Spacemens Luck

 

Where Tom Corbett, Captain Video, CMDR Corry and Other Spacemen Still Live

The state of America’s manned space travel program today is in disarray. With the US having no spaceship in it’s fleet capable of carrying personnel into space. And the only other means for American’s to get into space is via the Russian space fleet which has been temporarily (Hopefully) de-certified due to the failure of last weeks cargo flight to the ISS space station.

The reason we are in this position is because our national leadership has failed to keep their eye on the ball over the last ten or fifteen years and allowed our space program to decline to the point it is today.

What prompted me to right this article is I came across a classic failed pilot for a CBS TV series from 1959 named “Destination Space”. The movie over all is standard science fiction for day. But what I found interesting was the speech before a congressional sub-committee criticizing the congress and other leaders on their leadership in the space program. It is to my knowledge the first time that space travel was shown in a plausible political context that is relevant to this day. A leader of the congressional sub-committee suggests that space travel was not just a technological triumph and a great adventure but also costly and that financial justification is an important consideration as well.

I regret that there was only this one pilot episode and not at least one season of the show made. The film used a lot of stock footage from the earlier 1955 space travel movie “Conquest of Space”. Specifically the views of the “The Wheel” (space station) and the spaceship which is bound for the moon. In the source movie of the stock footage “Conquest of Space” A team of American astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars.

Read the rest of this entry »

1953 Space Travel Movie It Came from Outer Space

Based on a Ray Bradbury story “The Meteor”. Amateur astronomer John Putnam, a romantic dreamer misunderstood by the local townsfolk, and schoolteacher and fiance Ellen Fields see a fiery ball fall from the sky and crash into the desert near the small town of Sand Rock, Arizona. John drags his friend, Pete, out of bed to take him and Ellen over to the crash site near the old Excelsior Mine in his helicopter. Once there, John climbs down into the crater. Unfortunately, he does so alone, as Pete and Ellen wait for him on the rim of the crash crater. John is the only one who sees the spaceship before a landslide covers it. And John is the only one who catches a glimpse of the hideous thing inside.

John Putnam’s story is ridiculed by the townspeople, Sheriff Warren, and the local media. Even Ellen is unsure of what to believe at first, but soon agrees to assist John in further investigation. In the following days, several local people disappear. A few return, only to begin to act in bizarre ways, such as speaking and behaving in a zombie-like manner and staring directly at the sun for long periods of time. In the meantime, the local telephone repairmen, Frank Daylon and his assistant George, are kidnapped by the creatures who convert to the looks of the repairmen and begin to act strangely. John is convinced that their likenesses were taken over by the space visitors. As it turns out, they are actually aliens from the buried spaceship, and the real humans have been abducted by them including his fiance Ellen.

Read the rest of this entry »

1951 Movie When Worlds Collide

David Randall is a carefree ladies man and skilled pilot who finds he has been let in on the greatest and most terrible secret in the world when he is paid to deliver some mysterious pictures from one eminent astronomer to another.

The story begins at a remote observatory in South Africa where the astronomer, Dr. Emery Bronson discovers that two “heavenly bodies” are on a collision course with Earth. One, called Zyra will pass close enough to wreak havoc on land and sea, while the other, called Bellus will actually strike the planet and destroy it days later.

Read the rest of this entry »

2000 Plus

It is with regret that, for now I hope, there are no more 2000 Plus “Space Travel” related episodes known to be in circulation. There are a handful of episodes in the series that are in circulation but are not part of this website as they were not “space travel” themed shows. 2000 Plus (also called Two Thousand Plus and 2000+) was an Old Time Radio (OTR) series which ran from March 15, 1950 to January 2, 1952 in various 30-minute time slots. It is most notable for being the first adult science fiction series on radio, airing one month prior to the better known Dimension X.

During the 1950s, science fiction became a popular genre, and stories exploring future technologies, space expeditions and alien invasions made up the story lines of the episodes that are known today and available for listening.

Read the rest of this entry »

Buster Crabbe in the 1930s

Space Travel Hero Role:
Buster Crabbe played both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in the feature sci-fi serials of the 1930′s and 1940′s.

Space Travel Bio:
Born Clarence “Buster” Linden Crabbe in Oakland, California on February 17, 1908, Buster Crabbe spent his formative years in Hawaii, where he learned to swim. Prior to winning a gold medal in 1932 for the 400-meter freestyle, Crabbe had graduated from college and attempted to break into films with a few bit parts while working as a stunt double. Crabbe landed a contract with Paramount Studios in 1933.

Buster Crabbe won a gold medal in the 400 Meter Swimming Freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also won a bronze medal in the 1500 Meter Freestyle at the 19228 Amsterdam Olympics.

Read the rest of this entry »

1951 Movie The Thing from Another World Movie Title Card

The 1951 “creature feature” The Thing from Another World also known simply as “The Thing” was a ground breaking film that was the first movie to ever depict aliens with an attitude that seem to have only one thing on their mind and that is everyone. This theme of destroy humanity films became very prevalent during the 1950′s. Some say, and I am one of those who does, that “The Thing” was at least a partial inspiration for the much later ground breaking 1979 “creature feature” Alien, staring Sigourney Weaver which spawned several sequels.

1951′s The Thing from Another World is a story of Scientist at an US military Arctic research station, inside the Arctic Circle, who discover an unexplained object buried in the ice. After notifying the U.S. Air Force a plane load of Airmen and a lone news reporter are dispatched to the Arctic research station. There first belief is that buried craft is a Russian spy-plane buried in the ice.

Read the rest of this entry »

X-1 Classic Science Fiction Radio Show

Below is a series List of the classic science fiction anthology radio show X Minus One which aired from 24 April 1955-04-24 to 9 January 1958 with one revival attemp episode on 27 January 1973.

With its magazine affiliation, two dozen shows from Astounding Science Fiction were followed by almost 90 that were from the pages of Galaxy Magazine. A total of 125 programs were broadcast, some repeats or remakes, were aired until the last show of 9 January 1958.

For those of you who are collectors of Old Time Radio shows all of these episodes are in existence and available.

Read the rest of this entry »

Classic Space Travel Actor Peter Graves

Space Travel Hero Role: 1950′s Actor for Science Fiction and Classic Space Travel Movies.

What They Are Doing Today:
Peter Graves passed away this past week on 14 March 2010 at the age of 83 in Pacific Palisades, California. Peter Graves died of an apparent heart attack. A legendary actor of 1950′s SciFi and classic Space Travel Movies is with us no more.

Space Travel Bio:
Peter (Aurness) Graves born 1926 in Minneapolis, Minnesota was the younger brother of James (Aurness) Arness himself a Classic Space Travel actor as the alien from 1951′s The Thing from Another World, and long time actor of Televisions Marshall Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke. Peter (Aurness) Graves took his grandfather’s name (Graves) to cut down on the confusion between him and his older brother.

Read the rest of this entry »

X-1 Classic Science Fiction Radio Show

X-1 was a half-hour NBC science fiction anthology series first heard on 22 April 1955 that was a revival of NBC’s earlier science fiction anthology series, Dimension X which ran from 8 April 1950 through 29 September 1951. Both series’s are remembered for their really high quality science fiction stories.

With its magazine affiliation, two dozen shows from Astounding Science Fiction were followed by almost 90 were from the pages of Galaxy Magazine. A total of 125 programs were broadcast, some repeats or remakes, were aired until the last show of 9 January 1958.

Read the rest of this entry »

Space Patrol Show Logo

Our story begins with Commander Correy and Cadet Happy on their way to the New Arcadia Space Port in Arizona, Earth in a surface car when they see a meteor shower then one of the meteorites crashes into the city of New Arcadia. Buzz and Happy race to the scene where they find the meteorite has crashed in one of the parks of New Arcadia.

Major Robertson the Space Patrol’s Security Chief greets and briefs the Commander. He informs him that the meteor crash created a pit nearly twenty yards across but fortunately no one was injured.

Read the rest of this entry »