Christmas Greeting from the Moon - The Journey Of Apollo 8

Christmas Wishes From The Moon

In December of 1968 3 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Neil Anders on only the second Apollo mission to reach space, became the first to leave Earth's orbit and travel to the moon.

Moon as Photographed by Apollo 8

This was actually a very bold plan at the time filled with unknowns and risk.  Less than 18 month before there was the fire during the training of the Apollo 1 mission which cost the lives of 3 astronauts and shut down manned spaceflights for a 20 month period.  After a critical review of all hardware and procedures (and enough blame to go around for everyone), a revitalize Apollo program and spacecraft was reborn.

The first manned launch of the new Apollo Spacecraft was October of 1968 in ten day Earth orbital mission.  The mission was a complete success.

There was a space race to the moon going on with the Soviet Union.  There were only 12 and one half month to go before the U.S. self imposed deadline of December 31, 1969 imposed by John Kennedy's famous speech of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely before the end of the decade.

The next piece of hardware that NASA needed to test was the Lunar Module which would actually land on the moon, however that hardware would not be ready until March of 1969.  The Apollo 8 mission was supposed to be another orbital flight around the earth, but some mission specialist had a different idea.

Though they couldn't test the Lunar Module they could test the Command and Service Module (CSM) for a future moon mission.   In this mission, the Apollo spacecraft would be the first manned craft to leave the Earth's orbit to fly around and perhaps orbit another celestial body.

The plan was to send Apollo 8 on what was called a "free-return trajectory".  This meant that the path Apollo 8 would trace, would send it around the moon, and if they did nothing, would return them back to earth for a re-entry into the atmosphere.  No rockets would need to be fired to get back to the earth.  If however, all was well, on the far side of the moon, there would be the option to fire the rocket motor of the command module to place Apollo 8 into lunar orbit.

Flight Path of Apollo 8

 

 

Diagram of Apollo 8 spacecraft

 

It would be a mission of firsts. 

• They would be the first manned mission to use the new Saturn V rocket
• The first to leave Earth's orbit
• The first to travel to the moon, orbit the moon and see the "dark side" of the moon
• The first to do a TV broadcast while in orbit  around the moon
• The first to reenter the earth atmosphere at a speed of 24,600 mph.  Faster than any previous mission.

Far side of the moon as photographed by Apollo 8

Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy on December 21, 1968 and departed Earth's orbit that same morning.  In the early morning hours of December 24, while on the far side of the moon and with the go-ahead of NASA the command modules engine were re-ignited and performed a "burn" to place the spacecraft in lunar orbit.

While in orbit the crew took this famous "Earthrise" picture showing the blue marble of the earth rising about the lunar surface against the black emptiness of space.  The picture became so famous that it was turned into a postage stamp.



Famous "Earthrise" picture

U.S. Postal Service issued a commerative 6 cent stamp of the famous Earthrise picture.

At 9:30 pm East coast time on Christmas Eve of 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 gave a live TV broadcast where they showed pictures of the surface of the moon, as well as pictures of the earth. 


They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the Book of Genesis.

William Anders:

"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."


Here is a clip (from youtube) of the reading and Christmas greeting.

I saw a documentary on the space program a while back and Jim Lovell recounts the mission.    1968 had been a year of turmoil with the Vietnam war, a Presidential election, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. being assassinated, riots at the democratic convention in Chicago.   He mentioned that weeks after getting back to the Earth, he received a post card from a from an ordinary citizen.  The woman simple stated "Thank you, you saved 1968"

To all my family and friends (and anyone else reading this blog) I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Years !

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 14 - Best Of The West

Best of The West Play sets - Marx - 1965 to 1976

One of the things that Marx Toys was best know for was action figures.  Starting in 1964 and moving along until the mid 1970's they had a line of figures and sets know collectively as the "Best of The West" collection.

The action figures were approximately 12" tall. They had movable heads, joints hands etc.  The figures could be purchased separately or together.  It seemed there was a never ending selection of figures as new ones were continually introduced over it's 10 year run or old figures were revised or improved. 

At the heart of the collection and set were Johnny West and Jane West.  But what is western life without horses.  Each person had there own horse and Johnny had Thunderbolt and Jane had Flame.

 

 

Johnny and Jane had a family of course and their daughters were named Josie and Janice and two sons named Jay and Jamie.  The children also had to have horse and their names were Pancho and Thundercolt, Storm Cloud.  They even had two dogs named Flick and Flack

 

 

There were also American Indians, Outlaws other towns people.

In addition there were also forts and town settings.  Here is the Fort Apache play set

Each figure or horse or play set came with about 97,527 different accessories which would of course get lost eventually.  But here is an example of the accessories that came with Johnny West.

Here are some pages from Sears and JC Penny Christmas catalogs (remember those) advertising the various Marx toys and play sets.

 

 

 

You could also become a member of the Johnny West club

 



Here are some great TV commercials from the 60's and 70's advertising these toys.

 

 I did not have this myself, but I hear it was a great toy

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 13 - 1st Gen Handheld Electronic Games

Handheld Electronic Games - Various Manufacturers

Beginning in the Mid 1970's the trickle down effect of the console video games was such that it become possible and profitable for toy manufactures to produce hand held electronic (but not quite video) games.

The first successful game was by Mattel in 1976 called Auto Race.  This was a simulated Race car game using dots on an LED display.  You could move your car between lanes and try to avoid crashing into other cars.  You could also "shift", i.e. change gears to go faster or slower.

With the success of Auto Race, in 1977 Mattel introduce the first of two football games entitled simple Electronic football.  In this game, very crude by today's standards.  You had dots or dashes (again on an LED display) representing offensive and defensive players.  The goal was to "run" the ball and avoid being tackled (run into a dash), and eventually score a touchdown.  Like in real football you had 4 downs to try to advance to a first down.  This game was very popular and successful.

The success of Electronic football enticed other manufactures to try their hand at electronic games.  In 1978 Coleco a successful console game manufacturer put out another football game called Electronic Quarterback.  This game improved over the Mattel version by allowing both pass plays and run plays, as well as field goals.  It still used an LED display and crude dashes to represent players (however it was fun, I can attest to that, as I owned one of these games).

Electronic Quarterback commercial 1978

1978 also saw two other manufactures get into the handheld game market, that being Milton Bradley with Simon (and Pocket Simon - If you had LARGE pockets), and Parker Brothers with Merlin.

Simon - Milton Bradley

Pocket Simon

Merlin - Parker Brothers

Simon and Pocket Simon were clones of each other.  To play, the game would emit a pattern of colors (say blue, red, blue, green) and the players would have to replicate the pattern.  After the pattern grew to 6 or more it became quite challenging.  Merlin had 6 different games programmed in it, from Tic-Tac-Toe, to a black jack "13" game and a Echo game (a Merlin like game).  Both Simon and Merlin were quite successful.

This ultimately lead to a pocket game with inter-changeable games that being Microvision by Milton Bradley.    This was introduced in November of 1979.  The interesting thing about this system was that the CPU was in the game cartridge, not the base unit.  The base unit itself was quite expensive as were the games.  There were about 12 games in all.  Things like Blockbuster (breakout kind of game), bowling, pin ball, Star Trek Phaser Strike, and a few others.

Microvision Unit with the Block Buster (Breakout) game attached

All the games that were available for the Microvision unit.

Comparison of the size of Microvision and Play Station Portable

Lack of games, cost of the system and games, and problems with the hardware doomed this system.  Milton Bradley showed it was technically possible to have a system with interchangeable games but was not quite practical.     It was a system truly ahead of it's time and that unfortunately was one of it's problems.  It would take another 5 to 7 years for the right combination of hardware,  reliability and price, to finally get it right in the late 1980's.  In 1989 Nintendo introduced the Game Boy which has been a successful line for over 20 years.  But that is another story which may be the subject of a future post ......

Nintendo's Original Game Boy.  Black and White LCD monitor and interchangeable cartridges

   

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 12 - Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels - Mattel - 1968 to Present

I am really only going to be covering the 1968 to 1975 era of the toy

Why ? Because that is the era that I am most familiar with, and as we all know, it's all about me (NOT).

Hot Wheels has been around for over 40 years and today it might seem mundane, but back when it was first introduced in 1968 it was quite revolutionary.

In the late 60's you had 3 options for model cars. First you could build from a kit, but those didn't move. Second you could have a "slot car" racing set. But those had a pin sticking out of the bottom and would not work on the regular floor. Last you had Matchbox cars. They looked real enough, but they did not roll well (a few inches with a push) and there was no track. Then 1968 hit and everything changed.

Pre 1968 choices:  Matchbox car, Model Kit, or Slot Car

Hot Wheels had cool cars with a spring suspension, and rolled, and rolled fast ! If they were full scale the cars would be traveling at over 300 mph !

The first sets were simple, the distinctive orange track with the red connectors, a jump, a loop-de-loop and a plastic C-Clamp to attach to a chair or window sill. My first set from 1968 or 69 is shown above along with 2 of my favorite cars from that era. The middle picture is the "Splitting Image" and the bottom is the "Chaparrel" both from the 1969 collection. When you purchase cars back then, they also came with a metal button that had the picture of the car.

Later sets had 180 and 90 degree turns, more track and a "super charger" which were 2 rotating wheels to shoot the car out of to give it more speed and momentum. If you had several super chargers you could set up a track flat on the floor where the cars could continually go around the track with no intervention.

And Now a word from our sponsor.  Mattel's Hot Wheels.

My first set was the Stunt Action Set

Super-Charger Sprint Set Commercial

Second Super-Charger Commercial.  This one looks to have "Peter" from The Brady Bunch

I still have most of my original track, cars and super chargers boxed away.  They came out for a period of time a number of years ago when I let my son use them when he was of "Hot Wheels Age".  They have been boxed up again patiently awaiting the next generation of Hot Wheels users.  :-D

In a future post I hope to examine the "Sizzlers" battery rechargeable race cars from Hot Wheels.

Toys of Christmas Past - Part 11 - The Slinky

Slinky Toy - James Industry - 1945 to Present

I think that everyone who reads this blog has either had, or at least have heard of the Slinky.  A survey in 1990 showed that 89.8% of all Americans had heard of Slinky or the Slinky jingle.  If you haven't, leave a comment.  I would like to shake your virtual hand.

Even though you know about the Slinky, do you really know about the Slinky ?  Sit back and read along and perhaps learn a think or two about America's favorite coiled spring toy.

It all started in 1943 when Richard James was working on a device to test horsepower of battle ships (being World War II and all ...).  A spring fell off his desk and tumbled end over end across the floor.  That night, James told his wife about it, and proclaimed "I think I can make a toy out of this".

After the war in 1945 Richard James and his wife Betty founded James Industry with 500 dollars.  Betty came up with the name Slinky after looking through a dictionary.  Slinky in Swedish mean sleek and graceful and Betty thought this described the toy.  They initially had 400 Slinky's hand produced, but had trouble selling them.  Gimbles Dept Store in Philadelphia agreed to provide counter space and on a snowy December evening Richard gave a demonstration of the Slinky to shoppers.  Within 90 minutes every one of the 400 Slinky's, priced at $1.00 apiece, had been sold.

Gimbles Department Store in Philadelphia, PA

The business flourished during the 1950's but then fell on hard times.  In 1960 Richard James and his wife parted ways and Betty James took over stewardship of the Slinky.  She moved the factory from Philadelphia to Hollidaysburg (just a stones throw away from Altoona and a slightly longer throw from State College) where it has remained ever since.

Business flourished in the 60's and beyond with a new advertising campaign (and jingle) as well as the introduction of other Slinky based toys.  Of course many of us have seen the Slinky Dog from the Toy Story films, but there were also other toys made as well.  Slinky Frogs, Kitties, 3 Little Pigs, Caterpillar  Hippo, Trains and so on.  I show some of the more famous (and obscure) toys below, along with a couple of classic commercials from the 1960's and 70's.

1960's Slinky Commercial With the original Slinky Dog

Early 1970's Slinky Commerical

Slinky Cater-Puller, Slinky Elephant and Slinky Kitty - 1960's

Slinky Train and Slinky Worm

A revitalization of the Slinky and Slinky pull toys occurred in 1995 when a newly revamped Slinky Dog appeared in the Pixar's Toy Story Movie.  Slinky Dog has also appeared in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.

1960's Slinky Dog together with the Toy Story Slinky Dog

Escape from Andy's Room - Toy Story 2

Slinky's continue to thrive today.  In 1999 the U.S. Postal service issued a commemorative stamp with a Slinky on it.  Slinky's have also traveled to space with NASA aboard the Space Shuttle.   Approximately 300 million Slinky's have been sold since 1945.  Not too bad for a bunch of coiled wire.

1999 US Postal Service Stamp

Slinky in space - go to about the 45 second mark.