2004 Cosmic Correspondence Archive

December 2004

[From Al Holecek (12/5/04):]

Hi,

I was born in 44 in Berwyn, near Chicago. I remember loving CV. We had a space ship in the basement made from an old table with a sheet over it. Cardboard boxes and crayons provided the instrumentation. We climbed out on top of the table to make repairs. Old bowls served as our space helmets. I just got hit with the notion to search for CV. What a treat to find this web site. The kids today just don't know what they missed. We gained our imaginations from this stuff. TV today leaves little to the imagination.

THANKS..for the memories.

Al Holecek

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May 2004

[From Frankie Thomas (5/6/04):]

I had a thought prompted in part by the FilmFax coverage and several requests to do an interview about Tim Tyler. In the past five years or so I feel that there has been a big resurgence among nostalgia lovers for Tom Corbett-- due in a great part to your work and the other sites of our space academy boys. People are constantly telling me that they have brought up one of these sites and there are volumes of material about the show, &c. But the Tim Tyler serial originally came out under the shadow of the three Flash Gordon serials and now seems to be finding its way to the top. It did have realistic cliff hangers.

Back to our real love. Are there some solar guard sites that I don't know about? I am not a genius with this computer, which sneers at me daily. Made my fourth appearance last week at the sci-fi group out here which has been operative since 1935. They wanted to hear about some of the films I had done and about Holmes... So I talked for awhile and they threw the floor open to questions. Every question was about Tom Corbett! By the way, there will be an article coming out soon consisting of new interviews with Roger, Astro and Tom... never done before.

Frankie

[SpacEditor's note: For me the great thing about TIM TYLER is the use of impressive animals in new footage, unlike the majority of jungle serials which switched to scratchy stock footage whenever "wild animals" had to be shown. In TIM TYLER, it's Frankie in the flesh cavorting with lions, panthers and an elephant. The article to which Frankie refers will appear in an upcoming issue of STARLOG.

Space Notices will carry full info about availability when we have it..]

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April 2004

[From John (Birdman) Bryant (4/28/04):]

I feel much the way you do about the incredible excitement of growing up in the 40s and 50s. I particularly enjoyed two things -- the SF serials on Saturday morning TV and the program Watch Mr Wizard, the latter of which I didn't see mentioned on your site, but which stimulated my interest in science considerably.

One of the SF serials that excited me considerably when I saw it had as the villain a man who wore a mask in the image of a skull face. Would you by any chance remember this series and if so, could you pass on whatever info you have about it?

Birdman

[SpacEditor's note: We didn't mention Don (Mr. Wizard) Herbert, because he dealt in science fact, not space adventure, but he had a big influence on all those who grew up in the 1950s, indeed. The serial John remembers is of course THE CRIMSON GHOST. Check out our own memories of it here.]

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February 2004

[From Brian (2/26/04):]

Hello. My name is Brian and I just wanted to let you know that I've been a big fan of your web site for a while now. I'm not old enough to have caught any of those old space operas when they first aired (I'm 29), but I'm a big fan of classic science fiction in all its forms, and Roaring Rockets has been a great source of information and entertainment for me. Many thanks for all your efforts.

I'm also writing to let you know about a new online forum I've just started, The Launch Pad . It's dedicated to the discussion of all forms of classic science fiction, including literature, film, and -- you guessed it -- television. The forum has only been online for a couple days, so obviously there aren't many posts yet. But it's my hope that folk with like-minded interests (such as yourself) might help spread the word. And you know, if such a person were so inclined to join the forum and post a few things on the subject of space operas... well, that'd be great.

I also thought that you might be interested in checking out my web site -- it's called The Dr. Atomic Attic of Astounding Artifacts, and it houses pictures of my vintage robot and space gun collections... Not too many television tie-ins, yet, though I did just pick up a vintage Marx Tom Corbett Space Cadet Atomic Rifle (pictures will be posted upon the toy's arrival). I've got a link to your site from our links page -- hopefully it's driven a few surfers your way.

Thanks a lot for your time, and I hope to see you on the forum one of these days. In the meantime, I hope all continues to go well with Roaring Rockets.

All the best,

Brian

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