A few days ago, I learned to my delight that a couple of the original adventures of 1930 pulp hero Doc Savage were turned into a series of radio plays on NPR in the mid-1980s. I hunted them down online, and a couple of episodes in, they're pretty good. Producer Roger Rittner has a genuine feel for classic radio drama. He and modern-day pulp writer Will Murray did a fine job with the scripts and the casting was good.
Doc (Clark Savage, Jr.) was a remarkable example of physical fitness and agility, but he was also a "general specialist,*" holding degrees in (and practicing) medicine, mathematics and all of the "hard sciences." There was nothing he didn't do well -- except, perhaps, deal with emotion. The combination worked better than you might expect.
I was doing dishes yesterday and wanted something to listen to. I'd already run through a couple of newscasts, so I asked the robot, "Alexa, play Doc Savage."
She -- it -- responded with "PLAYING MUSIC BY DOC SAVAGE," and launched into some heavy-beat electronic music. The first was instrumental; the next one added some futuristic rap lyrics.
Apparently, Alexa can't find the radio plays.
I went looking for the artist who recorded the music this morning and there's not a sign of him or them. A folkish UK act appears to have used the name, too.
So I'm left wondering. WTH, Clark? Got bored with fighting crime? Decided to pick up one more career?
I'll be superamalgamated if I know.
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* Doc's creator, ex-telegrapher Lester Dent, was a bit larger than life himself. Well over six feet tall, as his career progressed, he became a ham radio operator, private pilot, yachtsman, photographer, amateur chemist, gadgeteer, inventor and all-around Robert A. Heinlein hero.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
4 comments:
"All around Heinlein hero". Doc Savage in Space!
Thanks for the heads up on the radio plays! My Google-fu has been successful in finding links
I read all of the Doc books I could find in the 70's, as well as buying the magazines (as we called them before "graphic novels" was a term). I even still enjoy the movie, as it captured the spirit of the times when the book was written as opposed the time it was made.
Given that Doc has been described as the embodiment of many earlier characters including Tarzan, neat that he was portrayed by Ron Ely in that movie.
RandyGC: when it was first out, the film was a crushing disappointment to the Doc fans I knew, because it was so campy. Especially the music. I rewatched it a few years ago and the music is still awful.
Anon: The Willie Green tracks are likely. And I will point out that "Bronze Intro" and "Bronze Interlude" would be movie music about a thousand times better than what was used in the late '70s.
Willie Green is on Bandcamp, too: https://williegreen.bandcamp.com/album/doc-savage
As a Doc Savage (and Heinlein) fan while a teen in the '70's, I definitely have to look into the movie and radio dramas...
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