Saturday, April 27th, 1974

I took ten bucks over to Cincinnati today and all I picked up was THE MONSTER TIMES. I couldn't sell Tim's books at OBS but I got three bucks for 'em at Horn's. I hope that's okay with him.

I finally did see THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE.

Mom picked me up the record THE ENTERTAINER.

Also, IT.

NOTES: Around here, even today, we call it "The Ten Dollar Rule." You beg and beg for a certain amount of money to spend and then you go out and you can't really bring yourself to spend it. Otr you beg for permission to do something and then when you get it you feel so guilty for begging that you end up not doing it anyway. Still happens all the time. The Ten Dollar Rule. 


THE ENTERTAINER was Marvin Hamlisch's hit record of Scott Joplin's song that had been used as the theme music for THE STING. 

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Friday, April 26th, 1974

We finished early again tonight.

I worked on my story again.

I helped Dad get the car.

Through all this my cold stayed about the same.

Tomorrow morning at 9, I go to pick up Tim's comics.

NOTES: I saw Terry today (in 2012) and, like myself, he has no idea who Tim was at this late date.

Thursday, April 25th, 1974

I'm catching a pretty bad cold.

I got a D on an Algebra test!

I hope my cold doesn't persist. Big test in English tomorrow.

I saw an episode of THE WALTONS which is now my favorite.

Found out Arthur's moving on Saturday.

NOTES: Yikes! A "D"!!?? I was actually very good at Algebra and rarely got below a "B"in anything...ever!  This must have--even though you couldn't tell it here--devastated me!


I don't recall Arthur moving. Maybe that explains why we ever became closer friends after hanging out at school so much this year. Wonder where he moved to??

Wednesday, April 24th, 1974

There were a lot of tests at school today.

We got to work early tonight.

Saw a good TO TELL THE TRUTH with Supie, Bats and Robin.

Two new martial arts films begin today. Really the first this year. I hope to see one at the Grand on saturday along with THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE down the street.

NOTES: Not sure who the host of TO TELL THE TRUTH was at this stage but it wasn't the show's original host, Bud Collyer, seen here with some favorite reading material. That would have been interesting to have a Superman themed episode as Collyer had, in fact, BEEN Superman for many years on radio in the forties and later in the sixties cartoons.

Tuesday, April 23rd, 1974

I finally went and looked at Tim's comics. I bought about six of them for a nickel apiece. I'm to sell the rest for him next weekend for $4.75 and I get to keep the 75 cents! Also, Terry owes me $1.50.

I'll probably see THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (the first ad on the first page of my first scrapbook from a couple years back) finally this weekend at The International '70.

MAGNUM FORCE starts up at the Madison tomorrow.

I watched Roddenberry's PLANET EARTH on TV tonight.

NOTES: Wow. High finance 1974 style. Terry owing me $1.50 was a big amount then. This week in 2012, I'm selling him some DVD's worth about 50 times that much. Things change. 


I don't know why I skipped THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE when it first came out. Considered the first in the seventies disaster movie trend, it was by Irwin Allen who had made many of my favorite childhood TV series including LOST IN SPACE and THE TIME TUNNEL. It also had a genuinely all-star cast including a number of my favorite actors like Roddy McDowall and even my future real-life friend Bob Hastings. 


PLANET EARTH was a semi-sequel/semi-remake of Gene Roddenberry's post-STAR TREK pilot, GENESIS II. The original starred a quirky actor named Alex Cord. This one starred the more traditional John Saxon, a favorite of mine since ENTER THE DRAGON (as well as a future Facebook friend) but I didn't think he worked as well. I watched both versions again in 2011 and I stand by that. 

Monday, April 22nd, 1974

Back to school alright but it was better than I expected.

That's about all that happened today except for a slight rainstorm.

NOTES: Well...some days are just...there, y'know? And wet.

Sunday, April 21st, 1974

I learned to balance a broom on my palm by watching WONDERAMA.

I cleaned the SS office very early this morning.

After quite a hassle convincing Terry to come with me, I went to see McQ. Wasn't great but above average.

I played the TUBULAR BELLS record over and over again all day today.

I saw JULIE AND DICK AT COVENT CENTER and then watched THE TONY AWARDS just to see all the stars.

Hate to say it but it's back to school again in the morning. Even Doug's back from vacation.

NOTES: Turns out the broom trick had more to do with my innate sense of balance than anything I saw on TV that day. Years later a doctor explained that the reason I get motion sick so easily is that I have not a BAD sense of balance but an acute one! I can find the center of gravity relatively easy in any object...including: a broom. I can still do it, moving it from fingertip to fingertip. If I had ever been invited to parties, I could have been the life of them.


Was listening to parts of TUBULAR BELLS on YT today in 2012. 


I never get to see plays. Even though they come to the area from time to time, they're so ridiculously overpriced we saw only one in the past 16 years! Love the Tonys, though and always have. 


Julie and Dick were Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, the co-stars of Disney's MARY POPPINS, reunited for a TV special. The whole show, also spotlighting Carl Reiner, is on YouTube.

Saturday, April 20th, 1974

I got some more terrific mags with pics of Linda Blair. Also bought the theme from THE EXORCIST record and an early Beatles 45. I started getting FF again and the new FM was out, too.

Terry came through with the deal for MSH # 1.

Saw Melanie Cantor at Woolworth's when I picked up my new scrapbook. Filled about ten pages already with DARK SHADOWS junk.

We got paid today! $125.00!

I'm studying up on horses because Linda loves them so!

NOTES:In another case of odd temporal coincidence, here I was making a DARK SHADOWS-themed scrapbook in '74 and today in 2012, a lot of us boomers are mourning Jonathan (Barnabas Collins) Frid. I posted about DARK SHADOWS on two of my blogs yesterday. 


There was a record store in Cincinnati that sold nothing but old '45's. Every once in awhile I would pick up some Beatles music there. The EXORCIST theme was actually an excerpt from a marvelous experimental, instrumental album by English musician Mike Oldfield entitled TUBULAR BELLS. It would be nearly thirty years before I heard the whole album which is quite wonderful. 


Mentioning Melanie here is just a throwaway line but I sometimes think if she and I had become an item two years earlier in seventh grade my life would have been very different. She was the smartest girl in school, new that year, and also had an amazing sense of humor and a cute, cute smile. In what I thought was a really odd move, she ended up actually dating two of my closest school friends without ever looking twice at me! I tried. Even got up the courage to walk her home once (Had no idea just how long a walk that would be either!).  


MARVEL SUPER HEROES (MSH #1) was a 1966 one-shot comic book reprinting a classic early AVENGERS tale with the Hulk, the origin of Daredevil and a Golden Age battle between Namor and the Human Torch! At the time, this was coolness personified! I don't recall what happened to my copy but by this point I hadn't had one in several years and was pleased to get it back! I still have Terry's former copy!


And my first ever paycheck. Cool!

Friday, April 19th, 1974

I saw ALICE IN WONDERLAND with STORMY. ALICE is one of the best animated features I've ever seen. I also saw previews fro HERBIE RIDES AGAIN with Steffie.

There are a couple of new mags with pics of Linda out.

Well, the free week is almost over. After the weekend, it's back to the old grind for another couple of months.

I can't say it wasn't fun but it could have been better.

NOTES: HERBIE RIDES AGAIN was a just okay Disney live-action comedy starring Stefanie Powers, Helen Hayes and MAYBERRY RFD and F TROOP's Ken Berry. A talented and personable TV star, Berry was unable really to carry a lead role in films and this picture suffered for that. Cute...but not a patch on the original (although the next one would be worse!)

Thursday, April 18th, 1974

I watched Nick Clooney's Kings island special which I've awaited since last summer when it was filmed and it was marvelous. All the while I dreamed of inviting Linda Blair there with just me for a whole day of fun. Oh, t'would be fantabulous! If only I could meet Linda! I was once told that I could have anything I ever wanted if I just put my mind to it and I can't imagine NOT ever wanting to meet Linda Blair.

Nick's regular show was pretty special today, too. They had a piece on UFO's.

I saw an UNTOUCHABLES film, the first I've ever seen. Now that's a TV series I would have really loved.

NOTES: Wow. I really, really was smitten! I didn't know it then but there are photos of Linda, who was my age, hanging out with Who drummer Keith Moon and porn star Linda Lovelace during this period. Talk about out of my league. 


And I didn't even LIKE King's Island all that much!


As regular readers know, I DID finally get to meet Linda Blair via the Internet and see her in person at a Horrorfest but it took 36 years.


The movie I saw was the TV film that served as the pilot for THE UNTOUCHABLES around the time I was born. Actor Neville Brand played Al Capone but he was arrested in the movie and the series itself featured his lieutenant, Frank Nitti, as the Big Bad.

Wednesday, April 17th, 1974

Over in Cincinnati, I got some new books and two old (and cheap!) Vampi's. Should be some more books out later this week.

I might go see McQ Sunday at Ludlow. Probably make ALICE on Friday.

I'm progressing well with my own story of Alice and Mister Cheshire. I'm patterning Alice after Linda and Mister Cheshire after Quentin from DARK SHADOWS.

I need to get a new scrapbook soon. Think I'll dedicate it to DARK SHADOWS so I can look at all my DS stuff.

NOTES: McQ was the movie that was John Wayne's version of DIRTY HARRY.


I can't recall exactly what the plot of my story was to be but I never wrote it. Just lots of notes and drawings. In my mind, Mister Alexander Cheshire, always drawn in a top hat,  looked like Willy Wonka but, as stated here, I originally based him on David Selby's sideburned DS character, the show's original werewolf, the brooding, dark-eyed Quentin Collins.

Tuesday, April 16th, 1974

IT. Second day in a row.

I finished re-reading THE EXORCIST.


I ate a lot of doughnuts today.

I went through a lot of old folders the Soicial Security office threw out yesterday. Thinking I can maybe trade them to Terry for something.

I'll probably go over the river tomorrow and then catch ALICE IN WONDERLAND if it's still playing on Thursday.

I needed to wash my hair and take a bath tonight but didn't get to it.

NOTES: ALICE IN WONDERLAND has been a favorite story for most of my life but I never actually read the book itself until I was about 20. I tended to watch any TV adaptation or film that came along and I often listed Disney's ALICE as my favorite animated Disney picture. I had seen it as a child and this 1974 re-release was the one that tried to appeal to the psychedelic crowd, thus the colorful poster.

Monday, April 15th, 1974

Dad stayed home sick.

A boy in my Health class at school is presumed dead according to the nespaper. What a way to start Spring vacation.

All day long all I did was watch TV and begin re-reading THE EXORCIST.

I have to write my pen-pal letter soon.

Next door, another window was found broken out and this time I kept the ball that did it.

NOTES: No memory of the kid in my Health class. Driving me crazy trying to figure out who that was.

Sunday, April 14th, 1974

Another Easter passes me by. No eggs this year. At least no colored ones. We all went to church but even that didn't make it seem like Easter.

As if I never realized it before, I now have a tremendous crush on Linda Blair. More than anyone I've ever had a crush on in fact except Debbie and maybe even more than that!

Since I'm off all week, I intend to see some movies and watch TV.

The feeling of summer is in the air today and all is easy. Possibilities of tornadoes this afternoon but there were none. Good!

Saw a good movie on TV tonight--THURSDAY'S GAME.


NOTES: THURSDAY'S GAME was apparently made as a theatrical feature in 1971 but for some reason was shelved. It was trotted out to excellent reviews as an ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK on this date 3 years later, most likely because nearly all involved were now bigger stars including Gene Wilder and EXORCIST star Ellen Burstyn.

Saturday, April 13th, 1974

Arthur went to see THE STING with me today. It's sure to make my yearly Top Ten!

Tomorrow is Easter. Forgot to mention that last night Aunt Velma and Rachel came down to visit briefly. That was unusual.

Oh, IT again. Hopefully for the last time this week!

NOTES: As I said, THE STING has been a favorite now for all these years. 


Arthur and I had known each other for years but this was really the only year we were particularly close at school and this movie was the only place we ever went together.


It was unusual that Velma and Rachel came down because the former was then in her seventies and didn't drive and the latter was about eleven years old. Wonder how they got there at all.

Friday, April 12th, 1974

We got out of school early today and I got a lot of books and mags over the river including a lot of stuff about Linda Blair.

I also got my last EC reprint in the mail.

NOTES: East Coast Comix was a company that set out to reprint the notorious--but by that point classic--EC comics of the 1950's in near-facsimile editions, complete with original ads and letter pages but with some new letters also if I recall. No longer ten cents each, they were now a dollar and available by mail-order subscription. The company was co-run by Bruce Hershenson, now a friend of mine on Facebook. The project lasted from 1973-1976 and only got a dozen issues republished but I, for one, was grateful and amazed!

Thursday, April 11th, 1974

Tomorrow's my last day of school for a week.

I may go see THE STING tomorrow or Saturday.

Tomorrow marks one full year since I last saw Debbie.

All is going well with the job except tonight some obviously "rookie" baseball players creamed a rear window. Again, no real concern of mine but they are very upset and thus so am I. Boy!

Nothing ever seems to go right in my attempts at being normal. Maybe I should just plan on staying different and give up vain hopes of close friends, a good job and a girl. We'll see.

NOTES: THE STING had been out for a few months and I hadn't paid much attention to it but the ragtime music of Scott Joplin had been resurrected due to the success of the film and I bought the theme on 45. It would go on to become probably my favorite film of this era. 

Wednesday, April 10th, 1974

I had a bad day at school.

We didn't get finished at work until very late because two girls decided to work late over there for some reason. When I finally got home, I watched two--or rather parts of two--great TV specials on the tube.

NOTES:

To add a little perspective, here are some highlights in the world of popular music from 1974:

Dylan tours for the first time since his motorcycle accident years earlier.

The Captain marries Tennille.

Cher divorces Sonny.

Kiss releases their first album.

John and Yoko reunite.

The Ramones, Blondie, Cheap Trick, Bad Company, Talking Heads and Van Halen play their first concerts.

Mama Cass dies.

George Harrison tours for the first time since 1966.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join Fleetwood Mac.

ABBA tops the UK charts with contest wining song, Waterloo.

Tuesday, April 9th, 1974

I saw an ad for a new newspaper like THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER which is supposed to have articles about Bruce Lee and Roger Moore. Can't wait to get it!

I'll probably get to see Tim's comics finally after school.

NOTES: No idea at the moment who Tim was. Don't recall going to look at anyone's comics during this period. We'll see.


The newspaper referred to as most likely THE NATIONAL STAR, an early edition  of which is seen here. Eventually it became a slick magazine known simply as THE STAR and is still around in that format today. 

Monday, April 8th, 1974

I got some great books I needed at The Ohio Book Store along with the TV GUIDE and that EXORCIST special. That paper gave me two of the best pictures I've ever seen of Linda Blair. It's just like last summer with Stefanie. I'm compelled to write to her and I swear I shall before the year is over.

The job is getting easier. I finish my part in just about an hour or less every night now. I hope the pay is worth it. I guess it will be because I wasn't earning anything at all before.

Today, Phyllis Claypool died. I never really liked her and I hadn't even seen her in a long time until recently when I passed her on the sidewalk. Still, I'm sorry to hear about her death.

NOTES: Man, I had fallen hard for Linda Blair and I had never even seen her in anything by this point! 


The year before, I had written a fan letter to actress Stefanie Powers in care of a theater I knew she would be appearing at the following week. I figured, apparently correctly, that they would hand her the letter when she first arrived at the theater. She wrote back, kindly answering a number of questions I had asked in true fanboy style. Her letter had been on motel stationary. I envisioned her returning to her room after a performance, taking a shower and then settling down at the room's desk to respond to my letter. I had no doubt I could figure out a way to reach Linda Blair, also. Just didn't figure it would take me 36 years to finally make contact with her!


Phyllis Claypool was a girl who lived around the corner form me for years. She was a year behind me in school and  for some reason we took an immediate dislike for each other. She was close with my friend Cindy (whom I called Cottontop because her winter wear had a white knit hat) and Phyllis had even replaced me when it came to my first paid "job," walking a first-grader from across the street named Brenda to school when I was in the sixth grade. Sadly, I have no recollection how Phyllis died. Seems like we saw an obituary in the paper that night.

Sunday, April 7th, 1974

Terry visited and we played a long game of Monopoly. As usual, I lost.

The Reds lost today, too--their third game.

IT.

I'm going back over the river to get that Exorcist Special and a few old comics after school tomorrow.

I traded Terry two old Batgirl stories for a rare Kirby Green Arrow story!

NOTES: Terry really liked Batgirl and I really liked Jack Kirby comics. It was a good trade. The Kirby story was a reprint from the fifties. At the time, I hadn't realized that Jack had been the artist on the Green Arrow feature for nearly a dozen stores not long before he returned to Marvel to create the Marvel Universe as we know it today.   

Saturday, April 6th, 1974

Over at the Ohio Bookstore I got some old Vampi's and a few other old mags but hardly any comics out of all of those new old ones. There's also a special EXORCIST newspaper out that I want to get soon.

Got the another new TBG today.

IT.

NOTES: "Vampi" was VAMPIRELLA, a black and white comic magazine that didn't subscribe to the Comics Code and thus often showed naked women! At 15 it was perfectly legal to buy. No one questioned it. On top of that, some of the stories and art were by some of the best in the comics business! Win-Win. I started with issue 14 and bought it for many years, even having a letter published in one when I was about 16.


If I remember correctly, one of the back issues I got this day was the one seen here featuring a now-classic story by Wallace Wood. (In case you haven't heard, I run a Wallace Wood blog, too!)

Friday, April 5th, 1974

I got a free adzine in the mail today.

Terry says there's a lot of new stuff out over the river. Much more than I can afford. We're going over at 8:30 tomorrow morning to check out 2000 new books they got in at the Ohio Book Store!

NOTES: An adzine was a comics fanzine that consisted entirely or at least mostly of ads. I remember this one was pretty cheap-looking and homemade once you got past the cover but they had apparently gotten subscriber names from TBG so they sent me one. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it was called POOR RICHARD'S ADZINE. 

Thursday, April 4th, 1974

Today I talked with Kathy Allen for the first time in a long time.

I finished work in an hour, did what little homework I had and tried to help Dad fix his garage door but couldn't. This just isn't his year for things that concern cars.

The tornadoes did terrible damage all around last night.

The Reds won their opening game and Hank Aaron hit one homer. Only one more to go!

NOTES: Okay, in this case Mom wasn't overreacting. I didn't realize that yesterday in 1974 was the date of the infamously destructive Sayler Park tornado! This was an F5 tornado in what became known as the Super Outbreak in which five similarly violent twisters struck around the same time. 


Dad had rented a garage space a couple of blocks away for the new car but the door never really locked and between the two of us, we couldn't fix it. Not a good sign.


Hank Aaron was one away from either tying or beating the home run record. Not sure which at the money.

Kathy Allen was a girl who had been a friend for several years in grade school. When Debbie moved away in 6th grade, Kathy and I sort of considered the idea of becoming a couple but it really didn't work out. She had quite a temper but a great sense of humor. Even though we had been in junior high together all along, we hadn't really had any classes together so we rarely saw each other anymore.

Wednesday, April 3rd, 1974

All the wrong people won the awards last night including Tatum O'Neal instead of Linda!!!!

I finally got the new TBG in the mail.

Terrible storms this evening and Mom was very scared.

NOTES: There had been a bit of a controversy when it was revealed that actress Mercedes McCambridge had "sweetened" Linda Blair's demon-possessed performance. Linda had still performed the difficult physical aspects of the role and the dialogue but the veteran McCambridge had added her rough voice to the mix for a better sound and that had been kept quiet. Mercedes wasn't happy and eventually was given a credit on the film. 


I hadn't seen Tatum O'Neal's performance in PAPER MOON at this point; wouldn't catch it until it showed up on TV a few years later. In retrospect, it really was an Oscar-winning performance. Tatum was, as many child performers are, a natural. Also like many child performers going all the way back to Shirley Temple, however, she lost much of her natural acting abilities as she grew older. 


My Mother was always scared of storms and passed that on to me. Even as I learned over the years that she was, on some levels, overreacting to basic thunderstorms, it had already been instilled in me. To this day, I worry a bit too much about thunderstorms...although, granted, in recent years there have been plenty in this area worth worrying about!

Tuesday, April 2nd, 1974

I had a really good day at school today.

Finished the new job a lot sooner tonight than last night.

I fact, my only real disappointment today was that the TV GUIDE and another mag with EXORCIST junk weren't out yet.

The Academy Awards are on tonight. I hope Linda Blair wins!

NOTES: It was unusual for me to do something like I just did--write about a show that was going to be on before watching it. More often than not, I wrote these entries at the very end of the night just before bed or sometimes even the next morning before going to school. 


Above is the Cincinnati skyline around this time, probably taken through a bus window.  

Monday, April 1st, 1974

April Fools Day and none pulled a single joke on me. Whew.

We started our job at the security office tonight and I think it's okay bit I'm not crazy about it. One interesting thing is they have a computer! It's a computer named Ssader who types out message automatically from time to time! Oh, well. It's an easy way to earn some money. I hope it works out, though.

I broke my second best tape later tonight in a terrible storm. In some areas, they said on the News that it was a twister!

NOTES: Never liked the concept of April Fool's Day. Back then, especially, I had a nightmarish fear of public embarrassment.


This was the day we started working as the janitors at the Social Security Office next door to our apartment house. 


The same man who owned our building owned the office also. Technically it was my dad that was hired but from the beginning my Mom and I worked with him as a team. Every night after everyone left the office, we'd go over and clean up. With the three of us, it only took between one and two hours unless there was a particular problem. After I finished my part--emptying the trash cans and ashtrays (yuck!) and tying the bags up to take out on Trash Night--I'd usually go home and catch some television. 


I also had to change a TON of lightbulbs, especially when President Carter's administration required government offices to remove two out of every four of their light bulbs during the energy crisis. 


There were 25 desks, 2 conference rooms and 2 private offices. My Mom cleaned the ashtrays, conference rooms and bathrooms and my Dad mopped the whole floor every night and buffered it occasionally. 


Sometimes the employees would work late and we'd end up having to go over very early (like 5:30 AM) the next day before they came in. 


I guess this was the very first time I'd ever seen a computer. It took up a whole room about the size of a large closet. It had reels and a dot matrix printer as well as something that spit out tape with punch holes in it. Whoever designed it never bothered to come up with some kind of receptacle to catch the little dots made by punching said holes so we had to sweep them up every night, always with the possibility of the darn thing spitting out more while we were doing it!


Ultimately we kept the job for ten years. During that time, my dad was sidelined for a year in 1978 by an accident so I took over the majority of the work. My mother died in 1981 and I took over hers, also. Somewhere in there, the Social Security Office moved out and the newspaper office moved in. They were a lot pickier and also more prone to working weird hours which meant I, also had to work weird hours. 


In 1982, I even lost my virginity on their conference room table to a young lady I snuck in one night at 1 AM.  Ahem!  


I ultimately left the job in late 1984 when I was by then promoted to full-time at Waldenbooks. 

Sunday, March 31st, 1974

Tomorrow is April Fool's day.

I finished my book and watched some more of the telethon.

Mom bought me the new McCartney record and ordered my baseball tickets.

This evening I watched part 1 of THE MOVIES and OSCARS, ACTORS AND THE EXORCIST.

IT twice.

NOTES: I can't recall either of those two TV specials.


IT twice? That was nothing. My record for one day was 5 times. Ahem...


The McCartney record was most likely the single of JET that had come out the month before. Mine was in a simple, plain sleeve. Doubt my mother would have purchased it if it looked like this image!

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Saturday, March 30th, 1974

There was a real bad storm last night.

I got a paperback book all about Bruce Lee along with a lot of good comics. Also got THE MONSTER TIMES with an article on Bruce.

We did NOT get to the movies. Either of them.

I watched a little of the Easter Seals Telethon which started at 11.

NOTES: The Bruce Lee book, the first of many, may to come, was THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE by Alex Ben Block. I bought them all for the next few years and I still think this one was the best.

Friday, March 29th, 1974

I got free baseball tickets from school today for my grades.

This morning I found a pen-pal letter in the mailbox. It must have been overlooked yesterday.

Terry and I may go see  a couple of movies tomorrow in Newport.

Mister Deters is coming again tomorrow about the job.

Mom says the girl might come next week about the Hot Wheels cars.

NOTES: Hot Wheels were cool. Sizzlers were even cooler!

Thursday, March 28th, 1974

I thought I did pretty well in Volleyball today but some guy almost started something with me because he didn't think so!

There's not much school left this year. I fear those big exams.I've never had one before.

I've got to do an essay and composition this weekend.

Hopefully my pen-pal letter will be showing up soon.

NOTES: I never really knew what I was doing when it came to Volleyball but as I think I mentioned before, I was surprisingly good at serving. It may have had something to do with my peculiarly acute sense of balance but I had a talent for hitting the ball across the net and making points! It never came up outside of Gym class as I never knew anyone who actually played Volleyball in real life. 

Wednesday, March 27th, 1974

Again I have high hopes of seeing THE EXORCIST. This weekend I also may see CONRACK at the Place.

I probably can't take that big test in English so I'll just have to do a lot of extra credit work.

I'm writing a composition soon about my favorite (and least favorite) movies of recent years.

NOTES: So weird. My son came home today in 2012 upset with a B+ he had gotten in English, Says he'll just have to do a lot of extra credit work. 


CONRACK was one of Jon Voight's biggest films since MIDNIGHT COWBOY made him a star five years earlier. I wouldn't end up seeing it until it hit TV a few years later, though. It was based on the autobiography of teacher Pat Conroy who would go one to become a best-selling author whose works I would be selling throughout my long bookstore career. 

Tuesday, March 26th, 1974

We got report cards today. I got 4 A's--including one in my worst subject, IBS--and 3 B's. I hope I'll still get the free baseball tickets although I probably won't end up using them all.

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to make up a test in English but I don't know how I'll be able to with no study halls.

IT again tonight.

NOTES: Straight A students were rewarded with tickets to see multiple Cincinnati Reds games. I had a history of getting them. Doesn't seem like I'd get one for a mix of A's and B's. We'll see. Below, though, is a card they gave out 2 years earlier, when I was in 7th Grade, to show off to relatives that you had won the tickets for your grades and attended the games. I was never big on baseball but my Dad sure was so it was always a nice treat for him. We always took Mom, too, which means I guess we had to buy an extra ticket. 

Monday, March 25th, 1974

IT.

Yesterday, Dad told me he saw a whole magazine about THE EXORCIST. I went everywhere today looking for it while I was off school but nothing! Finally, I bought a great mag on THE TELEVISION YEARS and a teen mag with articles and photos about Linda and Bruce Lee. When I got home, my Dad said that this was the one he had seen all along!

I also picked up a few more old comics at the Ohio Book Store.

NOTES: THE TELEVISION YEARS was an incredible find for a lifelong TV fan like myself. It was more or less a linear history but all told in heavily annotated photographs of the shows and personalities including many long unseen by that point! I definitely learned more about TV history here than I had ever learned prior to that! All these years later, of course, this has borne fruit in my latest blog,
http://bookstevechannel.blogspot.com/


And yes, I still have it.

Sunday, March 24th, 1974

I did IT again today in hopes that I won't do it tomorrow while I'm off school.

Worked on my school notebooks today and made a couple of folders for myself, also.

I've decided that I'll probably go back up to Horn's tomorrow morning.

NOTES: Horn's was the junk shop Terry and I had discovered a few years earlier that had some excellent old comics for only a nickel. Picked up quite a few key Silver Age books there in the early seventies and even a few fifties titles! The place was always a mess, much like Fred Sanford's junkyard on TV.  But week after week, it seemed like they had new boxes of old comics! After a few years, as word got out that comics were collectible, they quit getting the good stuff in. 


I also bought an entire set of James Bond paperbacks there for a dime each, Harvey Kurtzman's HELP paperbacks and quite a few other gems! Even MYRA BRECKINRIDGE with that great Raquel cover. Even though I didn't see the picture until 1980 and the coming of home video, I had the book and even the movie poster, as seen here.

Saturday, March 23rd, 1974

I saw ZARDOZ! A very complex sci-fi film with an interesting twist. Also a very exciting film! It contained an abundance of action, adventure, fantasy, sex, good acting and even some violence. All in all, I'd say it'll definitely make my Top 10 for this year...assuming I eventually see at least 10 pictures.

Also, THE EXORCIST is definitely coming to the Madison finally! I hope more than I've hoped for most films that I'll get to see that one.

Got some good books downtown today and we had snow! Lots of it! On the third day of Spring!

NOTES: ZARDOZ hasn't really aged well. I don't recall how it was received at the time other than a major cover feature in CINEFANTASTIQUE  magazine which, if I remember correctly, agreed with my opinion. Basically you have  (SPOILER) a balding, ponytailed  rapist caveman Connery in a big red diaper with a gun, worshipping a giant floating rock head based on THE WIZARD OF OZ. WIZARD OF OZ, get it? Ooooo, how clever.


Actress Charlotte Rampling appears topless and maybe altogether nude in ZARDOZ but even then I found her to be supremely unattractive so that wasn't even a major highlight for me. 


Seeing THE EXORCIST was a major goal that year. I had yet to realize that when one wants something THAT much, it will never live up to your expectations.


If you're a fan of the TV-related posts we do here, please be sure to check out my newest blog, THE BOOKSTEVE CHANNEL, which offers personal reminiscences of many TV shows I've enjoyed over the years.
http://bookstevechannel.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 22nd, 1974

Not much chance of seeing ZARDOZ after all it looks like unless Terry's mother agrees to take us tomorrow night.

Speaking of Terry, he told me there are a lot of new mags and such out over the river, today.

No school Monday!

NOTES: Being underage, we often had to depend on convincing one or the other family member to take us to R rated movies. In the case of Terry's mom, she would often pay to go in with us, then leave if she had no personal interest in the picture we were seeing. 


ZARDOZ was perhaps the biggest step yet in Sean Connery convincing folks he was no longer James Bond, 007. More about it tomorrow.

Thursday, March 21st, 1974

Spring is here! And it began on a bad note starting when I self-urinated in bed this morning for the first time since I was a little kid. Yuck!

At school it was oh so bad, too. And the weather was all rainy, snowy and cold.

The big surprise was when I received the twelve British DRACULA magazines I had ordered back before Christmas. The thing is, when I complained before, they ended up sending me something else for my money so these were basically free. I felt like I should send them back or something but everyone said that the postal laws say if you didn't ask for them, they're considered a gift. Even though I know they weren't meant as a gift, I guess I will keep them since even dad says so and he does work for the Post Office. Bet I dream about it tonight, though.

NOTES: This was the UK edition of the Spanish DRACULA magazine, later partially reprinted in book form by Warren in the US. I had ordered it back in December. They sent me something saying the mags were no longer available and a list of other items I could have. I picked something, I forget what, and they sent it. I was disappointed not to get what I had originally ordered but I was satisfied the deal was completed. Then they showed up. No note. Nothing. 


Everyone was correct in that if you receive an unsolicited order in the mail, technically it's yours. Clearly, however, this had just been a mix-up so I was torn. Dad said to keep them and he worked for the Post Office...but as a janitor! What did he know? Still, I did keep them. Finally sold them just a couple of years ago after getting scans of them first. 


As far as wetting the bed, it was a problem I had had only occasionally as a child. Never a major issue as for some kids. Hadn't happened in years though. In retrospect, I'm wondering if this might instead have been a wet dream. 

Wednesday, March 20th, 1974

Another bad day. I was right. The kung-fu flick was cut off.

A terrible day at school and then tonight they called Dad to say he didn't get the garage he was wanting for the car.

Almost did IT again.

Mr. Deters called tonight to say we DID get the SS cleaning job while the regular guy's on vacation.

NOTES: Unbeknownst to me apparently, this would have been the start of my first job. The Social Security Office was literally in our back yard as you can see in this shot of our back porch. It was owned by the same man who owned our building. We ended up eventually taking over the cleaning on a regular basis. All of us helped, with Dad doing the mopping and bathroom cleaning, Mom emptying and cleaning the ashtrays and me emptying all the trash cans and doing general straightening (as well as changing lightbulbs as needed...which was several times weekly). In time, after my Dad's accident, I would take it over completely. I hung onto the position even after the Social Security Office became the Cincinnati Post newspaper office, finally leaving about a year into my daytime job at the bookstore in 1983. 


We were never paid much. the work could sometimes be grueling and the employees never seemed happy with us...but an empty office to which I had a key proved a good place to take girls in the middle of the night a few years later. ;P

Tuesday, March 19th, 1974

Saw some great TV today! Ray Bradbury, my favorite writer, and Jerry Stein, my favorite movie critic, were both on Channel 48. Later in the night, I saw Vincent and Roddy, two of my favorite actors and then Jimmy Dean, my favorite sausage salesman!

Bad luck of the day--Because WKRC is airing the MotW tonight, they may not show tomorrow's which is the martial arts one.

NOTES: Not sure now what the deal was about them nit showing both Movies of the Week.


Vincent Price and Roddy McDowall, naturally. Jerry Stein was the local movie critic. No idea why I found Jimmy Dean to be so entertaining this evening. He had always seemed a personable sort. My parents and I had enjoyed his early sixties TV series with muppet Rowlf and I had always liked his BIG BAD JOHN record even though I hate most story songs. I even enjoyed him as the Howard Hughes-type reclusive millionaire in the 007 picture, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. Apparently Jimmy made a fortune on his sausages, though, and whole future generations would know the name exclusively from that. 

Monday, March 18th, 1974

I taped THE MAGICIAN theme, my favorite TV theme at the moment.

At school, I got an article on comics.

Tonight, I decided to make something out of my old DARK SHADOWS scrapbook.

Three movies I want to go see this week. One--Sean Connery in ZARDOZ--is coming to the Madison. Maybe my movie luck is changing. I hope so!

NOTES: THE MAGICIAN was a short-lived series starring TV favorite Bill Bixby as a stage magician whose hobby was solving murder mysteries using his illusions. It really was a great theme song, on trumpet as I recall. It was the first of many I decided to record on a tape of TV theme songs which I still have! 


Oddly enough, here we are 38 years later and we're once again talking about DARK SHADOWS with Tim Burton's upcoming mockery of the beloved original vampire soap opera.


ZARDOZ was one freaky movie. More about it when I see it.

Sunday, March 17th, 1974

IT again. It's not the same these days, though. Maybe I'm growing out if it. I hope.

Been reading the U.N.C.L.E. book and it's surprisingly good!

Watched Alan Alda and Carol Burnett (with old WONDER WOMAN comics!) in 6 RMS RIV VUE.

NOTES: 6 RMS RIV VUE (Pronounced Six Rooms, River View) was a 1972 Broadway play. This TV adaptation was directed by and starred M*A*S*H star Alan Alda alongside TV comedy queen carol Burnett. I don't recall the details but at one point, as seen above, she's reading WONDER WOMAN comics that must have set them back a pretty penny even then!

Saturday, March 16th, 1974

HURRAH! Not much books today (although I did get a new king-fu paperback and a vintage Steffie GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. paperback) but I managed to see the first real movie I've seen all year! BLACK BELT JONES at the Albee. And boy, was it good! I gave it a  "9." Hopefully there'll be more movies to be seen now that the slump has broken.

Otherwise I saw Roddy on TV tonight and got to ride in Dad's new car for the first time!

NOTES: I use the word "new" but I should point out that we never once had an actual NEW car. This one was, I believe, a 1972 model.


Funny how tastes change. Looking at BLACK BELT JONES now I think I'd give it a 5. As a blacksploitation film, it's better than some but still badly directed and with some really badly choreographed stunt scenes where you can tell the stuntmen's hands and feet never make contact with Kelly or vice versa. 


Seen above is the U.N.C.L.E. book I got that day. I didn't realize it yet but it introduced me to the concept of the hack writer--in the best sense of the word--one who writes a dozen or more books a year on whatever subject required, often series titles or novelizations.

Friday, March 15th, 1974

Well, Dad got a new car today with the insurance money--a Rebel! The insides look great! I found three cents in the back seat. I'm gonna worry that this one will get stolen, now, too, though.

Saw Marlo Thomas on Merv's show tonight.

NOTES: The Rebel was probably about the most non-descript car in the world. It had no personalty the way some cars do. I sometimes thought my Dad purposely got that car--ours was appropriately gray, btw--just on the belief that it wasn't likely to be stolen. It wouldn't be. He had no idea of knowing today, however, that this Rebel would be the last car he would ever drive. In 1978, he was hit by a car while walking at a crosswalk. It took a year of physical therapy for him to recover, during which time the car sat silently in front of the apartment house gathering trash underneath it. Eventually, someone complained to the police and they insisted he move the car. He drove it around the block once and parked it in a different spot. Although he lived another 12 years beyond that, he never drove a car again. The day after that last drive, he sold the Rebel. 

Thursday, March 14th, 1974

Mr. J was absent today but I did pretty well in Volleyball.

Mom says she may be able to sell some of my Hot Wheels stuff for me to somebody she works with.

Janos Prohaska died today in a plane crash.

I see where PINNOCHIO is matineeing this weekend at the madison. Another film I once saw with Debbie!

Speaking of films, we saw a rather graphic LSD film today in Health Class, complete with LSD Comics!

Terry had me look up all the info I could find on Wonder Woman for him. Ever since the film, he's been crazy about her.

NOTES: This was around the time I ended up being surprisingly good as a server in Volleyball. Suddenly everyone wanted me on their team. In retrospect, maybe it was because of my mutant ability to be able to easily find the center of gravity. I can balance a pole on my fingertips for as long as I want, for example, even moving it from fingertip to fingertip. I'd be a hit at parties...if I had ever gotten invited to any parties.


I hadn't really played with my Hot Wheels cars for a couple of years by that point but I still wish I had kept at least the cars. I had a huge carrying case full of them!


Janos Prohaska was a little Hungarian stuntman who specialized in playing apes and gorillas in movies and TV shows. He often appeared on Bob Barker's audience participation series, TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, surprising contestants before Bob revealed him to be a man. Bob always introduced him by name so I got to know him from there. He had also appeared as various monsters on both LOST IN SPACE and STAR TREK. The name "Janos Prohaska" was later used for some reason as the real name of the comic book hero, Blackhawk! 


Okay, here's where my spooky memory fails me. I have said for years that I had my 1st date when I was 9, my 2nd when I was 10 and my 3rd when I was 23. None of those, however, were PINNOCHIO! Apparently I have completely forgotten my 3rd date! (What does THAT tell you?)


Wish I could remember what the deal was with the LSD Comics. Was it an underground in the film or an anti-drug comic they passed around? 


LOL. After writing about that WONDER WOMAN film the other day, I spent yesterday in 2012 re-reading Les Daniels' history book of WONDER WOMAN!

Wednesday, March 13th, 1974

Terry says a new CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN is out over the river. If it is, I'll have to get tot and also pick up the second Kung-Fu/Mace paperback.

I got TV GUIDE and there are SO many good shows on next week. Even one with Roddy in his APES costume.

Good news! A guy at school claimed he saw THE EXORCIST yesterday and if he could see it then they can't keep me out either! For the moment, though, I'll be content with BLACK BELT JONES.

NOTES: CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN was a hipper version of FAMOUS MONSTERS, edited during this period by my future Facebook friend Bhob Stewart. It suffered from erratic distribution, however, so you had to grab it when you saw it. 


The reference to Kung Fu/Mace threw me until I looked it up. It was the book seen above, 2nd in a  series of hacked out martial arts novels starring a violent ersatz Bruce Lee type character. Looks like it ran at least 6 volumes. Looking at the covers, I think I dropped it after # 3. I had literally forgotten about these until tonight. Wonder what ever happened to my copies.

Tuesday, March 12th, 1974

Got home early as expected and made good use of the extra time reading.

Tonight I saw the WONDER WOMAN TV movie. Next week there's a TV martial arts movie!

There's a slight chance that I MAY get to see BLACK BELT JONES this weekend. It's back at the Albee.

NOTES: Off early from school and all I wanted to do was read. There's a reason I became "booksteve!"


This WONDER WOMAN TV movie was not the gloriously perfect Lynda Carter of a couple years later but the horribly miscast Cathy Lee Crosby! Blonde, wearing a star-spangled leisure suit outfit. Had these people ever even looked at a comic book?

Monday, March 11th, 1974

Obviously I didn't get to the show yesterday. Why? Because it was replaced for the matinees shows by a Mother Goose flick which I once saw with Debbie!

Dad's car theft was settled today finally today. He got $400.00 from the insurance company.

I watched several specials on TV tonight including part one of a six part BBC drama on Jack the Ripper.

School lets out at 2:30 tomorrow.

Oh, and I mailed the pen-pal letter I wrote yesterday

NOTES: $400.00. How times change. That wouldn't get a car radio nowadays. The 1965 Ford Falcon cost $3500.00 new. We bought ours around 1971 so it had probably depreciated to $1000.00 or less. So here, in '74, $400.00 makes more sense than it initially looks. 


I had a minor fascination with Jack the Ripper for a while. This may be where it started. Not sure.


THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE was almost sorta kinda the film I took my girlfriend to see on our second date. debbie had been my sort of girlfriend since 3rd grade and, in 6th grade, we went to see CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. I counted that as our first date as we had no adult chaperones. A month or so later, though, when I proposed a second movie date, her parents insisted we take along her younger sister and brother and that, as such, we should see the kiddie matinee that was playing that weekend. 


That film was THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE, a less than no budget movie quite literally shot on a high school stage but directed, I would discover years later, by none other than sixties gore movie king, Herschell Gordon Lewis, the man who had previously brought the world BLOOD FEAST, THE WIZARD OF GORE, 2000 MANIACS and THE GORE-GORE GIRLS! Believe it or not, every one of those exploitation films was better-made than this kiddie matinee staple and yet here it was five years later still playing the circuit!