RELIC OF FORT TEJON (November 3rd, 1957) – Here’s something a little different from the usual for Balladeer’s Blog’s Forgotten Television category. The 1950s James Garner series Maverick was an all-time classic, but this particular episode is often overlooked.
The subject matter deals with a camel supposedly left over from the ill-fated American Camel Corps that the U.S. Army tried launching in the 1800s. The project fell through in the end, but the dozens of camels from the experimental program – and their offspring – wound up roaming the deserts of the southwest for decades afterward.
Previously, I’ve examined the James Garner western One Little Indian (1973) in which his soldier character winds up using a camel to flee an unjust mutiny charge, and the legendary Red Ghost of Arizona, a Camel Corps leftover which was sighted multiple times in the 1880s to 1890s and was mistaken for a monster.
In Relic of Fort Tejon, Garner’s iconic Bret Maverick, a gambler/ gunslinger, wins a camel named Fatima from a fellow gambler who conned him into thinking he was using an Arabian stallion as part of a poker wager. Continue reading
In the past, Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog has posted items regarding all the presidents, all the vice presidents, overlooked secretaries of state, etc. This year I’m going with something different, because there is always something so intriguing about contemporary coverage of presidents. 
PREZ Vol 1 #1 (September 1973) 
This caught the attention of corrupt political handler Boss Smiley, whose head was one of those syrupy and kitschy smiley faces that had become widespread by 1973. Boss Smiley and slimy advertising mogul Misery Marko recruited Prez to run for the Senate as their pawn, using the slogan “He made the clocks run on time.” (a Mussolini joke, of course) 
LORRAINE HANSBURY: TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK (January 20th) – A 90-minute biography of African-American playwright Lorraine Hansbury, whose works include A Raisin in the Sun. Her husband Robert Nemiroff wrote this drama which includes performances of scenes from her plays. Ruby Dee, Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner, Barbara Barrie and Claudia McNeil were among the cast members. 
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS FROM EISENHOWER TO TRUMP – Be forewarned that my takes on U.S. Presidents can offend members of both major parties since I’m an Independent Voter. Anyway, don’t try accusing me of belonging to either party. I go after both sides’ presidents. Click 
AN IDEAL HUSBAND (January 14th) – Adaptation of the play by Oscar Wilde. THE Jeremy Brett starred as the good guy, Viscount Arthur Goring, who takes action when the brother of his lady love Mabel Chiltern (Susan Hampshire) is being blackmailed by a conniving socialite (Margaret Leighton). Originally aired in England in 1969. 90 minutes. 
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