My pal (and the hardest working man in the comic community, this time of year) Gary Sassaman finds an interesting example of an old pulp cover that was ripped-off for a classic cover on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Mort Weisinger was the editor of Olsen at the time and Gary wonders if Mort had a hand in the creation of the original version, which appeared on the pulp magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories. Answer: Yes. Thrilling Wonder Stories was published by Standard Magazines, and Weisinger was its editor from around 1936 through 1940. This is the July, 1940 issue so it was probably one of his last issues.
Betcha the Jimmy Olsen cover came about as follows. Weisinger used to use the children who lived in his neighborhood as a kind of unofficial "focus group." He'd take crates of comics home from the office and hand them out every Saturday afternoon at some specified time. But before he gave out the comics, he'd ask the kids which covers they liked, what they'd like to see Superman do, etc. One time, one of them said, "I wanna see Superman fight King Kong" and when all the others chimed in that that would be neat, Weisinger made a note to go to the office and order up a cover of Superman fighting a giant ape who was climbing a building. The script was later written around the cover.
So my guess here is that Weisinger had a copy of that pulp around and showed it to the neighborhood tots one Saturday. When he got an enthusiastic response, he took the pulp into the office, handed it to artist Curt Swan and said "Here, draw this but make the monster Jimmy Olsen!" Which would explain the similarities not only in idea but in composition. Swan was not the kind of artist who would have copied someone else's cover design in any way unless ordered to do so.
Quite a few pulp covers morphed into comic book covers, though usually not that blatantly. Quite a few comic writers were former pulp writers so a lot of ideas were recycled that way, as well. I'm sure there must be examples of some of those comic book ideas that came from the pulps going on to become a videogame or some other 21st century concoction. What goes around comes around and vice-versa.
A week or two ago, I linked to a clip from one of the Night of 100 Stars specials — a rather nice dance number filled with great dancers. Here are two more clips from what I believe is the same special. (And if so, I'm curious as to why Bob Fosse was in the one where the stars just walked out instead of the one where they danced, at least a little.) These are both more along the lines of most of the numbers on these specials as I recall them, with celebrities just coming out and receiving applause for doing darn near nothing besides showing up...although I must say that putting Burgess Meredith in a kick line is the very definition of Entertainment.
The first one I'll link to is a cavalcade of male celebrities to the tune of "One" from A Chorus Line. As I watched this, I was thinking that it was a slight misuse of that song, which was intended to spotlight the backup dancers and chorus and not a star...and of course, here it's used to spotlight nothing but stars who are being carried by the chorus. Notice how many of the celebs don't even know which way to walk until they are guided by their smiling Rockette partner. Anyway, I thought this was a perversion of the song "One" until I noticed that one of the guys who wrote the tune is among the stars...so I figure if it didn't bother him, it doesn't bother me. This is the clip in which Mr. Fosse appears, strutting out to the big song from a musical that he reportedly loathed with all his might. I won't tell you who the other people in the number are because the surprises are most of the fun. Here it is...
And now, here's another clip, this one featuring lovely female celebs of the day ('85, it says) modelling fashions and jewels. It's a nice segment even if it does look like some of the ladies are thinking to themselves, "What the hell am I doing here?" If this was taped the same day as the other number, I'm guessing that Fosse hit on at least half of them.
Continuing with our festival of great commercials, we have a musical minute for Ajax, the Foaming Cleanser...and no, I don't know who did the singing. Thurl Ravenscroft provided the bass voice in some of these but I don't think that's him in this one. The voiceover at the beginning and the speaking voice of the fat elf are by Paul Frees, and the little elf is June Foray. I'm working now with June on her autobiography and it's amazing how many things like this she did and can barely remember. Once you jostle her memory though, she can usually recall doing it. I'll try showing this to her in the next week or so and I'll let you know what, if anything, I learn.
Sorry but I just spotted this. The Sundance Channel is abandoning its reputation for quality programming! In about six hours (9:20 AM Eastern, 6:20 AM Pacific) they're running The Gong Show Movie, Chuck Barris's 1980 somewhat autobiographical and taste-numbing motion picture. Some of you will probably curse that you missed this chance to record it...and while it doesn't seem to be scheduled again, we'll keep an eye out and see if it is.
In the meantime, if you checked in here before bedtime and rushed to set your TiVo or VCR, just appreciate what a valuable service this website can be.
June 20, 2006
