Iron Man and Captain America

 In 1966, Marvel Comics' two biggest future film stars were sharing a title called TALES OF SUSPENSE. They had gradually pushed out the actual tales of suspense and replaced them with some of the best superhero tales of the sixties.

By this point, both series were being scripted by Stan Lee. IRON MAN was being drawn by Gene Colan, fresh from DC romance comics. Cap was generally done by his co-creator, Jack Kirby.

It was an eventful year for both as you can see. The two features alternated covers. Eventually, in 1968, Marvel split the two into separate titles with latecomer Cap being the one to retain the book's numbering.

 This above was my own first issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE and my intro to both Iron Man and Captain America. It came free in a CAPTAIN AMERICA board game, too, which I ended up getting twice so I had several copies of this issue!

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Thunderbirds Are Go!

 THUNDERBIRDS didn't even air in my neck of the woods back in the day but in the UK it became an institution. I had been a huge fan of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's imported puppet sci-fi such as STINGRAY, SUPERCAR and FIREBALL XL-5 so I'm sure I would have been a huge fan of THUNDERBIRDS, too! In December of '66, the Andersons released the first of two THUNDERBIRDS feature films, THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! Decades later, of course, the franchise would get a live-action bug budget screen treatment as well!

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Bob Holiday is Superman!

Actor Bob Holiday took on the role of the Man of Steel in the 1966 Broadway version. Here are some shots of Bob and a link to his website where he has video of his appearance on I'VE GOT A SECRET that same year.

http://supermanbobholiday.com/

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Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Popular enough to run three years, PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES was a family sitcom based on the Doris Day vehicle of 1960 (itself based on a book, play, etc.) Patricia Crowley starred and was a favorite of mine ever after when I saw her in anything.

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Batstuff #17

Guss who I dressed as in 1966 for Halloween? Leftover Zorro gloves and all.

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1966 Halloween Costumes

By Halloween of '66, superheroes were all the rage. These were seen over at Al Bigley's blog!

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The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

One of my very favorite memories of 1966 is going with my parents to see Don Knotts in THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN. I know Don, of course, as Barney on TV's ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. This solo vehicle perfectly captures that Barney feel while thrusting him into the reluctant hero role he would end up playing in a number of surprisingly good and funny films throughout the decade. 

A major component of THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN's success was Vic Mizzy's score, some of which can be heard on the trailer below. 

Still one of my favorite movies from the sixties.

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