Sunday, December 12th, 1976

New Python last night!

Quick morning. Heard another new Wings live one on the radio!

Still no DUCK SOUP but was consoled by GO WEST unscheduled on TV.

Bad Shave. Ouch!

Saw Newton and L.A. on a Xmas show tonight!

NOTES: "Newton" would have been Wayne whom I was quite big on after the Bob Hope live Show. "L.A." though? Hmmm...I got nothin'


GO WEST was a Marx Brothers film I had seen in a revival theater (double featured with A DAY AT THE RACES) which I thought was quite hilarious but it was generally considered (and still is) one of their lesser pictures. Much of the climax of the film centers around a train chase and features gags reminiscent of Buster Keaton. Credited scriptwriter Irving Brecher admitted in his autobiography that Keaton, a sometime consultant to the Marxes at MGM, was on-set for the film so one never knows.

Saturday, December 11th, 1976

Rain.

IT this morning to avoid getting HIGH SOCITY but I ended up getting it anyway later so I wouldn't miss an issue. I put it up and I will NOT go near it until I am officially 18 next month! Also got STAR*REACH, books I had missed previously and Lennon's Greatest Hits album. Saw the new triple LP live Wings album at a hefty $8.95! Who's going to pay that much!!? Will wait for a sale. Ended up skipping DUCK SOUP yet again!

Got a Christmas card from Jill. Bet she was forced.

I saved the day by catching a smoking, melting light shade that would probably have caught fire soon. Whew!

NOTES: Okay, so my will power wasn't that great. You find me any seventeen year old male who could do it! At least I was trying to be good! So there.


Being a McCartney man, I had actually never purchased any Lennon solo records until today. Not even a single. I'd see picture sleeve singles all the time of COLD TURKEY, INSTANT KARMA and POWER TO THE PEOPLE in the 35 cent records boxes in the back of a couple of drugstores uptown but I just never bought them, even though I DID enjoy hearing them on the radio. They would, of course, be worth quite a bit now so I wish I HAD bought them at 35 cents each!


$8.95 for that Wings album 3 record set may not seem like much now but remember I only paid $8.50 to see them LIVE back in May! On the other hand, I had no problem reconciling $19.76 for the similar 3 record bootleg version a couple of months back. Go figure. 


Jill was a cousin in North Carolina whom I had only ever met twice--once when we were two (there are pictures) and once when we were twelve. Never having received a Christmas card--or anything else--from her before, I quite naturally assumed that her grandmother--my Mother's sister--had made her do it. Turned out I was wrong and the two of us soon began a pen-pal-like correspondence that would last about seven years. In 1979 we'd go down to visit my Mom's relatives and she and I felt like absolute strangers to each other in person in spite of how close we'd become in our letters. It's kind of similar to meeting your email or Facebook friends in person for the first time. You THINK you'll be incredibly comfortable with them as you are online but instead it's often the opposite. Weird. 


Speaking of the Internet, about two years ago Jill and I reconnected via Facebook. First time we'd corresponded in 27 years.

Friday, December 10th, 1976

Saw first part of REBECCA at school today. HOLMESPUN didn't come out for some reason. My Yearbook partner and I got admonished for selling Yearbook names.

Listened to some more comedy on WBXU. Fun stuff! Also heard live LADY MADONNA from McCartney! Wow!

NOTES: Sounds from the above as though we were making and selling customer lists, much like today's spammers. Since logically we had no reason to be doing anything like that I'm not at all sure what we were actually doing...but apparently we were admonished for it.


"WBXU." HAHAHAHA! In actuality, it was WVXU-FM and it would end up being an important part of my life for much of the next three decades. From the sound of it, I had here just discovered the station, probably from channel-surfing listening for more McCartney music. In those days, sometimes I'd forego television and just listen to my AM/FM radio all evening. 


I first discovered the station when I found Dr Jim King playing comedy records and old time radio sitcoms. Had you asked me ten minutes ago, I would have sworn it was a few years later, though. 


The low power public radio station, WVXU,  had been on the air as a jazz station since 1970, based out of Cincinnati's Xavier University. Not being into Jazz, had I run across it way down on the dial, I would have quickly moved on. I must have finally hit it in the middle of a comedy bit. Already being a fan of DOCTOR DEMENTO, I craved knowledge of more comedy.


Dr. King's Friday night show offered my first exposure to many OTR programs, all of them knowledgeably annotated by him. I even started listening to the Saturday afternoon WHEN SWING WAS KING broadcasts of Russ Dixon. 


In late 1980, I made my radio debut on WVXU's LIVELINE TRIVIA program, at first by phone and then as a guest and occasional co-host or guest host of the series. Dr. King took charge of the station and put it on the map, first tying it in to NPR, then adding a daily block of OTR programming in the mornings. THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE, THE LIFE OF RILEY, FIBBER McGEE AND MOLLY, THE JACK BENNY SHOW, THE SHADOW, NIGHT BEAT and a dozen others had long runs on the station (sadly often of the same limited number of syndicated episodes but, hey...). By long runs, in some of those cases, I mean thirty years!!


In the nineties, there was a brief revival of LIVELINE TRIVIA and my wife and I were asked to be guests for old times sake. It went out live from their seeming state-of-the-art studios, a far cry from the hard-to-find hole in the wall where the station was when I first went on the air there!


Dr King finally left in the new century and WVXU's local programming was quickly swallowed up by syndicated and NPR broadcasts. There was literally nothing left there for its longtime fans. BUT...some of the other folks long associated with the special magic of WVXU took some of the station's OTR licenses and even their old phone numbers, over to an even lower-powered local station, WMKV, based out of a Cincinnati retirement village. So even now if one turns on WMKV in the mornings, the classic 'VXU lineup of OTR is still in place...all these years later! Nostalgia for the nostalgia. I listened to George and Gracie earlier this week in the car.


The above photo, by the way, was taken as I was writing this. As I said, for a station whose call letters I couldn't even get right,"WBXU" ended up being in my life a loooong time. 

Thursday, December 9th, 1976

Hauntingly perfect portrait of me in one girl's reading of a paragraph she wrote on loners today in Comp. Sigh.

New books were out after school over the river. I decided to avoid any more adult stuff from this point until I'm actually 18 a month from today. Thus I avoided HIGH SOCIETY today.

I got the "P" book in for Xmas.

NOTES: Not sure what the "P" book was--"P" for "PAUL?" As in McCartney? Would make sense.


Note that by this point, the explicitness with HUSTLER has been superseded by the even more explicitness of HIGH SOCIETY. I recently found an issue of HS from this period online and downloaded it just for old time's sake. It looks so amazingly tame now! Was interesting to note not one but THREE of my current FACEBOOK friends were actual contributors to that 1976 issue...although their work, which was NON-porn, was missing from the copy I downloaded. It was just noted on the contents page. 

Wednesday, December 8th, 1976

Fair day at the table and the rest, too.

Second chance on DUCK SOUP!

Heard BLACKBIRD live while working at SS tonight. Then later heard MAYBE I'M AMAZED! Better than the original!

NOTES: With only one more page in the book I was getting even more terse with these final entries. It didn't really help and I ended up stapling an extra page onto the inside back cover!


"The table" referred to the volunteer position where I was selling Yearbooks with a  partner during at least one period for a few days. 


The live Wings songs were the hottest thing on the radio at that point. 1976 had definitely been the year that McCartney made everyone realize that he was NOT just an ex-Beatle.


DUCK SOUP would eventually become my favorite Marx Brothers movie. It's purely anarchist comedy with no trace of the usual romantic subplot and not exactly an overabundance of the often mundane musical numbers either. Many fans think unadulterated Marxes are too much for the palate. Me, I wish they'd made a dozen more like this!

Tuesday, December 7th, 1976

Some snow today. Fair day at school. First Yearbook day good. We had a dog in comp!

Saw a Cary Grant cameo in a John Wayne comedy!

Heard a cut from the new WINGS OVER AMERICA album on the radio tonight!

Quick at SS tonight because Jack followed us and talked and talked. Got back and watched Farrah with Merv.

NOTES: The unlikely pairing of John Wayne and Cary Grant never actually occurred although Grant does appear in one brief scene of a John Wayne/Claudette Colbert comedy entitled WITHOUT RESERVATIONS from 1946. Jack Benny also cameos. 


Seems like a small white dog had just wandered into the school and no one could coax him out. So when he wandered into our classroom in the afternoon, we simply closed the door and kept him there until someone could come to take him outside.

Monday, December 6th, 1976

Late everywhere all day. I took HITLER to school. Mr. T had brought in the Fritz article from yesterday's paper to show me. I was asked to partner Dale in Yearbook sales.

Heard Denny O'Neil's voice on the Hotline tonight.

Saw Tony with DINAH today. Saw a promo with Linda B for that VICTORY AT ENTEBBE and then finally got to see Steffie in FEATHER & FATHER.

Six full late hours at SS tonight and three bags! Sheesh!

NOTES: Dale, you'll recall from the other day, was in my class. Not a bad guy. Mr Tucker apparently brought that article in and that was cool. Seems unlikely he would have brought in an article on an underground coix character and X-rated film star so it makes me again think it may NOT have been Fritz the Cat...but Fritz who? Actor Fritz Weaver? 


Tony was Tony Orlando. He had become one of my proprietary celebs since I had seen him in concert so, of course, I was on first name basis with him. Wasn't yet into cute nicknames though. That was reserved for "Steffie"--Stefanie Powers, the first actress who ever responded to a letter from me. 


Stefanie premiered this night in THE FEATHER AND FATHER GANG, a retitled version of FEATHER AND FATHER, a show that had been announced for the Fall season and then postponed for some reason. Her lawyer character was teamed with the always-delightful Harold Gould (as a con man) to solve crimes. I don't recall it as being all that good but was happy to see it finally show up. 

Sunday, December 5th, 1976

Felt lost all day.

Big FRITZ article in the ENQUIRER today.

I worked some on my EC paper.

IT for the third day in a row...badly.

I wrote an unconventional letter to Yoshiko and voted in the Comic Art Fan Awards.

My depression wasn't helped by an empty-handed return from uptown when I had expected to get records.

I cowardly avoided DUCK SOUP so I could wallow in my bad day. Felt better by night anyway, though. New McMILLAN tonight. Also saw Farrah commercial and watched CATCH 22. VERY confusing!

NOTES: No idea why the local CINCINNATI ENQUIRER would have been writing about FRITZ THE CAT at this point, many years since the 2nd and last film had been released. Can't think of any other "Fritz" I could have been referring to, though, other than perhaps artist Frank Frazetta whose nickname was "Fritz." Not sure I knew that then, though.


CATCH 22 is a movie that just totally doesn't work for me. Some good performances are mostly wasted in an effort to translate Joseph Heller's now-classic novel into some semblance of linear order...which seems to miss the point. I gave it another go a few years back on cable but it still lost me...except for Bob Newhart!


McMILLAN AND WIFE was a long-running segment of NBC's Sunday Mystery Movie series. alternating with McCLOUD, COLUMBO and a 4th series that changed fairly often. Starring the seemingly mismatched team of tall, rugged, laconic, middle-aged Rock Hudson and young, ditzy, flighty and short Susan St. James as, essentially, a Nick and Nora Charles variant, with Rock as the Police Commissioner of San Francisco, it was a fun mystery series in a wonderful setting. Nancy Walker appeared memorably as their housekeeper. 


By 1976, Susan St. James, very much a free spirit in real life, had had several babies and left the series. Nancy Walker's star was rising, too, so she moved on. Rock had shaved his porn star mustache of the early seasons and allowed himself to go a tad grey and supposedly his wife had died. His new housekeeper was aging loud-mouthed comedienne Martha Raye. As simply McMILLAN, this night was its first episode. It would only run one season thusly but the episodes were still choice and in the end this is my favorite Rock Hudson performance. 

Saturday, December 4th, 1976

Early today we got a package from Mickey. She sent me volume one of a Hitler biography...for Christmas.

I met the Shriner Parade in Cincy and later watched the Santa Claus parade on TV.

Still later, Flash Gordon was on!

NOTES: As a kid I loved parades. What kid didn't. By this point I was getting to the stage where I could take 'em or leave 'em. Running into an unexpected parade when you're just trying to cross the street downtown was a pain.


My first knowledge of FLASH GORDON was from reruns of the Buster Crabbe serials on WXIX TV when I was about 11 or so. This was probably at least a chapter of one of the serials being rerun this night also.


Mickey was my mother's older sister in North Carolina. I still don't know the whole story but supposedly Mickey used to bilk soldiers out of money by marrying them or saying she would in letters. There was a period before I was born when she was "away" somewhere. Jail? A hospital? On the run? No idea...but my mother always said she raised Mickey's daughter like she was her own during that period. Used to read her WONDER WOMAN comics! I met her once in 1962 and perhaps saw her at a funeral in 1968 but other than that had had no real contact with her. 


The book she sent me was actually one of that year's big sellers--ADOLF HITLER by prominent historian John Toland. She belonged to a Book Club and basically sent their selection for that month. When Part 2 came along, she forwarded that also. I took them to school in the waning months of Senior Year to read and got strange looks from a lot of folks.

Friday, December 3rd, 1976

Went to a college prep meeting in the Library today for three hours. Fair.

Got my own coneys tonight.

Called DC's hotline and heard Marty Pasko talking about new Superboy stories coming in ADVENTURE COMICS! Wow!

Listened to Don Ameche, Robert Klein and even Monty Python on radio.

Osmonds and more were on unusual Mormon TV special.

NOTES: Not sure why I went to a college prep thing if I had already decided against college. Since I did go, however, I'm not sure why that didn't at least make me reconsider that.


Don Ameche was, at the time, pretty much a  has-been star from 1930's radio and movies. In the eighties he would make a spectacular comeback in films with COCOON and go on to star in a number of major releases until his death including one of my all-time favorites, THINGS CHANGE.


DC had a phone hotline where editors, writers and artists offered up-to-the-minute news in those pre-Web days. As a youngster, SUPERBOY had been a favorite but his solo stories had disappeared in the early seventies. Was good to hear he was coming back...and in ADVENTURE COMICS yet, one of my favorite comic books! In fact, if you haven't done so yet, check out DAYS OF ADVENTURE, my most recent blog!

Thursday, December 2nd, 1976

As expected, awoke to more snow.

Magic tricks in Comp.

Found out we can see REBECCA at school for 20 cents.

Second harassment of the week by unknown Stan Grady! Who the hell IS this creep and what does he have against me?

Found a dime on the bus to Cincy but only ended up picking up dinner there today.

Dad got a thing in the mail saying he's been nominated for honorary sheriff!

NOTES: Ah, the days when spam came via snail mail. Pretty sure now that nomination for my father was a ruse by some organization--maybe or maybe not a shady one--to get money out of him. We were so innocent back then.


We had read REBECCA in class and I enjoyed it immensely. Was surprised to find the movie was a Hitchcock film and that they were showing it at school! The film became a quick favorite, also, as did star Joan Fontaine (although she really didn't last on my favorites list, sadly).


Yeah, no clue who this "Stan Grady" guy was but apparently he had had issues with me earlier in the week and then again today. I have no memory of him at all. Hey, Stan. Buddy...if you're reading this, you were TOTALLY forgotten, man! Whatever your beef was with me, it did not even deserve a mention beyond today's brief acknowledgement of your existence. I win. You lose. 


And magic tricks? Wonder what that was all about.

Wednesday, December 1st, 1976

Up at 6 and helped get all them cans in (illegible)'s trunk. Froze! Caught the 7:40 bus. Arrived at school at 8.

Encountered Dale and we walked to get measured together. Head: 7 & 3/4, Height: 5' 8".

I took a Bradbury book to school with me. Managed to avoid Mona.

Learned of Mom's four month old brother who died on December first many years ago!

Saw Shatner on MIKE DOUGLAS. Two neat TV specials on tonight.

More snow late tonight, Supposed to keep coming down all night long.

NOTES: I hate to sound repetitive but once again my much vaunted memory fails me. Cans? In a car trunk apparently frozen shut? At 6 AM? No freakin' clue.


At least the measuring hinted at the other day makes sense now--for caps and gowns for graduation! Duh! Perhaps its due to the idiot who mis-measured me here today that I for years THOUGHT I was five foot eight when in actuality I'm five foot FOUR! 


My wife the genealogist is very intrigued by this mention of a an Uncle of mine only months old when he died! She said she knew of my Aunt who died at only 9 years old but not an even younger Uncle that hadn't survved. I was like--AN AUNT, TOO!!?? I'd never heard about her either! She's working to find info on this Uncle now.


I was a big fan of William Shatner, not just on STAR TREK but on all of his other series and TV movies and even his infamous Promise margarine commercials. A few years ago, he came through my airport store about an hour before I came in that day. I'm told he was...let's just say NOT at his most gracious that day.