Norman H. Burbage (1935-2022)

My father died on December 6, 2022. He was 87 years old. His wife, my mother, died nearly nine years ago to the day, on December 11, 2013. 

RIP Jim Croce

On September 20, 1973 Jim Croce died when his private airplane took off badly and crashed into trees outside Natchitoches, Louisiana. He had recently hit it big nationally, with a Number One hit in July called "Bad Bad Leroy Brown." He was only 30 years old.

RIP Don Newton

On August 19, 1984 comic-book artist Don Newton suddenly died of a massive heart attack. He was only 49 years old.

RIP Joe Kubert

Three years the comic-book industry lost another legend, when the irreplaceable Joe Kubert died. He was 85 years old.

Cheril Kay Burbage (1934-2013)

My mother passed away last night. She was 79 years young.

She grew up the eldest of seven children. Her father told her that she was unattractive (homely, I believe was the word she would use when she told us the story) so she had better go to school. He thought she had better become a music teacher to support herself because she would die an old maid.

My grandfather was an idiot. 

My mother did go to college and studied music; not to become a music teacher, but to get away from her parents. She was doing fine on her own until she met a friend of her cousin's while she was working as a waitress at a Howard Johnson's restaurant.Those crazy kids fell in love and decided to marry as soon as he was out of the service and she had graduated. However, her father heard about their engagement and decided to stop paying the bills. Norman suggested that they get married earlier so his GI benefits would kick in and finish paying for her school. They were married on Groundhog Day February 2, 1957. According to my mother, *her* mother told people they moved the wedding up because my mother was pregnant.

My sister Connie was born in March, 1958. Just in case you're keeping track. She was followed by my other sister JoAnne in August 1959. After a few years to catch their breaths my brother Brad was born in February 1963. And the way my dad tells it, he was so happy to have a boy that by the time I came along, he seriously didn't care what I was, one way or another! When I "bookended" two girls and two boys he said he was the happiest man on Earth.

By the time I was old enough to go to school, my mother was getting her Masters in education. She eventually became a teacher and taught elementary school. She was a teacher for more than twenty years.

Growing up surrounded as she had been by small minds filled with racism and anti-semitism, she embraced friends of all creeds and colors, and taught her children to do the same.

My mother loved music. Although she did not want to teach it, she did play the piano and insisted that all of us play some musical instrument. I played the clarinet and then the violin through junior high school. She also had all sorts of musical albums around the house. I learned about Frank Sinatra, Mitch Miller, Tom Lehrer, Rogers & Hammerstein, Victor Borge, and countless other groovy acts besides Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, and Gilbert & Sullivan.

My mother was a veracious reader. She read constantly and wanted all of us to know books as our friends. She taught me how to read personally, and I still remember the very first book "we" ever read together. It was about Casey The Horse.

My mother was a strong female role model. She helped my two sisters to grow up to be independent. And she tried to make my brother and I appreciate strong, intelligent women.

When I came back to the United States in 2001 my mother was beginning to exhibit a mild case of dementia. In the past twelve years it got progressively worse. It never got to the point where she did not recognize me or my siblings, but she *did* forget who my wife and daughter were. Several years ago she had a long conversation with my wife about living in Japan, then told her, "My son is married to a Japanese woman. You should all get together." That about broke my heart.

My mother finally started to forget to eat and drink. She was never a big woman, and never had much of an appetite. She did like good food, but not much of it. Recently she was never hungry, and forgot to eat and drink regularly. She developed severe dehydration several times in the past few years. When I last saw her at Thanksgiving she was admitted into the hospital because she had fainted due to dehydration. She rallied for the past few days, but last night, after nearly 80 years of adventure, her body simply gave up.

Good-bye, Mom. We'll miss you.

Love,
Russell

Helaine Henning 1965-2005

 Today is the anniversary of the passing of my good friend Helaine. It seems odd to me to think about her as being gone. She was never very good at writing letters or keeping in touch, so it's almost as if she's still out there, just never taking the time to pick up the phone or put pen to paper. Typical Helaine. I know it's ridiculous, but every time I hear a Steeley Dan song I think of her. Or when I hear most Prince songs. Or when I see cheesy horror movies like Poltergeist or The Thing. Or dozens of other things.

I would have thought that as I get older and more people I know or respected or loved shuffle off this mortal coil, that dealing with death would become easier. Yet somehow, it doesn't. Is that good, or bad? I'm reminded of that famous line from The Wizard of OZ: "Now I know I have a heart, because it's breaking."

Here's to you, Helaine. Hope you have the high Space Invaders score in Heaven.

RIP Helaine Henning 

(1965-2005)

Three of the women I love most in the world, circa 1995

Soon after Helaine died I happened across this song by one of my favorite singers, John Mellencamp. It's a remake of a 1963 song recorded by Skeeter Davis. I had read that it was written from someone who had lost someone, and used that pain to write a love song. (Sylvia Dee, who had lost her father, wrote it with Arthur Kent). Listening to it, it *sounds* like a mournful song, and not just a "s/he broke up with me" song. Now, I can't hear it without missing Helaine. I deleted it off my itunes library because I just can't stand to hear it if I'm not ready for it. It's beautiful, and oh, so sad....

Paul Norris RIP (1914-2007)

graphic by Rob Kelly (art by Paul Norris)

 On December 5, 2007, the creator of Aquaman, Mr. Paul Norris, passed away. He was 93 years young.


Paul Norris was a staff artist at National Comics in 1941 when he was assigned a new back-up strip in the pages of MORE FUN COMICS #73. Norris had already made something of a name for himself by illustrating The Sandman and Sandy, the Golden Boy. Well, in this issue Mr. Norris made history! Aquaman made his debut in this issue, cover-dated November 1941. And although this was before the United States had entered World War II, Aquaman was already protecting refugees from Nazis!

Norris only stayed on the character he co-created for less than a year, but he set the tone and style of the character that has endured for more than seventy years.

I thought I had a copy of the whole story, but I could not find it to scan it for this article. So I'm including pages I *could* find. And I am now intent on tracking down a reprint copy of this issue! 

I did not know that Paul Norris was born in Greenville, Ohio. I've been to that town quite a few times! Next time I go I will have to visit the city hall and try to get them to create a real Aquaman museum or something!

Rest in Peace, Paul Norris

 ...and thank you! 

For another point of view on Mr. Norris' passing, please read my buddy Rob's Paul Norris obit on The Aquaman Shrine from 2007.

 

 

November 22, 1963 In Film

 

President John F. Kennedy died fifty years ago today. To help mark this anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate for Film Friday to look at several of the films made about that terrible day.

First, of course, is the "home-movie" made by Abraham Zapruder on and at and during that terrible event in Dealey Plaza. Mr. Zapruder sold the rights to the film to Time-Life in 1963, who kept it under wraps for several years, doling it out in snippets for magazine specials and articles of their own. Rights were then transferred back to the Zapruder family in the late 70s or early 80s. The family eventually sold the film as a historical artifact to The Book Depository Museum in Dallas.

This film is not for the squeamish; make no mistake, it is a film of an actual murder. For me the worst part of the film is the short sequence between the time that the President and his wife realize something is wrong (he's been shot through the throat?) and the fatal shot to the head. If the driver had only sped up during that short window of opportunity, the President would have lived....

 A few years ago I came across a film called Image of An Assassination, which was the digitized and clarified version of the actual film. I found it at the Columbus Library, so if you are interested in this you might check your library, too. It is the High Definition version of the grainy hand-held camera film.

I almost didn't imbed the following youtube version of the film here. It is a terrible, terrible scene to watch. However, it is history. And I wondered how many people reading this have actually had the chance to see the actual film, and not just a snippet or two from other news documentaries or films. The deciding factor to post it here was that the stop-image shown below as the link was not one of the more graphic scenes. So I leave it to you to choose to watch it or to skip on.

The most famous actual film about the assassination is Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). Leonard Maltin says it best when he writes about it, "Full of startling scenes and bravura acting, as dramatic movie-making it's superb. Not to be mistaken for a documentary, however, despite it's sanctimonious attitude towards the truth." 

I saw the film twenty years ago when it first came out, and in preparation to write this review I watched it again.

First of all, what the heck is the DVD (poster) image suppsoed to represent? I get the red and white stripes of the flag, but what is that underneath Kevin Costner's face. It looks like a body or a hand or something....I have never understood this image for the twenty years I've seen it. 

The film starts with a short mix of actual documentary footage: President Eisenhower's final speech as President in 1960, footage of Viet Nam, and President Kennedy's speech at American University in Washington DC. Then when we see Kevin Costner as New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison, the assumption we have to make is that what we're seeing now is the truth, too. Because Lee Harvey Oswald had lived in New Orleans, Garrison and his staff investigates his activity there. That leads them to believe that there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, and that it had started in New Orleans.

There are a lot of odd things in this film, but it is definitely presented with panache and style. And there are questions raised and comments made that sound convincing. For example, there is a throw-away line about somebody named "Oswald" buying trucks for a shady CIA operative in New Orleans; Oswald was definitely living in the Soviet Union at that time. Is this true? If so, what does it mean? Likewise, the question of why Oswald did not shoot the President as his motorcade was coming towards the Book Depository, rather than driving away from it. There might be a perfectly simple explanation, but it is a good question. However, Garrison's hypothesis seems to be that there were three snipers ready to kill the president in a crossfire. Yet he admits that most of the shots these snipers allegedly fired MISSED their target! So where did they go? The film is a technical marvel, but sloppy police work.

Even though Costner portrays Garrison as a beacon of moral fiber, eventually he starts to appear to be a tad paranoid. Every rhetorical question is answered with , "Because there's a cover up!" The staging of the "Magic Bullet" scene in the courtroom is well done, but all through it I kept thinking, "what if the position of the two victims (the President and Governor John Connelly) was off; wouldn't that explain the trajectory? If there was some way to sit the two men at the same line of fire as the bullet, wouldn't that explain it? Also, if there WAS more than one "magic" bullet...where did it/they go? Neither of the wives were injured and no bystanders in Dealey Plaza were wounded, either.

After I saw JFK the first time I managed to buy a copy of the book by Jim Garrison, On The Trail of the Assassins. It was interesting reading, but did not convince me that the CIA or anybody in the US government had conspired to kill the president. Soon after that I also read the 1993 book Case Closed by Gerald Posner. It basically debunks a lot of the myths, half-truths, and rumors around the assassination. It specifically makes the case that Oswald could have done all that he was alleged to have done. What I remember most about the book was that Posner interviewed the people close to Oswald at the time. One swore that Oswald brought what he claimed were curtain rods to work that Friday morning. And Oswald's wife swore she took the notorious photo of Oswald in the backyard posing with his guns. So there seems to be a clear trail to this particular assassin. I also have read parts of Vincent Bugliosi's book Reclaiming History, which criticizes the film from top to bottom. (I have his book to thank for my earlier comment regarding the quality of the marksmanship of the professional assassins that Garrison believes did the work that day.) Most importantly, although Oliver Stone (and Jim Garrison, I guess) tried to paint a picture of a conspiracy, that picture ignores the dozens of actual witnesses who *saw* the rifle jutting out of the sixth floor window of the Book Depository and *heard* the three shots come from that rifle. 

For another point of view, I recommend the 1973 film Executive Action. In this film, Will Geer ("Grandpa" from The Waltons) plans the assassination of the president. It's a chilling account of how a conspiracy would work if it had happened. Like movies such as Raise The Titanic, however, it's patently (?) fiction.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 2013

The bulk carrier called SS Edmund Fitzgerald was lost on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975 with the loss of her crew of 29.
Canadian folk-pop artist Gordon Lightfoot recorded his song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in Nov-Dec 1975. The song was released as a single in the summer of 1976, eventually going to number 2 on the US chart.
On this date we commemorate the men who died that day.
    

RIP SS Edmund Fitzgerald

RIP Christopher Reeve

I don't remember where I was when I heard that Christopher Reeve had passed on. I remember reading about his horse-riding accident in 1995 and being saddened by it. (I was still living in Japan at the time.) I also remember watching him on several episodes of SMALLVILLE as the mysterious Dr. Swann and thinking how brave he was. Later I watched him in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller REAR WINDOW and thought it was wonderful.

Although I don't remember where I was when I heard that he had died, I remember very distinctly standing in my kitchen dining room and reading the obituary about him on October 11, 2005. I cried my eyes out. For some reason, reading how he had lost his battle against his spinal injury made me very sad. Not just because he had played Superman, but because he had battled his injury with class and style. He seemed to be a true gentleman. It seemed like we lost him way too soon. He was only 52.

If you only know Christopher Reeve from the SUPERMAN movies you should also see some of his other films. I especially recommend DEATHTRAP, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, STREET SMART, and NOISES OFF. All of these are completely different from the Clark Kent/Superman persona, and each is entertaining in its own way.

I'm going to blast the music to SUPERMAN in my car to and from work today, and maybe I'll shed a tear for all those heroes who lose their battles, but never give up while doing it.

RIP CHRISTOPHER REEVE

1952-2004

Jim Croce RIP

On September 20, 1973 singer-songwriter Jim Croce died in a plane crash outside Natchitoches, Louisiana. He had been enjoying a year of huge successes: he had two Top Ten hits in 1972 ("You Don't Mess Around With Bill" and "Operator") and then a Number One hit in July 1973, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown." After he finished a concert at Northwestern Louisiana University, he and five other people died in their charted airplane.

He had two posthumous hits, "I Got A Name," and another Number One hit, "Time In A Bottle." Now even more heart-breaking than romantic, it went to the top of the charts in late December 1973.

Here is my favorite Jim Croce song, "Operator." Playing with him is guitarist Maury Muehleisen, who died with him in the airplane accident. Please enjoy these two masters at their best. 

Rest in Peace, Jim Croce

Hiroshima Day of Peace 2013

Sixty-eight years ago today the world's first nuclear weapon, the atomic bomb nick-named "Big Boy," was dropped over the city of Hiroshima. 

The red ball shown in this photo represents where the bomb actually detonated.

Directly under the red ball is the building now known as The Atomic Dome. 

It was a musical hall built of concrete and steel. 

How it appears today is shown below. 

It has never been renovated, although some supporting rods have been 

added in order to keep it from collapsing. 

 

The mark on the left says it is where the Historical Center is, 

which is where this diorama is located.

The photo of the Atomic Dome was taken from 

close to the entrance to that Center. 

No More Hiroshimas

Good-bye, Cass Elliot

 

On July 29, 1974, an angel with a beautiful voice was ushered up into Heaven. Cass Elliot, one-fourth of the pop group The Mamas and The Papas, died of a heart attack. A vicious urban myth perpetuates to this day that she died because she choked on a ham sandwich. The truth is that her heart was weakened by all of her dieting and binging, often losing 50 to 100 pounds at a time only to pack it back on...She was only 32 years old when she passed.

There's plenty of beautiful songs by Cass Elliot out there. I know my friend Greg loves the songs used in the movie "Beautiful Thing." Personally, I think all of the Mamas and the Papas' songs are just great, but "Make Your Own Kind of Music" is just such a great anthem to individuality, I think it's probably my favorite of her songs.

Rest In Peace, Cass Elliot

Rest in Peace, Rod Serling

Today is the anniversary of the death of the late, great Rod Serling. I think everyone knows Mr. Serling was an award-winning writer and producer of The Twilight Zone who also was the host and sometimes contributor to The Night Gallery.

You may not know, however, that he co-wrote the screenplay to one of the greatest sci-fi films of the time, PLANET OF THE APES. If you have not seen the original 1968 film (based on the novel by Pierre Boulle) you should. Charlton Heston is awesome as the US astronaut, Kim Hunter is wonderful as an open-minded chimpanzee biologist, Roddy McDowell is great as her fiancé, and Maurice Evan is fabulous as a close-minded orangutan. Most if not all of the sequels sucked, but the original still stands the test of time.

Rod Serling was born on December 25, 1924. After he ran into quarrels with producers on such series as Playhouse 90 and Kraft Playhouse, he decided to be his own man: he wrote and produced 92 of the 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone.  In 1969 he agreed to become involved with The Night Gallery, but he was not in creative control. He had a heart attack in 1973, then died after undergoing an open-heart surgery in mid-June, 1975. He passed on June 28, 1975.

Rest in Peace, Rod Serling

 

 

Here's the trailer to the 1968 PLANET OF THE APES.

It's fun to watch this knowing what we know about the film and the

series of sequels it spawned.....

 

Remembering DeForest Kelley

On June 11, 1999 the world lost a great actor when DeForest Kelley passed away. He was 79 years old.

If you don't know who DeForest Kelley is, you must have come across this site by accident! Of course he was the third side of the triangle in Star Trek (The Original Series):  Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the Starship Enterprise. He was the overly-emotional one who balanced out the overly-logical Mr. Spock (portrayed by Leonard Nimoy) in numerous discussions with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner).

As a kid Mr. Spock was my favorite. He was an alien, which was cool. He wasn't Captain Kirk, who seemed like a jerk even then. As I got older, however, I suddenly found myself gravitating towards McCoy. He was the emotional one, but he was also a professional. He had a sense of humor, but he was not a fool. He ended up represented all the other officers and staff on the starship when there wasn't a budget to show thousands of others (let alone the seven or so semi-regular co-stars who kept getting little to do in the scripts). In the series he played the down-home doctor to perfection, and the teasing that he and Mr. Spock got into only masked their genuine affection and admiration they had for each other. In the second season episode "AMOK TIME" Spock invites McCoy to the planet Vulcan as one of his companions. From that moment, even when they were arguing hysterically, you knew they still liked each other. In the movie THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK it is McCoy who literally saves Spock's life.  

But all of this is about Dr. McCoy; I want to talk about DeForest Kelley. McCoy was brought to life by DeForest Kelley. He was one of the last actors chosen for the series, and during the first season was a contracted Co-Star. Yet, Kelly's excellence at playing off of Nimoy and Shatner, and of bringing the scripts to life, pushed McCoy into the lead and allowed him to become an iconic TV figure.

From everything I have read about Star Trek (TOS), it sounds like Kelley was a fun-loving man and a joy to work with. For example, after Nimoy directed THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK Shatner insisted on directing THE FINAL FRONTIER. When asked if he, too, wanted to direct, Kelley was heard to say something akin to, "Direct? Nah, somebody has to hold the acting standards up." He attended numerous conventions and seemed genuinely involved with his fans. I am sorry I never got to meet him.

Rest In Peace, DeForest Kelley   

Memorial Day 2013

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.

While you're out and about STOP and think about what Memorial Day is supposed to be all about.

 

 We would not be here today if not for all the men and women who were willing to give their *lives* to secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity....

 

It's not about a sale at Wal-Mart.

 

 

All gave some,

Some gave all....

 

RIP Bruce Geller

 

You may not know who Bruce Geller was.

Have you ever heard of the TV show, MANNIX?

How about the pop culture classic called MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE?

The genius behind both of these shows was a man named Bruce Geller. Unfortunately, on May 21, 1978 Bruce was in a Cessna airplane accident near Santa Monica and died. He was only 47 years old.

Geller got his start writing. He began on varied shows such as "The Dick Powell Show", "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman," and "The June Allyson Show." He and his writing partner, Bernie Kowalski, produced the TV western, "Rawhide," starring Clint Eastwood, in 1964-65.

Geller created MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE in 1966. He thought of the idea for the show after seeing the movie Topkapi, wherein a group of art thieves plot a complex break-in at a museum. He re-considered these as the good guys and came up with MISSION. During the first year he won an Emmy as Producer and another for writing the pilot/premiere.

From 1968 he helped create MANNIX, starring Mike Connors and Gail Fisher. This private detective series ran until 1975. It is notable for being one of the first TV dramas to feature an African-American actress in a recurring role.

 

RIP Bruce Geller

 

 

RIP Carmine Infantino

Last week on April 4 artist extra-ordinaire and former Publisher of DC Comics, Mr. Carmine Infantino, passed away. He was 87 years young.

Carmine Infantino broke into comics in the 1940s, drawing such diverse characters as The Flash and Black Canary. He stuck with the industry through the dry spell of the late '40s and early '50s, then hit it big when the "Silver Age" brought super-heroes back BIG TIME. He helped usher in this monumental shift in popular culture when he helped re-design The "modern" Flash in SHOWCASE #4.

During the dry spell when super-heroes didn't rule the news-stands, Mr. Infantino worked on various space and science fiction series. His favorite at this time was Adam Strange, an American archaeologist who, through a series of accidental teleportations, becomes the hero of a far-distant planet called Rann. He always said that his favorite titles were the "odd" ones, such as Adam Strange, Detective Chimp, and The Elongated Man.

Mr. Infantino worked on THE FLASH for several years, until 1964. That was when he was asked by his friend, editor Julius Schwartz, to help him re-invigorate Batman. Batman at the time was a character in danger of cancellation. Stop and think about that for a moment: Batman, the world-famous character, was in danger of being cancelled! Carmine Infantino worked with Mr. Schwartz and together they made Batman a viable character; the TV series that made its debut about 2 years later probably helped, but if Batman had been cancelled in 1964 the TV show probably would not have made it.

In 1967 Carmine Infantino was part of another famous re-design: the "modern" Batgirl was created to appear on the TV series, so DC took the then-out-of-date character and re-created her. Mr. Infantino provided the visuals.

In 1967 Mr. Infantino was promoted to Executive Director. He immediately set out to make all of DC's covers more dynamic and exciting. He hired new editors and writers to try to shake DC out of its funk; most famously, he lured Jack Kirby to DC from Marvel. In 1971 he was promoted to Publisher.

In 1976 he left DC, going (literally) back to the drawing board. He returned to freelance work, doing mostly Marvel titles (such as STAR WARS and NOVA) for several years. Then he returned to DC, doing THE FLASH and SUPERGIRL, among other titles.

Good-bye, Mr. Infantino! 

Rest In Peace, 

Carmine Infantino

May 24, 1925 ~ April 4, 2013