Archie Radio Ad

Have I mentioned lately that this coming weekend is the 25th Annual Cincinnati Old-Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention? And that the scheduled guests again include our old friends, Bob (Archie) Hastings and Rosemary (Betty) Rice?

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Silver Age Sub-Mariner Splash Page Sundays # 12

Now here is a nicely done splash page. Artist Marie Severin returns to give the reader a heroic Namor who is not a ridiculously over-muscled steroid case. Nicely lettered, nicely colored, nicely framed, looking very wet and down at the bottom actually furthering the story. Marie's art looks a bit rushed at times on the rest of the book and still reminiscent of her humor work at times but it's clear she spent some time making this a page that would draw the reader in.

The Jack Benny Times

I remember watching Jack Benny's TV show before I could really put a coherent thought together in my tiny head. I remember his annual TV specials as being some of my favorite TV moments of the sixties and early seventies. I recall my delight on discovering his long-running radio series and amassing hundreds of episodes. One of my first professionally published pieces was for the book WELL!--REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE AND CAREER OF JACK BENNY.

Thus it is that I am thrilled to appear in the latest issue of THE JACK BENNY TIMES, the official house organ of the International Jack Benny Fan Club. The magazine reprints, with permission, the piece we did here a while back on Jack's appearance in the BATMAN AND ROBIN comic strip at the height of Batmania!

That's Benny guitarist Frankie Remley on the cover of the issue, by the way. You might have known that if you;d been a member of the IJBFC. To join or find out more, go here: http://jackbenny.org/

Movies That Fell Through the Cracks # 68

Over at my other digs, A GEEK'S JOURNAL--1976, we discuss a lot of movies I saw that year. Here's one I wanted to see but missed. GOODBYE, NORMA JEAN, lifting its name from the Elton John song--most likely without permission--was supposedly a biography of Marilyn Monroe. As an impressionable film buff, I had just then discovered the uniqueness of Marilyn. From everything I've ever read since, hat's something the filmmakers who brought you this picture never bothered with. By all accounts, this is a typical "innocent young thing gets used and abused as she tries to make it in Hollywood." Nothing unique about that, sadly. Still happens today.

According to reports, not only does little of what happens in the picture match what happened in real life, all of the names of the characters played by the no-name cast are changed so one can't even figure out who people are supposed to be.

HEE HAW's Misty Rowe, fresh from a TV stint as Maid Marian on Mel Brooks' Robin Hood sitcom of the year before, WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN, stars as Norma Jean. On those two shows, she had proven herself reasonably adept at light comedy. Unfortunately, GOODBYE, NORMA JEAN was a drama. According to IMDB, the producer held a national contest to find the right person to play Marilyn and settled on a non-actress who apparently ran screaming as soon as she read the script.

That producer, by the way, was Larry Buchanan, small-time director responsible for everything from ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS to MARS NEEDS WOMEN. Along with former TV character actress Lynn Shubert, Buchanan also scripted. He even returned to the material for a sequel a few years later which is said to have incorporated much of THIS film!

Rather than further Misty Rowe's career, the bubbly blonde soon enough became a trivia question.

Note also that, in the ad above, the one word that seems to have defined the picture--"sex"--is actually blacked out. Don't want to offend anyone.

Archie in USA Today!

R.I.P.--Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper was a familiar face on movies and TV for sixty years, beginning his acting career at a ripe young age in the late 1920's and finishing it as the 1990's began. Along the way, he also served as a network executive. Although his big role was in THE CHAMP, most media outlets are eulogizing him as an OUR GANG star and as Perry White in the Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN and its subsequent sequels. Interesting to note that he actually bookended his career with comics related pictures. While Perry was one of the actor's final roles, one of his first roles was as Percy Crosby's SKIPPY, for which he was, at the time, the youngest person nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. No matter how old he got, "Jack" remained Jackie. It wasn't a lack of respect in any way...it was a mass remembrance of all the joy he had given to viewers as a child star. Rest in Peace, Jackie...and thanks for the memories.