Sunday, August 4th, 1974

We couldn't find the paper this morning. I walked all over town with no luck. We were just about to go to Newport when it turned up out on the sidewalk in front of the house.

There's a new Charles Bronson film I want to see soon. Also, Bruce Lee's RETURN OF THE DRAGON is out! In Chicago at least.

I went to Terry's late this afternoon. Didn't stay as late as I have been lately. We worked on his scapbooks. He let me tape in all the photos of Linda Blair. He doesn't have near as many as I do. Picked up the PLAYBOY, too. Didn't do anything for me. Probably will at some point.

Found out in the paper that they've changed Trash Day to Monday and Thursday so we had to put it all out tonight.

I watched part of The Carpenters on EVENING AT POPS. I guess when it comes right down to it, Karen is my favorite female singer.

NOTES: It was rare to actually find Sunday papers in the racks as there were a couple of spots in town where guys just commandeered corners and sold them to folks in cars the whole morning long until after Church let out or they ran out, whichever came first. Apparently they weren't in their spots on this day either. From the fact that the paper DID show up eventually, I'm going to presume there was just some sort of printing delay.


I had been a Charles Bronson fan since TV's TRAVELS OF JAMIE McPHEETERS with young Kurt Russell and old movies like HOUSE OF WAX. At this point in the seventies, he was arguably the biggest movie star in the world...although he had not yet caught on in the US as strongly as in Europe and Asia.


I still melt at Karen Carpenter's voice. EVENING AT POPS was conductor Arthur Fiedler's PBS music series.

Saturday, August 3rd, 1974

I saw a special on the filming of HUCK FINN with Apes director J. Lee Thompson. I saw a commercial for the new SHAZAM show, too. I also watched MR. HORATIO KNIBBLES, THE SAINT, etc.

Mom got me Cokes for a change. I haven't been drinking many so I guess it's okay. Anyway, I asked for 'em.

Terry called. Said he'd got me the one PLAYBOY book along with others for himself. I wasn't gonna call him today because my horoscope almost begged me not to. He wants me to come over to help him with another scrapbook tomorrow and then go to Scroggins Monday.

I finished CONQUEST and decided to read just the beginning and the end of BATTLE so I did just that.

Notes: The version of HUCKLEBERRY FINN mentioned above was the then-new musical feature starring Jeff East, perhaps best known today as the hunky teenage Clark Kent in 1978's SUPERMAN. Director Thompson had just helmed BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES. Like that film, this, too, was produced by Arthur P. Jacobs. Jacobs wife, Natalie Trundy, who had appeared in all (I believe) of the Apes films in various roles, was also in the film. Jacobs died while it was in production. 


MR. HORATIO KNIBBLES is a British children's film that has in the years since taken on a bit of a cult status. Sort of a variation on HARVEY with a giant rabbit that only a little girl can see. 


I wrote about the SHAZAM show recently on both BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY and THE BOOKSTEVE CHANNEL. It really wasn't very well done.

Friday, August 2nd, 1974

Terry and I got a few new books late this afternoon including the big WHIZ.

There was a lot of trouble at the office tonight as it seems someone was trying to break in. Mom's convinced, however, that it was US. When we went over and saw that there were still people in there, we came back home for  awhile. Oh, well. We're not talking.

Rained lightly for the first time in weeks. I hope it rains more tomorrow. We can use it now.

I saw Bill Cosby on Merv's show, one of my top favorite comedians along with Dick Van Dyke and Jerry Lewis.

I never did anything to the letter to Debbie and I may not. After all, it's all over for us now.

I saw a commercial for new ABC movies and was overjoyed to see HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, my second favorite western, will be on.

I heard TAXI for the first time in months.

NOTES: "The big WHIZ" was the tabloid size DC comic reprinting the original debut of Captain Marvel. 


So nice to remember back when I loved rain. I might still if not for PTSD after our basement hadn't ended up with 4 feet of water in it in July of 2010, disabling our hot water heater, our washer and dryer and our air-conditioning and central fan (to say noting of ruining a whole bunch of stuff we had just moved to the basement from paid storage!). Nowadays, it never seems to just rain. It's always a deluge, and my blood pressure always goes sky high. I miss rain. Sigh.


Wonder what I was considering my favorite western at that point as my favorite now, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, was still two years in the future.


I had been a huge Dick Van Dyke fan since childhood and some of the earliest movies I saw were Jerry Lewis movies. We never watched I SPY, though, so I guess I discovered Cosby through his talk and variety show appearances and then his later sitcom where he was a coach. 


As a rule, I hate story songs but I've always made an exception for Harry Chapin's TAXI. It's heavy, long and maudlin but well-produced and somehow deep, meaningful and enjoyable anyway. 

Thursday, August 1st, 1974

IT happened again. Twice. Again. Otherwise a pretty boring day.

I finished ESCAPE and got well into CONQUEST.

They worked late tonight so we did, too.

I wrote Debbie. Need to rewrite it before I mail it.

I found Phyllis's number in the phone book. I never did call her back that time. Maybe I'll write her, too.

Terry called but didn't say a thing about the stuff he owes me.

Burt Reynolds interviewed host Merv Griffin and Clint Eastwood tonight on TV.

NOTES: Oh, please don't let me actually mail that letter to Debbie. Yeesh!


Phyllis was a girl I knew when I was 5 and she was 4. She had called and we talked a year or so earlier but then she called again and I wasn't home or something. Never called her back. 


Not sure if this was the period when Burt was attempting to start his own talk show or if he was just a guest on Merv or what. I had liked him on TV since DAN AUGUST and he was just starting to get big in movies. His COSMOPOLITAN centerfold of two years earlier, done as a joke on a dare from that magazine's editor, had propelled his career forward and his serious role in DELIVERANCE had won over the critics. By this point, he was starting to win over the general public, also. Reynolds himself has said he doesn't remember the seventies much at all. 


BTW---IT on this date had absolutely nothing to do with Burt. Trust me. 

Wednesday, July 31st, 1974

I helped Mrs. Pritchett in the basement this morning and I got to fool with a real Japanese Samurai sword that used to belong to George.

At Woolworth's, I bought novels of ESCAPE and CONQUEST.

Doug and I saw THREE MUSKETEERS. It was just a little disappointing in spots but had some truly great moments!

Doug gave me a page out of the STAR on comics.

We caught the first bus back but turned out we were on the wrong one. We were headed toward Cold Springs! Luckily for us, the bus broke down and started smoking so we all had to get off and wait for another bus. He and I got on one going the right direction and rode it all the way back home.

I watched the first episode of THE HUDSON BROTHERS.

NOTES: THE THREE MUSKETEERS was, of course, the Richard Lester version. It's aged well and seems even better now than it did then...and so does it's part two sequel, filmed simultaneously but released the following year.


Eventually I had all the PLANET OF THE APES novels. The first one, the original by Pierre Boulle, is, of course, nothing whatsoever like the movie. Almost wish they had released a novelized version of the movie, too.


The Hudson Brothers were the next big thing, three talented siblings who were being compared favorably to both the Beatles and the Marx Brothers. I loved their nighttime series, their records and their later Saturday morning show. Somehow they never made it though. Bill ended up with Goldie Hawn for awhile however, and is the father of Kate Hudson. Mark became an award-winning music producer known for his rainbow-dyed beard. Not sure what happened to Brett.


The Samurai sword was cool!

Tuesday, July 30th, 1974

This morning they played hits that I was crazy about for a full half hour on the radio!

Terry came over and we went to OBS about 11:15. They were supposed to get new old books in but by 3 nothing had shown up. I got 3 oldies anyway, a TV GUIDE and a mag with Raquel Welch pics. Also, two old issues of TRUE with a condensed version of 007's rare COLONEL SUN! Terry bought quite a few old mags with Raquel including a PLAYBOY. He also got a card from an odd man about  UFO's.

We ran into one of the guys from the S.T.A.R. thing last Saturday, too.

Terry gave me a dollar for my Raquel mag I got for a quarter and another dollar for the MAGIC CHRISTIAN soundtrack LP. For once I came out on top in a deal. He also gave $3.50 for INFINITY 5 and I gave him a Raquel picture and a BARBARELLA poster to get me the PLAYBOY issue with 007 in LIVE & LET DIE. If he can't, he owes me another dollar.  If I get the PLAYBOY I promise myself I'll control myself so I won't have to tear it up.

Terry bought both Marie Osmond albums and the BAND ON THE RUN album. I can't figure how he can afford it all.

If Doug's back tomorrow, we're going to Newport to catch THE THREE MUSKETEERS. It's also at the International '70 in Cincinnati.

The first new series commercial I saw on CBS just had to be PLANET OF THE APES with Roddy. And it was!

NOTES: First of all, I don't recall ever having a BARBARELLA poster. Considering the weird stuff that I remember like it was yesterday, it still freaks me out when I totally blank on something. INFINITY 5 was a fanzine which came with a free Berni Wrightson poster. I still have the poster. I found it just recently and wondered what I had done with the book, itself. Now I now. 


Both Terry and I were enamored of Marie Osmond, a year younger than him and only 8 months different than myself. I didn't care for her "little bit country" style of music but ended up with her albums eventually. 


THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN is a 1969 psychedelic mess of a movie that neither of us had seen but Raquel was in it with a whip. I had bought the soundtrack in the cut out bin somewhere for a buck and here sold it to him for the same. Eventually, after he cut out the picture of Raquel from the back of the LP sleeve, he traded it back to me...and I still have it today. Great music from Badfinger and Thunderclap Newman. Some silly comedy bits with Peter Sellers and others. 


Somewhere around here. Terry and I had (or soon would) bought all of the 007 paperbacks for 10 cents each at Horn's, the junk store here. COLONEL SUN was a later, post-Fleming sequel by the esteemed Kingsley Amis. I hadn't found a copy of the book but I did find on this date the two issues of TRUE where it had been excerpted. 

Monday, July 29th, 1974

What I need to avoid IT is a romantic interest.

Speaking of romance, I got some more pix of Linda today along with some insight into her new role. She plays a girl en route to a kidney operation when the crash occurs. Can't wait. I intend to be there the first week!

I intend to have my new scrapbook be mostly Linda and I'm off to a good start. I'm working on a Roddy McDowell page for my new one, though, too. At the Lemon Starship I got no poster but picked up a free brochure on THE EXORCIST.

Doug and I went up together after working on his scrapbooks all morning. We stopped at his house and his sister was still wearing pajamas! I put my arm around her. Didn't do a thing for me. Just a dumb joke. I think the only girls I will ever truly love will be Debbie and Linda.

Beat my work record by one minute! Now it's 29! I probably can't beat that. We've got a lot of thin, small bags now so I'm sometimes having to use three where I used to use one.

Doug and I found a bunch of old ROLLING STONES, militant and hippie newspapers. Found a big ad for the movie, THE GETAWAY in one.

Doug told me he saw THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT yesterday and they showed previews for the new 007 movie with Chris Lee!

Tonight I watched a rerun of a movie with Roddy.

There's a record out called CAPTAIN HOWDY. HAH!

NOTES: "Lemon Starship." What a groovy name. I have no memory of this poster store whatsoever. Nor do I recall finding all those old mags. Were they just thrown out somewhere? Obviously we looked through them. Don't know.


I loved my scrapbooking but it just got out of hand and took up too much room. Eventually, they all had to be stuffed into a closet. The ones I used were very similar to what's seen here. They had fancy shoelace ties holding the pages together. I would put a smallish number on the cover on the lower right side and tape over it so it wouldn't rub off. Sometimes I would add blank pages that you could buy but more often than not, I just got a different color one and started anew. I kept them from 1973 through 1982 and ended up with, I believe, 28 in all.