Sunday, August 18th, 1974

After a very hard time deciding which movie to see, Mom, Terry, Doug and I all went to see HOMEBODIES. I didn't really care for it. Boy!

Terry says maybe tomorrow we can go see BIG BAD MAMA with his mother. I'm not too hopeful.

I got FIGHTING STARS and the group and I ate on Fountain Square.

NOTES: HOMEBODIES was shot in an around Cincinnati. It was a very black comedy about a bunch of older tenants who murder their landlord. The cast included only two actors I knew, Ruth McDevitt and Ian Wolfe. Paula Trueman who would go on to a great performance in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES also appears. We saw it up on the Skywalk which was probably my favorite theater in that year of so many movies. It just wasn't a very good one.

Saturday, August 17th, 1974

We went to see BLAZING SADDLES and we had a great time.

Tonight I found out that the Ludlow isn't supposed to have any matinees tomorrow after Doug and Terry have already agreed to come. Boy!

I got MAD (with an EXORCIST parody) and some other mags.

Lately most things have been going just really wrong. I feel like I need to get away from it for a little while--all the movies and comics that I love so much, the fantastic imagination that I have that dreamed up Arkon, DM and SITUATION SIX, all the songs I love and all the feelings that I hide. I am mature beyond my years and it's not right. I wish I never got hooked on all those marvelous things and that I got average grades and wasn't the bookworm! Maybe then I'd have been interested in cars and sports and normal things and girls might have been interested in me. I'm almost 16 and I've never kissed a girl! I WANT TO!! Mr. Graves once told me I could get anything I wanted if I just tried and I believed him. By this time tomorrow, most of these feelings will have subsided probably. I could never give up comics or movies. They are my very favorite things! I love girls. They just don't love me. But I love comics and movies and they DO love me. I'm glad.

NOTES: Surprised I didn't say more about BLAZING SADDLES as I consider it still to be one of the funniest films ever.

I never bought MAD regularly but I did pick up issues with parodies of movies or TV shows I really liked.

A nice little "poor pitiful me" rant there, right in line with being a teenaged geek I know now. Interesting that I was perceptive enough to realize that the feelings I was feeling were likely to blow over quickly. And come back...and blow over...and come back...

Mr. Graves had been my sixth grade teacher. I had always thought of teaching as a woman's job. He was my first male teacher and ended up as my favorite grade school teacher!

Friday, August 16th, 1974

My horoscope predicted a great day today so I went to bed with great hopes but awoke to a thunderstorm which caused me to miss JEANNIE for the first time since reruns started several months ago. Well!

I went with Terry to Scroggins and King Kwik but didn't get a thing. We ran into David Donner.

No mail today but I wrote FM, Warren, Japan and Linda. Didn't rewrite any of them for mailing yet, though.

There was a bird on my windowsill and it was there for hours. I gave it some bread to eat but it didn't. Some stupid kids tried to get it down. I made a weapon out of a stick and a nylon cord. Kind of  awhip. I was ready to attack them if they messed with the bird again but they didn't. Finally the bird just flew away like there was nothing wrong with it.

I cut myself pretty bad over at SS tonight.

We won't get to see BLAZING SADDLES 'til tomorrow.

Whew! Glad I survived today!

NOTES: Yes, this was in my astrology period. Most teens had them back then. Do they still? Days like this were what got me out of mine. 

King Kwik was our local version of 7-Eleven. Scroggins was the candy store way uptown that had the best selection of comic books.

David Donner was a school acquaintance, more a friend of Doug's than mine. A few years ago, I looked up folks from my Junior High yearbooks online and we found he's a registered sex offender!(Needless to say, I did NOT use his real name.)

I don't remember the bird or the kids but I remember that whip-like thing I made. Yowtch! That nylon really stung if you accidentally hit yourself with it! I kept it in the closet for years and finally added a piece of heavy cylindrical cardboard on the other end making it into a type on nunchuk. 

And yes, I wrote letters in drafts. I rarely mailed the first draft. Sometimes I'd go through multiple laughs and ultimately decide it wasn't working so I just didn't mail the letters at all. So there! The Warren letter I refer to here may have been the letter I wrote to VAMPIRELLA which they ended up actually publishing!

Thursday, August 15th, 1974

I got several more things on Linda including one that's prompted me to write her again tomorrow (maybe). I also ordered LINDA--EXORCIST & BEYOND for $7.00! What it is exactly I'll have to wait and see.

I got FATE & FORTUNE 1 to trade to Terry.

I also got SUPERFAN AGAIN which wasn't nearly as good as the memorable SUPERFAN I got a year or so back.

NOTES: Not sure what FATE & FORTUNE was. There's a magazine called that nowadays but that's clearly unrelated. Not sure what that LInd aBlair thing I ordered turned out to be but I'm shocked I paid that much for it! That was a small fortune in those days!

I DO know what SUPERFAN AGAIN was. I sold it recently in 2012 alng with SUPERFAN. They were MAD-like paperbacks by Nick Meglin and Jack Davis featuring a nebbish who gets super powers and becomes a football hero. Seen here is my original copy, scanned just prior to selling it.

Wednesday, August 14th, 1974

Doug has moved! he wants me to come up tomorrow or sometime soon. He tells me that girl IS Bob's sister. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all. Just wish I could win SOME of these!

I had a terrific dream about Doug, Terry and I attending some big school over in Ohio. Too fascinating to really describe and get across what made it feel so good.

Saw part 2 of THIEF and a very, very moving ABC afternoon special with Patty Duke Astin. I finally saw MELVIN PURVIS, G-MAN, too. And I watched MUSCLE BEACH PARTY again. Made me discover that what used to be my favorite type of movie now seems childish and silly. Boy! I didn't even like it!

Either I mis-numbered or I'm missing two of my SPECIAL COMIC EDITIONS.

NOTES: Not sure how Doug knew she was Bob's sister. Guess if I had a clue who Bob was maybe?

Don't recall where Doug moved to, either. Don't think I ever did go there. Guess we'll find out.

Interesting how tastes change. Seems to me like I always loved the BEACH PARTY movies with Frankie and Annette. Yes, they are silly and childish but...so? This particular one also features Donna Loren who I was privileged to interview a couple of years back, "Little" Stevie Wonder and one of Peter Lorre's very last film appearances. I loved it as a kid, apparently didn't as a teenager, and now I love it again!

Tuesday, August 13th, 1974

IT yet again! Desperately, I destroyed the "inspiration." Maybe that will stop things.

Terry came by this morning to listen to the tape I made yesterday.

We saw Joey Heatherton--with long hair!--on IT TAKES A THIEF, too!

BLAZING SADDLES is gonna be downtown. Hope I can manage to see it, too, this week.

This afternoon, I recorded my thoughts about Debbie and other old girlfriends and crushes but I erased them because they could be embarrassing.

I saw a flick with a suicidal Richard Basehart and one with Angie Dickinson and William Shatner (NOT the one at the Ludlow).

I saw more commercials for upcoming ABC TV movies included the Connie Stevens flick, THE SEX SYMBOL. Should be a terrific season. Wow!

NOTES: Again, I was 15. These earlier crushes and "girlfriends" would have been almost all back when I was 11 or 12. WE WERE JUST KIDS!!! Ah, well. It's all perspective. 

The Basehart movie was 1951's FOURTEEN HOURS, a tense drama. The Shatner/Dickinson film that was NOT the controversial BIG BAD MAMA was most likely the TV film, PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS that had aired for the first time back in January. 

THE SEX SYMBOL was perky Connie Stevens' attempt at doing a serious version of the life of Marilyn or someone like her. It almost worked. When it finally aired, the controversial TV movie was rather explicit for TV with some actual nudity added in for theatrical release overseas.

Monday, August 12th, 1974

IT.

I started reading my SPIRIT collection again.

The Beatles album's really starting to grow on me.

I find myself kind of attracted to the girl next door with the short black hair even though she's obviously a little younger than me and I think she may be Bob's sister. Oh, well. It's not like last summer when that girl lived upstairs. That may have been my chance. I saw her around all the time but never spoke to her.

Made several attempts at radio plays today with me doing all the parts. Even tried the EXORCIST script from that book with me doing all the language! It got tiresome eventually. I ended up making a tape I called NUTHOUSE though. It's just me and portions of records. Not too bad.

NOTES: Wow. I not only have no memory at all of this girl next door but I don't even have a clue who "Bob" was! I do recall the girl from the previous year. She had apparently spent the summer with a relative who lived in one of the apartments upstairs. No one ever introduced me and I certainly never introduced myself but I'd see her around outside, riding off on her bike or walking back from the corner grocery. I doubt I said a single word to her. I remember I still felt like I was building up to that when suddenly she was no longer up there. 

I may still have NUTHOUSE. I know I had it a few years ago but it may have been one of several that got damaged. I was unable to salvage most of them. I definitely did not keep the one man plays I attempted. Probably recorded NUTHOUSE over them.

I still love THE SPIRIT. Even at its worst its better than most comics of its day and the whole thing has perhaps the most unique history of any comics character, also. Long after the terrible recent film version is forgotten, the influence of its source material will endure.