Sunday, April 28th, 1974

A much better day profitwise. I finally got Marlo Thomas's FREE TO BE YOU AND ME album along with another new McCartney single. I listened to the album over and over. I think it may have changed my whole views of life.

I've got about 19 dollars left and it's got to last until my next payment. I do, however, intend to order the HOUSE OF HORRORS book for $5.84 tomorrow from Warren.

Also I came up with a great idea for selling a new radio mystery series to a local radio station. Maybe I'll do more work on it soon.

The very air was pleasant all day today. My cold is almost better and I even survived the nearly unbearable heat to come up with a good feeling.

Are things finally starting to go my way? I doubt it but I can hope so.

NOTES: HOUSE OF HORRORS was a history of Hammer Films that came out just as the company itself was about to go under. 


Every once in a while, I would decide that what local radio needed was a new mystery series written by me. This was probably the first but I know I was still toying with this idea as late as the early 1990's. Oh, hell, it's crossed my mind just recently, too. Trouble is that no one in local radio cares what I think. Even when I was briefly associated with local radio in the early 1980's no one cared what I thought!


FREE TO BE...was Marlo Thomas's now classic children's album of liberating songs and skits for boys and girls. Mel Brooks, Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones, Billy De Wolfe, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Morse, Diana Sands and other celebs appeared with THAT woman, Marlo. It was for a slightly younger audience than me at 15 but it really was a very eye-opening experience. I had been raised in a rather conservative home with traditional ways of looking at males and females. Boys, for example, could never wear pink. It was my appreciation of the THAT GIRL sitcom that made me get it but it was the album that made me rethink a lot of things and eventually get to where I considered myself a male feminist. At 19, I almost joined NOW. After all, it's the National Organization FOR Women, not OF Women. I could still be sexist in some ways (still!) but this day a new seed was planted in my understanding of male and female roles, expectations and possibilities in society. Thanks, Marlo.A few years later, I had a pink shirt I really loved. 

Saturday, April 27th, 1974

I took ten bucks over to Cincinnati today and all I picked up was THE MONSTER TIMES. I couldn't sell Tim's books at OBS but I got three bucks for 'em at Horn's. I hope that's okay with him.

I finally did see THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE.

Mom picked me up the record THE ENTERTAINER.

Also, IT.

NOTES: Around here, even today, we call it "The Ten Dollar Rule." You beg and beg for a certain amount of money to spend and then you go out and you can't really bring yourself to spend it. Otr you beg for permission to do something and then when you get it you feel so guilty for begging that you end up not doing it anyway. Still happens all the time. The Ten Dollar Rule. 


THE ENTERTAINER was Marvin Hamlisch's hit record of Scott Joplin's song that had been used as the theme music for THE STING. 

1976--THE BOOK--A Kickstarter Project!

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Friday, April 26th, 1974

We finished early again tonight.

I worked on my story again.

I helped Dad get the car.

Through all this my cold stayed about the same.

Tomorrow morning at 9, I go to pick up Tim's comics.

NOTES: I saw Terry today (in 2012) and, like myself, he has no idea who Tim was at this late date.

Thursday, April 25th, 1974

I'm catching a pretty bad cold.

I got a D on an Algebra test!

I hope my cold doesn't persist. Big test in English tomorrow.

I saw an episode of THE WALTONS which is now my favorite.

Found out Arthur's moving on Saturday.

NOTES: Yikes! A "D"!!?? I was actually very good at Algebra and rarely got below a "B"in anything...ever!  This must have--even though you couldn't tell it here--devastated me!


I don't recall Arthur moving. Maybe that explains why we ever became closer friends after hanging out at school so much this year. Wonder where he moved to??

Wednesday, April 24th, 1974

There were a lot of tests at school today.

We got to work early tonight.

Saw a good TO TELL THE TRUTH with Supie, Bats and Robin.

Two new martial arts films begin today. Really the first this year. I hope to see one at the Grand on saturday along with THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE down the street.

NOTES: Not sure who the host of TO TELL THE TRUTH was at this stage but it wasn't the show's original host, Bud Collyer, seen here with some favorite reading material. That would have been interesting to have a Superman themed episode as Collyer had, in fact, BEEN Superman for many years on radio in the forties and later in the sixties cartoons.

Tuesday, April 23rd, 1974

I finally went and looked at Tim's comics. I bought about six of them for a nickel apiece. I'm to sell the rest for him next weekend for $4.75 and I get to keep the 75 cents! Also, Terry owes me $1.50.

I'll probably see THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (the first ad on the first page of my first scrapbook from a couple years back) finally this weekend at The International '70.

MAGNUM FORCE starts up at the Madison tomorrow.

I watched Roddenberry's PLANET EARTH on TV tonight.

NOTES: Wow. High finance 1974 style. Terry owing me $1.50 was a big amount then. This week in 2012, I'm selling him some DVD's worth about 50 times that much. Things change. 


I don't know why I skipped THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE when it first came out. Considered the first in the seventies disaster movie trend, it was by Irwin Allen who had made many of my favorite childhood TV series including LOST IN SPACE and THE TIME TUNNEL. It also had a genuinely all-star cast including a number of my favorite actors like Roddy McDowall and even my future real-life friend Bob Hastings. 


PLANET EARTH was a semi-sequel/semi-remake of Gene Roddenberry's post-STAR TREK pilot, GENESIS II. The original starred a quirky actor named Alex Cord. This one starred the more traditional John Saxon, a favorite of mine since ENTER THE DRAGON (as well as a future Facebook friend) but I didn't think he worked as well. I watched both versions again in 2011 and I stand by that. 

Monday, April 22nd, 1974

Back to school alright but it was better than I expected.

That's about all that happened today except for a slight rainstorm.

NOTES: Well...some days are just...there, y'know? And wet.