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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Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Druid Princess

In 1966, perhaps due to the popularity of customized Hollywood cars like 007's Aston-Martin, the Munster Koach and the Batmobile, this sort of thing was all the rage both for real cars and plastic model cars!

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It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

 

The one true classic amongst the post-CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS specials featuring the PEANUTS characters, IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN aired for the very first time 45 years ago last night... in '66.

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Munsters Comic Strips

TV's THE MUNSTERS left the air in '66 only to be followed by a feature film that same year. In England, though, they continued to be popular in magazine strips like these!

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Lenny Bruce

Today, one can hardly flip through cable channels without finding a stand-up comic using every curse word you've ever heard (and a number you haven't!). A few of them are actually funny...sometimes. They can do it because Robin Williams and Richard Pryor and George Carlin did it first. And THEY could do it because Lenny Bruce got in trouble for it. Lenny Bruce died in 1966...and George Carlin started growing his hair long.

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The 2000 Year Old Man

The great Carl Reiner and the insane Mel Brooks have been doing their clever and generally hilarious 2000 Year Old man schtick off and on for 5 decades! Here they are in 1966 from an episode of HOLLYWOOD PALACE. (Thanks to Leslie Marley for the tip!)

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World's Best Science-Fiction: 1966

•  CONTENTS FROM WIKIPEDIA
• "Sunjammer" (Arthur C. Clarke)
• "Calling Dr. Clockwork" (Ron Goulart)
• "Becalmed in Hell" (Larry Niven)
• "Apartness" (Vernor Vinge)
• "Over the River and Through the Woods" (Clifford D. Simak)
• "Planet of Forgetting" (James H. Schmitz)
• "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (Harlan Ellison)
• "The Decision Makers" (Joseph L. Green)
• "Traveler's Rest" (David I. Masson)
• "Uncollected Works" (Lin Carter)
• "Vanishing Point" (Jonathan Brand)
• "In Our Block" (R. A. Lafferty)
• "Masque of the Red Shift" (Fred Saberhagen)
• "The Captive Djinn" (Christopher Anvil)
• "The Good New Days" (Fritz Leiber)

This volume came out in 1966 and while the rest of the stories are more or less forgotten today except by true SF buffs, the gem is Harlan Ellison's '"Repent, Harlequin,' Said the Tick-Tock Man." Ellison was already well on his way to becoming one of the most lauded and yet controversial science-fiction writers of all-time. 

Also in this collection were Fred Saberhagen and Ron Goulart, both of whom would become favorites of mine in the seventies, and Clifford D. Simak, whose stories I would learn through their fifties old-time radio adaptations. 

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Pogo

By 1966, Walt Kelly's POGO had long-since become one of the great classic comic strips. Here's a Sunday example.

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Scooter

 Scooter wasn't like Binky and Buzzy and all of the other Archie clones. No, Scooter was different. For one thing he was British! And he had a Beatle haircut! And...and...he rode a scooter! Of course all of those things were forgotten soon enough and Scooter became fairly interchangeable with Binky and his Buddies.

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