From Those Were the Days:

1933 - On this day, listeners turned up the radio to hear the announcer introduce Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy! The show was one of the longest-running adventure programs on radio, continuing until 1951. Armstrong was Hudson High School’s football hero and the hero who saved the day from dastardly villains. Somehow, these adventures would take Jack and his cousins, Betty and Bill Fairfield, to exotic locales where they would make use of industrialist Uncle Jim’s yacht and a hydroplane they referred to as the Silver Albatross.

The first actor to play Armstrong was Jim Ameche, the brother of actor Don Ameche. The series, created by Robert Hardy Andrews, portrayed Jack Armstrong as loyal, brave, honest, and yes, all-American; obvious in this excerpt from one of the scripts. Jack Armstrong: “When I think of this country of ours, with millions of homes stretching sea to sea, and with everybody working and pulling together to have a nation where people can be free, and do big things ... why, it makes me realize what a terribly important job we’ve got ahead!”
11:25:18 AM    comment []  trackback []  

A brief bit of minutia

First off, I’d like to doff my cap to the Rogue Raven (now that’s a cool-sounding superhero name if ever I heard one), Frank Denton, for giving his readers a shout-out about Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. His blog can be found here, and his biographical information indicates that he’s a big movie fan—particularly Westerns, both bad and good. (Obviously a man to be admired and respected.)

I placed an order with Office Depot.com sometime back, and when I was filling out the order blank they had a space for “Company,” so I typed in “Mighty Allen Art Players” in tribute to Fred. Yesterday in the mail, I get an envelope from a company that sells personalized pens and they sent me one with that very same appellation (except the “Players” was cut off) and my complete address. I’d like to help them out by buying a few, but I’m finicky when it comes to writing instruments—my pen of choice is the Pilot P-700 Gel Ink Rollerball, which is hands down the best pen I’ve ever used.
11:22:30 AM    comment []  trackback []  

Gamble For Life

Yes, I know it sounds like a self-help book written by Bill Bennett—but it’s not…it’s Chapter 7 in the continuing adventures of Mandrake the Magician (1939)! When we last left our legendary practitioner of legerdemain, he was plummeting to Earth in his airplane after being shot down by a pilot hired by the nefarious Wasp. He escapes (natch) via parachute, which they sort of forget to show you at the end of the previous chapter—but when you think about it, it doesn’t make sense to kill off the main character before the end of the serial. (I mean, who would step in as the hero? Lothar? Don’t make me laugh.)

As Mandrake’s plane begins its rendezvous with crashing into Earth, the Wasp’s henchmen are standing outside waiting for the eventual collision—which is a terrible miscalculation, because this allows Professor Houston to haul ass out the back door in a desperate bid for freedom. And wouldn’t you know it, Mandrake just happens to parachute down in time to rescue his scientist pal from the bad guys. Not only that, but guess who drives up to save Mandrake and the Professor? Lothar! (It’s a small world, isn’t it—or maybe it’s a small serial.)

Meanwhile, back at WaspCo, our favorite arch nemesis instructs his aide-de-camp Dirk to station a couple of goons outside Mandrake’s “country home” (where the magician is holed up with Houston, daughter Betty and son Tommy, and the rest of his friends). Dirk, in his never-ending quest to score brownie points tells his boss, “Yes, sir…your orders will be carried out at once.” “They’d better be, Dirk—you wouldn’t want to make a second slip…because that would make it necessary for me to assign another lieutenant in your place,” the Wasp hisses back. (On the plus side—swell opportunities for advancement; but on the minus…an abnormally high job turnover.)

Back at stately Mandrake Manor, the Professor is planning to build yet another machine (yes, I know—a regular glutton for punishment, isn’t he?) but he’ll need some equipment from the lab, so Mandrake makes plans to go over and get what the Professor needs from the old family retainer, Parsons the butler (Reginald Simpson). The Wasp’s henchmen over hear this and plan to ambush Mandrake at the Professor’s, so when he arrives…they all set down for a cup of tea and swap stories. No, I’m kidding—it’s another fist fight.

I’ll break into the narrative here real quick to point out that Mandrake has three friends who I think are supposed to be assisting him but end up sitting around and kibitzing most of the time: James Webster (Kenneth MacDonald), Dr. Andre Bennett (Edward Earle) and Frank Raymond (Don Beddoe). One of these guys is obviously the Wasp in disguise, and it’s kind of funny how the serial’s writers seem to want to make you think it’s Webster (MacDonald’s sinister performances in many Three Stooges shorts might bear this out) by having the Bennett character constantly snipe at him: “How did you know we were all here at Mandrake’s country house, Webster?” (I have to admit, I’ve been getting a chuckle out of watching MacDonald and Beddoe in this production—other Stooges extras that I’ve noticed include John Tyrrell, Dick Curtis, Stanley Blystone, Eddie Laughton and Cy Schindell.) My money’s on Beddoe, though—he seems the least sinister of the bunch, and therefore the likely suspect.

Mandrake and Webster head out to a canyon to dig up some “platinite” ore (Mandrake casually drops into the conversation that he owns a piece of property where this can be found) at the exact same time the Wasp’s men are nearby destroying telephone poles. Yes, it’s another plot contrivance because they want to end this chapter with Mandrake fighting with one of the thugs on a cable car; the thug falls into the canyon as a result—but as Mandrake looks up he sees the cable snap…

Tomorrow—Chapter 8: “Across the Deadline” (this one looks pretty nifty, since it has a damn explosion—I mean, a dam explosion…)
10:55:24 AM    comment []  trackback []