Echoes-From-Apollo

Apollo 7 Astronaut Walt Cunninghams' November 6, 1968 Bob Hope Show Used Scripts

 

Occasionally I'll see an item in an auction that is a little off beat and quite unique. That was the case with this item which I was able to buy at a very reasonable price during an auction of space memorabilia a few months ago. I entered a fairly low bid for the item and was pleasantly surprised when I won. I don't know why there was not more interest in the item when it came up for bid since it is a really cool piece of astronaut owned/used memorabilia. 

These two Scripts were described as being from the personal collection of Apollo 7 Astronaut Walt Cunningham and were used by him for his appearance on the Bob Hope Show/Special November 6, 1968 as part of the Apollo 7 Crews' appearance along with fellow Apollo 7 Astronauts Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele. Actress Barbara Eden also appeared on the show and was part of an Apollo 7 comedy bit as can be seen in the below picture. Cunningham's name is handwritten on the first page of each Script and may be his authentic signature. Each Script also has numerous pages with handwritten notations/edits which apparently were made by Cunningham at the time! Although the below Script 1, Page 1, is annotated as 'Bob Hope Special. Dec. '68', it was used for the November 6, 1968 show. This notation may have been made in error by Cunningham himself. Further down, Script 2, Page 1, is annotated with the correct date the show was aired as follows: 'Bob Hope Special #68/69-3 Air: November 6, 1968'.

 

 

 

SCRIPT 1
PAGE 1 

  

 

SCRIPT 1
 PAGE 6

 

SCRIPT 1
 PAGE 7 

 

 

SCRIPT 2
PAGE 1

 

 

SCRIPT 2
PAGE 8 

 

SCRIPT 2
PAGE 11
 

 Below is a photo of the Apollo 7 Crew with Hope and Eden during the show!

 

 

 I was able to obtain a copy of the full audio portion of the show from Archival Television Audio,
which mirrors the two Scripts exactly as they are notated/edited!!!

 

Since obtaining these Scripts in November 2015, I have been looking for a video of this show. You would not believe how hard it has been to find!  In August 2020, I got a lead that part of the show was included in the documentary 'Apollo: Missions To The Moon', which I bought a copy of. In this film, there is a 47 second clip (21:25 to 22:12) of the show which mirrors parts of pages 4 and 5 of Script 2.  I subsequently emailed Tom Jennings of 1895 Films, the producer of the documentary, and asked him where he obtained the clip. He emailed me back and put me in touch with one of his producers, Chris Morcom. So, I emailed Chris and he told me he obtained the clip from a company called RetroVideo. I went to their website and looked it over. My chances of obtaining a copy of the show did not look good however when I read this on the RetroVideos' inquiry page:  'PLEASE NOTE: RETRO VIDEO DOES NOT SUPPLY FOOTAGE TO COLLECTORS OR FANS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS FORM UNLESS YOU ARE WORKING WITH A LEGITIMATE PRODUCTION COMPANY ON A PROJECT INTENDED FOR BROADCAST OR COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION. THANK YOU.'  I took a chance and emailed them via their actual email anyway. After all I was on a mission to preserve a piece of manned space program history! 
,
Surprisingly, I received a reply rather quickly from a Bob DiCicco with RetroVideo.
He replied: 'Thank you for your email. Due to personal websites and Youtube we do not send shows or even
segments of anything here in our library to individuals. The material gets out and is impossible to police.
I'm sorry but we can't help you on this.' 

Very nice response email but he is obviously not a space artifact collector!
Sooo... I am again at a dead end in my search for the complete video of the show. 

 

Here are pages 4 and 5 from Script 2:

 

 
Here is a comparison of pages 4 and 5 from Script 2 as compared with the video clip from
the November 6, 1968 Bob Hope Show:

 

 

 

 As a side note, these Scripts came in a manila envelope with some interesting notations believed to have been made by Cunningham, as can be seen in the below photo.

 

 

All in all an interesting piece of manned space program history!

Apollo 7 Astronaut Walt Cunninghams' 1970's Era Sony TC-55 'Cassette-Corder'

 

I recently obtained this little gem for my collection. I had seen it for sale for some time and finally gave in and bought it at a good price. It is one of those items you're not quite sure about until it arrives and you see what a cool piece it actually is! It fits right in with what I like to collect: vintage items connected to astronauts and/or the manned space program which have obvious signs of use.

This Sony 'Cassette-Corder' was used by Apollo 7 Astronaut Walt Cunningham in the 1970's to record the original draft of his book 'The All American Boys'. If the below picture of the COA signed by Cunningham wasn't enough confirmation of its' vintage status, all doubt was removed when I opened up the battery compartment!! What a mess!! I believe it still had the original batteries in it, and they had not aged well, leaking their contents all over the inside of the compartment. Cunningham should really think about changing his batteries at least once every 40 years!!!

Once I got the old batteries out, I put some new batteries in but the darned thing would not work. I had to take some sand paper and rub away the corrosion on the battery terminals, replace the batteries, and then the old 'Cassette-Corder' fired right up!! Very cool. Played with it for a couple of days, recording nonsense etc., and then retired it for the time being. This time the batteries were not left in!!

It is pretty cool to think that Cunningham used this item for a couple of years back in the 1970's to record his thoughts which were the basis for his excellent book.

When I bought this item, I also received a Cunningham autographed softcover copy
of his book!! 

FRONT
(MY CASSETTE TAPE IS IN)

 

BACK
(SPEAKER)

 

 TAPE COMPARTMENT OPEN
(A VERY NICE SURPRISE: CUNNINGHAM HAD
AUTOGRAPHED THE INSIDE OF THE
COMPARTMENT COVER)

 

 

AN ORIGINAL INSTRUCTION MANUAL
CAME WITH THE ITEM 

 

 

COA

 

'THE ALL AMERICAN BOYS'

 

 

TITLE PAGE SIGNED BY CUNNINGHAM

 

Apollo 7 Vintage Manual 'Recovery Requirements Apollo 7 (AS-205/101)' Dated August 29, 1968

 

Here is my vintage 'Recovery Requirements Apollo 7 (AS-205/101)' which I purchased in an online auction for a very reasonable price. And boy am I glad I did. I got this item at its' offered price. It fits what I love to buy in every respect. It is obviously used, worn, and has notations on the cover which were probably made by someone during the heyday of the manned space program in the sixties. The 'REIM' printed on the cover may be Milton Reim, a Nasa Public Affairs Officer during that time, which would also fit in with the 'QUERY DESK' notation. It is dated August 29, 1968. Apollo 7 launched on October 11, 1968 with Astronauts Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham, and Donn Eisele. This was the first manned Apollo mission after the Apollo 1 fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.

When I buy these types of items, sometimes I find, what are to me, priceless little nuggets in them. That is what happened with this item. When I received the item I opened it up and found the two foldouts shown below.  As can be seen, Cunningham signed both of them for me at Spacefest. He has one of the best signatures of all the astronauts as far as I'm concerned. These would be ideal for framing!

 

'APOLLO 7 LAUNCH ABORT AREAS AND
RECOMMENDED FORCE DEPLOYMENT'

 

 

'APOLLO 7 RECOVERY ZONES, CONTINGENCY AREA AND RECOMMENDED AIRCRAFT STAGING AREAS'

 

 

There were a couple of other pages in this item I also found interesting as shown below.

 

'Figure A2- Apollo 7 spacecraft configuration at launch'

 

 

'Figure 2-1 - Apollo 7 launch and deorbit events'