, Tracy the Gorilla, he can’t talk, he can grunt and snort, he can draw, he can do pantomime, he just can’t talk. That’s all he can do. So, what would you do if you were Tracy the Gorilla?’ So I looked for a moment, thinking, ‘hmm… what am I going to do here? I’ve never had to audition for a thing like this.’ So there was a chair there, I sat down in the chair, and I crossed my legs, mainly the way I sit anyways, and there was

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(LEFT) Director Norman Abbott (SEATED, CENTER) and the Ghost Busters cast. (TOP) Abbott directs Storch and Burns on the GB set. (ABOVE) Somebody dock that sign painter’s pay! He misspelled “Spencer” on the Ghost Busters’ agency door! © Filmation.

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a copy of Variety on the desk, and I picked up and started reading it. And they said, ‘that’s Tracy the Gorilla.’ And a week later, we were shooting.” Scheimer recalled that Burns “had his eyes painted black so his eyes really looked like a monkey. I walked over to him and asked him for his agent. He said, ‘Tarzan.’ I knew we had our guy. He later chose to have his screen credit read, ‘Tracy trained by Bob Burns,’ and a lot of people thought Tracy really was a gorilla!” “Working with Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch was just the greatest thing you could possibly ever do,” Burns says enthusiastically. “The first day on the set, I was just in awe of these guys. I knew Tuck from old Westerns, I’m a Western fan, and I knew he and Larry from F Troop, which I loved. Well, I was afraid of these guys, and here I’m thinking, ‘here I am, a guy in a suit, and animals and kids can upstage anybody,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, if I upstage these guys, they’ll kill me!’ Tuck’s 6’6”—the guy could kill me! And I didn’t know him at all, so in rehearsal, I did this shtick they wanted me to do, I happened to look at Tuck, I didn’t know him real well then, and he kind of gave me a glance… I thought, ‘Uhoh, I think I did something wrong.’ So, when we actually shot the first scene, I held back and didn’t do it. “Norm Abbott, who was directing, came over and said, ‘Bob, something’s wrong here. You’re not giving me the stuff I want.’ And I said, ‘Well, Norm, I’ve got a problem here.’ And he said, ‘What’s your problem? Man, we’ve got 15 shows in nine weeks, we’ve got to go!’ And I said, ‘I’ve got to talk to these guys.’ So I went over, they were both sitting in their chairs, and my heart’s pounding, because I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be fired right now,’ and I said, ‘Guys, can I talk to you for a minute? I’ve got a problem.’ And Tuck looks at me—and I didn’t know Tuck’s sense of humor at that time—and says, ‘What could possibly be your problem?’ Well, I just want to go climb in a hole, but I look back at Norm, and he’s going, ‘Fix it, fix it,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m trying to do the thing, but I’m holding back, because I’m in such awe of you guys,

and you guys are the last guys in the world I want to upstage. I’m the new kid on the block here, so I’m afraid.’ And Tuck says, ‘That’s what your problem is? Oh, my God, I’m much too old for that! And Larry’s just too dumb, he doesn’t care anyway.’ And Larry goes, ‘Yup, yup,’ because they were such good buddies anyway. And he says, ‘If you can stand behind me and go blooodoooloopp and get a laugh, we’re here to make people laugh. We’re going to end up being second bananas to a gorilla anyway. We already know that. And that’s fine, we’re here to entertain people. Get a laugh.’ And boy, from that moment on, it was like the biggest cloud had lifted from me!” Scheimer noted that the co-stars not only sacrificed laughs to Burns, but protected him as well. “Tucker and Storch fell in love with him. They cuddled him. They nourished him. Because he couldn’t stay in the gorilla suit too long. He’d start sweating under the sun or the heavy lights; it was awful! If he stayed in there ten minutes, he’d start to faint! Every time the gorilla would almost faint, Tucker and Storch would catch him. They started making him take more breaks so that he wouldn’t faint.” “Tuck became the father figure for me,” remembers Burns. “Like one day, I just passed out, because I kept the gorilla head on too long, because I just didn’t want to shake up the troops, you know. And he was the first guy over to me, he made up new rules, like, ‘Okay, we’re going to give him a break whenever he’s tired, pop the head off, give him some air, water, whatever he needs, I’m going to go to my trailer have a little drink,’ which he did occasionally, ‘and I’ll come back and shoot…’ He took care of me. (ABOVE) Filmation head Lou Scheimer (RIGHT) and friends on the Ghost Busters set. This photograph was signed to CBS bigwig Fred Silverman. (LEFT) Man-mountain Forrest Tucker as Kong (CENTER) shows he can mug just as well as his co-stars. © Filmation.

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Well, everybody on the set took care of me. He would even give me, like in a rim shot at the end of the show, they used to show his face in one, and he’d say, ‘Oh, no, do it on Trace, he’s uglier than I am, let’s shoot him,’ and he’d give me the rim shots half the time.”

Haunting the Sets

The scripts for The Ghost Busters were all written very quickly, and unlike most series, all by one writer: creator Marc Richards. “Marc Richards started writing on the show, and I told him we needed more writers,” said Scheimer. “He wanted to know why, and I told him we had to have a script a week. I knew he could write an animated short in a week, but he said he could do the scripts with more than enough time to spare. All of them! It turned out that the son of a gun was one of the fastest we ever had. He’d bring in a script on Monday, he’d do a story, Tuesday we’d rehearse, Wednesday we’d shoot—we shot for two-and-a-half days—and Mark would go write another script. He did 15 scripts for that season—two a week—but I almost never saw him sitting down to work, so I don’t know when he wrote them. He had some ghosts in there doing it. Or, maybe there were ghostwriters?” The Ghost Busters plots hinged on the premise that from their run-down office, Spencer, Tracy, and Kong take on assignments no mere mortal could face, backed up by a weapon for dispatching ghosts called the “Ghost Dematerializer.” In the super-secret missions assigned to them by the mysterious “Zero,” the trio of bumbling detectives confront phantoms, vampires, werewolves, the Frankenstein monster, mobsters, Vikings, magicians, and even a devilish dummy… who are usually haunting a nearby cobwebbed castle! The sets were built on sound stages at a secondary studio known as Filmation West (in Canoga Park, California, instead of the main offices in nearby Reseda), a warehouse in an industrial park. The sets included the Ghost Busters’ office, a graveyard, and the outdoors, halls, and rooms of a castle. The sets for Uncle Croc’s Block and Isis were also in the same studio, and with those shows filming—as well as the mostly-on-location series Shazam!—the actors would sometimes run into each other in costume. Filming commenced in the summer months. The biggest prop for the show was an old 1925 car for them to ride around in for outdoor scenes. “It was the worst automobile in the world,” said Scheimer. “When we found it, it had been used as a taxi in Argentina. Don’t ask me how we found it. We got this car, we got some mechanics, and they got it to work to turn it into the Ghost Busters’ car.” Tracy, the gorilla, became the chauffeur, as seen repeatedly in the opening credits. All of the location stuff was shot in the hills near a little town called Piru in East Ventura County, including scenes set at a store where the Ghost Busters got their assignments. “We kind of made fun of spy shows like Mission: Impossible when they got their mission for the episode,” said Scheimer. “I did the voice of Zero, the guy who gave them their assignments. They filmed all 15 of the intros in the first couple of weeks up in this horrible desert. It was hot and miserable, and Tracy was fainting all the time.”

One element the producers hadn’t planned for, according to Scheimer, was that “Larry was a connoisseur of fine liquors, and Forrest, a hard-drinking man. They decided they were going to meet each other for breakfast every morning. Well, I didn’t know that ‘breakfast’ was two bottles of champagne. Part of the deal we had to make with them was that Storch wanted two gallon jugs of white wine any time we shot. With Tucker it was a case of beer. I got a call from Tucker after the second week of shooting, and he said, ‘Forget the case of beer a day; from now on it’s Jack Daniels.’ They would start out drunk and get sober by the end of the shoot!” Many well-known comedians were cast in the guest roles as the ghosts and monsters, including Howard Morris, Jim Backus, Billy Barty, Ted Knight, Marty Ingels, and others. “They loved the scripts,” said Scheimer. “Most of them had never done anything for Saturday morning, and, when they read these scripts, they were funny. It was one of the funniest shows ever done for Saturday morning, truly a wacky comedy. I hate the word wacky, but that’s what it was.” Burns recalls working with two of the guests in particular. “One was our vampire show we did. Little fella named Billy Holms did this old, old, Jewish-type vampire guy that was so funny! He just developed the character himself, and I loved the playoff we had together. And then we had Richie Balin, who did the Abominable Snowman, which was the last show we actually shot. But he could get more out of this Snowman suit—it was just a big

When Filmation Worlds Collide! John Davey, Shazam!’s second Captain Marvel, and Bob Burns. © Filmation. Shazam! TM & ©

DC Comics.

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FAST FACTS The Ghost Busters `` No. of seasons: One `` No. of episodes: 15 `` Production dates: shot July 3–September 5, 1975 `` Original run: September 6, 1975–1976 (CBS, Saturdays `` Reruns: September 11, 1978–1979 (CBS, Sundays) Primary Cast `` Forrest Tucker: Kong `` Larry Storch: Spencer `` Bob Burns: Tracy `` Lou Scheimer: voice of Zero (uncredited)

Among Ghost Busters’ guests: (LEFT) RetroFan fave Ted Knight as Simon de Canterville, with Burns as Tracy, from the episode “The Canterville Ghost”; and (RIGHT) Get Smart’s Bernie Kopell is Dr. Frankenstein and William Engesser as the monster in “Dr. Whatsisname.” © Filmation.

blob of hair, but his body English… he had a way of working the suit that was wonderful, and the both of us had the greatest time ever.” One frequent guest was the uncredited son of Lou Scheimer, Lane Scheimer. “Nepotism works,” Scheimer said with a laugh. “I hired my son Lane to be a stand-in for Tucker. He was the only guy around who was bigger than Tucker. My son was a big guy. And he’s also the ghost in the main title! Nobody really believed him when he would tell them once the show got popular: ‘Oh, yeah, I’m on television. I’m a ghost in a main title.’” Burns soon found out that The Ghost Busters gave him a paycheck, but also anonymity. “A lot of people, when they saw the show, thought the gorilla was real! They used to get people writing in, saying, ‘How do you do this with this gorilla, I’d be afraid to even be on the set with him!’, and they’d write back and say, ‘Oh, we give him a lot of bananas,’ and stuff like that. And I would never take the head off if I knew kids were coming on the set. They’d always tell us, and I’d keep the head on all the time, and I would do my bits, and my snorts. That’s another reason I always say I got the job, that’s what Lou says, because I could do my own snorts, they didn’t have to dub in anything.” Burns has a lot of affection for Scheimer. “Lou Scheimer was the greatest producer in the world, he’d come in and laugh harder than anybody, I do believe. He almost messed up a bunch of takes, just by starting to laugh.”

The Ghosts in the Machine

The new 1975 TV season debuted on September 6th, with CBS airing Ghost Busters at 11:30 a.m., shortly after The Shazam!/Isis Hour. Industry newspaper Variety labeled Ghost Busters as “vaguely remindful of The Three Stooges.” All of the CBS shows performed well, taking the top ratings in each of their timeslots. “The Ghost Busters was enormously successful,” said Scheimer. “We picked up an audience that was significantly older. We’d find out that kids in college wouldn’t go do their classwork until af ter Ghost Busters was over! In October the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner did a huge article about the big USC vs. Notre Dame game, a huge football meet. But the article wasn’t about the team practicing plays, it was about the team and the coaching staf f watching Ghost Busters together pre-game! It was an honest, true hit. Tucker and Storch felt that it was going to go to nighttime as soon as somebody from the network really watched it. Unfortunately, it never happened. 18

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(LEFT) No, it’s not the Uber driver you didn’t expect, but Tracy chauffeuring Spencer in the Ghost Busters’ car. (RIGHT) These guys had a great time during the filming of Ghost Busters—and viewers did, too! © Filmation.

I don’t know whether anybody from the network outside of Silverman ever watched it.” Despite its success, The Ghost Busters only lasted one season on Saturday mornings, but in Fall 1978, CBS brought the series back for reruns on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. The show was offered in syndication markets as of September 1980, and was eventually offered in several VHS volumes by Continental Video under the title, The Original Ghost Busters. Why the title change? In the early Eighties, actor Dan Aykroyd wanted to make a comedy movie about a group of guys who fought ghosts. He sold a script called Ghostbusters to Columbia around 1982, and word of the sale hit the trade papers. Filmation’s lawyer, Ira Epstein, sent

a letter out to Columbia, telling them that they were infringing on the title, and if there was any similarity in concept, Filmation would hold them liable. Nothing happened right away, but in October 1983, Epstein was in New York and came upon a movie filming on Sixth Avenue. Told that the crew were shooting a movie called Ghostbusters, Epstein fired off a cease and desist letter to Columbia. Shortly after that, Epstein and Scheimer were in a meeting with the head of Columbia Pictures. Scheimer recalled that “he said, ‘Well you did an animated Saturday morning show, and we’re doing a live-action movie called Ghostbusters that has nothing to do with your animated show.’ I said, ‘Number one, it was a live show,’ and he said, ‘Uh oh,’ and I said, ‘It was the same concept that you’ve got on film right now. You guys don’t have the right to do that.’” Apparently aware that the film might be Sung by Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch forced to change titles, the movie had been Written by Diane Hildebrand and Jackie Mills filmed with some alternate dialogue, with the crowd chanting “Ghost Breakers” or “Ghost We’re the Ghost Busters! We’re the Ghost Busters! Smashers,” but Columbia really wanted the I’m Spencer, he’s Tracy… Spirits and demons beware! title “Ghostbusters.” “They went ahead and I’m Kong! The Ghost Busters! released the movie on June 8, 1984, and it We’re the Ghost Busters! Wherever you’re hiding out there! made a boatload of money,” said Scheimer. We’re clever, courageous, and strong! “We went to court over the matter, and in We know what you’re up to, mid-June, after appearing at L.A. Superior Your sleep has been haunted, we’re ready for anything, Court, Columbia settled with us, paying us with whispers and rattlings, we’re bold and we’re fearless, for the use of the title. Their obstinance really your blood has been curdled, and never complain. cost them a lot. They gave us $608,000 for we know what to do! We’re always prepared, the use of the concept and allowing them to we’re right there with everything. Your skin has the creepies, utilize the name and the title, plus we had, I wonder what’s happening? With us on the job, like, one percent of the profit. That profit You’re safe in our hands, troubles will fade! percentage was a mistake on our part. If you The Ghost Busters do it again! we will take care of you! know anything about Hollywood, you know that no picture ever makes a profit. No matter

The Ghost Busters Theme Song

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RETRO FAD

Dueling Ghostbusters! After the success of the live-action Ghostbusters film, Filmation and Columbia battled for kid-TV ratings with their respective incarnations. Filmation’s Ghostbusters © Filmation. The Real Ghostbusters © Columbia. Animation cels courtesy of Heritage.

what it brings in at the box office, the accountants have ways of making sure that on paper, no picture is ever profitable. So, taking a piece of the deal was a mistake, as we never got another dime. But we did get $608,000, which was okay. The one other mistake we made in the settlement—and it was my fault for not thinking about it—was that Filmation didn’t keep the rights to any animated version of Ghostbusters. That would end up being a much bigger mistake.” Filmation began developing a five-day-a-week syndicated animated sequel to The Ghost Busters, using the sons of Spencer and Kong, and the original Tracy. The second week of August 1985, Filmation announced that 65 episodes of their “Ghostbusters” would be offered to televisions stations worldwide. A week later, Columbia announced that they, too, would be bringing a 65-episode animated Ghostbusters series to syndication for fall 1986, going head-to-head with Filmation’s. The mistake in not keeping the animated rights to Ghostbusters in the settlement deal had come back to bite Filmation! Filmation’s 65-episode syndicated Ghostbusters debuted on September 22, 1986 on 75 U.S. stations, while ABC ran 13 episodes of Columbia’s The Real Ghostbusters beginning September 13, 1986, before launching its own 65-episode syndicated run in September 1987. With competing shows of almost identical names and competing toylines, viewers were confused. “Doing two Ghostbusters shows eventually turned out to be a huge error,” said Scheimer. “It muddled things in the audience’s minds. Our Ghostbusters was a great show, and I loved it a lot, but people got us confused with Columbia’s show.” Filmation was closed down by a new parent company on February 3, 1989, and nothing would be heard of The Ghost Busters again for almost two decades.

Busting a Legacy

On April 17, 2007, following the success of DVD releases of HeMan and the Masters of the Universe, BCI Eclipse released The Ghost Busters: The Complete Series DVD Set as part of a series of the Filmation library on DVD. The three-disc set was produced by the author of this very article, Andy Mangels, and included all 15 episodes, plus interviews, rare footage, a gallery of photos, and all 15 PDF scripts. The animated Filmation’s Ghostbusters were released in two boxed sets (February 27 and July 3, 2007). All three sets are now out of print and demand big dollars in online sales. 20

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Lou Scheimer and Bob Burns were included in some DVD promotions at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July 2007, alongside other Filmation actors, but the poor booth layout for their signings meant that most fans never even knew they were present. Today, Bob Burns still lets fans come to visit “Bob’s Basement” to see old make-up and props from vintage films, and occasionally acts. Peter Jackson even put Burns and his wife, Kathy, in a scene in his 2005 King Kong remake, reacting to the giant monkey when he breaks out of the theatre. “I’m not good at remembering lines,” says Burns. “And my own face, I’m not good at that. Put the gorilla face on me, a whole different ballgame… I want to climb into the suit everyday now, but she won’t let me do it! But I’d love to! There’s two things I love to do, and one is comedy, and one is the gorilla.” As for The Ghost Busters, Burns says that, “It had something for everybody in it, including adults! It was a fun, fun show, and it wasn’t scary, it wasn’t meant to be scary! It was a great, great show… and just about the best time I’ve ever had in my life.” Unless otherwise credited, the quotes from Lou Scheimer are from the autobiography he wrote with Andy Mangels, for Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Mangels’ interviews with Bob Burns were conducted in 2006. Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels and Bob Burns. ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and is currently working on a book about the stage productions of Stephen King. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www. WonderWomanMuseum.com

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

NAUGAS Adorable Threat or Loveable Menace? by Scott Shaw!

NAUGA: Jeff Kaplan/Archive.org BACKGROUND: andreas160578/Pixabay

New plant and animal species are constantly being discovered by scientists, usually in the most distant and desolate places on our planet. However, there is a strain of creature that we have known about for over half a century, one that’s both savagely indestructible and yet a selfless boon to mankind. The name of this monstrous miracle of xenozoology? I’m writing about the once-elusive Nauga, of course. And here is its story… Naugahyde®, an artificial leather, was invented in 1936 by Byron A. Hunter, a senior chemist at the United States Rubber Company, now known as Uniroyal® Engineered Products, Inc. The material itself is composed of a knit fabric backing coated by a layer of polyvinyl chloride plastic. Its name was derived from the city of Naugatuck, Connecticut, where it was first produced. Naugahyde, a leather-like material, is extremely durable and easily cleaned, therefore it was well suited to upholster furniture such as sofas and beanbag chairs. The new material became so popular that in its wake, many imitations abounded. Therefore, it became necessary for Uniroyal to “brand” Naugahyde to stand out from the crowd. In 1966, the advertising agency Papert Koenig Lois, also known as PKL—founded by Fred Papel, Julian Koenig, and George Lois—was hired

to accomplish the branding. Due to such successful accounts as Peugeot automobiles, Maypo cereal, and Xerox, PKL’s assignment was to make consumers comfortable with a synthetic material of vaguely mysterious origin. Working with their designer Kurt Weihs, the PKL team created a non-existent critter to be the source of Naugahyde. But the “Nauga” looked like the opposite of a lovable Dr. Seuss character. Instead, the Nauga, all crazed eyes, fangs, and claws, looked more like, “What if Gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman redesigned Warner Bros.’ Tasmanian Devil?” Surprisingly, it worked, possibly because the Nauga looked even more unnatural than the material of which it was both the source and the result. The bizarre-looking creature supposedly hailed from Sumatra and shed its hide once a year for the good of mankind—and Uniroyal. It sounds to me like the PKL team were fans of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner syndicated comic strip, which introduced the similarly cooperative Shmoos in August 1948. After all, that lovable creature laid eggs, gave milk, and died of sheer ecstasy when looked at with hunger. The Shmoo loved to be eaten and tasted like any food desired. Anything that delighted people delighted a Shmoo. Fry a Shmoo, and it came out chicken. Broil it, and it came out steak. Shmoo eyes made terrific suspender buttons. If cut thin, the hide of the Shmoo made fine leather, and if cut thick made the best

When in Connecticut, be sure to visit Naugatuck. Naugas ©

Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC.

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Commission, might look upon the ugly Nauga as a for-real living species. Huh?! Its hide might be considered genuine leather, they contended, and that could be deemed deceptive advertising. ‘Kill the Nauga,’ they said. ‘Over my dead body,’ I said. Research to the rescue! A bunch of us from my ad agency hit Fifth Avenue and showed tourists and New Yorkers our Nauga ads and asked, ‘Is this a real animal?’ ‘What, are you nuts?’ they answered. ‘That’s just a big, fat, ugly, snarling, make-believe creature with a cute tush.’ The ugly Nauga was spared. He went into the marketplace and Uniroyal overwhelmed their competitors. Today, the 12-inch Nauga doll is a collector’s item (Jenette Kahn, the high-voltage

Late-night TV king Johnny Carson, an unidentified Nauga fan, and—no, not Ed McMahon, but a real, live Nauga! © NBC Television.

lumber. Shmoo whiskers made splendid toothpicks. How compliant can a non-existent creature get? Let’s ask the Nauga. Or rather Naugas, because they replicated faster than a synthetic leather bunny rabbit. Uniroyal made it clear to the public that their “source” of Naugahyde were enjoying themselves just fine: “Naugas do give up their hydes. But they do it willingly and they shed their skins quite often. They live to give again and again. In fact, Naugas are so willing to please that they often shed their hyde several times a year. No self-respecting hunter would ever try to hurt a Nauga. However, to protect the little Naugas from the curious, they now are living on a secret ranch somewhere near Stoughton, Wisconsin.” Uniroyal even went so far as to refer to Naugahyde as “the cruelty-free fabric.” In television commercials and in print advertisements in the nation’s “slick” magazines, the Nauga became the spokescreature for Naugahyde furniture and other applications. When the Nauga appeared live, it was taller than a basketball center, and lurking inside the walking Naugahyde sauna room was comedian Chuck McCann, perspiring like a maniac. Twelve-inch Nauga dolls—made of multicolored Naugahyde—were given to the children of parents shopping for new furniture, to which were attached hangtags with images of Naugas printed on them. The giant Nauga even made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson! George Lois once said, “Before our first ad ran (the Nauga is ugly, but his vinyl hide is beautiful), legal objections were raised. Too many people, it was claimed by the Federal Trade 22

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Naugas were made for Naugahyde advertisements! © Uniroyal

Engineered Products, LLC.

The oddball world of scott shaw!

NOT NECESSARILY NAUGAS® NAUGA

SHMOO

Don’t be confused by pop culture’s other adorable monsters when wanting to cuddle up with a Nauga— use this handy-dandy identification guide to keep your creatures straight! Naugas © Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC. Shmoo © Capp Enterprises, Inc. Tasmanian Devil © Warner Bros. UglyDoll © PrettyUgly/SMK+DH.

TASMANIAN DEVIL

UGLYDOLL

president of DC Comics, sleeps with 31 of the sexy beasts in her bedroom). The ugly Nauga lives on. That’s my boy!” (Former DC Comics president Jenette Kahn loved Naugas? No wonder she claimed that Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew! was her favorite funnybook!) A November 1967 magazine advertisement suggested: “Invite a Nauga to your next party. Punch him in the nose the minute he comes through the door. Spill a Bloody Mary on him. Get him with a pie in the face. Smear chocolate on his chest. Kick him around. His vinyl hide is Naugahyde vinyl fabric. It’s indestructible.” Eventually, the Naugas were replaced by a new advertising campaign, which soon pushed them out of the national arena. However, in 1981, stand-up comedian Al Rosenberg waged a satirical “Save the Nauga” campaign. His mention of the Naugas happened to coincide with the rise in collectability of the Naugahyde critters. Not only were vintage Sixties-era Naugas becoming more valuable, myriad new Naugas flooded the market, some made with metal-flake material that had little if anything to do with genuine Naugahyde. (The renewed popularity of Naugas and the “naugastalgia” regarding them may have eventually let to the creation of UglyDolls, now the stars of an animated feature film.) Uniroyal is now well aware of the Nauga’s true invulnerability —to withstand the test of time—and has solidly reclaimed the “infamous and lovable” Nauga as the #1 icon of synthetic lifeforms. They now manufacture a large variety of Nauga dolls of all sizes, shapes, and colors. They even make special-request Naugas according to custom orders, stating, “The new generation of the adorable little icon of the Sixties is a wonderful companion and brings magic to any setting it dwells in.”

(Uniroyal, nobody loves the Naugas more than I do, but even I think you’re overdoing the Nauga-niceties here. “Adorable”? Have you taken a close look at one lately? Get too close to a Nauga and it’ll take your !?!#%&*!?! nose off!) Naugahyde is still manufactured in Stoughton, Wisconsin, and sold by Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC, a publicly held company under Invisa, Inc. And if you want to adopt your own Nauga, here’s the place to start: www.naugahyde.com/dolls/. Nauga-related photos are courtesy of Scott Shaw! For 48 years (and counting), SCOTT SHAW! has written and drawn underground comix, mainstream comic books, comic strips, graphic novels, TV cartoons, toys, advertising, and video games. He has worked on such characters as Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew (which he co-created with Roy Thomas), Sonic the Hedgehog, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the Simpsons, the Futurama gang, the Muppet Babies, Garfield, the Garbage Pail Kids, and yes, even Annoying Orange. His career has garnered him four Emmy Awards, an Eisner Award, and a Humanities Award. Scott is also known for his “Oddball Comics Live!” visual presentation of “the craziest comic books ever published” and for his regular participation in “Quick Draw!” with Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés. He was also one of the teenagers who co-created what is currently known as Comic-Con International: San Diego, America’s biggest annual fan event. He can be reached at shawcartoons.com. RetroFan

Fall 2019

COMICS MAGAZINES FROM TWOMORROWS BACK ISSUE

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, including Pro2Pro interviews (between two top creators), “Greatest Stories Never Told”, retrospective articles, and more. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

BACK ISSUE #113

ALTER EGO

ALTER EGO, the greatest ‘zine of the ‘60s, is all-new, focusing on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art. Each issue includes an FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section, Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

ALTER EGO #160

COMIC BOOK CREATOR

COMIC BOOK CREATOR is the new voice of the comics medium, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Edited by JON B. COOKE.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #19

DRAW!

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation. Each issue features in-depth interviews and step-by-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Some issues contain figure-drawing instruction nudity; Mature Readers Only. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

DRAW #36

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby and his contemporaries, feature articles, and rare & unseen Kirby artwork, showcased in dynamic full-color! Edited by JOHN MORROW.

KIRBY COLLECTOR #77

REMEMBERING STEVE DITKO! Sturdy Steve at Marvel, DC, Warren, Charlton, and elsewhere! A rare late-1960s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL— biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO— tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, PAUL LEVITZ, BERNIE BUBNIS, BARRY PEARL, ROY THOMAS, et al. Plus FCA, JOHN BROOME, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Spider-Man cover by DITKO!

Celebrating the greatest fantasy artist of all time, FRANK FRAZETTA! From THUN’DA and EC COMICS to CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA, STEVE RINGGENBERG and CBC’s editor present an historical retrospective, including insights by current creators and associates, and memories of the man himself. PLUS: Frazetta-inspired artists JOE JUSKO, and TOM GRINDBERG, who contributes our Death Dealer cover painting!

MIKE HAWTHORNE (Deadpool, Infinity Countdown) interview, YANICK PAQUETTE (Wonder Woman: Earth One, Batman Inc., Swamp Thing) how-to demo, JERRY ORDWAY’s “Ord-Way” of creating comics, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, plus Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY! May contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; for Mature Readers Only.

MONSTERS & BUGS! Jack’s monster-movie influences in The Demon, Forever People, Black Magic, Fantastic Four, Jimmy Olsen, and Atlas monster stories; Kirby’s work with “B” horror film producer CHARLES BAND; interview with “The Goon” creator ERIC POWELL; Kirby’s use of insect characters (especially as villains); MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, Golden Age Kirby story, and a Kirby pencil art gallery!

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THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®

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BRICKJOURNAL #59

STAR WARSTM THEMED BUILDERS! Travel to a galaxy far, far away with JACOB NEIL CARPENTER’S DEATH STAR, the work of MIRI DUDAS, and the LEGO® photography of JAMES PHILIPPART! Plus “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

I WAS A TEENAGE JAMES BOND by Ernest Farino

A few years ago the American Cinematheque hosted a retrospective of classic movie main titles with a weeklong screening of films at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. On the last night, a Sunday: Goldfinger. Now, being my favorite James Bond film and easily in my Top 3 favorite films in general, I’ve seen Goldfinger more times than I’ve had hot meals, and in every format imaginable: indoor theaters and drive-ins, VHS, laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and 16mm. But I hadn’t seen a 35mm print in a theater in quite a few years, so I decided to treat myself. First things first—purchasing a large buttered popcorn and an ice-cold Coke. I settled into my seat and soon the lights dimmed and John Barry’s electric guitar version of the James Bond theme twanged us right into that famous gun barrel as James Bond walked across and turned and fired. And in an instant I was 12-years-old once again. The music… the imagery… the aroma of buttered popcorn… the tangy taste of Coke… revved up that sensory time machine and whisked me back to a magical Saturday in El Paso, Texas, in 1964. My father was in the Army and stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso. They had shown Goldfinger on the base for the troops and the next day he had regaled us with an enthusiastic retelling of the film: A white dot goes across and you’re down a gun barrel and James Bond walks across and turns and shoots and blood comes down over the screen and then James Bond comes up out of the water with a duck on his head and knocks out the guard and plants plastic explosives in these big oil tanks and then takes off his wetsuit and he’s in a white tuxedo and he goes to a nightclub and the oil tanks explode and Bond goes to see his “girlfriend” and when he’s kissing her a bad guy comes up from behind but he sees his reflection in the girl’s eye so he spins around and they fight and finally Bond knocks the bad guy into the bathtub and throws in an electric heater and electrocutes him! Wow! I couldn’t wait to see this movie! The next Saturday morning my friend Cordell and I got on a bus to the State Theater in downtown El Paso (yes, by ourselves, with our parents’ knowledge and permission—simpler times then). The line of people stretched all the way around behind the theater. Which only added to the anticipation. And as we inched closer once the line starting moving, the marquee gradually came into view with those big, red, plastic chiseled letters—James Bond Is Back!—a huge cutout of Sean Connery holding the gun, and eventually posters and lobby cards outside the theater. Once inside, I got my bucket of buttered popcorn and Coke and we settled into our seats. A white dot goes across and you’re down a gun barrel… and finally Bond knocks the bad guy into the bathtub and electrocutes him! RetroFan

Fall 2019

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

(TOP) Ian Fleming at his desk at his estate, “Goldeneye,” in Jamaica. This is where he wrote all of the Bond novels. Many years later, on this very same desk, singer Sting wrote the song Every Breath You Take. (MIDDLE) Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, Sean Connery, Ian Fleming, and Harry Saltzman sign the final contracts to commence production on Dr. No. Broccoli and Saltzman sunk the entirety of their resources into the enterprise—it was literally Everything Or Nothing, hence the name of their production company, EON Productions. (INSET) Field Guide on Birds of the West Indies (first edition) by ornithologist James Bond, the source of the name “James Bond.” (BOTTOM) Newspaper ad for the State Theater in El Paso, Texas, where Ernest Farino first saw Goldfinger.

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Fall 2019

Then the main titles: images projected on the “golden girl” accompanied by Shirley Bassey belting out one of the most famous movie theme songs in history. And then it dawned on me: Everything my father had described in such loving, enthusiastic detail was the pre-title sequence. I thought that was the whole movie! I sat there thinking, “There’s more…?!” And boy, was there. I was mesmerized. At one point my friend Cordell leaned over and said, “I’m gonna get a hot dog—you want anything?” I said, “You’ve leaving? Are you crazy?!” Worth every penny of the 35¢ admission… I talked about the movie so much that my entire family went to see it the very next day, Sunday evening. (They were highly amused at my pronunciation of “Seen” Connery and “Eye-an” Fleming.) Okay, so I am firmly entrenched in the thick of the spy craze. At the time I didn’t even know there was one—for whatever reason, I had missed Dr. No and From Russia With Love—probably just too young to be aware, combined with my then overriding preoccupation with monsters, hot rods, and other interests. But I sure made up for lost time, including building the Aston Martin model kits (both of them), the trick attaché case, the bubble gum cards, the vinyl soundtrack LP album (which I thoroughly wore out), and whatever else I could get my hands on. Yes, this was the height of the “spy craze” of the Sixties. It seemed like everything at one time or another had some connection with spies—TV shows, comics, movies, commercials, clothing—you name it. Of course, it was also the world’s heaviest involvement in the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia, providing a realworld context that made even the most outrageous plots and unbelievable spy gadgets… well, believable. I don’t think the CIA ever built a sports car with an ejector seat, but in Thunderball the next year gadget-master Q gives Bond a small breathing apparatus with dual mini-oxygen tubes that allows him to survive underwater for several minutes. Sure enough, someone from Britain’s Royal Engineers called chief draftsman Peter Lamont and asked him how long the apparatus actually lasted. Lamont replied, “As long as you can hold your breath.” The engineer hung up. Nevertheless, the CIA found inspiration for its gadgets such as the poison-tipped dagger shoe in From Russia With Love and the tracking device featured in Goldfinger (a precursor of today’s GPS technology). According to a study entitled Ian Fleming and the Public Profile of the CIA published in the Journal of Cold War Studies, Allen Dulles, director of the CIA between 1953 and 1961, had met Fleming at a dinner party at the London offices of MI6, London’s international intelligence service, and soon instructed his technicians to try and replicate the gadgets.

The Man with the Golden Pen

Ian Fleming was a formerly an officer in British Naval Intelligence during World War II and later a writer for the Reuters newspaper syndicate. In 1953 Fleming said he “was just on the edge of getting married, and I was frenzied at the prospect of this great step in my life after having been a bachelor for so long. And I really wanted to take my mind off of the agony, and so I decided to sit down and write a book.” He retreated to his resort house in Jamaica, named “Goldeneye,” and set to work. Up first: a suitable

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

Barry Nelson as James (“Jimmy”) Bond and Linda Christian (named Valérie Mathis instead of Vesper Lynd) in the October 21, 1954 one-hour TV episode of the CBS anthology series Climax!, Bond’s first onscreen appearance. © Danjaq, LLC.

name for his “gentleman spy.” Fleming said, “One of the bibles of my youth was Field Guide of Birds of the West Indies by James Bond, a well-known ornithologist, and when I was casting about for a name for my protagonist I thought, ‘My God, that’s the dullest name I’ve ever heard,’ so I appropriated it. Now the dullest name in the world has become an exciting one. Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, Casino Royale dutifully produced itself. I made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired.” Fleming continued the series, even though the books were not successful in the U.S. Casino Royale (1953) was followed by Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955), Diamonds Are Forever (1956), From Russia With Love (1957), Dr. No (1958), Goldfinger (1959), For Your Eyes Only (including From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace, Risico, and The Hildebrand Rarity) (1960), Thunderball (1961), The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963), You Only Live Twice (1964), The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), and Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966). After seeing Goldfinger I resolved to catch up with the books and made a point to read them in the order they were written. I remember reading The Spy Who Loved Me—a rather short novel—in a single day. Not content to leave it at that, I embarked on making my own “James Bond” movie in glorious Super-8. I had received a Kodak Super-8 camera shortly before, and in addition to making stop-motion clay-dinosaur movies, adapted Fleming’s short story For Your Eyes Only. I ended up making only one sequence in which Bond, played by my brother (who also played Dracula and other parts at different times) walks along the sidewalk, sees the reflection of the assassin in the side rear-mirror of a parked car, and after several moments of excruciating suspense, finally whips around and shoots. This was in 1965 since I edited the film to fit the furious bongo-laden music of the Death of Fiona cue from the Thunderball soundtrack. Two-and-a-half minutes of Super-8mm spy movie gold… Bond was a favorite in the halls of “Camelot,” too. President and Mrs. Kennedy enjoyed the books and spread the word, including to CIA Director Allen W. Dulles. On November 17, 1959 Dulles wrote to Jacqueline Kennedy:

Ian Fleming poses next to the cover paintings by Barye Phillips, President of the Society of Illustrators from 1965–1967, for the Signet paperback editions of Goldfinger and Casino Royale.

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Dear Jackie: Months ago you kindly loaned me a book by Ian Fleming [presumably From Russia With Love, which became a favorite of JFK’s], which I read with vast interest, and thereafter when I was in London, I got in touch with the author. Now I have just got my hands on a later edition of what I believe is the author’s [most recent] publication, which is a similar thriller to the one you gave me, and I send it along, hoping you had not already seen it.” — Encl: book “Goldfinger” Unfortunately, Ian Fleming only lived long enough to see the first two Bond films. He died of a massive heart attack on August 12, 1964, one month before the release of Goldfinger, though he was able to visit the set during filming.

Bond… James Bond

Producer Harry Saltzman purchased the rights to all of the Fleming Bond novels except Casino Royale, which was unavailable, and partnered 50/50 with Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli. (Yes, his lineage goes back to farming the vegetable broccoli. In the January 11, 1967 episode of The Danny Kaye Show, Danny appeared as a British secret agent battling a world menace played by Liberace, opening with a title that had Broccoli and Saltzman presenting “A Dietetic Picture.”) “Twenty-eight years ago, Harry Saltzman and I walked into 729 Seventh Avenue, in New York, to United Artists, for a meeting with Arthur Krim,” Broccoli told Los Angeles Times writer John Culhane in 1989. “Arthur wanted to know how I planned to make the pictures. I had budgeted the first one at $1.1 million. They agreed to $1 million. In 45 minutes we put together a deal for six pictures.” And thus launched what became the “spy craze” of the Sixties, running parallel to the Italian Western fad spawned by Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars in 1966. Both Dr. No and Fistful would also launch the careers of two of the biggest male stars of modern times: Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery. Connery had appeared in several minor films, but had a decent role in Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Broccoli saw the film and saw Connery as a potential Bond, taking his wife Dana to see it to confirm Connery’s “sex appeal.” She concurred and they were off and running. The first scene was filmed on January 16, 1962 in the Kingston, Jamaica, airport where a female photographer attempts to take Bond’s picture (the photographer was played by the reigning Miss Jamaica, Marguerite LeWars, an employee at the airport when asked to be in the film). But surprisingly, Bond’s introduction in the film itself when he delivers

(ABOVE) Sean Connery and Ian Fleming on Ken Adam’s set for Dr. No’s “launch control” set. (RIGHT) Eunice Gayson as “Sylvia Trench,” originally planned to be an ongoing character as Bond’s regular girlfriend, inside Bond’s apartment. A friend of Sean Connery, she helped him get over his nerves when it came time to deliver his now-famous opening line, “Bond, James Bond.” © Danjaq, LLC. 28

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When From Russia With Love completed filming, noted British documentary photographer David Hurn was hired to do a photo spread with Sean Connery and the actresses in the film. But the prop master had forgotten to bring Bond’s famous Walther PPK. Improvising, Hurn, an amateur marksman, got his Walther LP-53 air pistol, assuring the producers that no one would notice as long as the graphic designers removed the long barrel. They forgot to do that, of course, and the resulting iconic photo has since depicted the most famous secret agent in the world holding… an air pistol. © Danjaq, LLC.

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

(ABOVE) Sean Connery helps slate the shot for Dr. No on location in Jamaica. © Danjaq, LLC. (ABOVE RIGHT) Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, and director Terence Young on location in Jamaica.

for the first time the famous “Bond… James Bond” line was a bit of s struggle. Eunice Gayson, who played Sylvia Trench in both Dr. No and From Russia With Love, was the glamorous player opposite Bond at the gaming table in Le Cercle casino. Gayson told Steve Hendry for The Daily Record in 2012: “[Sean] came to see me the night before the first day of the shoot. He was terribly nervous [and the] next day, when we got on set, I could see the nerves were very much up. He said, ‘The name is James Conn... eh… cut!’ Well, you can imagine the turmoil. We had quite a few takes. I had never seen Sean so nervous. The producers were standing on the side of the set almost biting their nails. [Director] Terence Young said to me, ‘I want you to give him a good stiff drink to relax him.’ Sean had been told to be on the wagon and I knew that because he refused to drink the night before. We went for lunch and I said, ‘Oh, I’m dying for a drink, do you want one?’ He said, ‘No, I can’t.’ I said, ‘Go on, just have one.’ I pretended to drink mine but he more or less downed his in one. Then, to my horror, he ordered another one. Well, not having had a drink for so long, it really affected him but in a nice sort of way—all his nerves seemed to go out the window. We went back on set and he said the name ‘Bond, James Bond’ in a beautiful way. Terence said, ‘Cut! Now that is great, that is what I want from your whole performance.’ Sean said to me, ‘The trouble is I can’t remember what I’ve done’. But it worked, didn’t it?” Dr. No is still an enjoyable film, but is more of a detective story than an outright spy thriller. The filmmakers were feeling their way, getting a handle on the character and their overall approach, and establishing many of the basic stylistic elements of the series: the gun-barrel logo, a designed standalone main title sequence, the iconic “James Bond” theme (originally composed by Monty Norman and arranged into the version we’ve become familiar

(LEFT) S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal), representing Czechoslovakia (not Russia), faces off against McAdams (Peter Madden), representing Canada, in a championship chess match in From Russia With Love. This shot is one of the few matte paintings in the early Bond series, created by Pinewood Studios’ resident matte artist Cliff Culley. © Danjaq, LLC.

with by John Barry, with the famous guitar riff performed by Vic Flick), and Production Designer Ken Adam’s exotic visual style that instantly catapulted the “look” of the films far and above any of the runners-up copycats. To say nothing of the bikini worn by Ursula Andress, which sent sales of two-piece swimwear skyrocketing. Andress emerging from the water in that white bikini topped UK Channel 4’s 2003 list of 100 sexiest scenes in film history and in 2001 the bikini sold at auction for $61,500. Fortunately, the Japanese distributor’s first translated title for Dr. No, We Don’t Want Doctors!, was revised at the last minute.

I Think My Mouth is Too Big

President John F. Kennedy had included Fleming’s novel From Russia With Love on his favorite books reading list in the March 17, 1961 issue of LIFE magazine, which prompted Broccoli and Saltzman to select it as the second Bond film. When completed, the film was screened for President Kennedy in the White House on November 20, 1963, making it the last film President Kennedy saw before his fatal trip to Dallas two days later. Dr. No received mixed critical reaction at the time but was a financial success, grossing $6 million on its $1 million budget and launching a whole new genre of “secret agent” films in the Sixties. But few came to rival the solid storytelling and terrific combination of humor, action, and suspense as From Russia With Love. The introduction of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his white cat, an emphasis on Fleming’s alternate European spy organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (The SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), terrific villains in the form of Rosa Klebb and Red Grant, exotic locations in Istanbul and Venice, a ride on an “Orient Express” type train, the fantastic fight scene with Red Grant, the helicopter and speedboat chases (the helicopter scene inspired by Hitchcock’s crop duster sequence in North by Northwest), a step-up in the visual stylish main title RetroFan

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INSIDE FORT KNOX

Rare candid photo of From Russia With Love’s Daniela Bianchi and Sean Connery taken during the studio shoot of publicity photos. © Danjaq, LLC.

sequence (credits projected on a belly dancer), and more. A thoroughly satisfying film that many regard as the best of the Bonds, and certainly a solid espionage thriller in its own right. And this film escalated the merchandising. For Dr. No, United Artists established the James Bond name by sending newspapers a box set of Bond’s books, a booklet detailing the Bond character, and a picture of Ursula Andress. Merchandising tie-ins included drinks, tobacco, men’s clothing, and car companies. A comic-book adaptation written by Norman J. Nodel was published in the U.K. by Classics Illustrated and later reprinted in the U.S. by DC Comics [in Showcase #43]. Added elements to the formula included the pre-title sequence and a lyric-based theme song. And a new closing line in the end credits:

Ken Adam’s recreation of the Fort Knox at Pinewood Studios looked so real that a 24-hour guard was placed on the Fort Knox set at Pinewood Studios so that pilferers would not steal the prop gold bars. A letter to the production from the Fort Knox Controller congratulated Ken Adam and his team on the recreation. Goldfinger’s Model Map seen in his Operation Grand Slam briefing is now a permanent exhibition at the real Fort Knox. In addition to about 4,600 metric tons of gold worth close to $200 billion dollars, over the years Fort Knox has protected copies of the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. The vault door is blast-, drill- and torch-proof, 21 inches thick, and weighs in at more than 20 tons. It is set on a 100-hour time clock and is rarely opened. No one person can open the vault door. Ken Adam’s master design sketch of the vault interior. © Danjaq, LLC.

The End Not Quite The End James Bond Will Return in The Next Ian Fleming Thriller “Goldfinger” And boy, did he.

An Ejector Seat? You’re Joking!

Goldfinger became the gold standard (I couldn’t resist) for the series. The iconic image of the Golden Girl, the tricked-out Aston Martin, Oddjob and his razor-brimmed bowler hat, a spectacular theme song made famous by Dame Shirley Bassey (and which made her famous in turn) accompanied by an equally famous main title sequence, Goldfinger’s laser beam (in the novel a buzz saw, deemed too Perils-of-Pauline quaint and replaced by the 30

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Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, and Robert Shaw rehearse a From Russia With Love scene for the train sequence. A set on a sound stage at Pinewood Studios, note that the rear-projected image outside the window is switched off. © Danjaq, LLC.

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

laser when recommended to designer Ken Adam by two Harvard scientists), and, of course, Fort Knox. Many people—including me— marveled over the years at the interior of Fort Knox, wondering how the filmmakers got permission to film inside the United States Bullion Depository. They didn’t. It all sprung from the fertile imagination of Ken Adam, who surmised that the real vault was probably a dull collection of safety-deposit type boxes and correctly concluding that if no one has been inside, then who’s to say? So he let loose and created one of the greatest examples of fanciful art direction in the history of movies. As Johnny Dee wrote in The Guardian (September 17, 2005): “It is because of [Ken Adam] that people believe criminal masterminds operate from the insides of dormant volcanoes and travel between their sumptuously decorated lairs on chrome-plated monorails. It’s his fault that we think gold bars are stacked in vast cathedral-tall warehouses and that secret agents escape capture by using jetpacks or ejector seats.” But then again, we want to believe, and are delighted to do so. As Johnny Carson once said, “Like their parents, kids flock to see James Bond and Derek Flint movies, outrageously antiheroic heroes who break all the taboos, making attractive the very things the kids are told they shouldn’t do themselves.” “Oh, that interesting car of yours!” says Auric Goldfinger— “Interesting” being probably the understatement of the century. The ultimate boy-toy “guy” thing, the Aston Martin DB5 (“DB” standing for Aston Martin founder David Brown) quickly became “The Most Famous Car in the World.” In addition to the machine guns, smoke screen, oil slick, and, of course, the ejector seat, additional gadgetry not used in the finished movie included front and back over-riders for jamming other vehicles, a weapon’s

Nadja Regin, previously seen in From Russia With Love, plays the cabaret dancer “Bonita” in Goldfinger’s pre-title sequence. The reflection of the advancing bad guy (stunt man Alf Joint) was optically superimposed on a close-up of Nadja’s eye by Pinewood’s optical expert Cliff Culley. © Danjaq, LLC.

tray under the driver’s seat, a headlights chamber firing triplespiked nail clusters, a radio telephone inside the driver’s door paneling, and a thermos with a built-in hand grenade. Director Guy Hamilton came up with the revolving license plates after receiving a parking ticket. There were a couple of Aston Martins made for the film and a couple more for promotional purposes. In 1965 I saw one of them on tour in Baltimore promoting Thunderball—the ejector seat was in the extended “up” position, and the bulletproof shield and other devices were demonstrated. Somewhere I have a roll of Super-8 film covering my encounter with this Holy Grail. The bold, brassy music score by John Barry added immeasurably to the feel of the film and its huge success as well. On January 30, 1965 the Goldfinger title theme peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Hot Top 100 chart and stayed there for 13 weeks. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page was a session guitarist on this album. In the late Sixties, WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas ended their nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast with the “Dawn Raid on Fort Knox” track.

The Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5, “with modifications.” The re volv ing-number plates came from director Guy Hamilton, who had just received a parking ticket. Due to the success of Goldfinger, it became known as “The Most Famous Car in the World” and sales of the Aston Martin DB5 increased by 50%. © Danjaq, LLC.

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By now “Bondmania” was all the rage. I had my own 007 attaché case and trading cards and board games and soundtrack albums and God knows what else. By now, in those prehistoric days prior to home video, United Artists kicked into double-bill re-releases. To us Bond fans it was almost a sacred duty to attend, even though the films were often paired with Dr. No; as a result, by default I have probably seen Dr. No (in theaters, at least), more times than I ever thought possible. Certainly, we thought, Goldfinger was the high-water mark. This had to be “the biggest Bond of them all.” I mean, what could possibly top this…?

Code Name: Thunderball

Now, I have to confess that initially I didn’t much care for Thunderball, but unfairly so, and no fault of the film. For some unimaginable reason, our family went to see it at the drive-in. Well, those already-dark underwater sequences just about disappeared, and it probably wasn’t even shown in the correct widescreen aspect ratio. So I felt

Says Ernest Farino, “I met Goldfinger’s Tania Mallet at an autograph show and she described how the white Ford Mustang wasn’t yet on the market (designated as the 1964-1/2 model) and was still top secret. It arrived concealed in a tarpaulin complete with ‘body guards.’ Mallet did all of her own driving in the film.” © Danjaq, LLC.

John Barry’s score is terrific, although for years I wondered why all of it wasn’t included on the soundtrack album. Turns out he had only finished scoring the first half of the movie when they had to commit to pressing the album! Tom Jones really belted out that theme song, almost fainting after that last note. Said Jones, “I closed my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the room was spinning.” An alternate theme song had been written, “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” but in addition to some censorship concerns over that title (this was 1965, remember), it was decided that the song lyric had to include the name of the film early in order to synchronize with the name of the film in the opening credits.

(ABOVE) Goldfinger opening run on Times Square, New York City. (ABOVE LEFT) The June 1965 issue of Esquire heralded the arrival of Thunderball with an elaborate, somewhat tongue-in-cheek advance look at the movie’s guns, girls, and gadgets. (LEFT) James Bond makes the cover of the January 6, 1966 issue of LIFE magazine. 007 had become someone to reckon with, and the world was taking notice.

Thunderball was a letdown. Over the years I’ve grown to like it a lot more, though I still think it has some pacing and production problems. None of which bothered anyone else. On a budget of $9 million, more than the budgets of the previous three Bond films combined, Thunderball was a global box-office smash. The film earning $141.2 million worldwide, which, adjusted for inflation, is about $1 billion, making it the second most financially successful Bond film after Skyfall. 32

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He always runs while others walk. He acts while other men just talk. He looks at this world, and wants it all, So he strikes, like Thunderball. Do the lyrics describe the hero, Bond, or the villain, Largo? The debate continues. You decide. I had the pleasure of meeting Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi, who played the femme fatale, Fiona Volpe, on several occasions. She is charming, funny, and simply delightful, so say nothing of being an eternal beauty. A über-Bond fan friend of mine told me that a couple of years ago he was browsing the DVDs in a Best Buy electronics store in Van Nuys, California, and, as he was reading the back of the newest DVD release of Thunderball, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to face—Luciana Paluzzi. She said, very politely, “Are you going to buy that? If not, I’d like to get it. I’m in it.” My friend just about passed out on the spot…

Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond

Okay, so I have a thing for Asian women. There. I said it. And You Only Live Twice has a lot to answer for in that regard. To this day there are close-ups of Mie Hama

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row one afternoon. Not just because of Mie and Akiko, but the film itself is quite spectacular. I was keen on visual effects by then, and had long followed the space program, so the scenes in space were especially exciting (of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey left all such scenes in the dust a year later, but for now, this was great). From the standpoint of physics and orbital mechanics I intuitively knew that the “capture” of another spacecraft was pretty much impossible, but heck, it’s a James bond movie… The ending-to-top-all-endings takes place in Blofeld’s volcano launch pad, of course, a Ken Adam masterpiece. Adam later said:

GOLDFINGER’S GOLDEN GIRL Author Ian Fleming borrowed the notion of someone being suffocated by being covered in gold paint from the horror film Bedlam. On April 20, 1964, the make-up team consisting principally of Paul Rabiger and assisted by Eileen Warwick spent two hours painting actress Shirley Eaton gold all over. The make-up men left a six-inch patch on her stomach unpainted so that her skin could breathe. Eaton said, “The original body paint was an almost clear gel full of gold particles. They had to leave a gap down my tummy because of the breathing thing.” A doctor was on set at all times. Over the years rumors circulated that Shirley Eaton had actually died on set, owing to the misconception that the gold paint caused asphyxiation. She didn’t, of course, and after a series of showers and steam baths, was good as new.

and Akiko Wakabayashi that still prompt for me a spontaneous nosebleed. A good friend of mine once confessed that the scene of Sean Connery and Mie Hama kissing on the mountainside as they pause in their trek to the volcano taught him how to kiss. I believe it. A female Japanese movie memorabilia dealer I knew used to make an annual trip to Los Angeles and we would get together for lunch to see all the things she brought for me. When I mentioned Mie Hama (pronounced MEE-yuh, as in Mia Farrow), her eyes lit up. Apparently Hama is/was a giant celebrity in Japan, on the level of interest of a Madonna or Marilyn Monroe—or whatever giant superstar you care to name. I didn’t know that, but it makes sense. In this film she plays Kissy Suzuki, although oddly that character name is never mentioned once in the film. She was originally slated to play Aki, played by Akiko Wakabayashi, but was struggling with her English. They briefly thought about dropping her, but, per Japanese culture, she would have endured such shame with her family that she might have committed seppuku (harakiri), so she and Akiko switched parts. You Only Live Twice premiered in the U.S. on June 13, 1967. My birthday is June 17, so my treat was seeing the movie twice in a

“The challenge appealed to me. When I had done two or three sketches, Cubby said, ‘Looks interesting. How much is it going to cost?’ I knew it was going to be a gigantic set but I had no idea. I quoted about a million dollars. That was an enormous amount of money [$1 million in 1966 = $7.8 million today]. Cubby didn’t blink an eye. ‘If you can do it for a million go ahead.’ And then my worries started…” This one set alone cost as much as the entire production of Dr. No.

(TOP) Filming the miniature of Thunderball’s Vulcan bomber. Two early Avro Vulcan B1As were used for the live-action filming. Thunderball won an Oscar® for Best Special Effects, awarded to John Stears. (BOTTOM) Mie Hama (LEFT), Sean Connery, and Akiko Wakabayashi. Prior to You Only Live Twice, Hama and Wakabayashi appeared in two films together, Key of Keys, a 1965 police picture that Woody Allen later transformed into his 1966 spoof What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, and the 1962 Toho production King Kong vs. Godzilla. © Danjaq, LLC.

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And, of course, we get to see Blofeld himself, finally. I was a little disappointed in that regard; as much as I liked Donald Pleasance in The Great Escape, Fantastic Voyage, and others, I felt he was a bit “weak” as a megalomaniac villain, especially on the heels of Auric Goldfinger and Emilio Largo. By now the Bond merchandising was overwhelming. James Bond pillowcases anyone? 007 deodorant? But oddly, the introduction of new items had tapered off. Nick Bennett, Guinness World Record Holder for The Largest James Bond Collection, told Will Levith of RealClearLife in 2017: “Each Bond film had grossed more than the last and the expectation for merchandise was high. But by the time You Only Live Twice came out, suppliers were happy to carry on selling previously made merchandise. They just kept producing the same items for years until they just didn’t sell anymore. The result is that You Only Live Twice has some of the least amount of memorabilia compared to Goldfinger and Thunderball, even though the film was more popular.” Regardless, You Only Live Twice was a giant hit, pulling in over $100 million internationally.

Your Mission, Should You Decide to Accept It…

Bond set the path, established the “rules,” and paved the way. Producers, studios, and television networks aren’t stupid (as often as we might think they are), and soon the floodgates opened for all of the knock-offs, spin-offs, and one-offs. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Broccoli and Saltzman must have been blushing (all the way to the bank). It’s beyond the scope of this article to cover all movies and TV series, deserving or not, but a few comments are in order. It’s All in the Family — One of the most bizarre knockoffs was 1967’s Italian-made Operation Kid Brother starring Sean Connery’s brother Neil, supported by Bond veterans Anthony Dawson (Dr. No), Daniela Bianchi (From Russia With Love), Adolfo Celi (Thunderball), and Bond series regulars Bernard Lee (“M”) and Lois Maxwell (“Miss Moneypenny”). I saw this at the time and didn’t think much of it—obviously a “gimmick” picture through-andthrough, but it might be amusing to watch again. Mission: Impossible — I and my family were huge fans of M: I, I think partly because my Army dad was part of Military Intelligence for a while as a photo analyst. He told some stories of infiltrating army bases on exercise, complete with fake papers and costumes and vehicles that were right out of M: I. The first two seasons are the best, with the most ingenious storylines and plotting. I preferred Steven Hill over Peter Graves, but it was all good. Many scenes of exterior third-world government buildings were filmed using administration buildings on the Paramount Studios lot; years later when I was working in film and had occasion to go onto the lot, I experienced an odd sense of déjà vu, until I finally figured out how I had “been there” before. I met Barbara Bain, the original female member of the team, and described how we all had loved the two-part episode “Old Man Out” (episodes 8 and 9, 1966) in which the team has to rescue a Catholic cardinal being held prisoner by an Eastern European country. She mentioned in reply that the “prison” exteriors were 34

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TITLE SEQUENCES Maurice Binder created the famous “gun barrel” logo by shooting with a pinhole camera through an actual gun barrel. Stuntman Bob Simmons is “James Bond” in the gun barrel logo seen in Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger. Sean Connery first appeared in the gun-barrel logo for Thunderball—since that film was the first to be shot in 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision, the gun-barrel sequence had to be filmed anew. Every successive actor playing Bond has since appeared in the gun-barrel logo. Binder then created the animated opening titles for Dr. No—pressed for time, he took a series of white stickerdots and pasted them onto black cardboard to illustrate his idea. Later, Binder created the signature look of the “Bond title sequence” by featuring silhouetted girls swimming or jumping on trampolines in slow motion. There was something of a dispute between Binder and the producers the next time around, so Binder stepped away and prominent graphic designer Robert Brownjohn stepped in. For From Russia With Love Brownjohn projected the multi-colored title credits on a gyrating belly dancer, inspired by constructivist artist László Moholy-Nagy projecting light onto clouds in the Twenties. Next came Goldfinger, and Brownjohn reversed his concept by projecting scenes from the film onto the reflective surface of the Golden Girl. For the sake of the titles and the ad campaign, British pin-up model and Carry On actress Margaret Nolan (a.k.a. Vicky Kennedy) was painted gold, and as part of her compensation for the job was given the small part of Bond’s masseuse “Dink” in the opening scene poolside at the Miami hotel. Brownjohn’s girlfriend Kiki Byrne designed the bikini that Nolan wore for the sequence. Photographer Herbert Spencer was on set and took the still photo images used in the ad campaign.

Robert Brownjohn’s inspired idea of projecting scenes from Goldfinger onto the “golden girl,” for this purpose played by Margaret Nolan, a British actress and pinup model who also appeared as Bond’s masseuse “Dink” in the Miami Beach hotel pool sequence.

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

Honey West — I only vaguely remember Honey West from back in the day, but in 2012 MeTV ran the series in the 3:00 a.m. timeslot and, sad to say, it’s terrible; an excruciating catalog of wrong choices, an uninhibited tourde-force of Ed Wood awfulness. Not only the stories and situations but the staging and production, to say nothing of some utterly ridiculous fight scenes. On the other hand, there’s charming, flirtatious, smart, shrewd, funny, and drop-dead beautiful Anne Francis. She can’t save the show all by herself, but just about anything with Anne Francis was great to see. [Editor’s note: Columnist Will Murray takes a look at Honey West in RetroFan #8. What does Will think of the show? Join us to find out.] The Wild Wild West was a genre mash-up of Westerns and spy stories, (LEFT) Japanese You Only Live Twice poster. © Danjaq, LLC. (RIGHT) A film largely forgotbut had more to do with the exotic ten and often overlooked, Operation Kid Brother, a bizarre knock-off starring Sean world of spies than the cowboys and Connery’s brother, Neil, supported by Bond veterans Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and wagon trains. Still, some amusing Adolfo Celi. © United Artists. adventures, a great train, and pretty solid production values. In addition to Bond-like gadgets and gimmicks, Ross Martin’s character seemed to be inspired by Martin Landau’s shot at Fairfax High School on Melrose Boulevard in Los Angeles, character in Mission: Impossible with his talent for disguises and which some would certainly call a “prison.” I’ve occasionally gone make-ups. to the weekly flea market on Sunday afternoons on the grounds of Fairfax High School and enjoyed noting the different locations for the episodes. The Avengers — This one I didn’t get at all, and still don’t. No surprise that I wasn’t much into Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner, The Man (and Girl) From U.N.C.L.E. — I wasn’t much of a fan of either. The Avengers just seemed too self-aware, trying a bit too U.N.C.L.E. The series premiered in 1964, the year of Goldfinger, so hard to be cute and hip and sassy. Or something. Honor Blackman quit her role as Cathy Gale on The Avengers (from 1962 to 1964) in I was at the height of being a James Bond purist (okay, snob), so order to appear in Goldfinger, and in a 1965 episode of The Avengers this struck me as a blatant knock-off. Years later I have come to appreciate the series a lot more, especially the first season, which John Steed (Patrick Macnee) receives a Christmas card from Cathy was in black and white. The U.N.C.L.E. theme song by one of my Gale—sent from Fort Knox, Kentucky… favorite composers, Jerry Goldsmith, still packs a wallop, and despite my original disdain for the series, immediately evokes The Saint — Based on the novels by Leslie Charteris and those halcyon days of Sixties spies. I later learned that Ian Fleming previously made into numerous feature films over the years, contributed to ideas for the show and even the names two of the was nevertheless spun into a British-produced “spy”-type series from 1962–1969, although the Saint was traditionally more of principal characters: Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (The Girl a detective involved in murder mysteries. Future James Bond From U.N.C.L.E.). Roger Moore played Simon Templar in the series, and was joined in separate episodes by Goldfinger alumni Honor Blackman and I Spy — This series was enjoyable, but didn’t grab me as much as some others. A lot of globetrotting adventures but less “spy” stuff, Shirley Eaton. per se (at least it seemed at the time; I’d like to revisit the series at some point). I had always liked Robert Culp, remembering him Matt Helm, Derek Flint, Maxwell Smart — Finally the spy craze from two of the best episodes of The Outer Limits: “The Architects became oversaturated and spilled over into satire and parody, or of Fear” and “Demon with a Glass Hand.” I met Culp at one of at best a “devil-may-care” cavalier approach. the autograph shows and he was very friendly and amiable. The Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin—The Silencers (1966), Murderers’ Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), The Wrecking Unfortunately, a disturbing cloud now hangs over Bill Cosby, but at the time he and Culp shared a terrific chemistry and, like Sidney Crew (1969)—are flat-out terrible, even on a wink-wink level. The fourth film, The Wrecking Crew, is passable, partly due to Poitier in films, made this role a breakthrough on TV for Africanthe presence of Nigel Green as the villain (a few years earlier American actors. RetroFan

Fall 2019

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

A portion of the author’s Bond memorabilia collection. On the far back wall, partially seen, is the British quad poster for Goldfinger.

Green played Hercules in the Ray Harryhausen epic Jason and the Argonauts), and a bevy of beautiful actresses from the period: Elke Sommer, Sharon Tate, Nancy Kwan, and Tina Louise. The film was also directed by Phil Karlson, who years earlier directed several tight film noir classics including 99 River Street, Kansas City Confidential, and Scandal Sheet (all 1952). In 2009 it was reported that producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci would produce a more serious Matt Helm film, and that Paul Attanasio’s script was closer to The Bourne Identity. There are 28 Matt Helm books by Donald Hamilton, so we can hope that a new, authentic spy franchise is in the works. Our Man Flint and In Like Flint starred the great James Coburn, but he was more a super-hero than a super-spy. Gila Golan costarred in Our Man Flint and three years later would star in Ray Harryhausen’s dinosaur Western The Valley of Gwangi. Get Smart! sprung from the comedic mind of Mel Brooks and, like many series, was strongest in its earliest seasons. Don Adams as Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 were perfectly cast, as was Ed Platt as the “Chief.” The Cone of Silence, the shoephone, and catch phrases like “Would you believe…?” and “Missed it by that much!” all became part of the spy lexicon, but like the Universal monster series slipping into parody with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein/The Mummy/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the writing was on the wall. Deadlier Than the Male — Another standalone feature film cashed in on not only the spy genre in general but took the glamour factor up a notch by featuring the stunning Elke Sommer and Silva Koscina as female assassins in the employ of Nigel Green. Sommer and Green would pair up again on the wrong side of the law two years later for The Wrecking Crew, in which Green masterminds the theft of $1 billion in U.S. gold being transported in Europe in order to create chaos in the world’s financial markets (sound familiar?). 36

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Some of the 007 merchandising available in the Sixties: Multiple Toy Products’ Attaché Case, A. C. Gilbert’s Road Race Set, Lakeside Toys’ Electric Drawing Set, board games by Milton Bradley and Tri-Ang, Corgi’s Aston Martin, and Philadelphia Gum’s trading cards. For adults, Colgate-Palmolive’s men’s toiletries and (shown on page 25) American Character’s James Bond Action Pen with Vapor Paper.

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

RE-VOICING / NIKKI VAN DER ZYL Entirely replacing an actor’s voice was done more commonly in Europe in the Sixties, partly because of the many multinational co-productions made at that time. Often, actors had strong accents, did not speak English in the first place, or were no longer in the country and thus unavailable for post-production sound work. Monica “Nikki” van der Zyl [pronounced van dur zill, as in “thrill”] was the uncredited performer for many of the actresses in the early Bond films. Because of Ursula Andress’ strong accent, van der Zyl re-voiced her in Dr. No (for which van der Zyl received £50 [$140.00] for a day’s work. “Although first and foremost I am a trained and working actress,” van der Zyl told author Mike Hankin in 2004, “I have been doing voice dubbing since 1958 when I lent my voice to the girl who rides with Dirk Bogarde in the execution cart at the end of A Tale of Two Cities.” For Dr. No, van der Zyl also re-voiced Eunice Gayson and all other female voices except Lois Maxwell, Zena Marshall, Yvonne Shima, and Michel Mok, and later revoiced Eunice Gayson and Arlette Dobson (the Istanbul Hotel Receptionist) in From Russia With Love, Shirley Eaton and Nadja Regin in Goldfinger (and was also the on-set English-language voice coach for Gert Frobe), Claudine Auger in Thunderball, and Mie Hama in You Only Live Twice. Other Bond actors from this period who were revoiced include Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love (re-voiced by Barbara Jefford), Gert Frobe in Goldfinger (re-voiced by Michael Collins), Adolfo Celi in Thunderball, and Tetsuro Tamba in You Only Live Twice (both re-voiced by Robert Rietty). Gert Frobe with his vocal coach Nikki van der Zyl on the Fort Knox Depository set at Pinewood Studios, Goldfinger, 1964. © Danjaq, LLC.

Nick Fury – Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Even the comics played into the spy craze, especially Marvel’s Nick Fury, reimagined from his World War II adventures as Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos as a slightly older character with an eyepatch, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965) and principally drawn by Jim Steranko. Stan Lee admitted that S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and LawEnforcement Division, although those designations were altered a couple of times in intervening years), a fictional espionage and

counter-terrorism agency, was directly inspired by the U.N.C.L.E. organization, which, in turn, had precedent in Ian Fleming’s S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Other “inspirations” included bowler hat–wearing S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Timothy “Dum-Dum” Dugan. So the Swingin’ Sixties became the Spyin’ Sixties and Carnaby Street became Bond Boulevard. But all good things must come to an end. Sort of. The Bond series continues, of course, Sean Connery having handed over his Walther PPK to George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton. Pierce Brosnan slid into the role with Goldeneye. (Ironically, Brosnan’s stepfather took the 11-year-old Pierce to see Goldfinger in 1964, his first James Bond film. I’d love to reminisce with him someday over our shared experience.) Today Daniel Craig has the license to kill, the new series really coming into its own with Skyfall, coincidentally the third film in the new series much in the same way that Goldfinger, the third in the original series, finally nailed it in the Sixties (and Skyfall has a prominent appearance by the Aston Martin, too!). Time for me to sit back with my Vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), and—well, to paraphrase Goldfinger’s advice, “Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Farino—it may be your last…” All pictorial material reproduced herein derives from the voluntary, noncompensated contributions of pictorial or other memorabilia from the private collections of the author, and from the select private archives of individual contributors. ERNEST FARINO fully realized on Thursday, July 22, 1999 how James Bond felt in Goldfinger when he said, “I must be dreaming…” Farino stands with Honor Blackman (she’s the pretty one on the lef t) during The Magical Worlds of Ray Harryhausen film festival at the Vista Theater in Hollywood (Blackman starred in Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts in 1963). Farino’s own career in movies and TV includes his recently directing an episode of the SyFy/Netflix series Superstition starring Mario Van Peebles. Previously Farino directed Steel and Lace starring Bruce Davison, episodes of Monsters starring Lydia Cornell and Marc McClure, ABC’s Land of the Lost starring Timothy Bottoms, and extensive 2nd Unit for the miniseries Dune starring William Hurt, Noah’s Ark starring Jon Voight, and Supernova starring Luke Perry. A two-time Emmy-winning Visual Effects Supervisor for SyFy’s Dune and Children of Dune miniseries, Farino supervised the Emmy-nominated visual effects for the Tom Hanks/ HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon; James Cameron’s The Terminator, The Abyss, and T2; as well as Starship Troopers, Creepshow, and many others. His Archive Editions has published Mike Hankin’s elaborate three-volume book set Ray Harryhausen – Master of the Majicks, The FXRH Collection, and more. RetroFan

Fall 2019

e M t c e p x E u Do Yo ? … k l a T To Goldfinger Trivia by Ernest Farino

QUESTIONS 1. In the film, what year did Auric Goldfinger first conceive of “Operation Grand Slam”? 2. What day of the week did Goldfinger brief the gangsters of the plan (with his model of Fort Knox, etc.)? 3. What mistake does the lead female pilot make in the countdown to release the Delta-9 gas as the planes fly over Fort Knox? 4. What is the “code name” flight designation of the formation of planes that strafe Fort Knox? Such as, “Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus” (which is not the answer). 5. Following the “gun barrel logo” the pre-title sequence opens with a high wide angle of the large storage tanks and the camera cranes down the other side of a wall to find Bond emerging from the water in his wetsuit. What is unusual about this shot? 6. In the scene where Bond engages the tire-slashers to disable Tilly Masterson’s white Mustang, there is a close-up of his hand flipping the switch on the control panel console next to his seat. What’s wrong with this shot? 7. What is the proper temperature for enjoying “Dom Pérignon ’53”? 8. After the bomb is switched off by the C.I.A. guy just before Bond rips out the wires, 007 says, “Three more ticks and Mr. Goldfinger would have hit the jackpot.” What’s wrong with this line? 9. With Bond on board Goldfinger’s private jet and piloted by Pussy Galore, what time of day do they expect to land in Baltimore, “our port of entry into the United States”? 10. What brand of golf balls do Bond and Goldfinger use, respectively?

Bonus Question

What is unusual about this shot?

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Fall 2019

ANSWERS 1. 1949. In the scene inside the clubhouse prior to the golf game, there is a calendar on the back wall dated. So, in addition to the movie having been made in 1964, it is telling the story as if it takes place in 1964. When briefing the gangsters later on, Goldfinger says, “I have devoted 15 years of my life to Operation Grand Slam…” Thus, he conceived of the plan in 1949.

Shot with calendar in golf clubhouse with 1964 circled. © Danjaq, LLC.

2. Goldfinger tells the gangsters that the raid will take place “tomorrow,” and one of them says, “Banks don’t open on Sundays.” Thus, the briefing took place on Saturday. 3. The pilot says into her microphone to the other planes, “Five… four… three… two… Zero!” She skips over “One.” 4. Champagne Section (or Flight). The Pilot says, “Champagne Leader to Champagne Section: commence Rock-a-Bye Baby.” 5. It’s an optical effect, a sliding split screen. Look closely and you’ll see that the shot of the field with the storage tanks is static and the wall that glides up in front of it is matted and tracked over that background. Since the storage tanks are in the distance, there wouldn’t be much of a perspective shift if it were a crane shot on the actual location, so the illusion works.

easy way to remember the temperature is that “38” is also the caliber of a gun. 8. The timer on the bomb originally stopped at 003 (seconds) and the line referred to that count. Producer Harry Saltzman saw the dailies and rushed to the set the next day (they were still shooting in the vault set) and said, “Are you guys crazy?! It needs to stop at 007.” So they made a new shot of the timer at 007 (seconds) but never looped the line referring to the new number.

9. 2:40pm. After Bond has changed into his suit, Pussy Galore says, “We’ll be landing in Baltimore in 20 minutes…” The clock on the wall above the lavatory door beyond her says 2:20, so their arrival time would be 2:40pm. 10. Bond: Penfold Hearts. Goldfinger: Slazenger 7.

Bonus Question

Pussy Galore’s co-pilot, Sydney (Tricia Müller), is reading the April 1964 issue of Vogue magazine. Tania Mallet, who plays Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger, was a high-end fashion model at the time and happens to be on the cover of that very issue of Vogue in a photo by David Bailey.

6. They apparently didn’t shoot a close-up for this scene, so they “stole” a similar shot from later when Bond and Tilly are fleeing from the bad guys at night in the forest (when he uses the smoke screen, etc.). Note that in this shot Bond’s sleeve is that of his black shirt from the later scene in the forest at night, not the sleeve of the gray suit he’s wearing in the tire-slasher scene. 7. 38º Fahrenheit. When Bond leaves Shirley Eaton in bed to get another bottle because their open bottle has “lost its chill,” she says, “Who needs it?” Bond says, “My dear girl, drinking Dom Pérignon ’53 above the temperature of 38º Fahrenheit just isn’t done. That’s like listening to the Beatles without ear muffs.” The RetroFan

Fall 2019

RetroFan's

Too Much TV

Quiz

If your old man used to gripe that you’d never learn anything with your nose glued to the boob tube, here’s your chance to prove him wrong. (Father doesn’t always know best.) Each of the TV spies and secret agents in Column One corresponds to an organization in Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate!

1) John Drake 2) Barney Collier 3) James West 4) Agent 99 5) Steve Austin 6) Lancelot Link 7) Mrs. Amanda King 8) April Dancer 9) Secret Squirrel 10) Angus MacGyver 40

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A paperclip can be a wondrous thing!

RetroFan Ratings

10 correct: Fine-Tuned RetroFan Sock it to me, baby! I bet you know theme song lyrics too! 7–9 correct: Rabbit-Eared RetroFan Dy-no-mite! You wasted your childhood with the rest of us! 4–6 correct: Fuzzy-Receptioned RetroFan Up your nose with a rubber hose ’til you spend more tube time! 0–3 correct: Tuned-Out RetroFan Ya big dummy! Put down that book and go watch some classic TV! ANSWERS: 1–G, 2–J, 3–C, 4–A, 5–H, 6–B, 7–I, 8–D, 9–F, 10–E.

A) CONTROL B) Agency to Prevent Evil C) U.S. Secret Service D) U.N.C.L.E. E) Phoenix Foundation F) International Sneaky Service G) NATO H) Office of Scientific Information I) The Agency J) IMF

Danger Man/Secret Agent Man © ITC. Get Smart and The Wild Wild West © CBS. The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. © MGM Television. Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp © ABC. MacGyver and Mission: Impossible © Paramount Television. Scarecrow and Mrs. King © Warner Bros. Television. Secret Squirrel © Hanna-Barbera Productions. The Six Million Dollar Man © Universal Television. All rights reserved.

RetroFan

Fall 2019

MONSTER MASH

The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957-1972 Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American mainstream! Once Frankenstein and fiends infiltrated TV in 1957, an avalanche of monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books crashed upon an unsuspecting public. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky Monster Craze through features on FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (SHOCK THEATRE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, and DARK SHADOWS), “MARS ATTACKS” trading cards, EERIE PUBLICATIONS, PLANET OF THE APES, and more! It features interviews with JAMES WARREN (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines), FORREST J ACKERMAN (Famous Monsters of Filmland), JOHN ASTIN (The Addams Family), AL LEWIS (The Munsters), JONATHAN FRID (Dark Shadows), GEORGE BARRIS (monster car customizer), ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of “The Dark Age”). (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 9781605490649 Diamond Order Code: MAR151564

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

Dad Made Me Do It Three Letters to Three Famous People

by Scott Saavedra Astronaut Neil Armstrong. Illustrator Norman Rockwell. Comicbook creator Jack Kirby. Three individuals generally regarded to be near or at the pinnacle of their professions. When I was a kid, I wrote to all of them. I asked one for comic books. I asked one for a job. And I asked one for government property. My requests were all made under duress. This is my story.

The Man from the Moon

Thinking back through the haze of my childhood memories, I don’t recall much about America’s Space Program during the Sixties. Certainly, I was aware of it and interested in it. I know that I wanted to be an astronaut but I had awful motion sickness (plus

I was bad at math and, much later, hated flying). Even playing too long on a swing set was problematic. To this day, my mom will—for no discernible reason—remind me about the time I got “car sick” on a drive one Easter Sunday and threw up in her brandnew purse. There was no malice intended. I just don’t travel well. Also, I was an infant (besides, I was sitting on my mother’s lap in a moving car that was not equipped with seatbelts, therefore a baby blithely barfing was really the least bad thing that could’ve happened). So… space. By the middle of 1969, NASA was on the cusp of realizing President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1961 call to put men on the Moon and return them safely home before the decade’s end. President Kennedy, cruelly assassinated in 1963, would not

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Neil A. Armstrong in a lunar module simulator where he practiced in the weeks leading up to the historic Apollo 11 mission. NASA. Illustrator Norman Rockwell in a portrait by Underwood and Underwood, 1921. Library of Congress. Jack Kirby in thought during a media interview at a fund-raising event in Westlake, California, c.1977. Photo courtesy of the author.

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Fall 2019

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

live to see the mission’s success. If there was to be a success. One of my strongest memories is of the uncertainty and danger associated with the Moon landing. And the years following Kennedy’s death were difficult and bruising to America’s sense of itself. A positive event—a successful Moon mission—that could bring the country together was more than welcome. That’s an observation made with the benefit of research and hindsight, of course. I was only nine at the time, enjoying my summer, and not thinking deeply about much of anything. My dad, on the other hand, had his mind on objects paradoxically momentous and small. Moon rocks. The July 4, 1969 issue of Life, then a popular weekly magazine of photojournalism, was a special edition highlighting the impending Apollo 11 Moon landing. I dimly recall this issue and an online copy was pleasantly familiar (I must have read the heck out of it as a kid). My Dad did not generally bring home a lot of magazines, so that, plus the ambient Moon Landing Mania (for more on that subject, see RetroFan #5), helps it stick in my mind. There was a feature on the three astronauts being sent to the Moon—Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins—and their families. Dad was especially interested in the families, specifically their number. He had an idea, Dad did, and it involved me (though I didn’t know it just yet). Soon, my dad was busily silk-screen printing T-shirts in our garage and then carefully lying them out on the backyard lawn to dry. The shirts were simple: the designation APOLLO 11 over a stark image of the Moon printed in a single color (red, I think) on a basic white T-shirt. My father’s plan was simple: send the astronauts these fine custom T-shirts for themselves and their families and ask if they would swap them for… moon rocks. Because, sure, why not? It’s like if my dad knew Neil Armstrong was going to McDonald’s for lunch and then asked if he could have his delicious French fries. Except these fries cost $100,000,000 instead of just 15 cents.

APOLLO 11

A recreation of the T-shirt design produced by the author’s father for the purpose of obtaining moon rocks. 44

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NEIL ARMSTRONG (1930–2012) Following Neil Armstrong’s death, retired U.S. Senator John Glenn called his fellow groundbreaking astronaut “humble.” In fact, Armstrong long maintained that the successful moonwalk was the result of the work of many people. The Soviet Union, unable to beat the U.S. to the Moon with a manned flight, sent an unmanned craft, Luna 15, which failed and smashed into the lunar surface hours before Armstrong and Aldrin began their return to the orbiting Command Module. My second youngest brother was born just a few days after that first moonwalk, he was named Buck Rogers (I kid… his name is Neil). In a somewhat related note, my father was once mistaken for astronaut Buzz Aldrin at an Inventor’s Expo (the two men look nothing alike). (ABOVE) Author’s copy of the Apollo 11 crew photo given out by NASA (note tape stains). The signatures are via an Autopen, which was used to keep up with the demand for autographs. NASA.

Decades later, I’m still shaking my head at the audacity. If Dad had just read a bit deeper into that issue of Life he would have seen the article about the expensive ($8.5 million in 1969 dollars) and elaborate efforts to quarantine the astronauts and their collected rocks to make sure they didn’t bring back any Moonpox. Plus, the rocks were destined for research. This information was there in black and white. I was only a kid and I thought the notion was bonkers. But Dad felt he had a secret weapon. Me. Who, my dad figured, could deny a decent American boy a teeny, tiny, won’t-be-missed pebble collected during the apex of Humanity’s Greatest Moment? All I had to do was write a letter telling the astronauts how much I was interested in the space program (quite a bit) and how much my younger brother Mark was interested in the space program (not a bit) and, hey, if you had any extra leftover lunar gravel could I get some, that would be great, thankyouverymuch. Oh, here are some T-shirts for you and your lovely wives and children. So I reluctantly wrote the letter. My dad looked it over and rejected it. “Kids don’t talk that way. You need to sound like a

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Neil Armstrong responded to the author’s letter while still in quarantine after Apollo 11’s crew returned from their historic mission to the Moon. Courtesy of the author.

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scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Original art to Fantastic Four #98 (May 1970). Writer Stan Lee and the legendary artistic team of Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott correctly capture Neil Armstrong’s intended words at this historic Apollo 11 moment (Armstrong famously forgot the article “a” and said “That’s one small step for man”). Kirby would soon leave Marvel Comics and begin his “Fourth World” comics at DC. Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy

of Heritage Comics Auctions.

kid.” Me? Not sound like a kid? Preposterous! Dad dictated a more juvenile version to his liking and it was sent with the T-shirts directly, I believe, to Neil Armstrong in care of NASA. Then Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins flew to the Moon in a rocketship. Armstrong, then Aldrin, walked on the surface of Earth’s only natural satellite. They picked up some rocks and took some pictures. And then they came home to Earth. Safely. Humanity marveled at such an historic achievement. With the mission objective achieved the astronauts were then stuck in quarantine for 21 days. What did they do with their time? Well, at least one of them decided to catch up on some correspondence.

A thin manila envelope from NASA arrived that August. Did I get a Moon rock? Well, come on, no. I did allow myself to think that maybe it could happen, so I was briefly disappointed. I squeezed the envelope before opening it hoping to find a lump. What I did get was a machine-autographed photo of the three Apollo 11 astronauts and a personal letter from Neil Armstrong dated August 12, 1969 when he would have still been in quarantine. In the letter Commander Armstrong thanked my parents for the T-shirts (“Our children thought the shirts were great!”) and encouraged my brother and I to study hard (sorry, sir) and keep up our interest in the space program (Roger that). After I showed it around to everyone, I proudly took my historic document and, using masking tape, stuck that sucker to my bedroom wall. I was and continue to be impressed by the simple, decent kindness of the letter. I did eventually see an actual piece of the Moon that was part of a traveling exhibition. It just looked like a rock.

The Mystery of ‘Shuffleton’s Barbershop’

There was a very large book in our house, Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1970). It was a gift from Mom to Dad. I don’t specifically recall any great interest in Rockwell by my father, who was an (mostly) amateur artist, but I loved that book. In addition to reproductions of some of the prolific artist’s work there was also background on his process. That was the part that was most compelling to me. Being a boy of just 13 summers, though, my artistic tastes were still developing and I was more focused on one of this country’s great native art forms: comic books. At that time, 1973, comic books (and Star Trek and Lord of the Rings) were still fringe popular culture as far as the population

NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894–1978) In the early Sixties, NASA initiated an art program to promote the space program. Annie Liebovitz, Andy Warhol, and Norman Rockwell were among the artists who participated. Rockwell managed to convince NASA to let him take a spacesuit home so he could get the details right for a painting of two Gemini astronauts, John Young and Gus Grissom, suiting up. A NASA employee was required to be with the suit at all times. Later, Rockwell was commissioned to paint the Moon landing in the lead-up to the actual event. Other Apollo 11 paintings followed. Astronaut Story Musgrave grew up on the 40-acre Linwood Estate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which is now the home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. The painting, “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” is owned by popular culture giant, George Lucas, and will be on display at the as-yet-uncompleted Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. Norman Rockwell’s final studio. Out of the 20 or so over a lifetime, he felt it was his “best studio yet.” In 1986 it was moved to its current location at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Photographs from

the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

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at large was concerned. Nothing to notice or take too seriously. My mom worried about me reading comics… she was concerned that it was junk (well, yes). There were no superhero movies that year, no comic-book-inspired primetime television series. What is now called Comic-Con International: San Diego (but usually just referred to as Comic-Con) had an attendance of a mere 1,000+ enthusiasts. I read everything about comic books that I could find at the library (not much) and kept my eyes peeled for any reference to comics elsewhere (slim pickings). And so I was pleasantly surprised one day, while looking through Artists and Illustrator for the umpteenth time, to see something I hadn’t noticed before. A rack of comic books in the left corner of one of Rockwell’s paintings. The painting, “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” is one of Norman Rockwell’s better-known works. “Shuffleton’s Barbershop”—a real place, by the way—provided the cover to the April 29, 1950 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Artist and Illustrator presents not only the painting but some of the reference photos used to create it. Rockwell definitely had an eye for detail but the photos he used, in this case taken by an assistant, were a supplement for his onsite sketches. What caught my eye—once I stopped marveling at the fact that I found comic books in a Real Artist’s painting— was the fact that the two comic-book covers that I could make out were inaccurately painted. At the time, I only recognized two of the source comics and (much) later research turned up the actual issues: Crime Does Not Pay #82 (Dec. 1949) and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories vol. 10, #3 (Dec. 1949). Rockwell had misspelled the comic titles. CRIME, for example, became “RIHE” with the letter C clearly painted over.

The only person I could think to share my discovery with was my father. I don’t recall my dad being particularly moved by my incredible discovery. Absentmindedly, and with a complete misunderstanding of how Norman Rockwell worked, I puzzled aloud, “Hmmm, I wonder if he still has the comic books?” “You should ask him. Write him a letter.” Nuts. Now I had my dad’s full and enthusiastic attention. As a younger man, Dad enjoyed collecting autographs from young actresses (and someday I will find that autograph book). But I was his polar opposite. I did not want to bother someone just because they were famous. “Maybe he still has the comic books and he’ll give them to you.” I did not want to write Norman Rockwell and ask him about misspelling comic-book titles and then ask him for 23-yearold comic books that I was pretty certain he didn’t have. But, I allowed, that it was maybe, sorta, possible he might have one or two. I wouldn’t say no to free comic books. This letter, as with the moon rock request, was re-drafted because Dad said that I didn’t sound enough like a kid (if you could ever conceive of such an inconceivable—that word means exactly what I think it does—scenario). We sent the approved version off and waited. Annnnnd… he wrote back! It took a few months but I got a reply. It was brief and polite. He didn’t recall why he left out the C and he didn’t have the “magazines.” Boom. That’s it.

(LEFT) The April 29, 1950 issue of the Saturday Evening Post featuring Norman Rockwell’s “Shuffleton’s Barbershop.” (TOP LEFT) Crime Does Not Pay #82 (Dec. 1949), and (TOP RIGHT) Disney’s Comics & Stories vol. 10 #3 are two of the most visible of the mis-painted comics found on the lower left of the cover. Of the comic books on the rack, writer Richard Halpern notes in his book, Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence, that “it is rare that a specimen of cultural sleaze manages to crawl up from the basement and park itself in the middle of a Rockwell.” Rude. Saturday Evening Post © Saturday Evening Post Society. All Rights Reserved. Donald Duck & related characters © Disney.

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Norman Rockwell’s succinct reply to the author.

Right there on his personal stationary. “Sincerely Yours, Norman Rockwell.” Mystery solved.

An Audience with the King

According to my records from 1974 (ahem), I bought 87 comic books for the entirety of the year, a robust round of purchases for me then, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough for this fan. I just couldn’t afford any more than that. Fortunately, my brother Daniel had a friend who got $20 a month to spend on comics (back when they were 20 to 25 cents for a regular issue) and was willing to swap back and forth. It was in this way that I was introduced to Jack Kirby’s mad Kamandi (adventures in a postholocaust world) and his inventive, interconnected “Fourth World” comics, Mister Miracle, New Gods, The Forever People, and the precursor, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. I quickly noticed that the address to send an LOC (fanspeak for letter of comment) was a post-office box in Newbury Park, California. Wait. I lived in Newbury Park, California! D-did that mean Jack Kirby lived in Newbury Park, California? Newbury 48

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Park, California, by the way, was then a very quiet, small town in the Conejo Valley (conejo is Spanish for rabbit, a creature I never, ever saw while living there). On a hunch, I checked to see if our phone book had a listing for a Jack Kirby. It did. But I couldn’t believe it was the Jack Kirby because—pardon my naiveté— famous people just didn’t have themselves listed in the phone book. Besides, everyone knew that comic-book artists lived in New York. Except this Jack Kirby lived in Thousand Oaks, a larger neighboring city in the Conejo Valley (sound of no rabbits frolicking). Despite my completely logical doubts I convinced myself that I was on to something. “Hey, Dad, a real comic-book artist lives in Thousand Oaks!” “You should write to him and ask him if he needs an assistant.” Thought balloon over my head: “Aw, crap.” I did not want to be Jack Kirby’s assistant. He clearly already had an assistant helping him with the letters page (turned out he had two assistants who later went on to have creative careers, writer Mark Evanier and puppeteer Steve Sherman). I actually still have an early, maybe final, draft and I can easily make out my contributions: “I think that you and Joe Kubert are the best in the field of comic art,” just like any frickin’ run-of-the-mill, bookish, comic-book goofball 14-year-old would write. And my dad’s: “I was just wondering if you could use my help in either fileing (sic—any bad spelling is my fault) or doing errands in exchange for letting me see you at work.” Ugh. First, Jack Kirby wasn’t an accountant, so I question how much filing he needed and second, what errands did my dad think a kid without any means of transportation do for an artist in the middle of the suburbs, and third, who would want to have some strange (so true) teen sit and stare at you while you’re working? The request for an autographed photo is also my dad’s line. And I have never signed off as “Your Friend” to anyone, not even my actual friends. The finished letter was placed into an envelope on which was placed a freshly licked ten cent stamp. It was then taken away by our friendly long-time postman, Dick. So, one summer day not long after, I’m pulling weeds for a neighbor (gotta earn that comic-book money) and my mom comes over to tell me that Mrs. Kirby called to say that I could come over to visit Mr. Kirby. I will admit that even though I didn’t want to write the letter I was thrilled to hear this and was floating for the rest of the day. In preparation for the upcoming visit I mounted my artwork, a sampling of poorly drawn fantasy and superhero illustrations, and produced a new science-fiction story (in the manner of

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Kamandi) which my dad “helped” me with by inking my pencil art with a ballpoint pen and placing tasteful highlights in gold paint on the splash page. He also randomly colored parts of panels with watercolors. From a professional comic-book art point of view, there really wasn’t anything that we didn’t do wrong. The day of The Visit came and my dad and I sat down with Mr. Kirby in his studio, which overlooked the Conejo Valley in the manner of Mount Olympus (but with fewer rabbits). He politely looked over my youthful, clumsy attempts at art. He smiled. I sat up straighter. Jack Kirby seemed especially taken with the art for my science-fiction story. He pointed to the hero’s name emblazoned across the page: ROZ. “My wife’s name is Roz!” Well, my character’s name was ROZ because my dad named him ROZ. ROZ is an acronym for Radioactive Organic Zam (don’t ask me). Somehow, ROZ was “half man, half atom.” Even by comicbook standards of the time this was ba-donkers. My dad is gone now so I can’t ask him about it. But it would be so like him to think that this would somehow improve my chances of employment if, in fact, he knew Roz Kirby’s name ahead of time. That doesn’t completely explain “Zam” but it’s something. After looking over all of my art he gently let me know that I didn’t have enough… hate?, anger? I don’t recall exactly. Years later, Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens told me Kirby had said

JACK KIRBY (1917–1994) Jack Kirby’s galactically vast imagination has inspired and powered both comic books and the successful movies that sprang from them. Stan Lee, the original wordsmith, editor, and master showman of Marvel Comics, gave “fun” nicknames to his fellow creators in that company’s early days. Lee bestowed “King” onto Kirby. It was an agnomen (don’t use that word often enough) that—though it ultimately fit—reminded the artist of an earlier, un-beloved boss, Victor Fox. Apparently Fox, a Forties-era publisher of comic books with attractive covers on the outside and junk on the inside, strutted about, cigar in mouth, proclaiming, “I’m the King of Comics!” to no one in particular. (ABOVE) The author’s father with Jack Kirby, c. 1983. No one living has any idea why this particular meeting took place. Courtesy of the author.

more or less the same thing to him, though he also acknowledged Dave’s huge talent. Kirby did suggest that I probably could have gotten work in the Golden Age of Comics (not a complement but, you know, he was trying to be nice). No assistant job for me. However, I was gifted with a Jack Kirby’s Gods portfolio. Four large renditions of strapping characters penciled and watercolored by Kirby and finished with voluptuous inking by Marvel Comics stalwart Don Heck. Allowing me and my dad to visit was a huge act of generosity on the part of both of the Kirbys. I fully expected that encounter to be a one-off, but it wasn’t. I visited Jack Kirby again in 1975—he had Captain America art on the drawing board—for a high school

A page of art prepared to show Jack Kirby the author’s artistic abilities. Coloring, most of the inking, some of the writing, much of lettering, all of the fancy gold paint applications provided by the author’s father. New York was sarcastically known as “Fun City” during some of the Sixties and Seventies. © Scott Saavedra.

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(LEFT) A slightly stalker-y sounding letter to comic-book giant, Jack Kirby. (TOP RIGHT) The author once before recounted, slightly inaccurately, his first meeting with Jack Kirby in strip form for the Aug.–Sept. 2000 issue of his fanzine, Comic Book Heaven vol. 2 #3 (SLG). (ABOVE) Postcard from Jack Kirby, dynamic and to the point (like the artist’s work itself). Art © Scott Saavedra. Artifacts courtesy of the author.

assignment to interview a local interesting person (“Why don’t you ask Jack Kirby?”). That same year a student from my high school was shot and paralyzed. My dad helped spearhead efforts to assist the boy, one of nine kids. This was strange to me, not because my dad didn’t care about others, it’s just that he wasn’t an organizer. I asked my mom about that recently. “Your father was an idea man. Other people had to do the work.” My mom isn’t being unkind. That’s exactly the kind of person my father was. Once, after I moved away from home, Dad called me out of the blue (a rare event). He didn’t even say “hello.” “Boogie Boy!” “What?! Dad?” “Boogie Boy! He makes graffiti and fights crime on his skateboard. Do that one!” I didn’t do that one. Defacing public property is a crime (yep, I’m that guy). Hang on, I’m coming back around to Jack Kirby. So, my dad was involved with some fundraisers for the wounded boy and distressed family. At least two events involved celebrities and my dad invited Jack Kirby to be one of the celebrities both times. He happily drew sketches for kids and I watched as he was interviewed by local media. Years later, Roz Kirby made a point of telling me how much she and Jack enjoyed my parents. I didn’t ever get a letter from Jack Kirby. The reply to my initial letter was a phone call. But in 1982 I received a postcard from him. In it he asked me how my Benchly comic strip (an awful thing I was 50

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doing at the time for the San Jose State newspaper, the Spartan Daily) was coming along. I have no earthly idea why he wrote that postcard. I suspect my mom sent him clippings of the comic strip and maybe suggested I’d like to hear from him. It’s the sort of thing she’d do. Kisses, Mom. “He was channeling through you,” Mom told me recently when I asked why Dad had me write “my” letters. We had opposing personalities. I was a shy, bookish kid while my dad was way more relaxed. Way more. It wasn’t always a smooth relationship. But the Neil Armstrong and Norman Rockwell letters are framed and hanging (properly, minus the masking tape) on my office wall. I smile and usually think of Dad (kindly) when I focus on them. I only recently uncovered the Jack Kirby postcard and I’ll put that up too. SCOTT SAAVEDRA is a graphic designer who writes and draws as needed. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the long-ago comic-book series, It’s Science with Dr. Radium (SLG), and he wrote for the short-lived Disney Comics line, where he scripted stories featuring Chip ’n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and others. His fanzine, Comic Book Heaven, about crazy, vintage comics, had a devoted but, sadly, tiny following. Check out his Instagram thing, won’t you? (instagram.com/scottsaav/)

Growing Up

by Dan Johnson In 1964, CBS introduced America to one of the most memorable television sitcom families of all time. In many ways, they were very typical. There was a father, a mother, a grandfather, a poor distant cousin that seemed destined to be an old maid because of her looks, and a young son. They had the usual wacky misadventures that a lot of television families experienced, and, at the end of the day, it was certain that there was much love in this family. What set this clan apart from everyone else on the air was that they were based on the classic Universal Monsters (Herman Munster, the father, was, more or less, the Frankenstein Monster, and Grandpa was Count Dracula). They were the Munsters, and for two years (1964– 1966) they rode the wave of monster mania that was sweeping the U.S.A. in the early Sixties. Even Butch Patrick, TV pop culture icon, indeed! Courtesy of Leila Murray/ Munsters.com.

though the show ended over 50 years ago, The Munsters remains a fan-favorite thanks to reruns, and it is a show that has never left the airwaves. At the Fayetteville Comic Con in October 2018, this writer got to sit down with the youngest member of this frightening family unit, Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster, for a panel Q&A. Butch was nice enough to share his memories of working on the iconic sitcom and also discussed his career after The Munsters. The following is an edited transcription of that interview. RetroFan: Tell our readers how you got the part of Eddie Munster. Butch Patrick: The Munsters came along in 1964. I had started acting in 1961, and I was actually living in Illinois with my

grandparents. They had cast the show with a kid named Happy Derman and a woman named Joan Marshall played the mom, whose name was Phoebe. [They were in the original pilot, and this] has since become the lost pilot for The Munsters, which was shot in color. At the last minute, the producers decided to do screen tests for other kids, and my agent convinced them to fly me out from Illinois and do the screen test, which I did. Before The Munsters, I had appeared on General Hospital and done a year on The Real McCoys, so I had several credits before this series. RF: 1964 was a big year for horror fans. Shock Theater was on the air with the Universal Horror films, Famous Monsters of Filmland was out on the newsstand, and the Aurora monster model kits were huge hits. Were you a horror fan before The Munsters? BP: Yeah, I really enjoyed the classic Universal Monster movies, like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Wolf Man (1941), The Mummy (1932), and especially RetroFan

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(ABOVE) Phoebe, not Lily? And who’s that as Eddie?? Title cards from the original Munsters pilot showing the two key roles that would be recast. (BELOW) Just an average American kid: Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster, with Al Lewis as Grandpa, in an autographed publicity still. Photo courtesy of Heritage. Munsters © Universal Pictures.

BP: Well, the people who produced The Munsters worked on Leave It to Beaver for six years, so they were very committed that the scripts be poignant. Hugh Beaumont [Leave It to Beaver’s Ward Cleaver] was a great TV dad. Fred Gwynne was a great TV dad. The interesting thing they were able to do was take the family dynamic of Leave It to Beaver and apply it to The Munsters while utilizing Universal’s classic monsters. So they really knew how to use set dressing and lighting to make them scary while being friendly and a family.

Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). I was definitely a Universal Monsters junkie. RF: The age you were, working on the sets of The Munsters and working in the monster make-up, and being a fan, you must have been in seventh heaven. BP: It’s funny. The Munsters for me was a job. My favorite thing to do was explore the Universal lot when I had some free time. My favorite destination was the make-up department where Mike Westmore worked. Mike was an apprentice on The Munsters and [doing my make-up] was his first work in television. My favorite thing to do was check out the special effects and make-up and all the things behind the scenes. RF: Tell us about Fred Gwynne. Herman Munster was, in my opinion, one of the most iconic television dads of all-time. BP: Fred was a great guy and a really fine actor. He and Al Lewis, from [the 1961–1963 sitcom] Car 54, Where Are You?, were a very funny comedy team. On The Munsters, Fred was able to capture this Frankenstein character, and once you saw him, he wasn’t Frankenstein, he immediately became loveable Herman Munster. 52

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The thing I learned the most from Fred was acting techniques. Fred was such a good teacher and such a talent. You’ll notice, as we became closer and closer, the writers started writing more father-andson moments, so I have to thank Fred for broadening my techniques. RF: For a show about a family of monsters, The Munsters presented a great family dynamic.

RF: Tell us about Al Lewis, Grandpa Munster. BP: Well, Al and Fred were so opposite. Fred was very much reserved and Al was over the top with crazy energy levels. Together, they made up a Yin and Yang. Al loved sports and was well known for being a scout for basketball, and he taught me a lot about not taking things too seriously. He would toss a Frisbee and play baseball with me when we had the time, and he became my mentor. Until the day he died, Al and I were very close. My favorite thing to do when we were on set was check out Grandpa’s dungeon. The laboratory/dungeon set

RETRO INTERVIEW: BUTCH PATRICK

was my favorite set, and Al really took the character of Grandpa to a new level. RF: Tell us about Yvonne De Carlo, Lily Munster, your TV mom. Prior to The Munsters, she had a huge career as a film star. BP: This was before a lot of movie stars did television. Yvonne took the role of Lily mainly for financial security. Her husband was a stuntman, Bob Morgan, who was severely hurt and couldn’t work anymore. He was hurt doing a stunt on How the West Was Won. He was on a train car loaded with logs, and the timbers came loose and he was crushed by them. He was lucky to have survived. In the Forties and Fifties, Yvonne was one of the major stars of the day. So when she came to do The Munsters, a lot of people didn’t think she would be able to pull it off, especially doing comedy. I think she did a fabulous job and did very well playing off Fred and Al’s antics. RF: Let’s talk about cousin Marilyn. Every family has that ugly duckling, and I always thought it was funny the producers choose to have an attractive blonde be the “shame” of the Munsters family. BP: We had two Marilyns. First there was Beverley [also Beverly] Owen. The story was that Beverley came out to L.A. to do the pilot. She was in love with a guy in New York, Jon Stone, who

was the producer and writer of Captain Kangaroo. She knew she didn’t want to move to Los Angeles, but then the show became a hit and she was stuck out there. She was miserable and she cried all the time. Eventually Fred and Al went to the producers and said, “You’ve got to let this girl out of her contract because this is just harsh and unusual punishment.” The producers said, “No way, we’re not letting her out of the contract. We have a hit show and she’s a very valued part of it.” That’s when Fred and Al basically told the producers, “If you don’t let her go, we’ll walk off the show. Take your pick.” So that is how Pat Priest got the job. A lot of people don’t even know there were two Marilyns, since it was such a seamless transition, unlike Darrin on Bewitched, where Dick York left and Dick Sargent came in and you knew something was up. [Editor’s note: In The Munsters’ 72 episodes, Beverley Owen played Marilyn Munster in the first 15 episodes and Pat Priest played the role in the remaining 57.] RF: What was Pat Priest like to work with? BP: Pat is wonderful. She did a really great job on the show and she is still a friend of mine. She is 84 and she lives in Idaho. I’ve tried to get her out for personal appearances, but she has declined them. RF: Based on what you’ve just told us, Fred and Al seem to be the ones who

set the tone for the show and were the leaders on the set, is that correct? BP: Yes. They basically were a team. Some of their interactions on the show were as funny as Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy or any comedy team of any period. RF: I’ve read stories of different actors who had played the Frankenstein Monster and the torture they went through with the make-up. I can imagine after two years, Fred Gwynne was happy to have that aspect of the job over with. BP: Fred arrived at 6:00 a.m. and he had to be on the set at 8:00 a.m. The main thing was the foam-rubber suit he had to wear. It’s very hot on the soundstage under the lights, and he was in practically every scene. He was a thin man to begin, but being in that suit and in those boots, he was sweating weight off. RF: Sadly, The Munsters only lasted two seasons. What were your thoughts when you found out the series had been cancelled? BP: Well, you have to remember, I was 12 years old and I was in school most of the time if I wasn’t in front of the camera. Anything else regarding production I really wasn’t privy to. At the time, though, we were shot in black and white and network television was getting ready to go to color. Everybody was talking about the transition and the ratings were kind of suffering in the (LEFT) Beverley Owen, the original Marilyn Munster, with cast (sans Patrick as Eddie), and (RIGHT) her better-known replacement, Pat Priest, with the entire cast (including Patrick). Munsters © Universal Pictures.

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(LEFT) Butch with the Koach in a recent photo. (RIGHT) The Munsters’ Koach, customized by the man behind many of Hollywood’s coolest cars, George Barris, was one of the most popular rides on Sixties TV. Munsters © Universal Pictures. Butch Patrick photo courtesy of Leila Murray/Munsters.com.

second year. The producers, Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, approached CBS, and they wanted to go color for half a season before the rest of the network to try and showcase The Munsters as this show with the wild make-up. CBS agreed to do this but told them they would have to pay for the more expensive film. Joe and Bob didn’t want to pay [that extra cost]. Plus, Fred and Al were from New York, and they were tired of being on the West Coast. And again, the ratings were down. The politics of the situation seemed to be we’re just going to let the show die. What they did do was a feature film, Munster, Go Home! RF: So, the show was almost done in color, but to me, The Munsters always worked because it was in black and white, just like the old Universal horror films. It just felt like it belonged in that world of the classic movies. BP: The success of the show came from the fact that basically we had the Universal Monsters look, very vintage Thirties and Forties. Then you took the script writing, and then you add in great guest stars, we had cool cars, excellent music, and great special effects. There really wasn’t a weak link in that chain. There were about seven different departments and they all did their jobs really, really well, and that’s why the show did so well. We did 72 episodes in 54

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two years. The window was small, but people remember us because we didn’t have cable and we didn’t have the internet. You basically had three channels to entertain yourself on Thursday night after dinner, and we were lucky enough to be the lead show. RF: You mentioned the music. The first season theme was good. The second season theme is epic. I’ve heard various bands cover that theme, with its wonderful surf-style riffs. You just hear it and you can’t help but smile. BP: Most every band knows The Munsters riff. Fall Out Boy had a really good song out a couple years ago called “She Wants to Dance Like Uma Thurman,” and they used the theme and tied it to Quentin Tarantino. Literally, the Munsters theme has been recorded over a hundred times. RF: Let’s open up the floor to some questions from our audience.

had a dragon before they were cool. The writers liked creating stories that were non-reality-based, and you saw that in other shows like My Favorite Martian and I Dream of Jeannie. They could write funny stuff and it was just meant to make you laugh. That is the secret of so any old shows. These shows bring back fond memories. Spot was a great example. No one has a dragon as a pet, and no one cared that the Munsters did. There was a movie called The Lost World (1960), and a small T-Rex used in that movie was reused to make Spot.

Fan 1: Tell us about Spot on The Munsters. BP: The Spot character was funny. Spot was long before Game of Thrones, so we

Fan 2: My favorite episode of The Munsters is where Eddie meets the local horror host, Zombo, played by Louis Nye. I loved

RETRO INTERVIEW: BUTCH PATRICK

(LEFT) Butch Patrick and the Drag-u-la. Butch and both Munsters cars are available for convention and car show bookings via Munsters.com. (RIGHT) From the George Barris Archives and courtesy of Heritage Auctions, behindthe-scenes and set photos of The Munsters’ other sizzlin’ set of wheels, Grandpa’s hot rod, the Drag-u-la. Butch Patrick

photo courtesy of Leila Murray/Munsters.com.

the scene where Eddie finds out Zombo is just a regular guy, and he goes nuts and destroys the sets. BP: Yes. That is the one where I am obsessed with Zombo, not because I’m watching the monster movie, but because I think Zombo is a real guy. I go to the studio after I win a contest, and I visit Zombo’s house and I am seeing it is all fake. I go up to the producer and I ask, “Isn’t anything real?” The guy playing the producer says, “This is television! Nothing is real!” That was just the kind of writing we had. At the very end of the episode, and very few people ever catch this, Louis Nye has the biggest credit ever seen on The Munsters. I guess his agent got him that, but he has the biggest name ever in the end credit roll. RF: Something a lot of folks may not be aware of is that you were actually a horror host yourself for a while. BP: You mean Macabre Theatre? RF: Yes. BP: Yeah, that was about 20 years ago. I brought along a co-star, Ivonna Cadaver. I did about 20 shows and it was fun. [Editor’s note: Butch co-hosted this horror-movie anthology from 2002–2005, with Ivonna Cadaver carrying on through 2018.]

I’m going to be doing something myself now with Super Scary Saturday creator, Jeff Grimshaw, from TBS. He wants to do a recreation of me hosting Eddie’s Monstrous Movie Mausoleum as a streaming video show. So, go to Facebook and check out Eddie’s Monstrous Movie Mausoleum. Fan 3: Tell us about your friendship with the Monkees. BP: A couple of things occurred to create the Monkees friendship. Number one, the Beatles came on the set of The Munsters, and they happened to come on a day I was off. I was really bummed. So when The Monkees came along, I went on an interview for a Christmas episode of their show. That kind of made up for me missing out on the Beatles because the Monkees were huge at that time. I was lucky enough to work with them for a week as an equal. If you’ve never seen the episode, it’s one of the best. At the end, they sing an acapella version of “Riu Chiu” and then they break down the fourth wall and they introduce everyone involved with the production. Everyone came on camera and I thought that was really cool. They really were a very friendly group of guys and I became friends with them

over the years. Until Davy’s passing, I would see him quite often. Micky and I see each all the time, and Peter, too, of course. And lately I’ve seen Mike more often. Being friends with the Monkees has been one of the highlights of my career. [Editor’s note: Several months after this interview was recorded, Monkee Peter Tork died, on February 21, 2019.] Fan 4: Was there a favorite movie or TV show that you liked as a child that you tried out for? BP: Sure, there were several of them. One of them was The Twilight Zone. I had a meeting with Rod Serling, and if you ever had a chance to meet this guy, you immediately would know where his writing was coming from. I really believe he had an alien inclination and he knew about so much about things we had no idea about. I met him and I just thought he was from the other dimensions. I met Walt Disney and I got to work with him. I’ve been very lucky; I have gotten to meet a lot of cool people. Fan 5: After The Munsters, you made a film that has become a cult classic, The Phantom Tollbooth. Tell us about it. BP: The Phantom Tollbooth was a great book about a kid who is bored in school and his imagination is doing this and that and he RetroFan

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RETRO INTERVIEW: BUTCH PATRICK

the Road Runner. He told me to go get him a cup of cof fee, and when I came back, he handed me this drawing of the Road Runner signed from “The Phantom Road Runner, Chuck Jones.” I had that framed along with some of the cels he gave me. That’s actually my most cherished possession. I know of all the Road Runners he ever drew, that’s the only one he ever put the “Phantom Road Runner” on. Fan 6: I wanted to ask about Lidsville. How did you come to work on that show? BP: Sid and Marty Krofft, who had done H. R. Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos, approached me to do the show, and I didn’t want to do it. I actually turned it down three times. Finally, Sid Krofft called and asked to take me to lunch. We met and talked and then I finally went out to the set to see what they were up to. The Bugaloos had just finished production and there was a really pretty girl on the show named Caroline Ellis. I was looking at a picture of her and I thought, “Maybe she’ll show up if I do this other show.” Well, she never did, but I did Lidsville with Charles Nelson Reilly in the summer of 1971 and it became a huge hit. The show was on the air for a couple of years. It was 11 weeks’ work and I had a lot of fun doing it. Fan 6: I remember Caroline Ellis from The Bugaloos, and I have to say, to expect her and get Charles Nelson Reilly had to be the worst bait and switch of all time.

Director Earl Bellamy’s full-length film Munster, Go Home!, released during the summer of 1966, not only revealed the Munsters in full color but recast Marilyn yet again, with actress Debbie Watson, known for her starring roles the teen sitcoms Karen and Tammy, in the “ugly duckling” role. Munsters © Universal Pictures. Poster courtesy of Heritage.

ends up going to this other world in this little toy car through a tollbooth in his room and he becomes animated. It was [legendary Warner Bros. animator] Chuck Jones’ only feature film. So, from 1967 to 1969 I was lucky enough to work with all these great voiceover people like Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, June Foray, and Hans Conried. Everyone Chuck knew, and he knew them all, came in to help him make this movie. I was lucky enough to be the star of this movie playing this character Milo. It’s a great family movie and it’s another highlight of my career. Fan 5: The voice actors you mentioned were all legends and were a huge part of my childhood, as I am sure they were yours, too. Did you get to record dialogue with them, or were the sessions done separately? BP: I actually worked with them. Every three or four months we would go back into the recording studio, as they were rewriting parts of the movie. It took two years to finish the movie and there were six different sessions. That was the best part, actually being in the room and seeing the voices that come out of these actors. One of my most cherished possessions [came from this film]. I asked Chuck Jones how long it would take to draw 56

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Butch got animated in director Chuck Jones’ 1970 family film, The Phantom Tollbooth. Of several different posters promoting the movie, this one banked on Patrick’s Munsters fame. © MGM. Poster courtesy of Heritage.

RETRO INTERVIEW: BUTCH PATRICK

(LEFT) Butch Patrick as Melvin, with Mike Nesmith, on The Monkees, “The Christmas Show,” Season 2, Episode 15, original airdate 12/15/67. (RIGHT) Butch starred in Saturday morning’s Lidsville for two seasons (1971–1973). Shown with him is Billie Hayes as Weenie the Genie. Monkees © Rhino Entertainment Co. Lidsville © Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions.

BP: [laughs] True! Fan 6: What was Reilly like to work with? I had heard he was a master of improv and tended to go off in several directions at once. BP: Yeah, he did. He was nice. He kept complaining about the make-up and I told him, “You know, Charles, this is 11 weeks. I was in make-up for two years and I didn’t complain as much as you do, and I was an 11-year-old kid. Just man up and let’s do it.” Anyway, that became the beginning of a long summer. Fan 6: Let’s talk about Billie Hayes, who was Weenie the Genie on Lidsville and Witchiepoo on H. R. Pufnstuf. She is still alive and going strong, isn’t she? BP: Yes, she is. She was the anchor of [Lidsville]. If there were times I might be upset, she would take me aside. She is still alive and doing great. The only reason you won’t see her at conventions is because she doesn’t like to fly. Fan 7: You also did an episode of Shazam! for Filmation. I am a huge Captain Marvel fan, so I wanted to ask about that appearance.

BP: The show Shazam!, I was actually up for the part of Billy Batson. At the last minute the producers decided it wouldn’t do to have the same person on two Saturday morning shows, so I was eliminated by process because I still had Lidsville airing. But I did end up doing an episode of Shazam! called “The Athlete” and worked with [Billy Batson] Michael Gray. I got to play this bad guy to this female athlete who wants to join the boys’ track team. First I spook her horse while she was riding and then I almost ran her over. That was fun for me to play the bad guy. [Editor’s note: If you missed RetroFan #4’s cover feature on Saturday morning’s Shazam!, it’s still available—see elsewhere in this issue.] RF: I previously interviewed Jackson Bostwick, who played Captain Marvel, and he told me that stunt with the horse, where he saves the girl you were bullying, was one of the most difficult they ever attempted on the show. BP: Yes! Where he pulled her off the galloping horse. He’s a great guy, Jackson Bostwick. He was a lot of fun. And that stunt, he got it in one take.

RF: In closing, let’s discuss one of the unfortunate things about Hollywood today… and that is the constant demand to try and reboot past successes. Over the last 30 years, there have been several attempts to remake The Munsters. If a remake had to be done, what would be your advice to the producers to make it a success? BP: They did Mockingbird Lane about six years ago and that was directed by X-Men’s Bryan Singer. Bryan Fuller, who wrote Pushing Daises and Dead Like Me, wrote it. It was good and had a good cast with Jerry O’Connell and Eddie Izzard and so on and so on, but it didn’t fly. Seth Meyers has the rights to do a reboot of The Munsters and I’ve actually spoken to Seth’s people. I made the suggestion that Herman has to have a job and there has to be an income. I said why not make him an uber driver or why not have them inherit an old movie theater where they are showing home movies, but these are actually old horror movies. Seth seemed to like those ideas and he asked me if I would like to be in this. I told him yes and no, depending. Now that is in a hold pattern. But it just goes to show, the series is still going strong. They are still making toys, models, and T-shirts. Young kids today are watching reruns with their parents and grandparents, so it keeps going on and on.

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RETRO TOYS

Evil Brains

Gruesome Teeth The 40th Anniversary of the World’s Most Terrifying Toy, Alien

A long time ago, in a toy aisle far, far away

In the late Seventies, Kenner had taken the toy world… by force. The intergalactic success of their Star Wars toy line, in particular the 3¾-inch action figures, had created a fervor for science-fiction playthings unseen since the heyday of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, and, perhaps more important to their bottom line, positioned the company as tops among licensors. As such, in late 1978, 20th Century Fox invited Kenner Product Manager Jim Black and Senior Product Designer Jim Swearingen to England so they could scope out the sets of to tour the sets of Alien, a sci-fi picture that had just concluded filming at the legendary Shepperton Studios. As the pair had forged a solid relationship with the studio thanks to their stellar work on the initial Star Wars toy line-up—Swearingen designed the 12 original figures that essentially started the 3¾-inch action figure trend—the studio was hoping to find repeat success by having Kenner merchandise this new film on toy shelves to cross-promote their tent-pole release for summer 1979. According to Swearingen, “Jim and I saw the sets, and I think we met Giger [Swiss surrealist painter H. R. Giger, who designed elements of the film, including the titular creature]. We got to tour

by Rob Smentek In today’s collector-driven toy market, it’s hard to imagine a pop-culture property that doesn’t have a line of toys. Apart from the kid-driven marketplace that offers playthings based on popular TV shows or movies, grown-up RetroFans now have the opportunity to go to any toy retailer or comic store and find figures for adult-themed properties as diverse as Cheech & Chong, Reservoir Dogs, and The Big Lebowski. While these days, it’s clear that the licensors are gearing these toys to the adult market—seriously, what kid is going to be remotely interested in a Breaking Bad or even a Bride of Chucky figure? Once upon a time, though, the very idea of a toy line based on an R-rated film was considered inexplicable and even offensive. (ABOVE) Screen capture from an Alien action figure commercial. Image manipulation by SMS. (RIGHT) Larry Strothe’s very own original 1979 Kenner Alien with box. Courtesy of Larry Strothe. Alien TM & © 20th Century Fox.

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what is now known as the Space Jockey mock-ups for the viewer and game, set and wander around and take some but no image of the creature. In lieu of pictures. Eventually, they showed us the a product shot was a text box reading: Alien.” “Contractual obligations prevent us It was clear from their tour that from revealing the awesome secret of director Ridley Scott’s forthcoming film the alien or its full configuration at this was not going to offer audiences the time,” although the catalog copy did same upbeat, Saturday afternoon serial promise a “fully articulated” figure that escapism as Star Wars. While Alien’s will be “authentically detailed in every production and art teams included respect as seen in the new movie.” some Star Wars vets (including Ron Fortunately, as the movie neared Cobb and Roger Christian), there were its release, Fox eventually furnished no princesses or ray guns to be found. Kenner with the necessary material “We observed things [on the set], to begin production on the toy line. but really didn’t know what the movie Swearingen returned to his drawing was going to be like,” says Swearingen. board and designed the 18-inch figure, “Initially we hadn’t seen the script, but meticulously replicating the work of we knew the movie was going to be… Giger for science-fiction-loving kids pretty dark.” around the globe. What could go As such, upon returning to wrong? Kenner’s Cincinnati headquarters, the Upon its release on May 25, 1979— designer shared his impression with coincidentally, two years to the day his superiors: “I’m going to disappoint from Star Wars’ debut—Alien redefined a lot of Alien fans by saying this, but at the monster movie for the modern era. Monster Party podcast co-host Larry Strothe While the story is relatively simple— the time, I recommended we not take with the original box insert that was included on the license. Our target market was the seven-person crew of the starship with the Kenner Alien. Courtesy of Larry Strothe. 3–9 year-old, and Alien was completely (BELOW) H-G Toys Alien puzzle in green egg Nostromo answers a distress beacon on counter to that. When we came back, it packaging. Courtesy of Larry Strothe. Alien TM & a distant planet and unwittingly brings © 20th Century Fox. was like ‘Really, you want to do THIS?’” an inhuman stowaway aboard their Alas, in the interest of maintaining vessel—it was scary. their relationship with Fox, in the hopes that a more “toyetic” Really, really scary. property might come down the line from the studio, Kenner Even the most jaded filmgoers were shaken by Alien. Reports entered into a contract to produce a toy line based on Alien, emerged of sci-fi fans expecting the next Star Wars running down and began work on the campaign in Spring 1979. But given the the aisles to the lobby, and in some cases, vomiting or passing out reluctance of some company insiders to pursue the license, in their seats. The infamous “chestburster” sequence, in which Kenner kept things to a minimum, planning just three toys for the an alien hatchling pushes its way through the sternum of ship line: a board game, a movie viewer, and an 18-inch action figure of navigator Ash (played by John Hurt), was particularly shocking in the Alien. 1979, and remains one of the most oft-cited (and parodied) scenes “It didn’t make sense to do… an action-figure line,” says in the genre. Swearingen. “We had done 12-inch Star Wars figures, and a 15-inch While Scott succeeded in unsettling the audience with a Darth Vader, so [the Alien] was kind of a barrage of jump-scares and unrelenting feeling ‘hero’ size figure… a centerpiece… which of dread—not to mention a timely subplot showed commitment, but didn’t risk a lot. involving corporate corruption—the movie After that, the idea was that Fox would would likely be forgotten without Giger’s come to Kenner with the next property. innovative creature design. Part insect, part Relationships meant a lot at those days.” biomechanical psychosexual nightmare, the However, the toy makers faced a Alien is kept largely in the dark throughout the particular challenge of designing and film (and, in fact, isn’t seen in its final form until marketing product with little to no reference almost an hour in), leaving viewers guessing as material. to its size and true appearance. “Fox gave us a large-format book of So, while at its core, the film borrows tropes photos of scenes and characters—but there from classic Fifties B-fare like It! The Terror from were no photos of the Alien; they wanted Beyond Space, its innovative production design, to make sure nothing leaked,” Swearingen drum-tight script, top-notch cast of character recalls. performers, and exceptional direction made As such, when Kenner introduced the line it an instant classic among both critics and at Toy Fair in 1979, its promotional catalog (brave) audiences. contained a few vague production shots Fortunately for Fox, Alien was a hit, from the movie, as well as some packaging grossing close to $81 million dollars 60

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domestically in its initial release, coming in at number five in 1979’s box-office winners. Moreover, the film received an Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects, and was one of the nominees for Best Art Direction. But despite its massive acclaim and grosses, Alien was not kids’ fare.

property to their audience (“ages 5 and up” according to packaging). While no footage from the Fox film was used in the ad, somehow the marketing team managed to capture the ominous vibe of the film by showing three small boys playing in a dark den. The commercial concludes with two of the kids running from the room while their friend His evil brains glow in the dark brags, “Another triumph for Alien.” Once Swearingen finished drafting the Yes, folks, if we’re to believe the ad, the concept for the 18-inch figure, he jokes that goal of this toy was to scare the hell out of he “left for the dark side,” and went to work your friends. for Kenner’s marketing department, where One of the horror fans that was he would help develop the Strawberry profoundly affected by Alien was Larry Shortcake property. However, before his Strothe, who is now a co-host of the Monster tenure in Strawberryland began, his drawings Party, a podcast where four friends talk about for the Alien were sent to the manufacturer’s all things science fiction, fantasy, and horror. sculpting department to develop into retail Strothe saw Alien as an adolescent in the product. summer of 1979 but never imagined that he’d H-G’s Alien Puzzle featuring art see a toy based on the film. Similarly, the board game, which marketed as “an exciting game of elimination by Earl Norem, along with a proto“Alien was the first R-rated movie I had type Alien figure. Courtesy of Phil and escape” and the Alien Movie Viewer, Wlodarcyk. (BELOW) A sampling of seen; I went with my dad. At that time, I made which somewhat incredulously contained Phil Wlodarcyk’s Kenner Alien collec- a habit of going to Toys R Us on a regular tion. Courtesy of Phil Wlodarcyk. Alien basis. I’ll never forget—the image is burned about a minute of fast-cut shots from the TM & © 20th Century Fox. film—including shots of the monster—were into my brain—I went to the action-figure also put on the fast track to make their way section and there were stacks of the Kenner to toy stores in time for the line’s anticipated October release. Alien toy. It was that beautiful blue box. The cool thing was, when (RetroFans can see the Movie Viewer’s montage here: you see the movie, you don’t get a good idea of what the Alien http://bit.ly/2ESJ6Od.) looks like. But here was a toy that showed you exactly what it But it was the 18-inch figure that was the true highlight of the looked like. I flipped out. Even though it was around $14, which line, largely because it’s one of the best best-looking toys ever was a lot of money at the time, I bought it myself. I still have my made. Despite essentially taking on the Alien license to curry Alien toy—and I still have the box.” favor, Kenner pulled no punches, producing a truly accurate Another fan of the film, and the toy, was Brian Flynn, who is version of Giger’s beast in black plastic. Every biomechanical the owner of Super 7, a pop-culture design house and producer detail is present in the figure from the weird dorsal tubes to the of lifestyle-oriented collectibles, toys and apparel based in San skeletal tail and rib cage. Swearingen and the design team even Francisco. incorporated a transparent dome over “This thing was so cool, and it the alien’s phallic head, revealing the was so crazy that this even existed— intricate death’s head skull structure because it’s not like ANY kids’ toy seen only briefly in the film. from that era,” says Flynn. “You “Don’t be scared—he’s only basically have a very, very well-done, an action figure,” reads Kenner accurate representation of a killing catalog copy, which also details the machine. As opposed to the Star Wars toy’s rotating tail, articulated hips, aliens, which were very stylized and and “spring-loaded arms to crush simplified in their execution at 3¾its victims.” The instruction sheet inch. They’re still faithful to a degree, included with the alien inform (or, but still simplified. The Alien is NOT. perhaps, warn) kids that “his evil They didn’t cut any corners with the brains glow in the dark” and they can Alien.” “press the back of the head [and] his Meanwhile, fans of the Alien toy mouth opens and the gruesome teeth weren’t limited to the United States. move forward.” Halfway across the world in Australia, As was par for the course during teenager Phillip Wlodarczyk closely the day, a television spot was produced followed the Alien hype machine, to promote the figure to the alland was impressed with the movie important target audience. Given that when it was released Down Under kids were unlikely to have seen the in December 1979. That year, he movie in theaters, this was Kenner’s received one of the Kenner figures as only opportunity to introduce the a present from his mother. RetroFan

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(INSET) Hey, let us out of here! Boxed Kenner Alien figures in French and English packaging. (LEFT) Kenner Alien Board Game and Movie Viewer. All courtesy of Phil Wlodarcyk. Alien

“My mother bought me one for Christmas 1979. She knew I was seriously interested in the design of the creature. Back then, Giger’s work was unique. The imitators just didn’t exist yet, so there was nothing like his work available, and getting one of the Kenner figures for Christmas was a big deal. I remember the day well. My family was sitting around the tree and we’d been opening all the goodies under it. There was one last, tall box remaining at the back of the tree that hadn’t been claimed by anyone. My mother said something like, ‘Phillip, that one is yours.’ Sure enough, the little card on the wrapped box had my name on it. Inside was my first Kenner Alien action figure. I still have it, too.” While that generation of monster-loving kids fell in love with the 18-inch Alien figure, sadly there was group not as equally impressed: parents. Not every mom and dad was as understanding as Strothe’s and Wlodarczyk’s. Evidently, parents’ groups weren’t happy about their kids playing with a toy based on such a notorious film. “I got my Alien toy right when it came out,” recalls Strothe, “and I remember that week there was a report on the news that said parents were p*ssed off. They complained to Toys R Us, and it made the local news. Basically parents were trying to have it removed it from the shelves because it was a creature from a rated-R film. If you are a toy company, the last thing you want is parents mad at you. It’s bad publicity—it’s always difficult to bounce back from negative publicity. It resonates and sticks with people. ” Wlodarczyk concurs: “It was the first toy commercially released to be based on an R-rated movie—and it was marketed 62

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to children. This toy was released in enormous quantities in October 1979. It is based on a character that violently punches gaping holes in people’s heads with its bolt-action mouth parts, and it was expected to be bought by the parents of children as young as five as Christmas presents in 1979. Controversy surrounding a children’s toy has to raise eyebrows.” Even film critic Roger Ebert, who reviewed Alien favorably and later included the film on his list of The Great Films, jumped on the Kenner-bashing bandwagon. On an episode of PBS Sneak Previews, he blasted the existence of the figure, while waving the toy at his co-host Gene Siskel. Whether it was the high price tag, the creature’s terrifying visage, the protest of parents everywhere, or a combination of the three, Kenner’s Alien toy line essentially landed with a thud. In early 1980, the toys were liquidated to outlet stores where they could be found as late as 1982. Eventually, remaining figures were recalled and destroyed. With the failure of the license, a planned 3¾” line of figures—which would have followed in 1980 had they been successful—was metaphorically jettisoned out the airlock. Kenner moved on and had continued success with their Star Wars line.

Alien Resurrection

It was seven years before Alien returned to the pop-culture consciousness with the release James Cameron’s sequel, Aliens, which a huge hit in the summer of 1986. Often regarded as a follow-up superior to its predecessor, the movie was critically acclaimed, and Sigourney Weaver even received a Best Actress nod for her return as Ripley. Alas, likely stinging from their first

RETRO toys

go-round, there was no merchandizing push from Kenner to accompany Aliens. However, despite being seen as a failure in 1979, the Kenner 18-inch figure began to find its niche… in the secondhand collectors’ market. With Alien being recognized as a classic, the movie found new fans through cable television and home video. Eventually the kids that weren’t allowed to have the 18-inch figure in 1979, or who weren’t even aware of its existence, discovered the toy at comic conventions or second-hand retailers, but at extremely exaggerated prices. The toy that was once being liquidated at $4.98 in 1982 was being sold at $100 or more— without its box—before the end of the Eighties. “Back then, the 18-inch Alien was one of those mythically rare toys,” says Flynn. “They were out there, but you weren’t likely to bump into one—they became super-rare.” But as the Nineties dawned, thanks to a hit comic-book series from Dark Horse, a popular arcade game, and anticipation of a second sequel in 1992, all things Alien became hot again. And with parents groups easing up a bit (not much of a fuss was made over Rambo, Robocop, or Terminator 2 action-figure lines, which were all based on R-rated films), Kenner decided to approach Fox with the idea of a Saturday morning cartoon loosely based on the 1986 film, which would have an accompanying toy line. The concept was entitled Operation: Aliens, and would feature Ripley and the Colonial Marines fighting against different variations of the xenomorph (the term then adopted by the studio and fans to describe the space monster). Kenner approached the studio with their concept, but in something of a reversal of the events of early 1979, Fox decided to nix the animated show. In an interview posted on website The Internet Is In America, former Fox Kids executive Margaret Loech said: “My recollection is that Kenner Toys designed some prototypes and showed them to us at Fox. Kenner was a remarkably creative company and they had great designers. They did the same with ‘Planet of the Apes’— [the] toy prototypes they designed were remarkable, but ultimately we decided not to go forward with an animation series for either property because of the broadcast standards issues we would face with both concepts.” Despite the lack of a tie-in cartoon—and the mediocre business, not to mention the A closer look at the Kenner 18˝ figure. Courtesy of Phil Wlodarcyk. Alien TM & © 20th Century Fox.

downright maudlin tone, of Alien 3—Kenner proceeded with an Aliens toy line (abandoning the Operation: Aliens branding). Sculpted in standard four-inch action figure size, an initial series of eight figures and two vehicles was released to toy stores in 1992. In addition to Colonial Marine characters based on those that appeared in the popular 1986 sequel, the line included various animal-hybrid variations on the classic xenomorph along with Queen, and later King, Aliens. Three more series would follow over the next several years, including Alien vs. Predator sets and a wave of KB Toys exclusives. “When they came out those figures, they did different versions of the Alien,” says Strothe. “Now, I have a problem—it’s the completist thing inside me. A new Alien line comes out, and I think, ‘I gotta get ’em all.’ There was a Rhino Alien, a Praying Mantis Alien, a Snake Alien… But each one of those figures had a special thing about it: for instance, on the Rhino Alien, you could press a button and his neck would sort of stick out. The Gorilla Alien, you could fill with water and squirt the water.” While Kenner finally found some success with the Alien license, there was still a segment of RetroFans who remained particularly passionate about the original 18-inch figure. Across the Pacific in Melbourne, Australia, Wlodarczyk turned his appreciation of the Alien figure into a full-fledged hobby, becoming, arguably, the most prominent collector of Kenner Alien toys in the world. In fact, he’s currently at work on a book entitled Hideous Plastic: In Stores Everyone Can Hear You Scream, which chronicles the history of the toy with photographs of his enormous collection. “I own a lot of Kenner Alien action figures,” he tells RetroFan. “People are surprised that I have, like, 40 or more of them. But, it’s not like I bought ’em all yesterday or this morning. Remember, if I buy one or two a year for 40 years, they’re gonna mount up. It’s a cumulative thing and I like to put it in perspective this way: People who smoke for 40 years spend way more money on supporting their habit than I do on mine, except I have something to show for it—minus the health issues, too, of course. I also have an Alien Movie Viewer and multiple international versions of the Kenner board game. And tons of other stuf f as well.” Then in 1995, Alien fans were sent into a frenzy with the publication of Tomart’s Action Figure Digest #23. Inside the magazine were never-beforeseen photos of prototypes for the unrealized line of 3¾” Alien figures that included Ripley with flame-thrower, Dallas with flame-thrower, Ash with motion tracker, Ripley in spacesuit, and an in-scale Alien figure. Shocked by the news that such a line was even considered, let alone prototyped, collectors like Brian Flynn lamented that they’d never get the chance to pose their Dallas figure next to Han Solo. “When that Tomart’s came out in 1995, and it had the unproduced Alien prototypes on the cover, RetroFan

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Believe it or not, Kenner wasn’t the only toy company that took a chance on Alien-related merchandise. New York-based firm H-G Toys, which had a long reputation for their jigsaw puzzles and budget-priced licensed fare, produced several Alien items. In addition to a line of puzzles featuring stills from the movie, H-G also made a three-foot puzzle featuring the title monster amidst a character collage, masterfully painted by noted paperback and men’s-magazine artist Earl Norem. His art is also found on a smaller puzzle, which came enclosed in a glow-in-the-dark green egg (recalling Fox’s initial movie poster). Most prized by Alien collectors, though, are H-G’s two Alien target games, which let kids shoot ping-pong balls or suction darts at Norem-illustrated cut-outs. Also, ubiquitous costume maker Ben Cooper released a vinyl Alien children’s costume for Halloween 1979, and Atari even released a game for their 2600 system in 1982. None of these products found any sort of success upon their initial release. (CLOCKWISE, LEFT TO RIGHT) Atari’s 1982 Alien Game, H-G Toys Alien three-foot puzzle (1979), Ben Cooper Alien mask and costume, and H-G Toys Alien Blaster Giant Target Set from 1979 (a safety dart gun version also exists). Alien TM & © 20th Century Fox.

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I think every person that collected toys and action figures was like “HOLY S*IT!” For me, and a lot of people, that’s when the fascination for those figures began.” Flash-forward two decades: Flynn was finding success with his own toy company Super 7. Initially devoted to making vinyl monster toys for the Japanese market, the company found success domestically with their Star Wars-themed 24-inch Super Shogun Stormtrooper. So, when it came time to planning their next project, Flynn recalled that famed issue of Tomart’s. “After the Stormtrooper, we recouped our money and had to decide what we were going to do next. That’s when I said, ‘The thing I’d like to make the most is those Alien figures.’ Then, Frank Supiot, who was working with us at the time, said ‘I know a guy at Fox. Lemme see if I can get the license.’” Sure enough, Fox was game, and Flynn and his partners went on a quest to find the original prototypes of the 3¾-inch figures that they could scan to produce their new line. “From there, since we were all very die-hard collectors, it was fairly easy for me to call people who dealt into the prototype world. Former Kenner employees, who had them over the years, sold them to collectors. And surprisingly at first, everyone that had the prototypes was like, ‘Hell, yeah, if you’re going to make these, I’ll gladly let you borrow mine.’” Once the prototypes were acquired (except for Dallas, which only existed in a vintage photo), Super 7 went into production. They even went as far as to track down the former Kenner graphic designer who designed card art for the company. Super 7 eventually debuted their Alien figures, released through a 3¾inch line they dubbed ReAction, at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, where they sold out in two hours. “What we realized is that there’s a whole group of people who grew up liking the same things we did. So if we do our sculpting correctly, do our packaging correctly, and choose our licenses correctly, there’s someone out there like me that feels the same way when they see these toys in stores on a peg,” says Flynn. Since 2015, the Super 7/ReAction Alien line has included a full line-up of the movie’s characters (not to mention several variations of the title creature), a limited edition Egg Chamber playset, a collector’s case, and a new wave inspired by the 1986 sequel. ReAction even offered companion 18-inch figure of the xenomorph from Aliens. Moreover, the manufacturer has licensed dozens and dozens properties and made figures based on retro properties from TV, movies, video games, and music. “I’m intrigued by Super 7’s three-foot ReAction figure releases, says Wlodarczyk. “The fact that Super 7 has been so successful with their pocket-size Alien line just amplifies the amazing history of all of these things.” Special thanks to Jim Swearingen, Brian Flynn, Super 7, Larry Strothe, and Phil Wlodarczyk for lending their time, knowledge, and photos. ROB SMENTEK is the proofreader for TwoMorrows’ BACK ISSUE, Alter Ego, Comic Book Creator, and RetroFan. He counts Alien as his favorite film despite being terrified by the commercial for the Kenner figure as a boy. Oddly enough, his brains also glow in the dark.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

The

Dobie Dilemma

Television. Signed publicity still courtesy of Heritage.

during the CBS show’s four-season run back in 1959–1963. As Dobie once quipped, “I’m not oversexed, mind you. But I’m not undersexed either. Let’s just say I’m sexed.” He couldn’t say that on TV back in the late Fifties, of course. But he did in Max Shulman’s original stories, where it all began. I suppose I must recap the checkered history of Dobie Gillis before we proceed to the secret.

by Will Murray Let me tell you a secret about the classic TV show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It’s not what you think it was. No, really. But before I let you in on the secret, allow me to wallow in this classic show’s je ne sais quoi, joie de vivre, savoir faire, and other classy French expressions hinting at my half-centuryplus love affair with this, one of the greatest sitcoms of the Golden Age of Television. If you ever watched more than one episode, you’ll recognize that I’m talking just like 17-year-old Dobie, who often waxed poetic––not to mention sappy and philosophical––about Thalia Menninger, Aphrodite Millican, Elspeth Hummaker—among many of the innumerable girls this love-struck lad romanced

Dobie emerged out of satirist Max Shulman’s experiences at the University of Minnesota, which led to his bestselling sendup of campus life, Barefoot Boy with Cheek. The first Dobie Gillis short stories popped up in Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post in 1945, later collected in a 1951 book, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Shulman turned the book into a screenplay, which was filmed as The Af fairs of Dobie Gillis, starring Bobby Van as the Grainbelt University freshman and Debbie Reynolds as his love interest, Pansy Hammer. Other than Hans Conried as Professor Pomfritt, none of the familiar future TV characters appeared in this rather forgettable 1953 musical film. One film critic derided the title character as “One-third Casanova, onethird Henry Aldrich and one-third one of Mr. Wodehouse’s poodles.” Remember the Henry Aldrich reference. I’ll explain later. RetroFan

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“He looked like a Dobie Gillis.”

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(TOP) Dobie Gillis creator Max Shulman, on a book back cover. (RIGHT) One of Shulman’s popular campus-crowd counterculture books. Photo credit: Martha Holmes. © Max Shulman estate.

Despite that misadventure, Shulman thought his boy Valentino had possibilities for TV. Several scripts circulated without success. Comedian George Burns, seeing it as a vehicle for his son, Ronnie, produced a pilot in 1956. CBS bought it, but Shulman refused to let it go forward, objecting to Burns’ wooden performance. He had his eye on young actors like Martin Milner, Dick Sargent, and Mark Rydell, but especially Dwayne Hickman, then appearing on The Bob Cummings Show (a.k.a. Love That Bob). Enter producer Martin Manulis. He had just left Playhouse 90 and wanted to get into films. But he was talked into becoming head of television for 20th Century Fox instead. Seeking properties to develop, he read Max Shulman’s pilot scripts. Manulis had enjoyed the original stories. But Shulman’s adaptations fell flat. “I suddenly realized what the key was,” he recalled. “And I called Max.” The two met. Manulis recounted, “Time had passed. From the time Max Shulman wrote the stories to the time he was diddling about television for it, there had been a war. College kids today were not in raccoon coats and assing around town, being idiots. Now they were having babies and trying to get a job.” “Well, what are you driving at?” asked Shulman. 66

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“I said, they have to be high school students, teenagers now. You can use your same everything––except update the dialogue because it’s not a period piece. But only kids at 15––16, maybe–– can be this way, but not college people. They’d be idiotic. Well, he wrote it, changed everything, and we sold it immediately.” Not so fast, as Dobie might say. A pilot had to be cast and shot first. Shulman remained fixated on 25-year-old Dwayne Hickman. As the actor later recalled, “Max thought I looked like a ‘Dobie Gillis.’ I suppose I do, whatever a Dobie Gillis looks like. But that’s what started it.” But Hickman was still under contract to play teenaged Chuck MacDonald in the popular Bob Cummings Show. MacDonald’s inane antics had made him one of TV’s first breakout characters. “I hung over that show like a vulture waiting for Hickman to get free,” Shulman lamented. “I waited three years for Dwayne. He’s the only actor I can remember with a face that can get by and still be capable of the terrible things Dobie thinks of. We have peroxided his hair so he looks younger than he did as Bob Cummings’ nephew on his series. And those years with Cummings have given him a grade-A comic training. This boy can act. I’m beginning to find his range.” “I’m one of a kind,” Hickman declared. “During my years with Bob––playing his not-too-bright nephew––I managed to study his comedy techniques. When they wanted someone to start in Dobie Gillis I was the only guy around who could play teenage comedy. The rest of the young performers were too busy copying Marlon Brando and wearing sideburns.” Hickman wasn’t happy with his transformation. During that critical first season, he stood it, saying, “Mr. Shulman thinks of Dobie as a blond. And the producers thought it would be better if I look different than I did when I was playing Bob Cummings’ nephew on his last TV series. Chuck was a pretty dumb guy and Dobie isn’t.” Hickman may have been voicing his earnest hopes, but Shulman and producers Manulis and Rod Amateau had other ideas. They saw Dobie Gillis as a lovable loser. “The Dobie on TV is not my short-story character,” asserted Shulman, who knocked out a new Dobie book, I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf, to help launch the series. “The original Dobie went to college and could barely stay out of jails. We’ve lowered his age a few years, put him back to high school, cleaned him up a bit, and given him parents. Dobie doesn’t quite understand his parents, and they don’t understand him. There are no family discussions in this house to iron out problems. Everybody just tries to keep off everybody else’s back.”

Breaking the Mold (and the Fourth Wall)

NBC was horrified by the smart, sophisticated, but irreverent pilot and the semi-dysfunctional Gillis family. But CBS wasn’t. Off they went to make TV history.

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It’s difficult to tell which supporting character raised more eyebrows: Dobie’s amiable buddy, Maynard G. Krebs, or his father, lowly grocer Herbert T. Gillis. “I don’t want the series to be entirely a teenage one,” recalled Shulman. “It needed some leavening, so the grown-ups were added.” Florida Friebus played the mother, Winifred. She was too sweet to be real, and handled all the exposition. Frank Faylen’s Herbert T. Gillis (INSET ABOVE) was like no dad ever seen on TV. Grumpy, stingy, short-tempered. In other words, realistic. His trademark line was, “I gotta kill that boy, I just gotta.” Faylen confided, “You will notice that I never say that in front of the boy. That would be bad, I suppose. So it’s always a sort of Shakespearean aside. When he has driven me beyond endurance, I express my feelings aloud, but not to myself.” “It’s this way in the show,” Shulman explained. “The papa loves the boy, loves him fine, but at 15-minute intervals he says to himself: ‘I gotta kill this kid.’ Let’s just say he’s undeceived about his teenage son, as when he remarks: ‘He’s a bum, but he’s my bum.’” Nevertheless, complaints caused Faylen to drop his trademark line and stare angrily at the camera instead. Audiences had no trouble reading his mind. Maynard was Dobie’s best friend and comedic foil. He was also a jazz-loving protest cat afraid of girls, and a rarity for TV––a bearded beatnik. In real life, the actor was anything but hip. “Call me king of the beatniks and I hit you over the head––but I guess I am,” Denver allowed. “From the first days of the show, when I started saying, ‘like,’ ‘dig’ and ‘the most,’ it all came to me easy. However, I’ve never done any outside research.” Dobie introduced himself to viewers seated before a copy of Rodin’s Thinker statue at Central City Park, pining over his love life, or lack thereof. Remember that statue, too. It will be significant later. Every episode opened with a soliloquy in which Dwayne Hickman broke the fourth wall in emulation of TV pioneer Jack Benny. These morose monologues introduced that episode’s main problem

and set the tone for the comic-romantic hijinks to come. As Shulman saw him, “Dobie is a high school kid who will do anything to get a girl. He’s not a wolf. He just has to have a girl. That’s his main mission in life.” The series’ premise called for Dobie to blunder from girlfriend to girlfriend, never finding or keeping one. But when the producers cast sex-kitten Tuesday Weld as the first girlfriend of the week, grasping and greedy Thalia Menninger, the show runners knew immediately she was special. Shulman explained, “After seeing her in the pilot film we knew she was too good to let go.” So Thalia became a semi-regular. Dobie

(INSET) The singing, swinging pre-TV series The Affairs of Dobie Gillis. © MGM. Movie poster courtesy of Heritage. (RIGHT) Move over, Archie and Jughead—here come Dobie and Maynard! © 20th Century Fox Television. Signed publicity still courtesy of Heritage.

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adored her. Thalia adored money. Dobie didn’t have any. This would be the show’s recurring situation. Only the girl changed. The pilot revolved around Maynard rigging a raffle so Dobie could have money to date Thalia. But Dobie suffers an attack of conscience and declines the prize, only to discover that Maynard had failed to hold up his end of the scheme. He actually won. Thalia dumps him in disgust. Episode Two introduced young Warren Beatty as rich, handsome Milton Armitage. The story sets up a love triangle in which Dobie and Milton compete to be the best dressed in order to impress the avaricious Thalia. Sound familiar? I’ll clue you in later…. William Schallert assumed the role of Mr. Pomfritt after Herbert Anderson abandoned it for Dennis the Menace. The premise hit another snag with the third episode, in which Dobie happened to sit next to Zelda Gilroy, a brainy tomboy who was unconventionally attractive. Her first words to him were, “I love you.” A reverse chase ensued. Zelda, played by pixieish Sheila James, was determined to land uncooperative Dobie in matrimony. Once again, the character was meant to be a one-shot. Recognizing the chemistry between them, Shulman brought Zelda back. Dobie thought he’d gotten rid of her. No way. The chase resumed, going through many wild permutations. She was the only other character who had carried over from the original stories. Next, Hickman’s brother Darryl turned up as David Gillis, Dolby’s away-at-college older brother. Trying to help Dobie with his love life, Davie manages to convince him to pretend to have a married girlfriend on the theory this would attract someone his own age eager to rescue him from the difficult and dicey situation. Darryl had been cast after future Tarzan Ron Ely, who had appeared in the promo film, was dropped. Jean Byron appeared as another teacher, Mrs. Ruth Adams. Once again another semi-recurring character was born, although Davie Gillis was soon phased out as unnecessary.

Dig That Crazy Draft Board

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis hit another snag with the fifth episode, and one that might have been catastrophic but for several twists of fate. In real life, Bob Denver was drafted. And so Maynard had to be written out of the show. Shulman penned a heartwarming script in which Maynard, feeling unwanted and rejected by everyone, enlists. The show ends with Dobie visiting his pal at basic training. To everyone’s surprise, Maynard has taken to Army life like he was born to it. The unexpected resolution was intended to close out the character forever. (RIGHT) Dobie Gillis’ Thalia Menninger, Tuesday Weld, in a 1960 publicity photo. © 20th Century Fox Television. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. (INSET) Dobie often broke the fourth wall and spoke directly to the viewer. © 20th Century Fox Television.

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Again, real life hurled a monkey wrench through the whirling works. During induction, an X-ray revealed that Denver had a broken vertebrae due to a car accident. Declared 4-F, he was sent home. “So I wrote him back into the series in two lines,” Shulman quipped. The lines were: “They kinda let me go. They said, don’t call us, we’ll call you.” In the meantime, actor Michael J. Pollard had been cast as Maynard’s oddball cousin, Jerome. Wearing Maynard’s slovenly shirt and jeans, Pollard took Denver’s place. Everyone involved recalled that it was a disaster. Pollard lacked Denver’s warm personality and comedic timing. Though Pollard spoke Denver’s lines as if he were Maynard himself, Jerome Krebs barely appeared in that episode. Events were event-ing so rapidly that Maynard returned in the next episode, and all was right again. The show was probably saved. Maynard G. Krebs was comedy gold, and soon became a breakout character whose hep-cat mannerisms and beat talk were widely copied by kids. Next, Warren Beatty decided he was too good for TV and bowed out. It wasn’t long before a less handsome version of the character, Chatsworth Osborne, Jr., debuted as a spoiled rich kid who was detested by all. He was often accompanied by his domineering mother, played by Doris Packer, who had been Milton’s mom. Steve Franken brought a broad comedic flair to the part that Beatty sorely lacked. Next, Zelda returned to resume her hopeless cause. The core cast firmly in place, the series had finally gelled. Many of the principals had worked together before. Hickman played Tuesday Weld’s boyfriend in Max Shulman’s Rally ’Round the Flag, Boys! He did the

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(LEFT) You could easily substitute Thalia, Dobie, and Maynard onto this 1961 Laugh Comics cover. (RIGHT) DC Comics licensed The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis for a 26-issue run that started in early 1960. Bob Oksner’s illustrations have made it a coveted title among collectors of good-girl art. Archie characters © Archie Comic Publications. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis © 20th Century Fox Television.

same opposite Sheila James in an episode of The Stu Erwin Show. Denver had gone to Loyola University with Hickman. Hickman knew Frank Faylen from church. And Rod Amateau had directed Hickman in The Bob Cummings Show. It was smooth sailing for a while––unless you were Dwayne Hickman. He began having problems with his bleached hair, which turned platinum and started falling out. Just in time for the second season, he convinced the reluctant producers to let him go au natural.

Obliterating the Nuclear Family

Although it took most of 1959–1960, Dobie became a hit, chiefly because this was the first TV program built around the teenage subculture. Other sitcoms, such as The Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best, focused on affluent families with adult leads, the teens mere foils for the parental figures. That was sponsor-safe, middle America stuff. Max Shulman wasn’t having any of it. “This is, you might say, an anti-togetherness series,” he recounted. “Dobie lives in one world and his parents and other grown-ups live in another. There is little—if any— communication between the two. Talk to Dobie, tell him something is wrong, give him good logical reasons to change, and he’ll say ‘Yeah,’ and go right out and do it again. Like I said, no communication.” Most family scenes took place in the Gillis grocery store. As Shulman revealed, “When I started the series I said there would never would be a living room in it––to avoid any semblance of togetherness. But I had to weaken some scenes and put one in–– however, it’s all right because they only use it to quarrel in. And, I can assure you that there will be no homey family problems solved on this series. I think it’s about time we did away with some sweetness and light.” Bob Denver cannily observed, “I always thought that the series was a burlesque of the American family: a son whose whole life was chasing girls, a father who was going to kill him one day, a

mother who was too sweet and good to be real, and a best friend who was the only beatnik in a ten-state area.” Whenever Dobie sought fatherly advice, Herbert recited a litany of contradictory cliches, which only confused poor Dobie. Doting Winnie Gillis usually slipped Dobie a few bucks from the register to help. “As for Dobie, he’s a normal teenager,” Shulman insisted. “All he’s interested in is girls, a convertible, and money. His father, on the other hand, wants him to work in his store and grow up to be responsible. How do you get togetherness out of that parlay?” Hickman played up the dysfunctional family angle in interviews. “Dobie, for instance, has been caught with his hand in his father’s cash register on occasion. This isn’t because Dobie is a thief at heart; it’s because his father won’t give him the money to take a girl to the dance. Dobie’s father wants Dobie to work for the money. This, to Dobie, is unthinkable.” The first season concluded with an episode in which the Gillises mistakenly think Dobie is secretly a father. While the proceedings were handled within TV guidelines, it was the kind of risky storyline that would never happen on My Three Sons. Hickman observed, “I think we got away with it because Dobie is well, I hate to say ‘clean-cut,’ because that implies that some of these other teenage favorites are ‘dirty-cut.’ Let’s say because Dobie is a nice, well-barbered, reasonably dressed young man. If Dobie wore long hair, sideburns, denim pants, and a leather jacket, we’d never get away with it. There’d be crime in the streets. They’d come af ter me with searchlights and loudspeakers and tear-gas bombs.”

When in Riverdale…

For a show conceived as a collegiate spoof that morphed into a teenage comedy, the transition had been remarkable. Audiences may not have noticed––and I sure didn’t at the time––but over the course of that tumultuous first season, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis steadily turned into a variation of the “triangle” formula that had made Archie Andrews such a success in comics, on radio, and later, in animated cartoons. Here I reveal the secret. Ride with me here. Like Dobie, Archie was a doltish but good-natured high school student whose life revolved around two girlfriends, the downto-earth blonde Betty Cooper and the rich, snooty brunette, Veronica Lodge. Dimwitted Jughead Jones and dopey Maynard G. Krebs might have been distant cousins, although Jughead was strictly a second banana while Maynard was a nonconformist counterculture type. Handsome rich rival Reggie Mantle was a dead ringer for Milton Armitage, but also acted like Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. And both teens tangled with student athletes named Moose. You get my drift. Many of the essential Dobie characters play parallel roles. They also hung around Charlie Wong’s Ice Cream Shop, mirroring Archie’s Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe. I have often wondered if any of this was conscious. But reading the behind the scenes accounts of how the show unfolded, it doesn’t appear to be. And yet… in every episode, Dobie narrates in the shadow of that famous Thinker statue. Those who know the origins of Archie Andrews might recall that when Massachusetts cartoonist Bob RetroFan

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Montana developed the school. About the third feature for comics, he or fourth year of the based the cast on his program––if it lasts school friends. Haverhill that long––they’ll even High School boasted marry me off.” a Thinker statue on its Shulman and his grounds. This signature crew recognized that element appeared in this was inevitable and many early strips. unavoidable. Now it That one stopped was time. me cold. How many “Maybe they just coincidences can you figure I’ve been a have? teenager on TV too Archie was a pretty long,” mused Hickman. big deal in the Forties “I look young yet, but Publicity photo of a post-blond Hickman with Dobie’s and Fifties, appearing I’m not causing any excitement as a popular co-stars, Bob Denver as Maynard G. Krebs and in comics and on radio. teenager. Y’know, like the Fabians and Sheila James as Zelda Gilroy. © 20th Century Fox Television. He was hardly obscure. that bunch. Also, I wouldn’t want to Nor was Archie original. become a part of this new trend to be Henry Aldrich, a popular playing any of those kookie kids like radio program, preceded him by several years. Archie was a you see on these TV series. You know the ones I mean. I think one take-off on Henry. Dobie Gillis was just another variation on the of ’em is called ‘88 Hollywood Blvd.,’ or is it ‘Surfside 666’? Anyway, theme. it’s not for me. Who wants to go around town and be known as This was a theme that Hanna-Barbara milked for their late‘Grasshopper’ or ‘Bungo Pete’?” Sixties cartoon series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! Legend has it Adult audiences looked askance at Maynard, so Bob Denver that the creators based their cast––Fred, Shaggy, Velma, and softened him, noting, “Maynard is not even close to a beatnik. Daphne––on Dobie, Maynard, Zelda, He’s more of a child of nature, a perennial and Thalia, respectively. While this is three-year-old. Jazz and Dobie are his FAST FACTS undeniable, it’s a little known fact that the whole life, and he’s sort of a conscience, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis/ first creative approach to the series copied like Jimmy Cricket.” Dobie Gillis/Max Shulman’s The Archie Show, then a Saturday morning The season started off innocuously. Dobie Gillis TV hit. Thalia Menninger was out, Tuesday Weld Whatever the truth behind the having proven too difficult. Like Beatty, `` No. of seasons: Four `` No. of episodes: 147 origins of Dobie Gillis might be, from she was too hot to stay in TV. `` Original run: September 29, contemporary reports it sounds as if the “There won’t be any particular girl in 1959–June 5, 1963 boy-and-two-girl triangular formula was the script, except for Zelda Gilroy,” stated `` Cast: Dwayne Hickman, stumbled upon and not copied. But it was Hickman. “I’ll just play the field, I suppose. Bob Denver, Frank Faylen, destined not to last…. They’re allowing Dobie to grow up.” Florida Friebes, Sheila James, In “The Big Question,” Mr. Pomfritt Steve Franken, William “Whither Am I Drifting?” assigned them to write an essay titled Schallert For Season Two, the show was retitled “Whither Am I Drifting?” Dobie and `` Network: CBS Dobie Gillis. More drastically, a decision Maynard sadly realized they had no was made to move the action out of inkling. Central City High. It was no doubt inevitable. Dwayne Hickman The hapless pair inevitably graduated, then wandered still looked youthful, but time was not on his side. Early on, some aimlessly for a few episodes, arriving nowhere. They find of the show’s principals hinted that this might be a direction the themselves yearning to return to Central High in “Dobie vs. the series could go. Machine.” When Dobie’s data is fed into an aptitude-calculating Hickman had predicted, computer, he realizes “During the course of the that he can’t let a series I’m going to grow up soulless machine guide and graduate from high him. For once, the Old Man gives his son solid non-circular-logic An early Archie statue advice. Since it sounds drop-in, from Archie like the easy way out, Comics #2 (Spring 1943), by naturally Dobie takes it. cartoonist Bob Montana. The new format was Archie characters © Archie Comic Publications. truly shocking. Dobie and Maynard enlisted. 70

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Never mind that Maynard had been kicked out of the Army. In typical comedy-of-errors sitcom style, Chatsworth soon joined them. “Let’s face it,” Hickman said at the time. “You can wear these things out. I couldn’t stay in high school forever. You can go into the Army on a six-months program these days. So they could bring me out if necessary.” Having served during World War II, Max Shulman saw military life as rich in satiric possibilities. At first, he was optimistic, saying, “We’re doing this to attract a more adult audience for Dobie. We’re trying to broaden the audience base. After all, high school is a pretty juvenile thing. Folks are not interested in high school. But they are interested in the Army. It’s universal.” Shulman also hedged his bets. “After the Army, maybe junior college. Of course, if the Army shows get a rating of about 35, we’ll think seriously of keeping him in.” This new approach required retooling. The Gillis family was seen only when the boys went on furlough. Shulman began considering a Zelda spin-off show. Everyone struggled to make the format work, but it was a poor fit for the misfit cast. Audiences missed the Gillis family. Modifications were made. “By the end of his six months in the Army,” Shulman quipped, “Dobie will have had more weekend passes than any other soldier. It’s hard to keep the character of our kids in the Army. We’ve got to keep the family alive and that’s why we give him passes, so he can go home.” Dobie’s Sgt. Bilko phase flopped. That six-month hitch was the perfect escape clause.

Higher Education

In the third season opener, the drifting duo were kicked out of Uncle Sam’s Army. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, they enrolled at the S. Peter Pryor Junior College, where Zelda was already a star student. This allowed the original cast to be reconstituted. Both teachers returned, Mr. Pomfritt as himself, but Jean Byron portrayed an entirely different instructor, Mrs. Imogene Burkhart. “I’m catching up with myself,” Hickman quipped. “When the show started three years ago, I was supposed to be about 17. Now the character is about 22 or 23.” In real life, the actor was closer to 30. After writing the season opener, Max Shulman scaled back his involvement. Previously, he had quipped, “I don’t think Dobie will ever go to college. The way he chases dames, he’ll get married first, poor fellow.” But here he was, exactly where the character originated 20 years before, a girl-crazy college freshman. Tuesday Weld returned in the middle of the season as a saleswoman who tries unsuccessfully to sway Dobie into quitting college and joining her in becoming rich. Although tempted,

Dobie ultimately realizes Thalia would only break his heart. They part. Much of this season focused on Zelda’s endless schemes to win over Dobie to wedded bliss. In “Dobie, Dobie, Who’s Got the Dobie?,” Zelda’s efforts to sabotage Dobie’s ongoing romances reach a critical mass. This was Sheila James’ favorite episode. In “For Whom the Wedding Bell Tolls,” Zelda’s relentlessness forces Dobie and Maynard to stow away on a cargo ship. But Zelda follows, and works her will again. Dobie is about to let the ship’s captain marry them. Conscience-stricken, Zelda backs out. Two episodes later, Mr. Pomfritt’s marriage lecture half-convinces Dobie that Zelda is his best option. Once more, the scriptwriter saves the day. Dobie continues to chase girls, while his relationship with Maynard is explored and sometimes tested. In “Names My Mother Called Me,” Dobie learns the origin of his name in an unusually mature episode. He was named after a Nobel Prizewinning humanitarian. Midway through filming, pneumonia struck Hickman down.

The cast of Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which premiered in 1969. Remind you of anyone? © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Cel courtesy of Heritage.

Bob Denver and the others had to carry several episodes without the star. Since Maynard was such a unique character, the burden fell on him. He discovered unsuspected powers and wild talents in whacky outings, and for one episode found his slacker soul mate. Denver was delighted. “I’m very lucky to have a character like that,” he said. “There’s no limits to his personality. He’s more of a fantasy than a character. But how Maynard ever got out of high school and into junior college is more than I can understand.” Given their continuing hijinks, however, the cast might as well have stayed at Central High. Other than Zelda—whom he didn’t want—Dobie failed to land a steady girlfriend. Hickman observed, “The chief contradiction of the character is that Dobie never gets the girl. His is a false aggressiveness–– everything he attempts in life backfires and pushes him into last place. I think even Dobie is aware of what a minus character he is.” RetroFan

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Hickman continued to fret about his advancing age. “Sure,” he told one reporter. “I’d like a chance to play something other than a teenager. Sometimes it seems that I’ve been 17 years old for 17 years. Of course, Dobie is 20 years old now. He began the year at 18; then he went into a ‘Twilight Zone’ and emerged at 20––all in one year.” The actor understood that if Dobie Gillis was to continue, something had to be done.

The Prisoner of Zelda

The fourth season of the retitled Max Shulman’s Dobie Gillis opened with the return of Shulman and Tuesday Weld after a hiatus. Shulman’s dark “What’s a Little Murder Between Friends?” finds Dobie fearing that succession of accidents stems from Thalia coveting his G.I. life insurance. Maynard appears to be in on the murder plot. After that, Thalia would be seen no more. The Zelda pilot, co-starring Joe Flynn and Jean Byron as her parents, had finally been shot, and a pickup looked inevitable. So Sheila James dropped out of the regular series. The spin-off planned to focus on Zelda and a new hard-to-catch boy, Bimbo. One supposes Dobie might have guest-starred occasionally. But it was not to be. TV bigwigs ultimately killed the project, deciding James was “too butch.” She was left out in the cold, but managed a few final guest appearances. To make up for Zelda’s absence, the producers introduced two new Gillises. In “Northern Comfort,” Ray Hemphill played Virgil T. Gillis, Dobie’s cousin from Chicken Run, Tennessee, who comes north to kickstart his music career. The wannabe Elvis Presley popped up twice more before fading away forever, in his swan song costarring with Robbie the Robot of Forbidden Planet fame. In that episode, Maynard is briefly transformed into a robot. The following week, Bobby Diamond debuted in “A Splinter Off the Old Block” as Dobie’s cousin, Duncan Gillis. Herbert’s oil baron brother foists “Dunky” on the Gillis household, then takes off for parts unknown. Dunky turns out to be a junior version of Dobie, who takes him not so firmly in hand. “Bobby is 18 and looks it,” explained Hickman. “You realize I’ve been playing 17 for the past nine years? I’m 28 now, and that’s too old to be 17.” That was the unending dilemma of being Dobie Gillis. Hickman wanted Dobie to grow up. If not, he preferred to move on. “The original concept of the series has disappeared,” he admitted. “Now it won’t be long before I outgrow the college kids. But that doesn’t mean the show won’t go on. Eventually Dobie’ll get married and go to work. I guess his buddy Maynard will have to go right along with him.” Yet in interviews during that time, Hickman sounded increasingly disgruntled. “Nothing should go more than three years on TV, and we’re starting our fourth year next Wednesday. And last year the show got pretty lousy because CBS said it had to have more heart. All of a sudden we were doing shows about humanity instead of comedy. There will be less family situation this season, I am happy to report, and more ‘way out comedy.’ We’ve got to be irreverent, because the show is up against ABC’s Going My Way, and I don’t see how you can top a couple of priests when it comes to heart.” 72

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Without Shulman guiding him, the character had somehow evolved to become a noble humanitarian. Something had to be done to resurrect the old dimwitted Dobie. “Dobie is in for a change,” said Jean Bryon, whose character was played up. “He’s going to be mean this year, mean. I don’t think Mr. Shulman and Amateau want to do a commercial show.” Storylines which spotlighted Maynard G. Krebs were frequent. Take “The General Cried at Dawn.” On vacation in a banana republic, he’s kidnapped and forced to impersonate a general known as “El Tigre.” “Requiem for an Underweight Heavyweight” sees him transformed into unbeatable prizefighter dubbed “Killer Krebs.” After accidentally putting a love potion on his hair in “The Call of the Like Wild,” Maynard becomes irresistible to women. Bobby Diamond’s character failed to ignite. “As hard as they tried to make Cousin Dunky Gillis into another Dobie,” confessed Hickman, “it just didn’t work. The last few shows in the fourth season went back to the original premise that had been the foundation for Dobie’s success––Dobie’s relentless search for the perfect girl.” Zelda returned with ingenious new schemes to land poor Dobie. In “Thanks for the Memories,” Dobie again succumbs to her wiles. But reverse psychology is fair play. In her series swan song, Zelda takes the extreme step of hoodwinking Maynard into impending matrimony. The only way to save his good buddy, Dobie realizes, is to step up and take his place.

Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?

A fifth season loomed. But in the press, Dwayne Hickman signaled his reluctance. “I guess you could say I’ve never had a flop, but I haven’t had a career yet, either. Someday I’ve got to play something besides a 17-year-old kid.”

RECYCLED COMICS As an Archie craze swept the comics world, in 1969 DC Comics cannibalized art from its earlier Dobie Gillis licensed title and redrew it and updated its stories in a short-lived series that rebranded Dobie and Maynard as Windy and Willy. Dobie Gillis © 20th Century Fox. Windy and Willy © DC Comics.

will murray’s 20th century panopticon

Screencaptures of Dobie and Maynard, all grown up, from 1988’s poorly received Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis. © 20th Century Fox Television.

Elsewhere, he allowed, “But if we do go on, there will have to be some changes made. Changes in personnel, changes in format. Dobie will have to go out into the business world. We can’t work the campus humor any longer. That would be like beating a dead horse.” His goatee typecasting him, Bob Denver agreed: “I’m beginning to think I’ll wind up like Peter Pan. I’ll never grew up but I’ll still have a beard.” When CBS declined to renew, ABC showed interest. “The prospect of another three years doesn’t trouble me at all,” Hickman admitted bravely. But it was not to be. ABC passed. Dobie Gillis was spared the real world. And vice versa. Plans to marry him off to Zelda went glimmering. Whether by accident or design, the final episode was a rehash of the first. “Caper at the Bijou” involved Dobie and Maynard participating in a rigged raffle. For “The Devil and Dobie Gillis,” Chatsworth and Dobie were the schemers. Chatsworth’s cousin Pamela, played by Barbara Babcock, was the final girl who got away. Once again, an attack of conscience saved the day. Max Shulman wrote the story. When for the final time, Dwayne Hickman stood before the cameras and gave his trademark soliloquy, it wasn’t much different from all the others. Except that the scene had been moved to the middle of the episode. Otherwise, Dobie fretted about his habitual lack of money and latest hopeless crush. What more was there left to say? For four seasons, Dobie Gillis never really changed. No matter how many times he was dumped or disappointed in love, he always bounced back, rebounding off one failed romance and into a fresh doomed crush, irrepressible and ever-optimistic, and eternally Dobie Gillis. Marriage would probably have crushed his poetic soul…. When we last see Dobie and Maynard, Maynard is gleefully throwing pies at Dobie’s face at a carnival attraction. Soupy Sales would have been proud. But it was a far cry from that sophisticated but subversive first season. However, Dobie Gillis was not dead. Nostalgia, like karma, exerts its inexorable toll. CBS attempted a revival via a 1977 madefor-TV movie. Unfortunately, the new producer scrapped Max

Shulman’s script as not hip enough. A team of writers took over, depositing Dobie into a midlife crisis where he is married to Zelda and joined his father in the grocery. Maynard became a guru. Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? flopped. Dobie Gillis continued to wow them in syndication reruns. He was so square he was virtually cool. In 1988, Shulman tried again. But his script proved too dark and he was again fired. Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis was loosely based by Shulman’s fourth season story, “What’s a Little Murder Between Friends?” Dobie was still married to Zelda. Connie Stevens played super-rich Thalia, who wanted him back and wouldn’t take no for an answer. But this revival didn’t take any better than the first ef fort. So finally Dobie Gillis was laid to rest. There will be no more revivals. Dwayne Hickman is in his 80s now. Bob Denver has passed. Sheila James Kuehl went into California politics. The rest are largely gone. But they live on, on cable TV and CD collections of each season, two technologies that were not even thought of back when Dobie Gillis first aired and television episodes were not something that were expected to be relevant 60 years into the future. But they are. And that is the enduring and timeless charm of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Oh, and Archie Andrews? A pilot was filmed the year after Dobie Gillis went off the air. William Schallert played Archie’s father. It was not picked up. Audiences had seen it all before….

WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze.com) series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, the Shadow, King Kong, the Spider, and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve Ditko. RetroFan

Fall 2019

CELEBRITY CRUSHES

My TV Crushes

by Tammy Brown Watching TV, the practice of viewing a favorite show at a designated time on a designated channel in my pajamas in front of the glowing box was a favorite pastime in my little world in Queens, New York. Saturday mornings meant a bowl of Lucky Charms or Cocoa Krispies with the delicious, sugary-flavored milk the cereal left behind while watching the big TV in the living room on my favorite blanket. Afterschool viewing was a combination of I Love Lucy, The Electric Company, and The Flintstones. Getting a TV in my room was key in developing a keen sense of the subtleties of the slapstick comedy duos of Lucy and Ethel and Fred and Barney through regular viewing while enjoying Now & Later candy and perusing Archie comic books. Nighttime viewing, however, was reserved for the most crush-worthy men in primetime. The big gun, the meta experience of TV watching, happened on Friday nights. The dynamic duo of early ’70s family viewing started with The Brady Bunch. I had a bit of interest in Greg Brady, especially in his Johnny Bravo phase, but that was a passing fancy. At 8:30, however, came the awesomeness that was The Partridge Family, with my first TV crush, David Cassidy, the embodiment of the shag haircut, guitar-playing heartthrob, Keith Partridge. The opening theme song got me ready for 30 minutes of my “boyfriend,” who sang “I Think I Love You”… and just to me. I wanted nothing more than to be on the bus, heading to the next one-song concert of the Partridges. Not only was Keith/David immensely talented and good looking, he was also self-deprecating, which really endeared him to me. He wasn’t a lothario, but the cute guy who lived in the ideal fictional small town of San Pedro, California. I bought the Partridge albums, the trading cards, and the novels to have

more Keith/David than any kid had a right to have. I still followed David later in his career with his appearances on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island and as late as 2013 when he appeared on CSI. None of that can compare to my first brush with TV crushdom with Keith Partridge. My crushes didn’t stop there, however. Hot on the heels of The Partridge Family was Room 222 and teacher/school life guru, Pete Dixon, played by Lloyd Haynes. Mr. Dixon was what I thought every teacher should be—super cool and could teach history like nobody’s business. Then there was Lee Majors as Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, where my love of technology got its start, followed by The Jeffersons son, Lionel, affably portrayed by Mike Evans with his lopsided grin and quips to his irascible father, George. Smooth. Happy Days brought the Fonz and Richie Cunningham together as the only duo to make my crush list. The motorcycle-riding doctor, Steve Kiley, on Marcus Welby, MD just seemed really cool. The outer-space adventures of Major Don West on Lost in Space was my one foray into the hot-tempered bad-boy type. My girl crush was Jaclyn Smith’s Kelly Garrett on Charlie’s Angels. Badass, smart, sophisticated, and awesome hair. You may see a pattern here of crushes on people who saved the day or at least made the day a little better for those around them. I guess I have a hero fixation, and that’s okay. I’m all for the guitar-strumming, scalpel-wielding, bionic-running, spaceship-flying, historyteaching TV guy who kept me coming back to that glowing box week af ter week. TAMMY BROWN has had a long career in entertainment marketing including working with Superman, X-Men, SpongeBob, and Mickey Mouse.

Hey, lovelorn, quit sobbing into your pillow and writing diary entries—instead, share your Sixties/Seventies/ Eighties Celebrity Crushes with RetroFan readers! (Celebrity stalkers, please do not apply.) You can become famous, get three free copies of the magazine, and earn a whopping $10 as well. Submit your 600-wordmaximum Celebrity Crushes column to the editor for consideration at euryman@gmail.com. 74

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RETRO TRAVEL

Pinball wizards, your mecca awaits: the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Nevada. Driph/Wikimedia Commons. (INSET) The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame’s Tim Arnold. Photo courtesy of Jim Schelberg.

Autosave Triggered The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame

by Richard J. Fowlks A chorus of high-pitched bleeps and metal pings fill the air. Excited jackpot chirps compete with the din of mechanical triggers. All the while, coins rattle persistently through hungry slots. These are not the sounds of slot machines, but rather the soundtrack of a place founded to be the antithesis to the gambling thrall of Las Vegas, the Pinball Hall of Fame. The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame (LVPHoF) was opened in 2006 to be a nostalgic record of the pinball games of yesteryear. Machines from across the history of pinball were gathered and painstakingly restored to share the joy and tradition of the beloved pastime. Row after row of pinball and arcade games live shoulder-to-shoulder, open to public play: most for a quarter, some two quarters. Grouped by era stand classic favorites from companies Williams, Gottlieb, Stern, Midway, Bally, Data East, and Atari, among others. This author was immediately taken back to his youth playing on the Spider-Man and Superman tables (at the local Round Table Pizza after basketball practice). The recently released Batman ’66 game featured a video screen playing clips from the classic television show that react to the game play! The Creature From the Black Lagoon pinball game is a perennial favorite of mine, with an LCD screen that simulates scenes from the blackand-white movie and a lower “swamp” area stalked by a small creature. The Haunted House has a lower level “basement” and upper level “attic” of game play for triple the pinball action. Hours of games from the peak of the pinball era can be played on the

classic pinball machines “Pin-Bot,” “Fireball,” “Black Knight,” “Funhouse,” “Black Hole,” “Challenger,” and “Mata Hari.” The Computerized Sex Tester from the Seventies stands as a hilarious gimmick. The beautiful illustrations on the glass backing boards are vibrant and belie little of the years they have lived. Every machine’s history and story is told on a hand-printed card attached to the game. The bulk of the pinball machines to be found in the collection are from the Sixties to the Eighties, the heyday of pinball gaming. The older, historical machines are an interactive museum of pinball history, with vintage bowling games, antique bumpers, and analog bells chiming out players’ scores. The LVPHoF encompasses the history of pinball games and manifests the vision of one man, pinball wizard Tim Arnold. Tim Arnold began operating pinball games in his hometown of Lansing, Michigan, at the age of 16. “I used to play a lot as a kid. Pinball machines offered the thrill of gambling (free games) along with great art, and only cost a dime to play,” Tim recalls to RetroFan. In 1972, he bought his first used pinball machine, “Mayfair” by the company Gottlieb, and every kid on the block constantly wanted to play it. At the age of 20, in 1976, Arnold opened and operated Pinball Pete’s with his brother, and the arcade hit it big as the oncoming Pac-Man era landed in the Eighties. Tim states, “Pinball Pete’s was the perfect place for me. I always had a problem with authority, didn’t play well with others, and had no patience with education. [The arcade] allowed me RetroFan

Fall 2019

celebrity crushes

Classic pinball games like these cohabitate the Hall of Fame alongside more modern ones. Driph/Wikimedia Commons.

to be a pirate sailing on the sea of pinball.” Tim notes that the local distributor only gave him a $50 credit to trade in an older, low-earning game. He then made a business-savvy decision: instead of scrapping an entire machine for minimal credit, he began storing the games he moved off of the arcade floor. In his free time, Tim repaired and maintained these stored games, and began a collection that would grow to nearly 1,000 machines. After 14 years of operating Pinball Pete’s, he had perhaps one of the largest collections of pinball machines in the country, and had opened a second location in Ann Arbor. In 1990, Tim Arnold sold his share of the arcades and moved to Las Vegas to retire. Over the next two years, Arnold would painstakingly relocate his collection from Michigan to Las Vegas, and he quickly ran out of storage space for his pinball machines. He filled the tennis court on his property with hundreds of games, then ultimately had to build a shed around the court to house his entire collection. Low Las Vegas humidity and little rain meant minimal damage to the machines. Arnold muses, “My wife has been very understanding. As a midlife crisis goes, it is better than a boat or blonde.” He continued to restore and maintain his collection, and was dreaming of a way to share the collection with the world while helping the community. Thus was “Fun Night” born. By 1992, all of Arnold’s pinball machines were moved into the 10,000-square-foot building known as “The Shed” that wrapped around his tennis court. Tim began holding pinball parties that became known as “Fun Night” as a reward for people who helped maintain the machines. Initially, 20 machines were set up on Tim’s back porch for 20 guests. As more games were restored and electricity added to The Shed, it became the venue for the parties, which were soon held twice a year. As Fun Night grew, it became an opportunity to fundraise, drawing thousands of dollars to be donated to Las Vegas charities. By 1995, Tim would have the Fun Night during AMOA (an amusement game industry trade show) to attract a wider audience of pinball enthusiasts. “Fun Night was a blast,” he recalls. “One of the later ones, we had Alvin Gottlieb, son of D. Gottlieb (and company), his son Mike, and his grandsons. He wandered up and down isles of machines he built and offered factoids and opinions. Really cool!” Tim purchased the property next to The Shed as Fun Night had expanded to around 1,000 visitors for its two-night event. 76

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By 2005, the event had simply become to big for Arnold’s residence and The Shed to accommodate. Tim had an impressive pinball collection of functional machines, but what to do with them? Tim established the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club (LVPCC). The LVPCC was founded on giving back to the community and establishing a permanent home for Tim Arnold’s pinball collection. Tim contacted Midge Arthur, an administrative assistant in the Las Vegas branch of the Salvation Army. On the PHoF website (www.pinballmuseum.org), Midge is quoted as saying, “I got a telephone call from Tim, and he said, ‘If I had money to give, what would you do with it?’ We had a long discussion about our different rehabilitation programs. He was, I think, kind of skeptical of all organizations. He wanted to make sure the money was going to help people.” Tim reiterates to RetroFan why he continues to support the charity: “It is not just the Army, we support other local social-service charities. We like the [Salvation] Army because they are a lot like us, low-rent, focused on a mission, and really believing in what they do. Many charities pay the people at the top way to much.” The Salvation Army was decided to be the LVPCC’s main charity. Shortly thereafter, the Salvation Army began receiving donations from what Midge describes on the website as “one of my strangest, out-of-the-ordinary donors we have ever had.” On the PHoF website, Tim stated, “When the crap hit the fan with [Hurricane] Katrina, the government failed completely, the Red Cross failed mostly, but everybody that was there said the Salvation Army was exemplary in every way.” As Fun Night grew, the funds of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club grew. The organization was able to rent a location on East Tropicana Avenue and South Pecos Road in 2005. The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame opened its doors as a not-for-profit organization, and boasted the world’s largest pinball collection. Tim notes, “running [the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame] as a not-for-profit allows us to avoid a lot of costs and lets us stay purely a pinball attraction without any other side shows [like] pizza or alcohol to distract us.” The machines were regularly maintained and repaired by the members of the LVPCC, subscribing to the tenets of Zen and the Art of Pinball philosophy. Club members regularly maintained and replaced parts to keep games in working order, and could be seen in carpenters’ aprons restringing and tuning up machines. “We change the lightbulbs the minute they burn out. That doesn’t make any economic sense,” Tim noted on the website. “It’s so incredibly hard to keep this stuff working.” Arnold spent inordinate amounts of time online and in eBay auctions to secure relays, motors, and electronic pieces that can be repurposed for ailing machinery. He began selling duplicate restored machines to gather funds to afford a permanent home for the PHoF. Tim also began to travel to pinball shows around the country, conducting raffles and selling pinball-related items to raise money for the building fund. By 2009, the LVPCC had raised enough funds to move to its current space at 1610 E. Tropicana. The Pinball Hall of Fame

celebrity crushes

Among the games at the Hall of Fame: (LEFT) Stern Pinball’s 2016 Batman model celebrating the TV show’s 50th anniversary, (CENTER) Chicago Coin’s 1945 Goalee “Game of Skill,” and (RIGHT) an Indiana Jones 2008 pinball machine featuring images from all four movies. Photos courtesy of Richard J. Fowlks. Batman & related characters © DC Comics. Goalee © Chicago Coin. Indiana Jones © Lucasfilm Ltd.

is now 10,000 square feet, nearly twice the floor space of the original Hall of Fame. The permanent residence of the PHoF is home to hundreds of machines from the Thirties to the Nineties, with a few modern machines to boot. The carpet is carpet scrap cleverly salvaged from a Convention Center weekend show, and the change machines were “liberated” from the Golden Nugget’s trash dock. First and foremost, it’s still about keeping the machines working and supporting charity. Tim regularly has to fabricate and repurpose modern components for broken parts that are simply not available anymore. Take, for example, the 1933 game “Jig Saw,” which Tim had to completely rebuild using modern components. Other games, such as “Pinball Circus,” are so rare that only two are known to exist. Replacement parts are nonexistent, forcing repurposing of modern materials to make repairs. “Joker’s Ball,” according to Arnold, is the 1959 game that video poker is based upon, and one of only two known in the world reside at the PHoF. An early pinball game to introduce flippers, 1947’s “Lady Robin Hood” stands ready to be played by the public. The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame has kept true to its dedication to community service: profits from the game

machines, candy vending stand, and sales of the This Old Pinball repair DVD are donated to charity. As Tim said on the website, “It’s about games and charity, and not about making money. We just don’t care that this or that game isn’t making any money. The minute we start becoming professional, it’s gonna be about the dollars and it’s not gonna be about the games.”

PINBALL HALL OF FAME

RICHARD J. FOWLKS is the designer of Eisner-nominated BACK ISSUE magazine for TwoMorrows and Full Bleed for IDW, and over a dozen books on comics and pop culture. He is debuting his first trading card set this year, Drive-In Double Feature, celebrating beloved movies of a bygone era. Rich is not known as a writer, therefore all typos and grammatical errors are all his own. This is Rich’s writing debut, as he couldn’t help but share his love of pinball machines and the glorious Pinball Hall of Fame. See more of the trouble he is getting into at www.RJFImageDesign.com.

1610 E. Tropicana Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119 Open daily. Admission: Free. Sunday–Thursday 11:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m. Friday–Saturday 11:00 a.m.–Midnight. 702-597-2627 www.PinballMuseum.org pinballhalloffame@msn.com

What lies in the future for the game museum rooted in the past? Tim surmises that someday he will deliver the collection to someone else. Not anytime soon, but someday. He tells RetroFan, “more of the same ’til I get too old to do it anymore. Then I get somebody else to be Dread Pirate Roberts, or I just close it up.” Tim Arnold has taken his lifelong passion and created both a walk-through pinball history and a lucrative community service. As Tim stated on the website, “Today’s society is often too selfcentered to bother doing community service. So I’m just giving them a vehicle where they think they’re being self-indulging by playing pinball, but they are really helping charity.” A huge hug and thank you to Tim Arnold for his efforts during the research and writing of this article, and Jim Schelberg for the photo of Tim.

RetroFan

Fall 2019

Retro Saturday Morning columnist Andy Mangels has brought to our attention the sad news that John Carl Buechler, the Hollywood make-up/effects wizard who was included in Andy’s Jason of Star Command article last issue, died of Stage IV prostate cancer on March 18, 2019, at age 66. Beyond his creation of aliens for Jason of Star Command, Buechler was celebrated for his work on a long list of horror and sci-fi movies, most notably for directing Troll and Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Our condolences to his wife, Lynn, and his legion of fans.

With nostalgia being a thing—hasn’t it always?— RetroFan is the perfect magazine to read, and I’d wager you have more material than any issue can possibly fit in. We’ll get there, though, I’m sure. I’d love to see an in-depth article on Kenner’s Super Powers Collection and Mattel’s Secret Wars Collection, both of which were released in the Eighties. Those toys gave me hours of enjoyment, and there was something very magical about having “crosspollination” between DC and Marvel [during toy playtime]. Whether it was Batman and Robin stuck in Doctor Doom’s Tower of Doom or Kang’s forces invading the Hall of Justice,

figure lines would be fun to explore in our pages. As you say in your letter, “We’ll get there, though, I’m sure.”

THIS MAGAZINE ROCKS!!!! I have every issue of RetroFan and it is the only magazine that I have ever read cover to cover. Most magazines, I just pick selected articles to read, but this one I have read every one. I just received issue #4 in the mail and have started reading it. I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies. Those decades had the best toys, movies, TV shows, and all things nostalgia. Almost all the articles that I have read bring back my childhood memories. I can’t wait until issue #5. I saw there was going to be an article on Major Matt Mason. That was one of my favorite toys growing up. Articles that I would love to see:

`` `` `` `` ``

Evel Knievel toys Slime (in the garbage can) SSPs Freakies cereal School House Rock

I could go on and on, but it doesn’t matter. You keep on printing them and I will keep on reading them. DAN CHRISTMAN Dan, your mention of School House Rock has “Conjunction Junction” stuck in my head. Not that that’s a bad thing. Those are great suggestions, and we’ll add them to our list of potential subjects. Thanks!

there was no barrier between DC and Marvel in my world! I’d also like to draw attention to the fact that in the pre-internet age, you had to hunt high and low for certain figures. The Flash and Brainiac seemed particularly hard to find. The black-costumed Spidey also seemed hard to find. In the modern era, one would simply order figures via Amazon, but back in the day, there was the thrill of the hunt. Toys R Us didn’t seem able to get either the Flash or Brainiac figures for me. But I wouldn’t have changed it for the world, retrospectively speaking. Some young folks today will never know the thrill of the hunt. STEPHEN PARRY Stephen, I remember the thrill of the hunt for elusive Super Powers figures, and the exhilaration I experienced when I finally found a Cyborg after traveling to a different state to find one. Both of these lines action78

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I recently picked up the current issue of RetroFan on the magazine rack at my local Barnes & Noble (my home away from home), and enjoyed it very much. As a child of the Sixties, it brought back many enjoyable memories for me, so congrats on putting out a quality publication that many readers will no doubt enjoy. That being said, now I’ve come to the main reason I’m writing. I would like to make a suggestion for a feature in an upcoming issue (I bet you never heard THAT before, ahem). One of my favorite TV shows growing up was The Adventures of Superman starring the gonetoo-soon George Reeves. I probably started watching it at around five-years-old, before I was old enough to read the comics, and it stayed with me into adulthood. I know there are a lot of Superman fans out there, like myself, who would love to see a feature (or even better, a cover story!) on the series. BTW, in case you didn’t know, it started out as a feature-length

movie, Superman and the Mole Men, which served as the pilot. I’m also a member of two Facebook groups of devotees who discuss the show and post photos/videos. I would be more than happy to spread the word to them should you take my suggestion. For non-subscribers who may or may not see RetroFan on their newsstand, the members of my FB groups are almost guaranteed to make a purchase (which may lead to more subscribers, hint, hint). Hopefully it would include some new facts about the show that we didn’t know before—but if not, it still would make a nice addition to our TAOS collections. So in closing, Michael, keep up the good work on RetroFan, and I hope you will agree about doing a piece on TV’s first and best Superman in a future issue. Next up for me, of course: Become a subscriber! MICHAEL R. MATARAZZO Great Caesar’s Ghost, Michael, you’re not the first person to suggest our covering Adventures of Superman. While I originally resisted—mostly because it was a Fifties show and our coverage is generally Sixties through Eighties—I’m leaning toward eventually spotlighting it in the magazine... when a good angle presents itself (between a couple of books on the topic and numerous websites, there’s no shortage of TAOS TV coverage out there). I’ll take this under advisement and see what we can do down the road.

I enjoyed “I Think It Would Be Fun to Publish a Fanzine” by Ernest Farino in RetroFan #3. In addition to giving us a nice lesson in the history of fanzines, it featured two of my favorite movie zines that are still around today, Gary Svehla’s Midnight Marquee and Richard Klemensen’s Little Shoppe of Horrors. The article also acknowledges the importance of Famous Monsters of Filmland and legendary editor Forrest J Ackerman’s role in inspiring countless monster magazines and fanzines from lateFifties to the present. An important precursor to Famous Monsters of Filmland was a particular issue of a digestsized French film magazine titled Cinema 57. Issue #20 of Cinema 57 (July–Aug. 1957) was devoted entirely to fantastic films and is considered a major inspiration for Famous Monsters. While I never saw the nascent Gore Creatures fanzine in the Sixties or early Seventies, I ultimately became a reader and fan of Midnight Marquee in the Nineties and acquired numerous back issues along the way. Gary and Susan Svehla have done an admirable job over the decades, and while it’s been published less frequently in recent years, MidMar continues to be a zine I always look forward to reading, not to mention the many fine books put out by Midnight Marquee Press. Little Shoppe of Horrors has evolved, as Ernest Farino notes, “from a classic fanzine into a slick, thoroughly researched, and substantive

chronicle of all things Hammer.” (Incidentally, Little Shoppe also covers some non-Hammer films.) In short, Dick Klemensen’s Little Shoppe of Horrors is essential reading for the serious, or even the casual, Hammer Film fan. Little Shoppe of Horrors is also invaluable to zine enthusiasts for its excellent “A History of Horror Film Fanzines,” a series that has covered such zines as Photon, Fantascene, Cinefantastique, and Castle of Frankenstein. Keep up the great work, Dick Klemensen and company! Another extant high-quality fanzine is Monsters from the Vault, published since 1995 and edited by Jim Clatterbaugh. Its longawaited (two) final issues are due out later this year. The question I pose now is this: Is RetroFan a magazine or a fanzine? It certainly looks like a glossy, professional periodical, but it has that fun, fan-friendly fanzine feel to it as well. Well, whatever you call it, keep publishing it and celebrating a variety of vintage movies, TV shows, toys, comics, cartoons, and collectibles. Keep up the great work, Michael Eury and company! TIMOTHY M. WALTERS RetroFan is both a magazine and a fanzine! Hopefully we’re proving that we can present a polished, professional periodical that maintains the fannish passion for its subject matter while still containing broader material of interest to the general reader. It’s a balancing act, but I’d rather tip more onto the fandom side so that we’re in tandem with TwoMorrows Publishing’s other fine magazines, which explore comic-book history. Thanks for your valuable updates about fanzines!

Loved your View-Master article [issue #2]. Please do more on other television show reels, not just the superhero ones. So, you’ll be doing a piece of Major Matt Mason. Thank you. THE space toy of the late Sixties and early Seventies deserves more attention, especially since no one’s done a fullblown book on MMM. Please do more. I encourage you to do articles on Billy Blastoff and S.T.A.R. Toys. Both need more research, and IMHO, the toys of that era were so much better than what is coming out today. [Today’s toys] have no heart to them, and I’m at a loss for words to explain further. Please encourage Andy Mangels to do some research on some animated cartoons that he hasn’t already studied. Would love to see him do some pieces on Emergency +4, Skyhawks, Hot Wheels, The Old Curiosity Shop, Kid Power, The Kids from C.A.P.E.R., and the Jerry Lewis animated program. My strongest recommendation would be for the animated Emergency +4. It ran for three years on NBC back in the Seventies and had a dynamic theme song. You’re probably aware that it was an animated tie-in to the

[live-action] Emergency! series. It started the same year as the animated Star Trek, but had quite a few more episodes produced during its run. Star Trek had 22 episodes made, while Emergency +4 came close to 30. Go figure. Some of the great comic-book writers and artists did a great more than just the superhero comics we’re familiar with, and perhaps more attention should be given to their lesser-known efforts. I’ve been a fan of Shelley Mayer for years, but perhaps an article on his earlier series, Scribbly, would be in order. Back issues are too expensive for me. It would be nice if DC Comics did a trade paperback for Scribbly, but it may not be a moneymaker in this dark and gritty era. RetroFan gives you an opportunity for some other pieces. Remember the Saturday Morning Fall Preview Specials? They used to air on the Friday nights before the new cartoons for the year debuted. JAMES SMITH III James, View-Masters were ye ed’s second favorite childhood toy, after Captain Action— especially the TV show reels, which were the “Netflix” of our generation, allowing us to “watch” an episode on demand. Don’t worry, we’ll spin back around to them in a future issue. Interesting list of potential subjects…! Until your letter, I had forgotten Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down (shown above). We’ll see what we can do. Incidentally, the episode gap between the animated Star Trek and Emergency +4 isn’t as wide as you’re remembering, according to Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia. ST had 22 episodes, while Emergency +4 had only 23. I agree that Sheldon Mayer was a fascinating figure (I’m a fan of his Sugar and Spike and Black Orchid comics), but not only is Scribbly a product of the Thirties and Forties, an era that predates RetroFan’s purview, except for rare exceptions (like an occasional Oddball Comic from Scott Shaw!) we’ll leave comic books to TwoMorrows’ other fine publications to explore. And just this morning Andy Mangels and I were talking about those Friday night preview specials for Saturday morning kid fare. Expect Andy to cover this in a future issue.

RetroFan #3 began with a great interview with Mr. Richard Donner, a man a lot of superhero fans past and present owe a debt to for his commitment to creating a movie we could all believe in. Glenn Greenberg did a great job

eliciting answers that let us all know exactly why the film turned out so well. I’m not sure what it says about my viewing habits, but this is the first TV quiz where I got all of the answers right. Back at the time many of these ran, here in the Toronto area we received four main channels: the CBC and the local affiliate for each of the major US networks out of Buffalo. In kind of the same vein, I don’t remember any of the merchandise, and I’m not sure if I ever sampled the drink, but I recognize most of the Funny Face characters, so I’m guessing that we saw the commercials up here as well. I’m a little too young to have seen the Aquaman cartoons in their first run (not by much, mind you), but I remember loving them when I did see them. Thankfully, through the magic of DVDs, I have experienced them again and find they hold up quite well. As someone who saw those ads so frequently, I was fascinated by the article on Sea Monkeys. Strange that they don’t look like the pictures! I never watched any of the Irwin Allen shows, but I have a cousin, Carol Knisley, who was a huge fan of Land of the Giants. A number of years ago we were shopping at a store called Vintage Video (sadly no longer with us) in Toronto that specialized in hardto-find movies and shows and found a very elaborate box set of the series. The set was expensive, but she really wanted it, so I bought it and “sold” it to her family so they could give it to her for Christmas. I’ve never regretted it since she has enjoyed it so much. Since I knew she loved the show, I bought her a copy of the RetroFan issue. She enjoyed it so much she asked me for information on how she could subscribe! BRIAN MARTIN Tell your friends about us, and share your comments about this issue by writing me at euryman@gmail.com. MICHAEL EURY Editor-in-Chief NEXT ISSUE: Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

BATMAN GOOFS OFF!

Winter 2020 No. 7 $8.95

World Largest CHARLIE’S ANGELS Collection

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

An interview with the heavenly

Jaclyn Smith

…plus we reopen the Charlie’s Angels casebook

JONNY QUEST CREATOR

Captain Action • Larry Storch Interview • Rare Marvel World Playset & more!

RetroFan

Fall 2019

by Scott Saavedra

LABORATORY DISASTER! RUBIK’S CUBES BRED WITH TRIBBLES!

Will Medical Science Ever Find a Cure for

SVENGOOLITIS? The Terrifying Lost Season of Original Ghost Busters that Cost a Cast Member His Sanity!

S H O CK E R ! 80

RetroFan

Fall 2019

Teenage James Bond Sues Teenage Napoleon Solo for Infringment

FFLES FEATHERS, RUBBER CHICKEN RAMPAGE RUND ERING, WHAT LEAVES A BAFFLED NATION WOW? THE DICKENS IS GOING ON NO

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

RETROFAN #7

Featuring a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: an exclusive interview with funnyman LARRY STORCH, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Captain Action—the original super-hero action figure, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, & more! (84-page FULLCOLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 Ships Dec. 2019

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

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

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RETROFAN #4

RETROFAN #5

THE CRAZY, COOL CULTURE WE GREW UP WITH! LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s Star Trek cartoon, “How I Met Lon Chaney, Jr.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare Elastic Hulk toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of The Andy Griffith Show), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and Mr. Microphone!

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

40th Anniversary interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEA-MONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman and Batman memorabilia, & more!

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

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

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