70th Anniversary of "Captain Video": The Search For Surviving Episodes.

Photo of the Video Ranger (actor Don Hastings) with Captain Video holding a scientific weapon (Al Hodge).

In the 1970s reportedly hundreds of rare TV recordings from the legendary DuMont Network (1946 - 1956) were tossed into New York City's East River. Among the hundreds of classic programs destroyed were episodes of "Captain Video and His Video Rangers" which premiered 70 years ago (June 27, 1949) as American TV's first science-fiction series and became a huge hit with kid and adult audiences in the Golden Age of Television.

The series featured the adventures of the titular hero who led multiple Video Rangers and his junior companion The Video Ranger who operated from a secret mountain base in the future, and fought evil on Earth and across the universe. Richard Coogan (1914 - 2014) was the first Captain Video. After 17 months he was replaced by Al Hodge (1912 - 1979) who stayed with the series until its end in 1955. There was only one Junior Ranger, actor Don Hastings (1934 - ) who later became a major daytime television actor.

The program was filmed live 5 to 6 days a week and any recorded episodes would have been kine-scoped. Innovative in its storylines while limited on a budget, it is unfortunate that only 24 episodes out of a possible 1,700+ (or 1.4% percent) are known to exist. It is this writer's hope that more may surface one day. Here is a research summary of what has survived from this historic series, and what could still be out there.

Episodes available to the public.
5 complete episodes have been circulating for years among collectors and they are all available for download from the Internet Archive.

"Captain Video" episodes on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22captain%20video%22&and[]=mediatype%3A%22movies%22

Two of these episodes were uploaded to the "Children's Media Archive" YouTube Channel

4 of these episodes were released on a DVD from Alpha Video, with their logo placed in the opening credits.

UCLA Television/Film Archives
24 episodes (including the 5 released ones), all that are believed to exist are held at the UCLA Film/Television Archives and can be seen by appointment only. Hopefully one day they will be released as part of a digital collection or a DVD/ Blu-Ray set.

Ad Views Digital Collection
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina at has least six Post Cereals commercials as part of its massive AdViews digital collections. These Captain Video ads were a part of the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency archives which are held in the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at the Duke University Libraries.

They can be viewed from this page as numbers 60 - 65 (they are also available from the AdViews collection at archive.org
https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adviews_post_cereals/

60. Post-Tens Cereal Packs, 1950s (dmbb17801) Captain Video. Silent midway through
61. Post-Tens Cereal Packs, 1950s (dmbb17802) Captain Video.
62. Post-Tens Cereal Packs, 1950s (dmbb17803) Captain Video.
63. Post-Tens Cereal Packs, 1950s (dmbb17804) Captain Video.
64. Post-Tens Cereal Packs, 1950s (dmbb17805) Captain Video.
65. Post-Tens Cereal Packs, 1950s (dmbb17806) Captain Video.

These ads were downloaded and uploaded to YouTube in various channels. In acknowledging these rare commercials it is hoped that other "Captain Video" advertisements may exist in another advertisement archival collection.

Al Hodge's personal collection???
A possible myth that I picked up from at least one printed text years ago was that a few episodes of Captain Video were in the possession of Al Hodge's hotel room residence at the time of his passing in 1979. This is doubtful because in a 1972 interview on radio's What Ever Happened To...? with Richard Lamparski, Hodge was asked if he was aware of surviving episodes of Captain Video and he said no. However, if he did have copies at the time of his death, what became of those films?

Personal collections of other cast and crew???
In the same radio interview it was mentioned that a copy was believed to be held in an unnamed Ohio university's collection and more episodes may have existed in the possession of a former makeup artist. It would be great if either story could be confirmed even after 40 years.

Headlines From the Death of George Reeves 60 Years Later.

One of the thousands of headlining news stories about the death of George Reeves.
Rutland Daily Herald, Wednesday, June 17, 1959. 

"Despondent, Superman Kills Self" - Press Democrat, Tuesday, June 16, 1959

"Superman Takes Life"- Tampa Times, Tuesday, June 16, 1959

"Television's 'Superman' Ends Life With Pistol" - Pittsburgh Press, Tuesday, June 16, 1959

Snippet from the Pittsburgh Press, Tuesday, June 16, 1959.

Beginning Tuesday, June 16, 1959, national and international papers would repeat the tragic news of the death of actor George Reeves best remembered as TV's 'Superman' who was found dead in his Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Within a few days the focus of the story would be on events of George's life that have placed his death in so much mystery like: his will not including his finance Lenora Lemmon (or such a will being missing), the belief of his mother Helen Bessolo and several friends that Reeves wasn't suicidal, and the presence of extra bullets in the room.

By the end of June 1959, there would be headlines about the "mystery" and suspicions of Reeves death that continue to this day. A great curiosity of mine is how learning of Reeves death, whether from newspapers, TV, or hearing it on the radio impacted his young viewers in that tragic time. If you were a child or adolescent and remember that day in 1959, please share your recollections in the comments section or write to archivebuilder@gmail.com with the subject heading "Reeves".

From The Archives: 1950s Radio and TV Coloring Book covers

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Dot to Dot. 1953, Whitman Publishing Company.
From the Blogger's collection.

 Coloring books based on juvenile programs go back a several decades. This Mickey Mouse Club book was just one of hundreds of Disneyana to come from the popular weekday afternoon series (1955 - 1959)

Manning, Russ (illustrations). Sergeant Preston Coloring Book. 1953 Whitman Publishing Company.
From the Blogger's Collection.

Add first I mistook this as a TV series coloring book, until I remembered that it took a little longer for Sergeant Preston and his "wonder dog Yukon King" to transition from radio to TV. The TV version (1955 - 1958) premiered 2 years after this coloring book was published.