Logo For The Classic 1950's TV Show Science Fiction Theater
My name is Thurman “Ray” Plumlee Space Cadet (Senior Rating), and I’m an Old Time Radio (OTR) and classic Sci-fi TV and Movie fan. Specifically those that related to adventures in space and space travel. My personal dedication goes beyond just the collecting of these programs. I am interested in their preservation and propagation. What I mean by propagation is the evangelism of these little gems of Americana. Thus the purpose of this website.
I was born in 1947 so many of my childhood memories center around a lot of these programs and movies of the 1950′s and early 1960′s. My strongest child hood memories are those of Space Patrol and Science Fiction Theater (I never forgot that theme music) and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. On this one I remember the character Cadet Roger Manning played by Jan Merlin even better. This is because I met Jan Merlin at a county fair in Fontana, California about 1958 when he was on a promotion tour of his new TV series a post civil war half hour weekly show titled “The Rough Riders”. In the The Rough Riders he played Lieutenant Colin Kirby.
Another inspiration for me were some of those classic science fiction stories by such great authors as Robert Heinlein, Andre Norton and Willy Ley. One in particular comes to mind and that was Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein. It is said that this was an inspiration for the Tom Corbet, Space Cadet programs. Another child centric book series were the Tom Swift series of books by Edward Stratemeyer. In particular the book Tom Swift and the Race to Moon (1958).
Listen to the theme song for the classic science fiction anthology show Science Fiction Theater:
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As I am now more or less considered a senior citizen I have found myself evolving away from working for others and working on only things that interest me. For the last 13 years I have been a traveling Webmaster and for the last 6 years I took that title literally. I lived in a 5th Wheel RV full time and traveled all over the country working as a php and MySQL database programmer for people who wanted to have an online business website that was interactive and dynamic.
In early 2009 I injured my back while in Las Vegas and after realizing it would never get better on it’s own I made my way back to my home base in Boise, Idaho and underwent surgery having a lumbar fusion. During recovery and some help from my granddaughter Ellery I decided I needed to slow down and spend time with family. So I dropped anchor and put my RV in storage (for now) and became a land lubber.
I now find myself with a lot of time on my hands because I have quit accepting new programming clients so I can devote more time to what I want to do. This brings us to this website. Most of what I remember from the 1950′s is the space operas and children’s space adventure shows. The radio shows I remember the most are for example the Lone Ranger, Abbott and Costello, and Roy Rogers.
It was not until 1972 while I was in the Navy where I was stationed in Yokohama, Japan that I began my hobby of collecting OTR programs. Our local radio station, well English speaking radio station, was the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) or as we used to call it “A-Farts” played OTR programs on their local radio station. At first I was piling up cassettes and that didn’t take long for me to realize that was not the way. Then I migrated to reel-to-reel tape recorders and fortunately, I was in tape recorder heaven, and could buy them relatively cheaply at the A-33 Fleet Exchange in Yokosuka, Japan.
Over the years I owned 6 or 7 reel-to-reel recorders (I still have 3 Sony reel-to-reels) and my OTR collection of 7 inch reels grew to a now 250 or so reels. Now in storage because I have gone completely digital. In fact, I recently ordered a 500gb hard drive preloaded with 34,000 OTR programs. Most of which I already have but I hope to be able to cull a few shows I may not already have. And maybe some episodes that I already have that may be of a better quality.
While I have your ear (well eyes) I am particularly interested in finding a BBC radio serial titled “The Mars Project” (1969). My copy is a poor copy. Anyone out there know where I can get a decent copy I would appreciate it if you contact me. Thanks in advance.
Now that I have the time I have decided to indulge myself with my interests and with my years of web programming experience I have started this website. Once the decision was made and based on my web business experience and my years of googling the web for Sci-Fi Movies, OTR and Classic TV websites I realized I needed the site to be in a niche of those three broader categories.
The niche I decided on is one that crosses all three categories. So if you haven’t realized by now this website is dedicated to Space Travel portrayed in all Movies, Radio and TV programs of the 1950′s, 1960′s and those earlier media forms such as the movie serials (cliff hangers), and Science Fiction radio plays for which those later shows derived their essence from. The most famous one of course is the Mercury Theater presentation of Orson Welles version of H. G. Wells “War of the Worlds,” also known as the show heard around the world as the Panic Broadcast of 1938.
One of the catch phrases in the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet TV and radio shows was the phrase “Spaceman’s Luck” which was used to wish a fellow spaceman luck on some adventure they were about to begin. I like the sound of that phrase and decided it would be appropriate to the theme of this website. Of course I am not just wishing one spaceman luck I am wishing all spacemen luck.
Hence: Spacemen’s Luck
Ray Plumlee
Space Cadet (Senior Rating)
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