A Day in the Life--Early Notices 1967

The Beatles' masterpiece, "A Day in the Life." was apparently leaked to radio stations a couple f months before the actual release of SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND. 

That "L.S. Mumblebee" above was actually "L.S. Bumblebee," a novelty song performed by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It sounded so much like the Beatles that it was not only believed widely to BE them at the time but would appear on Beatles bootlegs for decades after!

 

Gary Burbank

Gary Burbank was a once nationally popular DJ who worked for about 25 years at Cincinnati's WLW radio. I quit listening to him when AM radio turned to the dark side but MAN, was he funny back in the day! I first discovered him as a character in Don Rosa's CAPTAIN KENTUCKY strip in the late '70s when he was a deejay in Louisville. Then he moved here and my girlfriend in 1981 became obsessed with his crazy characters. She got me to listen to his show and I did, too, for several years. In the '90s, he even came in my store once to buy something. He swore me to secrecy about his real name when he handed me his credit card. He was all charm and hilarious in person!

This bio came out back in 2009, and my bookselling career ended at the beginning of that year so I missed it completely. Picked it up today at a Library used book sale. The author, Greg Hoard, died this past February.

More Fibber McGee and Molly

 

The First Shadow Lass?

One of my first favorite comics series was The Legion of SuperHeroes in ADVENTURE COMICS. One of my earliest issues was the now-infamous Adult Legion story in which Superman, for the first time since he was Superboy, visited the 30th Century club he had inspired. On the cover of the first part of that two part story, we see a hall of statues to dead Legionnaires. Ferro Lad, we knew. The other four, including Chemical King and Shadow Woman, were new.

 

 

 Or were they? While both of those two characters would later be introduced into continuity by Jim Shooter, the writer of the Adult Legion story, is it possible Shadow Lass, unnamed, appeared earlier?

 You see, Superman, despite what he says in the ADVENTURE story, had actually met some of the Adult Legion several times, first in an issue of Superman and then, with Supergirl, in an issue of Action Comics. In the latter, from 1962, as they arrive through the Time Barrier, we see several Legionnaires walking along including one who, in retrospect, looks familiar. 

 

Could it be? Pure coincidence or did young Shooter see this and decide to flesh out who it was when he did the Adult Legion story 4 years later?

Shmoozing about Shmoos

The Shmoo was created by Al Capp more than 75 years ago and it's impossible to really get across to anyone who wasn't there just what a phenomenon the characters turned out to be. They re-appeared off and on well into the 1960s and even ended up with a Saturday morning cartoon in the mid-70s. As the last article here attests, though, the Shmoo was all but forgotten by 2001. Boy, we could use 'em now, though. 

 

Latest Additions to the Library

 

Hit up the Library Used Book Sale in the next county this afternoon and came away with this lovely selection of biographies and show biz books for just ten bucks! I note also a sub-trend of books about women entertainers!

Cincinnati Area Club Ads--1947-1953

 

I Flew With Superman by Mort Weisinger-1977

 

Fibber McGee and Molly in Hollywood-1937

Here we have a series of amusing publicity photos of Jim and Marian Jordan when they left Wist...I mean, Chicago, to make their first movie, THIS WAY, PLEASE, in 1937. They weren't in the movie nearly as much as their later pictures but it sure looks like they were having fun at the studio and around town.