THE CISCO KID: WRECK OF OLD 13 (APRIL 30, 1953)

The Cisco Kidwas always a favorite of mine back i those longgoneby days, second only to Hopalong Cassidy.  I loved the television show with Duncan Ronaldo and Leo Carrillo but never listened to the radio program.  Television was the staple in our household; radio was only used to catch E. B. Rideout's weather report on WEEI, essential to our farming family.  (Rideout was Boston's first radio meteorologist, who began his long career on our local radio in 1925.)

The Cisco Kid was created by O. Henry in his 1907 story "The Caballero's Way."  The O. Henry character was a less-than-honorable desperado.  In film,beginning in 1914 and moving through 27 features until 1950, with a television movie added in 1994, the character soon morphed into the heroic character we recognize today.  Among the acors portraying the Cisco Kid in movies were Warner Baxter, Caesar Romero, Gilbert Roland, and Duncan Ronaldo; Jimmy Smits had the role in the television movie.

The Cisco Kid  hit the airwaves on Mutual Radio on October 2, 1942, with Jackson Beck in the title role. and ran through February 14, 1945.  It was revived on the Mutual/Don Lee Network in 1946 with Jack Mather as the Cisco Kid.  the series then ran in syndication for more than 600 episodes from 1947 to 1956, with Mather still in the title role.  Cisco's sidekick Pancho was played by Louis Soren during the first run, then by Harry E. Lang in the revived series; when Land died in 1953, the Role of Pancho was taken over by Mel Blanc.

On television, The Cisco Kid -- my Cisco Kid -- ran in syndication from September 5, 1950 to March 22, 1956, for a total of 156 half-hour episodes.  I never got tired of the "Oh, Pancho!"  Oh, Cisco!" interchanged between Renaldo and Carrillo.

There have also been graphic novels and comics books about the character, including a 41-issue comic book from Dell Comics from 1950 to 1958.

Harry Lang still played Pancho in "Wreck of Old 13."  Old 13 had a reputation as an unlucky train but the superstition did not stop a railroad executive and his daughter from taking the train.  When a gang od deperadoes plot to kidnap the executive for ransom, Cisco and Pancho step in to stop them.  The excutive's daughter thinks that they are the outlaws and Pancho finds himself at the control of a runaway train.  All is well at the end, though, and the executive's daughter now views Cisco through ga-ga eyes.  (Yech! Mush!)

Enjoy this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHuD4zS29OU

NOT A SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: A RAZOR IN FLEET STREET

 "A Razor in Fleet Street" by John Dickson Carr  (radio script for the first episode of Cabin B-13, which aired on July 5, 1948 on the Columbia Broadcasing Company;  a revised/edited version of the script was published in London Mystery Magazine, February/March 1952, under the title "Flight from Fleet Street;" the original script has been reprinted in The Island of Coffins and Other Mysteries from the Casebook of Cabin B-13, edited by Tony Medawar and Douglas Greene, 2020)

A ship's horn sounds four times...atmospheric music...then...

"From his notebooks of the strange and sinister, Dr. Fabian brings you tonight's tale...another great tale of mystery and murder writen by the world-famous bestseller mystery author John Dickson Carr."

The announcer says, "Cabin B-13."  Another musical flourish as we hear actor Arnold Moss as Dr. Robert Fabian say:

"My name is Fabian.. ship's surgeon of the luxery liner Maurevania.  Tonight, as we lay alongside the docks at the great port of Southampton, the ship is ghostly, deserted.  Our passengers on this world cruise have gone to London.  And as I sit here in my cabin, B-Thirteen, I am reminded how the tides and storms of a thousand voyages have wrought nothing more strange, more sinister than man's desire for adventure in the strange ports and lands we touch.  I remember Bill and Brenda Leslie -- it was yerars ago, before the war -- and the effect on their characters of the mortal terror that overtook them in London."

Music: fades out.

Bill, and American, and his wife, British, have beeked into a quiet, somewhat dingy, hotel.  Bill has been in the diplomatic service for seven years and has been stationed at three capitols, but has never been to London.  In a week, he will be headed to a diplomatic post in Lisbon.  But for now Bill feels he is in the true London, not the ritzy London of Claridges or some other fancy htoel, but the London of his imagination...Sherlock Holmes!  Dr. Fu Manchu!  Hansom cabs rattling theourgh the fog...

 Then an inspector from Scotland Yard show up and shows Bill and Brenda a photograph of Bill, except the man in the photograph is not Bill.  It is a lookalike named Flash Morgan, a murderous "ripper" -- one who slashes throats with a razor -- hoping to escape capture.  If Morgn can forge documents and pose as Bill on the trip to Lisbon, he will have a false diplomatic immunity and be free from capture.  and, of course, if this came to pass, several unpleasant things could also happen to Brenda.  

It was known that Morgan used to hang out at 96 Fleet Street, just above a barber shop.  Rather than stay safely i n his room for the next week, Bill decides to go to Fleet Street to see if he could nab Flash Morgan by himself.  Diplomats may not be the sharpest crayons in the box.

(Note that the Fleet Street address, in real life is the address of a well-known public house, and has been since the 1830s.  However, a few doors down, at 152 Fleet Street, is the fictional address of Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  A little lagniappe that Carr included.  The barber in Carr's story was named Henry M. Jenkins; the editors of London Mystery Magazine joyfully changed the name to Henry S. Todd when the story was reprinted.)

Bill goes to the Fleet Street address and believes he has locked Flash Morgan in a closet.  when the police open the closet, sure enough there's Morgan.  However, he is dead and his throat has been cut...

How has this happened and how can Bill clear himself?

Cabin B-13 got its title (and little else) from an episode that Carr wrote for the radio show Suspense.  Cabin B-13 ran for two seasons on CBS Radio, for a total of 23 episodes, all penned by Carr.  For many years, the details of the show were believe to have been lost; only a few episodes survived and it was not even known how many episodes were aired.  In the early Ninties, however, the scripts were discovered within the depths of the Library of Congress.  The complete scripts along with extensive "Notes for the Curious" are now available in The Island of Coffins and Other Mysteries from the Casefiles of Cabin B-13. 

Fans of old-time radio and fans of John Dickson Carr should rejoice.

MASTERS OF HORROR: INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD (OCTOBER 28, 2005)

Masters of Horror was a telvision anthology series that ran on Showtime for two season for a total of 26 hour-long episodes.  Creator Mick Garris utilized the talents of some of the most well-known directors of horror films to produce the series, thus the title Masters of Horror.  Among the "Masters" directing the series were Don Coscarelli, Stuart Gordon, Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento, Joe Dante, John Landis, John Carpenter, Lucky McKee, Larry Cohen, Brad Anderson, and Garris himself.  Many of the episodes were adapte fro stories by well-known writers in the genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, H. P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, David J. Schow, Clive Barker, Ambrose Bierce,  F. Paul Wilson, James Tiptree, Jr., John Farris, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bentley Little.  Many of the teleplays were adapted by the directors themselves or by sich writers as Richard Christian Matheson and Richard Chizmar.  In some areas internationally, the episodes were released a theatrical films.

When Showtrime did not renew the series for a third series, Garris took the planned third season to NBC, which aired it as Fear Itself, beginning in the Summer of 2008.  Fear Itself was based on the same premise as Masters of Horror, although the episodes appear not to have nee based on previously published stories.  NBC pulled the plug on Fear Itself after eight episodes, leaving the last five episodes unaired.

(Some of the producers of Masters of Horror floated a similar series, Masters of Science Ficrion, to ABC, which began airing the series on October 24, 2017.  Four of the six filmed episodes aired; the remaining two were cut for undisclosed reasons.   The aired episodes were based on stories by John  Kessel, Howard Fast, Robert A. Heinlein, and Harlan Ellison; the unaired episodes on stories by Walter Mosley and Robert Sheckley.) 

The initial episode of Masters of Horror was directed by Don Coscarelli, who had directed the first four Phantasm films, The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, and (later) John Dies at the End.  Coscarelli and Stephen Romano wrote the script based on a story by Joe R. Lansdale (his ownself). 

Ellen (Bree Turner, who played Rosalie Calvert for six seasons of Grimm) is drivng on a lonely road ("No Gas or Services Next 75 Miles") is distracted as she tunes the car radio and crashes into another car.  The car is empty but there is a trail of blood leading off the road.  She encounters a deformed serial killer Moonface (John DeSantis, "Lurch" on The New Addams Family) whjo was dragging the barely-alive body of the driver of the other car.  A chase ensues and, through flashabcks, we lern that Ellen was married to a survivalist (Ethan Embry, Brotherhood, Once Upon aTime, Sneaky Pete, Grace and Frankie) who had taught her all sorts of tricks.  Ellen is fanilly captured and wake up in front of the delusional and supposedly incapacitated Buddy (Angus Scrimm, "The Tall Man" in Cascarilli's Phantasm films) who tells her of the horrible tortures Moonface uses with his victims.

Grue, gore, gratuitous violence...in spades.  Can Ellen survive using what she has learned from her survivalist husband?

This is not one for those with a weak stomach.

"Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" first appeared in the anthology Night Visions 8 (Paul J. Mikol, uncredited editor, 1991) and has been reprinted in the following Lansdale collections:  Writer of the Purple Rage (1994), High Cotton:  Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale (2000), The God of the Razor (2007), The Best of Joe R. Lansdale (2010), Blood in the Gears (2019), and Things Get Ugly:  The Best Crime Fiction of Joe R. Lansdale (2023). 

Enjoy this episode.  You may want to have your security blanket and/or stuffed pookie bear handy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zynxCA2sPc&t=2003s

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAYLEE!

Oh, the time it does fly!  Although it seems like just yesterday to me, it was actually 27 years ago that Kaylee entered this world...and for 27 years, the world has been a much better place.

On that far-off yesterday at Georgetown University Hospital, the nurses brought forth a tightly-swaddled lump of beauty -- quiet, serene, and regal.  Although I know a new-born's eyes can't focus, Kaylee's eyes were wide, seemingly taking in all around her and pronouncing it good.  She had a majestic aura of joy, that she was happy to be a part of this new worlds, her world.  Kaylee was just happy to be.  That was when we -- all of us -- fell in love with her.

When she was little, she would help me take out the trash.  She would ride on my shoulders and hold the trashbag while I bounced her up and down.  Her laughter could cure the world of all its ills.  While at the supermarket, I would get her a donut from the store's bakery.  As we roamed through the store she would eat it -- in this case, "eat it" was a euphemism for wearing it all over her face.  At the checkout line, I did not have to say a thing; the clerk would look at her and automatically ring up one donut.  If we drive past the local K-Mart, she would get excited and yell "Melmo store!," because K-Mart would carry Elmo merchandise and Elmo was her favorite Sesame Street character.  It's funny how these little moments will stay with you over the years...

As the years passed, she continued on to become the loving, smart, sensitive, caring person she is today.  I look at the person she has become and my heart swells with pride and love.  And yet there's a part of me that wishes I could still carry her on my shoulders, laughing and bouncing, as we head out with the day's trash.

Have a great birthday, my love.  You have meant more to me and your Nana than you could ever know.

HYMN TIME

 A Cajun twist to a classic, from Les Amies Louisianaises.

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

SUPER COMICS #1 (MAY 1938)

Western/Dell Publishing's Super Comics ran for 121 issues from 1938 to 1949, basically reprinting popular newspaper comic strips from the Chicago Tribune -- N. Y. News Syndicate, a bargain for those comic strip fans whose local papers did not carry the syndicate's offerings.  Super Comics #1 was basically a continuation of Dell's Popular Comics #27 -- continuing story arcs from that magazine.

Strips carried in this issue included Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Terry and the Pirates, Gasoline Alley, Moon Mullins, and Crime a Hundred Years from Now.  Also featured were Smilin' Jack, The Gumps, Little Joe, Smokey Stover, Smitty, Harold Teen, Small Stuff, Tyrone Ford, Winnie Winkle, Sweeney and Son, Punchie, Streaky, and Tootsie the Telephone Girl.

The comicbookplus link below has eliminated Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie from their scan because both remain in copyright.

Enjoy these newspaper strips from 1936, 1937, and 1938.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=82930

FORGOTTEN BOOK: NIGHTMARE JOURNEY

Nightmare Journey by Dean R. Koontz  (1975)

I view Nightmare Journey as an end-stage early-stage Koontz novel.  Koontz had already published over thirty novels in various genres (mystery, crime, suspense, adventure, horror, gothic, sleaze*, mainstream, and science fiction, and 1975 appears to be the rough jumping off point where he would begin his major best-selling career.  His first major success, Demon Seed, was two years behind him, and the movie adapatation of the novel two years ahead.  In later years he would drop the middle initial, update his physical appearance, go ga-ga over golden retrievers, and produce highly readable but frustrating highly readible but frustrating novel after novel.  Life for Dean Koontz is good, and life in the 60s and early 70s was also pretty good as he learned his craft.

One way Koontz kept stirring the pot in his early science fiction novels was to toss in a lot of imaginative ingredients, roil them around in the cauldron for a chapter or so, then move on.  the world-changing, sometimes galaxy changing, climax would come on suddently, mumble a few platitudes, then stop.  The end.  These early works were interesting, entertaining, basically forgettabe pieces of fluff.  With Nightmare Journey and a few other books from that time, he appears to be trying to move from that template.

Joun Clute, in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, wrote, "Of those novels written within  in a more normal sf frame, Nightmare Journey (1975) stands out, though overcompicated; it impressively depicts a world 100,000 years hence when humnaity, thrust back from the stars by an incomprehensible Alien intelligence, goes sour in the prison of Earth, where radioactivity has speeded mutation, causing a religious backlash."

And let me quote from Richard E. Geis's 1975 review of the book:  "Dean R. Koontz has never been known for his depth or ease of characterization (even though he tries, he tries...) and his newest sf novel [...] is of his usual qalulity.

"Dean, from the beginning of his writing career (perhaps even in the myraid sex novels he wrote early-on) has been a do-gooder, an anti-authoritartian Liberal in the philosophies expressed in his stories.  He has killed God a lot, and revolt against future dictatorships has been high in his favor.

"In this novel the brotherhood of man and of all telepathic beings is affirmed...except, of course, mankind turns out in the end to be superior in the psi depts.  We are eventual rulers of the sevagram, I presume, after an incubation period on Earth.

"See, in the beginning, mankind went to the stars and eventually ran into superior beings -- telepaths -- who made us feel like turds.  Mankind shrank back to Earth and played masturbatory games with his genes, with artificial wombs, and indulged in a final world war that wiped out civilization and left all kinds of ruins and wonders and a scattering of still-functioning devises and robots and such.

"In the time of the novel there are the Pures (a residue of parasitic, non-telepathic humans of 'normal' genetic makeup who practce a self-serving racist religion; their holy mission is to rid the ranks od tainted, genetically variant, humans) and the intelligent, surviving, viable results of artifical wombs whom the Pures contemptuously consider animals-that-talk.

"Jask is a Pure who suddenly developed telepathic powers (the seeds are sproutng...).  He escapes, links up with a telepathic bear-man, and they eventually link with a party of three rather Different telepaths.  The group seeks out the Black Presence -- an alien Watcher stationed on Earth to monitor mankind.

"There is danger, love, etc. as Jask gradually overcomes his Pure religious training and accepts his telepathy and the others as humans."

There is a soupcon of Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human here and a dash (unusual for an early Koontz SF novel) of sex.

When I finished the book, I really wasn't satisfied, but -- contrariwise -- was glad I read it.