Introduction to
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1950s Rocketman:TV Series & Their Fans
Newsletters
Reunions
Site Updates
Solar Guard Newsletter Vol 3 # 1 January 2005
Happy New Year from the Solar Guard Academy.
This is a newsletter about and for Space Opera fans that remember and enjoy the shows of the 1950's. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please email cadeted(at)solarguard.com with REMOVE in the subject line. Addresses for the newsletter are NOT on a public server. If any URL's listed in this newsletter fails to link, copy and paste the URL address into your browser.
ED
KEMMER The lead story in this issue of the newsletter is a sad one. On November 9th, 2004 we lost Space Patrol's Commander in Chief, Ed Kemmer. A memorial page with pictures and memories of Mr. Kemmer was established on the SG web site. You can send in your memories and favorite pictures of Ed for the site and for a memorial book that will be presented to Fran Kemmer from his fans at the Academy. http://www.solarguard.com/sghall/edkfarewell.htm
SOLAR GUARD REUNION- at the Williamsburg Film Festival.
March 9th- 12th 2005 Williamsburg Virginia. http://www.williamsburgfilmfestival.org. Make your hotel reservations early at the Holiday Inn Patriot - 1-800-446-6001. Ask for the special Festival rate!!
Your
support is needed for this year's reunion. Due to family responsibilities Cadet
Ed needs help. We need three cadets to volunteer to work on the Solar Guard reunion.
I have contacted a number of you (and you know who you are ;-) who have expressed
an interest in helping with the reunion. Now is the time to help! Volunteers will
make final choices for the video's that will be shown in the four SG time slots,
provide support for at least one of the four video sessions and help secure videos/films
for the event. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE - We need to know if you are planning
to attend the reunion and if you can help. If you are sure you will be attending
this year, please contact me before next Sunday the 8th of January 2005. I need
to know how many Solar Guard badges to make. If you haven't made hotel reservations,
do so now, they usually sell out by the end of January. If we don't get enough commitment, I will have to notify the Williamsburg Film Festival committee that there would be no SG reunion in 2005. This would allow the Williamsburg people time to provide films for the four time slots allocated to the SG reunion. This is very important, please respond as soon as you can. I will place an update on the SG web site with the status of the reunion next week. Maybe we can persuade Jean-Noel to attend and autograph copies of SPACE PATROL.
SPACE
PATROL by Jean-Noel Bassior Jean-Noel's long awaited SPACE PATROL book was released by McFarland December 4th 2004. You may order your book directly from McFarland by calling 336-246-4460 or from their web site http://www.mcfarlandpub.com. SPACE PATROL is well researched with personal commentary from the people who made Space Patrol a "must watch" show of early TV. Thank you Jean-Noel.
REPORT FROM THE SICK BAY
Welcome back Cadet Rory Coker. Rory is up to full space speed and back online at Roaring Rockets.
TOM
CORBETT IN 3-D Cadet Elliott Swanson has offered to send the Academy new scans of the Tom Corbett Viewmaster reels for 3-D format viewing. As soon as they are ready, they will be posted on the Solar Guard site along with an update to the existing Viewmaster reel pages. http://www.solarguard.com/tcvmintro.htm
FLASH GORDON $1 DVD's
A number of $1 DVD's of the Steve Holland FLASH GORDON TV series have been released in recent months in dollar and discount department stores. Many are the same shows in different packages. The Academy has started a page with information about the covers and contents of the releases in an effort to organize and inform cadets who may be buy multiple copies of the same DVD. If you have different packages, shows etc that have been released, please send scans of the covers and title information for the page.
http://www.solarguard.com/flashdvd/
WEB SITES
Peter Merlin's (son of Jan Merlin) Aerospace Archeology web site http://www.thexhunters.com/ offers up some very interesting research on historical aerospace crash sites.
Marty Baumann's Astounding B Monster site http://www.bmonster.com/ is a must for Cadets. Marty's main page is another treat of graphics and stories http://www.martybaumann.com/mb/index.htm . Entertainment Weekly voted Marty's B Monster site as the best online Journalism devoted to camp, monster and cult movies.
The Heinlein Society site http://www.heinleinsociety.org/ has reprinted the Solar Guard article ROBERT HEINLEIN AND THE TOM CORBETT UNIVERSE on their site. There are many links to other Heinlein sites and events that will interest Heinlein fans including a tour of the Heinlein Archive Exhibit at the McHenry Library at U.C. Santa Cruz.
Steve Johnson's site http://www.scifisteve.com/ offers some excellent 3-D renderings of 1950's spaceships. Steve has revamped his site to include an opening page that resembles a 1950's movie theater marquee. It is graphic intense and you may have a short wait with dial ups, but it is worth the waiting time.
Bruce David's SwapSale Site http://www.swapsale.com has two Capt Video's VHS for sale and a new Bulletin Board for posts about comics, SF and other related childhood joys. David's Sunday Funnies Comics has returned and he has issued the Space Patrol Gold VHS tapes on a single DVD.
PERSONAL NOTES
For those who have wondered why Cadet Ed has been slow in email response or why the site hasn't had a major update in a while, it's not because of lack of desire. The start of 2004 was not a good one with a major crash of the academy computer and a lot traveling during the year due to family illness. We are regrouping and I hope 2005 will be a little less hectic and more fun oriented. Thanks for hanging with us.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Resolutions, goals or desires, whatever you would like to call them for 2005:
- Newsletter in both text and HTML format.
- Upgrade to Solar Guard web site to include a revised Bulletin Board
- Membership drive for the Solar Guard Academy, including a membership packages.
- FTP site for large downloads and expanded research files.
Till later ...
Spaceman's Luck
Cadet Ed Pippin