[Leica] OT - was Ken Rockwell, now Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

On 3/23/07 1:31 PM, "Jeff Moore" <jbm@jbm.org> typed:

> 2007-03-23-01:09:18 Mark Rabiner:
>> I was more partial to Tom Swift Jr. and there were more of them and there
>> were pictures. I'll never forget where ever they went to the dark side of
>> the moon or the center of the earth the dreaded Bulgarians were never far
>> behind. Their idea of a more vague red menace.
> 
> "...but I never thought I end up
>     on this old space wheel."
> 
> Remember when the loyal chuckwagon-style cook sang a song to the tune of
> "The Yellow Rose of Texas", while they were all up in the family space
> station?
> 
> Such an enterprise Edward Stratemeyer
> 
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Stratemeyer
> 
> set in motion...  the original (WWI-era?  the first one I encountered,
> having before only been reading the Tom Swift Jr. series with titles
> like "Tom Swift and his Repelatron Skyway", was the product of a
> different era: "Tom Swift and his War Tank.")
> 
> Most of the first series, and some of the Junior, are now available from
> Project Gutenberg:
> 
>   http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a#a8600
> 
> 
The the originals were like
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTORCYCLE

Not all that Avant Garde for even then
But the Bees Knees

While the redos in the 60s were totally ridiculous
I think they were written by a panel of hacks
under the pseudonym of Victor Appleton II.
All smoking Pell Mell straights with a pot of bad percolated coffee.

         TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB
          TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
         TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
         TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
     TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC EARTH BLASTER
       TOM SWIFT AND HIS OUTPOST IN SPACE
       TOM SWIFT AND HIS DIVING SEACOPTER
     TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF NUCLEAR FIRE
       TOM SWIFT ON THE PHANTOM SATELLITE
    TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRASONIC CYCLOPLANE
      TOM SWIFT AND HIS DEEP-SEA HYDRODOME
       TOM SWIFT IN THE RACE TO THE MOON
       TOM SWIFT AND HIS SPACE SOLARTRON
    TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRONIC RETROSCOPE
    TOM SWIFT AND HIS SPECTROMARINE SELECTOR
      TOM SWIFT AND THE COSMIC ASTRONAUTS
    TOM SWIFT AND THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X

There was no Victor Appleton II I bet.
I think reading comic books would have been smarter.
But they were not allowed in the house.

And I don't think there was a real ULTRASONIC CYCLOPLANE either.
I think they made that up.

I've got my suspicions on that ELECTRONIC RETROSCOPE too.

Better go the BULGARIANS are closing in.

Mark Rabiner
8A/109s
New York, NY

markrabiner.com