Roaring Reviews 3!

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Video
Gold Series, Vol. 1, Edge Publishing

This new VHS offering from Swapsale contains the first new episodes of TOM CORBETT seen since the mid-1980s, apart from Englewood's "Asteroid of Death" a couple of years ago. My understanding is that the orginal kinescopes seen here were borrowed from the estate of Joseph Greene, co-creator of the series, which wound up with a large number of such kinescopes as a result of a court decision years ago.

We get four 30-minute episodes, complete with commercials. The first is by far the weakest, a typical Jack Weinstock-Willy Gilbert hack-job, and with terrible technical direction and camerawork by the NBC crew. Broadcast live on 2/19/55, "Grapes of Ganymede" has a plot involving the usual T.J. Thistle screwup which results in a rocket crashing in an uninhabited area of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. The explosion contaminates grapes grown by an eccentric character, who proceeds to load them into a small spaceship and peddle them all over the outer solar system, as Tom, Astro and the annoying T. J. frantically try to locate him before he poisons hundreds of customers. The commercials are for Kraft Caramels and show two kids preparing hellaciously artery-clogging deserts.

The second episode on the tape was originally broadcast partially live on NBC on July 21, 1951, as "Trial in Space." At this time the program was running on two networks simultaneously! A three-a-week 15 minute adventure was carried on ABC, while this summer series on NBC used about 20 minutes of tightly-edited kinescopes extracted from three-week-long (about 90 minute!) storylines from the 1950 - 51 ABC season, with Frankie Thomas as Tom Corbett doing live narration to fill in the plot gaps. This particular episode has some very impressive special effects, including Tom and Roger walking with magnetic boots on the walls of the Polaris control deck. It also features fine acting by Jan Merlin and Al Markim as suspected "space fever" threatens not only to wash Astro out of the Space Academy but ground him for life. John Weaver guests as Astro's temporary replacement; he was an actor-friend of Jan Merlin, who suggested him for the role. Dr. Dale's skirt seems shorter than I remember, she being shown full length in nearly every shot in which she appears. The integration of Tom's live narration into the film sequences is complex and impressive. The same telescript was used as the basis for two 30-minute radio plays broadcast 2/26-28/52 on ABC. Commercials are of course for Kellogg's cereal, the sponsor of the series from 1950 to mid-1952, on both TV (CBS, ABC, NBC) and radio.

The third episode is "The Stowaway," from 5/28/55. Here the Polaris is transporting a fully-loaded power reactor, which could explode at any time, to a colony on Titan, the moon of Saturn. (Re: why an explosion, don't ask!) To the crew's horror, the pert blonde grand-daughter (Adele Newton, often mis-identified in program logs as Patty McCormack) of Solar Alliance bigwig Secretary Masters (Bill Johnstone, introduced in an episode broadcast 5/14/55) stows away on the voyage and maintains a distressing habit of pulling control levers at random. The 1955 NBC programs did not often have space scenes because the actors had so little time to put on and take off space suits, but there's a fair live space-suited special effects sequence here involving T. J. and Tom kneeling at right angles to one another on the reactor floating in space. More Kraft candy commercials.

The fourth episode, "Comet of Danger," from 6/18/55, is the next-to-last broadcast in the series. A female photographer-reporter (June Graham) is assigned to fly to Mars with the Polaris unit and write a (hopefully complementary) story about the Cadets and Space Academy, but Astro and T. J. get off on the wrong foot with her and stay there. When the photographer asks the unit to fly the Polaris dangerously close to a comet, Tom winds up having to save her life. The photographer comes across as very unglamorous-- she is plausibly mistaken for a man by Astro and T. J. in the early moments of the program-- and so it is a bit strange that from then on all males in the cast respond to her as if she were a 24th Century version of Marilyn Monroe. Again we see some space-suited action, but a far cry from the 7/21/51 extravaganza in which Captain Strong and all four cadets (yes, four!) wind up in space suits simultaneously. Still more Kraft candy commercials.

The regular cast, just for reference:

•  Frankie Thomas as Tom Corbett
•  Al Markim as Astro
•  Jan Merlin as Roger Manning
•  Ed Bryce as Captain Strong
•  Jack Grimes as T. J. Thistle

There is something elegiac in the tone of the 1955 NBC broadcasts; cast, crew and production company clearly knew the series was winding down to an inevitable end. Roger Manning had characteristically jumped ship at the beginning of the end, but those who soldiered on to the last, while they did their professional best, still display a subtle awareness that they will soon bid farewell to the Polaris control deck forever.

Swapsale has taken steps to maintain quality in both audio and video in the preparation of this video tape. While image sharpness is not quite up to the days when cassettes were dubbed from 3/4 inch video masters chained directly from the 16 mm prints, it is quite acceptable. In the 7/21/51 episode, we are seeing a kinescope of a kinescope, and it still looks good. The audio tracks are clean, and not overly compressed or clipped in processing.

Here's hoping that more kinescopes from Joseph Greene's estate are given this very satisfactory treatment.

Review Comments from Frankie Thomas: Although June Graham has no "beauty-shots" in the "Comet of Danger" telecast, Frankie tells me that she was extremely attractive in real life, and that shortly before the broadcast she had been romantically linked to Frankie by a Broadway gossip columnist, which inspired a kind of private joke in having Astro, T.J. and even Captain Strong fall under her spell in the teleplay. Note also the subtle chemistry between Tom and the photographer in their scene alone on the control deck. Frankie commented, "In person, she was the most beautiful brunette I have ever seen, although Ann Sheridan ran a very close second." He kindly told me another great TV story about June. She was the substitute for Betty Furness as Westinghouse spokesman at one time on Westinghouse-sponsored drama series. On the prestigious STUDIO ONE, a certain live teleplay required a string of thunderous explosions. The sound-effects man rigged a series of recordings of blasts, ready to play automatically the instant a sensitive switch was triggered. While June was delivering a Westinghouse refrigerator commercial, her closing of the door threw the switch, and the commercial ended with a bang, and with June commenting on camera, "The natives are restless tonight!"

Fighting Yank Numbers 1-4
AC Comics, 2001-2

I am unfamilar with any previous work by writer/artist Eric Coile, but I think this four-issue series will be of interest to anyone who was a kid in the early 1950s. The "Fighting Yank" was a superhero in the obscure Nedor comics lineup in the 1940s. Here he has been reimagined as a costumed superhero in the early 1950s. Coile (as "Hard-Boiled Hack Koilby") draws his adventures in a faithful simulation of the style of Jack Kirby, one of the most over-rated of all comic artists... and all Kirby's defects are on witty display here, from impossible anatomy to randomly spotted blacks and weird floating black bubbles.

In the first issue, Yank and his kid sidekick Kid Quick face off against "Sputnik," a Russian version of the immortal Robot Monster. A number of other superheros from the early 1950s make cameo appearances, including Crimebuster's monkey sidekick Squeeks, from BOY COMICS. The backup story is a reprint of the adventures of the original Fighting Yank, from the late 1940s, in art by Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin. [Meskin also drew the final comics incarnation of TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET.]

In the second issue, Yank and Kid Quick encounter Mortho, a giant cockroach (a nod to the giant monster and insect films of the mid 1950s), produced when a variant of Tor Johnson undergoes a biochemical accident (shades of THE FLY). Again, a number of Nedor and other superheroes make cameo appearances, including Bulletman and Bulletgirl, not to mention Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos (my favorite characters of this series, in thin disguise as Major Phil Angry and the Hollerin' Hellcats of the National Guard!). As this adventure ends, Thun'da, King of the Congo appears to beg assistance for "Prehistoric Dawn Land"-- an early comic creation of Frank Frazetta. The backup story is another 1940s FIGHTING YANK reprint with art by Robinson and Meskin.

In the third issue, which parodies the Jungle comics so popular during the late 1940s and early 1950s-- with the only character from this period at all remembered today being Sheena of the Jungle-- Fighting Yank parachutes into Dawn Land to find the impossibly buxom Jungle Girl, and with her aid rescue Thun'da's mate Pha. Virtually every Jungle character active in the period makes a cameo appearance, not to mention Godzilla and Mothra, King Kong, and last and least, Dr. Frederick Wertham. An editorial notes that these issues of YANK are the worst sellers in AC Comics history, unsurprising considering how few survivors of the 1950s read comics (or know of this very web site you are currently visiting). The backup feature is another late 1940s FIGHTING YANK adventure drawn by Mort Meskin. While Yank was winning World War II nearly single-handed in the early 1940s, by now he is at the fag-end of his career, reduced to acting as judge of a radio-controlled model airplane contest!

The issue that will be most interesting to Roaring Rockets linkers is the fourth issue, and the last done by Coile. Here Yank winds up encountering Duck Dodgers of the 25-1/2 Century, the fantastic femmes of Fiction House's PLANET COMICS (Gale Allen, Futura and Mysta of the Moon), Captain Video and the Video Ranger, Marvin the Martian, the Space Cabby, the Star Masters, Commander Buzz Corry, Cadet Happy, Major Robertson and Prince Baccarratti, Commando Cody, Ming the Merciless and his daughter, an obnoxious Geiger Alien, and Porky Pig. The backups are a 1947 FIGHTING YANK adventure with art by Ken Battefield, and a SPACE PATROL adventure from the first issue of that short-lived comic series, "Space Pirates," in which Buzz and Hap encounter a Lady-MacBeth-like villainess, Margo-- with art by Bernie Krigstein.

At all costs, avoid the final issue of this title, FIGHTING YANK #5. Without either art or script input from Coile, it descends to suffocating depths of idiocy, not rescued by a brief appearance by the Marvel Family.

Space Patrol
Gold Series, Vol. 2

What we have here are 5 of the local KECA 15-minute daily Space Patrol adventures. The first two episodes on the tape are the oldest and are in syndicated form (no commercials). The final three episodes are in their original local form, with Dr. Ross Dog Food commercials... "Meat, Liver, Chi, Kin and Cheese," the announcer intones over and over.

The oldest episode on the tape is the 2nd; it must occur not too long after Ed Kemmer took over in 1950. The villains are Tonga and Agent X, referred to as being "in prison," and renegade Space Patrol Major Gruel (Glen Dixon) who with the help of a Z-ray has just escaped from that prison, taking Robbie into space as hostage. Carol is in pursuit, with Buzz far behind, but Robbie overpowers Gruel without help and brings him back under arrest. It is mentioned that Happy is in the hospital. I didn't recognize the long, slender raygun that Gruel and Robbie struggle for during most of the episode. The script is by Mike Moser.

The next oldest episode, still 1950, is the first on the tape. Baccarratti is the villain, but not shown. Robbie, Happy and Buzz are exploring a mysterious cave; at the far end is a strange wordless figure seen only as a bare arm holding a Buck Rogers Sonic Ray blaster, modified with a capsule on top and a round grill around the barrel. As the episode ends, the strange cavedweller has captured all three Space Patrollers, despite the smoke-ring pistols they all carry. The script is by Norm Jolley.

In another episode from about 1952, yet another renegade Space Patrol Major is plotting to overthrow the government, with the help of an evil physician and a pliable, unintelligent stooge who precisely resembles Buzz Corry. Corry, who has just been released from the hospital, has already been impersonated several times by the stooge, greatly confusing Hap and Robbie. Corry revisits the hospital and catches on to the scheme. There is a battle between Corry, the doctor, the renegade Major and the stooge, which contains a real rarity, a reshot scene (made possible by the fact that this particular episode was not broadcast live, being pre-empted). Ed Kemmer is visibly out of breath in several scenes where he has to be both Corry and the stooge, and thus run around the studio to reappear on the left almost immediately after he has walked off to the right! Script is by Maury Hill. Note: were there any other Space Patrol majors, other than Robbie, who were NOT traitors?

The final two 1952 episodes are part of a sequence involving a lost, underground Martian city, and a fiendish ray cannon invented by a mad scientist who works in a mining company laboratory above the city. In the first of these episodes, Carol and Hap are waiting in the mine headquarters while Buzz, Tonga and Robbie deal with the scientist. Carol shows a lot of leg, and a suggestion of haunch, while reclining on a sofa with her skirt up around her waist. In the second episode, the scientist has the drop on all the Space Patrollers and is escaping somewhere in Buzz's space ship when on the "Great Salt Desert" of Mars a dreaded "salt storm" is encountered!

One thing I noted in all five episodes was a tendency to spare Buzz and Hap as much as possible. Where there is only one villain, Robbie, Carol and Tonga are always there to divide up the dialog, while if there are a couple of villains, there is some plot excuse to get Hap or Buzz or both offscreen for most or all of the episode. Ed Kemmer has said that these daily episodes were a terrible burden, and I don't doubt it. Also, the episodes-- like daytime radio and TV soap operas-- have very little plot development; usually there is only a single important incident in the 15 minutes.

In the first two episodes the Space Patrollers are wearing their earliest costumes. In the last three episodes, the usual costumes are seen. Special effects are minimal in three of the episodes, but there are some nice ones in the other two.

All in all, this is a tape worth adding to your Space Patrol video library, especially if you have always been curious as to what the 15-minute daily episodes were like. Order from swapsale.com.

A note from Beth Flood, sister of Lyn Osborn: "The Space Patrol episode where it is mentioned that Happy is in the hospital would have been made about August 9, 1950. An LA Times news article on that date reported that Cadet Happy was in the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, recovering from an operation for appendicitus. The Cadet told the Times that he had appeared in 107 consecutive shows without a break, and had wanted to make it an even 200 unbroken appearances before he took a 'vacation'."

Space Patrol
Gold Series, Vol. 3

The third Gold SPACE PATROL VHS tape from Swapsale contains four half-hour Saturday episodes from very early in the series; in fact, they are consecutive episodes 27, 28, 29 and 30.

There are some minor problems with both video and audio signals on this tape, probably tracing back to problems with the original 16 mm films, but nothing that will significantly affect your viewing pleasure.

The first episode, "Lost City of the Carnacans," from July 30, 1951, vividly reminds me of why I disliked this series as a kid. Poor Lyn Osborn is required to channel Lou Costello haunted-house shtick in a manner that makes one feel genuinely sorry for this good and versatile actor. And speaking of good actors, the high points of this very sub-par episode are provided by the great Dabbs Greer appearing as a United Planets communications officer, whose comments throughout the tedious "adventure" tie the nearly-nonexistent plot elements together, and offer about the only truly professional acting on view in the episode.

Tagging along with Buzz and Hap on the Terra IV, Virginia Hewitt is forced to spend most of the episode wearing a slightly painful fixed grin; I suppose the idea was that showing she is amused by Hap's antics will fool the viewer into thinking the antics are indeed amusing. By the way, the Carnacans, a race of creatures living underneath the surface of Mars, and referred to in many episodes, are said here to have vanished from our solar system in about 2000 AD-- in a later episode, we find that they even left our galaxy at that time, fleeing in terror from a discovery they had made!

The second episode, "Deadly Weapon," from July 7, 1951, involves a prison break using a 20th Century revolver stolen from a museum. It's amusing to see Bela Kovacs playing three parts: he is a prison guard, wearing one of the slop-jar-shaped early SP space helmets, then a Terra City beat cop, also wearing the helmet, and finally an irate citizen who says the escaped convict stole his jet car-- and as all three characters, he wears the same uniform, something like what might be worn by early 1950s marching band members. Buzz, Hap and Kovacs use a Space Patrol jet car to chase the convict through the freeways of Terra City... which we of course never glimpse. I didn't recognize the very futuristic black convertible driven at "200 mph" by Corry-- it is shown from rear and sides, but never from the front.

The third episode, "Legend of Wild Man Ridge," from July 14, 1951, is a kind of self-plagarization of the June 30 episode. Replacing Dabbs Greer as a United Planets communications officer is radio comedienne Sara Berner as the Space Patrol Headquarters telephone operator. [Strange that in the 30th Century they still use early 20th Century telephone switchboards, but never mind.] To anyone my age Sara will be familiar as one of the CBS Telephone Operators on the Jack Benny Sunday evening radio show in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Instead of Buzz, Hap and Carol exploring a spooky, abandoned Carnacan city, we now have Buzz, Hap and Tonga cast away in the Martian desert, with no spaceophone to call for help. Again poor Lyn Osborn has to do "skeered" schtick every time a "Martian Sand Cat" shrieks. The Wild Man is Bela Kovacs again, a harmless old hermit with a pet skunk.

Although Sara and her switchboard dialogue are lifted from the Jack Benny program, it was not until May 17, 1953 that Jack's writers got around to returning the favor by doing a Space Patrol skit with Jack as Buzz and Mary Livingston as Tonga. It's no lost treasure-- the writers either had never watched the program, or assumed that Jack's listeners had never watched the program.

The final episode on the tape is "Way Station to the Stars," July 21, 1951. Again, I am reminded of why I had no use for this series as a kid. Here, Buzz, Hap, Carol and two "civil engineers" priss around on the surface of Pluto with no need of any protection or equipment of any kind. [At least in "Wild Man Ridge" they pulled on thin rain hoods reaching only to the waist, for protection against "the Martian night."] Why are they on Pluto? For no reason that ever makes a lick of sense. What do they do there? Nothing. What does the surface look like? Well, the same lunar backdrop is used as was used for Mars, but in the foreground, instead of the rock and sand seen on Mars, is considerable vegetation... go figure. Most of the broadcast time is expended on the two "engineers" bickering with one another in "1950s movie hoodlum" accents. What little interest there is lies in Carl McCauley's sets, which include one of the good old crushing walls so popular in movie serials and 1930s pulp fiction... here we can see the crude beginnings of the magnificent McCauley creations on display in the 1953 - 55 period.

In all four episodes, there are virtually no special effects scenes and it is never clear what the Terra IV really looks like. Science fictional elements in the plots are essentially non-existent as well; with a very few noun changes Buzz and Hap could be in the Civil Air Patrol in 1951, adventuring (to use the word loosely!) in the US desert Southwest. Sky King, anyone? Order from Swapsale.com. This release is only the tip of the iceberg-- Swapsale has 32 different VHS tapes of Space Patrol episodes from 1950-55, most tapes containing 3 or 4 half-hour programs, in addition to their 3 recent "Gold" releases. Swapsale deserves our congratulations and our support for such an unprecedented commitment to preserving this slice of Golden Age live TV!

Comments from Cadet Chuck Lassen: I was disappointed with the plot lines. I guess you had to be ten years old to enjoy them. I found myself focusing my interest on the sets, props, and costumes, and completely losing interest in the stories. They're just very weak and lacking in intrigue. The video quality was quite good, however, considering the age, and I'm glad to have them.

Sara the telephone operator reminds me of Gracie Allen talking to George Burns, perhaps intentionally scripted as such, and although it was an interesting comedic break, I think it was way over-worked, and got tedious after awhile.

Bela Kovacs is very tiresome for me to watch, now. Back then, I don't think I realized or cared-- he was the same guy, just playing many roles.

Just the opinion of an old guy, 50+ years after the fact.... But we, as wizened old engineers and scientists in the real world of 2003, should not be too critical of the fun these programs presented to us as kids. It was a wonderful time of make-believe with a few portions of "maybe" mixed in.

Comment from Roaring Rockets: It is quite unfair to apply the cynical standards of 2003 to the simple innocence of 1951, of course. What was striking to me in viewing these episodes was that the things that bothered me in 2003 were pretty much precisely the same as the things that bothered me as an 11-year-old kid in 1951!