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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B-MOVIE HOSTESS: ANGIE LABANSHEE (1985-1993)
NOTE: Special thanks to Mike Pieper – part of the creative team on this program and the man who played the first Elmer the Mummy for three years – for correcting, clarifying and providing a wealth of additional information about this Movie Host series. He was a friendly and helpful man!
ANGIE LABANSHEE (Joan Kelley-Cordt) hosted the B-Movie show Spooks Hotel Friday nights at 10:30 in Marshalltown, Iowa. The program was initially aired on the local college’s Iowa Valley TV station – Channel 22. Then Spooks Hotel was on KDAO TV, Channel 39, then back to Iowa Valley TV after that.
As for Angie, 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 the entire creative team writing the show, including Mike Pieper. Angie hosted Psychotronic movies accompanied by Host Segments from October 1985 to October 1993. Episodes were taped Wednesdays for their Friday broadcast.
The program’s success let Joan simultaneously host the station’s Monday through Friday show Marshalltown Today during 1987 and 1988. In 1991 Joan Kelley-Cordt began playing a new character Mrs. Spooks, who at last returned from her world travels with her hubby, mad scientist Dr. Spooks (Steve Scheiding).
She, Mike Piepers and some of her Spooks Hotel backup characters did a Spooks Hotel special titled The First Annual Elmer Awards, complete with various categories of Bad Movies that featured several nominees and ultimately a winner read from an envelope. Two more Elmer Awards shows followed in time.
Among the milestones on Spooks Hotel during its original run was a 1992 Double Feature consisting of 1) Planet of Blood aka Queen of Blood (1966) Dennis Hopper, John Saxon, Forry Ackerman and others star in this movie about a spaceship rescue mission which pits its crew against a bizarre space-vampress and her offspring. And 2) The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) Jason Evers in the infamous film about a mad doctor keeping his fiancee’s decapitated head alive after an accident while he looks for a woman to kill so he can use her body for his fiancee.
Some of the episodes of Spooks Hotel: Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
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
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
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
Filed under Neglected History, Revolutionary War
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
Filed under Neglected History, opinion
BALLADEER’S BLOG IS NOW SIXTEEN YEARS OLD
BALLADEER’S BLOG
THANK YOU once again to all of you readers for making Balladeer’s Blog so enjoyable to write. As I always say, the unusual and controversial items I sometimes churn out here mean that readers have to be open-minded and very secure in their own beliefs not to just take offense and leave. You folks are the greatest!
Here are some of my most popular blog posts from the past 12 months.
ROBERT REDFORD R.I.P. – After his death I reviewed his obscure films like War Hunt, This Property is Condemned, The Chase, Downhill Racer and others HERE.
RYAN O’NEAL: FORGOTTEN FILMS – A posthumous look at his films like Green Ice, Nickelodeon, Wild Rovers, The Thief Who Came to Dinner and more HERE.
THREE BAD TOM SELLECK MOVIES – The Chinese Typewriter HERE, The Gypsy Warriors HERE, and The Washington Affair HERE.
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – A Trip to the Moon by Mr. Murtagh McDermot (1728) An Irishman travels to the moon and meets the inhabitants HERE. Mars to the Earth (1895) – The first Martian visit to Earth HERE. Story of the Second Traveler (1879) An island of sci-fi wonders HERE, Wonderworlds (1911) A spaceship expediton to explore other planets HERE.
BAD MOVIES – JACINTO MOLINA, SPAIN’S KING OF HORROR – I reviewed his movies like Exorcismo, Fury of the Wolfman, Assignment: Terror, Werewolf vs the Yeti, House of Psychotic Women and many more HERE. THE BOD SQUAD (1974) Women abducted by pirates learn kung fu and fight back HERE. AGAINST THE DARK (2009) Steven Seagal fights zombies HERE. FOES (1977) A very weird assault by aliens HERE. KARATE GIRL (1973) Turkish kung fu movie HERE.
FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – PARTNERS IN CRIME (1984) – Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter as widows of a P.I. who take over his agency and solve his murder as their first case HERE. THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1966-1967) Stefanie Powers as U.N.C.L.E. agent April Dancer HERE. MRS. COLUMBO (1979-1980) Kate Mulgrew as Columbo’s wife solving murders HERE.
THE NEGLECTED RAILROAD WAR (1878-1880) – A neglected conflict that involved Robber Barons and various big-name gunslingers like Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Texas Ben Thompson, John Joshua Webb and more HERE. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
DADDY DEAREST (1993) FOR FATHER’S DAY 2026
DADDY DEAREST (1993) – As usual for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at obscure movies or television shows that fit the occasion. For this Father’s Day it’s Daddy Dearest, a largely forgotten sitcom that starred RICHARD LEWIS and DON RICKLES, a very bizarre pairing.
Lewis played psychologist Steven Mitchell who lived in Manhattan with his son Danny following a divorce. Rickles portrayed Al Mitchell, Richard’s retired used-car salesman father who just separated from his wife and moves in with Steven. True to Rickles’ insult-comic persona, Al proves VERY difficult to live with, setting up the theme of the show. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
ALL BLACK BASEBALL TEAM DEFEATS A KU KLUX KLAN BASEBALL TEAM: 1925
JUNE 21st, 1925 – In Wichita, Kansas the black semi-professional baseball team the Wichita Monrovians (named for the capital of Liberia) played a team from the Democrat Party hate group the Ku Klux Klan. During the 1920s the Democrats were trying to improve the image of the Klan via public picnics and other civic events.
Membership in the KKK was in the millions nationwide and Kansas was a center of Klan activity. That is tragic considering that in the days of “Bleeding Kansas” in the 1850s anti-slavery Kansans called Jayhawks fought pro-slavery forces in the territory, although most of the pro-slavery forces rolled in from Missouri.
During America’s Civil War the fighting between the two states was especially bloody and memories of the raid on Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery terrorists still haunt the region. By 1925 the state was one of many in which official Ku Klux Klan baseball teams played, and the team playing in Wichita that day was Wichita Klan Number Six. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
FIRELORD: HIS EARLY STORIES
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the early stories of Marvel’s Firelord.
THOR Vol 1 #225 (July 1974)
Title: The Coming of Firelord
Villain: Firelord
Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Thor and Hercules defeat Thor’s recurring foe the Destroyer. The spirit animating the metal creation returns to the body of Professor Clement Holmes, leaving the Destroyer’s body motionless.
Time passes as Thor hangs out with Hercules and periodically turns into his human form as Donald Blake M.D. In that form he continues to tend to the hospitalized Asgardian woman named Krista, who was injured fighting the Greco-Roman god Pluto a few issues back.
Meanwhile, a being called Firelord arrives on Earth and enters Krista’s hospital. People attack Firelord, who injures them, prompting Hercules to fight him.
Thor joins Hercules in fighting Firelord, who eventually reveals that he is the latest herald of Galactus. He summons that devourer of worlds to Earth. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
THE ADAMS CHRONICLES (1976) – CONCLUSION
As promised, here’s Balladeer’s Blog’s review of the final 7 episodes of this 13-episode miniseries. Each installment ran 50 minutes.
EPISODE SEVEN: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DIPLOMAT (Mar 2nd, 1976) – From 1809 t0 1814 John Quincy Adams (David Birney) serves as U.S. Minister to Russia. Showing much more tact than his father, John Quincy charms Tsar Alexander (CHRISTOPHER LLOYD in his television debut!) and manages fairly favorable treatment of the United States by Russia during the Napoleonic Wars.
Adams and his wife Louise-Catherine (Pamela Payton-Wright) lost their only daughter in St. Petersburg. Late 1814 finds John Quincy in Ghent helping to negotiate the peace treaty ending the War of 1812 between America and Great Britain on advantageous terms for the U.S. Ken Kercheval again plays (now President) James Madison, Steven Krey is Charles Francis Adams, Valerie French is Countess Rostov and George Hearn plays Henry Clay.
EPISODE EIGHT: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, SECRETARY OF STATE (Mar 9th) – In 1818 John Quincy Adams – now played by William Daniels – is serving as President James Monroe’s (Henry Butler) Secretary of State. Among his accomplishments he smooths over the international incident stemming from General Andrew Jackson (Wesley Addy) hanging two British subjects as spies in Spanish Florida during the First Seminole War.
More significantly, Secretary Adams is the chief architect of what is ironically called the Monroe Doctrine and engineers America’s purchase of Florida from Spain. In 1824 John Quincy runs for president against Andrew Jackson, who wins the popular vote and the electoral vote but did not reach the necessary total for victory. Once again, the presidential election goes to the House of Representatives to choose from Adams, Jackson and Henry Clay. Clay throws his support behind Adams, and John Quincy becomes the 6th President of the United States. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Neglected History
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