Saturday, August 25, 2012

Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)

After learning of the death, at 82, of the heroic Neil Armstrong, I found a magazine I have, from 1965. It is titled “The United States Astronauts and Their Families,” and was published by the World Book Encyclopedia Science Services, Inc.

The picture below, and the accompanying biography, are from the section in the magazine about Armstrong, his wife, and children. At the time, as the magazine notes, Armstrong was 35 years old.

Friday, August 10, 2012

The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention

The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention is underway, in Hunt Valley, Maryland.  The convention, which continues until Saturday, is run by Martin and Michelle Grams.

www.midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com

I was fortunate to be at the convention on Wednesday night and Thursday, taking part in broadcasts on "Radio Once More," the Internet radio station (www.radiooncemore.com).

Friday, August 3, 2012

Kay Kyser Show, and Ted Brown

To the left: a photograph of comedian and musician Merwyn Bogue (also known as Ish Kabibble), with singers Sue Bennett (left) and Liza Palmer (right).

The photo appeared in the January 7, 1950 issue of TeleVision Guide (which later became TV Guide), as part of an article about Kay Kyser and his NBC-TV program, the College of Musical Knowledge.

The Kay Kyser television show’s cast originally included three featured singers—Michael Douglas, my mother (Sue Bennett), and Liza Palmer. Ms. Palmer, however, left the program a couple of months after the TeleVision Guide article appeared.

Also featured on the show, during its first season: the vocal group The Honeydreamers, and announcer Ben Grauer (who also appeared in sketches on the program). The dance team of Diane Sinclair and Ken Spaulding joined the program early in 1950. Writers Eddie Lawrence and Bob Quigley were also featured in the program's sketches.

The Honeydreamers left the show at the end of the first season, as did Ben Grauer. Dancers Sinclair and Spaulding continued with the program during its second season (along with Michael Douglas, my mother, and Merwyn Bogue).  Eddie Lawrence and Bob Quigley continued to both write for and appear on the program, in its second season.

The announcer for the show’s second season was Ted Brown. Brown had appeared on the Dumont Television Network as an announcer, and had also starred, in 1949, on a Dumont Network children’s show, Birthday Party. Each telecast featured a birthday party for a child; Brown played the character “King Cole” (the show was also known as King Cole’s Birthday Party). Later, in 1954, Brown temporarily took over for “Buffalo Bob” Smith on Howdy Doody, when Smith left the show after suffering a heart attack. Brown starred as the character “Bison Bill.”

Brown later became one of New York’s most popular radio personalities, most notably at station WNEW.

(Photo above, of Ted Brown, from the 1984 book WNEW: Where The Melody Lingers On—1934-1984, written and published by Nightingale Gordon)

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Family television set

This is a photo from June, 1963 (or at least, that is the printing date, stamped at the top edge of the photo), taken in our family’s den. I am unsure, but believe it was taken by my brother, who the next month would turn ten. At the time, I was seven.

The photo (which is cropped, here) was probably intended to be a picture of a TV program in progress. I think I can make out the slightest suggestion of something on the screen, but I might be mistaken.

We had this TV set for years, and while I would not have recalled the set’s brand, it appears (if I’m reading correctly, at the lower left of the set) to have been a Magnavox. In the photo, my parents’ stereo sits on top of the set.

Looking at this picture, some time ago—looking at it closely for the first time in perhaps decades—I recalled the following: I remembered what turning the channel dial on the set felt like, the feeling of each channel clicking into place. I remember, too, quite clearly, the feeling of turning the dials on the stereo (which included, as I recall, dials for treble and bass), and hearing the changing nature of the sound, as a result.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

"The Time Tunnel: A History of the Television Series," by Martin Grams, Jr.

A favorite television program, during childhood, was ABC's time-traveling series, The Time Tunnel, which aired in 1966 and 1967. 

Martin Grams, Jr., well-known for the many books he has written about old-time radio and classic television series, has just brought out a book about The Time Tunnel; it is published by BearManor Media.



Two of the featured guests at this year's Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (which is run by Martin Grams, and by his wife Michelle), will be the primary stars of The Time Tunnel, Robert Colbert and James Darren.

The convention will be taking place from August 9-11, in Hunt Valley, Maryland. 

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Recommended Reading: "I Was Amelia Earhart," by Jane Mendelsohn

July 2nd (last Monday) was the 75th anniversary of the date, in 1937, when Amelia Earhart's plane went missing.

The day after the anniversary, an expedition began, to the island of Nikumaroro, in the Republic of Kiribati.  The wreckage of Earhart's plane is being sought, in the waters off the island.

(As the story below notes:  "Richard Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), theorizes Earhart's plane was washed off the reef by surf days after Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed on Nikumaroro, about 400 miles southeast of their Howland Island destination.")

http://news.yahoo.com/researchers-set-sail-quest-amelia-earhart-fate-003056070.html
 
Because of the 75th anniversary, and the new expedition, I decided to re-read a book I first read (and first enjoyed) several years ago:  the 1996 novel I was Amelia Earhart, by Jane Mendelsohn.
 
The book is beautifully imagined, with a lovely, rich and moving sense of voice  (or, voices; it is written in both the first and third person). 

www.amazon.com/Was-Amelia-Earhart-Jane-Mendelsohn/dp/0679776362/

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

S.S. United States, 1952, additional image

This is a photograph of the S.S. United States, at Pier 86, New York City, the day of its July 3, 1952 maiden voyage.

(Photo copyright UPI/Corbis-Bettmann, from a postcard published by Graphique de France, Boston, USA/Paris, France)