Balladeer's Blog

June 26, 2026 · 4:34 pm

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: 1954-1955 SEASON OF U.S. STEEL HOUR

Previously, Balladeer’s Blog examined the 1953-1954 episodes of this revered anthology series HERE. Today I review standout episodes of the 1954-1955 season.

1954-1955 SEASON

THE NOTEBOOK WARRIOR (Sep 14th, 1954) – Ben Gazzara stars as a talented violinist who is drafted into the army and has difficulty adapting to the rigid lifestyle. Richard Kiley also stars.

BASEBALL BLUES (Sep 28th) – A forty-year-old baseball pitcher tries to come to terms with his impending retirement. Starring Edward Andrews and Frank Lovejoy.

THE MAN WITH THE GUN (Oct 12th) – Anti-communist activists suffer in a concentration camp in Europe. Gary Merrill, Edward Binns, Leueen McGrath and Dana Wynter star. Continue reading →

JUNE TWENTY-SIXTH NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is here with a Friday current events roundup.

NATO CHIEF MARK RUTTE PRAISES PRESIDENT TRUMP’S HANDLING OF IRAN SITUATION.

SENATORS RAND PAUL AND BILL CASSIDY CHANGE THEIR VOTES AND GIVE PRESIDENT TRUMP A WIN ON THE RESTRAINTS THAT ANTI-TRUMPERS THOUGHT THEY HAD PUT ON HIM REGARDING IRAN.

CURRENT IRANIAN REGIME IRATE ABOUT GAY PRIDE SYMBOLS AT SEATTLE WORLD CUP GAME. They want FIFA to ban such symbols at any more games. Democrat hypocrites silent because they support that regime simply because it is hostile to Trump. Cowards.

MAJORITY MUSLIM COUNCIL IN MICHIGAN TOWN BANS THE GAY FLAG FROM PUBLIC PROPERTY. As usual, Democrats were wrong when they claimed that the delicate little darlings would NEVER commit intolerant acts like this and that it was “Islamophobic” to even suggest it. I guess the Muslim majority is making gay people feel “unsafe”, right Democrats?

VIDEO: DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN SETH MOULTON PHYSICALLY ATTACKS REPORTER OVER DEMOCRAT GRAHAM “NAZI TATTOO” PLATNER. This would dominate an entire news cycle if the other political party did it. Will Republicans EVER try to catch up with Democrats in the Media Outlet Arms Race?

DEMOCRAT ANDREW CUOMO COURAGEOUSLY BLASTS HIS PARTY FOR SUPPORTING GRAHAM “NAZI TATTOO” PLATNER.

DEMOCRAT LETITIA JAMES ACCUSES FANATIC DEMOCRAT MAYOR MAMDANI OF “BLOWING UP THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.” Well, Democrats drove away all of us rational Democrats over the years, leaving the Party at the mercy of Mamdani and his ilk. More HERE. Related HERE.

FATHER OF VICTIM MURDERED BY KARMELO ANTHONY CALLS OUT PROPAGANDIST SUNNY HOSTIN FOR TRYING TO MONETIZE HIS SON AUSTIN’S DEATH. Sunny, Whoopi (LOL) and the rest of The View‘s staff are lying hatemongers. Remember when Whoopi (LOL) claimed Trump was going to nullify interracial marriages? Whoopi (LOL) is pathetic and deranged.

PRESIDENT TRUMP HOSTS DINNER FOR AMERICAN FARMERS IN THE WHITE HOUSE ROSE GARDEN.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SENTENCED TO EIGHT YEARS FOR THEIR PART IN AN EIGHTY-NINE-MILLION-DOLLAR PAYROLL SCAM. Privileged white male one percenter Bruce Springsteen’s kind of guy!

BOB IGER REVEALS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DEMOCRAT PROPAGANDIST JIMMY KIMMEL’S SUSPENSION. Yet Kimmel and filth like him were lying about it for months, calling Trump “a dictator.”

GAY TEACHER ADMITS ON CAMERA TO GROOMING CHILDREN. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Anti-Donald Trump hysteria, Democrat corruption, Democrat fascism, Democrat violence, Independent Voters, opinion, politics, WE NEED THIRD PARTIES

June 25, 2026 · 7:48 pm

JOHN PAUL JONES (1959) MOVIE REVIEW

With the 4th of July fast approaching, here’s another item for America’s 250th birthday – a biopic of our nation’s early naval hero.

JOHN PAUL JONES (1959) – Robert Stack stars as the title character, Charles Coburn plays Benjamin Franklin, Bette Davis is Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, Macdonald Carey is Patrick Henry and Thomas Gomez portrays Commodore Esek Hopkins. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate John Paul Jones a 6. I wish it could be higher.

This movie looks good enough, but Stack’s performance is a bit too dry and the story rambles on for too long after the logical end point when the Revolutionary War is over. Some brief closing text could have covered John Paul Jones’s career in the Russian Navy from 1787 onward. Just a quick note acknowledging the damage he wrought to the Turkish Navy on Russia’s behalf and bring on the closing credits.

The film also subjects us to far too much of Jones’s younger years and Robert Stack’s Forever 31 face at the time is comically distracting. (I Was a Teenage Thirtysomething) I wish more biopics used the terrific approach of Patton (1970) – focus on the most eventful years of the main character’s life with dialogue filling viewers in on their early life. Continue reading →

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June 25, 2026 · 9:16 am

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: KENNEBEC VALLEY COLLEGE

Balladeer’s Blog is back with another college sports team that goes outside the overused names like Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats.

KENNEBEC VALLEY COLLEGE Continue reading →

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Tagged as Balladeer's Blog, blogging, college sports, Cool names and cool logos, glitternight.com, Kennebec Valley College

June 24, 2026 · 3:37 pm

B-MOVIE HOSTESS: ANGIE LABANSHEE (1985-1986)

ANGIE LABANSHEE (Joan Kelley-Cordt) hosted the B-Movie show Spooks Hotel Friday nights at 10:30 on KDAO Channel 44 in Marshalltown, Iowa.

This sultry banshee with the Transylvanian accent was the manager of the Spooks Hotel, whose owner Mrs. Spooks was traveling the world off the money the hotel made for her.

Joan Kelley (Cordt after her February 1986 marriage) and her brother Kevin were inspired to create, direct and produce Spooks Hotel by their fondness for the 1960s and 1970s Movie Host show Gravesend Manor, broadcast out of Ames, IA.

Among the supporting characters they came up with to appear alongside Angie LaBanshee were Elmer the Mummy, who was the Bellboy; multi-ethnic Master Chef Pierre O’Brien, expert pizza maker from Germany; French Maid Fifi; and Kevin himself as the voice of the cheap, ugly puppet Old Man Dan, Elmer’s father. Somehow.

After the success of the pilot episode, Spooks Hotel aired as a series, with Joan producing, Kevin directing and both of them writing the show. Angie hosted Psychotronic movies accompanied by Host Segments from October 1985 well into 1986. Episodes were taped Wednesdays for their Friday broadcast.

The program’s success let Joan advance to hosting the station’s Monday through Friday show Marshalltown Today during 1987 and 1988. In 1991 Angie LaBanshee and some of her Spooks Hotel backup characters did a one-off Spooks Hotel special titled The Elmer Awards, complete with various categories of Bad Movies that featured several nominees and ultimately a winner read from an envelope.

You can’t keep a good banshee down, however, and for Halloween 1992 Spooks Hotel was back with a special Double Feature consisting of Planet of Blood (1966) and The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962). In 1999 the show returned for a new series of episodes, this time with Joan Kelley-Cordt hosting as Mrs. Spooks herself instead of Angie LaBanshee. That limited run of 5 episodes aired during the closing weeks of 1999 into Y2K.

Some 1985 episodes of Spooks Hotel: Continue reading →

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June 24, 2026 · 6:29 am

NEWS ROUNDUP FOR JUNE TWENTY-FOURTH

Here’s a mid-week current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

A LOOK AT HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP BROUGHT DOWN RENT PRICES. More HERE.

It’s been said over and over that Trump is the greatest president for the working class and the poor. I know, right?

U.K. – MORE GROOMING GANG INQUIRIES.

VIDEO: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MEMBERS ANNOUNCE HUNDREDS OF ARRESTS AND CRACKDOWNS OVER SIX AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS OF FRAUD IN PROGRAMS. Another reason why America’s cesspool of a political establishment has been trying to destroy the outsider Trump for over a decade. More HERE. And HERE.

FORTY-SEVEN MILLION, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS IN UNEMPLOYMENT FRAUD – INCLUDING TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS – HAPPENED UNDER NORTH CAROLINA’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR ROY COOPER.

DEMOCRAT TERRORIST GROUP ANTIFA MEMBERS GET COLLECTIVE FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY YEAR SENTENCE FOR THEIR NORTH TEXAS ATTACK. More HERE. Remember back during Trump’s first term when his haters – including Republican filth like Paul Ryan – were trying to pretend Antifa didn’t exist and that Trump was lying?

ITEM ABOUT THE CRIMES THAT DIDN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN BUT DO BECAUSE DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO SECURE THE BORDER AND ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS. In fact, Democrats do all they can to obstruct the arrests of illegal immigrants who have committed additional crimes.

NEW YORK SCHOOL DISTRICT VICE PRESIDENT ARRESTED FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?

ONE LONE DISTRICT JUDGE BLOCKS PRESIDENTIAL ACTION AT FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE NATIONAL PARKS. Judicial overreach continues.

ANOTHER DISTRICT JUDGE BLOCKS MEASURES TO FIGHT VOTE FRAUD. Naturally, she was appointed by Biden.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO WAS “A TEACHER” ARRESTED IN TREN DE ARAGUA MASS SHOOTING.

TWO TRUMP-HATING CANDIDATES – DAN GOLDMAN AND GEORGE CONWAY – CRUSHED IN PRIMARY ELECTION. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Anti-Donald Trump hysteria, Democrat corruption, Democrat fascism, Democrat violence, Independent Voters, opinion, politics

June 23, 2026 · 6:03 pm

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: TO THE MOON AND BACK IN NINETY DAYS (1917)

TO THE MOON & BACK IN NINETY DAYS (1917) – By John Y. Brown. Balladeer’s Blog presents more Ancient Science Fiction (or Vintage Science Fiction if you prefer). This story was first penned in 1917 and later published by the Lunar Publishing Company in 1922.

Brown himself pretended to narrate the adventure, which hewed so closely to what was known about the moon back then that it must have both educated and entertained readers. The story says that in 1914 our narrator met Captain Horace Ewald, a brilliant nautical engineer and scientist in Alton, IL.

Captain Ewald invited Brown along on his planned expedition to the moon in what he dubbed his “Ethereal Vessel” but which we would call a spaceship. The craft was 235 feet tall with the shape of a dome fused to prisms. Ewald and his team constructed the Ethereal Vessel out of aluminum plating and used electric batteries to power the anti-gravity pods. Continue reading →

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June 23, 2026 · 8:10 am

SOME REVOLUTIONARY WAR ACTIONS DURING 1779

A sampling of some of the Revolutionary War fighting during 1779.

JANUARY 6th – Marching from northern Florida, a combined force of over 2,000 British Regulars, Colonial Loyalists to Britain and Native American allies of the British surrounded U.S. Forts Sunbury and Morris in Georgia.

JANUARY 9th – After 3 days of siege operations including bombardment, American Major Joseph Lane surrenders Forts Sunbury and Morris along with his 200-250 soldiers and at least 24 cannon to the British forces under General Augustine Prevost. Prevost renames Fort Morris to Fort George in honor of insane King George III and uses Fort Sunbury to hold American POWs.

JAUARY 10th – In France, American naval hero John Paul Jones is given a ship that he repairs and names the Bonhomme Richard after Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. Continue reading →

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June 22, 2026 · 4:20 pm

FOOL KILLER PART SIXTY-NINE: MARCH 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 69 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the March 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** Mining companies that paid their employees in the infamous Company Scrip which wasn’t real money but could only be spent at the Company Store just to let the mine owners get back much of what they paid their miners as those employees had to buy groceries, clothing, etc. at Company Stores since no one else would accept the scrip as payment.

*** Democrat President Woodrow Wilson’s administration for supposedly making the economy so bad that more and more working-class people would be killing themselves with the new coffin-shaped mercury bichloride pills.

NOTE: As I’ve mentioned in earlier Fool Killer installments, I find it fascinating how in the 19-teens and twenties socialists (and Pearson openly called himself one) hated Woodrow Wilson and denounced him as an ally of capitalist tycoons. Today, of course, socialists tend to like Wilson and it’s Republicans who hate him, blaming his policies for supposedly setting the U.S. on what they see as the disastrous route that we are still on today in their eyes.

As another reminder of how one cannot do one-to-one comparisons with political affiliations then and now, bear in mind that Wilson opposed voting rights for women, but Pearson and his Fool Killer supported them.

*** Get-rich-quick authors who were selling books and courses about how to write photoplays (called screenplays today) so that the buyer could make money writing for the ever-growing movie industry. So basically, the Syd Fields of 1914.

*** The Charlotte Observer newspaper, where Pearson used to work, for supposedly having many employees who smoked tobacco and used drugs despite their editorial pages always condemning the “evils” of smoking and drug use. NOTE: Pearson counted alcohol and Coca-Cola as “drugs.” Continue reading →

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Tagged as Balladeer's Blog, blogging, Fool Killer, Fool Killer lore, glitternight.com, Myths and Folktales, Neglected history

June 22, 2026 · 9:12 am