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The Golden Age

 
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Gord Green
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Joined: 06 Oct 2014
Posts: 2940
Location: Buffalo, NY

PostPosted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:41 am    Post subject: The Golden Age Reply with quote

There is a saying that "The Golden Age of fandom is 13." Meaning that what "hooked" you at age 13 has affected your interest for the rest of your life.

I think for the most part it's true.

I remember my first science fiction book, Have spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert Heinlein.

Before that I was hooked on the EC science fiction comics and DC's Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space. I watched Space Patrol and The Adventures of Superman first run on B&W tv in the 50's. I listened to X Minus One on the radio and saw Forbidden Planet when it was first put out.

I remember seeing Earth vs the Flying Saucers with a friend and his mother and then taking the bus home only to be looking over my shoulder all the way home...sure that a saucer was about to show up.

What were your early experiences that hooked you on sci-fi? I bet they're not too dissimilar.
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17019
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Wow, Gord, you're my brother from another mother! Or my clone from a different home! Or my duplicate from Jupiper — okay, never mind that.

Here's my sci-fi history: Born in 1948, watched Flash Gordon serials on TV, along with Superman, Science Fiction Theater, and Captain Midnight. Went to drive-ins with my family and saw The 27th Day, The Werewolf, Earth vs the Fly Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Colossus of New York, and The Space Children.

That last one really rocked my world: seven magnificent children helping a glowing/pulsating alien sabotage a rocket that would have put a nuke in orbit — and we find out at the end that other children iaround the world did the same thing to the rockets in their countries.

The most unlikely guardian angle ever.





My posts for Earth vs the Flying Saucers and The Time Machine do a pretty fair job of presenting my memories of seeing those two movies the first time. I hope you'll read them.

And I hope our other members will reply to your wonderful request and share their own monsterkid memories. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:49 am; edited 2 times in total
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orzel-w
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 1877

PostPosted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm in...

Up to my age of being in second grade in school (early '50s) my total exposure to sci-fi was via TV and a neighbor friend. My parents never took me to any sci-fi movies, so this friend, who was about four years older, would regale me with the plots of movies he'd seen, like The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds. He also built small spaceship models out of balsa wood.

Between second and third grades we moved to California, where my theatrical exposure to horror and sci-fi movies amped up with a new friend/distant cousin. That's where we saw Forbidden Planet on its initial release. This lasted until around the sixth grade. By then, of course, I was attending movies independently.

Soon thereafter, NBC TV began their "Saturday Night at the Movies" series. That's where I finally caught up with The Day the Earth Stood Still.

I didn't have much literary acquaintance with sci-fi, outside of comic books, until the summer before my senior year in high school, when I began binge reading. That's when I learned to "never read the book before seeing the movie."

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WayneO
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 3:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
I didn't have much literary acquaintance with sci-fi, outside of comic books, until the summer before my senior year in high school, when I began binge reading. That's when I learned to "never read the book before seeing the movie."

Brother, you said it!

I just posted a reply on the I Am Legend thread, in response to a member who criticizing the movie because it was so different from the book.

He didn't say the movie's own version of the concept was lousy, he just said it bore little resemblance to it's literary origin.

So, that's one reason not to read the book first.

Another reason is to prevent the movie from having to compete with your own imagined version of the story. I was so eager to see Star Wars after marveling at the way it was electrifying the nation before it had even opened in Atlanta, I made the mistake of reading the paperback novelization.

Naturally 99% of the movie blew my imagined version away, but the dogfights around the Deathstar were disappointing. The FX just didn't portray the soaring, diving, climbing, turning aerial ballet of a dogfight.

And of course, I knew all the major plot points, so nothing was a big surprise.

So, Wayne is dead right: don't read the book first on purpose and then see the movie (like I foolishly did). But if you do read the book first (like, years before the movie came out), try to view it as a "re-imagining" of the story, not a strict depiction of it's literally genesis. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Gord Green
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Joined: 06 Oct 2014
Posts: 2940
Location: Buffalo, NY

PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 12:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, having been born in 1947 the 50's and 60's were the cradle of my love for sci-fi.

Sputnik was launched the day before my birthday and I was a child of the Space Age. I survived the "duck and cover" days of the 50's and looked forward to the oncoming Age of Space.

I watched Alan Shepard make his Mercury launch, and then Gus Grissom and John Glenn and wished I had been them.

I went to the movies EVERY Saturday and sat though every double feature! I watched every one with the awe and sense of wonder that only a 13 year old could understand.

I listened to X-Minus One every Wednesday night on the radio and laid in the dark feeling that launch roar opening as if I was about to be transported to another world in another time.

I also got introduced to the amazing world of superhero comics with Carmine Infantino's Flash and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and Steve Ditko's Spider-Man. I loved Gil Kane's Green Lantern and actually got to meet him and tell him so!

I just KNEW that the best was forthcoming.

And it was.

Gord
Space Pirate

And, by the way....the Space Pirate I refer to is Murphy Anderson's Space Pirate from Planet Comics .
or.....Maybe Captain Harlock....Who knows?
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 1:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

What a beautifully written post, Gord. No one could have said it better. Thank you.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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orzel-w
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 3:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
...Carmine Infantino's Flash and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and Steve Ditko's Spider-Man. ...Gil Kane's Green Lantern...

Testify, Gord, testify!

I also have some vague recollections from the early '50s of being exposed to the original Captain Marvel comic books long before that name was usurped by some space jockey character and the original was reidentified as "Shazam".

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WayneO
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