Aucbvax.1376
fa.sf-lovers
utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI
Tue May 19 20:34:11 1981
SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #124
SF-LOVERS AM Digest Sunday, 17 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 124
Today's Topics:
SF Books - "High Yield Bondage" & The Man Who Fell to Earth,
Humor - Mushrooms, SF Topics - Star Trek Nude Shot &
Childern's TV (8th Man and Captain Video and The Video Rangers and
Tom Corbett,Space Cadet) & Childern's Books (Mushroom Planet and
The Three Investigators and The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree and
Here's the Plot What's the Title)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 16 May 1981 10:44-EDT
From: Dale R. Worley <DRW AT MIT-AI>
Subject: The Man Who Fell to Earth
Wasn't there a novel with this name? I seem to remember that the hero
came to earth from some planet, with the plan of building a financial
empire so that he could send a rescue mission to his home planet,
which was about to get destroyed in some way. The empire was based on
various inventions which they knew we did not have from watching our
television transmissions.
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 10:16:08-EDT
From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: "High Yield Bondage"
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (film version starring David Bowie) is a
reasonably faithful representation of the novel of the same title by
Walter Tevis. Tevis is basically an outsider to SF; the only other SF
of his that I know of is [the?] MOCKINGBIRD, a recent book which was
praised in certain circles. In the book it is made clear early on that
the ET came deliberately (i.e., is not trying to make enough money to
get off) to warn the Earth of an impending catastrophe.
------------------------------
Date: 16 May 1981 10:55-EDT
From: Dale R. Worley <DRW AT MIT-AI>
Subject: Hitchcock's juvenile detective stories
Weren't these called "The Three Investigators"? As the title implies,
there were three of them, and they were always running into incredible
criminal enterprises.
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 1157-PDT
From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE
Subject: magic animal robots, Alfred Hitchcock
There is a flying talking couch and there are a bunch of other
magically animated creatures in the Oz books. How about the Patchwork
Girl of Oz? In the book by that title, she magically comes to life.
I can get a more complete list from a relative if it is wanted.
I think the detectives in Alfred Hitchcock's series were
called the Investigators. Anyone remember The Case of the Stuttering
Parrot? I remember soda pop coming out of the faucet, but don't
remember the author. I'm pretty sure, though, that the author comes
before "Eager" in the alphabet (by my memory of where the book was in
the library). By the way, does anyone remember Half Magic, Knight's
Castle, or Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager? How about The Gammage Cup
and The Whisper of Glocken by Carolyn Kendall? Homer Price and the
Doughnut Machine! All among my favorites.
I've read the Bellairs books Face in the Frost (very good) and
The House with the Clock in its Walls (good), and also the other two
books that follow it in the series. I can't remember the titles, but
I do remember disliking them. Face in the Frost is very funny, though
.. It starts out something like "Once upon a time in a place whose
name doesn't really matter there was a wizard named Prospero, and not
the one you're thinking of, either."
good reading,
--cat
------------------------------
From: ELLEN@MIT-MC
Date: 05/15/81 22:21:50
Subject: Nostalgia jig...
I am not on SF-Lovers, but read it occasionally. I have noticed a
certain Nostalgia sort of thing about children's Sci-Fi of late, and
thought (having a 13 year old in his first childhood) I might be able
to help:
The Alfred Hitchcock series is "The Three Investigators" A listing of
titles (taken from book number 25, "The Mystery of the Dancing Devil",
from my son's bookcase) goes:
The Secret of Terror Castle
The Mystery of The Stuttering Parrot
The Mystery of the Whispering Mymmy
The Mystery of the Green Ghost
The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
The Secret of Skeleton Island
The Mystery of the Fiery Eye
The Mystery of the Silver Spider
The Mystery of the Screaming Clock
The Mystery of the Moaning Cave
The Mystery of the Talking Skull
The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow
The Secret of the Crooked Cat
The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon
The Mystery of the Nervous Lion
The Mystery of the Singing Serpent
The Mystery of the Shrinking House
The Secret of Phanatom Lake
The Mystery of Monster Mountain
The Secret of the Haunted Mirror
The Mystery of the Dead Man's Riddle
The Mystery of the Invisible Dog
The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine
The Mystery of the Dancing Devil
The editor may wish to put that list somewhere, as it is long, and I
fear not even complete. These books are really sort of a modern
(gadgetry) version of the older Hardy Boys. The stories are not
actually by Hitchcock, as someone has suggested ("why would he want
to...") but feature him as narrator and are written by at least two
authors, Hitchcock's association with the series is not clear to me
from looking at the example I have in front of me, except that he
obviously gave permission for his name to be used. They are primarily
detective stories, however.
But, they sparked my son to go on to more reading, including (does
anyone remember reading this:)
Louis Slobodkin, "The Three-Seated Space Ship", "The Space Ship in the
Park", "The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree", and "The Space Ship
Returns to the Apple Tree" ??
This series features a kid from another planet who contacts a kid here
(in the three seated version I think we bring along a grandmother) and
they have assorted fun time/space adventures, along with needing to
magically learn new languages, new customs, and so on - not to mention
explaining where they were last Monday.)
My son tired of those quickly and went on to Ben Bova's Exile Trilogy
and Asimov.
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 1981 19:31:46-PDT
From: eagle!mhtsa!duke!unc!bch at Berkeley
Subject: Captain Video and the Video Rangers
The first Captain Video helmet was of the standard diving bell variety
used in "Destination Moon." The second was plastic with a hinged
trans- parent face plate and was offered as a premium for sending in
the appropriate number of "Powerhouse" candy bar wrappers (never could
stand the taste of those things, but a true fan must sacrifice) and a
nominal sum of money. I expect they would have been banned by the FTC
these days as they were inadequately ventilated and definitely
flammable. (I wonder if accidents due to those properties led to the
final "force field" version of the helmet?)
As I recall, however, the Video Rangers (save for the single character
called "the Ranger") were rehashed Texas Ranger movies shown in 10
minute installments between 10 minute segments of Captain Video.
As long as we're here, anybody remember "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet?" I
remember the series, and that the characters wore ostentatiously
studded uniforms, but anything beyond that escapes me.
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 1981 1556-EDT
From: SWG at MIT-XX
Subject: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
>From /The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows/ by Tim
Brooks and Earle Marsh (Ballantine, 1979):
Broadcast history:
Oct-Dec 1950, CBS; Jan 1951 - Sep 1952 ABC; Jul-Sep 1951 NBC
Characters: Tom Corbett, Capt. Strong, Astro the Venusian, Roger
Manning, Dr. Joan Dale
Technical Advisor: Willy Ley
Writers: Frankie Thomas (who played Tom), Stu Brynes, Ray Morse
/Tom Corbett/ was conceived by CBS in late 1950 to cash in on the
enormous popularity of DuMont's /Captain Video/. The two programs
were not directly competitive---in fact /Tom Corbett/ led into
/Captain Video/ three nights a week---and they differed in substantial
ways. /Tom Corbett/ had a much larger budget and thus more realistic
special effects, such as blastoffs, weightlessness, etc., all done
live through various techniques of video hocus-pocus. And the
emphasis was less on futuristic hardware (though there was plenty) and
more on the adventures of the young cast.
Tom Corbett, curly-headed teenage cadet at the Space Academy, four
centuries hence, was a figure with whom youngsters could identify.
With him in training to become Solar Guards were wisecracking Cadet
Roger Manning ("So what happens now, space heroes?," "Aw, go blow your
jets!") and the quieter Astro, a Venusian (planetary boundaries were
rather less important in the 24th century). Every week they blasted
off in the spaceship /Polaris/ to new adventures somewhere in space,
usually against natural forces rather than the space villains who
populated /Captain Video/. Their exploits were instructive as well as
exciting. Program advisor Willy Ley, a noted scientist and author,
worked in legitimate concepts such as variable gravity forces,
asteroid belts, and antimatter.
. . . Late in 1952 the series moved to Saturday daytime, where it
continued, off and on, until the summer of 1955.
Based on the novel /Space Cadet/, by Robert A. Heinlein.
------------------------------
FIL@MIT-AI 05/08/81 22:30:51 Re: Mushroom Planet and Apple trees
"The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree" was written by William
Slobodkin, I think. He also wrote a series of non-sf children's books
about a family named Moffat. I think there might have been a sequel
to SsUtAT, but I'm not sure.
As for the Mushroom Planet, I remember plenty.
The name of the semi-mad (not really) scientist was Theo (for
something longer) Bass. There were at least three books in that
series:
In the first one Mr. Bass tells the boys to take a mascot along.
In their last minute rush to take off, all they can scrounge up is a
chicken from the barnyard. Said chicken ends up saving the Mushroom
Planet because of sulfur in her egg yolks, which the Mushroom People
are short of. Also in the story was the fact that once on the MP you
could only speak the native tongue and write the native script. And
the fact that their take off window was very narrow because of a black
hole of some kind orbiting between the Earth and the MP.
In the second book, the boys meet Mr. Bass' cousin. They end up
on a flight to the MP with the cuz and a Skeptical Scientist. After
they get back, (leaving cuz behind on the MP) the SS tries to take the
ship back because he can't read the notes he took while on the MP. He
manages to get the ship off, but falls through the black hole and by
some miracle is washed ashore the next day. Meanwhile, Mr. Bass, who
has never been to the MP himself, is breathing air from a jar that the
boys brought back, air from the MP. He sighs happily and it is
implied that he somehow floats awy on the wind to the MP.
The third book, which I never read (because I could never find
it, dammit!), was called Mr. Bass' Planetoid. I'm not sure what it
was about, but I think Mr. Bass need the boys help with some important
matter.
Now here's a plot without a title from me: Some kids (a boy and a
girl) are building a play spaceship in the garage. The boy finds a
strange piece of metal in a vacant lot. It is a big dish shaped
thing, very light and malleable. The boy and girl shape it to the
nose of their wooden ship. In the night (or sometime) some being
comes and tries to take the ship by rubbing a piece of metal shaped
like an old umbrella against the metal of the nose. To make a long
story short, the being does get the ship moving (seems the metal on
the nose is the other half of its flying saucer). The kids go with
him because he is lost. They end up touring the solar system looking
for they guy's home. He feeds them magic jelly been so they won't
need air or water or warm temperatures. It turns out in the end that
he's not from the solar system at all. Anyway it was a cute book.
Any takers?
philip
------------------------------
Date: 11 May 1981 1455-EDT
From: SWG at MIT-XX
Subject: Mushroom Planet books (SFL V3 #117)
I'll never forget that wonderful substance
tritetramethylbenzacarbonethylene -- a sure-fire remedy for
antidisestablishmentarianism!
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 1981 2241-PDT
From: First@SUMEX-AIM
Subject: Star Trek Nude Shot/TOBOR the 8th Man memory
The following offer appears in the April 1980 issue of Playboy (which
if one is any kind of a Beatle fan is an absolute must--John Lennon
comments on the meaning and circumstances around most of the Beatles
songs--they are listed in alphabetical order with Lennon's comments
about each one--it's a dream come true, made very shortly before his
assassination): "Trekkies may remember an episode of \Star Trek/
called the "Gamesters of Triskelion" in which an Amazonian woman
develops an interplanetary affection for Captain Kirk. Now Angelique
Pettyjohn, a truly stellar attraction on the show, is selling two 19"
by 24" posters depicting herself in--and out--of her Amazon costume.
The clothed version is $7.50, the unclothed one is $17.50 or you can
have both post-paid for only $22.50 sent to Angelique Pettyjohn, c/o
Tri-Sun, INC., PO Box 42117, Las Vegas Nevada 80104. Angelique is
full of enterprise." p. 240.
Small reprints of the posters are printed with this little article. I
guess I can't really fault her--Leonard Nimoy has been making a
fortune off of his involvement. It is a bit incongruous seeing the
picture--Star Trek was always kind of devoid of overt sexuality even
though many of the costumes were as revealing as Roddenberry could get
past the censors. I guess it was only a matter of time until someone
decided to capitalize off of our fantasies...
On the same Philadelphia UHF station which carried Astroboy, was a
much better Japanese export: "TOBOR the Eighth Man", a precursor by
several years of the bionic man concept (TOBOR is robot spelled
backwards--clever, huh). Does anybody remember this one I can't quite
remember the original concept. In my group of friends, it was
considered much more fashionable to watch than Astroboy--I really
hated that awful squeaking sound he made when he walked. --Michael
[ TOBOR is briefly discussed in volume 3, issue 123. -- Jim ]
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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