Sunday, June 23rd, 1974

My cold was some better today. I went with Dad to get chicken and hamburgers and took some pictures, too.

Mom and Dad went to the ball game later but I stayed home.

IT.

The paper had ads for about five movies I want to see soon.

Didn't get to sleep until very late tonight because there was a big flying bug in my room. We never got it either. All we did was get it out of there.

NOTES: I think this was one of the photos I took that day. If so, then it must have quit raining before the Reds game. 


Sometimes, like today apparently, we'd get a combination of Famous Recipe Fried Chicken (on the left one block ahead in this pic...and still in 2012 come to think of it--and White Castles. We only lived 4 blocks from the chicken place so we only drove if we were getting the hamburgers, too, as they 7 blocks or so further up from this shot.


I hated those flying bugs---big ol' things supposedly brought back from Florida by other tenants. I'd bounce around my bedroom from the bed to the desktop swatting at 'em with a broom and making sure everyone else in the house was awake to help! Haven't seen one in years luckily. In fact, nowadays we just get the occasional bat!

Saturday, June 22nd, 1974

Picked up Dad's virus. Just sat around and read most of the afternoon and even that hurt my eyes.

There were some terrible storms today--one really early this morning and one this evening. We were listening to WKRQ when it went off the air. Later we heard it was struck by lightning and the disc jockey knocked unconscious.

NOTES: That particular DJ was new on Q-102, the big Top 40 FM FM station in town, that year. I remember we were all worried and later stunned to read about the lightning strike. We were stunned more some years later to read about his arrest for soliciting sex from a minor on the Internet (who turned out to be a police officer).

Friday, June 22nd, 1974

Dad was home again. A slight cold yesterday had expanded greatly today.

The paper once again lists The Madison for THE EXORCIST. Just another week.

It may be just an idle thought but I think I'd like to be an actor.

I got the new SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.

Saw a TV commercial for DEADLY WEAPONS. Seems "Chesty Morgan" is not just the character bit the actress!

IT twice today. Wish it would just stop.

NOTES: In time, my wanting to be an actor modified a bit. I wanted to be a voice actor! It's never really happened. I have been able to indulge the fantasy by performing with pros and talented amateurs onstage at the Old Time radio Convention since the late eighties. When I was working at the Public Library, I was tapped to narrate a segment on canine visits for kids. The interesting part was that I recorded the narration about a week before the event. Then scenes from the event were edited together to match my narration! Not exactly acting but fun.


SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN was Marvel's black and white, more adult version of the Conan character. Most issues were epic length tales written by Roy Thomas with an eye toward the overall continuity and timeline of the character. Drawn by John Buscema, Ernie Chan and other illustrators who were really given their head and allowed to run with it, these were well-done stories! BUT...in the long run, they were a bit repetitive and my enthusiasm for the title wore off. On this day, though, it was the very first issue that I bought. Bolstered by the Ah-nold film adaptations, the title overstayed its welcome by running into the mid-1990's!

Thursday, June 20th, 1974

I had to give up several mags to get a copy of WILLIAM PETER BLATTY ON THE EXORCIST. For $1.95, I got the complete screenplay of the film , inside stories and pages and pages of pictures! Some of Linda I never expected to see and lots of behind the scenes shots. It was worth the price!

I also got all the new comics and the new SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN TREASURY EDITION for a buck fifty!

Dad stayed home sick today. I felt better today myself after yesterday's unexpected workout. Terry maintains he's doing it again on Saturday. Not with me!

Still haven't gotten that Hammer book in the mail and now we're expecting the 1973 Encyclopedia Yearbook also.

NOTES: EXORCIST screenwriter William Peter Blatty had been in Hollywood a long time and knew his way around a screenplay but this one turned out to be a phenomenon. Assuming he wrote the book himself, he did an excellent job. There were a lot of behind-the-scenes books on particular movies in the seventies but this one remains one of the best in my opinion


I never did invest a whole day in walking to that Showcase Cinemas. Soon enough we were going to get one of our own in Northern Kentucky and it was, in its own way, just as hard to get to if you didn't have a car! What were they thinking?


We had a complete set of Funk and Wagnells' Encyclopedias, purchased one per week at the local supermarket back in 1968. We also purchased matching yearbooks for every year since which started taking up a lot of space. The idea was that I could use them for my homework. Only I rarely actually had homework! We continued getting the yearbooks until. I believe, 1982. By that point there was nowhere to actually put them except filling the top of the mantle all the way across. Around that time, I canceled the Yearbook and we boxed them all up, to be donated to...somewhere...a dozen years on.

Wednesday, June 19th, 1974

We got paid today.

I met Terry here at 11 and then we went over the river.All the new stuff was out but we didn't get any so we wouldn't have to carry it. We caught the bus at 12:40. A little over an hour later, about 1:45, we finally arrived at Tri-County Shopping Center. We asked some people for directions but no one knew exactly. So we walked across the street to a gas station and got directions there. We started walking but after about 10 minutes, we had to stop and ask for directions again. We finally found the right road but we had to walk all the way to the other end to find the theatre! It took us so long that we literally arrived just moments before the picture started.

We did get to see THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, though and it was marvelous!

At first sight of the Showcase Cinemas I was very elated! I never thought we'd actually find them! I was in the same building as THE EXORCIST, too.

Took us forever to walk back, too, and then we had to wait on the bus and take the hour long bus back to town and then the TANK bus back to Kentucky! By the time I got home, I had a bad headache and stomachache and had to skip work! It was late enough that Mom and Dad were already at the Office by the time I got back.

I felt terrible by the time the day ended but I wouldn't have missed it. Also saw three more theaters along the way--The Alpha and the Princeton 1 and 2.

NOTES: The Showcase Cinemas in Tri-County had been open about a year at that point I believe but I had never been there. They had 6 screens at a time when 2 was the maximum anywhere else. The ads in the paper always said "Near Tri-County Shopping Center" so, of course, it made sense to take the bus to the Center and then walk. Only it wasn't THAT near the Tri-County Shopping Center! It took nearly 90 minutes to get there down a long country road about half a mile North of the Mall and it was an extremely hot day!


So about 90 minutes to get to Tri-County from Kentucky, 90 minutes to walk to the theaters, arriving just in time for a 90 minute movie, followed by a 90 minute walk back as the sun started setting, then waiting for the return bus and another 90 minutes to make it home. About 8 hours to see the new Ray Harryhausen film!


Now here's the thing. If one is driving, it really is about five minutes away from the Shopping Center (now called a Mall). Only two geeky teenagers would walk it! For many years in the nineties, the Cincinnati Old Time Radio Convention would be held just across the street from it. I often looked out at the theater from the hotel parking lot and remembered that hot, looooong day.

Tuesday June 18th, 1974

I saw a couple of EXORCIST stars on with MIKE DOUGLAS but not Linda, sad to say. I don't believe in the devil. I believe that men's own minds hold the keys for all "devil"-attributed phenomena.

Got kind of crazy and did IT differently today but now I'm over that weird feeling I've had for the past few days.

There are several good movies starting this week. Some I've done seen (MAGNUM FORCE) and some I most likely won't see (CHESTY MORGAN'S DEADLY WEAPONS) and then there's THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD. It's out at the Showcase Cinemas but if Terry will come with me, I'll go. It's rated G and I remember the bus number form when me and Dad tried to go out there to see THE EXORCIST. I really hope we go. Terry says his Mom might take us to see THE EXORCIST which means there's a better chance that Dad will take us to THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT. I saw both advertised on TV tonight!

The guy was here today working on the furnace and I had to stay home to let him into the apartment when the time came.

I read this very book today and realized just how often IT has happened. Wish I'd never discovered it!

I recorded an old SHADOW radio drama on tape.

NOTES: That last is obviously another early example of my building interest in old time radio. Last year, 2011, I worked as proofreader for Martin Grams' extensive and definitive history on THE SHADOW radio series. Today, in 2012, son David had a friend over and, without any hint for us, she told us how much she enjoyed listening to OTR when she could find it! One of us!


Don't ask about the crazy IT. I don't remember. The mind boggles though, doesn't it? 


Remember a time when you didn't think twice about a 15 year old boy being left at home alone to allow a strange man in to fix the furnace?


Still have never seen DEADLY WEAPONS but I've read extensively on no-budget filmmaker Doris Wishman who made it and the painfully endowed stripper who starred in it, Chesty Morgan. Chesty actually was appearing in nearby Newport to promote the film when it opened locally and was interviewed by THE CINCINNATI POST's Mary Wood. 


As far as taking the bus to the Showcase Cinemas, I believe I've touched on what happens before. Check back tomorrow for the full story.

Monday, June 17th, 1974

It's official. Today's paper says that THE EXORCIST will show up at The Madison on June 26th! Now the only problem will be if Dad changes his mind about taking me.

I switched my chair with Sidney's this afternoon and then watched a Martin and Lewis film.

I tried on my entire white outfit and tested my singing skills on tape.The outfit's great! The singing needs work.

As far as I know, my great horoscope for today didn't come true after all. Too bad. That would have been a marvelous thing. At least someone who would like me for who I am. Other than Debbie, so far only Susan was like that but that relationship was extremely short-lived and we ended up as just friends. She's gone now anyway. All the ones I liked go away. Cheri, Susan, Debbie, Phyllis, Regina...Every girl who ever liked me in any way is gone form my life now. But I sure wouldn't mind for a minute if I had someone now. Someone I like who likes me. Someone smart, pretty, funny...not necessarily Linda but...just someone, anyone, I can love. Adoring someone like Linda from afar is alright but I need someone I can see, feel, touch and talk with. And that's what my horoscope kind of promised. And I foolishly believed it. Now the disappointment sets in and it's love that's lost again.

NOTES: Sidney, you may recall, was Sidney Australia, the human-sized stuffed rabbit who had his own easy chair in our living room for several years. I've mentioned him here before and also on the '76 blog. He had been left behind by another tenant and we took him in. MyDad called him Cedric Weehunt after an old LUM 'N' ABNER radio character but I maned him Sidney. The Australia came later on.


The white outfit was in emulation of Elvis. I loved his Nudie suits and bought white bellbottom pants, a long-sleeved white shirt and white shoes. Didn't help my singing one single bit.


As for the last paragraph---who says "emo" wasn't around back then?