By Michael J. Weldon

This is a sketchy part of what will eventually be a detailed year by year history of over 50 years as I see it.

1952 (Year Of the Dragon)

I am born into a conformist post Atomic cold war new world of canned laughter in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio (and the birthplace of Muzak). The next day Curley Howard dies. "Wheel Of Fortune" is the biggest hit of the year (25 weeks on the charts). Singer Kay Starr had been born on an Oklahoma Indian reservation less than two years after my father was born in McAlester, OK (just south of Muskogee). Truman is still president, Japan is still occupied, and the Korean War has just ended (no truce is signed). I have red hair (a blessing or a curse depending on your age) like grandparents on both sides of the family. On Feb 6 - 25 year old Elizabeth becomes Queen of England. On March 21 - Record Rendezvous (where I later work) sponsors Alan Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball show at The Cleveland Arena (where I later saw Procol Harum). In Oct. the first British A bomb tests occur at Australian islands. On Nov. 6, when I'm barely 10 months old the world's first Hydrogen bomb is exploded at Eniwetik Atoll in the Pacific. The (10.4 megatons) H bomb is also named Mike (which becomes the #1 name for American males) and is 750 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

TV commercials are used in the presidential election for the first time. During the Republican convention Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy calls Secretary of State Dean Acheson "the Red Dean" and labels Democrats as "Commie-loving". Eisenhower's VP running mate Richard Nixon attacks the "whining, whimpering, groveling" Democrats. During the campaign Republicans attack Democratic Gov. Adlai Stevenson, of Illinois, and other Democrats as "eggheads" (not to be confused with a BATMAN villain played by Vincent Price). My Republican parents photograph me with an I like Ike campaign button altered to say I Like Mike. Nixon gives his famous televised Checkers (the dog) PR spin speech. A Univac computer is used by CBS to forecast a landslide victory for Eisenhower on the night of the election. President elect Eisenhower goes to Korea and says America would consider the use of nukes against China. Two new Senators from New England are John Kennedy and Prescott Bush.

Some excellent very dark movies from my first year (the peak year for horror comic books and the Martin and Lewis comedy team) illustrate the mood of the nation: CLASH BY NIGHT and ON DANGEROUS GROUND, both with Robert Ryan (my favorite American actor of the time), THE SNIPER, SUDDEN FEAR, and THE THIEF. There is a big jump in the number of color movies, the first Cinerama and 3-D movies are released, and Marilyn Monroe becomes a star. The studios still release movies with blackface routines. Ronald Reagan stars in BEDTIME FOR BONZO, endorses Chesterfield Kings cigarettes, and marries actress Nancy Davis. The highest number of cigarettes in history are sold and amounts increased steadily during the 50s thanks to TV. THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET moves from radio to TV and BANDSTAND debuts in Philadelphia. Televangelist REX HUMBARD is first broadcast from Akron, Ohio (he's later syndicated from nearby Cuyahoga Falls). It's the height of the flying saucer scare. UFO sightings make headlines, flying saucers are reported over D.C., and INVASION U.S.A., RED PLANET MARS and the serial ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE are released.

Some other notable 1952 firsts: The first telecast of an atomic bomb detonation (on KTLA), credit cards, tranquilizers, B52s, Sony transistor radios, Mad comics, TV Guide, the Gibson Les Paul guitar, Kellogs Frosted Flakes, Mr. Potato Head, Pez candy dispensers, The TODAY SHOW, and the Jerry Lewis telethon. Some other 1952 births: Marilyn Chambers, Mark Hammill, Christopher Reeve, Robin Williams, Pee Wee Herman, Jeff Goldblum, and Carole Kane - in Cleveland - then the 7th largest city in America.

Major Rock and Roll Purge #1 - Between May of 58 and late 59 the career of Jerry Lee Lewis ends in scandal, Elvis is drafted and sent to Germany, Buddy Holly and others die in a plane crash, Little Richard sees God and Chuck Berry is sentenced to a jail. The vice president is Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover runs the F.B.I. See 1970 (below) for part 2.

Like countless other baby boomers I was lucky to grow up along with rock and roll and maybe not as lucky growing up with TV. Today I'm thankful that I had a few developing baby years without any TV. I was (and am) obsessed with pop culture though. I was just the right age for the monster movie revival (movies, models, magazines..., THE ADDAMS FAMILY - !), the best scariest b/w TV shows (TWILIGHT ZONE, ALFRED HITCHOCK, THRILLER, and THE OUTER LIMITS), old horror and sci fi movies on local late night TV, drive-in movies (and drive in car hop restaurants), and the last Saturday matinee double bills (still with cartoons and comedy shorts), and spy mania. I experienced the best of top 40 radio (rockabilly, late doo wop, novelty hits, instrumental, surf and girl groups, Motown, The British Invasion, folk rock, garage, psychedelic...), the best of early anything goes F.M. underground radio, and later glam and punk.

As a kid the most influential old guys in my life were Forrest J Ackerman (editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine), the late Ernie Anderson (Cleveland TV horror movie host - Ghoulardi), and my father Billy J. Weldon, a WWII vet stage magician doing kids shows and specializing in close up slight of hand close up card magic. He also had been a ventriloquist and hypnotist, and wrote for The Linking Ring magazine. He worked as an ad salesman at the Cleveland Press for 35 years until it went under in 1982 and is now too old to do magic shows anymore. I just saw a photo of Ackerman and his friends Ray Harryhausen (SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD was my favorite movie I saw in a theater as a kid), and Ray Bradbury at a fan convention, all in wheelchairs! My father hung out with other eccentric magicians and local show business people (some with stage names). One man who used to visit made animal balloons for a living, another wore a turban. My mother (from Steubenville, Ohio, as was Dean Martin and Traci Lords) was always interested in old movies, and new art and fashion and was supportive most of what I was doing.

I have always loved movies from the 30s and 40s (and even 20s) and have come to appreciate lots of pre rock and roll music , but I believe that pop culture (and life for many Americans) was at its very best from the late 50s to the early 70s and that 1966 was both a peak year for entertainment and a major cultural turning point (involving art, movies, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and politics). Andy Warhol (a con man/genius in the tradition of P.T. Barnum) really seemed to understand America and the future.

I was in two bands. The Water's Edge (1966-8) was an unrecorded (and un- photographed) Jr. high/high school garage (and our basement) band that did essential standards (Gloria, Hey Joe, Louie Louie...) and played out just a few times. I think the band name was inspired by the cover of the Rolling Stones - High Tide And Green Grass hits LP. I played a solid body black Hagstom guitar plugged into a used Ampeg amp that rumbled and fed back beyond my control. The late Acetone keyboard player Bill Kratsas (the Greek/American kid who asked me to join) later became a junkie after he went to San Francisco. "Greaser" singer Mitch Sizemore was the first guy I knew who drank (he carried a flask), claimed to have had VD (he always kept a rubber in his wallet), and owned The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out! LP. I'm pretty sure he later also died from hard drugs. Older bass player leader Dan Dorko, who chose and taught us the material from his excellent collection of 45s and LPs, is still playing in Ohio bands. We never sounded that great but the songs included top notch hits, b sides and LP tracks by Love, The Who, The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, The Blues Magoos... I have no idea what happened to the to drummers Lenny Lariviere or Craig Brush but hope they are OK.

1970 - By then Cleveland is only the 12th largest city in America. Nixon invades Cambodia and appoints George Bush American ambassador to the U.N. John Kerry debates the war on DICK CAVETT. Anti -war Protests are everywhere. I go to some but am just an observer with a good excuse not to go to school. I was against the war but was not about to run around yelling "Pig!" at heavily armed cops on horses. The Cleveland Art museum thinker statue copy (like the one on DOBIE GILLIS!) is partially blown up. Hitchhiking to swim in Lake Erie at Lake Huntington, going to movies (new or revivals), visiting people with new LPs I hadn't heard, getting drunk (on cheap wine) or high (preferably both at once), or just hanging out were all good excuses to avoid classes. Traumatised and stoned Nam Vets come around their old school while on leave or after their term of duty. One gets a few of us high while driving aimlessly around in his sports car while blaring an endless 8 track of Led Zepplin II. I can't hear Whole Lotta Love without thinking of that ride. TV now sucks and is more unreal than ever (THE BRADY BUNCH and THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY) and I avoid it as much as possible. The biggest band in the Midwest is Grand Funk Railroad. Some teachers smoke pot and some jocks, greasers and even some top students turn on too. Some holdout guys who don't get high (yet) become hostile to the ones who do. Some start fights with or beat up drug taking anti -war long hairs. I remember one girl I didn't even know in science class (which I was flunking) coming up to me and giving me an angry lecture, demanding to know how I could look and act like I did. I only remember her name (Dee Hoty) because she later became a Broadway and soap opera actress in New York and seems to be the best known Lakewood High graduate of 1970. More kids run away from home. Some were never heard from again. One girl I barely knew who disappeared had mentioned my name so the police came around to question me (and my parents). My parents also got very upset when I can home drunk and got sick once. The had no idea about drugs. Many guys who drink - really DRINK. Some like to down beers til they puke to make room for more until they pass out. Some sniff glue too. Many kids are starting to take speed, soapers (downers), or any prescription pills they can beg borrow or steal. One kid who works after school at a pharmacy has a profitable business selling stolen pills from the trunk of his car. At a party I see him burning his hands with cigarettes. Others, caught and threatened by authorities, become undercover school narcs. I attend unplanned LSD parties at the home of a guy named Roger (who works as a gravedigger). His underage sister and mother trip too. After having recently experienced soft drugs for the first time, I'm confused by my high school's first heroin death. I later learn that Lakewood High was one of the worst drug problem schools in the whole country at the time.

May - Kent State is too close for comfort. National Guard tanks roll by our school. Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes called the student protesters - the scum of America. Worse than the brown shirts and the communist element. Ohio elected him to two more terms. During this non stop chaos and confusion, I start going on dates, usually to see bands. One show erupts into a mini riot when Sly Stone doesn't bother to show up. Her purse is snatched, Fun night. The main gym teacher tells me that I won't graduate because I had stopped attending his class altogether. I didn't enjoy being shoved and punched by angry straight jocks during class, while the teacher smiled and looked away. I think that the school must have decided to just graduate EVERYBODY - no matter how bad their grades were or what their attendance record was. They had to make room for all the new kids (who would be even worse!) and more important - they had to release more boys to be drafted. The graduation class was so big (nearly 1400 kids!) that the audience overflowed the huge auditorium and many people had to watch on closed circuit TV in a cafeteria. Several guys trip while graduating. Afterwards, I go to an anti prom party with Mary (a beautiful and very nice blonde Jehovah's Witness). Lakewood High School leaves me out of the yearbook, not because of long hair (which was becoming more common) but apparently because, at the time, I had a beard. My first apartment is shared with several other directionless guys and many cockroaches. The window has a view of a tombstone company. Away from my parents I can now grow my hair as long as I like. Big deal. My roommates and I get high, argue and act crazy. My working world centers around restaurants. Hard earned minimum wages go to movies, magazines, records and shows while I worry about the draft. I soon start to attend a downtown community college just long enough to keep a deferment. The school later makes headlines when a white power Nazi fan (who worked at Kay's Books!) murders several gay men in a campus bathroom. I later learn of whole gangs who go to known pick up places to beat up homos. By now pot (if you can find it) has usually been treated with harmful chemicals and LSD is usually cut with speed. My mindless drug experimenting days will end some time after being taken to a basement OD center at the YMCA where I used to go swimming and play bumper pool. I had freaked out in a car when I couldn't figure out how to move my hands. I don't mind admitting my teenage drug use especially after learning that Clinton, Gore, Newt Gingrich and even George W Bush all at least "experimented."

Major Rock and Roll Purge #2 - Between July 69 and July 71 Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all die, The Beatles break up is announced, the Manson arrest and the Altamont murder make the news and Elvis meets with President Nixon and warns him about The Beatles. Hoover still runs the F.B.I (see purge #1). Meanwhile protest and anti- government groups are infiltrated and drugged into oblivion and files are kept on John Lennon for future deportation. Soon nostalgia for the "more innocent" late 50s and early 60s will be huge business.

I played drums with Mirrors (1972-75) a band led by Jamie Klimek and Nam vet Jim Crook, and including Craig Bell (who was drafted while in the band and later was in Rocket From The Tombs) and Paul Marotta (who was also in the Electric Eels).. We were part of the brief pre punk "underground scene" that included The Electric Eels and Rocket From The Tombs (and nearby Akron bands that were later singed and recorded major label LPs. Mirrors did some studio recordings which have been released on comps over the years and have been reviewed and mentioned in magazines, books, and websites .

I saw many amazing live acts over the years but some of the most memorable were Van Morrison (lip synching at a Teen Fair in 67) and The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Soft Machine the next year. In 69, just after summer a trip to Oklahoma with my father (while the first man stepped on the Moon), I attended The Atlantic City Pop Festival, which was better than Woodstock (and had many of the same acts). It was also were I got high for the first time. There will be a PV feature on this festival in the future. I was at the right places at the right time to also see Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Nico, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Jerry Garcia, Mark Bolan, Bob Marley, Miles Davis (and too many other now deceased major talents to list here), The Who, Captain Beefheart, pre hit Alice Cooper, Big Star, Slade, Roxy Music, Dr. Feelgood, The New York Dolls, The Stooges, MC5, Mott The Hoople, Ziggy Stardust Bowie, Mick Taylor Stones, Blondie, The Ramones, Television, Buzzcocks, The Clash... And then there were the roots acts (Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Roy Orbison, Link Wray, Albert King, Esquirita!).

I worked in too many restaurants, then in various record stores for about 10 years. The first was the famous downtown Record Rendezvous. The last in Cleveland was The Drome, then the local center for imports and punk records. Pere Ubu practiced in the basement, and Drome Records recorded The Pagans and put on shows with Devo, The B52s, Destroy All Monsters and others. I had started writing movie reviews during high school but first had some published in Cle, a punk music zine in 1977. It was backed by Drome owner Johnny Dromette and Pere Ubu leader David Thomas and edited by Jim Ellis.

REBORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY - I arrive (at the Brooklyn loft of John Morton and his then wife Michelle) on the 4th Of July, 1979 and start taking in the still thriving local music club scene. I'm still grateful to help from the unorganized underground of Cleveland refugees. The late Bradley Fields (Teenage Jesus And The Jerks) hooks me up with a Vietnamese junkie with a cheap East village apartment. It's all a key money scam but I managed to secure the place and keep it for over 20 years! Anton Fier (Golden Palominos) hips me to an excellent record store job (Record City on Broadway) and I start going to 42nd Street, neighborhood movie revival theaters, and the Club 57 Monster Movie Club on St. Marks Pl. co founded by actress Ann Magnusen. I also watch many late night movies on channel 9. My apartment building is some kind of center for the brief post punk no wave film and music scene. Too many of the people involved are junkies or as off putting as possible, so they ignore me and I avoid most of them. I'll be without a car for over ten years. Other especially helpful Ohioans include Charlie Beesley, Fred Brockman, Char Rao, and Akira Fitton (born in Japan but raised in Ohio then NYC).

PSYCHOTRONIC started as a weekly Xeroed alternative Manhattan TV guide the next year. It lasted for just over a year and was written up in The Village Voice and other publications. Many people have contributed to Psychotronic over the years (a list will be here later).

The word Psychotronic existed before my publications, but then so did the much more common words Life, Time, Mad and Playboy. I was the first person to use Psychotronic to describe movies - around 26 years ago. The basic concept was that there was no sense in trying to carefully separate horror movies (the psycho part) from science fiction movies (the tronic part) as so many magazines and books had done, or from sex, drug, rock and roll, fantasy, action, or exploitation movies. Some people might think that Psychotronic is just about bad (or so bad it's good), cheap, independent, old or obscure movies. Great, expensive. major studio, new and famous movies can be just as interesting and worth writing about. Video and cable have pretty much made all movies equal. There's way too much product out there, so I write about as much as possible and hope I can help people find titles worth watching or stop them from wasting more of their precious time.

Two books of Psychotronic reviews have been published. Psychotronic Books The Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film (Ballantine, 1983) went through many printings and was in print for about 20 years. The Psychotronic Video Guide (St. Martins, 1996) might be hard to find now but is still in print. In between books I programmed and hosted film festivals in Manhattan, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, Sao Palo, Brazil, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Stockholm, and other Swedish cities.

I met Su Mi Hwa (from Pusan, S. Korea) in 1987 and we were married at City Hall in 1990. Our celebration dinner was at the Windows Of The World restaurant in the WTC. Psychotronic Video Magazine started in 1989 and we had a shop in the East Village. We lived in upstate NY (Sullivan County) during the 90s, then relocated to Chincoteague Island, Virginia in 2000 and have a Psychotronic Store on 4102 Main St. Psychotronicvideo.com was created by former Electric Eel John Morton in Brooklyn just before and after 9-11. Psychotronic.com debuted just before Christmas, 05. Here are recent PV covers and intros.