HYMN TIME

 CeCe Winans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHqvw5NQ69M

TEENAGE BOOBY TRAP (1970)

 An educational comic book from the Department of Justice.

Is it possible...

...that someone you care about has

changed for no apparent reason?

From eager, active, enthusastic

To passive, apathetic, and hopeless

From friendly, open, trusting

To suspicious, antagonistic, alienated

From talkative, clear, expressive

To silent, confused, withdrawn

From dependable, helpful, attentive

To forgetful, vague, disinterested

From confident, poised, self-assured

To oppressed, tormented, persecuted

From vital, healthy, energetic

To nervous, up-tight, restless

From optimistic, cheerful, pleasant

To cynical, pessimistic, moody...?

When someone claims drugs are the answer,

They may be the cause.

(Okay, it's obvious the author of this does not know teenagers.  No teen has ever been all of the positive things listed.  Not even in 1970.  I should know because I was there.  Teenagers are confused, uncertain, questioning, and entirely obsessed with how they fit in with their friends and the world around them.  Teenagers -- and most adults -- a just muddlin' through and trying to  make sense of things.)

This "informational" comic book appears to be targeted to pre-teens, rather than teenagers, explaining that drugs can be good and can save lives but the misuse of drugs if bad, bad, bad and could cost lives.  It does go into a discussion of sedatives, hallucinogens, and stimulants, and the history of drug abuse in past cuiltures,

The main question it asks is is drug abuse a sickness or a crime?  It seems the 1970 Department of Justice has taken the position that  drug dependents need help, not scorn...and that drug dependency can be overcome with

• desire
• proper attitude
• courage, and
• will power

...it's all up to you, kids!

And, beware of marijuana, kids, because POT OPENS THE DOOR!

And using LSD is comparable to playing Russian Roulette.

And the use of amphetamines can lead to paranoia, depression, mental instability, and suicide.

And a barbiturate user can become quickly dangerous and paranoid.

And morphine (or "M" and "Dreamer," as the kids call it) and heroin (or "H," "horse," scag," "Harry," and "joy  powder," as the kids call it) is addictive and bad, bad, bad.

And let's not get into codeine (or "schoolboy," as the kids call it), or methadone and meperidine (Demerol), and other synthetic opiates, which may be used to walk kids down from stronger drug addictions -- they can helpful but do you really want to be in a position to have to use them?

So what can be done about drug abuse (aside from the four points bulleted above, that is)?  Well, education, of course -- which is the purpose of this comic book.

Kids, you have to choose a path -- one that will lead to Despair, Disgrace, Bitterness, Crime, Insecurity, and Dependency...or one that will lead to Self-Respect, Confidence, Security, Acceptance, and Health.  Which one will you choose?

Here's a hint:  the artwork in this book portrays addicts as long-haired, dirty, reclusive, slack-jawed, and looking more than a bit below normal in intelligence (and let's not mention the portrayal of the pregnant addict).

This was an earnest attempt on the part of the Department of Justice in 1970.  I wonder if the DOJ has changed any in the intervening 56 years?

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102412

FORGOTTEN BOOK: X

X by Eunice Sudak, adapted from the 1963 Roger Corman film scripted by Robert Dillon and Ray Russell, 1963  (unconfirmed: this may have been reprinted by Bear Manor Media in 2012)

A paperback original film tie-in; the film has also been known as X:  The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, or simply, The Man with the X-Rays Eyes.

Film tie-ins, especially those of the 50s and 60s were a mixed lot.  Often the writer was given a draft script from which to write the novel, and the draft script was sometimes quite different from the final product.  In this case, Sudak's novel appears to have followed the film pretty closely.

Dr. James Xavier, a brilliant medical doctor and researcher, had an obsession.  Th range of human vision in wavelength is between thirty-nine hundred angstrom units and seventy-five hundred angstrom units, less than one-tenth of the actual wave spectrum -- which to Xavier meant that humans were  missing out on ninety percent of the universe.  Xavier's research is an attempt to reach beyond humanity's one-tenth of the spectrum.  His original research was funded by a large (conveniently unnamed) Foundation; Xavier had then revised his proposal twice and had been approved  both times, although with less enthusiasm than at the beginning.  Months had passed and the Foundation had not had any further reports on Xavier's progress; having already spent over $27,000 of the Foundation's money with no idea on what it was being spent, the Foundation sent Dr. Diane Fairfax as a liaison to Xavier's researches and to report back on the viability of Xavier's work.

"Dr. Diane Fairfax was young.  And she was beautiful.  Most of the lady doctors are extraordinarily good looking.  Not the blonde Diane, the blue-eyed, pixie-faced, dimpled and darling little Diane.  She was beautiful.  Even with her yellow-gold hair pulled into a severe French knot.  Even with her charming, with her delightful curves half hidden in a fashionable beige linen bag.  Dr. Diane Fairfax nonetheless consistently inspired some men to daydreams and others to practical thoughts along very basic lines.  In women, she tended to inspire resentment.  She couldn't help this.  She was beautiful.  Among men, only Dr. James Xavier could have failed to notice and approve."

[Well, that was sexist.  But it seemed to fit into the melodramatic mood of the story.]

When we move ahead a couple of chapters we find out that Diane and Xavier become lovers.  B ut for now, on their first meeting, Xavier shows her an experiment on spider monkey named Joe, who had been trained to respond in certain ways depending on which color he saw -- red, yellow, or blue.  Placing a drop of formula that Xavier had developed in each of Joe's eyes, Joe was soon able to respond to a blue screen, which had been placed behind several other colored screens.  Joe could see through the other screens as if they were invisible.  But the experiment frightened and confused Joe and he suddenly had spasms and convulsions, letting off a wail that was a "gurgle of sickness and utter horror" before he died."  A necropsy sowed that Joe had died of shock.

Knowing he was on the verge of a great discovery, Xavier administered the drops to his own eyes.  A bright confusion of colors and shapes appeared before him before he could control his vision enough to read some pages that were buried behind other pages of notes on his desk.  His friend and mentor, Dr. Sam Brant, urged him to cease experimenting on himself and continue his studies carefully and responsibly.  At a meeting with the Foundation's board,  both Diane and Brant urged the board to continue Xavier's funding, but the request was denied.

Xavier was determined to continue and kept putting his formula in his eyes, in increasing amounts.  Brant tried to stop him bit Xavier struggled and Brant fell out of a window to his death.

 Now on the run with precious little of his formula left, Xavier hooks up with a sideshow carnival as "Mentalo" a supposed mind-reader.  Xavier's X-ray vision appears to be cumulative, although it can come and go in stages.  To keep on top of it, he continues to take his formula until there is very little of it left.  His avaricious manager, Crane, convinces him to use his powers as a "healer" diagnosing medical problems not for fees, but from donations -- which ere sure to flow freely after word went out what he could do.  Crane and Xavier set up in a poor part of the city; Xavier feels he is using his power for good, perhaps making up for the guilt he felt about Brant's death.  Diane finds him there after over a month of searching and convinces him to leave with her.  Crane, upset about this, and knowing Xavier's true identity and about brant's death, threatens the pair and, as they leave, incites a crowd against Xavier.  

Xavier and Diane head to Las Vegas, where Xavier's vision will allow him to rake in  money easily, both by knowing when a slot machine was scheduled to pay off and by being able to read the cards that were about to be dealt in blackjack.  He wins big, but the casino operators want to have a "talk" with him.  By now, the drug has given him a megalomaniacal sense of power -- he feels he has the power to do whatever he wants.  In fury, he punches a pit boss and tosses a large amount of cash into the air for the gathering crowd.  In the melee that followed, Diane is left behind and an emboldened Xavier steals a car and gets away.

[Things get kind of iffy here.  Xavier's X-ray vision no longer allow him to see other people, streets, or traffic lights, or much of anything; cars are mere skeletal frameworks and most of the background consists of steel girders in the distance.]

Somehow he gets away but he is chased by police, including a helicopter.  Just before the state line, he crashes through a police barricade.  But his stolen car is damaged and he has a difficult time steering it.  He crashes into a ditch.  When he looks down, he can now see thousands of miles into the Earth.  When he looks up, he can see the unlimited blackness of the universe.  He wanders, bloody with the sound of police cars in the distance, when he comes across a tent revival meeting. 

The preacher is going on about sin and redemption.  Xavier walks up to the podium and says what he sees:  "There are great darknesses as far off as time itself -- and they are coming --coming to destroy all our world.  Larger than the stars.  Larger than galaxies of stars -- they're coming -- they're coming...No, no -- No--"

The preacher hisses at Xavier, calling him sin and the Devil.  He then quoted Matthew, Chapter Eighteen:  "If thine eye offend the, pluck it out!"  The congregation began chanting "Pluck it out!"

Then, as the police entered the tent, Xavier did.

As effective book and a very effective film (it has an 88 score on Rotten Tomatoes).  It reads much better than it is summarized.

Sudak (1926-1971) was a writer whose work tended to diminish her talent.  She evidently published over twenty books but I can only find reference to the five she published under her own name -- four of them paperback original tie-in novels:  The Raven, based on the 1963 Richard Matheson-scripted film with Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Jack Nicholson; Tales of Terror, title sometimes erroneously given as Poe's Tales of Terror, based on the 1962 Richard Matheson-scripted film featuring Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone;  White Slave Ship, based on the 1961 Italian film by Silvio Amadio and featuring Pier Angeli; and this one.  She also authored The Icepick in Ollie Birk, a 1966 "wild, sexy, cape" paperback original.  I have not been able to find any reference to any of her other, presumably pseudonymous books.  She is not listed in Hawk's massive Author's Pseudonyms III; her only mention in Hubin's Crime Fiction II is the three Poe tie-ins and Ollie Birk; there is no short fiction by her listed in the Fiction Mags Index.  If anyone has any information about the other books she supposedly wrote, please let me know.

Robert Dillon (1932-2019), who co-wrote the screenplay for the film, also scripted Flight of the Intruder, The French Connection II, 1963's The Old Dark House, and three films on the Beach Party franchise.

Ray Russell (1924-1999), the other scriptwriter, was an associate editor for Playboy (which had begun the previous December) beginning in 1954, moving up to executive editor in 1955, and contributing editor in 1968.  While at Playboy Russell was a major contributor to the magazine, especially in its earliest days -- supposedly many of the magazine's humorous articles and fillers, either unsigned or under pseudonyms, were penned by Russell.  Russell also was the anonymous editor of eleven anthologies from Playboy Press, including The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy and The Playbook Book of Horror and the Supernatural.  Playboy also published many of Russell's stories, including "Sardonicus," which Stephen called "perhaps the finest example of the  modern gothic ever written"; the story was filmed as Mr. Sardonicus by William Castle in 1961.  His first novel, The Case Against Satan, about a young girl possessed buy a demon, was published almost a decade before William Peter Blatty's similarly-themed The Exorcist.  His 1976 horror novel Incubus was filmed in 1982 by John Hough and starred John Cassavetes.  Russell also wrote the screenplays for Zotz!, The Premature Burial, and Chamber of Horrors.  Among his mainstream novels were The Colony, Princess Pamela, and The Bishop's Daughter.  In 1991 he received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 1992, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Russell was also credited for the story to X.  Producer/director Roger Corman, however, has said that the story originated with him.  Corman said he had first had the tale about a scientist, then changed it to a jazz musician, hated the idea and could get nowhere with it, then went back to the scientist.  N ot to disparage Corman, but I think he's giving himself too much credit.  The plot of the film sounds much more as if it originated with Ray Russell.

One further note about the film:  In Danse Macabre, Stephen King mentioned rumors that the film once had a much darker, more horrific ending, lone that Corman thought was better than the film's true ending.

I would like to lnk to the film itself,  but it's hidden behind a paywall.  Instead, here's the trailer:

https://archive.org/details/turner_video_391879

BLOGGER DID IT AGAIN! BAH!

Once again, technology is playing fast and loose with time and space.   The post I wrote last night and scheduled for today has, according to Blogger, been published eight days ago, on September 9!

It was a review of a 1965 vampire western flick, The Devil's Mistress.  If you wish to read it, you will have to backtrack through my blog to find it.  Sorry.

DOLPHINS MEET A PYTHON

Recently Sypha, a resident Burmese python at Florida's Gulfarium Marine Park (where my grandson Mark works with the reptiles) paid a visit to the bottleneck dolphins.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hHBfKlxXp5g

OVERLOOKED CONCERT FILM: THE T.A.M.I. SHOW (1964)

 The T.A.M.I. Show was (IMHO) one of the greatest concert films ever made.  T.A.M.I stood for  either "Teenage Awards Music International" or Teen Age Music International" -- take your pick, the publicists couldn't make up their minds.  The concert featured popular rock and roll and rhythm and blues acts from both the United States and England.  The advertising tagline was, "THE EXCITMENT, ENTERTAINMENT AND MUSIC OF TEENAGE AMERICA!" -- and that it was.  The concert was held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964.  Free tickets were given to high school students of the area.  Among those in the audience were a future film director John Landis and future teenage heartthrob David Cassidy, both seventeen.  Among the go-go dancers on the stage was a young Teri Garr.

The concert film was produced by Lee Savin and directed by Steve Binder (who also directed Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special, Diana Ross Live in Central Park, and -- God help us! -- the Star Wars Holiday Special).  The film was released on November 24, 1964.  In 2006, the film was selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for its "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significance.

The show was emceed by Jan and Dean, who performed the original theme song "(Here They Come) From All Over the World," whose lyrics mistakenly had the Rolling Stones originating from Liverpool.

The acts:

• Jan and Dean (Jan Berry & Dean Torrence) - "(Here They Come) From All Over the World" -- sung over the credits
• Chuck Berry - "Johnny B. Goode" and Maybelline"
• Gerry and the Pacemakers (Gerry Marsden, Les Maguire, Les Chadwick, & Freddie Marsden) - "Maybelline," "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying," and "It's Gonna  Be Alright"
• Chuck Berry - "Sweet Little Sixteen"
• Gerry and the Pacemakers - "How Do You Do It?"
• Chuck Berry - "Nadine"
• Gerry and the Pacemakers - "I Like It"
• (Smokey Robinson and) The Miracles (Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, Pete Moore, & Marv Tarplin -- a fourth member, Robinson's wife, Claudette, had stopped touring three months earlier because of health reasons, although she remained in the group for recording sessions) - "That's What Love Is Made Of," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," and "Mickey's Monkey"
• Marvin Gaye (backed up  by The Blossoms -- Fanita James, Darlene Love, & Jean King) - "Stubborn Kind of Fellow," Pride and Joy, "Can I Get a Witness," and "Hitch Hike"
• Leslie Gore - "Maybe I Know," "You Don't Own Me," "Hey Now, "It's My Party," & "Judy's Turn to Cry"
• Jan and Dean - "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena," & "Sidewalk Surfin' "
• The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, & Dennis Wilson) - "Surfin' USA," "I Get Around," "Surfer Girl," & "Dance, Dance, Dance"
• Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas (Mike Maxfield, Mick Green, Robin MacDonald, & Tony Mansfield) - "Little Children," "Bad to Me," "I'll Keep You Satisfied," & "From a Window"
• The Supremes (Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, & Mary Wilson) - "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," "Run, Run, Run," "Baby Love," & "Where Did Our Love Go"
• The Barbarians (Jerry Causi, Ronnie Enos, Bruce Benson, & Victor "Moulty" Moulton -- remember Moulty? the drummer with a prosthetic left hand?  (He lost in an explosion when he was fourteen.) - "Hey Little Bird"
• James Brown and The Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd, Lloyd Stallworth, & Bobby Bennett) - "Out of Sight," "Prisoner of Love," "Please, Please, Please," & "Night Train" 
• The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, & Charlie Watts) - "Around and Around," "Off the Hook," "Time Is on My Side," "It's All Over Now," "I'm Alright," & "Let's Get Together"

Wow.  Just wow.

Keith Richards has said that following James Brown -- who, after all, was the hardest working man in show business -- was the worst mistake of their careers, because it was almost impossible to follow Brown's explosive performance.  For his part, Brown resented having to appear before the Stones; rather than closing out the show.  Brown decided not to rehearse his set, so no one had any knowledge of what he would be singing.  Brown vowed to make the Stones regret they had ever come to America and he pulled out every stop.  Jagger, however, knew that he had to create a high-energy set to follow Brown, and he did -- to bring a historic close to a historic concert.

Billed as the first T.A.M.I. Show, there was never a second.

For all you geezers out there, do you remember watching this?  What were your favorite songs?  your favorite group?

And for all you whippersnappers out there who were too young to have seen The T.A.M.I. Show, here's your chance to see what real music  was like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnFbkV17O08

INCOMING (SORT OF)

Okay, this one was scheduled to go up this morning, Monday, September 14.  For some reason, Blogger slotted it for eleven days ago, on September 3.  Strange, because I just updated the post yesterday evening.  Go figure.  So to read it, you have to go back a few days...

Thanks a heap, Blogger.