True and False with Jimmy Stewart

On the blog this time we will look at the true and false with Jimmy Stewart. I thought that since this week’s podcast features a story staring the man, we should learn about the man. So, I have created some true and false statements and you get to play along. Don’t peek ahead!

Question 1: Jimmy Stewart was a real general?

True: During the Vietnam War, he flew in a B-52 on a bombing mission to fulfill his duty with the Air Force Reserve. He finally retired from the Air Force on May 31, 1968 after 27 years of service and was subsequently promoted to Major General (two star general).

Question 2: Jimmy Stewart won medals during his service to our country?

True: He did indeed. The full list of military awards achieved by Stewart are: 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 4 Air Medals, 1 Army Commendation Medal, 1 Armed Forces Reserve Medal, 1 Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1 French Croix de Guerre with Palm. Amazing!

Question 3: Jimmy Stewart loved working with Orson Welles?

False: While the two did appear on several 50s, 60s and 70s TV shows they never worked on a large project together.

Question 4: Jimmy Stewart never won an Oscar?

False: How could you even think true! Stewart was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one for The Philadelphia Story (1940) and receiving an Academy Lifetime Achievement award. Stewart was named the third greatest male screen legend of the Golden Age Hollywood by the American Film Institute.

Question 5: Jimmy Stewart was a poet?

True: One of Stewart’s lesser-known talents was his homespun poetry. He once read a poem that he had written about his dog, entitled “Beau,” while on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. By the end of this reading, Carson’s eyes were welling with tears.

There you have it! Some fun facts about James Stewart the military man, actor and poet. Thanks for reading the blog and supporting Ron’s Amazing Stories.

This Week’s Podcast:

On this this week’s podcast we meet Dr. Troy and have a classic western staring Jiminy Stewart. You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

April 07, 2016 – The Asimov Special (RAS240).
April 14, 2016 – Sam Spade Week (RAS241).
April 21, 2016 – Interview with Pam Ferderbar (RAS242).
April 28, 2016 – James Stewart (RAS243).
May 05, 16 – (RAS244)

Spotlight on Pamela Ferderbar

On this weeks, “Ron’s Amazing Stories – The Blog”, we throw the spotlight on Pamela Ferderbar. I had the pleasure to interview Pam for the podcast and all I can say is that you guys are in for a treat. It was a fun, funny and well charming too. Her approach to life is refreshing and will even make you giggle just bit.

Pamela Ferderbar Pam Ferderbar was born and raised in Wisconsin, the only child of two loving but quirky parents who fostered her creativity by setting a place at the table for Pam’s imaginary friend, Dokka. After graduating Marquette University with a B.S. in Journalism, Pam worked at Ferderbar Studios, the family advertising photography business where she honed her skills as a TV commercials director, and was paid to play with imaginary friends called actors.

In 1994, Ferderbar moved to Los Angeles where she directed commercials for Microsoft, Wells Fargo Bank, Bally’s, ITT and others, and in her spare time wrote screenplays such as Bob Dylan Stole My Wife, for which she is currently seeking financing for a Wisconsin-based production. In 1998 she wrote the novella Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale, sparking a bidding war for the movie rights. New Line Cinema purchased the rights in a record-breaking $800,000 deal, and a few months later all the executives on the project were fired and Pam’s movie was shelved. Classic #CharlotteMoment. As Charlotte would say, “It wasn’t my fault!”

Spotlight - Pam Ferderbar After completing a novel based on the novella Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale, Pam returned to Wisconsin in 2013. Pam’s father Tom Ferderbar, a student of the great Ansel Adams and a master photographer himself, tutors Pam in the art of photography. Pam is working on a second Charlotte Nightingale novel and a companion book with reader’s “Charlotte moments” complimented with illustrations and Pam’s own photographs. Pam and her friend Dokka continue to play.

Pam blogs for the Huffington Post. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Coalition for Photographic Arts/Milwaukee where Pam serves as President and Exhibitions and Events Chair.

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week we talk to Pam Ferderbar about her book Feng Shui and Charlotte Nightingale. Also on the show we have a short story written and read for us by Ashley Arsenal. It’s a true story! We end the program with something special you won’t want to miss. So please come listen!

You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

Who Was Sam Spade

This time on the RAS blog we tackle the subject, “Who is Sam Spade?”

Sam Spade is a fictional private detective created by Dashiell Hammett in 1930. His most famous story is The Maltese Falcon. It was first published as a serial in the pulp fiction magazine, Black Mask. Also, it is the only full-length novel in which Spade appears. There were several other short stories written by Hammett and most these became motion pictures or radio dramas. The character is considered the template for the hard-boiled private detective genre and many other writers followed it closely. The best example of this is Phillip Marlowe.

Spade was created specifically for The Maltese Falcon. Here, in his own words, is what Hammett had to say about this famous detective (edited some by me):

“Spade has no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives would like to have been. Today’s private detective does want to be a cultured solver of riddles in the Sherlock Holmes manner; he wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with, whether criminal, innocent by-stander or client.” – Dashiell Hammett

Who Portrayed Sam Spade?

From the 1940s onward, the character became closely associated with actor Humphrey Bogart, who played Spade in the third and best-known film version of The Maltese Falcon. Spade was also played by Ricardo Cortez in the first film version in 1931 and then again in 1936 with Warren William. This film bombed at the box office and is best left unknown.

On the radio, Spade was played by Edward G. Robinson in the 1943 Lux Radio Theatre production, and by Bogart in 1943 Screen Guild Theater production. A 1946-1951 radio show called The Adventures of Sam Spade starred Howard Duff as Sam Spade and took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character.

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week you will hear Howard Duff as Sam Spade, we have a Gerald Vance science fiction story and a special tale sent in by one of our listeners. It is going to be a great show.

You can listen to this podcast this Thursday (12/03) at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

March 31,2016 – The Plainsman (RAS239)
April 07, 2016 – The Asimov Special (RAS240).
April 14, 2016 – Sam Spade Week (RAS241).
April 21, 2016 – Interview with Pam Ferderbar (RAS242).
April 28, 2016 – James Stewart (RAS243).

Spotlight – Isaac Asimov

When it comes to stories and science fiction one name pops up over an over again and that is Isaac Asimov. He is mentioned in every conversation on the subject and is known as the father of robotics. Pretty impressive for a man born in 1919 in then then, Gomel Governorate in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He was born, Isaak Yudovich Ozimov, to a family of orthodox Jewish millers. Even his name derives from the word for winter crops, in which his great-grandfather dealt. No one had any idea that from such humble beginnings would come one of three greatest hardcore science fictions writers of our time. Isaac shares this title with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.

Isaac Asimov - 1960s — Dr. Isaac Asimov – 1965

Asimov taught himself to read at 5 years old and began reading pulp magazines at a young age. His father outlawed this because he saw no merit in them. However, Asimov persuaded him that the science fiction magazines had the word “Science” in the title, so they were educational. Around the age of 11, he began to write his own stories and by age 19 he discovered science fiction fandom. He was selling stories to those very same pulp magazines his father hated.

After his parents migrated to the United States, Isaac attended public schools in New York. Graduating at 15, he went on to Seth Low Junior College and finally from Columbia University in 1939. Asimov completed his MA in chemistry in 1941 and earned a PhD in biochemistry in 1948. During World War II he worked as a civilian at the Naval Air Experimental Station in Philadelphia.

Asimov’s career can be divided into three segments. His early career, dominated by science fiction, his nonfiction career where he wrote textbooks on Biochemistry and Human Metabolism and finally a return to science fiction. Asimov believed his most enduring contributions would be his “Three Laws of Robotics” and the Foundation series of books. He was right on both counts.

If you want to learn more about Isaac Asimov, I highly recommend a site called asimovonline.com. Here you will find links to everything from his books to autobiographies about this great man.

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week we will have a visit from Isaac Asimov himself, one of his famous short stories and a tale about a Martian visitor and his break to the restroom. You won’t want to miss any of this one.

The Calendar:

March 24,2016 – The Thing in the Window (RAS238)
March 31,2016 – The Plainsman (RAS239)
April 7, 2016 – The Asimov Special (RAS240).
April 14, 2016 – Sam Spade (RAS241).
April 21, 2016 – Interview with Pam Ferderbar (RAS242).
April 28, 2016 – (RAS243).