LEGENDARY HEROES #54

TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET

"Space Academy, USA, in the world beyond tomorrow", the TV announcer would say each week, introducing the show.  "Here the Space Cadets train for duty on distant planets.  In roaring rockets they blast through millions of miles from Earth to far-flung stars and brave the dangers of cosmic frontiers protecting the liberties of the planets, safeguarding the cause of universal peace in the age of the conquest of space!"  Space Cadets were students at Space Academy, the interplanetary West Point of the future, 2351 A.D., training to become Solar Guards whose job was to protect the peace of the universe in a future where war and the use of destructive weapons had long since been outlawed.  The stories centered around Tom Corbett, Roger Manning, and Astro, a cadet from Venus.  The cadets led by Corbett were second-year men of the Academy and the action took place in the classrooms and aboard their training ship, the rocket cruiser Polaris.

Of the juvenile space shows on early TV "Tom Corbett" was probably the most scientific and differed from "Captain Video" and "Space Patrol" in that the menace that the cadets faced each day was furnished by conditions in space itself, and not by villains from strange planets.  The enemies of the Space Cadets were asteroids, meteors, and space diseases.  There was no violence or death on the show.  The cadets used a "study machine" where they plugged in earphones before going to bed and were educated while they slept.  They took instructional and practice flights on the Polaris under the watchful eyes of Captain Strong, Commander Arkwright, and the attractive Dr. Joan Dale (the cadets thought highly of her intellect).  Despite being in the 24th Century the cadets acted like typical teenagers of the 1950s with rivalries, jealousies, squabbles and boasting.  They all joined in the singing of the Space Academy song - "From the rocket fields of the academy/to the far flung stars of outer space/we are space cadets training to be/ready for dangers we may face."

"Tom Corbett" was the brainchild of Joseph Greene of Grosset & Dunlap publishers who developed the idea of the story, inspired by the 1948 Robert A. Heinlein novel "Space Cadet" as well as Greene's own 1946 radio script "Tom Ranger and the Space Cadets".  The radio show was never produced and after Heinlein's novel was published Greene tried to turn his story into a daily newspaper comic strip in 1949, but this was unsuccessful.  Finally Greene pitched the idea to CBS-TV and they bought it.  The show was written for the small screen by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert.  Weinstock was a New York physician whose hobby was science fiction.  Before writing the show Weinstock and Gilbert teamed up to turn-out nightclub and musical-comedy routines.  The show debuted on CBS on October 2, 1950 but moved to ABC in January 1951.  It then moved around to NBC, DuMont, and back to NBC with it's final episode airing on June 25, 1955.  "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" was one of a handful of shows to appear on all four major networks during its' run and in 1951 it ran simultaneously on ABC and NBC.  The CBS and ABC episodes were 15-minute shows that aired three times a week, while the NBC and DuMont shows were a half-hour long and aired on Saturdays.

The star of the show was Frankie Thomas, Jr., who played Tom Corbett.  The kids didn't seem to mind or notice that Thomas was a 30-year old man playing a teenager.  Frankie Thomas had been a child movie actor whose biggest role had been opposite Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney in "Boy's Town" in 1938.  He also made four Nancy Drew films with Bonita Granville in which he played her best friend Ted Nickerson.  Like most child stars he never transitioned to adult roles.  The success of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" resulted in a radio version on ABC that debuted on January 1, 1952 and used the same cast as the TV show.  The half-hour radio show appeared on Tuesdays and Thursdays and ran until June 26, 1952.  A comic strip appeared in newspapers on September 9, 1951, drawn by Ray Bailey of "Bruce Gentry" fame.  Bailey had been a former assistant of Milton Caniff.  The strip ran in papers until September 6, 1953.  Dell Comics published 11 issues of a comic book from 1952 - 1954 in their Four Color series, and Prize Comics took over the comic book in 1955 with three more issues.  

The biggest success of the show came in merchandising.  View Master released a three reel series of the show, and there were coloring books, a punch-out book, children's costume, lunch box, pocket watch, a Space Academy playset with plastic figures, rubber molds for making plaster figures, a Little Golden Book, and Kellogg's Pep Cereal featured cardboard cut-outs on the back of the box.  Grosset & Dunlap published eight hardcover novels of Tom Corbett 1952-1956 all written by Carey Rockwell, a pseudonym, by authors unknown.  The show was so popular that it was parodied by comediennes Bob and Ray as "Lawrence Fechtenberger, Interstellar Officer Candidate".  After the "Space Cadet" show ended, Frankie Thomas did some radio work but became better known as a bridge player competing in bridge tournaments around the country.  He wrote books on the subject.  He died in 2006 at the age of 85 and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood - wearing his Space Cadet uniform.