Recommended
Here you'll find a list of items which I consider recommended viewing, listening, or reading. Some of these items will give you a better understanding of the comic and its setting, and some are things I just think are awesome enough for the world to hear more about. Some are out of print, but well worth the effort of tracking down.
Edward Rowe Snow was known as the "Flying Santa Claus" to lighthouse keepers. Snow would rent a small plane during the Christmas holiday and make tireless rounds of New England lighthouses to offer some cheer to the crews. Snow saved Boston Harbor's Fort Warren for preservation, and was called "just about the best chronicler of the days of sail." Until his death in 1982, Snow had written over eighty books about the New England coast, sailing, shipwrecks, and mysteries. His writing style is both gripping and completely accessible, and highly recommended.
Alton H. Blackington was a noted writer and columnist on all things New England. Blackington hosted a radio show on Boston's WBZ for many years, and wrote often for Yankee Magazine. He delivered his radio show, "Yankee Yarns," in a true Yankee accent, and each fifteen minute installment is captivating and informative. Blackington takes us back to a time of simplicity and to me, is the quintessential spinner of tales from New England's "good ol' days." Two book collections of "Yankee Yarns," based on his radio program and newspaper and magazine columns are available, though both are currently out of print. Only about forty-nine of the radio shows still exist, but you can obtain a MP3 CD these treasures at www.dadsotr.com.
Elizabeth Hough Sechrist was a librarian in Bethlehem, PA. She was also a teller of tales, plays, poems, and stories for young people. Two of her titles have always captivated me from the first time I found them in my elementary school's library. Both "Heigh-Ho for Halloween" and "It's Time for Thanksgiving" are timeless fare for youngsters, despite being written over fifty years ago. Perhaps it's that old-timey quality which makes them so attractive to me even today. The books have stories, plays, poems, and games related to their respective holiday theme. Collaborator and co-librarian Janette Woolsey assists with "ITFT", and Guy Fry's whimsical spot illustrations grace many of Sechrist's books.
The Great Gildersleeve radio program ran for many years on NBC. The first bona fide spin off in broadcast entertainment history, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve first appeared on the famous "Fibber McGee & Molly" program. The original actor to play Gildersleeve, Harold Peary, had a true old-fashioned singing voice, and a goofy laugh that became his signature. The show was set in a town called Summerfield, and the location of said town was never revealed. It could very well have been set in New England, especially when you hear the regular character of the town pharmacist, Mr. Peevey, who was quite Yankeeish. The early years, up through World War Two are the best. The show can be found at a very reasonable price on MP3 CDs at www.dadsotr.com.
Ellen MacGregor penned the wonderful "Miss Pickerell" series between the 1950s and 1970s, starting with "Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars". Miss Pickerell was an elderly woman who drove a Model T and lived on a farm at Square Toe Mountain with her pet cow and her pet cat Pumpkins. One morning she awoke to find a rocketship in her pasture, and wound up taking a trip with a space crew on their way to Mars. Later adventures had Miss Pickerell visiting the Moon, a space station, the Arctic, a nuclear submarine, and even a supertanker! Although the science is fanciful and outdated, the stories are still fun for children of all ages. Out of print, of course, but easily obtained from Amazon.com or eBay. Charles Geer illustrates in his familliar and whimsical loose pen and ink style.
Shipwrecks are nothing new in New England. At one time, there were several thousand recorded, but many of those tales of shipwreck seem to have happened long, long ago, while others seem almost like fiction today. A real shipwreck story that happened in my lifetime was that of the Argo Merchant. The ship sank in 1976 off Nantucket Island, and created the largest coastal oil spill up to that time. The name of the ship was all over the news of the day, as you can imagine. Ron Winslow reported on the wreck, and tells the tale of the doomed tanker in "Hard Aground".
Tasha Tudor's "Pumpkin Moonshine" was one of her first published works. The old fashioned story of a little girl looking for the perfect pumpkin to make a pumkin moonshine (jack o' lantern), is a simple tale that is lovingly illustrated in Tudor's pen & ink style.
"Cork of the Colonies" is a collection of detective stories set in the Revolutionary Era. It's the only collection of S.S. Rafferty's Captain Cork character that I've been able to find, sadly. The series first ran in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in the 1970s. The book, long out of print, includes the recipies for Captain Cork's Summer and Winter "Knock," a grog drink that was not for the faint of heart. The book has thirteen tales for the thirteen colonies.
Irving Berlin's "Holiday Inn" is one of my very favorite films. Obstensively a Christmas film, you could easily watch it at any time of year. The musical story of Bing Crosby's Connecticut inn (open holidays only), is an absolute joy as the lazy entertainer he plays wants to quit show business for the serenity of the farm life. His romantic rival, Fred Astaire, taps his way through some stellar numbers, including the breathless "Just Say It With Firecrackers", and Bing introduces America to his signature tune, "White Christmas". Irving Bacon playes a quintessential Yankee, and Walter Abel is brilliant as a scheming talent agent.
Bertrand R. Brinley is a hero to anyone who grew up reading his imaginative short stories about the adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club of Mammoth Falls. The Mad Scientists' Club takes place in an Autumn Lake-like town, in which a group of youths use science and electronics to find adventure. The gang's Henry Mulligan character is very Dennisian. Four Mad Scientists' Club books are back in print thanks to Purple House Press, starting with two collections of short stories ("Adventures", "More Adventures"), and followed by two full-length novels ("The Big Kerplop" and "The Big Chunk of Ice"). Charles Geer illustrates each of the books.
You often hear mention in the comic about Doctor Who. This British sci-fi series is the longest running program in the history of the genre. The Doctor was a Time Lord who had a penchant for helping Earth survive numerous alien invasions and other calamities. If you ever wondered where the Borg or the ideas for "Alien" came from, they were ripped off from "Doctor Who". The new series is very good, but the real fun is in the Tom Baker Era of the time-travelling character. All of the adventures have merit, if not in the special effects, then in the writing and acting. Mark (and I) are big fans of the good Doctor!
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's existential space epic, "Space: 1999" is one of my all-time favorite shows. The unlikely story of the Moon and the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, blasted out of Earth orbit to roam the galaxy, was an evolution on the sci-fi series that preceeded it, the original "Star Trek". Of course "Trek" was great, but the moody, almost Kubrickian tone of "Space: 1999", as well as the stunning sets, imaginative lighting, bombastic music, and excellent miniatures, makes the much-maligned and under-appreciated "Space: 1999" a high water mark of science fiction television. Retooled for Year Two, the show became a goofy disco-era parody of itself. Sad, but still fun in its own way.
Although some felt that Gregory Peck was too young to play Captain Ahab, this version of the classic "Moby Dick" is, to me, the definitive version. And Richard Basehart is way underrated. In a brief appearance, Orson Welles plays an unforgettable Father Mapple. Beyond the classic tale, and a study in obsession, this is the quintessential story of New England whalers and the dangers they faced. And Peck was awesome as Ahab.
Speaking of Richard Basehart, he portrayed Admiral Nelson on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," the scientific genius behind the atomic supersub, Seaview. The first two and a half seasons of the awesome sci-fi submarine adventure are not to be missed. Like all Irwin Allen productions, it later became a pointless monsterfest, but starting out, it was very creative. The series was based on an earlier film of the same name which starred Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lorre, Gig Young, Fabian, and a youthfully hot Barbara Eden. The ultra-cool Flying Sub came along when the show switched to color in the second season.
Carl Sagan's monumental twelve-part series "Cosmos" broke as much new ground when it premiered as Ken Burns' later series "The Civil War" did. Sagan caught a lot of flack for trying to make science accessible to the masses, but stood by the project anyway. The series is unforgettable, as Sagan teaches the basics of science and physics in a creative and poetic manner. The re-enactment of Kepler's struggle to understand the geometry of the Universe is especially poignant.
Orson Welles' only commercial success, "The Stranger" stars Welles, Loretta Young, and Edward G. Robinson. Welles plays a particularly infamous Nazi concentration camp commandant with a clock fixation, who is hiding in a perfectly normal everyday Connecticut village. His unsuspecting neighbors and new wife see him as a harmless, kindly schoolteacher, but when Nazi-hunter Robinson comes to town, the fear of discovery leads the criminal to commit ever more terrible crimes to safeguard himself from justice. An excellent suspenser made with Welles' usual flair and style.
