In the summer of 1959 when I was seven, my mother took me on a trip east — to New York, Hartford and Boston in that order. The idea was to sight-see and introduce me to relatives. I guess she thought I was old enough to see just what kind of family I was a part of.

The week in New York, we stayed at the Taft Hotel on Seventh Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets and did touristy things like riding the Staten Island Ferry and visiting the Statue of Liberty. One morning, my mother announced we were going to go to Rockefeller Center, walk around for a while, then take in a matinee of the movie that was playing at Radio City Music Hall. It was The Nun's Story starring Audrey Hepburn. If you ever decide your seven-year-old deserves a good beating but wish to avoid corporal punishment, make him sit through The Nun's Story, instead. Whatever it was he did, he'll never do it again.

Before we got to that, as we wandered through Rockefeller Center, a polite man approached us. He explained that he was recruiting audiences and that he could arrange for us to get a free tour of the NBC Studios, see one of our favorite game shows done live and (he emphasized the "and") take home a prize. All it would take was about two hours of our time. My mother motioned to me and said, "I thought you had to be a certain age to be in the audience for a TV show."

I guess they were desperate for warm bodies that day. He looked me over and said, "Yes, well, usually but he seems like a well-behaved lad. I can arrange for special tickets so he'll get in." My mother decided we could catch a later show of The Nun's Story and asked if we could see them do Treasure Hunt, which was then a popular NBC game show starring Jan Murray. The gent scanned his clipboard and said, "I'm not sure if there are any special tickets left for Treasure Hunt. They'd have to tell you upstairs."

He was probably lying to us. He probably knew darn well there were no tickets of any kind left for Treasure Hunt. His mission was to get us upstairs where we could be diverted into some other show that was hard-up for seat-fillers.

The next thing we knew, we were getting a quick mini-tour of NBC, conducted by a cheery tour guide who showed us almost nothing but kept encouraging us to ask questions. I did and she couldn't answer a one of them. Then we were at a high desk — these are images I remember — where another cheery person informed us that they couldn't get us into Treasure Hunt but we could see Concentration. We liked that show too…and what the heck? We were already there and it was free and that show gave out prizes to the audience, too. So we were handed tickets and directed to a line of other folks who'd been conscripted from the street.

There, we waited for what seemed like days. Minutes you spend waiting seem like days when you're seven. I was bored silly until, suddenly and without warning, Jan Murray came by. He was wearing a loud checked sport coat and I think he was out there to apologize to people who'd been waiting in another line to see Treasure Hunt and didn't get in. But then he came over and shook some hands in our line and I got to meet him.

I had met TV stars before. The lady who lived next door to us back home was on an ABC series then but this was different. She was like family and Jan Murray was a person who, insofar as I was concerned, existed only on television. He was also male and funny and charming and he made a big impression on me. I never wanted to be on TV but I do vaguely recall a little wish-dream that struck me at that moment. It had to do with people being as happy to see me as everyone was that day to see Jan Murray.

Then Mr. Murray did something amazing…even magical.  Now, you have to remember that this show was done live.  As he did it on stage, it was broadcast simultaneously to much of the country.  There could be no delays in starting.

The stage manager came out into the hall to fetch him and to say, "Jan, three minutes," meaning, "Get your ass in there, fella.  The show's about to start!"  Jan nodded and continued greeting people in line and signing autographs.

Then it was "Jan, two minutes."  Jan acknowledged the time and went right on signing his name on whatever scraps of paper people could come up with.

Before you knew it, the stage manager was saying — with great desperation in his voice — "Jan, please…one minute!" Jan told him not to worry, he'd be fine…and went on signing and shaking hands.

There was a black-and-white TV monitor on a stand in the hall. Suddenly, it was showing the opening of Treasure Hunt, the opening that America was watching. The announcer was about to introduce Jan Murray and Jan Murray was still in the hallway signing autographs for tourists! The stage manager was pleading but Jan, with no ruffled feathers, merely told him to relax. Then he thanked us all again for coming, turned and walked into the studio —

— and five seconds later, walked out onto live television!

I saw this. I saw this with my own young eyes. A human being in full-color who was three feet from me turned, walked through a portal and emerged on live, black-and-white television.

It still gives me a little chill to recall it. That, folks, is magic.

I had not quite gotten over it when, maybe fifteen minutes later, we were herded into the studio where Concentration was done and seated in bleacher-type seats. Ours were way over on the end and from where they stuck me, I could see absolutely nothing of the area where the host and players would be. I could see about a third of the big Concentration game board and that was about it. This was not because of my lack of height back then. It was because of all the lights and cameras and equipment in the way. Kareem Abdul Jabbar would not have been able to see anything from where they put me. I ended up watching the whole show on one of the monitors and thinking, "Gee, I could have seen exactly the same thing at home without waiting in that line, plus I could be eating cookies."

To further diminish the experience, the show's regular host Hugh Downs was off that day and someone else (I don't recall who) was filling in. Because he made his entrance after we sat down and exited before we left, I never saw him except on the monitor.

We'd been promised prizes and usually in the world of game shows, the word "prize" suggests large amounts of cash, household appliances and vacations. In this case, it suggested one tiny, travel-size tube of the white Vaseline® brand petroleum jelly. As we filed out, an NBC page handed one to each of us and even the adults were audibly disappointed. The next day, I saw them for sale in a pharmacy and they were 39 cents, which wasn't much of a prize even in 1959. I'd been expecting a new Chevrolet and a case of Turtle Wax…although come to think of it, maybe Turtle Wax is the white Vaseline® brand petroleum jelly.

All in all, it was not the most memorable part of that trip to New York. I think the most memorable part, not counting Jan Murray ascending into the airwaves before my very eyes, was after The Nun's Story when my mother, partly by way of apology, took me to the famous Automat restaurant. I liked that. That place was kind of magical too, even if no human beings walked from reality right onto a TV screen.

John Morrow, publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector, informs me that the Doctor Doom factoid on Wikipedia was taken from an "April Fool" article in his magazine. Someone apparently didn't read all the way to the end. The story has now been removed from Wikipedia. It was up there for quite a while, I'm told. Which should serve as a reminder to us that you can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia. Or anywhere.

Over on the Wikipedia page for the Marvel villain, Doctor Doom, one finds this paragraph…

In 1969 Marvel announced plans to launch Doom in his own comic book, Doctor Doom. The comic was due for release in September 1969, with the story and penciling by Jack Kirby, and would be the first time a villain had received a solo title. Pressure from parental groups and the adverse publicity caused by the news forced Marvel to cancel the title and pulp the entire print run, with only Kirby's file copy surviving. Kirby's decision to leave Marvel shortly after was influenced to some extent by these events.

This is about 99.3% untrue. Marvel did decide to try a Doctor Doom comic around then and they developed a couple of stories with different writers and artists. One was printed as the lead feature in Marvel Super Heroes #20 (May, 1969) and the rest were discarded for creative reasons. Jack Kirby had nothing to do with any of them. There were no protests over the one book that was printed, nothing was pulped, and Kirby's decision to leave Marvel had nothing to do with all these things that never happened.

Aside from that, it's pretty much accurate.

Does anyone know where to procure a copy of a 1970 movie starring Rod Taylor called The Man Who Had Power Over Women? Drop me a note if you do.

Here's a list of 13 Patent-Holding Celebrity Inventors. One that they might have included was the great ventriloquist, Paul Winchell. He not only held the patent on an artificial heart he invented but dozens of other patents, as well. He invented an early model disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter, a retractable fountain pen and many others. I never saw any proof of it but Paul used to claim he invented — and I think he said he patented — the idea of hanging a tennis ball in your garage so that when you drive in and your windshield comes into contact with it, you know when to stop your car. Clever man.

Another photo from my stash. That's my old pal, Steve Gerber. Steve passed away in February of '08 and it still hurts.

This is for those of you who venture near the Hollywood area — Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset, Vine, etc. The next month or three, you might want to be prepared. The local Chamber of Commerce has gotten more cooperative with producers and other entrepreneurs who want to block off streets. Over the next few weeks, there will be many long stretches — whole days, even — when boulevards will be blocked off to accommodate filmings, tapings, premieres and even (this Thursday) a free Depeche Mode concert.

The workaround, should you need to travel in or through that area, is to consult Navigate Hollywood, a website via which you can plan your travel and be up to date on what throughways ain't going through. But don't put total faith in it. Whoever configured the site thinks the Magic Castle is at Franklin and Vine. It isn't. It's at Franklin and Orange, which is a little less than a mile away. I just sent them a note about this. Let's see how long it takes them to fix it.

I just realized I can make the joke better…

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has announced that he's going to lead a drive to block the legalization of same-sex wedlock in New York. Giuliani said that he believes marriage is the sacred union of one occasional cross-dresser and a different woman every few years.

And maybe I can get something in there about him marrying his cousin.

Really. There are things I still admire about Mr. Giuliani but him lecturing people about proper relationships is like Newt Gingrinch lecturing people about proper relationships. Oh, wait. He's doing it, too.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has announced that he's going to lead a drive to block the legalization of same-sex wedlock in New York. Giuliani said that he believes marriage is the sacred union of one man and a different woman every few years.

U.S. agents waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in one month. Why so many? Did he not tell them anything the first 182 times and they thought, "Ah…the 183rd time! That's when they all crack!"? Or did he keep giving them useful info each time and they couldn't resist going back over and over to see if he had any more in him? I've never been waterboarded but I have the feeling that if I had anything I could say that would get them to stop doing it to me, you'd get it out of me by, oh, maybe the second time. Maybe halfway through the first.

If they kept doing it, I'd tell them everything and if that wasn't enough, I'd just start making up stuff. You wouldn't believe the crap I'd come up with by my fourth or fifth waterboarding. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to masterminding the 9/11 attacks, plus roles in the Richard Reid shoe bombing attempt, the Bali nightclub bombing in Indonesia, the murder of Daniel Pearl, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and various other attacks. Waterboard me six times and I'd plead guilty to all that, plus shooting J.F.K. from the grassy knoll while banging Marilyn Monroe and hiding O.J.'s knife.

The board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild has voted — barely — to recommend that its membership accept the contract that its negotiators brought back. The tally was close — 53.4% to 46.6% — which is probably closer than most folks expected. It opens the door wide to a bloody pro/con battle over ratification and that we shall see. A large part of SAG feels they've come too far to take essentially the same thing the other guilds did in "new media." Moreover, in some ways those terms are worse when they're applied to actors.

Ballots will go out around May 1 and are due back at the end of the month. Between now and the due date, we're going to see a lot of yelling and demonstrations and rallies and web campaigns. My guess though is that in the end, the contract will pass by a wider margin with the membership than it did at the board level. It's not so much that the members will like it any more but that they're worn down, worried about a permanent rupture in their guild, and don't see a leader able to carry them into battle.

A few days ago, we announced The "Let's Restore Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project. The goal, of course, is to replace Len's collection of comic books he wrote…a collection that was lost, along with many other things, in a recent house fire. The response has been terrific. I just uploaded an amended list of what we need. If you take a look at it, you'll be amazed and impressed by how much we don't need — how many comics have been "pledged" by Len's friends and fans. Go on. Take a look at the list I just uploaded.

There are, as you can see, still a lot more we do have to locate…but I'm sure impressed at what's been offered so far.

A few other points…

• Please don't mail us anything until we tell you. A couple of folks have already shipped us books that I know are already in the mail from someone else.
• Folks are writing to ask if condition matters. Well, sort of. If you have a beat-up copy of a book we need, I may ask you to hold onto it for a bit and see if someone else comes up with a better copy.
• Folks are also offering Len copies of comics that he once autographed to them. The gesture is appreciated but he'd rather you held onto those, thanks.
• No, we are not asking for money. I'm going to stand the cost of a Public Storage Locker for the year or so it's going to take Len to get his office back. The locker will be necessary because not only are so many of you sending copies of comics that Len wrote but several publishers are sending crates of books that Len didn't write but lost in the fire. Imagine that! Generous, compassionate publishers!
• Our list does not include most comics Len edited but did not write. Frankly, I thought that we'd be doing well just to get the comics he wrote…but people are also offering books he edited. I don't have a list ready of them but if you have some of those you'd like him to have, we'll take 'em! Send me a note (the address is on our special webpage for the cause) and let me know what you've got.
• We will have folks at upcoming comic conventions who are deputized to accept donations for the cause. If you have something on our "wanted" list, you can give it to them and they'll get it to us. First up is Sunday, April 26 — the MCBA MicroCon Comic Book Party in St. Paul, Minnesota. If you're there and you have something for Len, seek out Melissa Kaercher or Christopher Jones, both of whom will have tables there. They'll gladly accept your funnybooks and send them on. Thanks, Melissa and Christopher!
• I will be appearing next weekend (April 25-26) at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. Methinks someone there might have comics they'd like to have go to Len but I'm going to be travelling light. Is there someone who'll be there who'd be willing to take home whatever comics people there wish to donate and then ship them to me?
• Lastly for now: I'm swamped with deadlines and such at the moment so it may be a few days, maybe even a week or more before I respond to some offers and inquiries. It's not that we don't appreciate your offers. It's just that some days, I'm juggling a few too many cats here. If you write, you will hear back…eventually.

That's about it for now. Thanks to everyone for helping Len and doing your part to destroy my long-held belief that comic fans are cheap.

Many of you wrote me to say you enjoyed the little tale of the ad-lib that found its way into the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian. If you did — and I should have mentioned this but being an occasional lunkhead, didn't think of it — you'd enjoy a whole book of behind-the-scenes accounts from the making of that great film. My pal Kim "Howard" Johnson, the Python expert I consulted, was there and he kept a diary! It was recently published as Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday and it's one of those must-haves for anyone who cares about Python or even about how funny movies come to be. That's my recommendation. Here's an Amazon link to order one.