Space Cadet
Briefing:

The Space Links

THE WEB RANGERS

Cadet Ed Pippin is the creator of a wonderous set of pages covering many, many aspects of TOM CORBETT SPACE CADET and of SPACE PATROL. You can find everything from scripts to viewmaster reels, blueprints to Roger Manning's diary. Also don't miss the Solar Guard Bulletin Board, where old cadets blow off interstellar space gas and inform one another of upcoming events of interest.

There's probably no one who knows as much about the early 1950s space adventure TV shows as Joe Sarno does. Now, he's putting a bit of this information on his website. Check it out here. He's uploaded info on ATOM SQUAD, BUCK ROGERS, CAPTAIN VIDEO, CAPTAIN Z-RO, COMMANDO CODY, FLASH GORDON, JOHNNY JUPITER, OPERATION NEPTUNE, OUT THERE, ROCKY JONES, and SPACE BARTON (TELECOMICS), and he's adding new info all the time.

Some photoalbum pages that will be of interest to Roaring Rockets readers are currently posted as follows:
Click here for an album devoted to Jan Merlin, and his visit to Dallas, TX in July of 2002.
Click here for album pages devoted to the Space Heroes of early 1950s live TV.
Click here for an album devoted to the Space Heroes of early 1950s filmed TV.
Click here for album pages devoted to CAPTAIN VIDEO (1949-55), on live TV and on film.
In most cases the page that first comes up is linked to the later pages in the set of album pages; check the information in the figure captions. Also take note the javascripted wisecracks that pop up if you rest your cursor on a given photo, on many pages, if you're using the right kind of web browser.

Ranger Lou Rugani maintains a very newsy and interesting page on Yahoo Groups devoted to news of Captain Video. There are usually very frequent postings. Check it out here.

A rare article about TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET from the April-May 1995 issue of AIR AND SPACE MAGAZINE, as written by Frank Kuznik, is found here .

Frankie Thomas and Jan Merlin will be guests at the upcoming 2006 Williamsburg Film Festival. Details here . There will be a live radio-style recreation of a TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET script written by Jan Merlin.

A NY Times filmography for Frankie Thomas, aka Tom Corbett, is here .

A NY Times filmography for Jan Merlin, aka Roger Manning, is here .

This older page on CAPTAIN VIDEO has recently been greatly expanded. Check it out here.

CAPTAIN VIDEO in Los Angeles? It happened, and you can read about it here.

Media historian David Weinstein has a page devoted to the DuMont network and CAPTAIN VIDEO, here .

The Internet Movie Data Base page on the CAPTAIN VIDEO TV series is here .

Judy Harris maintains a nostalgic page on SPACE PATROL, packed with information, here.

Ultimate SPACE PATROL expert Jean-Noel Bassior devotes a page to SPACE PATROL and her recent (December 2004) book on the series, here.

Some thoughts on the 1951 CAPTAIN VIDEO movie serial can be found here.

Cadet Tom Powers has created a website devoted to the Golden Age TV space heros, and presently has some fine CAPTAIN VIDEO pages.

An on-line nostalgia magazine features parts 1 and 2 of a very nice, personal article by Tom Mason on SPACE PATROL. Read it here.

In Newark, NJ, October 21-23, 1993, Frankie Thomas, Jan Merlin, Al Markim, Ed Bryce, George Gould (director) and Jackson Beck (announcer) gathered again for the first time since 1953 to re-create one of the TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET radio shows with the original cast. You can see photos of this magic moment here.

In England in the 1950s, space travel and adventure had not made it to TV. Young Britishers craving action in space turned to the pages of the weekly comic magazine EAGLE, and its cover feature, DAN DARE, PILOT OF THE FUTURE! As created, written and drawn by the legendary Frank Hampson from 1950 to 1959, Dare's full-color outer space exploits spun off as many toys, coloring books, punch-out and pop-up books, etc., etc., as any of the US space hero TV shows. Hampson and a large staff of young assistants created in DAN DARE what may be the most meticulously and spectacularly rendered comic strip of all time. Hampson laid out each two page installment, then made reference photos for each panel, using a building-full of props, miniatures, models, costumes and sets. While Hampson then usually did the first page himself, except for the final ink, watercolor and airbrush coloring, each individual panel of the second page was generally assigned to a different artist! The results are so breathtaking that each panel will repay as many minutes of study as any artwork hung in a museum. To learn more about Dan and Frank Hampson, click here or here.