Hey Legend trippers, Happy
Thanksgiving! This time of the year is when I start to remember my childhood. It’s
neat to remember those holidays and the people you spent it with. My dad was in
the US Army so we moved around a lot. I actually didn't mind being an army
brat. We got to visit a lot of places. My mother was from Scotland, so we got
to visit Great Britain, when my dad got sent to Korea. We even got to visit
Loch Ness. We only got to stay for about an hour but I made the most of it. My
brother Tim and I walked around the shoreline, which is beautiful. Unfortunately
we didn't get to see the monster, be we did see a film crew from National
Geographic magazine, out there with their cameras.
I’m also reminded of the
shows I liked to watch on television as a kid. My most favorite television show
ever was Alan Landsberg’s “In Search Of”. In came on from 1977 to 1982 and it
explored every kind of mystery. The show was hosted by science fiction great
Leonard Nimoy and featured episodes about cryptozoology (e.g., Bigfoot, and the
Loch Ness Monster) UFO’s, and the paranormal (e.g. Haunted Castles, the
Amityville Horror and Ghosts). It also featured episodes about mysterious
historical events and personalities such as Anna Anderson/Grand Duchess Anastasia,
the Lincoln Assassination, the Jack the Ripper murders, infamous cults (e.g.
Jim Jones), and missing persons, cities, and ships (e.g., Amelia Earhart, Jimmy
Hoffa, D. B. Cooper, the Mary Celeste, Michael Rockefeller, and the lost
Roanoke Colony) and mysterious places (e.g. Oak Island Money Pit, Lost Dutchman’s
mine, Atlantis, The Bermuda Triangle, Easter Island, Stonehenge, and Coral
Castle).
The show also spawned at
least six spin-off books, all written by Landsburg with forewords by Nimoy: In
Search of Lost Civilizations, In Search of Extraterrestrials, In Search of
Magic and Witchcraft, In Search of Strange Phenomena, In Search of Missing
Persons, and In Search of Myths and Monsters, with an additional book that
collected the best segments from these existing volumes. When I saw them advertised on TV, I ran down to the book store and purchase them all.
In
1978, Landsburg produced a Bigfoot documentary using portions of two In Search
of... episodes ("The Monster Hunters" and "The Yeti")
called “Man-beast! Myth or Monster”, based on his book “In Search of Myths and
Monsters”. I had a difficult time, but I finally found a copy of it. I
contacted monster hunter Peter Byrne, who is featured quite prominently in the
movie, and found that he didn't own a copy of it. I quickly made him a copy and
sent it to him. I've always idolized him and I hope someday to meet him.
A&E channel started re-airing the original episodes so my family got see
what sparked my interest in the unexplained.
Every legend tripper from my
era knew and loved the show. I think it inspired a lot of monster hunters to go
out and look for cryptids. I know it did for me. If you are looking for a great
show on the unexplained then I highly recommend the “In Search Of” show. A word of caution, the episodes about the
paranormal are quite scary.
Now you can purchase the entire series on DVD. I
got it for Christmas last year, but you can also watch all the episodes on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtQPKEJnJGtT3TsfY0OssGA
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