For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE. For my look at the first five stories in the weekly text series click HERE.
CAPTAIN MORS IMPRISONED – Far above the ocean, Kapitan Mors commands his Luftschiff (Air Ship) on its latest voyage along with its part European and part Indian crew. A carrier pigeon brings our masked hero a distress call from Miss Else Martens. She is in the clutches of a tinpot dictator who wants to force her into a marriage.
Our main character and his men set out to free Else and loot the dictator’s riches. They will, as usual, share those riches with the suffering poor around the world. What they keep will go toward completing Mors’ spaceship. And speaking of that, this adventure introduces the Dutch astrophysicist Van Halen, who becomes vital to the captain’s outer space adventures. Continue reading
BRACKEN’S WORLD (1969-1970) – This one-hour drama has the dubious distinction of being the series that replaced Star Trek on NBC’s Fall Schedule for the 1969 into 1970 season. The program was set at fictional Century Studios in Hollywood and presented dramas about life in the film industry. Dorothy Kingsley created and produced the show and wrote several episodes. 
The episodes were sometimes self-contained with assorted guest stars at the center of each week’s backstabbing and maneuvering, but most revolved around a regular cast portraying figures who worked at or were under contract to Century Studios. 
101. FADE IN – Brandoesque Tom Hudson tries to make his mark as an actor, Paulette Douglas is reluctant to do a nude scene in her first film, but her ambitious show-business mother (Jeanne Cooper) insists she do it. Producer Kevin Grant’s marriage is in trouble over his use of the casting couch. Tony Curtis, Omar Sharif and Raquel Welch make brief appearances as themselves to sell the supposed “star power” of Century Studios. 
THE STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE: A STORY OF THE YEAR 2236 (1900) – Written by Robert W Cole. I left out the first half of the title for the headline, since The Struggle For Empire sounds like a mundane history book. In reality this novel was a very, very early example of the Space Opera sub-genre. 
Initially the Earth colonized and inhabited the planets and certain moons of our own solar system all the way out to Neptune. (Pluto was not discovered until 1930.) In a quaint quasi-Steam-Punk way, all of those planets and moons have Earth-like atmospheres and conditions. 
Cheri Currie of Runaways fame unleashed a broadside on the pathetic, hatemongering, fascistic and intolerant Democrat Party of 2025. She courageously embraced the MAGA label, too. 
GOLDEN GIRL 
Here’s a roundup of current events from 
THE DEATHMASTER (1972) – In between his pair of movies as the vampire named Count Yorga the one and only Robert Quarry starred as a vampiric Charles Manson wannabe in this film. The Deathmaster starts out with a great bit that wouldn’t look out of place in a Jean Rollin horror flick from France: the huge, hulking Barbado (Le Sesne Hilton) plays eerie flute music, seemingly luring ashore a sea-tossed coffin. This casket holds our “Deathmaster” – a vampire called Khorda. 
Just a light-hearted post about a non-serious topic but one which I’m seeing both sides of the political aisle making silly talking points about. In the new Marvel movie Thunderbolts Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays the character Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. 
Balladeer's Blog 