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* Extensive coverage about the celebrities attending this year’s event!

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* News about recent nostalgia happenings.

* Fascinating articles.

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Even if you are a first time guest or planning your return visit, there is more to see and do than just walking through the vendor rooms and meeting the celebrities. The events for this year’s convention are still being drawn up and if you want to learn of the latest news, the newsletter is the best way to stay informed. If a new celebrity has been added at the last minute, you’ll know before everyone else!

We had someone once say they would not sign up because they don’t want to receive junk mail. We can assure you, this is NOT junk mail! If the hotel offered a super discount such as $20 a night and the offer was open only for 48 hours…. wouldn’t you want to be notified by e-mail? Don’t delay and sign up today! It doesn’t cost you anything!

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Admission gives you access to everything at the event, including vendor rooms, celebrities, movie room and the panels and seminars. Because of the complexities involved, we will not mail you a confirmation. Your Paypal receipt (sent to you by e-mail) will serve as your confirmation. You should receive a confirmation via e-mail through Paypal. If you do not have Paypal, do not fret. Paypal acts as a safe and secure third party to process credit cards so you can charge your card.

Regular Price at the Door $20 per person, per day.

The special discount rate is available until July 31, 2012.
Cost is $15 per person, per day.
Weekend consists of three days, $45 total ($60 at the door).
(We do not charge an admission fee for Wednesday afternoon, but you must be wearing a badge to have access to the events and vendors.)

When you arrive at the hotel, simply tell Mary Ethel at the front desk that you pre-paid your admission and she will scratch you off the list and hand you your goody bag, program guide and admission badge.

All paid admission (in advance or at the door) will receive a special 48 page program guide.
Everyone who prepays their admission receives a special goody bag with DVDs, comic books and other freebees.

Admission, One Person

One Day $15.00 USD Two Days $30.00 USD Weekend $45.00 USD

 

Admission, Two People

One Day $30.00 USD Two Days $60.00 USD Weekend $90.00 USD

 

Remember that you save money paying in advance! If you don’t have Paypal, relax. You can use your credit card to pay securely using these same buttons!

Admission, Three People

One Day $45.00 USD Two Days $90.00 USD Weekend $135.00 USD

 

Dinner Tickets Are Limited This Year!

Dinner Banquet
The cost for the buffet dinner banquet is separate from the admission. The banquet is optional, but as we explained on the dinner/banquet page, this event is very popular and expected to sell out because we have sold out every year for the past two years. Tickets for the dinner banquet will be mailed too everyone who pre-pays. You must have your dinner ticket to attend. (This is a bit different from past events so please take note: you must have your ticket to attend.) There is no guarantee that tickets will be available for purchase at the door, so we recommend you buy your tickets now. Because we don’t keep a penny of the admission (it all goes to the hotel), your purchase is non-refundable. If for some reason you are unable to attend the banquet, contact Martin at 443-286-6821 and he’ll see what he can do as exceptions can be made if it can be arranged. Tickets sold on a first come, first serve basis.

$50 per person

Buffet Dinner Banquet

One Person $50.00 USD Two People $100.00 USD Three People $150.00 USD

 

Remember that tickets are limited and may not be available at the door this year!

If you don’t have Paypal, relax. You can use your credit card to pay securely using these same buttons!

The cast of The Time Tunnel

Mark Twain invented the time travel story. Six years later H.G. Wells perfected it and revealed its paradoxes. Between them they left little for latecomers to do. Many have tried, successfully, thanks to the diverse theories and hypotheses of the consequences of time travel. Through a variation on a theme, every science fiction writer has attempted to preach his own theories. But regardless of how many novels, stories, comics, motion-pictures and television programs have been created, as author Robert S. Heinlein once wrote, “they are still fun to write.” Enter stage left… Irwin Allen who, through the love of science fiction, brought the concept of The Time Tunnel to life. Almost fifty years later, fans of the short-lived television program still discuss the television show as if it was the greatest series ever created and telecast. Because James Darren and Robert Colbert are among the celebrity guests for the 2012 MANC Convention, it seems fitting to revisit the television program.

Each week, television viewers watched as Dr. Tony Newman and Dr. Doug Phillips spiraled about time, both past and future, courtesy of a massive government project known as the Time Tunnel, hoping their next leap would bring them home. They met Billy the Kid, Robin Hood, helped thwart an assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln, witnessed the construction of the Trojan Horse, watched as the walls of Jericho fell and battled visitors from outer space.

The Time Tunnel was by no means a superb product of Friday night entertainment. If the plot holes were not as large as the tunnel itself, viewers noticed the same props from Allen’s other television programs (Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) popping up on the show. Fan boys to this day still debate whether the futuristic episodes involving space aliens were better than the historic adventures, but few would deny that Lee Meriwether made a lab coat look sexy. Meriwether herself recalled how the cast received letters from school teachers who used The Time Tunnel to stimulate interest in history in the classroom. So why did a show so successful last a mere 30 episodes? Because it was renewed by ABC-TV for a second season and weeks later, the network cancelled the renewal.

“Had The Time Tunnel gone a second season, the possibilities would have been expanded,” James Darren remarked. “We could have gone into a parallel world. We could have bumped into ourselves from another travel. The possibilities were limitless. Writers often run out of ideas but with Time Tunnel, we would have still come up with ideas.”

“I believe, had the series ran longer, by the third season there would have been more control over where we would have gone and we probably would have been in contact with the Time Tunnel [personnel] more often,” remarked Robert Colbert. “There probably would have been a couple recurring characters, arch nemesis and maybe even meet up with other time travelers.”

James Darren and Robert Colbert

Regardless, the series is now available on DVD commercially and all 30 episodes can be viewed at the convenience of the fan boys who enjoy watching the episodes four decades after the series went off the air. In the premiere episode, the boys found themselves on board the Titanic. No one, not even the captain of the ship, would believe their warnings until the fateful night. Allen spent more than $500,000 to create the pilot… four times the expense any network expected for a color hour-long television drama. To ensure money was not wasted, Allen filmed an ending in which Doug and Tony both arrive back home. Should the network decide not to purchase the series, Allen had intentions of releasing the film, with the ending, in movie theaters as part of a double feature. The series sold, however, and ABC-TV began broadcasting the series in September of 1966.

Weeks before the series premiere, The Time Tunnel was selected for a preview showing at Tricon, the 24^th World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. It met with an adversary and guest speaker, Gene Roddenberry, who agreed to attend the event in the hopes that buzz would begin with his newly-produced Star Trek series. Star Trek was ultimately chosen as the “Best Science Fiction Telefilm Ever Screened for Conventioneers” and was predicted as the “best TV show of this coming season.”

When the Time Tunnel pilot was screened at Tricon days before its network debut, novelist Jerry Sohl recalled the reaction was mixed. “The fans there had very high standards for televised science fiction. When they saw thousands of soldiers running up and down the Time Tunnel corridors with sirens blaring, the fans hooted and booed. There was another scene where the desert literally rolls back and a car drives underneath it. Those scenes were over the top. Spectacle rather than true science fiction.”

Andrew I. Porter, assistant editor of the magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (and later a Hugo winner for his semi-prozine Algol in 1974) was a 20-year-old Tricon attendee in 1966. “The one thing I remember from Time Tunnel is that hilarious bit when they’re trying to convince the Captain of the Titanic to turn around or slow down or something by holding up a copy of the newspaper that says, ‘Titanic sinks.’ Yeah, that oughta do it. Star Trek made a much bigger impression on fans than Time Tunnel did.”

Critics loved the series, as evident from the reprints below:

The September 14, 1966, issue of Variety

“ABC has given Time Tunnel the onerous task of trying to bridge three proved rating busters on the other webs, and if the show is shot down by the tested competition it will not be for want of trying. If Tunnel were just a routine sci-fi meller, it might just as well have crept into its time device and projected itself into an easier slot. As it is, this elaborately wrought and well-scripted (albeit trickily) show should give a good account for itself.”

The September 9, 1966, issue of the St. Petersburg Times 

“The Time Tunnel, a new adventure series on ABC with science fiction overtones, is so handsomely and expensively produced that you wish it were better written. There seems to be an obvious attempt to please younger viewers based on its first episode which too often employs childlike dialogue. The Time Tunnel is a U.S. research project 800 floors below the American desert (and there are some breathtaking glimpses into this deep pit). What the machine can do is send a man backward or forward into time. In the first episode, Gary Merrill plays an itchy cost-conscious Senator who provokes regular James Darren, an eager-beaver scientist, into trying out the tunnel before it has been perfected. Amazingly, he lands on the Titanic on the eve of the ship’s sinking in 1912. He is soon joined by another regular and scientist, Robert Colbert. There is some suspense as you wonder if the scientists can change history. The other regulars, all members of the American team, are Lee Meriwether, Whit Bissell and John Zaremba. They fret a lot.”

The September 10, 1966, issue of the Christian Science Monitor

“The new TV season’s score at the end of the first inning is three hits, five runs and six errors. The hits are all from ABC: The Monroes, Man Who Never Was and Hawk. But there are two more possible runs with Star Trek and The Time Tunnel. Both deal with the breaking of the barriers of time and space… For the first episode it’s a trip back to the Titanic, just before the fatal collision with the iceberg. But it is guest star Gary Merrill, as the investigative Senator, who steals the show. Both Time Tunnel and Star Trek have dizzyingly intricate machinery that contributes to their impact.”

Robert Duvall (left) meets Space Aliens

Fans managed to visit the set just to get a peek at what was going on. “Carol Burnett came down one day when we were shooting—her daughter loved Time Tunnel,” James Darren recalled. “Jayne Mansfield came down, because she also loved the show, and Sugar Ray Robinson too.” Lee Meriwether’s daughter, Lesley, visited the set many times. Tom Hanks, as a guest on Conan O’Brien’s late-night show, once recalled how he was a fan of The Time Tunnel and would do a slow-motion tumbling on the sofa, imitating Darren and Colbert.

One story that was conceived for the first season but never used was Doug and Tony’s encounter with Christopher Columbus while on his way to discover America in 1492. Titled “Landfall,” Theodore Apstein was originally contracted on April 11, 1966, to write the script. The boys land on Columbus’ ship and soon find themselves fighting off a mutiny aboard, which temporarily impaired the famed explorer’s discovery of the new world. “The story editor, Arthur Weiss, liked the idea and I developed a story outline, but later, he told me they had spent too much money on a previous show and Columbus was too expensive to do.”

The tremendous library of stock film neatly catalogued from all the 20^th Century-Fox movie epics provided inspiration for Irwin Allen and his writers, who reviewed films and worked out Time Tunnel storylines based on what was available in the film library. Story and plot proposals often featured notes of what footage from specific movies could be inserted in various scenes that would normally cost a big scale arm and a leg to reproduce for the small screen.

“From a practical standpoint, it was a brilliant idea,” recalled writer Ellis St. Joseph. “The studio backlot had everything from ancient Babylon to the Hawaiian islands. The centuries were built next to each other. Allen knew more about producing a series under budget than anyone else in Hollywood. He was extremely severe in his budget restrictions, but if you knew what he wanted, he was fine. If he didn’t respect your talent, he could be arrogant and contemptuous.”

The cast of The Time Tunnel

“We did take advantage of a lot of the film Fox had in their library, Irwin used a lot of that old footage,” James Darren commented. “He was brilliant in that sense too. Irwin was such a control freak—and I say that kindly—that he demanded as close as he could get to perfection, he demanded that whatever he visualized in his head be put onto that screen. And he did want to know everything that was going on–and you really didn’t do anything without Irwin knowing it, believe me. Because it just didn’t fly. Everybody behind the scenes, maybe because of their respect for Irwin, did an outstanding job. I have to say that Irwin held that ship together, that’s for sure.”

With a weekly television series taking an average of six day to produce an episode, scripts were often written steadfast. Leonard Stadd’s first draft of “The Revenge of Robin Hood” was supposedly written in four days, after his plot proposal, “The Tyrant,” was accepted by Arthur Weiss, the story editor. “Everything at Irwin’s was done in a rush, and I wrote that script quickly,” recalled Stadd.

After reading the first few scripts of the series, James Darren personally proposed a story to Irwin Allen. Doug and Tony would land in the future, on the planet Earth, following an atomic war. “They thought it was too depressing for viewers,” said Darren. “I told them, why not make it another planet, then. That didn’t go over, either.”

The introduction of an outer space menace in “Visitors From Beyond The Stars” marked a new chapter in the Time Tunnel saga, that of more frequent trips to the future and brushing encounters with extraterrestrials. The script writers were notified of the change and many of the writers expressed divided opinions.

Bob and Wanda Duncan wrote two episodes involving visitors from outer space. Had the series continued, Bob Duncan confirmed that more aliens were waiting in the wings. “The stories were definitely going to drift further into that vein because we were running out of historical outtake footage,” he recalled to author Mark Phillips. “Personally, I found many of Time Tunnel’s later episodes, including the ones we did, silly in the extreme. The series’ basic premise had to be taken with more than a scientific grain of salt, but aliens from outer space were more than the show could handle. It was desperation, and it shifted away from Time Tunnel’s original and singularly better format.”

“The aliens were a weakening of the series’ format,” recalled writer Ellis St. Joseph to author Mark Phillips. “They weren’t necessary, but perhaps there was a vogue since other shows with aliens were successful.”

Nevertheless, ABC renewed Time Tunnel in March 1967 for the 1967-68 season and scheduled it to play Wednesday evenings, opposite Allen’s Lost in Space, a decision which infuriated the veteran producer. “Time Tunnel was not cancelled because of low ratings — it did relatively well,” recalled Darren to author Kyle Counts. “It was dropped because Tom Moore, head of ABC at the time, left the network. When the new regime came in, the shows that were put there under Moore were cancelled, with the exception of those that were very highly rated. Yes, we had been renewed. Irwin Allen called me on the set and told me, and I immediately told Bob Colbert the good news. Then, Irwin called me two weeks later and told me we had been dropped. I was very sad. I was hoping the show would go on for years and years.”

Scene from the ending that never aired.

“At the end of the first season, we’d had a huge party for 256 people and their families, that worked on the show,” recalled Robert Colbert. “We had 256 actual people getting a salary off of the thing, and we had the biggest blast you ever saw on one of the big sound stages–I think it was the stage where we had the Tunnel set. We had a huge party there after we were picked up, Irwin was happier than hell, and everybody else was too; we were all happier than clams. We went home and about three months later we were told that ABC had changed their mind and cancelled it, and that was the end of that. It was a big letdown. Our ratings weren’t very high; our share, whatever the hell that was, was mediocre, but, Jesus, we were up against everything in the world. There wasn’t enough share to go around for that hour that we were on.”

“On the final day of shooting, we had a cast and crew party,” recalled Meriwether. “Instead of being sad, it was a joyous time because there was a rumor that we had been picked up. After the festivities, I was leaving the soundstage and heading to my car when an electrician yells from the back of a passing truck, ‘We’re gonna miss you, Lee.’ I assumed he meant until next season but no. I found out that we had been canceled. No one wanted to spoil our last days together with the bad news.”

Allen smarted to columnists about ABC’s decision to cancel the show. “I received letters and petitions with between 400,000 and 500,000 names protesting that cancellation,” he said, “so somebody out there liked it.” Months later, Irwin Allen was quoted in another paper of attempting to revive the series, picking up where it left off. “We have received over 600,000 signatures from people in all walks of life protesting the shows’ cancellation,” he explained, “and not only were those letters unsolicited, they arrived before most viewers even knew the program was not coming back. When ABC moved us to 7:30 this summer and permitted us to start on equal terms with Tarzan and Wild, Wild West, we clobbered them. I fully expect to bring back The Time Tunnel. Maybe not this season… it’s too late to tool up… but it’ll be back.”

“I’m a big believer in time travel and hope to still do a program based on it,” Irwin Allen told columnist Kay Gardella for the May 9, 1977, issue of the New York Daily News. Time Travelers was scripted by Rod Serling, recycling unused material from The Twilight Zone. In the mid-sixties, Rod Serling considered producing a Twilight Zone movie, and wrote a story about two researchers who travel back in time to 1871, in the hopes of discovering the cure to a modern-day epidemic that plagued the city of Chicago a hundred years previous. Irwin Allen purchased Serling’s story and produced the Friday Night Movie, in what Variety magazine reviewed: “If the plot and the script seemed the product of a feverish 12-year-old with a smattering of scientific interest and, maybe, even a little knowledge, so what? The mind of the creator was talking to his peers. Groom and Hallick were perfectly cast as iron men for the wooden dialog.” The made-for-TV movie starred Sam Groom and Tom Hallick as two scientists who travel back to Chicago, 1871, to solve a medical mystery.

A third attempt at a time travel series was on the drawing board in 1982, Time Project, which Allen referred to as “the Godson of Time Tunnel.” In it, Lt. Col. Casey Redman and Dr. Lucas Royce use a time capsule called Kronos to travel one million years into the future, to learn how humanity solved the energy crisis. They meet Omega, a strange being who is master of the time stream. They also travel back to 1896, a trip that gives Redman the creeps. “We’re walking into a world of ghosts!” he bristles. A memo from Allen noted: “We want to evoke the spirit of Time Tunnel yet must acknowledge the sophistication of today’s audiences.” This included something Tony and Doug never had: a time travelers’ Prime Directive that, “under no condition may you tamper with the past.” Time Project ended on the storyboard stage after a similar show on NBC, Voyagers!, failed during the 1982-83 season.

News flash!

Authors often premiere their latest books at the MANC Convention. 2012 will be no different. A new book about The Time Tunnel will premiere at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, from Bear Manor Media. Gossip through the grapevine is that this book will be do detailed it will be the final word on the subject. An amazing 400 pages revealing dates of production, music cues, bloopers, production costs, memories from cast and crew and never-before-published photographs (three of which are featured in this article courtesy of the publisher). If you plan to attend the convention, consider buying a copy and having both celebrities autograph the book! We’ll update you with more information when it comes along.

Pop Twenty Magazine

by Martin Grams Jr. Could it be possible for too many magazines to be published about nostalgia pop culture? The answer is obvious: there can never be enough. At the recent Williamsburg Film Festival, I purchased a copy of Pop Twenty, a new magazine covering 20th Century Pop Culture including movies, TV, radio and music. The premiere issue is slick and glossy, and I for one am thankful that someone made it easy to decipher which issue it was with the number on the bottom right in simplistic fashion. (I hate squinting my eyes trying to see what issue number a comic book is — those were always printed too small.)

As editor Robert S. Birchard explained in his introduction, “the lofty goal is to explore the edifying, enlightening and enriching aspects of trends, fashions and fads in these diverse media during what has been called ‘the American century’…we wanted to create a place where we could write about stuff that fascinates us and share what we and other writers know about same. In other words, our aim is to have fun, and maybe offer some insights into how a favorite movie or show came to be and why it turned out the way it did.”

After browsing the first issue, which creates the mold for which future issues will be shaped, I can certainly say this will become a guilty favorite. The first issues takes a look at the convoluted production history of Footlight Parade (Warner Bros, 1933), the Keystone Kosp origins of the CBS Radio Network (by Elizabeth McLeod), how James Dean came to be synonymous with Rock ‘n’ Roll even though he had no affinity for the music, an interview with Fred Waring known as “the man who taught America how to sing,” a speculation that Howard Hughes might have lived many months beyond his reported demise, a profile of some of the better-known early memorabilia collectors, a behind-the-scenes glimpse at TV’s I Married Joan, a reflection on why screen comic Charley Chase never lingered in the popular imagination the way Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields or Buster Keaton did, and to not divulge all the surprises, a few archival eye poppers.

I asked Mike Bifulco how the magazine came about. “It was while in SoCal last October for the Lone Pine Film Festival that I had initial conversations with Robert Birchard (an exceptional and widely published author) on his idea for a project that eventually became Pop Twenty,” Mike explained. “Although it was my title idea (crazy as it is) and I provide the mechanical skills to put it together, Bob Birchard is really the driving force behind the concept and deserves credit for most of the writing as well as soliciting other fine writers to participate. We are presently wrapping up issue #2 that  will include articles on early television, an extensive interview with Steve Allen from the 1970s, a piece on Dorothy Lee, the silent version of The Ten Commandments, Tin Pan Alley’s activities for the 1st World War effort, and a virtually unknown history of a lost silent film studio, all generously illustrated with rare and mostly unpublished photographs. Then, issue #3 will start coming together wrapped in a cover featuring Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra and promises to be even more exciting.”

Claudette Colbert in CLEOPATRA

More than once I considered editing a magazine of my own but both time and money (mostly time) kept me from starting up such a project. And in a world where everything is going digital, I contemplated whether any success in the way of a large circulation could be accomplished. Personally, I prefer the hard copy edition of any magazine simply because I can store them in boxes or, in the case of this magazine which is in book form (112 pages thick), I can store it on my bookshelf. Besides, I wouldn’t want to read the latest issues of Nostalgia Digest, America in WWII, Blood n’ Thunder, Filmfax or Classic Images on a Kindle, iPad or laptop. It’s just not the same… And since I spend over $400 in subscriptions for multiple magazines and fanzines every year, I prefer to have the hard copy format.

Over the years, many magazines revise the format, style, graphic layout and even the subject matter, deviating from what the initial intention was… always making me disappointed. Filmfax, for example, used to be a great magazine but is now considered a video catalog with a few magazine articles thrown in between. At one point in time, the editors of Filmfax began publishing mostly Bettie Page and Bela Lugosi articles and after a year’s worth of Bettie and Bela, I decided not to renew my subscription. I eventually renewed when someone assured me that they stopped publishing mostly stage striptease and movie bloodsuckers, but it’s still a video catalog in my opinion. (About a year ago the editors decided to cut a book review in half and even featured half of the book cover (not the entire front cover as scanned) solely to make more room for a half-page advertisement for a DVD they sell. Shame.) My only hope is that Michael BiFulco retains the already superb craftsmanship of his magazine throughout the next decade. I understand advertising is essential and I expect ads. Please don’t make fifty percent of the magazine a video catalog! Seriously, this will be a superb magazine that you won’t want to miss.

Small note: I would recommend you purchase your first issue today. Don’t wait until “tomorrow.” Reason being, the value and price of premiere issues often go up as the demand grows and the quantity of copies printed becomes scarce. I purchased a number of Monster Bash magazines (issue #1) at $3 a pop when they first became available. Last I saw it was going for $10 and it’s only been three years. Ten years from now it will probably go for a lot more money.

Pop Twenty is being offered for $12.99 retail (plus $3 shipping). You can buy your copy for less at www.coverout.com. Michael Bifulco, 1708 Simmons NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505. Send your check to Michael today or place your order online. Issue number two is now available as of the time this blog post goes virtual.

www.CoverOut.com

The Battle for Bond

Cinema history might have been very different had the first James Bond film not been Dr. No starring Sean Connery. Thunderball could have been directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starred Richard Burton as secret agent 007. It sounds preposterous and unbelievable, but it almost happened.

It began way back in 1958 when maverick Irish producer Kevin McClory collaborated with 007 creator Ian Fleming, and screenwriter Jack Whittingham, on a film script that was eventually entitled, Thunderball. Details of this scenario can be found among the documentary extras on the Thunderball DVD and BluRay releases. Today, this story is commonly known among die-hard fans of the fictional James Bond character. Long story short, the movie never got made and Dr. No became the series opener. Flash forward a few years later: the fourth installment of the Bond franchise was Thunderball, the most expensive Bond film made to date (and would remain the most expensive for more than a decade and a half), and would be the highest grossing movie of the franchise for many years. Even a Christmas TV special helped promote the movie’s release and boy, they made a lot of money!

With Fleming and McClory’s initial enterprise fizzled out, Fleming ultimately used the screenplay as the basis for the fourth movie, and a new Bond novel, believing he had all the rights to do so. After all, he was the co-author/creator. Feeling betrayed, McClory and Whittingham sued Fleming for plagiarism. The lawsuit went on for a lengthy period of time and McClory legally retained the option to remake Thunderball, resulting in the 1983 Never Say Never Again, notable for the return of Sean Connery to the Bond role after a 12-year absence. (This is why Never Say Never Again is always sold separately and never among the James Bond multi-movie DVD sets — it really wasn’t part of the official series.)

Sean Connery as 007

In July of 2007, Tomahawk Press published a book, The Battle for Bond, exploring in further detail the evidence that the screen version of James Bond was not Fleming’s creation. The book, if I can be dramatic, was a tale of bitter recriminations, betrayal, multi-million dollar lawsuits and death. McClory, you see, claimed that while Fleming had created the Bond character for the novels years prior, the movie version of James Bond was not the same as that of the books and felt he should be compensated for the “creation” of the screen version. A dispute the courts would have to settle.

Thunderball movie poster

As reported in Cinema Retro magazine, “It’s hard to fathom what the Fleming estate hoped to gain by these actions. They’ve taken a low-profile book and given it enormous exposure. Sellers [the author] was not uncovering a scandal; the courtroom case involving Fleming was major news at the time and has been extensively covered in every biography of the author… they have insured that the book will now be highly-sought by readers who might otherwise have never known it existed.”

As for Tomahawk Press, who decided not to give in to the threats from the Fleming Trust… they did remove a few passages from Ian Fleming’s personal letters, as the threat of litigation had some form of basis, according to U.K. law, for the second edition. Mostly what you will find on store shelves is the second edition. This is just another case where the big companies keep forgetting that the internet (and the fan base) is a powerful tool that can make an impact. The book, The Battle For Bond, which Robert Sellers so wonderfully researched and documented, is available on Amazon.com. If you are a fan of James Bond, this book is am amusing read and with the new Bond movie coming out this November, Skyfall, it seems fitting to revisit part of the Bond legacy.

Official movie poster for Skyfall.

Thomas Ince, film pioneer

For several generations, Citizen Kane (1941) has molded public memory of William Randolph Hearst. For younger filmgoers, however, a newer movie, The Cat’s Meow (2001), has begun to supplant Citizen Kane in etching the business magnate. Citizen Kane implied a fictional side by inventing new names for the characters loosely inspired by Hearst and actress Marion Davies. Unlike Citizen Kane, The Cat’s Meow makes no concession, offering historical characters by name and leaving viewers to expect at least a basic reconstruction of events. In truth, The Cat’s Meow continues the distortion of Hearst and Davies, but is even more egregiously misleading about the other figures depicted, especially producer Thomas Ince.

On a November weekend in 1924, Ince and Hearst had met to finalize plans under discussion for years: producing Hearst’s movies at Ince’s privately owned studio, one of the finest such in Hollywood. Since 1910, Ince had written, directed, or produced some 800 movies, a prolific output that won him fame but also caused ulcers and angina. Outside of his family, only his closest associates suspected. As an independent in Hollywood who often depended on bank loans, Ince had to conceal his ill-health.

Thomas Ince book

Ince had a long weekend with little if any sleep. It began at his home with a Saturday morning visit from Hearst, and followed that night by a preview of one of Ince’s new films to gauge audience response. The next morning he traveled to San Diego and boarded Hearst’s yacht for negotiations. After snacking on salted almonds and joining in the toasts (despite his doctor’s orders to avoid alcohol) for both his own and his son’s birthday, Ince was stricken. In the dawn hours, complaining of fatigue and pain from his ulcers, he went ashore and consulted nurses and a doctor. His wife, Elinor, and their eldest son (age fifteen, and who would take up the practice of medicine as an adult) hastened to Ince’s side and brought him home where, despite the attention of his personal physician, a thrombosis ended his life two days later.

The untimely death of a forty-four year old Hollywood pioneer is insufficient dramatic premise for The Cat’s Meow. Instead of acknowledging his medical record, the movie amplifies rumors whispered by Hearst’s most reckless enemies at the time. Ince had also irked many in the press because he had just produced a cinematic expose of yellow journalism (Her Reputation, 1923). Viewers of The Cat’s Meow are shown a jealous Hearst believing Davies was romantically involved with Charlie Chaplin. The movie has the enraged Hearst firing a pistol, mistaking the burly Ince for the slight comedian. Supposedly Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons was a witness and so gained her position with Hearst’s syndicate.

The facts are otherwise. Parsons was in New York at the time, and had already been under contract with Hearst for a year. If Hearst were gunning for Chaplin, it is unlikely they would have remained cordial until the late 1930s, when there were political clashes. The Cat’s Meow erases the Chaplin-Ince friendship and Ince’s nautical experience—he had loaned his own racing yacht to Chaplin for a honeymoon cruise.

Elinor would hardly have been complacent in the murder of the father of her three young boys. She in no way blamed Hearst. She continued to visit San Simeon, where the Inces had been frequent guests in earlier years. Nor did she secure Hearst hush money, since she had a million-dollar estate derived from the sale of her husband’s studio and corporate assets, along with real estate the couple owned.

The conspiracy theorists suggest that Ince’s cremation somehow confirms their beliefs, unaware that the Inces were theosophists, opposed to burial. The casket was open during the funeral, the body was examined by police, and the case was thoroughly investigated both in the journals and by legal authorities at the time. No grounds for suspicion were found—even from Hearst adversaries.

Movie directed by Thomas Ince

The misrepresentation of Ince’s death in The Cat’s Meow is exceeded only by the fabrication of his career. Ince is portrayed as a sycophant, enduring peevish insults from near-stranger Hearst, and lucky to make a film a year. In fact, that year, 1924, fifteen Ince feature movies were released to theaters. At the time of his death, he had nine more productions already before the camera, completed in the following months. He was a major, commercial producer with several ongoing distribution deals to fulfill. There was every reason for Hearst and Ince to link: they were natural allies as independents against the ongoing consolidation of Hollywood corporations. The Cat’s Meow even maligns Elinor by showing her as not going to her ailing husband and by ignoring her active role in her husband’s company. 

The Cat’s Meow joins fanciful hearsay to be found all over the internet about Ince’s death—incredible concoctions that share one element in common: not one is sourced in reliable or contemporary accounts. Thanks to Citizen Kane, and later The Cat’s Meow, Hearst, Davies, and now Thomas Ince are known more for fiction than history. Citizen Kane has the merit of its artistry; but The Cat’s Meow purports at offering truth actually subverting it. Thomas Ince deserves recognition for his contributions to cinema and early Hollywood, not as a supporting player in a fantasized scandal.

Bebe Daniels, Pearl White, Norma Shearer

FILMS DIRECTED BY THOMAS INCE

1923 Anna Christie (uncredited)

1910 Little Nell’s Tobacco (short)

Harold Lloyd, William S. Hart, Rod La Rocque

FILMS PRODUCED BY THOMAS INCE

1924 Percy (producer)

1911 The Lover’s Signal (short) (producer)

Paramount Home Entertainment Wings (1927 movie)

About the Author: Brian Taves Ph.D., (University of Southern California) has been a film archivist with the Library of Congress since 1990. He began his newest book, Thomas Ince, Hollywood’s Independependent Pioneer(University Press of Kentucky, 2011), with a year-long Kluge Staff Fellowship at the Library of Congress, to explore their collection of Ince papers and films with the goal of writing the first biography of the famed silent movie producer. The Ince book is the first written on this figure who has figured so prominently in every history of the development of the American film industry. The book is already receiving awards in the first weeks since publication; it has been named to the “ten best” film books of 2011 on Huffington Post; the “ten best” books of 2011 on silent film on The Examiner; and is a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prizes. Turner Classic Movies channel (TCM) selected the Ince study as their “book-of-the-month” for January 2012.

Taves, who is also Vice President of the North American Jules Verne Society, is currently editing a series published under the Society’s aegis of Verne stories that never appeared in English before (see najvs.org for details). The publisher is BearManor Fiction, and search in amazon under Jules Verne BearManor to see the volumes published to date. All include critical commentary and are illustrated with the original 19th century engravings that originall accompanied Verne stories. Taves is the author of such books as P.G. Wodehouse: Screenwriting, Satire, and Adaptation (McFarland, 2006); Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure (McFarland, 2005); The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Adventure Movies (University Press of Mississippi, 1993), and Robert Florey, the French Expressionist (Scarecrow, 1986).

Brian has delivered presentations at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, including one about P.G. Wodehouse.

TCM Silent Films, TCM Silent Sunday Nights

For More Information

Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer, The Washington Post, January 20, 2012

In Search of Thomas Ince: Interview with Brian Taves, Film Threat

Brief Notes: Book Review, Silent Era

Mike Meyer and Superman

It all started on September 5, 2011, when Jennifer Mann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the horrible news that spawned an internet sensation. “If Mike Meyer were a character in one of his favorite comic books, right about now he’d be looking up to see his red-caped hero swooping down,” Mann reported. “It’s Meyer’s starry-eyed worship of Superman, protector of the world as it should be, that makes the theft from his home two weeks ago seem particularly cruel.” It seems someone took advantage of the young man by stealing thousands of dollars of Superman merchandise… and comic book fans answered the call.

Mike Meyer, age 48, of Granite City, has been on Social Security for a mental disability since the age of 23. To supplement that, he has worked part time at a McDonald’s in Collinsville since 1996. He still works there to this day. He lives alone in a humble, two-bedroom home with his dogs: Krypto and Dyno. Just about every room is a shrine to his hero.

Meyer was tricked out of about 1,800 of his favorite Superman comic books, some dating to the 1950s. He also lost many of his favorite collector’s items: lunch boxes, an old-time radio, a Monopoly game and television set — all Superman-themed. The loot had an estimated value of $4,000 to $5,000. The back bedroom of Meyer’s house used to have nearly 100 Superman figurines tacked to the walls. Now, those walls are bare. Also stolen was Meyer’s Captain Action Superman figurine with costume, a sore point for Meyer because it reminded him of one he had as a child. “A lot of that was sentimental, and he stole that from me,” Meyer said. “He invaded my privacy, and he took away my peace of mind.”

Granite City police began investigating.

 

The History

Meyer bought his first Superman comic book for about 20 cents in 1974. Soon, the then-10-year-old discovered he could also buy back issues. That allowed him to delve into the character’s earliest appearances in Action Comics, then follow Superman’s evolution through the years, along with a changing lineup of costumed villains. Growing up, Meyer spent all his spare money on comic books.

“I had pretty much every issue of Superman from number 99 to the present,” said Meyer, who kept a hand-sewn Superman costume hanging on his back door underneath a brown trench coat.

Meyer gets giddy recalling the premiere of the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie, which his father took him to see on Dec. 15, 1978, at the B.A.C. Cinema in Belleville. His dad died when Meyer was 20; his mom, three years later.

 

Mike looks over his collection.

Chapter One

 

Midtown Comics care package

And Now The Happy News

When the news story went viral, an outpouring of support in the comics community for the Superman fan was larger than anyone could have anticipated. It seemed like everyone who had a blog about Superman got into the act by spreading the word. At Midtown Comics in New York City, the employees were inspired by the “replace-the-collection” effort suggested by Superman fans on the world wide web and immediately donated $150.00 worth of Superman comics and merchandise, including a copy of Justice League #1 signed by Jim Lee and Geoff Johns.

An account was opened on Facebook to alert people in St. Louis to be on the lookout for the stolen Superman merchandise and Keith Howard of Belleville, Illinois, who represented the Superfriends of Metropolis group organized a nationwide effort to replace the stolen items and began collecting donated items from Facebook readers to ensure all donations would be forwarded to victim Mike. Fox News even got into the act by spreading the word.

Meyer received an all-expenses-paid trip to Cleveland, where Meyer — decked out in an early Superman costume — got a rare tour with fellow Superman aficionado Keith Howard of the boyhood home of Jerry Siegel, one of the comic superhero’s co-creators.

John Dudas, owner of Carol and John’s Comics in the Kamm’s Corner neighborhood, flew Meyer and a friend into Cleveland to see where it all began. They also flew in Keith Howard of Belleville, Ill. Dudas collected 200 pounds of Superman items that he sent to Meyer and was ecstatic when Tracey Kirksey of the Siegel and Shuster Society and the Glenville Development Corp. offered the one present every Superman fans wants: a private tour of the Siegel house.

Hattie and Jefferson Gray, who own the home where Siegel once lived, were happy for the visit. “We get people driving by here all the time, some even stopping in and asking if they can see ‘the room,’ said Jefferson Gray. “But this is special.

Meyer even received a phone call from Brandon Routh, who played the Man of Steel in the 2006 movie Superman Returns. Other celebrities, including Tracy Lewis of the Superboy series and Mark Tyler Nobleman, author of Boys of Steel, sent autographed items.

In Meadville, Pennsylvania, midway between Pittsburgh and Erie, stay-at-home dad Andrew Copp happened upon Meyer’s misfortune on Facebook. Copp said he found the theft appalling, “but I was more touched by everyone giving back to a total stranger.” Determined to help, the Navy veteran and former electronics worker studying to be a veterinary technician scoured his attic for Superman comics. Then he decided to part with a far more personal keepsake: a Superman logo hand-painted by his 8-year-old daughter, and captioned in child’s handwriting: “Woosh Superman!!”

Mike visits Jerry Siegel's house.

As WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports, Keith Howard of downstate Belleville says he has received contributions from as far away as India and Paraguay. Artists drew sketches and autographed them for Meyer. Original Superman artwork from Paraguay was shipped. Fans were buying Superman items and shipping them directly to Belleville. Meyer received handmade sketches — some from Mexico — to hand-stitched decorative pillows from California bearing Superman’s likeness. A Pennsylvania man even shipped him a mini Superman pinball machine!

A comic-shop owner in Cincinnati – hometown of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster – arranged for a memorial brick from one of the creators’ houses with a plaque for Meyer. They even offered to fly Meyer and a close friend out for a day’s tour of the Superman museums and tourist sites there.Local comic shops across the country were approached about donating merchandise. Other fan groups joined with the Superfriends – the cross-denominational Justice League Avengers of Indiana coordinated their own drive to gather Superman memorabilia.

 

In Conclusion

Van Williams

Van Williams might be best known today as The Green Hornet, but he got his start on television in two detective series. After being discovered by Mike Todd in the mid-fifties, Warner Bros. quickly cast the handsome young actor in a new TV series titled Bourbon Street Beat (1959-1960). For anyone who doesn’t remember the series, Bourbon Street Beat was one of four detective shows originating from Warner Brothers, broadcast over ABC. (Looking back with hindsight, the programs that originated from Warners from the mid 50′s to the early 60′s made that network, under the stewardship of William Orr and with the creative genius of Roy Huggins, (who later came up with the best show of all time, The Fugitive).

Surfside Six

Bourbon Street Beat took place in New Orleans and starred Richard Long as private investigator Rex Randolph. Rex was the senior partner in a firm. His first partner was murdered prompting him to look for another one. Andrew Duggan was Isaac “Cal” Calhoun, a former police officer who wanted to change careers and after meeting Rex and knowing that his partner was now dead came to offer his services. The two made a wonderful team. Rex was the cook and Cal loved old movies. Rounding out the cast was Arlene Howell as their secretary Melody. Van Williams played Ken Madison, a young law student who works part time for the firm. Ken also invests a lot of time trying to melt Melody’s reserve.  When Bourbon Street Beat was canceled by the network, Ken Madison opened his own firm in Miami Beach and earned his law degree. His partner, Dave Thorne (Lee Patterson), was a former NYC assistant district attorney. Their combination home and office was a luxurious houseboat moored at Surfside Six. (Rex Randolph left New Orleans when the series was cancelled — he moved to Los Angeles and became a non-name partner in Bailey and Spencer, a firm whose address was 77 Sunset Strip.

Van Williams

The resourceful folks at Warner Brothers had Van Williams in Miami Beach with his own detective agency on a houseboat there, long before Frank Sinatra and Don Johnson would operate from same. Surfside Six ran a total of two seasons. The studio also put Williams in a couple of movies, Tall Story (1960; with Anthony Perkins and Jane Fonda) and The Caretakers (1963; with Polly Bergen). After Williams’ contract lapsed in 1964, he took a role on the series The Tycoon, and later signed with 20th Century Fox to portray The Green Hornet.

On The Green Hornet, Williams played the role straight, unlike the lampoon comedy approach of producer Dozier’s Batman show. He and co-star Bruce Lee also made guest appearances, in character, on the Batman series for three episodes, a two part episode and a “window” cameo in another. Williams eventually retired from acting and while he hasn’t done a lot of conventions in the past decade, we’re pleased to announce that television’s Green Hornet will be attending this year’s Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention!

The Black Beauty

The Green Hornet