Backstage with The Flash!

In salute to the new The Flash film, here's a look at the 1990 series, from the June 1991 Amazing Heroes, #191.

Campers, I cheered in one of the otherworldly sequences of the new Flash film.  I saw a guy running on a treadmill with a Mercury-type hat on.  I clapped because I thought the CGI guy was John Wesley Shipp.  Imagine my disappointment to learn otherwise!

Still, it's a good flick.  Any movie featuring Michael Keaton's Batman beating up Kryptonians can't be all bad!

  

Trolling for Attention

I had a troll in the late 1960s. Its body was painted glossy black, because it came with a "bat" costume made of black felt! No, I don't know where it now is.

This article is from the November 1969 Reader's Digest, concerning the whole troll phenom up to that date.

My Bat-Troll looked like this (from an online sale site)!

Bet you didn't know there was a time when being a "troll" wasn't an insult!?!

See you Thursday.

  

Survivor Types

This Don Rosa cover gallery, from the February 1990 Amazing Heroes, highlights some of the ways in which Superman's status as "Last Son of Krypton" was diluted over time.

The bottom-left cover is for Superman #158, cover-dated January 1963.  You can read a long post or two about this issue here.

I have a great wealth of knowledge and feelings for that issue!

Now it's YOUR duty to survive to read our next post, on Monday!  See you at that time.

  

Final Salutes Since SoonerCon 30!

Final Salute

Each year we note the passing of influential

creators, performers, and institutions.

 

            Patricia Anne McKillip (died May 6, 2022) wrote richly peopled fantasy including the Riddle-Master trilogy, children’s books, and many standalones.

Comics writer and artist George Pérez (May 6, 2022) penciled for Marvel before penciling DC’s 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths. He then both wrote and penciled the 1987 Wonder Woman reboot. It was joked that his detailed panels might contain every person on Earth.

Actor Fred Ward (May 8, 2022) was active from the 1970s onward, including playing Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff.

Composer-synthesist Vangelis (May 17, 2022) won an Oscar for Chariots of Fire (1981) as well as providing scores for several films, including Blade Runner, and the TV series Cosmos, and 20+ albums.

Concept artist-director Colin Cantwell (May 21, 2022) is known for his work on genre films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and WarGames. He also developed designs for several Star Wars vehicles.

 Artist and modelmaker Greg Jein (May 22, 2022) worked magic on many Trek movies and TV series, as well as Dark Star, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The Hunt for Red October, Avatar, and The Dark Knight Rises.

Emmy-winning actor Ray Liotta (May 26, 2022) appeared on TV in ER and The Rat Pack; in Field of Dreams, John Q, and Goodfellas. His voice appears as Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

            Wichita fan Roger Tener (May 28, 2022) was a guest at SoonerCons 6, 7, 8, and 10, and Fan GOH at SoonerCon 13. He was a pilot, EMS volunteer, and great friend to fandom.

Artist Ken Kelly (June 2, 2022) provided covers for many 1970s Warren comics mags, and several album covers for Manowar and Kiss.

Teacher-turned-detective novelist Ann Turner Cook (June 3, 2022) is also famous as the original Gerber baby.

Founding Bon Jovi member Alec John Such (June 4, 2022) played on their first five albums. With them he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Dreamy singer Julee Cruise (June 9, 2022) first enchanted us with her singing as featured in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks.

Voice actor Billy Kametz (June 9, 2022) appeared in dozens of video games and anime dubs, including Demon Slayer and Pokémon.

Comics artist Tim Sale (June 16, 2022) made a big splash with his depictions of Batman in works like Batman: The Long Halloween, and for Superman for All Seasons and Superman: Confidential. He worked on the TV series Heroes.

Robbie Kienzle (June 20, 2022) served OKC as a public arts consultant for MAPS, ending her career as Arts & Cultural Affairs Liaison for the city.

            Margaret Keane (June 26, 2022) smashed into pop culture in the 1950s with her adorable and/or creepy paintings of big-eyed waifs, later reinforced by Tim Burton’s biopic of her, Big Eyes.

Character actor Joe Turkel (June 27, 2022) appeared in much 1950s-60s TV and in 1982’s Blade Runner, but chilled us most as the bartender as Lloyd the bartender in The Shining.

Manga artist Kazuo “Kazuki” Takahashi (July 4, 2022) created Yu-Gi-Oh! as a strip in 1996. Since then the trading card game has been declared the best-selling trading card game in the world by Guinness.

            Actor Lenny Von Dohlen (July 5, 2022) starred in 1984’s Electric Dreams and was also memorable in Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

Actor James Caan (July 6, 2022) starred in Rollerball and appeared in a dozen or more other film and TV roles. He portrayed the fiery Sonny Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.

            Actor Gregory Itzin (July 8, 2022) had small parts in Airplane!, MacGyver, and The A-Team, but reached a plateau all his own as (Vice-then-) President Charles Logan in several seasons of 24.

            Tony Sirico (July 8, 2022) appeared in several films and TV guest spots (including voiceover on Family Guy) beginning in the 1970s, but is most famous as Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri on The Sopranos.

            Familiar TV face Larry Storch (July 8, 2022) played Cpl. Agarn on F Troop (1965-67) and performed voiceover work on many shows, including The Pink Panther Show, Groovie Goolies, and Tennessee Tuxedo.

            Writer-editor Eric Flint (July 17, 2022) cofounded the Baen Free Library and created an alternate-history juggernaut with the 1632 series. He was Writer GOH for SoonerCon 21, “I’ll be Back to the Future,” in 2012.

MAD magazine illustrator Paul Coker (July 23, 2022) might be best remembered for his features illustrating “clichés.” He was production designer on Rankin/Bass TV specials such as Frosty the Snowman, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and a dozen others.

            Writer-director-producer Bob Rafelson (July 23, 2022) was involved with Easy Rider, The Last Picture Show, and Five Easy Pieces. He also co-created The Monkees.

            English actor David Warner (July 24, 2022) debuted with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but we remember him from The Omen, Time Bandits, Titanic, as Jack the Ripper in Time After Time, and multiple roles in the Trek universe. Voiceovers included Spider-Man, Toonsylvania, and as Ra’s al Ghul on Batman: The Animated Series.

            Some of the notable appearances of actor Paul Sorvino (July 25, 2022) were in Goodfellas and The Rocketeer on the big screen, and That’s Life and Law & Order on TV.

            Actor Bernard Cribbins (July 27, 2022) appeared in the Carry On series; in She, Casino Royale, and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.; and on TV in places like Fawlty Towers, The Avengers, and Doctor Who.

            Tony Dow (July 27, 2022) will always be remembered first as Wally Cleaver, the Beaver’s older brother. He parodied the role in Kentucky Fried Movie and was also a sculptor and TV director, including episodes of DS9 and Babylon 5.

            Comedienne-actress Pat Carroll (July 30, 2022) had a long career on stage (including Broadway) and TV, but frightened us forever with her voiceover role as Ursula in The Little Mermaid.

            Groundbreaking actress-singer Nichelle Nichols (July 30, 2022) came to symbolize equal opportunity for women and minorities as a bridge-crew member on Star Trek. MLK saluted her achievement and encouraged her to remain in the role of Uhura. She became a goodwill ambassador for NASA beginning in the Seventies.

            Actor Roger Mosley (August 7, 2022) is most remembered by genre fans for his role as copter pilot and Vietnam veteran T.C. Calvin on Magnum, P.I.

            Motown mogul Lamont Dozier (August 8, 2022) had a hand in 14 Number Ones, including “Heatwave” and “Where Did Our Love Go.”

            Grammy winner, actress, and OBE recipient Olivia Newton-John (August 8, 2022) broke teen hearts and bank accounts with her singing and appearances in films like Xanadu and Grease.

            Okie Clu Gulager (August 5, 2022) acted on several TV Westerns, but his genre claim to fame was as Burt the manager of the Uneeda medical-supply warehouse in Return of the Living Dead.

Actress Anne Heche (August 11, 2022) got her start playing twins on a soap opera, and led a whirlwind professional and personal life, which later became controversial as she claimed to be a space alien. She afterward revealed childhood sexual abuse as the root of her ills.

Stationery executive E Bryant Crutchfield (August 21, 2022)  impacted kids’ lives forever when in 1981 the Mead Company introduced his invention, the Trapper Keeper looseleaf binder.

Astrophysicist Frank Drake (September 2, 2022) worked on SETI and Project Ozma, and helped design the plaque for Pioneers 10 and 11, 1972-1973. His so-called Drake Equation attempted to quantify the likelihood of industrial intelligent life in our galaxy.

Writer Peter Straub (September 4 , 2022) began his success in the horror field with Julia (1975). His slow unfolding of character and consequence slowly increased the reader’s unease. He also published poetry and collaborated several times with Stephen King

Composer-pianist Ramsey Lewis (September 12, 2022) won three Grammys and eight Gold Records over his jazz career. His 1964 “The In Crowd” might be his most familiar tune.

Rapper Coolio (September 28, 2022) made his biggest splash with the Grammy-winning “Gangsta’s Paradise.” You heard his song “Aw, Here It Goes!” as the opening track for Nickelodeon’s Kenan & Kel.

Songwriter-singer Loretta Lynn (October 4, 2022) helped break ground for women’s autonomy in the country-music scene. The 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter was based on her autobiography. She won several Grammys and ACM awards, has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and in 2013 received  Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

Country-pop singer Jody Miller (October 6, 2022) called Blanchard home. She won a Grammy in 1966 after recording a distaff response to Roger Miller’s “King of the Road.” Miller’s take was “Queen of the House.” A rancher later in life, she also recorded several albums of Christian/gospel songs.

Self-proclaimed “love goddess” Judy Tenuta (October 6, 2022) did standup, music, and wrote books. Her brash onstage approach challenged audiences to consider underlying themes of equality and individual rights.

Before voicing Mrs. Potts for Beauty and the Beast, Dame Angela Lansbury (October 11, 2022) acted and sang on Broadway; played mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher for two decades in Murder, She Wrote; and appeared in films like Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Company of Wolves. 

Robbie Coltrane (October 14, 2022) starred in British ITV’s Cracker as a criminal psychologist and appeared in two James Bond films. His biggest genre footprint was as Rubeus Hagrid in eight Harry Potter films, beginning in 1997.

Stuntman Ted White (October 14, 2022) doubled for John Wayne, Clark Gable, and Fess Parker. But he slashed into our genre memories as Jason Voorhees in 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Writer-inventor Lenny Lipton (October 5, 2022) wrote the poem which inspired the song “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” He wrote extensively on film history’s tech side and was heavily involved in the development of 3D filmmaking, leading to the RealD cinema system.

American test pilot and astronaut (Gemini 4, Apollo 9) James McDivitt (October 13, 2022) later became Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager. His 1965 in-orbit Gemini 4 photos of a UFO stirred some interest. He guest-starred as himself on The Brady Bunch in 1974.

Emmy winner Leslie Jordan (October 24, 2022) appeared on such shows as Lois & Clark, Will & Grace, American Horror Story, and ST: Voyager.

Jules Bass (October 25, 2022) worked in advertising before co-founding the company which became Rankin/Bass. He produced or co-produced such notables as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Hobbit, The Return of the King, and ThunderCats.

Pioneering rockabilly pianist Jerry Lee Lewis (October 28, 2022) broke out with “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” He won four Grammys and had 10+ Gold Records, and stirred up more trouble than his cousins Jimmy Swaggart and Mickey Gilley.

Actor Kevin Conroy (November 10, 2022) guested on many shows, but gripped our hearts and imaginations with his voice portrayal of the Dark Knight Detective on TV and in video games, beginning in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Adventures.

In the 1980s, the comedy of splatter genius Gallagher (November 11, 2022) was used to study the physiological effects of laughter. He filmed many comedy specials, most featuring his signature demolition of a watermelon, the Sledge-O-Matic.

French actor (and Capitol Records singer) Robert Clary (November 16, 2022) is most remembered as Corporal LeBeau in Hogan’s Heroes. He had recurring roles in soap operas and appeared in several films. Less widely known is the fact that Clary was an actual survivor of the Buchenwald prison camp.

Expressionist artist Bert Seabourn (November 17, 2022) painted many works on Native American subjects. He won the OK Governor’s Arts Award in 1981 and the Paseo Arts Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Writer Greg Bear (November 19, 2022) was of the “hard sci-fi” school, and it served him well. He won Hugos and Nebulas. Besides original novels and series he wrote in Trek and Star Wars franchises, and edited several anthologies.

Born in OKC, film producer Gray Frederickson (November 20, 2022) worked on several projects for Francis Ford Coppola. Frederickson won an Oscar as one of the co-producers of The Godfather Part II.

Okie actress-singer Nicki Aycox (November 16, 2022), born in Hennessey, had recurring roles in Ed, Cold Case, and Providence. She appeared in five episodes of Supernatural.

Ed Pugh (November 25, 2022) was president of Reaper Miniatures, firm supporters of Soonercon. He strengthened our community and broadened it by welcoming new members.

Singer-songwriter-musician Christine McVie (November 30, 2022) was a vital member of Fleetwood Mac in 1970-1998. Her songs have been borrowed by politicians (“Don’t Stop” for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign) and used in ad campaigns into 2023 (“Everywhere” for Chevrolet EVs and Kohls).

Ray Nelson (November 30, 2022) wrote the 1963 story, “Eight O'Clock in the Morning,” adapted as John Carpenter’s 1988 They Live. Besides his sf writings and cartoons, he maintained that his greatest claim to posterity was his creation in high school of the propellor beanie as a symbol of fandom. 

Former OCPD officer Mike Ferguson (December 3, 2022) was a longtime supporter of fandom in the OKC area, attending several SoonerCons and ThunderCons with his wife Laura. A big fan of the Trek franchises, Mike also wrote a series of tales called “Confidential Encounters” and started his own video-production company.

Kirstie Alley (December 5, 2022) brought Lt. Saavik to the screen in STII in 1982, and won over the rest of the world in Cheers, 1987-93. She also played Mollie Jensen in three Look Who’s Talking films, and starred in the sitcom Veronica’s Closet 1997-2000.

British TV writer Chris Boucher (December 11, 2022) worked on Doctor Who and Blake’s 7. He created the short-lived series Star Cops and also wrote several Doctor Who tie-in novels.

Writer-director Mike Hodges (December 17, 2022) had a hand in such films as Get Carter, 1980’s Flash Gordon, and The Terminal Man.

Actor Stephen Grief (December 23, 2022) appeared in theatre and radio, and was most notably Commander Travis in the first season of Blake’s 7.

Conestoga and Archon guest Paula Helm Murray (December 28, 2022) was also a writer. She lavished her heart and soul on the fans she met, including at least ten stops at SoonerCon, beginning with SoonerCon 3 in 1987.

            Singer-actress Maggie Thrett (December 18, 2022) appeared in McCloud, The Wild Wild West, and I Dream of Jeannie, and made her biggest splash as one of “Mudd’s Women” in 1966.

            Singer-songwriter Thom Bell (December 22, 2022) helped create the musical genre Philly Soul in the 1960s-70s. He produced for the Spinners, the Stylistics, and Dionne Warwick.

            Although parodied as “Baba Wawa” by Gilda Radner on SNL, broadcaster Barbara Walters (December 30, 2022) was a TV pioneer for the distaff side. She interviewed first couples from Nixon to Obama and became the first woman network news anchor in 1976 (and the highest paid of all). She co-created The View.

            Writer-singer Anita Pointer (December 31, 2022) co-founded the Pointer Sisters and sang lead on such songs as ‘Slow Hand,” “I’m So Excited,” and “Fire.”

            Professional rally driver Ken Block (January 2, 2023) also competed boarding and motocross. He was a cofounder of DC Shoes.

British author Fay Weldon (January 4, 2023) published dozens of novels, most famously The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.

Actor Earl Boen (January 5, 2023) did plenty of voice-over work, but is most remembered by genre fans for his role as Dr. Silberman in the first three Terminator films.

            US Astronaut Walter Cunningham (January 3, 2023) piloted the lunar module for Apollo 7 in 1968.  NASA’s second civilian astronaut, in 1977 he published The All-American Boys: An Insider’s Look at the US Space Program, which he later updated to discuss the Space Shuttle and other programs.

Cartoonist Jack Bender (January 5, 2023) lived and taught in Tulsa at the end of his life. He’s most recalled for his sports and political cartoons. He drew the strip Alley Oop 1991-2018.

Actress Melinda Dillon (January 9, 2023) worked in film, TV, and on stage (including Broadway headlining). Her most memorable genre roles were in Captain America, Harry and the Hendersons, CE3K, and as Mrs. Parker in A Christmas Story.

Guitarist Jeff Beck (January 10, 2023) rose to prominence in the Yardbirds and won eight Grammys for his raucous, fuzzy thumb-strumming technique.

American psychologist Lloyd Morrisett (January 15, 2023) was born in OKC. His biggest memorial is in the hearts of all who loved and learned from Sesame Street, which he co-created.

Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida (January 16, 2023) splashed into movies as a sex bomb in the 1950s and later became a published photojournalist and became involved in politics.

Rocker David Crosby (January 18, 2023) co-formed the Byrds and various incarnations of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and/or Young. He recorded solo too, and played for many others including Carole King, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and Phil Collins (who paid for Crosby’s 1994 liver transplant).

Actor and fan Sal Piro (January 22, 2023) wrote two books on Rocky Horror fandom and played competitive chess. He was president of the Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club from 1977 onward.

Lance Kerwin (January 24, 2023) starred in James at 15, and made genre appearances in Escape to Witch Mountain, Shazam!, Wonder Woman, and the 1979 miniseries Salem’s Lot.

Actress-producer Cindy Williams (January 25, 2023) appeared in American Graffiti, Happy Days, and Laverne & Shirley.

Actor Adam Rich (January 27, 2023) is most remembered as Nicholas Bradford, 1977-81, in Eight Is Enough. He also starred in Code Red and voiced Presto the Magician in the animated Dungeons & Dragons, 1983-85.

Former child model Lisa Loring (January 28, 2023) stole our hearts as Wednesday Addams 1964-66 on The Addams Family.

            Annie Wersching (January 29, 2023) appeared in Birds of Prey, and Trek series, with recurring roles in Bosch, The Vampire Diaries, and 24.

While working at an HP lab in the late 1970s, Ukrainian-born Abraham Lempel (February 4, 2023) was co-developer of the LZ1 and LZ2 algorithms, which allow data compression. They are used in software installation and in GIF and MP3 formats.

Son of cartoonist Dik, comic artist Chris Browne (February 5, 2023) wrote and drew the comic strip Hägar the Horrible from 1989 to 2023.

Pop composer Burt Bacharach (February 8, 2023) racked up three Oscars and six Grammys, with songs performed by the Carpenters, Ella Fitzgerald, Dionne Warwick, Nat King Cole, and hundreds of others.  Some songs are “I Say a Little Prayer,” “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “One Less Bell to Answer,” and many more.

Actress Raquel Welch (February 15, 2023) made a big splash in 1966’s Fantastic Voyage, with other genre roles in One Million Years B.C., The Magic Christian, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, and Myra Breckinridge.

The amazingly talented TV-film composer Gerald Fried (February 17, 2023) scored films for Stanley Kubrick, as well as lesser horror flicks like The Return of Dracula and I Bury the Living. He scored hundreds of TV episodes, including Gilligan’s Island, It’s About Time, Mission: Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Star Trek TOS. His score for “Amok Time” continues to aurally embody Trek in places like  The Simpsons, Futurama, and The Cable Guy.

Actress-model Stella Stevens (February 17, 2023) appeared in lots of TV and in films like The Nutty Professor, The Silencers, Li’l Abner, and The Poseidon Adventure.

            Richard Belzer (February 19, 2023) honed a sardonic persona in the 1970s, commencing in standup (including SNL), with small roles in Scarface, The Boob Tube, and others. He played reporter Joe Kline in 1990’s The Flash. He authored five books on the ham-handed sides of possible conspiracies. His cop character John Munch is one of the longest-running in history, from the Law & Order franchise to The X-Files.

            Barbara Bosson (February 18, 2023) acted in genre projects like the film Capricorn One and TV’s DS9 and Lois & Clark, but is most noted for her 100 episodes of Hill Street Blues.

            Writer-cinematographer-actor Ricou Browning (February 27, 2023) co-created the 1964-67 series Flipper, and played the underwater incarnation of Creature from the Black Lagoon in the 1954 film.

            Actor Tom Sizemore (March 3, 2023) struggled with substance addiction, using that notoriety in reality TV. He also appeared in Saving Private Ryan, Natural Born Killers, and The Relic.

Famous for rear-projection schlock monsters, director Bert I. Gordon (March 8, 2023) was responsible for such terrors as The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Earth vs. the Spider, War of the Colossal Beast, Attack of the Puppet People, and lo! many more.

Actor Chaim Topol (March 8, 2023) appeared in For Your Eyes Only and the 1980 Flash Gordon, but his biggest pop-culture impact was as Tevye on stage and screen in Fiddler on the Roof.

One-hit wonder Jerry Samuels (March 10, 2023) made that hit as Napoleon XIV for his 1966 “They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”

Writer John Jakes (March 11, 2023) was known for historical fiction (North and South, the Kent Family Chronicles) and sword-and-sorcery sf (many novels, including his creation Brak the Barbarian).

Jim Gordon (March 13, 2023) played drums for several bands, including Derek & the Dominoes and Joe Cocker. He contributed the piano coda to “Layla,” without revealing it as a composition by his girlfriend Rita Coolidge.

Actor Lance Reddick (March 17, 2023) voiced video games and played on Lost, Bosch, John Wick films, and in 2018’s Monster Party.

        Engineer Jacob Ziv (March 25, 2023) was also a philosopher and teacher. His biggest contribution to pop culture was his role as co-creator of lossless file-compression algorithms, which are used in PNG, FLAC, WAV, and other formats which preserve higher file quality.

Comedian Bill Saluga (March 28, 2023) appeared in standup and TV comedy. His signature schtick was, “You can call me Ray ….”

German game designer Klaus Teuber (April 1, 2023) won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award four times. His biggest creation was The Settlers of Catan, a worldwide smash selling over forty million units.

Cartoonist Al Jaffee (April 10, 2023) was the longest-running contributor to MAD magazine, from 1942 to 2020 (that’s a Guinness World Record for longest career). He devised the devious Mad Fold-In in 1964, partly inspired by lavish layouts in Life, and the Playboy centerfold.

British crime writer Anne Perry (April 10, 2023) created both the Thomas-Margaret Pitt and William Monk historical-fiction series, and wrote Christmas collections, YA, and fantasy titles.

British fashion designer Mary Quant (April 13, 2023) was a big mover in the 1960s Mod trend, later claiming credit for hotpants and the miniskirt.

Cartoonist Edward Koren (April 14, 2023) published thousands of panels, including political commentary. He’s most remembered for his run (beginning 1962) in The New Yorker, where he lampooned the rich and trendy.

Ballroom dancer and dance teacher Len Goodman (April 22, 2023) was most known recently as a judge on the Brit TV show Strictly Come Dancing 2004-2016, and the US show Dancing with the Stars 2005-2022.

Aussie comedian-writer-performer Barry Humphries (April 22, 2023) created many iconic characters for stage, film, and TV. His most celebrated was Dame Edna Everage, but he also played the Great Goblin in 2011’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Activist, singer, and actor Harry Belafonte (April 25, 2023) broke into stardom with his 1956 album Calypso. His talents earned him awards across showbiz, but he used his popularity to forward causes in politics, human rights, and the Peace Corps.

TV tabloidist supreme Jerry Springer (April 27, 2023) called himself a “ringmaster of civilization’s end,” was exemplified by his shows featuring behavioral and other oddities. He also practiced law and was a city councilman. The subject of much derision and several lawsuits, Springer seemed proud to have pioneered “trash TV.”

Tim Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive (April 28, 2023) helped found the group, leaving in 1974 but returning for several reunion tours.

Songwriter-performer Gordon Lightfoot (May 1, 2023) had several hits himself like “Sundown” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and provided songs for other performers like Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Cartoonist Sam Gross (May 6, 2023) had work printed across the spectrum, from Parents Magazine and The New Yorker to Esquire and National Lampoon. He’s most widely known for a panel set in a restaurant, where a couple reading about the “Frog Legs Special” sees a legless frog roll past on a wheeled cart.

Attorney Newton Minow (May 6, 2023) was appointed chairman of the FCC in 1961 and became noted for a speech in which he described most commercial TV as “a vast wasteland.” This wasn’t appreciated by the industry. Producer Sherwood Schwartz named the wrecked ship of Gilligan’s Island the S.S. Minnow in protest.

Writer, actor, and filmmaker Kenneth Anger (May 11, 2023) delighted in surrealism and erotica. He poured scorn on the star system’s hypocrisy and pretention in Hollywood Babylon and Hollywood Babylon II.

Native Oklahoman artist Benjamin Harjo (May 20, 2023) began drawing comics and progressed to a style eclectic and colorful, filled with Native American and geometric patterns. His work appears at the Gilcrease, Sam Noble, and OSU museums.

Actor Ray Stevenson (May 21, 2023) appeared all over, from mythic roles in King Arthur and Rome to comics roles as the Punisher and Volstagg. He also appeared on TV including voicing Gar Saxon for Star Wars series.

            Actor-singer George Maharis (May 24, 2023) was Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of Route 66. He was one of the first celebs to appear nude for Playgirl, in 1973, and was seen (clothed) in many roles from Murder, She Wrote to Fantasy Island.

Tina Turner (May 24, 2023), the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll, overcame abuse from her husband to blaze her own trail, becoming at age 44 the oldest woman to head the Top 100. She earned 12 Grammys. Among many hits was 1985’s “We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome).”

These people and things impacted the pop-culture world, and thus OUR world.  Thanks for reflecting on some of the folks who went before.

  

Are We Alone?

If so, these book authors and publishers would be a lot more impoverished.  These paperbacks are a *few* on my shelves which survey whether alien guys are coming to visit us Earth guys.

The above is a 1975 paperback which tries to be fact-based when reporting the search for radio contact with any ETs across space.

Blum's 1991 book is more about narrating weird supposed happenings, "from official government reports," and then smacking you with the portentous "If the stuff we know about is this weird, what about the stuff we don't know about?".

Warren Smith was an American writer who wrote romances and Westerns, along with umpteen million books on monsters and aliens and such.  His papers are collected at the University of Iowa.  This book came out in 1977, right in time to lure audiences of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Well, the text on the cover of this book leaves you breathless.  Who could uncover such amazing PROOF?  Why, William Francis Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, 7th Marquess of Heusden, that's who!

Now it's up to YOU to decide how you wish to approach the question of Life Out There. See you Monday!

  

Can You Update the List?

Here's a fun article from the January 27, 1985 Tulsa World.

If you want to tell us about any newer bloopers, share 'em in the comments!  See you on Thursday.

  

I'm a Marxist, Number 5

I clipped this from the June 6, 1974 Tulsa World.

I love the article, but something seems off about the headline.  The Atlas of Chaotic Humor, MERELY "very delightful"?  I have a good mind to join a club and beat the writers over the head with it!

PS this post is a day early because tomorrow is the set-up day for Soonercon, the Holy Grail of sf and pup-culture fandom.  Hope to see YOU there!

  

You Can Have Too Much!

That's my report after 50+ years of accumulating STAR TREK and Superman stuff.

This article is from a mag called Comic Collector, its first issue in Spring of 1983.

How times have changed!  Note one of the blurbs on the cover reporting a copy of Action #1 selling for $13,500?  In 2022 a copy sold for over 3 million bucks!

See the little white circle in lower center of the last page?  That's a night light I've had for decades.  (Still works.)  An old blog post featuring it is here.

See you next time!

  

Backstage at THE FLASH!

In honor of the new Flash movie (I liked it quite a bit), here's some coverage of CBS's The Flash 1990 series, from Amazing Heroes #189, dated March 1991.

If you haven't seen the 1990 series, you are missing out on a primo slice of superhero TV.  Yes, from today's vantage point parts seem cheesy.  But it is stylish and well done.  Danny Elfman's theme and Shirley Walker's series music are thunderous and a lot of sashaying, neckbreaking fun.

And you DO know that Mark Hamill couldn't have voiced the Joker in Batman: the Animated Series without using his Trickster persona?  It's classic!

PS I was disappointed to learn that the John Wesley Shipp cameo I thought I saw in the Flash film was actually supposed to be a CGI of somebody else.  BAH!

See you on Monday!

  

Brain Exercises!

From my exhaustive perusal of the classic American rag National Lampoon, I came across these two examples of then-high tech.

                                 

This brain was advertised in the November 1973 issue.  Before you scoff too much, remember that this was less than five years after Apollo 11's trip to the Moon.  A hand calculator was a BIG DEAL!

See how far we came in only six years?  This Voice Chess Challenger was offered in the December 1979 issue.

Which leads me to wonder, how soon before your own much-vaunted iDevices are scorned as veritable Stone Age-type tools by your own future selves or children?

  

BOOK REVIEW: The Satanism Scare

The Satanism Scare.  Edited by James T Richardson, Joel Best, and David G Bromley.  NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991

           This is a series of articles surveying the alternately venal and well-intended “Satan’s coming for our kids” craze of the 1970s-80s.

            The “satanic scare” was made up of several streams of thought and/or hysteria:

• ·         An EVIL organized religious-belief system has consistently preyed on “the children,” the most vulnerable of society
• ·         The economic and social power accrued by these irredeemably EVIL practitioners allows them to get away with it
• ·         Children never lie or confabulate, even with coerced or plied with leading questions
• ·         Any rebellious teen who is curious about new ideas, practices, or beliefs is gonna get swallowed up by EVIL
• ·         The worse the allegations of EVIL, the more likely it is to be true (or partially true)

            The articles survey the broad swaths of the concept and dissect some local instances. The authors’ information is borne from research questionnaires, surveys of media coverage, and assessment of the books generated by drum-beaters and so-called “survivors.”

            The time for the “Satanic Panic” was ripe. The teen and pre-teen age/consumer group had more autonomy and social (that is, spending) power than previous times. Their parents’ (and grandparents’) generation had mostly grown up under wartime strictures. These elders had “saved the world”—but instead of being grateful, the kids were mocking “establishment” values.

            The responses of the social anxious, when confronted by insecurity, are similar worldwide. Part of the population feels “things” are falling apart, they aren’t as good as they “used to be.” This falling-short of the “good old days” is demonstrated by the way our own kids don’t respect the ways and the world we worked so hard to provide for them.

            The teenage resentment and disquiet makes the youngsters ripe for being victimized by the EVIL people who tempt our youth with strange new ways, using the age-old lures of sex and drugs and alcohol.  And our kids may end up slaves to the EVIL, servants to the EVIL, or even human or sexual sacrifices to the EVIL!

            The reality was much tamer.  Bored kids sought distraction in things declared off-limits by Mom and Dad.  Savvy capitalists realized money could be made from marketing edgy music or other media. Other seedy capitalists realized they could achieve money and a weird kind of acclaim by asserting knowledge about the EVIL, or by claiming to have escaped the EVIL.

            Here’s the deal.  Among other ways to be selfish and antisocial, selfish and-or sociopathic types have used the trappings of devil worship to cow or enthrall younger people.  But decades of many-pronged investigations in many states and other countries have proven that there are no generational child-sacrificing, nihilistic “satanic” cults.

            There are some lower-case “satanic” churches and plenty of self-proclaimed “witches.” But, like any other people, they’re a mixed bag of happy, delusional, well-adjusted, and cranky humans.  The mentally ill, or some who have chosen to commit crimes, are present in any demographic.

            The Satanism Scare says much more about the insecurity of the self-proclaimed defenders of the children than it does about any organized danger to children.  Most of the “evidence” of EVIL practices were leftovers from kids’ drinking parties, or graffiti left to scare the next kids to come along.  The murders or child abuse uncovered as evidence invariably were linked to mental and-or emotional aspects of the culprits, who allied themselves with the purported bad guy, the Devil, to absolve their own blame, or to placate a non-existent demand for sacrifice.

            Chapter 16 chronicles an interesting fact that, in the public eye, something labeled “satanic” belief is automatically more negatively connotated than something called “witchcraft.”

            For me the most interesting chapter was Chapter 17, about “Legend-Trips.”  I remember that in Bartlesville, OK, the cool teens went to the ruins of the Labadie house, which was rumored to be haunted. Links here.  “Legend-Trips” is a catch-all term for the type of group-initiation experience also exemplified by daring each other to spend an hour in a cemetery at night, or reciting a name in the dark to a mirror, and so on.

            For a fascinating look into the mindset of pathetic people … for an interesting survey or misguided parental fear … for a dispassionate look at the evidence behind so-called satanic worship … for lots of statements which you’ll feel apply to the human condition in general …

            Buy this book, or check it out from a library.  Remember, the Devil may be real, but you don’t need to torture cats or write on the wall of a vacant house to get his attention.  When we live our lives selfishly and ignore the needs of the poor, or bad-mouth someone we don’t like, we’re doing the Devil’s work just fine.

See you Monday.

  

Bat-ten Down the Hatches!

It's from the June 26, 1989 issue of Newsweek.

I thought it a pretty good movie then, and now.

See ya Thursday, fellow Batmaniacs!