• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

I Miss Art Bell

Found 'em. Turns out there are two, and even a spiffy Certificate of Authenticity. Now to see what's on them.

Heh. Looks like I ordered them 20 years ago, right about now.

Art Bell discs.jpg
 
Here is the painting commissioned by Art to record his and his wife Ramona's 1994 UFO sighting.

joa3n0cibom91.jpg


Art's first telling of the experience:


Discussion with location analysis:
 
There does not seem to be much in the way of Art Bell ephemera, or anything else save a few books, on eBay. It appears these discs are archived somewhere, but I haven't tried to download any of it. Here's an interesting blog page. Didn't see a name or date on it, but it might be the original webmaster. He knew his stuff, and built one of the most impressive sites I saw in the early days of the interwebs.

http://artbellnet.blogspot.com/p/art-bell-cd-rom.html
 
I have no idea where this aired, nor even that Art Bell had done a television ad.

 
Austin Popper said:
There does not seem to be much in the way of Art Bell ephemera, or anything else save a few books, on eBay. It appears these discs are archived somewhere, but I haven't tried to download any of it. Here's an interesting blog page. Didn't see a name or date on it, but it might be the original webmaster. He knew his stuff, and built one of the most impressive sites I saw in the early days of the interwebs.

http://artbellnet.blogspot.com/p/art-bell-cd-rom.html
Click to expand...

Have you ascerained what material is on your two commemoration discs?
 
I've only just discovered that the eulogies for Art Bell's funeral were recorded and placed online.

Airyn Bell's, the last, is quite upsetting.

 
An interesting if critical read (Full essay attached)

A Community of Iconoclasts: Art Bell, Talk Radio, and the Internet
Jo Ann Oravec

This article examines how radio talk shows can promote a sense of community among listeners and shape the narrative accounts of show participants.

In "Coast to Coast AM" and "Dreamland," Art Bell has fostered the collective generation of conspiracy theories and narratives of the paranormal in a manner that strengthens the identification of his audience as a group in opposition to various projected cabals, and that has some similarities to the formation of "virtual communities" in rumor-filled Internet discussion vehicles.

This article outlines how Bell's frontier imageries (associated with the "Great American Southwest" as well as with the Internet) construct a mythic framework that is compatible both with the iconoclastic perspectives of show participants and the kind of group cohesion in which threatened settlers "circle the wagons" for protection.

On his shows and website, Bell projects the "quickening" of a new global order and prophecies large-scale technological and climatic disasters during which individuals would indeed want to band together.

Misguided millennial passion [is] a primary example of our uniqueness and our absurdity. Steven Jay Gould
 

Attachments

  • artbelloravecjournalofradiostudies2000.pdf
    1 MB · Views: 21
A mainstream news story about 'Madman Marcum' has unexpectedly turned up. Featured is the first photograph I've ever seen of him:

Mike-marcum-photo2.png


Missouri ‘time traveler’ missing after 1997 radio show​

by: Liz Dowell
Posted: Oct 29, 2023 / 08:30 AM CDT
Updated: Oct 26, 2023 / 10:19 AM CDT

STANBERRY, Mo. – Some urban legends are simply extraordinary. A caller from Missouri to the nationally syndicated paranormal late-night radio program Coast to Coast AM claimed in 1995 to have invented a time machine. Then he disappeared.

Mike “Madman” Marcum talked about his experience with industrial power transformers and his attempt to build a time machine with the host on the Coast-to-Coast radio show. He explained that he took six transformers to power a time machine. They belonged to the St. Joseph Light and Power generating station in King City, Missouri.

A 1995 report from the Stanberry Police Department confirms that he did steal six transformers. The police report states that there were power transformers placed in different parts of his home. The bedroom at the back had four of varying sizes; the back porch had one connected to the electric fuse box; and there were lines leading to something resembling a TV antenna.

In the dining room, there was a small plastic trash can and a coffee can, both filled with oil from one of the transformers. The report mentions that the dining room transformer had been repurposed as a piggy bank and filled with coins.

Marcum was placed under arrest and spent some time in jail. He later called the talk show and said that he believed that he may be able to avoid prison by claiming he was attempting to build a time machine, thinking it would make him seem crazy.

During his second appearance on Coast-to-Coast in 1996, he stated that he was 30 days away from finishing his “legal” time machine. This time, he said he wasn’t going to steal any material. However, he suddenly “disappeared” in 1997 and was never heard from again.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has not listed Marcum as an active missing person, but that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists from coming up with their own theories about what happened to him.

The urban legend​

There are videos on TikTok and YouTube explaining various theories about who he was and where he is now.

One of the outlandish tales involves someone calling Coast-to-Coast radio, claiming that in the 1930s, police found a dead man on a California beach, crushed inside a metal tube, with a device next to him resembling a cell phone.

After searching, there was no evidence of such an incident in the 1930s, nor was there any record of a call like this to the radio show.

It does not appear that there is proof of what happened to the device or to Marcum. He has now become the subject of true-crime podcasts, a mystery that remains unsolved unless he chooses to reveal his whereabouts.

It has been 26 years, and the mystery will likely remain unsolved.

Quote in full. Source:
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/missouri-time-traveler-missing-after-1997-radio-show/
 
An enjoyable account of the Madman Marcum saga. The comedy interludes/interruptions are irritating, but if you bear with it, they become much less frequent.


Art features, obviously.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top