The Sixth Day/The Seventh Day

THE SIXTH DAY (Oct. 6, 2011)

The Lone Ranger, “Enter the Lone Ranger” – More cowboys and the old West. Amazingly, the map of the western USA here shows mostly the “Four Corners” area – the only part left blank by the Abe Lincoln book!

Jonny Quest, “Mystery of the Lizard-Men” – Pretty exciting! Laser beams, the Sargasso Sea, and a mention of men to the moon!

Thistle & Shamrock #692, “Hammer Out a Tune” – more great Celtic music.

Superman, “The Comeback of Larry Trent,” (2/20 – 3/18, 1939) – More of this Superman person.

The Monster at the End of This Book, Jon Stone (jv) – Lovable, furry old Grover is sure scared of the approaching Monster. (Oh, I am so embarrassed!) Cubby wants to read more about monsters. Forry Ackerman will take care of that.

When the Wolves Returned, Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (jv nature) – We learn about wolves with a vengeance! Never thought that the lack of wolves would cause the disappearance of songbirds, aspens, willows, badgers, foxes, eagles . . . but it did!

“Little Orphant Annie,” “The Fishing Party,” “The Raggedy Man,” poems by James Whitcomb Riley – since a poem slipped in with “Ghosts I Have Known,” here are some more. “Annie” is kind of creepy, with the Gobble-uns going to get you if you don’t watch out! The coming of fall puts a Halloween feeling in the air, and Cubby wants to read/see some scary stories. Well, we’ll see.

“Sunnybank’s Canine Ghost,” an excerpt from Sunnybank: Home of Lad, by Albert Payson Terhune. Now a ghost dog!

The Lost World (1925 sf) – A movie about dinosaurs still living in a distant jungle. A logical extension of Cubby’s interest in dinosaurs and monsters, and of the hints of cryptozoology we’ve seen. This movie will be the precursor to “Mazeppa” (local host who showed old horror films) and “Fantastic Theater” (which long ago featured ‘50s SF, Toho films, Hammer films, odd horror and sci-fi, etc.) After all, the brontosaur loose in London bit is the ancestor of King Kong, the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and all other rampaging giant monsters.


THE SEVENTH DAY (October 7, 2011)

Victory at Sea, “The Pacific Boils Over” – Pearl Harbor and all that. The first episode made Germany look bad; this one does the same for Japan. Cubby assumes things “got better” if something like the Japanese Fantasy Film Journal eventually came out.

NASA, “The Flight of Friendship 7” – Godspeed, John Glenn! An American orbits the earth. Neither NASA film so far even mentioned Yuri Gagarin or the Russians.

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Dr. Seuss (jv) – prose fairy tale from Seuss. Not even wizards and wise men can explain Bartholomew’s materializing hats, so this is a rather fortean tale.

“Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” from Detective Comics no. 27, May 1939 – first a Superman, now this Bat-Man!

Knott’s Berry Farm map of Southern California – a vacation map from 1977, showing Knott’s Berry Farm (obviously) but also a lot of California – actually the most intricate map Cubby has yet seen. We’ve all heard names like Burbank, Hollywood, Tarzana, Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga – names like Tujunga Canyon, Devil’s Gate, and Riverside will become important later.

Excerpts from Cow By the Tail, Jesse James Benton – Haunted stage station, giant skull, monstrous snakes, and meteorites! The old West could be weird!

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Virginia Lee Burton – amusing fantasy by the author of Life Story.

Monkey Business (1931 comedy) – funny Marx Brothers vehicle. The nearest Zeppo came to being one of the gang. Amazing clarity.

Eighteen books read = 3/800 of the way done.