Tag Archives: blogging

LONI ANDERSON R.I.P. – PARTNERS IN CRIME (1984)

PARTNERS IN CRIME (1984) – To note the passing of Loni Anderson here’s a Forgotten Television look at the detective series in which she co-starred with Lynda Carter. Both ladies had been married at one time to a private detective named Raymond Dashiell Caulfield.

When Caulfield was murdered the ladies learned he had left them his mansion and his detective agency. This being a television series they joined forces to find Raymond’s killer, then decided to stay in business together running their late husband’s detective agency.

Loni played Sydney Kovack, a streetwise woman who grew up in San Francisco pulling minor hustles here and there with her con-man father. Ultimately, she went straight and became a professional cellist and bass player. 

Lynda portrayed Carole Stanwyck, who was born into wealth and practiced professional photography as her passion. The stage was set for odd couple personality clashes and minor bickering as the ladies learned to work together despite their differing temperaments. Continue reading

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BALLADEER’S BLOG: PRESEASON TOP TWENTY FOR NAIA COLLEGE FOOTBALL

The college football divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog kick off their 2025 season August 23rd. First up in my preseason rankings is the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics).

*** 1. MORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS    ###    2. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS (Defending National Champions)    ###    3. KEISER UNIVERSITY SEAHAWKS    4. UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA-WESTERN BULLDOGS    ###   

5. BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS    ###    6. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS    ###    7. INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS    ###    8. MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS    ###    Continue reading

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JEFF CHANDLER’S SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

Actor Jeff Chandler starred in a variety of roles, and happily he appeared in a few swashbuckler movies. 

YANKEE BUCCANEER (1952) – An enjoyable movie but one which throws history out the window in the mind-boggling way that only Hollywood could manage! The real-life American naval heroes David Porter (Jeff Chandler) and David Farragut (Scott Brady) are presented fighting Caribbean pirates during the early 1820s.

The men and their crew are ordered to pose as pirates in order to infiltrate and bring down the real pirates menacing trade in the Caribbean. While undertaking that flashy, daring mission they get caught up in a plot involving Portugal and its colony Brazil against American interests.

Our heroes become romantic rivals for Countess Margarita La Raguna (Suzan Ball, Lucille’s cousin) as the movie ignores the fascinating REAL relationships between the Porter and Farragut families. Still, Yankee Buccaneer is fun, and naturally the good guys win. David Janssen, Michael Ansara and Tonto himself, Jay Silverheels, co-star. 86 minutes.

NOTE: While Commander Porter and Lieutenant Farragut really did take on pirates during that time period they never served on the same ship like this movie pretends. Farragut was on one of the smaller “mosquito” ships in Porter’s fleet.  Continue reading

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THE PARTY CRASHERS (1958) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 –

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY year of this neglected cult show that debuted February 9th of 1985. 

EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Per fan MilesTellerRox, Saturday September 13th, 1986 from 10:30pm to 1:00am.

Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma. 

SERIAL: Again, per MilesTellerRox, before presenting and mocking The Party Crashers our machine-gun wielding Film Vault Technicians First Class Randy and Richard presented and mocked an episode of Mysterious Doctor Satan, a Republic serial from 1940.

The serial featured a mad scientist called Dr Satan trying to take over the world with a VERY goofy- looking robot while a pulp-style hero called Copperhead tried to thwart his plans.  

FILM VAULT LORE: This episode featured Randy (right) and Richard’s (left) interview with Denver Pyle, who appears in the film being presented, The Party Crashers. They taped the interview with him at Ben Johnson’s ranch. 

THE PARTY CRASHERS (1958) – Connie Stevens, Bobby Driscoll, Mark Damon, Frances Farmer and the aforementioned Denver Pyle star in this unintentionally hilarious movie about a group of Juvenile Delinquents whose M.O. is to crash parties at upper-class homes, help themselves to food, drink and women and then vandalize the place. Continue reading

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KILLRAVEN: HIS ORIGINAL 1970s SAGA

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s 1973 combination of its licensed War of the Worlds rights with its original IP Killraven (1973-1976). It was similar to how Marvel combined their licensed Fu Manchu rights with their original IP Shang-Chi to make Shang the son of Fu Manchu.  

Killraven 1WAR OF THE WORLDS – Jonathan Raven, rechristened Killraven in the gladiatorial circuit of Earth’s alien conquerors of the “future,” leads a group of Freemen in an attempt to retake the planet. CLICK HERE   

THE SIRENS OF SEVENTH AVENUE – After learning the truth about Earth’s alien conquerors AND about his possession of “The Power” (a pre-Star Wars variation of the Force), Killraven leads his Freemen against genetically modified women called Sirens as well as against assorted other post-apocalyptic threats. CLICK HERE

Killraven WarlordTHE WARLORD STRIKES – On the run after the destruction and genocide of their Staten Island rebel colony, Killraven and his Freemen run afoul of the Warlord, a human quisling who has wanted revenge against the rebel leader ever since he escaped from the gladiatorial pens. CLICK HERE 

THE MUTANT SLAYERS – The Freemen are joined by scientist Carmilla Frost and her monstrous creation Grok as they battle the Warlord and an assortment of mutated Earth creatures and deadly beasts from the aliens’ home planet. CLICK HERE  Continue reading

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WHISKEY JIM: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER FOR FRONTIERADO

HAPPY FRONTIERADO! The first Friday of every August marks Frontierado, the holiday devoted to the myth of the old west rather than the grinding reality. For some of us the celebration kicks off Thursday night; for others they wait until the actual day of Frontierado to hold their festivities.

Enjoy your buffalo steaks, rattlesnake fried rice, corn on the cob, tumbleweed pizza, cactus salad and more today and tonight, and enjoy the leftovers on Saturday and Sunday.

WHISKEY JIM – James Greathouse was born in Texas around 1854. Nothing is known about his early life but at age 20 he was living in Fort Griffin and running a successful bootleg whiskey network he had shot his way to the top of. As you could guess that illicit trade earned him his nickname Whiskey Jim.

Greathouse and his ring thrived selling their contraband liquor largely to Native American tribes along the Colorado River. By 1874 Colonel Ranald (his spelling) S. Mackenzie was expending every effort to take down Whiskey Jim and his network, even offering a Dead or Alive reward for him.   

Mackenzie had his entire 4th Cavalry scouring Texas for Greathouse, picking off his operatives one by one. During 1875 Whiskey Jim was so hemmed in from every direction that he decided to get out of bootlegging. He also steered clear of Fort Griffin for years. Continue reading

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THE KNIGHTS (424 B.C.) ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

For background info on ancient Greek comedies see my original post on the topic:  https://glitternight.com/2011/09/22/at-long-last-my-ancient-greek-comedy-posts-begin/

THE KNIGHTS – In The Knights  Aristophanes pioneered a new sub-genre of Attic Old Comedy: the  Demagogue Comedy. The villain of this masterpiece of political satire was a figure called the Paphlagonian, who was patterned on Cleon, a notorious Athenian politician of the time period.

I’ll have more on the long political feud between Aristophanes and Cleon in the commentary after my synopsis of the play. The “Knights” of the title were the comedy’s chorus and were the landed, wealthy “chevalier” class of Athens and their role will be explained in the commentary as well.  

SYNOPSIS 

In the time of the Athenian Democracy political leaders, as they do today, liked to depict themselves as “servants of the people”. Taking his cue from this less-than- sincere (yet enduring) claim, Aristophanes metaphorically depicted the Paphlagonian/ Cleon and his rival politicians as literal servants of a kindly and naive estate owner named Demos or, in other words, “The People”. 

Though technically in a subordinate position, the Paphlagonian and the other servants constantly con and deceive Demos, robbing the household blind and otherwise attending to their own interests to the detriment of the figure they supposedly serve.

Aristophanes

Once again we see how 2,400 years later the political situation in the Athenian forerunner of modern democracies is very similar to our own and their political satires still resonate. 

The Paphlagonian, like Cleon in real life at the time, is proving so masterful at the arts of deception and self-aggrandizement that he is developing a monopolistic hold over the benighted Demos, who mistakenly thinks the Paphlagonian is his most devoted servant.  Continue reading

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FIVE LOST OUTLAW TREASURES OF THE OLD WEST

In just two days this year’s Frontierado Holiday Season will be over, unfortunately. Here is another seasonal post in the meantime. 

HENRY SEYMOUR LOOT – In 1879 Henry Seymour led his outlaw gang in robbing a stagecoach just out of Brigham City, Arizona and outside the Pine Spring Stage Station. The gang had targeted this particular stage because it carried a shipment of newly minted gold coins supposedly worth over $200,000. (If true that would be $6,429,000 here in 2025) Continue reading

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JULY THIRTIETH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Here’s today’s current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog here in an America where deranged Democrats pretend they see Nazi messages in Sydney Sweeney blue jean ads. These sad and pathetic Democrats forget that we all know they would NEVER have the backbone to take on REAL Nazis, so they gutlessly pretend their hissy-fits are the equivalent of being in the French Underground during World War Two or something. Hilarious! 

WESLEY HUNT SAYS DECADES-LONG EPSTEIN COVERUP WAS MOSTLY PROTECTING HOLLYWOOD CEOs.

CONGRESSMAN STUTZMAN: TRUMP’S TRADE DEALS ARE “HUGE FOR THE MIDWEST.” I will say again that Trump has been the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime.

SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE BROOKE ROLLINS ANNOUNCES DEPARTMENT’S LATEST INITIATIVE.

ANOTHER SCANDAL AT THE DEMOCRAT FUNDING ORGANIZATION ACTBLUE (AS IN “BLUE STATES”, NOT POLICE). As we all know, Democrats would never help police.

CONGRESSWOMAN PAULINA LUNA ADDS HER VOICE TO THOSE CALLING OUT THE INHERENT CORRUPTION IN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DOING STOCK TRADING. And let’s all remember that privileged white one-percenter Democrat Nancy Pelosi is the embodiment of insider trading scandals in congress.

DEMOCRATS TRY TO BASH TRUMP BUT DON’T REALIZE THEIR CHART WAS SHOWING PRICES UNDER THE BIDEN REGIME. Hilarious!

MORE PRAISE FOR TRUMP’S PEACE MOVES BETWEEN THAILAND AND CAMBODIA. And even more HERE.

ANOTHER CALL FOR THE “REPORTERS” WHO RECEIVED PULITZERS FOR PUSHING THE RUSSIA HOAX TO RETURN THOSE PRIZES. Don’t hold your breath.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR ON THE ROT AT THE CORE REGARDING THE BIDEN REGIME’S POLITICIZING OF THE FBI. More HERE. Continue reading

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ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: A VOYAGE TO THE WORLD IN THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (1755)

Voyage to world at Centre of the Earth 2A VOYAGE TO THE WORLD IN THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (1755) – This intriguing work was published in London anonymously and no author has yet been decisively identified. The novel’s narrator – who remains as anonymous as the book’s author – parties away his inheritance and then ships out for Italy.

Exploring on Mount Vesuvius our hero accidentally falls into what we readers are eventually told is just one of many holes that lead to the interior of the Earth, where another world awaits. A miraculous landing on a haystack saves the narrator’s life but he finds himself unable to move because of the greater gravity of this interior world.

A friendly inhabitant of the inner Earth applies a chemical salve to our protagonist’s body, a salve which allows him to stand up and move about in the higher gravity. A second salve massaged into the narrator’s body renders him capable of understanding and conversing in the language of Inner Earth. Continue reading

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