CAPTAIN FLASHBACK

A fanzine composed for the 413th distribution of Mercury in the Shadows: the Turbo-Charged Party-Animal Amateur Press Orson Welles, Frank Readick Jr. Association, from the joint membership of Andy and The Shadow Hooper and Carrie Root, residing at 11032 30th Ave. NE Seattle, WA 98125. E-mail Andy at This time, my fanzine-reading and my old-time [email protected], and you may reach Carrie at media research have collided. [email protected]. This is a Drag Bunt Press Production, completed on 11/20/2020. It is perhaps futile to explain why I found myself reading Volume 79, Issue #10 of THE CAPTAIN FLASHBACK is devoted to old fanzines, NATIONAL FANTASY FAN, one of several monster movie hosts, old-time radio stars and official organs of the National Fantasy Fan other fascinating phenomena of the 20th Century. Federation; after all, at this writing, American All material by Andy Hooper unless indicated. fen have been in COVID-19 isolation for more Contents of Issue #24: than 200 days, and I might be at the point of Page 1: Mercury in the Shadows reading Robots and Quarantine or Battlefield Page 2: A Key to Interlineations in Issue #23 Fauci, as soon as someone can finish them. Page 16: Comments on Turbo-Apa #412 (John Scalzi, I’m using you for a cheap laugh). Page 21: Horror Host of the Month: There is certainly a lot of club furniture and Keeping America Strong with Bob Wilkins ballots – with rules – padding out most issues Page 23: I Remember Entropy Department: of TNFF, but there are also interesting “Your Friendly Neighborhood BEM Dealer:” historical surveys of authors, characters and by Cleve Cartmill, originally published by series by Jon Swartz PhD, who has co- Alva Rogers in BIXEL #1, September 1962. authored a big book about old time radio, and Page 25: Fanmail from some Flounder Dept: really digs in to that pulp stuff that NFFF Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK. members all seem to love. The latest emailed issue had a message from Editor/President George Phillies asking if we would be willing to go get new issues of TNFF from some unnamed location “in the cloud.” “Jesus, no,” thought I, then clicked on the .pdf thinking… well, I don’t know what I was thinking. But I opened the file and started skimming. I glanced very quickly at news of a new NFFF Treasurer, officers, elections, announcements – the things an out-of-towner always ignores in a club fanzine. The art in the issue is not very good and has no relationship to anything else in the fanzine. And I am unlikely to submit an entry in the NFFF amateur short story contest. So this left me working my way through Dr. Orson Welles and poet Carl Sandburg practice a card Swartz’s overview of the 20th Century mystery trick before a war bond rally in 1942. & action hero The Shadow. [Continued on Page 3] ------Issue #24, November 2020 ------

1 ------A Key to Interlineations published in October in CAPTAIN FLASHBACK #23: Page 3: “I would rather believe that two Yankee professors have lied than believe that stones fall from the sky.” Thomas Jefferson commenting on the nascent identification of meteorites as extraterrestrial in origin. Page 4: “Barking dogs occasionally bite, but laughing men hardly ever shoot.” Attributed to Nobel prize-winning behaviorist Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989). Page 5: “Perhaps we are where we are because we have no more unicorns.” Attributed to author Avram Davidson (1923-1993) Page 6: “Reality is always so obstructive” Line from the 1938 novel Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler (1909-1998). Page 7: “If you have enough book space, I don’t want to talk to you.” Attributed to author Sir Terry Pratchett (1948-2015). Page 8: “New York is not as big a city as it pretends to be.” Michael O’Hara (Orson Welles), The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Page 9: “I was taught to think about love in Chinese.” Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth), The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Page 10: “All the best of the monsters played for sympathy.” Attributed to actor Creighton Tull “Lon” Chaney Jr. (1906-1973). Page 11: “But generally, after I was fully encased in bandages, I preferred to go into Peter’s dressing room and harass him.” Actor Christopher Lee (1922-2015) describes the experience of making The Mummy in 1959. Page 12: “I must say that it’s easy to write nice things about Chicago because it’s that kind of town.” Attributed to songwriter Sammy Cahn (1913-1993). Page 13: “If you can’t be good, be colorful.” Attributed to Astronaut Pete Conrad (1930-1999). Page 14: “I prefer a real villain to a false hero.” Statement by Rap musician and activist Killer Mike, half of the duo “Run the Jewels.” Page 15: “I was obsessed with Philip K. Dick.” Admission by Rap musician/activist El-P of “Run the Jewels.” Page 16: “No science is more adventurous than archeology, if adventure is thought of as a mixture of word and deed.” C. W. Ceram, writing in Gods, Graves and Scholars (1949). Page 17: “An archeologist is a ghoul with credentials.” Attributed to author Robert Shea (1933-1994) Page 18: “We’ll see if I have anything to say. If I don’t, I will nonetheless write something.” Don C. Thompson, writing in FAPA mailing #202, as quoted by Ben Indick in BEN’S BEAT #10a Page 19: “All in all, I must say I’ve read much better sensationalistic trash.” Arthur Hlavaty, writing in FAPA mailing #202, as quoted by Ben Indick in BEN’S BEAT #10a Page 20: “The human spirit is like a knife that sharpens, rather than dulls, with age.” Bernadette Bosky, writing in FAPA mailing #202, as quoted by Ben Indick in BEN’S BEAT #10a Page 21: “Good writing requires good readers.” Eric Lindsay, as quoted by Ben Indick in BEN’S BEAT #10a Page 22: “Harry J. Hacker, you’ve been a fan for 30 years…writing, publishing and saying deathless things since 1931.” Word balloon, cartoon by J. Les Piper, CRY OF THE NAMELESS #155, December 1961. Page 23: “Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.” Attributed to Al Capone (1899-1947), Page 24: A few shots of anti-traumatic serum might have saved him, but he was an unlisted and unwanted passenger. “Land of the Burning Sea” by Malcolm Routh Jameson, THRILLING WONDER STORIES, April 1942. Page 25: “To the privileged, equality feels like oppression.” Mallory O’Meara, writing in The Lady From the Black Lagoon (2018). Page 26: “What are you shooting at, fool? I want him alive!” Dr. William Barton (Jeff Morrow) struggles to find good henchmen, The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) Page 28 & 29: “An archeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.” Attributed to Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Page 30: “Ain’t nothin’ organized about our crime, because our crime is freedom.” Karen Aldridge as Zelmare Roulette, Fargo S. 4, Ep. 5, “The Birthplace of Civilization,” Page 31: “Friendship, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience – that was the glue that held us together.” Attributed to American mob figure Joseph Bonano (1905-2002). Page 32: “The Seattle Theater censor has closed down the “Girls of the Galaxy” show at the World’s Fair.” & Page 32: “Wally Weber has embarked on a campaign to close down the censorship board.” Horrible Old Roy Tackett (1925-2003) writing in DYNATRON #10, March, 1962. ------

2 Mercury in the Shadows the “creator of Batman” was heavily Continued from Page 1 influenced by the 1937 radio version of The Shadow, which brought us his secret identity, This had some solid information, with a wealthy young playboy Lamont Cranston. I particular slant toward Walter Gibson, and his think Bob Kane acknowledged that the whole role in creating the pulp magazine hero that idea of the Batman was influenced by the was the main evolutionary branch in the arresting covers of Street & Smith’s character’s complicated taxonomy. But he magazines, on which The Shadow was also lists appearances of the character on concealed under a broad-brimmed hat, face radio, on film, in comics, on television and wrapped in an incongruously red scarf and even in “Big Little Books”! Did you know there illuminated only by the flash of his twin was a series published by Archie Comics in the automatic pistols. But I think he would also 1960s that recast The Shadow as a borderline contend that the success of the radio superhero in tights and jet pack, armed with a character forced him to find ways to make “sleep gun?” Psychedelic! What a shame it Bruce Wayne and his night-time vigilante differ lasted only 8 issues. from Lamont Cranston. The Batman has very I found it an oddly difficult read. Swartz seldom used a gun, for just one example. doesn’t provide any description of what the One has to concede that Swartz wants to write stories were like in the Street & Smith a brisk summary of The Shadow’s media magazines or give any clue as to why the radio history and doesn’t intend to explore such show starring the character was so popular complexities. But the elements which are and persisted so long. It became in some essentially lists of actors might be better sense an exemplar of the medium – overviews served if presented as such, with bullets or of radio drama always feature the program’s boxes to pull them apart from the main text. introduction “Who knows what evil lurks in the The succession of essentially identical run-on hearts of men? The Shadow knows…” in the sentences must tempt many readers to skip same way that any summary of American ahead or give up altogether. classic cars will feature a picture of a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. Swartz really offers no clue to Still, I give Dr. Swartz full credit for pointing why this is so, expect perhaps by out the remarkable proliferation of stories demonstrating the character’s ubiquity across featuring The Shadow and their enduring numerous media in the middle of the 20th appeal. I can remember listening to re- Century. Although he emphasizes Walter broadcasts of the radio programs in the Gibson’s role in developing the character, he 1970s and being entertained in spite of their spends the bulk of the article listing the melodramatic tone, which had acquired a names of the many actors who portrayed patina of camp. The character came into principal characters on radio and in films and being as a mere narrative device to introduce on TV. Almost none of the producers, writers, pulp stories and radio dramas, a kind of directors, artists or designers involved in any stentorian version of The Cryptkeeper. Walter of these projects are named, nor any studio or Gibson, under his pseudonym Maxwell Grant, network that aired them, or sponsors that gave the character his own adventures, and underwrote them… armed him with a few tricks that Gibson had learned in his other job as a stage magician. I suppose it is of some value to know that DC When The Shadow became Lamont Cranston published comics starring The Shadow, but in 1937, the character assumed the “occult fandom would surely be interested to know if power to cloud men’s minds,” and thereby favorite sons Julius Schwartz or Mort entered the canon of fantasy and science Weisinger had edited them, and above all, the fiction. artists involved in the project. He notes that [The Shadows continue on page 4] ------Living with Mr. Topper must be like dancing on dynamite! ------

3 ------Give him whatever it is they drink, a Coke-a-rama? ------Mercury in the Shadows More Mystery: Continued from Page 3 The Syndicated Shadow The Hearts of Men The evolutionary sequence described in It would make no sense to recapitulate “Mercury in the Shadows” is what you Swartz’ survey of the character’s history, since will find in almost all printed sources there are already numerous competing regarding The Shadow’s history on radio. summaries of that in print and available on But there was another branch of the the Web. But one of his fundamental points is tree, with another completely different that Walter Gibson was really the creator of creative team, which was heard by The Shadow, since his 283 novels featuring American radio listeners before Orson the character are by far the largest part of his Welles’ premiered as Lamont Cranston in saga across all media. But when Gibson wrote September 1937. his first sentence about The Shadow, the Speaking at the 1975 New York Comic character was already famous, and he had con, Walter Gibson confirmed that he surely heard Americans admonishing one had written a radio treatment of his another that “The Shadow knows!” version of The Shadow in 1934, but Blue One can’t blame any writer for trying to Coal had resisted the idea of featuring simplify such a complicated origin story. He his anonymous crimefighter in every was invented by the publisher that would episode of their program. But Street and serve as his permanent home, Street & Smith. Smith continued to get more and more In 1915, S & S had helped create and mail asking why the radio program didn’t dominate the crime fiction market by feature the hero from the magazine. In publishing DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE, mid-1935, they demanded that Blue which stood out among its many satellites and Coal allow them to change the program, imitators during the pulp magazine boom of which led to the end of the relationship the 1920s. But with all markets contracting between them. during the Great Depression, Street and Smith Most sources cite the September, 1937 faced competition from BLACK MASK, TRUE premiere of Welles as Lamont Cranston DETECTIVE and other lurid titles, and needed and Agnes Moorehead as Margot Lane to attract more readers. Radio was the most as the next appearance of The Shadow exciting and immediate mass media available on radio. But fans have consistently in 1930, and Street and Smith created The testified that they remembered listening Detective Story Hour with the goal of to a 15-minute program titled The promoting the magazine by dramatizing Shadow in 1935, almost two years stories published there. The company hired before the ½ hour programs began. But advertising writer Dave Chrisman and radio there was no evidence of this in any producer Bill Sweets to develop the program. network archive, which puzzled The Detective Story Hour was what would researchers for several decades. today be called an “Anthology show.” Different The mystery was solved in the early characters and situations were featured each 1990s, when pulp and radio fans week without any continuing narrative. confirmed that a 15-minute version of Chrisman and Sweets thought the show The Shadow had been recorded by C. P. needed a recurring host or narrator, who could “Chip” MacGregor at his San Francisco introduce each week’s scenario and remind studio in the second half of 1935. In the listeners that all the stories had originated in 1920s, Charles MacGregor was the San DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE. Various [continues next box] identities were proposed for this narrator, who

4 was initially known as “The Sleuth” or “The Francisco regional manager of Brunswick Inspector.” Scriptwriter Harry Engman Charlot Records, and pioneered the practice of was the first to propose the narrator be known recording new versions of previously- as “The Shadow.” broadcast radio programs for the specific Two actors also deserve credit for their roles purpose of selling them to stations for re- in making The Shadow a household name. broadcast. These “transcription records” New York native James La Curto was the first were a cheap way for small radio stations to portray the mysteriously omniscient to air popular programs – advertisements narrator, starting on July 31st, 1930. But La in radio industry magazines indicate they Curto was an ambitious young “leading man,” were available for a modest $17.50 per and he would leave the show after just four episode. months for a role in a Broadway show. He MacGregor had also produced a 26-part would appear in several successful stage serial starring Lester Dent’s “Doc Savage,” productions and had parts in movies including another Street & Smith character that Big Town (1932), Toils of the Law (1938) and aired earlier in 1935, and the same crew The Front Page (1945). recorded the 15-minute Shadow. The title When La Curto departed, he was replaced by role was read by Carl Kroenke, an actor the actor who provided the malevolent laugh with a respectable list of radio and screen that would become the character’s trademark. credits. The story was apparently inspired Frank Readick Jr. was born in Seattle on by several of Walter Gibson’s pulp novels November 6th, 1896, and was a prolific actor but was an original effort by John Eugene on stage, film and on radio. His powerful “Jack” Hasty. A native of Lafayette, reading of the show’s opening line, followed Indiana, Hasty served in the U.S. Marine by his fantastically sinister laughter, would be Corps and wrote for magazines before imitated by every actor that followed in the turning to radio scripts in the 1930s. He role. The program had been gradually building became one of the most prolific writers in an audience but when Readick’s laughter radio, scripting up to six different shows at started to issue from people’s radio speakers, the same time. So this was by no means it became a sensation. an amateur operation and when Street and Smith lost access to Blue Coal’s Sales of DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE spiked, money and network connections, it was but newsstand owners reported that readers only logical they would give MacGregor’s had to be directed to it, after they came in operation a chance. asking for “That Shadow magazine.” Naturally, Street and Smith were happy to accommodate Transcription records were one of the these requests, and Walter Gibson joined the earliest forms of media syndication and story with the creation of THE SHADOW they were widely used on smaller radio magazine in early 1931. networks and independent stations. They were also distributed internationally by Here’s the World War One Flying Ace Charles Michaelson, so fans in Australia, Walter Gibson really did create The Shadow as Europe and Africa also reported hearing pulp and radio fans think of him – his vision of the 15-minute Shadow episodes. When The Shadow was both modern and arcane, a the Mutual Network’s Shadow was at its ruthless figure hiding behind a bewildering peak of popularity and airing twice a week, series of disguises and identities. He had no some stations broadcast the 15-minute “powers” in the superhero sense, and only transcription series to bring fans to the used the occult to bring fear to his radio between episodes. adversaries. His crime-solving ability recalled [continues next page] that of Sherlock Holmes, but he had no John ------You’ll love these, they’re fab and hip and all the other pimply hyperboles. ------

5 ------And who’s this Susan when she’s at home? ------Mercury in the Shadows More Mystery: Continued from Page 5 The Syndicated Shadow Continued: Watson to counsel him toward mercy. On both radio and in the pulp adventures, his In sum, there is more than enough antagonists were as likely to end up dead as evidence to confirm that Orson Welles in prison. was not the first actor to portray Lamont Cranston on radio. He may actually have Gibson’s output as Shadow scribe Maxwell been the third: In addition to the Grant was heroic. Demand for the magazine MacGregor recorded series, Walter moved Street and Smith to adopt a biweekly Gibson wrote several Shadow scripts in schedule, so Gibson had to bang out two 1934 as a “tryout” for Blue Coal, and an complete novels per month. As written by article in BILLBOARD magazine Gibson, The Shadow was supernatural in one confirmed that one of these was sense: He was never at rest, never “between produced and broadcast over New York’s cases.” Gibson never revealed the character’s WMCA on June 14th, 1934. This was “true identity” through more than 100 actually before the 1934-1935 CBS adventures. Eventually, he wrote that The Network anthology series began its run Shadow was in reality Kent Allard, a world- in October, so Blue Coal was apparently famous aviator. Allard had disappeared on a trying to placate Street & Smith by giving flight to South America and was believed Walter Gibson’s crime-fighter an on-air dead; actually, he had returned safely to New audition. York, but concealed his identity behind a series of pseudonyms and assumed identities. What no researcher has yet been able to (The Shadow was, in many senses, a very discover is just who voiced The Shadow modern criminal.) How this Lindbergh-like and/or Lamont Cranston in the June figure avoided recognition could only be 1934 pilot episode. Logic suggests that it explained by his unrivalled expertise at was likely Frank Readick Jr., who would concealment and anonymity, which return as the sinister narrator of The sometimes seemed to verge on the Shadow in October. But it might also philosophical. have been James La Curto, the actor who had originated the role of the Shadow Although The Shadow was a genuine hit on and returned to take over from Readick paper, Street and Smith found it a challenge when the latter was sick at the end of to translate the character back to radio. When 1931. Or it might have been a third, The Detective Story Hour ended its run at the unknown actor from WMCA’s regular end of 1931, The Shadow was temporarily company. homeless; for a few sad months, he was drafted to narrate sappy romances for Street & Smith’s Love Story Hour. But The Shadow also presented a series of six short films made by Universal Studios in 1931, all based on tales from DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE. These included A Burglar to the Rescue, House of Mystery, The Red shadow, Sealed Lips, Trapped and The Circus Show-up. At least some featured Frank Readick in the role of the ominous Shadow. Only the first of these survives in a viewable condition; but Readick plays a more significant role in it than he was

6 generally given on radio. He breaks into the The Precocious Mr. Welles story repeatedly to share his opinions on the action, always making sure to remind the I have discussed elements of the life and viewer of his name and his omniscient career of Orson Welles in two previous knowledge. publications for the Turbo-Charged Party- Animal Apa. The first of these was in Frank Readick also played the character on MADISON MYSTERIES #3: “The Lost radio on Blue Coal Mystery Revue from Camps of Lake Mendota” in 2013, September 1931 to June, 1932. The first discussing Welles’ experiences at summer program titled The Shadow ran for just six camp in Madison. “Citizen Jane: Making weeks in January and February 1932 on the Jane Eyre at 20th Century Fox, 1943” was CBS radio network, underwritten by sponsor published in Turbo-Apa #383 in November Perfect-o-lite. Robert Hardy Anderson 2018. If you have an interest in these, portrayed the title character. Blue Coal please feel free to contact me. The speed agreed to change their Mystery Revue into The with which he mastered various forms of Shadow for 28 episodes from October 12th, entertainment, his ability to convince 1932 to April 26th, 1933 on the NBC network. others to embrace his ideas and the A third program titled The Shadow ran from amazing power he possessed in his years October of 1934 to March 1935, for a total of at RKO Studios all seem to strain 52 episodes. Both Frank Readick and James credibility. But all of these things La Curto would play the title character. In that conformed to the arc he had set for series, as in the previous versions, The himself at a very early age – he was not Shadow only introduced and occasionally sure what field he would be a master of, narrated the story, a role increasingly but he was determined that it would make divergent from his identity in the pulps. him famous. Boy Genius of Broadway He was born George Orson Welles in In 1937, Street and Smith finally merged the Kenosha, Wisconsin on May 6th, 1915. two identities of The Shadow for the fourth His father was Richard Head Welles radio series named after the character. (But (1872-1930), the son and grandson of modern research shows they actually brought influential lawyers who made a fortune of Lamont Cranston to the air in 1935 – see the his own by inventing a popular friction- sidebar “More Mystery: The Syndicated powered electric light for bicycles. His Shadow” for further details.) Walter Gibson’s mother was Beatrice Lucy Ives (1883- pitiless crime fighter was to be the focus of 1924), a native of Springfield, Illinois, an the program, and each episode would be alumnus of Northwestern University and another story from his endless fight against the first woman to stand for public office in evil. Gibson was asked to adapt his character Kenosha, when she was elected to the for the radio audience, and he collaborated on school board in 1910. the first script with Edward Hale Bierstadt, a playwright and mystery novelist who had once Richard and Beatrice were active been an official at Sing Sing prison. socialites, cruising in the West Indies, and with many friends in Chicago and New For this radio show, The Shadow changed York. Unfortunately, they separated in late identities again. The aviator Kent Allard was 1920 or early 1921, before Orson’s 6th forgotten, and in stepped the supercilious- birthday. Most biographies cite Richard sounding Lamont Cranston, wealthy young Welles’ alcoholism as the reason his man-about-town. Cranston had appeared in Gibson’s novels as a world traveler whose [continues next page] identity was borrowed by Kent Allard, so ------She’s a drag, a well-known drag. We turn the sound down on her and say rude things. ------

7 ------When did you last embarrass a Sheila with your cool, appraising stare? ------Mercury in the Shadows The Precocious Mr. Welles Continued from Page 7 Continued: faithful readers may have been intrigued by marriage ended, but that might have the revision. But henceforth, The Shadow’s been more symptom than cause. Their true identity was firmly fixed as Lamont first son, also named Richard, was born Cranston. in 1905 and suffered from some form of behavioral or developmental disability. This character was a much more nuanced role He was institutionalized at some point in than the scary disembodied voice featured in his middle teens. Beatrice’s mother Lucy the previous series, and several other actors died in 1920; she had been living with would play The Shadow on this much longer- her daughter’s family in Chicago and lasting series. Frank Readick still had some may have been the younger Richard’s involvement; announcer Ken Roberts caregiver. By 1922, the younger Richard confirmed that he had recorded his signature was gone, and Orson was living alone laugh for use in the first few episodes of the with his Mother. show, because the actor reading Lamont Cranston couldn’t quite master the laugh. The Beatrice was employed as a pianist at actor in question was the 22-year-old creative the Art Institute of Chicago, where she tornado known as Orson Welles. In the middle often played recitals and at popular of directing a production of Macbeth with an lectures and addresses by her cousin entirely African American cast, he would Dudley Crafts Watson, who was the commute from Harlem to radio studios in director of the Milwaukee Art Institute downtown Manhattan three times per day to from 1913 to 1924. Beatrice hoped that appear at three different radio studios. In one Orson might be a musical prodigy and he of these, the new radio identity of The Shadow dutifully practiced and took lessons on was born. the piano. Unfortunately, Beatrice contracted hepatitis and died in 1924. Orson Welles is now best-known as a film Richard Welles was then living in an maker, with credits like Citizen Kane and The apartment and unemployed, generally Magnificent Ambersons that appear most lists unable to care for a 9-year-old son. of the greatest American movies. His second Orson was taken in by Dudley Watson. best-known accomplishment was the 1938 radio dramatization of The War of the Worlds, In the summer of 1924, Orson went with which self-consciously imitated real radio Watson to his family’s summer retreat at newscasts and caused a brief panic in at least Wyoming, a village in the Finger Lakes a few places. Not as many people are aware region of New York. This was the site of a that he began his adventures on the private artists’ colony maintained by Broadway stage at the age of 18, in touring Lydia Avery Coonley-Ward, an author and productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Barrets former president of the Chicago of Wimpole Street and Candida or that his Women’s Club. Twice widowed, she also career in radio began with appearances on lost two of her children in 1920, and The American School of the Air when he was probably undertook a special effort to still just 19. When producer John Houseman make the motherless Orson feel at brought him in to the Federal Theater Project home. Among his playmates were in 1935, he wrote, produced, directed and children of the second Aga Khan, acted in a series of popular and influential including the 12-year-old Aly Khan. shows. Life in Milwaukee was considerably less But what really made him a national star was [continues next box] another radio appearance. On April 14th, 1937

8 the avant-garde Columbia Radio Workshop enchanted. He lasted a little bit less than a presented a play entitled The Fall of the City, year in the Watson home; at the age of 10, which had been written specifically for the he absconded from the house with radio by poet Archibald MacLeish. Welles Watson’s third daughter Marjorie, also 10. played the lead role, and his voice riveted They were discovered several days later, listeners, who suddenly understood why the singing and dancing for spare change on a young actor was so unforgettable. Others in Milwaukee street corner. the cast included Burgess Meredith, the prolific Adelaide Klein, and House Baker This appears to be the moment when Jameson, the brother of pulp science fiction Dr. Maurice Bernstein, a Chicago writer Malcolm Routh Jameson. That’s a physician who was a close friend of both connection the average NFFF member would Orson’s parents stepped in to become love to see…. his guardian. He actually shared an apartment with Richard Welles, and at Welles spent the summer of 1937 producing least nominally represented Welles’ and directing a seven-part adaptation of Les interest in his son’s affairs. Bernstein Misérables for radio; after that marathon, a moved his ward from Milwaukee to stint playing a secretive crime-fighter with the Madison and enrolled him in the 4th power to cloud men’s minds must have grade there. This was possibly a year seemed like a welcome vacation from realism. behind the level where he should have (Like Walter Gibson, Welles was an avid been, and Orson was likely bored to amateur magician.) tears. Bernstein moved him again after The relentless pace of Welles’ career seemed just one term, but Orson would return for to accelerate the across the year, and it was part of least two summers at Camp highlighted by the foundation of The Mercury Indianola on the north shore of Theatre, another collaboration with producer Madison’s Lake Mendota. John Houseman. The theater was named in Orson now took up residence in the homage to THE AMERICAN MERCURY, a Chicago apartment which Bernstein literary magazine founded by H. L. Mencken shared with Richard Welles, and this and George Jean Nathan, which had a began a period which the younger reputation for publishing some of America’s Welles later termed “hectic.” Richard best writers. Welles had similar ambitions for Welles still at least theoretically owned the Theatre and with it he would create several successful businesses, and the successful works for the stage, the radio and boom economy of the 1920s made most on film, always with Welles at the center of of his interests profitable. One of these each production. The Theatre also dabbled in publishing, issuing a series of prompt books was a hotel in Grand Detour, Illinois, and record albums dramatizing four works by where the pair made their home for an Shakespeare for use in schools. extended stay – until the place burned down. Richard Welles responded by Located at 110 West 41st Street, The Mercury buying a new wardrobe and other kit for Theatre’s first effort was an adaptation of The himself and his son, then set off with him Tragedy of Julius Caesar starring John Holland on a trip to Jamaica and the Caribbean, as Caesar, George Coulouris as Marc Antony places he had seen on his honeymoon and Joseph Cotton as Publius. Welles naturally with Beatrice. Those who observed the stole the show in the role of Brutus. Norman pair during the three years they lived Lloyd, known for his 1980s work on St. [continues next page] Elsewhere, appeared as the poet Cinna. This show would eventually move to the larger ------When you could be out there betraying a rich American widow, or sipping palm wine in Tahiti… ------

9 ------Of course they’re grotty, you wretched nit. That’s why they were designed. ------Mercury in the Shadows The Precocious Mr. Welles Continued from Page 9 Continued: National Theatre on Broadway, and a touring together commented that it was difficult company starred Tom Powers as Brutus and to say which of the two was the parent Edmund O’Brien as Marc Antony. and which was the child, as Orson steadily assumed responsibility for their Julius Caesar premiered at the Mercury daily lives. Theatre on November 11th 1937, about six weeks into the run of The Shadow on the During this period, the school term Mutual Broadcasting Network. While became Welles’ refuge from the drama rehearsing the stage show – and worrying of life with his father. The next school over design, lighting, sound cues, costumes which Dr. Bernstein picked for Welles and every other element of the play – he had would prove to be his intellectual and appeared in seven episodes of The Shadow, social salvation. The Todd Seminary for with titles including “The Red Macaw,” Boys in Woodstock, Illinois was a “Murder by the Dead,” and “Death Rides the progressive private school where Welles Skyway.” Agnes Moorehead played Lamont was essentially given the freedom to Cranston’s companion and love interest design his own curriculum. Margot Lane; she had met Welles at the The fact that he had probably missed at Waldorf Astoria hotel in 1922, when she was least one year of school while traveling 21 and Welles was just seven! Actress with his father seems to have been no Jeanette Nolan appeared in the first episode, issue, and he was enrolled as the “The Death House Rescue,” and Ray Collins, equivalent of a high school freshman. another Mercury Theatre player, was a His teacher, Roger Hill, would later regular. become the school’s principal, and had a The Big Heat-Ray of 1938 very warm, fatherly relationship with his The successful run of Julius Caesar at the most illustrious pupil. As Richard Welles National Theatre continued from January 24th, now retired from any business activities 1938 to May 24th. Meanwhile, Welles and the in order to drink full time, Hill and the Mercury players had premiered an Elizabethan Todd School were just 51 miles from farce, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, on the 1st of Chicago and became Orson’s lifeline. January. And the season would conclude with Orson’s older brother, Richard Ives another popular show, a staging of Shaw’s “Dickie” Welles had also been a student Heartbreak House that premiered on April at Todd but was expelled for 29th. Welles supposedly appeared as Lamont “misbehavior.” The fact that Dickie had Cranston every week during this period, but at been intelligent enough to enroll at the least 8 of the first 26 episodes are entirely Seminary suggests that he suffered from lost, as are most details of their casting. some disorder which had manifested in Welles would give up the role at the end of the his teens. That history probably gave 1938 summer season; his last episode was Roger Hill an increased interest in “Professor X,” and aired on September 18th, Orson’s welfare and inclined him toward 1938. It was written by the prolific radio script a close relationship with his student. writer and producer Arch Oboler. On September 26th, “Traffic in Death” was the During the Christmas holiday of 1930, first episode that starred Will Johnstone as the 15-year-old Orson regretfully The Shadow. informed his father that he could no It would be natural to assume that Welles’ [continues next box] interest in the Mercury Theatre’s 1938

10 productions of William Gillette’s Too Much longer spend time with him, unless there Johnson and Danton’s Death by Georg was some change in his habits with Büchner, made him turn away from radio alcohol. This gesture at intervention might fantasies. But the opposite was true. Welles have helped Richard Welles if it had come had become so enthralled with the sooner, but by then his disease was possibilities of radio that he had split the probably too advanced to be successfully Mercury Theatre’s efforts between the stage treated, He died of heart and kidney and the studio. When CBS offered to build a failure on the 28th of December, 1930. show around him, he brought many of the Mercury players with him. The show was By the terms of Richard’s will, Orson was initially titled First Person Singular and called on to name his own guardian for the premiered on July 11th, 1938. After about a remaining years of his minority. He month, the title was changed to The Mercury approached Roger Hill, but Hill felt his role Theatre on the Air. John Houseman wrote the at the Todd Seminary made it problematic first 8 or 9 scripts, adaptations of works for him to become Welles’ legal guardian including Dracula, The Count of Monte Cristo, as well. As Maurice Bernstein had already Treasure Island, The Man Who Was Thursday acted as his representative in filings and The Thirty-Nine Steps. Bernard Herrmann, regarding his father’s estate, Welles asked later an Academy award winner, composed him to formalize the role, and Bernstein music for the program. agreed. He seems to have been a benign influence overall, and apparently honest; The show was intended as a summer Welles was able to attend the Todd replacement for the Lux Radio Hour, but CBS Seminary for four years without any decided they wanted to extend it into the fall. financial issues, despite the financial However, they moved it from relatively light crash in October, 1929. competition on Monday to a slot opposite Edgar Bergen’s popular comedy broadcast on The Todd Seminary was the ideal training Sunday night. Some critics thought it was the ground for an artist like Welles; not only best thing on radio, but audiences were did have a fine theater for stage plays and sparse. Houseman had to pass responsibility musical performance, it also had its own for writing the scripts to Howard E, Koch, who radio station! Welles made his radio debut shared an Oscar for writing Casablanca, but there in 1928, starring in his own lost over a decade of work to the Hollywood adaptation of Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes. Blacklist. His first adaptation for the program He began his lifelong love affair with was very likely the production of Jane Eyre Shakespeare at the Todd school, and even broadcast on September 18th, 1938. Welles after graduation, would use its theater as used the original acetate disc recordings of a laboratory for his adaptations of the this broadcast in 1943, preparing to play Mr. Bard. Rochester on film, and managed to damage What very few people know about Welles them beyond repair. early career is that he was also a talented This followed an adaptation of the Mercury illustrator and his first serious ambition production of Julius Caesar on September was to paint. When he graduated from the 11th, and the September 25th show was a Todd Seminary in May of 1931 (just barely distillation of William Gillette’s Sherlock 16 years old!) he had been offered a Holmes. It reunited The Shadow and his ally scholarship to Harvard University, and Police Commissioner Weston just one week Roger Hill had also arranged for Welles after Welles’ last turn as Lamont Cranston; he [continues next page] played Holmes, and Ray Collins was Dr. Watson. The next month saw an eclectic ------If you hadn’t come back, it would have been The Epilogue or The News in Welsh…for life. ------

11 ------He makes friends easy. ------Mercury in the Shadows The Precocious Mr. Welles Continued from Page 11 Continued: series of dramas based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver to attend Cornell College in Mount Twist, Booth Tarkington’s Seventeen, Edward Vernon, Iowa, a school very similar to the Ellsberg’s arctic naval saga Hell on Ice and Jules Todd Seminary. But Welles, now in Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. They were all control of some significant part of his inventive, realistic productions that received praise inheritance, decided that he wanted to from radio writers, but only a few thousand sets were travel and work on his painting and tuned to them. Most Americans apparently preferred drawing. He also spent a few weeks at listening to a ventriloquist act on the radio. the Art Institute of Chicago, where the artist Boris Anisfeld encouraged him to This changed after the October 30th broadcast, which pursue his art. adapted H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. This was a rather harrowing presentation, with a number of He visited several countries in Europe, characters burned alive “on-air” by the Martian war but it was his experience driving around machines, and some listeners apparently believed – Ireland in a donkey cart that had the briefly – that they were listening to a real news most effect on him. But as the fall broadcast. Welles acknowledged that the show was weather came on, his desire for an intended as a Halloween scare, and presented in a audience got the best of him. He walked realistic manner, but it was also clearly identified as a up to the manager of Dublin’s Gate work of fiction. Journalists probably exaggerated the Theater and announced that he was a actual “panic” allegedly inspired by the broadcast; Broadway star, and requested the after all, most of America was busy listening to courtesy of an audition. Candace Bergen’s father talk to a wooden puppet. On His story was an obvious lie, but his the radio. audition showed that he could act. He Most disturbances were likely the work of pranksters made his professional debut on October who were fully aware the broadcast was a 13th, 1931 in Jew Suss, an adaptation of dramatization but thought charging through the Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel about Joseph streets warning of an invasion from Mars was too Suss Oppenheimer, who had served as good a chance to pass up. That fleeting impression “Court Jew” in 18th Century Württemberg. that the show was somehow “real” largely depended Welles appeared in several small roles on the sequences in which the remote reporter “Carl through the winter of 1931-1932, then Phillips” described the emergence of the Martian had a larger part in a production of machines from the subterranean chamber and the Somerset Maugham’s The Circle. He terrible effects of their heat-rays. Welles need a went to London in search of more roles powerful voice to convey the terror of the scene; but was unable to get a work permit and fortunately, he had the services of the man who had returned to the United States. made The Shadow a household name in 1931. Still not interested in actually attending Frank Readick Jr. had joined the Mercury Theater on college, Welles returned to the Todd the Air by the third episode on July Seminary, where he embarked on a 25th; he played the role of Ernest DeFarge in the writing project in collaboration with Mercury production of A Tale of Two Cities. Welles Roger Hill. Everybody’s Shakespeare was had worked with Readick in preparing to play Lamont the title for the initial series, which was Cranston and most sources agree that his recorded published by “The Todd Press,” These laughter had been used in the introduction to The were lightly modernized versions of plays Shadow in 1937 and 1938. Once Welles found a including Julius Caesar, The Merchant of performer that he liked to work with, he often hired [continues next box] them for a series of productions, and Readick was

12 apparently one of these. He appeared in Mercury Venice and Twelfth Night, with notes on productions of The Pickwick Papers, A Passenger to staging and interpretation, liberally Bali, Heart of Darkness, and Around the World in 80 illustrated with Welles’ drawings. (He Days. indulged in another trip, this time to North His frantic reading of “Carl Phillips” in The War of the Africa, while working on the hundreds of Worlds was inspired by reporter Herb Morrison’s sketches.) He would continue working on terrified and grief-stricken broadcast of the Hindenburg this project into the 1940s, under its later disaster the previous year. Readick’s breathless title The Mercury Shakespeare. performance was probably the single most convincing This kept Welles occupied through the end element of the program. Today, the moment would of the spring term of 1933. After Todd’s make him a viral sensation, but in 1938, radio actors commencement ceremonies, Roger and were still mostly anonymous figures due to the simple Hortense Hill opened their Chicago home fact that listeners had no idea what they looked like. for the summer season with a party In the wake of the Halloween story, a curious new attended by the playwright Thornton audience began to follow the program, and several Wilder. Roger eagerly introduced Wilder sponsors reached out to Welles in the hopes of (another Madison native) to his most advertising on the broadcast. A deal was swiftly struck precocious student, and Welles apparently with the makers of Campbell’s Soup, and The Mercury made quite a first impression. A few weeks Theatre on the Air changed into The Campbell later, Wilder introduced Welles to New Playhouse on December 8th, 1938. The series would York’s most notorious theater critic, continue until March 31st, 1940. Several very well- Alexander Woollcott. Woollcott was also known performers made guest appearances, including impressed: he introduced Welles to Wallace Beery, Jack Benny, Regis Toomey, Joan actress Catherine Cormell. Cornell Blondell, William Powell, Helen Hayes, Loretta Young immediately had Welles read for her and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Frank Readick husband, director Guthrie McLintic. also appeared in several of these productions, McLintic immediately signed Welles to a including a turn as the Ghost of Christmas-yet-to-come contract to do three plays, Romeo and opposite Welles as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Juliet with Cornell, The Barretts of Wimpole Street and George Bernard The broadcast of The War of the Worlds had also Shaw’s Candida. The shows were rotated brought Orson Welles attention from Hollywood studios, in repertory for 36 weeks and more than st and on July 21 , 1939, he signed an unusual contract 200 performances in more than 40 cities. with RKO Pictures. It called for him to produce, write At the end of it, Welles had become one of and direct three pictures for the studio, with an the most heralded young talents in unprecedented degree of autonomy and control, America. including the right to deliver the “final cut” of those movies. With the right to cast the pictures as he liked, In 1934, Welles continued to appear on many members of The Mercury Theatre would appear stage, and made his national radio debut in the three movies he completed for RKO, including on The American School of the Air. He Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey made a trip back to Woodstock that into Fear. summer and shot his first motion picture in the town’s old firehouse, an 8-minute Frank Readick had modest parts in the first and last of short titled The Hearts of Age. He also put these films, but he would remain primarily known as a on a Theater festival on the Todd stage radio actor. He played the title character in the radio inviting several luminaries of Broadway adaptation of Smilin’ Jack in 1939, and more episodes and The Gate Theater in Dublin to appear of The Campbell Playhouse. He was in the cast of The [continues next page]

------He’s not like me. ------

13 ------I watch for judgment anxiously ------Mercury in the Shadows The Precocious Mr. Welles Continued from Page 13 Continued: FBI in Peace and War, a show sponsored by Lava with him – and by now, no one wanted to say Soap and rated the #8 program of 1944 – one place no to him, even if indulging him involved ahead of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. crossing the ocean and continuing to Illinois by train. Orson Welles probably hit the pinnacle of his career In November of 1934, Welles married by making The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942; he Chicago actress and socialite Virginia had several more triumphs as a director and Nicolson in a civil ceremony in New York. performer, but would seldom have the kind of control Nicolson’s family were so incensed at this over every aspect of a production that he had enjoyed elopement that they insisted on holding a at RKO and the Mercury Theatre. After leaving The second wedding ceremony and fantastically Campbell Playhouse in March of 1940, Welles would opulent reception on December 23rd at the make a brief return to radio drama in 1946, with The New Jersey mansion of the bride’s Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air. Original troupe godmother. Welles – still just 19 years old -- members made guest appearances on this series of endured the extravagant gifts and well- wishes with customary charm. 30-minute dramas, but it was not popular, and lasted just 15 episodes. He would remain a fascinating Virginia would appear alongside Welles on figure for the rest of his life, but never again would he stage and was cast in several of his radio know the cowardly heart of the criminal underworld plays for The Mercury Theatre on the Air. This and enjoy the power to cloud men’s minds, unless it was particularly fortunate, as the couple was with the aid of the wine cellars of Ernest & Julio might have seldom seen each other if they were not working together. Within six weeks Gallo, for whom he made so many TV commercials. of their second wedding, Welles would meet How Crime Paid producer John Houseman and embark on a Orson Welles had been the proverbial rising tide frantic succession of stage and radio which lifts all boats, but The Shadow had a loyal productions that would not pause until he departed New York for RKO Studios in 1941. audience of magazine readers and radio fans before His year playing The Shadow seems like a Welles ever appeared in the role. Their descendants minor part of this illustrious story, but it will sometimes try to minimize Welles’ contribution reached more people than almost anything because the show went on for so long after he left it, else he did, including The War of the Worlds and actors like Will Johnstone and Bret Morrison and Citizen Kane. If only Lamont Cranston played Lamont Cranston and his alter ego for so had been allowed to disguise himself as an many more episodes. But Welles had such a fierce actor reading from Julius Caesar or The upward momentum in 1937 and 1938 that anything Merchant of Venice, maybe Orson Welles he was involved in gathered extra attention. Although would have found a way to remain in the role. he had left The Shadow by the time he broadcast The War of the Worlds, people interested in an invasion from Mars were also intrigued by the possibility of clouding men’s minds. One might quibble over the tendency to favor mysticism over science, which was often the province of megalomaniacs and villains – but The Shadow was somewhere in the continuum of science fiction and fantasy hiding behind the detective plots.

As the various actors and writers who created the Mutual Network radio series moved on, the show continued to thrive with a new cast and a brace of

14 new scribes, including the science fiction Green Hornet, his ancestor the Lone Ranger, author Alfred Bester. Bester wrote at least six Peter Parker, Dexter Morgan and even Harley scripts for The Shadow in 1945, including Quinn. The Shadow’s ability to conceal his “The Mother Goose Bandit” and “The Case of identity, his relationship with the police and the Flaming Skull.” (Two shows from 1948 his eternal courtship with Margot Lane all were also by Bester, “The Man Who Was seem either anachronistic or ludicrous to a Death” and “The House That Death Built.” modern audience. The contemporary reader Death was very busy!) must appreciate Walter Gibson’s work as period fiction at best; The Shadow’s methods As the pulp era ended, the radio program would quickly make him one of the FBI’s Most would outlive the magazine by five years. Wanted fugitives today. Street & Smith stopped publishing THE SHADOW in 1949; the radio program The Shadow’s adventures were full of plot broadcast its last regular show on December complications and mysterious inventions, but 26th, 1954. Sadly, all the scripts from the last they were morally simple. The protagonist season in the fall of 1954 have been lost, as fought for good, and his antagonists served are most of the shows broadcast after 1949. the purposes evil, wittingly or not. The seems to suit the period in the lens of memory, even By the time the show left radio, The Shadow if the issues of the hour were significantly had begun to seem dated, if not an outright more complicated and morally ambiguous. But cliché. The use of tricks like hidden I am also reasonably convinced that it was the Dictaphones and disappearing ink were brief collision between The Shadow and the slightly ridiculous in a world of jet engines and saga of Orson Welles that has given the radio atomic weaponry. Fighting evil on that scale program such a prime place in the history of would require more than the power to cloud mass media in America. Both remain a men’s minds. And in the anti-Communist fury mystery that resists easy solution. of the 1950s, the Shadow’s abilities may have suggested the kind of manipulation that Americans feared most. Who is this Cranston character? Is it true he attended a meeting in 1938? But the clash of conflicting conspiracies, one meant to commit crimes and the other intended to stop them, feels quite contemporary, or at least the paranoia which they encouraged feels familiar in 2020. A modern version of The Shadow would work in the virtual world, a predatory spider consuming denizens of the dark web. He might be less Lamont Cranston and more Mr. Robot. His ability to see beyond any disguise remains a compelling asset. I didn’t set out to duplicate the work Jon Swartz did in his light survey of The Shadow’s history in THE NATIONAL FANTASY FAN, and so have ignored his footprint in features films, television etc. Over time, The Shadow was overtaken by far more eccentric or pathological characters, your Batman, your ------Now where in the city can that boy be? ------

15 ------I don't know for what this pebble is useful but it must be useful. ------Mailing Comments on Turbo-Apa #412: love them – it’s constant entertainment from October to February. Cover (Steven Vincent Johnson and Darlene P. Coltrain): Gorgeous and inventive – I liked the Gregory G. H. Rihn, AN WISCONZINE: We use of a close-up followed by the picture of dared eat at restaurants just a few times Darlene with the “whole scarf.” Also, she when things were better during the late looked she might have been an extra from one summer, but that option has disappeared of the “Brother Cadfael” mysteries! again. I think we have adapted much as you have at Chez Gregory – we divide the cooking, Lisa Freitag, AFTER WORDS #42: In its own prep and clean-up as evenly as we can. But I way, your encounter with the woman running feel like Carrie has done more than her share for office on the Republican ticket was every this year as a reaction to being free to cook bit as scary as your encounter with the white after years of arriving home well into the supremacist ninja during the protests. I evening because of her work and the wonder, did she win the election? I’m old- commute home from it. She’s become adept fashioned, and cling to the notion that a at some delicious dishes – pad thai, instant- person can actually be said to have “won” an pot biryani and panko-style tuna cakes – that election…. I thought your self-control in just make us miss our favorite places a little less. tunneling straight at her party’s racial policy (Plus we keep getting as much take-out an with your question was admirable, her anyone else – we’re not lazy, we’re showing answers nonsensical. I’d have asked her community spirit!) I’ve been exploring new about children in cages, and if she was really horizons in meatloaf and porcupine meatballs comfortable with Vladimir Putin running the myself…. country, but I’m a hothead. I appreciated your overview of various forms Glad you were amused by the dissection of of musical theater and their history. I wonder “Lydia the Tattooed Lady.” I appreciate the what criterion led the sources I saw to define compliment on my modestly proportioned and Oklahoma! as the first “modern Broadway perfectly formed footnotes, which are far from musical? Because I would agree that excessive by any academic standard. Showboat ticks off all the boxes. If you Georgie Schnobrich, OCCAM’S WHISKERS: I continue to feel this impulse toward lyrical filk quite enjoyed the story of the phantom of the – for this is surely what you proposed in your attic. Of course, the presence of the pigeon remarks on “Lydia” and other songs featuring was evidence of an unintended opening to the intensely topical lyrics – I direct you to the outside world, at which point the real terror fanzine BEAM, edited by Nic Farey and Ulrika set in for your landlady. The fact that the O’Brien. They have a history of publishing such house was refinished and was the efforts. Frenkel/Vinge house is a happy ending, as Scott Custis & Jeanne Gomoll, MADISON some people would surely have torn the place FOURSQUARE #48: This fall seemed to bring a down and started over. Our Halloween was particular riot of red maples, both in our also muted; there was a street organized for neighborhood and in the pages of the Turbo- socially distant trick or treat about 8 blocks Apa. The photos of Halloween statuary were from us, and this was publicized as the place also interesting. Our grocery store had full-size to go if your kids just insisted. Our neighbor vinyl skeletons on sale for just $40 a few st whose birthday is October 31 still decorated weeks before the holiday, and I had a lot of the yard with tombstones and vinyl cat fun imagining how to dress them up for skeletons, but they took them down within 48 maximum effect. I was thinking of getting a hours, replaced by a large inflatable – and blue suit, a red tie and an orange wig to go illuminated – turkey in a pilgrim costume. We

16 with it, but ultimately decided we were already regrooving. I now have to reload all sorts of scared enough. stuff and hope Carrie can teach it to talk to the household network again, which is, in its The fact that none of the horror movie hosts own way, as challenging as mastering World of which I have covered so far were particularly Warcraft. I have been wasting a certain abject drunks or losers does not mean that amount of time with Governor of Poker 3, such individuals had no part in the field. There never spending a dime of real money, of were so many hosts that I’m sure there were a course…. few real ghouls and murderers mixed in, although I haven’t found one yet. Greg Rihn Carrie Root, THE HOUSE ON THORNTON sent me a link to a NEW YORK TIMES article CREEK: I know you had all sorts of ideas on on the topic, and it noted that almost all of the how you would spend your retirement, and the hosts across history have been white males, pandemic has at least delayed a lot of them. so that’s one issue that a new generation of But it has been a lot of fun having you hosts will try to address. There’s been a real contribute regularly to Turbo – and much spike in the profile of horror films in the easier than volunteering to tear out ivy and African-American community with the work of blackberry at Kramer Creek, which has also Jordan Peele and shows like Lovecraft been just peachy so far. My back and Country, and a black horror movie host is the hamstrings recover from each Monday just in next logical development. I think the real time for the next one. message of the Horror Host series is how I think you have done an admirable job of re- much original entertainment came from local gifting your earrings to other ears across the stations in the early age of television and years, whenever the accumulated weight of almost all of it is essentially forgotten. them threatened to drag them off the wall. But that also raises a question about the And we have a lot of books, but we’ve both movies those hosts are purportedly there to steadily given those away over the years too. show. If you want to open the Monster Culture The real mystery is the socks – I really never up to people of color, you probably need to see you throw any away, and fantasize that at show films which have characters of color in some point the sheer mass of them will burst them – and not just Eddie “Rochester” out of their drawer like the tribbles stuffed into Anderson bugging his eyes out in the “Topper” the grain locker…. films. More recent horror has more characters Clifford R. Wind, SAM DRUCKER’S GENERAL and even protagonists of color – but also a lot STORE: I really liked this issue, Cliff, and more blood and violence, and even some sex. wanted to encourage you to “write about It’s not going to be the kind of safe yourself” in future contributions. I think I knew programming that Abbot and Costello Meet all the parts of your transition from Australia to the Mummy provided. The good news, one the USPS, but I don’t think you’d ever put it supposes, is that most horror movie hosts altogether so nicely. If I recall correctly, the today are exclusively online, and don’t have to Bulk Mail Acceptance center was at Terminal worry about the kind of censorship that Station or its Annex when we moved to Seattle broadcast media does. Eventually, we’ll in 1992. We used to take issues of SPENT consider a few of those modern practitioners BRASS down there, where they would sniff at as well. our tiny piles and toss them into the Kim & Kathi Nash, KN: The laptop I had been appropriate bin without comment. It seemed using to Zoom and attend remote fannish to take a long time for the promised mail events seems to have suffered from some slowdowns to take effect, but in the last form of early-onset dementia, and finally had month, I’ve really seen it. Packages have to be taken to the repair service for [Comments continue next page, Commodore!] ------For if it’s useless, everything is useless. So are the stars! ------

17 ------I hear oysters are good for potency. ------More Mailing Comments on Turbo-Apa #412: do the stages in Ashland, Oregon, and Stratford, Ontario and the replica Globe Clifford R. Wind, SAM DRUCKER’S GENERAL Theater in Balboa Park in San Diego have STORE, continued: routinely taken a week to their own ghosts as well? Is it part of the ten days to arrive, when they used to generally program when you set out to concentrate on appear within 3 to 5 days, regardless of Shakespeare? whether they were Priority, Parcel post or Media Mail. I’ve been waiting on a package I admire your ability to review your reading in from Kim Huett in Australia for about three such a short, spoiler-free form. Having recently weeks, and I’m sure the delay is entirely on joined the Books Without Borders discussion the American end of the transaction. group, I am making myself read on a deadline for the first time in years – and yes, the Turbo- There are p.o. box numbers that some of us in Apa has a monthly deadline, but it isn’t usually fandom will always associate with particular quite like reading an entire novel (since I’ve people. And I’ll go to my grave remembering already read my own 32-page contribution, that SF3 and MadStf always got their mail at cough-cough). I usually take longer, which box 1624. The moment I had access to the allows more time to process the work. I don’t p.o. box key was the moment I had actually know how Carrie (for example) is able to read arrived in fandom. a 323-page excursion like Emily St. John Marilyn Holt, LETTER FROM THE FARM: I read Mandel’s Station Eleven and then just move through the description of your writing and re- on to another book without pondering it for writing process, thinking all the while, “Yep, days, if not weeks. And I’m just terrible at that’s what you’re supposed to do.” I found writing reviews without spoiling the book – I your remark that you just wanted to find a way would like to write something about Station to share what you write to be particularly Eleven, indeed, may have to write something -- resonant. Fan writing has been so perpetually but it’s going to turn into Lester Bangs writing seductive because I have actually found an about Lou Reed or Nicholas von Hoffman on audience in fandom, a pretty appreciative one; Nixon. Thank goodness for fanzines, where and I find writing for them so much more maladapted writing can always find a home. appealing than trying to hook someone Jim Hudson & Diane Martin, THINGS THAT looking for a random book in an airport BEGIN WITH S: You wrote about some recent convenience store. The publishing field is exposure to anarchist theory. I certainly can’t inevitably going to contract -- we have just too argue with the statement that both political many companies trying to divide the shrinking parties remain committed to Corporate market for “hard copies.” At this point, I think Capitalism for their model of the future. But self-publishing is actually the most the Democrats seem to at least recognize that immediately rewarding area of the field – the system doesn’t work for everyone and Sturgeon’s Law certainly applies, but you want to see something other than pure free apparently can’t beat it for creating a direct market theory driving public policy. Even with relationship with a circle of avid readers. The the infusion of public money through repeated fact that such things make no money for large bailouts, I think the corporate system is publishing firms no longer seems like a good doomed. Most people making decisions within argument for looking down on them. it just want to have the most opulent house Elizabeth Matson, COAT & BOOTS: Your before it gets swallowed up the rising sea. fanzine is lovely – that photo of the house site Profit is now generally defined by a level of in Plymouth, Wisconsin was the most sublime growth which can’t be sustained even in times green and it looks like a wonderful piece of of economic expansion and seem like land. Interesting to read that the American complete fantasy in the middle of a pandemic. Players Theater has a ghost – one wonders, The truth is, it’s antisocial to be rich; my

18 dearest fantasy is to one day see it thought of I think the distinction between RPGs as we as Un-American as well. You can take me out think of them now, and Murder Mystery Party of Madison, but you can’t take the Madison games is that the latter have a specific object out of me…. – a mystery to be solved. Some LARP is just an elaborate variation on Capture the Flag, J. J. Brutsman & Tom Havighurst, and interest in the characters disappears ADVENTURES OF DA BUNNY N BEAR: Your when the game is won or lost. But in fanzine has been a real pleasure to flip Interactive Literary LARP, simply being the through, with warm and comforting topics like character is the attraction. To me, it seems a the world’s most gooey desserts and blasts of lot like theater, I remember reading Dream bright color from all the photos that you share. Park and thinking that it was going to take The pictures of the various cakes, in technology a long time to catch up to the particular, made me want to lick a spoon or average Dungeon Master’s story-telling two. I feel like our glorious food culture is one abilities, and that still seems to be true. of the least sustainable aspects of our whole doomed lifestyle, and desserts are the most I had a look at the Wikipedia page for Eugene extreme expression of that, with the possible Norman Yulish, also known as Gene London – exception of the bacon face mask. A lot of the he had quite an impressive array of talents! angst around being diabetic, as well as His program ran from 1959 to 1977, a long acknowledging the needs of people with run for a Children’s program host. He might diabetes, seems to revolve around dessert. have been wasted as a horror host – they I’ve generally adapted now to having a “real” seldom get to do their own original stories dessert, or a portion of one very infrequently, about UFOs and adaptations of H. Rider rather than trying to find some kind of Haggard. Gene London just passed away at alternative for more frequent use. I like the the beginning of 2020 – after his TV career fact that to me, the genuine dessert tastes ended, he moved to New York and opened a delicious, decadent and slightly poisonous, so retro-fashion boutique known as “Gene that I seldom finish the whole thing. But I London’s The Fan Club.” He married his might make an exception for that Boston longtime partner John Thomas in 2016. Cream Pie in the photo you shared. Karl Hailman & Hope Kiefer, QUEST FOR Walter Freitag, COMING TO GRIPS #36: The SLEEP: Nice to get an update from you guys. I story of the origins and evolution of Role- noted that Karl’s employer had promised not Playing Games is complicated, and there are to force him back to work in person before many “local variants” in the mode of the New January 1st, and I wonder how they’re feeling England Roleplaying Organization and its style now. What would actually be more dangerous, of play. I’ve been reading stuff posted online being locked up in a relatively uncrowded by Ken Fletcher of Minneapolis, talking about laboratory, or taking your chances on the Professor M.A.R. Barker and his impact on the street or anywhere else outside your house? I genesis of D&D, through his World of Tekumel. feel like we’re in for a period of far more It’s clear that the fantasy world-building intense “hunkering” in the near future – good aspect was repeated in many places by many thing we’re getting so used to it. people, and “story-telling games” have been I enjoyed the brief look into your trip across discovered again and again. I know there were country with Dee Dee, Hope, and I hope she is often heavy elements of role-play in pastimes doing okay as we descend into Seattle’s like Postal Diplomacy, and “play-by-mail” profound winter darkness. If you’d like to games were quite common in the three or four share another flash of color from your summer decades prior to the invention of the Internet. trip, please do. [Comments conclude next page, Excellency!] ------Yeah, I tried that once, but they kept slipping off. ------

19 ------Well that’s a bummer, Christopher Plummer. ------More Mailing Comments on Turbo-Apa #412: plants entirely for the exercise. So now it’s a race to see if diabetes can kill me before I get Jim & Ruth Nichols, ONCE MORE WITH FLUFF: poked to death. I was going to crow with congratulation on getting your new “walking foot,” then I was Ruth, you talked about the fleeting “peace” stopped short by the mention of your 17- between the World Wars and how much pound cat Mercury – have you noticed how suffering was caused by both the wars and the many references there are to the planet treaties meant to resolve them and concluded Mercury, or the Mercury Theatre or Lincoln- that our times are not so terrible in some Mercury automobiles or improbably huge cats ways. I think it is very valuable to try and keep named Mercury in this and the prior mailing of sight of that fact; so many things happen the Apa? The subject of my main article, the which would vex any person, yet we continue title of Walter Freitag’s editorial from last to enjoy pleasures such as electric time…where is Robert Anton Wilson when we refrigeration and 27” monitors. Have you need him? experimented with blowing text files up to 200% on your new screen? 10-point type, I Where was I? Congratulations on walking and fear you no more…. seeing things from above again. My vision seems to have remained stable for several F. J. Bergmann, A TURBULENT APA-RITION: I’m years now, but the left eye has never really so glad you have been contributing again this bounced back from the truly epic year; I find your verse generally to be the hemorrhages of 2008. That was the only whole owl, and not just a hoot. I’ve always serious complication that I’ve ever suffered enjoyed the practice of applying seemingly from my disease, but it was enough to make unromantic prose forms like grocery lists and me a pretty compliant fellow for the past police reports to poetry, so the resonance decade. Now nine months without swimming between Harpo’s Marx’s comedy trunk and has me worried – such that I’m actually your mysterious find aboard an abandoned clearing blackberry vines and other invasive ship was entirely delightful. Were I to begin writing verse again, and God knows I will once I begin to slip further away from reality, I think it would take the form of catalog listings or a Maritime weather forecast. Or lyrics to a Tom Waits song: “Act now, act now and receive as our gift, our gift to you They come in all colors, one size fits all No muss, no fuss, no spills, you're tired of kitchen drudgery Everything must go, going out of business, going out of business Going out of business sale.” In fact, that might just be our new National Anthem.     

------Cartoon by William Rotsler ------

20 Horror Host of the Month: straight hours of broadcasting, For this program, Keeping America Strong with Bob Wilkins KTVU tried to get movies that were better than the typical Grade-B fare that horror hosts had to Across the history of the field, almost all horror contend with. For example, Wilkins had the movie hosts have gone on the air wearing some honor of introducing the world Television form of gothic costume and rather heavy-handed premiere of Night of the Living Dead on January make-up. Not only does this give the host a 1st, 1972. distinctive look appropriate to the material, but it makes it much less likely they will be recognized In 1977, the double feature was split between “on the street” as a purveyor of Grade Z Cinema. two slots on Friday and Saturday nights, and But in the east San Francisco Bay, a host ruled would continue in this way until Wilkins left the the airwaves for nearly 20 years with no green or station in 1979. He also made occasional clown white make-up and dressed in a perfectly appearances as host of the weeknight 8 pm square suit and tie. His ever-present cigar was movie on KTVU, when the subject matter his only real eccentricity, and he did most seemed to be in his purview. He even did two broadcasts from the comfort of an old-fashioned years as a weather reporter on KTVU’s 10 pm rocking chair. He looked no more exotic than News broadcast, where he frequently injected Wally Cox, but Bob Wilkins (1932-2009) had a humor into his segments. When his two-year dedicated following across several TV stations contract with the news unit ended in 1974, and subgenres of film and counted Tom Hanks Wilkins declined to continue, saying he found it and George Lucas among his devoted fans. hard to be funny that late at night! He also produced two primetime documentaries for Wilkins was a genuine cinephile, with a broad KTVU, The Star Trek Dream (1975) and The Bob storehouse of Hollywood trivia to share with his Wilkins Super Horror Show (1979). The Star viewers. His humor was remarkably dry; viewers had to endure few of the puns and gags recycled from The Three Stooges that were the average horror show’s stock material. He took pride in showing good titles but also did his best to get as much humor as possible out of the bad ones. Wilkins was a native of Hammond, Indiana. His TV career began at Sacramento’s KCRA, where he wrote and produced commercials beginning in 1963. In 1964, he was asked to fill in for the host of a daytime movie telecast and made such an impression that KCRA gave him an afternoon horror show. This was originally titled Seven Arts Theater, but later changed to Bob Wilkins Presents. He would remain at KCRA through 1970, when KCRAs former station manager Tony Breen convinced Wilkins to move to a primetime slot at Oakland’s KTVU. His new show was titled Creature Features and aired at 9pm on Saturday nights. It premiered on January 9th, 1971, with a broadcast of The Horror of Party Beach and was an immediate hit, often drawing a larger audience than network programming on KTVU’s rival stations. It was so popular that KTVU added a second feature to the program, putting Wilkins in charge of 4

------Some may never live, but the crazy never die. ------

21 ------It’s a folk singer’s job to comfort disturbed people and disturb comfortable people. ------cable. It issued a series of clicks and beeps, not unlike R2-D2, and only Captain Cosmic could understand these utterances. Fans of Bob Wilkins maintain that he could easily have been a national broadcasting personality if he had possessed any interest in being one. He did numerous personal appearances, and his fans gleefully promulgated his catch-phrase, “Watch Horror Movies…Keep America Strong!” But at the height of his popularity in 1979, Wilkins began looking for someone to replace him. He seemed to regard the entire experience of hosting horror films as an extended interruption of his intended career. Eventually, John Stanley, film critic of the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE agreed to take over the Bob Wilkins as KTVU Host Captain Cosmic, KTVU prime-time show, which he would host with Wonder Robot 2T2, circa 1977. through 1984. Trek documentary was one of the earliest of This left Wilkins able to return to his original many to focus on the fan phenomenon around profession and he opened his own advertising the program, and featured interviews with Gene agency a few months later. The wit that had Roddenberry and almost all of the original series made him an entertaining TV host translated cast. The 1979 documentary was an overview of well to advertising, and his agency was the entire field of horror, and featured successful, with national clients including the contributions from his eventual replacement, Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain. In the late John Stanley. 1990s, Wilkins sold his interest in the agency Meanwhile, Wilkins had continued to live in and he and Sally retired to Reno, Nevada. He Sacramento, where he and his wife Sally raised died on January 7th, 2009, after suffering from two kids and Bob coached youth baseball. Even the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. before he started the prime-time show at KTVU, In 2008, director Tom Wyrsch released a Wilkins had begun hosting another horror documentary titled Watch Horror Films, Keep double feature program on Sacramento’s KTXL, America Strong! The 75-minute film featured Channel 40, and this show would continue to interviews with Wilkins, John Stanley and other appear into 1981, two years after his show on figures close to Creature Features. It underlined KTVU had ended. Viewers equidistant from the fact that even as most horror movie Sacramento and Oakland truly had access to all broadcasts were disappearing from American the Bob Wilkins they could want. television, Bob Wilkins continued to draw a large If this was not enough, in 1977 KTVU asked him audience. There were often more sets in to develop a Saturday afternoon science fiction Oakland turned to Creature Features than were broadcast for kids, and so Wilkins assumed the watching Saturday Night Live, traditionally seen role of Captain Cosmic, putting on a dark-visored as the equivalent of the asteroid that killed the helmet and a pair of gauntlets. This was dinosaurs in the narrow world of TV horror hosts. probably the only role in his career for which he 40 years later, every host working on TV or the had to wear a costume. He introduced old Flash Internet would love to draw the audience that Gordon serials, and a variety of Japanese Bob Wilkins walked away from in 1979. science fiction cartoons. For this show, Wilkins had a sidekick to work with. “Wonder Robot 2T2” was a genuine metal automaton and could   be controlled with a box connected to it by a

22 I REMEMBER ENTROPY DEPARTMENT This month’s selection arises from a serendipitous collision between the photo on the right and a copy of a 1962 fanzine which just happened to have a piece of writing by its subject. The photo is a portrait of science fiction author Cleve Cartmill (1908-1964), apparently taken at Solacon, the 1958 World SF Convention in Los Angeles. Astrid Bear found the photograph in her Mother Karen Anderson’s collection, but has no idea who the photographer may have been. Cleve Cartmill was a native of Platteville, Wisconsin, best known for his output in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION magazine. Prior to entering the pulp field, Cartmill had worked as an accountant, a radio operator, a newspaper reporter, and for a short time at the American Radium Products Company. He came to the attention of editor John W, Campbell Jr. in late 1940, and would write a number of stories for ASF and UNKNOWN WORLDS. He achieved his greatest profile for writing the story “Deadline” in 1944, which portrayed the struggle to develop an atomic weapon, much as was going on in Tennessee and New Mexico at the same time. Campbell had pitched the story and its particulars to Cartmill, and then had to vouch for him when the FBI came calling to investigate where he got his information. He was also credited as the co-inventor of the “Blackmill System” for high speed automatic typography. While sorting through a box of fanzines intended for auction, I came across this piece written by him in issue #1 of BIXEL, a fanzine published by the late Alva Rogers, author of A Requiem for Astounding, first husband of Andi Malala Shechter, etc., etc. I was fascinated to see that people had been decrying the over-emphasis on introspection in science fiction for my entire life, as I was born the month before this was published. Sadly, Cartmill had only a few more years to live, and would barely see the “New Wave” of science fiction he seems to predict here. I wonder what he would have thought of it? ------If a guy’s playing a hand, I let him play it. I’m no kibitzer. ------Your Friendly Neighborhood BEM Dealer The problem is this: what do we write about By Cleve Cartmill now? In a recent personal letter to the editor, I said The bomb over Hiroshima in 1945 – about that I thought current science fiction, on the which I wrote rather badly at some length 17 whole, was inanimately introspective. In his months before it happened – as I say, the reply to my letter, he asked me to expand on bomb over Hiroshima closed off the most this remark. diversified field to the writer of s-f: nuclear power. It’s hard to do this and not sound snotty. If I had written any recent things, they would have It did it in this way: The speculative been even more inanimately introspective adventures which we had been writing for than the average s-f yarn of the sixties. I years, based on nuclear power, suddenly sympathize with the problems of current s-f became current possibilities if not realities. writers and wish I could offer a solution. And since science fiction in the main deals with future possibilities, nuclear power and its If I could, I would write it in dramatic form and applications in their theoretical immediacy cut sell it to one of the magazines. off this field as a speculative source.

23 Science fiction foresaw the 100-megaton When he gets up a tree, instead of dodging bomb and its implications (for example, Bob brickbats he dodges issues. Heinlein’s “Solution Unsatisfactory”) long What we ought to do, probably, is bring back before it was a physical possibility. When it the BEM. The Bug Eyed Monster was long and became a possibility in 1945, its social and long the aegis of science fiction. It panted diplomatic effects became an actual burden after bare-breasted heroines, it dripped for living men and not an exercise for sf menace. writers. The biggest BEM today is Mr. K’s gas cloud, Those effects are shaping world thought and and what it implies. Should civilization build action as I write this. A radioactive cloud of fall-out shelters or invest in the new pills that gasses and debris is circling the globe at this protect from radiation? moment, expected to fall on civilization during the spring rains of 1962. If Joe Blow can’t afford a shelter and if his wife and mother-in-law are dead set against pill- The upshot is too immediate for s-f writers, taking, how will he protect his family? who deal mainly in problems of a future that we may never see. We shied away, as of Is a defensive move the smart thing, or should 1945, and still shy away from speculation. we take arms against our clouds of trouble and end them? If thereby we create greater Therefore, we have turned our thoughts clouds of trouble, what then? inward. What is man, why is man, where is he going? That sort of thing. It should be obvious that the BEM needs modern dress, and it can take many forms. This is all very fine, and has been the subject The above suggestions cover only minutely in one aspect or others of some rewarding one small aspect of the broad field of menace “mainstream” fiction. But when you try to fit it that exists today and can be extrapolated ad into the traditional format of science fiction it infinitum. sometimes becomes dull reading, talky, pedestrian, probing without action. Science fiction writers are feeling their way, probing for a breakthrough as significant as The late Hank Kuttner once told me, “First you space travel was to early science fiction. get your hero up a tree. Then you throw rocks at him.” This was science fiction: action and They’ll find it. Space travel, BEMs and nuclear reader identification. And if the story started to power were once the standbys. They need sag, you had somebody walk through a door replacing. And one of these days, some writer (or a wall) with a blaster in his hand. – perhaps a beginner – will come up with a basic idea that can be exploited, explored and It wasn’t sophisticated, maybe: it wasn’t slick. expanded so that s-f may become an exciting But it was entertaining, and if the writer wove in a philosophical theme it seemed to have and respectable art form. stature. Certain experiments are encouraging. Rod The primary purpose of fiction is to entertain. So Serling, Dick Matheson, and Charlie says Somerset Maugham, who ought to know. Beaumont are doing and have done some good, twisty things on THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This is what science fiction seems to have stopped doing some time ago. The hero starts These men are established in the field, but the on a perfectly legitimate project of mayhem, field is wide open to newcomers. arson and world-saving, and he soon becomes As a reader, I want menace – suspense. This heavy laden with problems of a social, means BEMS in one form or another. A galaxy religious or sexual nature and all he does is can be a menace. So can a neutron. talk about them. ------If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. ------

24 ------Sales will plummet, all because of this beef-witted Klingon! ------Fanmail From Some Flounder Department: Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK In your comment to my letter, you said Jerry Kaufman that fandom gave the Sad Puppies their [email protected] nickname. I believe that the Puppies named themselves, and the Wikipedia October 23rd, 2020 entry seems to support this, but it would First, a digression - I've found my copy take too much searching to find Larry of Lovecraft Country, and am rereading it. Correia's original manifesto or post to If you want to read it after I'm done, I'll confirm this and the reason for the name. lend it to you. I'm still in what amounts to [APH- A lot of good questions to reply to here, the first one or two episodes of the TV the least-interesting being the Sad Puppies; I series and finding it more faithful than I had forgotten they had devised their own remembered. I still haven't watched nickname. I tried to go to a reading by Alan episode 10, but maybe later today... Ginsburg in Madison in the 1980s, but it was “sold out,” Happily, he also made a memorable appearance on “The Vern and Evelyn Show” a Was there actually a gum card series public access TV program hosted by two mice. about Lafayette, or even the War for Independence? I guess Taral would be the As has already been observed elsewhere, a gum card that could have accommodated the entire right person to ask. Anyway, I think I Lafayette manuscript could be used as an learned a lot about him from your bio. Are effective sunshade, or possibly a billboard. I am you thinking of doing similar pieces for the reasonably confident that someone has actually other Europeans who helped the issued a “gum card,” featuring Lafayette at some revolutionaries, like von Steuben or point in the last 170 years, which is roughly how Pulaski? My minimal knowledge of them long something like “trading cards” have been suggests they'd be good subjects. around. He was definitely featured on cards that were sold with tobacco products, such as this example sold with Little Bengal cigars between Some very good linos this time, and I have 1910 and 1912: even seen or heard several, though I can't identify the sources of most of them. I think the ones on page 26 and 30 are from Fargo, but I'm not certain.

Your comment to Elizabeth Matson about the old ways of creating fanzines made me think of the week's Betty comic strip so far this week. Betty wonders why we call cell phones "phones" when so few people use them for making calls; her husband turns to his laptop and says, "I'll look that up on the typewriter."

I feel a twinge of envy when I read that you heard Borges read; do I give you one when I says that I heard Atwood and Ginsburg (at different times) read their work?

25 If you zoom w-a-a-y into the little piece of paper in Gilbert’s hand, you can read this quote: “I made it my pride and pleasure to fight under American colors.” The card was created during the boom in color lithography that also fueled the postcard craze of the early 20th Century. The back of the card features a number of facts and biographical details:

And then one runs into athletes named after Lafayette. Lafayette Thompson played for the New York Giants in the 1930s (and surely they posed him with St. Louis second baseman Napoleon Lajoie). Basketball player Lafayette “Fat” Lever was featured on a variety of cards in the 1980s and 1990s. Milwaukee Brewer pitcher Delancey Currence went by his middle name, Lafayette, and he appeared as Lafayette Currence on card #253 of the rather obscure 1976 SSPC series, his only baseball card. I also found Any effort to search for a modern trading card a card featuring pitcher Sandy Koufax in a for the Marquis is complicated by the fact that basketball uniform at Lafayette High School. trading cards, like most things, have now gone digital; one can spend real money on “limited I encountered another Lafayette and Napoleon, edition virtual trading cards” available for just a two dogs providing comic antagonists in the 1970 few hours before they are “taken out of feature film The Aristocats. The Disney Wiki circulation.” But digital cards are also created informs us that Napoleon was a pure-bred for educational or nominally charitable motives bloodhound, while Lafayette was a basset hound. and there seem to be a lot of Middle School A printer in Sweden issued a set of trading cards classes out there generating their own sets of inspired by the film in 1973. Sadly, their card digital American Revolution trading cards. contains no background information, not even the fact that the characters were voiced by Pat In 2008, Topps, the AT&T of trading cards, Buttram and George “Goober” Lindsey. issued a set of “American Heritage” cards which featured 10 Heroes of the Revolution, but All this was learned from about 20 minutes of Lafayette was not among them. In the past web surfing. An expert in non-sports cards, like decade, Topps has resurrected the Allen & Ginter Taral, could probably find out more. And I’m brand, which made collectible cigarette cards in wondering when the Lovecraft Country cards the 19th Century. So far, they have not issued a will come out – they already have a fine series card of Lafayette, as Allen & Ginter did in 1888: for The Walking Dead, of course! ------How do you expect to take over the world when you can’t even find Madagascar? ------

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