If you’re as bored as I am with the overabundance of college sports teams called Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats here’s another lesser used team name.
TRUCKEE MEADOWS COMMUNITY COLLEGE Continue reading
Tag Archives: glitternight.com
REVOLUTIONARY WAR NEGLECTED BATTLES: APRIL 1777
As the 4th of July approaches, here are some more often overlooked clashes during the Revolutionary War.
APRIL 2nd – Off the coast of Delaware the British frigates HMS Perseus and HMS Roebuck spotted the South Carolina Navy’s schooner the USS Defense, captained by Thomas Pickering. Outnumbered, the Defense fled and the British vessels pursued her from roughly 6:00am to 1:00pm.
At that time the Roebuck and the Perseus caught up with the American ship and both of them opened fire. Ultimately, the Defense surrendered and was towed into New York Harbor by the English.
APRIL 13th – Near Bound Brook in the New Jersey No-Man’s Land, Redcoat General Charles Cornwallis and his 2,000 men caught American General Benjamin Lincoln and his 500 men by surprise. Militia units failed to warn him of the British approach. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, Revolutionary War
FROGS (1972) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT
Before MST3K we had The Texas 27 Film Vault! In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy and Richard, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class, hosted this neglected cult show which debuted Saturday February 9th, 1985. Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of the program’s FORTIETH anniversary year with this schlock film set on the 4th of July.
ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Saturday July 5th, 1986 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
SERIAL: Before showing Frogs our members of the Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) showed an episode of the 1950 Columbia serial Atom Man vs Superman. Kirk Alyn starred as Superman with Lyle Talbot as his archenemy Lex Luthor.
Lex has his own secret identity in this serial – each episode he dons a lead mask and oversees the villainy as “Atom Man”.
HOST SEGMENTS: According to fan Gemini Jim, Randy and Richard’s interview with Sam Elliott, conducted at Ben Johnson’s ranch, was shown. Elliott was also one of the stars of Frogs.
Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault
THE MOVIE: Frogs was another low point in the career of Ray Milland, along with The Thing With Two Heads, shown previously on The Texas 27 Film Vault.
Pollution was to cheap monster movies of the 70s what atomic radiation was to cheap monster movies of the 50s. In other words it was the catch-all explanation for anything and everything. In this movie’s case pollution, which Ray Milland’s corporations are heavily guilty of, is to blame for wild animals (NOT just frogs, despite the movie’s title) going berserk and viciously attacking human beings. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
MISS LIBERTY: REVOLUTIONARY WAR SUPERHEROINE
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at DC’s Revolutionary War superheroine Miss Liberty since the 4th of July is coming up.
MISS LIBERTY
Secret Identity: Bess Lynn
First Appearance: Tomahawk #81 (August 1962)
Origin: Nurse Bess Lynn decided she could further help the American Rebel cause in Massachusetts and its department of Maine by employing her other skills in the costumed identity of Miss Liberty. Bess was a blonde but wore a black wig in her costumed form.
Powers: Miss Liberty had secretly trained herself to be the equal of any man in armed or unarmed combat. She was a dead shot with her pistols and often used lit powder horns as makeshift grenades to hurl at Redcoats, their Native American allies and Hessians.
This heroine was also very skilled with a sword and had mastered trick riding on her horses. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
“SALAMANDER” HARADEN: COMMERCE RAIDER AND PRIVATEER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
THE SALAMANDER – The 4th of July is fast approaching! As another seasonal post Balladeer’s Blog examines the Revolutionary War career of Captain Jonathan Haraden, nicknamed the Salamander because of “his ability to withstand fire.”
Haraden’s rise to fame began when he was serving as First Officer under Captain John Fisk on the American commerce raider the Tyrannicide, launched on July 8th, 1776. This ship, crewed by 75 men, was a 14-cannon sloop which preyed on British targets from July of 1776 until August 14th, 1779. After its launch from the Salisbury Naval Shipyard the Tyrannicide made Salem, MA its homeport.
The Tyrannicide wasted no time, battling the HMS Dispatch on July 12th. The Dispatch boasted 20 cannons but after an hour & a half battle fell to Fisk and Haraden’s crew. The commerce raider towed this prize into Salem by July 17th and soon set out for more.
August of 1776 saw the ship working the waters off Cape Sable and Nantucket. During that time three more prizes fell to Tyrannicide – the Glasgow, the Saint John and the Three Brothers. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, Revolutionary War
BLUE LIGHT (1966) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION
BLUE LIGHT (1966) – Goulet … Robert Goulet. Had to be said. The forgotten television series Blue Light ran 17 half-hour episodes from January to May of 1966 and starred singer Robert Goulet of all people. Despite the odd casting, this series was actually a more sophisticated and grittier spy program than television had yet seen.
Blue Light was condemned for its excessive violence and for depicting its main character ruthlessly knifing enemies to death to prevent them from exposing him as a spy. Viewers were apparently too naive to deal with that.
The story is set during World War Two. Robert Goulet plays American reporter David March, one of eighteen U.S. spies who have infiltrated Nazi Germany by posing as Americans so taken with Nazi philosophy that before American involvement in the war they renounced their U.S. citizenship to become citizens of the Reich.
March and the other spies have become hated around the world for this, especially March, who has become a propaganda broadcaster for Hitler’s regime. This lets him hobnob with Nazi authorities while covertly relaying intelligence to enemies of the Third Reich and carrying out sabotage missions. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR (1887)
TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR (1887) – Nearly eighty years before the movie Fantastic Voyage, this work of “ancient” science fiction detailed a party of shrunken heroes on an odyssey through a human being’s body. This cleverly-titled tale was written by Alfred Taylor Schofield under the name Luke T Courteney.
London medical student Luke Theophilus Courteney passes his examinations to be admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons. His uncle, Captain Goodchild, helps the young man celebrate by taking Luke (nicknamed Pill from his middle name) and his younger sister Belinda to Trebizond, Turkey for a brief holiday.
Goodchild kindly takes along Pill’s friend Sutton, who failed the examinations and needs some moral support. Pill’s mastery of anatomy will enable him, Belinda and Sutton to survive their upcoming microscopic adventure.
Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES FIFTY-ONE TO FIFTY-FIVE
For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE.
CAPTAIN MORS VS HIS MORTAL ENEMY – The brilliant and deadly Ned Gully, Kapitan Mors’ archenemy, at last returns! Along with his female associate Nelly he is in the Rocky Mountains overseeing the construction of his newest airship – one capable of vertical take-off and landing.
Inevitably the latest discovery of precious metals in the region lures Kapitan Mors and the crew of his Luftschiff to the area for our Air Pirate’s latest round of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Gully is ready for him and pits his new vessel against our heroes in their deadliest clash yet.
Ned unleashes an experimental gas on Mors and company, a gas that kills swiftly and leaves its victims dead with blackened skin. He also wears new suction cup boots that enable him to walk unencumbered on the outside of his own vessel plus Kapitan Mors’. Few are left alive at story’s end. Continue reading
Filed under Pulp Heroes
REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLES: MARCH 1777
As the 4th of July approaches, here’s another seasonal blog post, this one looking at often overlooked clashes during the Revolutionary War.
MARCH 8th – Another encounter during the Great Forage War. American and British troops continued foraging for supplies throughout the New Jersey No Man’s Land. Near Amboy, NJ an unknown number of U.S. forces under General William Maxwell ambushed hundreds of British-Allied Hessian troops and captured 70 Hessians in the resulting fighting.
ALSO MARCH 8th – The Battle of Punk Hill. A force of 3,000 British regulars were on the move near Bonhamton, NJ. Another unknown number of American soldiers – also under General William Maxwell – attacked the Brits at Punk Hill.
While advance units were fighting it out, Maxwell and his counterpart General William Howe maneuvered their men to reinforce those advance units. Maxwell succeeded but American Rebels prevented the British reinforcements from reaching their comrades. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, Revolutionary War
ROCK HUDSON’S SWASHBUCKLER FILMS
Time for a look at Rock Hudson’s overlooked swashbuckler movies.
SEA DEVILS (1953) – As England and other nations battle France in 1800, English Captain Gilliatt (Rock Hudson) has abandoned his career as a fisherman to become a smuggler. He excels at the task and over the past few years he and his ship the Sea Devil have gained quite a reputation.
The wily and sea-savvy Gilliatt’s latest cargo to smuggle is Droucette (Yvonne De Carlo), a fugitive French aristocrat acting undercover to save her brother from the guillotine in Revolutionary France.
Amid much swordplay and other action during frequent trips across the Channel, Gilliatt struggles to keep her alive and understand the motives of this beautiful woman with whom he has fallen in love.
Droucette for a time seems to secretly be an agent for Napoleon but then turns out to be a double agent who is really working for England after all. Gilliatt prevails in the end, thwarting Napoleon’s plot to invade England and rescuing Droucette from death on the guillotine. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
Balladeer's Blog 