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. 

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.

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. 

Sunday, July 28th, 1974

Went over to Terry's and spent hours helping him with his scrapbooks. Although he has some great stuff in them that I don't have, I must say I don't like his as much as mine or Doug's. He did give me a lot of stuff to give Doug's though. I hope he likes it. I got hold of him and he said he'd come up tomorrow to get the clippings I had for him.

I also got myself some good stuff from the Louisville paper.

Terry and I ate a pizza from Pasquale's and while we were were carrying it back to his place, a kitten followed us! We found out that the owners couldn't keep it so he asked Dwight if he could take it. They spent over an hour with that cat while I fooled around with Dwight's guitar. I wish I hadn't sold mine---5 bucks, amplifier and all. Worst deal I ever made. I suggested a name for the cat and he accepted it. Tigra. (Although he pronounced it differently).

I've become more nature conscious lately. I've wanted to just take off my shirt and shoes and walk through something like that nature trail out at King's Island. I've felt lately like I could just give up everything. I like just to be like that...if I were with someone like Linda. Ahhhh, someday. But for now, I'm stuck in a town near one of the county's largest cities where the air pollution has been above the danger level every day this week!

Found some pix of Linda I had overlooked.

Started a Spider-Man index.

NOTES: Terry still has his scrapbooks. He brought a few over a while back. I took all of mine apart about a decade back and just have a couple big boxes of clippings. Easier to store but harder to find anything.


My Dad had bought me the guitar and amp I had begged for when I was 12 but I never bothered to actually learn to play. They sat behind the couch in the living room for a couple years. Every once in a while, I'd plug it up and mess with it a bit. No clue what I was doing, though. So when my next door neighbor saw it and showed me he could play, I offered to sell it to him. He didn't have a lot of money, though, so I sold it to him for $5.00. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I got money (five bucks wasn't chicken feed in them days) and he got a new guitar and amplifier. My Dad, on the other hand, was less than thrilled (to put it mildly) with the deal and in the long run so was I. :(

Saturday, July 27th, 1974

I got two old comics and the new RBH with 3 new Linda pix! Terry got soundtrack albums for PLANET OF THE APES and GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD.

We also went to to the S.T.A.R. meeting at the Cincy Public Library. There were about 25 trekkies there and most of them turned out to be comics fans, too. We waited until after 43 but the people running it never showed up. We all stood around discussing things and and had copies made of each other's names and numbers to stay in touch. Maybe one of them will call. We went back around 4 but no one had arrived yet and even the other fans had gone. Now I mean...these were MY kind of fans! I hope someone does call. Some of the girls were pretty...especially one.

I think I should write Debbie. Too shy to call her again.

IT twice again. I destroyed all of my "film" mags, even the ones I just bought the other day. Felt better about it after that.

Naturally tonight of all nights I stayed up to see STAR TREK.

Earlier, I had part of the CBS radio show. They were doing DRACULA with THE EXORCIST's "demon voice," Mercedes MCambridge.

NOTES: Not Debbie again! Sigh...


The S.T.A.R thing was supposed to be a gathering of trekkies with the intent of forming a local fan club and maybe putting on a local convention. I think I had seen mention of it in the newspaper. No idea what happened to the folks that were supposed to be running it but we would hear from them again.


"RBH" stood for RONA BARRETT'S HOLLYWOOD, one of two above-average show biz mags of that period to which the famed gossip columnist lent (licensed) her name. I doubt she had much hands on experience running them. In 2012, this very week, Terry tells me he's found a box of old issues I can have if I want to come pick them up!


DRACULA was the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER adaptation. Here's a link to where you can listen to the entire episode right now.


http://www.cbsrmt.com/episode-85-dracula.html

Friday, July 26th, 1974

I read the rest of my new books including the Superman Special.

The TV man finally came but he looked at it and said there was nothing wrong. Obviously, he was wrong. After awhile the picture gets okay but at first it's terrible! Oh, well. We're using it again anyway.

The Goodwill people were supposed to come, too, but they didn't. We've still got all the furniture.

IT. Twice.

NOTES: Seen above is what I was referring to as the Superman Special. 

Thursday, July 25th, 1974

Terry and I went to Cincinnati. We looked at books and posters. I got a few mags with more pics of Linda. No posters. We ate at McDonalds.

We had a lot of heavy work at SS tonight. A real lot!

NOTES: As you know, Wendy's was my fast food of choice. Never really ate at McDonalds much. In fact, I remember the first time my family ate there when I was about seven. For some reason, I hated it. Didn't go back for about 5-6 years. I can't even recall where there WAS a McDonalds in downtown Cincinnati at that time.

Wednesday, July 24th, 1974

Back out to Newport again. DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY was good but not great. Roddy had a small part in the film.

The poster shop had two great Raquel posters but both were sold out. We're going up to the Lemon Starship tomorrow to see if maybe they've got them.

Krogers provided me with TV GUIDE and SIXTEEN which had the perfect picture for the opening of my scrapbook!

Rode the bus all the way this time, both ways, all the way.

THREE MUSKETEERS opened at Ludlow. Hope to catch it Sunday with Doug or Terry or maybe both! They showed the preview for it at Newport along with SPYS and THUNDERBOLT...which I've already seen.

Got another free Coke at work!

IT just had to happen and ruin a good day.

NOTES: First of all, I was NOT stealing Cokes from the Pepsi machine at the office. It just started giving me two when I ordered one!


DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY is a car chase. Period. Stunts, helicopters, cars. There's a sorta-kinda plot and some B-level stars (Peter Fonda, Vic Morrow, Susan George) but it's all just an excuse for car chases. As car chase movies go--and there are a surprising amount of them--it really isn't bad. If you're expecting the least bit of anything else, you'll be disappointed. 

Tuesday, July 23rd, 1974

The TV man was supposed to come this morning so Mom and Dad did my work so I could wait for him.

Doug and I caught a Cold Spring bus and it took us right to the Newport Shopping Center. Just down the block was the Newport Plaza and the cinemas. We each saw our respective films and we each loved them. I enjoyed BUTCH & SUNDANCE so much it might beat out EXORCIST in my Top 10!
Coming home we walked most of the way, stopping at A & P. No new comics, though. We caught a bus closer than where I caught it the other day. We may go back tomorrow to see DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY and visit a poster shop. MUSKETEERS didn't make it. Maybe next week.

NOTES: Curious as to why my parents were off work on this day. Also curious as to why and how we were working in the morning. Where were the day staff? That's what it says, though. They covered me so I could wait for the TV guy in the morning. Oh, well.


I have no memory whatsoever of this split movie trip with Doug.

Monday, July 22nd, 1974

Doug came down and we finished his scrapbook. I think it turned out at least as good as mine. Mom even let him come help me at work. Tomorrow, we've talked about going to the Newport Plaza to catch 99 & 44/100 PERCENT DEAD. While he does that, I'd see BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID. Wednesday, I may go back out with either Doug or Terry to catch THE THREE MUSKETEERS or DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY.

Tonight, I watched THE GREAT RADIO COMEDIANS.

Also watched a debate between Barbie Lewandowski, the Pet of the Month in that issue of PENTHOUSE I was looking at yesterday, and some crazy guy who thinks it's his right to censor the whole world. I'm seriously thinking of writing her to say I support her views. After all, she got $2000.00 for a few pix. That's probably more than she made in a month at the teaching job they fired her from.

It's hard to believe but Doug saw THE EXORCIST yesterday! A friend asked him to go and he did. Last Saturday he wouldn't even look at pictures from it. Oh, well, he didn't like it anyway.

IT. Twice.

NOTES: Did I mention that Doug was from a very religious family? They lived in a Church! His Mom was the caretaker of the Church and their apartment was attached to the side of it in a normal looking building but there was aside door that took you inside the Church. So, yeah. His seeing THE EXORCIST was a surprise.

I tried to find out whatever happened to Barbie Lewandowski but do you realize how common a name that is? Weird! 

That's Barbie's issue. Not sure if that's her on the cover.

I've always been against censorship. Discretion, yes. But not censorship. And I never understood the concept of considering a woman to be a bad person just because she poses with her clothes off. In recent years, I've actually photographed one nude model myself  (when I was trying to be a professional photographer) and I know her to be a good person all around. The toughest part was correctly lighting the naked body. MUCH tougher than when the model is clothed!

Sunday, July 21st, 1974

I found out that AIRPORT 1975 is scheduled for October 18th opening at the Valley. EARTHQUAKE will be at the Carousel and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN at the Times at Christmas! 100 new screens are to be put up around the area in the next 3 years including 6 at Erlanger!

I went with Terry to see 99 AND 44/100 PERCENT DEAD and M*A*S*H together. It was great. I had already seen the latter. I gave him another model and he gave me my remaining comics although it turned out I already had three of them.

Over at his house, he's got a great Raquel Welch poster on his wall. I also snuck a peek at his dad's PENTHOUSE. Wasn't much really but a good bargain with about 200 pages for $1.25. I pay that much for only 75 pages in some I buy! Boy!

I missed the stupid bus and had to walk. I crossed the road to the unopened new bridge and found 4th Street. When I came within sight of the 4th street bridge, though, my chest hurt so I caught another bus there at the stoplight to take me across. I'm glad I did.

That mag had at least 50 pics of naked women--completely naked! But I truthfully feel I'd rather see pics of Linda fully clothed than any 100 naked women. Linda is lovely in every possible way. Wow!

NOTES: In retrospect, the movie was a thoroughly forgettable, somewhat campy crime flick starring future Dumbledore Richard Harris, notable mainly for introducing him to the woman he soon afterwards married, Ann Turkel.


As far as PENTHOUSE, you'll note that I was impressed by the 200 or so pages and yet only 50 or so pics of naked women. 


Somewhere I have a photo of Terry's Raquel poster, literally snapped with my camera on one of these visits. 


At the time, he was living in Bellevue, KY. I was in Covington. You can see by the blue line how far that walk was. I started walking from Terry's house (B). I caught a bus in Newport just before the bridge to Covington, then got off just on the other side of the bridge and was half a block from home. Luckily bus fare was only a quarter back then.

Saturday, July 20th, 1974

New books weren't supposed to be out today but they were. Including SPIDEY & THE ELECTRIC COMPANY. I got one book with lots of stuff on Lovely Linda! Also I finally got that Donny and Marie album and the song COME SATURDAY MORNING. Hadn't heard that in years until yesterday. It was one of the ones Debbie and I had heard on the radio the night we babysat for her friend's baby. Oh, how this one reminds me of her.

I may go see a double feature tomorrow with Terry. Probably not, though.

Doug came up and I helped him try to start a scrapbook like mine. He stayed 'til after 10 but we didn't get too much done. Maybe he'll come back.

I saw an episode of STAR TREK that I had never seen before.

I got a new Wonder Bread card--Clark Kent.

Mom stayed up to watch MISS UNIVERSE.

NOTES: Seems so odd to see how COME SATURDAY MORNING reminds me of Debbie here. Not only doesn't it do so anymore but I can;t recall that it ever did. At this point, I knew it only from AM radio. A couple of years later, I would finally catch THE STERILE CUCKOO, the movie that it comes from. It's still a lovely song.


As long as Doug and I had been friends, another thing he simply never did was come over to the house. Nor did I go to his except during the school year when I'd walk the extra block past the school to his house and then walk back to the school with him. Seeing as how we really only lived about 4 1/2 blocks apart, that just seems strange to me now. 

Friday, July 19th, 1974

I got up to see I DREAM OF JEANNIE at 6:30AM like I also did on Tues and Thurs. There was a bad storm just after Mom left for work.

Doug called about school this evening.

I wrote a short story with 200 more titles in it! It was fun and I hope to do more like that.

Somebody took 2 of the 3 cans I put out last night and now today we're out of bags. I broke my work record though. Previously 35 minutes, it's now 27!

I finally saw SILENT RUNNING on TV.

Looked up Debbie's phone number. Maybe I'll call her on Monday.

NOTES: SILENT RUNNING was a not quite successful attempt at a serious sci-fi movie saved by a partly solo performance by the great Bruce Dern. 


I DREAM OF JEANNIE was, of course, the classic sixties sitcom with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. I'm definitely more a BEWITCHED guy myself but I've had my Jeannie periods, too!


And HEY! 15 year old me! That Debbie thing is over, dude! Ya'll were just kids! Move on! 

Thursday, July 18th, 1974

Terry decided to give me only some of the comics he owes me. I think I've talked him into giving me the rest but won't know until tomorrow. BOY!

Still been kissing the Linda poster and now the SEVENTEEN cover, too! So beautiful.

Nick Clooney cut off new episodes of TEMPERATURE'S RISING for the next seven weeks! Starting tonight! BOY!

We were late getting to work because some of those dumbSocial Security people stayed until 8:15! I didn't get back 'til after 9:30. That was okay, though, since there wasn't anything good on until 10.

NOTES: Nick Clooney, of course, is George's dad and literally a living legend of Cincinnati television. I've been privileged to meet and get to know this handsome, humble, talented man and his equally talented and absolutely lovely wife Nina quite a number of times in the years since. Have no idea what type of show he had at that point that was pre-empting one of my favorite sitcoms. 


Actually though, TEMPERATURE'S RISING was, at that point, called THE NEW TEMPERATURE'S RISING and was not the show it had been in Season 1. At the beginning of the 2nd season, they had taken a wonderful, silly sitcom spotlighting the great Cleavon Little with James Whitmore as straight man and trashed everything but the setting and Cleavon. Even then, though, they toned down his character significantly and put him opposite Paul Lynde. Now Lynde was nobody's straight man (pun intended) and even William Asher, who had used him with great success on BEWITCHED, had no clue on how to use him here. 


The series had actually been taken off in January and starting this night the network was running off the final 7 unaired episodes during the summer.

Wednesday, July 17th, 1974

I was very, very tired this morning. I drifted off into dreamland off and on for most of an hour after Mom left.

When Terry got off work, I went with him over the river. I got all the new mags plus an issue of FF I needed. Got a kung-fu mag plus a mag with a (bad) parody of my current favorite flick.

This morning I read through my Shang-Chi collection.

Later i learned that ABC was rerunning WONDER WOMAN and the previously-cut-off-by-dumb-old-channel-12 MEN OF THE DRAGON as a double feature. I hope they don't cut it off again!

Speaking of channel 12, I got channel 12 on the radio! Weird! I managed to hear HOGAN'S HEROES while I was at work tonight!

Terry bought my "men." All of 'em! For three bucks and five or six comics which I don't get 'til tomorrow anyway. Og, well. I didn't want 'em anymore anyway.

NOTES: My "men" would have been my action figures--Captain Action, Mike Hazard, Johnny West and the like. Comics I didn't outgrow but those I did. We had spent large parts of the preceding six years carting our "men" between houses and playing with them. As I understand it, Terry still has them in 2012!


MEN OF THE DRAGON was a made for TV martial arts movie that I don't really recall anymore at all. 


Shang-Chi, on the other hand, was the star of the single best-written Marvel comic from around this point 'til pretty much the end of the decade. Started out by Steve Englehart but Doug Moench made the book his own. I went on a radio talk show around 1980 and they asked me who I thought the best writer in comics was and I answered without hesitation, "Doug Moench." He's now a FB friend. 


Shang-Chi seems doubtful to be reprinted in its entirety as the character was the son of Fu Manchu, not only a licensed property to which Marvel no longer has any rights to but now a controversial example of political incorrectness toward Asians. Too bad. It really was great stuff when Moench made it essentially a James Bond martial arts epic movie on paper with the help of artists like Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck and Gene Day.

Tuesday, July 16th, 1974

A very cool day. Well, not a VERY cool day but pretty cool.

I stirred up old memories on a trip I took from King Kwik to Horn's to Scroggins to Woolworth's. I walked up Bakewell past the house where we lived more than ten years ago now. It's still there and not very different. Didn't buy many books at any of the stops but the nostalgia was fun.

On the way, I also mailed Linda's letter. Hopefully that will provoke future memories.

Tried to work on my story but just couldn't get into it, not even to Simon and Garfunkel.  Oh, well.

When we went in to work, there were two people in there as well as two dogs tied up and waiting outside. I did about half my work, then asked Mom to do the other half after hers. Then I left so I didn't disturb them. Too bad really as I'm sure I would've beaten my 35 minute record.

I've decided definitely what I'm saving up for. To meet Linda. I asked her where in my letter and if she answers I can afford to go almost anywhere. If that doesn't work out, I may have to use it for school. Boy!

Mom told me this morning and, since, I've seen it on TV and in the papers. A Florida newswoman referred to the "blood and guts policy" of her TV station and then announced an "attempted suicide."She then pulled a gun from her handbag and aimed it at her head and fired. ON THE AIR! She died later. Apparently she was expecting only to critically wound herself but not fatally. The whole thing including a report of the incident was in the script she had written earlier.  Wow. What will happen next?

Saw a good TV movie starring Carrie Snodgress and another with a title I couldn't resist--LINDA.

I blew kisses at my Linda poster at least 50 times today. Now I know I'm crazy...about her!

NOTES: What is it about teenagers that so many are fascinated by suicide even if they'd never actually so it tehmselves. I know I was. This story really hit me. If I knew the story in more depth, I'd long since forgotten but I looked it up online. There's a long and detailed Wikipedia page on the reporter, one Christine Chubbuck, and seen here is a clipping from that time.


The house where I lived on Bakewell has long since become a parking lot as has the house where I lived on Fourth Street and the house where I lived on Greenup Street. The house where I lived in 1974 is still there, however, and looks exactly the same. David and I walked down by it while waiting for Rene at the Unemployment Office last week.


As far as wanting to travel to meet Linda, I have a hard time remembering a time when I actually HAD a savings, let enough one that could take me almost anywhere. But I did. As much as I was spending on comic books and movies, remember that they were all less expensive back then. I was getting money for working and still getting a sort of allowance, too, and I managed to save quite a bit. Held onto it until I bought my first VCR in 1980. Haven't really been able to save anything since, darn it!

Monday, July 15th, 1974

IT.

It rained hard early this afternoon. I spent all that time writing my new letter to Linda. Oh, it was wonderful. Just the writing while the rain poured! Going to mail it tomorrow. Have to write my pen-pal letter, too.

This summer may turn out great, yet!

I watched a movie on TV that was written by William Peter Blatty.

At the SS office, they threw out some old issues of THE WASHINGTON POST. Unfortunately the movie sections were missing.

NOTES: Been going through a writer's block lately but that's still how I feel about writing. I'd still rather do it than eat.


Blatty had a long career as a screenwriter and his old films were apparently being trotted out to cash in on his EXORCIST success that year.

Sunday, July 14th, 1974

Debbie's birthday. No card or anything from me this year. Oh, well. It's been almost 5 years since she moved.

Basically a bad day although I discovered that my crush on Linda is bigger than ever. I intend to write her again tomorrow.

I heard the Beatles Top 20 hits on WSAI tonight.

NOTES: WSAI AM had been the big Cincinnati Beatles station during the early days of Beatlemania and more or less carried that reputation with it for years afterwards. DJ Dusty Rhodes was their biggest booster but he was by that point on another station. Oddly enough, he's still around. Although he became a successful politician over the years, he has almost always maintained a presence on the air locally.  


Since my first ever Beatles record was the single of THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD in 1970--their very last release before the breakup--I spent most of the seventies trying to get hold of all their music--released and unreleased. By this point in 2012, I honestly think I've at least heard 90% of everything they ever did when someone had a tape recorder on. As McCartney once put it when asked his opinion of the heavily bootlegged material, there was a REASON they didn't release it. What they DID put out was the GOOD stuff.


As far as Debbie, it would be another couple of years (!) before I finally quit carrying the torch (after seeing her one last time. Check my 1976 Journal for that story). Would most likely have happened much sooner if I had ever had another girlfriend to replace her but that just never happened so I pined away from time to time when I wasn't busy fantasizing romantically about Linda Blair.


Come to think of it, today would be Debbie's birthday yet again. Wherever she is, I hope if she remembers me at all that she realizes I was just a poor, lovesick schoolboy. Happy birthday, Debbie.

Saturday, July 13th, 1974

Doug bought the Bruce Lee book and another one from me. Then we caught the bus for the long ride out to Tri-County and saw HERBIE RIDES AGAIN. I think it may be Stefanie's best movie!

At the Shopping Center, we saw a karate demonstration with the star of a new movie. Not much. Stopping at Fountain on the way back, I got the new SPEC with great stuff on Linda! Even a poster. I put it on my wall naturally.

We got back downtown about 8 and home by 8:30.

My LB scrapbook is getting overcrowded. I've decided to dedicate my next one (which I may need as early as next week) to her, also. I need to write her again, too.

Stayed up late to watch STAR TREK.

NOTES: Doug and I were best friends in 5th, 6th and 7th grades, simultaneous with Terry, but for some reason, he and I never went to movies together. In fact, I think this may have been the only one we saw together. We actually caught an early afternoon matinee but, as with before, the multiple buses made it an all-day trip. Especially since the buses had an abbreviated schedule on Sundays. Nowadays, if my son, now 15 as I was then, were to be gone for hours and hours and take multiple buses, I'd freak out all day!

Friday, July 12th, 1974

IT.

Saw Clint Eastwood on with Dinah Shore.

I got a letter from Dynapubs about FLASHBACK.

I made out a list of books to try to sell to someone. Not OBS.

I watched HERBIE DAY AT DISNEYLAND celebrating the Disney premiere of the new movie I hope to be seeing tomorrow. I hope to go with Doug but if not, maybe Terry.

I also watched Marlo's first special and William Friedkin's first film on TV.

NOTES: HERBIE DAY AT DISNEYLAND was shameless, blatant promotion but they really made  a big deal out of it. As you can see, it even had its own publicity stills!


EXORCIST director Friedkin's first theatrical feature as a director was GOOD TIMES, a surreal 1967 vehicle for Sonny and Cher. Not as bad as its reputation and, in a way, a preview of their style of humor as seen just a few years later on their hit variety series. 


FLASHBACK was a series of facsimile reprints of classic Golden Age comic books that featured full color covers and murky, black and white scans of the original color pages for the interiors. They weren't great but they were all we had at the time when it came to reading complete comics from the forties without paying a lot.

Thursday, July 11th, 1974

I got some new books including the long-awaited PLANET OF THE APES. I got one old book at OBS. They had very few, probably because Terry cleaned them out yesterday.

We went out to the Zoo today. I took my camera but I don't think I got any good shots.

I think I saw Jim Scott downtown this afternoon!

I didn't finish work 'til after 9 o'clock.

I'm thinking of starting a fan club for that girl at The Madison since she looks so much like Linda Blair!

It's too late for me to send Debbie a birthday card now. Guess that just shows that she really is completely out of my life now. I'm growing older.

NOTES: Jim Scott was my favorite DJ on WSAI AM. Had been since I first discovered radio in 1969. It's not that small of a town and I went through a period where I hung around with radio folks and yet it would be 34 years before i would casually run into Jim Scott again and that was at the Airport. I didn't say anything to him because someone else had recognized him and was monopolizing his time. I didn't want to ruin his moment.


Jim has weathered the changes in radio and still holds forth with a successful (if long unlistenable) show today in the Cincinnati market..

Wednesday, July 10th, 1974

The day after. It's still hard to believe. My stomach caused me to lose some sleep. I got up at about 4:30 in the morning.

Mom had to go to work for a few hours today.

I had to help George again and I'm getting tired of it.

The man came and fixed our window.

It rained all day and temperatures were up, ruining our plans to go to the Zoo. Probably tomorrow.

I think I'll have to write Linda again soon. Next week.

I've been drinking too many soft drinks again lately. I really am going to have to cut down.

Saturday is Debbie's birthday. I should send her a  card.

Terry called and said he got about $1.20 worth of old comics. Just called to brag I think. I've been involved in other things lately like movies and Linda but I hope I can get really involved in fandom and build a great collection.

NOTES: I never did get involved in comics fandom very much. My natural shyness, I suppose. Over time, I did make my mark though, winning the COMICS INTERVIEW 100 Trivia Quiz in 1991 and, with the coming of the Web, becoming acquainted with many of the folks who WERE actually heavily involved in fandom in the seventies. 


I wish I HAD cut back on Cokes. From time to time I did but not really. Never for very long. Today, alone, I believe I've had four. They've screwed up my weight, my teeth and other aspects of my health over the years. I should still cut back more but I've given up so much in recent years...Sigh...

Tuesday, July 9th, 1974

E-DAY! Mom and Dad did my work for me and Terry and I met his mother and off we went! We went into the theater and saw...THE EXORCIST. There was even a girl that resembled Linda working the concession stand!

The picture began. I was prepared to be scared some but...nothing. I'd sit through the picture a million times though to see the scenes of Linda before the possession! Oh, they were marvelous!

There were a LOT of people there! I doubt it'll make my number one spot for the year but it will definitely be in the Top Ten. Oh, I can't get over it! After six solid months of wanting it, I, Steven Paul Thompson, saw THE EXORCIST! At last!

I took a bath before I went and washed my hair like I was going to meet a girl. My girl! Linda!

The closest thing I got to a scare was a stomach ache from the Pepsi I drank.

On the way home, we ran into Doug's mother and sister.

The baby was here for another visit when I got home.

NOTES: I get a lot of praise for my honesty in posting this blog exactly as it happened but I have to say that nothing I've posted has embarrassed me...until this. Yeesh, I had it bad!

Monday, July 8th, 1974

Terry called early and said we'd surely get to see THE EXORCIST tonight. All the rest of the day I was joyful. Then at 5 when he was supposed to call and tell me what time he was picking me up, he called to say something had come up. I should have known.  Says now it'll probably be tomorrow. He'd better be right. I remain hopeful.

Mom gave me some strawberry incense that Phyllis had brought me last week. She'd forgotten about it. It was the first time I'd ever burned incense. At first, I couldn't smell a thing. Finally the smell came out after several hours. I got a headache.

NOTES: Well, what do you know? I skipped ahead and saw that it WAS Terry's mother who ended up taking us. In MY memory it was my own mother! But that's tomorrow's story...finally!


Apparently Phyllis presumed that all teenagers burned incense. It was a popular thing to do in the seventies, partially to disguise the smell of less legal items,  but I had never done it. If I recall correctly, since I had no incense burner, I stuck it in a Pepsi bottle! I did get it from time to time after that although never regularly.

Sunday, July 7th, 1974

Basically a bad day. We went out to Aunt Velma's and Aunt Rosie's but no one was home at either place. Coming back, we stopped at the Shopping Center where I got nothing but some candy.

I called Terry but the answer was no. From his Mom. A very definite no. I'm going to try to work something out even if I have to bluff my way in before the week's over.

I started collecting PEANUTS Sundays from THE ENQUIRER today.

NOTES: I collected PEANUTS Sundays and dailies for most of the rest of the decade. I still have three bound volumes of notebook pages with the strips taped in.

Saturday, July 6th, 1974

I didn't hear from terry today but I'm hoping to tomorrow. To see it!

I saw a good comedy movie with Sid Caesar and an old episode of OUTER LIMITS.

Picked up my last pictures and turned in a new batch for the drugstore to develop. I took those out of the patches. Next week, I hope we can go out to Aunt Velma's and I can show them around.

When their vacation is over, I'm going to finish and rewrite my story.

It's at this time of year that I miss Debbie most of all. I'd be at her house nearly every day and around her birthday I'd always go down to her house and leave a present at her door in a heart-shaped box. I always did. But not this year. Not for her or for anybody. Next year, either. Yeah, I'm crazy about Linda but I'll probably never hear from her (but I'm sure gonna keep tryin'!). If I can't get something going by January I may do my best to just quit trying.  I guess I don't really need a relationship. I just naturally want one. There should be a way to beat it, though, and if there is, I'll find it. In January. In the meantime, I'll try to make myself just forget the sexual aspect of the whole thing. I've never thought that way of any girl I've ever really known or liked anyway so I'll try not to think that of ANY girl to prevent it!

I'll probably go see HERBIE RIDES AGAIN out at the Princeton next week. Another long bus ride.

NOTES: Sid Caesar is, of course, one of the great early TV funny men but he never really starred in a  lot of movies and the ones he did weren't really very good. The one I saw today was most likely THE BUSY BODY, a 1967 comedy noted today mostly as the first film of Richard Pryor...who plays  a police detective yet!


Come January I was just going to "quit trying," eh? Hmmm...more like "quite HOPING." I really wasn't trying. Just hoping and moping. 

Friday, July 5th, 1974

Today I spent most of my afternoon in Cincinnati and I didn't get a thing except a 95 cent meal at McDonalds. Terry was there and says there's a good chance we'll see the movie this Sunday. I've heard that before but I'm hoping. I'm praying to finally see it!

IT.

I watched YELLOW SUBMARINE for the third time on TV tonight.

NOTES: By this point, I was pretty much just wanting to get seeing that #$$#!! movie over with! It didn't even occur to me that I had read so much about it that it couldn't possibly live up to its considerable hype by the time I finally got to it.


I generally credit 1968's YELLOW SUBMARINE as being the first movie I was allowed to see without my parents. I could be wrong but it was definitely one of the first. I enjoyed it so much that I insisted my parents come see it with me a week later! This was six years later when I saw it the third time. I got the DVD a few years back and have watched that who knows how many more times since.

Thursday, July 4th, 1974

I got up about 6 and listened to the radio then I went and read the newspaper. I went with Dad over to clean the office before 9.

Phyllis slept late.

Today is the 4th of July, America's 198th birthday. Seems a lot like any other day. Hope it's not like that in a couple of years.

We all went out to Kings Island and I think they, at least, had a grand time. My feet were so hurt when we got home I could hardly walk! I wore my white shoes. Mom got me a magic kit and a few souvenirs. It rained pretty badly this afternoon while we were there. We didn't have time for Lion Country Safari today. I got the first sunburn I've had in years on my arms. Tomorrow it's back to long-sleeved shirts.

Phyllis and Jim left about an hour after Midnight. I stayed up to watch Geraldo Rivera.

NOTES: This whole day feels like I'm reading about someone else. 


At the time, Geraldo was the hot, hip new face of journalism and he had a late night talk show called GOOD NIGHT AMERICA.

Wednesday, July 3rd, 1974

They left early and so arrived today. There are only two of them here--her and her husband. I'm sure glad of that.

I put 48 of my best pix into pages we got free with coupons.

The new Hammer Frankenstein movie hit the drive-ins today.

I haven't been able to get through to Terry all week. THE EXORCIST is still on, though. There's still time.

Because the SS people don't work tomorrow because of the holiday we didn't need to go over tonight.

Dad went to the doubleheader tonight. I stayed home and watched a Dick Van Dyke movie on TV.

NOTES: Looked up the kid that I was told Phyllis was trying to get us to take in. Looks like he has a long record of various minor issues going back about 30 years now. 


Here's the weirdest part. I do not for a second recall her husband being with her on that trip. In fact, as we hadn't been down South in a few years, I don't even recall meeting her husband.


I had developed a great fondness for Peter Cushing's films as Dr. Frankenstein from TV and was pleased to see they were still making them. It would be a few years before I would catch this one, though, when it, too, came to TV. The new monster of this film was played by an actor/stuntman named Dave Prowse. Later in the decade it would be Prowse inside the Darth Vader costume for much of STAR WARS. He would also be Christopher Reeve's personal trainer on SUPERMAN. About two decades later, my wife and I would meet him at a Con in Cincinnati.

Tuesday, July 2nd, 1974

I slept late again. We got our check in today.

Phyllis called again and said she was going to come and visit us. Boy! THIS could be terrible! Maybe not I guess. Hmmm...Maybe SHE could take me to see THE EXORCIST. She's got a lot of kids and she's sure to bring some. I hope not all!

I moved all my good stuff so they can't find it.

Had to help George again today.

I convinced Dad to take me to see THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT. It wasn't half as bad as Mom made it out to be.

I got DRACULA LIVES and TV GUIDE and found an old tape of The Carpenters that didn't work but does now!

Mom got a new vacuum but had to return it as something happened to it right away.

I have now seen 24 R-Rated films. Would love to make THE EXORCIST # 25. I doubt it will go off tomorrow.

IT.

NOTES: I wasn't privy to everything going on regarding my older cousin Phyllis from North Carolina but the gist of it seemed to be she was having some prescription drug-related issues and problems with her youngest kid or kids and was trying to convince my Mom to take her kids in the way my Mom had taken her in when she was a teenager. This, of course, would have been nightmarish to me. Luckily, there was apparently never any chance of it occurring. 


The top song of the day was ROCK THE BOAT by The Hues Corporation. Disco was rearing its ugly head. 

Monday, July 1st, 1974

The first day of Mom and Dad's vacation. For the first time, I went out with them to Value City and the new Twin Fair. I got the Carpenters hits album and the soundtrack of HOW TO SUCCEED...for only 39 cents! At Twin Fair, I found a dollar! On the way home, we stopped and got some ice cream at Dairy Queen.

NOTES: The Value City stayed there until about 4 years ago when it was turned into a Burlington Coat Factory. The Twin Fair moved there form it's prior location which is, in 2012, just a couple of blocks from where I write this. It stayed for years in the new location but sat empty for quite a while afterwards before reopening as a carpet store which is still there.


The Dairy Queen is still there on the way and on rare occasion, we still stop there hut since we have no money and David doesn't care for ice cream, not often.


Hard to believe that you could get a record album--ANY record album--for only 39 cents in those days but you could. Many large department stores had whole bins of cut-out albums like that.


THE CARPENTERS album I bought was the one seen above. Years later I replaced it with their box set and sold off this album. I have long said that Karen Carpenter had one of the best female voices in late 20th Century music and Richard was an amazing arranger and producer. People made fun of them even then and more after Karen's tragic death but give their music a listen and you can still feel the magic!


As far as vacations, even when we didn't go anywhere, Mom and Dad always took their vacations at the same time--the first week in July.