Vintage Cult TV Paperbacks - U.F.O

This is a blog post I published back in 2010, but am recycling it for this week's Sepia Saturday. Whilst it's not sepia, it does fit nicely with the 'space' theme that Alan has suggested this week.

U.F.O. was another cult TV series I remember as a child. It seemed at times to have quite an edge to it, and I remember being distinctly scared by some of the episodes. The books were published in the early 1970's and set in the future, albeit only 1980, in a time when 'Unidentified Flying Objects race through the skies like bats out of hell, blasting... killing... vanishing to an unknown alien world'. I also vividly remember seeing various toys as a child, and although I coveted one, I never owned a S.H.A.D.O. vehicle. I imagine they are real collector's items today.

Having seen some re-runs fairly recently, the vision of what we would all be wearing in the future, remains quite amusing. Silver sting vest like all-in-one outfits, short skirts, purple hair with matching eye shadow, etc. As for the aliens, they were of course archetypal baddies, and only intent one one thing.

First UFO paperback, written by Robert Miall, c.1970

 Second UFO paperback, written by Robert Miall, c.1971

More vintage books and magazines on my web site

    

Theme Thursday - Test

A more obvious choice for me for today's Theme Thursday of 'Test' would have perhaps been the Test Valley or the Test Way, which are not to far from where I live, but alas I couldn't find anything to hand. So, searching through my vintage magazine collection, I came across this Road Test report on the new Austin A40 Saloon de Luxe. The report was taken from the February 1959 edition of Motor Sport magazine.

More vintage magazines on my web site

Vintage illustrated guide book of Swanage and South Dorset

I've been meaning to blog about these wonderful illustrated guide books I picked up last summer for some time now but for some reason have only just got around to it. The books are all published by Ward, Lock & Co., and come in a red, linen type cover. They date around 1929 or 1930 and offer a fascinating glimpse into tourism of 90 years ago. There are articles on all the local chutches in each area, restautants, hotels, steam boat rides, railway routes (many of which are now sadly long gone), detailed, fold-out maps, and of course some wonderful adverts. For today I've decided to share the Swanage and South Dorset guide.

Front cover of Swanage and South Dorset guide

Various adverts from the guide book

Advert for Wright's Coal Tar soap

Back cover of guide book

As always, other vintage books and magazines, and also vintage postcards can be found on my web site

Theme Thursday - Food

I found this advertisement card inside a Blue Ribbon cook book that I picked up at a local village fete last summer. Thought it fitted in reasonably well with this week's theme of food.

As always, more vintage postcards and vintage magazines and books on my web site

Vintage magazines - Drive, from the early 1970's

I've now finally managed to find the time to scan in the rest of the Drive manazines that I picked up a few weeks ago. For now I'll just concentrate on the front covers, but may at some time in the future also blog about the great advertisements inside.

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Autumn 1972

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Spring 1972

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Summer 1972

Drive Motorist's Magazine, Summer1973

As always, more vintage magazines and vintage postcards on my web site

Vintage Drive Magazine, c.1972

Whilst out looking for vintage postcards a couple of weeks ago I was delighted to stumble across 6 issues of Drive magazine from the early 1970's. I don't remember ever seeing this before but I'm fairly sure it's something my dad would have read. All of them have great covers, bizarre stories with classic 1970's fashions in the pictures, and some even better adverts. For this blog post I've chosen the New Year 1972 edition, which features an article and front cover dedicated to Spaghetti Junction. For readers in the US, perhaps this does not seem an especially large or complex intersection, but I do remember the stir it caused at the time. It was positioned at the junction of the M6 motorway, the A38 Sutton Coldfield road, the Aston Expressway to Birmingham city centre, and numerous other local roads, effectively joining up the M1, M5 and M6 motorways, and demolishing 130 buildings to make way for it. At the time this feature was written, it was already behind schedule, and had cost over £8 million. The junction is still in use today but has a network of other motorways to help ease the traffic.

Front cover of the New Year 1972 edition of Drive magazine

Feature on Spaghetti Junction

More vintage magazines can be found on my web site

Theme Thursday - Monster

A great choice of theme this week on Theme Thursday - Monster. Below are scans of my paperback copies of novels by one of my favourite authors, John Wyndham, both featuring monsters of one kind or another. The first paperback is 'The Day of the Triffids', originally published in 1951, this is the 1965 Penguin paperback version. My first encounter with Triffids was watching the 1980's TV series, which I thought was much earlier so perhaps it was the 1962 film version that I saw some time in the late 1970's. Either way, I remember it vividly and being very scared at the time.

The second paperback is 'The Kraken Wakes', which is also the title of a poem by Alfred Tennyson. Wyndham's novel was first published in 1953 and the version here is Penguin's 1973 version. As far as I can tell this has never been made into a film, although I'm sure the plot has been used in various 'creatures from the deep' type films.

As usual, lots of vintage magazines and books on my web site, and also vintage postcards

Sepia Saturday - vintage 35mm photography magazines

Another variety of vintage magazine this week, where it's time for a brief posting on vintage photography magazines. I picked up 6 or so of these magazines dating back to 1965. These 2 covers are my favourites. The magazines themselves are, if I'm honest, a little dry and factual, but there are some great vintage advertisements which, had I not spent all week dealing with the 'business prevention department' at work, I may have had the time to include.

 

35mm and sub-miniature photography magazine, c. February 1965

 

35mm and sub-miniature photography magazine, c. March 1965

More vintage magazines can be found on my web site

Vintage Cult TV Paperbacks - The Man From U.N.C.L.E

As promised several times, I have finally got around to creating a blog entry for my collection of paperbacks from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I'm assuming it needs little or no introduction, but just in case, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a US TV series which ran from 1964 to 1968, featuring two secret agents, Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) who work for a secret organisation called U.N.C.L.E (the United Network Command for Laws and Enforcement). Their rivals were called THRUSH and, of course, were dead set on world domination and destruction.

I can't remember when I saw my first TV episode, probably during a 1970's re-run I would imagine, but I remember being fascinated from the very first few seconds. I picked up these paperbacks about 10 years ago at various locations, 2nd hand book shops, cahrity shops, book stalls at village fetes, etc., but have not come across any for a while now. I have numbers 1 - 5, 7, 10 and 11, so a few gaps, but also it looks as though there were no fewer than 23 in all.

Finally for today's post, I've also included the only Girl From U.N.C.L.E. paperback I have, and in fact the only one I have ever seen. Furthermore I've never seen any of the TV episodes although there would seem to have been 29. They featured Stephanie Powers, who later went on to appear in Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner, and Noel Harrison, and ran from 1966 to 1967.

 

 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. paperback, by Michael Avallone

 The Man From Uncle paperback no 2, The Doomsday Affair, by Harry Whittington

 

 The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. paperback no 1, The Global Globules Affair, by Simon Latter

I hope this posting satisfied those who were waiting for it. Maybe I'll feature my U.F.O. paperbacks next time.

Check out my web site for vintage postcards, vintage books and magazines and records and CDs

Sepia Saturday - Projector Guarantee

Apologies to anyone expecting another installment of vintage Motor Sport magazines, or Cult TV paperbacks - I have a couple lined up which hopefully I'll post over the weekend, but for now I thought that this was appropriate for this week's Sepia Saturday entry.

I found this guarantee slotted into a vintage '35mm Photography' magazine I came across recently (and yes, I will devote a blog post to those magazines at some time as well). It's a two year guarantee for a Braun projector, bought at the Oriental Store, Crater, Aden. I assume that as I found the magazine in a UK shop, that the projector was bought by possibly a UK serviceman of civil servant on overseas duty in Aden, some time in the 1960's.

More vintage items can be found on my vintage postcards web site, or my vintage magazines and books page

Top Gear, eat your heart out

Following on from my previous post from the March 1959 edition of Motor Sport, I thought I'd go back a little further in time and share some of the great advertisments form the April 1957 edition of Motor Sport magazine. These are just three from the magazine which also featured articles called 'The Parliamentary Debate on the British Motor Industry' and 'Top Men in Speed Say This New Tyre is a Winner'.

 

 Motor Sport magazine, April 1957

Advertisement for Courtaulds High-Tenacity Rayon - the World's Leading Tyre Cord

Madame Andrée Jan, here seen hanging by her teeth from a helicopter over Derby airfield on June 17th 1956, was suspended with perfect safety by a cord only 1/4 inch thick ... 

Advertisment for the Morris Minor 1000 ... 0-60 mph in 28 seconds

 

Advertisment for the Triumph T.R.3

T.R.3 versus Aeroplane ... and the Triumph T.R.3 won! So, I'd always thought that having carzy races between planes and cars was a Top Gear invention but it looks like the fun was to be had at least 40 years beforehand, albeit that this challenge was done on fuel consumption with the Triumph running at 43 mpg as opposed to the Auster J4's 22.1 mpg ... I wonder if The Stig was driving.

More vintage magazines and books on my web site

Vintage Motor Sport Magazine, c.1959

A bit of a departure from my previous two posts in this blog, where I move away from the world of Cult TV paperbacks and into the realm of vintage Motor Sport magazines. Those of you eagerly anticipating more Cult TV will have to wait a while ... but not too long ... and hopefully the same sort of mindset that draws you to Cult TV will also endear you to these magazines. Everything from the pictures of the old cars, to the vintage advertisements gives a fascinating insight into a world which, although not especially old, has changed beyond recognition.

 

Front cover of Motor Sport Magazine, March 1959

The Three Graces

Advertisement from the March 1959 edition of Motor Sport magazine for Ford, showing 'The Three Graces' of the Ford Consul, the Ford Zephyr and the Ford Zodiac. Proudly claiming Ford to be Britain's biggest exporter of cars, trucks and tractors.

 Back cover of Motor Sport Magazine, March 1959

Showing an advert for Lucas motoring essentials, inviting you to 'Greet the Spring' with items such as a dipping mirror, am  ignition coil, and an  electric screenjet.

More vintage magazines and books on my web site

  

Vintage Cult TV Paperback - The Persuaders / Tony Curtis

Having decided to stay with the theme of 1960's and 1970's Cult TV classics, my blog entry was an easy choice following this week's sad news of the death of Tony Curtis. I have probably seen most, if not all, of the Persuaders TV series, but I only have one Persuaders paperback. It wasn't however until I read a few of his obituaries that I realised quite how many films he'd starred in, and also that he was an established artist whose paintings sold for thousands.

What I particularly liked about The Persuaders was the interplay between Roger Moore, the artistocratic englishman, and Curtis, the Brooklyn wannabe playboy, and the cheesy, but constant, humour - they must have had a blast filimg it. The semi-exotic Riviera locations add a further sense of the bizarre as the two jet-setting playboys get themselves into all sorts of trouble. Hopefully over the next few weeks there will be some Tony Curtis documentaries and films shown on TV.

The Persuaders! Book One, by Frederick E. Smith, c.1971

Back cover of the first Persuaders paperback

 

 More vintage books and magazines and also vintage postcards can be found on my web site

Vintage Cult TV Paperbacks - The Avengers

Hello everyone! This is my first entry in my new blog. Having had a blog dedicated to vintage postcards for a while now, I decided it was time to branch out and share some of my other vintage interests, particularly (but not exclusively) vintage magazines and vintage books. For my first post I thought I'd feature some paperback books from the great 1960's and 1970's cult TV programmes, The Avengers and The New Avengers.

I'll start with The Avengers as this show was, and probably still is, one of my favourite 1960's TV shows. I wasn't old enough to remember the originals with Cathy Steel, Emma Peel and Tara King, but thanks to regular TV re-showings I think I've seen pretty much all of them now.

I'm also fascinated by what's often referred to as Avengerland, which is basically the area covering the locations of much of the filming. It's on my list of places to visit - just need to find the time.

The Avengers, The Magnetic Man, c.1968 (front cover)

Curiously the front cover seems to feature both Tara King and Emma Peel. As far as I recall they were only in one episode together which was when Emma left and Tara entered, and it wasn't this episode.

The Avengers, The Magnetic Man, c.1968 (back cover)

This is alas my only Avengers paperback, and quite late in the series, but I do have several New Avengers ones which of course feature Joanna Lumley. Although I prefer The Avengers to the The New Avengers, the latter will always have a fond place in my memory as they were my first exposure to the world of John Steed.

The New Avengers - House of Cards, by Peter Cave, c.1976

House of Cards was the first New Avengers paperback and for some reason I have two copies, so if anyone has a copy of number 2 (The Eagle's Nest) or number 4 (Fighting Men) they'd like to trade, please get in touch. I've only just noticed that only Steed and Purdey appear on the cover.

The New Avengers - To Catch a Rat, by Walter Harris, c.1976

This was the 3rd paperback released, this time with Gambit also featuring on the cover.

The Cybernauts - A New Avengers novel by Peter Cave, c.1977

This was the 5th paperback to be released. This was of course not the first time the Avengers came across the Cybernauts, as they made an appearance in the one of the Emma Peel episodes. This book is actually called The Last of the Cybernauts, but I guess that was perhaps a bit lengthy to show on the cover.

So, I'll finish the first entry of my new blog here. Would love to know what you think so please feel free to leave a comment. I'll be back with further updates over the course of the next few weeks, probably covering The Man From Uncle, The Saint, U.F.O and others. I'll also be sharing some of my vintage motor magazines and vintage photogtaphy magazines which are interesting just for the adverts alone.

More vintage books and magazines and also vintage postcards can be found on my web site