Superman On Candid Camera

On the stands at teh end of 1966, this issue of ACTION COMICS continued the tradition of Superman meeting celebrities that had already included, among others, Perry Como, Orson Welles and John F. Kennedy.

In this case it was allen Funt, the friendly/smarmy host of TV's CANDID CAMERA. Originally on radio (as CANDID MICROPHONE) and seen as a series of short subjects in theaters, Funt was an early proponent of the entertainment value of what we now call "punking." He'd set up a situation and then voyeuristically record and comment on how various ordinary people reacted to it. In this case, the ordinary person was Clark Kent who, luckily, was able to pull a switch on the sneaky host.

Funt would later produce the feature film, WHAT DO YOU SAY TO A NAKED LADY?. Scandalous in 1970 (with a great theme song that actually got radio play), it's now a quaint document of how folks reacted to suddenly seeing an attractive young miss in her birthday suit in elevators, parks, hallways, etc.

Batstuff # 5

Sparkle Paints! I dearly loved sparkle paints! They had sets with drawings of flowers and dolls and animals and such but best of all, they had Sparkle paints with superheroes starting in '66! Both Marvel and DC made the cut with the most popular ones undoubtedly being the Batman ones seen here.

David Wayne For American Motors

Actor David Wayne shilling for 1966 American Motors cars. Later in '66, he would appear memorably as The Mad Hatter on BATMAN!

Spies, Spoofs and Super Guys

This was a one-shot magazine that cashed in on several of the trends of 1966 at the same time. It was very popular in my circle of seven year olds for several years in fact as it was one of the few places for info on the OUR MAN FLINT films, the Matt Helm films and the Harry Palmer pictures. It also covered the TV spies of GET SMART, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., SECRET AGENT and I SPY as well as, obviously, BATMAN! While some of the articles may have been new (probably the BATMAN ones) I believe the rest were reprints from other Dell movie and TV mags of the day.

A lot of great black and white pics including some naughty (to a seven year old) images from the spy pics, SPIES, SPOOFS AND SUPER GUYS remains a nostalgic treat!

Johnny West

Marx's Johnny West was a cowboy action figure that first appeared in 1965. I got mine (the first of several) for Christmas that year, along with his Indian friend, Chief Cherokee. In fact, for pretty much every Christmas following for the next decade, I received more and more of the many, many additional human and animal figures that became available. These included General Custer, Captain Maddox, Geronimo, Jane West, kids and some absolutely beautiful but hard to store horses!

The Beach Boys--Good Vibrations

Without a doubt one of THE great pop musical masterpieces of all time.

Bill Cosby--Wonderfulness

Bill Cosby was one of the first black faces on television for many growing up in the sixties. Although his popularity grew with I SPY, he was, at heart, a comedian and, as such, put out a number of memorable and hilarious record albums which is what comedians did in those days.

WONDERFULNESS contains one of my favorite Cosby routines, "Chicken Heart."

Bill would remain a TV fixture and, in time, THE COSBY SHOW would cinch his place in television's Hall of Fame.