Sunday, August 11th, 1974

It rained  a lot today.

Mom wet shopping and got me The Beatles' WHITE ALBUM. I only like about half the songs but I'm still glad I've finally got it!

I watched EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS for about the 8th time.

I also saw The Bunny Pageant and a show called THEY'VE KILLED MISTER LINCOLN which gave me lots more facts to use if and when I rewrite SITUATION SIX.

I made a SPIRIT folder with daily strips clipped from THE GAZETTE.

NOTES: THE WHITE ALBUM has never been a favorite of mine. I fall into the category of the folks who think it would have made a truly great single record but no...they self-indulgently had to put out everything.

EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS is Ray Harryhausen's special effects extravaganza. Oddly enough, the reason I had seen it so many times is that they used to show it at school in assembly every year! In grade school. Cheri McAvoy got scared once and buried her face in my shoulder. 

SITUATION SIX was my time traveling tale of Lincoln as villain from the future. 

THE SPIRIT I'm referring to here is the daily strip version as reprinted in THE MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE. I clipped them out and taped them in a yellow folder...which I took down from the shelf and scanned just now, 38 years later. For the cover I clipped and colored (badly) an otherwise lovely Walt Simonson rendition of Will Eisner's evergreen hero, also from TMFG.

Saturday, August 10th, 1974

Mom's birthday.

I got a haircut.

Terry and I did one of our "radio" shows. Then I went with him to see THE STING, my best bet to be  my number one movie of the year so far. After all, I saw ENTER THE DRAGON five and a half times last year.

MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN looks like a winner. Also saw previews for HOMEBODIES and got a Marx Brothers poster as well as a book on Academy Award Winners.

NOTES: We of course didn't know it at the time but my Mother would be with us only a little more than seven more years at that point. Sigh. Been without her now longer than I was with her. Had she survived, she would today turn 97.

Terry and I would often turn on my tape recorder and just ad lib radio shows, often complete with songs in between the ad-libbed schtick. Sometimes we'd even use sound effects records. I still have one hour long recording we made that year. Wonder if it was this one?

Friday, August 9th, 1974

It. Twice.

Spent most of the day watching history in the making. It was really something the way it worked. I hope Mr. Nixon gets a fair deal now.

I went over the river but they didn't have anything. I returned empty-handed.

I went uptown with dad and it was neat to see EXORCIST still at the Madison.

I've been seriously considering writing Debbie again. I really, really want a girlfriend!

I re-entered the TV Bloopers contest with the game show question. What President's picture is found on a ten dollar bill? Answer--Alexander Hamilton. Only he wasn't a President! This time I know it's definitely a mistake. I already mailed it. If they get mine first, I get 50 bucks which I'll put in my savings! By this time next year, I WILL be able to afford to meet Linda! Well, if I can ever find out definitely where she's at!

Nixon cut off Roddy on last night's Bicentennial Minute and because it was dated for yesterday specifically, they can't ever run it now. Boy!

I stayed up 'til after 12 to watch Desi Arnaz, Jr. in CALIFORNIA MY WAY. I left for bed, though, after I got to see Desi. Sr and a trip to the movie studios.

NOTES:The Bicentennial Minute was a nightly one minute "show" that aired for a couple years leading up to the actual event in '76. Each night had a celebrity reading a brief remembrance of a major US historical event that occurred on that date. Thus, by missing the date, Roddy McDowall's minute was considered moot. 

Wish I could remember that CALIFORNIA MY WAY. IMDB says it also featured Cass Elliot, Paul Williams, Ross Martin and Desi's former bandmate in Dino, Desi and Billy, Dino Martin. Seen above are Desi Sr and Jr from the special. 

Thursday, August 8th, 1974

It wasn't one of my better ideas but Terry, Doug and his sister and myself all went together to see BORN LOSERS. None of them seemed comfortable around each other.

The picture was good but it did leave me wishing I had seen BILLY JACK when I had the chance. Also it made me sick the way those creeps were pushing everybody around and raping all the girls. Made me so sick I'd probably go after 'em myself but more like Paul Kersey in DEATH WISH than BILLY JACK! Damn!

At work, I broke my own record again. Just about 25 minutes. Of course, there wasn't as much trash as usual.

Mom wanted me to walk over to Becker's but I told her I didn't feel like it. Dad went but was gone over an hour. Mom got so worried I was wishing I had gone but he finally got home just fine.

President Nixon resigned! A sad day for me. He was, in my opinion, the single greatest President of the century!I defended his name all through this Watergate business! But I believe and hope that he is doing the right ting here. The country can't be successfully run by a man who has lost the respect of so many. As for me. I will always have great respect for Richard Milhous Nixon!

NOTES: Ummm....or not. What can I say? I was fifteen and not the most politically conscious kid on the block, y'know? I had had to write a report about Nixon when he had first won a few years earlier (mostly cribbed from LIFE magazine) and later was chosen as the head of the Re-Elect Nixon mock campaign in junior high. With everything that's come out since and everything I've read and heard and learned about the man since, this has long since ceased to be my opinion!

And yikes! Was I saying I'd buy a gun to go after guys like in that movie? For those who don't know, I've been involved in the movement for safer gun laws as an activist and supporter for some years now. 

BORN LOSERS, btw, was NOT a good movie, then or now. It was a cheap, violent expatiation film. Even Tom Laughlin's Billy Jack character had yet to be fully developed. The only reason it was re-released then was to cash in on the later film's surprise success. Actress Jane Russell grabbed a quick paycheck for a brief, thankless role in one of her final appearances on the big screen. Otherwise, the thing I took away from the film was actor Jeremy Slate, so mean in this but, as I learned over the years, adept at all kids of roles from westerns to silly comedies. He was even the hero in THE AQUANAUTS on TV with future Tarzan and Doc Savage Ron Ely. 

Wednesday, August 7th, 1974

I managed to avoid IT today!

Got some new mags and INSIDE COMICS.

The only movies I want to see right now are DEATH WISH, BORN LOSERS and WHITE DAWN. Whether I get to see them or not is something else. THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN is showing uncut at the Alpha. Too bad. I'd love to see that.

Learned that Linda is making a TV flick for NBC called BORN INNOCENT. Should be great! EXORCIST is still at the Madison.

NOTES: The Alpha had been an adult theater that was always getting in trouble in Cincinnati and eventually closed. They reopened for several years as a repertory cinema. A little complicated to get to but in a year or so I figured out the bus routes and was there most every Sunday afternoon.

I never did see THE WHITE DAWN. In fact, I never even recognized the title when I saw that I had written it here. Looks like it was an adventure drama about whalers trapped with an Eskimo tribe. Warren Oates, later a favorite of mine but not yet then, starred. 

Tuesday, August 6th, 1974

I almost avoided IT today but not quite.

I worked some more on my new story.

I watched a very old episode of I LOVE LUCY with George Reeves as Superman! Brought back lots of memories for me even though Reeves committed suicide just after I was born.

I didn't want her to but Mom did my work when two of those dummies next door stayed until after 8:30 and there was a movie on I wanted to see. I went over by 10 but she was almost done with my stuff by then.

SHIRTS/SKINS, though, was one of the best TV movies I've ever seen.

I stayed up to watch FACE OF FU MANCU. Much better than the last Fu Manchu film I saw. This one was really the first Chris Lee one. The other I saw was AGAINST ALL ODDS, about two years ago. It seems as though there was no Fu Manchu movie by that name but I know there was. Maybe I can find out somehow.

NOTES: What was that, like ONE whole day since I assured myself I was now mature enough to avoid IT?


Seems like I had caught the ending of that LUCY episode at a friend's house some years earlier but I think this was the first time I had seen the episode all the way through. If I recall correctly, THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN itself hadn't been seen in the local market since about 1970 or so...a world of time at this age!


I'm glad I enjoyed SHIRTS/SKINS. Wish I could remember the slightest thing about it at this date...including who was in it.

In those pre-IMDB days, I must have turned to some reference book or another to determine the lack of a Fu film with that title...or so I thought. Christopher Lee, then and now a favorite of mine, had starred in 5 tales of the now horribly politically incorrect Evil Oriental Mastermind, all of them pretty cheap and pretty bad. It was 1968's BLOOD OF FU MANCHU, however, that got renamed AGAINST ALL ODDS...and also KISS & KILL...as well as FU MANCHU & THE KISS OF DEATH. None of which apparently helped its box office. 1969's CASTLE OF FU MANCHU was the worst of them all, though. If I'm correct, it was only released in the US a few years later as 3rd feature drive-in fodder.

Monday, August 5th, 1974

IT. But I'm pretty sure I can avoid IT from this point on. I'm beginning to think in more realistic terms. 

I saw the last PASSWORD special today after watching it most of the past four weeks. It was really something! Especially the ending!

Bill Cosby on MERV again with my favorite ex-bunny, Barbi Benton. 

I began writing a fantasy story (first draft) about time paradoxes. A fascinating topic. 

I watched most of the Early Movie with Jim Scott hosting. It was a good story about a man and his crew and passengers stranded in a lifeboat.  ABANDON SHIP. Tyrone Power.

Next time I'm over in Cincy, I'm gonna check through all the old LIFE mags at OBS to find the BARBARELLA poster I traded Terry last week. Smart, eh?

NOTES: Barbi Benton had been Hef's girlfriend and had appeared in the mag and on the cover but she was never a centerfold nor a bunny, What did I know? Always seemed like such a nice girl. She became a familiar face on HEE HAW and many TV guest appearances and even released a few not bad albums. She also starred in the movie I consider the worst I have ever seen--X-RAY! Earlier this year, I had her address and was considering writing to see if I could interview her but never had the time.

ABANDON SHIP was an obvious variation on LIFEBOAT but not bad. I was never a big Power fan, though, even though he came from Cincinnati.