Tag Archives: glitternight.com

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: THE D.A. (1971-1972)

THE D.A. (1971-1972) – For any readers who are not familiar with the topic, D.A. stands for District Attorney. This short-lived series starred Robert Conrad as Deputy D.A. Paul Ryan in Los Angeles. Harry Morgan portrayed H.M. Stafford, Ryan’s investigator. 

A pair of 2-hour made-for-tv movies served as pilots for the potential D.A. series beginning in 1969. The subsequent series was only a half-hour long with the first segment detailing the criminal investigation and the second segment presenting the trial.

MURDER ONE (December 8th, 1969) – Deputy District Attorney Paul Ryan (Robert Conrad) works at convicting a beautiful nurse who is using her medical skills to conceal her murders of her rich husbands and other relatives. It’s an uphill battle since his superiors think the woman is innocent. Also starring Diane Baker, Howard Duff, J.D. Cannon, Dana Elcar, Fredricka Meyers and Scott Brady. (2 hours)  

CONSPIRACY TO KILL (January 8th, 1971) – Ryan convicts a pharmacist of manslaughter for the suspicious shooting of an alleged burglar. He vacates the conviction and tries a murder charge when evidence indicates that the pharmacist is part of a drug ring that the “burglar” was also part of. Also starring THE William Conrad, Belinda Montgomery, Don Stroud, Leslie Parrish and Virginia Gregg. (2 hours)  

THE EPISODES: Continue reading

16 Comments

Filed under Forgotten Television

FLASHBACK: OBAMA – THE MOST UNFIT PRESIDENT EVER

FROM AUGUST SEVENTH, 2016 came this piece from the Boston Herald reminding the world about Barack Obama’s many failures. 

Obama making a face

The UNFIT Obama at his most presidential

“Balladeer’s Blog has been one of the many sites around the world puncturing the silly myth that Barack Obama is competent. I’ll point out again that I’m sure future African-American presidents really WILL be capable people, but it’s ridiculous to pretend that Little Barry has been anything but a disaster. (Psst! I’m neither a Republican NOR a Democrat, so stop typing your accusation.)

To add some variety to my usual trashing of the weak, inept and crooked little man who thinks he can afford to call anyone ELSE “unfit” for the presidency, here’s a link to a terrific bit from the Boston Herald. Carr nicely lists some of the COUNTLESS incidents we’ve had where Obama was revealed as the idiot that he is. It just never got the apocalyptic coverage that other candidates get subjected to. First an excerpt: 

“Unfit for office?

“Let’s talk about that…

Obama at wheel

The most UNFIT president in American history.

“Brave talk from a guy who thinks there are 57 states, that they speak Austrian in Austria, that they speak Arabic in Afghanistan, who pronounced the state he lived in for three years as “Mass-a-tu-setts,” who pronounced corpsman as “corpseman.” Who thinks the Transcontinental Railroad was “intercontinental.”

“He described Eric Holder’s wife, a physician, as a “nationally renowned ohbee-gynee.” He misspelled “Syracus” on his NCAA brackets sheet. He is utterly tongue-tied without a teleprompter. He makes “recess” appointments when the Senate is not in recess.”

Obama I dont always“If he had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. His grandmother was a typical white person. The Cambridge Police Department acted stupidly.”

“It never ends with this buffoon. Yesterday, in Singapore, he mangled the name of the country’s founding father. He can’t be bothered acting like an adult.”  

*** To read the rest Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS: FEB 8th

NJCAA DIVISION ONE

KNOCKING OFF NUMBER NINE – The 18th ranked CHIPOLA COLLEGE INDIANS welcomed the number 9 team in the nation – the NORTHWEST FLORIDA STATE RAIDERS. Northwest Florida State held a 36-33 edge at Halftime but from there the Indians took over, ultimately winning the game by a final score of 78-69. Braylon Roman led his team with 17 points.

CENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 points or more in Regulation: The KASKASKIA COLLEGE BLUE ANGELS eviscerated the visiting KENTUCKY TROPICS 132-64   ###   Meanwhile, the LAKE REGION STATE ROYALS won 108-96 at the DAKOTA STATE AT BOTTINEAU LUMBERJACKS   ###   And the BRUNSWICK COLLEGE DOLPHINS downed the USC-SALKEHATCHIE INDIANS 104-98. Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under College Basketball

U.S. PRESIDENTS IN THE MILITARY (Washington-Monroe)

With Presidents Day coming up in nine days Balladeer’s Blog will be taking a look at the military service of America’s Commanders-in-Chief. For presidents like Washington, Grant and Eisenhower it would take thousands of words to cover their military service so I will save them for separate articles of their own in the future.

GEORGE WASHINGTON – Extensive service in the French & Indian War plus the Revolutionary War. Separate article to come.

JAMES MADISON

Conflict – Revolutionary War

Service – Madison was a colonel of Virginia’s Orange County Militia from 1775-1776.

JAMES MONROE

Conflict – Revolutionary War

Service – William & Mary Militia, taking part in the June 1775 raid on the Royal Governor’s Palace which seized several hundred muskets and swords for the rebel army. In early 1776 he became a lieutenant in the Continental Army and served in the New York & New Jersey Campaign. Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under Neglected History, Revolutionary War

FLASH: YEAR ONE (1940)

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the early adventures of the original Flash, Jay Garrick.

FLASH COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Jan 1940)

Title: Origin of the Flash

Villains: The Faultless Four

Synopsis: College senior Jay Garrick foolishly smokes while conducting atomic experiments with hard water/ heavy water. This exposes him to fumes which put him in a coma for a time. After regaining consciousness, Jay gradually becomes aware that he now has powers related to super-speed.

He graduates from Midwestern University and at age 21 starts work as an assistant professor at New York City’s Coleman University. He adopts the costumed identity of the Flash to fight the forces of evil, starting with a protection racket.

Jay’s love interest Joan Williams asks him to find her father, who has been abducted by enemy spies called the Faultless Four and led by the French Sir Satan. The Frenchman and his British, Russian and Slavic colleagues want her retired major father to reveal the secrets of America’s new Atomic Bombarder.

Joan learns that Jay Garrick is secretly the Flash as he rounds up the Faultless Four and frees her father. Continue reading

12 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

GHOULARDI: BAD MOVIE HOST (1963-1966)

 From January of 1963 to December of 1966 Ernie Anderson, AKA Ghoulardi, ruled the Friday night airwaves in Cleveland with his b-movie show. To give you an idea of how popular his show was, Ghoulardi did what some of the top entertainers of their day consistently failed to do – HE BEAT JOHNNY CARSON’S TONIGHT SHOW IN THE RATINGS! Carson may have owned the rest of the country, but on Friday nights in Cleveland and vicinity Ghoulardi was the REAL king.

Ghoulardi, along with Vampira and Zacherley, is part of the Holy Trinity (or Trimurti if you prefer) of the early b-movie show hosts who proved so popular they ensured that the American folk art of hosting Grade Z films would not be just a passing fad. Those three pioneers (if you’re from Chicago you can add Mad Marvin) became pop culture icons and helped demonstrate how much fun bad movie culture can be.

In Ghoulardi’s case his catchphrases like “Stay sick” and  “Ova dey!” were the “Hikeeba!” of their day. Anderson’s look was iconic, too, and his green lab coat predated Doctor Madblood’s and Trace Continue reading

22 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: STATE COLLEGE OF FLORIDA (MANATEE-SARASOTA)

Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at another college which uses an almost unique nickname for its sports teams.

STATE COLLEGE OF FLORIDA (MANATEE-SARASOTA) Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under Cool names and cool logos

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: BEYOND THE ETHER (1898)

MARSBEYOND THE ETHER (1898) – Written by W. Cairns Johnston. This little honey is so jam-packed with enjoyable weirdness that it’s sort of like “If Ed Wood wrote Steampunk.”

Two friends from Harvard reunite on a camping and mountain-climbing trip. In Maine they discover a mysterious new gas which erupts from the ground. The pair study the gas and decide to use its lighter than air properties to visit other planets in our solar system.

In a cosmic-level coincidence our heroes later stumble upon a previously unknown plant here on Earth. The plant can be used to induce suspended animation for space travel and to heal grievous injuries. The incredibly lucky explorers leave the Earth on board their balloon propelled by their new gas.

At 30,000 feet they use their newly discovered plant to put themselves into suspended animation for their trip to Mars. More than three years later they wake up as they enter the atmosphere of the Red Planet. Clumsily, our space pioneers fall out of their balloon’s basket and land in the nest of a gigantic Martian eagle. Continue reading

14 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: THE CHAMPIONS (1968-1969)

THE CHAMPIONS (1968-1969) – This British series from ITC featured three secret agents whose plane crash-landed near Shangri-La, the secret civilization in the Himalayas. They were granted enhanced physical strength and superior senses as well as ESP. They used their new abilities in their role as secret agents for an international organization called Nemesis.

Stuart Damon, later to star on General Hospital for 30 years, played pilot Craig Stirling, with Alexandra Bastedo as physician and scientist Sharron Macready and William Gaunt as code-breaker Richard Barrett. Naturally, their enhanced abilities now made them much more useful to the Geneva-based Nemesis.

Anthony Nicholls co-starred as our trio’s boss W.L. Tremayne, who did not know how his prize agents gained their paranormal abilities.

The Champions ran for 30 hour-long installments. 

THE EPISODES:

THE BEGINNING – Pilot Craig Stirling is flying himself and his colleagues Dr. Sharron Macready and William Gaunt out of Communist China after completing their latest mission. The Chinese Air Force damages their plane to such a degree that they crash-land in the Himalayas and learn Shangri-La really exists. The three are granted paranormal abilities and return to the world at large. Burt Kwouk guest stars. 

THE INVISIBLE MAN – Peter Wyngarde, better known as Jason King from Department S and his own eponymous series, plays the villainous Dr. Hallam. He has invented ear-buds which let him control the minds of people in whose ears he places them. He and his thralls try robbing a fortune in gold from British banks. Maggie Wright guest stars and David “Darth Vader’s body” Prowse also appears.  Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under Forgotten Television

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES JOYCE (2026)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES JOYCE! His works got me hooked in my teens when I really related to his character Stephen Dedalus as he rejected his religion and indulged what I call his “young and pretentious side” in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). I wore out my copy of Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922) and continue to mark Bloom’s Day to this very day.

Over the years Finnegans Wake (1939) replaced Ulysses as my favorite Joyce novel and I’m fonder than many people are of his play Exiles (1918). Continue reading

20 Comments

Filed under Neglected History