Joanna Cameron

Day two of "Childhood Celebrity Crush Week!"

Most of my childhood crushes came from watching a lot of TV and today's is no exception. Being a fan of Filmation's Shazam! I was more than happy when they made the spin-off The Secrets of Isis (1975-1976). It starred the lovely Joanna Cameron as Andrea Thomas, a high school science teacher who found an ancient mystical amulet on an archeological dig in Egypt. Andrea, by virtue of being able to open the casing in which the amulet rested, was recognized as an heir to Isis's secrets. Whenever Isis was needed, Andrea would reveal the amulet and with the words "Oh, mighty Isis!" she would be transformed into the goddess Isis.

Isis was in some ways similar to both Superman and Wonder Woman. Their disguise during their daily routine among civilians was simply a pair of glasses. When she transformed into Isis – besides a new sexy outfit – she looked basically the same...sans glasses. No one was the wiser.


Here's Isis saving the day by helping a boy whose ladder slipped out from under him – very suspenseful...


I pretty much forgot about Isis after it ran it's course. That is until the late 90's when I found a couple of bootleg VHS tapes at a record store full of Isis episodes. My love affair with Joanna Cameron was once again rekindled. At that point I made it a mission to seek out her other acting roles.



How to Commit Marriage (1969)
Nancy Benson (Joanna Cameron) and David Poe (Tim Matheson from Animal House) are a young couple who plan to marry. David's father Oliver Poe (Jackie Gleason) – a seedy rock and roll producer/mogul – is against it. At the same time Nancy's parents (Bob Hope plays her dad Frank) are about to divorce. In light of these events the young couple loose faith in marriage and decide to live together instead. After the birth of a child, they put it up for adoption so they can tour in a rock band David's father Oliver Poe created. Nancy's divorced parents decide to fake a reconciliation so that they can secretly adopt their grandchild...under a fake name. This leads to an actual reconciliation and a happy ending for all. Here's a scene...


The Bob Hope Show (1969 or 1970)
Joanna Cameron was actually discovered by Bob Hope (for her role in How to Commit Marriage). Over many decades Bob Hope created many comedy specials for the NBC television network. I was watching a "Best Of" DVD and one of the clips was of Joanna in a "hippy" skit with Bob Hope and John Wayne. She doesn't say anything, at least in this small clip, but she looks groovy. Here it is...


I Love My Wife (1970)
Elliott Gould plays a young surgeon whose become bored with his wife (Brenda Vaccaro) and family. He has a very successful career, but even with having so much in life, he feels empty and goes through a series of brief and meaningless relations with attractive women. One of these attractive women is nurse Sharon (Joanna Cameron). In this scene we find Elliot in bed with Joanna. I had to cut the scene prematurely because Joanna gets out of bed naked, and YouTube has it's rules...


B.S. I Love You (1971)
Paul Bongard (Peter Kastner) is a young TV commercial producer who has an affair with his female boss Jane (Joanna Barnes) and her teenage daughter Michele (Joanna Cameron), without knowing they were related – definitely influenced by The Graduate. In this scene Paul finds out their relationship and chaos ensues leading up to Michele confessing to her mother...


Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)
In a California high school, young female students are being targeted by an unknown serial killer. Rock Hudson plays Michael "Tiger" McDrew, a married teacher, athletic coach and faculty advisor, who's having sex flings with most of his female students. A police detective (Telly Savalas) investigates the deaths but never makes an arrest. Tiger is suspected, but never caught red-handed. At the end of the film, we learn that Tiger has moved to Brazil. Roddy McDowall and Angie Dickinson also star in this movie along with Joanna Cameron, who plays one of Tiger's students/conquests. At first you're lead to believe that Joanna's character may have had something to do with the murders. Here's a scene...


Columbo - "Negative Reaction" (1974)
Paul Galesko (Dick Van Dyke) is a famous photographer, he is married to a nagging woman and a grumbler. Moreover he is in love with his assistant Lorna (Joanna Cameron). So Paul decides to stage an abduction of his wife which ends with him killing her. Paul's plan seems to work and the police accepts his version of the events. But Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) has some doubt. Here's a scene...


The Amazing Spider-Man - "The Deadly Dust" (1978)
Upset that their professor has brought a small amount of plutonium onto campus in order to give a class demonstration, three University students decide to steal the plutonium and build a bomb in order to illustrate the dangers of nuclear power. However, the international businessmen and arms dealer named Mr. White has his henchmen steal the plutonium so that he can detonate it in Los Angeles, California where President Jimmy Carter will be giving a campaign speech. Joanna Cameron plays Gale Hoffman a reporter who's been put on a Spider-Man expose gets caught up in the plutonium scandal and winds up in a skimpy white bikini. Can Spidey save the day?...


And just because I don't know how to end this post...here's another shot of Joanna in a white bikini from B.S. I Love You...

Sonia Manzano

Day one of "Childhood Celebrity Crush Week!"

It's only natural that a child form a crush on a teacher...I think they call it "Miss Crabtree Syndrome". Like many kids my age I spent a large portion of my childhood watching and learning from Sesame Street. One particular cast member caught my eye...Maria. Actress Sonia Manzano has played Maria on Sesame Street since 1971 – a role she still plays today. Beside being a human on Sesame Street, Sonia also provided the voice of the muppet Smart Tina in the Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School segments and she's also known to impersonate Charlie Chaplin.


In the early days, Maria often flirted with David (played by Northern Calloway). The two might've been boyfriend/girlfriend on the show but I don't remember or maybe it was never actually spoken. Maria eventually went on to marry Luis (Emilio Delgado), the Sesame Street neighbor who owned the Fix-It Shop. They are still married...on the show...today.

Here's a scene with Maria and David from the early days of Sesame Street...


As you may or may not know, I've shared a lot of Sesame Street albums on this blog. Out of all the albums Sesame Street has released they never gave the Maria character a solo album. Bob's got a few, Susan's got a few, even David has one...but not Maria. So here's a mix of some of Maria's spotlights on various Sesame Street albums...


[DOWNLOAD] Sesame Street - Best of Maria
01- Yo (Me) -- Maria and Cookie Monster
02- Snow (Nieve) -- Maria and Luis
03- People In Your Neighborhood (Gente En Tu Barrio) -- Maria, Susan, Luis and Bob
04- How Do I Know I'm Here? -- Maria
05- Tu Me Gustas (I Like You) -- Big Bird with Luis, Bob, Susan and Maria
06- You're The Best Friend I Ever Had -- Maria
07- Scream -- Maria
08- Birthday Rhyme Game -- Big Bird and Maria
09- Thanks For The Party -- Maria, Cookie Monster, Oscar and Bob
10- What's The Name Of That Song? -- Luis, Bob, Susan, Gordon, Maria, Ernie, Davis, Bert, and Big Bird

Though not often, Sonia Manzano ventured off Sesame Street and took on other acting jobs. I searched high and low and found a few of her "lost" roles...

Death Wish (1974)
Death Wish (directed by Michael Winner) is the most famous film that Sonia has had a bit part in. In it she plays a grocery store clerk that gets harassed by a group of street punks – one of which is Jeff Goldblum. The street punks go on to murder the wife of a New York City architect (Charles Bronson) who then becomes a one-man vigilante squad killing would-be muggers on the mean streets of Manhattan after dark. Here's Sonia's scene...


Firepower (1979)
Another one directed by Michael Winner...she must've made an impression. This movie stars James Coburn, Sophia Loren and OJ Simpson. Coburn plays an independent contractor who's hired by the FBI to find a very powerful and dangerous recluse. Sophia Loren is also out to get the same man after he killed her husband. The two, along with Coburn's friend OJ, join forces to get the job done. As for Sonia...she plays an airline stewardess who unfortunately gets in the line of fire. Here's her short scene...


Night-Flowers (1979)
I can only imagine that Sonia accepted this role because she was trying to shake her good girl Sesame Street persona. In it she plays a masseuse, specializing in happy endings, whose customer is a freaked out war vet. Night-Flowers is a story about two disturbed Vietnam war veterans who get tangled up in rape and murder. This movie should have never been...it's extremely poor made...characters that seem to be important are introduced never to be heard from again. This movie is just icky.


B.J. and the Bear - "Snow White and the Seven Lady Truckers" (1979)
Seems like 1979 was the year Sonia actively pursued non-Sesame Street acting jobs – this time on the small screen. In this episode, B.J. (Greg Evigan) agrees to assist some lovely lady truckers in a dispute with a rival company. Sonia plays one of the "Seven Lady Truckers" named Chattanooga. Here's a scene when Chattanooga gets a distress call from Snow White on her CB radio...


Thanks for being my first love Sonia.

Disco Fever

Last day of "Fads of the 70's Week!"

Disco music first originated in the gay community dance clubs in the early 70's. It was later brought to the mainstream through the release of the film Saturday Night Fever in 1977. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, performed by a re-invented Bee Gees, became the best-selling soundtrack of all time and pretty much single-handedly introduced disco to the masses.

Saturday Night Fever (1977) starred John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities were dominated by visits to a local discothèque. While in the disco, Tony was the king, temporarily forgetting the reality of his life. Here's the dance scene with Tony sporting his now famous white suit...


With the popularity of Saturday Night Fever a few parodies popped up in various forms of media. In Airplane! (1980) – filmed in 1979 so it counts as a 70's movie – Robert Hayes finds himself in a discothèque and does his best Tony Manero – including the white suit – in hopes to woo his love interest...with a little comedy thrown in. Here's that scene...


1979's Love at First Bite finds Count Dracula (George Hamilton) moving to New York to find his bride. There he stumbles through typical New York city night life and finds his bride to be (Susan Saint James) in a discothèque. There, he does his best Tony Manero on the dancefloor. Unfortunately, when they released this movie on DVD they switched the original song, "I Love The Nightlife", with a lame song due to copyrights. Here's the scene...


The Saturday Night Fever influence even found it's way to the small screen. This time on The New Adventures Of Wonder Woman (1978). Here Wonder Woman must fight off a group of mind-melding crooks using a discothèque as their lair – one of which is wearing the white suit. And yes, that's Wolfman Jack as the gun wielding DJ!...


The Saturday Night Fever influence even found it's way to children's television with Sesame Street's Disco Fever album (1978) – this time Grover donned the white suit.

The disco trend, in turn, led many non-disco artists to record disco songs at the height of its popularity. Many of these songs were not "pure" disco, but were instead rock or pop songs with disco influence or overtones. Notable examples include The Rolling Stones' "Miss You" (1978), The Grateful Dead's "Shakedown Street" (1979), Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" (1979), and Kiss' "I Was Made for Lovin' You" (1979).


Disco and the crossover trend led to a anti-disco backlash by many hard rock fans. They expressed strong disapproval of disco throughout the height of its popularity coining the popular slogan "Disco Sucks" by the late 1970's. Disco never really went away, it just evolved into other forms of music.

I'm ending this post with a disco compilation. You won't find the Bee Gees, Donna Summer or Village People here...that's not the Franklin Mint way. These cuts are a little more obscure. The first track sounds as if it could be the theme for Battle Of The Network Stars...In Space. And even Dennis Coffey (last weeks featured artist) got the disco fever!


[DOWNLOAD] Disco compilation
01- Conquest of the Stars -- Space Project
02- Wings Of Fire -- Dennis Coffey
03- Grooves -- Alec R. Costandinos
04- Wonderland Love Theme -- The Wonderland Band
05- Dancing In Outer Space -- Atmosfear
06- Caravan -- Rhythm Heritage
07- For The Love Of Money -- Disco Dub Band
08- Cocomotion (short version) -- El Coco
09- Mi Sabrina Tequana -- Ingram

Keep On Truckin'

Day four of "Fads of the 70's Week!"

Truck driving also became quite popular in the 70's. I suppose truck drivers represented the modern day cowboy...and Americans have always romanced the cowboy life. In this case instead of herding, they were hauling. And along with truck driving came the CB radio (Citizen's Band Radio) craze. People actually kept them in their homes...created "handles" for themselves...and talked gibberish to complete strangers.

Wanna talk CB? Here's an educational record...


[DOWNLOAD] How To C.B. (1976)
01- C.B. Introduction and Equipment
02- Part 95...Breaking A Channel
03- Ten Code...C.B. Terms (Part 1)
04- C.B. Exercises One & Two
05- Radio Check...Mayday Call
06- Call For: Directions/Road Conditions/Police Report
07- C.B. Exercises #3, 4 5
08- C.B. Terms (Part II)
09- C.B. No-No's/Etiquette
10- Close


Hollywood perpetuated the life of a truck driver by producing a string of truckin' movies in the 70's. The most popular of the bunch, and rightfully so, is Smokey and The Bandit (1977). I'm sure most of you have seen this movie so no summary is needed. Here's the trailer starring Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed, Sally Field and Jackie Gleason...


Another truck movie starring Jerry Reed is High-Ballin' (1978). Jerry plays Duke, an independent truck driver, and Peter Fonda plays his rebel truckin' friend Rane. Together they fight off thugs who have been hired to drive them and all the other independent truckers out of business. Here's the trailer which is also narrated by Jerry Reed...


Convoy (1978) was based on the country song of same title by C.W. McCall. Kris Kristofferson plays "Rubber Duck" who after fighting a crooked sheriff (Ernest Borgnine) winds up leading a mile-long convoy of protesting truckers speeding along the Arizona highway toward the Mexican border. Here's a scene with love interest Ali MacGraw...


Speaking of the song Convoy...truckin' music was also a 70's phenomenon. Here's Country Road performing Convoy and other 70's truckin' hits...


[DOWNLOAD] Big Rig Hits: Singin' and Pickin' by Country Road (1976)
01- Convoy
02- Movin' On
03- Phantom 309
04- Me And Ole C.B.
05- Wolf Creek Pass
06- The White Knight
07- Roll On Big Mama
08- A Tombstone Every Mile
09- Ole Home Filler-Up An' Keep On-A-Truckin' Cafe


Yet another truck movie from the 70's is Coast to Coast (1980) – filmed in 1979 so it counts. In this movie Madie (Dyann Cannon) escapes from a New York state mental hospital where her unwholesome husband had her committed to avoid the trial of a expensive divorce. She hitches a ride back to California with a certain Charles Callahan (Robert Blake), a debt-ridden truck driver. Madie and Charles eventually fall in love while evading an assortment of bad guys including a pair of thugs hired by Madie's husband to prevent her from returning to California, and a repo man sent to reclaim Charles' truck. Here's a scene...


Okay, one more truckin' movie... This one was made before all the other truck movies I've talked about so far. White Line Fever (1975) features a young trucker (Jan-Michael Vincent) and his truck, the "Blue Mule", in a battle against the corruption that plagues the independent trucker industry – a popular theme. Here's a scene...


Not only was the truckin' trend popular in the movies, it also made it to the small screen. BJ and the Bear (1979-81) starred Greg Evigan as B.J. McKay, a professional freelance trucker who traveled the country's highways in a red and white semi-truck with his pet chimpanzee, Bear. He was constantly harassed by Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo (Claude Akins, who eventually spun off onto his own show, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo). Here's the intro to BJ and the Bear...


The truckin' C.B. craze continued on Saturday morning cartoons. CB Bears was a 60-minute cartoon block produced by Hanna-Barbera from 1977 to 1978 It contained short segments from CB Bears, Blast-Off Buzzard, Heyyy, It's the King, Posse Impossible, Shake, Rattle & Roll, and Undercover Elephant. CB Bears featured three bumbling bears that drove a garbage truck and solved crimes. Inspired by Charlie's Angels, the three bears received orders from their boss, a woman named Charlie, via their CB radio. Here's the intro...


This here's Franklin Mint...we gone...catch you on the flip flop. Bye.