The Terrible Catsafterme

Although I have no special attachment to or admiration for the TV series Batman, I recognize the fact that it is a legendary and iconoclastic example of television programming. So it was in that spirit that I chose to purchase the lovely color shot of Robin seen at left, and then pay $30 to have Burt Ward autograph it during the October 2005 Hollywood Collectors Show. Although I already owned a nice signed photo of Batman himself – aka Adam West – I originally was still going to purchase a photo that included Batman too – for the purpose of future signing. But then Bob reminded me that West would charge an outrageous fee to add his signature, so I opted for the solo shot. Read the rest of this entry »

I got the bee in my bonnet to track down Janet Burston way back in 1992 when my friend Dick Bann told me that he had nearly uncovered her whereabouts – his information indicated that she was working in a Denny’s restaurant in Fresno. He had no desire to contact her, but offered to pass on her phone number for me. By the time I followed up with him and tried to call her, the line he gave me had been disconnected. Flash forward to 1994 when I met Bill Cappello. He had already provided the whereabouts for both Harry Spear and Beverly Crane, when I asked him to see what he could find out about Janet Burston. Read the rest of this entry »

My association with George “Spanky” McFarland began on July 31, 1980 when I snuck up behind him to eavesdrop on his interview in Culver City. Later that night, he appeared at the Our Gang reunion, but for some reason I didn’t get his autograph in my book at that time. Having flown in from Texas for the convention, Spanky was at the convention for its entire duration so I was able to get his signature later on – as I recall I got my book signed in the hospitality suite later that night.  Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that we had two Thanksgiving celebrations in 1985. This particular year, Thanksgiving fell on Thursday, November 28 in 1985. This was less than two weeks after Grandpa Murphy’s 62nd birthday which is November 15. Not long before, he had undergone open-heart surgery. This is one of those holidays that would have surely been assigned to memory oblivion had we not had these nice family photos of the event. I speculate that we had an early Thanksgiving celebration combined with Grandpa’s birthday so that Darlene could celebrate with us. I’m betting that she and Bob were able to make it home from Denver during the early part of November, but not Thanksgiving, so we had an additional celebration for her benefit. This makes sense because Bob was released from the army on November 30 and likely had to be back in Colorado in order to complete his service exit paperwork. Read the rest of this entry »

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