YouTube Wednesday: The Man of Bronze IS the Man of Steel!

The recent Doc Savage posts have produced some of the biggest hit counts this blog has ever seen!
So, for this week's videos, we're going with The Man of Bronze and Ron Ely as two Clarks, one Bronze, one Steel!

First up, the rarely-seen behind-the-scenes featurette from the 1975 movie...

UPDATE: It's been deleted! Damn!
Then, the original theatrical trailer...Have no fear! The Man of Bronze is HERE!

Ron Ely reciting the Code of Doc Savage
(C'mon, admit it! He did a damned good job!)

UPDATE: That's been deleted, too!
Well, to make up for the deletions, here's the two major fight scenes in the flick in one clip!

And a very special treat: Ron Ely as the Golden Age Superman!

 From The Adventures of Superboy third season finale; "The Road to Hell Part II"

Don't worry, the opening synopsis gives you all the background you need...

Coming soon: The Doc Savage stories from Marvel Two-in-One and Giant-Size Spider-Man, as well as the Giant-Size Doc Savage one-shot, none of which are included in DC's trade paperback reprint! PLUS: the text features and pin-ups from the Marvel comics and b/w magazines!
Note: the Reading Room posts for all superhero (and superheroine) stories in the future will appear in our brother blog Hero & Heroine Histories, where previous entries have been "rerunning" several days later.
Bookmark it, or go to it and load the rss feed to keep up with, among other things...
The Shadow's Silver Age run from Archie Comics!
The COMPLETE Fox/Farrell Phantom Lady by Matt Baker!
The Green Hornet (Golden AND Silver Age)!
The SECOND Captain Marvel! (The one between SHAZAM! and Mar-Vell!)
Jet Dream and Her StuntGirl CounterSpies: the Complete Saga!
..and much MORE superhero(ine) stuff from 1938-1978!
The sci-fi/fantasy, horror, humor, Western, and romance stories (or genre combinations like Space Western) will continue here, so keep us bookmarked as well!

Reading Room: CAVE GIRL in "Ape God of Kor"

The very first Cave Girl story (but not her origin) from Thun'da #2, guest-starring Thun'da himself, along with his "mate", Pha!

Art by Bob Powell, who took over on Thun'da from the legendary Frank Frazetta!
Cave Girl continued as a back-up in the remaining four issues of Thun'da, and as the lead in four issues of her own title (with a Thun'da strip as a back-up!).
Despite the overlapping of the strips in each other's books, the characters never guest-starred in each other's strips again.

Check out the

Cave Girl Comic Collectibles Store

plus these jungle goodies from Amazon...

DOC SAVAGE: The Movie That ALMOST Was

Comic cover cropped from the paperback art by James Bama

In 1966, with both Bond and Bat-manias at their peak, producers Mark Goodson and Bill Toddman intended to begin a film franchise based on the hot-selling Doc Savage pulp novels being reprinted by Bantam, starting with The Thousand-Headed Man. 

1966 Newsweek article about Doc Savage and the movie. Click to enlarge.

 They contracted Chuck Connors, who had recently finished a successful run on the RifleMan tv series to play Doc, and began pre-production.

Then, things stopped dead in their tracks.

It seemed that Conde Nast, who now owned the Street and Smith library, including Doc, The Shadow, and The Avenger, didn't own the ancillary media rights to the Man of Bronze!

Those rights had been retained by co-creator Lester Dent, who had written most of the novels (including Thousand-Headed Man) under the "Kenneth Robeson" house name.

(Dent, had previously licensed a short-lived radio version of the character, but had been unable to develop a movie or tv version.  When he passed away, his widow inherited the rights.)

Mrs. Dent was more than willing to negotiate, but time was not on the producers' side.  They had already scheduled the production, and had to start shooting something or lose their investment and the cast (most of whom had commitments scheduled after the Thousand-Headed Man shoot!

To recoup, the producers switched to an already-existing Western script called Night of the Tiger, and shot it as Ride Beyond Vengeance.  (Westerns at that point were still an "easy sell" to theatres and tv.)

Looking at the Ride Beyond Vengeance cast, it's fairly easy to guess who would've played whom...

Claude Akins as Monk

Michael Rennie as Ham

William Bryant as Renny

Jamie Farr as Johnny

Bill Bixby as Long Tom

Gary Merrill or Paul Fix as Calvin Copeland

Kathryn Hays as Lucille Copeland

Not sure who would've played Sen Gat

The cast also included Frank Gorshin and James MacArthur.

In the early 1970s, the character's rights were sold to legendary movie producer George Pal, who produced Man of Bronze in 1974.

The Thousand-Headed Man was eventually dramatized...but as a radio mini-series for NPR, who had scored great ratings with radio versions of the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Here's the original pulp cover...

 ...the rarely-seen British paperback, published at the same time as the 1975 Ron Ely feature film, and, oddly enough, based on the James Bama art for #14, The Fantastic Island...

...and the official cd release of the radio show adaptation!

Design of the Week--Sheldon & Leonard's Hero...CAPTAIN FUTURE!

Each week, we post a limited-edition design, to be sold for exactly 7 days, then replaced with another!
This week...
Your eyes do not deceive you!
It's the 1940s magazine artwork the kool poster adorning Sheldon and Leonard's apartment (in the tv series Big Bang Theory) is based on!
It was the premiere issue of a cult-favorite pulp magazine called Captain Future that ran thru the 1940s, was reprinted in paperback in the 1960s, became a fan-fave anime series in the 1980s, and has recently been revived in hardcover!
We covered it in a previous blog entry as well as our own fanpage dedicated to the character's various incarnations!
It's already part of our Captain Future collection featuring the many faces of the character in pulps and comics, but we felt it was time to spotlight this particular piece due to it's historical significance and the fan interest we've seen on the Net.
Plus, it's now on a number of items not part of our main collection, and after next Sunday, they'll no longer be available!
So act now to get the Man of Tomorrow, created in the past, before he disappears next week! (Wha?)

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE in "Thousand-Headed Man" Conclusion

When Last We left our Heroes...

James Bama cover for the paperback of the pulp novel. It was cropped and reused as the Gold Key comic's cover.

Doc Savage and his men are drawn to Cambodia to find a missing explorer and investigate a fabulous lost city and rumors of a "Thousand-Headed Man" who rules it.
Upon arriving, they are strafed by an aircraft owned by Sen Gat, who also seeks the lost city, and it's treasures...

The End of The Thousand-Headed Man.

But Doc Savage Will Return...

At least, that was the intent of the movie producers, who wanted to create a James Bond-level franchise, beginning with this novel.

Tune in Monday for that tale!