Sunday, May 5th, 1974

I listened to two different radio shows tonight!

We went to my Aunt's birthday party. All my cousins were there. Rachel is really getting big. I still think of her as a little girl! Jeff actually got to meet Debbie recently! No need for me to be jealous, though. He thinks she's ugly. So what does he know?

I saw GOLDFINGER for the third time on TV tonight.

NOTES: It's all relative. Rachel would have been ten years old. She still WAS a little kid. LOL! 


The way Jeff met my old girlfriend Debbie was that he was hired to give piano lessons to her sister. I don't know if he actually said she was "ugly" or if I was talking editorial license. Doesn't sound like something he would have said.


My Aunt was old my entire life and eventually she lived to age 104 or 105. One of the last times my cousins and I all got together was at her funeral...not that many years ago now!


GOLDFINGER was and remains my favorite James Bond movie. A near-perfect mix of a good story, colorful villains, macho heroics and sixties spy gadgetry. All tied together by a great script. 

Saturday, May 4th, 1974

I stayed up to watch part of the late movie last night but fell asleep on the couch before it ended.

My glasses weren't fixed too well, today but I guess they'll do.

I picked up a couple fanzines and some magazines including one with a big review of THE EXORCIST.

The guy at Kidd's told Terry and I that there was soon to be a big sci-fi convention here in town and that Gene Roddenberry was here just last week!

IT.

I finally heard CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER last night at about 10 and I think I'll listen to it tonight, too.

IT again!

NOTES: THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER had gone on the air in January. I had developed a minor interest in old time radio after a substitute teacher a year earlier had simply played us a record of two episodes of THE SHADOW. This, however, was my first time actually finding it on the radio locally. In fact, seeing as how the official listing of the series doesn't even show an episode as being on the evening of May 3rd (or 4th for that matter as it only aired on weeknights), I think it's safe to assume the local station was delaying broadcasts anyway. Because of that I have no way of knowing which episode was my first. Here, however, is a site where you can not only find everything you could possibly want to know about every episode but you can actually listen to them all!


http://www.cbsrmt.com/

Friday, May 3rd, 1974

I got a pen-pal letter today.

I saw CAT BALLOU on TV while eating coneys for the first time in a long time.

The day was marred, however, by learning in tonight's paper that Theresa Burkley, one of three girls who went with Debbie and I for a particularly fun day at the Public Library in the fifth grade, was missing. Says she has been missing since March.  On our trip that hot summer day, I remember when we walked through the lot where the old house had been and we found a dead dog lying in the overgrown grass. Theresa stopped to say a prayer for it. At school she was always reading horse books. I sure hope she's found okay but at this point I'd say the chances aren't very optimistic.

Also, I broke the other side of my glasses today. I'll have to have it fixed in the morning.

NOTES: CAT BALLOU was a 1965 western comedy starring the version of Jane Fonda that ceased to exist soon afterwards, replaced by the controversial feminist political activist.


For many years, I kept the newspaper clipping about Theresa (not her real name). It was just a school photo with a caption saying she hadn't been seen since March and giving numbers to call if anyone knew anything. I may still have it somewhere but I'm not sure where. Over the years, every time I'd see it, I'd wonder what ever happened to her. She was a very pretty girl, almost ethereal. We weren't close although I did talk with her a lot when I sat behind her in class for a while. She got me to read her favorite book, MISTY OF CHINCOTEAQUE, a horse book. By this point, in the ninth grade, I don't think I'd seen her in several years. She had moved or something and attended another school. I had a;ways remembered her, though, for that incident with the dog. At one point I even wrote a story around that scene (although in my version, the characters were all adults crossing a hot desert rather than kids crossing a vacant lot). Did she run away from home? Was she kidnapped? Taken by an estranged parent? Tortured? Murdered? Was she perhaps found and that never made the paper? Is she alive today? Even with the Net I wasn't able to find any info on her. Sigh...

Thursday, May 2nd, 1974

It rained hard tonight. We didn't even try to go over to work until late.

George gave me a dollar for helping him carry something upstairs in the rain.

Wasn't able to get over and get a TV GUIDE this week yet.

Haven't heard from Terry since Saturday. That's weird.

NOTES: I'm continually amazed at how some things don't change much. In 2012, it rained extremely hard last night and in 2012 I DID, in fact, see Terry both Monday and Tuesday. Sold him some disks. 


I gave up TV GUIDE when there was less and less on TV that I wanted to watch.


George was an upstairs neighbor who at one point would be desperate for 50 dollars. He gave my dad a gold diamond ring for security, my Dad gave him the money and we never saw him again. Years later, I would take the diamonds from his ugly ring and have them put into my wedding band. I didn't realize at the time that I was one of those people who just can't wear rings. It sat in a drawer for twenty years. Times being what they are, I had to sell it recently. Sigh...

Wednesday, May 1st, 1974

We got our second paycheck today. Less than two weeks after the first.

I might visit the International '70 again this weekend.

In Health soon we'll be starting a chapter about sex. I can't imagine myself reading that chapter but I know I'll have to. He always picks me to read. Another worry More grey hair.

I saw two programs about love on TV tonight that had a big effect on me. One starred Bill Bixby and the other starred Leonard Nimoy.

NOTES: The year before I had been called on in English class to read a story aloud that contained the word "Hell." I dreaded it for days after I saw it in the book when I read ahead. I was so nervous and sure enough, it was me she called on to read. I knew what was coming but the other students did not. When I got to the phrase--"Run like Hell!" They laughed for several minutes!


The thought of reading aloud about sex hit me about the same. 

Tuesday, April 30th, 1974

Another month is over now. I mailed off for my book today.

It rained nice and hard all day but the temperatures were still way too high.

I only know of one movie I'd like to see next weekend...if Dad will go with me.

I got a big box to put some books in. May not use it, though.

I found out that I've lost my last year's Top Ten list. I might still be able to remember it, though.

NOTES: So weird. Here I was writing about high temperatures yesterday and again today and in 2012 I spent Sunday evening at the ER with my sone for what appeared to be a febrile seizure--his temp spiking way too quickly! The paramedics and the doctors all said it was extremely rare at his age (15) but it was very much like the one he had when he was two. He's okay now but it scared us half to death and not knowing what caused it we'll still be worried for some time to come! Sigh...

Monday, April 29th, 1974

We got out early today and I hurried home to listen to the album some more.

Tim was glad about the money I got him.

I got the money order for the book but didn't mail it yet.

The temps went up into the eighties today. I can't stand such high temperatures.

NOTES: I've always been a Winter person more than a Summer person. To this day, a hot sunny Summer day is reason to stay home and doze in front of a fan...with the AC on if I can afford it! It doesn't help that the Ohio River valley here tends to have thick, humid air for much of every Summer making sunny days just miserable sometimes. 

Sunday, April 28th, 1974

A much better day profitwise. I finally got Marlo Thomas's FREE TO BE YOU AND ME album along with another new McCartney single. I listened to the album over and over. I think it may have changed my whole views of life.

I've got about 19 dollars left and it's got to last until my next payment. I do, however, intend to order the HOUSE OF HORRORS book for $5.84 tomorrow from Warren.

Also I came up with a great idea for selling a new radio mystery series to a local radio station. Maybe I'll do more work on it soon.

The very air was pleasant all day today. My cold is almost better and I even survived the nearly unbearable heat to come up with a good feeling.

Are things finally starting to go my way? I doubt it but I can hope so.

NOTES: HOUSE OF HORRORS was a history of Hammer Films that came out just as the company itself was about to go under. 


Every once in a while, I would decide that what local radio needed was a new mystery series written by me. This was probably the first but I know I was still toying with this idea as late as the early 1990's. Oh, hell, it's crossed my mind just recently, too. Trouble is that no one in local radio cares what I think. Even when I was briefly associated with local radio in the early 1980's no one cared what I thought!


FREE TO BE...was Marlo Thomas's now classic children's album of liberating songs and skits for boys and girls. Mel Brooks, Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones, Billy De Wolfe, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Morse, Diana Sands and other celebs appeared with THAT woman, Marlo. It was for a slightly younger audience than me at 15 but it really was a very eye-opening experience. I had been raised in a rather conservative home with traditional ways of looking at males and females. Boys, for example, could never wear pink. It was my appreciation of the THAT GIRL sitcom that made me get it but it was the album that made me rethink a lot of things and eventually get to where I considered myself a male feminist. At 19, I almost joined NOW. After all, it's the National Organization FOR Women, not OF Women. I could still be sexist in some ways (still!) but this day a new seed was planted in my understanding of male and female roles, expectations and possibilities in society. Thanks, Marlo.A few years later, I had a pink shirt I really loved. 

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. 

1976--THE BOOK--A Kickstarter Project!

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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.