What most kids lived for. After struggling through five grueling days of school, Saturday morning TV was heaven. A couple of hours of cartoons, a few "real people" comedies, and then my favorites, the action adventures.
Don't get me wrong now. I enjoyed the zany antics of Heckle&Jekyll, Tom&Jerry and Mighty Mouse. And I loved the Sealtest Big Top. A circus, in case some of you don't remember. Especially Dan Lurie, the strong man. Yeah, like evey other young boy I was fascinated with muscles. Each week Dan would perform some amazing feat of strength that most of the neighborhood boys would talk about all the next week in school. My absolute favorite part of that show was when there was a magician performing. I dreamed of being a great magician one day. I actually fulfilled part of that dream. I did become a magician(part time) as to the great part, that's a matter of opinion.
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Hey Cats, for your information Dan Lurie, the Sealtest Bigtop's strongman and holder of many physique titles is still in great shape at age 78. He has a website that all who remember the show or the man should check out. Heck, even if you're too young to remember, check it anyway. The address? What else, danlurie.com Please check it out, especially the recent photo! |
How many of you old geezers remember Winky
Dink? I've asked around my hometown and found only a handful that do. I
guess I remember him so well because I was eight years old, laid up with a
broken leg and my older sister bought our family's first TV. You were supposed
to order the Magic Screen from Winky, a plastic cover for the TV screen so you
could draw along, with a magic crayon, as Jack Barry drew something with his
finger (a train, boat, airplane, etc. for Winky to interact with) . We weren't
poor exactly, but my mom couldn't see wasting money, so I had to use a piece of
Saran Wrap. It never did work quite right. Always wrinkled up when I tried to
draw. Oh well, maybe they'll bring Winky back one day, now that I can
afford the Magic Screen.
But I couldn't be pulled from the 17 inch Muntz (black&white of course) when my two favorites came on. Space Patrol and Captain Midnight.
Space Patrol was the Star Trek of
the fifties. How cool could it be to fly around in outer space fighting the bad
guys. Yes there are bad guys in outer space too. Not much of a show without
them. The show was sponsored (at the time I remember) by Ralston Purina.
Remember instant Ralston? Do they still make it? Shows who does the shopping in
my house. I actually got to go aboard the Space Patrol Ralston Rocket
once. It was a mock up about thirty feet long, pulled on a trailer, part of a
multi state advertising campaign by the sponsor. Man I was in hog heaven. It
looked like it could blast off the trailer at any time. There was even a contest
with the rocket ship as first prize. Needless to say I didn't win and I never
got to chase bad guys in outer space.
(Man, ain't reminiscing
fun.)
Captain Midnight and the Secret Sqadron
Any of you ever own a secret decoder ring. Cool huh? It was amazing how Captain Midnight, with the help of egghead "Tut" and a complete idiot "Iggy or Icky" (never was sure how it was spelled) and sometimes an average kid secret squadron member, could defeat the bad guys. I loved it. I remember taking an empty match box, a nail and a length of stiff copper wire and fashioning a pocket locator of my own. It didn't work but looked neat. Shiny copper wire wound around the nail which was stuck through the matchbox with the head protruding for a tuner knob look good when I showed my school buddies and tried to convince them it worked. I'd pull the end of wire sticking through the top of the box up like an antenna, and then : "S.Q. One to S.Q. Two..Over " I love it man, love it. Hell, I still drink Ovaltine today.
I enjoyed them all. Too many to list but here's a few:
Sky King, Seargent Preston of the Yukon, don't forget his faithful husky, King, Rin Tin Tin, Tom Corbett- Space Cadet, and many more to come. Please check back often and Email me with your memories.
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