FOR SALE
BIG LITTLE BOOK DUST JACKETS
High quality full color dust jackets are now available for some Big Little Books. They can be used to enhance and protect BLBs or be used on any BLB to make it look great!
Each costs $6.00 plus $2.00 postage for the first dust jacket. No additional postage is needed for 2 or more dust jackets. Send check or Money Order made out to The Big Little Book Club, P.O. Box 1242, Danville, CA 94526.
The following are the BLB dust jackets that are available. If you have a book not on this list for which you want a dust jacket, one will be made for you - cost is $10.00 per dust jacket.Alley Oop and Dinny
Alley Oop in the Jungles of Moo
Buck Rogers and the Planetoid Plot
Buck Rogers on the Moons of Saturn
Buck Rogers and the Doom Comet
Buck Rogers and the Depth Men of Jupiter
Buck Rogers in the City Below the Sea
Flash Gordon on the Planet Mongo
Flash Gordon and the Witch Queen of Mongo
Flash Gordon and the Tournaments of Mongo
Flash Gordon and the Monsters of Mongo
Flash Gordon in the Water World of Mongo
The Lone Ranger and the Vanishing Herd
Mickey Mouse (first printing with skinny Mickey on cover)
Mickey Mouse (second printing with traditional Mickey on the cover)
Mickey Mouse and Bobo the Elephant
Mickey Mouse and Pluto the Racer
Mickey Mouse Runs His Own Newspaper
Mickey Mouse and the Bat Bandit
Mickey Mouse the Detective
Mickey Mouse in Blaggard Castle
Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island
Mickey Mouse and the Sacred Jewel
The Phantom
Popeye in Quest of his Poopdeck Pappy
Tarzan of the Apes
Tarzan Twins
Tiny Tim and the Mechanical Men
Tom Mix in the Fighting Cowboy
Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy Hunting for Whales
Wimpy, The Hamburger Eater
Received a copy of the Alley Oop and Dinny Big Little Book dust cover. Looks terrific, such a quality reproduction. Im very pleased! Thank you very much for offering Alley Oop in your selection of dust covers. It shall sit on my curio cabinet shelf along with my Oop BLBs. The idea is really a great idea. I would say most collectors would love to add such an item to their collection. Back in the 1940s I would have loved to have these to wrap around my BLBs, then I had a whole book shelf full of the Disney and Flash Gordon and many others. Thanks again. Ray Snodgrass #1142
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Between the last issue of the BLT and this one, another celebrity in our Club passed away. Robert Culp (Member #306) loved BLBs and had an extensive
collection until he had to downsize when he relocated. He grew up in the Bay Area and went to the high school my wife attended Berkeley High near the University of
California.
Culp was born in Oakland California in 1930. After college and for more than 50 years, he was active as a writer, producer, director, and actor in movies and on television. He is best remembered for his TV role as secret agent Kelly Robinson, who operated undercover as a touring tennis professional, for three years on the hit NBC series I Spy (196568), with co-star Bill Cosby. Culp wrote scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed. One episode earned him an Emmy nomination for writing. For all three years of the series he was also nominated for an acting Emmy, but lost each time to Cosby.
Culp passed away of a massive heart attack on March 24, 2010. He had just completed writing a screenplay titled Terry and the Pirates which was scheduled to begin shooting later this year in Hong Kong with Culp directing. Terry and the Pirates was Culps favorite comic strip as a child and it was his lifelong dream to make a film based on it.
Many Club Members have written to me about the significant drop in membership - mainly due to age. In this issue of the BLT there is one suggestion that several members think might help revitalize the Club. Read the first letter to the Editor and if the idea works, perhaps the Club will be revitalized.
In several recent issues of the BLT , Club Members have provided information on H. J. Ward, the artist who created definitive portraits for the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet. Author David Saunders, preparing a biography on Ward, knew that Ward did a definitive Superman painting, but no one seemed to know what happened to it. The original painting was recently located in a library at Lehman College. The New York Times published an interesting story about how the lost painting was tracked down:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/ the-mystery-of-the-missing-man-of-steel/
LARRY LOWERYEditor
Our BLB Club has several celebrities in its membership. Mel Torme, who passed away several years ago, was an active
collector of BLBs. In the 1930s, his Dad worked for Whitman, and every time a BLB came off the presses, his Dad would bring home a
copy for Mel. Mel told me some great stories about those printing days.
Alley Oop and Dinny dust jacket
Popeye in Quest of his Poopdeck Pappy
dust jacket
The H. L. Ward Superman painting
CHANDU THE MAGICIAN
byLarry Lowery
Frank Chandler is a fictitious character who learned the secrets of the Yogis in the Far East. He used his special powers and a crystal ball to thwart the enemies of mankind. He became well-known as Chandu, the Magician.
The popular juvenile radio program Chandu the Magician, began on October 10, 1932 on the West Coast Don Lee Network, radio station KHJ, Los Angeles. It soon expanded to the East on Mutual. The 5-day series of 15-minute episodes was sponsored by White King Soap in the West and by Beech Nut Gum in the East.
The title character was American-born Frank Chandler who learned occult secrets in India. He acquired supernatural skills, including astral projection, teleportation, and the ability to create illusions. Calling himself Chandu, he intended to fight any evil that threatens mankind.
The original show was created by Raymond Morgan and Harry Earnshaw. Vera Oldham who worked for them, wrote several hundred episodes in which Chandlers sister, Dorothy Regent, and her two children, Betty and Bob, try to find Dorothys husband, Robert Regent, who disappeared in a shipwreck. Suspecting foul play, Chandler takes the family to Egypt where they encounter dangerous adventures and the evil Roxor. Chandler has a mild romance with Nadji, an Egyptian princess, and he discovers that Roxor had kidnapped and holds Robert prisoner in an attempt to get his plans for a powerful ray gun.
Although the program came to an end in 1936, it was revived for another run beginning June 28, 1948. The original scripts were reworked by Vera Oldham, and the episodes were again sponsored by White King Soap on ABC, Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. The spooky theme music was provided by organist Juan Rolando under his Hindu pseudonym, Korla Pandit. Then on February 2, 1949, the serialized episodes were dropped, and the program became a 30-minute, self-contained story each week. The last broadcast was heard on September 6, 1950.
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Princess Nadji The Return of Chandu the Magician Republic Pictures 1934
Roxor and Chandu Chandu the Magician Republic Pictures 1932
In the year that the radio program Chandu the Magician, first aired, the first of three Chandu movies came to theaters. The first film, Chandu the Magician, starred Edmund Lowe as Chandu and Bela Lugosi as the evil Roxor. The film contains interesting visual tricks for its day: Using his eyes, Chandu changes rifles into hissing vipers; a rope rises into the air, is climbed to the top, and the climber disappears; ghost-like souls float from their bodies.
Actor Lowe is impressive in Oriental clothing, but his acting is weak compared to Lugosi. He does evade poison, trapdoors, collapsing floors, and tear gas and chases the evil Roxor all over Egypt to save the world from extinction. Roxor is played with relish by Bela Lugosi who was in his prime. Along the way Chandu is smitten by the beauti-ful Princess Nadji (a damsel in distress). Irene Ware plays the very attractive princess.
The movie follows the main story line of the radio program. Would-be world dominator Roxor has kidnapped Robert Regent, along with his powerful ray invention, in hopes of using it to force humanity to follow his bidding. Faced with revealing the machines secrets or allowing his family to die a horrible death at the hands of Roxor, Regents only hope lies with the intervention of his brother-in-law, the turbaned yogi and magician Chandu, who has the power to make men see what is not there. The movie has a blooper in it. During a scene, Chandu enters a slave auction by luring the guard away with an astral projection. The guard chases the illusion, corners it only to see it disappear. In a shot over his shoulder we see him raise his hands in amazement and drop his rifle. Then a cut to a new angle shows the guard from the front still holding the gun.
The movie was photographed by the notable James Wong Howe and was co-directed by James Cameron Menzies whose talent can be seen in the elaborate sets and
