VOYAGE TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH aka Planet at the Center of the Earth aka “Journey to the Centre of the Earth, or Various Adventures of Clairancy and His Companions, to Spitsbergen, to the North Pole, and to Unknown Countries, translated from the English of Hormidas Peath by M. Jacques Saint-Albin”.
Jacques Collin de Plancy, who is more noted for his writings on occult subjects, authored this work. Odd, considering how occultism and superstition are ridiculed in parts of the story.
Decades before Jules Verne’s better-known story about subterranean exploration came several other “ancient” science fiction works about strange worlds inside of a hollow planet Earth. Some of them have already been reviewed here at Balladeer’s Blog.
This particular story centers around the fictional seaman Hormidas Peath and his crew who became shipwrecked in the icy Arctic Sea in 1806. They were shocked to discover that temperatures got warmer the further north they went, so they kept following the warmer air until they reached the Iron Mountains.
That mountain range was perfectly circular and the North Pole at its center was really the opening to the Inner Earth planet called Pluto after the Roman god (The dwarf planet Pluto was not discovered until 1930.) Peath and his companions explored that much smaller planet inside of the Earth, which was kept rotating by magnetic forces. Continue reading
HOME aka Future Soap (1968) – This science fiction drama set hundreds of years in the future first aired on January 19th, 1968 on American Public Broadcasting’s N.E.T. Playhouse. Home is a 90-minute piece about the threat of overpopulation – and the excuses that threat gives the government to impose authoritarian conditions on the populace – set among a honeycomb of claustrophobic rooms in which citizens of the future must spend their lives due to the dictates of the government. 
Food is in pill form, rituals praising the government are required and “happy drugs” must be consumed daily in order to keep the populace in line. When a couple is able to obtain permission to have a child they must wait until someone in their communal room dies. 
One of the things I love about college football is how far back its history goes. It feels odd to think that Ulysses S Grant was in the White House when that game was played. 
NUMBER THREE TAKES A FALL – In NCAA Division Two the 24th ranked MISSOURI WESTERN STATE GRIFFONS played host to the number 3 team in the nation – the PITTSBURG (KS) STATE GORILLAS. This Instant Classic saw the Gorillas on top 17-10 at Halftime but the Griffons up 24-17 in the 3rd Quarter. In the 4th, Missouri Western State held on against a Pittsburg State rally to win the game 31-30. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER FIVE – Over in the NAIA, the number 23 DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS took it on the road against the 5th ranked MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS. The Defenders put the Mustangs on Upset Alert by the Half with their 21-7 advantage. MC cut that to a 21-14 score to end the 3rd, then Dordt survived the 4th Quarter with a 28-24 victory. 
WE WENT TO A FOOTBALL GAME BUT A BASKETBALL GAME BROKE OUT – Down in NCAA Division Three, the MUSKINGUM UNIVERSITY MUSKIES played the visiting WILMINGTON COLLEGE QUAKERS. Points flew like shrapnel as a 28-28 Halftime tie became 42-42 in the 3rd Quarter. The 4th saw the Muskies eke out a 64-63 triumph. 
Yes, it’s once again Guy Fawkes Day, the day Balladeer’s Blog celebrates figures who became symbols of the exact opposite things they represented in their actual lives! 
“Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood.” 
Read more of this animal’s own words and you will see what a callous, unfeeling political fanatic this hate-filled scumbag was. He never wanted to overthrow dictatorships to help “the people”, he just wanted to overthrow them to install dictatorships more to his liking.
ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #64 (February 1977) 
Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at the films of a silent movie star. This time I’m reviewing some of the films featuring trained animal star Teddy the Great Dane aka Teddy the Dog aka Keystone Teddy. From 1915 to 1924 Teddy starred or otherwise appeared in silent shorts as well as feature-length movies. 
TEDDY AT THE THROTTLE (1917) – This Mack Sennett short at Keystone Studios was one of two films in which Teddy actually got his name in the title. In this light-hearted affair the Great Dane plays the pet of THE Gloria Swanson. 
Beery’s villain character is embezzling money from the romantic leads Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon. Teddy, the REAL star, is cute and lively, plus he bravely saves Gloria’s life in the end when Beery ties her to railroad tracks after his villainy is exposed.
CITY BENEATH THE SEA (1962) – For starters, this is NOT the 1970s movie nor the 1950s movie of this title. This City Beneath the Sea is a seven-part television serial from Great Britain. In the past Balladeer’s Blog has covered similar British tv serials like the original Quatermass adventures, Pathfinders in Space and its sequels, in addition to The Trollenberg Terror, plus Object Z and Object Z Returns. 
City Beneath the Sea stars Gerald Flood as reporter Mark Bannerman and Stewart Guidotti as his photographer Peter Blake. The villains are led by Germans who served in World War Two, like Denis Goacher as former U-Boat commander Kurt Swendler and Aubrey Morris as mad scientist Professor Ludwig Ziebrecken. 
Has it really been 31 days already? Happy Halloween from Balladeer’s Blog with this look at some more horror stories that are over 100 years old. They make for a nice Monster Rally feel since they feature a variety of supernatural beings. 
The bronze Venus takes a perverse liking to a prosperous young man and steals a ring the man is supposed to put on at his impending wedding ceremony. When the man goes through with the marriage without the purloined ring, the statue visits him and his bride on their wedding night and kills him. 
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