Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 74 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Oct. 1, 1951.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 24, 1973. Click here to check it out.
(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the comics that went on sale between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4.)
So, let’s set the scene: Harry Truman was in the White House, and the Korean War was in full swing, with McCarthyism and the Red Scare gripping the nation. The world was also poised to tip on its axis — the following week, Joseph Stalin would announce that the Soviets had the atomic bomb.
This week, however, lighter fare dominated the water cooler, especially if you were a baseball fan. On Oct. 3, Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit the Shot Heard ‘Round the World — a three-run homer off the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ralph Branca in the bottom of the ninth at the Polo Grounds, giving the Jints a 5-4 victory and the National League championship.
Thomson’s swing capped off an extraordinary run by New York. The team trailed their hated Brooklyn rivals by 13 1/2 games on Aug. 11, then mounted astounding drive that coincided with a spectacular Dodger collapse. At the end of the season, the two were deadlocked atop the NL.
The turnabout was not dissimilar to this year’s Cleveland-Detroit American League Central race, except that in this modern age, both teams still made the postseason. Back then, it was do or die: There were no divisions or wild cards, and to get into the World Series, you had to finish at the top of the standings. The only time you had a playoff was if teams were tied for first at the end of the regular season. In 1951, it was a best-of-3 for the NL title and the Giants and Dodgers split the first two games, leading to this climactic Game 3.
Russ Hodges was announcing the game on WMCA, the Giants’ radio home. His call is arguably the most famous in sports history, punctuated by his ecstatic “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
The team’s victory earned them the right to face the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Yanks had clinched the AL pennant Sept. 28, when Allie Reynolds threw his second (!) no-hitter of the season, an 8-0 whitewashing of the Boston Red Sox. It was the Bronx Bombers’ third straight league title (and they would go on to beat the Giants for their third consecutive World Series championship).
It was very much the Golden Age of Hollywood: Sword-and-sandals epic David and Bathsheba, starring Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward, was the big box-office hit. Other major films included A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters, while A Streetcar Named Desire, headlined by Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, and the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still had both just made their bows.
Gene Kelly’s An American in Paris premiered in New York on Oct. 4 and Show Boat, which had already hit theaters in Los Angeles and New York, had gone national Sept. 24.
Popular radio shows included Amos ‘n Andy, Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, while TV was dominated by Texaco Star Theater, which was hosted by Milton Berle. The show was so big, it gave rise to the notion of “appointment television” — though it wasn’t called that for decades. Uncle Miltie’s antics are also credited with driving sales of television sets, and thus the growth of the medium itself.
Things were about to get even funnier, however: On Oct. 5, Jackie Gleason would introduce Ralph Kramden in the first Honeymooners skit on his show, Cavalcade of Stars, on the DuMont Television Network. Ten days later, a TV show reworked from the radio comedy My Favorite Husband would premiere on CBS: It was called I Love Lucy.
Because of You, by Tony Bennett (with Orchestra under the direction of Percy Faith) and Come On-a My House, by Rosemary Clooney (with Stan Freeman, Mundell Lowe, Jimmy Crawford, and Frank Carroll) were the top radio hits, while album sales were led by the Show Boat soundtrack and Mario Lanza Sings Selections From ‘The Great Caruso,’ his popular movie of the same name.
Apple, a-plum, and apricot-a too-a…
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Two-Fisted Tales #25, EC. One of the more shocking and infamous Two-Fisted Tales covers, courtesy of the legendary Harvey Kurtzman.
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Detective Comics #177, DC. Isn’t Batman a millionaire? Why are they in a rowboat?
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Captain Marvel Adventures #127, Fawcett. I like that Dr. Sivana is such an open-minded mad scientist. “Voodoo? Sure, I’ll give it a try.”
Dan adds: Otto Binder, C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza having a grand old time while it lasted. DC and Fawcett had spent the spring and summer continuing their years-long legal battle over whether Captain Marvel infringed on Superman’s copyright. The case was decided at the end of August but amid the legalese, the upshot is that Fawcett ultimately decided to throw in the towel on its superhero comics. The Big Red Cheese would wrap it up in 1953.
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Plastic Man #33, Quality. This has to be the most gruesome Plastic Man cover I’ve ever seen.
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
Superboy #17, DC. That Superboy has a double rates a breathless pitch from the editors. That the story takes place in the Middle Ages is just taken for granted.
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Spy Fighters #6, Atlas. Features “Spy Cases Torn From Actual Official Records!” — which I’m sure is 100 percent, absolutely true, editor Stan Lee!
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Dear Lonely Heart #3, Comic Media. Dude totally got friend-zoned at the last second there.
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Popular Teen-Agers #10, Star. Hey, Scott Shaw! just featured this in ODDBALL COMICS!
L. B. Cole
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The Lone Rider #5, Farrell. How many kids begged their Mom for the new issue of Lone Ranger and then got this when she returned from the store? Enough to keep this series going for 26 issues, evidently.
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Love Letters #16, Quality. There were 12 photo covers this week. This is one of them. That’s Anthony Quinn with actress Miroslava, from the movie The Brave Bulls.
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MORE
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of September 24 — in 1973! Click here.
— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of September 17 — in 1953! Click here.
