Sunday, November 10th, 1974

Terry sold his 1941 Christmas comic to Comic Corner for 39 bucks! He only paid 15 for it! I may go with him next week with some to sell myself.

I watched HELP again.

Mom bought me the new McCartney record as well as The Hudson Brothers' first single!

We also got a thing to help us take out trash. It was a bit hard to put together but I did it.

Got part of my school collage together today.

IT. Sorry.

NOTES: The Beatles' HELP isn't a great movie like A HARD DAY'S NIGHT but it is fun and just incredibly nostalgic for me. Great snow scenes.

Seems like the "new thing" was a cart that you could put two or three trash cans on and pull it along rather than us having to carry each individual (and often very heavy) metal can around the building through our yard. Seems like there were about a dozen cans in all that had to go out weekly. 

The Hudson Brothers record was a lovely thing entitled, "So You Are a Star." Listening to it now, I hear a combination of Badfinger, Bee Gees and Beatles. The brothers were more successful as TV comics than as record sellers, though. And in the end, they're sadly still a trivia question. 

Saturday, November 9th, 1974

I ventured my first visit to The Studio this afternoon to see two marx Brothers movies. Almost bought a Marx Brothers book on the way home, too. While I was at Kidd's, I saw several people from that STAR TREK thing but I never spoke.

On my way back, I saw Sait from my Spanish class at the terminal. Seems he's a movie lover and book reader, too.

I've almost decided to dedicate my next scrapbook to Barbi Benton if Terry comes through with those pics he promised.

Saw THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE and gorgeous Helen Reddy on with Carol Burnett tonight.

Mom got me two pieces of poster paper and I worked on a collage for myself.

Picked up a new PEANUTS book at King Kwik this morning.

Just heard the buses are wanting to go on strike tonight at midnight! Boy! If they do, that'll be an even bigger headache for me this next week!

NOTES: The Studio was a pair of small cinemas in Cincinnati's PLAYBOY Club building. Over the next few years, it would become one of my favorites. Around this time, there were no less than nine downtown Cincinnati movie screens (and one more in downtown Covington). Within a decade, most would close. By now, all of them are long gone. So sad.

Actually, there were two more screens, even! The one straggling adult cinema lasted into the early eighties by clipping all the actual sex scenes out of its movies! The other was an actual grindhouse in the Over the Rhine section of town. They didn't advertise in the newspapers and rarely showed anything you'd ever heard of. Sometimes they were missing reels even and the prints were unwatchable. But incredibly they stayed open long after many others closed. When that area was rehabbed over the past few decades, it would have been nice if they had rehabbed the theater but no. 

In yet another odd parallel between 1974 and 2012, Sait and I recently reconnected on Facebook. He now lives directly across the street from where I was living in 1974! I told him about this post. Hi, Sait!

I was very dependent on buses at this time. I had many of the routes and schedules memorized. I could still get to school without them but it was a 25 block walk. I could still get to Cincinnati but it was a walk across a long bridge. My feet really didn't want them to go on strike that night!

Friday, November 8th, 1974

I think we get off early next Thursday. If so, I may go see THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK. GOLD opens this week, too. Both will be together at the Gold Circle Cinemas, opening Wednesday by GCC.

Watched PLANET OF THE APES tonight. There's a drawing of Roddy as Galen on the wall in English class! CONQUEST is on TV next week. (So is DOCTOR NO!) Just watched it again last week but I may catch it yet again next week!

For about an hour tonight I totally flipped out over my numero uno flick of last year, ENTER THE DRAGON. TA DA!!

NOTES: Hmm...I don't recall the Gold Circle Cinemas at all. Don't think I ended up ever going there. Wonder what "GCC" means? Seems like it should be Gold Circle Cinemas but in context that doesn't make sense. Oh, well. Gold Circle itself was a department store that we never shopped at. I mean never. In fact, the only time I recall going there was midnight Christmas shopping with a girl in 1980, still 6 years away here. Gold Circle went out of business or changed its name sometime in the eighties I believe.

Thursday, November 7th, 1974

I went over the river after school and picked up a few new mags including CREEPY with Corben's color adaptation of THE RAVEN.

Saw Steffie on HARRY O and found out that in Linda's next TV film she'll be a teenage alcoholic. She sure knows how to avoid the easy roles!

NOTES: HARRY O was a David Janssen TV series best remembered for Farrah Fawcett's semi-regular role, pre-CHARLIE'S ANGELS.

Linda Blair's next movie turned out to be SARAH T: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE ALCOHOLIC, featuring what was arguably her best performance to date. 

Rich Corben is an artist with a unique color art style that incongruously made a splash in the black and white warren comic books. 

Wednesday, November 6th, 1974

Mr. K was absent today. In club period, my class had to go to Study Hall. No teacher at all.

My horoscope said something about not hiding romantic feelings today. Coming home, I missed my bus. Doug's sister sat with me on the second one. I overheard Vernon say something that made me think that's all it meant.

I picked up a lot of stuff for my collage but forgot the poster paper.

Tonight I saw Marvin Hamlisch on a Danny Thomas TV special but had to miss Steffie on PETROCELLI.

NOTES: PETROCELLI was a two season TV series starring Barry Newman, star of such minor cult hits as VANISHING POINT and FEAR IS THE KEY, as a married lawyer. The great character actor Albert Salmi, himself tragically involved in a murder-suicide a few years later, co-starred.

Tuesday, November 5th, 1974

Election Day.

We have to make a poster collage in English and we played dodgeball in Gym. We played Spanish Monopoly and Spanish Scrabble in that class. Well, I ended up sitting them out, naturally. I didn't like 'em anyway. I spent my time trying to teach myself French by reading that Linda Blair article. I hope he goes ahead and gives it to me soon. It's got marvelous pix!

We got our report cards and mine was better than expected. Four A's and 2 B's. Hope I can do that again.

Terry said he saw 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY again and claims to have understood it this time. I doubt it.

I saw only GREEN ACRES, STAR TREK, LUCY and a bit of MERV GRIFFIN. That's all that was on tonight other than the election!

NOTES: My parents didn't vote. I don't know why. As far as I know, they never had! When I turned 18 and was able to register, I jumped at it...and talked them into it, also. I'm proud to say I've never missed voting in an election since! In fact, I've often said I had more respect for someone who votes exactly opposite of the way I vote than for someone who chooses not to vote at all! And yes, I've heard all the arguments. I don't believe a one of them. People fought and died to get us the right to vote and to protect that vote. I figure the very least I can do is VOTE!

Last week in 2012 my son got HIS report card--4 A+'s and 2 A's. I am SO proud!

Terry and I both hated 2001 when we saw it the day it opened back in '68. Probably because we were 9 years old. Still, I made the effort to understand it by reading not just the book but also the behind the scenes book they came out with! Still didn't grok. About every ten years I give it another try. I continue to find it--like most (let me emphasize NOT all!) Kubrick films--to be slow, dull, disjointed and ultimately pointless. What we had really wanted that day in '68 was STAR WARS. We had another decade almost to wait for that!

As far as the games thing, I don't do games well. Never had. I used to love to sit at the kitchen table and play board games with my parents but rarely have had the interest or patience to play with others my own age...even now. I don't do "fun" well at all. :(

Monday, November 4th, 1974

Terry's birthday!

No school for me today.

Two ITs early this morning. I've come to the conclusion that a woman looks better clothed than nude. I don't mind nudity. In fact, I consider the basic human body an art masterpiece! The way it looks! The way it works! It just does something to me! I think that in nice clothes it does something even more, though!

I'm really into "beauty" lately. Thoughts of walking with a nice girl through lovely snow-covered fields with a happy dog. Oh the very thought of it intoxicates me! Just wish that I could write a scene that good. Or better yet, LIVE it! Ecstasy!

Got TBG in the mail and saw one of my new faces, Chris Connelly, on TATTLETALES.

It rained real hard all day.

Today I got the bright idea of writing Linda Blair's biography. Maybe I should follow through on that.

After a long search, I discovered my TALON poster is missing! After a long search, though, I found it!

RHODA was funny tonight. I saw Harry Blackstone, Jr on MERV. Mind-boggling!

NOTES: It was (and is) Terry's birthday. I'll have to call him later today in 2012 and wish him a happy birthday! Today is also my wife's birthday. In 1974, she was turning 13. 

The nudity thing sounds like more rationalizing out of guilt but I don't know. Even now, I think I agree that a well-dressed woman is sexier looking than a naked one. When I did my only nude photography session a couple of years back, as the photographer, I enjoyed it immensely on several levels...but I've taken better pictures of my lovely model before and since and she's been fully clothed. 

Chris Connelly starred on the TV version of PAPER MOON with Jodie Foster. It didn't last long and he mostly did low-budget action films it seems after that before dying at a youngish age. In one of his very last films, he was the villain in the only official sequel to Franco Nero's classic spaghetti western, DJANGO.

A couple of years ago, I again toyed with the idea of contacting Linda Blair about collaborating on an autobiography. I had a great title this time: MY LIFE: IT WOULD MAKE YOUR HEAD SPIN.

And once again, in an odd 2012 parallel, someone in a FB group I'm in posted the Talon poster by Jim Steranko I mention here last week in 2012, followed by a great discussion of same.