Radio! by G. Howard Poteet

This thin 1975 volume from a small publisher was more of an attempt at a quick cash-in on the nostalgia revival than most. It presented only the slightest historical bits about the medium and its stars, rounded out with actual scripts (or in some cases transcripts) and padded with lots of newspaper ad reprints. Now these were interesting but still padding, mostly ads for purchasing radios. The scripts here included THE ALDRICH FAMILY (a less than steller episode featuring the chracter of "Dizzy" even though Henry's sidekick was "Homer" for most of the run), QUIZ KIDS (guest-starring "little Jackie Benny."), GANGBUSTERS and JACK ARMSTRONG, THE ALL-AMERICAN BOY who was quite the rage again during the seventies revival itself but is back to being a trivia question today.

Nick Carter and the Dog

Lon Clark was a gentleman actor of the old school, impeccably dressed, polite, gracious and more than willing to spend an hour or so regaling you with tales of his radio days. I met him at the Cincinnati Old Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention in 1993. It was his only visit but certainly a memorable one for me. Parley Baer was the other guest that year, back for his second appearance. On radio, Lon Clark had handled many varied roles but the one that he made his own was that of the venerable NICK CARTER, MASTER DETECTIVE. At the convention that year, they were doing several re-creations but my wife and I arrived late and the only role left was that of a dog, a Cairn Terrier to be exact, like Toto. The casting director asked if I could bark like a dog and my wife tossed off, "Yes, but I am NOT telling you when!" Even though I thought at first I’d just been thrown a bone (pardon the pun) I researched the bark and prepared to give the best performance I could give. The plot dealt with a murder on a train in which the dog’s mistress is thrown over a cliff by evil thieves. Detective Carter is lowered down into the craggly valley next to the stopped train to rescue the trapped canine so he (she?) can point out the killer. Parley plays the train conductor who helps him. Most of my scenes were with Clark or the killer, played by Carl Amari (founder of Radio Spirits, the controversial company that put out the NICK CARTER collection seen here). As the applause died down, Parley put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Tuesday! Studio B! HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES! Be there!" Lon took me aside and spoke of the people who specialized in animal sounds in the old days. Later, in the hallway, folks asked for my autograph and inquired as to whether or not I had "some sort of device" under my tongue to enable me to bark that way. Ultimately, the dog role got mentioned in a convention review in the magazine, WAVELENGTHS, which referred to "Steve Thompson with his spirited portrayal of a dog." For years afterwards, conventiongoers would point me out as "the guy who played the dog that year," and bark at me in the hallways! You’d never guess I’m a cat person in real life. Sigh. Meeeeeeeeeooooow!!

The Goon Show

Another early favorite of mine on radio turned out to be an import-THE GOON SHOW. NBC ran it on US radio in the mid-fifties and it appeared again in the late seventies/early eighties on public radio (which is when I discovered it). This British series offered a half hour festival of total nonsense each week, presented at breakneck speed and with no apologies by the brilliant combination of (l to r) Peter (I’m gonna be a big star someday) Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. Secombe was usually the hapless, high-pitched hero, while Sellers and co-writer/creator Milligan played everyone else. From week to week the characters were the same ones…only completely and totally different. The plots were simple excuses for silliness, broken up regularly with a song from Ray Ellington and a harmonica solo from max Geldray. THE GOON SHOW was the audio equivalent of Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder’s "chicken fat" style comedy that threw everything at the wall to see what looked funniest when sliding down.
Peter Sellers’ memorable characters included Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, Major Dennis Bloodnok, Henry Crun and the popular Bluebottle, a young boy who read his own stage directions aloud.
Milligan was Count Moriarty, Minnie Bannister and Eccles, the big dumb doofus character.
Secombe played the thinly disguised Neddy Seagoon, one week a sailor, one week a spy, one week a doctor, one week an everyman and every week an ingenuous loser who runs afoul of one or more of the other two’s characters.
THE GOON SHOW was a clear forerunner of Monty Python and a joy to listen to once you get the hang of its non-linear continuity. Sellers, in particular, is amazingly inventive with his voice characterizations and even BBC announcer Wallace Greenslade is regularly drawn into the buffoonery. Prince Charles is on record as a long-time GOON SHOW fan and in 1972 was instrumental in arranging what was billed, when later released on LP, as THE LAST GOON SHOW OF THEM ALL, reuniting a now very religious Secombe, Milligan after years of mental health issues and Sellers as arguably one of the biggest superstars in the world. It was amusing but you really can’t go home again.

Computer Art

Another one of those frustrating days where, between my lingering bronchitis and the fact that Blogger and my home computer were not seeing eye to eye this morning, you get to see some more of my Paint Art. Yay you! I'll try for a regular post at home later.

Orson Welles Meets Superman

In this late 1940's SUPERMAN story, reprinted in SUPERMAN-FROM THE THIRTIES TO THE SEVENTIES, Orson Welles ends up on Mars and helps the Man of Steel foil a REAL invasion! Note the unusual fact that the great man's real name and not some corruption thereof is used throughout. I'd love to know what Orson, an avowed lover of "low" fiction thought about this guest appearance!

ICG's Original Crisis Index

With DC’s current CRISIS getting more and more overblown and convoluted with every passing month, maybe what they need is a handy guide such as these two turned out by Mark Waid and Lou Mougin for the original CRISIS back in 1986. Independent Comics Group seemed to be some sort of off-shoot of Dean Mullaney and cat yronwode’s (she always eschewed caps. I forgot that last time) Eclipse Comics run by Murray Ward. The only things they published, if memory serves, were DC index volumes in a format pioneered by Marvel earlier with Spidey and FF index series. There was one for ALL-STAR COMICS, several for the Legion of Super-Heroes, one for Hawkman, one for CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and one for all of the CRISIS crossovers. All of them LOOKED like actual DC comics with cool covers by Curt Swan, Jim Mooney and, here, George Perez, Tom Mandrake and Jan Duursema. All of them were obsessive in their continuity details and after reading them you actually understood it all…but boy, did your head hurt! Speaking of heads hurting, I need to go do my taxes now. Talk about a crisis!

Sunday Morning With the Comics

This LP, SUNDAY MORNING WITH THE COMICS, just screams 1967ish but I can’t find a date on it anywhere and I know I got it in 1971 (in a cutout bin). It is a bizarre train wreck of an album, purporting to celebrate the nostalgic days of old-time radio and comics while simultaneously making merciless fun of same with lame attempts at MAD-like parody. "The Green Hair-Net?" "Wonder Mother?" "Captain Gorgeous?" Oy Vey! (which happens to be Captain Gorgeous’ magic words.) On the other hand, there’s a long and reasonably accurate section re-creating radio suspense shows and the requisite BATMAN theme from the sixties TV version. Gary Owens is the most familiar name in the credits.
This was one of my earliest exposures to anything OTR, but it most certainly did not inspire me in any way to seek out more. If anything, this would have convinced people that it was a silly thing that we should be glad was in the past. All in the misguided name of pop art, I guess.