Sunday, April 21st, 1974

I learned to balance a broom on my palm by watching WONDERAMA.

I cleaned the SS office very early this morning.

After quite a hassle convincing Terry to come with me, I went to see McQ. Wasn't great but above average.

I played the TUBULAR BELLS record over and over again all day today.

I saw JULIE AND DICK AT COVENT CENTER and then watched THE TONY AWARDS just to see all the stars.

Hate to say it but it's back to school again in the morning. Even Doug's back from vacation.

NOTES: Turns out the broom trick had more to do with my innate sense of balance than anything I saw on TV that day. Years later a doctor explained that the reason I get motion sick so easily is that I have not a BAD sense of balance but an acute one! I can find the center of gravity relatively easy in any object...including: a broom. I can still do it, moving it from fingertip to fingertip. If I had ever been invited to parties, I could have been the life of them.


Was listening to parts of TUBULAR BELLS on YT today in 2012. 


I never get to see plays. Even though they come to the area from time to time, they're so ridiculously overpriced we saw only one in the past 16 years! Love the Tonys, though and always have. 


Julie and Dick were Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, the co-stars of Disney's MARY POPPINS, reunited for a TV special. The whole show, also spotlighting Carl Reiner, is on YouTube.

Saturday, April 20th, 1974

I got some more terrific mags with pics of Linda Blair. Also bought the theme from THE EXORCIST record and an early Beatles 45. I started getting FF again and the new FM was out, too.

Terry came through with the deal for MSH # 1.

Saw Melanie Cantor at Woolworth's when I picked up my new scrapbook. Filled about ten pages already with DARK SHADOWS junk.

We got paid today! $125.00!

I'm studying up on horses because Linda loves them so!

NOTES:In another case of odd temporal coincidence, here I was making a DARK SHADOWS-themed scrapbook in '74 and today in 2012, a lot of us boomers are mourning Jonathan (Barnabas Collins) Frid. I posted about DARK SHADOWS on two of my blogs yesterday. 


There was a record store in Cincinnati that sold nothing but old '45's. Every once in awhile I would pick up some Beatles music there. The EXORCIST theme was actually an excerpt from a marvelous experimental, instrumental album by English musician Mike Oldfield entitled TUBULAR BELLS. It would be nearly thirty years before I heard the whole album which is quite wonderful. 


Mentioning Melanie here is just a throwaway line but I sometimes think if she and I had become an item two years earlier in seventh grade my life would have been very different. She was the smartest girl in school, new that year, and also had an amazing sense of humor and a cute, cute smile. In what I thought was a really odd move, she ended up actually dating two of my closest school friends without ever looking twice at me! I tried. Even got up the courage to walk her home once (Had no idea just how long a walk that would be either!).  


MARVEL SUPER HEROES (MSH #1) was a 1966 one-shot comic book reprinting a classic early AVENGERS tale with the Hulk, the origin of Daredevil and a Golden Age battle between Namor and the Human Torch! At the time, this was coolness personified! I don't recall what happened to my copy but by this point I hadn't had one in several years and was pleased to get it back! I still have Terry's former copy!


And my first ever paycheck. Cool!

Friday, April 19th, 1974

I saw ALICE IN WONDERLAND with STORMY. ALICE is one of the best animated features I've ever seen. I also saw previews fro HERBIE RIDES AGAIN with Steffie.

There are a couple of new mags with pics of Linda out.

Well, the free week is almost over. After the weekend, it's back to the old grind for another couple of months.

I can't say it wasn't fun but it could have been better.

NOTES: HERBIE RIDES AGAIN was a just okay Disney live-action comedy starring Stefanie Powers, Helen Hayes and MAYBERRY RFD and F TROOP's Ken Berry. A talented and personable TV star, Berry was unable really to carry a lead role in films and this picture suffered for that. Cute...but not a patch on the original (although the next one would be worse!)

Thursday, April 18th, 1974

I watched Nick Clooney's Kings island special which I've awaited since last summer when it was filmed and it was marvelous. All the while I dreamed of inviting Linda Blair there with just me for a whole day of fun. Oh, t'would be fantabulous! If only I could meet Linda! I was once told that I could have anything I ever wanted if I just put my mind to it and I can't imagine NOT ever wanting to meet Linda Blair.

Nick's regular show was pretty special today, too. They had a piece on UFO's.

I saw an UNTOUCHABLES film, the first I've ever seen. Now that's a TV series I would have really loved.

NOTES: Wow. I really, really was smitten! I didn't know it then but there are photos of Linda, who was my age, hanging out with Who drummer Keith Moon and porn star Linda Lovelace during this period. Talk about out of my league. 


And I didn't even LIKE King's Island all that much!


As regular readers know, I DID finally get to meet Linda Blair via the Internet and see her in person at a Horrorfest but it took 36 years.


The movie I saw was the TV film that served as the pilot for THE UNTOUCHABLES around the time I was born. Actor Neville Brand played Al Capone but he was arrested in the movie and the series itself featured his lieutenant, Frank Nitti, as the Big Bad.

Wednesday, April 17th, 1974

Over in Cincinnati, I got some new books and two old (and cheap!) Vampi's. Should be some more books out later this week.

I might go see McQ Sunday at Ludlow. Probably make ALICE on Friday.

I'm progressing well with my own story of Alice and Mister Cheshire. I'm patterning Alice after Linda and Mister Cheshire after Quentin from DARK SHADOWS.

I need to get a new scrapbook soon. Think I'll dedicate it to DARK SHADOWS so I can look at all my DS stuff.

NOTES: McQ was the movie that was John Wayne's version of DIRTY HARRY.


I can't recall exactly what the plot of my story was to be but I never wrote it. Just lots of notes and drawings. In my mind, Mister Alexander Cheshire, always drawn in a top hat,  looked like Willy Wonka but, as stated here, I originally based him on David Selby's sideburned DS character, the show's original werewolf, the brooding, dark-eyed Quentin Collins.

Tuesday, April 16th, 1974

IT. Second day in a row.

I finished re-reading THE EXORCIST.


I ate a lot of doughnuts today.

I went through a lot of old folders the Soicial Security office threw out yesterday. Thinking I can maybe trade them to Terry for something.

I'll probably go over the river tomorrow and then catch ALICE IN WONDERLAND if it's still playing on Thursday.

I needed to wash my hair and take a bath tonight but didn't get to it.

NOTES: ALICE IN WONDERLAND has been a favorite story for most of my life but I never actually read the book itself until I was about 20. I tended to watch any TV adaptation or film that came along and I often listed Disney's ALICE as my favorite animated Disney picture. I had seen it as a child and this 1974 re-release was the one that tried to appeal to the psychedelic crowd, thus the colorful poster.

Monday, April 15th, 1974

Dad stayed home sick.

A boy in my Health class at school is presumed dead according to the nespaper. What a way to start Spring vacation.

All day long all I did was watch TV and begin re-reading THE EXORCIST.

I have to write my pen-pal letter soon.

Next door, another window was found broken out and this time I kept the ball that did it.

NOTES: No memory of the kid in my Health class. Driving me crazy trying to figure out who that was.