Richard Widmark, who created a villain in his first movie role who was so repellent and frightening that the actor became a star overnight, died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 93.
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
LARRY HARMON DEAD AT 83
Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a
show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century,
died today of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.
His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.
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GEORGE CARLIN: MAY 12 1937/JUNE 23 2008
George Carlin, whose astringent stand-up comedy made him an heir of Lenny Bruce, who gave voice to an indignant counterculture and assaulted the barricades of censorship on behalf of a generation of comics that followed him, died on Sunday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 71 and lived in Venice, Calif.
The cause was heart failure, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. Mr. Carlin, who performed earlier this month at the Orleans hotel in Las Vegas, had a history of heart problems.
MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/arts/24carlin.html
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IN MEMORIAM: DODIE GOODMAN
Dolores "Dody" Goodman (October 28, 1914 – June 22, 2008) was an American character actress known for her portrayal of the title character's (played by Louise Lasser) mother on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Her high-pitched voice could be heard announcing the show's title at the beginning of each episode.
Born Dolores Goodman in Columbus, Ohio, Goodman was notoriously secretive about her age, successfully shaving off 15 years (giving a birthyear of 1929) for many years before the discrepancy was publicly debunked.
Goodman gained a measure of newspaper column space for her dancing solos in such Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes (1947), and Wonderful Town (1953). In 1955, she stopped the show in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers." She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing.
Adopting the guise of a fey airhead, Goodman was good for a few off-the-wall quotes whenever she submitted to an interview. She came to the attention of nighttime talkshow host Jack Paar who, after becoming enchanted with her ditzy persona and seemingly spontaneous malaprops, invited the lady to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show.
MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dody_Goodman
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IN MEMORIAM: STAN WINTSON
He made his living with robots, dinosaurs, and aliens. Groundbreaking, Oscar winning special effects creator Stan Winston passed away Sunday, June 15, 2008, after a seven year fight against multiple myeloma. He was 62 years old.
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IN MEMORIAM: BO DIDDLEY
June
2, 2008
by Joan Anderman
Globe Staff
Bo Diddley, one of the founding fathers of rock 'n' roll, died of heart failure
yesterday at his home in Archer, Fla., according to his publicist. He was 79.
Mr. Diddley, whose signature bomp ba-bomp bomp bomp bomp beat influenced
musicians from Buddy Holly and the Rolling Stones to Bruce Springsteen and U2,
had suffered a heart attack last August, three months after being felled by a
stroke during a performance in Iowa. He had returned to Florida, his home of 20
years, to rehabilitate.
MORE: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/blog/2008/06/rip_bo_diddley.html
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IN MEMORIAM: WILL ELDER
The comic industry is mourning the loss of a truly talented creator. Will Elder, whose work was influential to the beginning of MAD magazine, passed away last Thursday morning, May 15, 2008. He was 86 years old.
Elder was born Wolf William Eisenberg in the Bronx, New York. During World War II, he served as part of the map-making team that helped to plan and carry out the invasion of Normandy. Upon his return from the war, he changed his name to Will Elder, which is how he is known to legions of comics fans.
Mad ad parody by Elder
In 1952, Elder was hired by Harvey Kurtzman to provide content for the first issues of the newly-launched MAD magazine. Elder worked with comic legends such as Wally Wood, John Severin, and Jack Davis.
"Willie Elder was one of the funniest artists ever to work for MAD. He created visual feasts with dozens of background gags layered into every MAD story he illustrated," says John Ficarra, editor of MAD magazine, "He called these gags 'chicken fat.' Willie's 'anything goes' art style set the tone for the entire magazine and created a look that endures to this day."
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In Memoriam: Ollie Johnston
Monday, April 14, 2008, beloved Disney artist Ollie Johnston passed away at age 95 in Sequim, Washington. Johnston was an artist among the original “Nine Old Men” Disney animators; he is the final one to pass away.
Johnston was born in Palo Alto, California and attended Stanford University, where he worked on the campus magazine Stanford Chaparral with future fellow Disney animator Frank Thomas. He married fellow Disney employee, artist Marie Worthey in 1943.
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RICHARD WIDMARK
Richard Widmark, Actor, Dies at 93
His death was announced Wednesday morning by his wife, Susan Blanchard. She said that Mr. Widmark had fractured a vertebra in recent months and that his conditioned had worsened.
As Tommy Udo, a giggling, psychopathic killer in the 1947 gangster film “Kiss of Death,” Mr. Widmark tied up an old woman in a wheelchair (played by Mildred Dunnock) with a cord ripped from a lamp and shoved her down a flight of stairs to her death.
“The sadism of that character, the fearful laugh, the skull showing through drawn skin, and the surely conscious evocation of a concentration-camp degenerate established Widmark as the most frightening person on the screen,” the critic David Thomson wrote in “The Biographical Dictionary of Film.”
The performance won Mr. Widmark his sole Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor.
Tommy Udo made the 32-year-old Mr. Widmark, who had been an established radio actor, an instant movie star, and he spent the next seven years playing a variety of flawed heroes and relentlessly anti-social mobsters in 20th Century Fox’s juiciest melodramas.
His mobsters were drenched in evil. Even his heroes, including the doctor who fights bubonic plague in Elia Kazan’s “Panic in the Streets” (1950), the daredevil pilot flying into the eye of a storm in “Slattery’s Hurricane” (1949) and the pickpocket who refuses to be a traitor in Samuel Fuller’s “Pickup on South Street” (1953) were nerve-strained and feral.
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DAVE STEVENS: R.I.P
Illustrator Dave Stevens, best known for his "good girl" art and The Rocketeer, died yesterday following a long, wrenching battle with Leukemia. Dave was born July 29, 1955 in Lynwood, California. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, then his family relocated to San Diego, where he attended San Diego City College and became involved in the early days of the San Diego Comic Book Convention, now known as the Comic-Con International. His skills as an artist were instantly evident to all, and he was encouraged by darn near every professional artist who attended the early cons, but especially by Jack Kirby and Russ Manning. In 1975, when Manning began editing a line of Tarzan comic books to be published in Europe, Dave got his first professional assignment, working on those comics and also assisting Russ with the Tarzan newspaper strip. Soon after, he worked on a few projects for Marvel (including the Star Wars comic book) and a number of underground comics. Later, he also worked with Russ on the Star Wars newspaper strip.
In 1977, Dave went to work for Hanna-Barbera where he drew storyboards and layouts, many of them for the Super Friends and Godzilla cartoon shows and bonded with veteran artist Doug Wildey, who produced the latter. Wildey and Stevens became close friends and in 1982, when Dave created his popular character, The Rocketeer, he modelled the character's sidekick, Peevy, on photos of Doug. Dave himself was Cliff Secord, who donned the mask of The Rocketeer, and other friends appeared in other guises.
MORE: http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_03_11.html#014911
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'Hogan's Heroes' Actress Valdis Dies
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BILL PINKNEY OF THE ORIGINAL DRIFTERS DIES AT 81
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rhythm and blues singer Bill Pinkney, the last surviving member of the original lineup of The Drifters, was found dead in his hotel room hours before he was due to perform in a July 4 celebration.
Police spokesman Jimmie Flynt said 81-year-old Pinkney was found dead on Wednesday evening at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in Florida. There was no evidence of foul play, he said.
Pinkney was scheduled to perform with The Original Drifters that night for U.S. Independence Day festivities.
MORE : http://www.reuters.com/article/
domesticNews/idUSN0533421620070705
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MR. WIZARD DIES AT 89
Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to
millions of young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as "Mr.
Wizard" and did the same for another generation of youngsters on the
Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.
Herbert died at his home in Bell Canyon after a long battle with multiple
myeloma, said Tom Nikosey, Herbert's son-in-law.
A low-key, avuncular presence who wore a tie and white dress shirt with the
sleeves rolled up, Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science show for
children on NBC in 1951.
Broadcast live from Chicago on Saturdays the first few years and then from New
York City, "Watch Mr. Wizard" ran for 14 years.
Herbert used basic experiments to teach scientific principles to his TV audience
via an in-studio guest boy or girl who assisted in the experiments.
MORE: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-herbert13jun13,0,7656221.story
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TOM POSTON DIES:
HE APPEARED IN THE VERY FIRST EPISODES OF TOM CORBETT SPACE CADET
From the New York Times:
Tom Poston, Virtuosic Comic Actor, Is Dead at 85
BY MARGALIT
FOX
Tom Poston, an Emmy-winning comic actor whose television characters ranged from the slow-witted Everyman on "The Steve Allen Show" to a cantankerous closet-dwelling clown on the recent sitcom "Committed," died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Skip to next paragraph
CBS, via Associated Press (right)
Left, Tom Poston as a panelist on “To Tell the Truth,” around 1961, and as the incompetent handyman George Utley on “Newhart,” in 1985.
Mr. Poston died after a short illness, his wife, the actress Suzanne Pleshette, said.
A long-faced, buggy-eyed second banana, Mr. Poston was for a half-century a Paganini of the bewildered, the benighted and the befuddled. His best-known television roles include George Utley, the sublimely incompetent handyman on "Newhart"; Mr. Bickley, the troublesome neighbor on "Mork & Mindy"; and Cliff Murdock, Mr. Newhart's doltish college chum on the original "Bob Newhart Show."
Mr. Poston appeared on Broadway and in films, among them "Christmas With the Kranks" (2004); "The Princess Diaries 2" (2004); and "Cold Turkey" (1971). He was also, variously, a pilot, an amateur boxer, a tumbler with the Flying Zebleys, an aspiring chemist and a panelist on the game show "To Tell the Truth."
It seemed Mr. Poston would do anything for a part. For his first Broadway appearance -- a tiny role in a 1946 production of "Cyrano de Bergerac," the audition consisted of falling off a parapet onto his head, as the character did. Mr. Poston and his head withstood the test admirably.
Six decades later, Mr. Poston tried out for "Committed," broadcast on NBC in 2005. His character, a surly, dying clown known simply as Clown, lives out his days in the closet of one of the show's main characters. (Clown came with the apartment.)
The audition required aspirants to pull down their pants, as called for in the script. Most actors did so only in pantomime. Mr. Poston complied in full, with electrifying results.
"He dropped his trousers and had on these gold lamé boxer shorts," Eileen Heisler, an executive producer of the show, told The Associated Press in 2005.
Whether Mr. Poston had been tipped off about what the audition would entail is unrecorded.
Thomas Gordon Poston was born in Columbus, Ohio. As a boy, he wanted to be a prize fighter, and as a young man he boxed in several hundred amateur fights. He also learned tumbling, performing with the Zebleys as a child. In the late 1930s, he enrolled at Bethany College in West Virginia, where he studied chemistry.
His studies were interrupted by World War II, in which he served as a pilot with the Army Air Corps in Europe. After the war he moved to New York and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Mr. Poston's Broadway appearances include "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" (1955); "Mary, Mary" (1961); and the 1972 revival of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." In 1959, starring on Broadway in "Golden Fleecing," Mr. Poston met Ms. Pleshette. The two began a romance, though they later married others.
In early television Mr. Poston was the host of "Entertainment" (1955), a 2 1/2-hour, five-day-a-week live variety show on ABC.
"I once timed it and I ad-libbed 35, 36 minutes a day," he told The Associated Press in 2005. "You can imagine how clever that was. It was filled with, 'Wasn't that wonderful!' 'Yes, that was wonderful!' 'Isn't that wonderful!' "
But Mr. Poston's ability to think on his feet earned him a regular role on Mr. Allen's show. There, in the company of Don Knotts and Louis Nye, he played a roster of supporting characters, chief among them Everyman, who is rendered dazed and speechless whenever he is asked a question in the show's "Man on the Street" segments. (A typical question: "What's your name?")
For his work on the Allen show, Mr. Poston won an Emmy in 1959.
Mr. Poston was married four times, to three women. His first marriage, to Jean Sullivan, ended in divorce, as did his second, to Kay Hudson. He and Ms. Hudson later remarried; the marriage lasted until her death in 1998. He married Ms. Pleshette in 2001.
Besides Ms. Pleshette, Mr. Poston is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Francesca Poston of Nashville; two children from his marriage to Ms. Hudson, a son, Jason Poston of Los Angeles, and a daughter, Hudson Poston of Portland, Ore.; and a sister, Rosalie Cassou, of Fredericksburg, Va.
Before she married Mr. Poston, Ms. Pleshette laid down one ironclad condition: she wanted "a big rock," she said in a telephone interview yesterday.
So Mr. Poston gave her exactly that. A piece of unpolished granite the size of a large marble, it was culled from the gravel in his driveway. He had it put in a platinum setting.
The rock worked like a charm, Ms. Pleshette said. She added: "Of course, he later was taught the pleasures of diamonds."
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FROM THE L.A. TIMES:
Herman Brix, 100; Olympian became actor known as Bruce Bennett
Herman Brix, who parlayed a silver medal for the shot put in the 1928 Olympics
into a Hollywood career that included playing Tarzan in a 1935 movie, has
died. He was 100.
Brix, who later adopted the stage name Bruce Bennett and appeared as Joan Crawford's husband in "Mildred Pierce" and as an ill-fated gold prospector in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," died of complications from a broken hip Saturday at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, his son Christopher said Tuesday.
Brix, who later adopted the stage name Bruce Bennett and appeared as Joan Crawford's husband in "Mildred Pierce" and as an ill-fated gold prospector in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," died of complications from a broken hip Saturday at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, his son Christopher said Tuesday.
FOR THE RECORD:
Brix obituary: A photo caption with the Herman Brix obituary in Wednesday's
California section said an injury kept Brix, who later took the stage name
Bruce Bennett, from becoming the first Tarzan. The shoulder injury kept Brix
from getting the role in MGM's 1932 hit "Tarzan the Ape Man," but
the first Tarzan movie was made in 1918. The obituary also misspelled the
surname of actor Johnny Weissmuller as Weismuller. —
A former University of Washington football and track and field star who played
in the 1926 Rose Bowl, Brix moved to Los Angeles in 1929 after being invited
to compete for the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
He became friends with actor Douglas Fairbanks, who arranged a screen test for
the handsome young athlete at Paramount. But while playing a small role as a
running back in the 1931 Paramount college football movie
"Touchdown," Brix broke a shoulder.
The injury caused the world record-setting shot-putter to fail to qualify for
the 1932 Olympic trials. It also ended his chance to play Tarzan at MGM, where
he is said to have been the studio's leading candidate for the role.
Instead, the star-making role in MGM's 1932 hit "Tarzan the Ape Man"
went to Olympic swimmer Johnny Weismuller, who went on to appear in a string
of Tarzan movies.
But two years later, Brix got his chance to play the jungle hero in "The
New Adventures of Tarzan," which was produced by an independent film
company whose principals included Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In fact, Brix was picked by Burroughs to star in the 1935 movie.
"Herman Brix brought a presence to the screen that many people feel
personifies the Tarzan of the books," Danton Burroughs, Edgar Rice
Burroughs' grandson, wrote in the foreword to "Please Don't Call Me
Tarzan: The Life Story of Herman Brix/Bruce Bennett," a 2001 book by Mike
Chapman.
Brix, Burroughs wrote, "was lean and muscular, articulate and dignified.
He moved with the superb athletic grace that my grandfather envisioned … and
played the role to perfection."
The high-profile role, however, proved to be a detriment to his acting career.
A test at Warner Bros. after the film came out was canceled after the casting
director saw a photo of Brix as Tarzan in Life magazine.
"He said they couldn't use me," Brix told Chapman. "I asked
why, and he said the audience would see me as Tarzan and wouldn't accept me as
an actor."
Over the next several years, however, Brix appeared in more than a dozen
films, including the serials "The Shadow of Chinatown," "The
Fighting Devil Dogs," "Hawk of the Wilderness" and "The
Lone Ranger."
But after making yet another serial, "Daredevils of the Red Circle"
in 1939, he realized he had to do something to break being typecast in action
roles.
"I realized the name Herman Brix was associated with Tarzan, so I made up
a list of seven or eight names and asked people which they liked best,"
he told Chapman. "Bruce Bennett was the name I came up with."
As Bruce Bennett, he began carving out a new career as an actor, initially
under contract at Columbia Pictures and then at Warner Bros. Among his many
credits during this period were "The Officer and the Lady,"
"Atlantic Convoy," "Sahara" and "Dark Passage."
One of his most memorable film credits was "The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre," the 1948 movie starring Humphrey Bogart, with Walter Huston and
Tim Holt as fellow gold prospectors in Mexico.
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REPORT FROM MIKE ELMO:
Patricia Soteras passed away Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006, of a heart attack.
Patsy Parsons (her maiden name) was in the first season of Rocky Jones and played Suzerain Clealanta of the planet Ophiucius, an adversary of Earth and The United Worlds. She Starred in," Beyond The Curtain Of Space, The Pirates Of Prah, Bobby's Comet, Rocky's Odyssey, and Crash Of Moons". You could tell that there was a subplot of sexual tension between her and Rocky. You get the idea that if she could not have him, no one would! Patsy was an accomplished Actress!! She had a very strong stage presence as told to Ann Robinson by Sally Mansfield. Ann and Patsy never got to meet each other, due to Patsy leaving acting to start her Family. I'm not sure how many children she had, but I do know of a Son and Daughter, any more I'm not sure. She was a scene stealer! As I said, a tremendous presence!! Too bad she left the business after the R.J Series! Crash Of Moons was a good ending for her stint, but, it left you wanting much more! In the second season, Rocky and others talk about New Ophiucius, but nothing of the characters of Cleolanta or others. I have to beleive that if there were more years for the Series to develop, Patsy may have been persuaded to come back as Cleolanta again. Sally said that Patsy did enjoy the work she did on R.J. and was sad about leaving the Series.
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FRANKIE THOMAS
1921-2006
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In a message dated 5/17/2006 6:51:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, Merlinest writes:
We gathered at the grave site, a trim green
lawn shaded by a large tree, at 3:00 pm...about 20 close friends and relatives,
of which 14 were considered the actual invited. The elegant heavy wooden coffin
was already in place over the open grave, blanketed with flowers. More flowers
were hung on stands and in baskets to one side. His mother and father's graves
were next to his. A white church with a clock on its steeple loomed in the
background.
The afternoon blazed with sunlight, and some folk sat on a
row of chairs while the others stood behind them as a minister read his
long bio of Frankie's career and life doings. When he had done with his summary
and prayers, the guests were invited to speak any words they wished to say, and
a few did. Mostly relating amusing happenings they experienced with Frankie.
Few knew he'd already had another. His original space cadet
uniform had been left at the mortuary for them to dress him in it... and when
the few family members had a short viewing period just before the burial time,
it was discovered that the upper part of the uniform had been put on backwards,
so that he was zippered up the front, and the insignia of the Space Cadets was
on his back. Of course, that mistake was hastily remedied before the coffin was
brought to the site. I had to chuckle, knowing that Frank would have found it as
funny as I did.
Julie, his step-daughter, stood to read the words to the
Space Academy oath and the Space Cadet song... it was quite moving, for it
personified all that Frankie believed and portrayed in his favorite role.
She had everyone wish Frankie Spaceman's Luck together, and then the coffin lid
was opened for the guests to place his old golf balls and photographs of his
family and friends and the folded American flag once displayed at his father's
funeral. I sprinkled Frankie with a handful of tiny gold metallic stars and
wished him farewell under my breath... and as the folk left the coffin, I took a
few pictures before the lid was reclosed.
The invited 14 departed for the Bistro Restaurant, one of
Frankie's favorites, and had a fine dinner and drinks and more talk about the
man they had lost. It wasn't the same without him there... I had no sense of him
being with us at all. I think he stayed behind to be with his Mom and Dad.
Jan Merlin
Frankie Thomas, Jr., died this evening at the Sherman Oaks Hospital of respiratory failure while recovering from a stroke.
We've lost Tom Corbett...
Regretfully, Jan MerlinMay 11, 2006
 | The
Mercurian Invasion (1998) (V) .... Cadet Tom Corbett| "First
Love" (1954) TV Series .... Chris
| "Tom Corbett, Space
Cadet" (1950) TV Series .... Tom Corbett | "One
Man's Family" (1949) TV Series (as Frank
Thomas Jr.) .... Cliff Barbour #1 (1949)
| "A Woman to
Remember" (1949) TV Series .... Charley
Anderson
| The Major and the Minor
(1942) .... Cadet Clifford Osborne
| Always in My Heart
(1942) .... Martin 'Marty' Scott
| Flying Cadets (1941)
.... Newton R. Adams/Ames
| One Foot in Heaven
(1941) .... Hartzell Spence at Age 18 | Invisible
Stripes (1939) .... Tommy McNeill (friendly stockboy)
| On Dress Parade
(1939) .... Cadet Lt. 'Murph' Murphy | ... aka Dead End Kids at Military School (USA: changed title) ... aka The 'Dead End' Kids 'On Dress Parade' (USA: complete title) Nancy Drew and the Hidden
Staircase (1939) .... Ted Nickerson
| The Angels Wash Their
Faces (1939) .... Gabe Ryan | ... aka Angels Wash Their Faces (USA) Nancy Drew... Trouble
Shooter (1939) .... Ted Nickerson
| Code of the Streets
(1939) .... Bob Lewis
| Nancy Drew... Reporter
(1939) (as Frank Thomas Jr.) .... Ted Nickerson
| Nancy Drew -- Detective
(1938) .... Theodore 'Ted' Nickerson
| Little Tough Guys in
Society (1938) .... Danny
| Boys Town (1938) ....
Freddie Fuller
| Tim Tyler's Luck
(1937) .... Tim Tyler
| A Dog of Flanders
(1935) .... Nello Daas
| Wednesday's Child
(1934) .... Bobby Phillips | |  | For more on Frankie Thomas: http://www.solarguard.com/sghome.htm | |
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We received the following email from Tom Crawford, passed on to us by Mike Elmo:
Hello, everyone.
Shortly after Frank Thomas' death (I still haven't seen an obituary for him
in a newspaper) comes news of the passing of another of our childhood
icons. This is from today's WASHINGTON TIMES, page B2:
"NEW YORK (AP) -- Lew Anderson, who captivated baby boomers as the
final Clarabell the Clown on TV's 'Howdy Doody Show' died May 14 in
Hawthorne, N.Y. He was 84.
"Long mute as Clarabell, Mr. Anderson broke the clown's silence in the
show's final episode in 1960. With trembling lips and a visible tear
in his eye, he spoke the show's final two words: 'Good-bye, kids.'
"Though Mr. Anderson was not the only man to play 'Buffalo Bob' Smith's
mute sidekick, he was the best, Mr. Smith said in his memoir.
"With the Peanut Gallery looking on, Mr. Anderson used bicycle horns to
give yes and no answers. For more expressive moments, he wielded a
bottle of seltzer.
"The show, which went on the air in 1947, when televisions were still a
novelty, was the first network weekday children's show. Mr. Anderson
joined 'Doodyville,' a circus town peopled with puppets and human actors and
watched by a Peanut Gallery of children, in the mid-1950s.
"Though his fame as Clarabell followed him throughout his life, Mr.
Anderson was also a success as a musician and band leader. In recent
years, his All-American Big Band appeared on Friday nights at New York's
Birdland jazz club.
"Mr. Anderson was born in 1922 in Kirkman, Iowa. He started a
band while serving in the Navy during World War II and later toured the
Midwest with bands before landing in New York.
"It was when he joined the Honey Dreamers, a singing group that
appeared on radio and early television shows, that he met Mr. Smith and
became a clown.
"'Clarabell just fell into his lap,' said his stepdaughter, Lorie
George.
"Mr. Anderson followed Bobby Nicholson, who later played Doodyville's
J. Cornelius Cobb, into the role. The first to play the mute clown was
Bob Keeshan, who later became TV's 'Captain Kangaroo.'
"Mr. Anderson, who lived in South Salem, is survived by his wife,
Peggy; two sons; a stepdaughter; and five grandchildren."
Tom Crawford
Received by Swapsale May 18, 2006
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COMMANDER BUZZ CORRY'S LAST FLIGHT
Hi Cadets,
Ed Kemmer wanted his ashes scattered from a plane, so a few weeks ago,
his younger son Todd set out to do this with a friend who's a pilot.
Todd loved planes as a kid, but as he grew older, he didn't care for
them much and after takeoff, he felt scared - especially since this was
a small plane. Then, he says, for some reason, a sense of calm came over
him and he wasn't scared at all. In fact, at one point, much to his
surprise, he felt a strange kind of confidence, took the controls, and
actually flew the plane.
I believe that Ed was happiest when he was flying. Thinking back, I
remember that one of his favorite stories was about how he was the first
cadet in his class to solo during his Air Corps flight training in San
Antonio.
His ashes were scattered over Fire Island in Long Island Sound.
jnb (11-06-05)
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FROM WARREN CHANEY:
I heard Lion’s Gate is taking another look at a feature film using Captain Marvel (the real one).
(11-1-05)
----------------------------
Lone Ranger cartoonist Tom Gill dies at 92
Gill art work supplied by Dr. Warren Chaney
Reuters News ServiceOct. 19, 2005, 1:34PM
NEW YORK -- Tom Gill, who drew The Lone Ranger comic books, died on Monday of heart failure at his home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., his wife said on Tuesday. He was 92.
Between 1950 and 1970, Gill drew the masked rider of the Old West, the Lone Ranger, and his Indian sidekick Tonto for The Lone Ranger comic books. He also drew the Hi-Yo Silver and Bonanza comic books.
He taught cartooning and children's book illustration in New York area colleges, including the School of Visual Arts, where he served as department chair in 1948 and alumni director in 1969.
Gill grew up in Brooklyn and went to work for the New York Daily News, where he was credited with drawing the first map of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Later he worked for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia, daughter Nancy Zaglaluer, son Tom, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Gill art work supplied by Dr. Warren Chaney
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MIKE AND KIM ELMO AT SWAPSALE'S SECRET MOUNTAIN TOP RETREAT
Mike and Kim Elmo, Bruce David (Swapsale) and wife Wendy
SolarGuard member and the man behind the terrific Space Patrol/Tom Corbett/Rocky Jones jackets, shirts and caps (Sci-Fi Apparel) came to visit us with his wonderful wife Kim last Saturday evening. They are a great couple, fun to hang out with. When we weren't talking about the old TV shows we worked on solving questions about quantum physics and the nature of space/time. I'll tell you this, it was no easy task keeping up with Mike on those matters. Of course he cheats: he remembers absolutely everything he has ever read or heard. No fair, Mike. -- Bruce David/Oct. 22, 2005
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DAN THOMPSON'S REPORT FROM THE ATLANTA DRAGON CON
History: The character is "the Sandman", who is a DC character from the Golden Age of comics. He appeared about the same time as Batman (1939) and was one of the original members of the Justice Society of America. He faded away by the late '40s but was brought MORE
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George Wallace, famous for playing Commando Cody in the 1952 movie serial Radar Men From The Moon, died Friday, July 22 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following injuries from a fall while in Pisa, Itally. He had parts in 80 films including Submarine Command, Lifeguard, Nurse Betty, and Minority Report. His TV guest appearances included Hopalong Cassidy, Four Star Playhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Joan of Arcadia. Tristram Coffin played Wallaces part in King Of The Rocketmen (1949) and Judd Holdren -- who later played Commando Cody on TV -- played the part in Zombies Of The Stratosphere. Aline Towne played Commando Cody's assistant in both Radar Men From The Moon and the TV show.
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FROM MAJOR CHUCK OF THE SOLARGUARD (9-9-05)
Tom Corbett lunch box in space! For real!
Hi, Bruce-
Thought you might want to add these photos to the
story of Steve Robinson and his orbiting lunch box! This is what I was
referring to in my comment about seeing it on Fox news. Cool, eh?
Thanks for publishing the TC comic strips, too!
Chuck
THE SOLAR GUARD CAN BE FOUND AT: www.SolarGuard.com
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FROM FRANKIE THOMAS
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Forwarded Message:
Hi gang,
I tried to post this today, but my FTP program is still on the fritz. I
found the picture of the lunch box in the Washington Times Tuesday. I'm
looking for the source now. Nice picture of the lunch box. Till later
Spaceman's Luck
Ed
Chuck Lassen wrote:
> On Fox News, I just saw a brief footage of the astronauts working in the
> shuttle, and there it was! Steve Robinson's "Tom Corbett Space
Cadet"
> lunch box, slowly floating along in the background! He said he was
> going to take it into space, and he sure did!
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I'm pleased to "officially" announce the launch of http://www.spacepatrolbook.com/.
jnb
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FROM JAN MERLIN
John Fiedlers death at 80 is a shock to me, for we
were both students at New York's famed Neighborhood Playhhouse School of the
Theater after the war in1946, learning to become actors. He remained unchanged throughout all the years
afterwards, retaining his sweet aura and sincerity...
I was delighted when I got him hired as the little mental
giant, Alfie Higgins, for the Tom Corbett Space Cadet series to appear from time
to time as a regular cadet. He was beloved by the fans of the show, his high,
piping voice and serious demeanor as Alfie were unmistakable, and instantly
recognizable when he was providing the voice for Disney's "Piglet" in
the Winnie the Pooh cartoons. In these past years, Frankie Thomas and I had
often tried to get him to do one of our radio show recreations or even just show
up at a festival, but Johnny preferred to decline. He wouldn't reply to any
message we sent him. I guess he was too ill... and simply didn't want us to know
about it.
While he was out here doing films, I failed to see him
socially, but did get to work with him once in GUNS OF DIABLO, in which he
played one of his many fine character roles. His absence is everyone's loss. I
wrote his part into the radio recreation we'll be doing at the
Williamsburg Festival next March... and hoped to coax him into attending... but
he didn't respond, and Ben Cooper has accepted to play it instead.
We'll be thinking of him in March... and Ben will attempt to
bring him to life again. But no one could be the same Alfie Higgins that Johhny
created.>>
Jan Merlin -- 6-- 28 -- 05
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Jan (Roger Manning) Merlin, Bruce (Swapsale) David and Frankie (Tom Corbett) Thomas
It was a giddy moment for me; there I was standing between two of my favorite members of the Polaris crew getting my picture taken. It was at Jan's house in Burbank, California (you should see his collection of African art) and I was there to get Jan and Frank to sign some more copies of the Tom Corbett Collectors Edition videos we offer on this site. While there we decided that's it's time to put the autographed Collectors Edition on DVD so keep an eye out for that in the near future. It's at the duplicators right now.
You'll notice, by the way, that both these guys look better than me (and, I confess, I airbrushed my face a bit). Frank, who, to this day, has his Tom Corbett uniform, can still fit in it. I can't even fit into the clothes I bought last year.
-- Bruce David/Swapsale (6-05-05)
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Here is astronaut Stephen K. Robinson, a member of the crew of
the STS-114(return to flight of the space shuttle)In Stephens hand
is the Tom Corbett Space Cadet lunch box, the lucky charm of the
astronauts. They will not fly without it. This is of interest since
the two stars of the highly successful TV and radio series of the
1950's are local residents. Frankie Thomas played Tom while Jan
Merlin was Roger Manning. They sent pictures of the old show and
wished the shuttle crew lots of Spaceman's Luck.
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WILL EISNER DEAD AT 87
Will Eisner, a titan of the comics world who
in the 1940s brought to life characters such as The Spirit and Sheena, the
Jungle Girl, and three decades later shifted into far more realistic and gritty
terrain by pioneering the graphic novel, has died. He was 87.
Eisner died Monday at Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., after
suffering complications related to a quadruple heart bypass he underwent last
month, according to Denis Kitchen, Eisner's publisher for three decades and his
agent in recent years.
The artist's body of work, which began in earnest in the 1930s with the
swashbuckling "Hawks of the Sea," will be capped by the May release of
"Plot," a graphic novel that is his personal take on the history of
the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a weapon against Jews. The book will be
published by W.W. Norton & Co.
Eisner's work was marked by sophistication; his Spirit newspaper strips are
still hailed as a melding of German Expressionist imagery and the sly worldview
of Hollywood's screwball comedies. He was constantly experimenting in the use of
panels, lettering and even format. The Spirit was published in newspapers from
1940 to 1952 in a self-contained, four-color insert.
In similar fashion, Eisner would test the boundaries of comic books in 1978 with
"Contract With God," a collection of illustrated stories about real
people that he called "a graphic novel," marking a new area of
ambition in comics.
Eisner devoted his recent decades to graphic novels about poverty, aging and
despair in such titles as "The Tenement" and "The Invisible
People." Since "Contract With God" came out, he had published
about a book a year.
"My stories are all centered around the human being, the business of
survival, of struggling against the forces of life itself," Eisner said in
one interview. "We're dealing with impossible and unbeatable forces, not a
single monster. My interest is not the superhero, but the little man who
struggles to survive in the city."
Author Michael Chabon, who fictionalized Eisner in his Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," said Eisner
was really the only one at the time to see comics for what they were: a medium
in which an artist could find new ways of telling stories.
"There's no question, he [was] one of the most important figures in comic
books," Chabon said.
Since 1988, the comics industry's top award has been called "the Eisner."
Eisner's textbooks, "Comics and Sequential Art" and "Graphic
Storytelling," are required reading in the comics field and dovetail with
his teachings at the New York School of Visual Art in New York City.
Art Spiegelman, who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for "Maus," a graphic
novel about the Holocaust, once called Eisner a "genius cartoonist who
changed the vocabulary of comics." Cartoonist Jules Feiffer declared Eisner
a national treasure.
This year, several museum exhibitions about Eisner have been planned, and two
books concerning him are scheduled to be published: "Eisner/Miller," a
dialogue between Eisner and comics artist Frank Miller, and "Will
Eisner: A Spirited Life," a biography by Bob Andelman.
Eisner was born March 6, 1917, in Brooklyn. His father, an emigre from Vienna,
painted stage sets and encouraged his son's artistic aspirations. Eisner
attended De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx (along with friend Bob Kane,
who would create Batman), and his first work was published in the school
newspaper.
In what became industry legend, Eisner started a comics production company with
friend Jerry Iger in 1937. Their $15 investment bought three months' rent on
East 41st Street for their firm, Eisner & Iger.
"Like brokers who forecast a sudden demand for pork bellies, we believed
that pulp publishers, who were repackaging newspaper comic strips into
magazine-size formats, were going to run out of them at any minute," Eisner
recalled in the New York Times Book Review in 1990. That prediction would be a
solid one.
The national demand for comics, which would be spurred by the 1938 advent of
Superman, exploded. Eisner was writing and drawing under five names "in
what would soon become a kind of artistic ghetto in which people with authentic,
if offbeat, talents had to suffer the disdain of the mainstream," he once
wrote. His 1986 graphic novel, "The Dreamer," is a roman a clef about
those early years.
Recruiting a number of young peers, including Kane, Jack Kirby and Lou Fine, the
Eisner & Iger studio became a factory, and its output included Sheena,
Blackhawk and Dollman. The shop did have one historic misstep -- Eisner declined
a crude character sketch presented by a pair of youngsters, Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shuster, who took their Superman pitch elsewhere.
The Eisner/Iger partnership ended in 1939 when a newspaper syndicate hired
Eisner to create a 16-page newspaper supplement featuring what would become his
best-known character, The Spirit. Unlike other heroes, The Spirit wore a suit
and, like a pen-and-ink Cary Grant, was by turns dashing, funny and feckless. He
roamed back alleys instead of a gleaming Metropolis,
When presenting a lifetime achievement award to Eisner in 2002 at the National
Foundation for Jewish Culture, Spiegelman said: "What made Superman popular
was its fantasy. What made The Spirit popular was its smell of reality, its
sophisticated style, its ambience and its stories."
In 1942, a draft notice forced Eisner to abandon The Spirit. In the Army, he
made strips and posters, among them the cautionary pratfalls of Joe Dope. His
studio hands, among them Feiffer and Fine, took over The Spirit.
After the war, Eisner founded American Visuals Corp., which produced art for
such clients as RCA Records, the Baltimore Colts and New York Telephone. In
1952, he retired The Spirit and dedicated his labor to advertising and marketing
instead of storytelling.
His interest in comics was reignited in the 1970s when he saw the underground
works of artists such as Robert Crumb. Eisner went back to the drawing board and
created his first graphic novel.
He is survived by his wife, Ann, and his son, John. Services were pending
Tuesday.
From the L.A. Times Jan 5, 2005
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BOOK REVIEW AND ORDERING INFO NOW AT: Swap Talk
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EMAIL FROM JEAN-NOEL BASSIOR (11-30-04)
Hi Cadets,Here's a link to some notes about Ed's memorial service that I posted on the Solar Guard BB.
http://www.solarguard.com/bboard/messages/11416.html
Also, here's the story that ran in the LA Times. (AP and other outlets ran scaled-down versions of it.)
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-kemmer13nov13.story
jnb
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Thanks to Beth Flood, Lyn Osborne's sister, for the following two Space Patrol pix. The first one is the picture as it was photographed, the second one is the painting made from the pic. Here's what Beth says about it:
You may not know the history of the painting, which was done about 1953. The name, "Valentine", appears in the lower right hand corner, and we've always supposed that it was the artist's name. It was painted from a black & white photo, and he used a different background and made some other minor changes when he did the painting. We found it in Lyn's apartment, after he died, and Mom took it back with her, when we returned home to Michigan after the funeral. She brought it to California when we all moved here in 1959. It was given to me when Mom died, and it has been hanging on my living room wall for the past 29 years. I will send you a snapshot of the painting and a copy of the original black & white photo that the artist painted it from. Of all the SP pictures I have, that one is my favorite.
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Report From Chuck Lassen (pt. 2)
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CLYDE LYMAN'S SPACE PATROL REVIEW
WITH 3-D PIX
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TOM MASON
1934-2003
We regret to announce the passing of
Tom Mason, the Crimson Collector, a true fan of 50s nostalgia and an overall
nice guy. Tom worked in the television industry for over 36 years at the very
ABC studios lot where the SPACE PATROL series was originally filmed. He
got to meet and work with many of the original crew-members of the
show. His website has been a powerful source of nostalgia information and
historical perspective. He will be missed by his many friends and fans.
Click
here: www.theCrimsonCollector.com - HOME PAGE
http://cmp.bravepages.com/
August 15, 2003
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KENNETH TOBEY, 85, STAR OF 50'S TV SHOW WHIRLYBIRDS
Kenneth Tobey, star of movies and television, died after a lengthy illness at Rancho Mirage hospital this past Sunday December 29, 2002. Tobey, who starred in such movies as The Thing, 12 O'Clock High, Gunfight at OK Corral, Billy Jack, MacArthur and Airplane, began his career with a bit part in the 1948 Hopalong Cassidy film, Dangerous Venture. In the 50's he made a move into TV as a regular on the Walt Disney Davy Crockett show, then captured the lead in Whirlybirds with Craig Hill playing his sidekick. Tobey is survived by his daughter, a stepson and daughter, two grandchildren and his brother. 1/4/03
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From Dr. Warren Chaney
The above poster is just one of the extremely cool electronic files sent to us here at Swapsale as a Christmas gift. Dr. Chaney, who has been instrumental in researching and saving film and TV history (he's the guy who found and restored the original Lone Ranger serials), has for the past few years been busily restoring old Space Patrol premiums (many of those seen above), including everyone of the Space Patrol collector's cards originally obtained in Ralston cereals. (He has also created a few very cool new cards of his own design.) Our very special thanks to Warren! -- Bruce David/Swapsale 12/28/02
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Art by Warren Chaney, based on a photo by Jean-Noel Bassior
THE FOLLOWING SAD EMAIL CAME FROM JEAN-NOEL BASSIOR ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 16TH 2002.
I’m sad to report that Norm Jolley passed away on Tuesday, August 13th. He was 86. He gave us the Space Patrol TV shows and was head writer for Wagon Train, The FBI, Ironside, Barnaby Jones, and did multiple scripts for Highway Patrol, The Virginian, Laramie and many others.
Norm was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a couple of weeks ago. His wife, Lois, rushed him to Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he underwent a five-hour operation. He came through it fine. I spoke with him afterwards and he promised me he’d “come back,” as he put it. He promised that to Lois, too. He was recovering well and the doctor told him he could leave the hospital in a few days. On Tuesday morning, he left early. They’re still not sure why he suddenly died.
For me, this is a great personal loss. The best praise I ever got from anyone was when he called me “a damn good writer.” I used to tell him he’d saved my life as a child because, coming from an abusive home, I’d see Cadet Happy survive some pretty rough stuff each week, just like I did. But afterwards he could joke about it, so it showed me that you could go through bad stuff and come out OK. That made Norm’s eyes tear up. He said one day that he always thought he’d be remembered for his work on Wagon Train, and he was so surprised that, instead, it turned out to be Space Patrol.
jnb
Bruce,
It has been a long time since we have been in touch, but I wanted to pass along
some sad news to you. Norman died at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale last
Tuesday. He and Lois had been in San Diego when he got ill and she drove
him to Scottsdale, AZ to the Mayo Clinic. My brother lives in Scottsdale
and was able to be with them there. They discovered Norm had pancreatic
cancer so they operated and removed the tumor. They were very optimistic
that they had gotten all of the cancer and he was recovering very nicely.
A week after the surgery his heart gave out and we lost him. I called him
at the hospital the night before he died and he was in good spirits and looking forward to being with all our family at a
reunion in Minnesota the end of this month. I will miss him terribly, but he had a long life and a good one.
I know that you had the opportunity to meet him and spend a little time
together, so I was sure you would want to know. The family has enjoyed the
Space Patrol tapes that you sent me and I am especially happy now that I have
them to keep. I will always be grateful to you for that. Norm and I
watched them together and he was so pleased that I had them.
Lois and Norm's grandson is going to drive the motor home back to Palm Springs.
Lois will then come to Minnesota to join us for the reunion and then she will go
back to California.
Joan
(Joan Jolley Carlson)
FOR MORE ON NORMAN JOLLEY CLICK HERE
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