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I must preface this review with a caveat: I haven’t actually finished reading this novel. Nevertheless, I feel confident discussing it because, frankly, the plots in novels like this one really aren’t all that important. Really, when the protagonist is, as the title boldly declares, a “mild, meek, mother’s boy,” the only thing Captain Nice has to deliver is outrageous humor. And boy, does it deliver. Some of the humor is so outrageous, in fact, that it’s almost painful to read. But it reflects the tone of the series.

Like dozens of other TV tie-in novels, Captain Nice was written by William Johnston. By the time it was published the program it was based on, NBC’s Captain Nice, was probably already off the air. It ran for just 15 episodes between January and May of 1967. William Daniels starred as Carter Nash, a feeble, unimposing scientist who lives with his domineering mother. Using a secret formula he devised, Carter turns into the inept superhero Captain Nice and fights crime in Big Town.

As Captain Nice opens Big Town is being threatened by Thomas Fidget, a man who used to work with Nash at the police laboratory. Fidget was fired. To get his revenge he built a time machine and is threatening to disappear the town’s top politicians sideways into time if he isn’t paid a billion dollars. Captain Nice is soon on the job.

Captain Nice Front – Copyright 1967 Tempo Books

I can’t say whether Captain Nice captures Fidget (I assume he does) before the mayor and the chief of police disappear. I can state unequivocally that Carter is depicted as a complete and utter buffoon. Here’s a choice excerpt:

Carter had risen, holding the lamp. Carefully, he placed it on the table, then inched away. Finally, confident that the lamp was safe, he turned and strode toward the television set. An instant later he felt a tug at his ankle. His foot was caught in the cord. Behind him, the lamp crashed to the floor once more. Carter, off balance, lurched into another table, knocking a second lamp and a candy dish from their perch. Ricocheting off the table, he tripped over a footstool, did a perfect somersault, performed a belly-whopper across the coffee table, and ended up where he had started–on the couch; but with his head buried under the cushions instead of sitting up.

I rest my case.

Captain Nice Back – Copyright 1967 Tempo Books

As I said earlier, some of the humor is a little painful. The above paragraph wasn’t too bad, to be honest, but later on when the Mayor and the Chief of Police were having their pictures taken right before a raid on Fidget’s presumed hideout, there was an attempt to make it seem as if the photographers were having a hard time taking their last photographs: “For the sixth time, the photographers were taking the last picture” and “No more than a half-hour later, the photographers finally snapped the final picture.” I found this particularly weak. Perhaps it would have played out better on the television screen.

If anything particularly unexpected occurs during the rest of the novel I’ll be sure to mention it. From what I’ve read, though, Captain Nice the novel seems like the perfect tie-in to Captain Nice the television show.

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The reason you haven’t been able to find a good, definitive answer is likely due to the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a good, definitive answer why certain stations were given call letters starting with K and others with W. Thomas H. White has written some wonderful articles for United States Early Radio History about the history of radio call letters. In “Mystique of the Three-Letter Callsigns” he notes that when the United States signed a 1912 radio regulatory act (I believe this was the Berlin International Radiotelegraph Conference) “call letter assignments became formalized under federal authority. Under international agreement unique initial letters were allotted among the various nations.”

He quotes from a 1914 government document (the full text of which is available here) describing the call letters available for stations in the United States and then writes the following:

Notice the policy was that calls for ocean-going ship stations started with a different letter than the land stations they communicated with: in the West ships received W– calls and land stations were assigned K–, while the reverse was true in the East, with K– ship calls and W– land calls. (NOTE: The assignment of W and K to the United States appears to have been completely arbitrary–the letters have no particular significance. N, however, had been commonly used by the U.S. Navy since November, 1909).

Later in the article, White explains that in 1923 the Mississippi River was chosen as the dividing line between newly licensed “W” stations and “K” stations, with existing stations allowed to keep their current call signs. Another article, “K/W Call Letters in the United States,” focuses on the various stations that don’t (or didn’t) fall into the K/W divide.

A December 1940 article in The New York Times discussing “a new system of call letters” adopted by the FCC explained that “under international agreement, the first call letters will be N for the use of the Navy and Coast Guard, K for stations west of the Mississippi and the Territories and W for stations east of the Mississippi” [1]. Another article, this one published in December of 1946, wrote that “until the FCC came into existence in the 1934, there were only two restrictions on a station’s choice of call letters: they should not number more than than three or four, and the first letter was supposed to be W (for stations east of the Mississippi) or K (for stations west)” [2].

So, to sum up, nobody seems to know why the decision was made to assign the letters W and K to the United States. And there doesn’t seem to be any rationale behind giving stations in one part of the country “W” call letters and others “K” letters. But ever since 1923, when the Mississippi River was made the boundary, people have been wondering why. If there is a good, definitive answer, please let me know.

Works Cited:

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“Star Spangled Revue” was broadcast over NBC on Sunday, April 9th, 1950 from 5:30-7PM. According to an April 15th article in The New York Times, it drew a 49.4 Hooper rating, placing it second behind Milton Berle (Texaco Star Theater) in “program rankings” [1]. Whether this means “Star Spangled Revue” was second in the weekly Hooper ratings (running Monday, April 3rd through Sunday, April 9th) I can’t say. The article explained that a special Hooper rating was taken in New York City, Chicago, Cleveland and Washington, D.C. [2]. Furthermore, the share of the audience was an 88.2 and an average of five people were said to have been watching each set [3].

On April 23rd, Sidney Lohman reported in The New York Times that because of the impressive Hooper rating, “it is rumored that his sponsor will advance the date of the comedian’s next appearance, which was originally announced to be on Decoration Day. Now, it is said, Mr. Hope and company will do the second show on Mothers Day, May 14″ [4]. That second special, also titled “Star Spangled Revue,” eventually aired on Saturday, May 27th. You can watch the first You can watch the first “Star Spangled Revue” at the online Museum of Broadcasting Communications Archives, although you’ll need to register (which is free).

Works Cited:
1 “Radio and Television.” New York Times. 15 Apr. 1950: 32.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Lohman, Sidney. “News of TV and Radio.” New York Times. 23 Apr. 1950: X9.

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The story begins in October of 1941 when fresh contacts between the CBS and NBC radio networks and ASCAP were signed, allowing the 1,250,000 songs in the ASCAP catalog to return to the airwaves (the contract would run through December 31st, 1949) [1]. According to The New York Times, while the new contract primarily impacted radio, “it also stipulated that ASCAP will provide its music free for television programs at the present time, but the right is reserved to cancel this service” [2]. I don’t know when the networks started paying for the right to use ASCAP music on television.

Negotiations to renew the contract began at least as early as May of 1947 between ASCAP and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) [3]. In early December of 1948, Billboard reported that ASCAP had announced it was canceling its licenses with the television networks within 30 days but was also offering sixty days past January 1st, 1949 for negotiations [4]. CBS initially announced it would stop using ASCAP music on recorded programs but never implemented the plan [5].

Negotiations continued for months until May 6th, 1949 when the NAB determined it could not accept the latest proposal from ASCAP; in return, ASCAP announced that as of June 1st the networks would need individual contracts with composers, authors and publishers for each and every song played on television, every single time [6]. On May 17th,The New York Times reported that the networks would no longer use ASCAP music “on programs which are kinescoped for delayed showings on stations not connected by coaxial cable” [7].

But on May 20th, ASCAP extended the contract through June 15th, allowing stations to use ASCAP music without paying because progress was underway on a new contract. Kinescoped programs thus began using ASCAP music right away. Regarding which programs were filmed without such music, The New York Times stated only that “the television networks earlier this week had started to omit such tunes on a number of their shows” [8].

ASCAP continued to extend the contract on roughly a monthly basis until October 17th when ABC, CBS and NBC signed a new five-year contract, retroactive to January 1st, 1949 [9]. It allowed for the blanket use of ASCAP music with rates roughly 10% above what was being paid for radio. DuMont and WOR-TV, according to The New York Times, would likely sign later on a “per-program” basis.

If anyone has any information about television programs that were filmed without ASCAP music please let me know, either by e-mailing me directly or using the comments section below.

Works Cited:

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According to Simon, the silent footage was uncovered by the American Film Institute at an estate sale some years back. It made its way to the Paley Center and Simon was able to identify it (which is an incredible achievement when you think about it) and now roughly one minute has been posted at the Center’s website. A total of eleven minutes exist. Here’s the entry from the Center’s database:

This home-made kinescope (without sound) shows fragments of one of the Thursday Night Programs broadcast by the predecessor of WNBC-TV, the experimental NBC station W2XBS. The melodrama, about a family’s descent into poverty, is presented as a play within the program. Also shown are shots of patrons entering the Lester Wallace Theatre to watch the show, cards that direct theater patrons in proper behavior, and a “dramatis personae.” Fragmentary scenes include Badger (played by Norman Lloyd) and Bloodgood (played by George Coulouris) plotting together and Bloodgood setting a house on fire.

Yes, that’s producer/actor/director Norman Lloyd (here’s his IMDb page) who appeared in a variety of early W2XBS broadcasts. I cannot see identify him in the footage available at the Paley Center’s website but he may not be in that scene. I was aware that the Center had this footage for quite some time — it is available for viewing in its entirety by visitors at the New York City and Los Angeles locations — but never thought it would be made available online. I implore everyone to take a minute to watch the footage here.

Incredible.

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Tuesday, August 29th, 1939
12-1PM – Phillippe de Flores, Mexican singer; films; variety and news.
8:30-9:30PM – Play, “Dulcy,” by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, with Helen Claire and Tom Powers.

Wednesday, August 30th, 1939
12-1PM – Variety program; films; George Ross, Broadway columnist, and news.
8:30-9:30PM – Harvest Moon Ball, at Madison Square Garden.

Thursday, August 31st, 1939 [1]
12-1PM – Fashion Show; Films; Mechanized Cavalry Parade on Fifth Avenue.
8:30-9:30PM – Play, “The Streets of New York,” by Dion Boucicault, with George Coulouris, Joyce Arling, Norman Lloyd.

Friday, September 1st, 1939 [2]
12-1PM – Interview; Film; Variety Program; Leland Stowe, Correspondent.
3-4PM – Army Air Show, Mitchel Field.
8:30-9PM – “Vox Pop” Interviews
9-9:30PM – “Twinkletoes,” a New Wayburn program, and a film preview of “Golden Boy.”

Sources:

Works Cited:

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An obituary is available at The Los Angeles Times; here’s the post at Deadline Hollywood Daily where I first learned about Lloyd’s passing.

Update:

Ken Levine has posted a wonderful tribute to David Lloyd at his blog.

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