Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 70 years ago…
This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Oct. 7, 1956.
Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 30, 1949. Click here to check it out.
(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between Oct. 4 and Oct. 10)
So, let’s set the scene: There was only a month left in the 1956 presidential race and incumbent Dwight Eisenhower was in the driver’s seat. The Republican enjoyed bipartisan support across the nation, and despite weakened health, was able to campaign by using television as his proxy.
It was actually the first national race where TV played a significant part, with ads able to target specific segments of the electorate. Ike, for example, defeated Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson in 1952 in part by winning the women’s vote. Eisenhower and Stevenson were in a rematch and commercials designed to appeal to homemakers were a central part of the president’s strategy.
TV’s development also allowed Eisenhower to stay at home in the White House and let the tube carry his message, while Vice President Nixon did the scut work of retail campaigning against the Democrat’s aggressive challenge. But when it came down to it, Stevenson didn’t really stand a chance.
October 8 gave us one of the greatest moments in sports history: Yankees righthander Don Larsen pitched a perfect game at Yankee Stadium against a heavy-hitting Brooklyn Dodgers lineup in Game 5 of the World Series: 27 batters faced, 27 outs. It’s been 70 years and there has never been another one.
New York would win the Series two days later, swamping Brooklyn, 9-0, in Game 7 at Ebbets Field with Yanks catcher Yogi Berra swatting two home runs. It was the Bronx Bombers’ seventh title in 10 years. The team’s biggest star was center fielder Mickey Mantle, who’d just had the best season of his career, winning the Triple Crown by leading the majors in batting average, homers and runs batted in.
Manager Casey Stengel and his Triple Crown winner
I have actually been to two no-hitters and two perfect games in my life — all four pitched by Yankees and all four at Yankee Stadium. For the non-baseball fans among you, the chances of that are exceptionally slim. It would not be out of the realm of possibility that I’m the only one who has experienced that, other than media covering those games. The odds of it happening are gargantuan.
The No. 1 movie in America was War and Peace, starring Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer. Other hits included the van Gogh biopic Lust for Life, starring Kirk Douglas, and Tea and Sympathy, starring Deborah Kerr and John Kerr (no relation).
But two movies opened this week that would become all-time classics. On Oct. 5, The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Charlton Heston in one of his signature roles — supported by smashing performances by Yul Brynner and Anne Baxter — bowed.
Five days later, Giant, with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, opened. It would be Dean’s final role.
The World Series was a ratings crusher, but for regular programming, I Love Lucy, The $64,000 Question, and The Ed Sullivan Show were heavyweights. Lucy was just beginning its final season and this week’s episode featured Little Ricky learning how to play the drums — to everyone’s great consternation.
Ed Sullivan, meanwhile, was at his height: In September, Elvis Presley — who began the year as a popular regional act in the South and ended it as an internationally known superstar — appeared on the show for the first time, with 60 million watching, and was due to play again at the end of October.
Presley was photographed Oct. 5 hanging out with actor Robert Wagner and Alan “The Skipper” Hale Jr. at the 20th Century-Fox commissary in Los Angeles — where I had lunch yesterday, no lie.
Elvis, between Wagner and Hale
Not Elvis
Elvis received a Triple Crown Award from Billboard magazine for Don’t Be Cruel topping the pop, country and R&B charts. The movie studio would release Elvis’ first movie the next month. The flick was originally to be called “The Reno Brothers” but advance sales of the single Love Me Tender topped an unprecedented 1 million, so the name was changed to match the song.
Elvis was already being referred to as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and had two hit songs on the singles chart this week: the No. 1 Don’t Be Cruel and the No. 6 Hound Dog. Fats Domino — whom Presley would later call “the real King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” — was at No. 21 with Blueberry Hill (up from No. 73 the week before).
The debut album Elvis Presley was a monster hit, with the followup, Elvis, set for release Oct. 19. The King and I movie soundtrack — more Yul Brynner! — and Harry Belafonte’s Calypso were also huge.
I don’t want no other love. Baby, it’s just you I’m thinking of…
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Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension
Four Color #752: Mandrake the Magician, Dell. That’s a pretty snazzy cover for Mandrake the Magician.
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Superboy #53, DC. Adult Kal-El seems pretty chill about the whole situation.
Dan adds: This actually came out the week before, but who cares, really? It was still on sale.
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Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners #4, DC. You don’t realize how popular Gleason was in his day, until you see something like this.
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Four Color #749: Walt Disney’s Secrets of Life, Dell. Because kids love pollen.
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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension
I Love Lucy Comics #13, Dell. The show would wrap at the end of the season, even though it was No. 1. The comic actually lasted 35 issues, into 1962, probably because of the program’s continued, phenomenal popularity in syndication.
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Marvel Tales #153, Atlas. What would I do? Probably not hang out in a junkyard.
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Lone Ranger’s Companion Tonto #25, Dell. I know I’ve said this before but I love that, once upon a time, Tonto could carry his own comic for 33 issues (from 1950 to 1958).
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A Treasury of Dogs #1, Dell. There was no Issue #2.
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Rin Tin Tin #16, Dell. The series ran 20 issues, which just goes to show how important branding is in the world of dogs.
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