A Look At the Nevada, Missouri Phone Book (1957)

I think in all my years of rummaging and digging, this was a singular find.  I bought this a couple of years ago, and forgot about it until now.  Who saves phone books, anyway? It's certainly never occurred to me to keep one...to be honest, I throw the new ones away when they show up, these days.  Ah, but 60 years ago? 60 years ago, the phone book was a very important book.  Today we are going to take a look at this piece of history from 1957, and see how technology has evolved.  If all of this fascinates you, you are in the right place.  If all of this bores you, tune in next time, when we look at Yellow Pages ads from 1957; it will be more entertaining!

Thank you for the leather cover, Thorpe Appliance Company! By the way, if you need to call them, their phone number is 19.  Yes, 19.

This phone "book" is about a quarter-inch thick, and not quite 60 pages.  It was a bit confusing to see "Nevada Missouri" on the cover; a simple comma would have helped a bit...but Nevada (pronounced Ne-VAY-da, thank you Wikipedia) is a small town in Missouri that was named a few years before Nevada as we know it even acquired statehood.  It could have been worse:  the original name of the town was "Hog Eye."  Nevada is at least 400 miles away from me, so who knows how this phone book ended up in my hands.

My copy is housed in a leather cover, with pockets for the front and back cover of the phone book.  This was a bit of clever marketing, assuring that customers always saw the name of the company who provided it.  By the time I was a kid, the covers on the giant phone books in my area were plastic, and were covered with a patchwork of adds from tons of different companies, instead of just one.

It's also interesting to see that this edition is dated "April, 1957."  I'm not sure how often these books were issued, but this makes it sound like there was certainly more than one per year.  I imagine it was an expensive and time-consuming endeavor to compile one of these.  Notice also the banner that mentions the Yellow Pages.  In this book, they are called the "Classified Section," and are printed on regular paper, so that was confusing! We will look at that section and marvel at some 60-year-old ads next time.

Also, you see that your call goes through "Twice as Fast" if you "call by number."  Wait, what?

Chart of Long Distance Fees from the inside cover.  It cost citizens of Nevada $2.05 to call Los Angeles for three minutes, but keep in mind that most houses in 1957 cost $2.00! (okay, not really.)

Remember in Green Acres, or the Andy Griffith Show--or practically any show from that era--that people would pick up the receiver and tell the operator who to connect them to? Well, even when phone numbers were first used, they were still told, verbally, to operators.  Over time, laziness took over, and phone companies realized this was inefficient.  (Really though, which would you rather do in an emergency--call somebody and ask them to call the police, or just call the police yourself?!!)

Then exchanges came in, prefixes that helped show geographic designations to the numbers.  The most famous old-school example I can think of is the big-band song "Pennsylvania 6-5000." (Which was parodied in a horror comedy, called TRANSYLVANIA 6-5000, but we don't have time for that now.)

James Brown sang:  "Living in America / Eye to eye / Station to station." ("Station To Station" was also used as a Bowie song and album title, too, with a different meaning.)  But what does the phrase mean? Bus or train stations, right?

No.  Reading the above page, it's strange to think that a distinction was made between calling someone in specific ("Person to Person"), and just calling a place and not caring who you talked to ("Station to Station").  In fact, you will see above that it was actually cheaper to call the place...so wouldn't everyone just say they were doing that? It seems like a hard thing to keep track of, and maybe that's why it went away.  I'm just a humble blogger; I'm not a phonologist.

The point is, over time, people were being encouraged to dial direct.  But, even during the time this was happening...well, look at the very first page of the phone book:

Maybe this practice was slow to spread, but if you wanted the police department, you had to ask for it, which in my mind, slows down their response time.

The tips on how to use the telephone are golden...answer the phone promptly, but when you call, let it ring ten times...I'm considering identifying myself, from now on, with "1732." It sounds cool.

Also, note the bottom paragraph, about people recording you.  I'm not really sure how this worked in 1957, and who would be, exactly, doing the recording.  Somehow, though, if someone was recording you, it would cause a beeping sound to be heard every 15 seconds...I have questions.  They probably don't matter anymore in this case, but I do have questions.  I can only assume the telephone company was doing the recording...I just point it out because, well, it's the sort of thing that interests me.

So part of encouraging people to call "by number" meant that you would end up with some numbers that aren't in your phone book.  What do you do then? (Write them on the cover, if you were the owner of this particular copy).  The phone company has given you a handy card to write them on, and heck, they will even mail you a BLUE BOOK for FREE!

Next time, a look at some Yellow Pages (or "Classified") ads from 60 years ago.

Note the hole punched in the phone book, for hanging it from a payphone, or chaining it to a desk!

the superman files - disc 5 (Leaping Fox)

You know the other day, when you were planning that Superman-themed disco dance party, and you didn't have anything to play for..........................no?

Ok.  You know last year, when you were getting details together for your DC Comics Halloween Costume party, and you needed the right music for..................still no?

Ok, then.  I admit that the next two discs are the albums that nobody has ever asked for.  That said, by the time that Hollywood actually got their Superman movie released, the world was in the grip of the Disco Era, which had about reached its crescendo.  Therefore, the music around that era mostly sounded like this.  Therefore, there is quite a bit of it, and, therefore, we come to Section III of our project:  "super-disco."

With this disc (and the following one), you will have nearly everything you need to recreate Studio 54 in your own homes.  And remember, if you do, please don't take any photographs.

The Greatest Father's Day Card, Ever

Truth be told, I often compalin that if we could get rid of Mother's Day, and other Hallmark-created holidays that require you to buy a card, I would gladly trade in Father's Day.  

I'm going to retract that statement this year.  Sunday I was given an original work of art that was a collaborative effort between my offspring.  The front of the card utilizes the image from the 40x60" USA poster for KOTM, with the text in the red box replaced to read "HE'S ALSO A DAD! WHICH IS VERY THEMATICALLY FITTING!"

But, I promised you the Greatest Father's Day Card, Ever--surely, we are close--but wait, there's more:

Inside, a three-dimensional, pop-up scene.  Baby Godzilla (holding a train, can you stand it?) jumping into his father's arms.  Flaming wreckage surrounds them.

There!  Now you have seen the Greatest Father's Day Card, Ever!

the superman files - disc 4 (Leaping Fox)

Let us wrap up a long work week with disc 4 of this collection.  In this disc, we wrap up Section II, called "super-vintage," which are Superman songs from the very beginning, all the way through the end of the 1980's.

This disc is an interesting cross-section of pain and pleasure.  Of course, your results will vary, but there are some interesting songs by some interesting people with some interesting backstories (if you feel like going down a few Wikipedia rabbit-holes).

Enjoy! Next time, we start Section III......................."super-disco" (you read that right).

the superman files - disc 3 (Leaping Fox)

This third disc is the second part of Section II, "super-vintage;" write that down--it's confusing.

Inside, there was room to give you the list of spoken things that were excluded from this series of discs.

Highlights include: #8, #10, #19 (it was good then, it's good now).  Lowlights include #14...I know this was a big song back in the day.  I admit I've never sat through the whole thing until now, and it's just painful.  #16 includes some of the shrillest vocals of that decade.  #17 is only here to represent the number of reggae songs with "Superman" in the title, and, like you'd expect, they are pretty much all identical.

Next time, we will wrap up super-vintage with a journey through the 1980's.  Enjoy!

the superman files - disc 2 (Leaping Fox)

Moving on from "super-history," we come to Section II, "super-vintage."  These are songs about (and sometimes not) Superman, and it was surprising to see some of the earliest ones.  Another surprise was that there were only a few songs in the entire decade of the 1950's (like, three).  I suppose it took "The Adventures of Superman" completing its TV run (ending in a disaster, with the death of George Reeves), and, further into the 1960's, some animated TV shows, to further cement the character into the public daily mindset.  

1966 was a good year for super-heroes, anyhow.  The BATMAN TV series had catapulted comic heroes into the "mainstream," and plans were made to do the same for other heroes (such as Wonder Woman, which never got off the ground, but, if you've seen the painful pilot film, you understand that that's just perfectly fine).  Superman, instead, got a Broadway musical, and the character's title song received a handful of releases from different artists (including a group containing Lucille Ball's son, Dean Martin's son, and...another guy). 

We end this volume with another song called merely "Superman," by Doc & Prohibition.  It's not only good, but generated several cover versions, and mark my words, we will be seeing it again.

the superman files - disc 1 (Leaping Fox)

Anyone following along could have bet money that this would happen next, and it did.  Although, it wasn't a project to be taken lightly.  In fact, the last several months, off and on, have been spent plumbing the depths of the 8,600+ discogs listings for songs with "Superman" in the title.  Yes, there is a lot of repetition, but I have come to the overwhelming conclusion, especially in the modern day:  if you name your song "Superman," you are guilty of a cheap and easy writers' cliche.

But, we are a long way from that...right now, we are at disc one, which is an entire disc of Super-History, including themes from vintage films, shows, and much more.  But, just like our previous Bat and Spider collections, here is what's NOT included:

Basically, the short answer is "spoken word." Except for an excerpt (try typing that ten times quickly) from the historic first episode of the "Adventures of Superman" radio series, there's no other radio play, book-and-record, audio adventure, or comedy sketch of any kind.  As with the Bat set, there are no songs from the LP's which are completely super-themed, because if you cared to have them, you'd need the whole thing anyway.

We went ahead and included material from the 12 years of "Superfriends" animated shows, even though they obviously have connections to other heroes too....but then again, as it's not called the "Batfriends," it was probably a good choice.  There is also a smattering of Superfriends rarities, too, which is rather exciting, even for me, and I already had them! So...enjoy.

Star Wars 40th Anniversary Film Cel Relic Card (Topps, 2017)

It just so happens that today is the 40th anniversary of the release of Star Wars.  So, in honor of that, from the newest Topps card set, also called the Star Wars 40th Anniversary, here is one of the 50 "film cel" cards, that each contain a film frame from a genuine print of the film.  The one I chose was, of course, about the Cantina.

The film frame, also from that part of the film, is near the end of the scene--that's a Sandtrooper walking past Han Solo, who is sitting nonchalantly at his table, while one of the Snaggletooth(s) looks on.  This is, of course, directly before him walking around the corner of the booth, and straight into Greedo.  If you look closely at the frame, you can see the soundtrack peeking out of the left margin!

If you want to know everything there possibly is to know about the Cantina scene, check out my comprehensive book on the subject, which can be downloaded for free.  It is the "featured post" at the top of the right side of this blog.

Shin Godzilla (NECA, 2017)

Collectibles from SHIN GODZILLA in the United States were, let's face it, non-existent, unless imported.  I suppose we were lucky to get to see the movie at all, even in the very modern arrangement of short-term, special-event showings.  In the old days, that never would have happened.

Anyway, it was very nice of NECA to add the new design to their roster of wonderful action figures.  By the way, this makes #9 if you are counting.  What happened to #8, you ask? Well, you really shouldn't ask, but since you did, it was a "Loot Crate" exclusive, one of those monthly subscriptions for boxes of random junk...excuse me, collectibles, and it was called "Reactor Glow Godzilla."  It was a direct repaint of the 1995 "Burning Godzilla," except the "burning" spots were now glow-in-the-dark green.  Trust me, even though the secondary value will remain high due to its limited distribution, it's just dumb. And I'm a completist, that is, until the thing I'm trying to complete becomes something that never happened in the life of the character (here, the actual Godzilla films), and feels like a shameless cash-grab.  Then, I skip it. Which I did.

See?

Back to Shin Godzilla, I haven't even had time to open the package, but he's a weighty sucker.  Also, his tail is going to be nice and long, because there are two segments to attach instead of the usual one.  If anyone's wondering, I found this at ToysRUs, and boy was I surprised.  They had him and the previous figure (2001 Godzilla) on the shelf.

Make Way For Angilas

Last week at the thrift store, I found a bag of bootleg PVC Godzilla figures.  I knew they were bootlegs because firstly, I'd seen the full set advertised on the same sites that sell Bootlego (Chinese Lego knock-offs), and secondly, the "burning" part of the Burning Godzilla (1995) figures came in lots of wrong colors, including red, dark blue, etc.  It seems an odd thing to bootleg, and an odd time to bootleg them, but all I could think of was that the "red" Burning Godzilla was supposed to kind-of, sort-of pass for a Shin Godzilla. 

Case in point.  I did not get very many different figures (actually 4), and my selection included only 1 Gigan, who was missing the lower half of his...beak.  Also only 1 of the Blue Burning Godzillas, and he was missing an arm.  So, you get what you pay for, I guess. Also, 1998 Zilla, really? Big demand for that one overseas?

Back to the subject at hand, in the bag were nine small Anguiruses (if that is indeed the plural of Anguirus).  Suddenly there was a small army of the little guys living on my kitchen table, and as I was arranging them, a thought struck me.  Here it is:

the spiderman files - disc 2 (Leaping Fox)

Disc two of this set contains the third category of Spider-Man-related music:  songs about Spider-Man....or not! I say "or not" because, unlike Bat-Man, there is a handful of songs titled "Spider-Man" (with or without hyphen) that have absolutely, positively, nothing to do with the super-hero.  You will see what I mean.  In fact, there is a song from Europe (and its cover versions) with such a title, that is about a serial killer!

The inside cover provides a list of spoken-word sources that were excluded from this compilation.  The two hybrid albums that Marvel experimented with in the 1970's were used to supply us with a few tracks (I mean, Great Scott, there's a song about Dr. Octopus! A song about Dr. Octopus!).

the spiderman files - disc 1 (Leaping Fox)

Today, we are continuing my ongoing project, which replaces compilation discs I made in the past years with newer, more comprehensive, and historically-organized ones.  The next subject to tackle is songs about Spider-Man (which will be 2 discs).  As we did with the first series (Bat-Man), let's first discuss what is not included herein:

Unlike the subject of Bat-Man, there are not nearly so many complete LP's devoted to Spider-Man.  Most of the ones that exist are "spoken-word," but in the 1970's, Marvel experimented twice with LP's that were a combination of songs and spoken-word.  I used a few tracks from these two LP's, because 1) they suit our purposes here extremely well, and 2) songs about Spider-Man aren't nearly as common as ones about Superman or Bat-Man.

Otherwise, the exclusions are identical to the previous Bat-Man set, meaning spoken word, audio adventures, radio, book-and-record, and things of that sort were left out.

Disc 1 explores the various themes of different Spidey television shows, and concludes with a look at the music of Spidey video games, from their humble beginnings in 1982 to the year 2000...which is very nice, because we end the way we began, with the extremely famous "Spider-Man" 1967 theme.

As always, enjoy!

"Electronic Detective" Sample Game flexi-disc (Ideal, 1979)

"Electronic Detective" was a computerized detective game, manufactured by Ideal in 1979.  It included twenty "Suspect Cards" (that, by the way, would be a little politically incorrect today, and included various predictable 1970's stereotypes), and the player had to deduce which of them was the criminal, using the keypad built into the game.

Apparently, the game was incredibly complicated.  The copy I recently bought did not work, (which is too bad, because it would have been worth upwards of thirty bucks) but did happen to include the "Sample Game" flexi-disc, and I'm always up for mysterious recordings.                

You see, the legendary Don Adams was the pitch man for the game.  He's pictured on the front of the box, and also appeared in the television commercials. Therefore, he would also be narrating the flexi-disc that teaches you how to play, right? Right?!

Unfortunately, nope, he isn't.  Instead we have a guy doing the best imitation of a Brooklyn gumshoe that he can muster.  The various button combinations, as well as writing it all down on your "fact sheet" really get in the way of the narrator having any fun with the material.  

The funniest moment is near the beginning, when he simulates the beginning of an actual game (even though he makes it very clear, you are not using the actual computer to play an actual game).  He says, ugently:  "You hear two gunshots! BLEEEP-ZAP, BLEEEP-ZAP Followed by a funeral dirge! BOOP BOOP BEEP DEEP BOOP....." This is supposed to symbolize a murder (and funeral), but it couldn't be further from the truth.  To bring Don Adams back into the mix:  "Would you believe....a Cylon Raider firing at a Simon game?" Don Adams? More like MAD's Don Martin.

And now, you can hear it for your own self:

the batman files - disc 3 (Leaping Fox)

Let's wrap this set up with disc 3--inside, the art includes the same list of omitted LP's:

And finally, the good stuff:

There are several highlights on this disc! Enjoy!

the batman files - disc 2 (Leaping Fox)

Continuing from where we left off, the remaining two discs cover the insanity surrounding the 1966 Batman television show, in about every way you can think of:  official, unofficial, "satire," tribute, and just plain old money-grubbing cash-in.  The interior artwork gives a helpful list of the "100% Batman" albums that are not included as sources for this collection:

Highlights of this disc include Jumpin' Gene Simmons (not that one), UK heroes Mike & Bernie Winters, and the often-imitated, but never-duplicated Frank Gorshin.  I remember hearing that record as a kid (on the Dr. Demento show, no less), and no matter how many times I have heard it, you just have to admire his Riddler.  He just gave it his all.  Contrast that with Burgess Meredith; fine actor and screen personality that he was (and end-all, be-all Penguin), his single is not only incredibly boring, but has identical backing on both sides! Yawwwnnn.

Enjoy!