Browsing Archive: September, 2019

DOC SAVAGE IN HOLLYWOOD: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Posted by John Allen Small on Thursday, September 26, 2019, In : Pop Culture 

Most Doc Savage fans know about the 1975 film version of the first book, Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze, produced by George Pal (Destination Moon, The Time Machine, When Worlds Collide) and starring former TV Tarzan Ron Ely. There's been a lot of debate over the years regarding the merits of that film.

Many decry its camp sensibilities, the changes made to the original story and the lack of faith Warner Brothers seemed to have for the project (the latter foreshadowing Disney's dismal support o...


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MY MEETING WITH A FOLK HERO

Posted by John Allen Small on Thursday, September 19, 2019, In : Reminiscence 


It’s still a little hard for me to believe, even all these years after the fact, but I actually met Johnny Cash once.

My wife and I were still living in Illinois in early 1990 when Cash gave a concert at the historic old Rialto Theatre in Joliet. It was one of his first concerts after recovering from dental surgery he’d had some months earlier; even from our seats up in the nosebleed section you could tell his face was still a trifle swollen from the surgery, and he admitted right up front...


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SUNDAY SCHOOL AND STAR WARS

Posted by John Allen Small on Wednesday, September 18, 2019, In : Review 

Not long ago I was fortunate enough to receive a free advance copy of a new book that has just been released, and which I feel is worth your attention.


12 New Testament Passages That Changed the World by Joseph Bentz may well be the best book of its kind since Joseph Campbell’s The Power Of Myth. While writing from a deliberately Christian point of view, Bentz - like Campbell - delves into the deeper meaning behind these stories so many of us learned in Sunday school, and ably demonstrates...


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DRUMRIGHT COLUMNIST IS ALL WRONG

Posted by John Allen Small on Wednesday, September 11, 2019, In : Opinion 

Apologies in advance for the following rant:


In the northern half of Oklahoma, about 42 miles southwest of Tulsa, is the small town of Drumright. (It is the hometown of one of the co-publishers of the newspaper where I work here in Tishomingo.) One of the regular features in their local newspaper, the Drumright Gusher, is a weekly column by a non-apologetic right-wing Trump-supporting Neanderthal by the name of Ed J. Lebeau III. 


Mr. Lebeau devoted one of his recent columns to a tedious com...


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About Me


John Allen Small John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996). Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.) John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something. In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems. He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.

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