Swanton's First Space Cadet

It was an amazing world in 1950. Or rather, it was an amazing time for a 10 year old boy like myself in middle class, small town America.

Everything seemed to be changing; transitioning from the old fashioned, the traditional, the prim & proper into the MODERN. Furniture became blonde. Toothpaste became green (the miracle ingredient, chlorophyll, dont'cha know). Young women began sporting something called 'bikinis', and a lot more skin, at beaches and swimming pools. "Oh YEAH!" And cars started looking like four-wheeled torpedos. "WOW! Did you get a load of the new Studebaker!"

I was also in a state of transition. I turned 11 that summer; no longer a little kid but a far cry from adult or even adolescence. I thrashed about vexingly with puberty and personal responsibility. Soon I would leave behind the benign strictures of grade school and enter the more turbulent realm of Junior High School -- or 'Middle School' as has now been deemed a more appropriate name. I was a little leery of this but also excited as I felt competent and ready to embrace the future.

And the FUTURE, in 1950, seemed to be made for America. The country had recently emerged victorious from the world's greatest war and the post-war economy had pretty well stabilized with expanding prosperity. There was more money available in more households for more gadgets. 'Labor saving devices' were popping up all over. Electric can openers and dish washers began appearing in kitchens where such geegaws had formerly been considered extravagant nonsense. Gasoline powered lawn mowers added their smokey roar to summer lawns. The more progressive households might even sport a radical new rotary design mower!

And, of course, by 1950 the most profound cultural phenomenon of the century had just begun to storm living rooms all across the continent: TELEVISION.

MY family had just acquired its first TV set in 1949 and virtually any kind of programming for the first few months was a feast for the eyes. Even the test pattern at the end of the broadcast day after the 11:00 o'clock news could keep viewers intrigued for a minute or two. Naturally, I was mesmerized by early TV which shared a few characteristics with myself. Both were emerging from their childhood. Both were trying out new interests; new formats. Both were somewhat naive and tended to view every situation from a black & white perspective. Pun intended. And both were given to flights of fancy.

For myself, one of the most memorable flights of fancy I got from 1950 TV was, "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet". Tom and his fellow cadets blazed their way into my heart and after-school routine every Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 5:00 to 5:15 P.M. TV programming was pretty jumbled in those fledgling days and 15-minute shows of every variety were quite common. Actually, with the rise of the cable jungle, TV programming is extremely jumbled today; but the 15 minute format is relatively rare.

Tom Corbett may well have served as a model of futuristic space opera to Gene Roddenberry who created the enormously popular "Star Trek" 15 years later. There are several basic similarities.

Both shows are set several hundred years into a future which envisions a politically stable and peaceful Earth. Tom Corbett's geopolitical base was a modest "Commonwealth of Earth" and the "Solar Guard" patrolled just the vicinity of space around our solar system. Roddenberry conceived a much broader "Federation of Planets" and "Starfleet" ranged over a sizable chunk of the Milky Way galaxy.

Both shows featured a core cast of about a half dozen main players, but both shows focused on three regulars with distinctly different personalities. Tom Corbett, Roger Manning and Astro were the three cadets continually jousting, bickering and heroing in their show. Captain Kirk, Mister Spock and Doctor "Bones" McCoy provided this interaction in Star Trek.

Both shows were highly constrained by limited budgets. The stinginess of Tom Corbett's budget was laughably obvious in the spartan sets and outer space scenes which any imaginative kid could've emulated in a darkened basement with cardboard models. In fact, I did so myself a few times. Only my efforts weren't recorded on Kinescope.

Some of the opening sequences of Tom Corbett actually made use of old stock footage of WWII era V2 rockets blasting off. But then, this show took place only a few years afterward so it still seemed fresh and dramatic back then.

Tight budgets were a fact of life for any TV show during this "golden age" of television when most shows were broadcast LIVE. Tom Corbett wasn't the first TV sci-fi potboiler. That honor belongs to "Captain Video" which premiered in 1949 with a weekly special effects budget of $25.00. Tom Corbett's couldn't have been much more.

Fifteen years later TV programming had evolved into a more complicated system where Hollywood studios produced packaged shows for the television networks. This entailed much pitching of concepts and negotiations between writers, agents and executives. The risks were greater; the costs were much higher. Producing a 'pilot' episode was equivalent to making a movie.

Gene Roddenberry endured this formidable gauntlet before securing a deal with the Desilu Studios and NBC Network to produce his pilot Star Trek episode, "The Cage", for roughly a half million dollars. This was still considered a pretty tightfisted sum for a major production in 1965.

Another similarity between the two shows is that both spawned a cornucopia of product merchandising. Of course, Star Trek didn't just launch a variety of products. It has practically become a religion with ongoing TV spinoff series, major motion pictures, conventions and clubs worldwide.

Tom Corbett only lasted five years on TV, but did pretty well in the 1950s merchandising the typical books, games, lunch boxes, toys, etc. Naturally, yours truly was an early collector of his books and comics. I believe I have all the original editions. And I think I was the first (perhaps only) Swanton kid to send his 50 cents into the Kellogg Company to get my official Tom Corbett membership kit; still a cherished possession.

Along about Christmas of 1952 my sainted parents indulged my space cadet obsession by giving me a Tom Corbett Space Academy tin toy set complete with an academy building, interlocking wall sections, a curvy groovy car, little plastic cadets and two varieties of little plastic aliens. And, oh yes, teeny tiny clear bubble space helmets for their little plastic heads!

This magnificent toy saw MUCH use in the Sutherland household; not only by myself but also by my younger brother. And years later, by my own son during his younger years. Of course, attrition took its toll on most of those little bubble helmets and some of the plastic figures.

Later on, as storage space became critical in my cramped basement, I gave away my boxed up Space Academy to a tin toy collector. ALAS!! As I wade through my elderly childhood, I wish I had my Space Academy to play with again!