More OTR Comics--Burns and Allen

From the pages of a 1943 DOC SAVAGE comic book of all places!!

The Lucky Strike Papers

This is a review that WOULD have been published a month ago if not for the PC issues around here but now it's even more timely because I can plug the appearance Monday evening of author Andrew Fielding on RADIO ONCE MORE's live Netcast. 9 PM Eastern. Go here to listen in and participate tomorrow evening: http://www.radiooncemore.com/

THE LUCKY STRIKE PAPERS is an interesting but frustrating book. It is described by the author as "journeys through my mother's television past" and in a way, that's exactly what it is. The problem is that I'd rather expected to learn more about Fielding's mother than I do instead of simply about her era. That's what makes this frustrating. We are introduced to Sue Bennett, young up and coming singer in the Golden Age of Television, but then we learn more about her environment and people she worked with than her actual life, career or personal TV experiences. There are plenty of choice anecdotes about live TV but I couldn't lose the feeling that part of the story was missing.

In the end, though, the reader is finally given a bit more of what I expected with a nice chapter about Sue and what happened to her singing career. It just felt like t would have been better if her story was integrated more into the stories of early television.

The bulk of the book deals with various series on which Sue Bennett was a regular in the 1950's. Covered in particular are YOUR HIT PARADE (sponsored by Lucky Strike Tobacco, thus giving the book its title), bandleader Kay Kyser's COLLEGE OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE and THE FREDDY MARTIN SHOW. A number of folks from these shows were sought out and interviewed by author Fielding but the interviews--while fascinating--were more general than one might expect in a book ostensibly about his mother.

My favorite parts were about Kay Kyser, a uniquely amusing Southern bandleader popular in the forties with a humorous band that included vocalists Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt and the comic Ish Kabibble. He and his band even starred in a number of movies before moving into television. Kyser, himself, would eventually turn his back on the industry that made him a household word on radio. The book details how he spent the rest of his life rising in the ranks of the Christian Science movement and politely refusing all show biz related inquiries. (He DID appear once on the DINAH SHORE SHOW in the late seventies or early eighties, though).

Dorothy Collins and Snooky Lanson (a charismatic singer I remembered from the brief 1970's revival) are fun to read about in the coverage of the amazingly popular music show, YOUR HIT PARADE. Bandleader Freddy Martin is interviewed, also. His band (and show) begat Merv Griffin, an always interesting interviewer and interviewee, with whom Fielding also spoke before his death.

Ultimately, while I was enjoying the book even as I found myself wanting more, I slowly came to realize the truth of a statement made by the author toward the end of the book--"...incompleteness, in part, defines a journey through a past one did not know firsthand." Suddenly, it made more sense.

THE LUCKY STRIKE PAPERS is not ABOUT Sue Bennett nor was it ever meant to be. It is, in fact, a very personal and entertainingly unique effort by Andrew Fielding to understand things about his mother and a public persona which was part of a world that no longer existed in his lifetime. All that living history about early television, as important and intriguing as it is to us pop culture buffs, is also incidental to the real story. And it's an admirable one that I'm glad I read!

Again, tune in to hear Andrew Fielding discuss the THE LUCKY STRIKE PAPERS with Neal Ellis and Ken Stockinger on RADIO ONE MORE on Monday night at 9, Eastern. In fact, tune it in whilst you surf the Net for great nostalgia programming 24 hours a day.

http://www.radiooncemore.com/

Order your own copy of THE LUCKY STRIKE PAPERS here: http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Strike-Papers-Andrew-Fielding/dp/159393128X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268020917&sr=8-1

Curious Books Ad-1934

Would love to know if these items turned out to be as prurient as hinted at in this ad from a 1934 issue of the adult-oriented publication, BALLYHOO.

Donations For Cincy OTR Con

Author Martin Grams has a special going to benefit the Cincinnati Old Time Radio Convention. Here's what Martin says:

Donations for the Cincy Convention are now being accepted. For $20 plus $4 postage, you can get a copy of my 500 page book, THE HISTORY OF THE CAVALCADE OF AMERICA. It documents the entire history of the radio and TV series. Out of print book, 1998 edition. Retailed $30 (still retails $30).

100% of the profits will be donated to Bob Burchett and the Cincinnati Old-Time radio and Nostalgia Convention. Check or money order can be payable to: OTR Publishing, Po Box 252, Churchville, MD 21028. If you want to send Paypal, visit www.martingrams.com

Martin has in recent years developed a reputation as THE preeminent radio historian of his generation and his many well-researched books on the subject back this up. If you attend the Cincy Con, or if you don't this is a great deal that will benefit them tremendously. Please consider it. Thanks!

I Win!

For those of you who have sat patiently through my whining about my hard drive crash and losing everything, I just wanted to say that today, after almost exactly one month, the Geek Squad fixed my PC. Now to be fair, part of the reason it took so long was that they misdiagnosed it on the phone originally, thus the first guy had the wrong part. He ordered the right part but the part they sent for the second guy was defective. The second guy ordered another one as well as a couple of other parts just in case but the third guy was stuck when the main one turned out to be the wrong model!! Now the third guy---the only person in this whole unfunny comedy of errors that showed any sympathy and any real intent of actually fixing my problem, ordered it yet again in no uncertain terms. He was back today for the fourth visit!

AND HE FIXED IT! And here's the coolest part! In spite of all the doomsayers who from day one had me convinced that I had lost everything because my hard drive had died---it was NOT my hard drive in the end. My hard drive was fine and when he fired it up every single document, file, program, picture, scan, comic book, video, movie, etc was still there, waiting patiently for me to get back to them! In the beginning I just had a sliver of hope but that sliver became stronger and that hope became faith and then finally that faith became FACT!

I win!

Lessons learned here--back up everything often, avoid the G#$K S@#&d if at all possible (unless you ask for Dave from the Northern KY store) and it's good to have a Mac while you wait for your PC to be fixed! Thanks to everyone for your support. I needed it and I wasn't getting it from the "experts."

Minnie Mouse Goes Mae West

Here's a cartoon that appeared in BALLYHOO magazine in 1934. Apology aside, this probably had Walt both aghast and privately snickering. Cartoonist James Trembath drew it. He was from Pennsylvania and active in the early part of the 20th Century. That's about all I can find on him at the moment, however. Anyone know any more about him?

Song of the South Ad

SONG OF THE SOUTH was, in spite of its classic animated sequences, technically Disney's first live action feature. It's not a great film but hardly deserving of the racial crucifixion it's received since the 1970's when it was withdrawn from the re-release cycle. The film tells the story of Uncle Remus who, in turn, spins magical parables about B'rer Rabbit, B'rer Fox and B'rer Bear for cute little Bobby Driscoll (later the voice of PETER PAN and still later a tragic former child star statistic) and his friend. That is actually the subplot as the main story is a dull post Civil War saga. The film is available pretty much all over the world so those who want to can find it but in this country, despite frequent rumors to the contrary, Disney has NOT ever released it on VHS or DVD and has no plans to do so at this time. After getting a Japanese VHS about twenty years ago, I asked every person of color I knew how they felt about it over the next week and nearly every one said they'd buy it in a minute if they could find it. One offered to get me a blank tape if I could dub it off for them and one young woman I'd known for ages started singing, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!" Disney, Disney, Disney...you're sitting on a small gold mine but you're too afraid of a few misinformed people who THINK this film is sight unseen racist (It isn't any more so than GONE WITH THE WIND or any number of Reconstruction-era oaters) Surely you could cover yourselves with one of Leonard Maltin's patented apologies?