Lost Skits of Mazeppa

One of the things I did with my handy-dandy cassette-corder was hold the mic up to the TV and record whole programs.

I’ve lost the tapes on which I saved some Mazeppa shows, but I remember some. The following are burned into my cheesy memory, but did not make it into the wonderful LOST TAPES OF MAZEPPA video series.

Mr Mystery Campaign Song from Randy

 In the fall of 1971, Mr Mystery was running for Oklahoma Governor. His campaign slogan was taken from the Tulsa World’s classified section, “white space increases readership.” (Jim Millaway played Mr Mystery, who wore a stocking-cap ski mask which covered his face and head.)

This was a tape sent in by a viewer named Randy. It was an instrumental track of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” with Randy singing along:

White space increases readership,

Vote for Mr Mystery, he’ll take the voters on a trip!

Oops, my tongue began to slip!

[spoken] Bye!

Duchess Party Barn
                                     
Sherman Oaks hosted an episode of “Tulsa Teen Town Topics.” Every time he asked his guest a question, the guest responded with, “At the Duchess Party Barn tomorrow night at 7 o’clock.”

I never found out what happened!

How to Drink Seb’m-Up Cool!
                                   
This was a brief blackout in which Coach Chuck endeavored to teach us just that. He popped open a bottle of Seven-Up and chugged it in about four seconds. He started to say, “Now listen here …” but before he could say more, he erupted with a belch so earthshattering that he fell to the floor, unconscious.

Fire Up the Songbird, Penny!

                                 
One person remembers this “Shy King” segment in this way: “Once, he started, for some unknown reason, a weird sketch on his Tulsa late show that was about Sky King, a show you're going to have to look up because it was stupid and forgettable. At any rate, there was a table top full of tiny plastic trees and a model plane. There had to be a small plane. It WAS Shy King, after all. So Gailard sez the catch-phrase from the show: Let's fire up the Song Bird, Penny! And he proceeded to pull out a blow torch. He certainly did NOT know what this was going to do to the little plastic trees and plane on the table top. It was glorious.”

The way I remember it: The model plane was sitting on an otherwise-empty piano bench. It had probably been drenched in lighter fluid or something. Shy’s voice pealed, “Fire up the Songbird, Penny!” A match dropped onto the plane. It burst into fire. BLACKOUT.
                                     
Here's my attempt of what that looked like.

And with this post, MARCH MAZEPPA MADNESS forever fades into the sunset. Believe it or not, I have run out of Mazeppa! But never fear, Mr Sartain! You’ll forever keep and anarchic, silly, slapstick part of our hearts!

"Why can't this night go on forever?"

PLEASE  GO  TO  MAZEPPA.COM  AND  BUY  MERCHANDISE!

See you on Monday to commence 2023's APRIL FOOLISHNESS!

  

Vote for Mister Mystery!

As you should know, Mister Mystery ran for Tulsa's mayoral post. Now, heretofore never revealed, is the campaign song which I wrote for him, but never shared with anybody ... until now.

In case you wondered, you're supposed to sing this to the tune "Close to You," as made popular by the Carpenters.

After this, you probably long to "boo" me too.  But I was only 15, so gimme a break.  See you on Thursday with the last-ever post of the last-ever MARCH MAZEPPA MADNESS!

  

Mazeppa Makes Contact

... At least, I came across this set of contact strips somewhere.

So much for Bette Davis lookalikes!

See you Monday with a musical composition dedicated to one of the Mazeppa gang. 

  

Proud Oklahomans

This is from the December 14, 1997 Tulsa World.

I ain't sayin' nothing about the appreciative look Our Hero is giving to the pretty lady ...  See ya Thursday!

   

Moving to Channel 8!

"The zany unpredictability of Sartain at his best." That's what we all wanted, right kids?

This is from the August 29, 1972 Tulsa World.  Aahhhh, to revisit such halcyon days!

See you Monday!

Always Mazeppa in Our Hearts!

I sure hope Mr Sartain doesn't resent the fact, but he'll ALWAYS be Mazeppa to us. Of course, he's also the Big Bopper, and Oliver Hardy, and ...

This is from the October 7, 1984 Tulsa World.  See you Monday!  Until then -- I hope you can remain, like me and Sartain, "fearless and unsophisticated"!

  

Never Rejected, Bucko

The hoity-toity types might have turned up their surgically-snipped noses at Mazeppa ... but we never did, right?

I said, RIGHT?

This is from the July 22, 1989 Tulsa World.  (Note my mom's writing at the top, before she mailed this to me in OKC.)  See you on Monday!

  

Lost No Longer!

It's hard to remember that we spent two decades with only our memories and Mazeppa scrapbooks to jog our fanatacism. Then came this cosmos-shattering information from the October 2, 1992 Tulsa World ...

And, as noted in the header art for this month, you may buy ALL FOUR VOLUMES of The Lost Tapes of Mazeppa (or mix and match any way you wish), at

https://www.mazeppa.com/

... Although I doubt you can buy them "on videotape."  It's all them Digital Video Discs nowadays!

See you on Thursday!

  

LAWZEE!

And welcome to the last-ever MARCH MAZEPPA MADNESS!

As you will read in this article from the April 28, 2001 Tulsa World, Gailard Sartain is a visual artist as well as a comedic one.

See you on Monday for another look at the world of Mazeppa Pompazoidi, fellow Mazeppites!

Signing Off in Animal Passion

As the sun sets slowly in the West, shuttering this year's installment of MY SIXITES VALENTINE, we revisit the concept of furry critters acting on stereotypical human romantic behavior.

These Kindergarten Valentines close out this year.  See you on Thursday, March 2nd, for the commencement of the final MARCH MAZEPPA MADNESS!

  

Phoning It In

The film Bye Bye Birdie wasn't released until a month or two after Valentine's, 1963.

So these telephone-oriented Valentines weren't inspired by the girl gab "Telephone Hour" number, seen in the movie's first minutes.

I betcha that kids nowadays don't understand the "line busy" references, above and below!

See ya on Monday with a final selection of MY SIXTIES VALENTINE for this year.

  

Two Girls Down the Street

These Valentinary documents from 1962 in no way constitute an other-than-platonic friendship.

The McCoys lived up the hill.  Jennifer was in my grade but way outclassed me in other aspects.

The Brighams were next-door neighbors.  Donna was blond.  The Brighams moved away before I was out of grade school.  That's all I recall!

See you Thursday, fellow hearts-on-sleeves types!

  

Grown-Up Valentines

That is, valentines from grown-ups to me!

The above was from our long-suffering first-grade teacher Mrs West.  How did she know I loved dinosaurs?!?!  In the 1960s, it was a safe bet that any kid loved dinosaurs!  (No comment on the resemblance of this cave boy to characters from The Flintstones, which began in 1960.)

This one is from my paternal grandparents, who were on the less-boisterous end of the spectrum.  The boy almost looks like a refugee from the Campbell Soup Kids family -- or perhaps Buster Brown's long-lost cousin.

See you Monday!

  

An Anonymous Love

It's from Valentine's, 1962. That was Mrs Pickell's class.

If you got an unsigned Valentine nowadays, would it be classified as passive-aggressive?  Or maybe just a boy who was forced by circumstance to send "love" greetings to another boy?

See you Thursday.

  

Animal Love

Yup, Valentine makers of the Sixties made sure that we kiddies thought that furry folk were just as amorous and monogamous as we were supposed to be!

Now get out of here before you shed all over the rug!  See you Monday.

  

Kindergarten's Guarded Love

That is, for Valentine's 1962, we five-or-six-year-olds were directed to give a Valentine to each classmate. Whether we loved 'em, or loathed them, or even knew anything about 'em.

For example, the above Valentine.  I don't remember if this particular Danny was in my Kindergarten class, or even a neighbor from down the street.  But by golly, Valentine giving was the thing society said to do, so we did it.

Likewise, Patty & Mike were siblings two doors down who were older (Patty) and younger (Mike) than I.  We knew each other too well from scraped knees and my teasing them, to want to get too affectionate.  Maybe nostalgia will remove my sharp edges in their memories ...

See you Thursday!

  

Welcome Back to MY SIXTIES VALENTINE!

... And although that moniker aptly describes any valentine I sent or received nowadays, I'm referring to the golden-aged-innocence of the 1960s.  If you were five or ten years old, the era was magical.  If you were a teenager, it was a potential hell of war, oppression, and paranoia.  I'm thankful to have emerged from the Sixties optimistic!

One of our grade-school community-building practices was Valentine's Day.  Your parents bought a big ol' bundle and you dealt 'em out like cards into each person's sack or envelope.  Your teacher had previously sent home a list with the names of all your classmembers.

Oftentimes Mom helped write the cards, which is how sometimes we would up with mushy, smoochy-type Valentines from a member of our own sex.

Every Monday and Thursday in February, here on the Super Blog we'll share some from my Kindergarten and First Grade in Bartlesville, OK.  The teachers were Mrs Grace Pickell (kindergarten class in their home) and Mrs West (1st Grade at Will Rogers Elementary).

Above is the pouch for First Grade.

And a couple of the treasures from that envelope.

Insert your favorite "aww, shucks!" here, and come back on Monday!

  

Unknown in 1982

This article is from the December 1982 issue of Video Review.

After reading this article, you will agree with me that its title is somewhat disingenuous.  Most of the titles are episodes of TV shows, not "movies."  I've only seen a couple of these, mainly the Night Gallery segments and Duel.

See you on Thursday with the commencement of this year's MY SIXTIES VALENTINE, more flashes from the grade-school past!

  

More Lives Nowadays

In 1989, Tulsa's Philbrook Museum had a display titled "Superman: Many Lives, Many Worlds." Some of the materials I snatched are these two pages:

I think the art for this coloring page is by artist José Luis García-López.

The idea for the above image was to draw your own comic-book page.

Here's a 2009 post with other items from that exhibit.  See you Monday!