The Reverend Gary Davis.
Reverend Gary Davis - I Heard the Angels Singing (youtube.com)
The original fastest man alive was created by writer Gardner Fox of the anthology comic Flash Comics #1 (dated January 1940); the same issue also featured the first adventures of Hawkman and Johnny Thunder. The publisher, All-American Publications, would later merge with others to eventually become what is now DC Comics. The original Flash was college student Jay Garrick, who accidently inhaled "hard water vapors" while working for his academic advisor Professor Hughes. These vapors gave him the power to run at superhuman speeds and to have likewise fast reflexes. Later tweakings of the original story had the vapors come from "heavy water" which contained a mutagen.
Fox based his creation on the Roman god Mercury; artist Harry Lampert took a depiction of Mercury from a dictionary and blended it with his original vision of Jay Garrick. The Flash's costume had a lightning bolt emblazoned across the front, red boots, and a winged helmet.
The Flash soon joined the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics while continuing to appear in Flash Comics. He got his own title in All-Flash Quarterly, beginning with the November 1941 issue. When the comic book moved from its quarterly status to bi-monthly it became simply All-Flash. Flash Comics ran for 104 issues; All Star Comics ran for 54 issues during its original run; All-Flash lasted for 32 issues. With the final issue of All Staar Comics in March 1951, Jay Garrick's days as The Flash were over. The Superhero would not appear again for ten years, and then revamped as Barry Allen, the second in a long line of characters who took up the mantle of the Flash.
All-Flash Quarterly#1 starts with a recap of how Jay Garrick got his powers and how he eventually turned those powers into fighting crime. The only person to know his secret is his life-long friend Joan Williams.
Several years pass and Jay, now out of college, is working at Chemical Research Corporation for old Mr. Norris, who has invented KZ-10, a formula that can turn corpses into stone -- something that should revolutionize the embalming industry. Callen, the gangster who runs the Ritz-Kat Club, learns of the formula and decides to us it for his own purposes. He kidnaps Norris and gains the formula. Anxious to test it, he orders his lackeys to kidnap people off the street for test subjects. One of the people happens to be Joan Williams. Another is a young mother whose daughter is now in tears. Soon the Flash and the little girl are also kidnapped and turned into stone. Garrick had been working on a blood plasma serum that would eliminate all four blood groups so that one serum would work of all people. (Don't ask. This is comic book science.) And Barry had been injected with the serum, which -- very conveniently, I might say -- works to eventually counteract the effects of KZ-10. Barry escapes, gives Callen a dose of his own medicine, and rounds up Callens lackeys -- who, it turns out, were about to kidnaps Joan's father, a wealthy industrialist. Callen is remorseful, disavows his evil ways, and begs to be punished by the justice system.
Phew! That's a lot to unpack there...
In the next adventure, The Flash tackles "The Monocle" and his Garden of Gems. Joan is the costume designer for a fancy fashion show where the models are to wear hats encrusted with valuable gems. A canister of gas is released in the dressing room, the models fall unconscious, and the hats are stolen. Is the fashion show ruined? Au contraire! Garrick, who thinks all the hat designs were laughable, get some material, rushes home, and -- using his super-speed -- created a number of hats for the show. Of course he thinks his designs are ridiculous and is stunned to find they are a huge hit. The fashion show is a success and hats are selling like hotcakes. But now it's time for the flash to find the missing hats and the $500,000 worth of jewels that adorned them. The bad guy is The Monocle, who places each gem inside a flower in his garden, so that the gems take the place of a flower's pistil. (Don't ask why. It's comic book logic.) Unable to find a clue to the missing hat and gems, Garrick stops by the Carson bank to make a deposit just as The Monocle's thugs are robbing the bank. He captures the bad guys but is lured to The Monocle's hangout where there are all manner of scientific traps. The Monocle escapes in a small plane by The Flash, using his speed powers, jumps on the plane in midair and captures the gang leader. What the Flash does not realize is that The Monocle has sent some of his men to kidnap Joan; what The Monocle does not realize is that The Flash has accidently made it possible for the police to capture The Monocle's men and save Joan. Funny how that all works out.
Cowboy Jack is a rodeo star and someone tried to kill him by placing poison on the horns of a bulldogging steer. The Flash manages to prevent that but does not know who wants to kill Jack or why. Then the bad guys try to gun Jack down but are prevent from doing so by The Flash. Again, Garrick has no idea why this is happening. The Cowboy Jack gets a telegram that his father has struck oil on his Oklahoma ranch. Another attempt is made on Jack's life before he boards the train for home, and a fourth attempt is made when he arrives in Oklahoma. The flash is there in both places to foil these attempts. Jack's father did not have the money to buy all the equipment so he took out a mortgage on the farm. aha! now it is clear. The bad guys will first eliminate Cowboy Jack, then his father, and finally his mother, and the oil rights will be theirs for the taking. A brilliant plot! But the main ne'er-do-well, Benton, did not plan on The Flash...
The final adventure of The Flash in this issue centers on ice hockey. "When Joe Vickers went to see the Redshirts, Brilliant League hockey team play, he intended to buy the team with his entire savings of a lifetime. But he did not know that Gunner Parker had an interest in the team...or that Dagger Daniels, gangster and racket king, was out to get Parker..." And in two shakes of a lamb's tail (or, perhaps, a shake and a half of a winged helmet), The Flash get involved to save Vickers and to ensure that hockey remains the good, clean game it always was.
Also included among the extras are brief bios of Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert.
Enjoy.
AFQ_1941_2.pdf (wasabisys.com)
The Rare Breed by Thoedore Sturgeon, 1966
An original paperback novelization of 1966 film, The Rare Breed marks one of Stugeon's few excusions into the western (the others being The King and Four Queens, another film novelization, and Sturgeon's West, an outlier collection of stories, some written with Don Ward). The film was a romantic comedy set in the West, while Sturgeon's take was a western with traces of romance and humor.
1884. Martha and Hilary Evans, mother and daughter, have sailed from England with four Hereford cows and one bull in an attempt to introduce the breed to the American west. Herefords are studier and beefier than the scrawny Texas longhorns that predominate in the west; with the advent of rail due in the next few years, surely the day of the Hereford and the doom of the longhorn cattle drive was sure to come. It was the dream of Martha's husband to introduce Herefords to America, but he and the six Herefords he had with him drowned in an Atlantic crossing two years before. Now it's up to Martha to realize her husband's dream.
But things do not go well for Martha. Both she and Hilary are staunchly nationalistic, placing British values over American. At a St. Louis cattle auction, Martha manages to inflame the ire of the cattlemen and, due to an unfamiliarity with American auction practices, essentially loses her four cows to underbidding. Worse, the cows are now meant to be used as milch cows rather than breeding stock. Left only with the giant bull, Vindictor, to auction off. Martha manages to reverse course and get an outstanding bid for the animal; the bid came from an unscrupulous rancher bidding for a partner deep in the heart of Texas. Half the money was paid up front; the remaining half to come when the bull is delivered to the partner down south.
But vindicator was never meant to go down south. The evil rancher, Ellswoth, intends to claim the bull for himself. (In the film, this is somehow due his wanting Martha; in the novel his motive is not as clear but it involves vindictiveness and greed.) Ellsworth sends two of his hired killers -- Simons and Mabry, both as mean as rattlesnakes but nowhere near as intelligent -- to follow the bull on his trip south and to stop it from reaching its final destination. He hires wrangler Sam "Bulldog" Burnett to keep an eye on the two. But Burnett is honest and has plans of his own.
Martha and Hilary decide to accompany the bull to Texas and to deliver him personally. Sam is persuaded to guide them. Most of the story that follows is a clash of cultures, with Sam and Hilary both displaying pigheadedness par excellence, interspersed with poetic descriptions of the west and detailed descriptions of the cowboy way of life. The story ends in a rush, tying up all loose ends in a cramped five pages, and basically ignoring the last third of the film.
The major character points of the book are the clashes between the headstrong Hilary and the equally headstrong Sam, with Martha calmly acting as referee. This comes across as strange because the never truly stated love story is between Sam and Martha. Also strange is the fact that the best character in the novel is vindicator, the gentle giant of a bull, who faithfully comes when you whistle "God Save the Queen."
A mixed bag but enjoyable and worthwhile reading. To my knowledge, the book has never been reprinted beyond its original paperback appearance.
The film, if you ever happen to catch it, stars Jimmy Stewart as Sam, Maureen O'Sullivan as Martha, and Juliet Mills as Hilary. (I have a hard time picturing Stewart as the Sam portrayed in the novel.) In a sublime bit of casting, Jack Elam and Harry Carey, Jr. are cast as the not too bright Simons and Mabry. The film also featured an very early score by John Williams, credited as "Johnny Williams."
G. K. Chesterton's famous priest-detective Father Brown (his first name is a mystery; it may be Paul, or it may start with the letter "J") first appeared in 1910; the first collections of stories, The Innocence of Father Brown, appeared the following year and included "The Eye of Apollo" (from The Saturday Evening Post, February 25, 1911). In it, Brown encounters a cult, The Church of Apollo, run by the charismatic Kalon. When Kaon's wife dies suddenly, it's up the clever little priest to untangle the mystery.
Chesterton's character has been featured a number of times on film and on television and has been the subject of four radio series. The first, in 1945, featured Karl Swenson as the title character in Mutual Radio's The Adventures of Father Brown. Leslie French played Brown on BBC Radio in 1974 in a brief series that celebrated Chesterton's centennial. Then, in 1984, Andrew Sachs took over the role in Father Brown Mysteries for a BBC Radio 4 series -- it is from this series that the episode linked below came from. Finally, JT Turner became the priest in a series of 16 stories adapted for Boston's Colonial Radio Theater in 2013.
Andrew Sachs, the star of this particular episode, may best known for portraying Manuel, the hapless Spanish employee of Fawlty Towers.
Enjoy this outing, scripted by John Scotney.
John Creasey's The Honourable Richard Rollison,. a.k.a. The Toff, takes center stage in this comic book adaptation of his 1955 novel A Six for the Toff (also published as A Score for the Toff. You don't need to know much about cricket to follow this story.
"Richard Rollison was an adventurer -- a man known to the world as 'The Toff,' and feared by the underworld as an enemy of crime. Like most Englishmen he was fond of cricket, and it was just as he was about to leave for the oval that one of his most dangerous adventures began."
The American jewel collector Connor McGinn has telephoned the Toff with an offer of a thousand pound fee. When McGinn fails to appear at a scheduled morning meeting, Rollison proceeds to the cricket match, Jolly, Rollison's manservant, suspects something is off and goes to McGinn's hotel room, but the wealthy American is not there. A mysterious woman, Bella Daventry, is also looking for McGinn, as are New Scotland Yard, which had been asked to keep a protective eye on McGinn by the american authorities.
A man called Jeremiah meanwhile had headed to the cricket match where he hoped to meet Rollison. when he arrived he was struck by a car and killed. Bella Daventry saw the entire thing and recognized the man who had cause the fatal accident. She goes to his loft to confront him and he attacks her with a knife. Rollison had followed Bella and tries to stop the attack, but the man is killed in the struggle by Bella, who then flees.
This is where things begin to get complicated. Various thugs attempting to harm Rollison, murder attempts, a supposed kidnapping, and a beautiful damsel n distress (who may not be so innocent), and Rollison still has no idea what is behind it all. On top of that, he's missing his beloved cricket match! Luckily Rollison also has the help of Jolly and of East End gym owner Bill Ebbut (although in this comic book the name is spelled 'Ebbutt")...
Enjoy.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95806&comicpage=&b=i
Creasey created the Toff in 1933; the first Toff novel was published in 1938. The Toff stories originally followed a popular template of an aristocratic gentleman adventurer who operates outside legal boundaries; in later adventures, the Toff has lost his fortune in an economic collapse and becomes a private detective for hire. Creasy published 60 novels and one play about the character -- perhaps his most popular -- as well as a number of short stories. Following Creasey's death William Vivian butler published an additional novel. The character, played by John Bentley, appeared in two films in 1952, and six early Toff novels were serialized on Australian radio in the late 1940s with Robert Burnard as Rollison, and two further novels were adapted for BBC radio in the mid-70s. starring Terrence Alexander. The Super Detective Library had previously adapted a Toff novel in 1955 -- The Toff at Buntlin's (#61).
Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh (first published in England in 1951 as Opening Night; serialized in Woman's Day (US) and in Woman's Journal (UK, March to May, 1951); included in the omnibus Three-Act Special, 1960; included in 3 x 3 (Three Times Three) Mystery Omnibus, Volume 3, edited by Howard Haycraft & John Beecroft, 1964; adapted for television [and co-written by Marsh] as Night at the Vulcan for The Philco Television Playhouse, August 26, 1951, adapted as Opening Night for Television New Zealand in 1977 featuring George Baker as Roderick Alleyn [later broadcast on PBS as the first American screening of a New Zealand television series]; adapted for BBC radio in the 1990s as Opening Night. featuring Jeremy Clyde as Roderick Alleyn )
It has been some thirty years since I last read a Ngaio Marsh mystery so it's high time I got back to her books and yo her detective, Metropolitan Police Inspector Roderick Alleyn.
Night at the Vulcan lies smackdab in the middle of Marsh's books about Alleyn; it was the sixteenth of thirty-two books featuring Alleyn published in her lifetime (one additional book, the unfinished Money in the Morgue was completed by Stella Duffy and published in 2018, thirty-six years after Marsh had died). It was one of six novels set in the theater -- Marsh's great passion; three other novels concerned actors off-stage; Marsh also wrote on theatrical short story featuring Allyn -- "I Can find My Way Out," (first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1946), which is referenced in Night at the Vulcan.
Martyn Tarne is a nineteen-year-old actress who had just arrived in London. She has had some success in touring companies in her native New Zealand and hopes to further her career in England. Unfortunately, all her money, as well as her press clippings, were stolen when she arrived. Now she is dead-broke with no place to live and has had no luck with theatrical agencies. After making the rounds of almost all the theaters in London, she turns to the Vulcan, a newly reopened and renamed theater which had been closed for years following a notorious murder. The theater is readying for the premiere of a new play and Martyn sneaks in, hoping merely to find a hidden corner where she can sleep. The manager of the theater is famed actor Adam Poole, who happens to be a distant relation to Martyn, a second cousin once removed, or something like that; Poole has no idea of the relation and had no idea that he had relations in New Zealand. Yet there is a strange physical resemblance between Poole and Martyn -- something that turns out to be significant. Poole is also cast as the star of the new play. Through a set of coincidences, Martyn is hired to be the dresser for the play's leading lady, the noted Helena Hamilton; Helena and Poole have has a relationship that is beginning to wear out, although they both have great respect for each other.
Also in the cast is Helena's estranged husband, Clark Bennington, a once talented actor who has begun a slide to oblivion through his alcoholism. Bennington has brought his niece, Gay Gainsford, to the cast as the ingenue. Gay does not have the talent needed for the role but Bennington insists that she take it; the role depends on Gay's resemblance to Poole, something she has difficulty portraying through physical cues. (You see where Martyn's resemblance to Poole comes in here, don't you?) Rounding out the cast are character actor J. G. Darcey and "juvenile" lead Parry Percival; Percival resents being cast in such a minor role. The playwright is Dr. John James Rutherford, an overly dramatic, highly critical, self-proclaimed genius who spends much of his time belittling Gay's insubstantial talents.
Gay is becoming more and more unsteady in her role. Poole, noticing the resemblance between himself and Martyn, makes her Gay's understudy -- which causes rumors that Martyn might be Poole's love child from a tour he did of New Zealand twenty years before. There are only a few rehearsals left before opening night. then, on opening night Gay has a complete breakdown and refuses to go on stage. With only half an hour before curtain, Martyn is forced to take over the role. She succeeds wonderfully and the play appears to be a success. Only a few minutes before the final curtain, Bennington makes his final appearance, then exits. He does not appear during curtain call and his body is found in his dressing room, an apparent suicide, his death echoing that of the tragedy five years before in the theater.
The first half of the novel goes into great detail with the characters and the work needed to stage the play. The author's enthusiasm for the theater really shines here. The reader also gets to see how much Bennington is hated by everyone involved in the play. Everybody has a motive, no matter how specious.
Enter Roderick Alleyn and his associated from the C.I.D. Alleyn has good reason to believe this supposed suicide was actually murder. His brief investigation takes place at the theater on the evening of the murder. The murderer is revealed and the motive -- merely hinted at before -- is made clear.
The novel is a well-written, character-driven mystery and a paean to the theater that Dame Ngaio Marsh so loved. Part of me, unlike with Marsh's other novels, did not give a hoot about whodunnit; I just wanted to keep reading about the theater and the marvelous people that the author had created.
Recommended.
It should be noted that one of Alleyn's assistants in this case was P.C. Lord Michael Lamprey, who had been a child witness in the 1941 novel A Surfeit of Lampreys (US title Death of a Peer) and a young man eager to join the police force in "I Can find My Way Out."
That little statuette may have been "the stuff that dreams are made of, but I submit that Dashiell Hammett's novel and John Huston's film have been the stuff that detective fiction fans have been dreaming of for more than eighty years.
We all know the plot. As Sam Spade tracks down the killer of his partner Miles Archer he encounters Kasper Gutman and his cronies who are searching to the legendary Maltese Falcon, a statuette that may be as substantial as dreams. In this radio version, based on John Huston's screenplay, Spade is played by Edward G. Robinson (if you can't get Bogart as the tough guy, go with Little Caesar), Gail Patrick is Bridget O'Shaughnessy, and Laird Cregar is Kasper Gutman. Buried down in the cast was Bea Benaderet, who would go on to fame as the "Busy Bea," with more than 1000 radio and television appearances, including as Blanche Morton on the Burns and Allen shows, the voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones, and Kate Bradley on Petticoat Junction.
Cecil B. DeMille was the host and John Milton Kennedy served as the show's announcer.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T12ew2uBwfY
Eight Spells a Week, anonymously edited (Sabrina the Teenage Witch #17; Archway Paperbacks, 1999)
Sabrina the Teenage Witch was a comic book character who premiered in Archie comics universe in Archie's Madhouse #22 (October 1962). I had aged out by that time. Never read her. the Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic book ran from 1971 to 1983 for 77 issues. I read nary a one.
A younger version, Sabrina -- the Cute Little Witch, appeared in the Little Archie comics. Again, I was too old. Never read her.
In 1970, The Sabrina the Teenage Witch Show was an animated series on CBs, running for four seasons. But, hey, I was a grown-up with a new family, so nope.
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch became a live action television show on September 27, 1996 on ABC for four seasons. It moved to the WB for its final three seasons, ending on April 24, 2003. It starred no-longer-a teenager Melissa Joan Hart (formerly of Clarissa Explains It All -- never saw that one -- and later of Melissa and Joey -- again, never saw this one) as Sabrina. Needless to say, I never saw this one either. There were also three mad-for-television films, none of which I saw.
A new run of the comic book began shortly after the television premiere. This one ran for 32 issue from 1997 to 1999. Again, this flew under my radar.
Hart was also the primary voice on Sabrina: The Animated Series for all of its 65 episodes on ABC and UPN in 1999. Nope, never had a glimpse of that one, either. The final 199 issue of the comic book provided a bridge for a new comic book series, beginning in January 2000, based on the animated series. This one was titles Sabrina, and it lasted for 37 issues before being retrofitted as Sabrina the Teenage Witch for another 20 issues; it was then turned into a manga comic, which lasted until issue #104 in September 2009. Not a single issue passed under my soulful brown eyes.
Along the way Sabrina made many appearances throughout the Archie-verse, but none that I saw.
In 2013, the Hub Network ran Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch for one season before the producers went bankrupt. Never saw it.
The comic book The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a darker reimagining of the character, began in October 2014. It is still ongoing. Never read it.
In 2017, it was announced that a Sabrina one-shot would be published as part of the "New Riverdale" reimagining, which updated the characters in the Archie-verse to be more realistic and have more mature themes. The one-shot never happened. Finally, in 2018, a five-issue mini-series came out to great acclaim. It was followed by a 2020 min-series and a Sabrina Winter Special.
Also in 2017, a live-action series of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, featuring Kiernan Shipka in the title role, was picked up by Netflix for a two0-season run. Netflix finally aired the series in four parts, from October 26, 2018 to December 31, 2020. This one I did watch. My considered opinon: meh.
Clearly I am not part of the Sabrina demographic.
So why read an anthology of stories published for the YA audience, but clearly meant for even younger readers?
Two words: Ray Garton.
Sabrina has had a long publishing history: fifty original novels and two collections, from 1997 to 2003, in the original series, six books based on television episodes, fifteen books in the Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Salem's Trials series, and four miscellaneous titles. That does not count various collections from the comic books and manga series, nor does it count the three recent The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina tie-in titles.
Ray Garton, who passed way far too soon this past April at age 61, was an accomplished horror novelist. He was named World Horror convention Grand Master in 2006. In addition to his 25 horror books and two collections, he penned four film novelizations, nine young adult novels (eight under the pseudonym "joseph Locke." which he used to prevent his YA audience from accidently reading his books that were geared for a much older audience), and three anthologies. (One of his novels, The Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting, had been published as non-fiction. Garton had been hired by spiritualist shysters Ed and Lorraine Warren to write the story of the Snedecker's, a family whose home was supposedly haunted by anal-rapist demons, and of the Warrens' involvement in the case. When Garton complained that the family was making wildly contradictory claims, the Warrens told him to "use what works and make the rest up. And make it scary." When Garton announced his role in the book, the Warrens and the Snedeckers denounced him. At one time, The Dark Place was listed as one of the most sought after books on Abebooks. BTW, Ed Gorman was also a ghost for the Warrens, and I doubt his experience was any more positive.)
Anyway, Garton penned three of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch novels (two under the Joseph Locke pseudonym), as well as the story in this collection. When I was looking for something by Garton to read, this anthology came to light; most of my other Garton books are in storage.
The conceit of Eight Spells a Week is that Sabrina accidently breaks a magic mirror. For a mortal, this would mean seven years of bad luck, but as a half-witch Sabrina is to face only seven days of bad luck -- super bad luck, unfortunately. Each of the episodes is written by authors who have contributed earlier to the paperback series.'
Sunday: The Mirror Crack'd Up" by Nancy Holder. Sabrina is to attend her high schools annual Mother-Daughter-Primary-Caregiver/Court-Appointed-Guardian/Parole-Officer/Big Sister Tea. Because Sabrina's mother is a mortal, she is forbidden to see Sabrina before her 18th birthday, or she (the mother, not Sabrina) will be turned into a ball of wax. No problem, because her mother is on an archeology dig in Peru and Sabrina's Aunt Zelda was to attend with her. Zelda is called away on with business at the last moment and Sabrina does not want to go alone because the mean girls would make fun of her. So she magically transports her mother to the high school. All she has to do is not been seen by her mother. Nancy Holder is a popular writer of tie-in novels, most notably in the Buffy-verse; she has written four novels and one collection about Sabrina.
"Monday: The Interview" by Diana G. Gallagher. Sabrina intends to interview a world-famous author for her school paper. After she has committed to the interview, she discovers that the author absolutely refused to interviews with anyone at any time. Diana Gallagher has written television tie-ins for Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the Buffy-verse, Charmed, Smallville, Sonic X, Star Trek, The Journey of Allen Strange, and The Secret World of Alex Mack, as well as eleven Sabrina tie-ins.
"Tuesday: Smitten" by Ray Garton. Sabrina's on-again, off-again human boyfriend (as opposed to her on-again, off-again half-witch boyfriend) appears to have gone completely ga-ga over a new girl in school and Sabrina is jealous. Sabrina does not want to go back to going steady with him, but then again...she decides to use a spell to get him to temporarily fall for a girl he could never care for. Spells can't go go awry, can they?
"Wednesday: Love Canal" by Mel Odom. Wanting to get away from his bad luck for a while (and figuring the bad luck would not travel with her), Sabrina decides to of on a dream date with her sometimes-boyfriend, Harvey. Enchanting him to believe he is dreaming all of this, she transports the two of them (and Salem, her familiar) to Venice. Unfortunately, a television crew from a popular show in her hometown is also there and photographs Harvey knocking the venetians dead with his karaoke version of a Monkee's song...and they plan to air it the next morning. Mel Odom has written dozens of books in a variety of fields: action-adventure, computer strategy guides, fantasy, game-related fiction, juvenile movie novelizations, science fiction, and young adult, as well as comics. Among his many books are seven novels in the Buffy-verse and seven Sabrina novels.
":Thuirsday: Thursday's Child Works for a Living" by Mark Dubowski. For five weeks the school's Spirit Club had been working on a special prop for the upcoming pep rally and football game -- a ten-foot long, mechanized version of the school mascot, the Fighting Scallion (the mascot was mean to be a Fighting Stallion, but a typo back in the school's history changed that). Tresting the animated Scallion, Sabrina accidently blows its motor. It will cost $50 to get a new motor and the Spirit Club's coffers has only $2.50. How can Sabrina come up with $50 fast? She manages to get a job assembling the popular Puzzle Dolls, which have become a fad akin to Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch Kids. the orders are too much for the staff to handle and the company may go under. Can Sabrina save the company and earn her 450 without resorting to magic? Mark Dubowski has written fiction and nonfiction for young adults and children, including three Sabrina tie-ins, two of them with his wife, Cathy East Dubowski (who follows).
"Friday: The Play's the Thing" by Cathy East Dubowski. the high school drama club is potting on an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and are going through a final rundown before the evening's performance. Sabrina trips, knocks over a ladder, and gets a bucket of paint spilled on both the cast and the set. The only thing that can save the show is a bit of Sabrina's magic, but every spell she casts seems to make it worse. Cathy East Dubowski, wife of Mark Dubowski, has written more than 100 books for children and young adults, specializing in novelizations of movies and literary classics. She has written ten Sabrina books, including two with her husband.
"Saturday: Reflections in a Mirror Crack'd Up" by David Cody Weiss and Bobbi JG Weiss. Sabrina casts a spell to see what her life will be like in the not-too-distant future (as opposed to the near future), sitting in front of her television to watch her future play out. Did I mention that spells often go awry? this time, she is sucked into the television and and has to live her future, rather than just watch it. The authors have collaborated on a number of tie-in franchises, including Smallville, Star Trek, and The Journey of Allen Strange, as well as on eight Sabrina novels.
Because magic and spells can go awry (and for no other reason that I can see), Sabrina's curse of bad luck continues for an eighth day.
"Sunday: Mom vs. Magic" by David Cody Weiss and Bobbi JG Weiss. This one is based on one of the television episodes. Salem is freaking out because his mother is coming to visit and she is unaware that he has been turned from a warlock to a cat as punishment for trying to take over the world. Meanwhile Zelda and Hilda are on a visit to their mother, who always favored Zelda, and Harvey is having trouble trying to get the perfect gift for his mother. Sabrina knows she cannot see her mother but she misses her and sends her a letter via magic; that, however, is against the rules, and the Witches Council has decreed that Sabrina must choose: either never see her mother again or relinquish her witch powers forever. This one has one line that almost made the entire book worthwhile for me: "Could you help me buy a present for my mom? Last time I got her a can opener. I have to stop taking gift advice from my dad."
So Sabrina's bad luck -- her super bad luck --is nothing much, although i suppose it might be to a sometimes thoughtless teenager. Sabrina, IMHO, is basically a turnip-brained fathead throughout, but what do I know? I'm not an eleven-year-old girl form whom this book seems targeted.
There were a few smirks along the way, but basically this falls into the I-read-so-you-don't-have-to category.
Ray Garton's story, by the way, paled in comparison to the three novels he wrote for the series.
Roscoe Karns stars as Inspector Rocky King. three hours before Dayton Merrill is scheduled to be executed for murder, King gets a phone call from the man who claims to be the real murderer. King is unable to get a stay of execution based on the telephone call alone, so he and Detective Sergeant Lane (Earl Hammond) must race against time to find the evidence that would save an innocent man's life.
Also featuring Todd Karns (Roscoe's son) as Sergeant Hart, and the voice of Grace Carney as Rocky King's wife (who is heard but never seen in the series). Included in the cast of this episode were Somar Alberg, Ward Costello, John Anderson (Psycho, Eight Men Out, The Satan Bug), and Anne Roberts. The announcer was Ken Roberts.
Directed by Wes Kenney and Lee Polk from a teleplay by Frank Phares; Roscoe Karns provided additional dialog.
Rocky King, Detective (also known as Inside Detective) was one of the earliest television detective shows, was broadcast live and aired for six seasons, from January 7, 1950 to December 26, 1954 on the Mutual Network. It was one of the network's most popular programs.
Join King and Hart as they try to beat the clock and save a man's life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPluJA3onvM
Billy J. (the "J" was added at the suggestion of John Lennon, who thought it sound be a bit edgy) Kramer (born this day, 1943) and The Dakotas were managed by Brian Epstein in the Sixties and had several hits with Lennon-McCarthy songs that were never recorded by the Beatles, including "Bad to Me." Afraid he would ever be in the shadow of the Beatles, Kramer turned down a Lennon-McCarthy song and instead recorded "Little Children," which became his biggest hit in the United States. All of the releases following 1968's "Trains and Boats and Planes" failed to chart, as Kramer moved to a more ballad-like approach to his music. soon after, Kramer and The Dakotas parted company and Kramer continued with cabaret and television appearances. His last new album was 2013's I Won the Fight. Kramer continues to perform; his 2024 single "Are you With Me/" made the Heritage chart.
He was part of the British Invasion 50th Anniversary tour of the US and UK in 2015.
"Little Children" (with the Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJBq7HY46oI
"Are You With Me?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fjyTNW7-eE
"I Couldn't Have Done It Without you"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmMIJKkpon8
"My Sweet Rose"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDkkAUA1l78
"Trains and Boats and Planes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIEpKZLH1GY
"Bad to Me" (with the Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUccayM0FyM
"Do You Want to Know a Secret?" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V_BVJIShHU
"Pride (Is Such a Little Word)" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbdcgqlhLNU
"From a Window" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ivqShRLfU0
"I Call Your Name" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc9w6OryY_I
"My Babe" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogm9imSeiEc
"I'm in Love" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXlNEp-nwco
"Neon City" (with The Dakotas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEzA0ADzjBQ
Richard Verrill, the professional thief known as "Blackshirt" turned mystery writer and crime fighter, was created by Graham Montague Jeffries (1900-1982) under the pseudonym "Bruce Graeme." Jeffries wrote over 100 books over a period of 60 years, ten of which feature the popular hero; twenty additional novels were written by Jeffries' son Roderic under the name "Roderic Graeme." "Bruce Graeme" had also written three historical crime novels about the character's 16th century French ancestor Monsieur Blackshirt, "a gallant scallywag"; these novels appeared under the name "David Graeme," who was purported to be Bruce Graeme's cousin, but was actually Jeffries himself. It doesn't end there -- "Bruce Graeme also published three novels about Blackshirt's son, Lord Blackshirt.
Britain's Super Detective Library (All in Pictures) featured Blackshirt in at least thirteen issues for 1956 to 1959. "Blackshirt and the Secret of Corey's Castle" is credited to Roderic Graeme.
"This is a story of a damsel in distress -- Caroline Simpson. Because of her father's job she was kidnapped by a big-time underworld racketeer. Her father was Assistant Commissioner of Police -- but her couldn't help her..
"There was only one man who could help Caroline -- a man who loved adventure, a knight errant in modern dress -- a man who carried on a war against crime with weapons with weapons the police dared not use -- BLACKSHIRT!
"Blackshirt fought the scum of the underworld with their own cunning methods -- and there was no more worthy adversary for him than Brady Stevens -- a racketeer who would stiop at nothing to gain his own ends!
"It was Blackshirt's job to trace the kidnapped Caroline to grim, forbidding Corey's Castle -- -- and to fight Brady Stevens on his own ground -- -- --"
Let's go along for the ride, shall we?
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95776&comicpage=&b=i
Code of Arms by Lawrence Block & Harold King, 1981
When Lawrence Block set out to write a World War Ii spy thriller he found himself a bit over his head and thriller writer Harold King was eventually asked to come on board as a co-author. The result is a detailed and historically accurate (as much as possible for a work of fiction) account that both explains why Hitler never invaded England and why Rudolph Hess tried to broker a peace deal with England without Hitler's knowledge. Not a typical Lawrence Block book by any means but still chockful of what you would expect from him: deft characterization, tight plotting, rapid pacing, and a great read.
One of Germany's greatest weapons was the unbreakable Enigma coding machine. But in a top-secret effort the British have broken the Enigma code. and now they must do everything they can to prevent the Germans from learning that their code has been broken. Enter James Carstairs, a totally ruthless and driven man placed in charge of not letting the Germans know that Enigma had been broken. the British have been selectively using the information they have gathered, but the fear is that the Germans may soon suspect that their enigma messages were no longer safe. Carstairs set up a phony network of spies in order make the Germans assume that the captured information had come from a high-ranking Nazi collaborator rather than from Enigma. The Nazi they picked for their unwitting foil was Rudolph Hess, the third in the Nazi government and a close friend of Hitler. The people chosen for Carstairs' network would have no idea that the network was phony and no idea that they were immanently expendable.
American Ted Campbell was an avowed neutral although he had close ties to both England and Germany. The son of a famed World War I fighting Ace and now the owner of Campbell Aircraft, with main offices and manufacturing facilities in Germany, he has had a personal relationship with many of the Third Reich's top leaders -- not realizing the he was being used as a useful idiot. With the death of his father, Ted has assumed a mostly administrative role in the company, waiting for the endless paperwork fostered by the German government to be finished so that he can assume control of his company. Because of the war, his two major manufacturing plants have been closed...or so he thinks. Actually they are being used to secretly supply the Luftwaffe with Campbell airplane motors for the German war effort. It is only when he discovers that a German plane that had crashed into a British estate. killing his fiancee. had been outfitted with a Campbell engine that Ted realizes he had been a dupe. Ted is recruited by Carstairs and now must navigate dangerous German political waters without truly what his true purpose in this game was.
Johann Regenhauer is a bloodless, psychopathic SS officer wanting to advance his career. He is charged by Reinhardt Heydrich to investigate rumors of a group of spies working with someone in the fourth Reich. He does this in thez bloodiest, most ruthless way possible. Getting only bits and pieces of the plot through torture, Reganhauer soon determines wrongly that Campbell is intricately involved, b ut he must tread carefully because Campbell is friendly with the still powerful Hess.
Hess, meanwhile, while remaining loyal to his friend Hitler and to Germany, feels that it is a grave error for Germany to invade England. The true enemy is Russia. If he can somehow arrange for England to join with Germany in attacking Russia, it would be a glorious victory for Hitler.
Kate Buchanan, is an American war correspondent broadcasting from Germany, well-liked because her reporting has caused no problems with the German censors. She was once a lover of Ted Campbell, but later married a Communist sympathizer; he husband was killed in the Spanish Civil War and Kate has become allied with an offshoot Communist group working in Germany. Ted learns that the group will soon be targeted by the Gestapo and, fearing for Kate, urges her to leave; when he tries to leave, her former allies try to blow her up, leaving her permanently blind. Ted's feelings for Kate resurface and she becomes a pawn in the game between him and Reganhauer.
Meanwhile Ted has to try to stop Germany's planned invasion of England and has get an unwitting Hess to Scotland and into the hands of the British...
A finely-wrought thriller.
Block's co-author, Harold King, was best known for his novel Paradigm Red, which was made into the 11977 television film Red Alert. His other novels include The Task Master, Closing Ceremonies, and Hahnemann Sequela.
Code of Arms received only one printing from ists publisher, although the publisher evidently released an eBook version that same year (1981). It was reprinted once in paperback by Berkley in 1982. It has not been reprinted since. It is one of only a few of Block novels that he has not reprinted under his own imprint, LB Books. In terms of page count, it remains Block's second longest novel, coming in at 441 pages to Small Town's 448 pages.
This may not be the Block you are used to but it is a captivating and thrilling read.
Is Zat So? began as a play written by James Gleason and Richard Taber and produced by George Brinton McLellan and ran for 634 performances in New York's 39th Street Theatre, and opened the same year at the Adelphi Theatre in London.. The comedy, starring Gleason, Sidney Riggs, and Armstrong, featured two brothers -- a boxer and his manager -- who are hired by a high society gent to teach him how to fight. Lurking in the wings is an unscrupulous brother-in-law, eager to gain control of the man's and his sister's inheritance.
The play was adapted as a silent film in 1927, featuring George O'Brien, Edmund Lowe, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and directed by Alfred E. Green from a script by Philip Klein. the only known copies of the film were destroyed in the 1937 Fox film fire, and it is now considered a lost film.
Lux Radio Theatre, ran from 1934 to 1955 on, first, the NBX Blue Network, then consecutively on ABC, CBS, and NBC Radio. For the first two seasons, the program dramatized Broadway plays, before moving on to recent films; a singular effort was made to feature the original stars of the plays and films whenever possible, usually paying them $6000 for an appearance. The hour-long show was recorded in front of a live audience. The show continued on television as Lux Video Theatre through the 1950s. Cecil B. DeMille served as host of the show from 1936 to the beginning of 1945.
Robert Armstrong, who appeared in the original Broadway play, is featured in this adaptation, along with James Cagney and Boots Mallory.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_UrZ4gpn8M&list=PLlUoyloCGlWzovaTaxVhZfMH9C0StdA95&index=14
"Gynecologia" by Gilbert Cannan (from Windmills, A Book of Fables, 1915)
Gilbert Cannan (1884-1955) was a British translator (Rolland's Jean-Christophe, Heine's Memoirs, and books by Chekhov and Larbaud), novelist, essayist, poet, and playwright who managed to published more than thirty titles over fifteen years before he succumbed to insanity and was institutionalized for the last 32 years of his life. In 1914, near the beginning of his career, Cannan was listed as one of four significant up-and-coming authors by Samual Butler; the other three were D. H. Lawrence, Compton Mackenzie, and Hugh Walpole -- heady company, indeed. Cannan served as secretary to J. M. Barrie and began a relationship with Barrie's wife whom he eventually married; not only did Cannan get Barrie's wife, he also got Barrie's Newfounsland Luath, who was the inspiration for the Darling's dog Nana in Peter Pan. An earlier relationship failed when the woman left him for explorer Robert Falconer Scott. When his marriage ended in divorce, he began an affair with Gwen Wilson ("a show stopping beauty"), and when Wilson married British MP Henry Mond, 2nd Baronet Melchett, the three of them formed a menage a trois. Cannan's circle included D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murray, Dora Carrington, Bertrand Russell, Ottoline Morrell, Dorothy Brett, C. R. W. Nevinson, and the artist Mark Gertler. One of his cousins was the noted mystery novelist Joanna Cannan. A pacifist and conscientious object, he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1916, in part due to the horror of war but also the possibility that he might be conscripted. A more significant mental breakdown occurred in 1923 an proved to be incurable; he was sent to the Priory Hospital in Roehampton, and then confined to Hollooway /sanitarium for the rest of his life.
"Gynecologia" appeared as the third story in the collection Windmills, which tells of the fictional (and allegorical) country of Fatland, whose traditional enemy were the Fatters. This particular tale satirizes in some detail the near-future sexual mores of that dystopia as reported by American Conrad Lewis:
"I, Conrad P. Lewis, of Crown Imperial, Pa., U.S.A., do hereby declare that the following narrative of my adventures is a plain truthful tale with nothing added or taken away. At the end of a long life I am able to remember unmoved things that for many years I could not call to mind without horror and disgust. Even now I cannot see the charming person of my daughter without some faint discomfort, to be rid of which (for I would die in peace) I have determined to write my story.
"The whole civilized world will remember how, during the years when Europe was sunk under the vileness of a scientific barbarism, there was suddenly an end of news from Fatland. Our ships that sailed for her ports did not return. Her flag had disappeared from the high seas. Her trade had entirely ceased. She exported neither coal nor those manufactured goods which had carried her language, customs, and religion to the ends of the earth. Her colonies (we learned) had received only a message to say that they must in future look after themselves, as, indeed, they were capable of doing as any other collection of people. In one night Fatland ceased to be.
"It was at first assumed that her enemies the Fatters had invaded and captured her, but, clearly, they would not destroy her commerce. Moreover, the Fatters were at that time and for many years afterwards living in a state of siege, keeping nine hostile nations at bay upon their frontiers. This was the last of the great wars, leading, as we now know, to the abolition of the idea of nationality, which endowed a nation with the attributes of a vain and insolent human being, so that its actions were childish and could only be made effective by force. When that idea died in the apathy and suffering and bitterness of the years following the great wars then the glorious civilisation which we now enjoy became possible."
So, if it wasn't the Fatters. then what could have had such a devastating effect on the once glorious Fatland?
Allegory and satire is always tricky, perhaps even more so when read nearly 110 years after the fact. nonetheless, this is an enjoyable tale and, for some reason, I felt is appropriate to present it to you now...
The entire book, Windmills, a Book of Fables, is at the link. the three other stories in the book are "Samways Island", "Ultimus", and ""Out of Work".
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t3513wd0s&seq=1
Selected for admission to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 2009 as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and worthy of being preserved for all time, Under Western Stars also marked the first starring role for Roy Rogers, made under contract to Republic Pictures after a walkout by singing cowboy star Gene Autry. The film's song, "Dust", was nominated for an Academy Award for best song.
John Fairbank (Guy Usher, The Case of the Black Cat, The Spanish Cape Mystery, Buck Rogers), who runs the local water company, has refused to allow free water for farmers and ranchers, forcing Roy rogers and his men to overpower guards at the dam and release a water valve. A sympathetic judge fines Roy only one dollar, while also convincing him to follow in his father's footsteps and run for congress. Elected to the House of Representatives. Roy brings the misery of the "Dust Bowl" plight to the attention of the politicians. Roy is secretly helped by Fairbanks' daughter, Eleanor (Carol Hughes, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted, The Border Legion). When Roy needs the backing of a key congressman, he arranges for an inspection trip, but the congressman is unimpressed. So slyboots Roy gets the inspection party stranded without water to make a point.
Also featuring a familiar cast of faces and character actors: Smiley Burnette, Tom Chatterton, Kenneth Harlan (he of nine[!] wives -- there may have been more wives, but they weren't his), Stephen Chase, Earl Dwire, Dick Elliott, Slim Whitaker, Jack Rockwell, and the Maple City Four (Frits Meissner, Al Rice, Art James, and Pat Petterson(. Among those in uncredited roles are George Montgomery (Philip Marlowe in The Brasher Doubloon), Henry Hall, Jack Ingram, and (of course) Trigger (his first film).
Directed by Joseph Kane from a script by Dowell McGowan, Stuart McGowan, and Betty Burbridge.
As hinted above, Under Western Stars was meant to be a vehicle for Gene Autry under the title Washington Cowboy.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwmCvndTNl0&list=PLpAGnumt6iV4zCl3zeB75j6eKEPmDBSYC&index=31
Openers: Being convinced that his end was nearly come, and having lived long on earth (and all these years in Spain, in the golden time), the lord of the Valleys of Arguento Harez, whose heights are not Valladolid, called for his eldest son. And so he addressed him when he was come to his chamber, dim with its strange red hangings and august with the splendour of Spain: "O eldest son of mine, your younger brother being dull and clever, on whom those traits that women love have not been bestowed by God; and know my eldest son that here on earth , and for ought I know Hereafter, but certainly here on earth, these women be the arbiters of all things; and how this be so God knoweth only, for they are vain and variable, yet it is surely so: your younger brother then not having been given those ways that women prize, and God knows why they prize them for they are vain ways that I have in mind and that won me the Valleys of Arguento Harez, from whose heights Angelico swore he saw Valladolid once, and that won me moreover also...but that is long ago and it is all gone now...ah well, well...what was I sating?" And being reminded of the discourse, the old lord continued, sating, "For himself he will win nothing, and therefore I will leave him these my valleys, for not unlikely it was for some sin of mine that his spirit was visited with dullness, as Holy Writ sets forth, the sins of the father being visited upon the children; and thus I make him amends. but to you I leave my long, most flexible, ancient Castilian blade, which infidels dreaded if old songs be true. Merry and lithe it is, and its true temper strength when it meets another blade as two friends sing when met after many years. It is most subtle, nimble nd exultant, and what it will not win for you in the wars, that shall be won for you by your mandolin, for you have a way with it that goes well with the old sirs of Spain. And choose, my son, rather a moonlight night when you sing under those curved balconies that I know, ah me, so well; for there is much advantage in the moon. In the first place maidens see in the light of the moon, especially in the Spring, more romance than you might credit, for it adds for them a mystery in the darkness which the n ight has not when it is merely black. And if any statue should gleam on the grass near by, or if the magnolia be in blossom, or even the nightingale singing, or if anything be beautiful in the night, in any of these things also there is advantage; for a maiden will attribute to her lover all manner of things that are not his at all, but are only an outpouring of the hand of God. there is the advantage also in the moon, that, if interrupters come, the moonlight is better suited to the play of a blade than the mere darkness of night; indeed but the merry play of my sword in the moonlight was often a joy to see, it so flashed, so danced, so sparkled. In the moonlight also one makes no unworthy stroke, buy hath scope for those fair passes that Sevastiani taught, which were long ago the wonder of Madrid."
-- Don Rodrigues: Chronicles of the Shadow Valley by Lord Dunsany (1922)
And so begins the wandering, episodic adventures of Rodrigues in an ancient Spain that never existed. The dreamlike, mystical, romantic fantasy, embued with a rich lyrical language and infused with a sly wit, owes not a little of Cervantes and his Don Quixote; to the point where Rodrigues eventually gets his own Sancho Panza before the successful conclusion of his quest.
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett (1878-1957), eighteenth Baron Dunsany, was a man of many parts: "peer, soldier, novelist, poet, sportsman, globetrotter, playwright, translator, essayist,", one-time chess champion of Ireland, and "the worst-dressed man" in the country. A master of Anglo-Irish fantasy, Dunsany penned hundreds of short stories, including those set in the invented world of Peguna (with its own unique pantheon of gods), and the adventures of Joseph Jorkens (who would relate his many fantastic experiences for a drink). Of his more than ninety books, fourteen were novels (some published posthumously), and Don Rodigues: Chronicles of Shadow Valley, to be followed by his most famous novel, The King of Elfland's Daughter. A sequel to Dom Rodrigues, The Charwoman's Shadow, was published in 1926. Dunsany's short story "Two Bottles of Relish" (Time and Tide, November 12, 1932) has been an enduing classic crime story and has been reprinted at least 43 (!) times.
Incoming: